Zed Head

Sounds like what you're asking about is whether you should temporarily brace things before you remove the old body reinforcements, AKA "frame rails". The body is a unibody, or monocoque, chassis, basically just a steel box with strategically placed reinforcement, like the frame rails. If you want to get a better feel for it, just do a Google on unibody or monocoque and you'll find a bunch. There are several "boxed" sections around the body that are important, mostly on the edges, like the rocker panels and the door and windshield openings. The frame rails are kind of secondary to the major boxed sections, like the rocker panels. The Body chapter shows cross sections of all of the boxed areas. I wrote all of that stuff because you used the word frame. There's no frame. Anyway, I've read that removing the floors in order to put new ones in can lead to flexing. The floors are a critical part of the steel box. So just think of it as a steel box and support areas so that the box can't twist. Probably just well-placed jack stands are enough.

I meant diameter. I learned a while ago that the first number is the sidewall width (I thought it was tread width), which is important. But the second is the ratio of width to height. So you need the calculator to know the final dimension. 205's seem to work well as far as rubbing goes, although some brands do rub. I had 205/70-14's and one brand rubbed slightly on hard corners and the other didn't. the car was lowered about an inch. Low profile tires will give a rougher ride. So, it all depends on what you're trying to achieve. Looks, performance, comfort, or a combination. I don't think I've seen anyone talk about a 55 series on their car. Don't forget offset also, that needs to be right or you'll get rubbing. You can also roll or cut the wheelwell edges to get an extra 1/4 inch.

How does the size compare to stock? There are calculators. That would be a good starting point.

Not a lot to do in Richland. Close to Hanford. Pretty dry out there. I used to tell people that there was desert in Washington and they had a hard time believing. It's not all rain. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSC_North_America

I think it's only the insulator length that is changed. Your drawings show a longer threaded portion but I don't think that's right. Here's NGK's stuff. Look at the porcelain. Threads are the same though. https://www.ngk.com.au/technical_info/heat-range/

Food for thought, if you would rather avoid removing the head. That area should be an unpressurized area, it only sees oil that drips down from the valve and timing chain sprocket area. So, you could probably reseal it from the outside without removing anything. Clean it up well, maybe dig out the old gasket, spray it with some cleaner. Then put some RTV on the gap and work it in to create a new gasket. Just a thought. There should be a bunch on the site about head removal and replacement. Try words like "shaved head", engine rebuild, rocker arms, cam replacement, etc. Can't really guess on "while you're there" stuff unless the condition of the engine is known. Timing chain, for example, might be worth doing. Valve guides, why not? Once you get the head off you'll want to measure flatness. Might need a skim. Then maybe some head saver shims. You'll probably break a head bolt, of course. Might as well resurface the exhaust manifold, it probably needs it. And you'll probably break an exhaust manifold bolt or two. But it'll all be fun.

Shouldn't need a hammer for the drums. But, as you can see, none of the kits seem to be very well put together. There's no way to pick a "best". There is one advantage to the discs in that the pedal height varies less. With drums, the pedal will drop a bit until the next click on the self-adjuster. The Zstore kits look like they'll al give the same performance on the street. They just do more work on getting the parts for you. The more parts, the more expensive. Performance about the same, except for maybe if you race, with the Stage 2 kit. You could probably get their basic kit and do some Rockauto shopping and be done, for the best price.

I screwed up and posted a link to Hybridz about a different kit. Not the ZStore kit. Looks Like Joseph at the ZStore never replied to my notification anyway. Still, they should be able to send you the instructions before you buy. But, as people are saying - why?

Recheck the plug first.

I've read that detonation can cause the plug gap to close. Detonation does a lot of damage, it can look foreign object damage on the piston top. All it takes is a hot day, some low octane fuel, maybe having the timing off a bit. I like Mark's suggestion. Try a new plug and see how it does. Everything else looks pretty good, the pressure numbers and the other plugs. The pressure numbers are on the high end though, which might mean a high CR, which might be a reason for detonation. If you do hear knocking you can just dial the timing back a few degrees and should be safe.

