dutchzcarguy

Normally the engine has some pick up points front and rear.. like this one.. (L28 of my 280zx) A balancer and a hoist is very handy and don't cost a lot of money.. be sure that you fit them to a beam that is strong enough to support the load of the hoist.. (i got myself a giant H-beam that easely can manage the weight. (over a ton.)

Wow... i to have scrapped a 240z that was better then that!! It was a car with a original Dutch license number so it was all it's life here in NL.. But those are often also the bad ones because of the weather.. How is it possible that a Z has such a bad cowl? was it near the titanic?? (as wal280z sayd..) or in the rain? (In Tampa florida???? it's not a Florida car then..) I would like to see the rest of that Z-car? Pics? They must be of a very good car otherwise it's not worth the work you will have to correct this mess..

I think it's sometimes wise to check a good working system, then you get some experience with electricity, especially when your not much of a electricien.. Get yourself one of those clamp-ampèremeters, they are so handy, you don't need to open the circuit just clamp them on the cable you want to know the ampèrage from! I fear that your systems seems to work again but the problem will come back.. (if you did'nt find the culprit..) keep (at least) one eye on it...

Floor replacement (240z) complete with all the reinforcements.. and 280zx fenders etc etc.. also did a steeringwheel.. the one in the little pic on the left of this comment!

Cliff, exactly the same here... it's only that other people want money.. 😂haha... that's why i need money.. but i always sayd: fun on the job is MUCH more important than the money.. As a service engineer in security systems i came EVERYWHERE. From smallest house to the biggest villa and any businesses.. It was a job that i liked to get out of bed for almost every day haha.. But after 12 years i had an accident at work and i'm glad that i had a insurance for job loss due to incapacity for work.. I'm retired now you could say.. (this was around 2000) Around 2006 i had a small job just for a few hours but after i drove my fireblade (fast motorbike) against a big oak that job was ended also.. 😞 So what i wanted to say is: making less money is not bad but save yourself enough to get through life and have fun.. Mart

I have the smallest ESAB welder mig.. (with co2 10ltr./200bar.) (swedish company?) does it wonderfull! hav'nt read the whole thing but one thing i want to say is: clean the spot that you want to weld very good.. i see a lot of people not cleaning well their welding spot.. place ( whatever..) When i was welding a door edge.. and the use of a magnet to keep the sheet metal aligned.. Old speaker magnet comes in handy with weld work.

Sorry.. the euro 280zx has no overflow bottle...

Yes i think so but just zinc not that golden look.. I don't make 2 piles of stuff to zinc.. i always do the cadmium/zinc? i believe it's called? Original the car has zinc (grey-ish) and cadmium? (gold-ish) colors on the metal parts, Galvano the company that does this for me can do both but then it's twice as expensive.. i decided that it IS a car for daily drive and NOT a trailerqueen... so the parts need to be protected against rust but they don't need to be as they were factory.. as there are few zinc grey parts under the hood there is not much difference.. (It's totally possible that i spray the coolingplate under the intake with grey heatresistent paint.. and the under engine front plate black.) The under shield had a LOT of undercoating on it when i brought it to the firm for passifiing.. it had a little rust and where the undercoating was off it was zinc grey as far i remember..

They are! After 42 years they broke off.. Luckely only 1 other broke off at the 6th cylinder exhaust manifold, right at the end of the engine head.. i already took care of that one, head is ready for install.. only the block i have to clean and paint.. and the engineroom also.. Will take a few weeks..or month's.. depends on how well i feel.

This week i got my parts back from the galvano company.. Nice to see that old parts so dirty come back like new.. Here the passified nuts of the exhaust manifold.. have to drill them out and make new threads in them.. Old and new from the fuel rails (lower is '79 and upper is 82-83 rail.. Look and find the differences!) came back like new.. Lots of parts for zx.. (not only for my own..) Rare engine lower front cover for a 280zx.. Look at the old spring few pics back and this is the same one.. A pic for myself to see how it go's together again.. (the throttlebody linkage.) one of the thausands of pics in this resto.. sorted parts ...

Just a little, if they are not perfectly restored they change every time, you constantly busy adjusting them till the point you wish you never seen them! That was 30 years ago, now i think with the right parts you can build new flattops in a way they work well.. but the question is can you get those good parts so to make a good set of flattops? Most people hate these ft's because they are a pain to adjust.. roundtops are more easy.. i think, i never bottered to look at ft's .. i make a big bow around them Hahaha...

Might ad.. do the rivnut install in wet paint and check if the surrounds is covered in paint.. (bit of paint on the outside of the rivnut and) then it will not rust.

Mark the spot where it rubbs and take of the exhaust then make the pipe like a elips on the marked spot.. a few mm is enough maybe you can do it even when it's still installed, also you could take out the steering part that may be much more easy and make a small dent in the pipe! (Make the pipe elipse with a big pair of piers..)

