Just what the Doctor ordered. 1977 280z

[Patcon]

What did they use for a seal on the hatch? Not many sealants play well with gasoline...

[grannyknot]

They used Red Kote as the sealant,  they covered both sides of each cork gasket, seems to have worked pretty well. I might do exactly the same thing only with the POR15.  There big areas where the coating is still intact and working but others where it bubbled up and rusted underneath.

 

[Zed Head]

You have access to install an in-tank pump, and improve on the stock baffling.  The 280Z tanks are known for a poor baffle design that leads to fuel starvation on left hand turns when the tank gets down below 1/3 full.  Consider.

[madkaw]

Wow- would have loved to have had that access cleaning my 77 tank. It really wouldn’t have helped much though with my issue of clogged return line . 

White vinegar and Por-15 kit she is good to go 

[AlbatrossCafe]

Wow, I LOVE the Khaki interior on that car.

[siteunseen]

2 hours ago, AlbatrossCafe said:

Wow, I LOVE the Khaki interior on that car.

Me too!  I think it's because the British cars back then had that and it looked darn good?

[grannyknot]

Aimed the openings of the tank just right this morning with the sun to get a pic of this, feed/return canister buried right in the middle of the tank. I suppose not many people get to see this so here it is. The fuel pump assembly and the coil holder/ballast are my jobs for tomorrow.

 

 

 

Edited July 13, 2018 by grannyknot

[gwri8]

17 minutes ago, grannyknot said:

Aimed the openings of the tank just right this morning with the sun to get a pic of this, feed/return canister buried right in the middle of the tank. I suppose not many people get to see this so here it is. The fuel pump assembly and the coil holder/ballast are my jobs for tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

And here is what is inside that bad boy in case you were interested.

[grannyknot]

I pulled the dash this morning, Man are 280z dashes easy to pull, I swear I had that thing out in 10 min. not so with a 240z. Actually I had completely the wrong idea about 280's, coming from 1970-72 240's I assumed 280's were heavy and fat with too much needless crap. But there so many refinements from the 240's, the rats nest of wire connectors up under the P/S dash on a 240 becomes 3 large plastic connectors that are easy to separate,  there 8 tiny philips screws that have to be removed while lying on your back with your head crammed into the foot wells to get the heating push cables off on the 240, with the 280 it's 4 one handed clips. I have noticed many small refinements like these that I'm sure the line workers appreciated just as much as I do.

Managed to get the dash cap off, a nice clean crackless dash is a wonderful thing but they are just so damn expensive, there has to be a better way to install a cap and make it look good. I've seen dash caps on Z's at shows that looked great, if anyone is interested we could start a separate thread just on caps and techniques to make the work and look better.

The pic of the coolant control valve on the heater has a very A/C looking temp sensor on it, is this stock for a 77? This car does not have A/C nor did it come with it when new. Why such a complicated switch for such a simple function?

 

[Captain Obvious]

3 hours ago, grannyknot said:

I had completely the wrong idea about 280's, coming from 1970-72 240's I assumed 280's were heavy and fat with too much needless crap. But there so many refinements from the 240's, I have noticed many small refinements like these that I'm sure the line workers appreciated just as much as I do.

I agree 1000%. I never ever realized the huge list of small refinement changes that were made along the way until I started hanging out here and learning. I assume all the refinements did come with a weight penalty, but I'd be curious as to how much that really was. Couple hundred pounds maybe?

So about the heater valve... That valve is stock and that copper tube is a temperature sensor. It works in conjunction with the valve to limit the upper end of temperature. I don't know what temp they had it set for, but they were trying to regulate the temperature of the air and cap it at an upper limit. As the air heats up, it heats up that coil inside the air box. And the gas trapped (or was trapped at some time) inside that tube expands. When that gas expands, it closes down the valve a little, thereby regulating the temperature.

My original valve was dead (as yours is probably as well), and that's why I went with the generic ball valve. As part of that whole process, I found the ball valve (which opens to a full bore flow) passes way more water than desired and the heater core gets way hotter than necessary. I found that I always used the bottom 10% of the temperature control, even on cold days. That's why I put a second valve that I set and forget to limit the upper end.

[Captain Obvious]

What's with the hole in the heater core cover? Looks like someone cut the cover at one time? Presumably to use a different heater core with a tube in a different location maybe?

3 hours ago, grannyknot said:

[Zed Head]

I have a 1978 blower motor, in good shape, if anyone needs one.  Took it from a parts car.  Cleaned the mouse nest out, powered it up, and it spins fine, no noise.