Derek over on Hybridz is a really capable guy. He has designed, cast, and built his own cylinder for the L6's, among many other things. He is a member here also. He had some comments about the ZCD kit. https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/131360-rear-disk-kit-from-zcar-depot-anyone-using-it/

Go back to something that worked before.

They're black. See if either is grounded. Meter time.

Greggers13 bid $110,000, up from $105,000 by dfwelite, and both let themselves get outbid by $1,000. I think the comments started to stick. The funny thing now is that, even though it was presented as an untouched survivor, it probably needs to be touched now. It needs the refresh that people were saying it has already had.

Should people feel bad? Seems like the car was not presented properly. Shouldn't have been so many questions to be asked.

The reserve was above $111,000, apparently.

Thanks for sharing this AK. Sorry that your father, and your family, have been caught up in this mess. Better days are ahead, I hope. The work to find solutions is continuing despite all of the chaos.

I found something on the wheels and caps. There's a lot of info in those pictures. Pierre did it in 2017. Picture #324. Also noticed that it still had the CA license plates, 615 DLK. The current owner must live in Nevada! Edit 4:47 pm - @lonetreesteve I just saw your comments on the BAT listing about the wheel caps. Why would Pierre "restore two caps" one way and two another way? Really looks more like he bought two from one place and either restored or bought two others from another place. Either didn't notice the difference or didn't say anything about it. Who knows. Just odd. 246 has done quite a bit on ID'ing the eBay repro caps and how they're being passed off as real. @240260280

Edit - Flat plates are actually a thing on the interweb. http://www.andrewturnbull.net/plates/flat.html If I read the BAT copy right it says that the car was licensed in Nevada in either 2002 when Malamut got it or in 2017 when the current owner got it. The world of custom license plates has turned in to a huge business for the states. Look at all of the choices on just the Nevada web site. They change them up all the time to keep the market happy. You can get your favorite university, football team, environmental cause...almost anything that you can think of. So It would not be a surprise if even last year's plate is different from the 2020 choice. As far as embossing versus flat - flat plates are cheaper to make. All of the plates in my part of the country have been flat for several years. Wob took the car for a drive on public roads and he is a professional car salesman. I'm not seeing even a hint that somebody put fake plates on the car, with fake tags. It would just be too dumb. No offense. Beside that, it doesn't really have anything to do with selling the car. Nothing to do with being a 1971 240Z. It would be pointless.

Could a Z expert get on there and explain repro parts to these guys? Lots of dancing around the fact that two of the caps are from eBay.

Might be a Vintage plate from 2002. I can't imagine a car collector and auto dealer sticking fake tags on a license plate. That would be absurd. Any cop would be all over it as soon as they saw it on the road. Here's today's. https://dmvnv.com/platesclassic.htm

So, just to sum things up, there's an undisclosed owner who bought the car from Malamut in 2017 and Wob is selling it for him now in 2020. Does that sound right? Wonder why today's owner is selling it, and why is it still at the Collection site, after three years. Just questions. The paperwork, registration, etc. up to today would be interesting to see. Seems to end in 2018. The last few puzzle pieces... The tags expire this month. Maybe he doesn't want to pay the fee.

Interesting how the internet lets us track the path of things through time now. It's not really an investment unless he hopes to make a profit reselling it, right? And it's not a great one until he does. At least, investing as it's meant in financial terms. And car collecting "passion" (type from the Malamut web site), and investing aren't really the same thing. Nothing wrong with either, they're just not the same. The Malamut collection looks like a really enjoyable business to own and run, that's for sure though. He gets to do both, make money and collect cars, together. But other collectors just need to be very aware of the first part.

1997 maybe.

Is it the blue one? Weird that it has 31,000 miles also. Loaned FROM his personal collection. TO the Foundation??? For display and business purposes? It still seems to be there. Edit - actually I see that some of the cars are PART OF the collection. Where are the loaned cars, I wonder. The world of money. It's a strange place.