ImPo's 72 GC10 2000GT

ericbauer · **Posted:** Fri Jul 13, 2012 7:56 am

Great stuff again Eric

The car's going to be unrecognizable when you're done...

You get your jets sorted on the carbs?

Will (Rad2Ltr) pointed me to a great mikuni thread on the 311s.org site that you might find helpful to get your car running great again
311s.org > Discussion Forum > Tech Section > "Today's Solex Maintenance..." thread

ImPo · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 1:49 pm

Here's a couple pictures of the completed frame rail restoration.

And a few more of the (mostly) completed engine compartment.

ericbauer · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 3:01 pm

it's like a whole new animal!

kev · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 6:40 pm

Very sanitary

ImPo · **Posted:** Wed Jul 18, 2012 11:29 pm

Thought I'd write up a DIY on the tachometer swap similar to what Kev wrote up in his build thread but with a little more detail for those of you who want to do this mod.

Start with removing the instrument cluster from the vehicle, pretty simple, 4 screws to remove the bezel then 4 to remove the cluster.

Once you have the cluster removed start with the face plate, there are about 9 phillips screws located on the back around the edges which need to be removed first.

Remove the face plate and it will look like this.

Now remove the original tachometer from the cluster assembly, there are 4 phillips screws in the back along with a single 6mm nut holding the harness.

Then remove the black plastic (bulb guide?) thing beneath the original tach. It has two phillips screws from the back of the assembly. Unfortunately you will loose the "Brake" and "Beam" warnings which are integrated with the OEM tach. I simply removed the bulbs from the cluster assembly.

Now set the cluster assembly aside and remove the clear gauge lens from the face plate, it's held by 6 small phillips screws at the edges.

And now for the part that isn't reversible if you choose to return your car to stock. Although if the cut is made correctly, you wont be able to tell if you had to put it back to stock. I drew a line using sharpie leaving one inner blot hole on each side of lens.

Install the right half of lens.

I purchased an Auto Meter 2300 Auto Gage, Black 3 3/4" 8000 RPM Tach. From the gauges I've seen this one matched the best with the Hako cluster.

Remember to remove the backing of the Auto Meter gauge and flip the jumpers on the circuit board #1 on, #2 off. This is for use with 6 cyl applications.
I used a washer and long screw I dug up in the garage to mount the Auto Meter gauge using the existing hole in the back of the new tach. Feed the wires through and mount the unit through the back of the cluster assembly.

Re-install the cluster face plate. (Note: I had to leave the mounting screw for the new gauge a little loose to install the face plate and position the gauge correctly once installed. If everything went as described your finished project should look like this,

DaveW · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 3:19 am

Looking great :tu:

Adzmax · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 4:31 am

Nice build mate, engine looks super and those wheels came up fantastic!

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

wookieballa · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 5:44 am

now that its in place, did you really have to cut the plastic or could you have just kept it whole and still fit it over the tach and oem gauges? i know you have to remove the front shield to get the old one out and the new one in.

ImPo · **Posted:** Thu Jul 19, 2012 10:53 am

DaveW wrote:

Looking great :tu:

Adzmax wrote:

Nice build mate, engine looks super and those wheels came up fantastic!

Looking forward to seeing more progress.

Thanks guys! Looking forward to posting more progress

wookieballa wrote:

now that its in place, did you really have to cut the plastic or could you have just kept it whole and still fit it over the tach and oem gauges? i know you have to remove the front shield to get the old one out and the new one in.

Wookie, the lens needs to be cut for the most visually appealing tach position. The new tach housing fits deep inside the bezel. If you didn't cut the lens to allow proper depth, the tach would stick out of the bezel a few inches and look ridiculously out of place. Not to mention you'd need to find a new way to secure the tach.

The body of the new tach fits against the backing of the oem cluster assembly. The screw from the back was required to hold the new tach in place. I played around with different mounting options, I even dissassembled the new tach down to its core and tried to retrofit it behind the pre-cut lens. At the end of the day I found the method used worked the best.

Keep in mind, even though I cut the lens, both halfs can be reinstalled with the OEM tach and put back to a stock appearance. The outer cluster bezel will hide the cut if done correctly.

wookieballa · **Posted:** Fri Jul 20, 2012 6:37 am

very well played sir

looks very nice, I'm especially jealous of your frame rails!

ImPo · **Posted:** Tue Jul 24, 2012 8:13 pm

Here's a picture of the gauges installed.

Now for some porn, (Not NWS) :mrgreen:

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I broke down and bought a set of the Weber 40 DCOE's. I've been fighting myself about sticking with the Solex/Mikuni 40 PHH carbs I already have
or pulling the trigger on a set of Weber's. From the research I've done the Webers are the best bet. With the scarcity of parts for the Solex/Mikuni's,
I decided to rest my efforts on tracking down parts and move on to a set of carbs which is still in production.

Camshaft · **Posted:** Wed Jul 25, 2012 5:41 am

Good lord, I wish they let me change my desktop background at work, that last picture would be it. It'd sure give me a reason to log in every morning...there is nothing in this world like multiple sidedrafts with velocity stacks. :mrgreen:

ImPo · **Posted:** Sun Jul 29, 2012 11:02 am

Alright boys the power plant is in! I've installed the old carbs since I knew they were working correctly at the time of removal. This way I can sort out the 280zx ignition swap first. Once I've got that going then I'll be swapping out the carbs for the new DCOE's. In addition, I'll be getting a fresh set of hoses to round out the engine build.

ericbauer · **Posted:** Sun Jul 29, 2012 3:31 pm

Way to go Eric!

DeRuX · **Posted:** Mon Jul 30, 2012 5:48 am

Looks great. Can't wait to hear how it runs now.

Adzmax · **Posted:** Mon Jul 30, 2012 6:20 am

I'm goign to ask what is probably a silly question, but what change the tacho?

Never Lift Garage · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2012 6:52 pm

Looks great, love the tach mod.

Rory

ericbauer · **Posted:** Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:27 pm

@Adzmax

swapping to electrical ignition / newer distributor requires tach upgrade as well...

pretty common on S30Zs as well

wookieballa · **Posted:** Thu Aug 02, 2012 5:38 pm

too bad you cant offset the carbs, the angle you have them sitting in the last picture is kinda sexy. i cant even begin to fathom what a PITA it would be to build some kind of linkage system, and sync them, but it would look really cool.

your build looks sick, wish i could see it in person!!

ImPo · **Posted:** Thu Aug 02, 2012 10:00 pm

Thanks for the support guys. Every day the front end is looking better and better.

This afternoons work left me with another awesome picture.

Side note, those coil wires are temporary until I can get the engine running correctly.

I'll be cleaning them up once I've sorted everything out.
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ImPo's 72 GC10 2000GT

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