Lazeum

That's funny! Regarding Frenchies, beware you've only seen the tip of the iceberg. You have no idea how smart they can be I like the little story too but it's unrealistic: who would like to support the Lions??? (they were acceptable this year apparently based on my friends' feedback)

For your info, I've done the opposite: Moving from France (Paris) to the US (Detroit Metro area) It was an awesome experience, I've met tons of people that are now my friends. I've experienced different way of thinkings (about work, cars, girls, hobbies, etc.) To take advantage of a trip abroad, you need to spend at least 6 months. This was my plan at the time I've left home, I came back 5 years later (with a Z in my luggage) I've decided to come back I wanted to settle down & I felt more "home" in Europe than in the US (which became my 2nd home) but I will always advice to somebody to travel and to live abroad for some time. I believe you become a smarter person afterwards. It helps as well to find a job.

That's so true... Frustrations from my early years from mechanical eng. who wanted to make forged aluminum suspension parts to end up with cast iron stuff still exists... (except on Cobalt SS and the new SRX where I have fun doing the rear lower control arm hollow in Aluminum - it's my very own design Very proud of it )

I've met some of the team (Marketing & Chief engineer) during Paris autoshow this year. The crew was very nice & full of motivation, I had a great time talkinig to them, I felt the passion behind the speech; we went far into technical discussions - way deeper than any regular car dealer would ever talk. I had the opportunity to see the car quite well, it was during press days so I had access to everything at that time. Car looks good, specs seem interresting but it looks like a kit car such as the cars you see around the track where show quality is most of the time not the target. If it is welle engineered and price is correct - why not!

Nice one what are the hoses going from your radiotor hose to the head/thermotat housing, etc?? it is related to cooling as discussed on the piston #5 cooling issue?

Here's mine. Paint was made by previous owner 6-7 years ago. Color is "Viper Red". Since I still have some paint samples in my garage, I might still have the recipe for it if you're interested. 1st picture was with bad weather & light conditions, 2nd with light but bad weather & the 3rd in the sunlight.

I used to have an ITG filter going on top of the 3 carbs. I've heard it was the best but it was a major pain to get out. Since I'm very often under the hood, I wouldn't recommand it. I since moved to 3 K&N filters, there's no change in performance and it is much more convenient. Butterfly bolts as suggested above by Bludestiny would be a nice addition. They also give a little of bling under your hood, not what I'm after but it does look good.

Everything to modify the car in France for instance is illegal without a full inspection of the vehicle (+ 1500€ + 6 months of procedure with tons of paperwork) So we take the risk to run with modified vehicles BUT if you end up being in an accident with lethal consequences, you're on your own (if you're still there). Insurrance expert will come and checked everything, including pistons diameter if required.

Are you using a mech fuel pump? I used to but the change to an elec one helped a lot when I was started the car. the bowl were just full whenever I wanted to start the car and it helped a lot. I would help to know where you stand AFR wise with your setup at transition. What about the idle adjustment? how many turn with each screw to get the best lean idle? Have you also checked your plugs? After many trials, mine used to be fouled because of bad setup, you might want to clean them at first. If it does improve, I'll suggest you change them with new ones? what the heat range of your plugs too? Do you have the chokes still on the carbs? Have you try to play with it when car starts acting weird? that would help you to see if the carbs are running too rich or too lean. Your problem can also come from the ignition. Have you checked your coil and distributor?

Hello Sebastian, I do have a steering column here in europe. I was having some play in it so I've replaced it. I found out the issue was coming from some play between the top & bottom jackets. If you would be interested by it => MP

Sorry to hear that. I don't ever think about getting rid of my Z and your message creaps me out - one day it could happen You've been a great help to me on my way to become a Weber tuner wanabee, I'm glad to hear you'll stay around & I'm thankful for your help. 2016 for a new Z, would you be able to resist that long??? A nice one for daily street use is affordable, right?

It appears some did it in the past with official races making the L28 now elligible (at least in Europe) but don't quote me on this one. Since I've never tried by myself but all FIA Gr IV class Z have L28 in them (strokers however are not allowed) - They compete against Porsche 911 2.8 RSR.

It was to keep the old school roots of the car. The sound of the L engine with the Triple is also unique. It also help to keep the value of the car high - in Europe a swapped classic car is not welcomed very well (moreover it's illegal) The only deviation is my L engine is a L28 instead of a L24, since they look similar it is fine (but still illegal ) Modifications of the motor are almost all within FIA rules (except maybe the ignition) which makes my car elligible for historical events such as Monte Carlo historic and other classic rallies.

