AaronK

Annnd that's pretty much where the car is at right now.

The Best Vid (2:30) Fuel System Stuff - Aaron

First Real Drive at ~6psi (4:20 and 8:00) This is at 14psi (4:15) - Aaron

Thanks, we try. The latest mod on the Z was NOS! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: Here are some vids though First Start, much excitement First Drive with pops - Aaron

Another interior shot These are my favorite pictures of the car as of now.

Soon after giving up his old 240z to me, my oldest brother Matt got bit the Datsun bug again. He wound up trading his baby (a 90 mustang GT he bought new) for this mint 78 280z. He eventually added the fender mirrors, custom 2.5" stainless steel exhaust system with blast pipes, the watanabes, and did the Toyota 4 piston front brake swap. He was accumulating parts for an sr20det swap, but decided to sell everything and go a different route. It was a bada$$ car though. Here are a few more photos of my other brother Sam's Fairlady 280zx 2+2 (the one that used to be my dad's.) He just recently got it back on the road after adding tomei 260 cams, tomei solid lifters, a z33 6 speed and a few other odds and ends to the sr20det. Now, back onto my Z, I had thought I had it running good and it "felt" fast, so obviously I took it to the track. Of course the tachometer stopped working due to the msd ignition I just put in the day before so I was short shifting, and my tail lights stopped working on I think my second run (the little solder joint on the combination switch loves to brake off.) Anyway being that it was my first time, I didn't do well at all, the car kept bogging down when I launched it, and my shifts back then were super slow. I think my 60' was like 2.7 seconds or something horrible. I later found that my rear brakes were dragging really badly, to where one person could physically not push the car. I only got 3 runs in, and wasn't pleased with any of them, I'm pretty sure I threw away the time slips out of embarrassment. It also didn't help that the DA was really high (it was a hot summer night.) Based on my trap speed with the DA correct it was something like ~16.4 the car definitely had more in it, I just never got a chance to run it again with that motor combo and all those issues fixed. From that point on, my game changed. Being a poor college student I started to think of the cheapest easy way to make the car faster. I thought of rebuilding an NA flat-top f54 block, keeping my maxima n47 head and using a fel-pro head gasket for 10.5:1 CR, adding a better cam and doing some port work. This way I could keep the rest of the stuff I already had. But the more I thought of how much it would cost to rebuild some junkyard engine the right way myself, the more turned off I was towards that idea. Besides I already knew that I wanted something turbocharged. I looked into all kinds of swaps, 1jzgte, 2jzgte, 2jz NA-T, rb25det, sr20det, even the 7mgte, but no matter which way I sliced it, the cost was just more than I could afford, with having to make custom mounts and even then doing the wiring and everything myself still was just too much. In hindsight I really really would have liked to have thrown a 1 or 2jz engine in it but I couldn't come up with the cash, especially once you start talking about those r154s and w58s transmissions that guys think are made of gold. Even just clutches for those things are like 4-500 bucks, and then you get into, well how am I going to tune it, a piggy back really isn't the way to go, so that's another almost $1000 for a good computer right there, then you still have the fuel system, and a bigger turbo, and injectors, the list goes on. As much as I wanted to do a modern turbocharged engine swap, the prices I was adding up were driving me more towards something that could bolt right in and only need minimal investment to get going. So I started searching for an l28et, the obvious choice. They make 180hp at the crank at ~6psi with all that emissions crap, and power steering/ac, even 180hp would be faster than where I was at. And the numbers just go up from there, depending on what more you decide to do to it. To make some money to fund the swap, I sold my triple webers and rebuild kits with heat shield and air cleaners, a spare valve cover, my brand new zg flares, 3 piece duck tail and a few other odds and ends, I got ~$1200 total Every time I got close to finding a donor car or engine, it would be sold out from under me before I even had a chance to look at it, let alone pick it up. After about 6 months of searching, by chance I found an ad hidden in some small town's craigslist page about 4 hours north of here where the title only said something about a 260z shell and had no price. Out of curiosity I clicked the ad and to my amazement found that the guy sneakily implied that the car came with an 81 280zx turbo engine. There was just a picture of the engine and wiring and stuff. Exactly what I was looking for. I knew it was a long shot but for $hits and giggles I asked him if he was willing to sell only the engine/wiring/ecu to which he said yes, and two days later I had an 81 l28et, with wiring harness, ecu, spare flywheel, afm, clutch, pretty much everything for the swap in the back of my Mazda b3000 for the grand total of $450. Not bad at all. That