wheelman

That third one in the list that BattlePope supplied is very interesting also. $500.00 and you can then pull the hood and maybe the drive train from your car and have at least a driver. It might be worth a call to see what kind of rust problems it has, if any. BTW: I live in southeastern Washington and bought my 240 from a kid in Longview. I bought it through eBay and it was advertised as virtually rust free, HAH. Most of the rust is just surface rust but I've had to do a lot more repair than I wanted. What I'm trying to say is be sure to look at any car you intend to purchase in person or have a local you trust do it. There is a late 260 (I think) that's been sitting for a while at a local buiness, if you want I could make some inquiries about it, see if it's for sale and how much they want. I looked it over one time and found that there had already been rust repairs made and it appears to have a 5-speed in it, couldn't see what engine though. For the most part it's in reasonable shape, needs paint for sure but I don't know what else. Wheelman

I'm having a hard time seeing the advantage to doing this. A cowl induction setup would give the same advantage that a Cold Air Intake gives. With the LT1 intake it's very easy to run the intake tubing to the front of the radiator core support to pull cold air and it's a whole lot less of a hassle than rotating the intake 180 degrees. Not only do you have to figure out the oil pressure sender puzzle but the TB is now backwards and becomes a major PITA to operate and you have to cut the firewall and loose the hood latch. Seems to me a lot of hassle for a little wow factor. Wheelman

I thought REAL hard about doing something like this but went the T5 route instead. My reasoning was that trying to control engine RPM/power application on the downshift without a clutch would be near impossible. I guess once you learned how to drive it it could make a very nice setup (very tunable, reliable, better able to handle high HP, lots of trannys available, etc..). I also looked at the costs and found the T5 to be cheaper in the long run compared to the auto setup the way I wanted it. Maybe I'll go ahead and use a system like this in my next project. Wheelman

Bart, Thanks for pointing that one out, I had seen it a few days ago but forgot to check up on how it ended. Looks like I can get more for these springs than I paid and then get the AZ Z-car springs. I figured the springs comprised about $120.00 of the package I bought so I'll be happy to get that much back. I've been driving it with these springs and the big sway bars from MSA and actually kind of like it, rides and drives just like a go-kart and I can swing the tail out whenever I want with extra throttle. I will be replacing the springs though, it's just to low, I can hardly get my floor jacks under it and speed bumps are a definite no-no. I think it will be a little tail happy no matter what springs I use due to the large rear bar I've got on there. I'd still like to know how you figured out the fronts were progressive without installing them. The picture in that auction gives no indication and thats exactly how mine looked when they came out of the box. Wheelman

Chevy LT1 installed and running but not yet completely road worthy. Wheelman

Bastaad525, Thanks for the feedback on the G-Tech. BTW: Congratulations on the 7th anniversary and keep up the good work. Wheelman

Yours sounds alot like mine. When I bought it the battery tray was pretty much gone along with part of the firewall on the passenger side. I decided to start cutting and learn to weld. When I was finished cutting I had a hole that used to be most of the firewall on the passenger side and most of the right fender well from the strut tower back. I went to a local JY and got a piece from a 260 that covered most of that section and included the battery tray. Welded that in along with other steel scavenged from the original hood to rebuild the passenger footwell. My welds don't look real good but the section is now complete and solid. Fortunately for me I was able to examine the interior of the frame rail after I removed the rusty sections and found it to be clean. I also removed the undercoating that is on the interior so I could weld in frame rail extenders and found several other small holes in the drivers footwell which surprised me because the floor felt very solid. Moral of the story, do a complete and very thorough exam of your car before deciding to proceed because you may just find more rust and then be forced to fix it to retain any investment already made. Wheelman

