SportZ2

I'm confused, you said that you were irresponsible when you were younger getting those 11 tickets. How much time has passed since then and the time you were caught with no license, registration, inspection, insurance, and driving on non-approved equipment (slicks)? lol I out ran two cop cars when I was 17 in my 67 Chevelle SS. It was a rush then, but I'd never do that again. Now that would be irresponsible.

Here is the wheel mounted to the spacer.

Here is the spacer mounted (Modern Motorsports)

I have a question. It was mentioned above that heads of today are better than anything from past generations. If this is the case can anyone explain to me why when I took a set of camelback heads to a machine shop, guys lined up to offer to buy them. I don't claim to know a lot about engines but the response from the people in the shop told me I had something worth keeping. They are on my motor so I'll find out soon enough.

I have to talk to some people when I'm out at the Convention. If it turns into the story I think it can we will assign a writer and we will get the interview. I'm crossing my fingers. With that being the case, the timeline for an article like that would not be published any earlier than the Winter 2004 issue. No matter what, it will make a great story.

I have to talk to some people when I'm out at the Convention. If it turns into the story I think it can we will assign a writer and we will get the interview. I'm crossing my fingers. With that being the case, the timeline for an article like that would not be published any earlier than the Winter 2004 issue. No matter what, it will make a great story.

Nothing really bad started happening until ElaineZ chimed in. She has a way of stirring the pot. Did any of you understand what she was trying to say because I'm still trying to figure it out.

on the scarab vs setback article. To start, the magazine has taken a lot of my time away and I'm much further behind then I expected to be. I started working hard on it at the end of April and try to put an hours worth of work a day into it. In between I upgraded the front brakes to the 300ZX vented rotor (lost time since it was the how-to in the latest issue and writing isn't my strongest point). Here are some pics with discriptions of what I've done to date. empty bay before blasting and stripping same area after blasting and stripping Brakelines rerouted, no more lines running over the tunnel. I routed the rear lines to the driver side for the least amount of line exposure in the engine bay. When the brake booster is put back on almost all lines will be hidden. Last March while at a HybridZ tech session I saw Tims car and how he ran his pass side brakeline accross the crossmember, liked it so much, I did it on my car. Thanks Tim engine in, view from drivers side. Routed front wiring harness so that none of the lighting wires runs through the engine bay. With the fender on everything is well hidden. I had to grind a notch in the metal to allow the wires to run freely under the fender. I won't have the car ready in time for the National convention (that was my goal). I still have to connect a few wires, put in an exhaust, have the gas tank chopped down in size so I can run a true dual exhaust through the rear bumper shock holes and put the dash back in. I should have her up and running by the second week of July I will be using the car as a project car in the magazine and will go into more details about each conversion as I go along. I will not be putting an EFI engine in it so this will always be considered a basic conversion for the guy on a budget.

Read enough of ElaineZ posts and you will see the pattern. I still think there is a lot more positive than negative going on and that's a good thing. Remember, change a quarter panel and don't put the spot weld in the exact same place and the car is a hybrid. Don't have the original key, it's a hybrid. This is fun.

I posted the fact that paint, headers, steering wheels etc, change the car and got no response.

I have been hearing that a 3 piece rear spoiler is a rare item to come by. Can anyone tell me if this is the spoiler thet they are referring too? I can't post pictures so here is the link to see where I posted it on another site. See post from RAZ1. Thanks for any help. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13459

I think Classic Z Car is a lot more hardcore than Zcar. Threads like that remind me of the time Pete P. accused me of being a porist and we went back and forth for a while. Aah, the good old days.

Did any of you guys notice the post on zcar.com discussing a V8 in a Z. Seems that most of it is positive for the first time in a long while. Maybe the light is getting brighter.

Mike, I found out about Mr. K owning a V8Z back in March when I was out in CA. It was news to me at the time. I will be checking back on it when I get to the convention and see if we can get a story. If it turns out that we can, I think it will turn a lot of heads in the Z community.

Try not to stray to far from what the original question was. It's about using a V8, not about suspension, brakes, or turbo swaps. I can't beleive that even a purist would object to a better suspension and brakes because he will say that it doesn't take away from the original concept of what the Z is about or looks like. What you should be talking about is in the response to Pete of what Jeff said. He asked the question, do Mustangs and Corvette's use Japanese engines instead of V8's. He said hell no. And he's right. They already have the best powerplant in them, why mess with perfection. And when you do find a Mustang with a straight six in it, you'll find that most people will switch to the V8 and I don't think they consider that bastardizing the car. But then again I don't talk to too many Ford owners.

Being associated with Sport Z, I like both views. Now with that out of the way. You do not have to be rich to convert a Z. I'm living proof of it. By the time I'm done with the first conversion (next Monday is start day) I will have put less than $2000 into it. Granted, it's not the top of the line everythjing, but it will be fuctional, look very clean and will have some novel things done to it. And all on a budget. That's part of what the article will be about. Not how to make a $10,000+ monster, but how to make a $2000- converasion think it's a monster and of coarse the scarab vs setback debate. But we won't open that can of worms yet. And as far as the purist side, the car will look bone stock interior and exterior wise except for the wheels and upgraded brakes (front only-remember budget). Mike, hate is a strong word. remember, we want to bring them over to the dark side so they can see the light.

