jm@tekadg.UUCP (Jeff Mizener) (10/10/84)
[?]
Gentle MotorHeads...
As the proud (usually) owner of a 1972 240Z, I feel it is my
duty to take up the torch here and comment.
My 72 "L20, L24" engine manual sez it's ok to put 20W or
"Mobile [sic] 10W-30" oil in the carb dampers. Right now
I'm trying Auto. Trans. Fluid (as recommended by hp-pcd!raan),
and have previously used 3-in-one. The 3-in-one worked
"ok". We'll see about the ATF, as I have other linkage
problems anyway.
There is some confusion about 240Z carbs. I have the
true story: The Z originally had one 2-barrel carb.
I doubt that any of these made it into the US. The
first Z's made it to the US in 1970 (just a few and they
were REAL HOT cars) and they were equipped with 2
side draft carburators, made by Hitachi under a license
from SU. Look under the hood of old Jaguars (the 120
drophead comes to mind) and see smaller versions of the
same thing. These carbs are distinguished by the
rounded tops. Under increasing emissions control
pressure, Nissan "re-designed" the SU carb and
placed it in Zs beginning in 10/72. Along with
some other weirdnesses, the new carbs (distinguished
by the square tops) made the Z difficult to tune properly
and resulted in lack of power. This persisted thru
the middle/end of 1973. In an effort to re-coup the
lost power, the engine size was increased (~2.4L to ~2.6L),
giving birth to the 260Z. Sometime during the life of the
260Z, fuel injection was introduced. What a disaster.
Injected 260Zs are dogs. Impossible to tune and service.
The 260 lasted about a year (74). Enter the 280Z.
They got it right. For a while, anyway. The rest is history.
For those of you with REAL SU carbs (10/72 and earlier), relax.
This is a simple, efficient, easy to maintain carb setup. Jaguar
mechanics are usually good at tuning this era machine. If you
have the other carbs, there is help available. Webers are
the device of choice, but real SUs are available from Dick
Barbour Datsun in LA. They have a nice catalog of Z goodies
and they mail order (so does that guy in Connecticut who sponsored
Paul Newman in racing a ZX and whose name I forget).
If you're needing new screws to hold your carbs together,
it's all 10-32, so don't go to Datsun to buy it. In other words,
it isn't all metric. Just some of it...
Question: Any suggestions for aftermarket electronic ignition systems?
More thoughts as they occur.
Jeff Mizener / Tektronix Portables ADG / Beaverton OR
{ucbvax,decvax,purdue,uw-beaver,hplabs,allegra,ihnp4,ogcvax}!tektronix!tekadg!jm
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