burninator

What about replacing the glass with Plexiglas or lexan or some similar transparent plastic? You'd save most of the weight, and likely have better aerodynamics than leaving the windows out. Everything inside the car is so odd shaped that I couldn't see the air having an easy time passing through, and when you factor in the interaction with the roof and hatch... it'd take quite a bit of testing to know how it would work. Over time the lexan will get scratched up and may need to be replaced, but it's pretty cheap.

The more I try and learn about roll centers, the more I realize I'm not smart enough to understand them.

It says in the description these come with the Tokico HP struts... Beta sells them for less money. Plus he's on this forum and is good about answering questions.

I'm sure there are lots of V8 Zs that don't understeer. It's a matter of having the suspension adjusted to handle it. The lsd probly doesn't help the understeer but I'm sure is needed for traction. The KYB struts will definitely not handle those spring rates well. It's going to be way under-damped and not show it's true potential. I'm not sure about the Koni reds, but make sure before you have them rebuilt that they can be valved to handle those spring rates. It may very well be cheaper to just buy Koni Yellows from Beta Motorsports than to have your reds revalved. The Yellows are better struts anyways. Definitely post back after you try it out.

You're post is a little confusing, but were they tuned after being re-built or just slapped on and the car ran? I'd say fix the choke cable(s) so they both work, then make sure your carbs are balanced and adjusted. It's normal that it won't want to start when cold without the choke. But, it's not surprising that it only needs one choke to start, three cylinders running poorly and three running well will usually do well enough to start.

What are you going to use to section the rear? Front Z struts? Those are some pretty high rates and a big difference front to rear. I hope whatever struts you purchased can handle those rates. Good luck with your setup. It's quite different from what I went with. My setup isn't perfect, but I like how it handles a lot. I'm interested to hear back you impressions of how the handling is when you get this stuff installed. What tires are you going to run? Do you have an LSD?

I'm not sure exactly, but your not going to get very much usable adjustment. If you lower it too much you'll run out of travel pretty fast. But at those rates your probly not going to roll very much. At that spring rate I think your looking at Koni yellows, or custom valved Bilsteins. I would section them for sure. With sticky tires you'll go through that 1 inch of compression and it won't be so neutral anymore. Is that your current setup you have listed, or the setup you wanting to go with?

Just ignore me if your already aware, but from what I've heard you might want to rethink the compression ratio on that second build unless your running race gas all the time, and even then it might be a challenge. I know newer engines can run that kind of compression, but with these old engine designs you might have a lot of trouble keeping it from detonating. I think race gas is a common requirement on anything over 9.5:1

I agree with Rossman. Not knowing the damping characteristics of each damper the safe bet is not to mix and match, there's no telling how it would affect your handling.

All I can tell you is that the 78 and up cars are internally regulated. Look at the raised letters by the connectors to tell if either is internally regulated or not. The internally regulated ones have "S" and "L" marked next to the T-shaped connector. Look here for a reference: Atlantic Z Alternator Upgrade Page

I have an L28 running with SU carbs from a '72 and it runs rich all over. I think it probly does run out of flow at high rpms the torque curve is fairly flat until about 5000 rpm and then it falls off rapidly. On the dyno with it as lean as I could get it with the adjustment knobs and still have it idle right it runs about 11:1 afr, but it wouldn't start with it set like that (choke cable wasn't hooked up) so I had to richen it up the next day. I'm at 4250 ft, so pretty high altitude compared to most people, but that's my experience.

Yeah, I thought about that. I'm thinking about not reusing the engine at all. I think I have a line on another L28 and the easiest and possibly the cheapest way for me to get the car running again might be to swap the whole engine.

The Woodruff key was still there. It was a bit deformed but not bad. The pulley had a little bit broken off around the key, but looks like it would still hold fine.

The bolt was not damaged. I'm guessing it just wasn't on tight enough and eventually worked itself loose. I have no knowledge of this engine before I got it other than I guess the car had been sitting in a field for a while.

