HS30-H

I thought Mel Gibson was Australian. Was he actually a Yank all that time? Stone the crows, he had me fooled. Somebody put me straight on that one will you? I'm not sure about "Drawing the raw prawn" ( I thought that was a reference to showing the one-eyed trouser snake the light of day ) but "Stone the crows" is certainly older than its Australian use. I believe that its London slang ( not rhyming ) or Naval slang, and I feel sure I've seen it used in work by Mayhew or Dickens. Talking about literature, that was quite a piece by go z racer, go wasn't it? Your talents are wasted, sir. This thread is like flipping the channels on the TV remote! Alan T.

Please don't cut out the seat-mount members - they are an integral part of the shell and cutting them out will make your bodyshell weaker. I don't know about the USA, but for just about any race / rally / autoX series here in the UK you would not be allowed past scrutineering with seats just bolted to the floor. You'd be amazed how much this would tear up your floor - especially with a bit of spirited high-G driving, and the safety issues in the event of an accident don't bear thinking about. The best thing to do is to lower the stock seat members by cutting and shutting them. You might want to take the time to gusset them at the points where they join the trans tunnel and the inside of the sill ( rocker panel to you ). I had Corbeau GT8 buckets in my previous car ( a 73 model ) and had to lower the seat members to get a proper driving position. The Corbeaus, like a lot of aftermarket seats, have quite a thick seat base - which causes you to be sitting quite high if you still use the stock sliders. Even if you bolt the seat direct to the seat members it still leaves them quite high. Cut and shut the seat crossmembers properly and be done with it. Do it properly and be safe. Good luck, Alan T.

Bruce, On my current setup ( 40PHH-S ) the Main Jets are 160s and the Air Corrector / Main Air Bleed are 210s. All other settings and sizes are stock for the 'S' model 40PHH. I do hope that you are not going to read anything too much into what other people are using. This data really ought to be used only as a base-line from which to start from when setting up your particular engine. The stock jettings from Mikuni were a pretty god baseline, but they really ARE just a baseline, and a proper set-up on a rolling road dyno with AT LEAST a few sizes of Main and Air jets on hand is mandatory. The operator of the rolling road will almost certainly be able to make a vast improvement over what any of us can do without him, and the old-fashioned method of do it yourself through plug reading still necessitates having the alternate jets on hand.............. Gav, In my opinion, if you can't cover the cost of a proper rolling road dyno session and the cost of the jet changes, then going for triple carbs will be a waste of time. I figure that the dyno session is part of the investment, and pays dividends in the long run. I've lost count of how many people I've talked to who take a look at the triple carbs on my car and suck through their teeth at them. Many of them go on to say that they had endless trouble with theirs, but admit to having just bolted them on with a crap linkage and expected them to work properly! A good rolling road session with the Hitachi SU's would also be a great benefit for many engines. I would suggest that you stick with them and just get them set up properly to suit your engine. With a relatively tame spec on the other mods, the SU's are fine. Don't forget that the dyno tuner will optimise the ignition events as well as the fuel system............... Alan T.

My installation was set up on a rolling-road dyno ( the only way to really get it right as far as I'm concerned ). We changed the Air Correctors and Main jets, but apart from that the stock settings were just about spot on for my particular engine spec. Later on I changed to a different exhaust system and noticed a drop in power and torque across the range. Took the car back to the rolling road and once again we changed the Air Correctors and Main jets - making a great improvement. I'm running 3 x 40PHH-S with 32mm chokes on a Harada inlet manifold, Option 76 Degree cam, larger valves, raised compression and some porting of the ( E88 ) head. Exhaust system starts at an Option manifold running into a full stainless twin-pipe up and over layout. Anyone who bolts on a set of triple sidedraughts and expects them to work properly "out of the box" is fooling themselves. This is one of the main reasons why this kind of layout gets a bad reputation. Truth be told its usually the installer / user who is at fault - not the carbs. Apart from the correct jetting and synchronising, a properly engineered linkage is also essential. Apart from that, I think I probably AM a poseur too..... Alan T.

James, The Fairlady Z was never sold with an L28 in Japan. My guess is that its a fairly late S31, and that it would have come from the Factory with an L20E ( injected ). The L28 was probably either installed in Japan as a tuning mod, or was fitted in NZ when it arrived there as a private import? Try and get that VIN / Chassis number and it will help to pin down what the car is actually based on. Good luck, Alan T.

Hi 240znz, I presume that's me you are asking? Trouble is, I don't know too much about the 280Z model either. We never had them in the UK, and my experience with the Japanese models does not help either as they never had a 280Z model as such over there either............. But hang on, what exactly IS this beast? You said its a 280Z but you also said it came with an L20 engine. Does this mean it was not originally a 280Z at all - but more probably a Japanese-market S31? Have you got info on the VIN / Chassis number? That might help to identify it. I didn't think that the 280Z model was officially imported to NZ, in which case I would have thought this was something else. It sounds to me like a late Fairlady Z-L ( 1S31 ) with an L28 engine fitted. Does that sound possible? Lots of heads were fitted to the L20 engine over the years - so its hard to say what it would have had on it without knowing what it came from. Alan T.

Thanks to Z Kid for alerting me to this thread. First thing to note is that you will NOT be able to determine a real ZG from its chassis / VIN number. All genuine Factory-built ZG's start with the prefix "HS30" - just like most RHD L24-engined cars. The "HS30-H" code was a Factory model identification code, and does not appear anywhere on the car................ Stryder, to avoid paying over the odds for a non-genuine car I would investigate it very thoroughly if I were you. I know that there are several 'fake' ZG's in the USA ( that is to say, cars that people BELIEVE to be real ones - but are not ). The most common scenario is where a US serviceman has bought a car while stationed in Japan, and brought it back home with them. In many cases they bought locally tuned and modified cars, and were not necessarily in full command of the facts about their particular purchase. Modifying a 'normal' Fairlady Z into something that looks very close to a ZG is pretty common in Japan, but this does NOT make it a ZG. There are a lot of things that you can look at to discern whether the car is a GENUINE ZG or not. The easiest for Japanese owners is to look at the identity papers for the car. These are pretty hard to fake, and the extra length and width of the ZG is clearly stated in the papers. As your car is in the States, it will mean that you will probably not have immediate access to these papers - however, when the car was imported a copy of the papers would have been kept by the US Customs. You can start by tracing back the import of the car. After that, you will want to be checking out a whole list of things to discern a real ZG from a faked or replicated one. I can give you some guide points if that will help you. I think the first thing for you to eliminate is the Chassis / VIN number question. All true ZG's came with the "HS30" prefix, but so did many other models. At least if you see the "S30" prefix you will immediately know that it is not a real ZG. I've seen cars advertised for sale in the USA as 'real' ZG models - but saw that the Chassis / VIN number started with the 'S30' prefix, which definitely shows that they were not real ones. As V12 Horse mentioned, real ZG's only came in three Factory colours. Checking whether the original paint was one of these three colours will help to start the process. You really need to get to a part of the car that will not have been repainted in the past. I'd try looking well up under the dash, under the vinyl trim and anywhere else you might think a repaint would not bother with. The problem here is that even if you DO find it was White or Red - it still does not prove its a real ZG, as ordinary HS30 models came in these colours too. The GP Maroon was not used on other models for the first year of ZG production, but was offered as an option in the Japanese market from then on. Again, its not conclusive proof, but if you find that the car was originally Silver, Blue, Green etc then it will NOT have been a ZG model............. As V12 Horse also pointed out, the mechanicals on the ZG were just the same as the other HS30 models; L24 with the Hitachi SU's, 5-speed box and 3.9 R180 Diff. If I were you I would eliminate these first questions before digging any deeper or parting with any money. Even if it IS a real ZG you will still need to let your head rule your heart and look at the true condition of the car. If you need any detail advice then please feel free to contact me. I have spent a lot of time researching these cars and I think I have some good data that might be useful to you. Good luck, Alan T.

Professional writer? :ermm: Me????!!! I thought professionals do it for money..... I should be so lucky. Thanks for the heads-up and the links. I had no idea that was up on the web. Damn near frightened the life out of me........ Alan T.

daddz, I have absolutely no idea what you are referring to ( ???? ). I have contributed to the newsletter of the Classic Z Register in the past, but I had no idea any of my stuff was up on the web. Where the hell is it? Alan T.

