I been noticing that story on the Datsun 240 Z and they seem to be talking about how the 280-Z ran but they show the 240-Z which had the 4 cylinder didn't it and the 280-Z had the 6 cylinder that was real fast and the insurance company's made it hard to insure uless you had a lot of money to pay for their premiums.

Now what I remember if the kid that worked for me when I used to own this bar in Colorado he told me he had the 240-Z because he couldn't afford the insurance on the 280-Z, but he told me his older brother did have the 280-Z with the 6 cylinder engine and sense his older brother had quite a few years on his little brother his insurance premiums weren't near as high as his little brothers were if he had the 280-Z also.

Now isn't it the 280-Z that had the 6 cylinder engine and the 240-Z had that little 4 cylinder or am I wrong all together, because I seem to remember a friend of mine that was leased to the same trucking company when I was driving truck that he told me he had one of them 280-Z's back when they were first made and said it had all the power you would ever want, so does anybody remember if there was a 240-Z and a 280-Z or just the 240-Z had the 6 cylinder engine, because this has been bugging me for quite a while now wondering about this, that is my memory gone or is this story about this 240-Z wrong.

I will Thank You now a head of time for your time to answer me if you can which is it.

Fresh after my parents divorse eons ago, my father really wanted a new 280Z, but he settled for a new Honda motorcycle{mother hated motorcycles} and a new Datsun 510{maybe an 810} sedan. I wish he had kept our '75 Pontiac Grand Am instead.
As I recall, there was the start-up car which was the 240, then they made a 260 and finished with a 280....the 240's had 4 cylinders and the 260's could go with that engine or the 6, then the 280 series came out and they gave you the 6 for the engine as well as a turbo 6. Body length and possibly wheelbase stretched from a short 240 to a 260 and the 280, which was the longest of the bunch{it had a 2+2 body too as I recall.}

My first wife had a 1979 Datsun 280Z 2-seater. I ended up driving it and working on it myself. It had a straight 6-cylinder block that my dad said was based on an old Chevy flat-head six. It had a 5-speed manual, 4-wheel disk brakes, and only two seats (not the 2+2). The worst part was changing the alternator when it went bad - it was under the engine and you had to remove one engine mount to do so. I liked that car, and my ex took it back when we seperated, and not long after she screwed it up so bad it caught fire.

I believe the 510 is what my oldest brother bought and he was showing me how much better they painted them cars coming from Japan a lot better then the US makers were back then but finally the US makers do have cars now that can last over a couple years without rusting here in Ohio but it might take longer but the rust finally does take over because of all the salt they use in this state in the winter.

The 77 Chevy pickup I used to have that I bought out in Colorado new then moved back to Ohio and I wanted to treat it good so I had a guy paint it the same color as from the factory except he used imeron paint or how ever you spell it but any way I just didn't need to use it for a couple years so it just set in front of my garage but when I did use it that truck went from looking real good to a bunch of rust holes all over it because the only thing holding it together was the paint but as soon as it started to move then the paint broke up and left nothing but rust holes what a big disappointment.

Now I never knew about the 260 but after I bought my first new semi I didn't look at cars like I used to because to me all a new car meant to me was more payments to pay and I didn't like that, oh another thing I don't like about the new cars today is the cheapest car you can buy today cost 4 to 5 times more then what a brand new fully loaded corvette cost in 1974 because when I ordered that corvette in 1973 I ordered it with everything they had except the racing suspension and it cost $6,300.00 tax title out the door, it had the power windows tilt teliscoping steering wheel leather interior, Automatic transmission, oh and the best stereo radio they had at that time but I had to get the small block 350 because I couldn't afford the insurance on the 454.

Oh yeah..you can't go by "back when" my 1st new car back in '86 was only $500 down and $195 a month{1986 GLH Turbo}...you can't do that anymore!

Here' this site has mention of all 3...I'm sure there's other sites too though.
240z/260z/280z

I don't know where any of this info came from, but it's way off.
The 240-Z had a 2.4 liter straight 6 with two single barrel side draft carbureters.
The engine was basically a Datsun 510 4 cylinder that had 2 more cylinders. There were no 240-Z's ever made with 4's in them, as the name came from the engine size.

The 2 liter "4" was installed in the Datsun Roadster, also know as the "Conestoga Wagon" because of its convertible top. It looks nothing like a 240-Z, and was out of production when the 240-Z was introduced.

The next version was the 260-Z, which had the same basic engine with a longer stroke, and carbs that were supposed to make the emissions better. They were real dogs, and only produced for a couple of years.

The final version that used the same basic body design was the 280-Z. Obviously, it had a 2.8 liter 6, and was a much better car than the 260-Z. I don't recall precisely, but I believe that these cars had fuel injection and were much more refined than the earlier cars (but not quite as much fun to drive).

The Datsun engine was completely their design. It had a single overhead cam, and 2 valves per cylinder, iron block and aluminum head. A very well designed and reliable engine.

Toyota had a straight six that was based on the Chevy push rod six. A hot rod trick for them was to install a Chevy head on your Toyota Land Cruiser engine (this was the only Toyota that used the engine in the US at the time).

I worked on all of these cars, so my comments are from first hand experience.