Daeron

Another question I had.. You said L20ET rods were used. I jumped over to the OZDat calculator and all I could find were L20A rods (6-cyl) at 128 mm which set the pistons listed at -4mm deck height and about 6.5:1 compression, or maybe Z20/L20B rods which were WAY too tall. Did the L20ET have different rods/stroke from the NA L20A?

+1, I would LOVE a pair of those twin plate TBs though..... Those things are TINY, ESPECIALLY when you stick ONE on a 3.1 liter turbocharged car!!!!! Change that and your exhaust and I bet you get a MEGA big jump in power and torque, and in how quickly they come on, as son as you get it tuned. You have gone and built yourself a VERY rare thing... a car that actually CAN gain alot of power just by opening the intake and outlet a good bit! Most of us start there with otherwise stock engines and hope for real gains, think we get real gains, but really just get butt-dyno horsepower.

Once Upon A Time, if you bolted fender flares on like that and didn't mold them in, it meant you were lazy Okay, so I may be exaggerating, but I know I grew up around Zs that either had stock fenders, or molded fiberglass flares. The bolt-on look has never appealed to me. thing is, to do that you pretty much have to get a good body/fiberglass guy, and its not like the guy at the collision center with the local Community College Certification is going to be able to do a good job installing them.

135 foot pounds of torque on a 120 horse, worn out motor is impressive!! I may well be making a rookie mistake in saying so, but MY thought on that would be that your manifold worked so well at giving the air a nice, even, straight pathway into the combustion chamber that your torque numbers ARE up from what they would have been! I would bet if you have a nice fresh longblock (even bone stock) you'd be more up into the 140-160 horse range with a more even and stiff torque band (maybe a peak around 150-180) That is a daily driver setup if I ever saw one, and to have the cool factor on the DD is the ultimate to me!! Let's face it, without putting those horns into a plenum for turbocharging, you WONT see "max power" out of your L. "Max NA power" is going to cost stupid amounts of money, so why not go for "awesome torquey DD?" Wire tuck and clean up the engine bay extensively, etc, and go for cool/show DD car rather than cool/showoff/superfast car. Don't worry; you'll still roll with the mustangs and the other entry level tools on the road.

Did you re check the link I posted?? I fixed it to point where it needed to go. I don't keep info like that handy off the top of my head, but I am sure it is easy to find in that book.

Nice to know my point made it; it was one of those things that makes you wonder if you are going to be misunderstood

We do if we get the BBC America channel.. I have Dish Network satellite service, I am not sure if the other cable or satellite carriers have it or what. The show is so weak* sometimes I roll my eyes constantly, but its in such a great and entertaining way that its no wonder it is one of the most popular television programs in the world. Wiki claims it has up to 350 million viewers world wide.. insane!!! *(easy to see through or poke holes in or just generally have good reason not to agree with their conclusions/opinions; I freakin love the show and don't want them to change, its just easy to see SOME smoke and mirrors there, or simply disagree with them. Fun though.)

elieveI see your "I believe" and match it with an "I believe" that stands by my earlier quote of 82 or 83. I found the brackets on a car about four or five years ago and grabbed em, and I would swear it was an 83, if not an 82. I can't make logical sense out of it, and I mean exactly what I said; I believe, you believe. I wish one of us was certain, or that someone would chime in with a certain date....... BUT, I am not holding my breath because I asked and asked about it on Zcar.com back in the day and whatever model years they were on............... one thing I know for certain. Nobody on the internet knows for certain

(I can't believe that you haven't thought of this, but I am saying it anyhow just to make sure) Easy fix: throttle cable attached to top of pedal, travel across beneath the dashboard, pass through the firewall on the intake side. Obviously this costs money and that is a disadvantage.. but thats any Z (or any hobby for that matter. Two favorite gags of boaters around the world: B.O.A.T.-- Break Out Another Thousand; and the following definition, "A boat is a hole in the water into which massive amounts of money are thrown never to be seen again.")

GROAN

/threadjack/ my buddy's 92 RS camaro (tbi 302 w/5 spd) blew a transmission one day and the only driver/vehicle combination that was available to rescue him was my dad in his NA 86 300ZX with a receiver hitch which I magically found in a junkyard. Incidentally, I have a tendency to find Z-car tow hitches in junkyards with my shins and kneecaps.... If anyone wants the tow hitch for the Z31 let me know, we still have it and its still wreaking havoc on unguarded shinbones at our shop... To keep this a little more on-topic, does anyone know about any difference between VG30E heads from maxima to Z-car? Obviously radically different manifolds were used since the VG maximas went to FF layout, but I couldn't even tell you if there were casting families like the L-series or what. I am just curious; every time I see a VG SOHC head I am fascinated with it and I think of the old California Coffin and just can't get it out of *my* head that somewhere in THAT head lies lots of vroom..... /threadjack off/

my vote is to throw the V8 into the parts car and make a rat rod out of it... Get some sheetmetal and cheap gauges for an interior, and have a car to do cheap and dirty and take to drags, do burnouts etc. Then the clean 240 can be kept nice and pretty and be the registered street car. ...but then again, I am not your typical H-Z'er

aww crap, I just "copied" a link outta bookmarks that I set there a while ago for handiness. Go back and look now, it is edited.

