Robotsan
Club Member
Thought I may as well start a build thread as my 280z finally arrived this morning at 8am sharp!
I'd say I had similar levels of excitement to Christmas 1995, but with a bit dollop of "oh shit, what have I done?" on top.
The car has spent it's entire life so far in California, but of course, it had to be pissing it down on its first day in Manchester. So I quickly got it into the garage and went back to work. Amazing how much space there is around it in there compared to the beemer which usually lives there! I'll actually be able to work on it in the garage which is a result.
First things first, @SacCyclone you were right, the metal is super clean and tidy! No sign of any bad rust anywhere (yeah yeah, I know it'll be there somewhere!) - just little spots of surface rust where the paint has been chipped.
Hatch slam panel almost looks new:
And not a hint of rust in the spare wheel well:
And bar the right wing which has a dent, the panels are beautifully straight:
The car came off the trailer and started first time, which shocked me, as the shipping company marked it as a non runner on the arrival inspection sheet. Bonus!
For the first few minutes it sounded quite lumpy and the idle hunted about a bit. Then it started to sound a lot smoother. But when I give it some throttle, it almost dies when the revs come back down. See video below.
Any starters for 10 on the cause? Time to go through the EFI Bible I guess?
Also quite a bit of sooty deposit was left on the drive, so perhaps it's running a bit rich? I'm very much a noob home mechanic, so this is just guesswork.
Tomorrow I'll pull the plugs out one by one and see what they look like.
Then when I next get a free day, I'll drain some fuel out of the tank to see what state that's in, and take it from there.
Oil is super clean and new looking, and plenty in there:
And the engine bay in general looks tidy:
With a few exceptions. What was meant to be connected to this?!:
New looking AFR (I think?) But old cracked rubber tubing after that with some dodgy blue patching. Could that be affecting the idle?
I'd say I had similar levels of excitement to Christmas 1995, but with a bit dollop of "oh shit, what have I done?" on top.
The car has spent it's entire life so far in California, but of course, it had to be pissing it down on its first day in Manchester. So I quickly got it into the garage and went back to work. Amazing how much space there is around it in there compared to the beemer which usually lives there! I'll actually be able to work on it in the garage which is a result.
First things first, @SacCyclone you were right, the metal is super clean and tidy! No sign of any bad rust anywhere (yeah yeah, I know it'll be there somewhere!) - just little spots of surface rust where the paint has been chipped.
Hatch slam panel almost looks new:
And not a hint of rust in the spare wheel well:
And bar the right wing which has a dent, the panels are beautifully straight:
The car came off the trailer and started first time, which shocked me, as the shipping company marked it as a non runner on the arrival inspection sheet. Bonus!
For the first few minutes it sounded quite lumpy and the idle hunted about a bit. Then it started to sound a lot smoother. But when I give it some throttle, it almost dies when the revs come back down. See video below.
Any starters for 10 on the cause? Time to go through the EFI Bible I guess?
Also quite a bit of sooty deposit was left on the drive, so perhaps it's running a bit rich? I'm very much a noob home mechanic, so this is just guesswork.
Tomorrow I'll pull the plugs out one by one and see what they look like.
Then when I next get a free day, I'll drain some fuel out of the tank to see what state that's in, and take it from there.
Oil is super clean and new looking, and plenty in there:
And the engine bay in general looks tidy:
With a few exceptions. What was meant to be connected to this?!:
New looking AFR (I think?) But old cracked rubber tubing after that with some dodgy blue patching. Could that be affecting the idle?