QWKDTSN

Okay, well, I just spoke to my friend who is an auto tech and a lot smarter than I am when it comes to stuff like this... He said that because I was using an aluminum plug in an iron head, the old coolant can begin to act as an electrolyte over time, actually generating enough voltage that it starts to work like a battery, and will eat away the aluminum! The way he explained it makes a lot of sense to me, but I definitely need to flush my whole cooling system, probably twice, with this cleaner and make sure it gets nothing but distilled water and antifreeze from now on. No tap water or anything. I'm off to get a new plug and hopefully all will be well.

All right guys... Pulled the cover off the Z and she looked great... Pulled the battery and traded it in on a brand new one since the old one was about 8 years old and neglected. I checked the oil and it looked clean on the dipstick and at a good level so I felt fine firing it up. The only real problem I found was that the radiator was empty??? And the cap was crusted with nasty mineral buildup... So I brought some distilled water down to the garage and filled the radiator back up, burped the system and got the engine started. It basically fired right up and ran on 2-year old gas (with fuel stabilizer) just fine! I have driven it a few miles and this morning I drained the water out of the radiator and put in some Prestone Super Radiator Clean fluid and more water. The bottle says to run it through the system for 3-6 hours then flush again and fill with normal coolant. Well.... I went for a 5 mile drive and when I returned home I found out where all my coolant had leaked to in the first place! On my driver's side head there was a blue aluminum allen head plug and water was trickling out of the inside of the allen key hole. I found the right size allen key to tighten the plug and found that it was tight... loosened it 1/4 turn and it popped out and I was like OMG!!! The whole backside of this aluminum plug is corroded and eaten away like I have been running my cooling system full of acid since I first built the motor... it ate all the way through to the backside of the allen tooling and sprung a leak. I'm kind of shocked and worried about what the rest of the inside of my engine looks like... It has all steel heads and everything but the way this plug looks is scary...

Thanks guys!!! I asked SuperDan to change my username and he was happy to oblige. I have been using the screenname QWKDTSN all over the net for years after having it as my license plate, and nobody understands what it means. I figured the one forum it was actually relevant to have as my username, I should probably have it!

Hey thanks guys! Yeah I patrol the straits and the sound. Thankfully I do it from a helicopter instead of a ship. Sparks, you're right. You do have a crazy memory to remember that!

Hi all, it's been a couple of years since I last checked in. I'm in the Coast Guard and have been stationed around the US for the past 6 years, and for whatever reason I've never brought my V8 240Z with me. I've been up here in Washington driving an Audi S4 Avant, which is the perfect all-weather car. The few months it's hot and dry enough to do some aggressive driving, I've been riding a sportbike instead! I've just had a lot of projects and the poor Z has always been neglected. I'll be at home for about 12 days and I plan on playing some golf and getting the Z up and running. It's been sitting for 2 years with sta-bil in a full gas tank - stretching things, I know, but I never meant to leave it so long. I've had good luck in the past so hopefully it will start up and run and not need to have the gas tank drained and the carb rebuilt. I have a new digicam that takes HD video so I look forward to sharing some pictures and videos of the car once I get it all cleaned up and purring like it used to. One of these days I'll bring the car to where I live and give it the attention it deserves! This car is my weakness, I've spent several thousand dollars over the years just keeping it in storage because I can't bear to part with it. It was my first car and some of my best memories are working on it with my late father. Well, that's about it for now, updates probably won't come until I roll the car out of the garage and see what she needs! Here are some old pics that might (but probably won't) jog memories

I also would be extremely leery of using it in the engine oil. If you do use it in the oil, do it right before your oil change. I would not run it in the oil for more than about 10-20 miles but that's just because I am paranoid. It will liquefy any sludge in your engine and put it back in suspension, hopefully to be captured by the oil filter, but it could also possibly clog up small passages. I dumped about 1/10th of a bottle in my Audi because I had it left over, and changed the oil a couple of days later and it was BLACK. I have done the full Seafoam treatment to a Honda Accord wagon and it went great! Sucked it in through the intake, let it soak, fired it up and drove hard for a few miles. Smoked like a mofo and I immediately noticed that it idled smoother and seemed 'peppier' afterwards. Definitely worth doing. I have also dumped an oz. or two into the gas tank of my Honda Helix scooter when I fill up, it's an old engine and I think it's a good idea to run the stuff through the carburetor now and then.

Grumpy, I have been running 10w-30 synthetic blend in my engine. For a while my idle was set a little high at 1000 rpm and I always showed a little over 25psi hot oil pressure at idle. I tweaked my rpm back to 800rpm where it should be and I'm now showing about 15psi hot oil pressure at idle. I am using an Autometer gauge so I have no idea how accurate those numbers are but that worries me because I have heard in plenty of places that less than 20psi is damaging and you have personally recommended no less than 25psi at idle to me in the past. Thoughts? Should I go to a more viscous oil?

Oh, I see. I didn't realize you were working with a ZX.

Whats so special about JTR headers (which I didn't even know existed)? I haven't had any problems with my ceramic coated Flowtech headers.

