Finally got one...now to make it mine: 1973 240z Refresh / Personalisation

[mgood]

Your finished nut and bolts look pretty good. Don't go cheep on the plating process. Use this one Here Copy Cad® & Zinc Plating Kits - Electroplating & Anodizing - Caswell Inc - get the 1 1/2 gal kit.

I would also get this rectifier - 5 Amp Constant Current Rectifier - Power Supplies / Rectifiers - Electroplating & Anodizing - Caswell Inc

This one is a little bigger and will plate larger pieces. I got the smaller on and it will only do 5 sq. inches at a time.

[73str86]

I've been busy with job applications and interviews during my transition out of the Army. Haven't had much time lately (odd given that I'm on terminal leave) but the weather has been nicer the past couple days and I'm getting antsy. I haven't driven the Z in a YEAR!

I reinstalled all the fuel and brake line brackets. I finished up the battery tray area with roll-on bedliner to toughen it up. I painted it silver. Most of this will be invisible to the eye with battery tray, battery, etc. Instead of welding in the battery tray I'm just going to use self-tapping screws. I still need to touch-up the brake booster.

Sanding, cleaning, polishing, painting nuts and bolts is a long, tedious process. I'm hoping the finished results will pay off. I installed the fuel pump (after cleaning it up with a wire brush) with new gaskets and original spacer. Installed the timing chain cover. Installed the water pump. Installed a section of the coolant/heater hose T-bar and line.

Next is finishing the coolant/heater hoses, install the NISMO high flow oil pump, factory distributor (still haven't decided which one to use; I have the factory '73 dizzy and '83 dizzy on hand). Need to install alternator, starter, and motor mounts. I got pretty frustrated yesterday--it looks like my gasket set didn't include a thermostat gasket? WTH?

I also picked up a NOS Clifford Research header. The plan is to get a competent local exhaust shop to build a full twice pipes system.

Here is the original header I had, sandblasted, primed, painted, and cleared with 2000 degree header paint:

I may use this original one first to break in the motor and have my original exhaust ready to bolt up.

[SteveJ]

So are you staying in Georgia, or are you moving elsewhere?

[73str86]

I have a house and a mortgage here, so I'll be here for a little while.

The current plan is to find a job, stay here through the rest of the year, then move to Austin, Texas to finish my Bachelor's Degree at UT.

[73str86]

Made some decent progress with my 2.9L L28 swap in the past couple weeks.

For the area where I replaced metal under the battery tray, I coated it with bedliner to add another layer of protection, then painted it silver. I also stripped, sanded, primed, and painted the battery tray itself. I made the decision to screw the battery tray in with self tapping screws instead of welding it in. I also have a new plastic battery tray with hose to place on top.

Now on to the engine itself. Obviously the first step was to install it! After dealing with ill-fitting and poorly made motor mounts from Black Dragon and Beck Arnley, I decided to bite the bullet and spent the $90+ on the factory Nissan mounts. Boy did it make a difference. The photo below shows the two new Nissan motor mounts. Then the old one. On the Black Dragon mounts, the small pin on the bottom which lines up in the crossmember below the bolt was about an 1/8 of an inch off. On the Beck Arnley motor mounts, it wasn't threaded for factory bolts--it required the use of a nut and washer. Also, the rubber was not cut/molded properly to attach the independent bracket supports.

I purchased the clutch/transmission spline alignment tool for about $4. It actually gave us a bit of trouble. About 30 minutes of fidgeting and adjusting the motor/transmission alignment it finally all came together. I installed the 60 amp alternator, flame thrower 3 ohm coil to delete the ballast resistor, 280zx gear reduction starter. I also stripped, painted (Datsun blue), and clear coated the battery hold down bracket. After that, my dad and I hooked up all the wiring in about 15 minutes. I don't like the look of old/dirty wiring next to a new shiny motor but I have heat shrink wiring wrap that will go on once it's on the road and everything is sorted out.

I went out and spent about $100 on various odds and ends. The ~ one foot coolant line from the lower radiator hose to the heater core lines. Various vacuum and coolant line block off caps for the triple SKs and to block off / remove the hard coolant line that used to wrap around the block and warm up the stock intake manifold. Rubber bushings to place between the aluminum radiator and radiator support wall to shield from vibrations. I also had to cut the tube coming out of the lower thermostat housing because the carb would not be able to bolt to the intake. I planned on buying a brass plug to screw in but was lucky enough to dig through my original intake/balance tube zip lock bags and found one that fit perfectly. It looks a lot cleaner.

I finished thoroughly cleaning the insides of two out of the three 45mm SK carbs. Now there's only one left. Once the carbs are mounted with the Datsun Spirit heat shield and the aluminum 4 row radiator is installed, all I have to do is fill up the oil and fluids and crank her up. I'm hoping to be able to drive it to enter a local car show on Fort Gordon on Saturday.

[73str86]

And not Datsun related, but in between all this I flew to Houston to pick up a new daily driver. It's a one owner 2002 Subaru WRX wagon with 115,000 miles after the road trip back to Georgia.

[Ptero]

Beautiful wagon! Love those cars.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I am a subaru guru of sorts, have had nothing but them for 12 years. My THIrd Subaur was a bugeye. Somebody spent some real money on that one as it has the nice JDM lights that were about a grand back in 2002. It obviously had aftermarket wheels before it was sold, as those are just OEM Subaru wheels. Remeber you will need a +53mm offset for any subie.

