Daeron

post a photo of the doorjamb vin plate and the engine bay vin plate. The original rivets are not very easy to duplicate, and usually when this is done (seen it once or twice, we had a "72 240" with title that was actually a 78 280, ugh) they wind up getting screwed on, or at best attached with silly looking, oversized rivets. (the original ones have to be drilled out, so you are left with larger holes, hence, larger rivets.) But if that is NOT a 280Z, then enough pieces have been cut and welded in that it may as well be. The fusebox is in the 74-78 position, and the seats are also later mounting style (and 75-76 seats if I am not mistaken); I don't believe anyone pointed that out.

old post I *think* MSA sells two different Y-pipes: one for "stock exhaust systems" and one for their aftermarket jobs. I had a header similar to this one, but no Y-pipe, and when we ordered my twice pipes we also ordered the Y-pipe that properly married the twice pipes system it starts as a single pipe, 2 1/2" I think) to my header. In the end, I would up with a ~12 inch long "h-pipe" or collector that eliminated any scavenging loss from using "twice pipes" (a poorly named exhaust system product, the MSA Twice Pipes.. but a good sound nevertheless.) My point was, you *should* be able to order a Y-pipe for that header that (in short length, nowhere NEAR as long as the OP's Y-pipe) dumps out as one single 2 1/2" pipe.

Can't blame ya there; your NOT the only 510 guy out there I am trying hard to convince my uncle to pony up fr the cost of an SU replacement and a megasquirt for his street roadster, but I don't know if I can convince him to take the plunge... Most likely if we do, it will be using a pair of JY TBIs, going the homebrew method, but I've shown him your stuff and he likes it (who doesn't?)

I started reading them shortly before my old PC futzed, and haven't dug up a link since then.. I have my old hard disk. and I think I had bookmarked it, so it shouldn't be a major ordeal to find em.. but priorities come up, and spending an hour digging up hours of reading material is not an easy thing to find time for. Thanks for answering the question though; valvetrain stability. My brains will be chewing on that for a few nights, rest assured.

Reason #219,034,856,803,479,234 its GREAT to live in subtropical climate zones: You get to become attached to your jackstands! You develop a trusting bond with that worthy mass that holds your precious vehicle at heights able to do fair and just work upon her... The bond 'twixt jackstand and gearhead is a sacred thing, and to trivialize it by using your stands as fuel.. One TRULY pities those whom need drives to use their able jackstands as fuel. Dear LORD, hauling firewood is one chore I will never miss.... (and I HAVE been there, done that) but wood fire heat is a geographical and atmospheric luxury that I must admit I wish I could afford.

how exactly might a relatively inexperienced chap go about getting to talk to mister iskendarian (that was fun to type out.. say it out loud ) without purchasing an expensive cam grind?? I have a feeling that there is something about these awkward angles in these ports, that has something to do with this assymetrical grind, that is just a smidgin beyond my ken... one of these days, it will be within my grasp, and I am curious to know how I might be able to get those last few stones set in place.... but I'm probly boned if I'm not trying to order a camshaft from him, huh??

Yikes, sorry for the derail!!!! I'm glad to see I am not alone in my feelings, though. My dad, brother (Cobra_Tim up there) and I have had this discussion a few times lately. Eventually?? You can hardly FIND 215/60/14s anymore except for top-notch racing tires... because there is still a market for performance tires in that size, just, only at the highest price levels. 15s are getting scarcer every day; my dad just went and put 17s on his '98 323is because he can't find decent tires for the 15s his car came with anymore... and the 17s are only a few bucks more than the 15s he is unhappy with. and then....

its a 150 hp, 160 lb-ft, 2.4L workhorse. Its got as much power as the original 240Z engine or more. The Dodge Viper also runs on a "freakin truck engine" when you get right down to it. Labeling like that only limits yourself in the end.. Not tryin to be a tool, I'm just sayin......

That odd hyphen there in the middle threw me off at first, then you start talking 1969... you five and dimers really crack me up!

All the flares that are in style nowadays are the bolt-on, color contrasting ones.. and I have NEVER liked it. IMHO, a Z-car should have 15" rims, a tire with a bit of sidewall, and molded, body color flares. Now we have these black bolt-ons, because everyone and their brother is running 17 or 18" rims, and consequently performance tires are getting hard to find in lower sizes, and now even S30 Z cars are almost all on 17 or 18 inch wheels (eventually; I know alot of us are still locked out of the nice rums by budgetary constraint.) My guess is, theyve got these huge wheels, and tiny tiny low profile tires, so they need extra black in the fenderwell area to make the car look more proportionate. Give me those flares, and a set of 8-9" wide, properly offset Panasports in 15 or 16 inch till the day I DIE.

