What I did on my Datsun today

[theAngryMarmot]

Paul, there is a twin to your Type R for sale on BaT right now (same color). Will be interesting to see what it goes for.

I seen that, same year too - but it has a lot issues that will hurt the value.

That car's issues :
Welded in cage that was removed - so someone tracked that car.
Replacement bumpers, side skirts, hood, headlights. The seller notes the original rear bumper was cut (more evidence of a car that was tracked extensively.)
Aftermarket wheel studs and lugs (car was tracked...)
Seller had to reinstall A/C and Power Steering (more evidence that the car was tracked a lot.) Seller replaced (but with what parts? off-brand or OEM?)
Rear sway bar removed
Aftermarket stereo and alarm
There is also some discrepancy about the car's history - apparently it popped up somewhere a while ago with aftermarket pistons/rods/headwork and the seller is denying it - weird....
The biggest though is it is a "mileage unknown" car - has an aftermarket cluster and the title shows 51k in 2012.

Looks like a good project car, but it was obviously tracked quite a bit. You don't weld in a cage unless you are tracking it. Parking lot posers go with the Miracle bars, or the bolt in stuff. The roll cage leads to all kinds of possible issues like rust where it was welded to the floorpans, and the quality of the re installation of the interior parts.


My car, though - 44k miles, no issues, all original body work, clean title, documented mileage and service. Original stereo. I have the original brakes, wheels, seats, etc, so all the mods are easily reversible and all the aftermarket parts are highly desirable and real Mugen & Spoon parts, not replicas.

I think that car will sell for 60% -80% less than what one like mine would if it was returned it stock.

[Turboman280]

Put tail lights in the Z.

After going through a couple sets of tail light surrounds (sun soaked 40-year-old plastic just crumbles if you look at it wrong) I purchased these carbon fiber surrounds a few years ago.

I decided the chrome trim rings would not go well, so I sanded my worst set and painted them with "black stainless steel" paint. I am pretty happy with the way they look, but what a pain in the ass!

I know CF is made from ground unicorn hooves or something magical, but for $300+ I should not have to do a bunch of hand fitting to get them to work. I ended up burning 4 days on this project. Probably would have taken an hour to put the stock ones back in.

[Vetteguy22]

Looks nice.

[L320-Dale]

Nice job Carl. It looks good, plus the carbon fiber taillight panel easily adds approx 20HP!

Dale

[Ryanotown22]

That does look really good

[SCARZME]

10 or 12 years ago I installed an electric fan on my 240Z to get that little extra HP to help out at the Autox and track day events. I scoured the boneyards and found that the 91-96 Escort fan would fit pretty well. So I cut the shroud down to get the best fit and wired it up:

I was pretty happy with it except it left about a third of the core uncovered and I'd thought about fabricating a full shroud. Last week the electric motor in the fan got too noisy to ignore so I pulled the radiator and fan and set about replacing the motor (had 2 on the shelf. The same motor is used in the Taurus and Sable fan that I use in my Scarab.) As I was doing this task I thought, what the heck, let's fab up that shroud I've been thinking about. So I grabbed some sheet aluminum and angle, set up my metal brake and set about this long delayed project. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I first imagined. Here's what I ended up with:

I bought some rubber flappers from SPAL like most modern fan shrouds have but instead of leaving a skinny vertical bar in the middle to keep the flapper from falling through I added some expanded metal I had laying around. I think that worked a lot better:

So the day after reinstalling the radiator and fan Val and I set off to the Early Bird in Pine for breakfast, her in her Murano, I in the 240. The new setup worked perfectly, temp staying right where it should be. Breakfast was great as usual. Afterward Val set off the check out some new eateries in Strawberry, I headed home. About 5 minutes out of Payson, I suddenly felt a hellavu vibration from the font end so I immediately headed for the shoulder and as I stopped I detected the sweet smell of hot coolant. ARRRRGH!
I unplugged the fan and restarted the engine and sure enough the vibration was gone. What the hell happened?
Called Val, she came and rescued me, we drove home and I hooked up the trailer and recovered the Z. After draining the rest of the coolant I pulled the radiator and found this:

My boneyard fan had had enough. And when it gave up part of its form, it poked two holes in the radiator:

So, at this point I'm faced with either taking the radiator to the valley for repair (for the 3rd time since owning the car since 1978) and trying to find another fan blade or failing that an entire new fan and shroud that I would have to cut to fit again.... or finally upgrading to that shiny new aluminum unit with dual fans. After searching online I found Champion offered a very nice 3 row with dual fans for ~ $475. A little more searching showed the same setup at Ledfoot Racing for $345, shipping included. Hmmm, about $100 more than sticking with my original radiator, no 2 trips to the valley, no cutting and trimming of a shroud...OK!

Upon receipt I found they'd sent me a fully polished setup for the price of a non-polished one. But they sent the wrong fans, 12" instead of the 11" to fit the shroud. A quick call and the right fans are on the way. The only other issue I've found is the mounting holes in the shroud don't quite line up with the radiator so I had to do some filing. I'm already wired for electric so I only need to change the plug on the harness to match the fans. And I'll need to drill holes and buy nuts/bolts to mount the fans and figure out where to mount the thermostat.
So hopefully I'll have everything installed shortly. While I'm disappointed I don't have the satisfaction of using the fruits of my labor, I'm also looking forward to seeing if the brand-spanking new setup is any better!

[Racerx3110]

I think you like the setup and find it will work well for ya.

Here in the valley, I use that same Rad (4 core version) and Shroud (mine bolted right up with no mods) on my RB 280z with 2 high cfm SPAL fans. It's overkill, but it's nice to have plenty of cooling for the A/C at stop lights and I've had a fuse blow on one fan and my temps increase just a bit (hardly noticeable), well within a safe range with the A/C still running well. It's comforting to know I essentially have redundancy if a fan fails. The car never threatens to get warm ever, even when pulling uphill grades.

[SCARZME]

That's good too know, getting my AC running again is on my to-do list. Gotta find a compressor mount, compressor (rotary, hate the original piston unit), and condenser that will work with the original under-dash units.

[Racerx3110]

On the other zcar (1977 280z L28 turbo) i'm building I use an universal Parallel flow condenser, using a rotory Sanden compressor. Here are a couple pics of it's install to maybe help with ideas for you. I make all of my own hoses so I can choose hose length and fittings.

[SCARZME]

What compressor mounting bracket did you use?