73str86

I've got to be honest, I'm a little surprised myself. But after two years, WingZr0 came through and gave me my original money back. I can understand things turn for the worst sometimes. He's a man of his word in my book.

Just to make sure I wasn't nuts, here's a Z for sale in that price range. Ready to drive, and no "rust free" claims. 1972 Datsun 240Z

I think the gentleman's sentimental attachment to the car has inflated the price. I like the history of it--the PO of my 240z owned it for 34 years--but I paid half that price. The clutch could be stuck to the flywheel from sitting for so long, or the slave needs to be bled. The very very most I would pay for the lemon lime Z is $4000, without being able to test drive it. I think in the $5,000-$7,000 price range you can find a decent Z car with most mechanical details sorted, some upgrades, some things that need attention, etc.

She's beautiful. Have a name yet? I've been eyeballing a local 1600 myself.

I like your profit in horsepower perspective, as well as the "keep it on the road" plan. My Z was off the road for about 9 months waiting for my 'new' L29. I replaced the radiator as stated above, and replaced every engine accessory except for the fuel pump so far. Still going mechanical. With the engine out, I also replaced the steering rack bushings and steering coupler. That is a very reasonable price. Thank you for sharing it. I paid more, AND had to worry about a local race shop's Z familiarity. I always read/believed you couldn't touch one for less than $7000.

There are other companies which sell oversize stainless steel valves in the $180-220 per set range. Which head are you using? As much money as I spent on getting my E88 ported, I didn't want to skimp and figured I might as well go for stainless/oversize valves.

I think it was 14 ft. lbs. IIRC. Someone will have to verify. You don't need to remove the thermostat housing. As Zed head said, I used a couple extensions along with a socket swivel/joint. I couldn't have done it without the last tool.

I sense a bit of sarcasm BleachZee?

I read this thread yesterday and was going to post the manual but it looks like it's already been done. Here's a recent photo of mine. I paid $800 for them including the intake. They are 45mm and I have about 8 hours worth of cleaning into them. I noticed that like a photo posted above, mine don't have any model # stamps on the top plates. The 2.9L engine is fairly modified (check my build thread for specs) and they seem to do ok. They are even running admirably on the factory mechanical fuel pump. I plan to go with a Mazda RX7 unit when I find one. I have some vacuum leaks I'm dealing with right now, and timing is still set by ear. Does anyone know where to find the SK sight tool or another method of setting the floats to factory specs?

My L29 engine builder had to mill the 0.030 over pistons a little off the top for his own peace of mind I believe. Otherwise he told me I needed a 2-3mm head gasket. I'd have to ask him exactly why. How often do builders keep pistons flush?

The K&N air filters actually arrived from Pegasus Racing on April 30th I just didn't make the time to post an update. I'm a lot more willing to go for longer drives now. I did not factor the cost of the K&Ns into the figure for the carbs. It hurt a little. I keep thinking I'm done with spending money! Since the last update I took the carbs, intake, and exhaust off. I figured I might as well get my NOS Jet Hot coated Clifford Research header put on with an exhaust made by a real shop instead of the hack job that was on there before. After some research and a recommendation I found Eddie's Custom Exhaust Shop in Augusta, GA. I got an estimate of $160 for 2.5" pipe including making the header extension from the 6-3-2 header. The owner told me I needed to supply the header reducers. After ordering from NAPA for $26.99 and waiting two days for delivery, they sold me a set for larger headers. The exhaust shop sent me to a local race shop I had never heard of. After walking in the 10-bay garage seeing all sorts of sweet rides, the owner of this shop guided me into the store area. There were about 15 isles of all the race parts you only ever find online. Ignition, AN fittings, fuel pumps, the whole nine yards. Fully built 383s and polished rear ends. I was like a kid in a candy store. The local race shop sold me the reducers I needed (pre welded together I might add) for $16.99. As the guy was ringing me up I asked if he had any exhaust tips for sale. He pointed to the other side of the wall and I could not believe what I saw. A NOS ANSA tip! I asked if he had another and he said there should be another in the box. I could not believe it and I felt incredibly lucky to have gone into this shop. I'm going to eventually weld them together and turn it into a twin tip design. I suppose this makes up for when WingZr0 ripped a few of us off for $400 a piece. The exhaust shop finished around 1 p.m. after dealing with the hiccups. Instead of going for a Flowmaster or Magnaflow muffler, I opted for a used Borla Pro XS he offered me for $20. Overall I'm happy with it. I'll post a video--eventually. I still haven't gotten around to swapping the rear differential. I just bought a fixer-upper investment/rental home that will be taking a great deal of my time.

