siteunseen

Not trying to pile on but that connector sent my mind to a/c. Who'd a thunk it? I have a '77 with factory air conditioning.

Slow down. Your gonna fu*k up something up if you're in a rush. Trust me, I've down the same thing.

What happened to the the small gas can? You can put a 2 gallon can up front, run the suction hose from the pump into the jug. Easy peasy.

While it's running pull the plug wire caps off one at a time and see if it stumbles. Start at the rear if we think it's a carb starvation.

You're mostly likely right here. The first carb got the fuel.

The front carb fuels the first 3 cylinders. Rear carb fuels the back 3 yo.

The pulley it's called sometimes, many names. The wheel with the the alternator and water pump belt on the front of the motor.

I bought an asking price $5,000 for $2,000 because of that black wire to the distributor. He mucked the car up really great without that wire. One of my all time best buys. He didn't know squat about Datsuns either. Fords only.

I run a ZX distributor fully advanced . All the way clockwise. 17 degrees and 34 at 2,500 rpm. Try turning yours all the way and see how it acts.

That doesn't look right to me. The line should be counter clockwise before the top bolt on the cams thrust plate. And it should be a little to the left of the sprocket notch.

Nice car! Welcome to this deep well of information and friendliness. Cliff

The vent flaps have a piano type hinge, right? @jfa.series1 might know. He has been all over...

It's coming down here next week. Get that nitrogen down!

File the points contacts. The rotor button end and maybe the rotor cap's 6 contacts if they look crusty. Hell sand the middle contact coming in from the coil. It pushes in but you could still lightly sand it. The picture shows newish points. Is that something you did? Are they gapped proper. There's a black black ground wire on the distributor, how's it look? My #1 would be the valve train and spray bar under the valve cover. They get loose from the towers and loose oil before hitting the cam lobes. You don't want to damage any more that could be already.

If you had some internal problems with the motor the water would be easy to spot in the engine's oil. Probably on the dipstick. Just for starting I think I would remove the thermostat altogether. To add to the water/oil mixing thing it usually is a bad head gasket. BTW what head stamp do you read above the 1st and 2nd spark plugs? Should be an E88 I believe but could be an early E30. What's the vin.# on the driver's side top dash? Should be the same as engraved under the driver's wiper on the firewall.

It's not rare to have the original motor, it's actually common on this forum. I prefer originality as most others do. We upgrade parts to newer and better versions but always keep the old parts so what you do is reversible. In my opinion, judging by your photos, that car could very well have had an L2.8 at some point in the past. The engine bay has obviously been painted which would pretty much require removal of the motor(s). The signs of EFI are another clue to me. Someone could have used the lightweight 240 body and upgraded to a higher horsepower motor but kept the 2.4 you have now reinstalled. The ZX transmission is a 5 speed. Your car came with a 4 speed. I'm just ASSuming here. It's not in anyway a mechanic's opinion. I would pull the bottom radiator hose and flush the cooling system out. The radiator and then through the top thermostat housing. Put some cheap 10w30 and filter on. Pull the float chamber lids and make sure that's all clean of old fuel. Definitely use a jerry can and bypass the fuel tank. Pull the plugs and squirt some 10w30 in there then turn the motor over by hand, roll it in gear or turn the 27mm bolt in the middle of the front pulley clockwise from the front. Remove the valve cover and pour 10w30 over the valve train. A couple of photos of that would be good to show these guys. Your oil spray bar maybe missing for all you know. Or broken. Take a 4 penny finish nail and make sure the small holes are open. Good luck. I gotta run now.

Looks like a ZX short throw shifter to me, that's a good thing if it's in decent condition. Borg Warner T5. https://datsunzgarage.us/borg/ maybe it's just the close ratio ZX. Not the T5. Sorry, just waking up with some coffee.

I don't have an electric pump but if I did decide to one day this is a good write up I saved for my '72. You might find something useful in here. http://jarvas240z.blogspot.com/2013/01/electric-fuel-pump-installation.html

I would replace all the glass fuses under the radio too. There's one I popped that shut my whole car down. Bad alternator was back feeding power. It's cheap to do.

On mine the ground, black, goes on the top starter mount bolt. Red to the solenoid.

I used the one from Nissan dealership on my '72 works fine. Vin.# 69, 972 I think. Part number is 11320-E4100 though. This was bought about 4 years ago for $65. I am looking at the receipt. It was superseded by 11320-N3000 I just read. https://www.nissanpartsdeal.com/parts/nissan-insulator-mount~11320-e4100.html

The back of the block builds up worse than the front from what I've seen, calcium mostly. I had to pick and chisel that stuff out. Never thought about @grannyknot idea of using CLR soak. I would remove the plugs knowing how easy it is, the side ones not the ones on the front and rear. They are cheap too, $15.00 for a set of brass plugs from amazon.com if I remember right. I had the the two on the ends done when I had my block vatted at a machine shop. They are too close to the cylinder wall for me to mess with.

Are you gonna put that Fidenza in the glove box of a new Koenigsegg?

When you pull the motor you can take it to a spray type car wash if you don't have a pressure washer. A couple of cans of cheap walmart oven cleaner will clean the block and transmission of the oily sludge stuff before you work on it. You can set the motor on an old tire to keep from denting the oil pan. Separating the transmission will be easier too. Those rubber plugs at a hardware store work good on the transmission. I think it's a 2"?