2ManyZs

If a picture is possible that would help greatly. In fact a picture here might find you a buyer since most everyone here is more interested in the 240 series. The pricing can be over a wide range depending on the condition of the car because so many early cars have been neglected. A few examples of this would be does the chassis have any rust? Does everything work? Has it been kept covered or out in a field? How long since it was last driven regularly? Is it in original condition? How is the interior? That's just a few of the questions and the answers will have a lot to do with just how much the car may be worth.

I agree, I guess I was kinda assuming someone was going to get serious about autocrossing. But we all know what the first word is in assume. Most people when they upgrade automatically go out and get the stiffest bars they can thinking it is going to be the best thing they can put on and it isn't always the case. In my case I learned by making that mistake.:mad:

I don't have the autocrossing experience John has nor do any of my cars look as good as his. But I would like to put a penny worth on the table. I would highly recommend spending a little extra money when it come to sway bars and get some decent adjustable bars, especially if you use a welded rear. The added flexibility of being able to adjust the bars according to the course you are running will pay off in the long run. I ran an ITS 280 with a welded rear and non-adjustable bars. It just had way to much oversteer with the bars I was running and even by swapping out for the stock bar I never could get the car to handle the way I liked, especially when I was racing in the rain. The more adjustability you build into the car the better of you will be when it comes time to run a different course, and that is primarily what autocrossing is, it's not like running around the same race track weekend after weekend. No two autocross courses are ever going to be exactly the same even if it is in the same parking lot.

Most people never think about what their parents sacrificed to bring them into this world and to raise them right. Zmefly, I guess your parents did a pretty darn good job. If I could I would gladly give up all my cars if it would bring my father back so I could just tell him things I now wished I had said to him before he passed away. I never realized until it was to late that spending time with my folks was more important than most anything I had going on in my life. Yes, you have lost a car, but I doubt you will be without one long. The next one will probably be even better than your last. And you'll have someone to share the fun you will have in it. JUST DON'T SCARE THE YOU YOU KNOW WHAT OUT OF THEM!!

If you can't get anywhere with Monza try Impact Parts. I bought some pieces for my Webers there, they might be able to help you find one. I think they still sell the Monza header. Not sure about their web address but their info number is 1-914-434-3338.

Hey, Daniel, you ever thought about doing a MOBILE gauge repair business?? We could help you get them out if we had to, but since you know how to do it and how to fix them when they are out........ Just kidding, thanks for the info, it will probably come in handy but hopefully not too soon.

Well Bill, as you can see we all have different opinions. Guess it will be up to you to decide which way you want to go. Royce is right, the load leveling attachment is a very handy item to have, it saves a lot of time, and holds the engine in any angle you wish, it also will save you from having any nicks and gouges in the paint if you have just detailed the engine compartment. One little trick I use when I'm installing the engine to help line up the tranny is to take a block of wood (2x4 or 4x4) and place it across the top of the tranny in the tunnel, place a floor jack under the tranny and jack it up so it will hold the trans still, then use a rope or chain around the bottom of the tranny up through the hood latch bracket and secure it. This makes it so the tranny isn't moving around while you are trying to line them up, a lot of times one person can do it by themselves. With the tranny moving around it almost takes 2 people to put them together, one on the trans and one to work the engine around.

I have never tried to pull both at once, since they are so long. You can do it but it isn't easy with the amount of room you have to work in, plus you would have to have the car off the ground quite a bit to be able to let the trans. swing down enough to get the front of the engine to clear the radiator support. I usually drop the trans. first with a floor jack, then pull the engine. Or tie the front of the trans. to the hood latch bracket and pull the engine by itself. You can do both but it will be a lot easier on the knuckles to do them one at a time. Not only that but you would have to lift the engine so high to get the trans. to clear it would have go above your head almost, unless you wanted to try to drop the engine and trans. out the bottom the way they do old Mopars, and lift the chassis over it, again not an easy task. Hope that helps...

byuniqe is right, $1300 is way out of line. I believe you could probably buy a completely rebuilt head and pay the core charge since yours may not be accepted and only pay in the neighborhood of $600. Take a look in the For Sale Forum and you should be able to pick up and an E-88 pretty cheap, then you could always use it as a core to turn in for a rebuilt head. I believe MSA has rebuilt heads fro around $450 plus a $150 core charge (old catalog price). You may be able to find them even cheaper. Another thought is to check with ATK engines, look in the links section for their web-site. I believe they sell rebuilt heads as well as rebuilt engines. I would be a little leary of junkyard heads as you never know if they are warped or if they are full of corrosion etc. but they would be a good alternative to use as a core when if you can find a place to buy a rebuilt one.

