Leaderboard

Hello all. I have been browsing Z site for the last 2 month and this sight has been the most hopeful. I figured it was time to become a member. My Z is at a stage between I love it and I want to set it on fire. Time and money but trying to have it back to road worthy again by spring 2020... fingers crossed. A giant thank you to all of yalls post that has help me in the last few months.

Back on topic Way in the back of the tranny garden (forest?) I remembered I have a 720 truck five speed! I've been ignoring it because it has a bell housing I can't use on a Z or 510, anything with a tilted L series. Outwardly it looks identical to any long eared one-muffler hanger FS5W71B except for a couple of key details. The wrong bell housing for one, and the fill plug is on the other side of the case. Look here to review the differences if you're not on top of that. https://ratsun.net/topic/74205-620-transmission-identification/ BUT this sad little truck trans IS a donor for my worn out 1/2 shift fork! They are identickle! Took it apart today, and it's in perfect shape. Gear ratio's are interesting. Being a truck, first is a bit of a stump puller. 1 3.592 2 2.246 3 1.415 4 1 5 0.813 Let me say here that I am actually not a fan of the much coveted "close ratio" 5 speeds. Gotta say I've had just about enough of the fawning and slobbering over their supposed greatness. The 2-3-4 ratios are nice and close, wonderful for road racing I suppose, but first is about 2.5 miles away from 2nd. I've always been a bit ticked about the huge gap between 1 and 2 in both my Z and now my 510. Not ideal at all for tight auto cross circuits. SO!!!! I going to hypothesize that I like the above truck ratios for 1-4. Now the Z close ratio 5 has that nice .745 overdrive, while the truck has a so-so .813, but I have a solution. I'm going to put the lovely .745 5th gear gear bits from my Z trans into the back side of this nice truck cluster. It's all separate gears behind the intermediate plate, just gotta take ALL the parts from one and stuff them in the other. BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! THEN when I break it next I'll stuff the C type in there and live with it's ratio's. You know, a guy could get the bell housing machined for the 62 mm front counter shaft bearing, and strengthen up a B type pretty nice. It's the bearings that give out, never busted a fork or gear set. Who needs those fancy C types with their longer length, wider gears and skinny syncro's anyway? ( read that with a sneer pls).

How much? BAT would give you a bigger audience and probably a better price with lower fees. People seem to like it. https://bringatrailer.com/

I used the S12W. I believe they were from a 1988 Forerunner, V6. I retained the "S" hardline. If I remember correctly, the rotors were from a 1984 300ZX, but that will depend upon which spacer you use to center it in the caliper. I did not see that mentioned here. You WILL need a spacer. Not sure where to get them these days. The caring and feeding of any track car is not for the faint of heart, budget wise. But they sure are fun!! It is still cheaper than doing a full Wilwood conversion.

If you want some braided hoses, jbugs in Southern California has a bunch all in nice metric sizes too, i think they give you a discount on the first order through them if you sign up for news letter.

I agree with ZH... you should run away from the Auction House and hit BAT in the spring when people are hunting for cars.

Thanks for the recommendation going to try the paperclip. Already have the new sensor installed as well.

The two cars leading the yellow car had cars to their right. They both left room for these cars and seemed to have "situational awareness" into and out of the corner. The yellow car was, at first, following them then suddenly switched lanes going into the corner.... I would understand if it was F1 and two Ferraris that hit each other.

Got some more news from my bodyshop. Nothing big, but another step closer to a finished shell. The spare wheel well is back in and primered with rust protection and also sealed:

Please note that there is a difference between "understand" and "agree". I understand why John and Randy see things but I'm not sure if they are right. It's a race but not a race in that no one wins any money so some modicum of caution is in order especially at the start. That being said, you're out there racing and it's hard not to press an advantage when you see one. That whole incident took place literally in at best two blinks of an eye. I run with VRG that has three race groups (small, medium and big bore) and while I could race in either the medium or the big bore group I elect to run with the V8s, V6s and 930 turbos along with other Zs. I get jumped hard at the start of most races by cars that have slower lap times but are much quicker off the mark at the start of the race. I consider a race start as a Darwinian experiment, one I don't wish to participate in and one in which some of my fellow racers exit before completing a single lap. It takes me a few laps but I manage to get by some of them by hanging all over them in the turns and late braking them on the straights.

Transmissions are drained and stored for yrs without any problems, you'll be okay. Spindle pins, lots written on the subject, if yours are moving you're in luck. You will need new pins now that the threads are damaged, try and get penetrating fluid in there and as long as the pin keeps moving well just keep hammering. If it gets stuck hammer it back to where it was moving, more penetrant, use pair of Visegrips to spin it then keep wacking it in the original direction, take your time.

Welcome Dodd, what kind of problems have you run into? I know the feeling, have wanted to take the sledge hammer to my Z many times.

Nice Z !!!

https://translate.google.ca/translate?hl=&sl=ja&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.goo.ne.jp%2Farticle%2Fclicccar%2Ftrend%2Fclicccar-20170314-452093.html

The coolant temperature sensor is the most likely cause, based on your symptoms. You need to measure the resistance at Pin 13 of the ECU connector to ground to know for sure. Installing a new one won't help if the wires aren't connected to the ECU. I just now realized, after many years of browsing through FSM's and Fuel Injection Guides, that this drawing has the pins numbered, right in the drawing. I never looked closely enough before.

Got the spot welder working today. I will post some pics soon. In the meantime, thought I would change gears and put some engine related content the build thread. After the leak down and compression tests were complete, I started disassembly of the engine. Here is a 1 minute long video of the crankshaft condition before removing from the block showing the condition of the rod journals. The engine most likely has 130k miles on it, if I recall the odometer value correctly (and if the odometer hasn't spun over twice!). Also, I took another video showing the crank rotating in the block before removal. Always nice when the crank rotates this freely, an indication that the block is as straight as it was when it left the factory. The cam rotated very easily in the cylinder head also indicating the head is straight, not warped or bowed. The block was dropped off at Will's Auto Machine Shop, Inc in Chamblee, GA. They've done a lot of Z car stuff over the years and know there way around the L-series. I dropped off the .030" oversize ITM pistons, the crank and rods. They bored the block and honed for the pistons, polished the crank, (still standard on rods and mains), cut the deck to clean things up, installed the pistons in the rods, and sized the piston rings. Here are some pics of the block. I used the sand blaster to get in between the bores and clean out loose rust and corrosion. There was a substantial amount of sediment in the block when I first took it apart. I suspect the previous owners didn't protect the cooling system as well as they could have with the appropriate amount of anti-freeze. I cleaned the inside of the block with a brass wire brush (after the hot tanking done by Will's Auto Machine) Here is the prepped crank and one of the piston and rod assemblies:

You can remove the oil filter and push a hose in the galley that goes to the front of the engine above the alternator then pump oil into the hose. IV style prime:

Thanks for that! I was told there could be piston scuffing if there was no oil up high in engine and to go slow by hand. Maybe i'll put some oil in the cylinders to follow the penetrating oil that's been soaking. I haven't gotten to the fuel tank as I'm not attempting to start it yet. Hoping to circulate oil and compression test for now to see what I've got. Seller under-reported the mileage by 100K but that's another story. I was told the engine was rebuilt 23K miles ago when it was actually 103K miles ago. Dying to see what the compression is. Gonna clean and test the radiator, replace water and fuel hoses and water pump as it's seized. Was sold to me with webers on and SU's in a box but I don't really want to screw with those webers. Intend to rebuild the su's, install em and then start it. I sold a 72 when I was 26 and I've regretted it ever since. Now I'm 60 and I finally have a Z again!!