Project THESEUS: A '74 260z

[Bleach]

When I had an S130 that required several turns of the key before the starter would kick in, it ended up being a bad switch right on the back of the key cylinder. I replaced that and it would crank over reliably.

 

I don't know if the S30 has a similar part.

Ok, I just looked it up on Rock Auto. Ignition starter swtich for 260Z is about $20

 

 

 

[Noll]

On 6/4/2023 at 12:10 PM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Nice Rover!

 

I've got a '57 88 inch.

 

Thanks! '59 109 in this case, needs a *LOT* of work but it was given to me for free so it's hard to go wrong haha. I'm still figuring out exact plans but i'm thinking i may buy an entire rotten manual XJ or TJ and swap the entire drivetrain in from 4.0 to axles. It'll get a build thread here eventually once i have the time/money to dig into it properly (just doing disassembly/cleanup for now). And ooh nice, any pics?

 

 

 

On 6/4/2023 at 3:48 PM, Bleach said:

When I had an S130 that required several turns of the key before the starter would kick in, it ended up being a bad switch right on the back of the key cylinder. I replaced that and it would crank over reliably.

 

I don't know if the S30 has a similar part.

Ok, I just looked it up on Rock Auto. Ignition starter swtich for 260Z is about $20

 

 

 

 

 

Thankfully that's been sorted for a while now with the starter relay I added, but that's good to know if i run into any future ignition issues! Not an expensive part thankfully.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

If I had my choice, I would have started with a 109 pickup, or a 107 pickup, but same as you, someone gave me this one. It was only a frame and body with leaf springs, so I repowered it with a 22re and Toyota axles. It's got a 5:1, 5.29s, e-lockers, chromoly axles and wheels like crazy. It's so small and nimble that I can make it to the top of the big sluice (Rubicon) 10 minutes before anyone else.

 

[Noll]

9 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

If I had my choice, I would have started with a 109 pickup, or a 107 pickup, but same as you, someone gave me this one. It was only a frame and body with leaf springs, so I repowered it with a 22re and Toyota axles. It's got a 5:1, 5.29s, e-lockers, chromoly axles and wheels like crazy. It's so small and nimble that I can make it to the top of the big sluice (Rubicon) 10 minutes before anyone else.

 

 

Ooh hell yeah that is awesome! i'd be tempted to go a similar route, but wheeling spots are far between out here and i also don't own a single vehicle of my own that can tow things, so with any luck with the drivetrain swap I have planned it should be able to do freeway speeds without me dying while trying to merge lmao, and go alright for bringing new projects home or whatever else is needed

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

15 hours ago, Noll said:

 

Ooh hell yeah that is awesome! i'd be tempted to go a similar route, but wheeling spots are far between out here and i also don't own a single vehicle of my own that can tow things, so with any luck with the drivetrain swap I have planned it should be able to do freeway speeds without me dying while trying to merge lmao, and go alright for bringing new projects home or whatever else is needed

I'd try to keep the Rover frame. They are massively strong. Unless it is rusted beyond repair.

 

A TJ motor might be a tough fit, unless you plan on changing the grill/radiator support for a series 3 setup. Not tons of room in the SII engine bay.

 

There's a guy local to me named Tim Cooper whop built a SII with a Chevy six. He's on Instagram as @sekirka101.

[Noll]

8 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

I'd try to keep the Rover frame. They are massively strong. Unless it is rusted beyond repair.

 

A TJ motor might be a tough fit, unless you plan on changing the grill/radiator support for a series 3 setup. Not tons of room in the SII engine bay.

 

There's a guy local to me named Tim Cooper whop built a SII with a Chevy six. He's on Instagram as @sekirka101.

That's the plan if I can, it is rather crusty though. Nothing a bunch of time and 1/8" plate can't fix though, unless i find another good landy frame for cheap.

 

Yeah, i have a bunch of measuring to do before i finalize plans. It would be nice to use a single donor vehicle though, and avoid spending thousands on various engine/transfer case adapters. There also exist NV3550 to vw TDI adapters, either to do in the future or as the initial plan with the rest of the XJ or TJ drivetrain - with a tune 300ft/lb and 30mpg is pretty easy with those and 4cyl so no length issues.

 

And oh awesome, i'll have a browse thru his IG.

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Your frame has seen better days. No sense in rebuilding it, but don't throw it away. Some Rover nut out there would want it.

 

What's your IG?

[Noll]

2 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Your frame has seen better days. No sense in rebuilding it, but don't throw it away. Some Rover nut out there would want it.

