georgiaz

I removed all the stuff under the hood. The vacume for the heater consists of one vacume line to the carb. I'm inclined to suspect the mechanical valve is the one leaking simply because it has moving parts. Neither valve is ever wet, but that one does have some stains on it.

Excellent job Tim, congratulations. I worked on mine for four years and I know how good you feel.

Thanks for the reply Sup. I looked at it again today, but could not see where it was leaking from. None of the hoses or connections are wet now even with the car running. I will just keep an eye on it for a few days so maybe I can figure out where its leaking. Which of the two valves typically goes bad? The vacume operated one or the lever operated one?

I had the same problem with my 280 after it sat for a lot of years. The hazard switch can make the turn signals do funky things. I unplugged the hazard switch and poured rubbing alcohol in it and worked it a bunch of times, let it dry out and everything worked fine. The turn signal switch itself started causing problem some time later. I took it apart and cleaned it good and put some dielectric grease on it before putting it back together. It has been working for several months, but it is now acting up again. I am going to try one more time to salvage it because a replacement is shamefully expensive. Good luck.

I removed both control valves from the heater on the 280 and after doing no more than running some hot water through them and working them a few times, I now have heat. They did not appear to be cruddy or clogged at all. I guess they just wanted some attention. Now one of them is leaking in the right side floor board. Is there any reason I shouldn't just do away with them and run the heater hoses directly to the heater core or would that mean that I have constant heat?

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Prieth, I pull the A/C off of this one so the valve you mentioned could be the problem. I assume you are talking about a valve under the dash right? I am going to have to pull the blower motor out so I can get back under there to see what is going on. Joe, I would appreciate hearing what you find in the manual. Georgia Flash, long time no see my friend. We need to get together again so I can show you the finished product. Maybe I can drive it up there some time.

The heater on my 280 only blows cold air. The defroster blows very slightly warmer air. I have done several searches on heaters and heater hoses, but can't seem to find a similar problem. The heater core is not getting hot. Could it be that I have the heater hoses routed backwards? The hose from the water pump is connected to the top tube on the firewall. I know this has been discussed before, but I don't remember how the hoses should be routed. I found references to the hoses for newer model 350s, but I'm not sure if the ones referenced have the reversed flow water pumps. Mine does not. I know the problem may be with one of the heater valves, but I thought I would see if it was something not so hard to get to.

I have got a brand new 650 Holley spreadbore lined up for $200.00 from Advance (my son works there now). It normally sells for just over $300, but this one does not have the box or anything, just the carb. I need to replace the old worn out Quadrajet and this seems to be my best option right now especially considering the price. My engine is a .30 over 350 with a mild cam, Performer intake and blockhugger headers. Someone told me that it would require frequent adjustment, but I wanted to get some other opinions. I'm sure someone out there has one!

The replacement grid is what I would like to do, but I'm not inclined to remove brand new tint right now. I'm going to try the one from Whitney until I can get a fuel trailer for the M1 rigged up. thanks for the help.

I failed to mention that mine is a 75 280. I wouldn't think that the 240 would be much different.

The rear defroster grids on my Z are pretty much gone and the back glass stays fogged up when it rains. Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative. I sure can't afford new glass. I even thought about one of those $15 heater/fans from JC whitney that plugs into the cigarette lighter.

Don't do it the way Chiltons tells you to( I usually swear by Chiltons). I did it that way, then after I had half the car apart I checked the dealer service manual I found I did not have to do all that. You can do it from the right side. Remove the blower motor. Four bolts hold it in. You can then get to the hoses etc. there are four screws holding the cover over the core. You will have to reach inside the little door flap and remove the rod that connects that one to the flap on the other side before you can get the cover off. The core then slides right out. It's not quite as easy as this sounds because the hoses are a real pain in the butt, especially putting it back together.

High heat silicone huh? I have never heard of using that for collectors. It is probably worth a try. Since the transmission bit the dust the Hookers are on hold for a while. I would not think that header wrap would cause the heads to warp, but I will definately do a search to see what comes up.

I used the stock wiring harness on my 75 280 and although I have had a couple of gremlins, it works well so far. Most of the problems have been with the headlight, blinker and flasher switches rather than the wiring itself. I removed 27 pounds of wire and relays etc. etc.. I'm starting to think about air conditioning though and I will probably have to start from scratch with that.

OK, the Z is parked until we can afford an overdrive transmission. The used torque converter is coming apart and reaking havoc with the valve body in the th350. Lesson learned. The 700r4 seems to be the most common OD transmission among hot rodders. What is the difference between it and the 2004r? Someone told me the 200 came in the six cylinder cars and is not quite as strong as the 700. Right now my intent is to go with the 700 which I can do for around $1200 with a 2000 stall converter.

