Hello from across the pond! Searching for a 240z

[Woody928]

(excuse me stealing my post off my UK Zclub project thread, if anything doesn't make sense I'm sure I can clarify )

Well another weekend has passed and another update to follow. We managed to add another 170 miles to the tally this weekend, with a visit to see a good friend in Croydon, some late night b-road blasting, and a trip down to the South coast and back. All of which has come with experiences of their own.

The friend is a big car guy but not really into his classics, he was suitably impressed with the car albeit we didn't get the chance to go for a brief spin. As usual the styling won hearts and minds as did the colour  

Having now been able to take the car and get a feel for its capabilities on some very familiar back roads as expected some serious flaws were shown up. The car can only be described as wafty when pushed along. There is lots of body roll present which I'm sure will be solved with the fitment of an uprated front ARB and addition of a rear ARB. The struts were unable to cope with the road surface on occasion bottoming out, leaving the car feeling unstable at various points. Certainly putting a suspension upgrade high up the list and debating the available options to find the most suitable solution. As mentioned elsewhere and to some of you, will be looking for a fast road setup with a bias towards comfort. I think I'm currently leaning towards eibachs and tockio illumias as it stands. The brakes were reasonable for the setup however I'm sure a change of brake pads would likely make a big difference, if not consideration to a mild setup later down the line. 

With that done on the Saturday both myself and my dad road tripped in the car down to the South coast, with him driving down and myself taking to the wheel in the evening. On the way down we stopped for various photos (mainly to get our insurance valuation sorted) however I couldn't resist with a few locations and light on route. We also met a couple of bikers who were very enthusiastic about the car and had a good look around, they seemed very happy at the opportunity to jump in the car and have a look themselves. Had some interesting bikes with some nice mods to discuss as well

Once we got down to the coast I gave the car its first proper cleanse inside and out getting all of the carpets out to get all of the **** out. The air vents had obviously seen little use from the previous owner as crud kept flying out when they were first put into service by us covering the car in debris. Safe to say it cleans up really nicely, there's some stone chips here and there over the car as to be expected (not sure if it chips easily) however it cleans up really nicely. I even discovered the original luggage straps under the rear carpets which have now reappeared. 

With sun set looming it seemed mad to to go and get some pics of the car near the sea front with some unobstructed sunlight. Safe to say the results were stunning, I need to do a full download however they will be going up on my instagram page for those that are familiar with it, so check them out! @ 'm_woodrow94' I'll be uploading some in the coming weeks. 

Got a load of attention from several gents outside of the local sports bar by the curry house who were very complimentary and enthusiastic about seeing the car and its condition. One of them hadn't even seen one before, with all of them commenting what a rare sight they are these days. Both me and my dad grinning away proudly, talking merrily away about our new pride and joy 

Nice bit of dinner followed by a 60 mile drive back home through Sussex B-roads past Goodwood with Minimal traffic to contend with or dispatch all the way home :driving: A quick refuel revealed a reasonable 21.6mpg, so we're sure these more to come on a more relaxed cruise. We have concluded the car feels as though it needs a 5 speed and leaves you looking for another gear considering it merrily plods along in 4th from 30mph upwards. A 5 speed, diff change and LSD will therefore be on the cards along with the suspension as my two priorities. I'm sure some extra performance and economy will be exploited by these mods as well. 

I'm definitely feeling a lot more comfortable and at home with the car now, having originally being left feeling tired from my first major trip. I've not been at all bothered having done some decent miles in the car. Its different to drive to my other chariots, however its not taxing. I'm putting my original feeling of tiredness down to the amount of new factors I was having to concentrate on, and excitement/emotion of finally having acquired the car after so long waiting. 

Unfortunately blowing out the cobwebs did not come without its share of casualties, strangely the tachometer broke at about 4k rpm in 1st breaking out onto the A3 :eek: Only to find that having left the car around overnight and messed with some other electrics that it came back to life.... Very baffled by this  

The heater appears to be broken, so any tips with where to start looking would be much appreciated as with winter on the way it will become an essential piece for continued use for the front screen as well as comfort. 