 

What's your IG?

 

That it has, still fixable though I think. If I can't find a good used one my only other option is like 7 grand (CAD$) for a reproduction galvanized one so it's well worth a few hundred bucks in steel plate and time to fix mine.

 

It's here, i haven't posted anything in a hot minute though:
https://www.instagram.com/canadian_rust/

[Noll]

Got some film developed finally, and had taken some shots of the Z a while back so:

[datzenmike]

 !! a natural woman !!

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Lada...

 

I'd like to have one of those too.

[EDM620]

I used to wheel with a few who were totally fixated on LR's, series 1 & 2. Too underpowered IMO & were often being pulled outta the gumbo by my faithful 75 CJ5.

(pics of embarassment on other computer)

The Toyota running gear would be a stronger way to go, unless you could find a nice 4cyl diesel... I later had a '84 XJ with the Renault 2.1 TD and that was great 4wl'in, gobs of torque and all aluminum block so was light.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Toyota stuff is getting harder (and more expensive) to find. I used '85 axles in mine, and a motor out of a '90 pickup with a '83 iron case 5 speed. Simply finding '85 axles anymore is hard.

 

The Jeep donor parts wouldn't be my first choice, unless true D44 front and rear, but most TJs had a D30 up front. The NV3550 is a good trans though. I had one in my '03 Rubicon and loved it. The bonus of the TJ donor parts is they are not hard to find. Even the Jeep 4 banger wasn't a total turd.

[Noll]

1 hour ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Toyota stuff is getting harder (and more expensive) to find. I used '85 axles in mine, and a motor out of a '90 pickup with a '83 iron case 5 speed. Simply finding '85 axles anymore is hard.

 

The Jeep donor parts wouldn't be my first choice, unless true D44 front and rear, but most TJs had a D30 up front. The NV3550 is a good trans though. I had one in my '03 Rubicon and loved it. The bonus of the TJ donor parts is they are not hard to find. Even the Jeep 4 banger wasn't a total turd.

 

It's a cost thing more than anything else tbh, buying one whole rusty donor vehicle to get it on the road is going to be a lot better in that regard than trying to piece stuff together i think. Plus as you say the NV3550 is quite good, and there's a million adapter plates out there for other engines to it.

And yeah I know the axles aren't the best, but this isn't going to be a hardcore wheeler or anything - fire roads and suchlike is going to be the majority of the offroad it sees I think; it'll be used to haul stuff and generally to pickup things most of the time. Going from 1950's 4 wheel drums and matchstick axle shafts to something much more modern is already going to be a massive upgrade, and I can swap them out again for something beefier in the future if the need arises - it's just the matter of welding leaf perches onto whatever axle after all (and driveshaft stuff ofc)

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

If you plan on using the stock frame (and repairing it), use the stock leaf springs. The springs in my '57 are stock and they flex like crazy. I did a spring over to get the ride height, but other than that, the springs, bushings and shackles are stock Rover.

[Noll]

8 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

If you plan on using the stock frame (and repairing it), use the stock leaf springs. The springs in my '57 are stock and they flex like crazy. I did a spring over to get the ride height, but other than that, the springs, bushings and shackles are stock Rover.

 

From what i've heard from other Series 2 owners, the S2 trucks (and especially the LWB ones like mine) are stiff as rocks unfortunately. I'll likely be swapping them out for some parabolic springs, they're apparently THE way to go on S2 land rovers to have decent ride quality

[EDM620]

The 75 CJ5 I had was equipped with heavy spring packs from the factory, carried a full 1/2T rating instead of usual 1/4T rating. Bloody 10 pack. Problem was no axle articulation at all. I ended up having custom spring packs made to rectify the problem and a world of difference was the result. Food for thought.

[Noll]

God, I am bad at keeping stuff updated lol. Time to update this thread, the rest of last year ended up being a busy time for the Z (in a good way).

Upgraded the taillights to LED:

 

Came across a friend on the way home one night:

 

You can haul surprisingly a lot in a Z 😛

 

Alternator decided to die, a couple days before a big trip. Not ideal.

 

my first thought of the culprit was the voltage regulator as it looked like a capacitor exploded inside, so got a NOS one from a friend and swapped that in.

 

 

 

Turns out the like 2-year-old reman alternator had died though. the shaft play probably wasn't the only issue, but it sure was obvious. No time to get a new one before the trip (nowhere with local stock), but was able to cobble one together from parts of my busted one and two other dismantled ones a friend loaned me. A bolt of course decided to snap off in the bracket, but i was able to rob the one off my 280zx parts motor and throw the car back together.

