Leon's 260Z

[Leon]

I know it's a long post but I tried to keep it as concise as I could!

First, a little background...

I was looking for a project car and new it had to be a sports car with rear wheel drive, a manual transmission and good looks. I came dangerously close to buying a Porsche 944 multiple times. After the car gods continually sent me messages that it wasn't meant to be, I expanded my search criteria to other cars, including the likes of MkIII Supras, and Datsun Z-cars. What can I say, I like fastbacks!

I found a 240Z for sale in Cupertino for $800 on CL and checked it out. The car didn't start, had considerable rust and was pretty dirty and tired. I slept on it and was on the verge of passing on it when my girlfriend convinced me to just do it. Yes, she's a definite keeper!

So, I got my first Z, a '71 240Z in June of 2007 for $400 after talking the guy down. Coincidentally, he sold the Z to fund his very clean MkIII Supra turbo. The Z was mostly original, besides the rust (who knows, maybe it came with it ), and had a late ZX 5-speed. Got it running, drove it a bit over the course of a year but it never ran right. I ended taking it all apart, and planned to do a full restoration.

Here are some of photos of "Blue Z":





After the new mags!





As I was taking the engine apart, I noticed a few things. The cam oiler bar broke off at the front end and the missing piece was nowhere to be found (later found it in the oil pan!). Also, the new dizzy cap didn't seat correctly on the distributor. No wonder why no matter what I did, I always got detonation!

The Z sat on stands for a months until I stumbled upon a rust-free shell for sale in August of 2009. The rust on Blue Z was more than I was willing to fix at the time and a shell for $500 made lots of sense, especially when it includes brand new Eibachs and Illuminas! I found it on CL but it turned out that it was a member's car (bucket240Z), and it had gone through an almost complete V8 conversion before he gave up. I ended up making the purchase and having it towed to my house.



It was cool to find some old posts from the PO on here, to see the car actually together. Here is the car when the PO got it. Sad to see it get parted out. However, it gave me the opportunity to buy it, so I can't complain.

BTW, anyone get the dash off that car? It would be great to get the matching VIN plate back with the car.


On with the story! I slowly stripped what was left on the shell, aka "Red Z", and got it close to being ready for paint. Another year goes by and in the summer of 2010, while saving for the paint-job and after selling a Mustang I had, I was surfing CL as I tend to do.

I click on a posting and all of a sudden see the Z that I wanted to build! It was orange, lowered, had a Xenon air dam, roll bar, 5-speed, R200, and a complete interior. It was an early 260Z but needless to say, I picked it up for $2500 and actually drove it home (yeah, I actually bought a drivable Z! ). It had some electrical issues and a very loud exhaust, but I was ecstatic to have a driving Z again!

Now that I had three Zs, I had to get rid of one as I had two shells taking up space in the garage. Over the course of two days, I removed the complete suspension from the Red Z, swapped out the Illuminas and Eibachs from the struts and put it the old stuff from the Blue Z, and moved the subframes to the Blue Z. By myself. Yes, it was a lot of work!

I put Blue Z up on CL since it was the rusty one. It was essentially stripped, but the new buyer bought her for $400, which is what I originally paid for the complete car! It was apparently going to be used as a front frame donor for a '72 240Z that the buyer's son crashed. It was sad to see my first Z-car go, remembering that I told myself I'd never get rid of it, but logic prevails and I was glad it went to a good cause. At least a bunch of its parts will be used by me!


Now, the 260Z didn't come without problems.

It has a story of its own, coming from the Gunn HS auto shop in Palo Alto and holding a salvage title. My father and I determined that it was hit and repaired in the left rear quarter, but the frame was straight. It even came with the original radio, some original manuals and warranty card!

First off, on the way home I start smelling coolant and decide to pull over at the Edgewood Road exit of I280. Sure enough, I forgot to put the radiator cap back on after topping off on coolant ! Moreover, the radiator had barfed out some brown sludge that didn't even resemble anything that should be in an automotive cooling system. Clearly, this car was neglected, as if I couldn't tell by the hole in the radiator...

Luckily, my girlfriend had come with me and we were driving back in our cars together, so we went to a gas station, picked up some water and eventually made it home. Here it is sharing space with Red Z (the 240Z) in its current state.



Obviously, The cooling system was the first order of business. I decided to replace the water pump, fan clutch (since the one on the car was stuck), radiator and coolant hoses. I ended up also replacing the water inlet and thermostat housing because of corrosion damage. I got a nice surprise when I removed the old water pump:


Did I mention it was neglected? Indeed.

New Pump was installed along with hoses and the ol' ebay special aluminum radiator.



