My new ugly betty, '84 Maxima, not diesel.

[HRH]

So I already posted this on NW Datsuns, but I thought Ratsun would appreciate it too.  Picked up an '84 Maxima off craigslist this morning.  Got a year end bonus from NAPA (whee!) and when most people would buy new cars, I went the opposite route.  $260 later, I towed her home with Regy driving the Maxima.

 

The bad:  Windshield, fender, rockers, rear quarters, etc.  Interior sucks.  It's definitely had a hard life.  The good news is it took me 30 minutes to make it run.  Cracked battery cable with a power wire attached to the cracked side.  Replaced the cable, replaced the negative cable end, and fired right up first hit of the starter!

 

Now I need to assess how structurally sound she is.  Lots of clunks and noises.  However, I MIGHT replace the white truck as the autocross vehicle in favor of this one.  The main reason being weight balance and fully independent suspension.  The fact that it looks WORSE than the white truck is just icing on the cake if I can make it handle better and stomp on some more Porsches.  Hehe.

 

We shall see.  So far, I've dug through the Datsun bible and figured out the L24s after '81 went pussy with 8 mm rod bolts instead of 9mm, but a set of rods can fix that.  I haven't figured out the easiest combination to raise the compression of the motor.  In fact, I was debating going the VG and 5 speed in the Maxima.  Problem is, that would put me in motor swap territory which goes to street mod category, which has lots of 240s with SRs making lots of power.  So if I can raise the L24 to 165 ish hp of the VG, then I may just keep it in the car since it's in there already.

 

For the moment, just going to do a tune-up tomorrow and work on a few issues, see how things pan out.  Go Seahawks!!!

 

 

 

 

The best thing of all?  Tabs are still good until June!!  Sweeeeeett!!!

 

 

[HRH]

 

[bonvo]

she needs new fender

[HRH]

Actually, given the problem of finding body parts for these, I may have Regy bang that one out.  I do know where one of these is in a wrecking yard that doesn't move cars that much, hoping it might still be there, but I kind of doubt it.

[Tx_jc_s13]

Good lunch finding a windshield. It took me 4 months -__- lol

[LenRobertson]

Hey, this is pretty cool! That style Maxima has always been one of my favorites and I like that color too. Seems a lot of those were an ugly brown color.  And a manual tranny? Weren't most of these autos?

 

Do people autocross Maximas much? I guess it shouldn't be vastly different in handling from a Z, although maybe a little more weight and less power.

 

Did that new guy here on Ratsun get in touch with you about finding a Datsun mechanic? I thought of Joe but couldn't think of the name of his shop, so I told the guy to talk to you.

 

I'm sure Reg is really looking forward to another fender to bang out. He is probably praying for a Maxima to show up at P&S soon!

 

Len

 

 

[HRH]

Yeah, the windshield I'm going to check on tomorrow.  Hoping I can get one around here.  Probably going to be annoyingly expensive.  If I get lucky enough to find one in Pull and Save I'll grab that.  Well worth cutting it out I'm sure.

 

That guy did get in touch with me.  I kind of told him he needed to do a few simple checks otherwise he was going to spend a grip of cash for a simple problem, but suggested Joe.  I just don't have the time to work on any other rigs, have too many myself.  There is a website Graytech something, who has a turbo L28 in an '84 Maxima.  Thanks to him and his website for some handling info.  Some of the part numbers have changed now, but I found the information I needed for a list of handling parts.  I can't get a whole lot at NAPA for this car or 280zx', just not that many out there.  Annoyingly my competition seems to have some stuff available and there's always online.

 

I don't know how many were autos, but I'm sure the majority.  The thing is loaded.  I also have a broken seat belt receptacle.  I've never ever seen that break in any Datsun.  Have to hook it into the passenger side receptacle to have it hold.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Nice man for what you got It for I'd say its a win-win, the N47 head or MN47 like some call it is slightly different than mine in my 810.

[HRH]

Yeah, even with all the work that needs done, I must have paid enough forward karma to be rewarded today.  It's hard to get any running rig for $260.  (Granted it wasn't running in the ad)  Of course, tomorrow I have to go see the dmv which will cost a bit.  Found a windshield online through Safelite for $200, going to check my local glass guy tomorrow, see if I can't get it a bit cheaper.  Going to do the dmv and a tune up first though.  I can deal with a spidered windshield.  And definitely have to fix the blower motor for the fan.  Kind of important right now.

[HRH]

I finally got the thing titled today!!  After one more visit to the notary public, the deed is done.  So I went about fixing the blower motor, which ended up being easier than I thought.

 

 

I also figured out the steering rack is completely shot, the driver's side wheel has a 1/4 of play due to the rack being worn out without a boot.  Going to fix that and do some struts, might even do springs.  Still debating, but it looks like it might be a driver/autocrosser.

 

It looks a lot better with the turbines too.  A little bit like a boxy Volvo, kinda funny.

 

[captaingamez]

Lookin good man, idk how I missed this. If you havent seen my restoration thread, you should.

 

These engines will put out 165, I can virtually guarantee it, you will have to do a lot of mods (nothing major I would imagine), and you WILL have to get a stand alone, but they will do it.

 

How did the windshield go? Mine lived in AZ its whole life without a crack or anything and then last year when the PO was driving it, bam, chip right in my direct line of sight.

 

So now I gotta replace it.

 

My blower motor had literally that exact same issue, on that exact same wire on the switch.

