Project THESEUS: A '74 260z

[slowlearner]

Yay!!!! 🥇🥇🥇

[Racer X 69]

12 hours ago, Noll said:

 

Much appreciated! Went looking for one pretty last-minute and shipping to Canadaland would have taken a while but I very much appreciate it all the same. Amusingly the driver's door window is smoother than the non-modified passenger one lol.

 

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All road legal as of this afternoon! Went and got poutine to celebrate 🙂 .

 

Someone at the garage messed up pulling off the dealer plate and somehow broke a small chunk out of the right taillight surround, but they were able to find the piece so I've since glued it back in good as new. Stuff happens, could be worse.

Turn signals weren't really playing ball on the way home so need to pull the switch apart in the next day or two and clean/refresh everything. That, raise the rear ~15mm, and adjust the wiper arms, and that's about it for things that need to change right now.

I wanna see the poutine.

[Lockleaf]

4 hours ago, Racer X 69 said:

I wanna see the poutine.

 

Easy there tiger.  Noll keeps his thread family friendly here 😄 

[Noll]

@BrothersGarage - Thanks! It's still a bit surreal tbh, I've been working on this thing so long it being on the road always seemed like a  "someday" thing.

 

@Skib - Sweet, definitely will do! If I'm ever out in cali I may take you up on those doors too, would be nice to just bolt on a good set and be done with them for good.

 

@Racer X 69 - lol, bit late for that but I assure you it was delicious.

 

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Worked on the little stuff that needed fixing today.

Wipers weren't wiping, pulled them off and realized the splined mounting surface was gunked up with pot metal from previous slippage. Cleaned them out with a knife, added some loctite to the nut, and tightened both arms up a fair bit.






Next up, turn signals. Pulled the switch apart, cleaned the contacts, and bent the center pivot slightly. Back in action. While I was at it I blasted all the linkage stuff with carb cleaner then some dry graphite lubricant - it is so much freer and smoother now, and returns to center properly.




Lastly, dialed the rear coilovers up 10mm. Should solve the rubbing issue on the left corner when going over bumps.

[ShawnM]

Noll, this has been an extraordinary piece of work.
Few enthusiasts have the stones to tackle (and finish!) a project as rough as this one was, but you have been persistently at it and have built skills along the way.
Eastern Canada is where cars die young but you did not take no for an answer and she's a driver this weekend!

 

Congratulations man, enjoy it.

[Noll]

2 hours ago, ShawnM said:

Noll, this has been an extraordinary piece of work.
Few enthusiasts have the stones to tackle (and finish!) a project as rough as this one was, but you have been persistently at it and have built skills along the way.
Eastern Canada is where cars die young but you did not take no for an answer and she's a driver this weekend!

 

Congratulations man, enjoy it.

 

Many thanks! Sunk cost fallacy maybe, but after a certain point I was committed to get it done no matter what. The rust and salt aren't taking this one 🙂 .

 

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Went for the first shakedown run today, happily no issues to report at all. I did nearly do a dumb by leaving the headlights on while I got a burger, but after a few attempts it fired the starter instead of just clicking and fired back up. Will probably want a bigger battery eventually, this one is probably too small for the car but it's what I had lying around.

Gas gauge works, which is nice; put 30L into the tank and ended up right at half on the gauge. Car is loud and rattly as you'd expect, but rides really nicely all things considered. Temp gauge never even got up to half, settled in steady at about 1/3 sweep.

[Noll]

Took the Z to its first ever couple of meets/shows today (probably one of the last times this year stuff was running). Car got a lot of interest which was cool, spent a lot of time chatting to people about it.

She's still working perfectly mechanically, only issue I had was the wipers deciding not to work while going down the freeway and sudden rain started, which was an interesting experience. Had my head out the window to be able to see lol. That'll be first on the priority list to fix, I'm not likely to drive this in the rain much but I want to make sure I can safely do so if desired/needed.

Overall, put 150+ km on the car without a hitch and had a great time!

[Noll]

Went to another car show this past weekend - ended up being a turnout of 3-400 cars. I barely took any pics unfortunately, but it was a good time. The Z got  a ton of attention too which was awesome, people loved to talk about it and for me to explain the work that went into it. They had a videographer at the show too who grabbed a fair bit of footage and pics of my car which was super cool, if/when that vid comes out I'll post it up here.




