Which year 280z S30 would you recommend?

[Pennyman]

75's were the first of fuel injection and their basically a electric nightmare! I would recommend a 76', or 77.

As far as I know the wiring for 75 and 76 were nearly identical. 77 couldn't have been too different either. I can vouch for the fact that it's absolutely NOT a nightmare. Not very difficult at all.

[Arne]

Yeah, the injection on the 280Z was pretty simple, electrically. Not as simple on the ZX's, but that's not what Dave is looking for.

[sblake01]

75's were the first of fuel injection and their basically a electric nightmare! I would recommend a 76', or 77.

Not so at all. Except for the location and style of a couple of switches/transmitters/etc., they are virtually identical. But, then again, to a 12 year old, I would expect that all four years would be an 'electric nightmare'.:eek: But seriously, they're not much different.

[dogma420]

Keep an eye out for Oregon 280z's but unless its 1,000 or under, can afford it for at least 6 months. I'm selling another vehicle before I actually am serious about getting a 280z.

[dogma420]

I think for an adult, if you compare the 240z to the way even the 74.5 260z with carbs looks, it does look like a 'nightmare' but only if you know by having both. The 74.5 260z with carbs and big bumpers, I had one, and it had the fusible links, the interlock on the seats, and generally was a nightmare of wires compared to the simple setup of my 240.

But to a 3 year old, yeah, i'd figure the wiring would be a nightmare, but then again, a 'for 6 years and up' lego set would probably be a nightmare too.

[KDMatt]

Hrm... well from a cosmetic point of view I would recommend looking for a '77 to '78 280 ... and my main argument for that is essentially the bumpers... Heaven forbid you ever ruin one of your bumper ends (as I did) ... you will never find a replacement... it's damn near impossible... unless you have a lot of spare time to dedicate to ebay.

... From a HP point of view I would also recommend a '77 or '78 since I have also heard the "170 hp" rumor... was it because of the changeover to the N47 head?

From a practicality point of view I also say '77 or '78 because '77 was the first year when those pesky catalytic converters went standard on all of the Z's (so no noxious exhaust fumes) AND because the 77/78 Z's were equipped with the N47 cylinder head, you won't have to worry about substitutes for Leaded-Gas (The N42, as I have recently discovered, was meant to take leaded gas, where as the N47 was not.)

My 2 cents on this issue... Don't get me wrong, I love my 76! It's just a bitch finding a replacement for the ruined bumper end.

[dogma420]

That reminds me Matt, back in 88 or 89, I remember having my first Z, a 74.5 260z, big bumpers (so it looked just like yours on the outside)...had weber DGV's so it ran nice.

Some lady pulled out in front of me and I ran into her and pushed the bumper in about 3-4 inches and cut / damaged all the rubber.

I know the stuff is quite impossible to get now, but insurance replaced ALL the front bumper items with new stuff--the big bumpers don't look as nice as the 240z's bumpers, but that new bumper with all the new rubber actually looked great (IMO)...hard to believe, but all the bumper pieces (shocks, rubber, main bumper piece) came to a grand total on insurance if I remember of about $600 in 1989. Try that now!

[dogma420]

I'll have to look through my old pictures and scan some and send you some Matt, my 74.5 looked great for a kid's car...I was going through that 'chrome blacked out' period, didn't know nothing about the Z's at that time...took electrical tape and covered all chroming and had tinted headlight covers...looked pretty good, but you could tell a kid owned it.

When I find some pictures, I'll scan them and post them.

[mdbrandy]

=dogma420One question:

Why was the rear deck raised up on the 77-78 (or if I'm wrong, why is everything, such as the rear taillight panel and carpet, different than the rest)....

Space-saver Spare. I had a '75 280Z from '81 through '89, and now I have a '78 280Z. The raised rear deck is probably one of the worst things about the '78 compared to the '75. Much less hatch room, at least given my memory of the '75. Which admittedly is now 17 years old . The '75 had a full-size spare in a more-sunken spare tire well. The '77/78 have a shallow tire well in order to make the fuel tank a little bigger, with a space-saver spare, and the jack under the raised platform as well.

One other point of difference is the darned vacuum control system in the '75 car. There was a vacuum storage bottle with a bunch of vacuum lines and solenoids for the cabin HVAC system that continuously caused me problems. The ends of the vaccum lines kept splitting, causing vaccum leaks. And I was too dim to just replace all the lines to fix the problem. Or maybe it was involved; I don't remember...the '78 has no such vacuum system.

[mdbrandy]

From a practicality point of view I also say '77 or '78 because '77 was the first year when those pesky catalytic converters went standard on all of the Z's (so no noxious exhaust fumes) AND because the 77/78 Z's were equipped with the N47 cylinder head, you won't have to worry about substitutes for Leaded-Gas (The N42, as I have recently discovered, was meant to take leaded gas, where as the N47 was not.)

I don't believe that is correct. The cats were only standard on California cars. I have owned 2 '78 cars - one federal and one CA. The federal car did not have a cat. And it wasn't just removed, since the floor sensor and warning light system were not there either (That car is now in boxes in my garage - so I got a lot of experience on what it did and didnt' have). My current '78 daily driver is a CA car, and DOES have a cat. One other point is that both of these cars had manufacturing dates of 5/78, and VIN numbers that were only 4000 apart.

[sblake01]

Does your 78 have factory air? If so it would have that same system you describe which operates the mode door atcuator, ficd, etc. My 78 has dealer installed ac so no vaccum system.

[mdbrandy]

Does your 78 have factory air? If so it would have that same system you describe which operates the mode door atcuator, ficd, etc. My 78 had dealer installed are so no vaccum system.

Ah! There's a piece of info that I didn't have. No, the AC in the '78 is dealer-installed. I guess the AC in the '75 was factory then...