Stanley

A MIG 15 or 17, and of course a major lotto win to finance the purchase, shipping and resto.

Whoops... here you go.

Seems almost tame (maybe not the right word) compared to the old days when they all went around the curves sideways, but any driver taking the horrible shortcut would disagree. Read in Import Tuner that Millen will be driving an electric car this year. He drives faster in the real world than I do in the game...

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/help-me/43311-rpm-650-balance-screw-set-unisys-flow-even-mixture-knob-disks-need-many-turns.html Here's a thread that has the temp/altitude mix setting graph from the FSM, along with some good comments.

Congrats on that. I was looking on ebay for those, didn't find any and gave up. Guess persistance pays off. From my very limited knowledge (I read that book, and "How to hotrod and race your Datsun") I'm guessing the MSA headers might be good for racing and top HP, but not as good as Clifford for mid-range torque, especially important with my AT. Clifford has more stuff than a couple years ago after Jack died so possibly they'll bring them back if enough people show interest. Seen some great looking headers from OZ (on a post here) and Japan (in magazines) but doubt if they'd work with LHD.

Day after I bought the car, pulled the disgusting blue sheepskin seat covers off and found a pillow stuffed into a hole in the seat on the driver side. The P.O. must have had a vicous butt. Paid a local shop to rebuild the seat. Worth it though - have nice seats now. Wouldn't want to take an interstate drive on 40 year old seats.

The linkage on the side of the carbs is over my head, but I'd start by spraying carb cleaner followed by lithium spray grease on it. The nozzles aren't supposed to move unless you pull the choke.

Got the MSA aluminum 3-row for desert trips. Also nice for the freeway when you're going 90 mph and then 5 mph for 20 min. 115F in the shade and there ain't no shade. See the cars parked beside the I-10 - saw about 15 one summer between here and Tucson. Looks cool too. MSA also has a cross-flow competition one - overkill IMO unless you're actually racing. Brass may soon be unavailable, so you might want one if you have a stock or period mod resto for car shows.

Had this argument with my dad years ago - I was wrong. One of the most counter-intuitive concepts in heat transfer science, but one racers have known for many years. How could the color of a finish possibly affect heat transfer? But it does, look it up. I still don't get why it works. The aluminum shines up nicely with lots of aluminum polish and buffing, but flat black is the "cool" color. The top of the fins and lettering are usually left shiny. The paint needs to be non-insulating (thin) like Eastwood radiator paint. Don't know if a hi-temp ceramic paint would have the non-insulating quality. Racers paint the oil pan too. On the other hand, where you don't want heat transfer, like headers and exhaust pipes, white or shiny stainless steel or chrome is best.

Watched the video - it was a contest between two crews, the whole cars, starting with ok Datsuns, had to be finished in sixty five hours or so. This one won, the other crew turned out a less horrible car but it wasn't gross enough to win. They didn't spend much time on the design phase. Also if they wanted it to look like speed racer the number should have been number 5 ("go" in Japanese) like the original. Too bad they blew the motor, that was the coolest part. Proves the point good things take time. Don't watch the video if you're easily offended. The performance test was a joke, they were going about 20 mph.

Well, was just checking temps at the plugs as mentioned above when Cen-Tech just bit the dust. Guess three 10 minute sessions were too much for it. Can anybody recommend a reliable IR? "Drive , adjust, repeat" sounds right though.

Anyone successfully use one of these for tuning the carbs? Bought a gen-tech IR on sale at Harbor Freight, tried it out a couple times. I'm running SU's on a 240 with stock exhaust manifold. I can see it would work better with headers. You can get a good shot at the first and last exhaust runners about 2 inches from the head, the 2 middle ones are obstructed by the intake so you can only take it's temp very close to the head. Noticed the front is about 100 F lower than the rear one so maybe the rear carb is lean? I know the manifold is open inside so I guess it wouldn't help to check the down pipes. How close to the manifold should I be holding the gun? Noticed it needs to cool down a couple minutes after being close (about 5 inches) from the manifold until it gives an approximately correct reading of say the car body. Would it be better to check the temps somewhere else, maybe by the spark plugs? Looks like it might be helpful but I'm getting the "don't know what I'm doing" feeling.

