TrumpetRhapsody

As per recent requests... THIS IS A GUESS! It sounds like a bent valve to me. A broken spring should be fairly obvious IMHO, so I'd take your valve out if you can and roll it on a piece of glass to see if the shaft is bent. I suppose it could be sticking in the guide, but I'm betting on bent valve.

Alrighty so I talked to the guy that I was going to get the R200 CLSD from, and it turns out it isn't one. That's $400 in my budget that I can now allocate elsewhere. So... I went to autozone and ordered up a valve cover gasket (so I can tune my valvetrain), a pair of re-manufactured stock front brake calipers, and new front brake soft lines. All for a grand total of $84, ouch. Though I suppose it is good to have at least one good set of brakes on a car that you plan to drive frequently. Back brakes, eh who needs em.

Alrighty so Dan came back up Saturday, so we played around some more. I got the copper washer on the clutch slave line, and it seems to not be leaking anymore so woohoo problem solved. We also took off both front tires, and reworked the front brakes. They're pretty old and crusty, but I lubed them up and sanded the rotors. Everything turns pretty well up there and the grease in the bearings looks perfectly clean, so I'm thinking they must have been worked over pretty recently. I just need the brakes to last long enough till I upgrade them, so hopefully they can deliver. So, next time I go out I'll have my throttle linkage to drive it around some, at which point I need to do a checkup of the back breaks, then start working on the body. Things to do off the top of my head: Fix the small coolant leak around the thermocouple Permanently pad and mount the radiator Check and refresh the back brakes Adjust the valves and replace the gasket Start working on the body rust Start gathering supplies to get the car in primer ... Get the car in primer so I can bring it up to school!

Very nice!

Heh, someone on another forum thought that too. That's my 20 year old timing light. Ancient piece of technology there. Yeah i'll be doing lots more videos I'm sure.

I'm waiting to build mine until that thread comes to a conclusion.

Thanks! Now I need a shift boot. The open headers dump where? Right into the cabin that's where, lol.

I just couldn't wait any longer, so I edited down the video I have and compiled a little 1min video of the intial stages of getting my car running. It took me 40 minutes to upload this on dialup, so it'll have to do until I can get something really nice put together back on broadband. Enjoy!

Thanks! I'm pretty sure I'm running a 240z alternator. I wired the fan directly to the battery positive, and it seems to like that much better. I don't notice any change in idle when it kicks on, and the amp meter reads slightly above normal. Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll leave it be till I can do the internally regulated GM alternator swap. Well things are looking up. I'm getting the SU's tuned a little better each time I play with them, and I changed the oil. I read somewhere to pour some B12 chemtool in the valve cover oil fill and run the engine till warm for awhile right before changing the oil to smooth things over and clean things out. So I did that, and put in some new Castrol 20w-50 (awesome sale right now!). The oil pressure seems a little better, probably 10psi (1/8in on the gauge) at idle. I think I overfilled it a little though, so hopefully there isn't a close tolerance between the H on the dipstick and the crank. I didn't notice any smoke puffing out the vents this time, but I didn't run it as long. We'll see. Hopefully my throttle linkage will get here tomorrow so I can try driving it around!

Thanks for the heads up, I'll try another sender and mess with the wiring. Any ideas on the smokeishness coming out the head and block vents? Big deal, no big deal?

Alright well I got my Zirgo electric radiator fan and thermo installed, and it seems to work well. I'm pretty sure I'm going to need a bigger alternator now... the motor doesn't like it when the fan kicks on. Yay. The coolant temp gauge is working now... for some reason. I'm still trying to figure out the whole low/no oil pressure thing. I get some light steamage coming out the head and block vents when the engine gets up to temp. It's weird, and makes me nervous.

Well I didn't do too much on the car today, since I was mostly cleaning up crap off our lawn from the flood (our property is on Sallisaw Creek/River), so I didn't get around to messing with the clutch fitting leak. I'll do it tomorrow. What I did do is tune on the SU's, and it is running much better now. I'd be comfortable driving it around streets once I get all the old gas worked out of the system. I also put it in gear and let the clutch out, and it moved! Based on that I'm guessing I have the right throw out bearing, w00t! Also, the temp gauge moved for the first time today. I sure do hope it's accurate. It was reading maybe 3/8" above 120* (far left/low). It also squirted some steaming fluid out the overflow after running awhile, not surprising since I topped it off while I had the right side jacked up working on the clutch slave line. I need to route up an overflow bottle for it at some point. Now for the bad. I pretty much have close to 0 oil pressure at idle, though it is circulating through the head (saw it squirting looking through the filler cap). I dunno what to think about that. I'll put new (not reused as is now) oil in and see if it helps, but I doubt it.