I don't know if this will help you at all but in looking at the service manual for my 75 the fuel pump is wired through a relay to the Air Regulator and is then fed off the number 34 pin on the ECU. The pins are numbered from 1 to 35 on the ECU. When mounted on the car the number one pin is bottom left, 18 being top left, 19 being bottom right and the 35 pin is top right. The relay is tied into the ignition switch as I though, but exactly which relay it is on the panel is a question I don't find an answer for.

Sorry that I can't help you much. Not only is this something I've never done before, I thought about it once and decided it was going to be a nightmare trying to get it right and being "electically challenged" doesn't help me much. I will say this though, I don't think the blue wire you refer to has anything to do with the fuel injectors or distributor. I believe the pump is wired to the ignition switch as it runs when the switch is on and runs constantly any time the switch is in the run position. Hope that may help some, of course not being able to see what you are doing, I can only guess at what or where you are referring to.

It sounds like you have a tedious job ahead of you. If the chassis is in good shape you have the basis for a good car. There will be a lot of work in finding all the little pieces that need to be replaced by the long term sitting in a field. To answer your question about the VIN number, the don't "decode" like a Chevy or Mopar would. The HLS30 is the model and series designation and the 95972 is the sequential build number. 7/72 is the build date and the GVWR is the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating of the car with passengers and anything else they might put in. The chassis weight is closer to 2300 plus or minus a bit. Vintage racing? Ouch, read that expensive as is most any other type of racing, except for autocrossing or Solo. Before you decide on that you might want to get the car back into road worthy condition and then decide on how deep you want to dig into your pockets, how deep you go will judge what kind of modifications (if any) you can do to do any kind of racing. I have raced in Improved Touring and yes it is a blast but it is a lot of work and it definately isn't cheap anymore.

Well, the POR -15 and the Corroless from Eastwoods will work as long the rusted out piece isn't in a structural location. The way you describe it it sounds as if it is near where the inner fender is welded to the firewall, if it is it would be wiser to weld in a patch there, since it is close to a weld seam. The sealer would be better on a piece that hasn't as much to do with the structural integrity of the chassis, or hasn't rusted completely through. If there is a hole there now the you may find that the rust has spread out and when you get to fixing a small hole it turns into a bigger one by the time all the rust is gone. Since I can't see it you will have to use your judgement as to how to proceed. Use the Z-car Bookstore here to link up with Amazon about the availability of the book, and let's help Mike keep this site for us to use.

OK, I must be a little dense, but what it Occam's Razor?

Hmm, the LT-1 into a 90-97 300zx sounds kinda interesting.........

You know now that you mention it, I haven't seen the speaker boxes you used to be able to buy that mounted speakers in front of the wheel arch behind the seat in years. I wonder if any still sells them? There would be another alternative for the rear speakers.

Looks pretty darn good to me for the "price". The damage doesn't look to be too bad, it looks like a couple repair panels and some paint and you have a decent driver. Considering the investment to get the car it shouldn't be too hard on the wallet to put it back on the road. As long as the rest of the car isn't rusted out or any other hidden surprises I'd say hit the the jackpot. I'd much rather fix a little damage like this than to try to fix a car that is all rusted out. As long as the suspension didn't take any damage, you could always save a little money( and weight) by replacing the hood with a fiberglass one. Even the bumpers look to be in pretty good shape. If there isn't too much damage underneath, if the rad support is bent it could be straightened on a frame machine, I think you would do well to fix this car up. For what you have saved in the "purchase price" I think you will probably spend a couple thousand in body and paint and have a pretty nice car when you are done. I'm not much of a body man either but in my opinion it's better to repair something that is bent than to try to replace something that has rusted to the point it isn't there anymore. Good luck. Btw, as far as the fuel injection goes, you could always yank it off in favor of a decent set of carbs!

