Healey Z

You have inspired me. I went an bought a tube bender and double flaring tool yesterday. I need to find a source for the foam filters. That was my first choice, but have not been able to find one.

Blue - Excellent suggestions, thank you

I have two projects in mind and would like your input. 1. I would like a nice clean balance tube, without all the plugged holes and extra and unused mounts. I think ZTherapy has them $160 +$50 core + shipping, which is too much for me. I'm thinking of finding one (anyone have an extra for cheap?), JB weld bolts in them, then grind them flush, a little body work and a coat of paint (like it has now). Thoughts? 2. The air horns on there now look cool and British, but do not offer any air filtering. I'm thinking of fabricating an air cleaner for them and then I can get rid of the do-hickey on the valve cover and run a hose to the air cleaner. Thoughts?

They were syc'd prior to adjusting the mixture, but not checked afterward. I'm running 10 degrees. I drove it a good 50 miles today and had my foot in it a lot of the time. The car scoots pretty good and sounds great.

Wow is all I can say. 1 1/2 turns richer on one carb, 1 turn richer on the other and it is a completely different running motor. I'm sure it is not perfect, but it certainly solved the problem to a large extent. I'm still going to see if I can find a colortune for a reasonable price and I should have sync tool by Tuesday and then I will get these guys really dialed in.

Thanks for info. I will be fiddling with the carbs Saturday morning and also looking for a colortune. That looks like a good tool to have in the toolbox.

5150, Thanks, for the comments. I actually had a guy come to my house and give me a hand with the balancing and mixture settings. I don't have the video, but did buy a syc tool yesterday, so I can walk through the procedure myself. Tomorrow I will try the lifting of the piston and listen to the engine idle. Anyone have the ZTherapy dvd they would like to sell? QUESTION. I suspect the car is running lean. If I lift the piston and it stumbles, do I turn the screw out (meaning looking up at the carbs from the ground, turning clockwise looking) As for the paint. I had a local guy do it. It is base coat, clear coat, cut and polished. His spray booth is junk, but his work fantastic. This is the second project car he has done for me, and won't be the last. You can really see how deep the paint is, as well as see the paint booth in the reflection. He is up in Roseville CA and his pricing is very good. If anyone is in Nor Cal, and wants his info, let me know.

tlorber, I had the intake surfaced at a machine shop and torque it down to spec when I assembled it. Worth double checking though, thx.

Thank you for the replies. Yes there are air horns on the carbs. I had to replace one of the floats (which didn't float) and I cannot say that I saw the means to change the float level? It has an electric fuel pump and it provides plenty of gas, as evidenced by what came out of the vent tube when my float wasn't working. It is quite possible that it is running lean and I will focus my efforts on learning how to properly tune the SU's.

I found this project car that was kept under tarps in a not so nice part of Oakland CA. It had a Datsun 280ZX drive train with a custom intake with down draft webers. The swap was done 25 years ago. There was very little rust which was repaired and painted a nice BRG. I swapped the tired Z motor with a fresh one and put on some stock SU's. I had the 5speed trans rebuilt. Starts great, idles fine. Has petronix disti module that I had installed on the old motor and ran fine. I replaced the plugs, cap, rotor, checked timing, swapped out the wires, so I really don't think it is ignition related. The SU's are new to the motor (and me). A great guy that races Datsun and owns a number of them came to my house and adjusted and balanced the SU's. They have 20w oil in them. When it is cruizing, it stumbles. When I just put the pedal to the floor when it is low in the rpm range, it stumbles. When I accelerate smoothly, it does pretty good. Any recommended trouble shooting ideas?

Assuming you are replacing it, nothing to think about. Even if you are using it, I agree that it would be to match up any wear that had happened to that point. Frankly, even when I have reused the pressure plate, which has been many of times, I have never marked them.

To clean the inside you could always bring it to a machine shop and have it hot tanked. They may charge you $20 or so. If not, get some bottle brushes and your solvent of choice and go to town. The cast aluminum color paint, that I am very happy with for the outside: Dupli-color engine enamel, DE1650 Cast Coat Aluminum. What I like about it is that it does NOT have that fake, shiny silver, rattle canned, amateurishly look that is often achieved when rattle canning an engine.

On the intake....degrease, then take a wire brush to it. Followed by a high temp aluminum color paint. I can go get the actual one I used if you want it. Note that when I took these pics, things weren't tightened up yet, rather still getting the SU's to fit in the engine bay.

Very nice find. Get it running good and leave that thing stock!

Very unlikely to find someone to trade for your car. Get your car running and sell it for a $1000. Bring those $100 bills with you when looking at some Z that is in someone's way...and you can strike some great deals.

The good thing....no rust!

those are 3236 downdraft webers. Redline is the authorized North American distributor

Put some 20W oil in the carb and put too much. Where does it flow to? Will it mess anything up? Should I remove the carb, dump it out and start over before I start for the first time?

strip the engine down, wire wheel, prep, paint everything to taste. Have your exhaust manifold sandblasted, use POR manifold paint. alternator after being cleaned up...vs. area it came off of.

The Z appeals to a broader crowd. You will get more people approach you in the Z than a newer Porsche. You see plenty of 911's on the road...far fewer 240z's.

Hey Bonzi, I think that no matter what, I will need to be doing some cutting and welding to get the lengths right. Hopefully one of the sources I am pursuing will come through.

Thanks guys. I spoke with Bruce and sent Roger an email. That is a good idea on the cable, and probably the quickest and the lowest cost solution, but I am inclined to get a working mechanical solution.

I'm trying to put this car together and the leads I had on these pieces have gone cold. Anyone know where I could get these carb linkage parts?

Thanks Dobber. Fortunately my model (3000) has disc brakes up front and the car actually stops pretty good. I am getting close.....cut/paste of my to do list: - Re-do trans mount - Cut/weld exhaust - Get Z throttle linkage - Get PCV hose - Get velocity stacks / air cleaner - Figure out AH pedal to Z throttle linkage - Reassemble/tighten

I did order it, so we'll see tomorrow. I'm pretty confident either probably would work, it looks like they simply changed the routing, but they go to the same places.