madmatt48

Goodafternoon fellow Z fans, I recently picked up a showroom looking 1986 300zx turbo Z31 VG30ET equiped Z. The previous owner thought the head gaskets were bad because he saw smoke coming from the exhaust pipes. I first checked the spark plugs to find mismatched spark plugs all severely fouled. Two plugs were Bosch, two were NGK and the last two were Autolites. I changed the spark plugs to new NGK heatrange 6 and it fired up however would not hold an idle, the only way it would run is my pushing the accelerator pedal and holding 2 to 3 thousand rpms to keep it running. During this time I saw a lot of black soot fluid coming out of the exhaust pipe. I found this to be gasoline and it was dumping out of the exhaust at a very disturbing rate. I suspect injectors are possibly stuck open however do not know of a home test to determine this cause for sure. Also would like to hear other experiences of this nature and what probable causes could lead to this strange fuel out of the exhaust problem. Thank you again, Matt

Hi David, I was looking around ebay today and happened to see a Ford V-8 mount set up for the 240, 260 and 280z bodystyle. see this link: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250730638517&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWAX%3AIT if the reserve price is not set too high, that could be a good deal to help your installation.

I retired from the Navy 2 years ago. Here are some pictures of the new project 240z.

Purchased my new project 1972 240z, no idea the last time it had actually started or had driven before. The last owner before me had not started, driven or even registered it for years, how many truly unknown. I am the second owner of this car, I still have yet to go to the DMV and change the original 1972 title to my name. This z still has the original 1972 dealer options paper in the original dealer folder. A gem in the rough all original except for the wheels and tires(good and bad thing). This is the first 240z I have seen with the original bright orange paint under the carpet on the floor boards and in the spare tire compartment unbelieveable potential in this restoration. The car's topcoat paint is a mixed primer and lots of wet sanding has been done so its pretty much cosmetics and a paint job and this all original 240z will be an auction block hero. Ok now for the problems: Put fresh gasoline in the tank, used an electric fuel pump to purge out all the bad gas into a gas can until it ran with fresh gas, reconnected it to the mechanical fuel pump and successfully the engine started. Warmed and ran the engine for around 30 minutes until it reached a nice steady 800 rpm idle, I then figured why not take it for a spin around my property..... Well that ended up being a mistake.... I put the car in reverse, drove backwards successfully, touched the brake, put it into first gear and the rear wheels would not move, they are locked and the brake pedal went to the floor and stayed there. There was still plenty of brake fluid in the master cylinder. I believe the brake drum cylinders actuated once and locked into position probably due to the many years it sat and did not drive or apply brakes. Any ideas on how to remove the stuck brake drums without totally damaging the rest of the connecting components? How many of you have experienced this great stroke of luck? Cheers, Matt

Several years ago, I used a Mallory unilite distributer that fits L-24 through L-28 nissan engines not recommended for the fuel injected engines. They also make dual point distributers for the early 240z through the 260z prior to going to electronic distributers in the 1975 models. There is no need to use a mallory unilite if you currently have an electronic distributer, I see you have the 1978 model so that distributer should be fine as it is. If you still would like an aftermarket, see this link for the unilite: http://malloryperformance.com/ProductDetails.aspx?modelNumber=4563901&productID=2269&majID=530&minID=0&selection=2&minselection=23

The rotary thread came to pass when it was pondered installing rotary engine into an early S30 Z body with supercharger, turbocharger, wicked 4-barrel carburator, whether blow through or draw through. Ideas begging to be explored. The engines are light with high rpm and power potential just waiting to be hybrid in a z body. Two rotor, three rotor or four rotor they're powerplants that scream in their own unique tone and challenge all that tune it to find ways to keep it all on the ground and in track.

