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There must be some switch from another car that will fit and be cheaper i would guess? Seems pretty simple, and almost all cars have them

Could you post some pictures to this thread?

I think I read some posts about it here, but I mainly remember people talking about it on zcar.com in the archives. Basically what they were saying was that when using heat to loosen up a fitting you melt some wax over it because the molten wax will penetrate the thread and wont evaporate like penetrating oil would. It worked alright, but it left me with lots of wax stuck to the casting. I wouldn't recommend it for this particular situation. I think the original air galley fittings are BSPP, I searched around and couldnt find any BSP fittings locally. I'm not sure what size plug you would need in BSPT, I ended up using some 1/8" brass NPT plugs (i think 1/8", could have been 1/4" though since I bought a bunch of each for plugging some other holes up, it was whatever hole is closer to the injector fitting size). I decided to do this after seeing some posts on zcar.com from regulars saying this worked out fine. It didnt actually seal up like it would have if the hole was in NPT, it actually went in sort of snug(probably due to thread interference), but all the way in nonetheless. I put plenty of permatex high temp anti-seize on. I figure if I have a leak there I can order some bspt fittings and swap it out without pulling the manifold from the car later. I thought about retapping the hole for an NPT plug, but after tapping the holes on the balance tube (soft aluminum) I figured tapping that cast iron by hand would leave me with a broken tap in the hole. Tapered taps start putting out a whole lot of resistance when you start to cut really far in. I called a bunch of places in the yellow pages (plumbing and hydraulic companies) and not one place had any clue what I was talking about when I asked about british standard pipe fittings. Apparently parker makes them, but they need to be ordered through some distributor for hydraulic parts. I think the biggest exhaust flow bonus by yanking this stuff altogether would be getting rid of the pipes that go into the exhaust ports. Seems like they would disturb the airflow a lot. Once you pull the fitting on the outside out, you should be able to knock the injector pipe out with a rubber mallet or something. (hitting it towards the manifold). Some of mine were pretty well rusted in there and took a lot of pounding, twisting with vise grips, and cursing to get them free.

Well if you're reading this after seeing the title I guess you either have done this or you're looking for a good laugh at my expense, or maybe both! I pulled the air gallery out of my exhaust manifold several weeks ago and used the 'wax and propane torch' method some have written about to losen up the fittings(this is on the bench mind you, NOT with the manifold on the head). Unfortunately I couldnt get all the wax off the outside of the manifold :disappoin , the roughness of the casting just let it grab on like im sure you can imagine. I figured i would just let it melt or burn off when i ran the motor. Fast forward to tonight, I finally cranked the motor after a long project (for me that is) and it fired up and ran, running pretty rough though since the carbs are all out of whack. will tune them tomorrow. After a few minutes the engine started to warm up, and i started noticing smoke coming from the engine compartment! :paranoid: I shut the motor off and went and looked, it was the wax burning off the hot exhaust manifold :stupid: . There's a lot of it, and it smells terrible : like the smell when a cheap candle smolders after you blow it out. Anyone have any clue about some sort of chemical, acetone or something like that to get the stuff off without having to burn it off? Pulling the heat shield and wiping down the manifold would be worth my time if I could avoid having all this candlewax smoke come off at me! If need be, i guess i'll just deal with it and let it burn itself off. Once I get the motor dialed in I need to sort out some electrical gremlins. My parking light control in the combination switch is shot (corrosion + heat damage due to resistance from corrosion), I tried resoldering the connections but its a no-go once I put everything back together. I think I might just macgyver in a radio shack rocker switch for now so that I can pass inspection. Can't really afford a new combo switch. Anyone have a spare laying around? VB's $169 is a little much for me after spending hundreds already on more important parts

I think maybe hauling it yourself would be cheaper IF you have the time. I think hauling an inoperable car would be some special service since most of the standard car haulers move cars off and on at each stop to get certain cars out and shuffle the remaining ones around.

I actually went and test drove one with a six speed the other day A few things I personally noticed Negatives -The stock exhaust was really quiet, especially below 3000rpm. The blower motor was on at about half speed because it was a fairly warm day (~90* F) and the sound of the blower completely overpowered the sound of the motor at sub 3000RPM speeds. -The shifter felt very insulated against the harmonics from the motor, so it made it very difficult to tell RPM based on the vibration of the shifter. -On each door the release handle for the latch on the inside felt kinda cheap, like it came out of a chevrolet cavalier or something. A lot of the rest of the interior seemed kinda poorly built. Albeit not near as bad as when the first 350Zs came out -Shifting action felt kind of vague to me, not crisp at all. I suppose its like most other new cars ive sat in and messed with however, so maybe im just used to my 4 speed feeling very 'mechanical' Positives -Motor definitely had a good amount of power -Brakes were very good at doing what they were supposed to -Car handled pretty well for a stock car that weighs as much as it does All in all, I think for a daily driver it is a decent deal for what you get. The one I drove was stickered at about 27k so it was pretty bare bones, but it had enough to keep me happy I think. One thing I would not call it however is a true sports car. Maybe I am just used to the older more spartan sports cars that had more soul than refinement, but this car felt somewhat sterile and a little too quiet.

I sure hope she turns up ok. She was always very friendly whenever I needed some info or parts, unlike the rudeness ive gotten from a few of the other zcar part sellers.

Aren't there a lot of legal issues with this? Although i'm sure that would vary by state.

Wow, hot water I'll remember that. I had previously read about carefully prying it apart. I'll be interested to see if anyone comes up with anything good. I have a new set of 'euro' spec taillights that i'm gonna swap in, then I wanna restore the original US spec tails.

