What did you do to your Z this week?

Matt Berry

Club Member
Started on the rear corner repair, inner skin first then the corner panel from Mike :thumbs:
 

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Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Working on the silver car over the weekend trying to finish off all the wiring. I'm going for an entirely new generic loom so had to figure out the steering column controls and wiper motor wiring which all went pretty well. I then found out that the wiper motor I had got working was a RHD motor so this led me onto converting them to RHD configuration. This involved a bit of cutting under the cowl to make room for the RHD mechanism plus removing the redundant fresh air intake to relocate on the other side and fitting the RHD fan motor to get the location for the new intake.

Getting there but it does seam never ending at the moment.

John, how does a RHD wiper motor differ from a LHD? Are you going to start manufacturing generic looms? I would like to adapt modern column switches and stalks. Are you going to use the Z relays?
 

johnymd

Club Member
Rob - they park on the opposite side. No, I'm not going to start manufacturing generic looms. I used an EZ-loom on the red 280z and I'm doing the same on this car. It simplifies the wiring and provides a single fused supply to each device that is clearly marked on its entire length of wire so fault finding should be very simple. It is quite easy to wire the existing controls to use switched lives rather than the way Datsun did it. None of the old Datsun relays ,fuses or wiring is reused with the exception of a few pieces of dash wiring (which could be replaced).

The wiper wiring was the hardest part to get my head around but once you understand what is going on it's pretty simple. The motor has an ignition fed live plus an earth and 3 additional wires to the switch. When the wiper switch is turned to the first position it earths the slow speed wire to the motor along with another wire to the motor. When the second speed is selected it earths the fast speed wire to the motor along with the same additional wire as the slow speed. When the switch is turned to off it disconnects all 3 wires from earth. The motor earth wire and live wire are still connected which allows the motor to move the wipers to the park position before stopping. It is the additional wire that is earthed in position 1 and 2 that brings in an internal relay that allows the wipers to work. When this additional earth is removed the wiper motor polarity is reversed and the motor runs backwards until a set of contacts stop it in the park position. For switchgear and motors with intermittent wipe another wire is used for the extra position and is controlled by an external controller. I thin once you understand how the motor and controls work then it should be easy to wire the honda motor in.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Rob - they park on the opposite side. No, I'm not going to start manufacturing generic looms. I used an EZ-loom on the red 280z and I'm doing the same on this car. It simplifies the wiring and provides a single fused supply to each device that is clearly marked on its entire length of wire so fault finding should be very simple. It is quite easy to wire the existing controls to use switched lives rather than the way Datsun did it. None of the old Datsun relays ,fuses or wiring is reused with the exception of a few pieces of dash wiring (which could be replaced).

The wiper wiring was the hardest part to get my head around but once you understand what is going on it's pretty simple. The motor has an ignition fed live plus an earth and 3 additional wires to the switch. When the wiper switch is turned to the first position it earths the slow speed wire to the motor along with another wire to the motor. When the second speed is selected it earths the fast speed wire to the motor along with the same additional wire as the slow speed. When the switch is turned to off it disconnects all 3 wires from earth. The motor earth wire and live wire are still connected which allows the motor to move the wipers to the park position before stopping. It is the additional wire that is earthed in position 1 and 2 that brings in an internal relay that allows the wipers to work. When this additional earth is removed the wiper motor polarity is reversed and the motor runs backwards until a set of contacts stop it in the park position. For switchgear and motors with intermittent wipe another wire is used for the extra position and is controlled by an external controller. I thin once you understand how the motor and controls work then it should be easy to wire the honda motor in.

Thanks John, I still think the column switch-gear is a weak point. I've done the Honda mod (incl intermittent). When you say 'they park on the opposite side' yes I realise that but is it a motor function or a linkage function? I'm still thinking the motor might be the same but obviously you have found out it isn't. Parking by reverse rotation is clever if the coil spring in the linkage isn't broken otherwise it makes no difference to the 'stroke' length. The Honda motor rotates in the opposite direction so it uses the long-stroke linkage mechanism permanently.
 

richiep

Club Member
Two courier deliveries today - one from Japan and one from the US. What do we have here?...
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Well, tbh, I’d already cracked one package open as you can see above. Japanese classic car magazines are beautiful things. The focus is overwhelmingly on letting the photography do the talking, instead of wasting vast amounts of space on advertising and ill-informed musings of motoring journos!
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Nice comparison piece on detail differences between Z432 and Z432R.
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Anyway, for actual parts, the focus is on my current work on the welded N42 I have and am building in the Japanese stroker style. Firstly, Kameari race valve guides:
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Kameari 1.4mm thick, 90.5mm bore head gasket:
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Tomei 46mm/38mm race valves (longer stems than standard):
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Valves dropped into the head (chambers obviously unfinished):
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Datsun Spirit big port gasket, based on NLA Nismo gasket. 41mm intake ports!
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I can now focus on marking up the head for final port sizes and chamber dimensions.
 

richiep

Club Member
Head work update: port locations and sizes have been scribed (engineer’s blue is messy stuff!). The first intake port was then opened up to the full diameter, as was the adjacent exhaust port. Intake was smoothed to 120 grit. Exhaust guide boss removed and port polished to mirror finish. I’ve then started on hitting the other port openings with the carbide burrs to rough them out to the correct dimensions. The first two will serve as the templates for the others although will inevitably get tweaks as I attempt to ensure dimensions and shaping are as closely matched as possible cylinder to cylinder. I have a bore gauge on order and have also made up some little sizing tools (pictured) in addition to using old valves. Once all this port work is done, I will have the Kameari valve guides installed, the seats cut, and then move on to cc’ing the chambers and marking their designs out ready for shaping. Chambers will be 36cc when finished. CR will be 11.8...

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johnymd

Club Member
Looking good. Are you going injection on this engine? If so then you can polish the walls of both exhaust and inlet.
 

richiep

Club Member
Looking good. Are you going injection on this engine? If so then you can polish the walls of both exhaust and inlet.
Yep, it's going to be running ITBs. Didn't know that about polishing the inlets with FI. Will research further! I was thinking about going over the inlet with a scotchbrite buff anyway to just give it a little extra smoothness over its current finish.
 

Mark N

Club Member
I've been getting the engine bay ready for dropping the motor back in.
Removed all of the engine loom tape and fitted new.
Swapped the fusible links for a fuse box.
Swapped out the auto pedal box for a manual and installed the master cylinders.
Made and fitted the brake/clutch lines
Just need to bleed the brakes and check for leaks then make the penetration for the throttle cable (plus a few other small jobs).
 

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Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I've been getting the engine bay ready for dropping the motor back in.
Removed all of the engine loom tape and fitted new.
Swapped the fusible links for a fuse box.
Swapped out the auto pedal box for a manual and installed the master cylinders.
Made and fitted the brake/clutch lines
Just need to bleed the brakes and check for leaks then make the penetration for the throttle cable (plus a few other small jobs).

Attention to detail looks amazing :coolgleam:
 

Mark N

Club Member
I finally got the brakes bled after sorting out a couple of leaks.
I had used a pre-cut and flared kit from Germany that I found on eBay but the lines were the wrong lengths and I had leaks on two of the flares.
I thought it might save a little time but I ended up making up a load of the lines from scratch.
The engine is in, albeit without the gearbox.
I went to install the flywheel and the recess on the back of it won't fit over the end of the crank.
I'm giving Z Car Depot's FAST EFI kit a go to see how it performs.
I'm going to trim the harness a little to tidy things up, rather than have cable tied loops everywhere.
 

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Makesy

Club Member
I finally got the brakes bled after sorting out a couple of leaks.
I had used a pre-cut and flared kit from Germany that I found on eBay but the lines were the wrong lengths and I had leaks on two of the flares.
I thought it might save a little time but I ended up making up a load of the lines from scratch.
The engine is in, albeit without the gearbox.
I went to install the flywheel and the recess on the back of it won't fit over the end of the crank.
I'm giving Z Car Depot's FAST EFI kit a go to see how it performs.
I'm going to trim the harness a little to tidy things up, rather than have cable tied loops everywhere.


Looks great, Mark!

What fuel rail are you using?

Keen to hear how your Fast EFI experience goes. Redline280z on Youtube installed on and it looked a good bit of kit to replace the old system. This is a route I will be considering if I run out of ideas with my stock injection.
 

Mark N

Club Member
Looks great, Mark!

What fuel rail are you using?

Keen to hear how your Fast EFI experience goes. Redline280z on Youtube installed on and it looked a good bit of kit to replace the old system. This is a route I will be considering if I run out of ideas with my stock injection.

It is a Z Car Depot one that has been powder coated in candy red.
https://zcardepot.com/products/billet-fuel-rail-efi-280z-280zx-1?variant=19282385010801
They have two options - OEM injectors or 'O' ring (modern type).
If you go 'O' ring, which I did, they also sell adapter kits.
https://zcardepot.com/collections/f...njection-injector-adaptor-bung-efi-280z-280zx
I'm not expecting to get a hike in power with it but at least it will get rid of the restrictive AFM and forty year old injection system.
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
I am pretty sure a Mustang specialist I know uses a FAST injection system on some of the builds he does. Installation has just removed all the uncertainty of running on the carbs - cars start at the turn of the key, every time, tickover is superb. I saw a system he'd put on a '71 which previously ran like a dog.
 

Mark N

Club Member
I am pretty sure a Mustang specialist I know uses a FAST injection system on some of the builds he does. Installation has just removed all the uncertainty of running on the carbs - cars start at the turn of the key, every time, tickover is superb. I saw a system he'd put on a '71 which previously ran like a dog.

That's encouraging to hear.
There isn't much feedback regarding its application on the 280Z apart from a couple of Youtube videos.
Troubleshooting the original system is a bit of a PITA.
I bought my second 280Z as a non-runner after the PO had swapped out the fuel pump, FPR and a couple of injectors.
It turned out to be the cold start injector which I unplugged.
 
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