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This is the very first car my dad gave me. It was a real junker when we first got it. The car did not run nor look as good as it does. I think it was like 8 years ago when we picked this so it's quite old. My dad was able to get it running after some classes in automotive engines and the paint is when my dad went to painting school or something like that. He did the bodywork and had the instructor paint the car for like $100-200 dollars. It looks pretty good from a distance, but you can see the imperfections. I still love the car except for the automatic. Makes the car slow. I hope to have a tranny swap sometime in the future or maybe even a full blown engine swap with a chevy 350 or 280zx turbo. Nice car. This is my current daily driver to school during the summer.

Updates

March 29, 2001
Today I did an oil change on the Z. I picked up a oil drain plug for free from All Z Autowrecking. Cool. I thought the original threads were jacked up, but now I think it's the oil pan threads. Crap. But for now, it's on tight and no leaks. Also, the oil wasn't even black. It was still that brownish color. I'll move up the interval to 5 months or something. I only put 434 miles the past 4 months.

November 18, 2000
Did an oil change today. It was bad. Found a drain bolt washer that didn't fit perfect. I sanded the inside of the washer to make it fit. That was fine. The drain bolt didn't want to screw back in. I ended up forcing it some of the way. It seems to be fine though. No leaks. I wonder what will happen 3 months from now. All Z Autowrecking was closed and Nissan wants $5.xx to order one.

November 3, 2000
Nothing significant happening with the Z. I'm running 35psi on all tires now because I feel it's better for gas mileage. Also, I really want to get the 5speed tranny put in. I'd keep the stock differential. It'll cost about $750... so I have to wait till I have some money.

September 21, 2000
Yesterday, the car died on me in school. The car was idling funny on the way to school, so while at a stop, I raised and lowered the adjustable choke real fast. The car died at a stoplight. I thought it was weird how the car seemed real quiet. Started the car back up and went to school. Idled okay now, but I wanted to check out the carburetors anyway. Sometimes the piston in there gets stuck. Turned the car off and then back on and revved it to over 5k rpm's... and then the car shut off and wouldn't start. I didn't know what to do, so I thought maybe it was flooded and tried again after class was done. Nope. Came back the next day (this morning) and tried to fix it or tow it home. We started messing with the ignition system. Somehow... the distributor cap came off and probably hit the rotor... messing up the contact on the rotor and it couldn't start. Dad cleaned it up a little bit and voila... car starts. Probably going to buy all new ignition parts though. I'll be driving the prelude till I get all these things changed out.

August 25, 2000
This morning I brought my dog for a walk at the beach. I used the Z for my transportation. Everything was okay till he jumped out from the window when we got there. The driver's window... That scratched up the car a little bit. Nothing to the bare metal, but still pissed me off big time. Also, I did the general maintenance: check the fluids, fill up the carb float tanks, etc.

August 21, 2000
The car has been running fine. Today I set the tire pressure to 35psi front and 30psi rear. This is hopefully going to take away the massive oversteer. It's quite fun though to take a turn and kick that ass out. School starts today and maybe I'll get a chance to test it out.

August 11, 2000
I just did an oil change today. It wasn't too bad besides the fact that I had to reuse the old drain bolt gasket and spilled oil everywhere on floor. Other than that... not too bad. Took me probably an hour or so, give or take. Another half hour to clean up everything. Also, topped out the carburetor float "tanks" with Penzoil ATF (automatic tranny fluid). Oh yeah, oil change was a fram filter and 3 qts of havoline 10w30 and 2 qts of castrol gtx 10w30. I know it's "supposed" to be the same, but I ran out of havoline oil and only castrol left. It's okay as long as they're all 10w30. Some people even mix different mixtures.

August 10, 2000
The car has been running good except this morning. After the car was warmed up, the idle was around 600 rpm and was crap. The carburetor choke or something was sticking and i had to pop a carb piston back up and that fixed it immediately. The speaker sounds nice. I have the balance more toward the left side because the 6x9 on the right side seems to be stronger, so I basically balanced it by ear.