night, when I got home I immediately started to rip the engine apart, taking off all the unnecessary emissions crap, the power steering pump, unneeded brackets, stock downpipe etc. etc. I cleaned the block up and sanded it as best I could and then painted it and the turbine housing and exhaust manifold with ultra-high temp engine enamel I found (good for 2000 degrees). I also did the valve cover in wrinkle black. The manifold and turbine housing still look great to this day, so much for all that crap you hear about that stuff burning off or not working, lies! After that I unbolted the heat shields for the turbo manifold and wrapped that big log manifold as best I could with titanium header wrap. By the time I finished up it was like 3-4AM so I quickly cleaned up and went to bed. I woke up the following morning at ~8AM to drop the turbo engine in its new home and it went in fine. This is the first engine swap I had ever done, and it was cake! I had already pulled the old NA l28 before picking up the new turbo motor. From there, all the parts buying began, I bought a big 25x12x3 one side fmic (I never liked the way people routed regular style fmics on these non-cross flow engines; the shorter the pipe length, the quicker the spool) I painted it black for maximum stealth, but the open 2.5" MSA downpipe completely obliterates that notion. I made all my own intercooler piping and brackets but it’s just 3 of the right sized 90 degree silicon bends, and one 45 degree bend along with straight aluminum tubing cut to length, all with t-bolt clamps of course. All I had to do was slightly enlarge the pre-existing holes that where on the core support. I don’t know why more people don’t do it this way, it’s the simplest way. The “intake” is just a 2.25” to 3” silicone adapter going to an apexi power filter. The one thing I didn’t get with the engine was the stock 280zx oil cooler, so I bought the largest reasonably priced one I could find and didn’t use any braided line because of how expensive it is. I mounted right up front next to my intercooler. Below is the fuel set-up, I made a video explaining in more in depth, basically I used the fuel drain as my feed line for my lift pump (holley red) then plumbed that to my surge tank and then ran my walbro 255lph from that to the engine, with filters inline. I used Gates Barricade fuel hose (its E85 safe and cheap) for my feed line from the walbro, and used the stock 5/16” 240z carbureted feed line as the return line, plumbing it back through my surge tank and then into the stock carbureted 240z feed line. No 280z baffled gas tank or fuel cell here, I tried to keep everything simple (mostly stock) It was about that time that I also ditched the tenzo version 5 steering wheel in favor of a more period correct looking royal grip wood grain; I love the way this wheel looks and feels. During the swap I got the bright idea to completely remove the dashboard and fill/sand the cracks. I don’t have pictures of it currently, but the problem with mine was that it was soo sun baked and distorted (cracks bowing out like ½”) I couldn’t get its transitions sanded as smooth as a stock dash; at least there are no cracks anymore though, and it’s one color. It doesn’t look that bad, but I’ll probably just get one of those dash mats to cover it up so that this never happens again. Since that was out I went ahead and removed my heater, and had my heater core pressure tested, boiled out, and the leaks fixed. I haven’t decided if I’m going to put any of that stuff back into the car though, I never drive the car in the winter anyway, so I have no need for heat. I’ll probably just fab up a block off plate for the center of the dash and put my boost gauge in there. I’ve already removed the stock (broken) clock and that’s where I’m going to put my AEM wideband. Another thing I didn’t mention is that I did the 240sx 60mm throttle body swap and can confirm that you can use the stock 240sx tps, you don’t have to swap the 280zx turbo one over. My throttle body is from a single cam 240sx (89-90) 5 speed with no cruise control, while one with cruise control would work fine; it’s just an extra unplugged connector in your engine bay. I actually swapped a few pieces of the 280zx turbo throttle body ball and spring linkage and am using the stock 240z throttle linkage. No cable/welding here, simplicity is key. I don’t think I had to rethread the throttle shaft on the 240sx throttle body to fit the 280zx linkage, it was just 10 minutes of fiddling and everything was good to go, looks factory. I did get the AZZC 1” throttle body spacer and ported the intake manifold extensively for the 240sx throttle body to match up right. Truthfully, at first the wiring seemed like a nightmare, but now that I’ve done it, there are literally less than a dozen wires that need to be soldered for it to run, so simple. I had originally bought an l28et into 240z swap harness off of hybridz, but it was for an 83 l28et (no injector resistors, CAS in distributor, etc.) so I ended up not using it, all that I robbed it of was the efi relay, which I couldn’t find in my mess of wire harness I got with my engine. I think most of it is marked where what wire/connector goes to (by me) if anyone is interested. That’s all I care to type for now, I’ll update more later.