This story ended up getting pretty long. Sorry in advance. So, last winter I buy an L28 a buddy of mine pulled from a junk Z for $50. I swap out my L24 for it and I'm driving it at autocross events all summer long. This car isn't street legal and only gets driven at autocross. Last week it was having a lot of trouble starting but it was a bit chilly that morning and my choke cables aren't hooked up, so I didn't figure it was a big deal (I don't know if that part is relevant or not). On my 3rd run of the day the car makes thump and I figure I hit a cone coming up to the next corner the car dies I went to restart it when see the corner workers waiving their arms and notice there is coolant everywhere. On investigation the crank pulley flew off and hit the radiator and busted the bottom tank wide open, everything else looks fine. I have no idea why it died, I was kinda doubting the car overheated enough to die of it in that short amount of time. I had been watching the temp gauge right before the run and it was normal. That to me indicates the crank pulley was at least on enough to be still spinning the water pump when I started the run for what that's worth. A couple days ago I bent and hammered the tear in the radiator back in place and soldered it all up, cleaned and tested it, no leaks. Yesterday I finished getting stuff back together, filled it with fresh water, and ran it until it got hot. Seemed to be running just fine. Today I went to check the water level and there is oil floating in it. Checked the oil and there is water in it. I'm guessing I have a blown head gasket. Right? Must have gotten hotter than I thought in a big hurry. Anybody have any thoughts?

You picked a pretty tough wheel to find tires for. That is an exceptionally wide size for a 15" wheel. I'd rethink your wheel diameter if I was you and wanted to run such a wide size. If only it was a race car, you might be able to squeeze on a racing tire like a Goodyear 23*9.5 but I think it's better for a 10" wide wheel, and it's not going to be as tall. I'm sure somebody will happen along and demonstrate how wrong I am. But that's my suggestion anyways.

Your not the first person to ask this question. I typed "cutting eibach springs" in the search and came back with quite a bit of stuff to read. I suggest you do the same. If you have more specific questions then come back and ask again.

Not to try and confuse the matter, but.... That is probly fine advice for a Z car, or any car with a distributor for that matter, but it isn't true 100% of the time. More modern cars with paired coil packs and ignition modules use a wasted spark, opposite cylinders in the firing order spark at the same time. So you would get all 6 sparks per revolution on a 6 cylinder engine. Not trying to pick apart your answer. The only reason I said anything is that you generalized it by saying "4 stroke motor means..." which could be interpreted as "all 4 stroke motors" when that isn't accurate.

This is kinda the wrong place to post a question like this. Try posting this in the Toyota L6 forum, your likely to get more responses. Timing is going to be very dependent on the engine in question. Trying to generalize probly isn't going to be very useful, but if I had to guess if you tune for maximum torque in that range you're probly going to get the best mileage, if only because your combustion will be more efficient.

This is getting beyond my knowledge, but I've been doing some research and a lot of thinking. It seems like with given caster (more caster exaggerates the effect) a negative scrub radius will cause more jacking on the outside front tire (increasing weight on the rear inside). Where a positive scrub radius will cause more jacking on the inside front tire (decreasing weight on the inside rear). I think that's what jt was getting at. JMortensen pointed out an article on kart racing which is interesting because kart racers have positive scrub radii and they use caster weight jacking to try and lift the inside rear tire. I don't know how this relates to JohnC's example of a friend with the wheel spacers, because the increased scrub from the spacers combined with the large caster should decrease the weight on the rear inside. Maybe there is more to that story.

That's an interesting issue. I am not familiar with the MSA voltage regulator diode plugin. I just cut and spliced the wires and manually installed a diode following instructions on this page: Z Car Creations. It worked pretty flawlessly for me. Is the alternator new? Are you sure it's good? If you can I'd check the L and S connections and make sure they have power when the car is running.