DJZ's other other 2 seater 280ZX

[nzdatman]

I got some from rally design in the UK

[DJZ]

Finally got some bolts about the right length for the front sway bar links, had to custom make some spacers. After torquing them up to the FSM spec the top and bottom bushes looked quite squashed so I've loosened them off a bit until I can actually drive it, hopefully they'll settle then I'll tweak them up.

Was going to put the new radius rod bushes in temporarily but they are much taller than the original bushes which pushes the whole strut etc back, so much that it's a pain to get the bolts in so I might just put the rubber bushes back in for now till I sort something out.

Missed out on another Neo engine that was on Trademe the other day, probably should have just bought it anyway.

[DJZ]

Progress has been a bit slow on this thing, I faced off the inlet manifold the other day and these sweet gaskets showed up today, I'm not planning on running filters on it so these will prevent large stuff going into the motor.

[DJZ]

Found another RB25 Neo for sale on Facebook so picked that up tonight, it's a 4wd one out of a Stagea and came with the 4wd auto box. Will pull the sump and manifolds off tonight or tomorrow if I have time and start getting it ready to go into the car.

[DJZ]

Manifolds are off, power steering pump and air con compressor are also off, motor looks to be okay, has a genuine Nissan timing belt on it that seems a bit loose, will change that at some stage. Inlet ports are very clean, it's got some "Ultra spark" coil packs on it which are apparently quite new along with iridium spark plugs.

Sump off tomorrow, hopefully it looks good inside!

[Bartman]

I wonder how old those spark plugs are?
Iridium are supposed to be very long life. But god damn they're expensive.........

[DJZ]

He said he'd just spent $500 on the coils and spark plugs not that long ago but didn't have the receipts, I popped a coil out to have a look and it was very clean.

[DJZ]

Mocked the motor up tonight with the exhaust manifold, throttle bodies and rocker covers that I'm going to run. It's quite sludgy in the head, hopefully I'll be able to get it cleaner with a few oil changes and engine flushes. Still need to work out the throttle linkages.

[Datto_610]

Looking good man!!

[DJZ]

Took the 4WD sump off tonight, pretty sludgy inside there which is no surprise, lots of sludge in the oil pickup. I cleaned off as much as I could with some degreaser and a small wire brush, will roll the motor on it's side on the weekend and get some aerosol degreaser to hopefully flush all the crap out. It's definitely going to need a few oil changes.

I hope to have the motor and gearbox in the car this weekend, I've got the wiring loom that I was running with the RB20 when that was in the black Z which I should be able to reuse for this just to get it going. Need to finish off the manual conversion and get the diff off James before the car can actually go anywhere.