Greetings From Peoria

[Dan Boles]

Well, here it is. My first post on Hybrid Z. I figured Id start my own project thread to keep track of the old girl as I make progress on her.

 

First and foremost I want to say wow. What a great site. Ive spent most of the evening reading through the posts, and Im glad to have a resource like this to turn to.

 

I first fell in love with the Z cars back when my buddy showed up with a late model 300zx *(at the time it was late, this was in the 90's). It was love at first site, or drive.. Or both. I was hooked and bought myself an earlier 1991 300zx 2+2.

 

 

I left it stock, and enjoyed it for what it was.

Then... a few years later, I sold it. Kinda wish I wouldnt of.

 

Time past, I dabbled with some other imports and domestics alike and finally came to the conclusion that a v8 in a capible and light chassis was the way to go. (This was after getting my doors blown off by a second generation rx7 with a basically stock ls1 in it.)

 

So.. I bought this.

A late 70's 280.

 

This particular car was used souly for scca events. I fully plan to autocross it and take it to a few HPDE events this year.

The motor is fresh, and in the past week Ive started going through it. Fresh oil, coolant, drained the fuel, cleaned the fuel filter, broke the radiator taking the drain plug out, etc. Fun stuff.

 

I have to read up, or find the archieves. I want to verify the base timing. Clean the carbs and race it this coming Saturday. Tall order for a new pony in the stable, with the possibility of hidden grimlens.

 

Found one sparkplug was stripped out right off the bat, but replaced it with a heli-coil and I was back in business.

This is my second carbed vehicle that I can recall having the pleasure of working on. Im afraid most of my experience has been with FI cars, so its a refreshing change.

Engine bay wise, its unclutterd and well kept. Though I wish I would of snapped a pic or two of the carb setup. Through through my searches of carb names I believe them to be the su carbs.

I love google.

 

So..

Plans for the car...

I will start stock piling information, parts, tips, tricks and such for the swap. The stock engine and tranny will be pulled this winter and hopefully, Ill have a lightweight, v8 chevy swap going in. LS series of some type. Making it slightly more powerful than a stock ls1, but with oiling and cooling improvements for it to survive on a road course.

 

Its been quite a while since Ive been in a stock Z, I think there is an issue with the timing, or fuel delivery. It seems down on power. Then again, I really have nothing to compare it too.

 

Interior was gone when I got it, sheet metal on the doors, cage installed, harnesses were there. Unfortuneatly, when you buy someone elses project car, its a guessing game to what specifically has been done. I have yet to get to speak to the original builder, to verify what cam, pistons etc are in the car.

 

So.. There is a fair amount of discovery still in the works.

With the old race gas taken out, and some clean 93 in it, the motor seems to race all the way up to 6500, but even in neutral it takes a bit more time than I would expect. Again. nothing to compare it to. The Tach Marker was set at 7500, but again.. Im not going to push it that far, without more research.

Anyway, here is a shot of the interior.

 

Not much to look at really. The paint looks good from 30 feet away, as good as two tone yellow and black can. The exhaust has a header, and what looks like 2.5" all the way back to a chrome cherry bomb looking resinator.

 

The car is loud... Just down on power. I can only compare it too my old Z, 200hp? or my old 944 135hp. Both of those cars felt stronger.

Ill start a list of what I need to do to it before Saturdays autocross.

 

Fix radiator (braizing rod bought, oxy/acc tanks are empty).

 

Check and set timing. (need to locate a good write up for this)

 

Check/Fill SU carbs up with dampening oil. (though they have some on the dip sticks)

 

Read through some of the float/bowl/level tips Ive came across in my searches.

 

Pop off the valve cover and try to identify what valve springs/retainers/rockers are in place, to guestimate what the redline might be. Generally I shift most my cars when the power falls off. Thats a bit harder to do, when your waiting for the power to come on, lol.

 

So.. In a nutshell.

Thats the project and hello.

[Dan Boles]

Well today was a bust.

That hole I put in the radiator? Figured Id braize it up... Man, I dont know what the radiators are made of, but when I started to put some heat to it, the whole thing just melted away, almost immediatly.

 

So.. I have another radiator coming in from the local parts store. Should be here by Friday, then a quick timing check, and with my fingers crossed it will run better on all 6 cyclinders vs the 5 that it was running on.

[Dan Boles]

Well, Autozone got me a new radiator in about 2 days. Perfect fit. Added a little oil to the carbs and advanced the timing about 8 degrees.. Man. It started faster, revved easier.. Made a whole lot of difference.

 

Not sure how to read the timing marks, so I guessed and just felt around for what seemed to work.

 

Got it to the autocross in Mossville illinois. This is the first autocross Ive attended in a very long time. My first run, the car felt pretty doggy. Though I have no other benchmark to compare it against, it felt like a 100hp car at best. My run time was 64 seconds.

 

I advanced the timing about another quarter inch worth of turning, now the mark on the crank pully was clear off the scale by nearly 2 inches. That woke the car up quite a bit. No detonation, no lag, just tire spinning bliss.

 

My car lept out of the hole like a bullet and pulled all the way up to as high as I dared to rev it. (I think I was shifting at 6k or so) second gear felt just as strong.

 

I dropped my lap times down to 57.xx , and backed it up with another...

For reference, the fastest times of the day, were laid down by a well seasoned driver and his track prepped Srt4, who put down a blistering 54.4 i think.

 

Im happy with my first time out. The car was a hoot, even though its clear that the rear dif is open, and not a posi or lsd... Im going to change that soon.

 

Im hooked, I can see why these older cars are still loved today.

[Dan Boles]

http://www.cisportsphotos.com/p488395057/h228001f2#h228001f2

[zxtoy]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.