Hey guys!
I'm 20 years old and just got my first ever car. 280zx non turbo with a manual steering.
The thing is I am an accounting student and got no idea how anything inside a bonnet works. But I got a passion to learn and been watchin v8 and f1 since I was 10. Anyway,

This car I got.
The coolant tank is empty. there is some in the radiator, so can i jus get somethin off the store and fill it in?.
the viper washer tank has water but will not eject water to the windscreen when I need it.
The headlights are dim, but i guess its coz the dome is hazy.
The car runs on gas. its converted. everything is fine. I managed 70 on the first gear just to see what power i get with gas on. [imagine petrol and nicely maintained engine! WOW!]. the thing is that the when I start the car when its cold it wont idle. I rev it up for some time or drive for about a couple of km's and then its fine.
The manual steering is bloody tight. I manage to drive it, but if I can get it loose that'll save a lotta effort.

Thats all I could find for nw. Jus been 2 days. Bloody awsome car. I could have got anythin else, oh but this has somehow captured me since i was a kid.
Thanks guys.

 

50/50 antifreeze/water mix for the radiator in mild climates. if you mix it yourself, you want to use distilled water.

clean the headlight covers the best that you can. you may need to replace them if you still don't get enough light.

 

Welcome to ZDriver!!!

Sounds like you are from Europe / Australia? Here's a thread on dim headlights: https://www.zdriver.com/forums/240z-280zxt-s30-s130-tech-tips-275/dim-headlights-not-noh-moh-22117/

 

i was thinking england till he said kilometers. lol. so now im going with Australia. welcome to Zdriver, cant imagine having to wait till 20 till my first car lol

 

Land of kangaroo steaks!! :P

Yeh, 20 a bit late. never had the time or money to get 4 wheels.
thanks for the headlight thing. I doubt ill be able to do all that, but i'll keep it bookmarked for reference. din get a chance to check out coolants. do they usually come mixed or do u always have to DIY.?
Any specifications for the engine oil?? or any normal engine oil used by local mechanics do?? im thinkin of stayin back with the mech when hes fixin stuff and I can get him to show me so i can do stuff on my own next time

 

coolants come either way. you just have to look when you buy it.

the brand of oil is up to you, but you have to look up what weight it takes and use the right one.

 

in your climate a 10w-30 would be a good oil to use, and i would recomend using a synthetic blend for now, something like a valvoline i guess. and the bottle of coolant will say either ANTIFREEZE or 50/50 which indicates its premixed. best bang for your buck to just get the straight antifreeze and mix half it and water your self. and the mechanic might show you some stuff, but for the most part, they got a job to do and business to run so they wont really walk you through crap.

 

Welcome to ZDriver!

cant wait to see some pics of an aussie ZX, i heard that you guys only got 2+2's, no coupes


was your Z originally a diesel or am i missreading?

 

Welcome and lets see some pics bro...

 

thanks fr that post snwbrdr. Ive got the day off tomo. so ill be goin to see if i can get some stuff fixed. oil, coolant etc.. I guess ill have to just leave it all to the mechanic.[ damn why dint i study some engineering].

mines a 2+2, and i havn seen anything other than 2+2's around here. so u maybe right. But its still bloody sweet mate. and the registration number is ZX2802. ZX280 for the model and the 2 at the end for 2+2. Hows that. And 2802 happens to be my birthday [dd/mm]. How bloody sweet is that. ZX2802.

 

and it used to run on normal petrol. its converted to gas. but the fuel lines are not connected. But the seller said hes got the lines still in place but jus not connected. Any idea how much that would cost me to get it runnin??

 

and is it normal for it to rev at 1000 rpm?? its almost there

 

what do you mean to rev at 1000? you mean idle at 1000?

it should idle around 700-800rpm, and rev to redline.

 

haha when he says "gas" on this side of the world he mean liquified petrolium gas. not "gas" as in gasolene.