Thanks for the Racing Beat link. I like that holley / supercharger rotary set up in your picture, how close are you to shreading tires and dragstrips with it? A rotary supercharger set up with 14,000 + rpm potential.... Just makes me think about a large ball bearing T4 blowing through the carburator into that supercharger. Then I would have to consider the maximum boost a rotary could handle and still keep its apex seals, rotors and housings intact...What kind of side or bridge porting would have to be done to the rotary for that type of extreme boost... Supercharger boost is right off the line and stabilizes around 5,000 or so rpm, most large T4 turbines take around 5,000/6,000 rpm to reach their peak and the rotary engine can spin up to 14,000 rpm. Thats around 9,000 rpms of T4 max boost potential to play with in each gear before reaching redline. The supercharger has the boost off the line strong until around 5,000 rpm when the T4 takes over...Traction for that kind of power would have to come from some serious soft compound slicks. I wonder if that idea has been tried yet? If not, well that's the next one I will attempt when I source a cheap S30-Z, a used 13BT and a bunch of other parts.... One of the reasons I like blow through is that I do not need computers or complicated programs to change fuel settings. Just another set of jets, adjust the regulator monitor boost, egt and afr and try again. There is a Ford GT that has a mid engine supercharged V-8 that was modified by Hennessey with additional twin turbo kit feeding the supercharger and was quite powerful. http://www.hennesseyperformance.com/ItemDetail.php?Item_ID=230&cart=lAIBNXfK&DoThis=Ford+GT&ActionReq=Where The redlines for most V-8 engines are not even close to that of rotaries. What are your thoughts?

Very impressive, thanks for all your advice since we started these posts. I have been thinking of trying a rotary in an early Z body for quite some time. The ungodly rpm potential, the light weight of the rotary engine and unbelievable power they can put out with large turbochargers. There was this guy in Japan I used to race against in Yokohama in 1999. He had red FC3 with a highly modified 13b with a HKS T51 SPL BB turbine in it and his car was a monster I would get him some races and he would get me sometimes if I made a shift error of any kind. I had a T51 SPL big single turbine in my R32 GTR at the time. Its amazing how much the 1300 cc 13b rotary can do with such a small displacement and six compression strokes per engine revolution. Now the only thing I am wondering is where to find a 4 barrel intake manifold for a 13b engine that would fit american Holly, Demon or Edelbrock carburators on it for blow through applications? I have seen several successful weber down draft combos for 12A and 13B however, have not seen american carbs on the 13B yet.

I always did like 20b 3 rotor engines, 4 rotors, that would be great. How do you attach the eccentric shafts or do you fabricate a specific 4-rotor from billet?

I didn't specifically mention using the actual pictured diesel turbines in a gas engine however you could if your engine was built to handle that level of boost. Of course that set up would require specific fabrication to place the turbines and pipes not to interfere with the steering shaft of left hand drive Z cars. Give a logical reason why a sequential turbo set up like I stated wouldn't work? Provided you select the proper twin turbine size appropriate for the level of mods in your particular car. In addition to that, you could essentially mount a turbocharger anywhere you like so you could essentially have a triple or quad turbo car if you so desire and have the engine compression and quality of fuel to run that set up. Think outside the box my friend before you insult people's ideas....

You could also go the route that many diesel tuners go for twin turbo. You can use a single turbine exhaust manifold or header and hook up one GT25 then have a T3 flange connected to the downpipe of the first GT25 and hook up the second GT25 T3 flange. You also run the compressor discharge from 1st turbine to the intake of the second turbine so you only have to run one large air cleaner. They run in a series but still getting the boost and horsepower gains of twin turbo without finding a special twin turbo header or manifold. A popular B&D set up for many diesel trucks. The one in the picture is for the cummins straight-six turbo diesel engine like the one in the Dodge Ram 2500.

Now that is a nice clean solid blow through set up. I used a centerforce II clutch on my prior 1970 240z with triple weber 45 setup and worked great not too much grip to where you blow transmissions when running sticky tires but enough to hold around 300hp reliably. What EFI fuel pump are you running for your reliable set up?

Thank you for your replies. I had not planned on installing a tap on the carb hat or the larger return line, now that you mention it, I like the ideas. I will stop experimenting for now, get the EFI fuel pump and the other growing list of goodies you both mentioned and not fire it up again until I have it all installed. After all, the race track I go to is closed until next spring so what's the rush? Getting the Z running again after so much time sitting in the garage had me on a rampage to drive. Well I will exercise more patience (hard to do) get all the noted mods and hopefully have it ready to roll by next April/May when Top Gun raceway opens again. By the way, do you have a better description of the distributer plate modification that you and Tony were talking about and the best way to route the carb hat tap?

Yes, the state of California is real sad when it comes to mods. Following their rules would result in what you stated above maybe a few seconds better than stock. My question is open to any legal licensed S-130 280zx in any State in the U.S. Would like to see or hear about the best 0-1/4 mile times that have ever been achieved thus far using an L-series engine.