Spitsnaugle's '71 240z LS drag & autoX mix (lots-o-photos)

[spitsnaugle]

A history, and progress of my 240z. What was originally to be a simple street/autoX car, now going a new direction. 

 

Most everything I've done to the car has been from research and knowledge of on members here, hopefully something useful can come of this thread for upcoming members. 

 

*A disclaimer: I tried upload all of these images to hybridz's gallery so the images would be future-proofed. It failed, repeatedly, so they're using my own server.

 

 

Bought this rusty beast January 2011, I drove it home in the snow, made me cringe, it hasn't seen a cloudy day since. 

• 1971 (late) 240Z 
• L28 5speed trans. 
• Bob Sharp intake and Holley 650 carb
• P.O. said "rust free" ...that was hilarous. 

 

 

 

I autocrossed it for the first year, drove it around town a few times, other than replacing a few broken bits, I didn't do much to the car till that fall. 

 

Edited May 13, 2016 by spitsnaugle

[spitsnaugle]

I started stripping the interior to fix some rust I knew was in the front corners of the floors.

 

I spread out dry ice on the floors to harden up the factory coating then hit it with a hammer, the coating shattered right off. Left me pretty clean metal to start with. 

 

 

Unfortunately I didnt take photos of the small patches I did in the front corners the floors. 

 

Yanked the Engine and Trans to clean up the engine bay: dirt, rust, & botched A/C install.  

...pardon the Instagram filter  

 

Found the usual battery tray rust. decided to counter-sync the battery down into the fender. Another member here had done this, but I cannot recall who now.   

 

 

Figured while I was at it, why not weld in some bracing into the engine bay,  I'll see if I can find my templates for this later. 

 

 

I cleaned, wire-wheeled the inner-fenders, did some light sand blasting in some spaces, then repainted them with chassis paint: 

 

Did the same to the underside of the fenders, you might notice I cut an opening for a vent in the fender while I was doing this.

 

 

Cleaned the engine bay up again. 

Hit it with epoxy primer: 

 

...and PAINT! Its a BMW dark blue metallic. 

 

 

Dropped in a new 280z brake booster + Wilwood 15/16 master cylinder + new pre-bent brake lines from classictube.com

 

Carefully dropped the engine back in... (this was before deciding to go LS!) 

[Stock Car Mafia]

Mam if you have 5 years of history of this car that you're gonna post, I'm interested!  That engine bay paint is gorgeous.  

[spitsnaugle]

Late 2012:

Bought some new Rota RB-R 17x9" -13 Front and 17x9.5" -19 Rears, Hyper Black with Polished Lip.

Fitment is just outside of the fenders: 

 

 

Time to add flares. 

I went through two (bad) sets of ZG flares before I was happy with the fitment of the third (and fourth extra wide) set I've owned.

I bought a set from ebay, they didnt fit the body for crap, a set from a big Z vendor, they slightly closer, but still left gaps I wasnt happy with, so I did some research and found Marugen Shoukai made the best quality ZG's available, but no one was selling them in the states. I worked with an interpreter and tried to get a group buy together, but dropped that after contacting Russ @ RHDjapan, and got them to sell them on their site for us. 

 

Fitting: *NOTE: Last photo is the extra wide rear flare for comparison. 

 

Cutting the fenders: 

I followed the thread by 240Hoke on his flare install and fender work: http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/47525-how-to-mount-them-there-zg-flares/

 

I did more cutting and rust repair before rolling the car outside for some photos with the flares back on. Those will be posted below at some point. 

Edited May 15, 2016 by spitsnaugle

[spitsnaugle]

While working around the fenders I knew there was some bondo in the dogleg. So I decided to see how much... @*(&!#%! it was worse than I thought. 

1. made a hole to inspect the damage
2. sandblasted entire area
3. cut the cancer out
4. ordered Tabco replacement doglegs. Even though they're local Ohio made - it was cheaper to order from MotorsportAuto.
5. little bit of hammer persuasion and they're a good fit. 
6. made a small peice to replace inner fender bit that was rusted through.
7. welded, then ground the excess off

 

While I'm on the rust kick... took a look at that hatch sill area. It was toast. Cut it out, then cut the metal below it. Remade the metal below it with a small metal brake, welded that back in, then ordered a Tabco replacement hatch sill plate, I welded some areas of it, and used modern unibody adhesive for some of it. 

 

<that was a test fit, I didnt take a final photo when I was done, but I will soon. 

 

 

 

[spitsnaugle]

Bought a house that has a much larger garage with a 12ft ceiling... time to get a lift!

Bolted most of the car back together to transport it. Heres where I finally get a feel for the whole thing with the flares. 

 

 

I focused on remodeling the house for a year, and poor car sits mostly untouched.  (Basically gutted the house)

 

I then met Keith aka RebekahsZ and his beastly LS2 powered 240z at the Ohio Mile. He was generous enough to let me drive it around the pits. That LS2 was addicting, my plans changed then and there.

 

Engine out, again. 

''

 

 

 

Found an LS1 longblock mild ported 241 heads and a mild cam.

 

Now: 

• Holley XP 750 Carb + Holley Intake
• 211/230 .558/.552 122.5 Cam 
• 1.7 ratio rockers,
• MSD 6LS Ignition Controller
• LS2/3 Coils
• Meziere electric water pump, 
• Hawks 1-7/8" stainless headers (american racing produced)
• Hoke Performance (beta tester) motor and trans mounts. 

 

 

I've owned almost all of the headers for a 240z and a LS engine ... the only one I havent is JCI's

JTR (Sanderson) - Shorty Headers

CX Racing - Long Tube 1-5/8" OD headers

Hawks - Long Tube 1-7/8" headers  - ordered specifically without the collector welded on so I could route how I wanted. 

 

I compared JTR and CX in a thread, but didnt have Hawks at the time, I'll be building a thread for a final comparison of the three.

 

CX  1-5/8" Long Tube Headers: 

Like the flange. Don't like the short collector. Most welds are good. Would prefer a slightly larger diameter (and avoid the instant step down at the flange). (Forgot to take a photo inside collector.)

 

JTR / Sanderson 1-3/4" Shorty Headers: 

Dislike the ground down-weld flange. Welds look like quick MIG work. Like the Larger Diameter tubing.

 

Hawks 1-7/8" Long Tube Headers: 

I asked for these to come with the collector loose so I could angle it around my Auto trans myself.  I totally forgot to take more photos, and have since sold the headers off. These were the nicest headers of the three, a wonderful collector with a flow guide in the center to prevent turbulence, nice equal lengths, flange was perfect.  😕 

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by spitsnaugle

[spitsnaugle]

I updated my last post with the only photos I have of the Hawks headers I had.

 

Well I should update this thread. The 240Z sold earlier this last spring with lots of spares. Went to two younger guys, I think its going to join the world of drifting. 

 

I've moved over to what I consider the modern 240z, a Toyota 86 (aka Scion FRS) 

...which I've spent two months this summer dropping a cam'd LS2 and T56 into.  

 

Build thread at: http://www.ft86club.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128216

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by spitsnaugle