I'm pretty sure your 72 motor should already have flattop pistons Being a 72 240z, I think your motor will have the 8mm rod bolts. Phred(I think) has suggested that if you are gonna be building a motor that had 8mm rod bolts, go ahead and get the ARP 8mm bolts because they are actually stronger than the original 9mm bolts that came in later L-series motors. I've seen a lot of people building stroker motors looking for L24 rods that were originally equipped with 9mm bolts because they were supposedly stronger? I would probably take Phred's word above others because he is our resident engine building guru. A lot of people going for an N/A buildup seem to lean towards the N42 head as being the best all around (short of shaving down other heads like a p90). You will find a lot of valuable info by searching the archives. These questions have come up in the past in some shape or form over the years.

I wonder if this one's a fred flintstone mobile The visible rust sure makes one think so

Good to see its not too bad and that noone was hurt (i'm guessing since it wasnt mentioned) Is there any difference between the euro bumper and the US bumper structurally besides lack of holes? Maybe if they cant straighten it out you could get a good US bumper and weld up any extra holes and have them chrome it then? Chances are they could put it back so it at least looks normal. I think a previous owner damaged the front bumper on my Z at one point and had it straightened out. The mounting points are all screwy now, but shimming with washers appropriately lets it sit normal.

I've looked at a lot of engine compartments on this site (before the upgrade) and noticed a lot of people yanked the servo controller and servo diaphragm and plugged the holes on the balance tube. How's the drivability afterwards? My car is up on stands and waiting on some other work before I can fire it up, so I thought i'd get some opinions here in the meantime. I pulled all the other smog stuff(air pump gear). The hoses were in pretty rough shape and I wasn't about to spend good $ on replacements! No smog checks for my 72 here in TX. I still have the servo parts, just I'd need to get a vacuum tap with a 1/8" NPT base now since I already tapped the hole for my NPT plug :stupid:

Isn't it bakelite? Thats what it feels like to me. That stuff gets really fragile with age

I had my 240z shipped from California to Texas about a year and a half ago. If I had to do it again, I would without a doubt drive out there with my truck and rent a trailer and pull it home myself. I ended up paying around $800 for insured shipping from a reputable company thinking everything would be alright, but they still managed to damage my frame by improperly securing it. Yay for stretched out/torn drainage holes in the rear frame rails! Plus, when a car is shipped via these large car carrier semis, they have multiple cars that are to be dropped off at different points, and new cars picked up. Your car will be pulled off and on that trailer MANY times before it actually gets to you. Bottom line is, I think i'm lucky because it could have turned out MUCH WORSE! :dead: If this car is in good shape right now, I would seriously consider getting it yourself.

Carl: Actually I called Courtesy while the forums were down and asked them if they could still get the water control valve. They can still order it from Nissan, but it comes out to $51.74 or something like that. I'm just gonna plug it off, having better idle on the few cold days we have in Texas is not worth $51.74 to me when more pressing things need to be bought! Ed: Guess i'll check Ace tomorrow for taps. I've been working on plugging some balance tube holes up (1/8" and 1/4" bspt), home depot and lowes were both pretty useless for npt taps.

I see, makes sense If I were to plug this hole up on the thermostat housing, I guess it would be appropriate to replace that y-pipe on the other side of the motor with a simple angled pipe running from the heater hose to the inlet line hose? I'm not too concerned with original appearance on things like this, and a simpler engine bay is a definite plus to me. If it wasnt so late I would run out to the garage and start reading up out of some of my manuals.

I remember seeing a post a long time ago on zcar.com from a guy claiming to have gotten 35mpg ONCE on one trip that was all highway. He had ztherapy SUs, an n42 head and some headers on an L28 iirc. He mentioned he got 28mpg usually during "normal" use. Not sure if this is one of those fish stories or something, but I was impressed

What I mean is when the thermostat is still closed up, how does the water flow about within the block/head, or does it even flow at all? Thats what some were posting about on zcar.com. They were basically saying that the line thats supposed to go through the carbs around to that y-pipe on the passenger side was the only path for water to flow before the thermostat opened up. So without it there would be little hotspots until the water in the thermo housing got hot enough to open the thermostat.

Nah, everything was NPT that I saw. I've seen some people post about drilling and tapping it with an NPT tap and using a standard plug then. Kinfish mentioned a company called Parker Fittings that sells BSPT threaded stuff in the US, you could try that. I've read some stuff about blocking this off being bad. I'm not sure about the internal coolant path inside the block, but people have said that the coolant doesn't really flow when the thermostat isn't open if this line is plugged up. Apparently it can cause hotspots inside the block around the cylinders and result in a blown head gasket or something worse. But then again, i've read about a lot of people plugging this off and being fine. It would be nice to have a diagram showing the paths of all the oil and coolant lines inside the motor. The FSM diagrams are kinda vague

Thanks for the offer Saro, I ordered this piece from Courtesy this morning(they didn't have any in stock) and should be able to pick it up Tuesday.

Thanks for the replies. Guess i'll stop wasting my time checking out hardware stores and just make the drive up to courtesy tomorrow

The little water outlet on the thermostat housing (the one thats supposed to run through the intake and around the back of the motor to that little y pipe) has pretty much had it. (see picture) Does anyone know where I can find this? I tried several parts stores, which told me to check out some hardware stores, no luck there either. I'm not even sure what type of threads this has. I found a few fittings that had similar diameter tapered threads, but the pitch seemed to be off ever so slightly. How are tapered thread dimensions specified? If I know that, I can probably find something that will work on mcmaster-carr or something when their website is working for me again (it's not right now). I figure i'll call courtesy nissan tomorrow (since they are about 45 minutes from me) and see if they have it, but i'm not expecting much really on that front. Any help anyone could give me would be much appreciated!