zeiss150

Hey Z people, Well its been over 3 years comming. I finally painted my 240Z. I started the paint job yesterday, 6 hours just to get it preped, taped and into the booth. Then I sprayed on a coat of primer sealer, that was a total disaster. It went on to dry, and had orange peal from hell. I lightly sanded the primer coat and shot the color... IT LOOKED LIKE HELL! That was all I could take for one day. I decided to come in this morning and start all over again. I got to the school this morning at 8 am and started sanding. I wet sanded all of the orange peal and dry primer bumps off the base coat, that took me 4 hours. Once I had the Z all preped and ready to go I put down the first coat of base, AWESOME! The second coat of base went down just as beautiful. 3 coats of base total. Time for clear coat. The first coat looked good, the second looked amazing. The second coat looked so good that I considered not doing a thrid. That thought didn't last to long, so I layed down the thrid and final coat. It looks like glass. I'm very Happy with the results. I used about half a gallon of base coat (including the first goof up that I had to sand off) and I used about 1/3rd of a gallon of clear coat. Now all I have to do is color sand and buff the clear coat. I used PPG paint and the color I picked is nissan A17 (a.k.a. La manes Sunset) its the color from the 350Z "orange". I will have pictures of it in a few days. I just wanted to tell people about my experiance, and encourage people that a quality paint job can be done by yourself... its all about the prep work! Rock on Z people!

Putting the vents on that hood would be very difficult. I looked at a 280 just the other day wondering if it would be easy to remove the vents. The vents have a "lip" that rolls up to the plastic incerts. It would take a VERY skilled metal worker to duplicate that. Go with the 240 style hood ... It looks cooler anyway, IMHO. Matt-

are you talking about a real car or the Hot Wheels car? There is a way to make a "roadster" 240Z I've seen it at the MSA show, I think there is even a step by step guide or kit you can buy. I don't really like the way the roadster Z looks because part of the unique look of the car is in the roof and side window design. If you make it a convertable or a roadster you loose that Z look and it starts to look like an alfa romeo :sick: . I like the look of a "clean" stock 240Z. There are Fararri kits, I saw one guy that make it look like a corvet:stupid: (just buy a corvet, duhhhhhha), one dude make it into some sort of a monster truckROFL . If you love the look of the Z ... do what every you like , as long as it still looks like a Z when your done. And if we are talking about A hot wheels car ... well I don't know what to say, hotwheels made a made a dual V8 dragster, the sky is the limit, $hit put wings on it. Matt-

$32 A GALLON!? that is an inexpensive way to paint a car. I bought PPG paint for $600 a gallon (2 stage base coat-clear coat). I'm lucky that I have a paint booth to shoot it in though. There is an AWSOME auto body program that has everything, $20 for 4 months of class, including unlimited use of the spray booth:D . Good luck with your rolling Matt-

the only thing I could have done better wth my dash cover install, is to have had the glove box in when I put the dash on. Its a tight fit and it would be better if I had lined it up with the glove box door on. I wouldn't worry to much about the cracks. Good luck!

How are you suposed to know if your rack is shot? My stearing has about a quarter inch play before it engages the wheels. And yes I did replace my rack mounts with new urathane, so I know that the rack isn't moving. Does the pinion go bad, or is it the bushings or does the rack gear spacing get to big. Thanks

Get the Full cover! the half dash looks like crap IMHO. I put the full dash on mine and If you do it right it will be hard for even the most picky Z enthusiast to tell its a dash cover. I would recomend taking your dash off in order to do it right. Its a pain in the butt, but its well worth the time and effort. When ever any one look in my z they always ask, "wow thats a nice dash, is it new?" then I tell them its a cap. Matt-

Mr. Camouflage is right... HybridZ.org is a great site for after market FI info. AS far as FI for L28 engines goes you can use the stock bosh jettronic system which is about as good as a 1978 colleco video game. Or you can use the 300ZX (A.K.A Z31) FI computer (which is about as good as a 1987 nintendo video game), they are a dime a dozen at the junk yard. If you get the right year Z31 computer they can be "reprogramed" for a performance L28. The best is "megasquirt" Do a search on Ebay and you'll find that the computer and harness is about 3 - 500 bucks you can customize your you FI to the kind of performance that you're looking for. hybridz.org has a great thread about getting started with megasquirt. If you have SU's right now then you will need to get a head and intake that can use FI. E31 and E88 heads that came on the 240Z's don't have injector ports. you can have the head modified to take FI but there are better heads that you can just bolt ... like the P79 and P90 heads or even the N42. those three heads are all FI ready. Don't forget to take the Intake manifold with the head. The fuel injectors can be replaced with larger injectors (which you will need when you go turbo :devious: ) You can do a killer FI set up for 5-800 bucks. Good luck and let us know what you do.

