Leaderboard

I present to you, road weary from about 2000 miles of adventure... The OG:

So I'm home. The bottom line is that the car fared better than I did. Remember in the beginning, I was worried about two things... My radiator and my back? Well the radiator didn't get any worse, but my back did. By halfway through the day at the people's choice show, I was hurting. I'll survive, but it's unpleasant. The radiator... I had talked to a couple people about the troubles I was having and they put it out on the Z network that I was looking for a radiator to get me home. Well as a result of that networking, there was a guy coming to the people's choice show that was going to bring me a radiator. We found eachother at the show, and I snagged a rad. He wasn't sure of the condition, but was optimistic about it. Said it looked good, and as far as he knew, it was in good shape. That night, @madkaw and I swapped radiators after the banquet. Out in the parking lot, draining the fluid, pulling mine out and tossing in the replacement. Now remember that my back is pretty much shot at this point, so when I say "we changed the radiator", I really mean "he changed the radiator". So when he wasn't looking, I snapped a pic of madkaw working on my car: Bottom line? We had to do the job twice, cause the replacement rad I got from the guy at the show leaked horribly and wouldn't hold coolant. Sigh. So, we drained again and put my original back in. It holds coolant fine, but has a couple clogged tubes. I'll just have to watch the temps on the way home and adjust my speeds and load accordingly. My original radiator works fine until I'm going up a long hill on the interstate at 70 on a hot day. Thankfully as I drove north, the ambient temps dropped some and I was much better off. By the time I got to Maryland, the temps had dropped enough that I was able to maintain 70-75 on the interstates without worry. Thanks to everyone along the way that helped with the trip and glad for the chance to meet some of the forum guys!! @madkaw @Ninjaneer11 @zed2 @Parman @inline6

Just before the trip, I replaced all the tires. Four corners, and the spare. I got them at Firestone, but what I put on was dictated more by "what was available near the size I wanted" than anything else. The original tire size was 175 SR 14, and the web says that back then, when the aspect ratio was not spelled out, it was 78%, So using that, the original tires were 175-78-14. The closest to that size I could find near me was 185-70-14's, which is a tiny bit smaller than the original size, but only about one percent different. Close enough considering the availability. I went to Firestone and got "Suredrive Touring A/S 185/70/14" on all four corners and the spare. Nothing special, but very close to the original size. And the date codes were from late 2024 which was a whole lot fresher than the tires that were on there before.

Modern fuel goes bad quickly, by design... You could: Drain it Dilute it or get it running and run it out, then add fresh

The nozzles are normally set 2 1/2 turns down from the top. Have you checked to see what yours are set at? They may not be the same.

I just got my '71 240Z back on the road last week after it sat for too long - longer than your car did. It wouldn't start for me so I had it trailered to a mechanic. He put in a new battery (Old one wouldn't hold charge, replaced under warranty), cleaned the carbs, drained the tank, and put in five gallons of fresh gas. When I picked it up it was a little hard starting and rough running until warmed up. His advice was to run it every day. After three days it starts easily and runs smoothly. It has a 20 year old electric fuel pump that continues to pump well. I'm guessing your pump is OK. But I'd drain the tank and work with fresh gas.

The color more than anything but it does give you another leg to stand on.

Does that help your back or make it worse?

Glad to hear you made it home and the radiator didn't become a bigger problem. Glad we got to connect last week! Planning to get the cooling sorted so you can drive it to Pheonix next year? It's only like 2,500 miles haha.

Glad you came to ZCON and gave me some inspiration on my future engine! I got a pic of our cars together and one of yours at the show Saturday. Hope to see you again at a future event!

Hi Bruce! I am glad you made it home ok. Relax, maybe get some back massage?