The work done looks quite nice I'm surprised nobody drill round holes at the end of cracks to stop the propagation. That would avoid the cracks to get bigger overtime. This is what they are doing in aeronautic world to stop cracks expansion. I guess the epoxy layers would hold the plastic in place but this extra operation would probably be beneficial and easy to perform.

It happened with my Silvia right in front of my apartment. The a$$ who was doing it did not notice that the owner of the car he was pushing was looking at him. The front bumper of the Silvia was below the hood. He had a bad time afterwards & my Silvia had a front rebuild. Since the shape of the bumper was already bad, my car looks new again for free

Paris is crowded, polluted, busy, in hurry, etc... You can find so many bad point. Most likely the same as NYC. the worst point is you cannot go in Paris with a car you like: it's impossible to park and when you can, you get it back damaged, just by other cars that parked next to you. Since room is usually very narrow, I've ssen many people pushing cars in front and behind them to make more room to fit in between... I don't want my Z to be one of those. I wanted to run away from Paris when I moved to MI and it was a relief. 5 years after, I missed Paris & I now believe it is a great place to go (but not to live!): restaurants & bars everywhere, you can never go twice to the same place, many districts with very different atmosphere, a lot of museum & good places to go. For instance, this WE, there is a classic car show where cars go thru Paris in front of all the famous spots. However, during WE, I tend to run away from Paris and go to quiet places. I'm in the middle of the forest with no noise but birds & wind when I'm working on the Z and I like it

hahaha! that's good one I moved right before incomes decreased. Unfortunately it's kind of true. They've cut jobs and salaries for a lot of people. I'm not also talking about benefits (a lot have moved from employee to being contractors they've lost money, retirement plans, insurance, etc...) The good move for me was they've paid for the transportation of my Z from MI to France

Old car are a luxury hobby in Europe. So price gets crazy but adds are not always what you can get for the car shown. An exemple with my Z (never restored, AZ shell almost rust free, rebuilt interior & motor). I bought it 8k$ with tons of parts back when I lived in MI, it is worth over 20k€ in Europe. What's really difficult to get here in Europe are parts for Datsuns. HBZ community however is really a great help to compensate for it but if you don't know English, you're on your own... So some will sell (I should say "hope to sell") Z's at premium cost for that matter. Income are also different, mine has lost almost 40% moving back to France but I have insurance for health, unemployment safety (80% of my income would be paid by the state for 18 months), job safety (kind of..), 7 weeks of vacations per year, almost free lunches paid by company, etc. So there's a trade off to make at the end & money isn't everything (but I won't complain if I could get more )

Make sure gas would be better. It's not true in France. Octane rating is 95 or 98 but it only considers RON & not MON (See wiki for more info if you'd like) US considers RON+MON / 2. When you consider MON, you end up finding EU 98 is equivalent to 92.5 in the states rules. It is better than Cali gas but it isn't as good as 93 or 94 gas you can find overseas. Regarding your engine and sources of parts, France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Spain have Z communities that could help. Finding a L24 in Europe should be an easy task, you just need to ask Regarding Rebello, Some UK & French people have delt with him, Shipping is a very reasonable amount of the total cost when you compare with engine price. I've seen a 3.2L pushing 310 crank hp with very good street manners with no problem at all. Regarding the stock engine, I'd like to know how they can find out about the engine not being the stock one, you need to be deeply involved into the Datsun world to know the code to expect vs. the chassis. Since numbers does not match anyhow, "N42" or F54" written on the side of the block is [almost] the only way to tell from outside.

Good luck with your build I don't know if I could be of any help but looking at my location, it might get easy for me to get parts to your project...

