My new S30

[Perrenial Badass]

1973 not-so-hotness 240Z. Was originally white, but was resprayed burghandy. Not a cheap spray-over though, the PO must have put some serious paper into it since it looks as flawless as factory. Has just under 80,000 miles, the odometer is almost rolled all the way over. The engine has less than 50 miles since it was rebuilt... but that was a long time ago so I'm not sure whether it will have any effect on the car anyway. When the car was painted and the engine rebuilt, all of the rust that had formed up to that point was repaired, so there isn't very much rust on it for an S30 I put $250 towards getting. However, the right front fender and hatch will be replaced, and there is some bad rust under the battery tray. Some small places of surface rust here and there, but nothing I can't easily dispatch. And the best part is that I bought this Z from the sister-in-law of the woman I bought my Z31 from. Now I have stolen all their Zs.



Any ideas on what wheels these are? I doubt that they are made any more, but a lead on the logo might help me discover their identity. As a somewhat unrelated note, these wheels are actually pretty light, though I might have been around 8, 9, and 10" wide wheels too long for my opinion here to really be of any value.

[evildky]

ew, just add soap the wheels are what is ofter called "turbines" many brands made a similar style wheel, many of these alder wheels did not cast brand logos on the back side but you'll want to check just in case

[Perrenial Badass]

Yesterday, the car saw rain for the first time in 15 years. Will that do for now?

Anyway, I've almost got it running. Almost as in the 30 year old fuel lines do not want to cooperate and are crumbling. Gasoline sniped into your eyeball FTL! A bit of work and I can drive it, the engine turns over and would run if I could get it a steady flow of fuel.

But I will check the back of the wheels, I didn't think to look there. Does the little "i" logo not mean anything, or is it just too obscure a logo for anyone to know what they are?

[NSR_s30]

Wow not a bad find, looks like it needs some work but will be pretty solid....Hows the floorpans? I see you have a little rust on the pass. side fender.

[Perrenial Badass]

The floorpans appear to be solid, but I have yet to get it up on a lift for a close inspection. As for the passenger's side fender, it's more than a little rust. it's at the point of welding new metal in to repair that fender. Seeing as it is removable and easily replaceable, I'd rather just replace it.

There is also a bit of rust around the gas door, but none around the rear lights. The rust troublespots are the rear lights, floorpans, around the gas door, and under the battery tray. Did I miss any?

[hbpignosePA]

still need a hatch?

what is your email and ill send u some pics from my part out

[Perrenial Badass]

I might take up up on that. I want to see if I can get it running and driving before I do much else though. Fuel lines should go in tomorrow (well, today I guess...) so from what I can tell it should run. But go ahead and send some pics to [email protected] and I will get back to you.

[Cezzna]

You might want to drop the gas tank and clean it out to prevent contaminating the new lines and filter?

[Perrenial Badass]

I am running a separte pump, filter, and tank for testing the engine. So while I replaced the fuel lines in the engine bay, I haven't messed with the lines under the car nor the tank. This saves me all the work in case the engine is crap. Which I am happy to report... it isn't! I got it running as it were, but not on all cylinders. One of the carbeurators is messing up again so it runs really rough. But it ran well enough (considering) that I am now willing to put real money into making it work. I'm thinking I will get one of those single-carb manifolds and put an Edelbrock 4 barrel careurator on it. From what I can tell, the carbs ar ethe only thing keeping it from running right.

But I'll definately do that before I hook the gas tank up. The gas tank scares me slightly. Should I be concerned that when I open the gas filler cap and smell it, that I smell grape juice? I doubt that it is my mental instability acting up again as I had other smell it with the same effect...

However, I was able to get a better look at the floor today. It was rusted out at one time, but it was "fixed". With fiberglass. Now don't get me wrong, but although the fiberglass work is pretty good, that's not how any car I own will be repaired. So I'll be cutting that bull**** out and putting in new floors I guess. Damn. And then I get the fun job of running down the leaks in the clutch and brake systems. The resivoirs are empty which tells me that there's a leak somewhere. Yaaaaay!

