Konish

Update: Tony: The stock fuel rail went back on. I did look over the rail pretty closely and you nailed it, the return fuel rail had a *very* small orifice silver soldered to the end...I'm talking a push-pin diameter. Ran the fuel lines just like the SUs had been plumbed and man the car was running better than ever. Also, I got back all the adjustment in my FPR and turned to just under 4 psi. Best part is that no more stalling when turning and the idle has smoothed out a bit more (even more than just turning up the idle). Russell: I backed off the timing a bit and in the middle of monsoon winds and bit of rain out in front of my house I had to do it by ear...needs more but I lost quite a bit of the ping. Still though, wide open into the upper half of the rpm range still pings. Without help or a timing light I just had to guess...yes it's ghetto but the weather was getting nasty. I figured the spring was a requirement as pretty much every setup I've seen had them. I was just wondering if I was ultimately covering up a symptom of a bigger problem. I buy fuel on base here in Japan and I doubt it's oxygenated. I still need to do all this correctly by buying the tuning book, adjusting the valves and timing, new plugs, wires, cap and rotor. Synch the carbs and readjust the idle mix screws. I'm also thinking about getting a Innovate LM-2. I've been wanting one for a while and I figure now is as good a time as any as I have a feeling I'll be spending time on tuning and would rather not throw money at a bunch of jets without at least knowing which direction I need to go. I still get a bit of an idle hunt, but it may be due to my marginal ignition components. I'm pretty happy going from some old, nasty Webers, to clean (relatively) mounted Webers that I've never had any experience with to a finally running car. Truth be told I thought I was just going to throw in the towel and get some ZTherapy carbs...glad I stuck it out thus far. More to follow... R/ Dustin

From the PO who built the engine: L28 Block, non-turbo (280/280ZX 1976-1983) N42 block 1mm oversized piston, flat top Head: 260 E88, with stock nissan B cam HKS 2mm head gasket 1989-1983 280zx 'magnetic' distributor He also said he shaved the head to bump up the compression 1.5 from stock but I'll have to confirm with him next week. Floats were checked and set (actually 2 were on the money and one was only slightly off). I figured the fuel was sloshing to one side of the bowl. Pinging occurs through the entire rev range at anything approaching 1/2 throttle...anything less and I can accelerate without it happening. The throttle stops on the carbs are all a little different (some of the bends on the levers are a little wonky and from carb to carb they are not totally symmetrical) so I set the throttle stop screw until I *just* saw movement of the butterfly and butterflylever through the rear-most (closest to head) progression port. I should've been more clear, I never had them set so they were completely closed (off the stop) but anything more than just perceptible movement in setting the stop screw made the engine race. What I can't figure out from having already removed these once is that when the car is off or I have the carb in my hand, the butterflies close to the stop screw with no hesitation and are very positive and smooth in operation. Under idle, they can "hang" unless I use the helper spring or pull them up by hand...as soon as I turn the car off, they close. It took me a while checking the throttle linkage, removing the carbs and some head-scratching before I realized this. From memory barrel to barrel synch is very close if not dead nuts. I have a 240z (1971) but I removed the stock fuel lines mounted on the head and went with 1/4" line from feed and return...which as you surmised may be one of the reasons why it appears that my carbs are starving. I did some research and it seemed like a lot of folks were bypassing the metal lines along the head due to vapor lock issues. With this info, I'm going back to the fuel rail and see if the carbs act less lean. My vacuum advance has been disabled and I've been running 35 total advance and like 15ish (from memory a month or so ago) static. I was thinking the same thing at work today about the idle speed dropping off and raised my idle speed to 1000ish rpm and things are *much* better. Guilty as charged...I did not set my valves as I simply needed it back on the road (daily driver) and working outside in the dark after work sucks. My plan involved re-doing everything after my valve adjustment...which seems counter-productive but circumstances dictated otherwise. I really, really appreciate the input. It actually confirms a lot I was theorizing about today at work and it's nice to see that I was at least in the ball-park of what I thought was happening. More to follow