 

Graytech (Chris Gray) has a lot of good info, you can email him for more if you have questions. He no longer has the Maxima though, it was sold several years back and he is into Audis now.

[HRH]

Audis?  Yeccchh!!  Yeah, his site is still up, I perused that.  Is he on here?  Have not gotten a windshield yet.  Quotes online for $200 through Safelite.  I doubt I can get it much cheaper through my guy, probably as hard to find as 510 glass.  I may just put a 280 into it.  I'm pretty sure the efi will go right on and work with the 2.8, won't it?  Think the system has enough latitude.  We'll see.  There's a bit of a miss that I haven't figured out yet.  Haven't even adjusted the valves yet.  That will be next, see if it runs a little more even.

 

If it doesn't get autocrossed, it had crossed my mind to actually build a flamethrower mounted to the hood that actually worked.  Probably illegal, but who cares, it would be awesome, Mad-Max style! :)

[captaingamez]

LOL

 

You would need the MAF and ECU from the L28, other than that all the wiring should be the same.

 

But the 2.4 will rev higher with the right setup/cam, and a good tune on something like Megasquirt, that will probably alone get you over 130-140 to the wheels, then if you do some stuff like a 240sx throttle body, larger (older) intake manifold with less webbing, and an exhaust header, and cat delete/cat back, then I can easily see this engine putting out over 155 hp, then you mess with some dialing in of different things and maybe deck the head and you should be damn close to your goal. Not sure how serious you are about building the engine.

 

Mine just rolled over 190,000 miles today, I would consider building it, but I dont want to do a full rebuild on it until I have it totally out of the car and the L28 in the car. I am dropping an L28ET in mine when the opportunity arises, but that will be long down the road. My L28ET already has the ARP rod bolts installed :w00t:.

[HRH]

Since you're not using it, you should sell me your L28! :)  Not sure how serious I am.  Regy has an L28 I can rebuild.  The annoying part is that puts me in street mod class at autocross as it's a motor swap.  So the smart money would be to build the existing motor, but it would need to be totally gone through or if I could find a 240z motor, I'd use that as it has the bigger rod bolts.  They went pussy on the Maxima 2.4 with only 120 hp.  Pretty weak.

 

I went against my better judgement and ordered the shocks and springs and a new steering rack and ps pump last night.  It's on, she's doing autocross duty!  The 510 has taken a back seat yet again, though I will be working simultaneously on both projects.  Especially when it starts getting warmer.

[captaingamez]

Please tell me what springs you ordered

 

And shocks too

 

F+R

 

Mine rocks back to front when you shift, I need shocks and springs, lol.

[HRH]

I ordered stock shocks.  The rears I got off Amazon because we stopped carrying them, the fronts I had from a while back for the 510 actually or I would have likely ordered them from Amazon too or another competitor.  The spring kit is an Eibach pro-kit available through motorsports auto.  They have quite a bit of stuff.

 

MSA part numbers:

23-4043 spring kit
23-4196 strut bump stops (front)

23-4103 is the sway bar set, which I didn't order.  Going to see how it does without it, or may do junkyard diving.

 

Shocks are 71209 for the rear

fronts are 73203

 

MSA has shocks available other than Monroe stock replacements, I didn't check out which kinds.

 

This is the link to the Z store (Motorsport Auto)

 

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/Classic

[captaingamez]

I am looking at getting the eibach pro kit, or something of the sort, my springs are old and worn out and my shocks too. I am trying to get KYB shocks but not sure yet, gonna be a few weeks.

 

I am also going to do all my rear and front bushings in the near future, Nobody makes a replacement bushing for the rear differential mount, Nissan only shows the mount as one part, I am going to see if I or someone (possibly HASPORT) can put a poly mount in it, I believe this will stiffen the rear end up substantially.

[HRH]

Is this the one you're looking for?

 

http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/PROD/classic22d04/10-2254

[captaingamez]

Nope, Nobody makes it as far as I can tell, and its discontinued from Nissan.

 

The mounting bolt goes horizontal instead of vertical.

[HRH]

So I started looking at what I want to do for the motor.  Makes sense to keep the 2.4, but it has the weak small rod bolts and only 120hp new.  So after digging through the Datsun bible this morning and researching autocrossing classes and generally wigging out on information, I figure out the easiest way to get some hp was to stick the 260z crank and rods in the 2.4 block, effectively stroking it to 2.6 liters and raising the compression ratio to 9.5:1.

 

Now I need to find that before autocross and put the bottom end together, redo the head gasket, hope I don't have any other issues, which will be checked today, and then bingo bango, we'll have an autocrosser!

 

[ggzilla]

Wouldn't it be even easier to swap in a 2.8?

[Farmer Joe]

 

The annoying part is that puts me in street mod class at autocross as it's a motor swap.

 

[HRH]

^that.  Street mod has two very capable 240sx' with 350-400 hp and way better suspension and brakes.  Not going to cut it there, no matter how well I drive.  The good news is I found the issue of the slight miss.  Number 6 injector wasn't firing.  So after getting one injector, then realizing like before how the rail comes off, I have six new injectors to put on after lunch.  It should run pretty nicely then.  Have a new 02 sensor as well.  Then the steering rack, and if I have time, then the front springs and struts.

[HRH]

All new injectors!  Didn't get rack installed, but oh well.  Here's a video for you all!

 

[ggzilla]

Do the injectors come with the short length of rubber hose installed?