Based on my little experience, I would say your idle issue is a too big idle jet (you did not specifiy the 55fx number on yours BTW). I was running 45f9 with good results on my modified L28 and upgraded cam - MSA Stage 2 at the time (= less vaccum => bigger jets from stock were required) I'm also running 40DCOE 18, so progression ports should not be your problem. With the choke size you're running, idle should be super nice You might also have some leaks somewhere; run a hose from your ear and check with the other end for noise around manifold or use carb cleaner method. Regarding the rest of your setup, sputtering could be due to ignition also. I would check distributor & coil. Your main jet & emulsion tube are not so far off from what everybody else is running on a setup like yours. It might not be ideal but I don't think it could create such big problem.. One tip would also be to check float level before you start any further investigations. I've made the mistake and I had to start back from scratch (+ other members will remind it to you if I don't ). 2nd tip would be to get a wideband sensor, it is cheap enough to do not avoid it (other solution to tune carbs would be dyno time, it will be more expensive than wideband), you'll get better results quicker (than nothing I mean) and you'll be able to adjust & to diag your carbs in case of problem (sputtering à 4000rpm..... cough cough!!) + you'll learn in the process If you intend to change your cam, carbs would have to be adjusted again later on anyway. + regarding your advance setup, you should unplug the vaccum (+ signal is probably very erratic since you most likely got pulses instead of flat signal from the runners) and let the distributor with atm pressure. you then need to adjust everything. To adjust idle advance, I let the engine run at idle and I rotate slowly the distributor until I reach max RPM. You'll have to check total advance and make sure you'll get something acceptable. With stock compression, I'm not sure you'll get detonation but your engine might overheat and produce bad torque response. in this case, you have to do a trade off between inital timing and total until you install the Megajolt system (which I'd love to get on my car ).

You can also contact Sean Dezart either at Zclub.net or datsun-france.com or http://djs30.com/ He's the president of Datsun-France.com and he's currently doing a lot of stuffs for the Z community in France but also in UK (he's british but he lives in France) His car has been done by Dave Jarman, they know each other very well and he'll be happy to help you if you need anything (brakes, exhaust, etc...). They might also have a lot of stock spare parts from donors. His website is quite empty but there're a lot of stuff going on now so you should shoot him an email if you have any request

My dad is having a Z3 coupe in 3,0L version (230hp version). It is very close to what I believe would be a modern Z; from the way you seat, the engine specs, etc. It is a nice car but it suffers some steering feels not so good, it feels loose. I guess it could be solved with some goodies (strut bars, roll bars, rack bushings?). Some cars on the list also will not lose value anymore, the E30 M3 is one of them. I will never buy a car as investment but it's good to know you won't lose money on it if you change your mind. I was looking for one here in Europe, cost doubled in 3 years. All reviews I've read said it's an great car. My personnal daily driver was an EVO8 for 3 years with basic bolt ons (300whp). You don't want to consider it but it was a blast to drive; Very very nice handling even when stock, it is heavy on the scale but you don't feel it when you drive it. I love as well the S2k (I use the exchange my Evo for the S2k from a colleague from time to time) but it's too small for me. I'm 6'2, I can drive it but you have to forget hell-toe since my knee was always in contact with the steering wheel when driving no matter what. For 25k, you can also get a E46 M3 but for a weekend car, it feels too confortable. What about also a Porsche Boxster S? I've never driven one but I've been passenger once, I liked it.

Laws are very different from the US and other places in the world. I won't come back on US' ones, you all know them. I lived 5 years in MI so do I. In France for instance, cops can ask someone to pull over randomly without having anything to justify. As a result, cops would usually block a street and pull over everyone. If you're at the wrong place at the wrong moment, you're done. Cops could be over 20 for this kind of operation: some will stop cars and direct drivers to next stage to test you while others will write down the DUI. It's 6 points on your license, a day in jail, fines (400-1000€) and permit automatically suspended for 6 months. It is not as severe as what happens in the US but the way it happens is unfair. they will also ignore the debate about "are you able to drive under influence?", they consider the whole population as a group, same laws for everyone; you can be a 200lbs guy or 100lbs lady, rules are the same. Same for speed limits, when a curve is limited at 30mph. it could rain & be cold during winter or be dry & hot during summer, the limit remains the same. It includes worst case conditions with very basic car capability. The Ferrari guy during summer does not have the rights to go faster than the Dodge Neon driver in winter. With France still as reference, we do have automatic radars. I get caught on a 4 lines highway at 1am (I was alone on the road) for speeding 95 kph (=59mph) instead of 90 (=56mph). How retarded is that? The radar does not think, I was above the limit => I pay. Same goes with cops here, they don't think (they would need diplomas for that ) .

FYI, I bought some cold galvanized spray for 7/8€ (should be about the same in $$), Spray size is 500ml. I would not do the whole car with this but one can should be good for at least the rear end... Not so expensive IMHO. You should be able to find some at hardware stores. Other solution could be hot galvanized process, locksmiths in France are the ones in contact with companies who should be able to it... I don't think it would be more expensive than Powder Coating... This time, it is a guess, I haven't looked very closely at prices. Good luck though with your rebuild Â