New to Z cars

[KrazzyKevin]

A buddy of mine bought this car a couple months ago with big plans to swap a V8 and make a crazy drag car, but he ran out of money and got in over his head. So, I bought it from him and I don't have any crazy plans like he did, I just want to make it drivable as a daily driver and eventually restore it as best as I can. However, it needs a lot of work, and this is my first real project car so I'll need a lot of help from everybody here.

 

Picture Time! I know we all love pictures, so here's some my buddy took when he bought it. I'll have more when I get it home this saturday.

 

Here it is:

 

 

The body is in decent shape except for some pretty bad rust behind the wheels, as seen here.

 

The truck lid is stuck closed and the latch is missing, anybody know how to get it open?

 

Some rust damage behind the wheels on this side too.

 

PO did a nasty job of dealing with some rust in the floors; that will have to be redone.

 

This is the worst of the rust on the body. How should I go about dealing with that?

 

Engine! It's about halfway converted to fuel injection right now, and I've got the other parts to finish the job sitting in several boxes. What worries me is that my buddy did a compression test when he bought it, and the numbers are different for each cylinder, ranging from 210 at best to 120 at worst. What is normal, and what can be done to fix that?

 

 

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have plenty more questions when I get the car home this weekend, but I wanted to get this started with the pictuers that I have right now.

 

Any imput/advice/comments at all are appreciated.

 

-Kevin

[Bleach]

180psi is normal for the high compression 1981-83 z-car engine.

 

Many others run 140-170 for well used engines that still run fine. Your main concern would be that all six have about the same compression.

[Skib]

not to shabby :cool:

 

 

It's about halfway converted to fuel injection right now

 

280z came stock with EFI ;)

[KrazzyKevin]

not to shabby :cool:

 

 

 

 

280z came stock with EFI ;)

 

Well, that's sort of what I was thinking, but I was told that the 1976 and prior cars (this is a '76) had carbs. So, IDK.

[datzenmike]

210 in one cylinder? Maybe a mouse crawled in for the winter? You want all cylinders within 10%

[Skib]

Well, that's sort of what I was thinking, but I was told that the 1976 and prior cars (this is a '76) had carbs. So, IDK.

 

as far as S30's go...

 

70-72 came with round top SU's, 73 and 74 had flat top SU's, and 75-78 had EFI

[KrazzyKevin]

210 in one cylinder? Maybe a mouse crawled in for the winter? You want all cylinders within 10%

 

Yeah, that's what I was told. I'll do my own compression test to see if my results are any different. It's hard to tell in that smaller picture, but the numbers from the test are written in white ontop of the cylinder head. They are from back to front: 180, 210, 190, 120, 140, 190.

[PurePontiacKid]

you should give me your intake manifold, I'll trade you my nice sand blasted one for it. :P

[KrazzyKevin]

you should give me your intake manifold, I'll trade you my nice sand blasted one for it. :P

 

Why do you want mine if yours is nice and sand blasted? haha

[KrazzyKevin]

Alright, Question time: I need fuel injectors. I did some looking around at some stores and online, and I'm seeing them from $40-$50, up to $80+ each. That is sort of, more than I want to pay for them haha. So, What is the best was to get good quality fuel injectors on a Ratsun friendly budget? Should I look for used ones at the junkyard? Or should I just bite the bullet and save up for new ones?

 

Thanks guys.

[Bleach]

The wrecking yard is your best bet on a tight budget.

 

"quality" is something that you're going to leave to chance on this one. But they're much cheaper.

http://www.bleachgarage.com/pullapartpricelist.html

 

I'm not sure if FUEL DISTRIBUTOR is what they call an injector but its $8.50 each

 

It seems like they might actually charge you less than that per injector at the Tacoma Pull a Part.

[Skib]

Alright, Question time: I need fuel injectors. I did some looking around at some stores and online, and I'm seeing them from $40-$50, up to $80+ each. That is sort of, more than I want to pay for them haha. So, What is the best was to get good quality fuel injectors on a Ratsun friendly budget? Should I look for used ones at the junkyard? Or should I just bite the bullet and save up for new ones?

 

Thanks guys.

 

Iv got some N/A injectors, shoot me a PM

[datsunaholic]

"Converted" to EFI? More looks like someone was halfway towards disassembling the EFI, as that's what it originally came with.

[Bleach]

Maybe it was converted to carbs, then they started putting it back to fuel injection! :)

[Skib]

Why do you want mine if yours is nice and sand blasted? haha

 

 

prob cuz yours is non EGR :P

[KrazzyKevin]

A couple more pictures just to keep the ball rolling:

 

Dash is nice except for three cracks on top. I the have center console too.

 

Close-up of the intake mani.

 

Three cracks ontop of the dash. Is there a DIY repair technique for stuff like that?

[Bleach]

I would love to buy that intake manifold from you

[KrazzyKevin]

I would love to buy that intake manifold from you

 

Sorry, nothing's for sale at this point. I really want to get this car running. But you're the second person who said they wanted my intake manifold, at the risk of sounding like the noob that I am, what's so special about mine? Is it an aftermarket part or something?

[hughdogz]

Sorry, nothing's for sale at this point. I really want to get this car running. But you're the second person who said they wanted my intake manifold, at the risk of sounding like the noob that I am, what's so special about mine? Is it an aftermarket part or something?

 

It because it was the first year of fuel injection on a Z (1975). These intakes had the least amount of emissions "crap" on it (no EGR, etc.) ~$100 => $150 is about what they're going for these days, but if you're lucky, you can find one in a junk yard for $20.

 

To make a really clean looking manifold, you'd want to start with one of these. Check out the one I shaved and filled with my welder:

 

 

 

 

Shaving and welding

 

final polishing

[KrazzyKevin]

It because it was the first year of fuel injection on a Z (1975). These intakes had the least amount of emissions "crap" on it (no EGR, etc.) ~$100 => $150 is about what they're going for these days, but if you're lucky, you can find one in a junk yard for $20.

 

To make a really clean looking manifold, you'd want to start with one of these. Check out the one I shaved and filled with my welder:

 

 

 

 

Shaving and welding

 

final polishing

 

Wow! That looks really clean :blink:

 

I hope my Z looks that nice, one day far from now. hahaha

[KrazzyKevin]

*EDIT* Never mind about the needing a trailer, we're just gonna do it in a coupe days.

 

In fact, mods, you can delete this post entirely if you want to. I would but I'm not sure how to.

 

-Kevin.