2ManyZs

Well, the POR -15 and the Corroless from Eastwoods will work as long the rusted out piece isn't in a structural location. The way you describe it it sounds as if it is near where the inner fender is welded to the firewall, if it is it would be wiser to weld in a patch there, since it is close to a weld seam. The sealer would be better on a piece that hasn't as much to do with the structural integrity of the chassis, or hasn't rusted completely through. If there is a hole there now the you may find that the rust has spread out and when you get to fixing a small hole it turns into a bigger one by the time all the rust is gone. Since I can't see it you will have to use your judgement as to how to proceed. Use the Z-car Bookstore here to link up with Amazon about the availability of the book, and let's help Mike keep this site for us to use.

OK, I must be a little dense, but what it Occam's Razor?

Hmm, the LT-1 into a 90-97 300zx sounds kinda interesting.........

You know now that you mention it, I haven't seen the speaker boxes you used to be able to buy that mounted speakers in front of the wheel arch behind the seat in years. I wonder if any still sells them? There would be another alternative for the rear speakers.

Looks pretty darn good to me for the "price". The damage doesn't look to be too bad, it looks like a couple repair panels and some paint and you have a decent driver. Considering the investment to get the car it shouldn't be too hard on the wallet to put it back on the road. As long as the rest of the car isn't rusted out or any other hidden surprises I'd say hit the the jackpot. I'd much rather fix a little damage like this than to try to fix a car that is all rusted out. As long as the suspension didn't take any damage, you could always save a little money( and weight) by replacing the hood with a fiberglass one. Even the bumpers look to be in pretty good shape. If there isn't too much damage underneath, if the rad support is bent it could be straightened on a frame machine, I think you would do well to fix this car up. For what you have saved in the "purchase price" I think you will probably spend a couple thousand in body and paint and have a pretty nice car when you are done. I'm not much of a body man either but in my opinion it's better to repair something that is bent than to try to replace something that has rusted to the point it isn't there anymore. Good luck. Btw, as far as the fuel injection goes, you could always yank it off in favor of a decent set of carbs!

Well, Daniel said he has put speakers under the dash, I've used plywood to replace the kick panels and built small boxes to hold the speakers there. You could make a speaker box to set behind the seat but with a series 1 car you would have to work around the tool storage, or if it comes down to it and your door panels aren't perfect you could mount them in the bottom front corner of the door. My preference would be under the dash or in the kick panels so you don't have to do any cutting. Hope that helps.

If you don't have it already, since you say you are new to mechanics, I would suggest you use the bookstore to pick up a copy of 'How to restore your Z-car". It will give you a lot of pictures and help with just about anything you will be doing with your car. First, don't bother trying to pull your engine if you don't have access to an engine hoist. Sorry, but you will end up doing a lot more work and cursing if you don't have the right equipment. There is a section in the book about pulling the engine that should be able to get you through it if you can get a hoist of some type. 2 people can pick up the engine if you had to but it isn't easy, I've done it and I'm not going to do it again. As far as the rust is concerned try to cut out the rusted area and replace it with new metal, if you try to put a patch over it it won't last. You need to get out the rust so that it won't keep on rusting. You may need to take out the battery tray to fix it, it isn't hard to do, and when you are done you can either weld it back in or bolt it in however if you bolt it in you may need to pull the front fender to get to the nuts, unless you weld the nuts to the body. As far as your water leak, did you check the wiper seal on that side? It could also be a seam in the tray under the wiper panel has separated or you may have some rust under there. You should check under there to be sure. It could also be a hose going to the heater core too, or the core itself. Just giving you a few more places to look if you didn't find the leak.

Well, to be technical I didn't say the Syntec was synthetic, I just said it was good "stuff". And it is a bit cheaper. I've been using Castrol in all my vehicles except for the diesel for years and have never had any problems with "sludge" build-up like some of the oils I used in the past. I couldn't see spending so much on the full synthetic when the Syntec did the job for less. I never have used any full synthetics in my engines but I have used the Red Line synthetic transmission and rear end lubes. Not that it made my 280 fast enough to keep up with all the 240's, 325's, and RX-7's!

No problem Royce. Probably when I read one of your posts a thought pops up to add just like when you read one of mine! Between the two of us we would make a pretty darn smart guy! BTW, Castrol Syntec is pretty good stuff too, I ran that in my race car since I couldn't afford the really expensive stuff.

I'm sorry, but before I try to do the research I have a question that has been nagging me since I re-read your post. Is there a reason that you want to put the fuel injection on the L-28 to put in a 240?? It would be my opinion that what you should do is put the intake and carbs on it the came with the 240 if you have them. With all the work to put the wiring harness in and all the associated work to hook up the ECU and the ignition control unit what you may be doing is creating a very large headache for yourself. If you have an N-42 head off a 280 the intake and carbs from a 240 will bolt right on, no problems, and with that you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and wasted time trying to put all the fuel injection harness etc. in the car. The carbs(even the later smog carbs) will do as good a job as the fuel injection, and be a lot simpler and even more adjustable than fuel injection. If I read your post right you are trying to put a fuel injected 280 motor into a 240 with the stock 240 distributor. This won't work. You would need the electronic distributor from the 280 to fire the fuel injection. There are three wires from the 280 (brown, red, and green) distributor that tie into the ignition control unit and the ECU to fire the injectors. You would need to use the wiring harness from the 280 not to mention all the sensors, and control units. I believe it would be in your best interest to use the carbs instead of the fuel injection, it will be much simpler and a lot less time consuming.

I bet your wife uses the word "incorrigible" a lot doesn't she Mike??

Well Meakin, I for one won't laugh because I don't know what the head casting number is on the double overhead cam head. Probably because it's been about 9 years since I even saw a Fairlady up close. Guess I'll have to get out my pile of books to find it out, unless someone else knows.