Hey Pete, here is the article. And it was Dave who takes your original copy and makes it a little more edgy. There goes the secret That was the idea for the article (Jane Curtain and Dan Akroyd from SNL) And for the people who have the guts to post that they don't subscribe to Sport Z but want to know what's going on. GET OFF THE FENCE and subscribe. lol And just a little fyi: Mr K actually owned a V8 Z back in the day. Go figure. The V8: Good, Bad, or Just Plain Ugly? Good! By Pete Paraska I’m a firm proponent of the American V8 as a valid option for the engine used in an individual’s Datsun Z. That said, I’m also a proponent of putting anything from rotaries, turbocharged 4-cylinders, and even electric motors into the Z—as long as it has enough power for the determined use (sports/GT, street car, race car, dragster, etc.). What makes the American V8 so appealing? In the US, parts are cheap and plentiful. The small-block Chevrolet V8 design has more effective and inexpensive performance parts than any other engine ever made. The disadvantages of using the American V8 in the Datsun Z are fictional. They include added weight (not necessarily true), and understeer. Using aftermarket aluminum parts and a lightweight starter, the small-block Chevrolet V8 actually weighs the same as or less than the Nissan L6. And since it is a shorter engine, the V8 can be easily “set-back†in the car, preserving or even improving the stock 49/51 weight distribution. The only type of understeer I experience is when I mash the gas pedal while going around a curve! The Z has always been a modifier’s car. The aftermarket for it was immediate and grew to be quite extensive, and it continues to exist 30+ years later. In fact, the first swap of an American V8 into a Z happened over 30 years ago. Sometimes I hear that an American V8 “ruins the Z car,†or “goes against its designer’s intent.†C’mon. I used to get into the “V8 or not†Z car debates. I came to realize that if people couldn’t at least see that a V8 swap was a valid option, they were arguing from an irrational, emotional point of view. Just like Jeff over here. It’s as if all of us must agree with his particular brand of Z religion. Well, as the poll below indicates, most enthusiasts don’t. Bad and Ugly by Jeff Sagan Only a moron with more money than brains would deface a classic work of art. Add some color to that Picasso etching. Enlarge the breasts on the Venus de Milo. That is what is happening every day to classic Datsun 240Zs and it’s happening at an alarming rate. Yes, the Datsun 240Z is a classic work of automotive art. It is recognized as a modern classic (post 1947) and one of the ten most important cars in US automotive history. The 240 is a rolling piece of art—classic beauty captured in sheet metal—and a pinnacle of automotive design. But today the 240Z has replaced the 32 Ford Three Window Coupe (Deuce Coupe) of the ’50s and ’60s as the 1990s Street Rodder’s staple. The beautiful bodylines of the 240Z combined with its lightweight unibody make it irresistible to the hackers and modifiers. As justification for the decimation of beauty, the hot rodders would tell you that there are plenty of 240Zs to satisfy both them and the classic car collectors. Nonsense! In total, about 150,000 240Zs were sold in the US. By comparison, 118,000 ’63-67 Corvette Stingrays and 1,700,000 ’64-69 Mustangs were sold. How many do you see today? Ford sold about 16,000 1955 Thunderbirds—now highly collectible and worth from $25,000 to $45,000. Between 1970 and ’71 Nissan sold about 18,000 Series I 240Zs. Yes, it’s a free country—everyone has the right to deface just about anything they own. Nonetheless these “rights†are bound by personal responsibilities. Anyone can hack up a classic car but that is no justification for doing it. The heart and soul of any fine automobile is its engine. Do Mustang or Corvette owners transplant their engines with those from Japan? Hell no. Tearing the heart and soul out of a 240Z only to transplant an American V8 is simply barbaric.

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned that along with Yasin's writeup, there are two other HybridZ articles, one a feature and the other a small bit on the CA tech session in Shifting Gears. I figured Tim240Z would have noticed his name in the caption. Old age must be catching up with him.

my truck does the same thing in reverse. I have to let the clutch all the way out, not ease it out. I have a HD clutch and have no probelms any other time. If I let the clutch out fast there is no clatter and hopping and it runs smooth.

I put a TH 400 in my conversion back in 95 using the JTR kit. I had to cut out a hole on the pass side of the tunnel to allow the vacum control module (It's called something like that) to not hit the tunnel and then made a plate with a bulge in it to cover it.. On a TH 350 it sits low and faces the rear, out of the way of the tunnel. But on the TH 400 it sits higher up on the side of the tranny and faces towards the pass side of the tunnel. I had no problem with the bellhousing with the JTR setback. If you are doing the scarab position, the module might not come into play since the tunnel flares out towards the firewall allowing more space between tunnel and tranny.

Hanns, don't worry about trying to catch up with the new technology. Your car is a classic example that old school can and still works great. No reason to keep up with the Jones' when you are the Jones. Nice to see that an old RayJay (?) can still look as good as the new stuff. Hopefully when we are out for the National Convention, you'll be there and we can do a story on it. I'll be in touch.

You are right. Yhe picture in rc's240z's post did not show it. I did talk to them a while back explaining the pros and cons of their setup. Nice to see they did something about it. Are the rears adjustable as well? They have a criscross setup and it would seem a little harder to do.

Just as an FYI, there is no adjustment for the strut brace, so if your strut braces are off even an 1/8" from what they measered from you will have to slot the bolt holes. That is what I had to do for both the fronts and rears. I also had to grind down some of the lip on the plates so the hood would close. Other than that I liked the setup.

Ordered mine over the phone. I received it a week later. This is a good deal. The company deals more with avaition equipment and gps stuff. That's why there is not much for the automotive industry. If you were looking to get one, don't pass this up.

Checked on the Embassy Suites and it was way too expensive. I found the Anahiem Park Hotel, 222 West Houston Avenue, Fullerton CA 92832 at 1/3 the price but I can't seem to find a telephone number for them. I tried directory assistance and the yellow pages and web search with no luck. Is it possible for someone near there to get the phone number for me? Sorry to be such a pain.