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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2008 5:12 am 
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Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 am
Posts: 131
G'day guys....

All cars in australia are right hand drive.

240Z - 1970 - 1973

Pretty much the same as the American Z range.
5 speed or 3 speed auto. NO 4 speed was available.
Aussie Z's necer had the rear quarter side marker. It looks like an indicator or blinker. Z's here have nothing.
2.4 litre motor. E31 high compression head. Twin Carbs.
Tacho changed here in 72 from Miles to Kilometres


260Z - 1974 - 1977
74' saw the Z change to the 260Z. This car is still the 2 seater and is identical to the 240Z chassis. I think its more refined, maybe a little heavier but stronger.
Dash and center consol changed also to 260Z.
Rear tail lights. "will not interchange with 240 tail lights" trust me.
2.6 Litre . E88 heads. Emission twin carbs.
The 260Z continued selling here till 77. We never got a 280Z
My 76 260Z has taller rear strut towers than a 74 260Z. I think they made all the Z's from the 2+2 (75) on with these tall strut towers. If so, then does early and later struts interchange??... hmmmmmm.. is that why 240Z looks low in the ass...
At no stage of the 240 and 260 range were the bumper bars changed.
We always had metal/chrome bumper bars till 77.

2 + 2

The 2 + 2 came along in 75 and sold till 77. In 77 the 260Z range was disbanded alltogether here and the 280ZX began.
It was identical to the 2 seater in running gear.
Rear strut towers were raised.
Alloy wheels where avalable..

280ZX 4 seater ( - 1977 - on
what a shame that this thing came along. l
2.8 Litre Fuel injected.
We got the Star Wars dash and gold anniversary...
More of a prestiges car... only thing there good for is pinching the motor out of.. hehehhehe

300ZX 4 seater (84 - 89 )
3 Litre V6 fuel injected. Electric EVERYTHING
Pop - up head lights.

300ZX (90 - 96)
This is a slick car. Probably a joy to drive and pain to fix.
Here in Australia since the 1990's most of Japans unwanted cars have found there way to our shores. Any variation you could think of.
I've even seen a Fairlady 300Z.

350Z
We get to types here.
The hard top and soft top.
Plus you can get the track pack for about 5 grand more.


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PostPosted: Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:56 am 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Hello Obsidian Pete~ and thanks for this thread. This is rather fascinating for me. I have somewhat loosely followed the Aussy Z market in odd magazines I pick up here and there, and have been astounded that NISSAN seems to be sending you some very interesting cars, which most of us have never even seen (the SKYLINE, maybe?).

I am baffled that DATSUN/NISSAN never sent you the 280Z. Here, it was considered a mighty car, with enough power to overcome its bulk and (above 70mph), it was the equal of the quick and nimble original 240.

I suppose the American emissions restraints might have played a part in the scenario; during the 1970s and into the 80s the Z car transformed from the stark, lightweight, basic "GO" machine into the longer, heavier, more luxurious "cruiser" of the "2+2" era. What were emissions requirements doing to the cars Down Under during those years, and why do you suppose NISSAN never sent us some of their models you enjoyed back then?

Thanks again for this interesting thread ~ it's great to be able to view our cars from a different perspective. Good on ya' Mate.

Frank T
MbrshpDir/CTZCC


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:00 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 am
Posts: 131
hi.. thanx for the reply...
u got it all right there...
here in australia we got some really weird names for datsuns.
eg.
Datsun 1600. = 510
Datsun 180B = 610
Datsun. 1000. 1200. 120Y. Sunny. Skyline. 240K. 240C. 260C.

couple of different cars there. not sure what u'd call em in america..

Big reason Z cars stayed with the 260 soo long is the emission rules..
was only in 77 - 78 that our emmision laws pushed the 260 out of the market. And thats when they brought us the ZX with electronic ignition/injection.
we also didnt have the bumper bar rule where they had to pass a 5 mph crash test...
so we didnt get the big bulky bumper bars till the ZX came along.

