Ratfink

I just got a killer deal on a 260 2+2.
Has the triple Weber carb setup with a full length header I have not identified yet. The last digits of the VIN is 0000084.
The car has no rust except for a dent in the front left fender that has surface rust. But it is creased pretty bad, so I will probably have to replace the panel.
Needs a few interior parts. And I am not even sure if it will run, but it turned over good by hand. 34,000 original miles, not rolled over.
Needs wiring work, but I can do that when I get a schematic. (Source?)
The rest of the body work is in great condition. Can't wait to get this baby running.

Here are some pictures from my cell phone.





I had to race two other people to get a hold of the car. They were going to the bank. I almost felt bad, but not really. haha
Pawned a gun to buy it, but that's no big deal. I have wanted my own Z since I was a kid. Now I am 22 and can aford ot fix this up.

Little background on myself.

I am a mechanic for Empire, a Caterpillar dealer, and I work at Phelps Dodge (Now Freeport) mine in Morenci AZ as a haul mechanic, on all the crazy big toys there.
I love working and restoring my own vehicles.
So far I have a 1980 Honda CB900F motorcycle, and a 1980 Ford F100 Step side that I am working on. Finishing up a major build on the truck, and the bike just got a new engine in her that I built.

Look forward to getting to know you guys, and picking your brains for all that knowledge you got.

NismoPick

Nice find! Welcome to the club!

entropy31

wow, nice deal there!

SportBikeMike

Sweeeeet!!

Man, you got a great deal.....and welcome to the site.

260zturbo

thats great last three digits on my 260 vin are 260 great find

icanznow

How do you know that the miles weren't rolled back? is this possible? other than a Car Fax/registration info maybe dating back to the birth of the car.

With the Z's (Z32 and newer) there is a die color that blows when you try to roll back the miles I've heard but the older Datsuns I'm not sure of.
Not bad Z for $600! Good luck with the restoring and have fun.

snwbrderphat540

you dont have to roll back or over teh odometer to hold a good mileage on these older Z's, all you have to do is not take it in for service at higher miles, or the easy way, un-doing the speedometer. odometer doesnt work if you take out the speedo cable. but good find, would be twice as bitching if it wasnt a 2+2 but meh...

also, for all your diagram needs. go to this link:
http://www.atlanticz.ca/index.php?op...pper&Itemid=69

you can click on electrical and find your car and teh diagrams. such as this direct link:
http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/electrical.htm

z-hag

i want a cATERPILLER ENGINE......oops...........not for me z......welcome
..

KasbeKZ

i've always been told to look at the pedel pads to judge big mileage questions. unless they have been replaced they are helpful. and the shift ****. things like that. good luck tuning those webers. i had a DGV on my MG and it was a tank to tune. i switched to holley jets. you can buy a tap for them.

skittle

those webbers are almost worth twice for what you bought the car for them selves

Ratfink

Thanks guys, and mucho thanks for the link.

Looks like the car was someone's project. It has the L28 engine in it from what I can tell. Says Nissan all over it instead of Datsun. Might be a clue. haha

Things like the seats look to be as low mileage as it says.
According to the Title it is not rolled over once, and there is no prrof of fraud. That does not mean it has not been tampered with. To tell you the truth, I would not be upset if it had a billion miles. All I know is that it's a car that I have wanted for a long time, and it just fell into my hands.

Z-hag, what size engine do you want? small inline 4? Or the big 3516, 16 cylinder quad turbo monster?

Looks like I am going to have a blast here.
Wish I had some more time to get the car back on the road, but I work the next 8 days out of town at the mine, and then will be back with 6 days to give it a real go.

NismoPick

All the inline 6 cylinder Z motors say "Nissan" on them from the 240z to the 280zxt.

260zturbo

datsun=nissan.....read the history of the z and u will understand.

Ratfink

I was curious.
Say the engine is running good, and the carbs are tuned. With the Webers, and the header, what kind of power increase does it really make? Honest, not exaggerated.

Okay, I thought it would still say Datsun at that point.

How do I identify the engine? I am going to go search now.

snwbrderphat540

i dont know if any of the motors said datsun, i believe it was always nissan motor corp, just labeling their different departments differently, kinda like mitsubishi and their truck division is fuso. this was the motor portion nissan the car distributor, datsun. but then it was changed.

