Arne

For resale, I'd skip the stripes. While many like them, many do not and so stripes might seriously reduce the size of the potential pool of buyers.

A quick update - now that the initial rush on these adapters seems to have abated, the 'manufacturer' may not always keep parts in stock on the shelf. That doesn't mean they won't be available, but the delivery time may be a bit longer than it was when the orders were coming in quantity. So if you haven't got your order in yet, it may take a bit longer than what it did earlier to get it to you.

Been doing some shopping around for head machine work, and I've found the prices are much higher than I had figured on for a simple stock E88 rebuild. I'm not looking for a performance-built head, just good quality work. I've got quotes of $600 to $900 for what I need to have done. Which is to have the head lightly surfaced, new guides installed, the t-stat housing opening welded and surfaced, a couple of new valves, maybe new springs and the normal valve grinding and lapping. No port work, pretty basic stuff. So here's the dilemma - MSA will sell me a rebuilt E88 for about $450 exchange. They guarantee that it will not have been milled too far, will have steel intake seats, all new guides, springs and valves as required, and all water passages will be good or repaired. The cam will be a re-grind, which doesn't excite me, but I can probably work around that. So has anyone bought one of their rebuilt heads? Any reviews? Are they good enough for a stock daily driver-type engine?

Wow, ZaK! Looks great! Would you like to do mine, too?

Current price on MSA's website (which is more current than their catalog) is $234.95 for the 3 row #16-7001, which ships at the 30 pound rate. So add $18-30 shipping, depending on where you live. But call your local radiator shops first, though. I found a local radiator shop who can sell me a 3 row for a 240Z for $212 and no shipping. Plus he'll test it for leaks before I pick it up at no extra charge, and it has a much better warranty than from MSA.

Later Z and ZX radiators will fit, but they are deeper and hang down below the front valance a couple of inches. The sump and crossmember are lower still, but it would still be easier to damage than a regular 240Z unit. I have a ZX radiator in my 240Z (installed with an L28 by a previous owner), but don't like how it looks hanging down there and will be swapping back to a radiator designed for the 240Z later this summer. The original 240Z radiator was only a 2 row core unit, but three row core units are fairly easy to find, and even four row are available if you need that much. For maximum cooling, aluminum radiators that fit properly are also available. My needs aren't too great (mild climate and mostly stock L24), so I will go with a three row core radiator in mine.

I'm always afraid of cars with brand new paint - always wonder what's underneath. I'd want to have it thoroughly inspected for rust...

And I had my driver's window out yesterday, it was very easy and nothing to be afraid of.

Actually, I think that for a non-stock Z a good bright yellow (not either of the stock yellows) might not be a bad choice. These days many performance cars are coming in bright yellow. Ask Gary (beandip) to post a picture of his 240Z. His is very bright, I think it's a late-model Mustang color, or something like that.

The distributor and electronic ignition is good to have, I have that system on my '71. Plus many people prefer the 5 speeds from these over the earlier units from the 280Z. The engine is a typical L28 with dished pistons and a round port head. Not bad, but nothing special. Not sure which diff that would have come with - R180 or R200.

My factory service manual shows a three angle seat cut as standard for the '70-71 L24. That (plus other things I have read) leads me to believe that ALL L-series heads used three angle seats.

When I was doing the wiring replacement on mine, I found that there were lots of changes starting in 1/71, so any comparisons to mine aren't necessarily valid. FYI - When looking for a replacement harness I found that the harnesses seemed to change every few months of production. Your best bet is to hunt down someone with a similar 2/71 car who might be able to look at their wiring.

If you don't have a web site of your own, you can upload them to the site directly. You can add them to your gallery, or directly to a post. To attach them in a post, open the big post window and scroll down a bit to find the 'Manage attachments' button. Follow the instructions there.

Sure wish I had the hatch off the yellow one for my yellow '71. Anyway - Welcome! Where abouts in the US do you live?

Loren, what is your car's build date? On mine the defroster switch is a pair of blades terminals, not in a plastic connector at all.

Definitely not a show car. It runs and drives now (didn't when I bought it), and does have a little rust. And yes, there are piles of parts all over the house - in the RV pad, all over in the garage, in the spare bedroom, and now in the living room as well.

I'll chime in to welcome you as well, Toni. My series 1 and I live down the freeway a ways in the Eugene area. I'll pipe in on the automatic transmission part. I bought a car with an automatic almost on purpose. As your car shows, the automatics are much easier to find in good shape. But in my case, it was my intent to change it to a 4 speed all along - a task I just completed a couple weeks ago. If you are not mechanically inclined, you will need to enlist the assistance of someone who is to complete this swap. I recently posted a tech article on this exact swap, you can look it over here: http://classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21274 In your particular case, I'd recommend two things - first get the car safe and drivable, and see if the automatic really bothers you. You may decide after driving it a while that it's not so bad. But if you do decide to swap, considering how original the rest of your car sounds, I'd recommend finding an early 4 speed like I did, and not a later 5 speed. The later transmissions would require some cutting of the transmission tunnel, which would be a shame to do on a car as nice as yours sounds. There are lots of knowledgeable people on this web site, and actually a whole pile of Z folks in NW Oregon and SW Washington.

Reminds me of how I found out on the spur of the moment that a 240Z rear hatch will fit (just barely) in the back seat of a '96 328i.

I talked to Dave today, he is still on the road (coming home from MSA), so I'll answer this for him. The headlight harness as it is built now will fit any Z that uses the rectangular 3-wire connector going to the headlights. The 280Zs used a round connector that Dave has been unable to source. I don't know which type the 260Zs used, but since Dave has always claimed compatibility with 240Zs only, I'm guessing the 260Zs also use the round connector. So as far as I know, there is no way for Dave to branch out into the 260/280Z arena with the same 'plug-n-play' unit.

Yup, check the rulebook first, you may be severely limited as to the wheel size (mostly diameter) that is allowed. As for me, if I were doing a set of track wheels and tires, I'd probably stick with 15" - definitely not bigger than 16" - to keep the unsprung weight down. Still plenty of really good 15" tires available.

Yup, type of carbs. The SU's are a single throat, the Webers and Mikunis are dual throat, so each cylinder gets its own. Which you probably would have figured out had you read Carl's post all the way through.

Just don't go with a rim with a lot of negative offset and it should be fine.

Add to that the fact that Steve has no plans to sell this set up to anyone, nor is he making any claims that it is better than something else. I suspect he did it simply because he could, and wanted to have something different.

Just for the record, here is a link to the tech article I wrote on the conversion. http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21274

Absolutely. But the harnesses that you read about are for 240Zs and don't fit 280Zs (different plugs).