=Enigma=

Arne, I believe he was talking about the front window only. Based on that, are you still sure about your statement?

Yeah, I'm happy with the deal I made. I just need to get this thing back on the road. I'm almost done with the suspension refresh. I just need to finish painting a few things, get the fasteners plated, and rebuild the brake system. None of this really needed to be done, but I thought I'd do the brake system for safety reasons and WIAT, I thought I'd repaint all the running gear to eliminate the surface rust. 280Zx dizzy swap is done and I"ll be adding an MSD 6AL, Blaster II coil, and Taylor plug wires. You know how it goes.

Wow, someone really went ape $hit on the custom paint job there. Not sure I'd want that on my vehicle but it looks pretty cool anyway, except for the gold tailpipe.

Look closely at the one in the upper left hand corner. It looks like more than the lip is bent. I guess that's what happens when you run over a curb at speec.....

Mine are painted

:cheeky: Funny guy....don't be dissin' my sunroof. It's period correct and dealer installed. At least I didn't cut the hole 30 yrs later. You're just jealous. Don't be a hater. Seriously though, I felt like I made a good deal at the time. It was a bit more than I budgeted for, but I got a lot more than I expected.

First of all an F54 IS an L28. Everything I've read indicates that F54/P79 combos came with flat top pistons. I'm no expert here but it seems to me you're asking the wrong questions or just asking the wrong way. Perhaps that's the reason for the lack of knowledgable answers. As for what pistons will fit your F54, my answer would be be the right one for the bore. Any piston for an L28 should fit in any L28 block, but it has to be one that fits whatever you current bore is. It may have been bored over at some point, or it may need to be to get rid of uneven cylinder wear, ridges, or scoring. According to the lengine.exe program, an L28 with a stock bore, an unshaved head, and a standard head gasket will yield the following compression ratios with the listed heads and pistons: L28 block + N47 head + dished pistons = 8.29/1 L28 block + N47 head + flat pistons = 9.82/1 L28 block + P79 head + flat pistons = 8.52/1 I am still learning all this stuff myself, but it seems to me that it might be worth your while to purchase a copy of How to Rebuilt Your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine or How to Modify Your Nissan&Datsun: Ohc Engine. I've got a copy of the latter on the way. I hope this helps some but like i said, I'm no expert.

Oil repels water, and what little might make it through isn't going to harm anything. That said, I would still prefer to have some sort of shield deflecting the majority of rain that might be encountered while in driving in a severe downpour.

With all the talk of car values, it's got me wondering if I really got the good deal I think I did. I bought my 1 owner, always garaged 1973 240Z with 78,000 original miles back in October 05' for $5500 here in Cali. It was almost completely original when I bought it except for what looks like 2.5" exhaust piping, a 77-78 aftermarket 5 spd, early round top SUs and air cleaner, some bullet mirrors, a Kenwood AM/FM/Cassette radio w/4 cheapo speakers, and a urethane front air dam. In going through the car, the worst rust I have found is some VERY minor surface rust near the battery tray, around unused bolt holes on the lower front radiator crossmember, and on the suspension components(front and rear transverse links, rear link member, front crossmember, rear link mount brackets). If you saw the pics of the red Z on auction at JB, my suspension had less rust than that one. All of this has since been media blasted and repainted. There is absolutely no ROT anywhere that I find. Also, there is a lot of rock chips behind the wheels and on the rocker panels, probably from regular driving on a gravel road. The PO must have has some major road work near him him at some point which did the damage to the paint. Hard to notice unless you look close, but there's lots of it. I'm thinking of painting the lower portion black or coating it with a rubberized bed liner type material to cover/seal it. You can see the damage to the rockers via the link in my sig. Note the lips of the wheel wells. Comments? Suggestions? At the time of purchase, KBB and one or two other valuation sites placed the value at approx $6500. Again, I paid just $5500. So did I pay too much, too little, or just enough?

Here's a link for you: http://www.jetlink.net/~okayfine/su/tunacan.html

Before trying to start that thing up, you may want to check to see if the fuel tank has rusted over. doing so will prevent you from pumping rust and sediment into your freshly cleaned or new carbs.

If you ahve an electric pump all you have to do is turn on the key. Didn't you say you added one? If so, no need to crank. Also, have you tried replacing the gasket on the float bowl? Adam

Welcome to another soon to be Z addict! Let the mods begin!

The hinges on my 73' were painted at the factory to match the car.

Feel good about the fact that you own the car that caught your eye when you were young. The cars of today probably won't be around in thirty years, and even if they are, they won't have the flavor of the cars of old.

I haven't seen this asked yet but where exactly is the fuel coming from? Is it coming from the overflow tube? Since you didn't mention this specifically I'm guessing that's not the case, and it is likely coming from the fuel inlet seat. When I removed the fuel inlet bolt to remove the filters inside, I could not get the inlet washer, which is made of aluminum, to re-seat no matter how much I tightened it down. I tried brass washers as well to no avail. In the end I found some plastic washers and that did the trick. Finding the source of the leak was very difficult due to the material the carb itself is made of. The fuel tended to spread across the top and side of the float bowl in a very thin layer that was almost impossible to detect unless I got real close with a flashlight. Once I figured it out it seemed obvious. At first I thought I had somehow created a hairline fracture in the inlet bore that I couldn't see. I''m glad that was not the case. Anyway, I hope this helps.

Good suggestions. Based on what I've read on the forums here, it's important to make sure, as 24tzman pointed out, that it's a puller or a pusher, depending on where you plan to mount it. On my 73' 240Z, the electric fuel pump is mounted down low by the fuel tank and is therefore a pusher. I believe it was added to assist the mechanical pump up front with it's job. Moving this pump to the front of the car would probably not work very well. Perhaps simply mounting your elec pump lower would help things.

Just buy a whole boot kit for between $7-$19. These generally come with the type you can slip on and crimp while the unit is mounted to the car. I'm not sure what year the CV joint came from but Back Arnley and Dorman both make replacements for the 70-83 Zs. You just use a pair of end nippers to crimp it on. Check Rockauto.com or even your local parts store.

It looks kind of like a Virago. Remember when those first came out?

Hey good catch. I guess I meant as I get older...

Watchu talkin' bout Willis? If the lobes are pointed skyward, that means they're not pushing the valves down and therefore they are NOT "open". Remember this is an OHC(overhead cam) engine. I know you know this stuff. Am I missing something?

Are you sure it was dirt based mud or was it perhaps sludge caused by moisture mixing with the water? In any event,at a minimum I'd probably put a new oil filter on it, run some engine flush through it, drain it, change the filter again, drive it for a few hundred miles and then do it all again one more time, assuming that everything looks ok after that. If not, repeat ad infinitum.

Welcome to the forum. The answer is obviously going to depend on the condition of the motor, what modifications if any have been done, and what size motor. As far as mileage goes, you're probably best off going for a 240Z with an L24 and SU carbs. The early 240's are lighter, have a smaller displacement engine, and the easy to maintain SUs. As the cars get older, they get heavier, especially the 280ZX. They also get larger displacements. Same blocks more or less, and not much weight difference there, but bigger displacement generally means lower mileage, although the addition of fuel injection in the later years may help to address this difference. Then it's all about weight and drag. None of the cars are particularly aerodynamic, although to the untrained eye you would think they were. Anyway I've gone on long enough.....

Hey welcome. Looks like you made a nice find there. What kind of plans do you have for the new rig?

Hello noobie! Welcome to the fray. Lots of great advice to be had here. Most topics have already been covered ad infinitum but free to toss up any you can't find answers to using the search feature. Let the mods begin!