Hardway's Red Rocket 1972 240z Build Thread

[Hardway]

Knowing I needed to do something about the super loud exhaust, I set about a temporary solution to connect the new header to the existing exhaust pipe.  This is so I could finish filling it with coolant, purge any air, and be in a position to drive it to the exhaust shop for something more permanent.  I bought some 2.5 inch flexible exhaust tubing at the parts store and trimmed it to fit the oval shaped opening and around the O2 bung.  Once I was close I closed the hole with some HVAC metal tape.  Not leak proof by any means but sure quietened things down some.  

My wife helped me put the hood back on and I got the cooling system filled.  With so much accomplished I decided a quick jaunt down the street was in order.  The clutch action felt really good, brakes worked, the engine ran and rev'd great through the first three gears.  I was honestly shocked as I expected coughing and sputtering from the carbs until they were tuned.  After almost a year, it is back!  All in all, I am super happy to have it back together and running again.  I hope to get it to the exhaust shop next weekend or earlier and start tuning the carbs some.  Stay tuned!

[Sailor Bob]

Glad to hear its running. Gives me hope. ?  engine looks great!

[Hardway]

3 hours ago, Sailor Bob said:

Glad to hear its running. Gives me hope. ?  engine looks great!

Thank you Bob.  Stick with it, you will get it done.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.  

I believe key is being organized and planning ahead.  If you can have all the parts you need on hand before you start, makes things go a lot faster.

[Sailor Bob]

47 minutes ago, Hardway said:

Thank you Bob.  Stick with it, you will get it done.  If it were easy, everyone would do it.  

I believe key is being organized and planning ahead.  If you can have all the parts you need on hand before you start, makes things go a lot faster.

No doubt that is an issue for me... having parts on hand. Along the way theres always an item or two that gets ya thinkin “yep better deal with this now while its all apart” then im up against shipping cost/time to eastern canada.. i have one more order on the way, after that shes going together ready or not.

Keep posting pics

[Hardway]

Last weekend I ran the car up to Taylor Muffler to the get header collector welded to the existing pipe.  Its a small Mom-n-Pop shop but they do good work for all budgets.  After about 15 minutes and a $20 bill later I was headed back home. In 5th gear while cruising the drone is pretty bad so I will probably be back to get a resonator installed at some point.  With the car running and driving again this officially wraps up the timing chain project I started on July 22nd 2018.  Like all of our cars, as soon as you finish one project, another is waiting for you. 

[Hardway]

On my drive out to the exhaust shop and back I noticed the car was not tracking straight.  This is due to the rack being moved when I was installing the new rack bushings.  The car needed its rack boots replaced and I already new ones along with new outer tie rods waiting for me in the parts bin.  I used Empi 88-1509K boots and Moog ES2109R and ES2110R outer tie rods just like I have used in the past with the same success.  I also installed a pair of MSA aluminum bump steer/kick back spacers since I already had them.  Took about a full 1.5 days worth of work but I spread it out over two weekend as I painted the outer tie rods with satin black Rustoleum to keep them looking decent.  The locking nuts that come with the new outer tie rods are thicker than the originals.  Based upon the measurements I took during tear down, the passenger side tie rods needed to be as close to the rack as possible and thus I needed to use a thinner nut.  In the end, I could have used the new ones after adjusting everything but wanted to point this out.  Using the center cover of my lift as a ramp I was able to quickly do several rounds of adjust & drive to get the alignment really close.  I will be buying new tires in the future and will wait to drop $80 on an alignment.  The list gets a little shorter!

[Hardway]

After the final align & drive session I made a quick video to show the progress and current state of the car.  Still need to do some carb tuning as I am getting some inconsistent spitting and popping but it does run and if you lay down the accelerator in second, it absolutely screams.  I plan to work on the carbs throughout the week as time allows.  The next big project is raising the rear a little using some 280z strut insulators, install the RT mount I have, and change the gear oil in the diff.  Stay tuned!

 

[240260280]

Looks great!  All shades of red look great on a Z!

[Hardway]

13 hours ago, 240260280 said:

Looks great!  All shades of red look great on a Z!

Thank you Philip!  The car could definitely use a cut and buff.  One day I will focus more on the cosmetics but for now, I just want to get the mechanical systems up to scratch.

[Hardway]

Been pretty busy since my last post.  I started driving the car more to help dial in the steering.  Luckily I am able to park the car on the center cover of my lift to make adjustments quickly with the weight of the car on the wheels.  As I drove the car it seemed to idle higher and higher and that is when I discovered the I had some air leaks at seals between the carbs and the intake.  In an effort to remedy this I had gotten the carbs out of sync so it was time to start fresh.  I got carbs tightened down and all the air leaks stopped.  As I set out to start re-syncing the carbs the car would not stay running once the engine started.  I verified this as I was getting a full 12V at the key start position but nothing at the run position.  I spent the better part of a weekend tracking down the issue which turned out to be the 12V wire going from the resistor to the coil.  Simply moving the wire around seemed to fix the issue but I am sure I was knocking some corrosion loose.  I have not doubt the issue will return in the future but for now it was running again.

Back to my original plan of syncing the carbs which was very straight forward.  Now the car consistently idles at 900rpm, set to 9 degrees BTDC, and runs much better overall.  In the video below I still have an occasional pop on cylinder #4 which was remedied with a half turn of the mixture screw.

 

Edited August 22, 2019 by Hardway

[Hardway]

In an effort to make the interior a little nicer, I ordered a real leather shift boot and parking brake boot off of Ebay.  For $35 I was happy enough.  Its meant for a stock shift setup but with the 280ZXT T5 transmission and Hurst Mustang 5.0 shifter, the shifter sits forward of its original location so the leather boot demonstrates the compromise.  One day I will have a custom one made that looks more correct but for now, its much nicer to look at and still smells good!

Edited August 22, 2019 by Hardway

[Hardway]

A few weekends ago I got back on the Z as I wanted to address some items before the ideal Fall driving season arrived.  It is unknown when the diff fluid had been changed so I wanted to change it.  However, due to the placement of the ST sway bar bracket it would require dropping the diff to do so.  This actually worked in my favor as I wanted to replace the strap type upper diff mount with an RT mount I had on the shelf and see what could be done about the sagging rear suspension.  First things first, getting the diff out.  After about an hour or so of wrench turning and some assistance from wife it was out and safely on the ground.  It was not leaking and a quick removal of the fill plug revealed it was full.  I drained it and looked the gears over. Its an R200 with a Precision LDS and 3.54 gears.  There was also no material found stuck to the magnetic drain plug. Moving forward.