I beleive though.... the 260 2 seater here in Aus is the same body as the 280Z from 75 on. Nissan being the champs they are decided not to go change everything, just make it to suit its market....
Like the poor japs...most of there Z's r all 2 litre's....

obsidian pete!!!...


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:15 pm 
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Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:38 pm
Posts: 3411
Location: rhode island
Well despite all that, I still like Kangaroo meat. Will you bring some to a club meat ing, then I'll be prompt to show up. Could you also bring over one of those RB26dett engines, preferable the zr edition. Just throw it in the free pile, would be nice in my 240. :D


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 6:46 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Pete ~
According to "NISSAN/DATSUN, A History of Nissan Motor Corporation", the very first international racing success Datsun ever enjoyed was the 1958 Round Australia Mobil Gas Trials.
Mr. Katayama had been impressed by Datsun's rally success within Japan and felt they could compete with cars from other countries. When he heard about the Aussie trek, he entered one of his sedans, which would have finished 3rd if it had not struck a Wallaby along the way. (:roll: I hate when that happens!). So you guys are somewhat responsible for starting the DATSUN international racing successes. (And you're also somewhat culpable of negligent Wallaby control)!

BTW ~ is the SILVIA marketed down there? It was a 1960s 2dr sedan based on the 1600cc Fairlady Roadster. They were (are?) very popular in Japan ( in fact they are used as police cars).

Thnx/Frank T

PS~ I do hope you had time to check out the photos of last weekend's picnic! The group photo represents about 2/3 of our total membership.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 8:54 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 am
Posts: 131
.RB26dett. not too familiar with all these later nissan cars.. a little though. All i know is that in Aus, they bring over complete front ends from Japan. They cut the front off at the window leaving all the guards/bonnet and engine intact. Usually its pretty easy to pick up a skyline turbo engine. Most of these later nissans eg Skyline GTR, didnt make it into Aus from the factory. Instead we get all the nissans when the Japs have finished with 'em. Usually with a bout 50,000 Miles, on 'em. I've seen Godzilla's here too.. (skyline GTR. Twin turbo 4wheel drive).Fast. very Fast. It won the biggest Aussie race we have here 2 times in a row.
And not just any race either. this is a 1000 km (600Mile) endurance race on a public road, 7km long up and down a big mountain. 161 laps.
Crazy.

Now. Wallabie's. hehehehhe...
go for a drive 50 km's from any major city and your bound to hit something. We live on an island basically the same size as USA but only have 20 million peoples. So u can imagin how far u can go and not see anything or anyone.
what u we're saying about the Aussie rally and nissans wins there would not surprise me. The Japs have always made good machines..
coff coff, except Mazda..hehehhee...

Silvia. well.
I have seen the 1966ish Fairlady roadsters around but are rare as dog balls.
There waSNT alot of nissans getting into australia in the 60's as we thought them to be pretty slugish and a nuisance.
then nissan came up with the Datsun brand in 68ish and did quite well from there on.
It isnt unheard of to come across early 60's nissans like the Cedric.

At one stage in the late 70's they wanted to ban Datsuns from the road cos they were involved in more accidents than any other car..
They neglected to say also that datsuns were the most popular car and represented more than 35% of all Australian cars..
Not bad aye!!!.
Not too hard to do though when they make the things almost indestructable....
Ask anyone in Aus and they'l say....
"Yeah, we bought this Datoo for like $100 and tock it bush bashing. And still we couldnt break it. "
hehehhehehehhehe..

POlice cars.. I heard that the Japs got the 240Z and put the V8 out of the Nissan President which was a limo and dropped 'em strraight into the Z and used 'em for pursuit cars..
Anyone hear of this???,...


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 9:04 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
I never heard it, but if it's a straight-up drop-in, I'd sure like to try it! :D

Probably every red-blooded American Z owner has fantasized about putting a V8 into his car at one time or another.


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 10:02 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 am
Posts: 131
heheh...same here..
its too easy to drop a V8 in...
its like the cheats way of getting big horses for little $$$$$
i say. If you can keep it original, do it!!!!
if you cant, then butcher it... hehehehehhe..