Yes, a hole in the radiator.



Oooh, shiny!



I got it roadworthy and decided to take some video. Mute your volume until after the glitch at 0:03.



Next order of business was the electrical system. The PO wired in a starter switch because the ignition switch would intermittently start the car (sound familiar?). However, the way he wired it created a short, and rendered all gauges useless as well as the turn signals! The switch and PO's wiring was removed, and I got my gauges and turn signals back. I also installed a 30A relay and now the 260Z starts with no problem, everytime. The tach had to be replaced as it was dead, but then my speedo stopped working. Hmmm, some sort of inverse relationship, when one works the other doesn't.

I traced wires per the FSM wiring diagram and reconnected some loose connections. It was getting there!

I had some 40DCOE triple Webers laying around so I decided to replace the aging SUs and some gaskets along the way.



After the Webers I changed the oil to synthetic and Redline MTL in the tranny and drove it around a bit more. But I couldn't help feeling that the car still wasn't right.

I mentioned that the car was lowered, but the way that it was done was by cutting the stock springs. The rears easily bottomed out and there was a lot of squat on acceleration. It definitely did not ride well. I decided to change the shocks and springs, but of course that turned into a full-fledged suspension rebuild. Over the course of the first 5 months of 2011, the car was down for Eibach springs, Tokico HP dampers, poly bushings, ball joints and tie rods. I painted the parts while I was at it, and switched out the 3.54 rear diff for a 3.9 R200 I had.

I did the whole suspension but didn't take very good pics of the front. I apologize for my crappy camera as well!

Front




Rear

Old



Smoke 'em out!



Diff crossmember



Control Arm



New spindle pins



Poly bushings



Looking good



Before





After





At the same time, I fixed up the interior. It was essentially complete but the center console was absolutely butchered. I replaced it with a brand new console, new shift boot, ZTek billet shift knob and a 240Z steering wheel (looking for a Momo now).

Old



New (need a better pic...)



The Z was getting even closer to where I really want it to be. It was dropped back on its wheels in the end of May, go it aligned early June and drove it a week until I got some new wheels!



I attended the ZONC show a few days later on July 10th, the first time actually taking a Z to a meet or show of any kind!





Here is a video from today, to compare to the one above if nothing else. The drivetrain differences between the two videos are the rebuilt suspension, 3.9 diff and Webers. Redline fluids used in tranny and differential. I tried to make it similar to the previous video, but it was recorded with a different camera.

Of course, there is still much work to be done! I'm planning to install some 240Z bumpers soon, custom twice pipes, racing seats, aftermarket steering wheel, etc. I'm also hoping to start autoX soon. These cars are never done...

I'll add some more pics tomorrow and try to keep this thread updated. Thanks for reading if you've managed to get this far! Edited May 17, 2014 by Leon

[xShodaimex]

awesome Z's leon.. I miss my Z.."She's in the shop"

[xShodaimex]

awesome Z's leon.. I miss my Z.."She's in the shop"

[Leon]

Thanks Peter, hopefully you get your Z back soon enough! Believe me, I know the feeling. My Z's have an addiction to jackstands...

[neotech84]

Wait you z drives????

 

Mine is too scared to touch the ground. Been in counseling for a few years still progressing some day to return to road worthy status.

[Leon]

Updated! Wow, 3 years consolidated into one post. I should've spread it out a bit... sorry for the super long read!

[Leon]

Wait you z drives????

 

Mine is too scared to touch the ground. Been in counseling for a few years still progressing some day to return to road worthy status.

 

 

It's not your fault. It's not your fault.

 

:lmao:

[h4nsm0l3m4n]

Looking good! It amazes me how similar our cars are, though I REALLY wish my car had paint like yours. Maybe someday...

[takayuki]

I was wondering what is the purpose of the blocking plates that goes over the holes where the rear bumper brackets? Exhaust fumes?

[Leon]

Looking good! It amazes me how similar our cars are, though I REALLY wish my car had paint like yours. Maybe someday...

Thanks! It's funny how we've taken a similar path with our cars as well! Since I have the 240Z sitting on stands, I've been thinking of what to do with it. LSx? Maybe...

 

 

I was wondering what is the purpose of the blocking plates that goes over the holes where the rear bumper brackets? Exhaust fumes?

The plates were there when I got the car. They block off the bumper shock holes as you've said, purely cosmetic.

[Leon]

Quick update:

 

Went to the dyno on Saturday, 8/20/11, and did a baseline run with a bit of exhaust testing. You can read my analysis here.