Getting a passenger mirror is also becoming quite essential for driving to make the drivers life considerably easier. As while manageable without the drivers life could be made considerably easier. Having failed to find bullet mirrors that will actually be functional as well as aesthetically pleasing I think we may have found some round chrome mirrors on stalks that will fit the bill enough that we bite the bullet with them 

Finally the old man put his electrical skills to good use and after some messing around doing some investigation work we have the inspection light working again It turned out to be a blown bulb, and then and earthing issue was preventing the replacement from sparking into life, some soldering later and job done. We just need to find a 12v 8w bulb as we only had a 12v 6w available to get us going in the meantime. I'm sure we will be looking to upgrade the two interior lights to LED's to boost the interior lighting in due course. Some research needed on that front to brighten the place up. 

Enough rambling for now a a quick teaser pic from the Saturday and our fixed inspection light. However a new adventure well and truly embarked on :thumbs:

[moelk]

Looks great!

Aim for a zx (na) 5 speed and a Subaru STI 3.9 diff. Easy swap and GREAT performance.

[Mikes Z car]

The heater in a friend's 240Z didn't work because the stiff control wire going from the control lever on the dash to the heater valve popped off on the end that was attached to the dash control lever.  For temporary heat until the control wire could be fixed I just turned the heater valve above the passenger's left foot with my hand.  

Edited October 25, 2016 by Mikes Z car

[Patcon]

I would start at the heater valve also. Are the lines attached under the hood? I would assume so since it just came from the shop. Are the controls attached to the heater valve? Will the heater valve move? They sometimes corrode in position and won't move...you should be able to see this from the passenger foot well

[Zed Head]

You can see the end of the actuating cable and what it's supposed to be moving if you stick your head up under the dash and look behind the glove box.  Do that and move the lever, and you'll know which end of the cable has the problem.  That's how I discovered that mine was bent, behind the face plate.  Somebody got angry and forced it.

Edit - also, not uncommon to find that people have blocked or bypassed the hoses because the core leaks.  Sometimes they do it in the engine bay, sometimes in the cabin.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Zed Head

[Woody928]

20 hours ago, moelk said:

Looks great!

Aim for a zx (na) 5 speed and a Subaru STI 3.9 diff. Easy swap and GREAT performance.

Thanks for the advice when I get a chance I'll look into this. Would be great to get some more performance, comfort and economy out of the car 

20 hours ago, Mikes Z car said:

The heater in a friend's 240Z didn't work because the stiff control wire going from the control lever on the dash to the heater valve popped off on the end that was attached to the dash control lever.  For temporary heat until the control wire could be fixed I just turned the heater valve above the passenger's left foot with my hand.  

 

14 hours ago, Patcon said:

I would start at the heater valve also. Are the lines attached under the hood? I would assume so since it just came from the shop. Are the controls attached to the heater valve? Will the heater valve move? They sometimes corrode in position and won't move...you should be able to see this from the passenger foot well

 

14 hours ago, Zed Head said:

You can see the end of the actuating cable and what it's supposed to be moving if you stick your head up under the dash and look behind the glove box.  Do that and move the lever, and you'll know which end of the cable has the problem.  That's how I discovered that mine was bent, behind the face plate.  Somebody got angry and forced it.

Edit - also, not uncommon to find that people have blocked or bypassed the hoses because the core leaks.  Sometimes they do it in the engine bay, sometimes in the cabin.

Thank you all for the advice! This is a really helpful starting point  Lets hope its this simple. Next time I get to the car from the lockup I'll have a look and see if at least the heater valve won't manually open, Interestingly we think we were getting heat when we collected the car and its since failed, I also had one of the vent control handles fly off on one journey. This could very well explain how matters have evolved and we have no heat. 

I imagine its been a bit of a shock for the car having had so much use in a week having been sat for a while with little use before then, all of our use has certainly resolved the issues with the car pulling the car left under braking. Definitely supports our view that these machines like to be used regularly to keep everything operating. 

