2ManyZs

Me thinks it would be difficult to hold the wheel no matter which side it was on. :cross-eye Just take a little getting used to shifting with the "wrong" hand and not making the engine into a hand grenade.:stupid: :tapemouth

Hmm, looks like a Z432.

Check to see how close your exhaust is to the starter, if it is close you might want to get a heat shield of some type between them or maybe even one of the starter heat barrier wraps. Sounds like a heat problem to me. See a lot of that even on cars that were V-8's to begin with, someone puts a header or changes the exhaust and it overheats the starter, sometimes it only happens when it sits still and the radiant heat off the exhaust uses the starter as a "heat sink". :cross-eye I think if you look at Summit Racings website you can find one of the starter heat resistant wraps for an affordable price. Better than push starting.:tapemouth

A little blue smoke at start-up is usually caused by the valve seals, they are rubber and over time harden and lose their ability to seal properly. It could also be worn guides, but they usually last a lotlonger than the seals. Not a difficult job to change just the seals, but the easiest way is to remove the head, so a thorough check of all the components while the head is off would be a good idea.

Found this site while on one of the racing sites. Might be worth a look to any of you who are looking for Mikuni carbs or parts such as jets, etc.. http://www.wolfcreekracing.com/classified.htm

I believe I have seen the covers for sale on the web. Seems like it was either Classic Datsun Motorsports or perhaps Too Intense Restorations or Motorsport Auto. Check out their sites in the web-links sections. I still have not received my new MSA catalog so I don't know if they still have them or not.

Sounds like the cold start injector or the temp sensor is trying to over-enrichen the mixture. Try unhooking the injector on the front of the intake and see if it helps. Take a look at the plugs after you do it and see if they are gas fouled. If you don't have one already, I suggest getting a Factory Service Manual for your car. It is almost essential when trouble shooting the fuel injection. There are so many tests for each of the circuits it is almost impossible to diagnose a problem without one. It is expensive, but worth every penny.

The R-200 rear in the 280 should hold up to a V-8, within limits. The weakest link will probably be the axle flanges and the sub axles along with the U-joints. For more info take a look over at www.hybridz.org

Used it in 240's and 280's. I had one car that had over 100K on it and I know it never had any leaded gas put in it for more than the first couple years of its life. And I know he was not into doing preventive maintenance. Using unleaded is not going to cause significant damage to the seats in a short time. It's is over a long period of time that the damage is done. Lots of other things also will may have an impact on how long it lasts, such as valve adjustments, fuel mixtures, spark plug heat range, timing. Any things that will affect what is going on inside the combustion chamber will have an effect on how quickly the unleaded fuel will cause the seats to deteriorate. So there are variables in how long the seats will/can last.

When it does it again, pull a couple plugs out and see if they are wet with gas. If they are it may be in the water temp sensor, and causing it to flood, or it may have a bad cold start valve (injector), the one in the front of the intake manifold. If not that it may be in the ignition somewhere, something may be overheating due to excessive resistance. Those would be the first two things I would check.

It would take a lot of use and a lot of miles with unleaded gas before any problems would show up if the valve seats are in good shape to start with. If they are already suspect, having the hardened steel seats installed would solve the problem entirely. I used unleaded in my Z for years with no problems with the stock seats. Not that it might have had problems right after I got rid of it though.....:cross-eye

To clean the cam lobes you could try a good aerosol lube (WD-40 or one of the other good ones on the market) with some very fine emery paper or possibly even the finest grade of Scotch Brite. Use plenty of lube while you do this to keep it from scratching the lobes. You could also try some Berkabile 2+2 Instant Gum Cutter, (I think that is how it is spelled), it is an aerosol that will get rid of a lot of different oils, greases, sometimes even paint, and may take off some of the lighter rust. When you have it cleaned you could either oil it, or use a light grease to protect it. STP oil treatment will even work. When you have coated it good, you probably ought to try to put it in a plastic garbage bag to prevent it form drying out again.

Without knowing the exact rules you have to abide by there is no real answer to your questions. Every club, region, etc has different prep rules. SCCA rules would be the most difficult to get the car down to the wieght you are hoping for unless you go into EP or GT class. An Improved Touring Z can get down to close to 2000lbs within the rules, but the brakes have to remain close to stock. If you can run a lot of fiberglass body parts in the group you are running with, 2000lbs will be no problem. Depending on the engine prep rules you are looking at anywhere from 200-250hp or maybe more. Everything depends on the rules you have to run with. A good Z should be able to run with most 911's given the same prep rules, what the Z gives up in one area it will gain in another.

