Leon

As promised, I've started working on the orange car again! The transmission is out as well as the exhaust and induction system. The throwout bearing was seized, confirming my suspicions of the noise... I'll try not to go too crazy with while-I'm-at-it, so I'll be reinstalling the tranny with a fresh clutch and related parts. I've also decided to re-do the exhaust, going back to the stock manifold from which I'll just do a single 2.5" pipe. The big header with twice pipes showed a loss in power and was too loud, thus the decision. I've done some adjustments to the carbs on the bench as well. I'm looking forward to getting this Z back on the road! This is a sight I see far too often! Trans out, release bearing removed. Some new parts I had lying around. Twice-twice pipes, I'll be selling both...

Sounds like your e-tube is dumping too much air into your main circuit. Does your e-tube have holes above the fuel level? If so, plug those. You may need to play with your air jet as well.

Love your friends' art!

Another issue I ran into is that the car has some sort of old-school coilovers with custom strut mounts. Somehow, my rear camber is +0.5 degrees. Front is -0.5 degrees so OK but not great. I talked to Don of DP Racing about his bolt-in camber plates which I really like, but from what he told me the shank of the Tokico HPs needs to be turned down to match the 5/8" spherical bearing. Not sure if I want to deal with that or not...

Holy crap! I've never seen another like the one I have, until now. It came with the car and I have no idea who made it... Mine has a crack and a chip, but since I have no idea where to get one, I'm running with it. I'll ask to PO, but I'm betting he's got a similar story. Sorry for the crappy pics, I don't have a whole lot of them. Second photo is not mine, but I do not know who to credit...

I bought a complete P90 in great shape for $100 earlier this year (thanks Ray!)... probably an anomaly.

The wipe pattern is correct, judging by looking at the other side of the rocker arm and comparing it to the rest of the good lobes/rockers. The only thing I can think of that can cause this damage is a foreign object getting in there. I did a valve adjustment after about 60-70 miles on the engine and they were all tight, although I didn't notice any lobe damage. I noticed the damage on the second adjustment, at about 300 miles on the engine. The lobe in question was loose (couple thou) when I checked clearances, so that could've contributed to the problem. Good point on the heat aspect of lack of oil. I haven't noticed any blackening, just worn metal. The engine now has approximately 1000 miles so I can take some more photos next time I take the cover off. Weird... I made sure my oil level was full so that shouldn't be an issue. Leaning towards foreign object, I'll post photos after pulling the cam and rockers. I'll have to play around a bit to get the cam out with the engine still in the car.

Hmm, after further investigation my wipe patterns look to be dead on. Maybe it was an oiling issue, but seeing only one lobe/rocker destroyed is strange. The next plan is to pop off the valve cover and crank the engine over to make sure oil comes out of each lobe.

Nice work, Clive! Engine bay looks very clean. Any vids?

No worries, we all have our preferences! Hope the BBQ went well, I'd like to make the next one. Way easier than JCCS, not to mention a lot less stressful... We got home about an hour ago, made good time coming from SLO. I've got a checklist of things to go through and need to send Isky a cam core so I can get this thing back on the road quickly and finally drive it like I stole it!

Thanks Takashi! Here's a shot I took at the end of the show. I had a chance to take a few pictures. Here are some favorites: This was probably the highlight of the show for me, and I had to make a huge double-take when I saw it. A '67 Prince Skyline in race trim! Woody Cressida! A sweet Honda N600 with an awesome motor-swap that I don't even remember what it was... Subaru 360 Mirco, had no idea these awesome things existed! And a very nicely done engine compartment... Toyota Corona Coupe The Lemans-winning Mazda 787B Very clean TE27 Corolla race-car R32 and KGC10 Cool "vintage"-looking Roadster Restored Datsun 1000 C110 Skyline with L28 C110 Skyline with RB26 Beautiful Skyline Coupe with intact surf-line! Very mean-looking Toyota Crown Spoon Civic

Never had an issue. It all comes from the same place, you know! I buy from Shell and Chevron because it's convenient. We use their gas cards which give us small discounts, their prices tend to be competitive, plus Shell and Chevron are everywhere. Differences in performance between different brands of (top tier) gas is usually in people's imaginations... There's a very good chance that your local Shell gets its fuel from the same place as your local Chevron, 76, Mobil, Arco, Valero, ad nauseum. The only differences are the detergent additives, the effects of which are seen more in the long term and not discernible tank-to-tank. http://www.energy.ca.gov/2008publications/CEC-180-2008-008/CEC-180-2008-008.PDF http://www.toptiergas.com/retailers.html

