Walter Moore

I clicked on the box "Color Shifting" because I want a car that is so fast it looks blue as it approaches you and red after it has passed by and is moving away... !!!

Actually, Tire Rack lists a Kumho ECSTA 711 in 215/55HR15, not that I would want that particular tire, but it does exist...

Just curious, but is there any reason to think that something like this would help on a car with SUs, or is it only a FI thing?

You know, it never even occured to me to open that frame rail up... Personally, I am going to leave well enough alone. I don't know how to weld, and that is a pretty significant load-bearing part of the car...

Yes, I suppose that OHC engines do have valves in the head so they COULD be called overhead valve, but the "standard" name for the push-rod style engine is overhead valve. When you say overhead cam the fact that the valves are in the head is assumed. By the way, weren't there overhead valve aircraft engines years before they adapted the design to cars? I know that there were DOHC engines running at the Indy 500 well before 1920, but didn't the 9 cylinder rotary aircraft engines of WWI have an OHV configuration? Certainly by the 1930's they did.

It is worth noting that in the U.S. only G.M. and Chrysler still sell OHV engines. G.M. only uses OHV in the small-block V8, and some of their larger V6 passenger car engines. Their 4, 5, and 6 cylinder truck engines are all either SOHC or DOHC engines. But Ford has abandoned the push-rod technology altogether, at least for street engines. I noticed recently that the Lincon Navagator ahead of me had a DOHC (32 valve) V8. (Well Ford may still sell a OHV V6... I don't recall...) If you want to make an OHV engine turn 10K RPM you have to use titanium push-rods and rocker arms. The NASCAR teams do things like that because the rules say they HAVE to use OHV engines, NOT because they are better. If some people WANT to stick a SBC in the front of their Z car, so be it. It is a free country, and as long as it is YOUR car, who am I to say you are wrong. I have owned many cars with OHV engines. I have driven many G.M. products, and one Ford product WAY past 200K miles. I have two Chevys at home right now. But I believe that the soul of a car is its engine, and I will not be yanking the engine out of my Caprice to stick into the Datsun. If I wanted to drive a Corvette, I would have bought one...

"LSD pumpkin"? Didn't they have those at Woodstock? I wasn't there, but I saw the movie. ;-)

I have noticed that a lot of auctions on Ebay anymore have un-real low prices, but the shipping charges are more than the part is worth... Let the buyer beware I guess.

Too LITTLE back pressure? Can you have too little? Oh, I suppose that if you have F.I. you have to have enought pressure to make the O2 sensor work or the car will run rich won't it? But I would think that the converter will take care of that. ;-) Otherwise, so long as your exaust system is long enought to keep it from drawing cold air into the head when you shut it off, why would you need back pressure?

I used a pipe wrench, and a hammer. I like hammers; particularly my 12 lb sledge hammer. But for this job, a simple claw hammer was sufficient.

I took my 240Z's tank to a radiator shop here locally that also specializes in repairing gas tanks. It looked fine, until they "dipped" it in the cleaning solution... then they noticed that the tank was draining from everywhere, not just the drain holes. On my tank it was closer to $300. I don't recall the exact amount... the mind suppresses pain you know. :surprised

Mine is close to some of yours, in serial number only... I still need paint, and a few other things.... 4/71, HLS30-29810

And then put a bucket under the end of the transmission to catch the 90 weight oil that will pour out all over the floor when you tip the engine up to remove it... Unless you actually READ the instructions that said to drain the transmission first...

For the record, my 71 240Z has a door pull on the driver's side, at least it did until I removed the entire inside trim of both doors to repair the rust...

If the Indianapolis Motor Speedway drops the USGP, then I believe that F1 is finished in the United States. Look at the history: 1. When Tony George brought the FIA to Indy in 2000, it had been nearly a decade since there had been a USGP. 2. Every other promoter who tried to run a F1 event in the United States essentially went bankrupt trying. 3. Many (if not most) of the fans at the USGP were not Americans. They traveled here from all over the world, because it was one of the lowest cost F1 races. Ticket prices for the USGP start at $75 (US) for the cheap seats, and with only 1/5 as many fans as either the Indianapolis 500, or the Brickyard 400, hotel rooms are easy to get. Yesterday morning on the radio there was an interview with a couple who came here from Poland, because they said it was the only F1 race on the schedule that they could afford to attend. I could be wrong. I have been before. But I still believe that if the F1 has truly failed in Indianapolis, it is dead so far as the United States is concerned.

For hints on the dash voltage regulator repair, see the following: http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/regulator/regulator.html

Nice side pipes by the way... I "rescued" my car from someone who intended to drop a SBC into it, because he had several "runnable" ones laying around. I suggested that he look into an old Corvette. But having said that, if the V8 route is direction that one takes, then by all means do it right and get the serious HP that is possible in that format. Fast cars are all about power to weight ratios, and if you are adding the weight, grab the power to make up for it.

So Allen, Will you be dropping by for the U.S. GP this month, or are we too "back water" for your tastes?

Alan... Of course you know who won the race. Dan Wheldon is your countryman is he not? And justification... there is no need for that. The world already knows.

Last time I was in Japan, someone I work with gave me a magazine (all Japanese which I can't read..) that is full of adds for those vertical door hinge kits. (Among other... um... er.. "Accessories.") So there is hope that you could make your existing car look more like the Shelby, if you really wanted.

I know it isn't original, but I was planning on just installing a "whip" style fixed antenna. Anyone have positive or negative experiences with those on a Z car?

I am by no means an expert on such things... but it looks to me more like they spliced a 240Z body onto a 350Z. The hood, center transmission "hump"... it all looks 350Z'ish. Even the front end details. But with enough time and money....

Yes Datto-Zed... that piston looks damaged to me...

The 280ZX turbo wheels that I bought on Ebay last year, and have been cleaning ever since weight 14.5 to 15 lbs on our company shipping scales. (The scale has a resolution of 1/2 lb.) Two of the wheels register at 15.0 lbs no matter how they are placed on the scale. One registers 14.5. The fourth floats between the two readings. The truth must be somewhere in between...

It has an oil capacity of 1.3 Liters. (About 1 3/8 quarts.) But when it is installed in the car you wil not be able to get all of the old oil out, so it will take less than that to fill it back up. Just keep squeezing the bottle until it dribbles out of the fill plug hole. I don't know if the R200 that came in the 280Z has this same problem, but on my 240Z the steel pipe plug is perpetually siezed in the aluminum rear cover. The last time I took the fill plug out I had to use a long open end wrench and a floor jack to generate enough torque to loosen the thing. (Kids, don't try this at home...)