MikeW

I recognize that video as the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. The tunnel is "Fort Mountain Tunnel" just west of Asheville. The speed limit on the entire parkway is 45mph as there are lot of bicyclists and people driving slow enjoying the scenery.

You really don't need to buy any photo editing software. There's plenty of free stuff out there for manipulating images. Resizing is about the most basic thing you can do. I just started using Picasa from Google and it's amazing. It's a tool that allows you to manage all of the images on your PC and includes ways of editing images, importing from cameras, exporting to web pages, etc. While it's not obvious, you can export pictures and resize them at that time. http://www.picasa.com

Welcome. Yes, there seems to be a size limit of 1024x768. Try reducing them to that size and post again. Alternatively, you can upload photos to your personal gallery but there's a waiting period for those to get approved.

It's true that the tensioner addresses timing chain stretch but when it has stretched too much you have to move the timing chain sprocket to the next of the three possible positions. The main reason that the block is needed is to keep the tensioner from coming out. Keeping the chain properly indexed on the crank sprocket is also accomplished with the block. For the original poster: if you're planning on doing this job yourself you presumably what either a factory service manual or one of the aftermarket manuals to step you through the process. These manuals should cover this very issue and even give instructions on how to make the block. I don't recall but the FSM may only direct you to acquiring the "special tool" from Nissan.

The indicator light is definitely for the parking brake. My understanding is that the light also comes on if there's an imbalance in the system. This is often caused by low fluid but it's not like there's a float in the reservoir that measures the fluid level. The fact that it went back out immediately after braking simply sounds like the imbalance was temporarily resolved.

It just snaps into place. The metal springs plates on the mirror itself bend enough to force it into the mounting bracket that's already attached to the car.

I misread that as "... does come off like something Madonna would wear". I went back to the picture to see if there were any appropriate places where an intentional wardrobe malfunction could occur ... :stupid:

I understand your concern and I'll defer to someone like Phred who knows far more about this than I ever will. I wasn't thinking about thermal expansion of the piston causing the gap to become even smaller. I'll be interested to hear more about this myself. I've attached a crude diagram that I just made that I think describes what you're running in to.

I think the thickness of the head gasket is all that really matters here and as you've observed it more than covers the slight protrusion. When the piston is at the top the valves are both completely closed. The valves are the only part attached to the head that ever protrude beneath the bottom of the head. Therefore the valves are the only part that descend beneath the top of the head gasket.

Insurance is probably going to be your biggest problem. A young driver equals high rates as does a sports car. Add the two together and you should know what to expect. Your best option is probably to have the car insured in the name of a parent with you listed as the primary driver. Unfortunately there's a trade off in terms of "daily driver" reliability. Just last weekend my 240Z let me down. I had just driven it for about 30 miles and a couple of times during the run it stumbled and lost power on me. I suspected it was fuel starvation because I knew my fuel filter with a replaceable element was starting to get clogged from debris in the tank. I was planning on replacing it but hadn't gotten around to it. I was able to get it running properly again a couple of times but it died on me 3 houses down my street and I couldn't get it started again. Total electrical failure. Very strange. I pulled it home and quickly discovered a battery cable was loose. That may have been the problem all along; taking a corner too fast might have caused the battery to shift a bit on me. It's all my own fault for not making sure it was completely secured and hadn't replaced the filter sooner. I went ahead and replaced the filter element today and took it out for another 20 or so problem-free miles. Total repair cost: about $2. Bottom line: when an early Z breaks it's generally easy to figure out what is wrong with it and the fix is usually cheap unless it's something catastrophic. A newer car is probably more reliable but when it dies on you you're having it towed to a repair shop where you'll likely pay a big bill. Newer cars are just so much more complicated with all of the electronics. My regular mechanic can't even work on some new cars because the manufacturers withhold diagnostic data that the cars themselves output. My advice would be to think about getting a more modern and hence more reliable and safer car as a daily driver in addition to getting a Z that you can tinker with. You'd then have something to drive when in Z is in the middle of some big project. That all depends on money and space, of course.

I understand what you meant now and you are absolutely right. What I interpreted you as saying was that it "doesn't matter what the average speed is" when in fact you were saying that it "doesn't matter what the average speed is in order to determine the winner". Absolutely. The elapsed time is all that matters. Most of us seem to agree with Stephen's original assertion that this hypothetical example represents a really close race. I was just attempting to put some numbers to it. If the race were a bit shorter than a quarter mile the Corvette would win. Any longer and the dragster would win by an even bigger margin. I've done some more calculations and it appears that in the worst case the dragster pulls ahead at approximately 4.35 seconds and 1276 feet into the race which is 44 feet from the finish line. This assumes that the dragster has stopped accelerating by this point and has reached its maximum velocity of 332mph for the last 50 feet of the track. If it is still accelerating when it takes the lead then the crossing point becomes even closer to the finish line. The original author's hypothetical example of a dragster making a standing start against another car with a head start which is already up to top speed and winning certainly puts the awesome acceleration of the dragster into perspective. I was amazed by the figures the first time this information was posted. Unfortunately the assertion "within 3 seconds the dragster catches and passes you" is simply untrue and the statement "but the dragster still catches the Corvette and passes it long BEFORE the finish line" is misleading and ambiguous at best.

