Pictures of HLS30-38691

[geezer]

Ditto, on the decal removal, looks much nicer. Now quit reading these posts and get out there and drive!

[Zedyone_kenobi]

My driving impressions so far. Its been a long while since I owned an older car. My first car I ever had was a 510 four door, 4 speed. Loved that car. It was great to drive and toss about. Driving the Z is totally different. Everything about the car feels tighter, and better put together. The steering is heavy as a non power steering car should be but lightens up and feels 'right' when moving. The shifter is fun to use, but I would like to get some bushing to take up some of the mushiness. Not really sure how the linkage looks down there, but its something I may take a shot at.

The view over the hood is enticing. Makes you want to push that straight 6 again and again. The car feels very mechanical. You can feel when the clutch engages, when the brakes bite, the way the car handles directional changes. It has a very simple, yet unrefined mechanical goodness to it. I was concerned I would not enjoy driving the Z as I had never driven one until now. It was my childhood dream car, but up until this car, I had never lived the Z experience. Having been enjoying Subarus for the last 7 years I was worried that the lack of refinement would get me board. But I was dearly wrong. There is a connected feel to this car, that I have not experienced to date. Perhaps we are soul mates destined to grow old together, as I already feel a deep friendship the Z.

When I get her out on the road, I will be able to do a proper review and see how much if any tuning she needs.

[Zedyone_kenobi]

gotta get the kids involved early

[Poindexter]

It appears that you knew the PO and the care he took in maintaining your new Z, and that's a rare and good thing.

Forgive me for presuming anything, but had you done a thorough walkthrough/preflight of your own? I was so rigorous in doing this myself after bringing my gal out of mothballs, that I changed all fluids and filters once before starting her, again after a week of trial runs, locally- perhaps 50 miles, and again after 250 miles. I know this is borderline neurotically excessive but it can't hurt (except in the wallet). This included coolant, engine oil, and gearbox and diff lubricants too. I also changed all water hoses, belts, vacuum lines, tie-rod ends, ball joints- almost every reasonable wear item- before taking her out on the road. Luckily I never noticed a single metal shaving, anywhere on the magnets, as that was partially the reason I transfused her- to see if any metal was in solution.

I'm now re-doing the shifter later today, as you seem ready to do now- including the pin, all 3 bushings, and *both* rubber boots- inner and outer. The trans must have eaten the previous bottom bushing, as it was gone with the wind, making things pretty wobbly. I also grabbed a few extra copper oil plug crush gaskets, and a spare oil plug WIWAI. The total cost for all of these parts from Courtesy was around $15- what a bargain! I also bought another whole set for spares- why not at these prices? After seeing what some people are extorting for these parts on eBay, I was happy to be able to get them OEM from a dealer, as well as adding to a reasonable stockpile of replacement and/or wear items.

BTW, it looks like even your son there is noticing the extra-clean state of your horn button- a pretty rare thing these days.

And what happened to the front bumper over-rider? I'm still on the fence on keeping mine on- but I don't have the matching rear bar, so...

Good luck!

[Zedyone_kenobi]

I removed the over-rider bar to see how it looks. I think I like it plain. I got out my chrome polish, and put a nice buff job on it. I baggied all the bolts. I may put in on. I want to remove the rear extra bar as well, to see how I like that. The rear bar does not bother me all that much ,but I think it will look better cleaned up.

As for the transfusions, I plan on doing that as well. Oil, tranny, and diff fluids all will get a good change. Then comes the radiator flush, followed by the air cleaner and fuel filter.

Its all about maintenance!

by the way, can you recommend good lubricants for the tranny & diff?

[Poindexter]

*snip* by the way, can you recommend good lubricants for the tranny & diff?

Of course, when it comes to the care and feeding of my gal, I don't take a step without lots of research, including searching through the forums too, and for the trans I went with Red Line MT-90, which had great marks across the board from many different sources. It is apparently popular in Nissans ( and others). Their website has this quote on the MT-90- "Popular in Nissan, Toyota and Mazda manual transmissions and transaxles as well as other selected applications, this is a 75W90 GL-4 Gear Oil that’s slightly heavier than MTL. Provides excellent protection of gears and synchronizers and its balanced slipperiness provides a perfect coefficient of friction, allowing easier shifting." I imagine it's kind of like how NGK almost always works out better versus Bosch in Z car spark plugs.

Prior to adding it I had the dreaded "cold-second grinding"- which almost immediately disappeared, and the trans just felt noticeably smoother afterwards. For the diff I used the Red Line 75W90 NS, one of their GL-5 grade equivalents. There are other considerations when it comes to LSD's- but I'd suggest looking through their website anyway. It has some interesting and enlightening info. And their telephone support people all seem pretty knowledgeable.

That being said, the premium lubes from AmsOil and Royal Purple also seem to be good too. It's not like the old days- almost everything seems to be of a much higher quality today. I spoke to their reps too, and they all have good arguments for their products. I imagine that there's not a huge difference between them all, in general, but the specifics of each car's problem areas or idiosyncrasies probably could lead you to, or can tilt the field towards which product to choose.

I hope this helps you. And I hope others can contribute their actual experience with the brands I've mentioned, and any others too. Empirical knowledge always seems to be the most reliable data.

BTW, I just bought a nice pile of parts, including pristine front and rear bumpers. The front is totally clean- no extra holes, guards or rubber! It looks awesome, so clean, so I'm gonna try it for a while. The other one I'm drilling for driving lights, and I'm also installing yellow fog lights in the stock holes underneath too-especially after I read a great report on the effect of "Selective Yellow" fog lights. We have massive fog here along the water in the summer, along with very dark back roads seriously helped by pencil beam driving lights. Going to be Cibie or Marchal!