Kids. (Armand: not a shot at you by any means, bud!) Nothing like a single megaphone on a U20 Roadster motor man... quad mikunis... a delicate blend of the japanese and the british, sheer foud cylinder nirvana... I haven't heard an L6 with a trumpet-horn exhaust before.

If the car still has a problem, I am going to say "thermotime switch" and give you this

If I am not mistaken...... .....A, they have been out of stock for several months if not LONGER (if they are still out of stock) ......B you will likely see far more increase in performance, from the increase in bore, than you will see from the rod ratio change. Remember, 280 is still more hp than 240.

Oh wow..... I can't understand why all the stuff on the 73 car was replaced if it only had 6K mmiles on it though... The low mileage stuff is awesome to me, but the low number stuff is interesting and neat, but I could honestly care less. I like the 70 cars for what they were; the different vent style, the look of the defrost lines going the wrong way, the general antique feel. The actual number just limits the desire to modify it. I would love to get a nice 70 240 to do a mid-high comp, dual SU 2.8 with a sleeper electronic ignition and super super clean engine bay, original chrome with euro tails, and modern stereo with a nice 4 speaker system... Polished Libras or slot mags on her, white with a hint of pearl and a giant Datsun logo on the roof.... Standard ducted front airdam and a BRE rear spoiler, moderate window tint on the sides. I haven't thought about this much.

Lengine.exe is nothing compared to this handy guy: http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/enginedesign/ However!!! These calculators are estimation tools, and no internal part should be put together without being specifically measured. The calculators are tools to help you throw together junkyard engine pieces as thought projects. The next step is getting the hard parts, measuring, assembling, checking clearances, etc. Spend 50-75 bucks on a few books and read up on the subject. The investment of time will yield enormous dividends. Check the stickies in the L-series subforum for the specific titles; there are three or four (two or three engine specific, one or two more datsun/Z performance in general) books with similar enough titles that I run them all together in my mind. The publishers are even kind enough to make these four awesome tomes look very very similar, even though they are wholly independent works.

BRE "air dam" It isn't a spoiler, its a cooling device. I swear.

six prong yellowy connector, probably hazard switch, definitely original wiring. Other yellowy conector, probably defogger switch, definitely original. Whitish three prong squared off plug, uncertain.. i can't recall one looking like that down there but it doesn't exactly look OUT of place either. The antenna switch WAS right there, so thats a reasonable suspicion, I would investigate that possibility and let us know what you find. Do you have any of the lights and switches that belong down in that area?? I ask because the hazard switch should have been obvious if you did... (the answer to this obviously has implications on how much weight I want to put on the first half of my post now)

All you have to do is as I described above; Get a bosch four prong style relay with a plug, get an inline fuse holder and a 30 amp fuse, install a line from the hot terminal of the battery to the "input" terminal of the relay, run the "output" of the relay to the starter solenoid spade terminal, and run the original solenoid wire to the "signal" terminal of the relay. Add a ground wire for the relay, and turn your key and drive. If it doesn't work like that, then your problem lies in your starter, your battery, or your battery cables. But, if the screwdriver works, and you DO at least get a click when you hit the key, then chances are about 99.99999% this will work.

beat me to it

Okay, didn't read all of that, haven't got the time at the moment... but: Heater core: (presuming the problem is gunked up passages, not potential leakage) Go flush it back and forth with a garden hose now, before its time to hook it up. If you can manage a way to get some hose onto it and then cap one end, and fill the thing up with some super duty radiator flush (the stuff that comes in a big quart bottle, permatex product, white bottle, the serious serious flush) and let it sit, and then flush back and forth with a garden hose, you should be able to de-gunk it fairly well. Sanding: Its impossible to "go too fine for this stage" at any stage; the smoother each coat is when you are finished with it and ready to spray the next coat on (whether a primer, paint, pearl or clear) the smoother that next coat goes on. I am learning this firsthand with the little bit of rattlecan work I have done on my CRX... and believe it or not, 400-600 grit is nowhere near as fine as you might think it is.

For the tails, you might consider working with two pairs of tailights from a ~96 cadillac deville... turbned over on their side. I've had my eyes peeled and actually saw that these might work tonight.

Hey, thats awesome!!! An apology with a dollar sign, regardless of the value, is a huge thing; this guy could have let it fester and its great to know that not only do you guys have two cars that should make one really nice one, but that the initial bad blood worked out positively on all fronts in the end.