gramercyjam

I did the same JB Weld fix for the melted plastic. I have a slightly different approach to the corrosion and poor electrical contact problems. You may notice quite a bit of corrosion where the wire lugs are riveted to the fuse box and where the fuses clip in too. I soaked mine in phosporic acid for a few minutes to remove the corrosion, rinsed in clear water several times, blow dry with compressed air, restake rivets. It held up for at least 8 years after that and may last longer. I just took it out of service and converted to the spade lug fuses.

R180 style diff - smaller and lighter than the R200 styles. R180's are found in 240Z/260Z and some 280Z's. R180 denotes a 180mm ring gear. R200 style diff - larger, heavier, stronger than the R180's. Found in some 280Z's and some ZX's. R200 denotes 200mm ring gear. Gear ratio's denote the number of times the pinion gear (thus the crankshaft too) turns for 1 revolution of the ring gear (and the tires). The ratio is determined by the the number of teeth on the pinion gear vs the ring gear. Higher numbers better pulling power, increased torque at the rear wheels but reduced cruising speeds due to higher engine RPM's needed. Lower numbers mean reduced torque at the rear wheels but higher crusing speeds due to lower RPM's required by the motor. Stock gear ratios are good for daily drivers. Competitive Z cars benefit for the increased torque from ratios of 3.9 to 1 and higher such as 4.1, 4.44 or even 5.88! There is an R190 5.88 on ebay right now. This ratio would be good for pulling stumps or perhaps cultivating a corn field. But that is a good price for an R190 limited slip differential. R190's are rare. Limited slip differentials for Z cars come in 3 basic types, clutch, helical gear and viscous. Clutch type are the traditional mechanism that uses disks and springs to couple power to both the axels simultaneously. These are the type that Datsun/Nissan made for the 240/260/280 cars as add on racing parts. The clutches in these diffs eventually wear out and will need replacing. Helical gear types, such as Quaife and Torsen couple the axels with helical gears and are the most expensive, but the most trouble free and generally considered the best type of LSD for road race and autocross competition. They are only available from third party manufacturers. Viscous slip differentials use plates bathed in a fluid. When the wheels slip and turn a different velocities, the fluid heats up and pushes plates together that couple the axels. This type of LSD is better than no LSD at all, but not as good as clutch or gear type LSD's and not up to the tasks required of it in competitive situations. None of the 240/260/280Z/ZX came with LSD's. Transmissions and differential ratios for Z cars can be found here . --John

A nice old VW bus suitably restored.

I'd probably be better off with a scratch built motor. I have a E31 that has all new stuff on it (including big valves and seats) for an L24 that I will be using. I also shaved it purposely to substantially raise the compression ratio so I will want the rings and bores to be in near new condition.

That sounds like a good deal but I just sold the 4.1 and the dude was anxious. I checked and he already paypaled me. But I might be interested in the L24 anyway. What do you know about the L24? Did you get a compression check before it was pulled?

In San Antonio, TX Pending the arrival of a new-to-me R190 4.44 Nissan Motorsports LSD, I am now divesting a small collection of R180's and R200's. Here is the list: 2 each of open R180's - unknown ratio's - probably stock. 1 has relatively new side bearings and seals. Trade for beer 1 each of 4.1 VLSD R180 (never opened it up to verify - but currently in my car so I believe the ratio is correct. This diff is good and tight. $100 OBO 1 each of open R200 3.9 - At least this is what I was told - never tried it or opened it up. $100 OBO --John B

Now I am not sure if they are 5 of 4. I'd need to look. Anyway, what you do is check 2 things besides just the temp gauge. Check to make sure the piston doesn't hit the nose of the plug at TDC and check to see if the electrode is melting (those nice square edges getting rounded off at the tip) after you have run it a while. --John B

An old pic of my 240Z wearing Azenis:

I run BP4ES on my autox L24 'cause I run a little rich with big triple webers and the slightly hotter plug keeps the plugs a little cleaner. No overheating with stock radiator, 2 10 inch electric fans.

I guess I screwed up by giving away a few hundred dollars in parts to those who could use them. Some people came and got them, so people didn't. First come first served. And when I said to this guy I would hold some parts for him, he said he wanted everything. It doesn't pay to be greedy. I didn't even consider that request seriously. This guy replied days after everbody else, and my phone number was even posted so if he was serious, he could have called as many others did. TexasZ - another A##HOLE to avoid. I guess I'll be watching my back.

texasz, check your inbox.

probably have a few.

