jonathanrussell

@Joseph@TheZStoreThis is awesome news. Have you guys installed in one or more cars and tested on street and track? If so, a write-up by drivers describing the characteristics and other setup elements (which springs, anti-roll bars, etc) would be really helpful. If not, any chance this is being considered?

It is interesting that the lash pad marks are in different places in the total rotation. To me this means that for some period of years the car would sit for a long time untouched and then someone would try to start it, rinse, repeat.

Awesome find. Personally, I would suggest getting it cleaned up and running safely and then drive it and see whether you like it or not. If yes, then do some more. If no, sell it. I would resist the temptation to take it apart and dig too deep. Do things like.... -Thoroughly clean interior...remove seats, carpet, clean, reinstall. - Drain, fill fuel tank. Go with ethanol free in my opinion. -Get the engine turning and running. Change engine oil and filter. Pull valve cover and inspect camshaft, rockers, etc. Don't adjust anything. Search and you will find threads on reviving an engine that has been sitting for a long time. - Pull the carb domes and carefully clean chambers (don't bend needles when you lift off piston), float bowls, etc. I suggest that you don't adjust anything. Be careful with the floats and the metal tabs they rest on. You don't want to change how those tabs are bent. Clean the needle jets and chokes. No need to remove the carbs from the manifold though. Add dampening oil (lots of places online to help you determine how much and what weight). - Change plugs, and make sure cap and rotor are okay. - Make sure the small vacuum hoses that connect to the timing advance work. - With luck, the above will get it running. After you get it running, tackle other things before driving. -Check timing, adjust. - Change diff and transmission oil. - Flush, bleed clutch master and slave. I would be surprised if these work without replacing. - Get brakes working. You are probably going to need to replace / rebuild everything. I would be surprised if you don't need to replace master cylinder, front calipers, and rear drum cylinders. Hard to predict whether the booster will work but you can drive without it. Just watch out for vacuum leaks caused by defective booster. If booster is broken, until you get a new one you can block off the vacuum line. - Check suspension for safety...ball joints, tie rod ends. Grease both until new flows out. - Flush antifreeze and make sure the car warms up and maintains temp. If not, dig in a bit. I would be surprised if the radiator isn't clogged. Basic stuff though- radiator, water pump, fan clutch, thermostat, temp sender for gauge. While you are at it, replace water hoses in engine bay. I would wait on the heater hoses until all of the above is working well, or until you really want to frustrate yourself. - Buy new tires, balanced, alignment (just front toe on these cars when stock). Above should get you a car that you can drive and decide whether Z's are your bag or not. One thing to watch for though. Usually cars that get put away get put away for a reason. A blown head gasket is a common reason. Hopefully not but just watch out as you get the thing running and driving. I am sure I left off lots of things that others can help fill in. I guess my key suggestion though is ...... don't start taking it apart and don't adjust stuff until you determine that something is out of adjustment.

Right now the car has old 14" slotted mags with 195 70 14 tires. I am going to go with 16" Panasports, zero offset, 205 55 16. Haven't picked the tire model yet.

The Koni Yellow news above is just awesome. Can't wait to give it a try on one of my cars- probably my 75 280z. FYI, I just rebuilt every component on the underside of my Silver 72 240z- bushings, struts, springs, steering, u-jonts, everything. My goals for the things that impact the suspension were.... - reversable if I want to go back to being completely stock. - minimize play in steering response. - fairly flat cornering but not obsessively so. Not a track car but totally fun on mountain roads. - a bit lower than stock but not screaming as a lowered car. - street friendly- doesn't pound when you hit bumps...not overly noisy...not bone jarring when on imperfect roads. Still though...firm. So, the good news is that the choices I made seem have met my goals. I really like how the car rides and handles and the stance is perfect for my tastes. The suspension is pretty firm and fun in corners. I could now use better wheels and tires though. There are no big bangs and jarring when I hit bumps. My theory was that the two things I have done to my Z suspensions in the past that have caused unpleasant, jarring ride characteristics on the street are... 1) performance anti-roll bars and 2) poly or missing bump stops. Here is what I used for the suspension. - Koni Classic red strut inserts. - Koni soft progressive bump stops ( sorry but I don't have access to the size I used until May). - Used set of good condition MSA blue lowering springs. My guess is that the Mulholland springs are similar but I don't know. Would be interesting to measure the coil sizes and count the number of coils. - Energy poly bushings with liberal application of the Energy bushing grease for....front LCA, steering rack, steering coupler, rear inner and outer LCA, front anti-roll bar end links and mount, rear top strut spacer. - Rubber bushings on the front and back of the T/C rods....though I am sure I could have followed the advice of most and used poly in front and rubber in rear. - New ball joints and tie rod ends. Cleaned and greased rack. - Cleaned, greased, reused original front strut top bearings. - Stock anti-roll bar in front. No anti-roll bar in rear, as was stock. So, having written all of this, I do though think that a more advanced dampening system would be great for our cars which is why the news about Koni yellows is so interesting to me. Best of luck and I hope this helps. J

