Zed Head

Saw this ad on CL and rented the DVD just to see what it was about. Sounds like a V8 in the film, and has a weird Euro style right tail-light, I believe. Own a piece of Hollywood. 1977 Datsun 280Z 2+2 from the film "Safety Not Guaranteed"

Mine has been gone for a while. Don't forget to insulate the left over wire ends. Some will have power with the key on.

I have a muffler shop fitted pipe from the resonator to the muffler. My muffler looks like it was meant to be there but the outlet pipe is not tucked up as tight to the bumper as yours because of the offset. Seems like MSA's stuff might not be a perfect fit for all cars. Might be worthwhile to get everything from MSA but the final pipe and have that piece custom bent.

If you describe the year and model of car someone might have an idea. Pictures are always good too (of the differential, not the track).

The muffler for my 76 has an offset exit and central inlet and tucks up next to the gas tank. Yours looks like it has center inlet and exit, which forces the muffler to hang lower. Did you get the package from MSA or did you piece some of it together? Can't really tell from the MSA site what a buyer really gets.

Is that just for you or for anybody who orders now? Swarm!!

On the driveshaft, Chas - You might be thinking of the 71C transmission with the 71B bellhousing swap. 1973 will have the 71B four speed, so the 71B five speed should drop right in with no driveshaft change.

Your 78 has the N47 head with round exhaust ports so you can use any manifold from 1975 to 1978. Not a huge range. The earlier manifolds might work also, but they may also flow a lower volume, causing restriction. Not sure on those. The later ZX manifolds will bolt up but the head pipe flange is in a different location so your stock pipe won't fit anymore. If you find one, make sure that the divider, that separates the front three cylinders from the back three, is intact inside. Also, have the mating surface checked for flatness and corrosion, they tend to twist and bend a little over time, plus exhaust leaks corrode the surface. Any good machine shop can grind it flat.although some charge more than others.

Might be worth double-checking the intake manifold. I'm sure that they're different but don't know how significant it is. I remember thinking that the throttle linkage would take some work because of the the throttle body location. And the BCDD is different. The throttle bodies won't interchange because the bolt patterns are different and the ZX throttle body has a smaller opening. In retro, it does look easier to stick with the early N42 (N47?) intake. Make sure that the divider inside the exhaust manifold hasn't rotted away. It was on my engine, creating a large open cavity for all six ports. No pulse separation.

There's not enough information in that CL ad to even guess, but there is a lot that raises questions. I can rebuild an engine "completely" but I wouldn't buy one from myself. Find out who rebuilt the engine, what they did and what new parts were used. "Transmission does not grind" - he must be used to some real beaters if that's worth noting. "The car was made to have a vintage look to it" - Distressing the paint job is not a plus. Find out if it has a ZX Turbo engine management system or if someone cobbled-up the 1975 EFI system to run the turbo engine. It's not the same. If the rebuild was professionally done by a reputable shop and the interior of the car is in good shape it might be worth a low offer just for the motor. By the way, what seems to be a fuel cell is really just an old gas tank with a fancy filler cap, I think. In the cabin. Death by burning alive, I wouldn't drive that thing.

My thought has been that the webbing is just a way to reduce the number of parts needed. It replaces the old heat shield and its three bolts. The ZX intake manifolds are designed with more taper though, if you take a look. Maybe to get better distribution of air to the cylinders. The 02 sensor only comes in to play during cruise, so you'd only gain gas mileage and cleaner emissions, but not acceleration. Note though, that the manifolds are designed to fit the car also. The intake manifold has the throttle body placed backward a small amount so your hoses won't fit fit quite right. And the exhaust manifold is shorter so would require a new head pipe to be fabricated. If you have a late 77 with an N47 head then you'll have a round port exhaust manifold which will fit fine. If you have an N42 head, you'll have the square port manifold which will work also, the square ports are bigger than the round holes in the head so there's no restriction. I have an 81 ZX motor and have considered the same things. I haven't installed it yet, but will probably keep the old Z manifolds on the ZX motor, maybe with an O2 bung installed on the head pipe if I use a different EMS. Seems like too much work to get the ZX manifold to work. But the ZX intake manifold looks interesting just because it might be a better design (you would hope).

Some questions above for clarity and possibilities. beerman is right. If the clutch doesn't slip when it's not supposed to then the problem probably lies in the hydraulics. Edit, after Zkars's post - I've seen it mentioned that bleeding the clutch hydraulics often fixes clutch problems. Might be the quickest, easiest thing to do.

As Virto says, -5 is hotter than the -6 standard. The heat range will only affect how clean the electrode and insulator are, not the air-fuel ratio. Usually hotter is chosen for engines that might have lots of short trips where the engine doesn't warm up completely. The orange deposit, from what I've read, is just residue from additives in the gasoline. You can adjust your idle air-fuel ratio by opening up (CCW) the idle air screw on the side of the AFM. It will let more air past the AFM vane and lean out the mixture.

