Walter Moore

Welcome to the group. There is plenty of good information here just search a little and many mysteries will be solved.

Actually, Volvo started putting "million mile" odometers in their cars as early as 1969. I knew someone who had a 69, and my 74 had 123,000+ miles showing when I bought the car. On the other hand, I owned a lot of cars from the 80's and 90's that rolled over at 99,999 +1. I don't know the details, but I thought the decision on adding that extra digit was company specific.

You are limited by the back spacing of the wheel. On a 240Z anything more than about 5 inches will cause the tire to rub on the spring, or the strut housing at the bottom of the spring. I am not sure about the 260/280, but I suspect they are similar. The "back spacing" is the distance from the square-up (mounting) surface to the inner flange (car side) of the wheel. This is different from offset, which is the distance from the square-up to the center-line. For a 245/45 on an 8 inch wheel you have a section width of 243mm, which means you need an offset of 5mm or less. (That is just a rough guess, don't take it as undisputed truth.) The springs will rub on the tire, not the wheel, so you need to use the tire section width, more so than just the wheel width when trying to calculate if a tire/wheel combination will fit on the car. Tires will have a slightly different section width depending upon the wheel to which they are mounted. BTW, I don't know about racing applications, but I have a 2002 edition of the Tire and Rim Association standards book, and they list the "Measuring Rim Width" (nominal wheel width) for a 245/45 tire (in both 16 and 17) as 8 inches. The approved rim contours are 7 1/2J 8J, 8 1/2J, and 9J (J means passenger car bead profile.) The nominal wheel width for a 225/45 is listed as 7 1/2 inches. That means nothing from a racing perspective, but for street use an 8 inch wheel would be considered the typical width for a 245/45 tire.

What is in my garage? * My 71 240Z (My summer time toy.) * 5 bicycles (including one tandem that I can't get anyone to ride with me...) * My 67 Wheel Horse tractor with a snow plow. (My winter time toy...) All 5 of our other cars sleep outside. (Including the 08 Mustang GT... You have to have priorities in life...)

The red arrow is your expansion tank, and the blue and green lines are the hoses that connect between the main fuel tank and the expansion tank. You will want to replace those hoses. They can be bought either as generic fuel hoses, or as custom Nissan parts. I did the generic using instructions on this site. It worked but it was a pain and required some custom fitting. If I was going to do it over I would buy the genuine Nissan parts. Actually that goes for just about everything that I cobbled together on my car now that I think about it... I guess after six years of making second best parts fit I have begun to see the value in doing it right in the first place. I may be a slow learner, but I can learn. :stupid:

From a fellow 71 owner, welcome to the club!

But the stuff isn't permanent. I used it to patch up the heater core in one of my cars a few years back just to try to make it past the rest of the winter. It lasted a couple of months, then one day the heater core basically exploded on the interstate. Ever tried to drive at 65 MPH with every window rolled down to vent the hot steam out of your dash when it is below zero (F) out side? In retrospect it is funny, but only because I lived... By the way, that stuff smells really BAD inside the car. My point is, it will not hold forever, and whatever is causing the leak will eventually get worse.

Actually in many part of the U.S. (Like Indiana...) selling the VIN plate and title to a junk car IS illegal. A few years back several people from a local salvage yard went to jail for doing just that.

Nice garage! As for the holes, that depends on what you can do, and how you want to use the car. A LOT of the advice here is always to weld in new metal. That makes sense if you intend to drive the car fairly often and are likely to get the repaired area wet at some point. If you rivet a patch in place, the multiple layers of metal will hold any water to which the repaired area is exposed, and the old metal will rust away quicker than if you had done nothing. On the other hand, when you weld in a new piece of metal, be aware that the weld will rust first. Now if you are like me, and only intend to drive the car on sunny summer days, and are willing and able to always leave it parked in a nice comfy garage when the weather is wet or snowing, then patching the holes with sheet metal and pop rivets is both cheaper and perfectly acceptable. Understand however that doing this will lower the car's market value significantly. It is your choice, based on your intentions for the vehicle and expectations of its future value. Fair warning to anyone who might at some time consider buying my Z: There are over 1000 pop rivets in my car, and I know this because I put them there!

