Zedyone_kenobi

UPDATE: Okay, I got a small case of the while I was at its, and took off the thermostat hosing and the upper radiator hose. I ordered all new seals and hoses, since, you know, I was there. Now here was an adventure. The bolt was so corroded into the thermostat housing the head snapped right off. OH JOY! Three hours later and some delicate tapping with a rubber mallet I got the housing to loosen it's death grip on the sheared bolt. Now with only 1/4" of bolt sticking out of the head, I had to say my prayers to the good Lord above, said a few to Budda and Allah, just in case they were car nuts too, never hurts to be thorough, and clamped a vice grip to the last remaining threads to see if the bolt would unscrew. You know many things go through your mind when you attempt something like this. You have this feeling like you know there is a smarter way to do this, but at this point your caveman instincts from the Pre Cambrian period surface and you just want to pick up the car and throw it. Long story not so long, the bolt nicely unscrewed. Thank the Lord. OR Allah, Or Budda, hell I even thanked my wife. Kept cleaning things up, put some new paint on the thermostat housing and the heat shield, and started to do some final thread cleaning on the heads. One question folks. I asked Ztherapy to block of the water passages from the intake. So the water line that does form the thermostat housing to the intake, I assume I can just plug. Also, I should be able to remove the line running around the back of the engine as well. Is this correct. From the looks of it, the coolant does not need this flow path to function correctly. Any thoughts. I have to go see if Black Dragon or MSA sells bolts for the Thermostat housing now. I love working on my car.

You know I never thought of that!

THat looks like the same one. I need to study your post to see how you got it on. THey look similar. I will take pics to see if they are identical, but I have the bleeders on my engine side just like you! Got a part number recommendation Arne? ha ha

not solid. Looks like it has a flared tip on one end. I did find a wharehouse that sells brass plugs that are flat. It would give me the extra half inch I need.

Well I am embarrassed to say this, but I hope my Z friends will bare with me. When I installed my ITG air cleaners it was a temporary fix. My problem was that after I removed my stock air cleaner, I honestly could not get it back on. My Master cylinder (non Z original part, has been replaced somewhat recently by PO) has ports on each side to facility easier routing I would imagine. My brakes come out of the fender side of the master cylinder. The plugs put in the side that face the air cleaner are too long to allow the air cleaner to be put back on. I know what all of your are thinking. If I can get it off, I should be able to put it back on. NO SO says I!!! I was able to stick a wrench inside the air cleaner and loosen the nuts on either side of the carb. I cannot even get my hand inside to start the bolts with the long master cylinder plugs sticking so far into the engine bay. So what I need are super short plugs for the master cylinder so I can get my newly refurbished air cleaner back on. Any ideas?

I need to go get mine, I do not have it memorized. Is that bad? WAIT, its in my signature line..! haha HLS30-38691

Great I just ordered one of those Gates pullys, from AMAZON of all places!!!

Paging Dr. Palmer, Paging Dr. Bruce Palmer. the experts at Z therapy on this sight are the closest things to Carb Gods we have in this country. I would imagine they can help you.

What great timing for this thread. My idler pulley on my system is screaming as well. Did any of yours look like this? Let me know guys. Wow, come to think of it. My bracket looks kind of rusty..

I wish I could tell you. The header was like that when I bought the car. I am thinking of sending it off to get redone. It is looking a bit worse for wear.

UPDATE: Due to the amazing great weather we had yesterday I spent the morning removing my intake to prepare for the installation. Everything went very straight forward for the most part. I spilled more coolant that I would have liked, but that was only a 10 minute diversion. THe hardest part of this by far was removal of the studs. Two gave me grief, the others came out rather nicely with using the old two nut method. I also soaked most of them with liquid wrench the day before, which may or may not have helped. I think having a header instead of a stock exhaust manifold gave me more clearance to work as well. ON to the pics... First pic is my box that I used to keep track of my studs and where they came from. I usually use a piece of cardboard as it is nice to make notes on as you go. THe next pic recalls something that was said earlier on this post. Gasket differences. The lower gasket is the one off the car. Obviously not a stock one. Notice the metal contact surfaces for the header to rest against. This is like the ultra high quality gaskets I use to use when I rebuild V8's. Above is the meager-by-comparison MSA gasket. I think I want to find another gasket like the one below. Here is the engine so far. All the studs removed, no casualties yet. I have been using scotch bright to clean up the surface of the header and head. It feels very smooth, and I think will seal quite well. Here is the old intake and carbs. You can also see the new intake/exhaust stud kit ready to go back in... THats all for now. ONe question though. I have read some posts on other car forums that its horrible to use antisieze on studs/bolts/spark plugs for aluminum heads. This goes against everything I have ever done. Does anybody have any more insight to this. MY dad is a retired A&P mechanic, and says they use antisieze on aluminum heads all the time. MOre updates to follow. I have to start sanding my heat shield for refinishing.

My header was Jet Hot coated, not sure how long ago, and I run the factory heat shield. I am going to send the heat shield off to be powercoated with a high temp coating. I was even thinking of doing a reflective barrier on the back of the heat shield, Think McLaren F1 supercar. Of course I would not use 24 karat gold, but I could find something that has good insulating properties.

Sure, I will snap some off tonight! Thanks very much! Got your PM by the way, I am going to check with the calender! and by calender I mean boss. And by boss I mean wife.

The beauty of the ZX is that they were factory installed. The 71 240 was a hodgepodge of dealer add ons. Mine appears to be a hand made mount that is pretty crude! Frank, how much would one of those compressors run by any chance.

THat is a very nice DIY. Good on ya!

Good Luck on it! I was fortunate as somebody has already beaten me to removing the smog pump. I already have a header, so it sounds like they saved me a ton of work! I think what I may do is try do a photo documentary on this. It will give step by step directions to future Z a holics. Plus as a bonus, it will allow me to track my progress so I can get back to where I was if I forget where something went.

UPDATE: Today I got a baseline reading on my currently installed factory carbs. There is no telling how many times these have been messed with, but I slapped my new edlebrock sync tool I got from Bruce on there at idle with the engine warm and the carbs are FAR from balanced. ONe shot the red cup up to almost the 4th line. The back carb only managed to barely move it to the first. Since I am going to take these off, and they do run what I thought was well. I am looking forward VERY much to seeing how well she will run with a balanced set of carbs on there. PS. I adjusted the fast idle screw up to 3000 rpm per the SU video and the readings were far more even. But the front carb was still reading higher. I think I may have a vacuum leak in the back carb somewhere. Still all bolts are currently sitting in penetrating fluid, so the removal will start soon. My new intake/exhaust studs have arrived, as have my new air cleaner decals, filter, and my orange paint is on order. I have my new MSA intake/exhaust gasket waiting installation. Fun times ahead. Just if your curious. I adjusted the mixture nut on the bottom of the carb on the rear carb to see if I could get it to come in to match the front, and it had no effect. I think I recall that is how you adjust them at idle. I will have to watch the SU video again. Its wonderful by the way!

Okay I was starting to warm up the engine today to get a baseline readings on my original set of SU' before I remove the intake and install my new Ztherapy carbs. However, their was a prolonged screaming that was audible above the engine. I got out my 3 foot screwdriver and listened to every thing that rotates. Sure enough it was the tensioner for the AC right in front of the valve cover (you can see it in between the front of the valve cover and fan, sorry for the old picture). I removed the belt and the noise stopped. When I spin it, its very rough sounding as I think its bearing has given up the ghost so to speak. Now as we all know the AC units on our cars were installed in various manner by the dealer. In 1971, they were probably all not the same units and I think trying to find a replacement is going to be tough. Having said that, I have not tried to take it off yet, and maybe there would be a bearing place that can match one up and press it in. Any thoughts.

I agree, as I felt what your talking about. The narrow tires allow you to feel more. Hope they give you years of fun. Let me know more of how you like/dislike them. I am about to pull my manifold and carbs off, as I just started my Ztherapy carb switch over. Looking forward to the difference they will make.

I am sort of with Arne on this. I do not want to do any drastic mods to my Z. When I bought it the suspension was already done and it had a header. But I think that those are things that were done in the 70's and not drastically out of character for the car. I do not want new seats, or a fancy radio. I just want to make it stock or better than stock with things like Z's wiring harness, and new bushings some poly some not. I really do not find the car has any real bad habits when I drive it. It is a fairly balanced car. I never feel is underpowered or slow, and engine is always eager. It is really astonishing how good these things were from the factory.

Your compliments are very appreciated... but my garage is filthy now. Lots of dust and dirt from the construction going on in my neighborhood. It needs to be swept and mopped soon. That lower left thing is an extension cord to my shopvac. I want a wall mount so I can tuck it away. I used UCoatIt on the floor, and would recommend it to anybody. If you need extra pics let me know. In your decision for pole positions vs Grips, what is your priority? If you lean toward performance, get the pole positions.. no questions. If you lean toward comfort more, get the Grips. That is my best advice.

I am going to rewire all the electrical connections from my ignition, resistor, coil, etc. I can go to Pepboys, Oriely's etc and get some wire, but I was wondering if anybody has a good source of bulk high quality wiring, with good insulation. Zs-ondabrain, I am looking at you.. haha;)

here are some pics of my tires.. sorry for the really bad pics.. but I did not have time to pull the car out last night, I was making my wife a surprise dinner. I know you would rather see side shots. I can work on that this weekend.

good luck with your decision Arne, I look forward to what you end up with. I know it will be classy. I am currently loving my ANSA tip, so I will throw that back into your head. The sound is intoxicating especially through tunnels and under overpasses.

NO problem. I will snap some for you this evening. To be perfectly honest, I cannot tell the difference in size at all. It is so close to the naked eye, it looks identical. Let me snap some pics for you. 215's would have rubbed really bad for me as well. I like the looks of the 195's. I am loving the refinement of the Grips I bought, but I do wish they had a stiffer sidewall. I am still a corner carver at heart, and the Z is so much fun to drive into and out of the corners. If I had my choice again... I would definitely go with a 195/60/15 again, but I would probably go with a summer tire vs an all season. What I gained in ride quality, I lost in all out steering feel.