Don't need a photo, it's a big sony blaster that sits under the hatch among the tools and junk, hooked to an inverter that sits in the ashtray, plugged into the lighter socket. Sometimes get dirty looks from people that don't like rock and roll when it's on. Guess not everyone likes James Brown and Led Zep. Especially they don't like Parliment cranked up. Have a 2-25 watt amp that will accept the speaker line (mono,split) from the stock mono radio if I ever get it hooked up. Trying to figure where to hide it. Put a new $25 speaker from pep boys to replace the 40 year old one, sounds way better, still not good enough, the crummy old radio just doesn't seem to pick up the stations.

All the above and/or the Factory Service Manual (or L24 Engine Manual). Also Ztherapy video. The FSM has a graph with mixture base settings from about 2 to 3+ turns down depending on temperature and altitude. Those settings go out the window if your needles/nozzles are worn out, or if your floats aren't set right (so you'd need to read the links above and do a real carb tune). Need a flow meter or experienced ears to set the balance screw. Same with high speed balance screw. Set the idle where you want it. If you just want it driveable it's pretty easy; for maximum performance you also need a stopwatch, drag strip, or dyno (or an experienced Z car race mechanic).

Heard nice things about the Subaru BRZ - under your price range if you're looking at new corvettes but you could get all the performance options and go wild from there with engine and suspension mods, make it one of a kind.

If you buy a late model used car and aren't up to doing your own repairs better have a warranty - and few used cars come with one. Another neighbor got a beautiful black BMW or MB, forget which, just a few years old. When it quit running they sold it as is, too expensive to have it diagnosed and repaired. 240sx ?

Thanks, cable stretch sounds bad so guess I'll give up on that idea. Remember driving my mother's VW bug with one hand on the emergency brake, it broke out the rear end really easily especially on dirt. Sorry mom ....

How good is the 240 emergency brake supposed to be? Wondering if mine is shot. Tried to break the rear end loose ala Paul Walker at the parking structure in Tokyo Drift but no dice. It's OK for parking on a hill and will eventually bring the car to a stop but that's about it. Haven't inspected the rear brakes.

There's a lot of model T's around that will be turning 100 soon (and some doing 120 mph in the 1/4 mile) so maybe. Maybe the 350 and 370 Z's will be cool old rat rod for teenagers to fix up 40 years from now. Hate to think how much gas will cost. Hate to think how much it costs now. Maybe back yard mechanics will be converting them to hydrogen or some other fuel. Read somewhere that carbs work better than F.I. for that - special cams and headwork are required to prevent backfiring.

The OP must be half through college by now but since it's been revived I'll throw my two cents in. Hate the new cars. Back in the day different makes looked different. Give me a z car or a 57 chevy or a 89 crx anyday. You can't work on the new ones unless you're a graduate of some mechanic school. What is all that stuff under the hood? My neighbor had to take a wheel off to change the spark plugs - it took him all day. You can adjust the mix on your SU's while you're stopped for a traffic light. I rented some new cars - maybe it's how I drive but they were all gutless or guzzlers. Guess I'd take a GTR if they gave me one.

My opinion that "If it ain't broke.." phrase only refers to the situations where there's a chance you could end up with a basket of parts and a car that doesn't run. Definitely doesn't apply to maintainance or engine/suspension tuning. Why didn't I replace that hard to reach fuel hose by the tank when I did the easy one ? Now I gotta crawl under there again. Yeah the cars can keep you busy. Can't believe it's time to clean the SU pistons and domes again - FSM says every six months.

SU would be the one to use so anyone could use or modify it without owning a 3D CAD.

Started the float bowl drawings to find how the front/rear bowls reacted to fluid level tilting on acceleration. Read that it was the reason for the ears on the front bowl being 2mm lower. But when I used an angle meter on the motor, checked the distance between nozzle and float bowl drain, and did the trig, saw that the 2mm is about right for the motor tilt. so gave up on the drawing. The accelaration may still have an effect. The carb project sounds good - but might be easier with a 3D CAD due to dimensioning, even though SU is easier and faster. I use Solid edge 2D, they have a 3D I wish I could afford. Have Viacad3D but can't seem to do much with it.

I'm a self-unemployed engineer civil/structural - use SU if I can't visualise how something would look, say a guardrail or a roof, or if I want to show it to a client for approval. Some clients use SU, they revise the drawing and send it back. I'd like to be able to import a CAD file floor plan and use SU to make a 3D like you did here. Will try it. Tried drawing the Z carbs and float bowls but got sidetracked. SU has a lot of cool features. Wish I could afford the pro version, but probably don't really need it. If I wanted to put a (view of) SU drawing in a CAD sheet I could just make a PDF and import that to the CAD. It's a little too sketchy looking for 3D steel connection details though.