Morning

[Aegis156]

I have a new toy that I'm not sure what to do with. Price tag was 500

1986 NA 5 speed with 67k actual verified miles. The car has not been on the road since 1997. That's when the inspection sticker expired

Put a set of jumper cables to it ( before I realized it had not been on the road for 17 years ) and the damn thing fired up and ran ( albeit rough but she ran ) it idles without feathering the gas.

It looks like the slave may be shot, the clutch pedal is on the floor.

The interior is also in good shape, a bit dirty but everything is there, including the interior T-Top covers ( honestly first time I had seen those in a car )

Right off the bat I plan on a 50k tune up, new injectors and clutch kit, and a full brake over haul as well

Can I put 550cc injectors in without messing with the ECU? Or just find a set of stock injectors? Injectors, rails and pigtails seem to be around 350.

Clutch kits are fairly cheap no issues there.

Have I missed anything major? I have no intention of heavily modding the car, if anything I want it near stock. Most likely the car will go to one of my boys so stock is good, hard to go crazy with 160 hp.

[nissangirl74]

If the motor is stock, go with the stock injectors. There's no need for more fuel.

[evildky]

Larger injectors would be a waste on an n/a and yes you'd need nistune or some other tuning method to run larger than stock injectors. The injectors are likely good, just run some injector cleaner through the system before you go replacing parts. Spark plugs are cheap and it's not a bad idea to do the wires, cap and rotor button for cheap insurance. Once you have her running right, plan on doing the timing belt, if it breaks you bend valves. Do the master when you do the slave, it's cheap and bleeding the system once is more fun than bleeding it twice.

[BadQ45t]

Follow all advise, but while your doing the timing belt make sure to replace the water pump and the cam seals. Those are also prone to leaking and it is just parts while your in there to do. If the water pump leaks it will ruin your brand new timing belt.

Also, check the rear passenger side where the spare tire is and make sure the thing isn't a rust bucket. There should be a hole in the bottom for water to pass through and this was completely rusted out on my car (which lived mostly in a garage). You can have it cut out and replace at a body shop to stop mother rust in its tracks.

[Aegis156]

Thanks for the replies all.

One of the first things I looked at was the spare tire well, to see if it was actually there, which it was. The body has no rust anywhere. Thanks for the advice on the seals, I had over looked those. The car is actually going to end up as my Boy's senior project for Tech.

[BadQ45t]

It is a great car to learn on, for the day it was advanced as hell, but today it is a down-right simple car. The fact that it has no rust is a small miracle. Report back after he takes off the covers and sees what condition the timing belt, cam seals and water pump are in...............

[Aegis156]

Few Pictures
Last Year on the Road
Odometer
Drivers side
Full Frontal
Interior
Headliner
Cargo carpet
Factory Spare
Factory Tools
Engine Bay
Air Breather
Quarter Window

As you can see I need to redo the headliner and replace the cargo area carpet. I also need a passengers rocker panel, I found 84-85 and 87-89 on the web last night but none for an 86. I ran the Vin through the Z registry to find the interior code and it came back as black on black, thought the interior is obviously blue. So I still need to find the code for the original interior color.

Because I'm like instant gratification I dropped in a battery, 5 gallons of fuel and a bottle of Lucas injector cleaner, the engine runs clean at 1200 RPM, no miss fires or rough idle at all. I had 2 issues the AC compressor is seized (not surprising) and something has died in the duct work. I kept an eye on the underside to see it leaked anywhere, after 30 minutes not a drop. oil pressure stayed steady at 30#, temp rock steady in the middle of the gauge, 14 volts off the alternator (disconnected the battery for a bit to see if I needed to alternator)

I'm really leaning towards keeping the car stock, or at least only doing minor mods to it, nothing that can't be reversed in 30 minutes of wrench time. Since I will either be giving it to my kids to drive or selling it outright I don't want to dump a ton of money into the car. All in all I'm extremely happy with the buy.

[Aegis156]

Forgot to ask if anyone knows where I can get the bags to protect the T-Tops when they are off the car?

[evildky]

I'm pretty sure the rockers are the same all the way through production, the fenders and quarters changed, the control arms changed , the mouldings changed but the rockers I'm pretty sure were unchanged.

[Aegis156]

I used the wrong term

This is the broken part

Passenger Skirt

[evildky]

oh, sideskirt

[AZ-ZBum]

As you can see I need to redo the headliner and replace the cargo area carpet. I also need a passengers rocker panel, I found 84-85 and 87-89 on the web last night but none for an 86.

86's are unique and you will need to find them from another '86 model.

I ran the Vin through the Z registry to find the interior code and it came back as black on black, thought the interior is obviously blue. So I still need to find the code for the original interior color.