daddz, I think you are talking about two different productions that have been copied and put together on one tape. The first one sounds like one of the BARCHETTA ART OFFICE videos from around 1993-94. If its the one with seven Fairlady ZGs then it is no.38 in their 'Historic Car Series'. Barchetta Art Office was affiliated to a magazine production company, and these videos were produced as a sort of 'video magazine'. The participants were members of several clubs, and there is no single "ZG" club in Japan. These tapes were never really meant to be anything too serious, and they are pretty light on history, but overall a good taster. The Skyline part would not be from the same original tape, and I'm wondering if its the Victor Entertainment 'Skyline GT-R zenbo' tape that features ex Works Skyline ( and Z ) drivers Masahiro Hasemi and Kunimitsu Takahashi having an on-track battle at Fuji Speedway in a pair of Ishizaka-prepared KPGC10's ( one Silver and one Black ). Does that ring a bell? You can still find some of these videos in Japanese bookshops, and used ones appear on the web auctions. I'm sure a lot of people are going to be asking you for a copy now............:bandit: Alan T.

Sorry for my tardiness in getting back to this thread with the data I promised. I've come across something strange and need to check it out before putting up numbers that are not correct and possibly misleading people. Its a couple of part numbers that are really similar to eachother, and look like they have been misprinted. Nothing earth-shatteringly important in the scheme of things, but I don't want to post numbers that might be wrong. I've asked a friend to cross-reference his own data and we'll see if its a misprint or just a coincidence. Not that anyone's holding their breath, I'm sure............. Alan T.

What size inner and outer Venturis are you looking for? I might be able to help you. You'll also need to pin down the exact model and size of the carbs that these are for. There SHOULD be some identification on the carb bodies ( sometimes Solex put this on an alloy tag that was sandwiched under one of the top cover screws ). Take a look and see if you can identify them properly. Nobody's going to be able to help you online unless you can ID them properly. They aren't the ADDHE model are they? I think I have some parts in my garage for that model. If not, I know where I can get some. Let me know if you can ID them properly. At least I'm in Europe, so a little bit closer to the Solex source than you are. Alan T.

Whew, Thanks for that daddz. I was going to put out an APB for you ( GTA: Grand Theft Avatar ). I feel much better now.............. If you want to buy the car, start saving now:bunny: Alan T.

I think I would have remembered if I had sold it.......... That car is not for sale. Alan T.

bump..............

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

I don't think I was so surprised at it being concentrated on the US market models ( the production team was American after all ) and I'm sure a UK production team would have the same local-market bias, as indeed would an Australian or Japanese team. That's a fair point. No - the main thing was that the script was almost read out of a book, and that the cars 'featured' were not stock examples. Not a stock skinny wheel or hubcap in sight. Lots of owners who had personalised their cars ( OK - I'm just as guilty, but I'd be tempted to put the skinnies back on if it was going on film.......and I don't have any body mods ). The simple fact that this documentary has been made will almost certainly preclude a more accurate and definitive version being made. There just won't be the commercial need for it. Nobody's going to commission a rival now. Same with the books on the subject. Publishers like to fill gaps, and there are no perceived gaps for a definitive early Z book now. I think that's it. We are stuck with what's already out there. Anything else is going to be in the class of vanity publishing. I'd have rather seen it done well or not at all. Alan T.

Thanks 2Many, I've actually got all of those numbers too. What I'm interested in are the numbers that are on Marty's recently acquired springs, as I have some other part numbers with different spring rates that I'm not sure of. It might be interesting to cross-ref them. I don't have them to hand at the moment, and as its nearly 2am now I'd better not start digging around for the Parts Lists as the Mrs will throw something at me!............. Alan T.

Marty, Do those springs you found have any part numbers on them? The reason I ask is that here in the European market the cars came with Factory spring rates and that was it. Just about 100% of cars purchased new here had the spring rate that the car came from the Factory with. There were "Opt" spring numbers quoted in the UK-market Factory Parts List, and these were obviously a higher spring rate. The same list also quoted numbers for a "Non Eur." spring set - which I guess must be the slightly softer ones that you had in the USA? I've never heard of anyone over here specifying the "Opt" springs on a new car. I think this was mainly because most of the dealers either didn't know about them or that they did not want to complicate matters........ The Japanese market had different springs yet again for their different models. If you have part numbers I can cross reference them and give you the spring rates and how they compare, if its of interest? Alan T. ( ps - I sent you an answer to your PM about your Spring purchase, which I think you have not opened? ).

I recommend the "Prince Albert" piercing for that particular piece of hardware. Please don't ask me to explain further:cross-eye Alan T. ( ps - where I come from, only both ears will do for a bloke. One is definitely a no-no. Goes back to Pirate days and all that. )