Jump to content
HybridZ

Leon's 260Z


Recommended Posts

Leon,

 

I sat down and watched a couple of your videos. Car sounds great! My z is up on stands for a while. I just pulled the spindle pins out of the rear suspension assembly. It took a lot of effort even with a puller tool. I am gearing up to remove the outer bushings themselves from the transverse links. I a bearing installer that I was going to try first. I have heard people have to resort to cutting the outers out. What did you do? You may have already discussed this in the thread, sorry in advance if you already covered it.

 

Bill

Thanks Bill!

 

Congrats on pulling the pins out, welcome to the club! I tried the typical method of inserting a hacksaw and cutting the steel inserts out but that was a friggin pain. I ended up walking the LCAs over to my neighbor's house. He has air tools. A die-grinder made quick work of it.

 

We used a grinding bit that could fit into the bushing cavity, cut a slot or two in it and pounded it out. Good luck!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Def take your time at that stuff. You don't want to be driving and all of a sudden your entire rear falls off while driving lol.

I could just imagine having to take 4 hours to get the exhaust off and on, and stipping the last fastener that I install. Not to mention worrying about the condition of the newly installed components over a 600mi road trip. I'm not about to willingly go through that stress!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I could just imagine having to take 4 hours to get the exhaust off and on, and stipping the last fastener that I install. Not to mention worrying about the condition of the newly installed components over a 600mi road trip. I'm not about to willingly go through that stress!

 

Which is why the car needs a test drive this Saturday. :-)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Leon,

This reminds me of my quest to get ready for zcon 2010- stress was up there. I only had 300 miles to go, but worried every mile for the first half. Check- double check and pack plenty of tools!!

Tell me about it! Tools will be packed for sure, as well as spare parts and a fire extinguisher (always in the car).

 

Which is why the car needs a test drive this Saturday. :-)

You're definitely right about that! Dyno comes first, then we'll see what happens. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finally finished the HID install on Saturday. Damn it's nice to have bright headlights, especially coming from stock/non-relay'd ones. I never got what the fuss about HIDs was, until I got the S2k which has amazing headlights! I'm glad I put these on the Z, it should make night driving a whole lot safer especially for the upcoming JCCS trip.

 

 

:2thumbs:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aaaaaaannnd?????

 

How'd the dyno session go?

 

Did you have a chance to get the MJ dialed in?

 

I am hoping you have significantly more low-end torque than with the dizzy.

 

Enquiring minds want to know!

It went well! Picked up about 10lb-ft and 10hp peak, and gains across the board! I ran it for about 2 hours and was heat soaked towards the end, so we shut it down. I really need a heat shield. I'll have to plot the results up in Excel later.

 

Probably the biggest advantage of the MJ is the part-throttle cruise torque. I picked up gobs of torque at partial-throttle, gas mileage will considerably increase and throttle transitions have gotten crisper. Cruise and around-town driving requires less throttle. The other advantage of MJ is setting up idle. By slightly retarding timing at idle, and advancing it at lower and higher RPM, the idle has become more stable.

 

I love the MJ, nothing like sitting in the car, on the dyno, pressing CTRL UP and seeing torque increase as you up the advance.

 

Centrifugal weights, springs, advance slots, spark scatter? What's that? :lol:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well he had it dyno'ed I know that much! Oh, it's driving too, but I think we all knew that.

:D

 

:2thumbs:

Thanks again Ben, it's been an absolute pleasure dealing with you! I finally used the lights at night a few days ago and what a difference. I'll see you on Saturday at JCCS!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It went well! Picked up about 10lb-ft and 10hp peak, and gains across the board! I ran it for about 2 hours and was heat soaked towards the end, so we shut it down. I really need a heat shield. I'll have to plot the results up in Excel later.

 

Probably the biggest advantage of the MJ is the part-throttle cruise torque. I picked up gobs of torque at partial-throttle, gas mileage will considerably increase and throttle transitions have gotten crisper. Cruise and around-town driving requires less throttle. The other advantage of MJ is setting up idle. By slightly retarding timing at idle, and advancing it at lower and higher RPM, the idle has become more stable.

 

I love the MJ, nothing like sitting in the car, on the dyno, pressing CTRL UP and seeing torque increase as you up the advance.

 

Centrifugal weights, springs, advance slots, spark scatter? What's that? :lol:

 

:2thumbs:

 

Exactly what I was hoping you'd say. Well done!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Hey Alex, thanks man!

 

I've been neglecting this thread since September was so busy. I will say that I almost bought a VH45 and 300ZX trans the other day, but then I snapped back to reality. :lol:

 

Also considered buying the used Stahl header in the classifieds. What's wrong with me...

 

I really need to put my JCCS stuff up, stay tuned!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You should finish up that wedding stuff before buying a vh, 300zx trans, and more headers to hang on the wall lol.

Yeah, no kidding!

 

However, the VH was running and cheap, $200. The ZX trans was $150. Veeery tempting but I passed on it after searching and realizing how much work it really takes to swap a VH45 into an S30 chassis. There aren't enough hours in a day...

Edited by Leon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

First of all, I've sucked at updating this thread. Life has been very busy and I haven't even had a chance to upload my JCCS adventure!

 

I've been doing a lot of carb tuning and went to a tuning day in Sonoma along with DCOE guru Keith Franck (of the Sidedraft Central Yahoo group). He's developed new idle jets (hypojets) and emulsion tubes. There were a few Z guys there and we had a great time tuning and disussing air-bleed carburetor phyics. I came out of it with some new jets and a much better running Z. I'm currently using H221 hypojets, meaning a 0.022" orifice, 1st air bleed hole. There are 4 air bleed holes to choose from in a hypojet, making it 4-idlejets-in-one. I'm using Keith's O3 etube, meaning it has 3 air holes in it.

 

Throttle response became crisper and I've managed to get idle to about 14.5:1 and cruise mixtures are now leaner (but not lean enough) at about 12-13AFR, depending on load. I had a chance to play with the main jet this weekend as well. I was running 125 mains with WOT AFR going very rich, down to 10.5AFR at high rpm. I went a few sizes down and tried 110 mains but they were too lean, the car didn't like to accelerate at WOT because of the 15-16AFR mixture. I have 120 mains on order.

 

I'm also putting in stiffer pump springs, as recommended by Keith, in order to increase and quicken my accel pump shot. New internal throttle return springs are getting put in as soon as the pump springs come in, hopefully this will alleviate the sticky throttles. More to come on this soon!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On another note... I've hit quite the dilemma!

 

One of my former (awesome!) college professors emailed me recently and said that he's thinking of getting rid of his early 260Z! He was my Ground Vehicle Dynamics prof as well as the team advisor and my senior project sponsor for FormulaSAE. Before teaching, he worked at a few race teams, notably at Benetton-Renault F1. Basically, the guy knows what he's doing and this isn't some ratty, beat-up Z. The car even went with him to the UK and back since he wanted to drive it in England while he worked at B-R!

 

The car is supposedly in great shape, exterior gone over ("British Racing Green"), new interior, ITS engine (among others), coilovers, parts, etc. You get the picture. He's attached to it since he's owned it for over 20 years but he's considering getting rid of it.

 

I NEED FREE SPACE IN MY GARAGE!!!

 

This means that either the orange 260Z goes or my rust-free 2/71 shell goes. Damn, damn, damn, damn!!!

 

I'm mulling over whether I want to get rid of the shell or if I keep a few things from the 260Z and then sell it. Hell, maybe I should just get rid of both current Z's and keep only one in the stable, if I get it that is. I wish I had a bigger garage...

Edited by Leon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...