sblake01

After buying a stater at Chief Auto Parts, having it act up in two weeks, I went back and exchanged it. The replacement did the same thing in about a month. I went to the junkyard and pulled 5 280ZX starters, took them over to the tester, selected the best one and it's im my 78 280Z. Still going strong 6 years later!

Wasn't that from the movie 'The Meaning Of Life'?

Wow, even more rust and wires insted of fusible links. There's even rust on the wiper motor shafts. He even has his V.D.V on backwards.

Every 810/910/Maxima L24E I've ever seen has an N47 head.

Not necessarily. I have had both and I would really rather deal with fuel injection. When it's right, it's less finicky than carbs. When I bought my 810, it had been sitting for four years. I put a fuel pressure regulator on it, aired up the tires and drove it 60 miles home. I'd like to see someone do that with carbs under the same circumstances.

Beisdes the picture of the rear which shows way too much rust as Ed noted, was anyone able to get any of the other pictures to load? For me, the front view wouldn't expand and the other two didn't even show.

Its very similar to this scan of a picture from 'The Complete Datsun Guide.'

They are the same in the US. The 'E' designates it as a fuel injected engine. There might have been some non fuel injected L28 engines in Australia, England, or Japan on cars we didn't get here. Not really sure as I'm still learning about the non USA versions. We sometimes drop the 'E' here but they are one and the same in the US cars. There are different versions of the L28E. Different heads, different blocks, turbo, non turbo but they are all L28E's.

Excellent response, as usual, Alan T.! I remember reading somewhere how Goertz's design, rejected by Nissan, was somehow connected with the 2000GT. Many years ago, I saw one of those (2000GT) at one of the Los Angeles auto shows. I must have been 17 or 18 at the time which would predate the introduction of the Z. As far as competition, I simply meant that, from what I recall, the 2000GT was priced higher than the Z. I'm not certain if they were ever actually sold in the U.S. I've never seen one on the streets here in Southern California.

What happened to 6/70-12/70?

That car is basically the design that Goertz submitted to Datsun as his concept for the Z. We can all be thankful that Datsun turned it down! I don't know the numbers but not many were produced. They were too costly to compete with the Z. There is a site somewhere for these cars. Search 'Toyota 2000GT' if you're really interested.

I don't know how similar the VG engines are to the VQ engines but here's a shot of a twin turbo VG30 in a 1st generation S30. This car was built by Too Intense Restorations.

Koslov, do you know anything about the red 810 behind the Z in your top picture?

That is exactly the point I was trying to get across without imposing my opinion over anyone elses. I don't see a need to be compared to "Granny" or "Mr. Autocross/Street Racer." Sometimes it seems like a little to much of that sort of thing is done here. I've even caught myself doing it in the past. Back to the strut bar brace. It seemed to me that when I had it on the car and the hood wouldn't close, lowering the monting points would put the bar in contact with the fuel pressure regulator on a F.I. car and you still wouldn't be able to close the hood.

ALLLLLLLLRIGHTY THEN!!!!!!?

Remembering my V8 musclecar days whenever we went too high compression wise we had to install a high torque starter and the best battery you could find. Of course we're talking 11-1, 12-1, 13-1 etc. You could buy gas with a high enough octane in those days. Maybe those are extreme cases but generally I would have to answer yes.

I don't know where this idea came from, but on my 78 it doesn't work. A friend down the street has a couple of Hon-duhs and had one of these bars for a 93 Civic laying in the corner. I took it home, drilled the holes and my hood won't close. My opinion: Waste money trying to make something fit that wasn't designed for you car or buy the right part. You make the call! Fortunately, this guy owed me on for getting his car running last weekend!

I WON! (2nd try) ROFL

ROFL ROFL

Okay, I stand corrected. But if the 81 trubo and the 82-83 have rack and pinion, it would still be a different rack than the 1st gen. cars and therefore not really designed to run without a power assist. I'm really not that knowledgable when it come to ZX's because I'm not really a fan. It just make sense that steering designed without a power assist would work better than power steering with the assist removed be it rack and pinion, recirculating ball, worm and roller, or whatever.

Correct me if I'm wrong. I thought that ALL of the ZX's had recirculating ball steering and that change was made in 1979 when they went to the ZX and power steering. My 1979 810 has recirculating ball/power steering. It's drivetrain is more or less modified ZX. My 78 has non power rack and pinion steering as do all first generation Z's. You will never be able to get that kind of steering feel by just removing the 'power' part of the steering from a ZX.

I have a 1978 280Z that I purchased in 1997. It passed smog with no adjustments in 97, 99, 01, and 03. I put the VIN you listed in the BAR database and nothing came up. If it was truly a California car, something would come up that database. I don't know what that means but I would check in to that 'California' assertion as well as checking all of the things that dga suggested.

I don't think the gap matters but I purchased my urethane rack bushings from MSA in 1997. I just checked them and there is no gap.

For ease of operation, I'll take my 78 280. It can sit for two months and start up like it was just driven yesterday. It's been very reliable in the 7 years I've been the owner. For it's overall coolness I would take the 70 I owned back then. I wish I remembered more about it. (vin, build date, etc.) I was only 19 then. It was one of the first, if not the first, 240s sold by Pomona Valley Datsun. They offered me its full purchase price in trade 2 years later on a 72 240. You think they knew something I didn't back then. Too bad I didn't know then what I know now!