Thanks for the tips guys. I filled it with fluid and have been driving it for a week or so--about 180 miles. It still whines but my new parts from Black Dragon for the other R180 arrived so I'll be putting it in within the next couple weeks.

Last year my diff was whisper quiet last year while driving. There was a clunk every once in a while during hard shifting, but that's all. I was coming back from a local team's baseball game. I wanted to take a buddy for a spin. My Dad swore up and down I drained it. I figured my memory was better than his--I was wrong. I was driving around 25-40 mph for about a mile. Then got on a stretch of 50-70 for a mile and a half. In 4the gear it immediately started a high pitched whine while under load. In about 4 seconds I knew it was the differential. I cursed, and turned around. The 2.5 miles to return home was unbelievably painful. Metal against metal humming is not a good feeling. I must've had just enough oil in there to last a few minutes. I wanted to cry, but I've since put about 80 miles on the car after refilling the fluid. Now it just hums. I think the bearings are pretty torn up, but it seems to drive ok for local easy driving until I swap it later this week. Please continue to vote! I plan on dropping it with the mustache bar as mentioned above because it seems a lot smoother.

Preface: After firing up my high(er) compression L29 with triple SKs, I was so eager to go for a ride that I made it 2.5 miles before realizing I had drained the diff fluid while the motor was being built at the race shop. Luckily, I have an extremely clean open R180 with 4.11 gears that I found from a guy with a source at salvage lots. I've read many threads and have searched multiple forums. The FSM seems to say to drop/swap the differential on the ground using jack stands, doesn't it? I have access to a car lift on base at the self-help garage. Will this make the process any easier? I can also use the lift with the built in transmission jack if needed. Are there any tricks/lessons learned that may not be seen in most write-ups? Thanks in advance.

So far I'm really impressed with the tires. When I park in my garage dirt and tree buds, etc. stick to the tread all around the tire. Even touching the rubber feels very grippy as opposed to most tires I've felt before. Hopefully within 1,000-3,000 miles I'll autocross it and will definitely hit the drag strip a few times before buying some slicks.

