texasz

All sounds interesting. Shipping would be a killer to the US though. I agree that the battery tray area would be a HUGE hit! There's nobody out there doing it. The floorpans are available from Zed Findings so people on this contenent may shop there as shipping would probably be much less. I wish I knew how to do this kind of work, I have often thought that producing the battery tray area would be a nice way to support my Z expenses. Please do keep us informed as to your progress, what you have to sell and how much it would cost us.

Fuel filter is less than a month old and still looks brand new. A couple guys I work with and I just took a break and walked out to see the car (one had not seen it yet) and they both agreed that the problem has to do with the fuel system in some way. Suggestions were to spray carb & choke cleaner into the carbs to try and clean them up a bit. Another thought was maybe about a vaccume leak somewhere (but I have no clue how to check for this). At lunch I checked for moisture on all the plug and coil wires and everyting looked dry. It's in the mid to upper 90's today and the car was parked out in the sun so it has heated up nicely so anything that may have been damp should be dry by now. Yet it still runs like crap.

Is it obvious which has been done to look at the valves? I'm working a deal to get a head that has been rebuilt and never used and I'd be curious to know what was done to it. What should I expect to have to pay for the 3 angle job?

Hmmm.... Sounds like a good thing to have done. How much difference does this make? I'm just wonding aoubt the cost for benefit to see if it's really worth doing.

I will be starting to rebuild my new engine and need some info. First off let me say that it is an F54 block and I'm working on getting an N42 head from someone (deal is pending), and will be running carbs on an N36 intake; car already has a header on it. The PO of the engine said that the car had been sitting for a couple years before he bought it. He said he drove it home and then pulled the engine to do a V8 swap. I will be pulling the FI and head and replacing both with different pieces as stated above. What should I do to the engine during the rebuild? New rings? New pistons? Take the block to a machine shop? If so what should I have them do? What gaskets should I use? Do the freeze plugs need to be replaced? Tell me EVERYTHNIG! Basically I do not want to have to pull the engine out once it's done and I want it done right...but I am on a budget like most of us are. Car use will be for weekend pleasure and autox if this helps any.

What the heck is this!? How is this different than just having a valve job done?

I drove my Z to work today and man was it running like crap! It was sputtering and backfiring (from the exhaust) on acceleration like crazy, not even hard acceleration just average. If I pull the choke up then it drove better...killed any power I have though and made passing tougher. However, I would have to push the choke all the way down when I came to a stop otherwise the car would stall. I drove it a 1 1/2 weeks ago and it was running fairly well all things considered. Now today the temp was 5-10 degrees less and the humidity was higher as it has been raining here on and off for the past several days. I did have it running on the 4th showing it to a few friends but did not drive it anywhere. Any ideas or help would be great!! I'm at a loss as to what's going on.

About 11 years ago I had a Honda Accord that I autoxed and I put in a Centerforce clutch. Made a world of difference in that car! The feel was just like the stock clutch as far as pedel action but damn that thing had grip. I could a stock clutch slip if I tried but even under the worst of conditions I could not make the Centerforce slip (keep in mind that it was only a 4cyl). Most of the time this was a good thing...but there was one time that slippage would have been better. Stupid, under the influence, young, etc...I was coming home from a club one night and almost missed my turn so I slammed on the breaks and shifted hard from 4th to 2nd at 60mph and totally blew the clutch to pieces (sadly it was only a few months old). When the shop took it apart they laughed and said that they run these in their race cars and had NEVER seen anything like this before. Just goes to show that we all do stupid things sometimes...fortunately I have grown up a lot in the past 11 years. Bottom line here, I like them a lot but have no basis of comparrison on a Z.

Try the local rental places like A-Z Rental or something like that, one of them should have one. I can't tell you if it would be a tow behind or not, but if it's not then just roll it up onto the trailer with the engine hanging on it then lower the engine onto the trailer and fasten everything down tight. Will cost a few bucks but will make life much easier. Me and one other guy unloaded my L28 onto an engine stand with something called a GenieLift. WRONG TOOL FOR THE JOB!! I will never try that again, I will just go and rent a stupid engine hoist and save myself a lot of time, agravation, and effort.

