conedodger

May 21st and 22nd, 2011 The 1st Annual McSwap Meet... Make your plans to come down to Sonoma California for the 1st Annual McSwap Meet! Stake out your spot and set up starting at 9am then McSwap away until 4pm. For those who want to make a trip from out of town, Sunday we will go for a McDrive in the Sonoma - Napa backroads. Lunch will be catered for a nominal fee... This event is named for the host Mark DeBernardi who owns Original Customs a high quality restoration shop in Sonoma California. Mark loves burgers so we call him McMark. We ought to call him Rusty though. This boy has serious skillz with a welder and fabricates some pretty cool rust repair panels. Meet Mark, tour his shop. Unload your 'stuff', get new stuff... Original Customs 19660 Eighth St. East Suite C Sonoma, CA 95476

Gary... Bill... It's taken me all afternoon but I think I am now ready for our next RPM event.

So another Sacramento Z Car Reunion is in the books! We had a surprising turn out. There is a table at the donut shop that seats 16 people and we had that covered and spilled into another table as well. I didn't do an accurate count but we had quite a herd. One of the guys drove up from San Leandro 'just to get some miles on (my) car'. At 1PM we all headed over to RPM for some SPEED THERAPY. With a little teasing and flirting with the RPM babe I managed to get us all in a single group by ourselves. So 5 of us went out on the course in a group without any other people there... Bill Madamba and Gary Cook have the most track experience and it showed as they lapped the field at least twice. Gary ended the session in first with Bill just 5/100 of a second back of his best. Justin, one of the Porsche guys was in third and I was 1/3 second back from him. Don brought up the rear. Because we were only 5 of us on the track, I spent a good deal of time by myself. So when I came up behind Don on the North end of the track, I was just itching to set up a good pass. I stabbed the brakes to set myself up to come out of the corner inside of Don and then jumped on the throttle hard trying to get to the next corner and pinch him off behind me. I would have made it too if I didn't get nailed from behind by Gary who had his own pass in mind! I got punted ahead and lost both of them in the corner while trying to collect myself and get pointed back up track. I passed Don in the corner at the South end and later I told Gary if he was going to hit me that hard from behind he should probably take me out to dinner and some dancing first! Whew!!! It was great fun and we will be doing that again for sure!!! Thanks to all who came!

Time to ring in the new year! The January Sacramento Z Car Reunion - Hangover Event is tomorrow morning! Come on out and start the year with the gang! Bring your hot shoes! Cause after the donuts - it's on baby!!!

Ok, here's the plan! You get home late after having celebrated in moderation on Friday. You wake up a little fuzzy on Saturday. You do the triple S thing. Then, you head up to the donut shop to hang with the Z gang. At 1pm, we head over to RPM where Z car hot shoes will take on the 914 guys! What better way to start the year? Oh well ya, strippers of course but this is a family site!

I did this recently on my 914. One of the first things I noticed was that they were significantly brighter than the originals, which to be fair were probably 40 years old. But still, noticeably brighter. Second thing I noticed was the volt meter change. I had noticed prior to this that whenever my turn signals were on I could watch the volt meter move up and down with the blinking. Also, when the brakes were applied the meter would drop to 12 volts. I still have the drop but not as dramatic and the turn signal draw is no longer visible. I can only conclude that they draw less besides being brighter. As for laws on LED lights in cars not originally equipped, I wouldn't worry about it. For a LEO to find out you have LED lights without your admitting to it would require a consent search. It would have to be a pretty slow day for a LEO to be busting people for LED lights. You would have to have given him or her some other probably cause to bring about the interaction and they would only throw an LED light violation on to stack your offenses.

Two each. Bottom is drain, side is fill.

One week till the January Sacramento Z Car Reunion - Hangover Event. 10am to 1pm hanging with the gang at the donut shop then off to RPM for a little SPEED THERAPY! See you there!

I got pics too! I left about 1:30 after my wife and kid abandoned me and left with friends. (she knows the mother of the owner of Lollicup). The Orangish-red Infinity in the picture just above was the most amazing car there (though the Skyline was unique). There is less than an inch between the spoiler and the ground and the paint is perfect. Never rained while I was there! There were people at this event from Oregon and Nevada!

Consider your adjuster to be a worthy opponent going in. Don't disrespect him by coming to the battle empty handed. First of all, it isn't a bad idea to have an appraisal done every few years on these cars. Have an expert lay eyes and hands on the car and give you a document that outlines his or her credentials and the value of your car. Second, get the classic car value of the car through NADA or Kelley or whomever. All of them if you can and emphasize the high end of the value. Third, get comps. Comps are the asking price of other cars in your cars general area of the same make and model within the year range. So, if your car is a 280Z you could get comps on a late 75 - 78. You can go with 240Z or 260Z values but be prepared to defend your use of these models. If you come with DATA, the adjuster will most likely be willing to work with you. All he needs to see is an owner with a sheet of paper saying his car is worth a 'potential' $30K and he or she will most likely work with you. The other thing is that they are pressured to settle with you by their own bosses. Usually 30 days is the number I hear. Just refuse. Don't call them back, or if they do get you on the phone just say no.