[Cezzna]

Very good!

[bigred240sx]

dude thats quite a steal and if u wanna get rid of those wheels let me know hahai love them

[evildky]

I hear the single holley/edlebrock has decent top end but lacks the low down grunt of the SU's, trippel DCOE's are "teh secks" but a pain to tune, the SU's aren't bad once you learn them, and the good news is there isn't much to learn, far less complicated than the holley/edlebrock's, you just got the extra tack of balancing them

[Perrenial Badass]

Going single carb for simplicity's sake. It will also allow me to free up even more engine bay space. Coming from Corvettes, I value every mm I can get my greedy little hands on. That, and one of them is being a PITA and I don't want the car to stagnate while I rebuild them. I might rebuild them and polish them up, but I don't want to hold the project up to do so.

I'm not really concerned with where the power level is right now anyway. My number one priority is the body, the engine is of little importance if the body isn't worth a ****. So if I can get it going under it's own power then it will be alot easier to move it around so I can repair all the rust.

Which reminds me, my friend said that these didn't look like the 73 carbeurators. Said they looked like the earlier carbeurators. Now, I know that in 73 Nissan threw in some emissions crap (aren't they fun?) but I'm not 100% sure about the carbeurators. How would I be able to tell? Hooray n00b question!

Then again, I could get an L28E, a diesel Maxima crank, some 240SX pistons, and get that T3 out of my closet...

@ bigred240sx, if I decide to get rid of these wheels I will definately let you know.

[bigred240sx]

thanks plz do hahabut im ready to see how this project turns out...gl

[evildky]

yes those are "round top" carbs, from a 70-71, much better than the boat anchors that came on the 73

[Perrenial Badass]

Thanks man. Good to know.

[Perrenial Badass]

More pictures. Ronnie and I are a bit confused because of the carbeurators are installed a bit... funny. Look at the pics and see if you can spot what's wrong with them.How the hell this happened, I haven't a clue. More fun for me, yay!

Speaking of fun, here's all that fun rust that I will have to fix. More yay!

[NSR_s30]

What exactly do you mean about the carbs, they look fine to me. Looks like a the e-missions stuff has been eliminated....?

[evildky]

front carbs is on the back and bck carb is in the front, and they did something wierd with the fuel line and looped it?

[NSR_s30]

Oh I see it now. That is weird?

[Perrenial Badass]

Correct. I replaced the fuel lines, but I just mimicked how they were setup when I got the car. I don't know if the front carb being on the rear and vice-versa would effect whether or not the car will run... but I bet the weirdness which is the fuel line setup would.

[evildky]

I don't see what the reversed carbs would be an issue otherthan hoses and cables reaching where they are supposed to go, if they reach I guess it's not a big deal, the fuel bowls might stay cooler on the outsides? the stock fuel rail (at least on the earlier cars)has one inlet, plus 2 outlets (one to each fuel bowl) and a restricted return line to help maintain the low line pressure, the needle valves in the SU's can only handle 2.5-3 psi, overpower them a fuel pouts out the fuel boel vents which appear to be hooked to each other on your car which of course they should be piped into the back of the filter box

[Hooked on 240]

looks better now with a bath

Very good find. GL with the project

[Perrenial Badass]

My partner in crime got the car running yesterday. Has a miss, but considering everything it isn't too bad. The carb is off of a Camaro some guy was stupid enough to leave around Ronnie without supervision. He ain't getting it back, either.



Got the manifold single carburetor adapter off of eBay and put a 1" spacer on it so that the carburetor would fit proper. I'll see if I can get my hands on a video camera so you can hear how "awesome" a car rebuilt in 87 and left to die sounds.

[evildky]

I suspect it's gonna run stinky rich with that fatty 4 barel, what si that 550 cfm? I think they recomend a 350 cfm for the Z

[hachiroku781]

I suspect it's gonna run stinky rich with that fatty 4 barel, what si that 550 cfm? I think they recomend a 350 cfm for the Z

meh with some wd40 every problem will buff right out. +1 on the car though. its gonna be fun watching this machine transform.

