Walter Moore

What did that fuel cell set you back? (How much did it cost for those who don't speak Hoosier...) It looks great!

I hope this works out! Sounds like a great upgrade.

On another note, the forums are much more pleasant to read if you add the hardcore flame war people to your "Ignore List". There are certain members of this club/site/whatever who, while they have clearly forgotten more than I will ever know about the Datsun Z cars, have never, to my knowledge, contributed anything useful here, but pick fights constantly... No names... I don't want a fight. (Besides, I wouldn't see your post anyway if you are on my list.) If you "ignore" them their posts are always hidden, and instantly the world is a happier place.

Well then we are closer neighbors than I thought. I use the Indianapolis label because I am fairly sure that the folks who visit here from Australia, New Zeland, Japan, Britain, etc at least know where that is. I actually live in Lebanon as well. I am originally from Zionsville, but moved north because I couldn't afford to buy a house in my home town after all the rich folks moved in and took over. You aren't the guy who was driving the REALLY rusted out ZX around last fall are you?

Hi Jagnew3! I have been lurking around this site since I bought my "Fix-er-upper" 1971 240Z in the fall of 2002. It is still laying around the garage in pieces, but I hope to have it running sometime this year.:stupid: By the way, it has paint on it now, just haven't updated the picture...

Hey, our cars are only 6568 apart, and the build date on mine is 4/71! Your car must have been late January and mine early april, because I can't imagine they were only making them at a rate of 90/day. That would be about 11/hour if they only worked 8 hours a day 5 days a week. They build Porsches faster than that. My car was first sold by ????? who know? They didn't sell Datsuns here in 1971.

Pushing air through a carb doesn't work well at all. That is why the drag cars always have a pair of four barrels sitting ON TOP of the blower. You always have to PULL air through a carb. But putting the carbarator ahead of the turbo is problematic. Carbs tend to run the fuel mixture from rich to lean as you work the throttle. A tendency that is made worse by the shifting on a manual transmission. Ford tried running the 79 Mustang turbo with a Webber ahead of a turbo, and they had trouble with intake explosions on the autobahn. (or so I have read...) When you lift off the throttle to shift, the mixture leans out for a split second, and then when you floor the gas peddle after the shift it goes rich for a similar time. If you have been running at high speed for a long time before the shift the hot turbocharger can ignite the fuel air mixture. (That is a bad thing...) There have been very few successful implementations of a turbocharger on a carburator equipped car. Turbos and fuel injection tend to be a natural fit.

While I would dearly LOVE for my 240Z to become as valuable as those 60s era muscle cars, I am not sure that they ever will. I read in the Wall Street Journal's collectable section that the value of any collectable is mostly based on the number of weathy older people who either have fond memories of the item from their youth, or who dearly wanted the collectable when they were younger but couldn't afford it at the time. Most of the 60's muscle cars were not that expensive in relative terms, but they fell apart quickly and mostly ended up in the junk yard. Thus many people owned one, and have fond memories of them, but couldn't hang on to them for purely financial reasons. Also, the insurance industry quickly recognized that young men in horribly overpowered cars (mostly with poor brakes...) were a recipe for disaster. Moreover disasters that THEY (the insurance companies) had to pay for. So for most of the baby boomers in the U.S. the really desirable versions (read big engines...) were not available for insurance reasons. I actually know a gentleman who had that happen to him. While he was in college he saved up enough money to buy a brand new 1969 Dodge Charger. He wanted the 440 HO motor, but couldn't get insurance on anything larger than the 383. These factors, aided by the short usable life span of the 60's muscle cars made them unobtainable objects of desire for untold thousands of men in that generation. By comparison the Z cars, with their significantly lower price, and only 143 cubic inch displacement were viewed by most of the U.S. population (and the insurance industry) as essentially an economy car. A 1971 car is still 35 years old. The same generation that is out there trying to buy up all of the remaining Z28s are the people who would be trying to buy the Datsuns, if they wanted one. 30 years ago the "hot" collectable cars were the Ford Model A and its peers. Today the value of those cars is in decline. All of which changes nothing about the cars themselves. Buy them and restore them for the pleasure of DRIVING them! If they happen to appreciate in value so be it. If not so what?

