Bruce Palmer

To build up that worn corner a wire welder works well. Just zap a spot to build it up and file to profile.

Why do people say you need to go thru everything when you buy one of these 40 year old beasts? Because until you refresh each and every system on the car and you personlly know the condition of each, you have a bunch of questionable old systems, any one of which can leave you standing beside the road. There really are 3 choices. 1. Buy a car that has had all this done recently. 2. Be prepared to do it all. or 3. Keep your AAA card and cell phone handy. Case in point.... preheat water thru carb manifolds. Guys ask if they should keep it hooked up. If you have ever seen these hard fittings after they have been eaten out from the inside and thin to the point that'll you know there will be a water drain out the least opportune moment of your driving year. Why not remove all that stuff and send it sailing over the fence into the neighbor's back yard and be done with it? My point exactly.

Had the 2.8 ever been carb'd, I can guarandamn t ya Nissan would never have stuck a 4 barrel on them...... Too funny.

HMmmmm. There really isn't any way to mis-align the piston in the dome. It either slides up the tube or it doesn't. No place for either to move to some other "outta whack" location. Try a good finger wipe up inside the dome and see if you can feel any "scuzzies"..... We keep this up with the "scuzzy" thing and it'll become a new industry standard for techno-speak.

I'd go in with a can of carb cleaner and adress any areas that might show as a vacuum leak. With the engine running,the speed should increase as the carb cleaner gets drawn into the engine. You want to check hoses and mounting surfaces like between manifold and head....

You're talking about the piston hanging up in the dome right? Sounds like some interior "descuzzying" may be in order...... Bent needle - Is the needle showing any shiney areas? As is often the case a bent needle will wear the fuel nozzle oriifice egg shaped (oversize) giving a metering situation with an undersized needle and an over sized nozzle. You may need needles and nozzles.... depending on what they look like. Sounds like new carbs are your only way out of this situation...... It's Monday morning and I just had to say that to kick the week off right!!

Which manifold is on the car?

You can always buy a roll of kraft paper and make patterns and cut from there..... This is not rocket science. You can even take pieces to an upholstery shop and have visible edges bound.

I did hear that they have had 70+ 4.0 or greater since the one in Mexico the other day. Whole lotta shakin' going on.......

I know I've covered this before and I apologize for the repetition. We have, over the past several years, helped injected Z car owners convert to SUs setups for the simple reason that they are simple and reliable. Seems the 30 something year old injection pieces are aging and the prevailing attitude we hear is that the owners don't want to hang around and wait for the next foible to leave them standing beside the road. Hence, a complete carb setup, get in hit the key and drive off down the road. I still marvel at the interchangeability NISSAN has engineered into these cars........

Cap'n, The shop on the weekend is usually abuzz with Datsun owners of all sorts. The sooner you can get by and get aquainted, the shorter your learning curve will be. Everybody started at square one sometime. Call me if you'd like to make arrangements to stop by.

Captain Zeros, Wow, all the way over in Independence?? If you were closer I'd say give us a call and come by the shop. I just bet you we could answer all them little nagging questions.....

# 6 may be lean giving you the white plug. Not uncommon for the cylinders farthest from the carbs to run leaner than the others, especially if that carb is lean already.

By Zx ign I asume you mean distributor. If so did you shorten the advance curve any?

"Now that I have a good base line"...... meaning now that they are running fine I'm going to start fiddling 'til they don't. Actual case study - Customer installed his ZTherapy carbs and was so taken with how well they ran he thought "gee this much improvement was so easy I'll bet there is more improvement to be had". Had a friend work on them with as "to be expected results", sent them to a second "expert, and then a third.... Bottom line, they were ultimately so screwed up he sent them back to Steve to un-ring the bell so to speak. Good luck. We are only a phone call away.....

Reading through this post after post, it looks like you're mastering these little things one at a time. Good experience all, even the things that turn out to be dummy driven. Extra clutch parts? My how did that happen? Too funny....

I think I've mentioned this before but a great source for electronic distributors in Portland OR is www.philbingroup.com. Rebushed, recurved for points motors, NEW advance plates, ready to plug and play. Under $200 if memory serves......

I noticed the two words "super rare" in the writeup. any idea what that was in reference too? Uncracked dash maybe?

There are a lot of SU function issues that can be corrected by descuzifying. That means going thru them and chasing all the scuzzies away. Dirt, grime, old varnishy gas can all contribute to a 10 lb. finger lift.......

Now, cut that out!! nyuck nyuck......

Any idea what's in the tubes for oil? Saying they move too hard equates to guys who say "my car runs too warm"....

Deming is the guy. I knew someone here would make up for my failing memory.

And the funny thing about the whole car building scenario in Japan was that it was an American who was rebuffed by the industry here who went to Japan and showed them how to do it right, thus majorly kicking our butts ever since.

3 screw carbs and manifolds has provision for water into the carb body for extra preheat.