Zed Head

I think that your user name is putting people off. Edited. Removed some words.

Initial timing really depends more on the advance curves of the distributor that is being used. If you have a reman. distributor with different weights, springs and vacuum advance canister than factory stock you probably wouldn't want to run factory initial timing. Just an observation that could be overlooked.

Thanks for that reference. The latest NHTSA recall report though, blames it on the the keys. Do you have something from earlier? The general situation has the look of everyone trying to cover their asses, including the government watch-dog. Pretty sad. Recalls & Defects | National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) http://www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/owners/SearchResults?searchType=ID&targetCategory=R&searchCriteria.nhtsa_ids=14V047000

Thanks for posting, they all count. So far, only one person with headers and EFI has posted, siteunseen, and he is the only one who doesn't have the problem. Wish we had more EFI and header people who would chime in. On the accumulator patent - That's a good find. The same reasoning was probably used by Nissan to develop the five second timer relay on the fuel pump circuit. It night be a typical covering-the-bases patent though. Filed in 2005, published in 2007, but no data on actual engine restart effects, just some pressure-time curves. With an FPR on one side and a big reservoir of fuel on the other, the net effect is to use fuel as a cooling agent. Hot fuel gets pushed through the FPR, back to the tank, and is replaced by new cool fuel from the accumulator. Interesting that they called out the 10% ethanol blend. Thanks for the link, the other citations in the patent will be some good rainy day reading.

A used exhaust manifold from PnP is ~$40. That's the main reason. You mentioned money in your first post.

Uh oh, we're stomping the same ground. I think that the 77 still has its manifold, although the transmission is gone. But it's actually a 78. It would have the round port manifold, which would cut the corners on his ports, if he has the 76 N42 head. I think that I've seen that 76 too, I have a vague memory of an old moldy car. I think that it still had its engine and parts. Maybe.

Curious to see the crack, if you could post a picture. I have a leak that seals up but was confident that I had sealing surfaces. I suspect that I also have a crack but won't know for sure until some future date. There are five parts to the exhaust system - a pipe from the manifold to the anti-resonator, the anti-resonator (I'll call it the AR), the pipe from the AR to the muffler, the muffler , and the tail-pipe. The MSA pipe might connect to the AR or it might require custom piping. The guys at MSA will answer your questions if you call. There's someone down here that has some MSA headers for sale (not me), although he says round-port when they should be square - Datsun Headers Make sure that you know what type of head you have. Parts get swapped, and there are square ports and round ports to be aware of.

The nicoclub links aren't compressed. Open the 1976 or 1978 engine Fuel chapters. Whoever did us all a huge favor copying all of these FSM's copied all of 1977 in to one huge file. The others are split into chapters. The xenon files are zipped, so you would need an unzipping program. Look between the first two spark plugs, at the bottom of the head and see what is molded there, It should say N47 but might say N42, P79 or P90. I wouldn't worry too much about original engine. They're all very similar.

Those wires are called "fusible links", which I think is a translation from Japanese which could also be meltable wire. But the big red one looks like just regular wire built as a replacement. See the links below and look in the Electrical chapters. I have to guess that you have a ZX engine with a Cylinder Head Temperature Sensor (CHTS), because there is no coolant sensor n the picture of your thermostat housing. Plus that "water pump connection" looks like a typical "thermal vacuum valve" from the ZX's. The sensors do the same thing, from different positions. Post a picture of the sensor you replaced, it doesn't seem visible. Download an FSM from your year of car and read the Engine Fuel chapter. Download the Fuel Injection Guide from the xenon link and read it. Get a multimeter and a fuel pressure gauge and get some numbers. Adjust your valves and your timing, etc. Lots of fun things to do, each will make the engine run better. Datsun Service Manuals - NICOclub XenonS130 - S130 Reference XenonS30

Don't forget RockAuto.com if you have time to wait for shipping and buy enough to reduce shipping costs. And Amazon, it's surprising what's available there. It really depends on the part and how long you want it to last.

Never mind.

The web (of deception) gets better-defined: A Florida engineer cracks ignition flaw GM kept hidden | Nation & World | The Seattle Times

Do you still have the lower phase or did you dump it? See if it burns.

That's a good point on the ethanol. Even if it is water that started the problem, the water will pull the ethanol from solution. 1% water ingress = 11% of a new phase in a 10% ethanol fuel. Phase separation Maybe Euro got some of the new 15% stuff >>> 16% new phase BEST Bioethanol for Sustainable Transport - BEST bioethanol for sustainable transport Edit - if the phase separation happened at the gas station, he would be pumping 100% (minus the water contribution) ethanol at the pumps if he pumps from the bottom of the tank. If the station uses a phase separation device to pull "water" from the fuel before it hits the pumps, he could pull all of the ethanol out, pumping 100% petrol. Interesting problem. Here in Oregon, apparently, ethanol usage is monitored over time. So, from what I've read, the range can vary from 5 - 20%, for example, as long it averages to 10% to stay in compliance. It's funny that the main driver of the automotive industry was fuel standardization.

