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I've been selling a few things on facebook.com, trying to de-clutter. Good luck with that huh? Anyway I read something that was written by a 15 year old apparently but it made some sense to me. Let's see if I can recall the phrase, "the faker you are the bigger your circle, the realer you are the smaller your circle". I got a kick out of that. Looking at my phone, the RECENT CALLS goes like this, MOM...WORK...DAD...MOM...MOM...PAPA JOHNS. That's a whole weeks worth.

I have a very clean cylinder head from a Maxima for sale as is , or build to suit. If you don’t know much about these they are a very nice option for a Z motor. Small well designed combustion chambers ( approx 40cc) with a nice quench pad to help resist detonation . It has exhaust liners , but they flow great unless your building a race motor. If you do some research you’ll find it makes a sweet little hot rod head for your block. The MN 47 head came with the bigger 35mm exhaust valves and has 42mm intakes . This head will work on any Z block , the only exception is that a stock L24 block might need to be clearanced on the exhaust side. I can walk anyone thru that detail. These heads are drilled to except both carbs and EFI. This particular head has been pressure checked, checked for flatness and has VG guides and valves in it now. You can literally pop in a cam and springs and go! Or I would be willing to do that also. Or put the bigger 44mm valves in this head and drop it in your L28 block and make a killer motor. This is one of the cleanest heads I’ve ever owned . Almost zero corrosion and clean as a whistle inside. Some good reading over at HybridZ’s about cylinder heads I am currently building this head for my L28 build. Ported and bigger intake valves! http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/39134-big-and-nasty-headwork/ So buy it as is or let me build you something . Contact me for details or more pics sfinnerty1018@gmail.com

Done

I guess once we stop putting spoiled rich kids into office, our countries may stand a chance.

Well time for another update, nothing too dramatic but there’s always something to do with a 48 year old car! In an effort to reduce some of the chassis flex and now being aware that the car is as much of a show car as a fast road toy, I caved into TTT’s black Friday sale and have purchased Tri strut braces for the front and rear of the car and also grabbed a cpillar bar between the seatbelt mounting points in an effort to help matters as well as look pretty. Soon to be sitting in San Francisco I’m still trying to work out how best to recover them. Over the weekend disaster struck twice for my dad with the car, many of you will be disappointed to hear that the Bosozoku gear knob shattered and fell off! It must have cracked and fatigued, having salvaged the thread I’ve taken temporary measurers and gone homemade having inserted the thread and shaped a block of Oak. It seems to have kept the car on the road and useable while I source a suitable replacement anyway. Works much better than expected and keeps the car usable for now ? He also had the misfortune of applying the handbrake yesterday on a hill only to have the car role backwards, having pulled on the handbrake some more I’m told there was an almighty bang before the handle flew up. Safe to say I’m convinced he’s snapped the handbrake cable so I need to source a new one (hopefully not from the US) and work out how easy or not (I’m sure not) it will be to fit and whether it’s doable on the driveway…. In amongst the drama I’ve finally done some minor jobs and fixed the ashtray handle having tidied up the area from the previous shoddy job from a previous custodian, had some Dremel action and glued it back together. It now looks the business again and I’ve also like several others been suckered in with purchasing a Chrome pen and now detailed several items of lettering and trim. It even seems to have hidden the blue plastic trim appearing on the door cards! IMG-8405 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8434 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8430 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8431 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8412 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8413 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8417 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG-8419 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

I know that guy....:)

So I did some more blocking tonight. Also worked on getting the new mirrors mounted. I bought a kit with an assortment of metric rivnuts. I also ordered some oval head 5mm SS screws from Ebay. Matched up the rivnut diameter to a step drill and enlarged the holes in the door. Then made an attempt with a self made tool, and the result The nut I had on the bottom was a different diameter and pulled some of the threads up. So I drilled that one out and redid it. I used a small washer with a larger one on top to make it easier to tighten down the 5mm nut. So I ended up with this, by using a ratcheting wrench and a socket You need to apply a good bit of downward force to keep the rivnut from spinning in the door. Once it starts to expand it gets easier. A new door mirror mounted up I like these mirrors. I sourced them off Ebay a number of years ago, but what I like about them is the passenger mirror is a wide view mirror and the drivers side is normal. I haven't seen them again

