A big wave.

[1oldmotorguy]

Heya, folks. I'm afraid I'm a bit new to the Z-car area, but learning rapidly. I signed up for your group, because thus far it's been an invaluable tool to help figure things out.

Hoping to have pics of my 'new' (well, new to me) 1977 280z 2+2. Found it down in a towing yard for 350, would barely start, wouldn't idle. Purchased for 350, (yes, 350 dollars), and tightened down the very much improvised AFM to throttle body boot. (near as I can tell, they cannibalized a boot off something else, and cut it more or less to fit. Rather less than more) At this point it's 'running' though I hesitate to drive it. (got to looking, no o-rings, though that's an inexpensive fix)

I'm really wondering where this thing was garaged. Being in Idaho, I've never seen a car this old with this little body rust. It's a california model (EGR, catalyctic converter, and pressure guage and all) and someone had (badly) put a dash cap in it. It will need a new headliner, and I definitely want to hit a full new bushing set beneath (going with the urethane when I can afford it).

Today's project is a valve clearance adjustment. There's rust along the passenger side rocker panel, and along the back edge of the front fender (near what I understand from someone's gallery is a drain for the area just in front of the windshield)

I picked up (with the help of this site) a 77 280z service manual. The color tag on the vehicle is still there, but I (sadly) can't find any markings on it anymore. There's about a 4" dent on the hood where they appear to have run the front end under something, or been backed over. All the glass is intact, and I can find no interior rust, and most of the plugs on the body appear to be intact (including the rear hatch).

I hope to eventually find a rear louver for it, would prefer at this point to keep it as original as possible. Would also like to find a few previous owners and tie them to a local manure spreader, as someone did a very *BAD* tint job on the windows (fortunately the front windshield they left alone).

The bushings, after 30 years, are of course cracked, and in poor shape. Brakes appear very good, and steering and handling is.. well, surprising, to say the least.

Having looked at the stories on here, I feel like I got one *heck* of a deal!

Opened up the valve cover, cam's showing some signs of rust, but moving freely. Found I can get a good many parts, and am planning on metal replacement along the panels where the rust is. (strikes me as a lot better than Bondo, especially if I can find a way to inner coat it)

Color is intact all the way through the body, kind of a metallic maroon. (plug still in spare tire well, and an original spare tire inflator, but no tire). Will need a new shift boot (the rubber one on the body) but that's fairly minor. Will get that likely from courtesy nissan.

Glove box has had a screwdriver driven into the latch, whoever the previous owner was evidently couldn't get it open. Rear seat has minor cracking, driver side seat needs reupholstered, and passenger has minor cracking. Dash... well, dash is another story. I'd compare it to somewhere between San Andreas, and Reno Nevada. (but at least it's not my fault!)

There appear to be four small holes someone has filled with clear RTV or silicone caulking on the back hatch, just above the windshield. Still trying to figure that one out, not sure I want to know.

But all in all, for being thirty years old, it's not a bad car. Will try to get some pics up when I get the opportunity.

Oh, and can you tell I'm excited? Kind of nice to have something a bit better to drive than the old 48 willys jeep. (another eventual full restore job, still has the original L4-134 flathead)

Motor is fairly clean, (not even the oxidation I've seen on most valve covers in the rear) and seems fairly tight. (plenty of power, even with all the vacuum leaks I've been fixing). Slight tappet noise on the third cylinder, hoping the valve clearance adjustment today will take care of that.

Running rich, so next chance I get, going to go after a pressure regulator. Still think I have a vacuum leak on the AFM->Throttle body boot... but not sure if I can fix that till I get a new one. Kind of on a shoestring budget, but... it's idling a lot smoother than when it started!

(imagine someone having the throttle body advance connected to the anti-stall valve? Also had the EGR plugged off. And I may have questions about the BCT valve later for folks).

Fuel rail is all original. (including I think the blasted pressure regulator).

Anything I should watch for on this vehicle? (full undercoat, some undercoat damage along the body main supports)

I put double-sided automotive trim tape on the bottom of the hood vent on the passenger side (only one bolt holding it) Will that be a problem?

(used the 3m stuff)

[sblake01]

Welcome. Sounds like you got a pretty good deal. The four small holes on the hatch were probably from the mounts for a louver. If you do get another one, try to find the type that requires no drilling. That 3M tape should hold your hood vent just fine though you can sometimes find replacement hood vents for sale on eBay and such. I may even have a good spare somewhere amongst my stuff. Running rich could be a number of things. Leaky cold start valve or injector(s), bad water temp switch, etc. or just bad connections. I would suggest you clean all EFI related electrical connections. That's a must on these cars. Your paint sounds like #611 Sparkling Burgundy Metallic from your description.

[1oldmotorguy]

Appreciated. Looking down through it this morning, keep coming in to check on things here, and that does sound about right. Found more rust on the thing, passenger side wheel well had a crack in the rustcoat, will hit it with phospho to see what the actual metal contition is., misremembered about the rocker panel, no visible rust on that, just on the lower parts of the fenders. I'll check the cold start valve and clean the connections just before I hit the valves. Appreciate that bit of info, as it's not something I'd thought of.

On the louver, I'd wondered about that, but the pictures I saw were of a different style, so appreciate that info too. Will update when I actually get to my home, and can upload my pics. *grins wryly* Before I get 'car'ried away with this.

[e_racer1999]

SNIP.....Dash... well, dash is another story. I'd compare it to somewhere between San Andreas, and Reno Nevada. (but at least it's not my fault!)....SNIP

groan...

WELCOME!

[1oldmotorguy]

Well, having gotten into the thing, hoped to drive it home tonight, but they've bypassed the fuel pump relay, and direct-wired the pump to the fusebox, at which point, I very, very much feel I'd be infinitely better off leaving the thing here, and coming back this weekend to work on it... with a couple of rolls of wire, continuity tester, and an awful lot of irritation.

Seems more and more whoever owned this last didn't have access to the service manual, or understand *why* the thing was wired as it was. That or they didn't care much.

Cleaned the contacts on the cold start valve, cleaned the contacts as well on the thermotime sensor, need to double-check the air temp sensor, and the thermal sensor that connects to the BCT.

Seem to still have a pretty large vacuum leak somewhere. Been going back through and tracing everything, whatever it is seems to have gotten worse rather than better. Definitely need to invest in a 'real' throttle body to AFM boot.

Long day. Tired. Going to go find some food, look at it later. Biggest project right now is figuring out the butchered wiring under the fusebox, and under the fusible links. The old air conditioner pump is still there, but disconnected completely, even from the air conditioner tubing. Traced the tubes, all the way around the vehicle, everything is still there, just disconnected. (note, I'm not going to even consider doing AC work. More trouble than it's worth, more worth it to me to pay someone *ELSE* for the headache and make it their problem)

Rust (of course) under the battery box to abate, though the newer sealed cell battery should help in the future. Hit the rust in the wheel well with a wire brush, solid metal underneath, will see more about the damage when I get some power tools.

Dent in the hood came out neatly with a couple of body dollies and a hammer.

(and yes, I got to play with dollies today)

One thing's certain, I'm getting quite an education on the system. I think it might be worthwhile to replace the old fuel injector tubes (service manual says to burn down to the cords in the FI rubber tubing with a soldering iron) Seeing as they're cracked, rather not have a flammable shower.

May be worth my time to actually go in and start at the rear end and replace every bit of rubber in the fuel system. Pain, but at least at that point I know what's there. Going to see how they ran the fuel pump, the old wiring is still there, I'll see if I can't tap back into it after I do some continuity checking.

Perhaps fuelish of me, but I'm kind of starting to enjoy this. Life may be a gasser, but we can inject other things into the mix. But, be that as it may, I'll gear up to bring you further braking news. Not to shift gears, I must apologize, puns are worse when I'm exhausted.

Got into the heads, on most of the valves, someone had tightened them to the point where there was *no* valve lash. The .008" feeler couldn't slip between most of them, and there appeared to be some wear on the rising edge of the cam. This should be fixed as soon as I find an appropriate tool to adjust the retaining nut on the adjustments.

And since I'm just typing to keep myself awake, I'll stop now. *zzzzz*

[1oldmotorguy]

All in all, I owe the previous owner an apology. He's done fairly well on the electric system, and I can't hate him... after all, he left the car far more intact than average.

I pulled the warped dash cap off. Needs some severe dash repairs. Need to get in and replace the fuel pressure regulator at the beginning of the month, and the differential bushings. Also need to go ahead and buy the proper bushings for the front suspension.

Valve adjustments were successful, minimal upper valve train noise now, suggestions on the forums were extremely helpful, RE the rough idling. Need to see if I can't get a new fuel damper for the fuel pump or repair the one that's there, fuel pump can be heard over the running engine, so not running it much.

As with another thread on this forum, it gets about 40 miles down the road, gets good and hot, and then loses power at 2500 RPM. Fuel rails get hot to the touch, can move, but accelleration is very poor at that point.

Going to drain and drop the fuel tank. BPT valve may need replacment, and there's an awful lot of soot in the air intake from the EGR valve.

That's another project though, it runs and goes down the road for short trips.

Guy warned me not to fall in love with it, but to repair and sell it.... Too late!

Next month's purchases... Fuel Pressure Regulator, the correct boot for the AFM->throttle body, and the shifter boot. Acquired new poly bushings for the antisway bar, need to measure off the diameter of the inner bushings. (they were free, so I couldn't argue, extras off another project)

And I believe I promised you folks pictures...

And.. *sobs* The gallery.

http://resolveofsentinels.darkstargamers.com/gallery/index.php

And finishing with the Zed Prayer.

Our Datsun, who Drives like heaven,

Hallowed be thy name,

Thy Power be restored, thine appearance adored,

In garages, as on the highway.

Give us this day our daily zed,

and forgive us our throttle,

as we forgive your previous owners.

Lead us not into Ricing,

but deliver us from "while I'm at it."

For thine is the Power, The Restoration,

and the Highway,

Forever and ever, Oh Zed.

(apologies if that offends anyone. *grins wryly* I once again, suffer impulse control problems)

[1oldmotorguy]

Stupid Gallery. If you click on the pics, it'll give you clear images. Unfortunately, it appears jpeg compression loves red. It loves it so much it will destroy all other colors when the perl script resizes the images for the thumbnails and reduced size images. So if you go to the gallery, you can get the full-sized images, and actually see them instead of the oddly-colored, blurry things, by clicking on the pictures within the gallery.

*frustrated with computers, loving the Z*