Rod in NC

Hi Mark, Have you done a set of clear lenses to mate up to the Tom McBurnie (ThunderRanch) 250 GTO kit? I am VERY interested in a pair! Thanks. I've attached a photo of the front end for reference. -Rod 1974 260Z Thunder Ranch 250 GTO kit 350 SBC V8 w/ T5 Trans R200 Rearend w/ 300z CV joints

Thanks for the quick responses, guys. Based on the feedback, it does looks like it has the Triumph TR6 straight 6 in it that would make me think it is the 2500M as well from wikipedia info . I had never seen one of these cars before. Thanks! -Rod

Not a Z-related topic, but drove by a house the other day took a couple of pics of the this car out in the backyard. It looks like a early bmw z3, but the roof configuration confused me. That is not a removal hardtop. Any ideas? This is driving me nuts, and I've been google-ing around with no luck. -Rod

Here are the pages from my Winter 1985 Kit Car Quarterly (Vol 2, No 1) magazine that does a build up on the Alpha1 GTO kit. I particularly like the statement about fitting the front clip. "If you have difficulty getting it to fit, you may have to make some minor modifications." That was a severe understatement in my case, trying to get the front clip to line up with my door skins so far.... I put these in .tiff files for quicker upload.....let me know if you can't open them and I'll try again with jpegs -Rod pgcover.tiff pg6.tiff pg5.tiff pg4.tiff pg3.tiff pg2.tiff pg1.tiff

Looks like nobody has posted here for awhile...... Purchased my kit from Tom McBurnie at ThunderRanch. I have the rear tub bonded in place....I replaced the Z's rear hatch with a fixed rear window and small boot. Still a long way to go. Currently fitting the door skins and front clip into place. YouTube video at 350 SBC with T5 transmission, edelbrock intake/carb and HEI distributor. Cherrybomb glasspacks with pacesetter exhaust tips in front of rear wheels R200 rear end with 300zx CV joints Anybody else here on the east coast working on one of these???

That may be it.....I'll pull the master back apart and see if there is any noticable damage/tears to the interior seals. Before that, I'll watch closely to see if the rear reservoir fluid level goes down slightly and the forward reservoir rises slightly, which would mimic what you say above. Thanks for the tip. -Rod

yep...coming off a port on the back of edelbrock intake manifold to the booster. check valve is correctly oriented in vacuum line. I won't be able to get back on it until the weekend....I'll do a complete four wheel brake bleed one more time. -Rod

nope...stock z master. I'll play with it more Monday night.

Yes, bled the entire system after installing the master cylinder. Yes on having adjusted the pushrod. Stock aftermarket master cylinder. Both you guys mentioned the pushrod adjustment....maybe I don't have it set right. I've got roughly 1/8" of free travel on the pedal before I feel resistance. I'm going to try and hook up some plastic bleed lines to the bleed screws on the master cylinder and pump fluid through the bleed screws back into the reservoirs to see if any more air exists, but I've done that setup twice already with no air coming through the bleed screw. -Rod

Ok, first doing my final check before doing a test drive around the neighborhood. Brake pedal travel seemed a little soft. I popped the hood, and watched the reservoirs on the master cylinder while I pushed the brake pedal down (with the reservoir caps still in place). It's probably air, but it just looks like the fluid is trying to burp up in the reservoir. Repeats consistantly no matter how many times I stroke the pedal. I have bench bled the master before installing. Is there a chance I've got a clogged line and the fluid has no where else to go? Brakes will stop the car when pushed in and out of the garage, but I don't understand this large displacement of air/fluid in the reservoir. If I remove the reservoir caps and push the pedal, I'd have a mess. Any ideas? Thanks. -Rod

High quality parts from MMS. I put 300zx CV's in my 1974 260Z to my R200 rear end and Ross provided a great instructional document to help with the conversion using his welded hubs. -Rod 1974 260Z 350 sbc with T5 transmission R200 with 300zx CV ThunderRanch 250 GTO body kit.

Thanks for the feedback....I'm looking to do 2.25" through two glasspacks near the driveshaft, then through a couple j-pipes and L-pipes to come out just in front of both of the rear tires with a Pacesetter dual tip resonators. I want the look of side exhaust having the long muffler along the rocker panel. Larry, I will keep your heat shield in mind as I route the pipes under the floor pan. -Rod

Hi guys....I think I have the wrong collector flange setup on my Sanderson header-to-exhaust pipe connection. Attached is the pic from the JTR website showing the blockhugger headers that I have. The three-hole flange plate is loose and can be spun around the flared port. I guess I have never seen one of these types, and am just used to seeing a flat triangular flange to mount to. Question: Can I bolt up a standard flat 3-hole flange with a standard flat gasket to this header, or will that leak? I'm building my own exhaust for the car, and need to make sure I use the correct mating flange on my header pipe. The more I look at this, I think I might need a donut-type gasket and a flared pipe on the mating header pipe to mount to the header. Right now I just have a standard 3-hole flat plate welded to my header pipe which I was going to mount to the header flange. Any clarification would be helpful. Thanks. -Rod

Even if you don't have the intake yet, install the distributor (after the block/tranny have been lowered into the car) into the hole in the block to make sure you have distributor clearance to the firewall before you drill the holes to mount the transmission crossmember to the car.