steve91tt

I've got a set of 15" American Racing 5 slots on my car. http://www.americanracingwheelsinfo.com/American_Racing_Ansen_Sprint_Slot_Mag.htm

2nd'ed. I have a set of Z Therapy SU's on my 3.0liter and they run great. I may be leaving a few ponies on the table but the 3.0 liter with SU's is way more powerful than the 2.4 liter with SU's and still just as reliable and easy to tune.

You might consider a wideband setup like this one... http://www.amazon.com/AEM-AEM-30-4100-Digital-Wideband-Gauge/dp/B003ITFA9Q/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1290454131&sr=8-3 There are plenty of options out there for nicer interfaces and data logging but they cost more and in the end I think a simple gauge can tell you what you want to know. I was thinking of doing the same. I look forward to seeing your results.

I hope you get it back!

oops. Just noticed that I cannot see the photos from my computer but I can see them from my phone. Must be a firewall issue.

I am interested. Do you have photos?

I owned a 600hp twin turbo Z for 10 years. Shockingly fast daily driver. However, I still prefer the 240Z over it.

You might consider dynomat or similar on the firewall.

For reference here is a clip of mine going up through 3 gears with stock e88 head and cam, SU carbs, 3.0 liter stroker, pace setter 6-2-1 headers, 18" resonator and turbo muffler, 2.5 inch pipe. It's very quiet around town, almost too quiet. It doesn't wake up until you put your foot in it. Even then, as you can hear from the video, it's quite tame.

My car's a daily driver. The extra displacement makes the car much more fun to drive. For me, the fun factor far outweighs any small value I may have sacrificed in not having a numbers matching 1973Z. In the end, most 240Z's are not investment grade cars. Having the original engine is not a big deal in a non-investment grade car. IMO.

Not the fuel pump relay as I have the power for the relay bypassed to a remote switch. Thanks for the feedback guys, looks like the consensus is that I should be able to keep driving it and if starts consistently acting up then start feeling around the relay cluster until I find the bad actor.

I'd love to find it but it's intermittent and I have not been able to make it happen when I have my tools near by. I can tell you that it comes from the passenger side foot well but beyond that I haven't been able to get much more information. If it starts clicking and I can get my hand down there before it stops I should be able to figure out which one is making the noise or if it fails completely then I will just look for what system(s) stopped working. Is there a better way to check a flaky relay?

When I turn my key to the run position (without starting) I can hear what sounds like a relay clacking back and forth. Everything in the car seems to work but I want to make sure that there is not a mission critical relay that is starting to fail. If it's a relay that is starting to go flaky then I'm quite content to let it fail as long as it isn't needed to drive the car. I went through the FSM and I can't find a relay that would leave me stranded if it failed. Did I miss any? Can anyone think of a relay that could put me on the end of a tow truck in a stockish 1973 240Z?

The Rebello 3.0 liter made the straights easier to deal with. I would say that I could out accelerate 25-50% of the folks in my run group. If I could only reproducibly get the corners right! Next time.

My biggest seating problem came at the end of a long left sweeping left hander where I had to down shift to 3rd to setup for the next corner. I had to really contort to move my foot from the dead pedal to the clutch. That sort of move with slick seats is much more physically challenging than I would have ever thought. I went over the car last night and it looks like she came through the weekend in great shape (besides the loose diff mount). I used little or no oil, the brake pads look to be +75% still there. I bled the brakes and adjusted the rear drums for good measure but I don't think I really even needed to do so. I am very impressed with how this little car did on the track. I waved a bunch of faster cars by me but for my last lap in the Z I passed as many as passed me. Can't wait for the next session!

A few photos from the event...

Torqued them to 60 ft#s as per fsm and went for a test drive. All seems good. Thanks again guys!

Dave, I have one of your R/T mounts. It worked flawlessly The issue was on the mustache bar end of the diff.

Thanks for the responses guys. I took another look at the universals etc and while I was there I found that the track mechanic mis-diagnosed the rear mount for the diff. He was checking all the mounts with a pry bar but the rear mount is solid to the mustache bar. If you pry on it there is no play but it turns out that the bolts were loose enough to cause the diff to rock side to side. It's raining very hard here so I can't really test drive it right now but after tightening the bolts it no longer thuds when you rock the car back and forth in gear. Hopefully this is a $0 fix. My favorite kind!

After a recent track event my car started making a thud when transitioning on and off of gas. Background... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41028 The track mechanic put the car up on the lift and diagnosed the problem as a bad differential. However, after searching the forums I can't find a rear end thud that has been tied to a bad diff. From what I read when the diff goes bad it generally gets loud or fails catastrophically. My car does not exhibit and new gear noise it just thuds on and off gas. It also thuds rocking the car back and forth with the e-brake engaged. I checked the usual suspects with the track mechanic: prop shaft: A little play on the diff end but not too bad. diff mounts: front and rear seem fine mustache bar mounts: seems fine. suspension: no obvious slop on either front or rear suspension motor and trans mounts: A little loose but nothing that looks like it would thud exhaust system: Seems solid Any advice?

The GT3 was incredible very tight and great feedback but I only did 5 slow laps in it and that was enough for me. That thing costs more than my house! The owner warned me how tail happy and unforgiving it can be. He spun it 3 times during the weekend and he really didn't drive it that fast. I used to own a 600HP twin turbo Z. I know how tail happy cars can reach out and bite you. Even at slow speeds I could feel that the GT3 handled the corners differently than either the Z or G. The tires seemed to scrub earlier than I expected but I wasn't anywhere close to seeing what it did at the limit.

The instructor did five laps in my car with me in the passenger seat before I took the wheel. He didn't push it (8/10's?). I think he was afraid of hurting it. He said that he thought that the car was too nice for the track on several occasions. He was a newly minted instructor, I was his first student. I had no complaints with his style or teaching abilities. He definitely gave me more information than I could process at times but I'd rather have too much information than not enough. This track stuff is much harder than it looks. It's going to take me a bunch more seat time with an instructor before I become a fluid driver. There's just too much for my brain to process. More has to become reflex.

My instructor was pushing me towards tracking the G until I have a better feel for high speed driving and then move to the Z. He believes that I spend too much time dealing with the limitations of the car when I drive the Z. In other words, he believes that if I drive the G I can focus more on technique rather than how to keep my butt off the console in a long sweeper.

I have no experience with diffs. There is no obvious pinion deflection when you rock the car back and forth in gear. I assume something has happened to change the alignment of the ring and pinion. It's probably rebuild-able but from what I'm reading a R200 upgrade is a better option with the extra power of the 3.0 liter under the hood.

I would like to try AutoX one day but a busted diff is not going to keep me off of the big track. WAY too much fun.