Most of the CO-OPs around here sell soydesel with the road use taxes included, so that doesn't have to be a problem. There is even one station around here that is selling E85 (ethanol) for $2.99/gallon (compared to $3.79/gallon for regular unleaded) At that price, it almost makes running ethanol economically feasible. But you would have to have one of the new flex fuel vehicles to be able to take advantage of the price difference. And worse yet, if congress scales back or eliminates the subsidies on ethanol the price will go higher than gasoline. But there is risk to everything I suppose.

Actually 1000 ppm is 0.1% (1000/1000000)*100% = 0.1% Somehow the previous quote kept bothering me, so I had to do the math to prove to myself that I wasn't crazy. (Well I may be crazy but I can do basic math) Also, to quote this previously posted link: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1049812 "A higher level of ZDP was good for flat-tappet valve-train scuffing and wear, but it turned out that more was not better. Although break-in scuffing was reduced by using more phosphorus, longer-term wear increased when phosphorus rose above 0.14%. And, at about 0.20% phosphorus, the ZDP started attacking the grain boundaries in the iron, resulting in camshaft spalling." I suspect that the study he mentioned explains why none of the oils listed on the Mobil-1 chart contain more than 1200 ppm phosphorus. Everything that I read on this subject comes back to flat tappets. Actually this makes sense, because unlike the L6 motors where there is clearance between the cam and the rocker arm most of the time, on a flat tappet motor the lifter is in constant contact with the cam. This is particularly true in engines with hydraulic lifters. (read American V8s) If you read the thread discussion further, the people who contradict the "debunker" are talking about high lift OHV engines with high spring pressures. (Street rods etc.) Again, those are not an apples to apples comparison to the valve geometry of most OHC engines, and are definitely different from an L6. To those who are adding extra ZDDP, remember the saying in chemistry: "It is the dose that makes the poison." It appears from the quote above that when the phosphorus level in your oil reaches 1400ppm the camshaft will actually wear faster. Phosphorus is corrosive itself. Too much ZDDP is apparently worse than too little. Just trying to be helpful.

Leonard, I can't really help because I don't have a fuel injected Z, but by replying to your question I am "bumping" it back up to the top of the list on the home page. Hopefully it will stay on the recent list until SBlake or one of the other people with fuel injection experience see it. I suspect that the fuel pump is not supposed to run even with the ignition on, unless the engine has oil pressure (Indicating that it is running) or you are cranking the engine. By the way, what year Z car do you have? Mentioning that detail helps everyone involved to hone in on the answer that you seek.

Wasn't the original debate about the level of ZDDP during the break-in period?

Been there, done that, twice. Nice car by the way...

Basically I am finished putting my Z back together (I almost said "restore" then though better of it. Resurrected would be a better description...) Anyway, the thing runs REALLY well, and I drive it more than I intended to when I started. But it will never be a daily driver. The rust monster lurks too closely here for that. About the only things left that I will eventually finish are to replace the windshield, door gaskets, and dash lights. But really none of those things are high priority. The crack in my windshield is not in the driver's "field of view" which is the legal test in this state, so I could leave it alone indefinitely. All of the important dash lights work except the temperature and oil pressure gauges. And so long as I avoid automatic car washes the door seals aren't really an issue. I confess that I have been making up excuses to drive the Z. In fact, I just returned from a "quick" trip to the grocery store...:cheeky:

Thanks for the disclaimer, I will keep it in mind. I have used full synthetic oil in all of my cars for years, and have personally observed the difference in engine wear between synthetic and "normal" oil. I tend to agree that for people who live in very warm climates there may not be much benefit, but here in the great white North there is a difference. I have owned a lot of cars, and have used both types of oil. I am convinced. But thanks for your input.

