93anthracite

Does anybody know of a reputable shop that is offering brackets for mounting rear 240sx calipers on a 240z? Essentially, looking for reproduction of Ross' Modern Motorsports kit, since it is no longer offered by them?

I welded mine in over the originals as well, worked out great.

I'm reading up on my own ideas for running new piping throughout my car and stumbled upon this thread. It seems to me that another, more driver-adjustable solution, might be to run a simple T from the back (or gut the stock one), run a new line from there to the interior of the cabin and plumb in an adjustable prop valve near the driver on the trans tunnel, then run it back into the trans tunnel or engine bay. This would put the valve within reach of the driver, giving the ability to adjust on the fly.

Thanks Paul, do you have a Haynes manual to reference and provide the answer? So far, I have scoured my Datsun Shop Manual, How to Restore Your Datsun Z-Car, and both books on building and modifying the L-series and none have given the clarification I was hoping for (the voltage regulator was the only one even ID'd in a book so far).

Thanks Barbarossa! Good eyes! The weld patch is from putting in Bad Dog sway bar reinforcements.

Background: '73 240z w/ engine removed. Current plan is to thoroughly clean, strip, and re-paint the engine bay and install an L28ET. I may put the L24 back in just to get the car running, haven't quite decided yet... Anyways, I've pulled the engine I'm just trying to identify some specific parts that I couldn't determine what they do. Please see the pictures below and if at all possible let me know what they are and what they do. I REALLY appreciate your help with this. -Dave 1. Located on the passenger side of the engine bay; large multi-wire plug coming off of it. -Voltage Regulator 2. Located on the firewall 3. Located on the firewall - Wiper Relay? 4. Located on the firewall 5. Located on the driver side of the engine bay - fuel vapor return to airbox 6. Located on the driver side of the engine bay - Ballast Resistor

thanks for the quick replies and good info guys! I'm using an ATL fuel cell with AN lines to the pump, but wanted to get these hard line sizes figured out before I finished the AN hose in the rear. I figure since I'm refreshing the whole system, I might as well just replace the metal hard lines at the same time; not gonna cost a whole lot in the grand scheme of things...

I really appreciate any help you guys can provide on this stage in my fuel system buildup on my 73 240z. I am building the car for road racing and at this stage am replacing all of the hard lines running from the external fuel pump to the engine bay. I have not decided the long-term future engine plans for this car, so I am trying set it up now for it to be able to handle any future upgrades. I'll be going to an L28ET this year, and I think I will eventually upgrade to either a 1JZ-GTE or a V8 (sorry for the vagueness but I imagine it will be a LS-series Chevy). I doubt any of these will ever see more than 400 hp, as I don't think I'll even need that much to put a grin on my face. My dilemma is, what size pipe do I need to use? Many of the L28ET guys use a 3/8" feed and 5/16" return line, but I haven't been able to definitively determine that this will work with either of my future projects. Would there be any drawback to a 3/8" return? Any input on your setups and fuel pipe sizing would be phenomenal. Thanks!!

Freakin awesome build, can't wait to see how this turns out!

I too am working on a tight budget, but I have also never had *great* success with long term rattle-can jobs. Here's my recommendation for a cheap, effective way to get a clean, professional-looking paintjob of any color that you want: My recommendation would be to prep thoroughly, first and foremost. Depending on much time you want to devote (and if you're as anal as me), I would encourage using a wire brush attachment on an angle grinder and remove as much of the old paint as possible. Those multiples coats of paint add totally unnecessary weight to the car. The key to a good paint job is truly in the prep work... Once you've prepped it, I'd encourage using etching primer to cover up any exposed metal. It won't hurt to put a layer of primer on the entire area you're going to work. Finally, find a car on the street and find out the factory paint code. Go to your local auto paint supplier (same place you got your etching primer) and ask them to mix up a few spray cans of said paint code. They'll probably offer a lower grade version, or some high-grade Dupont paint (for an engine bay I'd lay down a couple coats of the cheaper) to suit your needs. I just finished painting the interior of my Z this weekend (see link below). The painting supplies ended up costing me $50 and I still have leftover paint for the next phase. Considering the cost and effort, I think it turned out extremely well. http://93anthracite.com/Z%20project%20pages/1Interior%20paint.html

