Welcome to my Blog!

Welcome to my Blog devoted to the restoration of my 1972 Datsun 240z. I purchased it in 2013 and have been actively working on my driving-restoration, so I can enjoy the car rather than having it in pieces for years. Please enjoy the write-ups below, as well as the how-to's. Feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any comments or questions. Thanks. - Dave

25 November 2012

Carb #1 rebuild

I started to pull carb #1 apart today to clean it and then rebuild it. 40 years of grease & gunk was quite a mess to clean up! I do plan on polishing the dome before I put it back together with the ZT performance rebuild kit.  The rebuild on the first carb went very well, these SU's are fairly simple to work on.



Initial disassembly


Dome, spring, piston, and N57 needle


Float and bowl top


Carb body and butterfly


Further disassembly


One rebuilt and cleaned, one to go

24 November 2012

Carbs off the engine!

Just pulled off the carbs today getting ready to rebuild them

Carbs off the car, ready for rebuilding


Intake manafolds

16 November 2012

Vacuum gauge installed


Just received my vacuum gauge from Northern Tools, its a Valley Instrument Grade B Back Mount 2in Dry Gauge-Vacuum #1220DSBVAC, 1/4" NPT male connection.  I installed it on the balance tube at an open port just in front of the brake booster vacuum hose.  Seems to fit perfectly and work as expected.  Currently I'm running right around -20, steady needle which is a good thing.

For info on reading vacuum gauges, check out http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/vacuum/





09 November 2012

Ztherapy rebuild kit has arrived

Rebuild kit includes new nozzles, SM needles (leaner at idle, richer at speed), float bowl pins/jets, float bowl gaskets, fuel hose, seals/gaskets, and the Just SU's DVD


07 November 2012

Polishing the Valve cover

I started cleaning up the valve cover by hand and then moved upto the bench grinder with a buffing wheel on it. Check out the hand vs tool results on the back side of the cover!

Before, 40 years of gunk all over
Left: polishing by hand, Right: bench grinder/buffer
Almost done, still need to use the dremel for the small areas

01 November 2012

Carb rebuild kit ordered!

I just spoke to Bruce at zTherapy (www.ztherapy.com) and ordered a carbuerator rebuild kit for my 3-screw dometops.  He'll be including SM needles which he says will lean out the mixture at idle and richen it up at speed.  Apparently back in '73 this was one of the first major performance upgrades that racers of 240z's would make.  The OEM needles (which I have in there now) do the exact opposite richen at idle and lean at speed.  This upgrade should be good for performance and emmissions.  More to come once I receive the kit and begin pulling everything apart.