Fellas, Finally got these DCOE 40s cleaned, mounted on the manifold and installed. Initial tuning was...interesting and I'm still a *long* way away from perfection, but I think I need to clear up a few things before I go chasing after ghosts. The car starts, runs and responds to throttle instantly, the car revs FAST (much, much faster than the SUs) but: 1. The car idles like a dang tractor. I knew it would be rougher than the SUs and according to the synchrometer they are pretty well balanced (could be better), but it's about as rough as a car missing on a cylinder. 2. If I blip the throttle to 3000 rpm or so and I abruptly close out the throttle, the revs drop really low and the car about dies until it catches it's breath again...once it does the idles rises and stabilizes. 3. Fuel starvation...I think. My guess is that problem 2 as well as some other issues are a direct result of fuel starvation. The other thing that makes me suspicious is that car pings pretty badly with anything above really small throttle openings. If I crack it and open it gradually, I can generally stop it from pinging, but as soon as I get more aggressive it starts the ping. Also after running a while for tuning purposes, the idle starts to hunt (+/- 100 rpm) and for some reason if I drive the car in a tight turn, it'll die (my guess is fuel sloshing to one side of the bowl). Starting requires one throttle pump and it fires right up and it idles fine. 4. Unless I use a pretty stout helper spring, the butterflies will not close all the way if the car is running. Without the spring, small, gentle throttle inputs makes the throttle hang and the car revs much higher unless I manually pull up the linkage arm. When the car is off, they close tight from any position. Vacuum keeping them open that last small bit? The helper spring makes this a non-issue but I didn't want to put a band-aid on a bigger issues although I have seen plenty of Triple set-ups that have them I'm running a stock mechanical with a Holley pressure reg. with a gauge which I don't trust, but the pressure is below 3 psi and no amount of adjustment makes a difference. My setup is: Mains 130 Emms F-11 A/C 170 Drains 40 Pumps 45 Idles 55F11 Starters 100F5 Chokes 30 (for my type of driving I was thinking about going to 28s if it'll help the dipping idle issue) Needle valves 175 I'm using the stock metal lines from the tank that exit on the right front frame rail, but have removed the stock metal feeds for the old SUs (lines mounted to the head). Right now, I have a line going from the output side of the pump into the reg, then to the carb closest to the cockpit. The last carb has a "T" fitting with a fuel line back to the stock metal return line. I'm guessing that I'm going to end up needing to install an electric fuel pump. Even with all this, the car feels much more responsive and eager to rev over the stock SUs that were on the car and I'm pretty happy they are at least running and drivable. Any suggestions for a fuel pump, mounting location and wiring strategy? Oh, and pics to follow... R/ Dustin

Fellas, In the quest to mount my Weber triples, I decided to deal with a broken exhaust stud (first one on cyl 1 closest to the thermostat housing). The drilling was going pretty well but in the end I think it got cocked a bit. As a result I think I may have clipped the actual head with my drill bit as a result. First clue was the different color metal chips that started coming out of the hole during the drilling operation (and the fact they don't stick to the magnet). I'm pretty sure the hole is the correct depth as I compared the depth with the other exhaust stud holes. Long story short, I was able to tap another set of threads in the head...albeit the stud isn't exactly parallel with the rest of the exhaust studs (sigh) and I have no idea how much of the original stud is left. The bright side is that I can snug down the header flange to the head but the bolt head doesn't not sit flush all the way onto the flange. Other than the risk of breaking that stud off again due to the asymmetric load on the bolt head, if the header can be snugged up properly, anything else I need to stress out about?? If I drilled it too deeply, what would I have screwed up? It looked awful close to water passage or timing chain housing just from what was bolted up to the head in that vicinity. I need this to hold until such time I can pull the whole head and have it fixed properly...in about 3-4 years when I leave Japan. I guess if it becomes a regular problem, I'll have to deal with it sooner...here's to crossing my fingers R/ Dustin

Truly an inspiration. Seriously, your car pics pushed me over the edge in getting the XXR in a staggered size. However, I do have one question...not a critique. After having dealt with some rust under the factory, interior, tar-paper sound insulation, why did you choose to paint over the factory interior instead of stripping it to the metal floor-boards? Mine (tar paper) literally came up in big sheets with a very, very fine coating of surface rust which cleaned up pretty quickly and easily and I was glad I was able to get ahead of a developing problem...just something to think about. R/ D

Just wanted to be clear, I have a set of Triple Webers w/ a Mikuni manifold. All 3 carbs have a buy it now price and if a single buyer does all three with the buy it now, the manifold is $100. Total for the auction is $625 plus shipping... R/ D

I have a set on on an auction site...I know that it's against the rules to post a link. If he does the buy it now, I'll throw in a Mikuni manifold for $100 with small span throttle linkages. All said and done it's $625 plus shipping. The Mikuni needs 1/2" spacers if you want to run the cold start valves.