I am not sure if I posted these links in the other thread, but there is some useful information on the Mobil One web site regarding this question: http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Car_Care/AskMobil/ZDDP_Levels_Classic_Cars.aspx http://www.mobiloil.com/USA-English/MotorOil/Car_Care/AskMobil/Zinc_Motor_Oils.aspx As the second link says, he offending metal that has been removed is phosphorus, not zinc. (But since ZDDP contains both, I guess the effect is the same.) Also follow the link (on both pages) to the PDF document showing the phosphorus content of various oils. I have been running my 240Z on their 0W-40 since last fall. The oil pressure is more consistent, and I feel safer. It probably doesn't really make that much difference however since the real problem is apparently on cars with "flat tappets" (read push rod motors like old school American V8's)

The sad news is that the rust you can see is only a fraction of the rust that this present.

Cool video. Interesting that he says that the car feels like it has more than 480 HP, because in the latest issue (I think it was the latest issue) of Car and Driver they have an article that claims they put two different GT-Rs on a chassis dyno and recorded over 505HP at the wheels. C&D is claiming that the cars that have been presented to the car mags and other reviewers must have much more than the claimed 480 horsepower, perhaps as much as 520. (I don't remember how they calculated that number, or even it is exactly what they said.) Car and Driver stated their case and left the rest of the question unasked, namely will the production cars also have more power than claimed, or...

I fought with the brakes on my car for months because the pedal was perpetually soft. Eventually I just gave up and replaced every part that I wasn't sure was in perfect condition, from the master cylinder and the wheel cylinders, to the rear drums. When I got it all back together, they work perfectly. I wish I could give you an easier answer... By the way, the first time I installed pads on the front of my car I forgot to install shims at all. Talk about shrieking brakes... Lesson learned, the hard way as usual.

It looks good. The interior is pretty typical for a slightly neglected car. But at least it looks like they managed to keep the rust monster away from it. BTW, is that a 912 I see in your garage in the background? Just asking...

Actually, if you take the cover off you can just count the teeth on the gears. The 3.36 has 37 teeth on the ring gear and 11 on the spur gear (I think that is what it is called) The small one at the front of the housing. The 3.54 has 39 and 11. If you are really lucky you will find 39 and 10, but don't get your hopes up...

An interesting perspective... I see that you live in California. Perhaps that explains the viewpoint. Outside of Silicon Valley there never was much heavy manufacturing in that state. Here in the rust belt things are changing for the worse in large part because our manufacturing economy has mostly moved off shore, leaving nothing in its wake. As recently as 20 - 25 years ago, the majority of the population of Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio were employed in manufacturing. Today, it has largely dried up and moved to lower labor markets. There are some people (as you perhaps have noticed...) who still blame the "foreign" car companies for that, even when today some of them (Honda for instance) make more cars here than they do in Japan. Personally, I believe that resentment is misplaced. Sometime, in another forum I would love to hear what you think CAN replace those jobs, but for now perhaps we should all TRY to remain civil.

I ended up making my own for one side because I could only buy one of them online. In my case, I had a terrible time bending them properly until I bent the "S" bend in the center of a piece of brake line that was much too long for the job. I then cut the tubing to the correct length, put the fittings over the shortened ends of the tube, and flared the ends. Every time that I tried to bend a section that was just long enough to reach I could not get the bends close enough to the ends of the tube. But I am sure others are more talented than I am.

There is a similar problem that happens on the early Z cars where after switching from the low beams to the high beams, or sometimes vice-versa, the head lights shut off, and stay off until you cycle the main light switch from on to off then back to on. I saw this happen once on my car when I had just gotten it operational. I cycled both switches several times and it hasn't come back since. I think that the switches get dirty over time, and need to be cleaned. Try a can of contact cleaner, and search the forums for headlight issues. I know that someone else asked about this some time back.