You just stick a vaccum line about an inch into the opening and listen to the vaccum, and try to match it in both carbs. It's the cheap way so you dont' have to buy a uni-syn. Not perfect, but good enough for me. HybridZ google search function FTW! Thanks! Yeah someone on another forum mentioned that too, good to know. I'm so glad O'reily's and Autozone made sure to tell me that .

Got the slave line and installed and bled it. Either the Autozone (slave cyl) or O'reily's (hydraulic line) in their infinate wisdom failed to mention that I might need a rubber washer to go between the slave and line to get it not to leak. So right now I'm using a gigantic O-ring. Doubt that'll work well, but we'll see. Now I just have to wait on my throttle linkage, and still figure out how to tune the mixture on the SU's. Then

+1 on the tails and euro fronts

As many fender mirrors, euro tail lights, etc as you can get your hands on!

Alright nevermind about the linkage. Thanks to one of big-phil's videos, I called the "Z Car Specialist" down in Dallas (I used him to get some nuts and bolts a few weeks ago too), and he is going to send me a ballast resistor and the throttle linkage I need. Assuming I get the parts in by Friday, and everything else goes well, I could be driving the car around by next weekend. I got my new master cylinder installed, and in-car bench bled. I need to work on the firewall side pressure fitting, as it leaks when pumped. I'll try backing it in and out then tightening it down to try to get it to seal. Hopefully it won't be a problem. I also got my driveshaft installed, and started up the car without it attempting to go anywhere, so I'm hoping/thinking that my throwout collar is the right one. I guess we'll find out for sure tomorrow when I get my clutch slave hydraulic line and try to put it in gear.

I need the rod that goes from the intake mani to the firewall, and the bracket that holds it on. It should be the same for FI and carbs, I think.

I'd say "you can't even imagine", because that's how I feel, but I'm sure that all of you can. I'm so relieved to have it running. All of my money spent coming to fruition. I went and played with it a little more tonight. I used the hose into the venturi trick to get the carbs more balanced and get a decent idle, and I must say I'm pleased. It's much smoother now, and I was comfortable enough with the sound to give it a couple revs, which sounded great. I still need to figure out the alternator wiring, get a ballast resistor, permanently mount the radiator and install the electric fan, source a throttle linkage, attach the driveshaft, get my clutch hydraulic line (comes in Tuesday), install my new refurb brake master cylinder and bleed the lines, and I should be able to take it for a quick spin. I can't wait! I'm thinking I might go ahead and order at the very least some needles and such, if not a full rebuild kit, from Z-therapy to further tune this thing.

I tried bridging both the outer and middle wires to the inner wire (to the coil), and here's what happened: Middle: Have spark will cranking (START position), but stops giving spark when returned to ON position. Outer: Have spark while in ON position (and engine is turning), but none whle cranking (START position). So as it is right now, I only can get it to run by keeping it in START for a few seconds, then having it catch and fire when returning to the ON position. Needless to say, it doesn't work every time.

Alrighty, well as of about 9:00 Saturday night, IT RUNS! I had to run a switched 12v power source to the fuel pump, since it can't figure out to run by itself for some reason. Also, apparently bypassing that coil ballast resistor has worked... kinda. I get no spark while cranking until I return it to the ON position, then it fires. I don't get spark in the START position for some reason. Further research is needed. I'm taking lots of video, but since I'm on dialup it won't get put up till after next weekend. Maybe Sunday night, but doubt it. I'm just happy to have it making noise at all. Now I need to start reading up on how to tune the SU's, and figure out why I don't have any temp reading on the coolant temp gauge. w00t!

Awww that looks awesome!

Beautiful! I'm especially impressed with the job done on the fender cuts for the flares, very nice!

Not bad, not bad!

Sure, couldn't hurt if you don't mind!