[Pharaohabq]

YIKES! That's low rust?? Wow, That much rust would scare me away quick. I hope you didn't pay much for the car, because you've got a lot of work ahead of you. You really need to pull off those front wheels and check how strong those inner panels are with a hammer. Surface rust is one thing, but you see it's rusted through in looks like quite a few spots, which tells me theres internal cancer likely in the frame. I'll be watching how you repair all that, my 78 has 2 tiny rust spots n I dunno yet how to fix them, so far just sanded then back and primered the areas till I decide what to do.

Good deal on the engine running tho, that's always nice to see one rise from the dead. I can't say I like the burgundy tho, Perhaps with some washing and waxing it might grow on me.

Good luck, and if you need parts, drop a line, there's still a few places around here that have early S30 parts. (Sunny NM.)

Phar

[NSR_s30]

I suspect it's gonna run stinky rich with that fatty 4 barel, what si that 550 cfm? I think they recomend a 350 cfm for the Z

A *lil* rich...lol

[Perrenial Badass]

YIKES! That's low rust?? Wow, That much rust would scare me away quick. I hope you didn't pay much for the car, because you've got a lot of work ahead of you. You really need to pull off those front wheels and check how strong those inner panels are with a hammer. Surface rust is one thing, but you see it's rusted through in looks like quite a few spots, which tells me theres internal cancer likely in the frame. I'll be watching how you repair all that, my 78 has 2 tiny rust spots n I dunno yet how to fix them, so far just sanded then back and primered the areas till I decide what to do.

Well, I couldn't see the rust in the wheel well since the car was stored in the midst of a bunch of junk. I've gotten under it and from what I can see there isn't any serious rust on the frame. There is some surface rust that I will need to deal with. As for most of the surface rust, the brother of the woman I bought this Z (and also the woman I bought my Z31) from sandblasts stuff for a living. I might pull off all the non-metal stuff and have him blast the living hell out of it and primer it. He already said that he'd do it for free.

As for other rust areas... if I can remove it and replace it (sans welding), then I will. Under the battery tray, I will simply cut out the metal and weld in new steel. It's not as easy as I just put it, but I've done it before so at the very least I have an idea of what I'm getting into. Once that's done, grind down the weld on the "show side" And make the transition as smooth as possible. Primer over it until I'm ready to paint. Then I get to have all the happy happy joy joy feelings that come with putting in new floors.

But yea... I got a lot more rust that I had bargained for. My original intent was to save the car regardless, though. I just didn't want to see a classic Z car rust to nothing. I also had always wanted one. And in addition to that, I enjoy doing bodywork and paint. On the bright side, I will hit 3 birds with one stone.

I suspect it's gonna run stinky rich with that fatty 4 barel, what si that 550 cfm? I think they recomend a 350 cfm for the Z

Aah yes, it happens to be a 700-something cfm carburetor. It is supposed to be going on a 454 that was bored out to a 462. I might steal that engine since he's already got everything assembled and, again, has left it all alone. Nobody likes a lonely engine.

On a bright note, I bet with plugs and wires that are a bit younger than 20 years old it will run better than my Z31. Which kinda pisses me off. It also sounds ****ing awesome, open exhaust after the headers. Revs freely and starts quickly.

[Pharaohabq]

Hey Thanks again for the Email on Rust repair. I'll definitely keep it in mind. I'm glad you've got a handle on a lot of it. that much rust is still pretty scary. The rust above the doors doesn't look so easy. So What is your plan with the Z, are you thinking of making an all out racer (with that 454, it''ll be scary, or maybe you're thinking Classic Z sleeper. I was thinking if you're planning on racing, you may not need to do that good a job on a lot of the rust. 454 might be a little big but it's up to you.

That's awesome tho he's offered to blast it for you, that should really make a difference in the amount of work you have to do in cleanup. I'm sure you know though, you'll be cleaning sand out of it forever.

I hope that you'll take a lot of pictures while you're fixing her up. I'd really like to see how it goes and how she turns out. I'm glad you're saving her, though right now she looks a little corpse bride...