1972 240Z Rebuild

[Strat067]

At this point, like I said, I switched gears to trying to get the engine running well. I started in on ignition first. First changed spark plugs and wires and then instead of messing with points I ordered up a new 280zx electronic distributor:

 

Pulled out the old mess and the ballast resistor:

Installed and mocked up the wiring

I don't have a lot of pictures from this time period, but I had ALOT of trouble with the ignition system after this. The car would run after the ignition - but just barely. With the distributor clocked all the way to max retard, the base timing was still at 20+ degrees. I spent a ton of time trying to diagnose; I played with vaccum advance on/off, ended up dropping (and replacing) the oil pump to double check clocking the timing and more. I ended up getting it to run reasonably well by moving each plug wire up 1 slot on the distributor cap in order to drop the base timing more. I ran it like this for a couple months while I did a bunch more work on the car that you will see in subsequent posts, but ended up going back to this issue because I knew I was still down on power. After countless hours, and a few posts asking this forum for help, I gave up and ordered another new distributor. Plopped the new one in, put my plug wires back where they should be, and bam - perfect timing. Turns out I had a defect distributor the whole time. 

Anyways during this I did set valve lash and confirmed the cam timing was correct:

[Strat067]

I then got a nice little package in the mail with my new exhaust. This is MSA's 2.5" exhaust system next to the original exhaust that was full of holes:

I got the old exhaust out pretty easily. Unfortunately I broke two of the studs off of the exhaust manifold while doing so. I knew I had to rebuild the carbs before I called this driveable, so I went ahead and started pulling everything off the drivers side of the engine.

Where it started:

Man there was alot of stuff packed onto this engine.  I ripped off the smog pump and this block heater, both went in the bin - we are shedding weight already

With the air cleaner assembly off I got a good look at the carbs, and they did not look like they had ever been serviced:

Off they go:

Then the intake and exhaust manifold were taken off:

I don't have pictures, but I was able to get the exhaust manifold studs out and then I welded up the air injection ports:

Cleaned up all gasket surfaces and reinstalled the manifolds with a new gasket. Also got the exhaust all bolted up:

 

5

Edited January 1, 2018 by Strat067

[Strat067]

Next I turned my attention to the carbs. I have no frame of reference for how nasty these SUs get, but these seemed really nasty. When I bought the car it was backfiring out of the carbs every so often due to incorrect timing, it looks like maybe it was doing that for quite some time with all the carbon. 

With rebuild kits on hand I went to work:

Don't have any other pictures of the rebuild process. I cleaned everything up, replaced all the seals and gaskets, installed new hoses, cleaned out the filters, and replaced the float needle. Reset the floats and filled the dashpots with new oil. Here they are all back together:

While I was working on those my awesome wife took the time to clean the interior out for me. It was pretty grimey and smelled of the mice that where living in back real bad. She wiped everything down, vacuumed all the mice stuff out and shampooed the carpets. 

After this it took a week or two just to get everything tuned up properly, should have taken less time but I was still learning the SU's and was struggling with ignition timing like I mentioned previously. As I was struggling to tune it I ended up frying the starter by cranking so much. Sooo...I got a new starter and alternator. You can tell I have a shotgun approach to these things. 

Over the next week or so I was waiting for my liscense plate to arrive, so I did alot of little things as well. Replaced the fuel hoses and the filter, new coolant/heater hoses, wiring fixes, and alot more I don't remember. I did end up pulling the rest of the EGR and backfiring solenoid stuff of the intake, makes the engine look much cleaner:

 

There was a whole bunch of wiring issues from mice chewing away at them that caused most of lights to not work. Got all of them in working order:

 

Edited January 1, 2018 by Strat067

[Strat067]

All of this was maybe a month, month and half of work? It was in June/July of 2017 so my memory is a little fuzzy, but I had the car long enough without driving it that I was starting to go a little crazy. All the work payed off though; we finally got to take the car out for short drives  The car sounded amazing and felt pretty good for how much work is left to do on it. I spent a good amount of time just driving it at this point. Not too far or long,  but it has never left me stranded as of yet. 

 

 

Edited January 1, 2018 by Strat067

[Strat067]

I will post more in a few days, for now a teaser on what was next...

 

[siteunseen]

If you haven't yet, it'd be a good idea to put a cheap clear plastic fuel filter coming right out of the tank.  It will catch any debris before it gets to the pump and you can check it to see how quick it gets dirty.  That was my biggest headache, a cruddy fuel tank.  I could drive a couple of times around my neighborhood and it would suck up the sediment and kill the flow.  I got some good exercise walking home.

A Fram G2 worked better for the smaller hose on my 240, Fram G3 on my 280.

http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/fuel/g3filter/index.htm

Pictures of my tank before and after.

 

 

[Strat067]

On 1/2/2018 at 11:43 AM, siteunseen said:

If you haven't yet, it'd be a good idea to put a cheap clear plastic fuel filter coming right out of the tank.  It will catch any debris before it gets to the pump and you can check it to see how quick it gets dirty.  That was my biggest headache, a cruddy fuel tank.  I could drive a couple of times around my neighborhood and it would suck up the sediment and kill the flow.  I got some good exercise walking home.

A Fram G2 worked better for the smaller hose on my 240, Fram G3 on my 280.

http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/fuel/g3filter/index.htm

Pictures of my tank before and after.

 

 

Wow yours was nasty! I did at a later date, but it was no were near as bad as yours. Cleaned up nice though!

[Strat067]

New rubber was definetly in order, old tires were a bit sketchy.

Little more rubber - 225/45-15

Mounted up on 15x8 Rota RKRs - literally living my dream

Glamour Shots:

[Strat067]

At this point the engine was running reliably, brakes were pretty good, new tires, all new fluids etc. So I took a decent break from working heavily on the car and just enjoyed driving it. It was a total blast to be driving my dream car. The suspension was terrible and the amount of exhaust fumes getting in through bad weatherstripping and rust holes was downright dangerous, but I didn't care a bit. 

Did do small projects here and there, nothing that would put the car out of operation for more than a day, one project was making the rear taillight surrounds look a little better.

 

What I started with:

Off the car, notice the giant rust whole on the rear sill panel.

Sanded and masked:

Little before and after shot, the panel top panel got another layer of paint to smooth it out:

I also disassembled the taillights and polished the lenses and painted the middle of the chrome trip. Finished and installed shot: 

[Strat067]

Then I got a present  :

MSA Ceramic coated 6-1 header. I had an exhaust leak that developed between the new exhaust and the old exhaust manifold. Decided if I was going to take things apart again I would do it right the second time, again the shotgun approach. 

Install Pic: 

 

[Strat067]

Got everything back together, but wanted to adjust valve lash again due to a noisy rocker. Ended up trying the VHT wrinkle black paint on the rocker, turned out OK. The pictures make it look splotchier than it really is. 

[Strat067]

Sweet noise: