Pop N Wood

The eye bolt engine-to-frame thing sounds like an engine strap. Keeps the engine from over torqueing the engine mounts. The gas smell is probably from the gas tank vent hoses. I did worry about the gas smell and replacing all of the hoses solved it. If your 71 is a California model like mine was, then you have a plastic vent tank in the back hatch region just above the gas fill spout. Remove the plastic panel to find it. There are 2 or 3 hoses that go from this vent tank to the gas tank itself. Note that the hoses (and the vent tank) are in the passenger's compartment. You have to replace these with the overpriced Nissan parts. Don't try to use heater hose because heater hose won't stand up to the gas.

The book I have says 3.36 for a USA, 75-78 280 2 seater with a 4 speed.

Led Zepplin's Black Dog.

Just a big wrench? You can rent a large cresent wrench. I bought a Ford wrench from Matco tools. Just whatever sized wrench that will fit on the nut. Once the nut is off, the cartridge should slide out. But if it is rusted or the strut tube slightly bent, then you are in for a days work. Hopefully everything will just pop out

TRUCKS TV is putting one of these in a current project. Too cool. They were mating it to a race preped turbo 400 trans. Even had a 2 speed overdrive that bolted directly to the rear of the turbo 400. Too cool.

Fuel delivery problem. I will bet my left nut. You either have a weak fuel pump, clogged fuel filter or some other restriction. With a full tank you have a nice pressure head at the inlet to the pump. As the take gets low, the inlet pressure drops and the pump is not capable of making it up. When the engine and/or fuel heat up, the pump doesn't work as well (maybe starts to vapor lock?) and it becomes even less tolerant of a low tank.

I think the short answer is yes, some type of chassis stiffining will be a good idea with a V8 Z. Obviously the more horsepower and the harder you flog the beast, the more work you will want to do with the chassis. A little less obvious is that older and possibly rusty cars will need work just to get back up to stock strength. I have read postings of people who had trouble shutting their hoods after a couple of serious torque sessions. One guy kept cracking his windsheild, altough most people think he may have other problems.

...and it makes hundreds of jullienne fries....

My radiator overflow bottle is a sports drink bottle connected to the side of the radiator with a large hose clamp. Got the bottle free as a promotional give away from a local radio station. Just pull out the straw an run in the overflow tube.

To Jamie240z; If your struts are shot, then how old are the springs? If the springs are old the car will sit lower (i.e. not the stock height). New springs designed to lower the car may actually raise it. Know this from personal experience.

I use to need a helper to bleed brakes, doing pretty much what Kevin said. But a many years ago I decided to connect a piece of clear tubing to the bleeder valve and to run it into a jar with an inch or two of brake fluid in it. This allows you (by yourself) to pump the brake pedal at will without stopping or closing the bleed valve between strokes (putting the tubing in fluid prevents the air from being sucked back into the calipers on the back stroke). Just remember to keep the MC reservoirs full and to close the bleed valve before disconnecting the tubing. This has worked so well for me through the years that I always wonder why anybody makes or buys the vacuum bleeder kits. It is also a no mess way to cycle a lot of brake fluid through the system to flush it. Any dirt or air is clearly seen in the tubing, just keep pumping until it is gone.

I have been reading these postings for some time now. What I have seen, without exception so far, is people with overheating problems and no other cooling system malfunctions are almost invariably running an electric fan. Have never seen this complaint with mechanical fans. I have bookmarked threads of guys who are running a nice V8 with no cooling issues and a stock Z radiator with a mechanical fan. So my suggestion for guys who have to have electric fans is to make sure the fan you use will do the job. Follow the advice of others closely.

You misunderstood me. Definitely want a recirculating overflow bottle on the radiator. Otherwise you lose cooling capacity when air instead of water is sucked back into the radiator. But if you vent oil or fuel to the can, then you don't want any of that going into the radiator. So a recirculating can for the radiator, and a simple catch can for everything else.

Yes, but then wouldn't you have a recirculating catch can? I don't know of any other systems that would be recirculating besides the radiator. The radiator is a totally sealed system that is filled completely full of fluid (no air bubble). Everything else (oil, fuel, whatelse?) is vented to atmosphere. I think some race rules require anything that can spill on the track to be vented to a catch can. In that case you definitely would not want a recirculating can.

Fast Frog: Drive to Aspen. Lots of movie stars out that way. Got to be some nice cars. Although don't know if I would race on a mountain road during ski season.

My guess? The radiator overflow can has a tube running down to the bottom. Thus when the radiator/engine cools, the fluid in it contracts. This causes a vacuum which sucks the fluid back from the overflow, just like a straw. A catch can, I would assume, just has a connection at the top that dumps the fluid into the top of the can. Any vacuum on the inlet line will only vent air through the can.

Whoa, Katman. Our postings crossed. Looks like we are both having a busy day.

Katman is already on the hook for giving us the ultimate street cage http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=001382 Here is a link discussing the pros and cons of the "ultimate" front brace pictured above http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000682 Here is another choice for front braces http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=001442 There are quite a few good options for roll cages and stiffening. Here are a couple of my favorite roll cage-subframe HybridZ threads http://www.hybridz.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=001099&p= http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=001118 http://www.hybridz.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=001370&p= Here is a good thread about subframe connectors http://www.hybridz.org/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=6&t=001526&p=

A couple of years ago there was a story all over the news about some guy got left on Mt. Everest and half froze to death. Made all of the news because he called his wife from the mountain to say "good bye". Ended up living (less most of his feet, hands, nose and face) BUT the reason he almost died is the laser surgery combined with the low pressure at altitude made him so near sighted he couldn't see his own feet. The rest of the group left him at a lower altitude with the idea of doubling back, but a storm came in and he got left for dead. True story. Just don't climb any mountains after having laser surgery on your eyes. I wonder if this could also affect pilots?

My 70 240 was originally very stiff to turn, even with 185 tires. I then replaced all of the front rubber pieces with urethane and the steering became very light, especially when parked! I think the biggest difference is to replace the rubber steering coupler with a solid one (Motor Sport Auto part # 23-4160 or 4161). This gets rid of all the slop in the front end and makes steering much more positive (and light).

Just out of curiosity, does it have a mechanical or electric fan?

Jacobs electronics makes a box that allows the engine to be started and run fora minute or so. Then it cuts the ignition in and out like the car is stalling before killing it altogether. The idea here is the theives will be in the middle of an intersection or something when the car dies. Makes them much more likely to abandon the car. The other advantage is they have to actually move the car to be quilty of auto theft, a much stiffer penalty than simple breaking and entering.

Actually that thing you were looking at was the thermostat valve that controls the amount of coolant flowing into the heater core. Check the connections and the heater core, but it is very common for the thermo valves to leak. And they only leak when turned on. When the heat is off they backseat some how. When mine went bad, I can't remember if I had to replace it or if I managed to fix it some how.

Look at the engine on this guy's camaro http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1847701488 Did GM make a blown Camaro or was this his set up?

My 1969 Camaro had the switch connected to the clutch pedal just like a brake light switch. I guess some manufactures may have put in a transmission switch, but more than likely it is a clutch pedal switch.