Captain Obvious

Thanks all for the additional suggestions. Wade, I was thinking about the hot glue gun and I got a couple questions. 1) Did you have any problems with the glue melting the plastic sheet? 2) You said "its removable", but I'm not sure what you mean. When you pull the sheet back off the door again, where does the hot (now cold) glue go? Does it stick to the sheet and come off with it, or does it stay stuck to the door metal? Blue, Does the cured latex caulk come off the doors easily if you have to do it again? I've used plenty of caulk in the past, but not on painted metal.

Thanks guys. I like the Peel-N-Seal idea. I didn't do a good job of explaining my dislike of the butyl as an adhesive... My PO had the door panels off and "refreshed" the plastic adhesive with fresh black butyl. He also replaced the rugs and used black butyl on the underside to help hold the rugs in place. In other words, I had fresh still sticky smearable black butyl all over the place, and every time I touched it, it spread. It was a *&%$# mess. The stock original butyl on the door plastics wasn't that soft and sticky though, and I don't know if it was simply a time thing or a different composition. There was absolutely no "curing" of the stuff my PO put on. All I know, is that I cleaned all of it off and I don't want to go through that again.

You don't need an air seal above that valve to make that work. It works simply on the hydraulics of the damper oil on both sides of the valve. Atmospheric air above that fluid matters not. Need proof? What happens when you drop the valve stalk into the piston? Does it drop quickly into place, or do you have to force it down into place before you get to the point where you can screw the cap in? If it's working correctly, you should have to force it down if you don't feel like waiting for it to drop on it's own. Without laying my own eyes on it, I would suspect that you are on the razor's edge of acceptable misalignment of the valve and that melted plastic goober was causing a tiny bit more of misalignment of the stalk, pushing you over the edge. I like the picture improvements. Makes it easy to see how it works when it's closed. The bottom cylinder pushes up on the washer above it which in turn contacts the fixed washer at the top. The beveled edges center themselves together and all the gaps close. The fluid then has to force it's way through the gaps which makes it harder to move.

I had to get to the inside of my doors... After I removed the door panel, I pulled the plastic sheet off the door. The sheet, being brittle from age, was unsalvagable. It tore in multiple places and needs to be replaced. Anyone know what kind plastic Datsun used for that sheet? I know I could just use a trash bag or a plastic drop cloth from a home improvement store, but I think the original was something more robust than polyethylene sheet. Also, how about suggestions of what to use to hold it in place? I cleaned off all the old butyl and I want to use something that isn't so much of a mess. Suggestions?

Thanks Jim, So the 280Z never did, but the 280ZX did? I found lots of pics of the ZX turbo manifold and that's not what I saw. The one I (think I) saw looked like the 240-280 manifold. I don't have the 81 FSM loaded, but I'm assuming the 280ZX NA version looks basically like the previous years? Wonder if it bolts right up to the later 280's... I would like an O2 sensor, and can't think of a better place than one that's already done. I could weld one into my header, but I'm thinking I might downgrade to cast iron. :stupid:

Did they ever put an O2 sensor in the 280Z exhaust manifold? I thought I saw a pic of a stock cast iron exhaust manifold that had an O2 hole cast into it, but now I can't remember where I saw that pic. I checked the fische and didn't see anything like that, nor did I see any reference to a sensor, but I'm no expert with the fische.

I did not notice any performance difference at the time, but I was fighting several fires at once. One of the other fires was that I was running rich under all conditions and that would mask problems with the pistons rising too fast. If I had gotten the fuel ratio down to reasonable levels and left the original misaligned stalk in place, I might have bogged a little when I punched it, but I never ran it like that. I fixed the stalk first and then fixed the mixture later. One thing I forgot to mention is that the stalks can tolerate some amount of misalignment before the valve fails to seal. But beyond that point, you run into a problem. Maybe you dislodged some dirt? Maybe a previous owner had it assembled incorrectly and you fixed it when you put it back together? Maybe you are right on the razor's edge of tolerable misalignment? In any event, keep an eye on it. Out of curiosity, have you had any backfiring through the carbs leading up to this? Not only is that a sign of a lean mixture, but the shock of the backfire can damage the stalk assy. I believe that's what happened to mine. BTW - I like your drawing of the valve bits. Missing a sealing chamfer on the underside of the top (fixed position) washer, but other than that, looks good.