I got to thinking about something this morning sitting in another traffic jam on I-95. Doesn't the heater control valve cable connection have an adjustment on it where you set it and tighten a bolt down on the cable? It could be that the cable has just pulled through the clamp. If I'm right this could be a very simple fix, at least to get heat for the time being. But you should go through all the postings and do all of the things that are mentioned so that you won't have another problem crop up in the future, that is when you have the time to do them.

Since there are so many things you can do to your car, all I can say is this. Do whatever you want to with it, or whatever you can afford to do. Unfortunately they don't always work together. Take it one step at a time and have a blast doing it, when it's done have a blast driving it.

BTW, what are you planning to do with the original engine? The car would be worth a lot more if you kept it original. It's a rare enough piece here in the states, and in original condition it would be very valuable. Unless there is something terribly wrong with it, I hope you keep it so that it could be put back in the car at some point. Of course that is just my opinion......

I agree with Royce, it is more than likely a plugged heater core or something is wrong with the fan motor or vents. A heater that is properly working in a Z should just about run you out of the car. I've never heard of any upgrades because they really aren't necessary. The first thing to check would be the fan and the heater control valve. The heater control valve controls the amount of water that is circulating through the heater core itself. Check that first, it may be the cable or not be opening due to corrosion inside. It is mounted next to the heater core under the dash on the inlet side to the heater. They are not too expensive to replace but they are kind of a pain to get to to work on. If that seems to be working OK, check the fan motor, and the vent control cables. If it isn't that then it is probably a bad heater core.

Just thought I would add one thought. Synthetic is only worth the money if your engine is in good mechanical shape when you put it in. If you are looking for a miracle cure to a tired engine, save your money and get it rebuilt, then use the synthetic. There's no sense in spending $6.95 a quart or more if your engine isn't in good shape to begin with. I've had people ask me if they should use it in an engine that had 75,000 mile on it to make it last longer, it won't. As a side note to your other posting, a good quality motor oil has detergents in it that will do as much to clean your engine as any cleaner. If your engine has some miles on it a combustion chamber cleaner will do more good than anything you can put in the crankcase. I had an old 200sx I bought years ago that had 160,000 miles on it. The original owner maintained it religiously and so did I. He used Castrol GTX 20w-50 in it from the first oil change, when I sold the car it had over 240,000 miles on it and had never had anything more than the valve cover off it. It pays to maintain a vehicle.

The 260 has to be a 74 as it was the only year they made them. If it has the bigger bumpers like a 280 and the turn signals in the grill and the back-up lights in the rear are separate from the taillights it is a 74 1/2. If not it is an early 74. You shouldn't run into too much trouble except for the wiring harness plug-ins matching with the 72. I do know that there were some things that couldn't be swapped from a 72 to a 73 without re-wiring the plugs. Body parts should be no problem.

The signal to the injectors comes from the distributor, but which wire is going to take a lot of research. If possible I will go through my service manual for my 75 and try to give you some kind of answer soon. I hope....

Yeah, I whined now about Alphadog being 17 and having a 240 as his first car. My first car when I was 17 (way back when) was a 1973 Plymouth 'Cuda, 340, 4 barrel, Slapstick, A/C and now I only wish I could have that car back. I was making $2.00 an hour and couldn't afford to feed it gas while I was "cruising for chicks" so I traded it for a motorcycle. Yes, I have told myself what an idiot I was back then, over and over and over and over........... Why is hindsight such a PITA ???

Since so many of you are still in your thirties or younger does that mean I'm a Senior Member?? No, let's not go there! And don't say what you are thinking kmack! Sophisticated occupations?? I guess instead of putting truck driver I should have put Mail Relocation Technician with a "Master's" in Heavy Vehicle Dynamics. There now I'm sophisticated too!

Nice find! It looks like it is definately worth fixing up. You'll have to give us up-dates once in a while so we can see it again. Even though I'm a "kutlz" with my left hand, I always wanted a right hand drive. Missed my chance on one years ago.

It's hard to say how much HP you would gain by going to 40 over pistons only. You would increase your displacement a bit, but the total gain would depend on what other modifications you make. Carbs, porting, which head, which size valves in the head, cam, final compression ratio, so to be honest it would be hard to say exactly how much of a gain you could expect. Yes, you'll gain a few HP if everything else is left completely stock, but with a few more mods you could be looking at anywhere from 30-60 HP gain. With just the pistons maybe 10-15 HP, but that's just a guess. I might be guessing a little high. Just remember HP costs money, at some point you can spend a lot of money to make very small increases. If you have a stock L-24 your best bet might be to go to an L-28 (280) bottom end and get a bigger increase in displacement and go from there. There is an old saying that goes "there is no replacement for displacement". It holds true for L series engines as well as a Chevy small block or whatever.

If it is the early 260 with the small bumpers and carbs, almost everything will interchange with no problem. Only differences would be if it had fuel injection and the bigger 280 style bumpers. You wouldn't be able to use the bumpers without making a few changes. There may be some interior parts that are not the same if the 240 is an earlier model. Some of the wiring may be different, they changed the plugs on the wiring harnesses a few times during the 240's model run, so I'm not sure you would be able to take out switches etc. and have them plug right in. As far as the major body parts hood, fenders, doors, hatch they will swap over with little or no problems. Suspension wise they are the same.

Let's see, no you would want the drive gear that came in the four speed since you want it to read right with a 3:36 rear. 280's had a 3:54 so if you put in the 280 drive gear it would be off. You want the drive gear that corresponds with the rear end ratio so that your speedometer would read according to the final drive ratio. Unless he had a 3:54 from an automatic which would make it right with the drive gear from the 280. I don't think I'm confused, or am I?