[LeonV]

Nice work on the Z, and a nice wagon to boot!

[Perfect240Z]

Beautiful Z, and engine.

[73str86]

The WRX was a show car owned by a 55 year old woman. She traded it in to a dealer on a new WRX. The dealer stripped it for the most part before sending it to auction. Wheels, stereo, CAI, exhaust. Overall I'm happy but the dealer is withholding service records even though I am in contact with the previous owner.

[73str86]

It's been a while since my last update. Layla is breathing and running on the road. All I can say is it's an amazing feeling.

A couple steps back:

I installed a Champion 4 row aluminum radiator from eBay.

4 Row Champion 1970 1975 Datsun 240Z 260z Radiator | eBay

I swear I paid $225 for a 3 row on eBay, and was shocked to get the 4 row in the mail. I think they were out of stock and sent me the 4 row or something. I also found some rubber shifter bushings at AutoZone which I used to run the bolts through to provide a small amount of vibration dampening against the radiator support. All holes in the radiator lined up perfectly to factory mounting holes. With the thickness of the four row radiator along with the 280zx 3 row balancer pulley, it is a tight squeeze. I mounted the fan and clutch to the pulley before I installed the radiator for the sake of space. It is an extremely close fit with perhaps 1/2" between the 240z fan and the new radiator. I think it'll be fine and haven't found any issues.

The finish and craftsmanship look excellent; my thermostat stays below the halfway point with city driving (temps 70-85 degrees in May right now). I'm happy and feel as though it should handle Georgia and Texas summer temps of 100+ degrees just fine.

The next order of business was to install my thoroughly cleaned and sorted triple 45mm Sanyo Kiki (SK) racing carburetors originally from Japan. Cleaning all three carburetors was a tedious process; they were pretty gunked up inside. I will be experimenting with Weber and Mikuni chokes/jets in the next 1,000 or so miles to try to find my best setup. I also installed a triple carb heat shield from Datsun Spirit for $116. It was a little disappointing at first to see how simple it was to make; but the quality of the zinc plated brackets and hardware were really nice. I will also apply 2000 degree thermotec heat shield/fiber/sticker to the top and bottom of it. It's nice because it has lips to keep any possible gas leaks away from the headers.

At the moment I don't have any air horns or filters. YIKES! :stupid: That's my next order of business.

I ran all the fuel lines, spark plugs, NGK wires, etc. I installed a Mr. Gasket liquid filled fuel pressure gauge from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Gasket-1564-Liquid-Pressure/dp/B000N8ISFS/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1368232326&sr=1-2&keywords=mr+gasket+liquid+filled+fuel+pressure+gau ge

From my research and advice I received I decided to break in and run the engine with the factory mechanical fuel pump. The gauge will allow me to keep track of the pressure it produces. I dumped the Schneider break in additive all over the camshaft and in the timing chain area in the head to let it get to the block and pan. Next came the moment of truth. After being satisfied that oil was being pumped to all lobes of the cam (I blocked off the spray bar holes with the hardware supplied in the Schneider Stage III kit) and seeing sufficient oil pressure, I decided to go ahead and try to start it and let her fire.

To much dismay, it just wouldn't start. I had spark. Spark plug and point gaps were set. I had fuel. FRUSTRATION ensued. My father's impression was that we had the distributor off by 180 degrees, which is the initial guess for every backyard mechanic. I was certain I did enough research about installing the oil pump and spindle at the 11:25 position. We removed the distributor anyway to double check; it was spot on. Firing order and spark plug wires were double checked. I slept on it--depressed a little I might add.

The next day I was reassessing the situation without my dad there. After referring to the wiring diagram in my FSM, I realized that the condenser for the coil was on the wrong terminal. After switching it to the negative as it was supposed to be, SHE FIRED UP IMMEDIATELY! I was running my sandblasted and painted header that was originally on the car. She was LOUD! Soon thereafter I reinstalled the rusty 2 1/4" exhaust with a new Magnaflow muffler. I recorded some HD videos but I think they're too long to post.

I let the engine rev at ~ 2500 rpms for about 15-20 minutes to let it reach operating temperature. My oil pressure was amazing (thanks to the NISMO high flow pump) and was over 45 lbs. I inspected for leaks--NONE!

Here is a super low quality video I took on my cell phone. Trust me, it does not do it justice. This was before I used the synchrometer to synch the carbs. There is some bog and the linkage could use some attention.

After dialing in the idle and balancing the carbs it runs amazing. I reinstalled the front sway bar with new end links and bushings. I also drove to a local tire shop to get my new Falken Ziex Ze 912 195/60R14s mounted and balanced.

I put the hood and grill on with my father on a Saturday morning and immediately drove to a local car show on Fort Gordon. All the rushing made me feel like I was on a car TV show rushing to complete a build.

I was amazed at how much attention the car received. A surprising number of women came up to me talking about how it was their first car in San Francisco, Florida, etc. The older men reminisced about how fast they were in the day. Here's a shot from the car show:

I put about 80 miles on it in two days, always varying speeds, etc. So far I haven't gone above ~3800 rpms. It feels like a completely different car. I plan on emailing the PO who owned it since 1976 and show him the progress I've made. I can't wait until the engine is broken in and I can really drive it.

:beer::beer::beer::beer: