1976 280Z Restoration Project

[ramsesosirus]

Those tanks must be how you know so much about car restoration and general "fix it" knowledge...

I can't wait to see that green color sprayed and shining in the sun!  Mine is a dark green, and the sun really makes it pop with some hues of blue!

 

Z's look great in dark green

[wheee!]

Preaching to the choir ramses...

[wheee!]

Oil pan is coming along nice...

[wheee!]

.... and nope. Just not quite good enough. I’ll start with a new clean pan.

[Captain Obvious]

It's fine. Just bolt it on!!!

[wheee!]

What’s this? A teaser pic from ConverTT??

[rcb280z]

Could it be the COP bracket?

[Captain Obvious]

Haha! Nice pic. I'm guessing it's Bigfoot.

Maybe Bigfoot wearing a button down shirt because he's going out to a nice place for dinner with Ms. Bigfoot?

[zKars]

Thanks to Mark's and ConverTT for the original idea, I too am doing an EFI conversion to 510.

I just completed my proto type bracket for the COP's and want to share a couple of hard won (trial and error) dimensions that may help ConverTT with his fabrication

I made a simple bracket with a single bend in 1/8" aluminum plate. It is 14 x 5.5 inches wide, with the bend at 3.25", with an included bend angle of 126.6 deg. I drilled 1.5" holes for the COP base, and 11/32 holes for the mounting bolts (M8). I had to drill out the holes in each COP to 5/16 (or 8mm) as they would not quite pass a regular M8 bolt.  

On an L4, the plugs are not evenly spaced all along. 1-2 is 4", 2-3 is 3.625", and then 3-4 is again 4".  Interesting that these measurements are not metric. They are 4", not 100mm. The center of COP 1.5" hole to it's 5/16 mounting hole is 1.25". 

I shaped the tabs that fit over the two valve cover bolts to fit the shape of the cove in the valve cover of course. The two holes are 3/8" from the edge. Some shapely-ness has been added to the bracket to make it both pretty and functional. More to follow. Powder coating when complete. 

I replaced the two valve cover bolts with studs to minimize the wear on the threads in the head with the many test fit cycles.

When you tighten down the mounting bolts for each COP, it pulls the coil boot tightly down over the plug to the fully seated position. The bracket does not move in any way. It is very sturdy as is.

I was tempted to make the bracket in two pieces so that you undo a couple of bolts along the seam and the two valve cover bolts to get the valve cover off for service, rather than having to undo all the COP's and wiring as well. We'll see how I feel the next few times I do a valve adjusts. 

I got very lucky as my press break can take a max of 14" wide stock, and that turned out to be exactly the width of the aluminum plate. Horse shoes for sure.

Ah one more detail. You would think that base of the COP that sits flat on the plate would be, well, flat. Nope. The mounting tab that sticks out to the side that has the 8mm hole has a slight upward angle, may 2 degrees. A person with OCD would make a wedge shaped washer to go in there...

Edited March 23, 2019 by zKars

[wheee!]

Nice work Jim!!

[zKars]

14 minutes ago, zKars said:

.

No clue how I managed to get a duplicate post after an edit of the original.  Sorry

Edited March 23, 2019 by zKars

[ConVerTT]

18 minutes ago, zKars said:

Thanks to Mark's and ConverTT for the original idea, I too am doing an EFI conversion to 510.

I just completed my proto type bracket for the COP's and want to share a couple of hard won (trial and error) dimensions that may help ConverTT with his fabrication

 

Awesome!  Nice work!

Thanks for all the tips - I wish I would have called you on Monday LOL.  

So ours is a little further along than @wheee! has let on.  Agreed it was a little trickier that it looks - it took a few whacks to come up with something I was even ready to send over to Mark.  And  I was going to call you and say "I need to know which 2/3rds of this you want" as the spacing is symmetrical but uneven on the six also.  

I like what you did.  I will let Mark post his when he is ready.  

 

Edited March 23, 2019 by ConVerTT
deleted repost of pics