2ManyZs

Definately strip off any cracked or chipped areas as you might have moisture in behind it doing you know what.... Eastwoods has a pretty good undercoating remover, don't know if you can get a like product over there, but it does help to soften the undercoating and makes it so much easier to remove, and they have another product that gets rid of the leftover undercoating residue.... You can heat it with a fairly decent work lamp, such as a 350 or 500 watt halogen type worklamp or you could use the dry ice/chipping method. I'd go with the heat from the halogen worklamp as it is a bit safer on the fingers... If you do part of it, I'd go ahead and do it all, and coat it with POR-15... that way, if anything is hidden under it, you can find it and repair it if needed....:disappoin

You'll have to take into account these engine were never imported into the US in any cars. Finding parts to repair them is not going to be as easy as going to the local Auto Zone. Some parts might be interchangeable with other engines that were imported, but there are going to be some that are specific to that engine only... which means you might find them nearly as hard to find as a winning Lotto ticket...:disappoin Just something to consider....

5 speed would have had to come from either a 77-78 280 or a ZX in the first place, so bolting it into your 280 will be no problem. 73's only had 4 speeds. You might want to check those wheels a little closer. I hope I'm wrong, but they almost look like those Uni-Lug wheels that required a washer behind the lug, the hole looks oblong like the uni-lug, but it looks like they have standard type mag wheel lug nuts... If they are uni-lug and don't have the right lug nuts, the holes could be trashed... they are supposed to be oblong, but not because of wear due to the wrong lug nuts being used... Vinyl isn't easy to remover, but it can be done if you are very careful, it all depends on how well the glue is still sticking...:cross-eye Shouldn't have too much trouble with cooling without the vents, but most people want the vents on earlier cars, so if you wanted to sell the old hood you shouldn't have too much trouble there....

I don't use gas, but diesel has been $1.72-$1.74 here in VA and gas(87) has been around $1.58 for the past month.

The only con's I can think of would be the work involved to change the flanges to the 240 style as I believe the 200SX Turbo's or Silvia had CV joints. Not really all that difficult, but it is a bit of work. It should also be an R-200 diff, which means changing the mustache bar and the lower transverse link as the 240 link won't give you enough room to mount the diff. You'll need the curved link such as our 280's had that came with R-200's. Of course, it is possible your Silvia's had an R-180 diff, I'm just guessing since ours came with 200's, the only ones that came here with 180's were the non-turbo's. Pro's? Car would be substantially quicker off the line and with the 5 speed your overdrive will give you a bit lower highway RPM. All depends on if you want a little more snap in the lower gears without sacrificing cruising RPM's. There's quite a noticeable difference when going from a 3.36 or even 3.54 to a 4.11 ratio. That is if your car doesn't already have a 3.90 which would make the change moot..

Sounds to me like you are going to have to pull the door panel and do some adjusting on the rods. It probably is too tight against the lever on the latch assembly, you should be able to access the plastic adjustments nuts fairly easily on the back edge of the door by just pulling the door panel. It could also be the adjustment on the rod coming from the inside door handle as well, and that if I remember right is the one that is a bit tougher to get to without nicking your hands on the sharp edge of the inner door panel. One way to know which way to adjust them is to see how far the outside handle has to be raised to unlatch the door... and conversely the inner door handle as well. There is no real adjustment setting for either of them as every door is going to be different due to the differences in striker plate adjustment etc....Just one of those things you do buy the trial and error method.

Even if you don't use it, I would suggest you get it anyways... bet there would be a lot of people that would like to have one....:devious: Have you got a ZX 5 speed in the car with the higher overdrive ratio? If so, then the 4.11 would be fine... With a 4 speed it would be too low for the street for anything longer than short trips...

No problem George, guess in a way I was right even though I completely forgot that your L-28 probably would have come from a ZX and not a 280Z... I knew the early L-28's in our 280's didn't have the oil temp unit, just wasn't sure if the later ones did or not... Guess that shows how much interest I have in ZX's huh?:cross-eye

Hmm, might need a pic of that one.... Only reason I can think of for a wire coming out or off the iol pan would be for an oil temperature sending unit. Someone may have put an oil temp gauge in the car at one time or other? Other possibilities, but would have to see it or know exactly where it is....

If you have one, try running a tap into the captured nuts before you put the now bolts in. If the old bolts have rounded off the threads, perhaps you can restore the threads with the tap enough that the new bolts will tighten securely.

I guess the question is this George, are you going to put urethane steering rack bushings in? If you have the strut assembly off the control arm you should be able to get just enough room to remove the bolt if you unbolt the ball joint so you can raise the steering arm up off the control arm and that should raise the tie rods enough to get the bolt or bolts out. If you are planning on replacing the steering rack bushings, then you might as well loosen the rack, it's only 4 bolts to loosen, so you can raise it a bit to get the bolts out. FWIW, when I rebuilt mine, I inserted the bolts from the back and put the nut towards the rack so I'll never have that problem again.

Sounds like you did alright with the oil rings, as far as setting the end gaps. There is always the slim possibility they might have moved a bit when you put the ring compressor on and installed the pistons. I'd go ahead with checking the valve stem seals and if nothing looks bad enough to be causing the problem, I think you should figure on pulling the head. I know, a head gasket isn't cheap, but it's a lot easier than pulling the engine...If you pull the head and don't find any scratches in your hone job in the cylinders, you can pretty much rule out the rings as the problem. Which will leave you with two more alternatives. You could have had a defective headgasket, or there is a probem with the head itself. BTW, did you happen to check the oil pressure? Just wondering if it showed anything abnormal...

