Well, when i first got my 240z carbs to replace the 260z 'anchors' they did have pipes on the overflows but as someone else mentioned earlier,
they were simply an upside down U shape. One of my carbs initially had an issue and was slowly dripping fuel from the over flow on to the exhaust!
since then i have the arrangement i described earlier in the thread.
I also have K&N filters fitted so running the piping into the back of the metal OEM filter box isnt an option for me, i didnt want to do that with the K&N's because any petrol would strip the oil off the filter element, and the oil needs to be there for filtration purposes
IONA on the forum has lots of spares for sale at the moment, he may have a suitable one and may even have some springs
Lol sounds like as usual a lot of these things get bodged somwewhere down the line, regrettably somewhat inevitable given the age and number of owners in some cases. Thanks you for the advise, I like your idea however I don’t have the necessary bits at the moment and have gone with John’s suggestion as a solutionin for now rather than leaving it as it was.
I will try IONA and see if he/she has one, if not and anyone who’s reading see’s this then I’m looking for a the heat shield that sits below the carbs, mounting bolts and throttle springs . Show me what you’ve got as I’d love to get rid of the shocking throttle spring return currently fitted!
Well in other news I had a very productive weekend with some servicing and general maintenance which in some cases was well overdue. First ssue to confront was ground clearance to get enough access to the car, having no access to a ramp or pit and having owned a couple of cars that are too low for ramps I’ve never bothered until now (Off to Halfords). With the front of the car now up on newly purchased ramps at the front we jacked up the rear off the diff and had axel stands placed under the rear sills to give 5 strong points to hold the car up. Access sorted and onto the essentials.
After all of the debate over coolant we ended up with some standard IAT blue anti freeze from Eurocarparts on reccomendation. In light of the unknown mix from the heater matrix refurb with the rad requiring a topup it seemed prudent to flush and clean the system so that the mix was consistent. We drained the system on both the rad and engine block (which needed the asistance of a pry bar to release the engine block drain bolt) before fully flushing the system and refilling with a 50/50 mix. Onto fresh oil and after some recent advice we’ve also gone with Millers 20w-50 Semi Synthetic oil for the engine and chucked a new OEM Nissan oil filter on before refilling the system for good measure given its age was unknown.
Next onto the carbs and air filters, being K&N’s it was all straightforward to strip down and fully clean (persil washing powder in warm water works wonders) before re-oiling. While at it, it also seemed prudent to strip the carbs down for a clean and to change out the oil. This was an interesting expirience having never touched carbs before and this being my first car with them, 10 minutes of Youtube viewing later and off I went. Not knowing the usual state of wear I’ve no idea what I should have expected however it seemed well worth doing. Both were covered in gunk which got sorted out with some carb cleaner (thanks halfords), all cleaned up I decided to give the dome tops some tlc given their dull apearance. Now I’m hardly into bling however out came the power drill and polishing wheels. Whilst not perfect they now look a darn sight nicer and have a nice patina to them so as to not look off the shelf new.
Here’s where the plain sailing gave way to a shocking discovery particularly in light of recent conversations of fuel overflows. Whilst removing the coolant drain plug from the engine block previously I came into contact with the fuel line running below the carb, next thing I know fuel was ******* all over my hands while I tried to stop it. Having clamped off the fuel supply we went about removing the culprit fuel hose. On removal it suddenly became clear what’s horrors lurked beneath, the rubber hose (which was completely unfit for its purpose and too small) had gone completely rigid from the fuel and age cuasing it to split from the pressure of the clamps holiding it in place. It was quite clear that for the last few months we’ve been driving around with a ticking time bomb waiting to go off which could have potentially covered burning hot headers/manifold in fuel which would have been an engine fire and game over.
Back off to Halfords again and some new replacement fuel hose sourced and we were back to refit and crack on with (had to return on Sunday to get a bigger hose to accommodate the fact the perished pipe was too small and had been bodged). With safety in mind we decided to replace both as a precaution. It turns out that the other hose with in a similar state and well past its sell by date, albeit wasn’t hanging on by a thread in quite the same way. Crisis averted we put the carbs back together and whilst reassembling the K&N’s noted that someone had previously drilled a hole in the back of both which was the perfect size for more fuel hose, fuel overflows now routed more safely in the air filters and fully reassembled another job was tackled.
New dizzy cap and rotor arm also fitted as part of the ignition system refresh. Spark plugs are currently awaiting the arrival of our new HT leads for the US which will hopefully refresh the whole ignition system and tidy up some of the some of cables currently all over the engine bay. A few more bits and pieces also coming from the states to make some improvements which I’ll update later.
After a few attempts to start up and having resolved a few random bits she fired back up, but was running a bit rough and even more in need of a tune up than before. Out of time for the day that problem was left for Sunday to deal with following a run down to the SE with the MR2OC in my MR2 Turbo to strech our legs in the early hours of Sunday before a full english. Having revisited Youtube again my attempts at tryinng to tune up the car ended in disaster, despite my efforts the car was running terribly struggling to idle before being brought back to a more respectable level albeit in need of some professional attention. Accepting I was way out of my depth I left the car until later that evening well aware that I was planning on sending the car off the BD engineering to be properly tuned and inspected in the coming weeks before its next major journey.
To my surpise late on Sunday evening having told my dad about my completely failed attmepts to tune the car we went to return the car to the lock up where it is stored, at which point to my complete surpise it seemed to be running relativly smoothly and was a completely unrecognisable car from the state I had left it in earlier! God knows if everything had just settled down after everything that had been altered or I genuinely by fluke managed to improve our situation by the time I left it is a mystery to me. Either way I’m going to try and book the car in for some professional help on the Tuesday after the Easter bank holiday before I head up to the Highlands on a driving holiday in the MR2 and in preperation for the run up to the Donnington Historic.
There will be more to follow as things continue to develop however here are some pics as that’s the bit your all really interested in!
All the bits ready for servicing
IMG_1240 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Starting point for the day
IMG_1242 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Dirty looking carbs
IMG_1244 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Clean up has begun
FullSizeRender by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Some TLC underway
IMG_1254 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Comparison after some clean up!
IMG_1255 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Tired looking fuel line
IMG_1316 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
All freshened up
IMG_1308 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
Period correct nos Hella 4004 GT mirrors which we picked up a while back, the drivers side will work perfectly however I've currently not worked out whether the passenger side will ever be able to be made functional
IMG_1306 by
Mark Woodrow, on Flickr