Arne

Pretty hard to say, Matt, without either more details or being able to experiencing it first hand. You profile says you're in Redmond - is that Redmond, WA, Redmond, OR or ?? There may be someone close to you who might be willing to help.

How odd. With my stock SUs I get a solid 30 MPG on 60 MPH highway driving, and 20-21 in town. Are you talking about the factory flat-top carbs that the 260Z came with? If so, those don't count...

I was afraid that you'd say something like that. I looked at my parts CD and don't find any elbows listed there for a 280Z.

I'm not certain, but it looks like the same elbow that goes into the rear of a 240Z cylinder head, just below the #6 spark plug. If so, the part number is 27195-E4400, my dealer charged me less than $7 for it last year (club discount).

Hmmm... I brew my own beer, so that one doesn't take much. I have been known to acquire vintage (pre-69) Matchbox die-cast models, although not much of that lately. Playing a bit with the other cars and the motorcycle. Oh yeah, maybe my son's tuition??

Just look at what Nissan did for the rest of the world. The USA wasn't the only market. The 260Z (not 280Z) was available with better carbs and the original small bumpers in the rest of the world through '78 or so. Then they moved everyone to the ZX.

I assume that there has been nothing connected to it for quite some time? If so, I see no reason you couldn't use an earlier housing. On the other hand, if you have had wires connected, it might be prudent to trace them to see what they send their temp reading to. I know the later injected ZX motors had something similar, but don't know when this started. Neither of my '71s have it.

It can get even worse than that. I've found that most all sounds appear to be coming from the far rear, even when they originate much farther forward. I literally spent months tracking down the clunk in my red 240Z. Started with the obvious and went from there. I replaced the following with new or known good parts from my other car:Diff mount - new M-bar bushings - new Trans mount - new All 6 u-joints new Struts - new Rear bushings - new Swapped rear strut housings from other car to test bearings and stub axles Swapped halfshafts to test splines Finally in a fit of desperation I swapped the transmission -- and that cured it. Turned out that the countershaft bearings had too much end play and the countershaft itself was moving fore and aft under torque loads. I had to replace and re-shim the bearings in the transmission to cure it.

I really like the idea of this system, but I don't think I could handle the look of that oval muffler hanging down so low and at an odd angle. Why, oh why couldn't they have built this system around a better fitting muffler? If they made the same system in 2 1/4" using a Dynomax 17-741 (a 6" round muffler), I'd have my credit card out in a flash.

I'd always heard those cars referred to as 'late '74s' or '74 1/2'. But I admit to being rather ignorant about the fine points of 260Zs.

Well, 260Zs here in the US were all '74s. What is you car's VIN? Oh, before I forget - Welcome!!

I suspect it's because Nissan was fully aware that black shows every body flaw, and that the build quality of the early S30 bodies just weren't good enough to carry it off.This was apparently a common practice for Japanese vehicles in the '70s. I was with my dad one day on the local Chevy dealer's lot while he was shopping for a new LUV 4x4 pickup. As he kept looking over all the trucks, he kept finding rather obvious flaws in the body work in each truck. He commented to the salesman about how poorly welded and assembled these trucks were. And the salesman's immediate comment was that if he wanted one with a good body, he should be looking at the black ones, as they only painted black on the best bodies. And he was right, every black truck on the lot had nearly perfect body and paintwork. The other colors were no where near as nice.

Welcome! And congrats on your purchase. My knowledge is primarily on 240Zs, not so much with 280Zs. But I can say for certain that the blue paint is NOT original, or even the original color. The car was originally that gold color you see on the inner fenders under the hood.

The blue 240Z belongs to Marty Rogan. He tipped us off about this article last month. http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28278

Yeah, the brand new 3 row core radiator I put in my yellow '71 240Z has all of about 50 miles on it. I will probably be pulling it out of the car to sell in the next few weeks.

I like that idea too, but (as a bodywork ignoramus) wonder how hard it might be to match the contour properly. Plus hiding the seam on the inside, since the headliner is just a glue-on foam pad.

So Mitchell said 11 hours? That sounds reasonable to me. Yeah, I'll need to do some serious chat with various shops to find one who is a) willing, and able to do this job. I'd still be interested in talking to anyone who has personal experience with this.