Hello everybody I'm Aaron, I’m from Puyallup Washington, now living in Beavercreek Ohio. I'm a new poster here but not new to Datsun's or even this site.... I've been a long time lurker. Anyway this is a long overdue build thread for my 1973 Datsun 240z as well as my introduction to all of you. First off I'm the youngest of 8, a military brat and I've been into cars, Datsun's specifically for as long as I can remember; though I guess it all started with my pops buying a 510 new back in 1970 shortly after he enlisted in the Air Force. The car was cheap and he loved the way that it looked/drove and how awesome the gas mileage was. He pretty much drove that car into the ground, eventually busting a hole in one of the piston's (probably on one of those times was going ~110mph like he's always telling me.) Anyway, at the end of his time as an enlisted service member he attained the opportunity to attend a college of his choice through a scholarship with the brand new (at the time) Air Force ROTC program. Soon after moving to SC to attend college, he bought a 1971 green Datsun 1200 coupe (this must have been ~1975ish.) He loved this Datsun even more than the 510; it was smaller, better yet on gas and according to him faster than his 510 was. I'm not exactly sure what happened to that car but I think they either sold it or it was in an accident or something. By now he was hooked, bit by the Datsun bug bad. After graduating and receiving his commission into the Air Force as a 2nd Lieutenant, he went on to buy another Datsun 1200 coupe, this one was gold. He bought it as a junker and spent a lot of time rebuilding the engine, drivetrain, brakes, suspension etc. doing all the work himself learning along the way. Unfortunately, he rolled it and hit a tree coming home on TDY during it's break in. He fell asleep at the wheel and is lucky to be alive. After that one he bought two Datsun 1600 Roadsters, a green one that ran great but was rusted out and a red one that had a good body. He basically created one good car out of those two and took the red roadster with him when he PCS’d over to Japan with Mother and my 3 oldest brothers. In Japan he hadt a white 1974 b210 gx (A14 with twin SU's and 5 speed) and later a Silver 1979 Fairlady Z 2+2. When it came time to leave Japan, the Roadster which had just gotten a beautiful paint job was unfortunatly left in Japan due to the incompetence of the person my parents left teh car with to transport it to the loading docks at the Naval shipping yard. It's still out there somewhere. They brought the Fairlady back from Japan, but not the b210 gx or Roadster, which my dad still kicks himself for to this day. Fast forward to the mid 90s and my two (of three) older brothers were getting to be driving age; my dad bought my brother Andy (afracer) two orange Datsun 1200 coupes, one as a parts car and the other a nice one to fix up. While my other brother Sam got a 1968 Buick Riviera GS. Below are some pics of those cars I absolutely loved that car as a little kid. About the same time my Dad bought himself a Blue 1971 Datsun 1200 coupe that he and my other brother Sam restored for his senior project. While I was only a little kid, I can still remember Dad taking me out to work on the car; even if I was just chillin on the roof or in the driver’s seat I loved being out there with the guys and especially with the cars. Between Andy and my Dad, they had/have quite the collection of 1200 parts and did many many modifications to theirs. My brother's 1200s eventually ending up with a rebuilt bored out A15, with ported and polished head, twin Dellorto side draft carbs, 63A dogleg 5 speed, mild cam, chrome-moly push rods, nismo crank pulley, tilton flywheel, nismo clutch, msd ignition, nismo comp header, 2.25" exhaust, b210 rear end, nismo lowering springs, roll bar, sway bars, slotted mag wheels etc etc. While my Dad's blue 1200 got a rebuilt A14 with ~10:1 compression, ported and polished head, mild cam, twin gx SU's, header, 60A 5 speed, 2.25" exhaust, slotted mag/Shelby (libre style) wheels. They were always a pretty close race. My brother unfortunately crashed those orange 1200s of his and swapped everything into a white one be bought for like 200 bucks. I wish we could find deals like this nowadays. Well, that 1200 developed some bad rust issues, so he bought a really nice rust free silver 1200 coupe and swapped everything he had onto that; eventually taking it