Walter Moore

I love your sense of humor regarding time spend on restoration. Been there, done that.

It's a little late to talk to those particular people. The real question is: How do you convince the people who right this minute are handing the keys to some unbelievably high powered car to their adolescent son that they may well be signing his death certificate? Most parents live in denial thinking that THEIR children are different and can be trusted. The problem with living in denial is that you may be eaten by the crocodiles... Just my opinion. And let's be honest, I have a lot of them!

Pretty wheels! What are they and where did you get them?

Not to get into the fight, but the parts CD lists two fuel injection systems for the L28E. One from December 1974 to July 1977, and another for cars made after August 1977. Wouldn't a car made in Japan in late July of 1977 have been sold in the U.S. as a 1978 model? (The U.S. automakers start production of the "next" year's model in July, so it seems logical that U.S. car dealers and BMV's would make the same assumption.) I don't mean to start a fight. I am try to end one...

Oh come on! Tell us what you REALLY think! (Not that I disagree you understand...) :cheeky:

Speaking of door seals, does anyone know if these will fit on the earlier cars? (70-73 240Z) http://www.courtesyparts.com/driver-side-door-weather-strip-1974-1977-260z-280z-seater-p-568956.html?cPath=7724_7754& They look pricey, but if they work it might be worth the expense. (The door and hatch seals, along with a new windshield and seal, are my next winter time project.)

The clutch and pressure plate have to match the flywheel. If you are using the original flywheel, then buy a clutch that matches that flywheel. Also, the throw-out bearing sleeve must match the clutch that you are using, not the transmission. So basically scrap everything that attaches to the bell housing side of the new(er) transmission and install new parts that will mate with your flywheel. Don't forget to change over the speedometer gear to match the one from your car, or at least check that it has the correct number of teeth. By the way, search the threads here regarding the 5 speed swap into the older car. There are issues with the shifter lever and the opening in the floor of the car. In my car the floor was cut to make this work. There may be better options available, but I can't remember if anyone ever made those commercially available. In any event, the shift lever from the actual stock 70 transmission will not work on the later (series transmissions. Also the floor opening and inner shift boot will not work in this application either.

They are 10mm. You need at least a metric grade 10.9 (the parts stores call them Grade 8 sometimes because that is the SAE equivalent.) The length depends upon the stand, but the ones I used were 80mm long.

Oh, cut him some slack... it was his first post There is a Youngstown in Arizona? I didn't know there were steel mills in the south west.

You just have to install the large diameter intake and exhaust valves... as you pointed out, the pistons never get to the head.

The pump I mentioned is a vane type: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=HLY-12-801-1&N=700+4294836965+4294891681+400178+4294785043+115&autoview=sku

And you would be correct in that assumption.

I have a Holly "red" pump on my car, and I can only hear it when the car is idling, with the radio off, like at a stop light or something. Once the car is moving I never even notice it. Of course my exhaust system is rather loud. There is a thread here where I described my installation: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30982&highlight=electric+fuel+pump

There is only one thing to say at a time like this: http://www.valentine1.com/ Ok, perhaps there is another thing I could say: http://www.escortradar.com/ I will let you guess the rest. :paranoid:

I love that color combination... Hope it all works out.

Yes it is a 12 Gauge, but I doubt a brass shell would fit. I had to squeeze the end closed to get it started and then hammered it in place. Actually I had several colors to choose from, but I picked a Winchester AA shell because the red plastic matches the original color of the air cleaner. doradox: Actually Indiana doesn't require a permit to carry around shotguns, and besides it is a hole plug remember? The heat shield: I left my heat shield in place when I put headers on because I have owned one car that had vapor-lock issues and didn't want to end up there again. (It does get hot in Indiana in the summer.) Actually I was so worried about the vapor lock issue that I made the electric radiator fans I installed run just off of a thermostat, independent of the ignition. The only problem that I have with that is people walking up to me after I part my car and wondering why it is still running...