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 5:29 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:38 pm
Posts: 3411
Location: rhode island
Yes that's it, the Godzilla engine. I think it was in Japan when they came out with the 260 2+2, they used them for partol cars. There was also a time when Datsun was Datsoon. (I believe that's the spelling.)


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:42 am 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Almost, Paul ~

"The origin of the Datsun name....can be traced back to 1911, when Masujuro Hashimoto founded the Kwaishiinsha Motor Car Works...his first car, a small 10hp passenger automobile.... Hashimoto's backers were...named Den, Aoyama and Takeuchi and the car took its name from their initials: D.A.T."
After financial troubles, the company reorganized in 1918 under the name Kwaishinsha Company, Ltd. "...which produced a small, sports-type two seater which became known as the SON OF DAT, or DATSON. However, the Englsh letter combination S-O-N as pronounced in Japanese sounds like an expression for losing money...." and they wanted to be able to spell it in English for some reason. "At any rate, the difficulty was resolved by changing SON to SUN, which has a good connotation in both English and Japanese". Hence, their cars became known as DATSUNS.

Frank T
MbrshpDir


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 6:47 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 am
Posts: 131
I've noticed from looking around at the photo's of members Z's that the fuel filler door flap has no key lock, just a little thumb flap.
I dont believe i have seen this before on any australian Z.
MY Aussie 76 260Z 2 seater has a key lock.
Something different maybe???

Also rear tail lights.
The American Z seems to have all red tail lights.
In Aus we have red at top for brakes, and orange at bottom for indicator.
Also the little indicator on rear quarter. We never got 'em.
I think its an American only thing.
It looks to be the same as the front side indicator. is it???
The front side indicator is the same as the 120Y. /B210 in Aus.
Im always lookin for 'em at the wreckers from 120Y.

Here's another tip i found.
120Y or B210 gearbox shifter lever will fit 74 on wards Z box.
It wont fit the early 240 box as that box has a different mounting that they upgraded thankfully.

One more tip....
My old man has a 71 240Z and we upgraded the motor and gearbox to 260 specs. 260 engine and box . All good except for the shifter lever.
Go ahead, cut some of your tunnel away so you can get all your gears working. Then when u put your centre consol back on the shifter starts hitting that too...
We modified a gearstick to get around this problem but found the throw from gear to gear felt crappy and unatural.
I'd recommend not cutting up your 240Z for this mod..


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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 9:27 pm 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Right about the stick shift, mate. Good friend of mine has a 240 with the 280 engine and 5spd box, and had to modify the console a bit to let it work. He actually cut a bit out of his ashtray to accommodate 1st/3rd/5th gears. It works fine and unless you stare at it really hard you can't tell it's been modified.

All the little side lamps, bumper heights and strengths, headlamp and taillamp heights, colors and brightness are regulated in the US by Uncle Sam. Safety regulations require a certain number of lamps to be visible on the car from any angle, and bumpers have to be at or near a certain height from the ground. (That regulation alone has caused several cars to fail the import regulations over the years, spelling the demise of some pretty nice imports like the MGB, Midget, Austin Healeys and the original Mini).
Headlamp brightness has, for decades, been limited to prevent blinding oncoming drivers, and those racy plastic lens covers over some headlamps were banned for years (it killed the looks of the E-Type Jag when US regulations required them to change the headlamps). Recently those regulations seem to have been relaxed. More and more cars are blinding oncoming traffic with factory-installed "blue" headlamps and nearly all new cars have lense covers over their headlamps.

Our traffic problems differ from those Down Under. We have far more people, far more cars, and many more big cities than you (if you've spent even a week here, you already know this, so excuse me). But the point is that with all that traffic volume we need to establish some common-sense safety regulations which give us at least SOME chance of surviving the million-a-day accidents we are bound to endure. So our cars look funny and have some strange features which even the average teenager would omit if he was designing cars.

The unlocked fuel doors (on my 1970 240Z for example) were built at a time when gasoline cost us $1.24 for a U.S. Gallon. Thieves back then were far more likely to break in and steal your car radio, and if they DID steal your gas, you could refill the tank for about $12. Trust me ~ all new cars come with locked fuel doors today! (What do you pay for petrol down there?)