Dude what part of oz you from? i'm in perth

 

im still confused. lol. crazy non fossil fuel gasoline using country's haha.

 

so in the mad max movies.... petrol not "gas"...

 

yeah, consider me dumb. it idles at 1000rpm. hey vrocious. im at melbourne. as he said i meant LpG. silly me, i shd have considered that. and its pretty powerful./ Ill try and get some pics ASAP.

and did u hear mate, that some *** is challenging the $900 payment from the ATO. I could press a hot steak on his face.

 

pfft they already started paying it so good luck blocking something thats already in motion.

280zx2by2 yeah we call it petrol where as you call it gas

as for the 2by2's you could count count on fingers and toes the amount of 2 seaters in this country. even rarer are the jdm's. from what i'm led to beleive its somewhere between 3 and 10

 

Just don't wreck your first car like alot of kids do,

 

The light just finally came on........

I too was confused about gas and petrol..... I thought petrol was gas(oline)

And was agreeing on the fact that I don't know what goes on under a bonnet (Women are a mystery to me too )

Thank god for Wikipedia!

I am a Mechanical Engineer (student almost done) and I don't know everything that goes on under the bonnet (hood) (See, I can learn! ). Now if you were a civil engineer you would know less. See derived equation for proof
(ME > CE, ME = ma ---> CE = 0)

As a ME, I wonder what is the low and high temps of LpG when used in a car... I couldn't imagine LpG having a higher energy density than petrol, let alone getting better mileage....


And if I am understanding correctly (not that I have in the past) LpG is Propane...

 

your an ME and don't know whats going on in there? ME's can be the designers of engines lol, WHATS WRONG WITH YOU! my buddy is an ME student at UofI so i know that you have no life now haha. that stuff is very hard, i couldnt crack down and learn all that. im going to have to wikipedia it now. also my ME friend worked at international diesel for a internship this summer, did work over at the engine dyno room and crap, don't remember exactly what he did though. but he never shut up at how awesome diesel motors are, then i told him to steal me a turbo and he wouldnt, that little biotch

 

duck ryder

lpg and propane are slightly different, i cant remember exactly how but i asked my mate who is a chem eng and he told me there is a difference. i just wanted to know why hank hill cooks with propane and not lpg like we do over here haha.

The reason lpg is big over here is that it burns a lot cleaner then petroleum producing fewer emissions etc and the government gives a rebate of several thousand dollars for it. It has an octane rating of 108RON and with the newer jetting systems many people are seeing big gains when tuned properly over traditional petrol/gas

 

My finals ended tuesday, yet I still seem to be spending 12 hours a day at school.......

Thermal/fluid engineering is not my thing, don't care much for empirical equations, dimensionless groups and doing iterative calculations. In thermodynamics we did cover heat engines for half the term, however these were only Ideal engines. We only spent about 10 minutes talking about a real engine.

I like controls engineering (you can find more about controls on wikipedia, or if you want to see some application search you-tube for 'inverted pendulum')


Speaking of wikipedia:

"Propane is a three-carbon alkane, normally a gas, but compressible to a transportable liquid. It is derived from other petroleum products during oil or natural gas processing. It is commonly used as a fuel for engines, barbecues, portable stoves and residential central heating.

When used as vehicle fuel, it is commonly known as liquified petroleum gas (LPG or LP-gas), which can be a mixture of propane along with small amounts of propylene, butane, and butylene. The odorant ethanethiol is also added so that people can easily smell the gas in case of a leak."

 

 

Welcome to Zdriver...cannot wait to see some pictures of the Australian Z.

BTW: I graduated ME also from UofI class of 2003 and now I am working for number 1 satellite company doing system engineering...go figure.
I still love to get my hands dirty with my 82 ZXT.
In any case would love to see some pictures.

Off topic: a good series win for the green caps in S.Africa !!!!!
I am from India and I hated what happen to them with New Zealand...still one more to go