Well, Daniel said he has put speakers under the dash, I've used plywood to replace the kick panels and built small boxes to hold the speakers there. You could make a speaker box to set behind the seat but with a series 1 car you would have to work around the tool storage, or if it comes down to it and your door panels aren't perfect you could mount them in the bottom front corner of the door. My preference would be under the dash or in the kick panels so you don't have to do any cutting. Hope that helps.

If you don't have it already, since you say you are new to mechanics, I would suggest you use the bookstore to pick up a copy of 'How to restore your Z-car". It will give you a lot of pictures and help with just about anything you will be doing with your car. First, don't bother trying to pull your engine if you don't have access to an engine hoist. Sorry, but you will end up doing a lot more work and cursing if you don't have the right equipment. There is a section in the book about pulling the engine that should be able to get you through it if you can get a hoist of some type. 2 people can pick up the engine if you had to but it isn't easy, I've done it and I'm not going to do it again. As far as the rust is concerned try to cut out the rusted area and replace it with new metal, if you try to put a patch over it it won't last. You need to get out the rust so that it won't keep on rusting. You may need to take out the battery tray to fix it, it isn't hard to do, and when you are done you can either weld it back in or bolt it in however if you bolt it in you may need to pull the front fender to get to the nuts, unless you weld the nuts to the body. As far as your water leak, did you check the wiper seal on that side? It could also be a seam in the tray under the wiper panel has separated or you may have some rust under there. You should check under there to be sure. It could also be a hose going to the heater core too, or the core itself. Just giving you a few more places to look if you didn't find the leak.

Well, to be technical I didn't say the Syntec was synthetic, I just said it was good "stuff". And it is a bit cheaper. I've been using Castrol in all my vehicles except for the diesel for years and have never had any problems with "sludge" build-up like some of the oils I used in the past. I couldn't see spending so much on the full synthetic when the Syntec did the job for less. I never have used any full synthetics in my engines but I have used the Red Line synthetic transmission and rear end lubes. Not that it made my 280 fast enough to keep up with all the 240's, 325's, and RX-7's!

No problem Royce. Probably when I read one of your posts a thought pops up to add just like when you read one of mine! Between the two of us we would make a pretty darn smart guy! BTW, Castrol Syntec is pretty good stuff too, I ran that in my race car since I couldn't afford the really expensive stuff.

I'm sorry, but before I try to do the research I have a question that has been nagging me since I re-read your post. Is there a reason that you want to put the fuel injection on the L-28 to put in a 240?? It would be my opinion that what you should do is put the intake and carbs on it the came with the 240 if you have them. With all the work to put the wiring harness in and all the associated work to hook up the ECU and the ignition control unit what you may be doing is creating a very large headache for yourself. If you have an N-42 head off a 280 the intake and carbs from a 240 will bolt right on, no problems, and with that you will save yourself a lot of aggravation and wasted time trying to put all the fuel injection harness etc. in the car. The carbs(even the later smog carbs) will do as good a job as the fuel injection, and be a lot simpler and even more adjustable than fuel injection. If I read your post right you are trying to put a fuel injected 280 motor into a 240 with the stock 240 distributor. This won't work. You would need the electronic distributor from the 280 to fire the fuel injection. There are three wires from the 280 (brown, red, and green) distributor that tie into the ignition control unit and the ECU to fire the injectors. You would need to use the wiring harness from the 280 not to mention all the sensors, and control units. I believe it would be in your best interest to use the carbs instead of the fuel injection, it will be much simpler and a lot less time consuming.

Well Meakin, I for one won't laugh because I don't know what the head casting number is on the double overhead cam head. Probably because it's been about 9 years since I even saw a Fairlady up close. Guess I'll have to get out my pile of books to find it out, unless someone else knows.

I got to thinking about something this morning sitting in another traffic jam on I-95. Doesn't the heater control valve cable connection have an adjustment on it where you set it and tighten a bolt down on the cable? It could be that the cable has just pulled through the clamp. If I'm right this could be a very simple fix, at least to get heat for the time being. But you should go through all the postings and do all of the things that are mentioned so that you won't have another problem crop up in the future, that is when you have the time to do them.

Since there are so many things you can do to your car, all I can say is this. Do whatever you want to with it, or whatever you can afford to do. Unfortunately they don't always work together. Take it one step at a time and have a blast doing it, when it's done have a blast driving it.