I had the exact same issue on my car and I tracked the problem down to a bad damper stalk. First you need to figure out which is the good one... The good one is the one that is hard to lift. I know it's a subjective thing, but as a guideline, I would say "it should be hard enough to lift that it hurts a little and leaves a dent in your fingertip." The other one (the one that lifts easily) has a problem. Next, you need to figure out what's wrong with the damper: a) Measure the outside of the two dampers with a micrometer or a set of calipers. They should be the same (probably are). Under magnification, look closely at the brass jiggly bits on the bad one. Look for gouges in any of the surfaces or goobers of crud stuck anywhere (doubtful). c) Under magnification, make sure the arrangement and orientation of all the jiiggly bits is the same between the two (probably is). d) Stand the stalks on the workbench knobs down and check that the stalks are perpendicular to the workbench surface. (This is what caused my problem.) In my case, everything was clean and assembled correctly, but one of stalks was not perpendicular to the knob. This causes a problem because when you screw the stalk into the carb body, some of the the brass jiggly valve bits at the bottom of the stalk will not be in correct alignment and the check valve won't seal when lifting the piston. I replaced the entire stalk and the problem went away. The insidious part to this is that everything looked fine at first glance and it wasn't until I really studied the system that I figured out what was going on.

Well, if it's any hint as to the age of the version used, the install docs talk some about Win 2000. What does one need to do to get new versions regularly?

So the Honda blower moves more air. I get that. But I'm curious as to why... a) Does it move more air because it's a newer better more efficient design? (Thinking maybe better motor or impeller technology?) Or, Does it move more air simply because it and spins faster than the original and draws more current accordingly? The question is... Is the increased air movement "free" due to technological advances, or do you have to pay for the additional air with more current to the motor?

I downloaded my copy from http://www.xenonz32.com/reference.html. That's the one that ran on my old XP machine until my machine went belly up. I don't remember what version it was, and I can't use the old machine to check... Any idea what version that is at xenonz32?

SteveJ, That would be awesome. Could you please check for compatibility running under straight Win 7 before you run it under the virtual XP? I believe EuroDat had a problem under Win 7, but who knows... Maybe it might not happen to everyone?

Thanks guys. I had looked through the manual and the fische and didn't see any retainer of any sort, but you never know. The zip-tie sounds like a great idea while I'm in there though!

So you tried it on your Win7 laptop and it did not work? I really don't want to start messing with virtual machines. I've avoided it to this point in my life and I'm not itchin to start now. Although... I've got a Win 3.1 program that I really miss. It worked fine up until the transition from XP to 7.

Is there supposed to be any sort of clamp or band around the innermost shifter boot to hold it into place, or is it just a snug fit alone that does it?

Does the FAST software work with Windows 7 ? Before I bother to take the time and space to install only to find it doesn't work...

Are those the ones they call "Basket Weaves"? I've got something similar on my car, but the area out where the weights would go is a little different. I've got a wider sloped section. I'm still trying to figure out if I like them or not. On edit... I found a pic of the similar wheels like I have. From this thread http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/thread45953.html: Darn it... Cant figure out how to attach a previously attached pic so that it comes up with a thumbnail with an embedded hyperlink. :stupid:

Yup. That's why I bought one. I was working on a 74 at the time. But..... They were wrong. It wasn't for 73/74, it's for earlier. And the needles are wrong for any year.

I surely won't claim to have seen them all, but every carb cleaner I've ever run across is highly flammable. I'm not talking about the engine degreasers... I'm talking carb cleaner. Mostly acetone, methanol, tolulene, etc. And for the shaft leakage... As designed without a pliable seal there, some leakage will naturally occurr. But as long as it's not "excessive" you don't have to do anything about it. There's others on the forum with much more carb experience than myself, but my read on it would be if you can tune the carbs at idle without having to go some unusual amount of turns down on your nozzles, your plugs look good, and you're getting good power while driving, then I wouldn't worry much about the throttle shafts sealing.

I thought the expectation when you sprayed carb cleaner near a vacuum leak was that the idle would go up, not down?? And I would guess that vacuum leaks around the throttle shafts wouldn't have much of an impact at highway throttle positions. I would expect that even if you were getting some air past the throttle shafts, it might have a big impact on IDLE, but once you cracked the throttle plate enough to maintain highway speeds, the impact of that leak would diminish. I mean, you never WANT that leak, but it's impact goes down as the throttle position goes up. A little late now (as you already figured out), but I don't think leaking throttle shafts are making you run hot on the highway.