Give Tony Rooks a call at West Georgia Muffler in Carolton. He did an awsome job on mine for under $300.00. He is a car guy himself and he appreciates a good project.

Thanks for the input. I have swapped more transmissions than I care to remember. I just have not done in the Z yet and wondered how it would go. I did not want to get it half way out and find out it couldn't be done.

My turbo 350 has got to come out (that really bites). I'm not sure this is possible to do without pulling the engine as well. I have the JTR kit so firewall clearance is tight, but I think I can get to the bellhousing bolts. I'm just not sure if I will be able to slide the trans back enough to clear the flexplate. Has anyone done this or is it just going to be simpler to pull engine and all?

I checked with Bow Tie Overdrives this morning before I saw this post. Third gear gave up in the th350 last night (why I don't know). I was impressed with the web site and called them. Shipping to Georgia was $163. 39. For every thing to do the swap to a 700R4 except the mount and driveshaft including shipping is $1502.34. That is a little steep for my budget, but I was impressed by the specific information they request to build your tranny. Everything including carb type, HP rating, diff ratio, tire size and stall speed desired. That price is for the level 2 high performance trans that is good to 450 HP. It even comes with a one year unlimited mileage warranty.

I had heard that about the header wrap, but felt that something was needed to cool things off a bit. The Summit headers were only $79 so I figured if they would last a couple of years I got my moneys worth. I think the flanges on the header and collector are not fitting very flush together and the header wrap probably causes some warpage from heat at the collector where it is not wrapped. The best price I have found on the Hookers is $269.00 from Summit. I wanted to verify from someone who has run them that they would do the job before I spent that much for them.

I recently put header wrap on my Summit brand block hugger headers and found that it makes a significant difference in underhood temprature. Now I can't seem to keep collector gaskets on them. I have burned the cheap paper ones, the slightly better Mr. Gasket ones and now the Flotech deadsoft aluminum ones. This is all in less than two months. I know the Summits are not the highest quality so I was thinking of the ceramic coated Hooker headers, but wondered if the coating contains the heat as much as header wrap. Suggestions or opinions?

Thanks for the info. I have had everything off of the car during this rebuild and replaced every bushing on it. If one of the peices such as the strut housing was out of wack or a control arm, I failed to recognize it. This has been my first experience with a Z car so that would not be a suprise. Even though I have no desire, as stated previously, to throw money at the problem, after I remove and inspect the control arms, strut housings, cross member and clamps I guess my only option is to replace any suspect parts with good(?) used ones. Since both sides are toed out does anyone agree that the crossmember/clamps may be the likely source of the problem?

Congrats on the upcoming retirement and thanks for serving your country! It looks like I have some work ahead of me to get this thing figured out. I don't want to start throwing money at the problem hoping for a fix. It's just hard to figure how both sides can be toed out without something being obvious. Arizona Z Car wants $325 each for adjustable control arms and that ain't exactly in the budget. Except for this problem it's a driver now. I'm still open for suggestions.

I will try shifting the front cross member to see what happens. The rear control arm bushings are new. The inner ones are HyperFlex poly. The outer ones are new stock because I damaged the poly ones trying to get them in. The spindle pins are new also. I will take a look at the rear cross member and clamps, but I'm not sure if I would be able to detect any damage or wear visually. I'm still open for suggestions. Does anyone know how much Mike's adjustable control arms sell for?

I took the Z to a reputable alignment shop this weekend and was told I probably have a bent front strut housing causing too much camber on the right and that I have too much toe in the right rear. Although the guy spent a good bit of time with the car on the machine trying to figure out the rear toe and discussing what he saw, he did not charge me because he didn't correct anything. Here's how it reads on the machine: Front Left Right Camber 0.5 -1.4 Cross Camber 2.0 Caster 2.7 2.4 Cross Caster 0.3 Toe -0.15 -0.00 Total Toe -0.15 Rear Left Right Camber -0.1 -0.4 Cross Camber -0.5 Toe 0.26 0.30 Total Toe 0.57 Thrust Angle 0.04 I've done some searches and found discussions on this topic, especially the rear toe, but I'm still not clear on what I should do from here. The front end guy says I will see significant rear tire wear with that much toe on the rear. I understand from previous posts that some toe is built in, but how much is too much. I have a complete Hyperflex bushing kit, KYB strut cartridges, stock springs, Ross' Z to Honda adapters, 16x7 wheels with 215/50 Kumos. The car actually drives rather nice. Some guidance would be much appreciated.