Frank


Last edited by Frank T on Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:23 am, edited 1 time in total.

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PostPosted: Thu Oct 23, 2008 11:55 pm 
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Joined: Thu Oct 02, 2008 12:18 am
Posts: 131
Yeah your right there Frank about the restrictions..
we got almost no restrictions on the z car range till Emission control rules were introduced here in 77. That pushed our 260 off the market and made way for the 280ZX. But.........
all 260 carbies here from 74 - 77 are the emission control (flat top) SU's.
and depending on the year of the car, the intake manifolds get more and more crap added.. Looks to me like what was made available for the American market was the norm for the rest of the world (engine/carbs wise) .

I am interested to know if anyone can tell me...
What differences r there between the 260 and 280 interior??
2+2 or 2 seater..
I know that the 240 dash and console was totally changed for the 260.
good or bad?? thats your own preference.
But did they redesign the interior for the 280????

we only get the 280ZX here which im not sure if you can even call a Z.

Traffic??? what traffic...hehhehehe..
i couldnt even start to imagin the traffic u guys get.
Although...the Japs sold u guys about 50,000 240Z's. we got about 4000.
:(
Thats alot of spare parts.:)

Now fuel...
today we paying about $1.50 a litre.
1 gallon = 4 litres.
we have only unleaded fuel here in Australia. Which means getting your Z head upto 280 specs. eg Valve seats..
Thats a given anyways cos you gotta have the larger 280 valves...
We have 91 octane (Regular)
and 98 octane (premium)
plus we have this green crap which is 95 octane.
its basically junk 91 0ctane fuel with 10% ethanol to boost the octane up.

Running Z's on the regular 91 octane is not advisable.
Yeah your car will go, but poor mileage results. Pinging can happen.
not good. If you think you can here your timing chain rattle when you put ya foot down guess again.
Timing chain rattle sound more like rubbing the chain against your valve cover. done it!!...

Also those Valve covers r like giant bells, amplifying the sounds made from your rockers. Most of the time Z engine are just a little tappie.
Its no biggy... Totally going off subject.. rocker to valve to cam geometry is essential to having a long lasting performance engine..and a quiet one.
Just taking down to some guy who does V8's all day and is use to having to rebore and replace everything that comes in is not wise...
You can tear down a Datsun engine today and still find the factory hone marks in the bores. Super strong. If you can break one of these engines, then i want to know what ya did wrong!!!!!!... hehehehhe
Make sure there competent with overhead cam engines...
there a different beast to these push rod things....


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 6:21 am 
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Joined: Wed Apr 09, 2008 5:53 pm
Posts: 14779
Location: CT
Oh, I agree about the engine blocks being rather bullet-proof. Our member Bryan has pulled down several of these engines and each time he found the factory cross-hatching still in the cylinders. The high nickel content makes the blocks super tough.
HOWEVER ~ we have a member (Airjockie) who has some good pictures of a 260 block with a hole punched through the side of it which you could put your fist thru. He said somebody Drifted the car and the inertia pulled the oil away from the pickup, letting the engine run dry at hi RPM. A rod made its presence known thru the side of the block. He has pictures but I can't transfer them from his gallery to this thread.
** (Air? Are you reading this? Cut us a copy of that L26 with the hole in the side of it, please).**

Tom Wasney or Paul Mackin will have to describe the differences btwn the interiors of the later cars. I'm strictly a 240 guy.

Frank


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2008 11:48 am 
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Joined: Wed Jul 23, 2008 2:38 pm
Posts: 3411
Location: rhode island
Yea Frank, It's been awile since I read the story, but that sounds more like it. As far as the interior, the eary 260 should look like a 240, the later models looked like a 280. So goes it for the bumpers. The 280zx was more luxuriuos, X for luxury, and still like a Z car in my mind, more so than the rest of them, but I like them all anyways. 2+2 's were about the same with minor differences, like opening rear windows for one.


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