Hello from across the pond! Searching for a 240z

[Woody928]

Thanks guys, its quite nice to finally be making progress with the car and getting out and about in it. Doing road trips always makes new memories, hopefully the car will be ready for the Le Mans 24 Hours this June and we'll be going down in it but only time will tell. The irony is it was in Le Mans a year ago that the whole process of buying this car begun.

Site unseen yes that would be considered a moat, it extends the entire way around the castle and acts as a fortification. Also not many people know but they were also designed to prevent an enemies from tunnelling under the walls as they would be flooded. Below is a link to an image of the castle to give you a better idea, if you google 'Leeds Castle' there's lots of info. 
Leeds-Castle-1495.jpg

I suppose there's not really anything in the way of castles in the US given its history, only really Civil Wars Forts maybe? 

[Zedyone_kenobi]

WE have have many many forts along most port cities that served much earlier than the civil war.  In reality many forts were built, rebuilt, and added to over the decades of time.  The owners and enemies varied over the years.  Even though we started out over here 'officially' in 1492, a native population of nomadic and non nomadic native Indians were already well settled.  It is very interesting what we chose to bring over from the mother land and what we did not.  Castles represented centralized power, and form its very beginning, America was about every man making his way himself, taking care of himself, paving his path into the wild.  Centralized power is what most colonists were running form.  Just a thought.  I did a 9 day driving tour of Ireland, and it was simply spectacular. Also went to london a couple of times for F1 races.  Your entire country, is breathtakingly beautiful!

[Woody928]

Apologies again if this doesn't make 100% as its lifted off of my UK forums page, however I thought I'd keep you all posted 

 

Well as usual this is well over due and a lot has gone on in the last few months.

 

As some of you will know during my trip to B.D. Engineering to have the car tuned after only the first run we discovered a head gasket leak so had to abort the session, leaving me with no choice but to drive in a particularly gentle manor to both shows until it could be sorted. Having thought over my options and spoken to several people the job was well beyond my mechanical knowledge so I decided to leave it to the Pro’s on this occasion. While figuring out where to take the car I remembered a contact that I’d met through Russ on here last year while attending a Pistonheads meet at Goodwood who’s recently setup his own workshop and helped Russ work on his car with great success.

 

A quick phone call later and the car was booked in to visit Iain who owns and runs ‘Passion Engineering’ based in West Sussex. Not quite knowing what to expect with a 47 year old car and engine of an unknown quality I explained the issue and left the car with Iain to do a complete check over and resolve the head gasket issue. To begin with Iain did a pressure test on the coolant system which revealed several leaks from various pipes across the engine which all had to be fixed before the pressure allowed the coolant to start dripping from the suspect area. Next job was to strip down the engine and find out what we were dealing with.

 

As with all of these jobs and with engines of this age various bits and pieces popped up, the head was warped and required re facing, for unknown reasons the valves on cylinder six had run hotter with one of the intake valves having recessed into the seat requiring replacement, all of the exhaust studs were pretty knackered. The list went on…. We had some delivery lead times which were longer than expected with parts arriving from the US however finally everything eventually turned up. A visit to the machine shop and everything back ready to reassembly, we took the opportunity to replace the stem oil seals, gaskets and re-lapped all valves. While looking at the fitment of the current exhaust manifold our heat issue was identified with the manifold only half covering the exhaust port on cylinder six strangling its airflow. Fortunately owing to Iain’s mechanical skills he’s completely sorted out the alignment of it and we’re back in business (hopefully a Z story replacement will make it on there one day). Following which several bodges were revealed from the cars past including the most bodged replacement bushing I’ve ever seen in the cylinder head for the exhaust cylinder 6 exhaust stud location. Fortunately Iain milled a replacement and welded it in to sort the issue (Pics below). With the engine fully rebuilt various tidy up jobs were done to clean up the engine bay making it safer including an oversight on my behalf. The battery was also further isolated to protect the car further along with some clean-up work as well.

 

Full Strip down

IMG_5803 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

IMG_5804 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

IMG_5805 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

IMG_5945 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

IMG_5944 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

Reassembly 

IMG_6147 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

The aforementioned beautiful ex horror exhaust stud bush

IMG_2576 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

IMG_2575 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

Every item that was removed was stripped and examined before being reassembled and oiled or greased where appropriate, our throttle return issues was found to be the return springs holding insufficient tension owing to their age so have been replaced with some new Webber one which are performing fantastically now with no signs of a sticking throttle. We’re aware that the carbs are showing signs of age related wear however we’re leaving them as is for now with plans for triples and a new engine down the road. There’s even been some polishing work to give the bay some extra bling as well.