Leaving in 15 minutes! See you all there. Sucks about the rain but oh well... If you cancel everything for bad weather you don't get to live much life I guess...

We plan on being there! You dangle a Pinoy location in front of my wife and you have her hook line sinker!

Just a bit over two weeks to the Sacramento Z Car Reunion. A meeting of the best of the best Sacramento Datsun Peeps. I will be going out to LolliCup with my wife on Sunday for the NorCal Year End Bash and I may distribute some propaganda there too. See you January 1st - 10am to 1pm at the Deli and after that, RPM for Karting!

Adam Carolla says get your butt to the January Sacramento Z Car Reunion and RPM event - January 1st 2011!

Just thought I would add to the fun! After we close up the donut shop, let's head down to RPM Kart Track for a little friendly competition at the indoor track. Who's in? The Sacramento Z Car Reunion Hangover Edition is just a few weeks away!!!

What could be better than donuts and gasoline! We do the donut and coffee thing from 10am to 1pm, then we head over to RPM and tear it up with the karts. If we get enough people committed we can get one group for a race. We need 10 though... Then the Z peeps can take on the 914 peeps for championship of the world!!!

Reproductions are available. Did you want to maintain originality?

Kill that hangover with a donut and some coffee! See you at the Sacramento Z Car Reunion!

Let's start off 2011 with a little Z car motoring! Saturday, January 1st - 10am to 1pm at Family Donuts and Deli in Carmichael. Corner of Fair Oaks Blvd. and San Juan Avenue. Note the later start to give you late night revelers an hour to sleep in. Don't come drunk though!:sick: Because after we do the donut and coffee thing, we head over to RPM to tear up the Kart track! Who's in?

I know a couple people who put the Megasquirt board inside the stock box to drive the stock sensors. Looks original 'cept it's digital.

No thoughts on that. My data are long gone but I did have Brett Industries do the work on the Air Flow Meter and then build a variable tunable resister from the Water Temperature Sensor. John at Brett used to like projects like this but he has sold the company. Maybe someone there will remember the project. I couldn't tune out the lean bog at tip in and at that time, I didn't have an Air/fuel ratio gauge. These are readily available and cheap now. As a side note, I have since then discovered that A/F data without load is not a tuning tool! Duh!!! I would get things perfect in the driveway and then wonder why it sucked on the road. You need either a temporary system you can drive with or a permanent installation. (or a chassis dyno). My point is that I think I was and you are chasing your tail trying to modify the LJet system. It isn't that you aren't smarter than the LJet, it is that the LJet is dumb-as-a-rock. I went with the SDS because it doesn't require laptop tuning. Megasquirt is often preferred by geeks and nerds because of the rich data it provides. This is fine if you want to take the time to learn what all of that means and tweek the system to get a better response. I just want to drive... If you want to stick with the LJet and I think this is certainly a worthy goal on many levels, I think you can find a company that cleans and reconditions the stock ECU. I know the DJet (914 and many others) have this done.

Better yet... I am in the process of switching from carbs on my 914 to twin individual throttle bodies with Ford Red Top injectors and Simple Digital System injection. The ECU will sort out and process input from TPS, CHT, O2 sensor, and MAP. I am replacing the SDS harness with a custom weather proof harness I am having built by an electrical engineer friend. Once this is done, I will consider doing the same on my 73 triple Weber Z. The cost on the Z will increase by one throttle body (twin throat) and two injectors. As some of you may know, I played around with modifications to the stock EFI and outlined them on my website PlanetZ (No longer exists) back in the 90's. I was disappointed with the results. An analog system just doesn't seem to be flexible enough to tolerate modification. I suspect I have a couple thousand dollars in the 914 system and will have another 500 in it before I am done. Other than cold start up which is a bitch to set up on the 914 it should be as drivable as most modern EFI cars. For cold start I am setting up a mechanical throttle called a hand throttle that increases the idle until you move it back to the normal position. This is the same hand throttle used on the six cylinder 914 from the factory. I have just reverse - engineered it.

A woman pregnant with triplets was walking down the street when a masked robber ran out of a bank and shot her three times in the stomach. Luckily the babies were OK. The surgeon decided to leave the bullets in because it was too risky to operate. She gave birth to two healthy daughters and a healthy son. All was fine for 16 years, and then one daughter walked into the room in tears. "What's wrong?" asked the mother. "I was taking a tinkle and this bullet came out," replied the daughter. The mother told her it was okay and explained what happened 16 years ago. About a week later the second daughter walked into the room in tears. "Mom, I was taking a tinkle and this bullet came out." Again the mother told her not to worry and explained what happened 16 years ago. A week later her son walked into the room in tears. "It's okay" said the Mom, "I know what happened. You were taking a tinkle and a bullet came out." "No," said the boy, "I was playing with myself and I shot the dog."

Unfortunately, although he doesn't describe in his listing that the headlight covers are of two different types - early and late, he does show it in the picture and any buyer who disputed would probably lose if he claimed it was clearly shown. Ebay is tilted heavily toward the seller which is of course, how they get paid.

And to you! Oh and all the rest of you too!