So I took some time this evening to put parts up on Ebay. You can see them all by looking at my items for sale page! The current parts include 1978 Datsun 280Z L28E Distributor and Wires 1978 Datsun 280Z L28E Exhaust Manifold 1978 Datsun 280Z L28E Intake Manifold 1978 Datsun 280Z 2+2 Interior...

So Nick came over this morning and helped me get the motor off the ground and onto the engine stand so I could begin tearing it apart. After breaking a bolt off in the head trying to get one of the mounts setup for the cherry picker we managed to get the motor up and off the ground, though it took a couple of tries because we tried to get by with "the wrong" parts, meaning bolts in the chain that were too small for what we were doing. Lesson learned, again, use the right damn tools, instead of trying to make the wrong tools work. You'll save time rather than trying to take short cuts. Once we had the motor up on the stand he headed home to work on this car and I started trying to get the motor cleaned up a bit. Here are two before shots, of the front of the motor just caked in dirt and crap.   After spraying it down with degreaser and scrubbing with a wire brush I decided to finish what I started yesterday and remove the manfolds from the side of the motor. That actually went fairly easily, I'm not sure why, perhaps loading up the bolts with WD-40 yesterday before I finished helped, some of them almost seemed loose before I even cranked on them, perhaps Eric or I started to remove them last year when working on the other motor? After getting the manifolds off I took off the last remaining attached item to the side of the motor, but honestly, I'm not sure what it was? At first I assumed it was a power steering pump, but the more I think about it the more I think it might have been the AC compressor? After that I tried to spend some time organizing the garage a bit. I managed to get a few things hung up on the wall and made more room in there for the Corvette. I've still yet to make enough room to bring the 240Z home from storage. I don't think I'll be able to park both cars in the garage until I have the motor in the 240, otherwise I'll never have room in there for both cars and the motor, plus transmissions. Speaking of transmissions, I need to sell the 2 extra ones I have, if anyone is looking for an automatic transmission out of a 73 240Z, or a 5 speed out of a 280Z let me know. I was told the 5 speed needs rebuilding, I have no clue about it other than that. My goal/plan right now is to tear down the L28E and check things over, replace the rear main seal, make sure to clean it out, then try and put it all back together. I don't imagine I'll get that done before May, but I would like to spend time on it over the next few weeks if I...

What? Another 240Z may become part of www.project240z.com? More information next...

So I think the time has come. I hope to begin work on the 240Z again this week. First step, finish taking apart the blown motor and find the missing piston! Next step after that, start to take apart the L28E motor sitting on the floor. It's been sitting for almost a year now, and I've learned my lesson about not taking a look at what you have (see previous "First step" above). So I hope to get the L28E motor somewhat apart so that I can replace the seals on it, and hopefully see what shape it is in. I'd hate to put a bunch of time into it only to find it's toast already. I know it ran, I drove the car it came out of, and I'm sure Lynn took good care of it, but I should really take some time with the motor this time so I don't get 40 seconds of time out of it! Now, to be fair, the old motor ran for probably a good 25 to 30 minutes total. It just got to drive for about 5 minutes, and 40 seconds of an autocross run. (Why oh why didn't I have the wife shooting Video instead of pictures?) Nick, if you're reading this and you aren't working all weekend I hope to see you and the new friend over here this weekend! At least on Saturday, Sunday I should really spend time with the wife for our first Wedding...

With my recent acquisition I'm going to have to clear out the garage of all of my Datsun parts and cars to make room for a few other vehicles. I'm going to start putting together information on what all I have for sale, but here's a rough idea. 1973 Datsun 240Z (sans motor) Megasquirt Ford EDIS ignition Brand New Corbeau A4 seats 1978 280Z 2+2 Motor L28E Ran when removed from parts car, currently needs some parts from the L28ET installed to use the Megasquirt, needs rear main seal replaced. (2) 1979 Datsun 5 Speeds, one needs rebuilt 1973 Datsun 240Z Automatic Transmission 1983 280ZX L28ET (#2 piston blew up, head can be repaired and turbo system should be usable) Downpipe and custom exhaust  Complete second sport suspension for the car, ready to be cleaned up to be powder coated and installed. New Fuel System 15 Gallon fuel cell High Pressure Fuel Pump AN hose and fittings front to back Custom fuel rail Ford Lightning Injectors Website Project240Z.com domain name, and 1 year of website hosting, training of use of website. The site gets a lot of traffic from search engine results. DVD of the original video files of all the video recordings I have that I used in Project240z.com videos I'm not sure what all I want to ask for this, it could be a very fun project, with the most expensive parts already purchased and installed. If you're interested start making me an offer, if I consider it reasonable I'll respond. Currently not looking to part things out,...