@motorman7..... the yellow zinc plating looks fantastic. Color looks great and nice level of shine. Apologies if you have mentioned this earlier but can you please describe what you did to prep the parts before sending to Sav-On? Thanks. Really enjoying this topic.

@wal280z Good point about the mount nut on trans mount. I am pretty sure I did the same.

I did this in October on my 240z. Rebuilt everything under the car but didn't want to remove the engine. Started with rear end and then did the front. Here is what I did. - Entire car was lifted up on heavy duty jack stands. - Bought extra crossmember on ebay and powdercoated it. - BTW, transmission is installed and trans mount is installed. Just letting you know since you have had the rest of the car apart. Both of these help stabilize the engine. - Removed radiator, control arms, steering rack, struts, TC rods, everything since all was being powder coated...not radiator. - Removed hood. - Used engine hoist with tilt attachment, connected to stock engine lift brackets. - Loosen engine mounts. - Lifted engine off mounts. - Removed old crossmember. - Installed powder coated crossmember with engine mounts. Installed mount fasteners but kept loose. - Getting the engine to drop in place on the mounts is kind of the same challenge it always is when you reinstall the engine. At first I was trying to keep the crossmember mounted but loose. This didn't work because it wasn't where it should be. Ended up tightening it up and the install went far smoother. Keeping the mounts a bit loose though helped. I had to fiddle with the hoist and tilting device, lifting, lowering, re-balancing, etc. I did a little pushing and pulling with a pry bar too. Eventually I was able to fasten the mounts and tighten. - I don't think I would attempt to do this without an engine hoist and tilting device. Also, my engine hoist has a nice long arm / beam which helps since the car was in the air. Trying to do it by supporting the engine with jack stands below, to me, would not give you the movement you need to get everything lined back up. Yes, I would do it this way again and plan to this summer with my dad's 280z. Hope this helps. Best of luck.

I used SEM Landau Black on my 72 240 this past summer. The sheen looks identical to me to the original interior in my 24k mile other 240z. One thing I found though is that the product is very sensitive to humidity when applying. For me, if I sprayed on a humid day the sheen would turn flat. If I remember correctly I needed to stay below 65% or so relative humidity to get what I thought was the intended sheen for Landau Black...and what I wanted. Finding low humidity days in the summer in Atlanta was a challenge. Got it done though and it looks great.

Your car looks fantastic. Drive it and enjoy it. Which wheels, tires, and sizes did you settle on?

I would really like having a modern 6 spd transmission but I don't like the idea of drilling my floors for mounts. If I had a more track focused Z then it probably wouldn't bother me. Looks like a nice kit though.

I would think ebay is your best bet. I don't see them often though. I have purchased two sets on ebay over the years. One thing to know though is one of my sets ended up being worthless because the rubber began failing....turning oily. Nothing I could figure out doing would stop it. Ended up having to toss that set. My reason for mentioning...if you buy a set, ask about this before buying.

Aren't early 260z 2+2 cars pretty rare?

Interesting @Diseazd Do you know which gas tank liner your friend used. Very interested.

Once you solve this, I think that this thread should be a sticky or pinned or something. If nothing else, it shows how to go about diagnosing EFI really well. Great work!

