Zedyone_kenobi

Just a note, can everybody put where in Houston? I know Frank is in the Woodlands.. So lets see wbsupernatural: Heights Area Frank in the Woodlands: um.. Woodlands Area Zedyone_kenobi: Very close to Kemah WingZr0: undetermined srbigbutt: Undetermined Jack T: Tomball Area I am trying to get a place that is easy to find and not 70 miles for people to drive. One Idea I had was to meet on the first sunday of the month at Gulf Greyhound Park. Now this idea has pros and cons. Pros, huge parking lot to sit and talk, autocross will be going on that we can either participate in or just watch and heckle Cons, VERY far for frank and others, not really fair to ask them to drive that far, we would have to eat before or after we meet, as its just a big parking lot, but there is food around it. I think something close to the freeway may be better, any suggestions. I know some of you are part of the Houston Z club, and they are a great organization, but this is something FAR more casual. I just want to meet you guys! Talk compare war stories, and share knowledge. I do not want officers, dues, I do not want to ask for volunteers, or help. I just want to get to know guys around me with similar interests. If you guys can think of someplace to meet, I think we should try after the holidays. I know one more guy who can come who has a 260Z, Kirk I am talking to you!!

IF you do not give me a call I will be hurt buddy. What brings you down? work, time for a change, you just like hurricanes?

Great!! when the holidays settle down, we should meet up for lunch on a weekend sometime.

Saw this thread was resurrected. I wanted to let others know that he did my dads Tundra and it was spectacular. I have never had any regrets on the quality of the job he did. I think the car had years of grime taken off and still looks and feels smooth. As for him answering questions, I would go to his website and ask him, he does not frequent our boards often.

While I am waiting for my new choke cable to show up, and my rear carb to come back from ZT, I decided to take a shot at fixing my old choke cable. Holding the wire with vice grips set on gorilla tight, I tried to move the cable. No dice. I am going to try to spray some liquid wrench in there to wiggle things out. ON a happy note, I swapped out my old coil with a shiny new chrome Pertronix flamethrower!

I have been reading these boards for a while now, and noticed several of our members are located in or near Houston Texas. I would like us to get together or at least get a call list so we can ask questions, lend a hand, etc. Can we get a shout out of local classic Z guys.

I am actually toying with some some very minor vinyl on my daily driver mazdaspeed3. Glossy black roof, and red mirrors. I will let you know how it turns out. Also, I as luck would have it, a car vinyl wrap company opened up 4 minutes from my house! good times!

UPDATE: I know I have more updates than bad microsoft software, but in case people are interested. I contacted Steve at ZT and he was more than happy to take care of my problem. I will be sending the carb back to him to have him install a new bowl and then it will make its way back. Merry Christmas to ZT and great customer service.

Not yet, I did not want to bug him during the weekend. I will call later today. He was a pleasure to talk to with the fuel lines.

UPDATE: Ztherapy was amazingly fast in getting my new fuel lines back to me. Great service. IF you recall, I had a leak on the bottom of the fuel bowls on both carbs. Or so I thought. I installed the first line no problem and sure enough the line was slit letting fuel just pour out. When I went to install the second line, I noticed the fuel nipple coming out of the bottom of the bowl was bent 30 degrees to one side. The fuel line was fine, but the boss was cracked right where the brass nipple goes into the bowl. I have NO idea what I am going to do now. This was obviously handled VERY poorly by the shipping company. Looks like it may have been dropped directly on that nipple. I imagine that these are pressed in. I am thinking I may have to pull the carb off and send it back to ZT. Bad setback.

IF you can solder, then you can braze. And a brazed joint is Plenty strong

That head work looks spot on. Looks like you are going to be set for a long time to come. Very nice looking build up.

What an interesting question. I am a blend of 1 and 3 with a dash of 2 in very small amounts. When I work on the car, I try to bring it back to stock. Things like rubber bushings I replace with poly most of the time. I kept the interior original and have fixed or had fixed a couple gauges inside. I like to think that I am bringing her back to the original glory, but with some modern materials improvements. I guess to really know what kind of Datsun person you are you have to ask yourself, what would you do if... If my engine was to blow up, I would try to save the stock block and build another L24, so I guess that means I am a bit of a purest. But I would probably do some minor work to the head and install a high pressure pump and perhaps a very mild cam, maybe. So I guess that puts me more in the hot rod category. If the car was wrecked, I would want it repaired back to original body work, so that edges me back into the restorer category. I think I am a lot like most people here. I want to keep the beauty and originality of the Z but make incremental improvements that do not change the spirit of the car.