Fellas, I have 2 sets of complete "jets" (for lack of a better term) for the DCOE 40s I'm going to install using the mech pump. My car info: N42 block 1mm oversized pistons, flat top Head: 260 E88, with stock nissan B cam HKS 2mm head gasket Essentially these jets came out of two complete sets of Weber triples (one is going up for sale), but before I let one go, I'm trying to decide which tune set to keep. In taking inventory, one the respective set of jets seem to fall into the "lean" camp and the other in the "rich" camp. Here they are: 1. Mains:120 E-Tubes:F11 Air Corrector: 170 Pump Drains: 50 Acc. Pumps: 40 Idles: 45F9 Starter Jets: 100F5 Chokes: 28 Aux Venturis: 4.5 2. Mains:130 E-Tubes:F15 Air Corrector: 175 Pump Drains: 40 Acc. Pumps: 45 Idles: 55F11 Starter Jets: 100F5 Chokes: 30 Aux Venturis: 4.5 As you can see, #2 is a richer circuit overall. My concern is that the idles seem *really* rich from what I have been able to gather form the "Weber Triples" thread here on HybridZ. Also, I know a lot of people like the F11 e-tubes and from what I could tell, they fit a wide variety of engine tunes nicely. Conversely I could find almost no info on the F15, which makes me wonder about them. I alos like the idea of keeping the 28mm chokes. I know it isn't a popular notion for ultimate horsepower, but my car is 95% street driven and I'd like as much low end as I can get with the Triples (knowing it'll never be as well behaved day-to-day as the SUs on there now). My car is operated at sea-level. Summers are HOT and humid here and since I will be moving to Okinawa soon, I can say that the Summers will be hotter and more humid with winters being very mild with slight humidity (lows in the 50s). Which would you keep and/or cannabalize to make a good baseline tune from these sets for my environmentals and driving habits? 28 or 30 mm chokes given my daily driver status? F11 or F15s...inquiring minds want to know! R/ Dustin

Justin, The panels shown don't have the metal panel either, but the auction does state that all original hardware can be used to finish the door. If it's just the lower part of the door itself, you might want to ask Pete how well his sales were before proceeding. He mentioned in one thread that there was very little interest in his panels after all was said and done. Lots of interest, few takers. I'm still probably going to move ahead with the deal with Pete just to see how it plays out but still planning on my trip to Taiwan this Fall. R/ Dustin

Here in Japan there is a guy making the whole inner door panel out of glass...including the top part of the door panel. His auction shows right and left panels, but it tough to tell if it's for one panel or both (I haven't asked my wife to call yet). My guess is both because here you could get both NOS door panels for $650 and his auction is for $450. I recently approached Pete Robinson to make me 3 sets (min order) of his glass door panels (do a search here, and you'll find them). My plan was (is) to just buy all three sets and re-sell the other 2 sets. I've just been so busy with work I had to put this on hold for a little while. The only thing that keeps me from just pulling the trigger on this deal is that fact that they would need to be finished or covered. Covering them is a small project, but something that *has* to be done prior to being able to finish them, and being without panels for as long as it takes to get them finished and re-hung. Pete's panels are great looking and cheap but there will be an added cost to get them finished. The Japanese FRP panels could at least be finished as desired and hung on the car after they are done (replacing the original panels), or run as-is for a while as they look pretty "finished. A molded ABS panel that has the outline and texture treatment like the original vinyl would for sure get my money. The beauty would be that just a little paint and some chrome pin-striping; you'd be in business right away without requiring a re-cover or destruction of the original panels. If this doesn't pan out, I think I have a plan. I'm moving to Okinawa this summer and Taiwan is *really* close. I was thinking about buying a NOS set of panels and having some vacuum form molds made and having them popped out of ABS. 'Course as always it depends on the cost per unit, initial investment and re-sale potential.

