Captain Obvious

Not surprised. Most flat tops have been swapped out by now. I consider that unfortunate, but I'm clearly in the minority. Good luck with the rest of the project!

Jasonxp, Haha! Glad to help. You weren't searching in the right part of the web. ClassicZ's got you covered! So... You're going to move your original 260 flat top carbs over onto that 280 motor, right? gnosez, What do we need to do to earn the sound of one hand clapping? That'll be my new goal.

I'd even hit it with SteveJ's stick. Looks like a well cared for typical unmolested Z.

"It might make the likes of Grannyknot orgasm into his popcorn" Pics or it didn't happen.

One book, "Swedish-made Peenis Enlargers And Me: This Sort of Thing Is My Bag Baby", by Austin Powers. LOL!!

I don't even know what this is! This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby.

Clearly academic, but just in case anyone wants to know... That "400 RPM" cutout is a bit of a misnomer. They use the "N" output from the alternator to pull in the fuel cut relay #1, and that "N" output from the alternator is actually the "Neutral" connection of a three phase "Y" connected generator. The voltage on this neutral output is the normal alternator output voltage divided by the square root of three. So for example, when the alternator output is twelve Volts, the neutral wire should have about seven Volts on it: Datsun assumes that by the time the engine is spinning at 400 RPM or higher, the alternator is up and operating, and the voltage on the neutral output is high enough to pull in the fuel cut relay. So the "400 RPM" threshold is a little arbitrary, but the intent is "when the engine is running, the electric fuel pump will run". Geek mode off...

I was thinking the same thing. It also looks like that group of wires splits at the back side of the rad. Some of the wires go in front, and some head towards the distributor. I'm wondering if maybe they used a special race simplified "wire only what's needed" group of wires for critical functions. Stuff like ignition and cooling. Simplicity = reliability.

Previous owners suck. EOF.

Looking over the engine compartment pic above... In addition to the stuff you mentioned, here's a couple things that caught my eye: Special "racing tape" secure on the clutch and master cylinder caps. Multiple piece upper radiator hose? Hose clamps in the middle? Vent nipple on valve cover angled forward to adapt to different PCV system. "OIL" cap. I thought the early ones were elephant? Couple unharnessed wires up and over the left strut tower. Is that stock? "D" shaped washers on some of the fender bolts for clearance into sheet metal corner.

Yeah, I saw the mounting bolts you had threaded in, and that's what surprised me. I'm no Z genealogy expert, and probably should have tempered my statements above, but I thought the early 280's were the same as the 240/260's. Seems not... I was also wondering if you maybe had the rear mounting bolts threaded into the wrong spots, but it seems you ruled that out as well? Snap a pic or two of your seat rails when they turn up. More learning to be had!

Wait... Really? Do your seat rails look like this: Or like this: Or none of the above???

Well you used the right stuff. Maybe kiddo nicked it? Maybe they opened the box with a razor knife at NAPA? Maybe just a bad day for you? In any event, glad that it didn't become something serious, and let's hope it was a one time anomaly!

If you're going to make seat mounting brackets, keep in mind that 77-78 are different than anything else. They use different seat rails and have front mounting holes on an angle instead of straight down. I don't know if the rear bracket is the same, but I can guarantee that the front one is different than anything prior.

You didn't use regular fuel line hose to splice in your gauge, did you? You used the fuel injected variety, right? Rated for the higher pressures? I know, I know... But it's my job to ask.

Oops. I don't have that part. I was talking about the roundish part that the headlight actually mounts to. Confusion over terms. I always heard the part you are looking for referred to as "scoops" or "sugar scoops". Sorry for getting your hopes up.

I think I have a pair from a 280. I believe the metal portion is the same, but I don't have the wiring pigtail... Just the metal. Do you have the wires already?

Haha! Made ya look! My PO bead blasted everything and then clear coated the hardware instead of the original yellow coating. Not only does it look "wrong" to me, but it also rusts as soon as you chip the clear coat paint with a wrench. Looked great to sell the car (to me), but overall I think it is poor judgment. I would love to go through what you are and have all the plating redone. I think that looks awesome when complete.

Nice! I was messing with shop lights a couple months ago as well. I got tired of replacing 13W fluorescent bulb in my typical shop light, so I took it apart and modified it to use a 60W equivalent LED bulb instead of the 13W flourescent. Then I decided that I could stuff TWO of the 60W LED bulbs in there. Took a shoehorn and some creativity, but I got them both in. No more "blink - blink - blink - ON" of the fluorescent ballast. It's instant on, full bright even in sub-zero temps, and it's now like holding the illumination brightness of the SUN in your hand. AND it even runs cooler than the 13W fluorescent! I've got something like 1660 lumens of awesome warm while illumination POWER on the end of a cord!!

Wuss. Post a pic without the hold-down plate installed so we can see if lug nuts were ever torqued down and smeared the paint.

No, no, no... Don't be sorry. We're all good. I'm not denying that it happened to you. I'm just saying that the REASON it happened is different. Next time we get together, I'll draw some pictures on napkins and we'll talk some theory.

I agree about the restrictor washer you mentioned. One of my missions has been to stamp out that no thermostat overheating myth. So, I'm not denying that there are cars out there that overheated after the thermostat was removed, but the reason is definitely not that "the coolant flowed through the block too fast to pick up the heat" or that "the coolant flowed so quickly through the radiator that it didn't have time to cool off." Those are both fundamentally flawed concepts. I would claim that the situations where a car will overheat if the thermostat is removed is because of a second order effect. Stuff like the following: Reduction in block pressure (as you mentioned) which will lower the boiling point of the coolant. Increased flow rate resulting in local loop eddy currents in the block which could cause poor coolant refresh in certain areas. Increased flow rate resulting in cavitation (low pressure) which will lower the boiling point of the coolant. Certainly not because the coolant didn't "have time to do what it was supposed to do". In fact, the exact opposite is true, and is exactly how the thermostat works in the first place!

Haha!! Thank you.Thank you... I'm here all night.

Nuh Uh.

I don't think they're supposed to be at a right angle. It's more like 30 degrees: