IdahoKidd

Lit the car up yesterday. Holy smokes! Runs very well. I still have to deal with the brake issue by pulling the wheels and drums and seeing what is going on, but the thing has a nice spine tingling lope at idle and literally shakes the trailer it is chained on to. I couldn't be more pleased so far. I will try to get a video of the engine and the exhaust sound. It's awesome. Siteunseen, nice come back!

Thanks for the compliments guys. Yes I am tickled. I actually found the car about 9 years ago and he wasn't interested in selling it then. (I am a roofing contractor) A few days ago I was working on a home two houses down and his garage was open and the car was sitting exactly where it was. I just said 'are you ready to sell that to me yet?' and he turns to look at the car, looks back at me and says 'I guess so'. So we get to chatting and I look at what he has and he knows quite a bit about it. He asks what I think its worth and I say 'there are two groups of guys with these cars, one thinks they are priceless and the other can't wait to get rid of it'. His response 'I want to get rid of it'. Fish on!! I asked him for a general idea and he said he'd take $2500. I didn't have the heart to even bicker. The tires are new, has 7k receipts for engine, 2 1/2 dual exhaust from block hugger headers, Edelbrock Street Performer with tuning kit, enough stereo to drown out the exhaust (he says, I haven't fired it yet). B&M quickshifter, very nice metal flake blue paint, and on and on. I have a crush on it so I am sure I am missing some of the ugly, but I did look at the usual spots and not a spec of rust. Not even surface rust on the exhaust. The ribs are getting better. I had forgotten how tender they can be and how much they are involved in daily life. (yes, I am on the way to get some cheese for my whine) Leonard

Some sort of racing seat. They have a 5 point seat belt harness. I don't know brand or anything but will be fooling with the car today and will find out more details

Hi guys. I can't not brag about my luck. Sorry. I just can't. I found this in a clients garage. At the moment I am not 100% sure of what I have but what I do know is that is a 77 280 with a solidly built 350 installed using a JTR kit. It has a turbo 350 with a ratchet shifter. The car was built in 1998 and the owner drove it one time. It scared him so bad he put it in the garage. It had not seen daylight until yesterday. It is as rolled onto the trailer, dust and all. There is a bunch of new parts, especially interior. I has a time slip of 12.22 with it, a weight slip show 1400 lbs on the front axle, 1400 on the rear. It hasn't been started since 1999. I am going to fog the motor, clean the fuel lines and do all the right things to wake it up. So far, the only 'bad' that I have found is that the rear brakes have seized and it was a bugger to get it to roll. In attempting to get things loose, the car moved and dropped on my chest resulting in some nasty bruised ribs. Note to self, no matter the deal, watch out........ I know it isn't a purist car, but for $2500, there was no way I could pass it up. Once I get it lit up, I'll try to find out why it scared him

The picture is as was when opened. I believe too that the bolts backed out of the main cap (one cap completely and the second cap had one missing, one loose). It doesn't explain to me why the bottom of the piston, where the wrist pin goes, was broken completely away and the piston not tipped to one side. Once the skirts were broken off I'd have thought the pin would have pulled (or pushed) the rest of the piston unevenly and it would have turned sideways and crushed into the head. I tend to think the initial failure was in the wrist pin, putting a harmonic distortion in the crank which caused the bolts to come out of the main caps. Never the less, will be a great JB Weld experiment.

I have a neighbor who is a certified welder. He said he could repair the block. We haven't looked at the journals at all so don't know what happened to them. There was a lot of trash get tossed around on the bottom end, it would need align bored for sure. I am biting my lower lip and driving 'just another 40 year old Z'. The replacement long block with the original carbs has a lot more 'zing' than the old motor so am guessing it was failing for a long time. I had the car for sale for a while and am glad it didn't sell, it would have been really disappointing for both parties. The rod will clean up and make a really cool conversation piece as a paper weight however!

Following up on the engine. Pulled the head and found five pistons more or less at TDC. The picture shows what is left of the #3 piston. It was about 1/2 inch thick, still was oriented correctly and had all the rings in place. There is not a mark on the cylinder wall. Also of note, there isn't a mark on the head.

My engine had 43K original documented miles. I have not pulled the head, but I did pull the plugs. All were golden brown and none of the tips were bent which initially leads me to believe nothing got on top of the piston. One of the main caps had come completely off, another has a bolt that dropped out. I can't think of an explanation other than it had sat for 20 years and maybe had drawn moisture rusting a wristpin and setting into motion the catastrophic chain of events. Or............?

I posted a month or so about the engine failure in my Z. Tore it down this weekend. Holy yard sale! It appears to me that the main cap came off followed by two rod caps. One of the rods came completely out of the block having separated from the crank and the piston. Very unexpected and it did not make any noise. Very mild vibration in the shift lever about 10 seconds before it locked up in third at 2500 rpms. I had my hand on the lever and said out loud "somethings weird" and ....... the guy behind me said he saw a puff of white smoke and brake lights. The blue engine is the one going back in and am tickled to report it works perfectly.

I am sure this has been asked and answered somewhere in the archives but I haven't triggered the key words to find the answer. When replacing the engine in a 240 with a 280 for example, or when changing the head over to one that doesn't have the boss opened for the mechanical fuel pump, what is the best way to get a fuel pump up and running? I have a good running n42/n47 engine I am installing in a 240 but it of course doesn't have the boss opened up nor the lobe for the fuel pump (I assume). This car didn't come with the secondary electric pump. In keeping with an original appearance, my heart wants to install the mechanical pump. It seems more practical to put in an electric. If I put in electric, where would I mount it? (firewall or near tank?) Any particular brand work easier/better? I know I need to change to the oil sending unit with the cut out switch, what signals the pump to work for the first few seconds to prime the system? What have those of you that have been through this done? Thanks! Leonard

For those aware of my bad luck, an update on the engine block. I haven't pulled it apart yet but there is a hole about 2 inches by three inches long just behind the driver side motor mount. I have a certified welder friend who looked at it and didn't even blink when he said he could fix it. He'd weld a plate in it, epoxy the inside and said it would go forever. Assuming the cylinder is ok, here's the question: Because it is a 43K mile car, does it make any difference at all if I just replace the entire engine, which means I no longer have matching numbers, or do I repair the block to keep the matching numbers? Ultimately, does anyone really care on a 42 year old car? One school of thought is once I replace the engine, I can replace all the little things that need replaced that will make it an awesome daily driver. It currently has the oem glass, headlights, tail lights, seats with loose stitching, etc. It is not a concourse car. But it is original except for the radiator hoses and two clamps and is in pretty nice condition (nice being relative to who is looking at it I have discovered). Do I replace all of that stuff and enjoy the car, maybe sell it because I have two exactly alike, or let someone else make that decision. Obviously I would disclose the block repair, which will probably scare off the purist anyway. Any thoughts?

Thanks guys. I don't know what the rpms were. It wasn't much of a load as I was going up a gravel road as it was. I'm guessing 2500 ish. I had it up to 4 in third 20 miles earlier just to listen to it. My friend was reading the owners manual saying to shift at 90 but was hardly near that. The car had sat for the last couple of years with occasional starts. It had set for 15 years before that but I had put some 900 miles on it during the first summer I had it just playing. If I were to guess, I'd guess it rusted a bearing, maybe a wrist pin and it let go. I'm with the others, I've never heard of this happening before. I've had 5 Z's but haven't put that many miles on any one of them to speak of. Other than that, it was a nice drive

I got my 72 out of storage this weekend and fired it up, taking it on a 300 mile drive. Everything is going along swell 150 miles in when in third gear, 35 mph up a slight grade it appears that #4 or #5 rod came out the bottom of the pan, breaking the block. There goes my 44K original miles numbers matching heritage right down the terlet. Made me sick. So now, I have to travel back with truck and trailer to haul it home. I have another L24 I can put in it, but it will never be the same. I know I am whining, I'm depressed. I won't get to tear it down for some time to see what happened as I just had rotator surgery and have one working arm. I can't imagine why it failed, fresh, oil, had been running for several hours, no indication of a problem of any kind. Drat is an understatement..................

Fairlady in Idaho on ebay. Not sure I believe the story but who knows I suppose...... Datsun : Other datsun fairlady in Datsun | eBay Motors

I like the look. A lot. But then again I sometimes drive an old Volvo too.............