hughdogz's early 260Z daily driver quasi-project

[hughdogz]

Since this is the z-car I drive the most, and my only other driver I thought I'd share some pics and descriptions.

 

I decided to get this Z when my 1981 280ZX 2+2 wouldn't pass emissions. I lost interest in the 2+ (since I now had the S130 turbo coupe). Plus, the 260Z was way cooler in my opinion anyway, lol.

 

It has four-screw round-top SU's, and the bumpers were already gone when the P.O. sold me her. It also had the "Hurricane-Dukes-of-Hazzard" wheels, and an air dam, along with a two-tone paint job (black but dark metallic blue across the top). The bondo was already falling off when I purchased the car, but oh well, for $1400 it wasn't too bad. It also came with a Hooker muffler :lmao:that was about to fall off since part of the pipe is paper-thin from rust. It patched up pretty well, and I kind of like the loud exhaust to be honest.

 

The strangest things were on the car when I got it. There was a mini RC plane carburetor on the balance tube, and it had an ignition coil setup hooked up to a "pushbutton starter" as the theft deterrent system, lol.

 

Since then, I added an Autopower roll bar, Toyo tires, and an electric fan. I have a new radiator that I bought at the MSA garage sale for $40, so that will do wonders. Also I have a 105 amp alternator and that made a BIG difference in how it performed. Also new hatch seals were mandatory, cough, cough...

 

I tried those Vortek generators at one point in time, but couldn't tell that they made any difference, especially since I'm rockin' those cheezy pop-up moon roofs, and I have no wing or spoiler.

 

These are some pretty old pics, it has been through some parking lot damage, dog damage, tow truck damage, etc. but it still goes and goes and has never really stranded me yet.

 

My future plans are implanting an L28ET, Nissan 5-speed and R200 courtesy of my 2+parts car.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...I made the Z-Freak sticker from a Torque Freaks sticker (now defunct).

 

 

 

Yeee!!! Haaaawwww!!!!

 

 

I removed one of the rear bumper shocks, but I'm too lazy to drop the gas tank to remove the other one just yet. Some people have asked if it is another tailpipe!

 

 

 

A couple more driveway shots:

 

 

 

Rally Dreaming / Camping:

 

Of course I call it Maku's car. He can climb right over the harness bar and stays on a 2" thick piece of rubber that is an anti-fatigue material used for machine operators. I cut it to shape, and it really cut down on the road noise too! (I'll post pics of that later).

 

He loves just hopping in and sitting in the car, and rides with me everywhere in it. It is cool because since he is well over 100 pounds, he can provide good rear-wheel traction, especially when the the conditions are wet. I can definately tell the difference when he's not there.

 

 

I also have an 11/1970 240Z that is in such bad shape, it is worthy of making a mull movie. I think I wanted the biggest project I could possibly make for myself, but that is another story altogether.

 

Later, -Hugh

[hughdogz]

I've been getting really crappy gas mileage lately on the old 260Z, so I decided to lean out the fuel mixtures a bit.

 

I was getting a mere ~20 MPG, but since the gas formulation has changed to 9-10% ethanol I've been getting only 15-18 MPG

 

So, I had the 3-month de-carbonation ritual to do anyway, and thought it would be a perfect time to tune lean.

 

I tried to adjust the mixtures "by ear", turning each screw to get a good steady idle. But when I went to go drive it, something wasn't quite right. I seemed to have lost power.

 

I then decided to use an LM1 to find out my AFR's. Since I have a 6-1 header, I couldn't really weld in two bungs (one for each carb). So I quickly made a tailpipe clamp:

 

 

 

 

The LM1 is so accurate. I could see that one carb was rich, and one was lean. The AFR's went 14, 17, 14, 17, etc. very quickly. One mixture knob was turned out 3.5 turns and the other 4 turns.

 

I turned them both to 3 turns, and my AFR's were at 20 and there were no complaints from the engine running too lean at idle.

 

When I revved (with no load) to about 2000-3000 RPM, I would go to 14-14.5 AFR's.

 

I'm hoping I'll get at least 20-25 MPG's now. We'll see.

 

I also replaced all fuel hoses (some were cracking) with some new 5/16" FI hose I had laying around...