[Zedyone_kenobi]

What size panasports are you running?

 

Love the euro front lip as well. Well we call it a euro lip here in the states.. Guess to you it is just a lip...

 

I will be quiet now

[Namerow]

On 10/25/2016 at 5:55 PM, Patcon said:

I would start at the heater valve also. Are the lines attached under the hood? I would assume so since it just came from the shop. Are the controls attached to the heater valve? Will the heater valve move? They sometimes corrode in position and won't move...you should be able to see this from the passenger foot well

I was able to restore my car's corroded heater valve to good operating condition by soaking it for a couple of days in a household-type 'de-liming' liquid (same stuff that's used for cleaning up kettles and coffee-makers).  The product I used is called 'C-L-R' (stands for, calcium-lime-rust, IIRC).  Probably not available in the UK, but I'm sure you'll be able to find a similar product without much fuss.  These heater valves are relatively bullet-proof... except for the little seal where the control rod exits the main valve body.  If you take the valve out of the car to refurbish it, make sure you pressure-test before you refit it.  If the little seal leaks, you're probably best to buy a complete replacement valve.  To pressure test, cut a length of skinny bicycle inner tube, complete with the valve stem.  Seal off one end (clamp it), then clamp the other end over a short length of heater hose.  Then clamp the heater hose onto one of the heater valve's ports. Put your thumb over the other port, then pump some air into the inner tube.  If you hear air escaping through the control rod's seal, it's time to order a new heater valve.

[Woody928]

On 11/7/2016 at 8:54 PM, Zedyone_kenobi said:

What size panasports are you running?

 

Love the euro front lip as well. Well we call it a euro lip here in the states.. Guess to you it is just a lip...

 

I will be quiet now

16x7 all round, they certainly look pretty good 

Thanks, really cleans up the front end in my opinion. All 240's looked naked without some kind of lip up front imo... I've quite impartial to the BRE look as well.

 

Well update on the heater, its still not working! Freezing to say the least when you take the car out in below zero, particularly when you have nothing to de-ice the screen except a credit card! takes away from an otherwise awesome experience. So it turns out that the temperature slider control (middle) isn't connected up to anything following investigation which would explain why that's not being of any assistance, however the top slider control does engage towards the right which implies heat. Having traced the mechanism back I reached a control valve under the dash (pics attached) which looked pretty horrible however with some persuasion it operated. Unfortunately this did not do anything as far as we could tell. Is this the heater control valve? 

 

The only other investigation I've done is check the pipework in the engine bay, it is quite apparent that there are hot water pipes passing through into the cabin (feel very warm to the touch once the cars warmed up) which I imagine are linked to the heater matrix. I can therefore only assume the issue lie's in the cabin. Any suggestions as to how to proceed? 

Edited November 15, 2016 by Woody928

[Woody928]

Well its been a while, I've been updating my thread on ZClub but had forgotten to get back on here to keep you guys posted as well. Apologies, here we go anyway this is a highlights catch up. 

Well its update time again and the car after an extended period of 6 weeks in the garage is back on the road! After some useful advise on here and doing some research, reading online and in a few manuals/guides I got for Christmas we tried to reverse flush tthe heater matrix system having decided that our problem was likely a blockage in the heater core. Having stripped the pipework off the matrix and hooked up the garden hose there was barely a dribble of coolant flowing out despite the pressure. With it confirmed the matrix was in need of re-coring. 

Having met a UK Z owner on at Goodwood in December and got a recommendation to give it to Guildford radiators they agreed to take a look at it, about 3.5 hours work to get the whole unit out of the car with the dashboard in place and I dropped it in before Christmas. As promised it got looked at straight away in the new year..Once the unit finally got cracked open it was apparent that the whole core was corroded in place and to extract the core they had to attach some hoops to it so that it could be hammered out of the box. With that out it was clear the unit hadn't been touched since it left the factory 46 years ago and was well overdue some attention. The original was measured up to make sure a new unit would drop straight in and the box shot blasted to be repainted due to the surface corrosion. 