I got a couple from Courtesy Parts along with some other parts (Courtesy is cheaper than my local Nissan dealer) but your local dealer can probably get them. Datsun 240Z/260Z/280Z Transmission Control Index

The very short, very specific answer is no. Nissan used those plugs in some of the Z engines, but not all. They added the plug numbers to the Engine Tuneup chapter in the mid-70's if you have a certain engine in mind.

Must have been my mis-spelling. I wrote "Amy" instead of "Any". CG240Z's re-animation of the thread though, Post #20, was about experience with the rear tower brace. Same company Mike W mentioned in Post #18, TEP, but different end of the car.

I think that Borg Warner used the "T-5" designation to describe many of their transmissions but there is, apparently, a lot of variation in design. Here's a web page from a guy that seems to be well-respected around the Z-related web. The 280ZX Turbo's used the FS5R90A transmission (I checked the FSM to be sure). Note that it's focused on the Z31 (300ZX with V6) so a bellhousing swap is necessary to bolt up to an L6. ZBUM's Z31 Transmission Information Page

The 240SX "71C" (or 71H depending on where you look) type transmissions can be made to work with a bellhousing swap. Apparently the later models, like mid 90s, have wider gears, plus reverse synchro, and they all have bigger countershaft bearings than the 71B's.

Amy thoughts on what exactly was moving, and how, that the triangulated STB stopped? Were the towers flexing inward or back toward the firewall? Or both? Is the straight bar across the towers (no connection to firewall) 50% as effective as the triangulated or 10% or 80%? Just using the opportunity to learn a little more. If the details are out there somewhere else, I can look.

Pretty sure it's supposed to be that way. It's the same for the stock rubber bushing also. With the stock bushing, the rubber flexes but nothing rotates independently. That's why you have to load the suspension before tightening the big bolts, to get the inner sleeve rotated to where it won't put the rubber under constant tension. If you still have the old rubber bushing you'll see the teeth marks from the locking washer on the inner tube. With urethane the bushing rotates on the inner sleeve. That's where some of the grease needs to be, on the outside of the sleeve and inside of the bushing. The outer part of the bushing needs grease just for general loading and unloading friction on the caps and frame work. The original rubber bushing is pretty well-designed for its purpose. I bought an MSA urethane bushing kit on sale a few years ago. Black urethane, and the control arm bushings were two piece. By the way, I think that the idea that the black ones are graphite-loaded might just be a myth. Black color alone does not mean graphite has been added for lubricity.

This probably happens for the same reason that my car runs smoother and faster, and handles better, after I wash it. The engine and car are just happier and show their appreciation by putting out more effort. In your case, it's a rattle of joy, joy at having fresh lubricating and cooling fluid.

Make sure you check the parts as soon as they come in. My HP's might be older and they could be welding the extensions on now. But I doubt it. The tight press-fit works fine. Weird that Amazon even has any available since everybody is looking for them. Here's a thread from Hybridz where one of the race guys says he has 3038's on the corners. My HP's are labeled 3038, as I said above. BZ3038 is the Illumina. Post #25. The Strut thread - Koni / Illumina / Tokico / Carrera / Bilstein / Ground Control - Page 2 - Brakes, Wheels, Suspension, and Chassis - HybridZ

Make sure you check the parts as soon as they come in. My HP's might be older and they could be welding the extensions on now. But I doubt it. The tight press-fit works fine. Here's a thread from Hybridz where one of the race guys says he has 3038's on the corners. My HP's are labeled 3038, as I said above. BZ3038 is the Illumina. The Strut thread - Koni / Illumina / Tokico / Carrera / Bilstein / Ground Control - Page 2 - Brakes, Wheels, Suspension, and Chassis - HybridZ

You realize that I said the rears have the extension? If you ordered four fronts, you'll have two short shocks and two that fit right. You've been mixing front and rear in your posts (you said you could get fronts for the rear in #27), so maybe just another typo. Anyway, good luck.

For the HP's (maybe the Illumina's) the rear 3013 shock is the same as the 3012 front except with a pressed on extension tube. You can knock the extension off of a 3013 rear and have a 3012 front. And they might both be 3038's, although I'm not 100% positive. It might be the 3012 and 3013 gland nuts that are different. The part numbers seem to be for the package of shock and gland nut since the gland nut is car specific. If anyone has 3012 or 3013 Tokico's they'll probably notice a sticker over the 3038 base number painted on to the shock. Or I might just have a weird set of modified 3012's and 3013's. Pretty sure that I've seen John Coffey comment on this before, but confirm info before using.