 

 

 

 

Great success! I've never seen the amp gauge actually move the entire time I've owned the car until now lol

 

 

 

Some other final mods/checks before the trip; figured out the rear end clunk i've had since getting the Z roadworthy lmao. loctited and torqued to spec, much better.

 

Tried to make a tool to remove the diff fill plug to check the level (because there is NO access in the car), but it was on wayyy too tight so I resorted to drilling a hole and using my impact

 

 

 

The rear tires were getting low on tread from camber wear, so had them de-mounted, flipped, and re-balanced so the best tread was on the inside to last a bit longer:

 

Installed a USB port/voltmeter that wasn't right were my knee was trying to go like the stock cigarette lighter port, and chopped up a pen to reduce slop in my 240sx transmission's short shifter lol

 

 

 

 

 

Wanted the exhaust to be a little less drone at certain RPMs, so did a quick proof of concept with a bunch of steel wool. It worked suprisingly well (10db drop in the cabin at idle, and drone gone!), so made a slide-in thingy for the exhaust

 

 

 

 

 

Sounds damn good:

 

 

 

Was getting some belt squeal, so, not having time to get another belt, i made do with the tensioner off the 280ZX motor:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test drive was to a car meet:

 

 

Roadtrip begins, mile 0! Plan was to drive a few hundred km to Toronto, pick up my friend who was doing the photography for a classic car event called the Maple Mille, head a few hours north that same day, and act as the camera car all weekend. First leg went well, and ended up at a rather cool warehouse.

 

 

 

Noticed a leak from the thermostat housing (again, grrr), but the coolant level hadn't dropped so ignored it for the time being. kept checking on it throught the weekend and it stayed fine thankfully.

 

 

 

Some other friends were coming along on this trip in their own car, and the exhaust had just broken to the point it was hitting the road. We had access to a lift, but no real tools or supplies, and it had gotten into the evening, so I ended up welding some plumbing pipe into their exhaust with a borrowed flux core welder, while surrounded by a load of expensive cars lol.

 

 

Ended up behind the wheel of a Porsche 944 while heading back to my friends place to drop off their stuff and car (the porsche). Was mildly surreal to be following my own car haha

 

 

We ended up getting to the hotel at like 1am, and then had to wake up at 6. Not great, but the day made up for it. Nice parking lot views in the morning:

 

 

 

Our job was basically to take shortcuts ahead of everyone else, find photo spots, wait for everyone to drive by to be photographed, and repeat. This meant a *lot* of high-speed driving on twisty back roads, and we beat the hell out of the car. The first stop of the day was quite peaceful though, and we met a friendly doggo:

 

 

The lunch stop

 

 

 

 

The rest of the next couple days passed in a blur, some highlights below. Ended up behind the wheel of a Hyundai Pony at one point which was neat. Also made the best u-turn i've ever done in my life, but sadly there's no video 😞 . we missed a turn, there was a slightly sandy t-junction 150ft past it that was empty, i tipped into it in 2nd gear,flicked the rear end around with tires spinning, did a perfect like 200 degree turn and straightened up, hitting redline on the way back out of the junction. I am genuinely sad I don't have footage lol, it was *perfect*.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just after 1000 miles, at the event finish line (or rather, shortly before, but managed to limp the car there one carb worth of fuel), I found out that apparently we'd driven the car hard enough over the weekend to heat soak the carb fuel bowl lines so bad the front one split, and the other one was about to. Nobody had the right sized hose on hand, so we bade do with some 1/4" line from a volkswagen beetle and some extra tight hose clamps to get me home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Few hours more, and ended up back at my friends place where we parted ways. A friend I made over the weekend was heading back my way too, so we spent ~5 hours convoying through the rain and darkness until I eventually got home.

1,407 hard backroad miles (2264 km) in 4 days, not bad for the ol' girl 🙂 .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Started taking stock of things the next morning. We drove this thing haaaaaard, so much brake dust on everything and the rear quarters were coated with rubber lol (even AFTER hours of driving in the rain). (remember I demounted/flipped the rear tires, hence the backwards looking wear pattern)

 

 

 

 

 

Got some Tygon tubing for the carbs, and we got allll my money's worth out of the brake pads. Angle grinder tool works great for retracting the spinny piston on the Maxima calipers 🙂 .