Bart, I ran mine without the O2 sensors but had to unplug the MAF to get it to run decent. I put my sensors in the same place Dan put his. Aimed them toward the front of the car and they cleared everything with plenty of room for removal if I have to replace them. Becareful you don't get pulled over by the cops driving it to the shop with the open headers, I don't know how loud yours are but mine were very loud. What are you planning for the rest of your exhaust system? I just posted another sound clip of mine with the complete exhaust and a short description of the system. Again we are running in parallel, I just got mine back from the exhaust shop on Friday, although you look to be pretty much set in the body work area where I haven't even started yet. Wheelman

I have my full exhaust system in now and here is a sound clip for your listening pleasure. The specs on my system are: LT1 with iron heads LT4 hot cam Headman tight tube block hugger headers All emissions components removed 2 1/4" from headers to y-pipe 2 1/2" from y-pipe to muffer Hooker Aero-Chamber muffler with 2 1/2" inlet and 2 1/2" outlet Sound clip Let me know what you guys think. The recording was made with a small digital recorder my son uses for school and in my garage so it's a bit muted but still sounds pretty close to the actual car. Wheelman

Yes I know, I've fixed that since the picture was taken. Wheelman

Here is a picture of how I did mine. It's not braided but it will at least give you an idea. The line is 3/8" stainless brake line I got from NAPA and I ran it in basically the same location as the stock fuel and brake lines. There is a thread somewhere that discussed the relative merits of putting the lines in the tunnel or next to the frame rails the way the 280 has them so you might do a search for it. Wheelman

I think so but I'm not positive. The wire I was refering to will have a 2 gang plug with a wire loop attached that contains the inline 20 amp fuse. One side if the fuse will be green and the other is black, go figure. Remove the fuse and use a continuity tester to make sure the green wire at the ignition switch is the same wire. I've noticed that the wires in my harness change color sometimes in the middle of a run so I always continuity test things to ensure I have the circuit I'm looking for at both ends and that the wire is in good shape. Good luck Wheelman

You should have a green wire under your dash with a 20 amp fuse inline. That wire is for the original electric fuel pump, added to the 73 240Z. You should be able to connect the red "switched +12 volt" wire to it and have power in the ON and Start positions of the ignition switch. I use this wire to power the PCM for my LT1 so I know there is power in the ON and Start positions. Wheelman

Dude, The Chevy LT1 along with it's tranny only adds 100 lbs to the the entire weight of the car and some of that ends up on the rear wheels because it's set back in the engine bay much further than the L6. The tranny I used is not any heavier than the stock Datsun tranny, at least not enough to matter. I do agree though that the progressive nature of the front springs is probably the contributing factor in the extra drop at the front vs the rear, this is part of why I didn't want progressive springs. Before I swapped out the stock springs the car sat level so I doubt the extra weight of the LT1 really makes much difference in the stance of the car when the spring types are not a factor. Wheelman

You know Bart, you and I are almost exactly paralleling each other in the things we're working on. I just discussed this very subject in another thread and Aux said he had one that he would try to find for me. I was under the impression that the 240s had retractable belts, is this not true on yours? The one concern I have about those in the auction is where to mount the upper bracket that the belt slides through (can't think of it's name), any ideas? I know the original mounts on the roof above the strut tower. Wheelman

I've did the same to my jackstands but soon they'll be retired and placed on the history wall. I've found that lowering them gives much better bite on the concrete floor of the garage, makes cornering at the wall much nicer. I blew away my welder in a drag race the other night, damn thing kept purging at me so I had to teach it a lesson. Wheelman

What's the deal with this? Wheelman

Go to a local parts store (NAPA, Schucks, Kragen, whatever) and get a pre-flared metric 3/16", 6mm brake line. I had to replace the same exact line on my 240 and found the correct stuff at a local NAPA. I had to bend it to the correct shape but thats not a big problem if you get a tubing bender so it won't kink. Wheelman

I have no problems with the shocks/struts, it's the springs I'm not happy with. When I purchased the kit I assumed the springs were linear so it's my fault for not checking with the manufacturer before buying. The springs lowered my car more than I wanted, others want their car lowered more so I wouldn't say it ruined the ride height, it is just lower than I wanted. Wheelman