So if you had the chance to ask Bob Sharp just one question what would it be? Here's some general areas you might think about for your question: Racing in general BSR race car drivers (Fitzy, Sam, Paul, Walter, Paul, et al) Competition (other drivers) Managing a race team Interactions with other race teams Interactions with Datsun/Nissan/Nissan Comp/Coventry, etc I doubt Bob will remember technical details like what camber settings or cam profiles did you use in the 1985 300ZXT that Newman drove. I know I can't remember every detail of my set-up and my season ended 6 weeks ago. A few years back I asked Bob if he could only get to drive one of his race cars which one would it be and he never hesitated - "the GTU car with 15 inch rear rims", "I could put that car anywhere".

Ended up at Home Depot with a M8 x 1.25 x 20 flange bolt and M8 copper washer. The flange bolt has a larger head to get good contact with the washer. Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

THere's a huge correlation and causation there so it shouldn't offend anyone. Certain ethnicities, races etc have a predilection for systemic conditions. You wouldn't be a good doc if you didn't address them. Have you seen how the counties on your southern border have voted in recent years...? You're also getting a lot of folks moving there from California..

You didnt have an incorrect clutch fork, The problem is that you have to use the matching pushrod that has a half ball at the end...those are impossible to find unless you have one. same can be said for the clutch/ bearing collar combo, if they all matched there wouldn't have been an issue.

Welding and eating bacon - that's a new combo!

While browsing the web for a few nice deals, i stumbled upon something which finally arrived at my door today. A huge Datsun 240Z Banner / Flag with a nice Japanese theme, showing some Cherry blossoms and snowy montains along with japanese characters (still need to translate them). A german dealer who sold it on ebay ads told me he bought it at an oldtimer swapmeet in the Netherlands. A bit of research revelealed that the graphics once were made for a 30 year celebration by an insurrance company called Carole Nash. The original wallpaper is still available for download on their website: https://www.carolenash.com/insideclassics/classic-car-news/carole-nash-celebrates-beauty-classic-design-global-classics/ Well. not sure how it ended up on a flag in netherlands. But i'm more than happy to have it decorating my soon-to-be-finnished Garage, where the 240Z will go ?

Kats, and others. Thanks for this info. My jack has the same birthday as your friend Shimoura San. R.I.G - “1972 September 7th “ This dates well to the approx car manufacture date of the Fairlady Z Serial number S30100698 Nice to know it is likely the original The chock is from a later donor car (I know the PO used some parts from another 1973 240z in making some repairs). 3B = 1973 March

Mechanical Stig! That's cool!

I did try unplugging the cold start; no change. But good point clamping the hose. I'll give that a shot tonight. And I'll definitely revisit that TPS; pretty sure I set it where it needed to be when I was reassembling my TB/manifold. But, come to think of it, that may have been before I found that my throttle valve wasn't fully closing due to the little stop screw on the engine side being slightly too far down (found that when the TB Idle screw wasn't killing idle even when all the way screwed in). Definitely rechecking that now.. Thanks! Yeah.. I feel like I owe half of y'all a few beers already from my previous cries for help.. Zed Head for sure ?

Overall, I think it was a brilliant design... for its time. Some of its shortcomings got remedied by Nissan relatively quickly (e.g. the angled halfshafts). Others stayed pretty much untouched (you can make up your own list ). Of course, that's part of the reason why most of us enjoy owning these cars.

What harm? I'd rather have that than the flood of "My cousin's friend's tap-dancing teacher used to have one of those, GLWS!" type comments. If anything grates it's the people who seem to regard themselves as high roller 'collectors', adding to their "portfolio" (pfft) and talking about 'Pebble' when it's likely their collection is more of a box-ticking exercise of third rate 'cool investment' pension fund hardware, hardly touched by anybody except the local handyman and destined to be liquidated as also-ran lots in an auction where Wayne Carini is selling a Fiat Jolly. I get the feeling these people are money men rather than car guys.

What did you do with the cold start valve? Is it hooked up and fueling, could be a cause for the overly rich smell. Try unhooking it and see if things change, plug or clamp the fuel hose too. Good luck. You have a good helper already. ? Have you checked to see if the TPS is on the idle side? People bend those vanes and screw them up, it might have been rotated too. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/tps/index.html

More than happy to help you spend your money...!

One of those for sale in Airdrie... look on kijiji for a 280ZX Edit: my bad. It’s an rb20det https://www.kijiji.ca/v-cars-trucks/calgary/1981-datsun-280zx/1402694240?utm_campaign=socialbuttons&utm_content=app_ios&utm_medium=social&utm_source=ios_social

Thanks gents, Namerow - I'm shocked that anyone would think the design of a 240Z was less than perfect.

Are the injectors the stock "green top" injectors? And have you measured the resistance of the coolant temperature sensor? That test is in the EFI Book. Could be that the PO installed "turbo" injectors. Never know. Or adjusted the AFM. Or that your coolant temp. circuit is open. Try moving the AFM vane by hand and see if it runs better. You can move the weight under the black cover. Close it and the ECU will supply less fuel. Might tell you if the AFM could use adjustment. Your fuel pressure looks pretty good for what you're experiencing. Here's your other thread -

Just got the clock in from Ron at zclocks.com. This baby looks brand new! New quartz mechanism has been installed. Should be a lot more reliable than the old mech.

Damn, that was a great car, but I see Jim`s reason for doing it, I did it myself with an M6, although it was a difficult decision to make I was not going to give the car away for 30 cents on the dollar. Besides it is helping a few guys finish their cars.

Well, at least eight things in that photo are in my garage now... more that you can’t see!

Well I assembled this configuration of parts my self, saved a few bucks and my parking brake works fine, however to get the parking brake working with these calipers you have to optimize everything cause the when the parking brake is activated it only pushes the inside pad about a one tenth of an inch so everything has to be adjusted perfectly. https://www.silverminemotors.com/datsun/datsun-240z/brake-upgrades/stage-4-rear-big-brake-kit

You will be dealing with a great guy, BTW

Team! I found mint fenders and buckets off a guy in Calgary, front valance pieces too.... Going to organize ajippi9when he's home Wednesday but here's a pic of em on the car. Same condition just parted his ride out. All steel no nonsense. Gunna cost a few bucks for the set but it's the best ill get I rekon! I'm getting a hood tomorrow locally because turns out mine has a pretty good twist to it and the nose is buggered hard to tell in pic but somebody went to town with a stud puller and shes rough on a few axis's. Almost there in terms of being able to dry fit all parts and spray epoxy! Sent from my SM-N950W using Tapatalk

Ok, sorry again for the long delay between updates. I haven't had much time the past few weeks with Thanksgiving and some traveling for work. But good news, I took the Z on it's first drive since 06 yesterday! There was indeed one major vacuum leak in the braided, curved hose going from the anti-backfire valve to the manifold. I found a hose at Autozone that worked, although it was not metric, so it's a bit oversized and it wasn't quite the same curve, so it's running over the top of stuff instead of under. Will try to find a proper replacement later. I'm guessing some the other hoses are not completely air-tight at the connections. I did try to address that with some zip ties and hose clamps, but again, I just need new hoses. Will address that next spring. Yeah, I see where you're looking. It's actually just really thick parting line flash on that hose. I also continued to have problems getting it started, even with the new coiled. Turned out this was fuel. For some reason the new mechanical pump cannot pull anything from the tank without priming. Took me a while to figure this out, which was frustrating, but once it's primed, it runs pretty well. I stopped and started it several times and it fired right up once warm. I'm going to start it again tonight and see if that is still a problem. If so, I'll definitely be swapping in the electric pump first thing next spring. I never did the compression test again, will save that for spring as well. Getting up to temp definitely made things better. The idle wasn't great, so I have the idle screwed turned in one turn. I drove it around the block and then to the gas station to put some fuel in. Was so much fun to drive (even at only 35 mph), I'm sad that it's going right into storage. But really was fun to cruise around a little bit (even with the window down in 25 degree weather)