Original Nissan strap is NLA. You can buy aftermarket straps from MSA- they sell two kinds. If your strap is not broken, I personally wouldn't replace it. In my opinion the strap is an emergency measure that comes into play if the mount fails. I have never tried but I would think you could drive with a good mount and no strap and the car would drive the same.

Interesting. I find that the vintage rubber door weatherstripping works perfectly, same as original Nissan, and without any sealant. / glue. Couldn't imagine my doors shutting or sealing better. And, I have a 24k mile 240 with perfect original weatherstripping to compare with.

@Zed Head ..... I have read this many times also. I don't understand the logic though. Maybe you or someone else can help me understand. How is connecting these two and bypassing the heater core different from running the heat in the cabin and therefore having coolant flow through the core....essentially connecting the two hoses? Thanks...

Hi. I think all of us with a 280z have been through the FI troubleshooting at one time or another. Clearly you know how to diagnose so it is hard to imagine pointing out something you haven't already thought of. I will share what I have sometimes found to be the culprit. 1) I am sure you have thoroughly checked for vacuum leaks but it might be worth trying again. The rubber air passage between the AFM and the throttle body is a common problem. Also, there is a thread on this forum where the intake manifold where the egr valve mounts had corroded and was causing a huge vacuum leak. Worth looking at. 2) You have been so thorough in testing the AFM that what I am about to suggest seems unlikely but I had an AFM that had been subject to multiple backfires and the flap had become bent a bit. This caused the flap to stick open which resulted in all air being metered the same. Car ran very similar to what you describe. Either way, if I had your car I would buy a spare AFM and test. 3) Looks like you have replaced your injectors but more often than not I find that old 280zs have terrible injectors. Often when I have tried everything else, even if the injectors are clicking, replacing the injectors does it because they are clogged. They click but don't flow, or at least not consistently. Again, this is probably not your problem. 4) I always keep a few Ebay ECUs around for testing, though I have to say I have never found an ECU swap to solve my problem. No doubt though sometimes it is the ECU. FYI, I agree with suggestions in earlier posts too....get fuel pressure right, firing order, etc. I might lean toward trying a stock fuel pump and using the original pressure regulation device (assuming it is working). Naturally, you need to verify that you are getting spark to each cylinder but I am sure you have done that. Anyway, I doubt this has been helpful but wanted to share a few things that have stood out for me with the 280zs I have worked on over the years. Don't give up. At some point you will figure it out and with all of the great work you have done so far, and with your great compression numbers, I am guessing you will have a terrific running car.

I hear (read) you. But just going on what worked for me. I hammered in circles around the edges and it flattened the seating of the bearing for me.

I am out of ideas except to just suggest a bfh one last time. I know it sounds counter intuitive but...in my experience a pressed bearing (especially in these hubs) can get tweaked a bit and beating with a dead blow hammer can move it just a bit more. Just a thought. Best of luck. Let us know how it turns out.

You have pressed from the outside wheel plate (where the lug nuts are) pushing into the hub? Would love to see a photo of the inside of the companion flange with nut torqued.Also, the hub where the outside plate meets. Also...can we assume that you dont have two different size wheel hub assemblies and maybe got the inner sleeve mixed up. Regarding the copper spacer...if your car never had it and the hub rotated properly before, you shouldnt need it. Early cars didnt have unless retrofitted. Later s30 cars didnt have at all.

Agree. Bfh.

Does your car have the copper shim that goes between the inner bearing and the companion flange? If so, torque settings are significantly less than what fsm says. See the technical bulletin...72 or 73 can't remember. I am traveling today otherwise I could point you to the exact bulletin. Maybe someone else can. My 72 has the copper shim and I torqued mine to around 115 ft piunds....middle of the range. Other possibilities Bad bearings, outer bearing not bottomed to the axle bottom, outer bearing not fully seated in the hub. Mount the assembly in a vice and beat the outside where lug nuts are with a dead blow hammer. The threads on the axle shaft should just barely reach the outside of the companion flange when it is fully seated.

+ 1 Inner seal needs to be pushed in so companion flange doesn't rub. Happened to me this month.