Here's what I'm thinking. The original owner of my red 240Z had a glass, split-pane sunroof installed in it in the late '70s. The recent discovery that the rust in my yellow 240Z is far more severe and pervasive than I had thought has led me to decide (reluctantly) to part it out rather than repair it. The proceeds from parting the yellow car, plus not paying to have the car repaired and painted this winter as I had planned, has accelerated the timeline for having my red 240Z painted. Probably next Spring. I expect the yellow car to be a mostly bare shell by next Spring. A bare shell with a nice, un-dented roof. I don't have to draw a picture of the conclusion, do I? So here's the question - Anyone out here have any personal experience with having a roof replaced on an S30? Or know anyone who has this done? While it seems to me (in my total lack of skills in this area) that any shop that can handle major collision work should be able to pull this off successfully, I'm still a bit reluctant - it's the ROOF of the CAR, for crying out loud. Done right, I'd expect less creaks and such in the body, no possible leaks from deteriorating sunroof seals, possibly better resale value someday, and almost certainly wider acceptance of the car by knowledgeable Z enthusiasts which would likely make it easier to sell someday. The resale aspects are not the main goals here, as I have no plans to sell it in the foreseeable future. But the lack of leaks, and increased structural rigidity would be a big plus, not to mention the increased headroom. Any thoughts?

Last thought - replacing the cylinder head is not a trivial thought if you still have either a stock 2.4 or 2.6 liter block in it, as the later injection heads have larger valves and chambers. You may need to notch the block for valve clearance, and you will definitely have lower compression than now. Again, in my opinion the simplest, cheapest and least intrusive way to go here would be to go back to early SU carbs.

Both Bruce and Stephen have their points. A well-maintained factory system can be fairly reliable. Of course, most of the systems you'll be able to find these days are not well-maintained, and will have a fair number of worn and aged parts. Converting and refurbishing an old factory system to make it reliable will likely be fairly expensive. If it is in good shape, the factory injection should probably deliver similar power to a good set of SUs. But probably not more power.

Yes, it can be done. But speaking as someone who bought a '71 240Z with injection (from an '83 280ZX) added, I have reservations as to whether that is the best answer. First - regarding the bolt-on of the later factory injection - the cylinder heads used on Zs prior to 1975 lack the notch in the intake ports that are needed for the injectors them selves. So assuming you don't have a later head (or engine) in the car, you would need to modify the ports on the head to use the factory injection, or swap to a later injection head. Past that, the factory injection controller gets input from several sensors throughout the engine compartment. So in addition to the obvious injection parts, you need to look into either changing out the thermostat housing for the temperature sensor, and perhaps other sensors as well. In short, swapping to a later factory Nissan injection on a 240Z can be done, but doing it right will be an involved project. I know, as the job on my car was not done right. I went back to carbs to fix mine. If the goal is to correct the botched Weber install, I'd recommend swapping it back to '70-72 factory dual carbs instead. Finding a complete setup including manifolds, linkages, carbs and airbox is fairly easy, and far simpler to reinstall that setup than it will be to convert to the factory injection. If you really do want injection, I'd recommend looking into an aftermarket injection system instead of the factory system. This will be more expensive, but you may not need to change or modify the head, wiring and plumbing will be simpler, and the performance capabilities of an aftermarket system are greater than what the factory can deliver.

A comment, an opinion and a question from a self-admitted light fetishist: Comment: The blue backlight (aka city light or running light) would be illegal here in Oregon, and most other states as well. Opinion: Stephen's comment about the halos being "too modern" for a vintage car were no where near strong enough. I don't care for halos even on modern cars, not even on the BMWs that came with them from the factory. Just my opinion, though, it's not my car. Plus it could be easily un-done later, if desired. Question: Am I correct in surmising from the wiring diagram that your HIDs are low beam only? Not bi-xenon?

Exactly why I prefaced my comments the way I did. I really don't have a feel for the East Coast pricing. That really doesn't surprise me at all.

Austin Healey Sprite. Think "Bug-eye" here in the states, or "Frog-eye" in the UK.