I wonder if you could install a water separator in line, for a short while, or permanently. They make them with sight glasses. Water is a common problem with the boat guys. And they're above water level. Apparently they make fuel "polishers" also. Shiny fuel, uuummmm... How to Get Rid of Bad Boat Fuel | Boat Trader - WaterBlogged

You raise a good point about BSPT. I searched around the interweb on just generic "japanese pipe thread" and the word seems to be that Japan used British standards for pipe threads, both straight and tapered. Car guys, tractor guys, various official-looking documents. But I've never seen an official Nissan document. I dinked around just now in the garage though and find that if the female fitting is big enough (I had a spare 1/8" union) , both thread standards will start in the hole, one just goes farther. But they both engage enough that they would probably seal with Teflon tape or pipe dope. If the hole is big enough. Which exposes the real problem with the L6 block oil sender hole - it's just too small to easily start any adapter or pipe nipple. For whatever reason Nissan didn't drill and tap the hole as big as they could have. The pressure senders seem to taper down to a smaller end, which generally fits the hole (I have three old ones to look at). So if you decide to just force an NPT fitting in there, pick through the hardware store bin and find the smallest nipple end that you can. Maybe shave, file or sand the end threads down also so it has a better chance of starting. Or run a die farther up the nipple to cut the end down to size.

Is it saltwater? That's what happens when you drive around below sea level.

I picked up one from the wrecking yard a while that works great. Matches my mechanical gauge. It has a rubber cover, and a wire with a bullet connector. Looks like the one in this link except the wire is black. Amazon.com: Sankei Switches Oil Pressure Sender: Automotive

The early cars, like that 71, use a mechanical pump. It's bolted to the side of the cylinder head. Later cars had electric pumps, installed just in front of the fuel tank, under the car. Many people install electric pumps in place of mechanical pumps. They typical electric pump is in in the $90 range. You need more info.

The problem with talking to other Z guys is that they already have one. They can wait. You have to do your own economics analysis. How long are you willing to wait for a deal? How much is the next few months or even years without a Z worth to you while you look around. Do you want a car that's ready to drive or do you want something to work on? What skills do you enjoy applying?... Etc. I bought my non-running 1976 280Z mainly because it had no significant body damage and I hate doing body work. I enjoy doing all of the other stuff though so didn't care that the drivetrain might be worthless. That car looks very nice and it runs and you know where it's been. You'll probably wait a long time to find something similar. You might save cash but you'll end up paying more in aggravation, time and disappointment. You've a got a bird in hand.

The radiator position changed from the 240-260Z to the 280Z. So the bends and lengths of the hoses would be the key, therefore the 240Z hoses would be the way to go, to fit the car. The front covers of all of the engines are the same, so the bottom hose diameter would be the same. The only thing hard to verify by part number is if the top hose diameter changed, but that seems unlikely since it would be designed to work with the bottom hose.

From CL - 1976 Datsun 280z (BLUE) I've heard that PnP's valuation for a car's parts and scrap metal, or their break-even point, is about $1100. Might be worth an offer, the car looks pretty clean. Says it's a 76 but looks 77 or 78. PnP just uses a chart of VIN numbers to determine year and it doesn't seem to be right.

That's a good point about memory. I've been limited to 1 GB since Compaq used two 512's to get there, no slots to easily fill. Will Windows 7 be that much worse than XP because of memory usage? Another $40 to get to 2. 100+25+ 40, $165. Not even addressing the 32 vs 64 bit question. Apparently my CPU has hyper-threading ability but not true 64 bit (whatever that really means). For what it's worth, I've been on both ends of the "power" spectrum, computer-wise, I'm just working the low end for now (low cash flow). Extracting the most from the least is a challenge.

Thanks for the feedback, especially from the pros. Hate to ask you to talk about work on your hobby site. I've wondered if the talk about the wave of viruses and attacks waiting to happen is Microsoft hype to get people to switch. I can see my modem and hard drive activity and don't click on weird links or applications so riding XP until it dies has been in mind. I've not been hacked to-date. But for $100 I can get to Windows 7, another $25 gets me a Windows 7 capable set of software to run old Excel spreadsheets and open Word files (there seem to be a few consultants out there who get paid in software licenses). I've been running Office 98 on the install disks I got with my first Gateway computer, hence the XP mode question. And I just replaced a couple of capacitors in my power supply so my old dinosaur Compaq should last a few more years. I'm on my fourth hard drive. Anybody running Linux?

Who is doing what with the coming Windows XP support expiration? I've been in economy mode for a while, plus am not generally a "early adopter", so am still using Windows XP. I'm leaning toward just getting Windows 7 to keep running on my old computer. Has anyone switched to Windows 7 recently, from XP or backwards from 8? Problems? Anyone using XP Mode in Windows 7?