As far as I know, there is no difference in the top and bottom rails, or scrapers. But, the question is, did you set the gaps correctly? The expander ring should be set with the gap over one end of the piston pin, and the top rail is then put on the piston with the gap set at 10 o'clock( with 12 o'clock the gap of the expander ring) and the bottom rail is then put on and the gap set at 4 o'clock. Also and just as important, is that the ends of the expander ring spacer ends cannot overlap, but must only butt together. This needs to be double checked after installing the side rails as you can disturb the expander ring spacers when you are installing them... If the engine is pumping out that much oil, I guess it is entirely possible the oil ring end gaps aren't set correctly and that is the problem. I know you didn't want to hear that.....:disappoin If you aren't sure, you might be better off to take it back down and double check now instead of taking the chance of damaging the bore or pistons....

Is this the pic you are referring to Royce?

Have you tried to adjust the striker plate at all? If you loosen the bolts that hold it to the door jamb, there is a bit of adjustment there, although not an inch, but it might help. When you put the door back together, did you move the plastic adjustment nuts on the latch rods inside the door? They can be a bit finicky to say the least. Perhaps one of the adjustments either on the outside door handle or the inside handle is causing the latch to bind up when closing... Unfortunately, this is one of those things that you just have to sit and play with, as there is no true adjustment method other than trial and error. Every door will latch differently due to the adjustment differences in the stirker plate etc.... Is there play in the hinges? Can you get the door to move up and down when open by picking up on the back of the door?

The best thing about the Toyota caliper swap is that they don't require any machine work or modifications to the strut to mount them, they bolt right up. Just be sure to get the correct ones, the ones with the W or WS (?) on the caliper are made for vented rotors.

I'll admit you have me stumped on this one. The only things that can be wrong are either it is not the correct shroud, or the radiator is not a 240 radiator. It's possible the radiator is an aftermarket radiator that is not completely true to the original specs...... Did you try to mount it in the opposite direction? If I remember right, the fan opening is offset and not in the center of the shroud... been so long since I saw a factory shroud on a 240 I can't remember, but I know they only fit one way....

I've got my e-mail feature blocked, but you can send me a PM with no trouble Rolf.

Wasn't someone looking for a fiberglass hood no too long ago? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2408223782&category=33646

To be absolutely honest Rolf, I see nothing in that cars history to make it special. It is only a Regional champion in ITS. Here in the US the SCCA has Regional only classes and then they have National classes that are invited to the yearly SCCA Runoffs to compete with cars and drivers from all over the country. ITS has never been a National class and perhaps never will be. It is a nice car, but it has no special racing history that I know about. If it were a multi year champion at the SARRC invitational that it run at Road Atlanta every fall, which is the Improved Tourings unofficial "Runoffs" then it might be worthy of having a bit more of a "gilded" history. Or if it had a history of racing going back to the days of C Production or perhaps a win in a 24 endurance race it would be worthy of the praise. Sadly, the price of 240's in SCCA ITS racing is bottoming out here in the US as the SCCA has allowed cars like the 944, 325IS and later RX-7 to compete and they have nearly made the 240 a backmarker except for a very small number of well-driven and well prepared cars that win a smaller amount of races than they have in the past. A 240 that might have sold for 10K or more in the past is now lucky to fetch 5K as the cars just can't be made competitive with the cars on the track today. It's hard to compete with 30 year old technology against cars that are only 10 years old. My 280 was in 9th place in the Regional championship here in 1993( my first year of racing), only competing in half the races that year, so a Regional Championship is not a good judge of true caliber of the car. Every region has different numbers of competitiors in the class, and the competition is not the same across all regions. Last year I practically gave the car away just to get it out of the backyard...:disappoin

Get some real gas additive. ATF only works in diesels...... A gas engine doesn't have enough combustion chamber temp to burn it completely so it won't do a bit of good, unless you want to leave a little red streak on the pavement behind you....It will onlu foul your plugs and cause you more problems than you had ot begin with.

Look at it this way, torque is what gets you off the line and gets the vehicle moving. The L-series does not have the torque that a low revving domestic straigth six has because it has a small displacement. If you look at one of the hottest sports cars to come from Japan in the last 10 years you will see the similarities with your Z. The Honda S2000 has very impressive HP numbers from a very small displacement engine, yet it lacks torque. If you read all the tests of the S2000, they all say the same thing, lack of low end torque. Get that little Honday revving in the 4K and up to its 9K rev limit and it does fine, below that and it is a bit of a slug. Your Z is in the same dilema, it has good power, but it will always be a bit low power in the lower revs, unless you do something to improve it. Two things that will help it significantly are a light weight flywheel so the engine will spin up to higher revs quickly and a lower rear end gear ratio.

According to this post by Royce, he weighed an L-28 and a 4 speed as 600lbs, so add just a bit for a 5 speed, maybe another 20lbs or so... Look at this thread http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3848&highlight=Engine+weight

Actually if you go to MSA's web-site, they are looking for help.. Maybe when they get their site set up for the secure ordering, that will help with getting through to a person on the phones... Hmm, too bad they aren't closer... might be a fun job with some "benefits' worth having... at least until my car gets back together...:devious:

Sounds as if you may have a loose connection, probably at or around the coil. If it dropping all the way to zero, it sounds like the connection is broken. Double check all your wiring connections at( and around) the coil and replace any terminals that are loose or damaged. Not dropping to zero all the time is a good indication of a loose terminal that is not quite losing all, but most of it's ability to conduct the proper voltage to the tach.