1980 280zx

[laxands13]

What's up Guys!I was on Nico before with my 240sx, but I had to sell that and I've been missing Nissan ever since. After a year I picked up my new project, a 1980 280zx hardtop with a blown Headgasket. The car was at least partially restored in 2004 and the interior is in pretty good shape. I've had it for about a month and a half now but progress is slow as I have time only when I'm not at school, lacrosse, or work. Here She is:

She of course has the typical windshield area rust and some on the bottoms of the doors too.
I do have a few questions, as this is my first time doing this. Where exactly is the throttle linkage that I need to remove? From what I've read it comes off at the gas pedal?
Second, when I got the car this line didn't really go anywhere.

It's the one on the left with the blue painter's tape on it. Obviously, i'm still taking it apart so I don't need to know quite yet but I figured why not ask. I'll post some more pictures in the next day or two, but for now I would just appreciate some help with getting the Throttle linkage off so I can keep slowly moving on.
Doug

[evildky]

Congrats on the Slicktop S130. Z's as a whole seem to love rust, finding a good chassis is far more important than the mechanicals especially with earlier cars.

When pulling the head be sure to buy the timing chain tool or use a wood block or somthing else to keep the timing chain from falling off the crank gear or you'll be removing the timing chain cover and resetting it. The throttle linkage you need to remove os the part that runs form the fire wall to the throttle shaft on the intake manifold. It's pretty simply, just rotate the throttle shaft and you'll see a small cotter pin you'll need to remove then it just slides out, be sure to catsh the spring and washer as they'll need to be put back when you reassemble. It's unusual for the non turbo L28E to pop a headgasket, I recomend you take the head to a machine shop and have it checked. If the head is damaged or if you want more performance keep an eye out for an N42 head, it'll raise the compression a bit over the p79 that your car came with and has less restrictive exhaust ports.

Sorry I can't help on that specific vac hose, I would suspect it goes to the charchol canister, and I tend to remove all the emissions stuff as we don't have testing here. I think the fsm is availabel for download here
http://www.xenons130.com/

[laxands13]

Thanks, I'm gonna try and get that off tonight. I was planning on having the head decked but I guess I'll have them check it first just to be safe. I'm basically just trying to get it running before deciding whether I can take this to college or if I need to sell it, so huge performance gains aren't a priority.

[evildky]

They are pretty dependable and long lasting, most issues are age related, the fuel pump, and afm at some point will simply stop working, the afm is the pricey part.The more common issues are blittle electrical connectors or wires especially the injector clips and the wires leading to them. Keep the oil changed and the lifters adjusted and it'll run dang near forever.

Any decent machine shop would check the head before surfacing it. be sure they check both sides. It's just unusual for a headgasket on an n/a L6 to go so I'd worry that someone severly overheated the engine, and if it tweaks the head the cam will sieze to the towers.

[laxands13]

I ended up finding the vacuum hose on a random google image haha. I was able to get the throttle linkage off last night (thanks evildky) as well as a few other small things before it got dark and I just started cleaning. Snapped a couple extra pics before it got too dark.
Interior:



How i left it last night

[laxands13]

Any idea how many long and short head bolts I need? I'm about to place an order and that's the last thing I need.

[evildky]

they generally sell them as a set, both OE's and ARP's. That beign said, IIRC, 14 total, 5 of them are long. again this is based on my crappy memory but most plases sell them in sets anyhow.

[laxands13]

Small update!
After like 5 hours of trying to get off the slightly rounded off heat shield bolts, I ended up just pulling the intake with the heat shield still on. so much easier than trying to get the heat shield off.
Small order on the way, plan on getting the rest of what i need ordered after work this weekend and hopefully pull the head next week.
So Much Space!

[laxands13]

Update! managed to get some good work done lately. Pulled the exhaust and rocker cover:

Then found the problem.....

And today got the head pulled:


So I'm hoping to get it the shop to get it machined and cleaned up this week!

[laxands13]

While the head was in the shop I decided to paint my fuel rails and associated parts. The gold was flaking off and didn't look good, so I went ahead and picked a nice burnt golden orangeish color. Didn't turn out great but it does look better than it did.

Got my head back from the shop, resurfaced and all cleaned up.

Got the head back on


Then I moved on to replacing the fuel injector clips. The old ones were in pretty bad shape so I ordered the replacement ones from The Z Store.
One of the better old ones:


The new ones:


Soldered on and wrapped in heatshrink:


So the last things I need will be coming in Tuesday and it should be running by this time next week!

[BadQ45t]

You left this thread hanging since April, what is the update. You see so few decent 280zx out there, lots of restored 240's around CA but the 280ZX is a forgotten animal.

[laxands13]

I got everything torqued down and good to go then let my timing chain tool slip, and lost chain tension. Based on how long it took me to do the headgasket (and the fact I had to have a car sold when I went to college in June) I took it to a shop to finish up. They replaced a leaky water pump and I've put some more money into it but the car runs great. I have some cool pictures here a-decade-apart-t576117.html
But, unfortunately, I can't leave 2 cars at my parents house while I'm at college. and the Datsun is on the chopping board for me.
Car's for sale. post6493292.html#p6493292

[BadQ45t]

Nice job but I think it will be tough to get your asking price......there are still many more roads to travel to get that car up to snuff....I will bet you can get $1800 max.

[laxands13]

I don't expect to get my asking price. At this point, I'm just trying to get what I can, haha.