Passed a Z on a trailer in SE Michigan today

[gwri8]

Always room for another 77' brother/sister in the group.  What is the build date, early or late?  And of course, Welcome!

[Al 77 280z]

Thanks Jeff! That will help a lot.

I've got plenty of family members and friends that have garages that I can use for larger repairs/upgrades. I plan on dropping the tank, I installed a G3 filter and it already is nasty. Do you know anyone locally that cleans and seals fuel tanks?

I'm impressed with the body of this car. The only spot of major rust is on the passenger rear quarter which you can see in the picture. I'll look tonight for the paint code. I think the factory color is some form of blue. The paint on it now appears to have applied with a brush.

I will also check the build date tonight.

[Jeff G 78]

I did my tank myself, so I never checked the local shops.  Call around to radiator shops and see if any of them boil gas tanks.  

[Al 77 280z]

Ahh okay, I'll have to drop it and see how bad it is then determine if I can/want to tackle it myself.

[siteunseen]

It's pretty simple compared to the vented 240 tanks. Time consuming but easy if you plan it. I can post some tips when I'm on my pc. Red-kote instructions are a good start, google it. Weekend project that cost me $50 in materials. Not too bad IMHO.

 

[Jeff G 78]

Does the '77 have a trap door in the rear deck for the fuel sender like the '78 has?  If so, you could look in the tank and see how bad it is.  

[Al 77 280z]

Took a look at the car when I got home this evening. Please excuse the crappy picture quality.

The build date appears to be 4/77

The color code is 305 from what I can read. The sticker is pretty faded.

There appears to be a small cover plate where the fuel level sending unit should sit. (See picture) does that look correct?

[Zed Head]

1977 was one of the "change" years.  The Service Manual says that your car shouldn't have the access door or the gauge on the top.  But 1978 does so maybe they switched early.  Download the 1978 manual and open up the FE chapter to get an idea of where things are.  Get the 77 manual also, for the other stuff.  In the Downloads section, thanks to Blue.

http://www.classiczcars.com/files/

 

[siteunseen]

Just like mine.  It was built in late '76 but titled as a '77.  Fuel sending unit drops in from the top, under that access cover.  Does your's have the sloped up rear deck before the the brake light cover?  Mine had a N47 cylinder head with a oiling cam plus a spray bar, oil pressure gauge read kinda low which worried me until I learned that.  There was a factory recall on the coupling that attaches the tube from the BPT valve to the EGR tunnel on the underside of the intake manifold.  Serial numbers were from 350001 through 410516 and if was fixed there should be a sticker under the hood but not always.  Mine wasn't fixed and it rotted a big hole in the intake causing a vacuum leak, ran like crap and the previous owner parked it.  I bought it years later and when rebuilding the motor I discovered this, put a better intake on and did away with the EGR and BPT valve.  Still ran bad up to 2500 RPM then it would pull hard.  Put a potentiometer in the coolant sensor wires and it runs like a champ now.  

Take a hand held mirror and look under the rear of the intake where the EGR is, your's maybe bad or loose.  I'll try and find the pictures right quick.

[siteunseen]

The hole is circled in red.  I had already sawed the EGR base off thinking I could have it welded up but my welder friend said it was too far gone, as in rotten aluminum, nothing to weld to.  The picture of the mirror is just for show, I was looking at the heat shield bolts.  That hatch picture is what I mean by "sloped deck", you'll run into that phrase when ordering things.  It's a way of saying early '77 or late '77.  You'll see a cord with a hook that attaches to the hatch gas tubes to hold it up if you haven't already, it's on the driver's side.

Hope this might help someway.

Oh yeah, here's the color codes.  http://www.zhome.com/History/ZColorGallary/

[Jeff G 78]

Hey Cliff, I have a N47/spray bar head on my '78.  I thought it was a unicorn, but apparently there were a few '77's built that way.  I bought the head about 15 years ago.  It was pulled from a new engine in '77 and had been sitting on a shelf for 20 years before I bought it.  The story was that a race team owned it and had pulled it when they got the car new. It was really neat to see a brand new head that old.  The cam/rockers had no wear pattern yet and the head had clearly never been touched.  I put new valve seals in and dropped in on my flat top engine.

 

[wheee!]

4 hours ago, siteunseen said:

The hole is circled in red.  I had already sawed the EGR base off thinking I could have it welded up but my welder friend said it was too far gone, as in rotten aluminum, nothing to weld to.  The picture of the mirror is just for show, I was looking at the heat shield bolts.  That hatch picture is what I mean by "sloped deck", you'll run into that phrase when ordering things.  It's a way of saying early '77 or late '77.  You'll see a cord with a hook that attaches to the hatch gas tubes to hold it up if you haven't already, it's on the driver's side.

Hope this might help someway.

Oh yeah, here's the color codes.  http://www.zhome.com/History/ZColorGallary/

hmmmm. My 9/75 build 1976 280Z has the sloped deck too....