 

 

 

 

Cleaned up the wheels:

 

 

 

 

Not really related to anything, but the headlights work great with the relay harness I made way back 🙂

 

 

Noticed the rear LCA bushings were shot (somehow, they're new polyurethane from the restoration), and the Z was my only working daily at that time, so I did some janky stuff with some aluminum sheet to get by until the winter:

 

 

 

 

 

a really bad noise showed up a couple days after the roadtrip that sounded like rubbing; I saw this dust shield weld was broken so I thought it was the culprit, but it was in fact a bad CV joint (i welded up the dust shield ofc). replaced that and back on the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She normally doesn't rub, but 2 people + weekends worth of gear + hard driving was enough it seems haha

 

 

 

last bit of driving before the winter:

 

 

 

 

 

First snow arrived, so got her tucked up for the winter:

 

 

 

 

That brings us to the present. There's a lot of stuff i want to fix/improve/mod/etc for the next driving season, but that'll have to wait until the garage isn't full of other cars like it currently is.

[Draker]

Awesome update! Thanks for sharing. Very detailed!

[EDM620]

Great story Noll, glad the roadside repairs held together!

Speaking of held together, a Hyundai Pony that's still on the road, and in Ontario yet! That should have rotted away at least a decade ago.

[iceman510]

Looks like a nice event, and a great shakedown for the Z.  Nice to see a 944 that is not red, black or silver.  

[Noll]

On 1/25/2024 at 3:43 AM, Draker said:

Awesome update! Thanks for sharing. Very detailed!

 

13 hours ago, EDM620 said:

Great story Noll, glad the roadside repairs held together!

Speaking of held together, a Hyundai Pony that's still on the road, and in Ontario yet! That should have rotted away at least a decade ago.

 

2 hours ago, iceman510 said:

Looks like a nice event, and a great shakedown for the Z.  Nice to see a 944 that is not red, black or silver.  

 

Ty all 🙂 . Not updating as much now it's not an active project ofc, but I didn't want the thread to just die as soon as I got the car roadworthy. Plenty of mods/changes planned for this upcoming year that I'll aim to document too.

 

The Pony is one hell of a survivor, that's for sure! Super cool lil car and surprisingly a total blast to drive (no tach made it interesting though as not a car I was used to and didn't want to overrev on downshifts haha). It was driven as the sweep car on the event (making sure nobody got left behind, basically), and the owner drives the hell out of it.

 

 

And yeah, it was a total blast, and a great way to torture test the car. No major issues really (i'll make a proper header heat shield in the spring, and probably a fan shroud), so I am very happy. It's a very nice blue on the 944, and it was a fun car to drive; that 4cyl is surprisingly torque-y.

 

Oh, and I just did the math, and the Z has done 9243 miles / 14875.17 km since I got it on the road thus far 🙂 . Have never not made it home under my own power, and the few issues I've had have generally been relatively minor and almost all due to the few things I didn't replace during the rebuild (water pump bearing went last yr, the CV joint in my previous post, etc etc). I'd have no worries driving it anywhere in north america on a moments notice if needed.

Edited January 26 by Noll

[Noll]

Also, totally spaced on posting these pics my photographer friend took while we were doing the Mille, so here:

[Noll]

Been about 2mo since I started the Z over the winter so figured I should. Ended up cranking for literally a minute before she caught fuel and fired, in hindsight I should have poured some gas down the float bowl vents first, d'oh. 50-year-old original starter the MVP tho, did it like a champ and she did fire happily to life once there was fuel at the carbs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks like I have an oil leak to deal with in the spring, must have missed a spot with sealant when I installed this fuel pump. (it's not leaking fuel, i tasted it to be sure lol)

 

 

Also, oddly, after running for a few mins she stumbled for a second then totally shut off, and did the same ~10 mins later. Both times she fired right back up instantly with the key, so it can't be fuel (if bowls had been run dry somehow it wouldn't have fired without a bunch more cranking), and it's factory electronic ignition so not going to be dirty points or something like that. Given she fired up instantly like nothing had happened both times I'm thinking either a loose/corroded connection somewhere (idling made it shake in a certain way that it lost voltage for a sec? dunno), or a combination of low battery and external voltage regulator meaning that alt voltage dropped too low to sustain spark for long enough to shut off.

Idk, if anyone has suggestions I'm all ears, it didn't happen again so hard to diagnose - will give her a good shakedown run come the spring and get the cobwebs out, plus check connections etc for peace of mind.