Thanks Jim, it was awesome finally meeting you yesterday! Your 240 looks gorgeous, you guys really did a fantastic job and the amount of hours and energy you put into it really shows. Your son is a lucky kid. Thanks Alex! I had to break in the engine during the trip, so it was a bit stressful. She runs strong and feels very torquey, at least from the butt-dyno. I have the timing set pretty conservatively right now (10 idle, 27 max) so I'm not at full power yet. I can't wait to finish breaking it in and putting it on the dyno! I wlil say that I LOVE the 10lb flywheel and the stock 225mm clutch is holding up, for now. Unfortunately, looks like one of the valves had its wipe pattern set a little too aggressively, and I wiped a cam lobe. I'll do a full inspection tomorrow and send another core to Isky in the meantime. The wipe patterns were set very aggressively, and unfortunately one of them was just off enough. This is a case of learn by doing! I'll bump up the lash pad size a bit to make sure it doesn't happen again. Here's a shot of the carnage:

Spent many hours over the last few days getting the car ready to go to JCCS... We're now resting in SLO and will be in Long Beach Friday night! I realized that I hadn't taken any photos of the "completed" car yet, so I snapped a quick one at a Shell alongside 101 this afternoon...

Git 'er done!

We have ignition! Made the stupid mistake of setting the distributor exactly right... to the exhaust stroke. Once that was corrected, it started right up! Initial break in went OK besides the coolant temp climbing more than I wanted it to, causing two shut downs. Hopefully things settle down once I hit the open road. Besides that, I've got a few things to cross off the checklist before heading to JCCS (let alone drive it), including registration/insurance, exhaust, bleeding hydraulics, finishing interior, hopefully redoing the fuel system, and a few other things... Overall, it was a good day and a great weekend. Had a ton of fun at the autocross yesterday!

Kudos on the fantastic design and fabrication work!

Genius!

Wheels came in this morning.

Man, you're telling me Jim! I was looking in my engine bay yesterday thinking, "dang, I should've plated this, and this, and this..." At this point, I want to get my own plating kit since this stuff can get expensive. Just didn't have the time to do it myself this time.

Phew! The oil system is finally primed. After lots of cranking, we still didn't have oil at the cam. I removed the oil pressure sender and the gallery was dry. I had to re-prime the oil pump and then more cranking until the hallelujah moment of oil squirting out the cam lobe! Now to finish off the fuel system and finally attempt to fire this weekend. Bought tires today (Bridgestone RE-11A if anyone's curious, good deal on them at Tirerack right now) and got a test-piece from the plating shop: Can't wait to get the rest of the parts back tomorrow!

The answer to your question is probably more complex than you expect. Correctly sizing wheels/tires factors in a car's entire performance window, and you really need tire data to pick the right one. Good luck getting that from the manufacturers, unless you know somebody! You need to plan out maximum acceleration numbers for take-off, braking, changing direction, etc. and try to match up a tire to that without wasting material (e.g. too wide of a tire for your needs will increase unsprung weight and rotational inertia). Tire size also affects gearing, so I'd start by choosing a diameter to work with that matches the gearing you'd like... Ditto JC on the RC comment.

Hey Jim, I got my JCCS pass as well! Driving the Z is the plan. I have the tickets and hotel reservations, so I better be. Can't wait to pick your and Tokyo Drftr's respectful brains! I'll be pulling the valve cover tomorrow to re-lube the cam and spin it over again to see if we get oil out the cam holes. Otherwise, I'm in the process of redoing my fuel system, I think you'll like it. In other news, I also bought a new set of wheels which should be arriving on Friday. Hopefully, the car will be registered, insured, and running by the end of the week. Wishful thinking, I know. I'll keep my fingers crossed as I'm waiting upon the pertinent parts to arrive. I just had to order more fuel system stuff today, but I've left the cobbled fuel system in place in case I want to start the car before changing things up. I also need to do the front brakes on the S2k in preparation for Saturday's autocross day... Yeesh!

It happens!

The classifieds ebb and flow. I wouldn't call them "bland" though as that depends on what you're looking for. The donation is worth every penny if you ask me. $25/year is too much? There are myriad comments I can make about this, but I'll leave it to your imagination.