Actually, No. At least so long as you leave the stock fusable links in place. These are what actually protects the wiring of the car anyway, as the battery is fully capable of producing hundreds of amps for a short time. Personally, I have retrofitted a chrome plated 100 amp GM style alternator onto my engine, but has it is still on a stand and have not started it I am not yet convinced that the belt will track correctly. I have added a 6" X 8" electrical box full of relays to drive the (eventual) high output headlights and electric fan that I intend to install. This will be driven directly off of the alternator with its own large supply line. But with the cold weather and my unending 60-hour work week I just can't find the time to finish the project.

I have been considering painting my 240Z Silver because I hear that light colors hide minor imperfections in the body work... Any of those colors would look nice on a GT-R. Post some pictures of the final result.

Not from what I have seen. But if all that you intend to do is get validation that a vehicle is actually worth "something", you can set a unreachable reserve and then take the highest non-winning bid as the vehicle's "true market value". At least I presume that is the game that some people are playing on Ebay. From the reserve price that some things on Ebay have, I have to presume that there is some kind of insurance value justification going on. If you truly have a vehicle that is worth a considerable amount of money you list it in one of the collector's papers, or take it to a high end auction. But of course the bidders there mostly know what they are doing... not a good place for scammers.

Is the engine leaking oil somewhere, like the main seals perhaps? If somehow the crankcase vent or PCV valve is plugged the increased pressure caused by a new cylinder head could have blown out the main seals. I have had cars with a bad main seal and they absolutely hemmorage oil, but only when they are running. Sometimes is isn't very noticable until you get under the car.

A too tight drum will sort itself out pretty quickly once you have a few stops from speed... :eek: But seriously, almost every time that I have put new shoes on with new drums they have a lot of drag at first. Now if new shoes are draging on an old drum, then I would be worried.

Hey, did anyone else notice that the tires are so new that they still have the stickers on the tread? I like the car. I like the wheels. I like the seats. I don't like it enough to pay the current asking price and try to truck it home... I just wish my car was finished enough for the "Z-police" to make fun of..

Noise suppressors are intended to keep the spark plug arcs and to a smaller extent alternator pulses out of your radio. If you remove them, and don't start hearing pops and buzzing in your speakers you didn't need them... But if you get ignition noise in the radio you do.

Modern computer paint matching is nearly flawless. I had my truck repaired a couple of years ago and it is impossible to tell where the original paint ends and the repair begins.

Actually metal stamping technology has improved considerably in the past 30 years. I am sure that it is possible to make the fenders thinner, but whether or not that is a desirable thing is a matter for a separate discussion... ;-)

My 71 came with 4 screw bowls, I have no idea if they were original however.

The machine shop that I used in Indianapolis said that it was a hard job with a 30 ton press, but he got both of my pins out of their housings without any damage to the strut body. So I know that it can be done.

The hand throttle was a manual fast idle mechanism. For those of you who live in California, that is something that holds the engine idle at an elevated speed so that it will stay running in very cold weather until the engine gets warm. I hear that in the U.S. most cars had that lever removed by the dealers because Americans couldn't understand what its function was. On most cars of that era the choke was automatic, and the fast idle was controlled by a cam on the throttle linkage. But personally... automatic chokes suck.

That looks expensive! I bet I can't buy it here...

I used "GM Corporate blue", which I think is for Oldsmobile engines, because the cap seemed to match what remained of the color on my engine. I think the attached pictures are a little over-exposed, but they are close.

The 350Z has grown on me over the years... not enough to shell out $30K mind you, but as I see more of them on the street I have grown to like them. Just today I saw what may have been my first sighting of a 240Z moving under its own power in Indianapolis! Now I really can't wait to get mine running... now that I have actually personally witnessed one running. I was begining to believe they were a myth. ;-)

Hoosier Tires... must be racing slicks since I think that General quit making the fake street version.

This has been beat to death in other threads, but... The advertised horsepower ratings of cars sold in the United States before 1973 is SAE GROSS. This is the power measured at the output shaft of the engine on a dyno stand, with no accessories... The advertised horsepower rating of cars sold in the United States from 1973 on is SAE NET. This is the power measured at the rear wheels with the engine in the car, using the stock exaust, with all accessories connected. That is why the HP fell from 1972 to 1973. All other things being equal an L28 will always make more power than an L24. You just can't beat displacement... By now, some 20 to 30 years down the road, the most significant issue with any L28 isn't the year of the car it is in when you recover the motor. The real deciding factors are the engine's condition, and what was done to it before you came along... There are VERY FEW Z cars that are actually still running the ORIGINAL engine, without at least a rebuild...