All I have to say is... ROFL ROFL ROFL

I read on the site beandip provided that the N36 only came on the 260Z. Does anyone know if this is accurate?

OK, now I feel a little stupid. I looked in MSA and VB and did not see this, that's why I posted here. :stupid: I see it now, thanx for the info.

Sorry for the delay...I have not forgotten about you guys who have replied to me. I have a 'new' dash on it's way to me and the seller originally told me that he did not have the glovebox but then just before he shipped it he found it and has included it for me. I waiting to get it so I can see what condition it is in before I make any further decisions.

I'm the new owner and haveconsidered this as an option but the real problem is unloading it as I do not have anything to attach it to nor the space to do this kind of opperation. It is going into a storage place so I really must be able to roll it. I wish that I could just do the drag-it-along option, it would be MUCH easier.

I picked up an L28 in Houston and brought it home to Austin on a small trailer (much easier to load and unload) and used a pair of 3" wide ratchet tie downs (like the ones Home Depot and Lowe's sells) to secure it. I kid you not, this thing did not move one ince in transit (ratchet them down tight). Sorry, I can't help you with loading it or unloading it.

Thanx guys!! The person clarified what their needs are. He wants to put an R180 3.36 on his '76 280Z (not sure why but hey, it's his car). So in this case he does need the R180 bar from a 240 or 260.

Someone just asked me if I had "...a mustache bar for a 240..." Now as I recall the mustache bar is specific to the diff, either an R180 or an R200 and not the model Z. Is this correct? If not then what models had the same mustache bar as the 240, that is if any others were the same?

No kidding Ernie!! Yours did not even look this bad! Looks like this guy wrapped it around a telephone pole. Hope the people that were inside are ok.

From what I recall reading all you have to do is slightly modify the area where the shift stick is (cut a little metal out) to accomodate the 5th gear. Other that that I believe that it's a drop in swap.

I'm looking for a good N42 head. I can trade a P79, maybe a P90 with 3400 miles on it since rebuild, or pay money. Maybe even trade for some other parts (let me know what you need). Please contact me if you have a GOOD N42 head you are willing to let go!

What needs to be done to make this setup work? I have read that the head needs larger valves. I'm trying to get an idea just what's involved here. Any machine work? Can the head letterally be taken off the original engine and bolted to the F54 block with no other work needed (provided there's nothing wrong with it)? Reason I'm asking is that I was going to go with a P90 head but have discovered that to make it worth doing there is some machine work needed (shaving the head) and from what I can tell you can just bolt the N42 on and have the same compression as the worked over P90. If the N42 is truely that much easier of a swap for the same gains I will change directions and seek out a good N42 head. EDIT: The block has flat-top pistons.

A tiny bit of additional info that I forgot to put in which may help. Upon discovering the very low cyl we put just a little heavy oil in the cyl through the plug hole and then tried the compression test again and it shot up to 150! The person helping said that this pointed to a bad ring.

I agree! I like them and I want a pair! :classic:

Since I kinda hijacked someone else's thread I am starting my own here but this is a link to the background of what I'm talking about. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7875 I went over to another member's place to do some testing on my car and we started with a compression test. Here are the results. cyl 1 = ~120psi cyl 2 = ~120psi cyl 3 = ~120psi cyl 4 = ~40psi :surprised cyl 5 = ~120psi cyl 6 = ~120psi So it is now clear why my Z will not run well went she is cold (runs good when hot, after being driven a bit) and explains the blowby! With this info we skipped the leakdown test, which is what we originally started out to do. In stead of cleaning the plugs we just replaced them. The old ones were kind of a white-ish color. From the books I have that indicates a normal wear. The hoses we had available were not long enough to make a catch can so that did not get done but I will get some hose and take care of that. This is kind of a drag as I will not have to devote time, money, and effort to getting the L28 ready to install which will take me some time as I am just learning about them and will be attempting a rebuild on it. So that's where I'm at. I'm going to bed now...:sleepy:

There still has been no price posted. Ppppplllllleeeeaaassssseeeee.............. I just want to know how far out of my league this little gem is.