New owner of '77 280z from Upstate SC

[the_tool_man]

So I had a little time to play tonight.  I practiced installing a helicoil in a scrap piece of aluminum. I'm glad I did.  Because it takes a bit of finesse to get the insert installed all the way into the hole without prematurely breaking off the tang.  And as we all know, finesse doesn't come naturally to me.

Next I removed half the fuel rail and examined the bad hole.  It's apparent that when I drilled out the broken screw, I didn't get the hole centered. This left a crescent shaped remnant of the old screw in place that pulled out when I tightened the injector.  As you can see, this left an oblong hole.  I decided I'd need a new pilot hole to start from.  The last photo shows what I did.  I filled the hole with J. B. Weld, coated the end of a drill bit with grease to act as a release agent, and pushed it into the hole. I used an injector base to put the bit in the right place, and used the other screw to eyeball the proper angle.  I'll let that cure overnight and go from there.

I wonder if I could just tap it for an M5 and be done.  But for peace of mind I'll probably helicoil it anyway.

[Patcon]

I would tap it and be done, provided you got enough epoxy in the hole. The epoxy is plenty strong enough to hold the load the M5's can take

[Zed Head]

All those two screws really do is hold the injector upright and keep it from blowing out if there's a backfire, and add a bit of pressure to the seal.  Not very accurately placed, the thick rubber insulator rubber allows lots of misalignment.  Just saying, if you get to a point where you see it's not perfect, it may not really matter.  If you go with later model o-ring injectors in the future you don't even really need the holders and/or the screws. 

[siteunseen]

Whatever you decide to do, you should fill that injector hole with something.  Drilling the top hole and gravity and all that kinda stuff, you know, Murphy's Law. 

[Captain Obvious]

When the simple mundane five minute job turns into hours and hours of misery and frustration. Been there. Done that.

When you spend two hours trying to pull the wheel speed sensor out of it's rusty hole in the suspension and still  snap it off in the process.
When it takes an hour to get the crushed, mangled, and screwdriver speared remains of an oil filter off the block.
When it takes two days just to get a frikin dipstick tube out of the block because it cracks off at the bottom.
When it takes a week to change your thermostat because the bolts snap off.

You are not alone.

 

Edited March 22, 2016 by Captain Obvious

[the_tool_man]

16 minutes ago, Captain Obvious said:

When the simple mundane five minute job turns into hours and hours of misery and frustration. Been there. Done that.

When you spend two hours trying to pull the wheel speed sensor out of it's rusty hole in the suspension and still  snap it off in the process.
When it takes an hour to get the crushed, mangled, and screwdriver speared remains of an oil filter off the block.
When it takes two days just to get a frikin dipstick tube out of the block because it cracks off at the bottom.
When it takes a week to change your thermostat because the bolts snap off.

You are not alone.

 

In the 18 or so years of working on cars, and participating in car related online forums, that is quite possibly the best, most reassuring post I've ever read.

Edited March 22, 2016 by the_tool_man

[Captain Obvious]

Haha!! Glad to help!

And just so you know that I'm not making this stuff up and do actually I live it with you... Here's my most recent expedition to frustration land. Dipstick from my kid's car. Snapped off in the block:

Used a jigsaw blade in an exacto knife handle to cut a slot in it. An angled center punch to collapse it on itself a little, and an ezout to grab it and pull it out. See the remaining little stub of the SOB in the lower right:

And here's the final result:

You are not alone. 

Edited March 22, 2016 by Captain Obvious
fixed picture formatting

[siteunseen]

1 hour ago, Captain Obvious said:

When the simple mundane five minute job turns into hours and hours of misery and frustration. Been there. Done that.

When you spend two hours trying to pull the wheel speed sensor out of it's rusty hole in the suspension and still  snap it off in the process.
When it takes an hour to get the crushed, mangled, and screwdriver speared remains of an oil filter off the block.
When it takes two days just to get a frikin dipstick tube out of the block because it cracks off at the bottom.
When it takes a week to change your thermostat because the bolts snap off.

You are not alone.

 

To me that's a great analogy of children.  They can be a pain but you stick with them, at least that what my parents always told me.  I'll stick with dogs, they're a little less expensive. 

[charliekwin]

8 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

To me that's a great analogy of children.  They can be a pain but you stick with them...

Yeah, but try putting your kids up on Craigslist for $3000 OBO and now you've gotta answer all kinds of questions from the police.

[the_tool_man]

Tonight I tried tapping the injector mounting hole. But J. B. Weld won't hold threads that fine. So I drilled, tapped and helicoiled the hole. It held. I reassembled the fuel rail, reinstalled the harness, and put back all the vacuum hoses and other stuff I'd removed before.

With the starter still disconnected, I tried the key. Fuel pressure built to 40psi and would slowly drop to 30 with the key off. It held at 30 for the five minutes or so that I looked for fuel leaks. I hooked up the starter and put the fire extinguisher within easy reach. Then I said a little prayer and tried the key.

Click. Nothing. No fuel pump. No door chime. Nothing. Battery measures fine. I guess a fuse blew.

Dammit.

Im done for tonight.

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by the_tool_man

[Zed Head]

Sounds like a bad battery connection.  When the starter motor current kicks in the heat will open a loose dirty connector.  The low current from lights, pump, etc. doesn't do it.  It's why the only huge wires in the harness are for the starter motor.   I almost replaced a starter once because of bad connections until I dug in to the memory files in my head.

[the_tool_man]

So it's been a while.  A lot has happened.  Not to the car; to me.

I found out I have cancer.  My prognosis is a giant question mark right now.  But regardless of what comes next, the car isn't a priority for me.  I see two paths forward:

1. Sell the car as is.  If you've read this thread, you've seen the photos, and know everything I know about the car.  Fuel system is likely good at this point.  But there are electrical issues now.
2. Tow the car to a repair shop and pay them to get it running, so I can sell it for more money.  There's a place about 30 miles away that specializes in Datsun/Nissan cars.  I'm sure they could figure it out.

To recap, it's a 94k mile, original 280z with original engine, completely stock right down to the radio, spare, can-o-air, toolkit, etc.  Aside from a few minor surface stains in a couple of inconspicuous places, and some surface rust on the pan under the radiator support, there is no rust that I can find.  It was re-sprayed original color at some point by a previous owner.  Aside from minor touchup on passenger side headlight bucket, and a stress crack on the passenger side above the B-pillar, the paint is really good.  Not a scratch or dent anywhere.  Aside from minor fading of the rear carpet, and a dash cover likely hiding cracks in the dash, the interior is complete and in great shape.  I have had it running to various degrees while diagnosing the AFM and fuel system issues.  Once the electrical issue is figured out, it should be drivable.  As a reminder, the car has a sunroof, which I know hurts the value.  But it also has working A/C.

I know it doesn't affect the price.  But as a point of reference, counting what I paid for the car, plus new Michelin tires, new injectors, new FPR, taxes, tag and title; I have $8900 in it.

I'm sure someone will try to talk me into fixing it.  Not gonna happen.  My "friend" who went with me to buy the car, and promised to help me through the repairs has been a total no-show throughout.  His offer to buy it if I decided to sell it was just words.  My world has been turned upside down.  I don't want to deal with fixing it myself, and probably never will.

I'm also sure someone will PM me and offer to buy parts off the car.  I won't bother saying "don't", because someone will anyway.  Just know all requests for parts will be ignored.

I just need to answer the following two questions:  What's it worth as is?  What's it worth running?