thanks for updating us ... was wondering what happend. good luck in finding your Z!

for almost $8,000 it should be almost cherry. Rust is your biggest problem. for that much money is should be rust free, straight, and shine so much that you need to put sun glasses on to look at it. look for rust under the wheel wells, under the battery box, the rear deck latch, the bottom of the hatch, the floor pan, the frame rails, spair tire hold,bottom of fenders and doors. check the bushings they will be worn and some might be missing. the dash will almost certianly be cracked, if its not then thats a great sign of a well maintained car... unless its a dash cap or a replacement dash. 150k miles on a Z engine is what we call breakin, so the engine should be great. Good luck and let us know if you get it. Welcome to the addiction. Matt-

Hey Bruce, Thanks for the reply! My statement that all the needles have the same idle diameter was based off of a spread sheet with about 70 + needle diameters and they almost all seemed to have the same idle, but Im sure there are a bunch that are different. I think I was just setting the needle to high in the piston all these years, so no matter how I tuned the carb I was to rich for the given RPM, basicaly like having a richer needle. I did give props to Ztherapy for the "piston drop" way of setting the needles. Matt-

Hey Craig, thanks for the list of engine parts. I love to know what race cars run. Thats pretty awesome RWHP for a 2.4. Why did you stay with a 2.4 instead of moving up to the 2.8? And what kind of head is E3100 is that the same as the E31? How did you get the 480 valve lift to work with stock nissan springs? I have a 460 lift cam and I had to use schnider springs... well, they said that I "should" use the schnider springs to allow for the increased lift and mainly to prevent valve float. Where is WSIR track? Thanks for the info. Matt

There's 100 octain at a 76 station off the 10?!!!!!! which exit? Hey Craig what kind of motor are you racing in your Z and were do you race? Sblake01 I don't even know where the 30 is ... Im guessing its east of the 15. Matt-

I live in Covina (just off the 210 west of the 57) chino is within driving range. Is that your yellow Z racing? If you would like to get together and go over our Z's let me know. Look forward to hearing from you, Matt-

I set the nozzles 2.5 turns down. I did the "drop set" with the nozzles turned all the way up. I don't think that leaning out the rear float bowl did anything because I was still smelly after I fixed that problem. My guess is that getting the needle positioned right in the piston makes it put out less fuel on idle. I know that the needles have a diameter change every 16th of an inch or so and they all start off with the same diameter for idle... so... if that needle is set to high in the piston then the needle will deliver more fuel at idle. This is just my theory... of course I have no proof or statistics to back that up ... but it sounds good doesn't it. I also used my air flow meter to set the idle so it was nice and smooth. Each carb came in at a 9 on the meter, giving me an 800 idle RPM. Matt-

I was looking at the catagories on this site and relized that I had never introduced myself. I've been a member of this site for over 3 years and learned just about everything I know about Z cars from here. This has been an awesome resorce for me. My car is a total restoration, I found it in a dirt lot in Fontucky (A.K.A Fontana) missing a front tire and the driver side window. The window had been gone for over a year and in that time the dirt from the lot had moved into the car ... about an inch of it! The Body was about as straight as a 90 year old womans face. The engine had spider webs and dirt all over it, and the PO had tried to make some sort of a dragster out of it and replaced the rear springs with somthing out of a monster truck, so the back end was about 4 inches higher than stock... AND it was a salvage title. I took a good look at it and thought ... this is the car for me. I bought it for $500 ... its a 72 240 with all of its parts. 31/2 years later I have almost all the body work done she is straight as a razor and just about ready for paint. The engine has been rebuilt from the ground up (L28, F54, N42, schnider cam 460,270, headers, 2.5 exaust, SU's, steel head gasket 9.2:1 CR, electric Dizzy) 5 speed trans, all new urathane bushings, new weather striping, new interior, Miata seats, like new dash, all the insterments have been redone to look like new (the clock still doesn't work though:disappoin ) My end goal for my 72 Z is to have it turbo'd (I have almost all the parts) put killer AC and power door locks ... I'm hoping for a 300RWHP hybrid 240Z. I love working on my Z its a great hobbie and I'm allways looking for Z buddies if you live in the Souther California(LA or Orange counties) area let me know. Rock on Z people!

