Jeff G 78

I've stripped a whole bunch of S30's, so I can't remember when they started, but I know that some S30's had the full molded style that you have. My '78 had those at one time, but they were completely brittle like yours, so I pulled them out.

I use FelPro in my race car and have had no issues. Just don't ever buy ITM gaskets. They are terrible.

Mine too has a center and offset. I tried it both ways and it fit much worse with the center as the inlet. It was the $150 MSA kit. Reading other installation reviews on this forum, it sounds like most people had the best luck the way I installed it, but most had similar issues. Maybe with a R180 diff, it would fit better, but the larger R200 forces the 90° bend out further which causes the muffler out too far with the center inlet.

Yes, it's fairly normal and will vary from vehicle to vehicle and tire to tire. Some states have higher crowns on their roads. Florida has the biggest crowns since everything is flat and they get heavy rains. Tires are designed to offset this. They have a built-in conicity (cone shape) to help give the vehicle a slight left bias. Some cars also have different caster side to side. More caster on the right front will help offset road crown pull. It's also possible that your tires aren't inflated evenly. All it takes is about 5psi low on one tire and you will get a slight pull.

I tried every angle as well as swapping the muffler end for end and it never fit right. Everything else is pretty good, but I also added a few extra hangers so it doesn't hit the R200 diff.

Which exhaust did you get, the slip fit or flanged? I did the slip fit on my race car and it sounds pretty good. It was a bit of a pain to get the fit right because I don't have an MSA header, but I'm happy with it. I added a flex pipe which really helped the fit and will hopefully reduce the stresses on the header and studs. No matter what I tried, I could not get the muffler to fit worth a damn though. It sticks way down. On my race car, I didn't care about looks, but even so, it's pretty lousy.

I likely have an OE manifold, but I'd have to check to make sure the studs are there and the port is intact. I just threw one away a week ago, but the studs were broken on that one. I have two more spare N47 engines that have manifolds on them. Let me know if you want me to check. I will be bringing them back from storage this weekend.

Sounds healthy!

You can leave the rear sump pan on the F54 engine. This was discussed a few months ago and it was concluded that you don't need to swap it unless you want to. If you do swap the pan, swap the pickup and the dipstick. Otherwise, leave it alone.

I agree with Patcon. I see lots of body patches which means the car had/has a bunch of rust. I'm guessing it looks worse in person. Keep looking and buy the best body you can afford. The mechanical stuff is the easy part. Getting a good body is way more important.

So many beautiful cars! I looked through the whole album as posted on the FB page. Thanks for sharing!

Oops, I was thinking the '83 had a P90. That would actually make it the same as mine. I have a P79/F54. Without shaving the P79, the CR is only like 8.3:1. People get worried about the N47/F54 combo, but it's fine. Less than 10:1 in the Eastern states is no big deal. Out West, the max octane rating is only 91, so they have a bit tougher time running that setup, I guess. Mine runs great with zero problems. I paid $150 to shave the P79 and it is a sweet engine. It pulls strong to 7,000 and makes about 170 - 180 hp at the wheels. I haven't dyno'd mine, but a friend with nearly the same exact motor got 178 at the wheels with his. My cam is a bit bigger, but he did some mild porting. I'm guessing they ended up about the same.

If your N47 head hasn't been milled, it will yield a CR of 9.83:1 with a Nissan gasket. I run that combo on my street Z with a stock cam and it runs nice. It does force you into premium gas (I run 93), but I've had no other issues. I did have to add a variable resistor into the water temp circuit to add a bit of fuel, but that was a $10 mod. Your other option is to shave the P90 head. I run this combo in my other Z and I love it. It's shaved 0.050" and I still use the stock valves with no tower shims. I made my cam gear adjustable with the small block Chevy offset bushing kit per the How to Modify Your Nissan OHV book. This combo gives you the better chamber shape and bumps the CR to about 9.3:1. I can run more advance with that combo than I can with my N47 engine. If you want more info, let me know.

What head do you have on the '77 engine? If it's the original head, it will be an N47 and have round ports. If that's the case, either exhaust manifold will work. If it's an N42 head, you will have to keep the '83 manifold on the new engine. Dumb question... What is the reason for the engine swap? If the old head is good, why not keep the N42 or N47 and drop it on top of the F54 block to give it a compression bump?

That's because it IS lawn edging! Lawn edging makes great airdam material. It's flexible for attachment and off-track excursions, yet doesn't flex under aero loading. The rear spoiler is made of thin plywood. I would have used real MSA or BRE parts, but the shipping costs are as much as the parts themselves. Total cost for aero was under $35.

I found it. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/carburetors-s30/49599-su-sightglasses-available-see-fuel-bowl-levels.html

The 23mm mark is the same for both when you measure the bowls. If you use the upside down lid method, you use 16mm and 12mm. There was a huge thread on this in July.

Roller jobs are great... for race cars. Here is my 260Z with a roller job. Rustoleum applied with no thinning via foam roller. It was applied with no prep other than a quick wipe down to remove the dirt and grease. It has a great shine and looks very good on the track.

It's still available at the dealer for a few bucks or you can simply install a bolt and nut. It is a very common problem.

It sounds like a ZX damper. It will work fine, but it is much larger than the earlier dampers.

$224 sounds like a lot for an auto parts store damper. I would suggest finding a good used one for the weekend and then have one rebuilt by Dale Mfg. For $110, you won't have to worry again (from what I hear). I have no first hand knowledge of Dale dampers, but they are very highly recommended by Tony D. He has been using them forever with zero failures and I trust Tony's endorsement.

So what was the root cause? Did the clearances change causing the heat and wear or was it a rocker arm problem?

Nice looking 260 Mike!

Like Steve said, we need way more info. The common mistake is to have the distributor 180° off, but it could be a lot of different things. Have you built a Z motor before> Did you start with a new chain and gears? Give us the build details and we'll help you.

Voted. Nice Z.