Captain Obvious

Haha! Well played!

And please tell me you weren't the one that painted the carbs, right? That was the PO?

LOL. I hear ya. But looking back at your pic, you've already cleaned off the grease AND pulled the rear cover off, right? No chunks of metal came out? No missing or damaged looking teeth? Nothing looks blued from heat? I still say Put it in and run it. If you're energetic, put new seals on the output shafts first. I think they're the easy ones, right?

"Collector".

Bingo. Thanks Patcon. So the bottom one in my pic is turbo. The overhang shields the oil line out the side of the pan.

My completely unsupportable opinion? It's fine. Clean the grease off put it in the car and run it.

Wow!! That's some fine PO workmanship you got right there! Yeeesh! So when you said you swapped over to the old carb... Are you thinking you're going to repair the PO hammered one, or just keep running the other? Is there something wrong with the other one that made you want to run this one instead? And thanks for the pics of that mystery hole, but unfortunately I'm still unclear where that hole goes. It's definitely a 72 specific thing and unfortunately I don't have a pair of those here to poke around with. Thanks again though!

No, why? Is that what that motor runs on?

Well I'm satisfied now. I was hoping the story behind the pic was as good as the pic itself, and you came through my friend!

AAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! I am not happy. This is NOT the smoking gun I was waiting for!!! Seriously though. I hope it works and you can move on with the project!!

And I would suggest that investigation be done outside of PM conversations. Investigations like this benefit other users in the future who are looking for solutions to similar problems.

As Patcon mentioned, the "hole" you are seeing in that pic is simply the jet needle dropped down out of sight. It's normal operation if the choke is on or if the nozzle has been adjusted down to affect the fuel ratio. It's not the problem here. But while I'm in here there are a couple things I wanted to ask about... First, what's the deal with that one carb with all the gouges and marks on the venture bridge? That thing is hammered!! Like the slide piston was stuck down at one point and someone stuck a screwdriver in there and tried to pry it up or something?? Probably doesn't make much functional difference, but those marks really show evidence of mistreatment in the past. Other question is... There are small (1/8 inch-ish?) holes in the bridges that are intentional. I assume they are 72 specific. Where do those holes go? :

Site, the shield in your pic is the top two in my collection. It's the only one that pushes inward towards the front to follow the contour of the pan. The others in my pic don't do that. AZDatsun, My 77 also has that top two design as well, so with your data point and Site's, it appears that style was used at least on 77, 78, and 79. According to the documentation, all the 240, 260, 280 used the same part number for that support - 11123-N4200. There is another part number listed for the 240 and 260- 11123-N3300, but I suspect that was for the very early cars and was quickly superseded by the later number. So they may have changed the shape of that heat shield on different years, but they never considered the change to be significant enough to warrant a change in part number? Form, fit, and function, they are all interchangeable apparently? I have no visibility into the part numbers for the ZX stuff... Does anyone know if they used a different version on the turbo? I ask, because one of these may be from a turbo motor, but to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself.

That's a fantastic pic!! Is that the summer that Bryan Adams talked so much about?

Another question while we're talking about such things... I've noticed that they used a number of different designs for the heat shield between the pan and the exhaust. I've got three different versions here. Top two are one style, third is different, and bottom is different again: Question for the Z trivia guys... Anyone know the lineage? What year(s) used which style?

Jeff, That's what I was thinking as well. For ease of installation (and raw material yield), I don't think I would make it all one piece, but I can't come up with any reason why you wouldn't (or couldn't) want extra support for every oil pan bolt. I'm also thinking that it wouldn't need to be exactly like the original two pieces. There are geometry options that would make it easier to produce. Anyway, I'm just musing here and wishing I had access to a water jet too! Haha!

Man... Every time I open this thread, I'm hoping and expecting the "Eureka!! I found it!!" The suspense is killing me!!

I trash picked a treadmill a while ago and stripped out the motor and DC controller*. I've repurposed that thing for so many different test applications that I've forgotten half of them. Here it is recently spinning up a Z distributor so I can poke around inside the stock ignition module: * Best time around here to find such a thing is in the spring. 1) People are doing "spring cleaning", and 2) The luster of the new year's resolutions have worn off.

Ummmmm... Site, I'm thinking that's not the author he was talking about.

And if someone was going to make custom pieces, would it be advantageous to make them longer than the stock ones to pickup more (all?) of the oil pan mounting bolts?

Jeff, Wow... I was just thinking the exact same thing yesterday! I'm putting stuff aside trying to get ready for a plating run and I was messing with some of those stiffeners. I've got a couple different sets and they are all bent and rusty. I was thinking it would be really cool to have some made from a thicker material and maybe even stainless.

Doubtful unless the linkage to the throttle opener system is binding up or something. Next time your idle hangs up, pop the hood and start pushing on different places on the linkage(s) and see if you can figure out where it's hanging.

Haha! Yeah, we'll never know for sure. And of course, all this chatter about what we think was a mistake may have all been perfectly intentional from the very beginning for reasons we don't know.

Gross. Congrats, I think that's the worst I've ever seen. Here's hoping the block and head don't look as bad!!

I don't have one here handy to compare, but I believe the servo diaphragms should be airtight and hold a vacuum. I think if yours won't hold, it's probably got a hole (probably age crack) in the diaphragm.