Ratfink

Good to know. I am familiar with American companies, (Ford for the most part, my other build is a F100) and when it comes to Japanese, it's all been motorcycles so far.

Bleach

If the engine compartment is black, the body is obviously a repaint, and it doesn't have the original engine then its pretty obvious the car doesn't have 34,000 miles on it. Seats are easy to replace and anyone can just 'state' on a title transfer that the miles are original.

I sold a 280Z I was sure had 208,000 miles on it. I saw it a year later on eBay listed as 117,000 ORIGINAL miles... I emailed the seller and educated them. Somewhere along the lines someone took 100K miles off. It might even have been 308,000 miles when I got it... who knows. The engine was pretty tired.

but, very nice car anyway. Miles don't usually matter so much on older Z's, just how good it looks and drives.

Ratfink

Paint is not original. I know that. It's not even a very good paint job.

The seats look original, but that's hard to tell.
Miles can be fake. Like I said, I really don't care too much. If it's been around the world a few times, its all the more cool to me. Miles never scare me. I buy cars with the idea of working on them. It's what I like to do.

I am hoping to get around 200 reliable horsepower out of the engine. If it's a L26, or L28. That is about where I will be happy. I could make it have 500 horsepower like my truck, or have the acceleration of my motorcycle, but I just want a car that looks good and drives good.

How much help do these engines need to reach that?

It has the triple Weber, and the header with what looks like stock sized tiny pipe after that. Thinking 2 and 1/2 inch would work pretty good.

There are aftermarket cams, and other valve train. I can port a head pretty good, and even found info and good pictures with the Z heads. So that is another option I have.

Larger valves available?

If the engine is overworked, could I install the big bore kit for the L28 into the L26 if that's what it is?

A bunch of questions that I should start a new thread for. But, any answers would be cool. haha

snwbrderphat540

i believe there are large valves. arizonazcar.com search that site for SS valves and springs and lash pads and what not to rebuild the head, get a good sized cam, better fuel pump for those triple carb's and then creat more spark. if you want lots o power you can get higher compression pistons from arizonazcar as well. and the big bore kit is a stroker motor you would build off one of those blocks using 240sx pistons, a maxima diesel crank, and 240z rods, and it makes actually a 3.1 liter motor.

Bleach

larger valves, good porting, high compression, big cam, headers and 2.5 exhaust, and a lower geared rearend. 3.9 or 4.11 should get you 200whp or close to it.

Ratfink

Okay, just like I thought. Nothing complicated.
I have an extra MSD 6AL that I can put in it for now. It has an Accel coil, but I might go to the MSD Blaster II.
lso have MSD wire kit that might have enough wire left for it. Used it for my motorcycle and that uses hardly anything. haha

I was going to weld up my own exhaust looks like you can pretty much go straight to the back. Not sure how I want it to exit yet, or what muffler to use.

Searching for clips on places like youtube, but they never list what exhaust they are running.
I know I like Flowmaster, and even had one on a 4 cyl that sounded pretty good. None of the nasty raspy noise like a ricer. I want it to sound healthy, and I have heard some healthy sounding Z. Kinda sounds like a Ferrari. haha
Not dead set on flowmaster though.

Thanks for the link.

NismoPick

Just take it to a local muffler shop & have them build you a 2.5" exhaust.

Ratfink

Not happening.

Last one I trusted retired and the new guy that took over is worthless. I like doing my own anyway. It will be every bit as nice as a shop, and with more care for less money. I take nothing to shops, except for my friends shops, or the few parts that I can't do myself, like machining. I started out working on all my own vehicles because I got sick of shops trying to rip me off. Now I don't have to worry about that, and have way more fun doing it myself.

Not that they are all bad. But, if you can do something yourself and enjoy it, why pay someone else for it you know?

NismoPick

Do you have a pipe bender and welder?

snwbrderphat540

i think im going to get an exhaust.driving clip up finally. not today though seeing as the sun is going bye bye. hopefully i can find a good digi camera in my house like my sisters 10 mgp and it better do sound too. stupid olympus lol