 

Quick plug: the shop I went to is Dito's Motors in South San Francisco. Nice shop, David and Robert are cool guys and they have a nice dyno (load-bearing "Dynomite" with 4WD rollers available).

 

Everyone wants numbers, so here they are: 121hp @ 5200rpm and 136lb-ft @ 4000rpm. I came in hoping to be over 100hp so needless to say, I was very happy with the numbers as they verify that my un-jetted Webers are close and the ol' L24 is doing okay.

 

As I was removing the exhaust I snapped a stud at the manifold-to-pipe connection. I tried like hell to get it out to replace it but it wasn't budging. I had a few headers sitting around so I decided that it was time to use one, even though I hadn't planned on it. I removed the intake and exhaust on Sunday night and installed my Nissan Motorsports header. The install went well, I just had to remove two bolts from the steering coupler so I could get the shaft out of the way and it slid right in. One collector is very close to the floor (couple mm's) but it should move away as the engine spins.

 

 

 

On Monday (yesterday), I drove it to a local exhaust shop to get twice pipes built off the headers. The Z sounded like a ground-pounding race car and, unfortunately, I forgot my ear plugs so it was quite a ride to the shop!

 

Also, my Momo hub adapter came in yesterday so when I get the car back I can mount my new-to-me steering wheel. I got a very good deal locally for a 350mm Momo Race.

 

Can't wait to have the Z back!

[Leon]

Got the Z back last Thursday and drove to Sacramento and back over the weekend! Everything went great, besides some vapor lock issues that creeped up on me in the hotter climate. I don't currently have a heat shield but will be building one. The quick solution was to pop the hood open to vent excess heat, which did help somewhat.

 

I also mounted my MOMO wheel. I took measurements to compare and see if the MOMO sits any closer to me. Turns out, using the MOMO hub adapter and MOMO Race wheel has no change in front-back steering wheel position! I'm happy with the new wheel but it definitely does require quite a bit more muscle at low speeds. I do really like the rim material and the quicker steering it gives.

 

I have some crappy videos of the new exhaust but I might as well post them. I'll make better ones when I get the time.

 

The exhaust setup is a Nissan Motorsports header with long, equal-length primaries dumping into twin 2" pipes, with two glasspacks in the tunnel and two in the back. I love twice pipes!!!

 

 

[Leon]

To all Bay Area guys:

 

I want to give the exhaust shop a plug, as it's well deserved. I'm not getting a discount or anything like that, this guy simply did a great job!

 

When I decided it was time to look for a shop to build a custom exhaust, I decided to search online reviews and stop by the top-reviewed shops to get estimates. I stopped by six places or so and decided to go with Exhaust Works in Belmont. A cool guy named Todd runs the shop and not only is he clearly experienced, but he was easy to talk to, does quality work and above all gave me a fantastic price (as he does with everyone judging by yelp)! Todd got the exhaust done quickly and did everything I asked him to while his attitude was always courteous and professional. If I need any exhaust work done again on any car, or if my friends do, I will definitely be going to or recommending Todd!

 

I'll post pics in a bit. My header-back twice pipe system with 4 glasspacks, chrome tips and 02 sensor bungs cost $300! Yes, $300!!!

[Leon]

Got a better video, sorry about girlfriend yelling to someone we know at the start! Not sure what I think about the exhaust, I love the twice pipes I feel a little obnoxious when I get on it. I also need to schedule another dyno run to see the effect of the twice pipes.

 

[h4nsm0l3m4n]

It sounds pretty good. For what its worth, I used a magnaflow muffler and a glass pack in my LS1 exhaust. With this setup there is no harshness in the sound, just a solid V8 rumble. Its not loud at all, just very distinct and noticeable, even at high rpm. With the L6 I ran a 6-1 header with just a flowmaster muffler. It was VERY loud and resonated quite a bit. Made me wonder about putting in a glasspack to hopefully take of some of that out.

 

I wonder if installing a decent flow-through muffler behind the glass pack would quiet things down enough for you.

Edited September 2, 2011 by h4nsm0l3m4n

[Leon]

The previous exhaust was just a pipe off the stock manifold to a straight-through muffler at the end. It was loud and had terrible resonance. Currently, each pipe has a glasspack in the tunnel and a smaller one at the end. There is very little resonance, and it's not too loud on the freeway anymore, which is great! I can have a conversation and somewhat hear the radio as well. It's just really loud at WOT, especially past 3500rpm, and while it sounds good I think it might attract some unwanted attention.

 

The one thing I don't like about the install is that one of the pipes passes under the differential, effectively blocking the rear jacking point. I suppose I can jack it up by the curved transverse link bar (the one that hold the back bushings of the LCAs), but I feel iffy about placing a bending load on that bar since it locates the LCAs.