You found it. But if you want a second opinion, the color codes are stamped on the model plate that's under the hood on the left strut mount.

Because I'm like instant gratification I dropped in a battery, 5 gallons of fuel and a bottle of Lucas injector cleaner, the engine runs clean at 1200 RPM, no miss fires or rough idle at all. I had 2 issues the AC compressor is seized (not surprising) and something has died in the duct work. I kept an eye on the underside to see it leaked anywhere, after 30 minutes not a drop. oil pressure stayed steady at 30#, temp rock steady in the middle of the gauge, 14 volts off the alternator (disconnected the battery for a bit to see if I needed to alternator)

You should never do that on a car with an ECU. You run the risk of frying the computer. That old school tech may have worked on cars with carbs, but you can fry electronics doing it on a modern vehicle.

I'm really leaning towards keeping the car stock, or at least only doing minor mods to it, nothing that can't be reversed in 30 minutes of wrench time. Since I will either be giving it to my kids to drive or selling it outright I don't want to dump a ton of money into the car. All in all I'm extremely happy with the buy.

$500 sounds like a great deal. Doesn't look too bad in the pictures. Nothing really stood out.

[Aegis156]

Interior code is 505 T

Thunder black on black

Kind of curious if the interior was a last minute change due to a customers order. I can't see any reason that it would have been changed out later with only 67k on it in 11 years on the road.

[AZ-ZBum]

Interior looks black to me. Now sure how you're seeing blue. The dash is black. The seats are black. The panels are black. The headliner is black...







This is blue:

[evildky]

those black seats can look blue after years of fade. dupli-color sells a fix for that

[Aegis156]

The snow has finally melted enough in upstate NY that I was able to start in on the Z. We finally found some rust, all on the inside of the car. Looks I need a new hatch seal and a t top seal. When I pulled the tool tray out of the car underneath was wet and a bit of rust. Same behind the driver seat. Minor amount in the spare tire well as is expected, nothing to serious.

All in all pretty minor stuff.

Engine is all tuned up with new timing belt, plugs wires oil all that good stuff. And yes we did the water pump seals while doing the timing belt.

Next its the passenger side skirt and new wing. They are trying to talk me into an F40 wing. Fighting it but spoilers are few and far between for these cars.

Then it is off to paint Black Cherry, I wanted to keep the car dark but I also like the chameleon scheme Black cherry let me have both.

I have the new interior sitting in a spare bedroom, (keeping the Black on Black theme of course) new carpet and the seats have been redone in black leather, with the Z emblem stitched into them.

Only thing left to buy is the Wilwood brake kits for both ends of the car and the Motegi wheels MR221 Traclites

For a car I was going to flip or give to the kids the money sure added up fast, enough that I may have to skip either the Vet or the 5' 8 Red Head during my mid life crisis.

[G-E]

First of all I'll say clean/refurbish the lifters (easy job) and send the injectors out for cleaning...

If you're serious about mods for handling and braking, I've produced a bunch of stuff:

http://www.ontariozcar.com/forum/showth ... -300ZX-Z31 13" 2-piece Z31 BBK that's made for your non-turbo hubs, the arizona-z-car wilwood setup is not any better, but will also require the expensive late-turbo hubs... the kit also comes with extended cromoly studs

http://www.ontariozcar.com/forum/showth ... -300zx-Z31 '89-93 240sx coilover adapters that are plentiful and cheap to obtain, you get access to all the high end stuff, even the ones that totally forgot what a Z31 is...

And if you do lower your car, http://www.ontariozcar.com/forum/showth ... -300ZX-Z31 Offset rollcenter adjusters for added bite in cornering, and acts like a 10mm spacer to bring the front wheels out a touch

There is more stuff in the pipeline, but that will require some more involved fabrication, what's your crisis telling you so far?

[Aegis156]

Whats the price tag on the Brake set up Both front and rear?

To be honest I hadn't thought about the suspension beyond replacing the springs with SS springs on all 4 corners with new OEM struts and shocks. At least for this year. The plan was to get it looking good and reliable for the summer. Take it off the road for the winter and do a complete Restoration / Modification of the suspension. Ball joints, tie rod ends, sway bars, all those damn bushings...

I do have a question though. before I send it out for paint I want to get rid of the stock antenna. Where do you all hide the whip? behind the cover for the tail lights or behind the mouldings for the rear windows?

[Pitts]

I had 2 issues the AC compressor is seized (not surprising)...

I've got a compressor from my 84 that I'm not using. I know it's not seized, but whether or not it is in perfect condition is beyond me (I live in Montana, no need for AC here). $5 + shipping and it's yours. According to a couple places, the same compressor was used from 84-87.