Having had the unit picked up for me a few weeks ago the exterior all looked great with fresh paint however having cracked it open to satisfy my curiosity I soon found that the inside had not been touched other than the new core. As is all too common these days it seems that there are plenty of people who remain satisfied with only doing half a job. Not satisfied between me and my dad we treated the surface rust and painted the inside with hammerite rust killing paint for good measure tiding it up before sealing the unit up for installation. Having previously looked at the state of the original control valve it was clear that it was well overdue retirement so a nos one had been sourced and sent from the states. All back together we were ready to tackle the job come this weekend just gone.

As always the time required was underestimated with it taking more hours than I care to mention squeezing the unit back in and remembering the order that everything went back in. First job was hoovering out as much dirt and **** possible, it was was scary how much had accumulated hidden behind the dash. Next the passenger seat came out owing to a small coolant leak which gave a good opportunity to inspect the full extent of the floor. Via some minor surface rust that was all treated the original floor looked really solid I'm pleased to say with only the newly welded in chassis/floor rail being obvious. So several hours of lying upside down in the foot well bolt and re-connecting everything up and we were good to go, fortunately having labeled up all the wiring that job was relatively straight forward with a few connectors needing to be cleaned along the way. Its fair to say it wasn't the easiest job with lots of cursing and swearing along the way. Per some advise we did consider removing the dashboard however we were concerned as to what may be disturbed in the process and decided to let any potential future gremlins lie in peace just in case.

Firing her up for the first time in six weeks was a great relief, even more so when several minutes later heat started flooding out into the car! Mission a success and having grabbed dinner an hour or so late and it was time for a quick burn out to admire our handy work. Safe to say the car is certainly toasty and it won't be cold anymore in winter, really impressed with how effective a relatively primitive system really is. Certainly some smart cookies at Nissan there. For those that are curious to re-core the matrix was £180 inc VAT (The joys of living in Surrey hey)

That all done and another journey under its belt and it was time for a quick blast down to Basingstoke to see the same UK Z owner that I met at Goodwood again as he was dropping out his L26 and 5 speed gearbox from his UK 260Z +2. Given long term we want to drop in a 5 speed it made sense to pick one up nice and early while the opportunity was there so it seemed a no brainer being fairly local. I was kindly offered the opportunity to drive the car to see what the box was like as syncro on 2nd is pretty much gone however we weren't too fussed as we want to fully rebuild it before it gets dropped into the 240 as we don't want to have to touch it again if we can help it. All being well it will be out in the next week or so and we'll collect it so that it can be parked in the garage until it works its way up the jobs list.  

Despite the poor conditions it was entertaining to get behind the wheel of a RHD car for a change and make a mess of remembering that all of the controls are in reverse. The stand out difference though was how much more composed the car was even on its aged stock suspension. I was aware there was meant to be a difference between US and UK spec however I was amazed how much more refined it was to drive. It has certainly reinforced my view that our boat like suspension needs to be swapped asap so that I can get some refinement and control to start doing some spirited driving. It does make me wonder why they had such stark differences between the markets others then I can only guess cost (I also don't know whether the setup changed further from 240z's to 260z's either). UK market cars certainly got the nicer setup!

Despite the greasy conditions it was great fund being back in the Z and blasting down some country back roads enjoying some slippy roundabouts as well on the way home

The Hella 4004 GT mirrors arrived the other day and look great however it looks like there will only be visibility on the drivers side so back to the drawing board again. I imagine they will be back on ebay again shortly, which is a shame as they are really nice nos items. Its looking like ironically we're going to end up with some Vitaloni Californian Mirrors as I've seen various cars fitted with these and I like the look and I believe are actually functional which is the end goal here. Still to be decided though.

I'm also considering removing the bumper overrides to go for a cleaner JDM look, does anyone know where I can acquire the blanking bolts to this end?

Anyway time for some pictures!       