Just to clarify, I do not think its bad to spend big bucks on parts, as long as all the other parts in the engine can support it. You have a high flow head but you have matched it with a nice set of triples and probably a good exhaust. It sounds like you know what you got yourself into and did not just buy a big name part for the sake of having it. I would LOVE to hear your Z run after your engine build, as it sounds like you have chosen to build what I would call a 'fast street' beast! Good luck!

Most practical is what you already have. But best choice is different. The best choice depends on your personal value set. What matters the most to you. Cost, performance, ease of use, availability, etc. I would suggest what filters the air the most efficiently to keep your engine as happy as possible.

I hear ya, but all manufacturers had to fight that battle. The small block chevy is a classic example. It was choked down to 135 HP in some forms in the 70's if I recall my history. But the bones are still there. When you look at what they designed starting form the early 4 cylinder L series engines, they had it right from early on. Look at the L20 with that sweet DOHC setup you see in some pictures with the exhaust and intake on opposite sides of the head as God intended. I think you do not need to look further than that to see what Datsun engineers would have done. Just my 0.02 cents. How would the L28 have been done if not for emissions is tough. I mean its hard to play what if, as SO many variables were in play at that time. Datsun would not have made a race engine for the street, even though they certainly could have. They still had to make it a street car. I think honestly, they would have changed very little. I would wager that it still would have had fuel injection, as that increased driveability at the time. I think you would have seen more compression, and perhaps a more aggressive timing curve. Perhaps a more free flowing head. I do not think that the cam would have changed much, but perhaps a little higher lift cam along with a freer flowing exhaust. Again, I think that if left unregulated and restricted by emission laws, Datsun would have put out a 280Z with around 190-195 HP at the crank. I know that is only ~20 HP more than the 170 gross HP it was rated at from the factory, but I think it would have had more torque. They still had to run on pump gas, and still had to get somewhat decent mileage while be civil enough to idle in traffic for hours if it had to. I think the L28 is a wonderful engine to build up and one day I plan on trying my hand at a strong, yet reliable street engine, that I am hoping to make 210 to 225 HP and still be livable on a daily basis. Of course, i will need another Z car to put it in, as I am never butchering my silver arrow.

SU's are wonderful and can be tuned to handle VERY large HP Normally aspirated engines. I would stick with SU's and build your engine using the best parts you can. Also, do not skimp on machine work. Building an engine is like painting a car. Its all in the prep and precision. I have built over a dozen or so engines in the past, mostly V8's but the rules hold true for anything...Here are some guidelines I recommend you follow... 1) Your best bet is to take some time and be honest with yourself. Are you racing for money, are you running ITS class in an SCCA championship. Is this a street engine 99% of the time, or is it closer to 50/50 street/track. You really have to be honest here. Build the engine for what you will use it most for. Sure it is awesome to say you have 300HP, but if it only comes alive at 7600 rpm, it is not much use to you. 2) Match parts. Match parts. Match parts. We do not have the benefit of VTEC, or variable intake runners. We have a single cam and two valves per cylinder. You will only get one shot at a peak performance combination. Having properly matched parts for the driving style you do is FAR more important than having an uber built head, or a monster cam or huge carbs. Let me say that again. Its FAR more important to have all your parts in harmony with one another. Case and point, I have built many street engines in my V8 days using off the shelf GM parts that were carefully picked to work together, with a mild cam and reasonable carb and intake. I routinely beat my buddies with mega dollar aluminum heads, huge cams, monster carbs, etc. The parts must be designed to work together with not only each other, but with your car as well (gearing, driving conditions, etc) 3) Do not try to make the most powerful engine you can. The more high strung engines are the closer you need to monitor them and keep them in perfect tune. IF you like this kind of thing, then great, but if you want a streetable engine that is fun all the time, then build smart, build conservatively, and build cleanly. Put your ego aside and build the engine you want, not the engine you THINK you want. Again, it goes back to being honest with yourself. 4) Research, what is available form Datsun/Nissan. Engineers spent millions of dollars and many years researching the L series of engine. It is very much like the small block chevy of Japan. Parts interchangeability is huge and a killer combo can be picked directly form OEM parts. READ READ READ how to manuals. Read books on building the L series of engines. It will not only teach you how, but why things work and what evolution the engine took in development. The number one thing that is needed to build a fantastic engine is not money, its knowledge. Read as many books as you can to learn the intricacies of the L series engine. You will be smarter, and you WILL make smarter choices. Check amazon for books on the subject, you will be rewarded 10 fold.