1973 240z L24 K&N filters on 71 SUs, full interior, dealer installed AC, steel wheels of unknown origin, otherwise stock. Gas tank was drained empty and spare wheel was out. Total Weight 2283 LF: 638 RF: 622 LR: 507 RR: 517

this thread rocks! Can somebody please explain how they are "making" shift lights? I'm about to start picking up some guages for my car and I really would like to have a shift light, but don't want an ugly, bulky one like you get with the 5" tachs. I'm seeing all of these clean installs, but don't have a clue on how to make the shift light part. Also, is the RPM trigger adjustable?

what year is your car? On my 73 240z, it had a line going from the tank -> tiny filter -> fuel pump-> hardline in tunnel to engine bay -> engine -> return hardline -> soft line back to tank. If you don't have a fuel pump, just eliminate the little filter and pump from this equation. If you trace your hardlines from the engine bay, you should be able to replicate this. I took several pictures when I was removing mine, PM me with an email address and I can send you what I have.

lord have mercy, that car is beautiful!

280z Turbo is making a lot of good points here. A properly functioning brake system, with fresh fluid should be able to do several hard stops without any major fading. For a budget-friendly upgrade, try bumping up to a more aggressive brake pad in the front (Hawk, Carbotech, lots of options out there) and moving up to a higher-temp fluid with some ducting to the rotors to help with cooling. I don't know what's out there for rotors, but a larger rotor is nothing more than a bigger heat sink, so I don't think it's really not necessary unless you're experience fading issues. I'd be willing to bet that if you do these simple fixes, your car will out-stop the FC on stock pads (the FC is a lot lighter, so it'll be close). Beyond this you're getting more expensive and harder mods, but why spend the extra $$ when you can get 90% of the performance with less than 1/4 of the price. Not to mention you won't be screwing with the brake balance toooo much (you can do the calculations to figure out the difference...).

I'm working through my development plans for my car and just have a few quick questions that I couldn't find the answers for and just wanted to be sure before I started buying parts. The car is a stock 73 L24 with early SU carbs. There will eventually be an L28ET under the hood. Car is being used strictly for autoX and road courses. To prevent fuel starving, I'll be using a surge tank, which requires the use of a low pressure pump to fill it, then the high pressure pump for the EFI motor. -can I use the Carter GP4070 (http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=CRT%2DP4070&N=700+115&autoview=sku) to pump fuel to my carb'd engine for now and then use it to fill the surge tank once I switch over to EFI? My gut says it flows enough to keep it full at all times, but I just need some confirmation... -when using the Carter GP4070 on the L24+carbs, will the stock return line allow the fuel to flow fast enough that there isn't a flooding issue at the engine? I noticed it is a bit smaller than the feed line and I'm trying to avoid replacing the lines until I put in the turbo motor... -when wiring up the fuel pumps, is there a delay necessary for the EFI pump to ensure that the surge tank has fuel in it to go to the EFI pump?(i.e. will it hurt the EFI pump if it doesn't have fuel the instant it turns on?) -how big does the surge tank need to be? 1 pint, 1 quart, 1/2 gallon...??

The problem with the roller method, while being extremely cheap, is that it takes a loooooong time to get a good result. You're talking about putting down 2-3 coats, then wet sanding the entire car, 2-3 coats, wetsand at higher grit, 2-3 coats, wetsand at even higher grit, etc. Multiply that by however many times it takes to get your desired effect and you'll understand Jeff's dismay. Your results can be fantastic, but you're going to be putting in a LOT of time. When I did mine, it turned out great, but it took me more than a month to finish the project (would come home and do 1 step every night after work). Sure, you can do it faster, but it may show... People will always say "why not get a compressor and a gun" and I say sure that is a great investment IF you have room to store it and all the extra stuff. The Rustoleum stuff is supposed to be pretty tough and once it is cured should be able to be polished, waxed, etc. just like a normal paint job. I didn't own my test mule long enough to see how the paint lasted long-term. For anybody not able to put the amount of time in and not interested in the compressor route, I would highly encourage them to research the Dupont Nason spray cans. It's like a rattlecan job, except it is professional auto paint with hardeners, capable of being tinted to any color you want (might be tough to do for Rustoleum jobs) and clearcoated if you desire. I haven't done it yet, but this is what I'll be doing on my next auto-paint project...