I can only say that i have the left one on my '79 280zx (original) .. euro version. I have seen those copper pipes with only one outlet maybe thats cleaner look and easy to install.

After about a year of driving the 280zx i decided to do the engineroom and also refresh the seals of the L28. At first i thought that i would do this in a few years but as i discovered that the engine after 42 years (!) has a small water leak into one of the cylinders i thought i better do this now. The engine runs as new but it uses a little bit of coolingwater so i took it apart and as i expected it has a small leak near a cylinder.. it was the rear (6) cylinder! The seal was damaged there it had a kink in it.. wonder if that was since it came out of the factory because there are no clues that it was ever apart.. (still the very special orig. nuts on the exhaust flange.. and all the bolts and bits are originals.) Exhaustflange nuts (these where luckily the only ones that broke off besides one on the engine that i have already repaired..) So i need to do these 3 bolts in the exh.manifold... (I have sended these nuts with 35-40 kg of old parts to the company that passifies these parts so they come back as a very clean part.. drill them out, tap them and will try to reuse them!) Cylinders looked very good you can see the honing marks very good so no need to take the pistons out! Here i found the small leak into cylinder 6! If you look good at 3-4 o'clock on the seal around this cyl. then you can see that the seal was not very well installed on this head! it has a twist in the seal. next pic at 2-3 o'clock it is very clear to see that the seal was not installed very well! Very happy that it's just the seal that was faulty! Here a cleaned up version of the head .. it's a N42 head by the way. I took the head to a firm that revise engines and they cleaned it for me.. as the head is as straight as an arrow it does not need any work. I already cleaned the valves and renewed the stem-seals of them.. Also did a valve fitment check and ground the valves (for as far as necessary) with the special abrasives.. Taking the engine out pic.. Here a top-tip for when you restore springs.. The spring is on a little peace of sheetmetal so the cleaning can be done between the "rings" It comes back as a new one! I need to take these bolt-ends out.. if you have a tip other then drill them out i like to hear from you! (I try to get them out with some oil and if not then i cut them flat of and drill them out and tap new thread in it..) AH.. i will try to do it with heat.. but tell me, what do you do.. wait till its colder again or try to turn them when still reasonable hot? Has somebody used coldspray? i try that also on the bolt (not the manifold) .. (Just bought some penatraiting oil that also cools it.. the bolt will freeze!) Next job is cleaning up the rest/ and painting of the engine and engine room.. to be continued.. 😉

Maybe you guys don't know this but a euro 240z has no vapor tank to begin with.. When i saw the tank (in the 1990's) the first thing i did was get rid of it! A euro fill hose has one little pipe and that is connected to a single pipe on the other end top of the tank.. iirc.. see a serv.manual.

Oh my... Its now 89000 $ .. Right door top does not fit at all! (Pic 26) and the hood alignment could be much better.. the airfilter is the wrong one i think.. (should not have the cold /hot switching device..) This color in/out .. Ofcourse it's a matter of taste but i hate this colorcombo.. jak!

Maybe someone here can swap you one for another good part if you have something lying around? Thats a way i like to work these days..

👏 Applause ! You guys are good.. next time make more pics BEFORE and DURING taking the car apart.. 🙂

@ElMariachi Problem solved? later on i asked myself could it be that your starter is turning in the wrong direction? (+/- wrong inside or out..) just a thought..

We use in europe BPR6ES-11 in the L28 you could order 6 new ones it's just a few bucks and test it. But i don't think it solves your problems.. there are a lot things that make a engine run rough..

Should they not be BPR6ES plugs? so not 5 but 6 (Has to do with hotter/colder..)

That guy can get pretty far these days! 😉 Interesting topic! Last week i started on my 280zx enginebay (in a while i put that on my own thread 1979 280zx 2+2 slickroof.) and it has a N42 head.. I'm gonna cleanup the engineroom as a last step in the restore and was thinking of using a E30 (This is a 2 liter head of a nissan L20!) as i have one lying around (restored) on my attic. Also a original Datsun cam so called slalom-cam is an option to put in the E30. (I have a N42 block with dimpled pistons (I forgot the right word for it.. sorry.) Can i combine a E30 with a slalom-cam (0.475 lift - 275 duration) on my block N42? I have heard about making a thick copper gasket but i never done it before, to make less compression.. When i go to a bigger cam i also need to goto hitachi carbs (YEAH.. old school!!) or another (programmable) Injection system as the orig. sys. does not like the bigger cam..

I got a new set out of the usa sold years ago by black dragon.. it's a bit crazy to send them back again! are there no complete fenders for 240z for sale in the US? Send me a pm.. (so we don't mess up this topic..)

I never seen a cowl that bad! How is the rest of this car?? Some pics? That autospares.eu website is not recommended to buy parts from, old site and can't find anything good about it.. I think that any 280z chassis has a better cowl than this one pictured.. get yourself another chassis.. (I can't believe the rest of that car is good..? i see also big holes near where the battery sat?)