Quite handily yes I do.... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=66724&highlight=break

Grumpy recommended that to me ages ago when I was getting ready to start my engine and it is a really smart thing to do. I live next to a big parking lot so I wheeled the car out there, got a long hose from the side of my house, fire extinguisher, extra oil, rags, tools, etc. Just kept running the hose over the surface of the radiator while it was running through Grumpy's break-in procedures.

Love love love the Pro-5.0 shifter! Super high quality, perfect fit, and it's got an amazing direct feeling without being too notchy. Just the right 'length' of the throws. It keeps the long shifter but the throws are nice and short and solid! I got a slotted Jeg's knob which is pretty nice. Over an extended drive it might beat up your hand. Driving gloves would help. For short drives it is fine as you can rest your hand comfortably on the top part and the slots no doubt help traction when you're really pushing the car and can't tolerate any slip-ups while shifting. After driving my modded S4 Avant daily I think my Z needs more power. It makes fabulous noises but I think it'd do well with some aluminum heads and another day of dyno tuning. I'm really not looking forward to putting the Z back under the cover again when I go back up to WA state.

Have been away from my car for a year. Flew down on Saturday. Got to work on the V8Zedcar on Sunday. Inflated all the tires, discovered that the battery WAS in fact disconnected (thank goodness!) and started it up. She still needed a jump. Water was OK in the battery, a bit low but still definitely covering the plates so I guess after a year of disuse she just needed some extra juice. Started up kind of rough. She sat for a year with only a tiny splash of Sta-bil in the tank so I expected the carb to be completely gummed and the gas to be worthless but after a couple of minutes of rough running and a run around the block everything smoothed out and warmed up. Since then, I fixed the diff mount with the polyurethane swaybar mounting kit method (A+++++!!!! Fooking awesome!) and she is running fabulous. I have driven her a lot and have taken her way further than she's ever been in her life. For a long time I had cooling issues that kept me from driving her more than a few miles from home but she's great now. She sounds amazing for an American V8, an incredible rasp at the top end. I finally gave in and ordered a Pro-5.0 shifter and Jegs slotted shift knob for her. I used to love the long-throw, nostalgic feel of the stock shifter but after driving my Audi S4 Avant with a short-throw shifter for the past year coming home to the long-throw Audi just felt awkward. It comes tomorrow and I can't wait to bolt it in. I had a serious Oh-Scheisse!!!!! moment today! I was ripping up to Dave Turner Motorsports to shop for some heat-reflective material to wrap the wiring bundle that's running along my passenger-side header. The plastic wrap melted a long time ago, and while I think the wiring is fine, I don't want to risk melting the wiring with a lot of heat over a long time period. I got off the 52 onto the 163, accellerated HARD in 3rd gear to redline, shifted into 4th.. Somewhere in there I heard a loud clink-tinkle, like something coming loose and bouncing off the underside of the car. I instinctively looked in the rear-view and saw nothing but SMOKE! Moments later the whole car was filled with white smoke! I killed the engine and coasted off on the exit I was already planning on taking, and had enough momentum to round a corner and pull into a parking lot. I jumped out of the car with my heart pounding and my fire extinguisher in hand (thank god I decided long ago to carry one with me!) I popped the hood pins and found no fires anywhere.... thank god. Looking under the car I saw a steady stream of oil pouring out... oh no! That was my first reaction until I saw where it was coming from... the empty oil pan drain plug hole! The oil plug was gone!! That explained the tinkle-clink sound of a bolt falling off! The oil had streamed right onto the hot exhaust and was burning off. Thankfully I killed the engine long before any damage could occur. I was within 1 mile of JBA Motorsports so I literally ran down there and bought a new drain plug and 5 quarts of synthetic blend. They lent me a crescent wrench and I got my baby back together. It sure was scary there for a while! I didnt' end up finding a good heat-wrap for my wiring so if someone has something they can recommend, please let me know. I don't forsee anythign bad happening but the plastic shroud that's melted makes me worry. Other than all that the Z is running awesome. I need to get different speedo gears because the Autometer speedometer is running about 20% fast at all times (making my odometer read high, too). I also need to get a new alignment since it's a little squirrely at speed and pulls to the right, apply POR to my rusty fuel-cell enclosure, and get bigger brakes, and get the interior lighting working properly, and get new door seals to tighten up and quiet the cabin, and get a roll cage, and some fender flares, and some bigger wheels, and......... Well, it never really stops, does it!! I love this car!

I was really into 300ZX twin-turbos but at the time I was old enough to drive there was no way I could afford one. Somehow I fell in love with the original Z-cars just as hard as I loved the Z32s. It was complete luck how I found my car. I looked on autotrader for a 240Z, and the first one I saw with a picture, was the one I bought. I called, it was for sale, nobody had gone to see it, it was owned by one family and had no stories. Ran, drove, braked, all stock. $1900 six years ago. A lot of folks have 280Zs but you just can't beat a 240Z. They're so much cleaner, lighter, better-looking, and more pure. They handle good for relatively inexpensive sports cars of the time. They easily outhandled their direct competitors like the Opel GT and MGB GT. With the V8 conversion, I do feel there is a bit more weight to the steering feel, but the weight balance is better. I really can't compare as my suspension is all reworked.

Holy ****. Unfortunately I can't see the video posted earlier in the thread!