In San Antonio. Cleaning out garage/shop. Come and get it this week. Big garage sale this weekend and whatever is left after that gets tossed or I give it to my high school age son so he can start a career on eBay. Some is what I took out of my 240Z car when I went F Prepared with it, some just accumulated from 20 years of Z'ing. I'm keeping some stuff that I might need like axels, struts and rearends. The rest needs to go: Will trade for beer '73 Dashboard loaded with working gauges (160 MHP, etc), vents, and glove box door. '73 Heater stuff '73 door glass '83 heater/blower box York A/C compressor Spare tire well hood latch hood hinges more gauges combo switches, turn switches, ignition switches power antenna gas caps - regular and locking early balance tube several large boxes of misc stuff and odds 'n ends 73 F&R Bumpers - complete - good condition - $125

Anti theft mod?

Before you do any more work trying to solve your carb issues, add a heat shield between the carbs and the header. This is not an optional thing. If you do it, you will be absolutely amazed at what this seemingly small change will do. This is a difficult problem to diagnose, because for me, in the garage, or a legal drive around the block, the headers just don't get hot enough to duplicate the conditions where the carbs get to hot. It is hot as blazes here in Texas and I made a heat shield out of a 10" X 24" piece of 24 gauge aluminum and took the car to a 2 day autox south of Houston the next day. Carb problems that were dogging my car have completely disappeared. Hot flooding and stalling, hot restart problems - all gone. Insulating header wrap is not required. I have pretty much an identical fuel system setup to the one in your picture gallery, but no mechanical pump. I found that I ran better without it.

April 1970 Road and Track road test say a bone stock '70 240Z does the 1/4 mile in 17.1 sec @ 84.5 mph. --John '73 FP 240Z

What I said.

Sounds normal to me . Motor and carbs were probably very hot. Boiling fuel in the carbs may be causing the flooding. It shouldn't be a problem with the throttles wide open. It should start right up after a few seconds accompanied by a little black smoke out of the tail pipe. It happens with my Webers too. I think I have heard from other Weber owners it happens to them too. Do you have heat shields for the carbs? I also wonder if your fuel tank is vented properly? --John

SU tuning is just about as easy as anything gets on a car. There are dozens of sites on the web that will tell you how. Search for SU carb tuning or Skinners Union carb tuning. It doesn't matter if the site is a Datsun site or a Triumph site, it's all the same. Sorry to blaspheme here, but I never found those cheap a$$ unisyn flow meters to help. I trust that my own senses are more accurate than those things. You also should learn to "read" plugs. There is a fundamental old school skill that is necessary to learn how to tune carbs. The reason when you shot stuff in the rear carb and nothing happened is because the last three cylinders aren't firing, most likely because of plug fouling. Wiping them off doesn't clean them well enough, they need to be bead blasted to get that carbon off. If the carbs were purely the issue, it wouldn't matter if they were synced or rich or what not with WOT. You will have power if your ignition is good. Too rich, and the carbs may be fouling the plugs, or you may have an ignition problem that is contributing, but until you get some good plugs in there, you really aren't going to know if the carbs are right or not. Like somebody said here, spend $10 on some new plugs. --John '73 FP 240Z

Since choking it made it run better, I would look for a vacuum leak. --John

I don't have my rule book with me at work, but I'll give it a shot. I used to run in BSP until earlier this year: I believe the rules specifically disallow aluminum bump-steer spacers. i think steel is OK. I don't run bump-steer spacers myself. Any clutch and I believe any flywheel is allowed. Technically not legal. But I think that is because your R200. Changing the diff case and gears is not allowed in BSP. Your car should have an R180. just fix/replace the rusty parts Don't upgrade them. I think this applies to all classes. I don't remember seeing any BSP 240's with cages but most FP cars have them and I see bars going through the firewall all the time so this confuses me too. I have chosen to blow this area off for the mean time as the whole cage things looks way to heavy for my tastes anyway. I think this is crystal clear in the rule book. You must leave the stock bumpers and pretty much any other stock body part on in an unmodified condition except for flares to accomodate big tires. --John '73 FP 240Z

Back to original problem. If your harmonic balancer has indeed spun the pulley, you should get a replacement. The pulley is ready to fly off and the best case scenario is it will only take out your timing cover and radiator when it does. If you can get a better one from a junk yard, it should be cheap. --John

If this is primarily an autox car, a little toe out is preferred. 0 up to 1/8 inch out instead of in. This helps make the car turn-in quicker but on a street car, this makes it dartier and harder to drive because the wheels won't want to return to straight ahead on their own. You can experiment with more or less toe in/toe out and use your own judgement as to how you like it set. There are several different methods for making toe adjustments using just some jack stands, string and a tape measure. Do some searches on this or other boards and you should find the details. On camber, again, if this is an autox car, you will no doubt want to lower the car significantly. Just lowering the car will add tons of camber. You might want to wait until after you have lowered the car to work on camber as you may want to reduce excessive negative camber after lowering. On my car, I added camber plates to just the rear in order to reduce the extreme negative camber that resulted from lowering. The fronts were OK without camber plates. If you want to increase negative camber right now, before lowering and without the expense of camber plates, you can move the strut-top mounting holes inward and/or use camber bushings on the lower control arms. --John '73 FP 240Z