I did this technique on my Sentra SE-R. It was miserable and took forever, but it actually turned out pretty good. For the first couple of coats, you'll probably see the streaks from your roller, but don't be tempted to put down more paint. As you put more coats on, it will get a thicker coat and you'll stop seeing streaks. Couple other hints: -1 panel at a time when you're painting. I would get all of the excess paint off of the roller whenever i dunked it into the tray. Work very quickly to get coverage on the entire panel, then go back over it with the roller with zero pressure. Bubbles would typically appear, but if your mix is right, they'll almost immediately pop and the paint will lay out smooth. -I used a plastic bottle from spaghetti sauce for mixing up my paint/mineral spirits. It made for an easy way to contain it, mix it all together, etc. and you could dump your paint back in when your done and reuse it later, rather than having to mix a fresh batch. -be extremely careful when you are sanding on edges. The paint layer is super thin and will sand through to the under-coat in a heartbeat. -you will become intimately familiar with every single flaw in the car's body. I didn't prep my car very much b/c it was also a DD, but by the time I was done with the project I wish I had simply b/c I had spent so much time seeing the flaws and wanted it to be worth it. I don't remember the exact number, but I know I spent over 100 hours in my garage on this. Would have been much better if it had been spent working on the Z . Sorry for the photo quality, I'm no photographer...

awesome, that makes perfect sense. Thank you!!

Must be a big file You might want to open an account with an online photo host (I use photobucket) and then you can just link the picture to your posts here without having to load them onto the thread itself.

+1 for SuperBlue, I bought a case of it at a good price a while back and use it on any car I ever expect to seetrack time. For street cars, I'm a big fan of the cheap and readily available Valvoline SynTec (I think). Comes in a big gold bottle for a few bucks. I haven't researched to see if there would be any kind of conflict with our cars, but I see no reason why not. Back when I had a Supra, some guys claimed to use the same Valvoline stuff for their road race supras and supposedly it would take a full weekend of abuse without needing a bleed or any kind of maintenance. Repeatedly stopping a 3200lb car from those incredibly high speeds seems like it would take quite a toll on a brake system to me. I was always very skeptical that they weren't bending the truth a bit; that or they had some truly impressive brake cooling modifications...

I have a really dumb question. I've read several threads on here about surge tanks, seen many pics of similar designs (except the one above), etc. They all have 1 fitting on 1 end and 3 fittings on the other end. Can somebody PLEASE explain the positioning and where each one leads? All I can figure out is that one is going to the hi-PSI fuel pump, one to the low-PSI fuel pump, and I think one is overflowing back into the fuel tank, but that still leaves one fitting unaccounted for. Maybe I'm just having an "elder moment", but if so it's lasted a couple days now...

hah, I was wondering if I was the only person who was doing this . I picked up a set of spare inspection lids and spent some quality time with my angle grinder to get pretty much the exact same result. So, my question is regarding hood venting as well. I don't have a cowl induction hood and want to retain a fairly stock appearance. My 240z is driven almost entirely at road course events with an occasional autoX , so limiting front end lift while retaining cooling are very important to me. I'm planning on mounting a pair of stock vents from a 280z on my hood, but there seems to be a movement here saying that moving them forward would be a good thing. I feel I've already helped out reducing the 'parachute' at the firewall, but I'm interested in any advice on how far forward I should push my hood vents. Anybody got any ideas here...?? If it matters, my front aero is being supported with headlight covers, an MSA type 3 bumper, proper ducting and blocking off any unnecessary gaps up front.

Shouldn't you be sitting in your Z, rather than a supra? Just had to poke fun b/c I recognized the background from my old one...

I'm just going to throw this out there... I bought an 83 a couple months ago for an engine donor. Doors worked just fine, no problem. I put it up on jack stands at all four corners and it turned out it had so much rust along the frame that the body actually bent in such a manner when I jacked it up that the pass. door is extremely hard to open now. Sounds like yours has seen better days as well, so it's possible that your frame is bent... I hope not, for your sake