If you consider 25 or so feet to be long before the finish then I'll happily agree with you. If not there seems like no point in discussing this further.

By the way, when I was in high school my girlfriend's mother was his receptionist and I went to a race with him up at Roebling road. I was part of the pit crew. The car was a lightweight Formula D racer with a fiberglass body and a Renault engine. My duties on the pit crew involved important jobs like shoving a plastic milk crate under the car while the other guys were physically holding one end up in the air. This was all in the infield grass under an awning hanging off of an RV. Not exactly your NASCAR pit crew under the pressure of a stopwatch. To bring things slightly back on topic, this was before I even had my 240Z or knew what one was for that matter. I did take a picture of a 280ZX driven by a guy named Jim Fitzgerald. I had no idea who he was but someone had mentioned that he raced with Paul Newman and I had heard that name.

I think you'll find that average speed exactly corresponds to the elapsed time over a fixed distance. If you want some wiggle room you can claim that one car might not drive as straight and therefore had a higher average speed because he drove a longer distance to reach the same finish line. That would be the only case where average speed doesn't count.

I'm sorry but that's simply not correct. The dragster's finish speed was actually 332.34 mph but the average speed most certainly counts. The dragster did average 202 mph. That's what I was demonstrating. If the dragster averages more than the Corvette it wins. Less it loses. There are absolutely no "if's" here. This is the data used in the Corvette comparison which you posted. I can't find evidence of a newer record set since 2003. Here's a link to the raw data: http://www.nhra.com/2003/events/race18/index.html If you can demonstrate that my calculations are incorrect I'd be more than happy to admit I'm wrong.

I agree with Stephen. From the earlier thread that I posted it mentioned that the current world record for a top-fuel dragster was 4.441 seconds for the quarter mile. The following formula shows the average speed: There are 3600 seconds in an hour. 3600 / (4.44100 * 4) = 202.657059 mph average speed. Therefore, if the covette averaged exactly 200mph for the same quarter mile the dragster wins. However, it's very, very close. (3600 / 200mph) / 4 = 4.5sec As you can see, the dragster only wins this by 4.5 - 4.44100 = 0.059 sec During that 0.059 sec, the Vette, at exactly 200 mph only has to go a short distance to the finish line: ((200 * 5280) / 3600) * 0.059 = 17.3066667 The Vette only had to travel 17.3 more feet to reach the finish line. That's about one car length. There's no way that the dragster passed the Vette within 3 seconds as claimed. While that would be theoretically possible since we don't have an acceleration graph, I highly doubt it. For that to work, the dragster would have to accelerate to far more than 200 mph, pass the Vette at the 3 second mark, and then slow way down to 200mph or less in order to cross the finish line just 17 feet ahead more than a second later.

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10152

That's what I'm thinking. I'd rather have something that looks just as good without the shortcomings. People will pay a lot of money for something just because it's rare and somehow special. For instance: http://www.cnn.com/US/9901/13/mcgwire.01/ Is this baseball really worth more than a brand new ball that hasn't even been used?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=4533217311&category=6187

Considering the apparent demand and the fact that tooling up for these is probably the biggest expense I would suggest just having a bunch of them made up. You can sell them one at a time on eBay if you want to even if it takes years to get rid of them all.

I would actually agree with this. It' s not so much that it's difficult to get proper color coverage with the engine in the car (after all there's plenty of room in the engine bay) but it's certainly a lot easier to prepare with the engine out. You could get yourself a chair and just sit in there with your paint prep tools. Preparation represents the bulk of the time painting a car. In my case it was about 6 weeks solid of prep work and less than a day to spray it.

I had my engine bay painted without removing the engine. The painter did pull back all of the wires and remove accessories mounted to the bay. Most people who've seen it are surprised that it was done without pulling the engine.

Assuming that you're planning on going with an original color, one of our members here put together the following page showing all of the colors: http://www.datsunprojects.org/zpaintcodes/ If you're not considering an original color you might want to just browse through the member galleries here to find colors that you might like on a Z.

I don't think getting a fair price will be a problem considering that a number of people here have already expressed a keen interest in the car and are the kinds of people who would, in fact, attempt a proper restoration. That's what I would call a good home. As others have mentioned, finding proper parts for the earliest Z cars can be a real problem. Trying to restore your car here in the US will be even more difficult given the fact that it's a JDM RHD car (those parts just aren't available here like they would be in Japan) and that fact that RHD cars we produced in smaller numbers in general. I may well be wrong here but I'm assuming that the overall parts supply is directly proportional to the number of cars produced of a given model and with older cars being more difficult to source than newer cars. Also, notice that member "kats" is doing a very thorough restoration of a LHD car in Japan and has access to many of the original Nissan executives. Even he is having difficulty finding certain "proper" parts: http://www.geocities.jp/datsunz903/working.html

Well, that may be what Carl is willing to pay so that's what it's worth to him. Some might be willing to pay more; others less. Perhaps the best way to determine a true market value of something is to just put it on eBay and see how high people are willing to go. Your second sentence above seems intended to provoke a reaction out of people. It's your car and you are free to do with it as you like.