I may try to restore my stock cable for a spare using just that technique. For now I just use this NOS cable. It will be fun to try to fix the old one though! 7T1240Z, here is your picture of the block off hose... sorry, but I must have thrown the package away... it was at advance auto parts, and it was in the radiator cap section

UPDATE: Found an OEM choke cable assembly on Ebay, and managed to win it for a reasonable sum, and the kind folks at ZT said they would be happy to send me new fuel lines. I cannot stress enough how fantastic it is to deal with people who care about their customers and strive to give them a good product and service.

Okay, I will go next, in no particular order: 55 Chevy BelAire - defined an entire generation of cars in the US Mini Cooper - So many advances and ground breaking design cues VW beetle - the peoples car, brought transportation to many Jeep - brought mass production exploration of the countries back roads to the people Porsche 356 speedster - the birth of a legend. I know I did not put the Z cars on there, but if I was thinking back on the top 5 biggest impact cars from the 30's to now. It is not a tough list. I could just as easily pick 5 more that were ground breaking. I will let the judges decide the merits of my pics.

yup, got it at Advanced auto parts. Its just look like a hose with a domed closed end on it. I will try to see if I kept the package. If not, It would be my pleasure to shoot a close up pic of it for you sir.

I was thinking the same thing... how about some ground rules. Must be a mass production car of at least 500 units produced Left a great impact on the automotive market be it either in the US or worldwide or both Lets start it at some reasonable date as well. I mean you go back too far, you would have to include the first car with a clutch, the first car with a steering wheel, the first car with 4 wheels, etc. Lets start the clock at 1930 if that is okay with everybody. Cars were pretty well normalized at that point, with what most people know as standard fare. It is also far enough back to capture great evolutions any more suggestions? Perhaps everybody should nominate 5 cars, and the top choices makes the list. Then we can put that list in order.

UPDATE: work is on hold for a few days. Still working on the dining room and office paint jobs, but managed to squeeze some Z time in. I found out I have had non functioning choke cables. I can barely get them to move. Not sure how they worked in my older setup. So I will need to get those off and try to lubricate them. Second, upon trying to start the car (which did roar to life rather quickly, but briefly) I noticed my fuel lines from the bowl to the car were SPEWING fuel on the ground. It was not from the where the jet nozzle is on the body, as that completely dry. Upon closer inspection, when I moved the fuel hose, fuel shot out of a small slit. I will contact ZT today and see if I can get some replacements. He mentioned in his video that at times those get damaged during shipping. It is easy to see why. As for how I fixed my coolant. I wanted to reuse the stock fitting that bolted to the side of the block. So I found a heater core cap that was made to block off coolant. It was remarkable easy and I was able to keep the stock routing of my heater hose. On the plus side, and another advantage to the 'while I am here' syndrome. I was able to finally add my heater grommet to the firewall, as well as my new choke cable grommet. Lets here it for unplanned and extra work. So, cliff notes version.... I got my carbs hooked up and all lines hooked up and got to hear some fire for a brief second before I saw some fuel leaking. New fuel lines and new choke cables (or repairing my old ones) and I will be back on the road.

UPDATE: Not much to report, wife has had me painting the dining room and den this weekend. I did manage to get the radiator empty and got my coolant hoses removed from the spark plug side of the engine. I need to come up with a way to reroute the coolant hose straight to the heater core, versus around the engine to the intake. I need to connect two lines with different diameters. Should not be too hard. In the mean time, I spent some time polishing my valve cover and refinishing my fuel line so it does not look so 'dirty' next to my purdy carbs. Engine is coming together nicely for now, just slowly.

I think mine may have to be called.. "WHAT NOW" AS that seems to be how I always address her.