Presents from Christmas

As it was following removal

The mess inside

Inside treated and painted

Shiny new control valve vs old

Outside - ready for installation

[Woody928]

Well in other news I had a very productive weekend with some servicing and general maintenance which in some cases was well overdue. First issue to confront was ground clearance to get enough access to the car, having no access to a ramp or pit and having owned a couple of cars that are too low for ramps I’ve never bothered until now (Off to Halfords, local UK car parts supplier). With the front of the car now up on newly purchased ramps at the front we jacked up the rear off the diff and had axel stands placed under the rear sills to give 5 strong points to hold the car up. Access sorted and onto the essentials.
 
After various debate over coolant we ended up with some standard IAT blue anti freeze from Eurocarparts on reccomendation. In light of the unknown mix from the heater matrix refurb with the rad requiring a topup it seemed prudent to flush and clean the system so that the mix was consistent. We drained the system on both the rad and engine block (which needed the asistance of a pry bar to release the engine block drain bolt) before fully flushing the system and refilling with a 50/50 mix. Onto fresh oil and after some recent advice we’ve also gone with Millers 20w-50 Semi Synthetic oil for the engine and chucked a new OEM Nissan oil filter on before refilling the system for good measure given its age was unknown.
 
Next onto the carbs and air filters, being K&N’s it was all straightforward to strip down and fully clean (persil washing powder in warm water works wonders) before re-oiling. While at it, it also seemed prudent to strip the carbs down for a clean and to change out the oil. This was an interesting expirience having never touched carbs before and this being my first car with them, 10 minutes of Youtube viewing later and off I went. Not knowing the usual state of wear I’ve no idea what I should have expected however it seemed well worth doing. Both were covered in gunk which got sorted out with some carb cleaner (thanks halfords), all cleaned up I decided to give the dome tops some tlc given their dull apearance. Now I’m hardly into bling however out came the power drill and polishing wheels. Whilst not perfect they now look a darn sight nicer and have a nice patina to them so as to not look off the shelf new.
 
Here’s where the plain sailing gave way to a shocking discovery particularly in light of recent conversations of fuel overflows. Whilst removing the coolant drain plug from the engine block previously I came into contact with the fuel line running below the carb, next thing I know fuel was ******* all over my hands while I tried to stop it. Having clamped off the fuel supply we went about removing the culprit fuel hose. On removal it suddenly became clear what’s horrors lurked beneath, the rubber hose (which was completely unfit for its purpose and too small) had gone completely rigid from the fuel and age cuasing it to split from the pressure of the clamps holiding it in place. It was quite clear that for the last few months we’ve been driving around with a ticking time bomb waiting to go off which could have potentially covered burning hot headers/manifold in fuel which would have been an engine fire and game over.
 
Back off to Halfords again and some new replacement fuel hose sourced and we were back to refit and crack on with (had to return on Sunday to get a bigger hose to accommodate the fact the perished pipe was too small and had been bodged). With safety in mind we decided to replace both as a precaution. It turns out that the other hose with in a similar state and well past its sell by date, albeit wasn’t hanging on by a thread in quite the same way. Crisis averted we put the carbs back together and whilst reassembling the K&N’s noted that someone had previously drilled a hole in the back of both which was the perfect size for more fuel hose, fuel overflows now routed more safely in the air filters  and fully reassembled another job was tackled.
 
New dizzy cap and rotor arm also fitted as part of the ignition system refresh. Spark plugs are currently awaiting the arrival of our new HT leads for the US which will hopefully refresh the whole ignition system and tidy up some of the some of cables currently all over the engine bay. A few more bits and pieces also coming from the states to make some improvements which I’ll update later.
 
After a few attempts to start up and having resolved a few random bits she fired back up, but was running a bit rough and even more in need of a tune up than before. Out of time for the day that problem was left for Sunday to deal with following a run down to the SE with the MR2OC in my MR2 Turbo to strech our legs in the early hours of Sunday before a full english. Having revisited Youtube again my attempts at tryinng to tune up the car ended in disaster, despite my efforts the car was running terribly struggling to idle before being brought back to a more respectable level albeit in need of some professional attention. Accepting I was way out of my depth I left the car until later that evening well aware that I was planning on sending the car off the BD engineering (rolling road tuning company in Kent) to be properly tuned and inspected in the coming weeks before its next major journey.
 