Looking to get these (15X7 XXR 513s with a +15 offset) with the gold centers as my car is British Racing Green with a butterscotch interior. Anyway I have new tires on 15" Swastika (6") wheels and want to transfer them over. The tires are 205-60 R 15's If I buy the 513s and fit the old tires, do you think they will be overly stretched on the rim? My thought is probably not too badly, but any pics that anyone may have with this setup or something similar would be greatly appreciated. I like the way the 15's fit in the wells and I think the 7" width over the stock 6" Swastikas will give me the wider, beefier look I'm after. I also have to be cautious about the wheels protruding beyond the fender as it's against the law in japan and can get you pulled over. Trust me, Japanese cops have no sense of humor. I toyed with the idea of going to 16" wheels, but I'm not ready to deal with any potential rubbing issues until I get back to the US and have my garage!

Gotta admit, those reverse EL Glow look darned good. I don't really like white gauge dials, but it solved the immediate problem of seeing the needles aqt night due to the high contrast silhouette

Update to the update. Spoke to Speedhut and given my circumstances (being in Japan and this being my second issue with my kit), they are just going to send me a clock dial. Just to keep things fair, I'm going to send in my old one when I get the new one installed. The CS rep I spoke to said they really just want it back to see why it went bad for further QC. After the 2 very positive CS experiences I had with Speedhut, I'd say that at least they stand behind their products and are willing to work with customers. I know that I feel much more confident about choosing their products in the future when it comes time to upgrade gauges. Would I still recommend these dials? Not sure. I have a feeling that I might be running into some longevity problems, but for the time being they work (sorta). R/ Dustin

Not acid free that I know of...I'm not going to stress it.

No, they're steel....as they have a picture of them welded to the strut. As I stated earlier, I agree that ultimately the AZC stuff is probably a better way to go...if not for just being cheaper in the long run. I actually posted this in response to your S-13 adaptation and the remarks about the $500 adapter sleeves or the need to source the EMUSA or Megan front perches. Obviously these present the same problem as all these kits (AZC included) in that there isn't a universal standard for coilover shock thread pitch and once you commit, you might have a hard time finding other shock options that fit. Like in your case, if the EMUSA shocks go to hell in a year or two, will you be able to source a different shock to fit your set-up? R/ Dustin

I didn't think to take pics of the final outcome, but it's pretty simple. Cut out large enough vinyl sheet to cover just beyond the interior area of the door. Adhere with a very, very thin bead of silicone and let dry for about 20-30 minutes...trim excess. Reinstall door panel and do any final trimming if required to hide the sheet.

More update. Yesterday evening I switched on my lights and my oil pressure gauge dial did not illuminate. I tapped the dash...nothing. I turned the brightness up to full bright and it flickered a time or two then stayed on. I was able to dim it and keep it illuminated. This morning, as I was driving through a tunnel, I turned on my headlights (Japanese law), the same thing happened to the oil pressure gauge again. Did not light up, turned the brightness to full bright, a second or two of flickering then illumination. I have to say that after the hassle of installing these, the screwed up first order, the broken clock dial and now the flaky oil pressure dial, I would *NOT* recommend these dials...YMMV. I hope their real gauges are of better quality.

Yes, the early body style. Do yourself a favor, just call a KIA dealer and order 2 new sets for a Sportage. They are only about $75/piece and beats pretty much anything you'll find in a junk yard. My buddy got 4 full sets (8 strips) and only 2 strips were really usable and I think they're marginal in terms of condition (some wear and "thin" spots but no tears). There was a huge thread on this not too long ago, but the real focus of the post was to check your vapor barriers...because if they're in bad shape, you might as well forget making the weather stripping work...

Fellas, Found on Yahoo Auctions Japan. Please focus your attention to the lower coilover weld-in adapter sleeves as they appear to be available separately...4 for about $170ish based on exchange rate. This comes from limited info I downloaded earlier. I looked their website over and could not find more detailed info, so I'm going to have my wife call. More to follow...*maybe* For completeness, the whole set-up as shown will cost you about $870. From my really bad ability to read Kanji, I think a full set-up front/rears and springs will cost something like $2100. I have to say though that without knowing much more than this, I think it's hard to beat the setup from Arizona ZCar for $1600...