It's been a while since my last update. Layla is breathing and running on the road. All I can say is it's an amazing feeling. A couple steps back: I installed a Champion 4 row aluminum radiator from eBay. 4 Row Champion 1970 1975 Datsun 240Z 260z Radiator | eBay I swear I paid $225 for a 3 row on eBay, and was shocked to get the 4 row in the mail. I think they were out of stock and sent me the 4 row or something. I also found some rubber shifter bushings at AutoZone which I used to run the bolts through to provide a small amount of vibration dampening against the radiator support. All holes in the radiator lined up perfectly to factory mounting holes. With the thickness of the four row radiator along with the 280zx 3 row balancer pulley, it is a tight squeeze. I mounted the fan and clutch to the pulley before I installed the radiator for the sake of space. It is an extremely close fit with perhaps 1/2" between the 240z fan and the new radiator. I think it'll be fine and haven't found any issues. The finish and craftsmanship look excellent; my thermostat stays below the halfway point with city driving (temps 70-85 degrees in May right now). I'm happy and feel as though it should handle Georgia and Texas summer temps of 100+ degrees just fine. The next order of business was to install my thoroughly cleaned and sorted triple 45mm Sanyo Kiki (SK) racing carburetors originally from Japan. Cleaning all three carburetors was a tedious process; they were pretty gunked up inside. I will be experimenting with Weber and Mikuni chokes/jets in the next 1,000 or so miles to try to find my best setup. I also installed a triple carb heat shield from Datsun Spirit for $116. It was a little disappointing at first to see how simple it was to make; but the quality of the zinc plated brackets and hardware were really nice. I will also apply 2000 degree thermotec heat shield/fiber/sticker to the top and bottom of it. It's nice because it has lips to keep any possible gas leaks away from the headers. At the moment I don't have any air horns or filters. YIKES! :stupid: That's my next order of business. I ran all the fuel lines, spark plugs, NGK wires, etc. I installed a Mr. Gasket liquid filled fuel pressure gauge from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Mr-Gasket-1564-Liquid-Pressure/dp/B000N8ISFS/ref=sr_1_2?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1368232326&sr=1-2&keywords=mr+gasket+liquid+filled+fuel+pressure+gau ge From my research and advice I received I decided to break in and run the engine with the factory mechanical fuel pump. The gauge will allow me to keep track of the pressure it produces. I dumped the Schneider break in additive all over the camshaft and in the timing chain area in the head to let it get to the block and pan. Next came the moment of truth. After being satisfied that oil was being pumped to all lobes of the cam (I blocked off the spray bar holes with the hardware supplied in the Schneider Stage III kit) and seeing sufficient oil pressure, I decided to go ahead and try to start it and let her fire. To much dismay, it just wouldn't start. I had spark. Spark plug and point gaps were set. I had fuel. FRUSTRATION ensued. My father's impression was that we had the distributor off by 180 degrees, which is the initial guess for every backyard mechanic. I was certain I did enough research about installing the oil pump and spindle at the 11:25 position. We removed the distributor anyway to double check; it was spot on. Firing order and spark plug wires were double checked. I slept on it--depressed a little I might add. The next day I was reassessing the situation without my dad there. After referring to the wiring diagram in my FSM, I realized that the condenser for the coil was on the wrong terminal. After switching it to the negative as it was supposed to be, SHE FIRED UP IMMEDIATELY! I was running my sandblasted and painted header that was originally on the car. She was LOUD! Soon thereafter I reinstalled the rusty 2 1/4" exhaust with a new Magnaflow muffler. I recorded some HD videos but I think they're too long to post. I let the engine rev at ~ 2500 rpms for about 15-20 minutes to let it reach operating temperature. My oil pressure was amazing (thanks to the NISMO high flow pump) and was over 45 lbs. I inspected for leaks--NONE! Here is a super low quality video I took on my cell phone. Trust me, it does not do it justice. This was before I used the synchrometer to synch the carbs. There is some bog and the linkage could use some attention. After dialing in the idle and balancing the carbs it runs amazing. I reinstalled the front sway bar with new end links and bushings. I also drove to a local tire shop to get my new Falken Ziex Ze 912 195/60R14s mounted and balanced. I put the hood and grill on with my father on a Saturday morning and immediately drove to a local car show on Fort Gordon. All the rushing made me feel like I was on a car TV show rushing to complete a build. I was amazed at how much attention the car received. A surprising number of women came up to me talking about how it was their first car in San Francisco, Florida, etc. The older men reminisced about how fast they were in the day. Here's a shot from the car show: I put about 80 miles on it in two days, always varying speeds, etc. So far I haven't gone above ~3800 rpms. It feels like a completely different car. I plan on emailing the PO who owned it since 1976 and show him the progress I've made. I can't wait until the engine is broken in and I can really drive it. :beer::beer::beer::beer:

The WRX was a show car owned by a 55 year old woman. She traded it in to a dealer on a new WRX. The dealer stripped it for the most part before sending it to auction. Wheels, stereo, CAI, exhaust. Overall I'm happy but the dealer is withholding service records even though I am in contact with the previous owner.

And not Datsun related, but in between all this I flew to Houston to pick up a new daily driver. It's a one owner 2002 Subaru WRX wagon with 115,000 miles after the road trip back to Georgia.