To my surpise late on Sunday evening having told my dad about my completely failed attmepts to tune the car we went to return the car to the lock up where it is stored, at which point to my complete surpise it seemed to be running relativly smoothly and was a completely unrecognisable car from the state I had left it in earlier! God knows if everything had just settled down after everything that had been altered or I genuinely by fluke managed to improve our situation by the time I left it is a mystery to me. Either way I’m going to try and book the car in for some professional help on the Tuesday after the Easter bank holiday before I head up to the Highlands on a driving holiday in the MR2 and in preperation for the run up to the Donnington Historic.
 
There will be more to follow as things continue to develop however here are some pics as that’s the bit your all really interested in!

All the bits ready for servicing
IMG_1240 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Starting point for the day
IMG_1242 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Dirty looking carbs
IMG_1244 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Clean up has begun
FullSizeRender by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Some TLC underway
IMG_1254 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Comparison after some clean up!
IMG_1255 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Tired looking fuel line 
IMG_1316 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

All freshened up
IMG_1308 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Period correct nos Hella 4004 GT mirrors which we picked up a while back, the drivers side will work perfectly however I've currently not worked out whether the passenger side will ever be able to be made functional
IMG_1306 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

[Woody928]

Well I've had various parts arrive over the past couple of weeks with some last minute necessary tweets before my upcoming trip to BD engineering next Tuesday for tuning. 

Firstly I've got to give a big shout out to UK forum member who kindly donated me a heat shield in order that I could fit some proper throttle springs rather than the completely bodged setup that was in place from the previous owners! In my haste I sent this off to the local powder coaters to be finished in a rush to have it fitted, stupidly having not tired to trial fit it

So it turns out when I came to fitting that there are not in fact two different heat shields over the generations but three different ones, with the second and third looking very similar with subtle differences as pictured below :eek: Unfortunately to my disappointment it therefore wouldn't fit, while the purists will cringe and wanto to look out of the way at this point however out came the dremel to remedy the fitment issues so that following some tinkering it now sits perfectly in place (albeit I need to touch up a couple of areas and its not quite the same shape). Finally the car now has proper throttle springs fitted giving the pedal a much more progressive feel and the rather shambolic bit of wire has been well and truly removed from the subframe! 

IMG_1458 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

After powder coating and before some modification
IMG_1428 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

With that now fitted and fully functional it was time for some new new spark plugs and HT leads to change out some of the more unknown components as part of the service. Spark plugs looked well in need of a change and I now have peace of mind knowing the current state of the usual consumable items. Big thanks to Mike F (UK parts supplier) on that front. On the subject of HT leads we decided to splash out and rather than modify a new set or buy some off the shelf items we purchased some from Datsun Spirit. In place of the traditional layout over the top of the head they are now neatly routed around it giving a much cleaner appearance. There's still a myriad of cables and pipework in the engine bay to confront however its at least a start. I think its fair to say the results speak for themselves, and should put us in good stead given the unknown age of most of the original components. 

IMG_1437 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_1453 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_1456 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Some other small details have been altered that make a big difference imo with the replacement of the worn out foot rest, and the replacement of the OEM door lock pulls. One was broken on purchase and was letting down the overall aesthetic, I'm sure again it will be to the purists disgust however we've gone with some nicely detailed Z finished replacements to modernise and detail the car further. I'm really pleased overall and think the finish speaks for itself

IMG_1438 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_1440 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_1443 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_1445 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

That's all for now, however I'm hoping that the car will be running spot on for the upcoming Donnington Historic following its trip to BD engineering on Tuesday. Hopefully there will be some dyno print outs to follow in due course. Will be interesting to see what figures its producing come the hour.