[Leon]

I've been busy the last few weeks but the Z has had some attention.

 

I finally installed my WB02 (14point7 Pure Plus), but it hasn't been working right. I have an exhaust leak at the gasket so that is definitely affecting the readings. Otherwise, the installation was painless. I'll post more on it once the issues are dealt with.

 

On September 10th, I took the Z to my first autocross! The week before the event consisted of coming home after work and working on to-do items into the night. The day before the event, I was fiddling in the garage until 2am. Then woke up at 5am to go to the track...

 

The event was a "test day" at Infineon, which consisted of punishing the car on a course set up in the paddock at Infineon Raceway for 4 hours or so. I drove the Z an hour there and back, and it survived. Goal 1 completed.

 

Early start, on 101 North

 

Almost there!

 

Here we are, I drove up with a friend of mine in his Mazdaspeed3

 

As an aside before continuing, I've been dealing with vapor lock/fuel issues recently, so I taped a fuel pressure gauge to my windshield on the way to Infineon. You can see my "custom pressure gauge mount" in the next pic.

 

Custom Pressure Gauge

 

I'm running the stock mechanical and electrical fuel pumps. I found out that under moderate load, pressure drops until it hits zero. After driving on the freeway for a while, it tends to hesitate especially when climbing hills. I drove with the hood popped which may help a bit, but the issue persists even in cool weather, although heat does exacerbate the issue. I'm planning to install a Holley Red that I have and hopefully it cures the problem, along with the heat shield that I'll be making.

 

The day was a ton of fun. About 30 cars showed up, with everything from a Cobra replica, to the typical Miatas, to a supercharged El Camino. In the morning, the course was split up into the "A" section and "B" section and we ran each configuration for over an hour. There were some really cool people at the event, with one guy letting me flog his Porsche Boxster around the course. I have to say, that car really surprised me. Outstanding handling, outstanding brakes and great torque, even for a "base" Boxster. Very impressive car. Adding to that, his friend let me take his Lotus Elise around the course a few times as well. Great guys and what a blast!!!

 

 

At lunch we took some parade laps around the course, and it made me really itch to stretch the Z's legs on a full road course. That definitely needs to happen in the future.

 

After lunch, the A & B sections were combined into a full course and we ran it for a few hours. The Z began to struggle when doing the full course (45-50sec). It was warm, but not really hot out, but after a run or two it would start to hesitate at the end of the run. If I stringed 3-4 runs together it would just stall at the end of the course and not start for 5-10 minutes. I did get a couple of nice, satisfying runs at the end but there is plenty for me to work on.

 

Here is a video of a not-so-good run of mine. You can hear it start cutting out half-way and again towards the end of the course.

 

 

Nearing the end of the event, I retired the Z and started bumming rides with those that were left. Got to ride along in some sweet cars, including an '80 Porsche 911, '00s Miata (awesome car), and a prepared beast of a Porsche 914. It was a long, very fun, memorable day! Goal 2 completed.

[Leon]

In the meantime, I've been planning the next major evolution of my 260Z.

 

EDIS 6 with Megajolt! Webers stay (for now).

 

 

Here is what my dog thinks of distributors:

 

 

[h4nsm0l3m4n]

Congrats on your first autox. Welcome to the addiction! I remember my first autocross event the damn electronic distributor wires went into the clutch fan under heavy braking. The car just suddenly died, red flag, and had to get help pushing it of course. Was super lucky the fan just pulled the wires out of the connector and didnt slice right through them. Plugged em back in after routing the wires a little more intelligently and made it back to grid just in time to run again! I still get people asking me "good to see you running again, so what happened a couple years ago when your car died on course?"

 

Your car is looking and sounding good, just fix that fuel issue and youll be FAST!

 

...Damnit, now I have another person in California to be jealous of... I need to move down to where its dryer! Us Oregonians only get like 3 months of decent racing weather, so sad...

Edited October 2, 2011 by h4nsm0l3m4n

[Leon]

Thanks Stepan! It's funny what other people remember sometimes.

 

Three months of good racing weather? That would be painful! You should come down to California.

 

I can't wait to have the Z back on the road, I'm partway through the EDIS and installing a Holley Red fuel pump because I had it laying around and it should provide plenty of flow.

 

I got an idea for a heat shield setup from Gary at the Coronado Speed Fest last weekend, which I got to go to since our San Diego vacation luckily happened to coincide with it! Also got to meet Adam Carolla (cool) and see the unfortunate damage to the Bob Sharp 610 (not cool).