with him to Japan after he joined the Air Force. While he was over there he did the first ever documented sr20det swap into a lhd 1200. The car now has a narrowed 8.8", fender flares, and watanabes among a bunch of other cool stuff. The SIlver Fairlady 280zx my Dad brought back from Japan was sold to a family friend in around 1999 when we had to move from washington state to Ohio, but was bought back by my other older brother Sam around 2008, who has since done an sr20det swap to it, among many many other things. Pictured below In the years since, my Dad has retired from the Air Force and settled down here in Beavercreek Ohio (near WPAFB) and his blue car has sat for about 8 years and rusted to the ground thanks to Ohio winters/salt. However a few weeks ago I found an ad for a blue Datsun 1200 coupe for sale out in Colorado, and emailed my deployed brother Andy (afracer) the link. Well, he came up with the idea to get a collection going between us 8 kids and buy the car for Dad as a father’s day surprise/gift. This was something I have always wanted to do, but was never in the financial position to so and wasn’t sure if anyone else in my family wanted to as it was never discussed. So I went out and picked it up, did a few maintenance things to it and drove it the 1200 miles home. This last Sunday on video I surprised Pops with his new blue 1200 coupe to swap all his goodies into (will post separate build thread for that later.) We figure he will actually enjoy retired life now that he can drive around his hot little 1200 again. And now finally onto the car I started this build thread for: My Z; it’s my baby, a 1973 240z that I've had since 2009. I was actually given it unexpectedly from my oldest brother Matt. I had saved up some cash to go down to New Mexico (where he was stationed at the time) expecting to get running/work on a 1973 Toyota Celica ST he assured me he was giving me; but when I got there and went in the garage to take a look at things it wasn’t there. “Surprise, I sold it a week ago, it needed too much work. How about that 240z in the driveway, it’s already in much better condition and won’t need as much work/money put into it,” not to mention it’s that much cooler of a car! I was speechless. Being a Datsun nut I already knew all about Z’s and though we had never had an s30 in the family I was already very familiar with the platform, it’s problem areas, and most importantly the go fast bits available. It was a little rough but could easily be brought back up to drivable status. It already had an L28 from a 77 280z, a rebuilt n47 head, tired old 72 round top SUs, MSA 6-2 header, 280zx e12-80 distributor, MSA twice-pipes exhaust, 280zx turbo swastikas, Tokico HP struts with arizonazcar lowering springs, Electric fuel pump, an MSA type II front air-dam, 280zx turbo clutch and flywheel, but no brakes or headlights, or hatch seal among other things. Eventually the brakes were fixed and an H4 headlight swap was done and the car made its way up to Ohio, where I proceeded to learn stick in it (easiest car ever to drive stick in.) I drove it through high school fixing it up here and there with whatever I could scrounge up, of course parking it for winter. Through my ownership of this car I've taught myself how to tune the carbs, check timing, adjust valves, you name it, I’ve done it on this car. Once I got it back up to Ohio, I really got to work on it, I put together the interior, rebuilt the SU’s and put in SM needles, installed a 280zx 60A alternator, put in an msd 6A ignition, modified weber dcoe intakes to fit the stock air box, put in 4300k hid headlights and 7" projector housings, installed headlight covers, replaced all the fuel vapor lines, later I installed an ’82 280zx close-ratio 5 speed, a new throwout bearing, pilot bushing, shift fork and retaining springs, put on polyurethane sway bar bushings, new shifter bushings, high performance brake pads, front and rear strut braces, repainted the hood/cowl/hatch/tail light panel, installed a stereo, and put on a royal grip wood grain steering wheel. Pictures below All was well until I was given the opprotunity to drive my brother Andy's 89 cressida with a 1.5jz and ~600whp, I was bit by the turbo bug.... I think I’ll leave it at that for now, man that was a lot of typing and digging up old pictures. I'll update some more later today, as we're just getting started on the Z. Let me know what you guys think. -AaronK