1975 Datsun 280z Barn Find — Future 1JZ/2JZ-GTE Swap

Nice car. I think you have the same color code as me. 110? Almost thought it was orange.

 

Unfortunately not, it's just a cheap paint job done an unknown number of owners ago, but polished up pretty enough from 15ft away. It was originally light blue (I forget the paint code off the top of my head) but I plan to go back to that color as it looks really good and everything but the exterior and door jams are still the stock blue.

 

That bumper only looks good on that style/era car. I remember seeing some bumpers with cushion type rubber on each side for some kind of absorption look.

Crazy how I'm visualizing this BY looking at your car.

Ed

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Got the new L28 for the Datsun from a 1982 Nissan 280zx. Will start stripping it and cleaning it up at home. Has headers too!

 

Omg, reminds me when I was 17, my 1st sports car after my cj5 v8 was a 1970 240z with a serial number of 2021,
I was in love with these Z cars, I had a 1970, 1973, 1978 and a 1980z.

The best year I liked was the 1970z.

They tend to rust above the wheel wheel rear lip and lower dog leg.

1970 was the lightest and got heavy each year.

and the dam dashes would all crack up on the gauges.
They do make a skin to cover most the dash areas now.

if I remember the fuel injection models 1975 up? Solved a lot of the engine issues and I think you had to prime the fuel
system if you ran out of gas.
It’s been awhile.
Good luck

 

Couple Datsun trucks I've spotted recently. Sorry if this is off topic.

 

but... does it run?

 

That’s right, this has very very early fuel injection which was really uncommon in the 1970’s. Nissan did it to keep power on the car during the introduction of emissions systems, which wasn’t easy to do work a carburetor.

I got extremely lucky with my car and it has almost no rust whatsoever. These things love to rust, as I’m sure you know.

My dash is spent, all cracked up but you are right I can get a plastic cover for it. Am looking forward to putting it together.

 

They’re very cool trucks and use similar engines to the L28. The seller of my engine actually had one for sale.

Wish I got it in the picture. But here’s all the other cars they had.

 

It’s on a stand now. I’m at the point in the project where I’m staring at the engine hoping something happens.

 

Well, today I was curious how much has I had left in the tank. So I went to remove the drain plug. Remember, the last time this was at a gas station was in 1986.

This is all that came out.

And boy did it stink.

 

Well, gas tank doesn't look good as I suspected.

The tank was completely empty, which could mean one of two things.
1. The original owner drained the tank in 1986 as a storage precaution
2. There is a hidden rust or pinhole in the tank where all the gas leaked out the 36 years it was parked

I am hoping for the former, although some moisture definitely got inside the tank over the many years it was parked because it looked like a real shipwreck in there. It's full of crud and corrosion. I am going to see if a radiator shop will acid dip the tank for me to clean it out.

Here are pictures of the tank. I used my boroscope camera and made egress through the fuel filler neck. In the pictures, you are looking at the metal rod for the fuel sender float.

 

Update! Been working on doing my research, and reading up on some restoration books on this car. Also collecting parts.

I believe I found the holy grail of Datsun parts today. A NOS 280z dash sold from a local Nissan Dealer in 1997, the last year before 280z parts were discontinued. It’s been sitting in its plastic in the factory box, untouched, for 25 years.

Still is disbelief I found one. Don’t think I’ll ever see one again.

 

Update! Took the fuel tank out, since I knew it was bad.

I didn’t know it was this bad.


Photo was taken through the hole for the fuel sender.

Here is where the tank was. You can see where the worst of the rust on the car is, the spare wheel well.



So the nice thing about American cars versus Japanese cars is that you can get a new fuel tank, for say a 70’s Ford, for like $60.

Good like finding a new tank for a 70’s Z car. So I brought it to our local radiator shop to boil out and re-coat. The amazing thing is he looked at it for 20 seconds with no prior context, looked at me, and said “280z”. Now that’s a crazy skill I want to have, identify a car based on a non descript gas tank with no markings.

 

This was the fuel sender. It made a miraculous recovery after soaking in rust remover. I tested the resistances of the float versus the FSM, and by golly, it was perfectly in spec.

 

Awe shit how did I miss this thread

 

Speaking of which, I haven’t updated this in a while!


Long story short, the engine in the car was too far gone. So I got one from a 280zx and had it rebuilt. Cylinders bored out 0.40”, crank polished, block dipped, head rebuilt, etc. I just got it back from the machine shop last week.

 

Dare I ask what that set you back

Same here.

Nice. Still amazed how clean the paint came out before/after.

I had a 1981 as a teenager, 70K miles. Problem is I live in Massachusetts so you know that thing was a rotbucket.

 

Here’s a before and after of the gas tank. Shop did a hell of a job.



So if you were paying attention, the L28 engine in this car is locked up. There was no point saving it, it was too far gone. So I bought another one from a wrecked 280zx.

It had good compression - but that was the only thing it had going for it. Machinist called and said I needed a new head. He said this one overheated, and then was oil starved. The camshaft wore grooves in the cam towers from oil starvation. I tossed it in the trash.

You can see all the cracks from when it overheated.



They did a hell of a job boring out the new block and rebuilding the new head I brought them.

Yes I am wearing crocs. No you’re not cooler than me.



Cylinders bored out 0.40” over. That’s how bad they were pitted from rust.

 

The dash was something like $3k from what I remember. This was 2 years ago or so.

You can get refurbished ones for about $1.5k but I couldn’t pass up a new old stock OEM one.

What amazes me about this car is how little rust it has. Even being in California they rust out, but this was is a survivor. That’s the original paint on it!