It's been almost a month since I got my Z. As you can see from the pictures, it's beautiful, but it was barley running. Well today I finished my punch list to get the car right. Here's what I found:

1. The car was only running on one carb. The floats in both carbs were slammed up against the covers. The piston in the rear carb had poor movement. Both carbs were removed, cleaned and adjusted to the correct spec.

2. The valve lash for the intake valves weren't even close to spec (cold). Four were at 0.003, one at 0.004 and one at 0.005. The valve lash for the exhaust were good; three were at 0.009 and the other three were at 0.010. Being that the intakes were so close together, I assume they were set that way.

3. The ignition wires gave a nice light show in the dark. They didn't even match.

4. I checked the dwell prior to changing the points. 26 degrees.

5. Oddly enough, the sparks plugs looked OK. I attribute this to general lack of combustion going on. Without fuel, spark and air, how bad could they look. I changed them anyway, along with a condenser, fuel filter, cap & rotor - all of which looked worn well beyond any reasonable expectation.

5. The car came with two foam pods on the carbs. They looked nice enough but that lacked air horns. The air horns on the stock airbox are part of the venturi and are vital to proper carb performance. Dave (a.k.a Zs-ondabrain) hooked me up with an original airbox - he even included the correct hardware. Thanks Dave. Another problem with the foam pods; there was no place to correctly mount the breather lines from the float bowels, the crank vent or the flow guide valve.

6. I discovered two vacuum leaks from the removal of the air pump system. Those have been properly closed off.

After a full run-through, this car now runs perfectly. It now runs as good as it looks. I still need to replace the front crank seal. I was going to do it today, but my shake-down drive turned into a tour of the county.

I forget what a pure, honest machine the 240Z is.

Edited May 16, 201014 yr by Gary in NJ

Get that Air Box installed yet? Hope all is well and it was worth what you paid for it.

Good to hear the car is up and making ya smile again,

Dave

I know just what you mean about doing a short drive and ending up going for a long one. I just got my car back today after spending 7 months in the shop. Man did I ever forget how good it makes me feel to drive it. The electronic fuel pump rattling did not even faze me. I will deal with that tomorrow. It looks great and drives great!

Over the last few months reading a lot of these articles, I began to worry just what condition mechanically it would be in when I got it back. It started right up the first time and ran beautifully. I have a small list of things I have been tucking away over the last few months to replace. Not quite as entailed as yours though. Great to hear yours is back up and running!

After a full run-through, this car now runs perfectly. It now runs as good as it looks. I still need to replace the front crank seal. I was going to do it today, but my shake-down drive turned into a tour of the county.

I forget what a pure, honest machine the 240Z is.

You gotta' love a good success story!

Get that Air Box installed yet? Hope all is well and it was worth what you paid for it.

Dave

Opps, I forgot to add that important tidbit. I edited the original post to include that. It arrived packed like it was going to fly on the space shuttle. Thanks for the help.