Made some decent progress with my 2.9L L28 swap in the past couple weeks. For the area where I replaced metal under the battery tray, I coated it with bedliner to add another layer of protection, then painted it silver. I also stripped, sanded, primed, and painted the battery tray itself. I made the decision to screw the battery tray in with self tapping screws instead of welding it in. I also have a new plastic battery tray with hose to place on top. Now on to the engine itself. Obviously the first step was to install it! After dealing with ill-fitting and poorly made motor mounts from Black Dragon and Beck Arnley, I decided to bite the bullet and spent the $90+ on the factory Nissan mounts. Boy did it make a difference. The photo below shows the two new Nissan motor mounts. Then the old one. On the Black Dragon mounts, the small pin on the bottom which lines up in the crossmember below the bolt was about an 1/8 of an inch off. On the Beck Arnley motor mounts, it wasn't threaded for factory bolts--it required the use of a nut and washer. Also, the rubber was not cut/molded properly to attach the independent bracket supports. I purchased the clutch/transmission spline alignment tool for about $4. It actually gave us a bit of trouble. About 30 minutes of fidgeting and adjusting the motor/transmission alignment it finally all came together. I installed the 60 amp alternator, flame thrower 3 ohm coil to delete the ballast resistor, 280zx gear reduction starter. I also stripped, painted (Datsun blue), and clear coated the battery hold down bracket. After that, my dad and I hooked up all the wiring in about 15 minutes. I don't like the look of old/dirty wiring next to a new shiny motor but I have heat shrink wiring wrap that will go on once it's on the road and everything is sorted out. I went out and spent about $100 on various odds and ends. The ~ one foot coolant line from the lower radiator hose to the heater core lines. Various vacuum and coolant line block off caps for the triple SKs and to block off / remove the hard coolant line that used to wrap around the block and warm up the stock intake manifold. Rubber bushings to place between the aluminum radiator and radiator support wall to shield from vibrations. I also had to cut the tube coming out of the lower thermostat housing because the carb would not be able to bolt to the intake. I planned on buying a brass plug to screw in but was lucky enough to dig through my original intake/balance tube zip lock bags and found one that fit perfectly. It looks a lot cleaner. I finished thoroughly cleaning the insides of two out of the three 45mm SK carbs. Now there's only one left. Once the carbs are mounted with the Datsun Spirit heat shield and the aluminum 4 row radiator is installed, all I have to do is fill up the oil and fluids and crank her up. I'm hoping to be able to drive it to enter a local car show on Fort Gordon on Saturday.

Just to confirm my idiocracy, the tires look perfectly aligned with no issues after the L28 was put in.

Looks like you'll be back on the road soon to enjoy the Austin weather! I can't wait for that day myself--I have a new L28 motor swap with triple SKs that will be finished this week.

I like it on the white. I have a silver '73 240z and just bought the stripes. I'm going to wait until my new motor is all up and running, then will put them on. I have flat black rims, and will have a flat black type 1 air dam and (haven't quite decided which one) flat black rear spoiler. I like the contrast it offers.

I ended up purchasing one from Datsun Spirit Inc. It's aluminum with zinc plated mounting hardware. $116 with shipping. Triple Carburetor Heat Shield | | Datsun Spirit, Inc.

I searched through the forums...just as the title states. I replaced the steering rack bushings with new OEM rubber while the engine was out of my 1973 240z. The car did not move during installation. I admit it was a pain to put the bushings in, but after enough wd-40 and wiggling the rack itself, I was able to bolt the clamps back on successfully. I also refilled the rack with grease and zip-tied the boots. My Dad did kick one of the tires to help the process. My father is convinced that moving the tires while the steering rack was unbolted could not mis-align the tires--because it's a solid unit so to say between the wheels. Now when rolling the car back and forth you can hear the tire(s) rubbing because one is kinked in a little bit...probably the one he kicked. Is this possible? Does it make sense, or am I crazy? How do I solve this? :stupid:

I appreciate your attention to detail and you're making amazing progress! I too am going through my 240Z in the same fashion. The only difference is I started with my engine. It'd been depressing how long it's been since I've driven her. I will be sure to follow this thread.