Bartman

Well I'm here, and I do have online access. The weather is great and the flowers are in full bloom. Sorry, but they don't have any Walmarts...at least not yet.

I'll be heading out tomorrow for a little vacation in Holland. I probably won't be checking in while I'm there, so don't expect to hear from me for a while. I'm from Holland originally...but I haven't been there in about 26 years, so things may be a little different than the last time I was there.

So My doors were rattling and I was having difficulty raising and lowering my window. I could get my window to go up and down, but there were a couple of spots where it was really difficult to turn the window crank. It was so hard to turn in these spots that I was worried about actually breaking the window. So I disassembled my doors and replaced the window channel felt with JC Whitney 9/16" x 7/32" Rubber Window Channel part number ZX184874U (which worked great). I removed the regulator and the window glass and cleaned everything up as well as I could and greased the moving parts with white lithium grease. I put everything back together and the window still didn't work as good as I wanted. I removed the window and regulator a second time and focused on the front window sash that Wick discusses in his book "How to Restore a Datsun 240Z". The hard rubber piece of the window that slides in the metal window sash had worn off in some places and attached to the sash. I scraped the inside of the window sash really good to remove all the crud that had collected over the years and put everything back together again...ensuring it had plenty of white lithium grease. That did the trick and now the window works nice and smooth. There's also some adjustment that can be made to the sash position, so you need to play around with it to ensure that you have it in a position that won't make it bind anywhere during the window travel range. So to anyone that has problems with your window you can do everything I did, or just try removing the sash first. You can remove the sash without having to remove the window or regulator. It's just held on with two bolts toward the front of the door. With the window all the way up, you should be able to remove it from one of the openings on the inside of the door.

Yes, just like the stock engine, the V8 engine's are offset to the passenger's side.

Hey Hanns, I was wondering if you figured out a way to get some turbo's back on your beast. Are you going to be able to use your existing manifolds and plumbing? Hope you get it back on the track soon.

Here's a better picture of the back.

I think you are correct. The wheel bearings aren't going to wear any different if the wheel position remains the same (either via spacers, flipping the wheel, etc.). Now the original statement about wheel bearings wearing out faster because the wheels are spaced out farther may still be true; it just doesn't matter how what means you used to space them out farther. Hope that makes sense.

I think the real issue is how hot your engine is running. It sounds like your engine runs at over 178 degrees even when the fan is running therefore your fan is constantly on. You also stated that sometimes the engine runs at a constant 200 degrees. I don't know what the normal operating range is for the type of engine you have, but if the temperatures your experiencing are abnormally high, the source of the problem doesn't sound like it would be related to when your fan turns on and off. If the temperatures you are experiencing are normal, then it sounds like you should raise the turn off point for your fan so that it isn't constantly on. Just my 2 cents.

If I took an angled picture you could see it better, but the PVC pipe is cut flush with the outside of the rear skirt and the other end extends in toward the mufflers. This covers up the edge of the cut fiberglass that would be showing around the exhaust openings. I'll try to get a better pic of it this weekend.

Jon, Thanks for the thorough explanation of what really happened. You and your crew did come off as being very professional, and you sound like a stand up guy. I'm glad you won, and selling Shean his car back at the price you did proves you are a class act.

I spent a great deal of time looking at various cars on the road trying to figure out what I could use on my Z...and the Audi rear section was one of the one's I liked as well. After thinking about it for a while I figured it would be hard and expensive to source the part and modify it to fit...and then it might not even work out well in the long run. I figured going with a rear skirt made for the Z would be a better starting point. I thought I was going to do much more with it, but in the end I decided to use the KISS method and keep it fairly simple. The specific problem you mentioned of lining up the exhaust is a big factor...at least on my install. There isn't any room for adjustment of the exhaust itself as the rear section is pretty much filled up with the mufflers and the gas tank.

The skirt took some work to make it work with my exhaust, and I still need to do a little more to get it perfect. Originally I just cut out around the area where my exhaust exits the skirt, but it didn't look very good. It wasn't even and looked like the hack job it was. I had to cut both sides as it didn't even match the one opening that came on the stock skirt. I bought 3.5" PVC pipe from Home Depot and cut it up using my Dremmel tool. I got the placement right while the skirt was installed on the car and then taped them into place. Then I removed the skirt with the PVC pieces taped in place and fiberglassed the PVC pipe to the skirt on the inside. Finally I used Rage Gold body filler to smooth out the outside.

There's a thread here on HybridZ about cleaning taillights. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104585 To help separate the lens I let the assembly soak in hot water for a while. That softens up the sealant used to hold it together and made it easier to disassemble. Those tips will easily eat some skin with the sharp edges on them. What you can't tell from the picture is that the exhaust tips don't stick out as far as the rear bumper does.

I watched it last night, and congrats on a great win! Jon, I sure wouldn't want to have to negotiate a race with you. The second and third race looked like Barney was going to get a vic, but you just ran him down. Too bad he was so pissed, but from your previous posts it sounds like he cooled off afterwards.

I've been working on the rear of my car and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I installed a rear spoiler, cleaned up my taillights, painted the rear panel, and cleaned up the openings for my dual exhaust. The taillight panel is painted with dupli-color graphite wheel paint and it has a nice metallic look to it. I cleaned up the taillights, but the biggest problem was with the trim piece that goes across the middle of the lens. I couldn't get it to look right, so I finally purchased flexible molding to get the look I was after. On the rear skirt I bought some pvc pipe and molded it into the skirt to make the exhaust opening blend into the rest of the skirt.

Thanks for posting an update on your tank install. I've been very happy with mine as well, but I haven't put mine through the paces like you did. Good to know it works well even when the tank is low on fuel.

Looks good...thanks for posting the pic's. Installing Bad Dog rails is definitely on my list of things I need to do.

Summit has several elbows available. Just go to their web site and search for "LT1 air elbow". JTR has rubber elbows as well, and they have very reasonable prices: https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Pages/Parts_AirClean_Ducting.html

piston, congrat's on getting the LT1 in and running. Our buddies at JTR have ducting as well:https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/AirDucts_Order.html

I really like your solution and I'm going to try and do the same on my install. I think there could be a difference where the steam tube mounts and I would also like to have a bleed valve on my heater hose...which I don't have now.

I'm using a Tilton universal 7/8" with my stock 240Z pedal and it's working great. Just in case you need it, here's a thread that talks about hooking it up. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=90585

Are the upper and lower radiator hoses the same size? If not you could probably cap the outlet in the "T" and just get the JTR "T" for the top hose. In addition I'm not sure the JTR splice is as long as the "T" you installed, so you have the possiblity of the hose being too short. According to the JTR web site the JTR radiator has a 1 5/16" Inlert and a 1 9/16" outlet, but I think that may be incorrect. Let me know what you wind up doing, because I will probably do the same thing. My engine is already running hotter than I would like, and it seems to make more sense to have the steam go into the radiator than into the engine.