August 9, 2000
I just installed my old Boston CX6 in the Z. I mounted one near the driver's foot rest. It's held down with 2 zip ties and sounds pretty good considering. The original Z had only one speaker in the rear left of the car, probably sounded bad back then. So currently, I have that CX6 in the driver's foot rest. If you look closely you can see the 2 zip ties on the top and bottom of the speaker. Also, note the green speaker wire on the right side. This is just a car to get from point A to point B. Looks need not apply, but still have to sound decent. There's also a sony or pioneer 6x9 in the passenger foot rest. Oh, there's another sony/pioneer 6x9 in the rear of the car. Sounds decent compared to originally having 4 6x9's in the back. You need sound coming from the front and that's what I did. Woohoo..

August 8, 2000
The car runs pretty good. Took it to school and it runs fine. I was concerned early in the morning because it took a while to start, but after that, the car runs fine. The idle is pretty solid. I'm happy. Will do an oil change on the car soon. It's been over 3 months I think, but less than 2,000 miles.

August 7, 2000
Today I got the carburetors balanced at Jerry Jones Z. He also checked the timing. He balanced the carbs 3 different ways: exhaust tone, emissions, and something else I forgot. Car runs better and I have learned a couple tips. Also, there was exhaust coming out the intake into the air filter. I've put a sparkplug back in where there used to be to block it off. Oh, also learned the car is missing a check valve. Car runs good and I'll find out more when I drive the thing tomorrow. Oh yeah, these SU carbs need something like ATF or air tool fluid. 20w50 is too thick.

August 3, 2000
I haven't driven the car in weeks because it's running so bad. I scheduled an appt with Jerry Jones Z to have the carburetors balanced. Along with that, he adjusts the timing if need be and all the other little things associated with that. I hope that gets the car running good again.

July 13, 2000
I took the z to school today even though it's running like shit right now. The car hesitates like crazy and has rough idle, etc. I think it's either the timing is off or maybe the carbs need to be adjusted. Something like that.

June 14, 2000
Over the last couple days I've been working on this stupid front bumper. I wanted to tighten those small brackets that are attached to the bumper. Well, to make a long story short, the bracket that holds the bumper on couldn't get back on without attaching the brackets before the bumper. Stripped a bolt and a nut, but the bumper is back on. Basically either the bolt was too big or too small. Ended up making a big bolt smaller, by running it through a smaller nut by force. I ran around without a bumper to go look for parts. The prelude is still sitting under the car cover. Woohoo.. Everything is all tightened up and I'm looking for a small nut, but not really necessary. This picture is with the bumper off. Scratched some paint off while taking the bumper off. I figure it's okay because I'll paint the car after I take some bodyshop class in the future. The car actually looks pretty good without the bumper. There's a black grill in there that looks sweet when exposed. Probably not good with safety that way though.

June 07, 2000
Yesterday I did a compression check on the car. The numbers I got were 165 152 162 161 165 156. These are pretty good numbers considering the age of the car. I tested the car because it was idling bad and running funny. Just doesn't seem right. The sparkplug gaps look good, but the plugs look a little white making me think the car is running a little lean. My guess is to get the carburetors balanced. Last time they were balanced was almost 2 years ago, so maybe needs time for a checkup. We'll see how it goes.

Maintenance list as of 11/18/2000
Date	Miles	Job	Notes
4/4/2000	88,218	oil change	went smoothly
8/7/2000	�	carburetor balancing	jerry jones z drives much better
8/11/2000	89,788	oil change	3 qts havoline 10w30 2 qts castrol gtx 10w30
11/18/2000	91,307	oil change	5 qts castrol gtx 10w30
3/29/01	91,741	oil change	5 qts castrol gtx 10w30

Useful Z Links

Wheel FAQ
Turbo 280ZX
Fonebooth
The Internet 240z Club - you can get a microfiche CD for the 240Z-280Z containing everything
Darius' 240z - awesome 240z with supercharged LT1 putting out over 600hp
Movies from Darius - great mpegs to car up top

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