Hello Liz, Welcome to the group. That rust spot on the roof is rust under a layer of Bondo that someone in years past used to smooth out a bumpy roof panel before they painted it. I hate to say this, but there is likely a lot more rust hiding under the body filler that remains. Oh, and a bad brake booster would generally make the brake pedal hard to push. If the pedal is soft and spongy you might have a totally different problem. (There are of course exceptions to that statement...)

The good news is that the car spent all these years in sunny California, so the rust shouldn't be fatal. It looks like a really good candidate for a rebuild. Oh, and now, after six years of working on my car, I agree with what Carl said. Whatever you fix on the car, do it right the first time. There are many things that I had to do over and over and ...

When I found my car the air pump had already been removed. The rest of the smog controls were rusted up to the point where they had to be either removed or replaced. Since I don't think they actually accomplished anything, and there were no emission rules outside of California in 71 anyway.... But one note, if you remove the air pump there is an opening in the back side of the air cleaner that I assume was originally the clean air inlet for the pump. If you don't block that port, unfiltered air will bypass the filter element. It is a fairly large opening, around 18mm. I did manage to find an economical plug. In fact I had boxes full of them just laying around the house. (See picture below.) But I strongly recommend that if you use this type of plug, CHOOSE ONE THAT ISN'T LOADED! :cheeky:

I guess three cars from the Indy Z club were there. I don't actually know any of them, I just met them last night. (I am planning on joining, so I went to the October meeting...) I gather that one of them won a trophy...

Actually, I bought mirrors that looked just like that at Advance Auto, but I DO NOT recommend them. (Even if they are in my avatar.) The swivels on mine were too loose to start with, and could not be tightened. I ended up installing these instead: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/OM04/50-1164 I like them a lot better. Be advised however that they come in a box labeled "1965/66 Mustang...", so it might be sacrilege to install them on a Datsun.

I assume that either you mean the Japanese DOT, or that you meant 1991, because I owned dozens of cars made after 1981 that did NOT register 100000 miles on the odometer.

When my car is running both the resistor and the coil get very hot. They get hot enough that you don't want to touch them, but not hot enough to instantly burn skin. Could the plug gap be set too large? Running the coil straight off of the battery is going to double (at least) the voltage to the plug, which would support a spark across a larger gap at the plug. The fact that the resistor gets hot tells us that there is current flowing in the circuit, which is a good thing. So the points are at least doing part of their job. The coil could have a short in a winding that partially reduces the effective output voltage. There are likely other potential causes as well. You can by-pass the ballast resistor with a jumper wire for temporary testing purposes without destroying the coil. That would at least take the resistor out of the equation while you find the primary problem. But don't drive the car that way for long because it will burn the points, and I suppose could eventually damage the coil.

Oh, about $100 each. That is the primary difference. Both brands of drums are aluminum with a steel braking insert. This spring I bought the Brembo parts from MSA, and they seem to be identical to the old parts that were on my car, except not worn out obviously. I am not saying of course that I know the old drums were actually Nissan parts. Courtesy Parts still lists the Nissan part for $191.22 each. I don't need new drums at the moment, so I didn't try to order them. But with shipping a pair from Nissan is going to run around $430. MSA's web site still shows the drums as available for $90.95 each, but I guess if you tried to order drums from either source you might be in for an unhappy surprise. I know that the local big box chain auto parts stores here in town couldn't get ANY drums for a 240Z when I rebuilt my brakes this spring.

Darren, I just went out and checked the voltage across the coil on my car. With the ignition on, but the engine not running I see 4.9V across the coil. The remainder of the voltage is being dropped either across the ballast resistor, the points, or the wiring in between. I have been driving it all day, so I know that the voltage isn't too low to produce the necessary spark. By the way, the voltage goes up when you crank the engine because Nissan bypasses the ballast resistor when the starter is engaged. The resistor is more to protect the points than the coil. In any case I think that you need to look somewhere else for the problem. When I first tried to get my car running the point gap somehow "readjusted" itself at some point because I didn't have the locking screw tightened correctly. Look for something similar. Maybe the distributor has shifted and the timing is off. It doesn't take much to make a car quit running. Oh, and I agree with you that it is better to get the stock system working before doing an upgrade. I always want to solve one problem at a time, and upgrading a non-working ignition system seems like a good way to run in circles.