blue72

That's an old thread, so I'll post here. This is the worst of the rust on my Z. I got lucky buying the car while I still lived in Arizona. Here is what I cut out. You can see a smaller patch piece already installed where rust had eaten the inner dogleg, and the compound curve recreated with part of an old army ammo box. ... and here is the patch panel beside the old rotted piece. I made sure to apply plenty of POR-15 behind to stop this from happening again. You can thank Wal-Mart photo developing for the giant shadows on the photos.

So did the supports give out on his $49.99 spoiler? That extra drag is sure to keep you planted and increase fuel economy.

How about a man who thinks he may have accidentally stumbled upon perpetual motion, or at least a way to make electric engines much more efficient? Article: http://www.thestar.com/sciencetech/article/300042 Video: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Perepiteia&search=Search

I don't have any automotive furniture, but I have welded together some art from scrap transmission parts. Since I don't have pics right now, perhaps I'll link to a real automotive artist Paul Veroude. I wouldn't mind having this in my house. http://www.autoblog.com/2006/07/19/honda-f1-view-suspended-the-ultimate-technical-diagram/ Oh, and in case you are too lazy to make your own auto themed furniture / home decorations: http://www.autoartmodels.com/product.web.ViewProducts.do?st=lifestyle.title&field0=pgs.productGroupId&key0=2&field0_compare=&orderBy=pd.productCode&sortDirectionStr=1&startingPos=0&pageSize=5&antiCache=12234274477752658D346A96BA2CCC38C6CCF0BE99440

I didn't even mention that I have done all of the work myself (minus headwork, cam, and carb overbore). Labor alone could eat half your budget if you aren't inclined, or can't do the work yourself. My advice? Buy the best car you can afford. I would have most likely been better off buying a better condition Z with paint, half decent interior, and solid mechanicals for $3000 or so. Not nearly as much to replace. Then again, just like many other people here have said, I wouldn't trade the experience, and the pride in being able to say that I built that thing sitting in the driveway with a tarp over it to keep the rain from infiltrating the rotted window seals!

Can you get some micrometers onto a bit of gasket that sticks out beyond the head and block? Then you could determine roughly the uncompressed height of the gasket.

Isn't that the R version of the car that holds the current record for fastest speeding ticket given in the U.S.? It was in Texas during a Gumball Rally. 242 mph in a 75 zone.

I don't even want to know at this point. I have kept all of the receipts so far, and input them into a spreadsheet. What has made mine so expensive is the fact that I basically bought a parts car and resurrected it. So far I have replaced, rebuilt, or modified every mechanical component on the vehicle. Now it just lacks paint. I even have the paint and weatherstripping, just need time and a place to finish the body work. So, to answer your question. A year and a half ago I towed home a $900 non running '72 with an L24E, destroyed interior and a flaking 15 year old respray. More than 10x as much money later, I have a great street car that looks horrible from the outside.

I think this has been posted before, recently. If not here, then on classiczcar. It is the same individual who is trying to sell a whole lot full of Z cars. The cars have been listed and talked about for a long time now, but I've never heard yet of anyone actually buying one, let alone the whole lot. This might be better off in the non-tech section.

You could always risk life and limb (or lots of money) to liberate a F1 engine. The current formula is 2.4l V8's. Their history is littered with tiny displacement engines, however. Especially '61-'86. 1.5l, 2.5l, 3l, all V8s. Perhaps not the exact requirements from post #1, but they were all produced at some time.

I'm actually seriously considering painting my Blaster2 coil black to make it blend into my engine bay scheme. I'm going for something of the same feel, looks stock from a quick glance, however, it is anything but. I'm even running a mechanical fuel pump on a P79 head.

Shall I start the guessing? The first one is unmistakably a T head. Next to it, on the right, is an L head design. Bottom left would be an I head (the height of it), while bottom right is an F head engine. Crazy some of what they were able to get away with back then. Straight six engines with three main bearings, super low compression ratios, pour in main bearings, and extremely low rpm limits to name a few.

Hey, that's one of those 260ZX's right? Yeah, I remember when those came out. Real fast with that supercharged V8 from the factory. Course, I whomped on 'em with my X-package Gremlin. Well, as far as I can tell, and from looking at pictures of nice restorations, there isn't much color variation across the board. The block, alternator bracket, crankcase breather tube and harmonic balancer/pulley were painted light blue. The core plugs were steel. The transmission, front cover, cylinder head, valve cover, thermostat housing, distributor body, alternator body, fuel pump body, intake manifolds, balance tube and carburetors were unpainted aluminum. The engine bay, of course, was body color. The radiator and brake booster are a gloss or satin black with appropriate decals on them. Brake booster vacuum tube bracket is black, and possibly the fuel filter bracket. Engine mounts and oil pan are black too. Oil filter is a blue Nissan piece. Most of the ignition coils seem to be a semi-gloss black. I've never seen date stamped spark plug wires, but I'd guess a gray or black color. Most everything else is coated with a special mixture of zinc. Items such as the hood prop, fuel rails, hood latch hardware, ignition coil bracket, water pump pulley, inspection light, throttle linkage, emission equipment, brake and clutch solid hoses, engine hoist bracket, distributor vacuum advance mechanism, voltage regulator, and all of the nuts and bolts. As far as the rest of the driveline, the driveshaft was black, rearend black, halfshafts black. I believe that the rearend covers were painted black as well, but many people opt to polish or clean them up them as they are aluminum. That leaves the rest of the suspension, which in my observations has mostly been black. An exception being the rear drums, which are raw aluminum. Most of the hardware is zinc plated underneath as well. If anyone has any further observations/corrections just post 'em.

Anyone here ever seen C'était un rendez-vous? It was filmed in France in 1976 using an old Mercedes, filmed at a low angle to give the illusion of more speed, and had a Ferrari's engine noises dubbed over it. Almost the same principal applies.

He states dished pistons. He, however, has a higher lift and duration cam, tripple carb setup, and is probably running a header. Your vehicle, with stock SU carburettors (with unstated needles), an unstated exhaust manifold (stock or header?), and a stock L28e cam profile will, of course, be entirely different. Other variables to take into account are the weight of the 280Z with all the trim, plus transmission and rear end ratios. All of those factors will play into your "butt dyno". I don't personally have any experience testing the veracity of any Dyno simulation program. I have only used Dyno2000 for theorizing. I need to put my own Z on a dyno to see how close the real numbers are to what I think they should be. Still, of all the stock engines I have simulated with the program (Jeep, Chevy SB and BB, Ecotec, Datsun, etc...) they have all come extremely close to the manufacturer's factory HP and Torque figures. Not to do anymore guessing, but plugging all the variables into the program, and assuming a stock exhaust system on "Black Bastard" dropped my "guesstimate" significantly lower than post #5. Of course, that is only a simulation, and assumes a healthy motor in a good state of tune. I agree, there are just too many variables and unknowns for anyone to make an honest to goodness estimate from afar.

True, there is no real way to know unless it was put on a dyno, but even dynos differ from one to another. I'll just stop bench racing now and put away dyno2000.

He loses all the quench benefits by using dished pistons though. 160 hp is my guesstimate.

Instead of waiting for one to appear, why not have one made? Take your existing 240Z wheel to a company that makes custom covers. Let them re-create the stitching pattern in black leather, and voila! I'm not sure the costs involved, but at least you won't have to wait to find a used one.

I'm a CG modeler (see my sig). Mostly hard surface, high poly models, but recently moving into organics. Currently actively searching for work. I also accept freelance gigs. If any of you know of someone who needs a Modeler/Lighter/Render man, let me know. (Sorry, had to plug my talents) Portfolio here: http://www.renderanything.com The site is a little behind as far as my latest updates.

I'm currently hooked on Cheez-It crackers for no logical reason. There, resized so that now you can't even tell there are numbers on the shift knob.

Check under the cap. I'd bet you've got a points distributor on your car. Another option is to use a 280ZX distributor with an e12-80 or e12-93 module. There are plenty of sites that show exactly how to wire one of those in as long as you don't mind googling.

Another good point sweetleaf. Looks like 3.4 to 4.27 p.s.i. is the normal operating range for the carburettor's mechanical fuel pump. Meanwhile, the EFI fuel pump can reach 43 to 64 p.s.i. before a relief valve opens.

I'm wondering why no one has pointed out the Ethanol bit yet. Isn't it known to degrade seals in systems not designed for its use? Hopefully someone knows a bit more and can chime in, but usually seals and fuel hoses need to be replaced and the timing fiddled with as well to make it run properly on such an old car. Could his valve seals be eaten away by using straight E85? That could certainly explain the excessive buildup on the valves themselves. The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that it is not the motors, but the fuel being put in those motors by the end user. (I've formed a nice little self reinforcing loop, I know, it's not a healthy habit).

I'll second the universality of the longnose R200 as I have a Z31 R200 currently installed in my '72 S30.

Whew! I just come in under those size limitations. Let us know if you ever change the allowable though. Oh, and I enjoyed the million plus post club. I had to practically do a double take the first time I saw Brapp's post count.