Wow, Someone did some amazing work but I really don't like what it does to the front of the car, kind of goofy looking if you ask me. Is that engine a VQ35? To bad there weren't more pictures that show the engine better. Wheelman

Call Tokico before ordering and get the info from them. I should have called their tech guys first but instead thought I had all the info I needed. Hugh, Don't know what kit you bought because the guy I talked to several times at Tokico said they don't make linear front springs for the Z cars. Maybe you got lucky and got a kit that had 2 sets of rear springs. BTW: What were the part numbers on the ones you bought? What setting are your illumina's set to? Maybe they're hiding the fact that the front springs are progressive. When I examined mine before installation they didn't look progressive, look at them with the car on the ground, if the top few coils are compressed they're progressive. Wheelman

I wish I had seen that post before purchasing the kit. Did you install the package before finding out about the true nature of the springs? So what did you finally end up using spring and strut wise? When you installed the struts did you put the oil in the strut tube? Did they clean up OK when you removed them? I thought real hard about going the coil-over route but decided to save myself a little cash to use in other areas of the build. My logic was that I don't plan on doing a lot of racing and won't be competitive anyway so why spend the extra cash. My cheap nature bites me again. I'll drive with them for a while and if I don't like them I'll put them on eBay, get what I can out of them. Maybe we should make a thread that contains this info stick so everyone can easily find it. I know I had a heck of a time finding the spring rate for the stupid things. Wheelman

Well I finally came to a resolution of sorts with the Tokico springs I bought. As short recap first: I purchased a Tokico strut/spring package (HPK 251, Tokico Blue struts/lowering springs, HZ3015/HZ3016 and 5020F/5020R) from jdmwerks13 on eBay. The package was shipped very quickly, arrived in good shape and was the kit I ordered, so everything looked OK. When I installed them I found that they lowered the car more than I wanted and the front springs were progressive while the back were linear. I contacted Tokico and talked to Joey who was very helpful but stated that Tokico's policy is that all warrantee and customer satisfaction issues had to be worked though the distributor. He provided me with the phone number of the guy I bought the package from and I went from there. After several weeks of emails and phone calls I was unable to get any response from jdmwerks13 and decided to try Tokico again. I talked to Joey again and he attempted to contact jdmwerks13 with no success and told me that even if I was able to get in contact with them there would probably be a big re-stocking fee. I made one last attempt and was actually connected with a person (jdmwerks13) and explained my situation. I wanted to keep the struts but return the springs. The guy I talked to said I would have to return the entire package and there would be a 25% re-stocking fee ($87.50 + shipping). I talked to the guy for several minutes on the phone and at first he was a little surly and then calmed down so we could talk. The bottom line is that if I want to return the package I can but it will cost me about $100.00. So for now I'll keep the springs and see how they work out, although I don't like the idea of the progressive fronts and linear rears. If I decide I don't like them I'll get rid of them and either go with coil-overs or Arizona Z-Car's springs. Moral of the story: Be very careful what you buy on eBay and from who and don't expect real customer service. Also, be sure to do your home work thoroughly, I tried early on to contact Tokico but with no success but was able to determine the spring rates from other sources but did not find out until I'd bought the package about the linear/progressive nature of them. Had I been more diligent I would have found out the actual nature of these springs and passed on them. Hope this helps someone out there!!! Wheelman

Georgia_Flash_78V8, I agree about the "being anal" comment, I've been hit by drivers with no insurance to many times and understand very intimately the consequences. It really was my frustration with this situation speaking. Technicalninja, You're right that the 73 originally had shoulder belts. I checked for mounting holes last night and they are there and look like they had bolts in them at some point but the shoulder belts are long gone. I have a line on a set from Aux if he can find them, otherwise I'll have to source them from somewhere else. Anybody else have a spare set original belts from a 1973 240? Wheelman