Fellas, I know it's more than intuitively obvious to most of you, but I just thought I'd share some insight I had on a very simple, but frustrating water leakage problem I had into the cockpit; and a really simple solution. I recently fitted some KIA Sportage weatherstripping to both my doors openings to replace the poorly mounted and ill-fitting aftermarket ones. It fit great while seemingly creating a nice, tight seal. The bonus was that I no longer had to slam the door closed either and all the COPIOUS amounts of old glue were nicely hidden. Imagine my dissapointment when after a small, unexpected shower, there was water inside my car again. Deflated was more the feeling. However I did notice that water was pooling inside the weatherstripping around the door handle area above the interior scuff plate...but I never made any kind of connection. Last weekend while wanting to examine the window regulator fuzzies (the window rattles when partially rolled down) I discovered the vapor barrier was basically torn to shreds and re-hung with pieces of duct tape. As it was still wet, I could see it clinging to the interior door panel which was also wet. When it rains, water leaks into the door void (past the window squeegee) and drips onto the vapor barrier. Becuase of the shape of the door and interior door panel, the water lands on the shredded strips causing them to move away from the door and "stick" to the interior panel. The water now has a perfect wicking path straight into the interior of the car exiting out from underneath the interior panel. Bad not only for causing a wet interior, but it also slowly warps and rots your expensive interior door panel as they saturate with moisture. So, I got a .1 mm thick, heavy duty plastic sheeting and attached it with some silicone along the lines of the old barrier, waited for it to dry and trimmed around the perimeter with a really sharp razor...probably 2 hours max time with a lot of fiddle-fartin' around. Result? Another unforecasted shower last night (heavy and long), and the inteiror was dry as a popcorn fart...well at least the cockpit area anyway...don't get me started on the rear hatch seal. Hope this helps someone else that drives a car with a less-than-dry interior... R/ Dustin

Shika, Actually, I've seen a few examples like the problem I'm experiencing...one dial out. The more I think about it, the more irriatted I get. When I first recevied the package it was missing the $.75 "Y" adapter. I had to wait a week to get it from them. If I could have sourced the correct connectors, I would have built one myself. So I finally get the "Y" connector and *now* I find out the dial doesn't work. ANother 2 weeks or so down the drain trying to get my car put back together. I have a NOS glove box ready to go in, but I am *not* going to try and R&R that thing just to put the clock back in...so it has to wait. Their inattention to detail on the original order and now a faulty dial will have cost me very close to 4-5 weeks in total time to get this stuff right...all for full retail. My opinion? For this second boo-boo, they should have just sent another dial out. I mean, even with the warranty option they offered it's still a 50/50 proposition of either repairing or replacing the dial anyway, so what are they really out if they just sent me a new one? I think I'll re-approach them... R/ Dustin

Well, I got my answer from Speedhut. I have to remove my clock (again), take it apart from the gauge housing (again), remove the hands (again), remove dial, pay for shipping, drop it in the mail, wait 2-3 weeks or longer to get it back, replace dial, replace hands (again), and finally reassemble the whole mess back behind the dash (again). All this to have a glowing clock dial that should have been 100% from the beginning. Aside from the belly-aching above, I guess I'm more happy that Speedhut offers the dials in the first place, are willing to send USPS Pri Mail to an FPO/AP and are willing to stand behind their product as far as the warranty is concerned. I still can't help being a little irritated...mostly due to the logistics. I just had another issue with a Jegs order they screwed up. They told me to keep the mistaken parts and that they'd send the correct ones out ASAP. Just to keep things fair, the Jegs order was about the same value as I figure the clock dial would be for Speedhut...maybe less considering the dials are $100 retail for 5 gauges ($20/gauge and probably *far*, *far* less to produce).

I was a little shocked at the packaging myself. It came in a big box with "Fragile" (hmmm...must be Italian) stickers all over it. I open the box to find all the dials stuffed into a padded envelope with the flat wires pretty well crimped and slightly wrinkled (as if balled up and straightened back out again) on most of the dials. Oddly enough even after all this, I'm thinking about just upgrading to Speedhut gauges. The stock gauges...well, for being almost 40, are at this point...entertaining. I mean the needles move and it looks the business, but I'm not so sure I'm getting good info. I still have to think about it though...I mean it ain't like I'm going to the moon in the thing so "accurate enough" may save me about $600+.

Man, making me send a $15 piece of printed paper back to them in the US for another one that should have been right to begin with is going to be a drag...

About $1700 with today's exchange rate