I believe they used SU's on some of the Volvos, so if he's got old Volvo experience, he should know his way around the Z carbs. Only question though would be is he capable of making the leap from the round tops to the flat tops like what you have... They are the same carb in theory of operation, but there are a few differences. That list I put together was assembled with an attempt at "all things considered". By that, I mean, I tried to put together a list of things that wouldn't cost much, wouldn't be very difficult or require special tools or equipment, and wouldn't take too much time at any one sitting so you could still use the car as your DD while working on it. My intention was not only to get you some possible improvements in how well the car worked, but also an expectation that you would get some experience and knowledge while doing that work. You could spend hours and hours and hours on making things perfect, but I know it's probably not the right time for that. Once you know your way around the car and have a handle on the FSM, you get to spend countless hours working on everything else! If it's running well once warm, isn't billowing black clouds, and has decent power, then you're doing as well as a lot of Z owners. Haha! It's amazing to think how "spoiled" we are with todays cars... You get in, turn the key, and hit the road. I typically start the car cold in the morning, and have wheels turning no more than ten seconds after the starter has stopped spinning. No muss, no fuss... It just starts and goes. We take it for granted now, but when you think about it, it's really amazing!

Apologies ahead of time if I'm wrong, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and make some age related assumptions. I don't know how old you are, but I'm guessing that every car you have ever seen or been in to this point had computer controlled fuel injection systems and no choke. You got in - turned the key - and went off down the road without a hiccup. Well let me tell how it used to be in the old days... There was no electronic fuel injection or computers of any kind in cars. Cars had carburetors and chokes. When you first started your cold carbureted car, it ran "OK" if you were lucky, and "poorly" if you weren't. If you were lucky, you could let it sit at high idle for a minute or so to warm up before you went off down the road, and if you weren't lucky, you had to sit there for a minute and nurse it to keep it running. Then once it was running well enough that you felt confident that you could pull out into traffic without stalling in front of someone, you could get moving on your way. As you put a few miles behind you and the engine continued to warm up, it gradually got better and better until it ran "good". The best you could ever hope for was that it started easy, idled smooth but tentative while cold, and improved quickly to the point where you were safe to leave your parking spot. So what would I do? With the FSM as a guide, I would start with the easy stuff: Ignition - Install new distributor cap, rotor, plug wires, and spark plugs. While you're in the distributor, check your ignition pickup gap. Once you have installed new components and verified your pickup gap, check your ignition timing and adjust as necessary. Fuel - Check and adjust your damper oil as necessary (yes, you have a fill-to line on the damper stalk). Check your float bowl levels. I would assume that if your float bowl levels are OK at idle and you aren't running out of power on the highway that your fuel filters are not clogged (yet). Air - Replace the air filter and inspect all the vacuum hoses and lines in the bundle of snakes and compare against FSM for correct locations of all the tubing. Vacuum leaks are not your friend, and because of the complexity of the 260's system, there's lots of opportunity for them to occur. Keep in mind that this is just the simple non-invasive stuff. Beyond that are more invasive tasks like setting the valve clearances and replacing the fuel filters. Also keep in mind that I'm focusing on simple "performance" based stuff, and there is a lot of "safety" related stuff suggested earlier by SteveJ and LeonV like brakes and suspension inspections. Keep us posted!

Problem is that you've got no "baseline". You don't have any portion of the car verified, tested, proved positive, that you can be completely confident is working as designed. What I mean by that is, for example... Stuff like a short lived dead spot, "bogging" on heavy acceleration as you described above could be caused by a whole bunch of things. Some carb related, some not. Could be anything from lack of oil in the carb dampers, to a clogged fuel filter back in the electric pump, to a distributer problem. Might be fuel related, might be ignition related, might be air related. Could be anything. Point is, either you better get good at opening your wallet, or you better get good at finding and fixing your own issues. So back to the carbs... The flat tops work great when they're working great. I'll even risk poking the hornets nest here and go out on a limb to claim "Better even that the round tops." Problem is, as with many other "better" systems, that improvement comes with the down side of complexity, and that complexity provides more avenues for problems to work thier way into the system. The bottom line is, either carb choice works great if done properly, but the round top system is boatloads simpler than the flat top system. That simplicity makes it much easier to keep the round tops working properly and also to troubleshoot problems when they do occur. I know the flat tops pretty well. But reaching that point is much easier to achieve if you aren't behind the eight ball working on your daily driver!

Speaking of EGR, one of the things that can cause the problems you're describing is if your EGR valve is active when it shouldn't be. The EGR valve should only be open after the engine has warmed up, and if it opens before that, it can cause rough running. To check for that, pull and cap the hose running to the EGR valve (the thing with the large round cap) and see what happens.