You didn't say what year car you had or which carbs, but another thing to check is the water control valve. You may be experiencing vapor lock if the water control valve is overheating the carbs and/or intake.

Before you do any grinding, you should do a test fit of the caliper on the mount. You will possibly need to shim the caliper to have it centered over the rotor. This may change your relationship to the wheel if you have to shim the rotor inward to center it over the rotor. You may find that after centering the caliper over the wheel you may not have any clearance issues to deal with. I would not advise grinding on the caliper if at all possible. It may weaken the caliper as it looks to be a web support between the pistons or it may have a fluid port there to equalize the pressure between the pistons. Either way it could have disastrous results. If you need only an extra millimeter or so to get the clearance you need, I would use a very thin wheel spacer. I'm not usually a fan of wheel spacers, but if they are kept to the absolute minimum, I see no reason not to use them especially on a street car. If you do use a wheel spacer, make sure you have good studs and the lug nuts have the proper thread contact, if a stock type nut does not thread down to a point where all the threads on the nut are used, I would advise using longer studs.

Not sure which decal you are referring to, but some of the underhood decals are available form Banzai Motorworks in MD. Check their web-site to see if they have the one you need, you can find a link to their site in the web-links.

Well, it can be adjusted. It is not as easy on an R-200 as it is on the R-180 but it can be done. However, if you have as much freeplay as you say, I doubt you will be able to adjust it out, sounds like the ring and pinion have far too much wear. You might want to pull the back cover just to see for sure, but if it really has a 1/4 turn of freeplay in the pinion, you are probably going to see a lot of wear on the ring or the pinion gear. :disappoin If you find a lot of wear, you will probably be better off looking for a better diff.

I'm fairly sure all the 280Z's from 75-78 had the non-replaceable u-joints. MSA has a replacement driveshaft for the 75 that has replaceable u-joints in their old catalog for 234 bucks (wish I knew why they haven't sent me my new catalog:angry: ) so that would probably be cheaper than doing what he wants to. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think there is any difference in the 75-78 flanges, however I haven't tried swapping them, and don't have one to check. I see no reason the holes couldn't be drilled out to a larger bolt if that is the only difference in the flanges.

If the U-joint has gotten to the point the cups are gone and it is eating into the yoke on the driveshaft, you are probably just as well of to get another driveshaft from the boneyard. It would probably cost you as much or more to get the correct yoke and have it welded onto the driveshaft. It could have been a lot worse, it could have been an input shaft bearing on the diff. or the ring and pinion.

They are all listed on zhome with the years that they were available, and with which exterior color you could get.

I think the "bar" you are referring to on the red car is actually the hood weatherstripping or gasket. It just looks like a black painted bar. The bars attached to it are the upright chrome ones right? They are hood pins, looks like they are on a L shaped bracket attached to the firewall. The shroud over the trumpets is a "cold air intake" in a sense, they have the air duct going to the hole in the radiator core support, and that is blowing air in the "direction" of the trumpets. In the series they are running it may not be legal to directly connect the outside air duct to the "air cleaner box" so they have skirted the rules as best they can. Lot of racers in Improved Touring did the same thing as we weren't allowed to use a cold air intake. So they did the same thing to "bend" the rules a little. Since it is only forcing cool air in the "direction" of the airbox, and not physically connected,it is legal. Gotta love the red one and the way those Wattanabe's look on the white car.

Yeah, not everyone knows my favorite nickname for the state of Massachusetts, so I thought I would spell it out.:devious:

Geez, going through DC? You are a brave man Ed. A little too far east for me to wave, but have a safe trip. Don't worry, the leaves are still on the trees up north, at least in Massachusetts they are. Hard to tell about the Buffalo area.:cross-eye On second thought, I won't be home yet to say ta-ta. I don't get out of Massachusettes till 7:30am.

If you have been doing a lot of hard shifting, you could also have a bent shift fork or shift fork roll pin. Easy enough to do, not quite simple to fix, although it would be cheaper than trying to find another trans. Besides u-joints it could also possibly be the front diff mount.

BOAC. Hmm, Bounce Off Another Cessna??? Be Orbitting Another Country???:stupid: