d240zx2

A sucker is born every minute.

There was an old commercial, Pennzoil I think, that said "pay me now or pay me later." Of course they were trying to sell oil changes, but the gist of the line is true. Buy a Z for more today and spend less on it tomorrow. Conversely, spend little today and a lot tomorrow.

Go with the least expensive repair option first. Mufflers/tailpipes are relatively cheap, exhaust manifolds and the changing of them are not. Hatch seals are relatively cheap and the labor is half an hour in your own garage.

Outta my price range.

If your car is to be a daily driver with no pretense of being a performance platform, stick with the stock exhaust system. Like Pop's Z said, you'll gain very little by going to either 6-1 or 6-2 headers and it'll cost you a small bundle.

Well, my 40 year-old slotted aluminum wheels are getting ready to retire. And no, that doesn't mean I'm getting new rubber... I'm looking at Konig Rewinds and Rota RB wheels in a 16 x 7 size w/ minimum offset. I will probably have to limit my tire size to 205-50 to avoid rubbing anywhere as the Z is lowered a bit. Does anyone have any opinion or experience with either of these brands, good or bad? I'd appreciate your personal knowledge on these two makers. Many thanks!

Replacement panels are available. Should you use the search function you'll likely find where someone has posted the source.

#12. I wholeheartedly agree w/J. The blues can be street driven, but I wouldn't recommend it.

There's plenty of "meat" there, so I'd try a competent machine shop to get everything laser straight before tossing the manifold for a new one.

You WILL have fun, Stephen. That's an order! If I didn't have to be in San Diego that week-end, I'd be running with you. You've gotten a lot of REAL GOOD advice from the guys. The only thing I would suggest is to get a set of Hawk "Blue" pads. Street pads just will not perform at track speeds as the temps are well above anything the pads were designed for. I ran my first track event with street pads and they were smokin' half-way through the first session. Wouldn't stop so very well after that. So spend an extra $$ and get the pads. You'll thank me later.

Question, Marty. What were your reasons for not going with the Mikuni carbs?

It looks like they know what they're doing, alright.

An opinion. If you're ditching the SUs, try triple Mikuni's or Webers. You'll get a lot more bang for the buck than you will with what's in the link. I saw an eBay listing a couple of days back for a complete triple set-up (can't remember if they were Webers or Mikunis) for about $1700.

I've been told by my Z guru, Doug Bakke of Awesome Z here in Houston, that the L series engines needed the 20w50 oil. He went into a 10 minute dissertation about why and I was convinced. Don't expect me to even TRY to remember what he said. I just pour in Royal Purple 20W50 and drive on.

HPDE = High Performance Driver Education

If you're happy with what you see, go for it.

In my experience, a clutch is used for starting from stop and easing the transition from gear to gear. The only time a clutch would be "slipped" is during the take-off period from stop. I've NEVER had any sort of clutch trouble (the first one lasted 37 years) and wasn't quite used up even then, and I drove the crap out of it, power-shifting, burn-outs, you name it. I routinely use the gears to assist in slowing the car, blipping the throttle to match to the lower gear. Minimal clutch wear.... If you're having a clutch burning smell, you've got an installation issue or a bad clutch out of the box.

When I was resurrecting my Z with almost the same problem, I had to remove the front cover. The bolt had broken off flush with the block. I used a small diameter welding electrode, Eutectic 680CGS, 1/16" diameter, and built up the end of the bolt to the point where I could weld a nut on it. It was gravy from then, as I just put a wrench on the nut and, voila! out it came. Using the weld-out technique you eliminate the likelihood of your drill sliding off center and into the block, breaking the EZ-out bit, and so forth. The downside is that you may have difficulty in getting the electrode dead-center on the broken bolt and end up welding to the cast block. Even then, you'll only pull a small patch of cast iron when you get the nut on and bolt out, which is better in my view than a series of drilled holes surrounding the bolt hole. Just my 2 cents. Frank

Honest, now, my Z is stock. ;-) Stock in the sense that the body is all original. Stock in the sense that all parts and pieces installed over the years (except the airdam, spoiler, Pertronix and Toyota brakes) were readily available through Datsun dealers. Interpart suspension and suspension performance pieces, camshaft, Mikuni carbs, etc. provide added performance without being overtly obnoxious. She ain't the prettiest girl at the party, but she always goes home with me. <3

A Rebello 3.1 is about $3 grand. Go from there....

Take it easy on Marty.... He must be having a tough day....

#18. I thought you had classic car plates. Does that require inspections as does a regular plate? I've been thinking about going with classic car plates since they're personalizable rather than antique plates, which are not.

Doors, for one. I'm sure there are others.

Oooh. Nasty.

Are the nuts hexagonal in shape? I had to replace some plastic nuts on the taillights and found quite suitable replacements at Ace Hardware.