I would consider the people with feet on the ground who were involved at the time as experts. In the case of the Z that would be Uemura, Katayama, Matsuo etc. Hence my question on definitive books. Writers like Long who have taken the time to travel in Japan and research the subject are also good references, they have also taken the time to do the work and write it down. If history is not recorded it is soon forgotten. Others like myself who have discovered the cars have them to thank for their efforts. I have no idea who Griffith Borgeson is, were they involved with the Z development as well? If you find the term "armchair expert" derogatory then my apologies. I have no way of knowing your qualifications or background other than what I have read on Z forums. Like yourself there are many people with opinions on the cars, but how do you know who really knows what is true or not. I find it simple to do lots of research and ask questions, which is what I am trying to do here. The same way I contacted you privately through the message board and asked questions. I had assumed you were knowledgeable about the race cars and Z432R and asked you some questions based on what I had researched. You chose not to answer as you didn't know me and wanted to know who or what I was doing. I explained that to you and then nothing. I contacted kats in Japan and he has been very helpful, he also mentioned you were very busy but the person to ask. I wrote to you to say I understood you were busy and I would continue my research in Japan. Unfortunately you did not even have the courtesy to respond to that either. Obviously you have quite a bit of background on the cars but don't wish to share it, that is your prerogative. I have ordered the Long book on the subject and will look up the other ones 26th-Z has suggested. If I have upset any others with my questions and earnestness my apologies, that was not my intention. Look forward to find out more history and background to these fascinating cars.

Well I'm pleased to say that the car is back and tucked away in the garage for now. Picked the car up on Saturday morning and was straight over to Wheels in Motion to correct the alignment on the car which needed to be redone on all four corners due to the complete overhaul done on the car this year. Safe to say there were some hairy and slightly sideways moments on the way over there with every corner having its own idea of where it should be going. The good news was despite the monsoon weather and all of the standing water I was driving though on the way home the car felt completely planted and much more sure of itself and its even fair to say that the windscreen wipers performed valiantly getting me back in one piece. The car has been away for a variety of reasons however the vibration we were suffering from was ultimately prop related and the installation of a new single piece custom prop which was uprated with larger greaseable joints which has completely removed the issues. With the suspension setup and solid diff mount there's still more feedback going through the chassis that originally however that seems to be expected. The upside is now with those issues resolved and drivetrain overhaul the car seems to be happy to shift up to around 6k rpm which is higher than I previously thought however it really needs a dry day to properly explore the current levels of performance both engine and suspension wise now. I'm even thinking that the very hard all season michelins may get scrapped in favour of some much stickier Yokohama AD08R's given they're availability in the perfect size which will hopefully step the handling up another notch again. Underneath the front of the car the new front anti roll bar mounts have been bolted in place and I must praise Iain as he really has outdone himself with the work on these, they are very subtle but have really beefed things up so that we don't have any concerns. At the same time the entire headlight wiring loom has been removed and used as a template to build a completely new and more weather proof wiring loom with the addition of the relay kit from the US to massively improve the reliability. While I was there we've dropped some Osram Night Breaker Lazer bulbs in which have massively improved the lighting and was very noticeable from my limited use coming home in the rain, there seems to be plenty more light upfront now. While in there sorting the wiring, Iain also noticed that our sidelights had previously had their wires cut to be removed from the system with the bulbs hijacked for our indicators in the past. That's since been rectified and the wiring reimplemented so we now have independently working side lights and wing lights working as well. Some areas of the chassis have been treated from very minor surface rust that had developed and been covered in wax oil for protection however I seriously need to get the car professionally undersealed to protect the chassis for the UK climate. If anyone has any recommendations in the South of the UK I'm all ears for suggestions? Minor tweaks have also been done to tidy up the engine bay wiring including the movement of the electronic ignition module to move things along, there's still plenty to be done though. The exhaust has been repainted in VHT paint to tidy it up but its really highlighted how restrictive the exhaust becomes by the silencer, I have no idea what the diameter is however I have high hopes for the full Z story system that's arriving for the car in the new year. I'm sure there's more however those seem to be the highlights, we're getting closer and closer to getting the car where I want it to be. Lots of little details and mods here and there to get her where she should be and I'm desperate for a dry day to have some fun but that's enough for now. On to the exciting bit now, the shiny bits. IMG_8147 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_8148 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_8203 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_8150 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_8180 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_3526 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_3529 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr My exhaust restrictions, no idea how much difference to expect with the shiny Story one going on... IMG_8168 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr Where we now stand IMG_3531 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr