ryant67

Things are working through with insurance, and the body shop I'll be using seems game for me to do as much prep as possible and give me a good price on painting the rest of the car while they are at it. We'll see how things pan out, but fingers crossed. The plan is basically for me to remove all the lights, trim, bumpers, windows, etc, and then tow the car up to them and drop off all the loose panels fenders, air dam, etc. Then they can easily do the prep work on the loose panels, then hang and paint them. The body paint is pretty much limited to the roof and rear quarters, which would be required by the repair, and thus covered under insurance. In other news, my fuel pump crapped out today. The Holley Red pump I put in when I bought the car lasted me a little under 5 years - to be expected I suppose, since it's dead headed at the carbs. Hoping I can easily source another one locally and be up and running asap. Worst case scenario, I just grab one off Amazon or Summit and pay for the 2 day shipping. I'll be heading to the Armdrop Drag Racing event in Picton, Ontario next weekend, weather permitting. They'll have a dyno there on-site, so I might throw the car on and see how it performs - be nice to have a baseline before I do my head and camshaft swap

Kind of sounds like it's running on 5 cylinders - I know the sound well since I foul plugs pretty often. Could be the recording/youtube though.

Hard to tell if it's curved or not from the pic. I'll probably check with Charlie (business owner) and find out. But yeah, worst case scenario is that the existing panel is salvageable. http://www.datsunzparts.com/products.html

Yeah, I asked around a fair bit and the two shops I am choosing between this time are the real deal. After the headache last time I wasn't taking any chances - I'm still sore about the work they did, and their terrible attitude. I've actually been toying with just having the whole car repainted while these guys are at it. I could make it easy for them my removing the fenders, hood, cowl, hatch, lights, weatherstripping, etc, then just put it all back together myself afterwards. The prep work on the rest of the car probably wouldn't be too labour intensive, so maybe I'd be looking at an extra $3-4k. I'm not sure it's worth it though, and I'm not exactly flush with cash.

Good tip, thanks! I'll be sure to check it over carefully prior to purchase. Be nice to not have to buy parts online for once

Still dealing with the roof situation, but it should be wrapped up inside the next 24 hours, then repair work can be scheduled in. The shop doing the repair will need to repaint the rear quarters with the roof, since there is no paint separation on the body between them. I think I might go ahead and take this opportunity to have the rear valance replaced while they are at it. The exhaust cut out has always been kind of beaten up on the car, and it would be good to fix that. Shouldn't cost me much extra on top of the work they are already doing, or so I hope. Zedd Findings is local to me and stock replacement valance panels, which is handy. I got some front wheel hub dust caps from an Ontario Z Car club member, so they are on now. Nice finishing touch with the new wheels - there were none on the fronts, as the Panasport center caps wouldn't clear with them on I am guessing. Previous owner stuff... Also snapped a few nice pics of the Z up at my mechanics shop, where a nice older Z06 and Aston Martin were parked, and gave the engine bay a bath to get rid of the Winter storage dust.

High end looks like the Devil Z from Wangan Midnight. Sometimes it's not how well a car is modified or built, but how it presents. That's my theory anyway...

I have indoor parking 3 blocks away from where I live, and as I was driving the car back there I went over a speed bump and heard a very loud WHUMP! It scared the crap out of me, and I was worried a tire had blown or something crazy - just what I needed to make my night even better, right? Well it turns out that as I was going over the speed bump the chassis flexed a little and popped out 90% of the dent. Nice! Then as I was walking home, someone I know sent me a message with a picture of the girl on my roof. Turns out she posted it on Instagram... I looked up her Instagram profile, which was set to public, and then did several screen grabs. Then I used her name to find her Facebook profile - one mutual friend, lucky - and sent her a message there. The good news is that she seems willing to pay for the repair work if I get some quotes. We'll see what she says if it ends up costing a fortune though. Absolute worst case scenario, I have already filed a police report and have the officers contact information. If she refuses to pay, then I will just forward the screen grabs and personal info onto the officer and go through the police. From what little I could glean from the social media profiles, she seems like she is probably a decent kid, just young and did something thoughtless and stupid. Possibly while intoxicated. So I am hesitant to immediately involve the police, since it could get her kicked out of university or something. I'm a firm believer in second chances and giving folks the opportunity to make things right. Hopefully that works out.

Some girl walking past my car liked it so much that she felt the need to climb up onto the roof and have her picture taken. Here is what I walked out of my apartment to find on friday night...

The NGK wideband is in, and the old AEM UEGO is out. The NGK doesn't look as nice as the AEM unit did, but the numbers are huge on the display and MUCH easier to read at a glance. Hopefully I get better carb tuning results with this more reputable/accurate wideband as well. Purely for the sake of aesthetics, I will probably grab some thin ABS plastic and make a cover the unit to hide all of the stickers on it.

That's the new tires and wheels on now - pretty happy with them! There is potential for some rub on the rears, it's close on bumps, but nothing yet. I might end up having to trim or roll the rear arches, or just buying some coilovers and camber plates and using negative camber to gain clearance. Not sure I want to put that on the credit card though, haha. Otherwise the fitment looks great, filling the wheel arches nicely. The difference in grip and handling is pretty incredible, and I really can't wait for the next open track day!

Thanks! The muffler is my attempt at replicating the old school vertical stack. It's a Magnaflow muffler turned sideways with staggered slashed tips welded on. I'm pretty torn on it - looks killer from some angles, and awkward from others. If I were to do it now, I would just buy the Zstory system. Or in your case, maybe try and source a Fujitsubo or Spirit Garage (Japan) exhaust backbox, as they both do the vertical stack in a 2in2out configuration. Here is an old pic showing it off a bit better.

Took a couple of weeks longer than I thought it would, but I got my wheels and tires on today. 15x8 ET0 wheels and Toyo R888R in 225/50r15. No rub so far, but it's cutting things pretty close. Maybe on big bumps or extremely hard cornering there might be contact. I'm lowered about 2" on the old MSA "blue" springs. Here are some pics for you to show fitment.

Sold for $13,750. I'd say the buyer got a good deal!

Brought the car out for the first time this year yesterday. Started up without issue, and is running great. Starting to work my way through my projects for this season. Here is where I sit now. - Ported E88 head in the machine shop right now, waiting to be flow tested. - Don Potter camshaft is on the way. - New rocker arms, springs, retainers, Nismo cam sprocket, ARP head studs, and head gasket are ready and waiting. Still need to order the correct lash pads, which I will do once I get the cam in and the head back. I have a full selection of lash pads sitting ready to help figure this out, which is handy. - New wheels (TE37V) are sitting ready - New tires will be picked up this week, Toyo R888R in 225/50R15 - Picked up a NOS NGK Powerdex AFX wideband to replace my old AEM UEGO. I'm hoping the proven NGK unit will be more accurate than the AEM was, and will be better able to aid in tuning the carbs. - Filled out my carb jetting kit with every possible jet I could ever need. I lucked out by getting a HUGE amount of jets in my big parts buy last Fall. - Find a Mikuni familiar dyno shop in Ontario/NY/NE area and book an appointment.

If you want Trofeo R, check out these guys: https://pmctire.com/en/pirelli-p-zero-trofeo-race-225-50zr16-92y.tire $202 CDN per tire. Their shipping is outrageously cheap, or free, too! I'll be at the OZC Spring Garage sale at Whitehead by the way. I don't get to Toronto too often with the Z otherwise - driving in the traffic there isn't exactly a good time

I just bought a set of 225/50r15 Toyo R888R's, which is the new version of the old R888. They are supposed to be better in the wet, and are still 100 treadwear. Should be plenty sticky, and still reasonably practical for the street - at least as practical as r-comps can be anyway. If you are in the Toronto area, I found these guys unbeatable on price: http://www.greenleaftire.ca/track-and-competition-pricing.html Your car looks great by the way, wow!!!

Driving the wheels up onto stacked 2x4's doesn't work? That should help raise the car up for jacking... Unless I am misunderstanding the issue?

I'll be picking up my Toyo R888R's in 225/50r15 next Friday, and they are going on my 15x8 ET0 Volk TE37V wheels. I'll post pics once mounted. I'm lowered about 1.5 to 2", I believe, on MSA blue springs. My arches are completely stock. Fingers crossed I don't run into any issues

Since the header difference is negligible, you should probably just sell that Stahl one you have. I *guess* I could take it off your hands... Thanks for sharing so much information. I could feel your frustration of not getting the full picture, despite you setting out with that as a goal. Still, some good info to be had, so it wasn't a waste. Regarding your XDi timing - is the 1000 dial so high to adjust for being 2 teeth off on the magnetic sensor? 27 advance seems terribly high! With the two teeth retarding timing 12 degrees that would put you at 15 though, which seems sensible. BUT then you would only be adding 11 degrees to that figure, meaning that at 3000 RPM you are at only 26 degrees advance, and just 22 ish around 7000 RPM. That seems VERY conservative, and from what I have read on this very forum, you would potentially be leaving a fair bit of horsepower on the table. Might be an oversight, or perhaps I am misinterpreting.

Seriously, $29k? Almost makes me want to slap some cheap zg flares on my car and sell it, wow...

Quite like the look of the dual read 2-5/8" gauge. I wonder if Speedhut would be able to customize the face to display the numbers on the opposite axis, making them look more like our stock setup. Either way, your setup looks great! Crudely edited image:

Cheers! They are pretty much bang on 11lbs.

Spring is nearly upon us, not that you'd be able to tell with all the snow up here right now... Anyway, the parts for this years round of upgrades are beginning to roll in. My new wheels for the 240Z are here, a set of 15x8 ET0 Volk Racing TE37VSL's. They are basically the TE37V, but a 2014 special edition that's just a smidgen lighter and with a bunch of silly stickers. Should transform the way the car looks a little, and be better support for the 225 width tires I want to run. Oh, and they weigh just 11lbs each! For reference, the Panasport in the pic is a 15x6 ET+6, and it weighs in at about 15lbs. I'll be ordering a set of Toyo R888R's in 225/50R15 soon. Seems like a great tire for the money - with a 100 treadwear rating I hope they don't wear down too quickly on me though. Seems like we're stuck with tires that are either way too hard or borderline too soft, nothing in between... Better too soft I guess, grip is important.

The bell crank on the right? If so, I'm 99% sure I have one sitting in one of my boxes of parts. I'll check this afternoon for you.