*groan*

...just, don't use fifth. I had a clutch master and slave both go bad on mine a few months before my fire. I replaced the master with a cheap part, and didn't compare them as closely as I should have. When I finished the job, the clutch would not fully disengage. In the end, I swapped a used master out of another car into mine and it worked great; something was different in the linkage bar. However, on the way to ruling that out (because I DID compare the old versus new, apparently just not enough?) we swapped in a four speed trans that we were able to get our hands on for free. (A friend had it, but we had given it to them in the first place.) So, when the trans didnt fix it, eventually the clutch master did.. but by this time I had had my car down for about a week and it was a DD; no time to put the fivespeed back in. so I got to drive around the fourspeed for several months, and I never really DID get 100% out of the habit of trying to shift into fifth. It REALLY makes you feel like you're driving an antique.

thank you for finishing what I was trying to say Tony; not having the hands-on experience with all the carb stuff, I couldn't quite make the comparison detailed enough.

I can't cite anything offhand, but you aren't totally right.. all the L28Es had the same power (~170 flywheel HP) all L26s had the same FWHP, and all L24s had the same FWHP (this i believe was the 151.) There is alot of confusing information out there, and the source of confusion is flywheel versus wheel power (your 75-76 280Z figure is WHP for 280Z, the stock WHP for 240Z was something like 121) All this is, of course, USDM and may not be *exactly* right, but its closer than you are. not tryin to be a dick The exhaust manifolds are all different.... but none of them restrict or otherwise impede exhaust flow in any appreciable way regarding a stock motor; the only reasons to go with an aftermarket exhaust on a stock motor are: weight savings sound you plan on doing more serious modifications later and just want to All of which are perfectly acceptable reasons... ..but the day an exhaust system nets any L-powered Z-car with a close-to-stock engine a whole 40 horsepower is the day I eat my torquewrench. Period. I could believe bolting a single 1 1/2 inch pipe up to a stocker 240-280 would DECREASE horsepower by about 40... but there simply aren't even 20 horses left to be pulled out of just an exhaust... you would need to have a WILD head and cam combination, high compression pistons, and 44mm triple carbs (or serious aftermarket EFI and a non-factory intake manifold, the factory EFI manifolds are more of a bottleneck than 2" pipes) and STILL be running a stock cast iron exhaust manifold and pipe system to see a gain of 40 horsepower from just doing the exhaust.

looks like an MSA 3 into 2 header to me, if not MSA then just another generic one.

I do not think that you would need to modify the carbs, beyond making sure that the jets and whatnot were all correct.. BUT 40mm is a little small for a big, brutish L28. It *works* but you might want to consider upping the ante to 44mm bores. The Dellorto's don't have as good a reputation as the Webers, anyhow, and Webers are MUCH easier to get jets and air bleeds for.

If you get approximate drive ratios and cannot find any near match, I can check some of my uncle's roadster gearboxes for comparison.. Its kind of a cumbersome affair to do, though, so I would rather avoid tearing into all that if you can find comparable info online.

If I had a nickel for every time I had thought that.....

WOW can you say "brand loyalty?"

you pretty well want to put the larger valves in. The E31 head was designed for a stock level performance 2.4 liter, and the valves are sized appropriately. My dad has an early E88 (virtually identical to the E31) that he put the larger exhaust valves in only, and he has ALWAYS loved and used that head, (on his 2.8 powered by rebuilt and re-needled SUs and later, a four barrel; the head also has had port work and a camshaft installed) so you might look into just that side but staying with the stock valves is definitely a hindrance.

Those are Kappas, aren't they?

I hear you; same here.

A sub, or a kappa rather than a reference.. much harder material for the cone, they deliver a strong bass note thats crisp down to low frequency... sorry, the kappa is my favorite car speaker so I kinda think poorly about Reference series. I know the kappas are pricey, but if I am going to spend more than $100 on a pair of speakers, I think 250-300 is reasonable and worth it. If I can't spring that much, then I go <$100. I say this because the bass response on the kappas is *just* right for the Z, for someone not into going the whole subwoofer route. Enclosed in a good box, they sound terrific playing anything from the beatles through tool and in to tom waits and back to blues traveler.

By gum, its gum!!!! You need to put the trans in fifth and get a ratio by turning the crankshaft and having someone watch the driveshaft and count. If that is too much trouble for you (it really is a bit more of a PITA than it sounds) then count the ratio of the rear end out, and let us know what the RPMs the engine is at in fifth with the vehicle at 50 mph.

Yuk