d240zx2

More folks have made the "crush" decision and now regret it than anyone will ever know. You now have your hands full with the July deadline. Based on your success in getting the car running in just a couple of hours, you'll likely do well in meeting your goal. I hope to see you in Nashville! Frank

Ya know, I've never measured it. The car runs so well with just the drop-in system, I never even thought to check dwell. AAMOF, I don't know if I'd know how to do it. ;-)

Datsun Restore. I got covers, pads, webbing. Did the job in my living room. It looks great, sits great. No complaints and would do it again if needed.

Elemental questions: Are all connections tight and corrosion free in your ignition circuit? Did you gap the points correctly? Are plugs fresh and clean?

The first thing to look for is rust. The second thing to look for is rust. The third thing .... well, you get the drift.

I've been using Yokos for about 2 years now. Pretty good rubber. A bit slick for optimum track use, but serviceable otherwise. I'd buy 'em again. Frank

Now that was NOT a spin!! You gotta go 360! ! It appeared you had a bit of an early apex on turn 1 which puts you too fast for the track out and set-up for two. I did the exact same thing at Harris Hill Road, but controlled the spin to the point where it didn't go around but 90 degrees and then up the hill, tearing off the air dam and both parking light assemblies. Well done, Stephen! Frank

A little trick I picked up from Troy Hogan to keep your butt in the vinyl... Get a square of the rubber stuff your wife puts in the kitchen drawers, you know, the stuff that comes in different colors on a roll??? Put that in your seat, sit on it, buckle up. It will not let you slide about as you described. Not the same as a racing seat, but it's a po' man's way of staying put.

Something I discovered whilst messing about under the dash was that the oil and temp gauges have a "centering" feature. You might have noticed it, too. It's a very shallow slot in a flat round plate on the back of the gauge that you can turn with a screwdriver or thumbnail. What it does is position the needle to wherever you wish it to be. It's very handy for zeroing a needle for most accurate indications.

#34. Watanabes are the cat's meow, no doubt. But on top of the price for the wheels will be the cost of the tires. I figure I can re-wheel and tire for about $1200 using Konigs or Rotas. It'd be closer to 2 grand with the Wats....

#9. If you're leaking gas with just the fuel pump running, you've got more than just a return line issue. I capped my return line and haven't had any problems at all, aside from the aforementioned start-up issue. Sounds like you've got a few leaky gaskets, 'cause once the float bowls fill, the float should stop all gas flow. If your pump is putting out an excessive amount of pressure that could be the culprit as well. As oldhemi noted, Webers (and Mikunis) require around 3 - 5 PSI. Any more than that and stuff just doesn't work as well.

I'm just down the street. ;-) Look for as rust-free of a car as you can find for the $$ you're willing to part with. The less rust, the less total cost of getting the car where you want it. Everything else is pretty simple. Look locally, of course, but also canvass ebay and craigslist in the western states. Lots of good cars in the dry climate with minimal rust. Best o'luck in your search. Frank

A larger diameter tire would help. Something that would give you ~ 25" in tire diameter. But then there's the "rub" factor.....

Good lookin' Rotas!! What offset did you get?

Damn! These Zs are fast little cars, ain't they??? What with the needle falling off and what was rightly described by leftover z as a cable issue, I'd have a speedo shop overhaul the gauge and determine if the cable is salvageable.

It may be time to re-adjust your valve lash.

Doubt if it damaged the head, but I'll bet it left a smile on the piston.... A bad cam install 38 years ago left several smiles on my pistons...and they're still making power....

#35. Have you determined where the rubbing is taking place?

At most, I'd give him a rolling chassis. No engine or tranny, worn-out tires on scrap wheels, no glass, no weatherstripping, no interior of any sort, except for the steering wheel. No brake lines, fuel lines. The e-brake should be sufficient for him to stop the car while rolling it around in his shop. But of course, I'm a hard-arse. ;-)

I understand, believe me. But 16s are the way I've chosen to go.

Now THAT is nice. Tip your painter....

I have a similar issue with my Mikunis, especially upon cold start in sub 50 temps. Once warmed up and on warmer days, no issue at all. I think my problem is that I use no choke and may be slightly flooding when starting.

Just saw this and thought it merited posting here as a LOT of our members reside in this area. Frank ========== Northwest at Risk of Megaquake Like Chile's Tuesday, 02 Mar 2010 05:03 PM LOS ANGELES – Just 50 miles off the Pacific Northwest coast is an earthquake hotspot that threatens to unleash on Seattle, Portland and Vancouver the kind of damage that has shattered Chile. The fault has been dormant for more than 300 years, but when it awakens — tomorrow or decades from now — the consequences could be devastating. Recent computer simulations of a hypothetical magnitude-9 quake found that shaking could last 2 to 5 minutes — strong enough to potentially cause poorly constructed buildings from British Columbia to Northern California to collapse and severely damage highways and bridges. Such a quake would also send powerful tsunami waves rushing to shore in minutes. While big cities such as Portland and Seattle would be protected from severe flooding, low-lying seaside communities may not be as lucky. The Pacific Northwest "has a long geological history of doing exactly what happened in Chile," said Brian Atwater, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and University of Washington. "It's not a matter of if but when the next one will happen." The last one hit in 1700, a magnitude-9 that sent 30- to 40-foot-tall tsunami waves crashing onto the coast and racing across the Pacific, damaging Japanese coastal villages. There's an 80 percent chance the southern end of the fault off southern Oregon and Northern California would break in the next 50 years and produce a megaquake, according to Chris Goldfinger, who heads the Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Laboratory at Oregon State University. Research presented last year at a seismology conference found that Seattle high-rises built before 1994, when stricter building codes took effect, were at high risk of collapse during a superquake. Disaster managers in Oregon and Washington are aware of the risks, and work is ongoing to shore up schools, hospitals and other buildings to withstand a seismic jolt. "We're definitely being proactive in trying to get those fixed, but we have a long way to go," said Yumei Wang, geohazards team leader with the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Oregon has 1,300 schools and public safety buildings that are at high risk of collapse during a major quake. The state recently doled out $15 million to two dozen schools and emergency facilities to start the retrofit process. State law requires that all poorly built public safety buildings be upgraded by 2022 and public schools by 2032. The state is also helping its coastal communities — home to 100,000 residents — plan for vertical evacuation buildings that could withstand giant tsunami waves. Seattle plans to retrofit its 34 fire stations. The city is also working on a plan to upgrade 600 buildings considered most at risk. "We have been preparing aggressively," said Barb Graff, who heads the city's Office of Emergency Management. Chile and the Pacific Northwest are part of several seismic hotspots around the globe where plates of the Earth's crust grind and dive. These so-called subduction zones give rise to mountain ranges, ocean trenches and volcanic arcs, but also spawn the largest quakes on the planet. The magnitude-8.8 Chile quake occurred in an offshore region that was under increased stress caused by a 1960 magnitude-9.5 quake — the largest recorded in history, according to geologist Jian Lin of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The temblor destroyed or badly damaged 500,000 homes and killed more than 700 people. Similar tectonic forces are at play off the Pacific Northwest, where the Juan de Fuca plate is diving beneath North America. At some point, centuries of pent-up stress in the Cascadia subduction zone will cause the plates to slip. Scientists cannot predict when a quake will occur, only that one will happen. The region is all too familiar with violent earthquakes. In 2001, a 6.8-magnitude quake centered near Olympia, Wash., rattled a swath of the Pacific Northwest, but remarkably caused no deaths. While it was not the type of quake that hit Chile, it was a reminder of how a big disaster could strike at any time. To better understand megaquakes, a group of scientists planned to travel to Chile in May for a conference on giant earthquakes and their tsunamis. There are field trips planned to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1960 Chile quake. © Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Have you fitted 205-50 for rubbing? They're a little more than 1.5" shorter than the 60s...

Are you serious?