So I'm back from Topeka Kansas, I was there for a week attending the SCCA Solo Nationals. It was an interesting week. I didn't place as high as I would have hoped in the Collins' Solstice, but I had a blast nonetheless. While out there Nick Jackson and I did a lot of soul searching. We've been talking for the past few weeks about what to do with the Project240z, here are a few of the options we've discussed. Buy an LS1 and drop it in and continue to run in XP Buy a 5.3 Vortec out of a Tahoe and continue to run in XP Drop in the 78 280Z motor in the garage and run FP Sell the car and buy one of the following to run C5 Z06 to run in SS 06+ Mustang GT to run in FS Well, I think option 4.1 is leading the pack right now. Though my goal is to have the 240Z running by the end of October. My plan is to pull the bad motor out of the car tomorrow, and start replacing the leaky seal in the motor out of the 78 parts car. Get the 78 motor together, fuel injection setup off the Turbo motor, possibly the turbo, intake and exhaust over as well. Install the 78 in the car, get the car running, paint the car, sell the car. We'll see where I end up, but I'm definitely keeping my options...

I filled out a form this morning on www.junkmycar.com to have the Parts car removed. Hoping that they will call me and schedule it to be picked up on Saturday or Sunday. That means I have a LOT to remove from the car before then. I'm hoping to really get working on removing the interior this evening after work. More updates...

I went out to the garage tonight with the hopes of trying to figure out what went wrong on Sunday. I was going to take the valve cover off and see if I saw anything out of the ordinary, then pull the head if I could get to that. Before doing those two things though I figured I should drain the oil out of the motor. Much to my suprise when I drained the oil it wasn't oil that came out first, it was coolant, then oil followed.   Once I discovered that I began to lose hope that I would be able to salvage anything in this motor. Thoughts of a cracked block filled my head. Nevertheless I proceeded forward with removing the valve cover and whatever else I could get to. When I pulled the cover off I started looking around and immediately found something that looked out of place. Ends up I found two things out of place, two of the rocket arm guides were laying on the cylinder, with a little Matlock work I found that both the guides from the #2 cylinder were not in the correct place.     From there I didn't get too far, I did get the timing sprocket and chain removed, and ended up getting the camshaft remove as well, but I was unable to see anything out of the ordinary. I even tried sticking a magnet into the spark plug hole on the #2 cylinder with hopes of pulling some bits of metal out of there, hoping to find something awry. No dice, so I'll have to wait until this weekend to get further on the investigation. I'm going to have to pull the motor out of the car in order to take the manifolds off so that I can remove the cylinder head and see what happened on Sunday. Here's a link to the video of me working in the garage tonight. Notice the...

So I got up bright and early this morning, well it wasn't bright, the sun wasn't up yet. Headed out to Gateway Raceway in Madison Illinois for Event 7 of the St. Louis Region SCCA Solo Series. My parents came out in their large RV so I wanted to get out there early and be sure to get them a spot to park it. After getting worker assignments squared away I took the car over and got it teched. All went well in tech and then Whittle came over and started messing around with the megasquirt. By the time the second heat came around, the heat in which I was running, it was getting rather warm out. More on this post coming tomorrow as I updated it, short notes until then: Car starts, car ran, car dies, and it's all vanity Two quick photos, a lot more still uploading And part of the reason the motor no longer runs, it doesn't appear to even turn...

I pulled the starter out of the car last night and will be putting a new one back in the car tonight. Dad and I will also be working on the idle screw to see if we can't get the car to idle properly. Over lunch I ran to SPS and mounted RComps to the stock wheels, thanks to Uncle Bud for the tires! I also picked up a cool 3" GForce harness to try and mount in the car to keep me planted! Tomorrow Dad and I will be heading to Sam Platt's to get some assistance in building the bulkhead to section off the fuel cell from the passenger compartment. There's still a lot of work to do before the race on Sunday, but I think with Dad's help I'll be able to get it all...