On the way home I noticed that the car had developed a very slight misfire (only noticeable at idle at red lights, one cylinder misses every few seconds if that) - this was right near the end of the drive after about 160km of highway driving, so I'm wondering if it was just fuel boiling issues or similar as I don't yet have a heatshield below the carbs.

Pulled the plugs today to check, and am pretty happy. Was hard to get a good in-focus pic, but all are tan, with no signs of oil blow-by, flooding, running super lean, etc. I've put 700km on the car since the rebuild at this point, so seems like a decent indicator that all is well. Considering I rebuilt everything myself with basic tools and the help of youtube/forums, and the bottom-end is totally unknown, I am pleased.


 

[Racer X 69]

I see you parked next to the breast cancer awareness car. 
 

Did you get a chance to help with breast exams?

 

 I always step up and give Mrs. Racer 2.0 help. She thinks I do it just to cop a feel, but I’m really checking for lumps.

 

Honest. 
 

I wouldn’t want the evil C to take her awesome breasticles away.

[Homeboyx]

Hell yes! Long time coming! Glad to see it’s rolling under it’s own power now!

Massive congrats! 

[Noll]

On 10/26/2021 at 5:59 PM, Homeboyx said:

Hell yes! Long time coming! Glad to see it’s rolling under it’s own power now!

Massive congrats! 

 

Thanks! It has been super exciting to finally have it be a car again to say the least 🙂

 

 

I meant to update here sooner, but have been too focused on driving the wheels off the 260z as much as possible before the winter. I also went to a few meets, and did a fun-run with a bunch of other S30 guys in my area.










Someone at the car show I was at in my previous post took some nice pics of the car and sent me them which was nice:








With cold weather here and snow likely soon, I parked the Z last week. I have some little stuff planned to do to it over the winter, but nothing major; it's almost a bit odd to not have any massive jobs to do on it at long last.

In no particular order:
-make interior door handles (I'm grabbing the interior doorskin itself to close the door right now lol)
-replace interior right turn signal indicator bulb (it's burnt out, and the car is too loud for me to hear if the turn signal relay is clicking)
-adjust doors to latch better
-get an AFR gauge/o2 sensor - I'm pretty sure the car is getting terrible MPGS (or the fuel gauge is lying, but most likely the former) , and this seems like the best way to get them dialed in nicely and will be handy for future EFI plans
-replace the muffler. I love the sound it makes but good lord it's loud. Would like to drive the car without needing earplugs, and maybe even put a radio in eventually (pointless currently with the noise).

Video doesn't really get the sheer volume across, but does show what it sounds like. Keep in mind the camera is inside the car and the noise is still blowing the mic out a bit lol.
 

My current plan is this magnaflow muffler and some 3" stainless for a tip, although if anyone has other options I'm all ears. Goal is same good sound but much quieter so I can do a roadtrip without hating life.

https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B000COVAAI/

Edited November 29, 2021 by Noll

[Lockleaf]

Are you running any resonators in the exhaust system?

[Noll]

5 hours ago, Lockleaf said:

Are you running any resonators in the exhaust system?

 

Yep! 2.5" resonator and then the exhaust goes up to 3" and there's the muffler (although tbh the current muffler is probably more a 2nd resonator than a muffler haha).

[Tank.]

I’m a fan of magnaflow, that’s what I have on my Z along with an oem 350z resonator. Even though it’s a VQ now, it still sounds very similar to my F54/N42 setup. 

[slowlearner]

I have to agree that a decent exhaust is the difference between short term fun and longer term comfort. I was out driving my 510 today and what surprised once again is how quiet it is compared to the 56 beetle I used to own. The beetle had a turbo (the best mufflers) and a hotdog, but man. It was so noisy on the freeway. The datto has a nice 1 3/4" system with a resonator and muffler. 

[Z23T]

It's really cool to see your car on the road.

 

I've been using the Walker Dynomax Super Turbo mufflers for 20+ years. My car has a turbo, which changes the exhaust note, and three inch exhaust all the way to the Dynomax. It has a mellow tone and people have told me it sounds good. https://www.dynomax.com/mufflers/super-turbo-mufflers

 

Also if you don't have your door panels, carpet/padding, headliner, etc. installed it adds a ton of road noise and resonation.

[Noll]

Thanks all! I'm going to give the magnaflow a go and if I don't like it with this setup I can save it for another project.

 

And yeah slowlearner, full agreement there. Loud is fun in the short term but I want to comfortably drive this everywhere and anywhere as much as I can without it being obnoxious, so a bit quieter is for the best.

[Noll]

Tinkering away at little projects, made some interior doorhandles yesterday. Nothing fancy but will do the job just fine till I eventually get door cards etc. A lot better than pulling on the inner door structure to close it lol.

 

 

[ShawnM]

Regarding exhaust, the most efficient (powerful) and best sounding approach isn't a fixed tube size from front to back. Exhaust gas temperature decreases from 500F-1100F at the head to a temp you can hold your hand under at the tip. As the exhaust gas travels back, it cools down.  As it cools it takes up less space.
Bernoulli's principle says that as the exhaust temperature (and the space it takes up) decreases, the pipe size needs to decrease to match so the flow speed is maintained.

 

3" front to back makes the exhaust companies more money but for your engine a 3" collector down to 2.5" after the X pipe, down to 2" at the muffler inlet will flow better, cost less, weigh less, fit better and in my opinion sound better.  Sound is very subjective though, your results may vary. 

 

Hope that is of use to you.

[Noll]

19 hours ago, ShawnM said:

Regarding exhaust, the most efficient (powerful) and best sounding approach isn't a fixed tube size from front to back. Exhaust gas temperature decreases from 500F-1100F at the head to a temp you can hold your hand under at the tip. As the exhaust gas travels back, it cools down.  As it cools it takes up less space.
Bernoulli's principle says that as the exhaust temperature (and the space it takes up) decreases, the pipe size needs to decrease to match so the flow speed is maintained.

 

3" front to back makes the exhaust companies more money but for your engine a 3" collector down to 2.5" after the X pipe, down to 2" at the muffler inlet will flow better, cost less, weigh less, fit better and in my opinion sound better.  Sound is very subjective though, your results may vary. 

 

Hope that is of use to you.

 

Hmm, that is good to know! Something to try out whenever I next make an exhaust I suppose, would be neat to experiment with.

 

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New fan clutch showed up, so swapped that out. Old one was locked up solid (aka fan always matching engine rpm), but at some point after I parked it for the winter it seems to have freed up and started leaking out of the center seal. All the more reason to replace. New one is from Aisin.

[Noll]

Haven't really done anything with the Z while it's been parked over the winter, but now that spring is underway I figured I should knock out some of the "nice to have" things I've been meaning to do.

#1 - muffler replacement. Should actually be able to drive the car without needing earplugs now with any luck.












Got the fuel tank sealed up too. With how bad it was when I started I suppose there was always a good chance that one pinhole would not get filled. Sure as hell not dropping to tank to give it another coat, so Seal-All to the rescue.






No pics, but also pulled the speedo and tach out, replaced a burnt out turn signal bulb, and adjusted the speedo needle preload to hopefully make it read right (given I pulled it off to do the KPH speedo face sticker I'm thinking this is/was the most likely culprit for it reading high).

EDIT: also yes I know my rear tires are on backwards, I think it happened during the safety inspection last year (when they checked brakes), and i didn't notice afterwards. I'll obvs be swapping them to where they should be.

 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Noll

[Homeboyx]

That Seal All has done wonders for me in the past!

[Noll]

1 hour ago, Homeboyx said:

That Seal All has done wonders for me in the past!

 

Good to hear!  I'd read that it was good stuff but never know for sure. I'll be modding another tank I have and putting it in eventually, this should do just fine till then (which isn't for quite a while most likely).

[Racer X 69]

So, our friend Noll is a celebrity.

 

https://winnipegsun.com/car-culture/vintage-collectible/this-classic-datsun-260z-is-8-cars-welded-together

 

 

Good job!

Edited March 20, 2022 by Racer X 69

[Skib]

I thoroughly enjoy this thread.