Hey Z (Zed) people! I've been working on my Z for over 3 years now and for over 3 years now I've had smelly exaust. I've read just about every thread on how to fix this problem, from body seals and tail light gaskets, to sealing up the header and exaust system, to adjusting the carbs and nothing ever worked. I decided that it was just a flaw of the SU design and that it could not be fixed... wrong! What I've learned is that the SU's are super simple but they are also very complex. It turns out that the smelly exaust seemed to come on at idle (provided I had the carbs tuned right... otherwise it would be constent and make the car almost undriveable) I decided to try one last time to fix it and this is what I learned... I thought it was the float level being set to high and leaking gas into the cab at idle so I check the carbs and the rear was a little to high so I adjusted it. Well I adjusted it wrong and now the problem was worse, now gas was spilling out of the carb:stupid: so I adjusted it correctly and the smelly exaust was still there .... SHOCKING:cry: I decided to try a needle change, I was using SM needles which are recomended by Ztherapy, and cursed by many members of this site. I had my old N54 needles that were stock with the L24 (they always gave me smelly exaust too), but I thought I would give them another try. And here is the magic... It seems to me that the needle position in the piston will give you smelly exaust. the higher up the needle sits in the piston the smelly'er it is. the lower it sits, no smell. The fine line is just how low to set the needle. To low and you loose performance... to high and back to smelly. I tried the Ztherapy needle setting system. You know, where you loosly set the needle in the piston and then drop it down on the nozzle and that sets the perfect needle depth... guess what, that $hit works... with a minor adjust ment that is. I found that if I slide the needle up just a bit from the droped piston set point I got better performance AND SMELL FREE EXAUST. I thought I would share this info with all the SU loving members of this site that continually complain (and rightfully so) about smelly exaust. I'm sure many of you already new how to fix this problem and this is no brainer stuff , but, I never saw a thread about how to get rid of the smelly exaust other than someone saying "all you have to do is tune your carbs". This is just my personal anicdote and it may not work for everyone but I hope it helps people pin down there smelly exaust problem Just thought you should know. Rock on Z people, Matt-

Seerex is right! 9 year old gas will reek havoke on an engine. after about a year it starts to turn in to lacker. I would guess that from the tank to the fuel rail to the carb float bowls to the nozzle to the needle is filled with this crap. Even carb cleaner won't do the trick... it will help and its a start, but you need to "clean" everything out. I would start with cleaning the fuel rail, then clean the float bowls, nozzles and needles. once you have that stuff clean then you can run a line off a five gallon gas tank just to get the car running and "tuned". Once you have it running and tuned, pull the gas tank, have it boilled and lined, then either clean the hard fuel lines from the gas tank or replace them (with larger ones for when you go turbo ). The Z therapy video is great I recomend getting the Just SU's first then get the SU's tune up video. Welcome to the Z world and good luck. Keep us posted. Matt-

If you have a good ground, then it might be the altinator. I had the 72 40 amp altinator and it wouldn't provide enough "juice" for my Z with all the new electrical stuff. The lights would dim and the idle would suck. I went through 3 altinators before I did the upgrade to the 60 amp ZX altinator. the Car has plenty of juice now. Just a thought.

did you check that you are getting spark on all six cylinders? maybe replace the dizzy cap, rotor, and wires. once you have done that, check the valve clearance , 10 thousands intake, 12 thousands exaust, Hot. Once you've done that then check you timing. as far as the battery goes... It could be dieing... once the engine starts the car runs on the altinator, it will run great as long as the altinator is good. what part of california do you live in? good luck, Matt

I don't know much about FI but have you cleaned the fuel injectors? check the connections to the injectors too. If that Z is still in the junk yard pull the computer and swap them out ... its a long shot but maybe something is wacky with the computer? I use castrol 30 weight, seems to work great ... but I have a fresh rebuild. Good luck, Matt- P.S. pull the temp sensor from the thermostat housing and clean or replace that and all the connections

check to see if the choke is stuck open. also check if there is a vacuum leak through the throttle shafts. does it get rich when this happens? if so then the problem may be in the nozzles needles or floats. If you "tap" the throttle does the problem go away?