 

At this point it’s probably very fair to point out that as things developed and conspired against Iain (through no fault of his own I would add) we (my dad and I) had an upcoming deadline which was our planned trip to Le Mans for the 24 Hours which we had planned to attend in the Z. With the pressure on the car was finished the weekend before we left with Iain working around the clock (quite literally I would add) to make sure the car was finished to his standards in time for us to collect it and take it to France. To top matters off the car had even been fully detailed and waxed so it looked immaculate.

 

Fortunately for us at all stages Iain worked to our requirements and, as far as was possible, to our schedule, even agreeing to meet us outside of normal business hours to facilitate the collection. When we arrived to collect the car, we were talked though all of the work that had been undertaken, showing us the engine bay, explaining what work had been performed, showing us various worn out items that had been replaced, and explaining any fabrication work that had been undertaken. Following this we were also given a list of advisory items where Iain believed improvements could be made, or potential issues identified that we should be aware of going forward. Finally, knowing we were about to be embarking on a several hundred mile trip, Iain had gone to the effort to make up an emergency repair bag including all sorts of useful items that could potentially keep the car on the road in the event of an issue. I should add that throughout the process we were kept constantly updated with photos showing the current state of the work so that we had copies for our personal records :thumbs:

 

It’s fair to say that Iain went above and beyond our expectations in all regards and, when it came to the bill, was extremely reasonable considering the time he had invested. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend him to anyone who needs any work done on their Z, his work was second to none and he’s a true enthusiast.

 

Nicely tidied up engine ready to rock

IMG_1951 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

IMG_1952 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

 

 

 

 

With the car collected and having done about 100 miles including the drive home and several cruises around when it was back we we’re ready to go to Le Mans. Much to my amusement nothing has changed with the amount of heads the car turns, going down to my local to meet a friend the night before departing there were several people ogling over the car while enjoying a pint as I pulled up. Got into conversation with several people before I was allowed to the bar.

 

D-Day – we decided for better or worse that we didn’t want to purchase EU Breakdown cover given the cost for a five day period and arrogantly thought what could go wrong with a 47 year old Japanese classic sports car driving several hundred miles to France and back with a fresh top end engine rebuild! The usual gear, some spares, basic tools and a tow rope packed and off we went. We got the Ferry from Portsmouth on Wednesday morning going across to Caen in order that we could catch the last free practice and first quali session for the race. With the weather set for scorching heat the Z has no worries over seeing any water. 

 

Deciding we had the time we drove some of my favourite roads down to Le Mans sticking clear of all payage using A and B roads even going through the Forest D’Ecouves Normandie which is always great fun. Having warmed her up the new engine was now pulling like a train leaving me grinning like an idiot as we raced down towards the circuit. Given the cars relative low capabilities/threshold in its very OEM guise its was hilarious fun rolling around going pedal to the metal so to speak. I’d forgotten how much fun it is to drive a slow car fast, albeit it has only served to increase my desire to perform several major upgrades.

 

Having made it down to the circuit we settled in at Auberge Des Hunaudieres restaurant to catch the end of the GT3 session before the final practice begun. With the car parked in sight from our table we giggled to each other as we saw the amount of passers by who stopped to have a good gawp and admire the car while we enjoyed our meal and the racing. All that done we did something different for the Thursday and left the comfort of the circuit to head South and check out Chateau de Breze which has the largest dry moat in Europe being 18 meters deep and an impressive cave system, enjoying some fantastic roads on the way down it was also easy to spot the Roman influence with dead straight roads for mile on mile (if that floats your boat). On route back we met up with our neighbour who was on his first trip out in his R35 GTR. Its fair to say together they made quite a sight and drew some looks albeit for road presence and performance despite my admirable efforts to drive in a spirited fashion would never come close to Godzilla’s potential.

 

For a change we also decided to attend the Classic British Welcome which we’d never done before, it’s been going for several years now and draws about 1000 cars of all varieties and ages to a small village local to Le Mans. There was a fantastic turnout with almost anything you could imagine in attendance with the theme this year being Marcos. Thanks to Sean I met up with a French 240Z owner who spoke fantastic English and had a good chat to him about his car and had a good poke around, it was in fantastic condition and right up my street being a practical road legal racecar

 

Everything was going well and I wish it stayed that way however his is the point where I say ‘but’. While getting back to the car and preparing to head to the circuit for the pit walk I was chatting to another passer-by who asked to have a look at the engine bay. In my typical fashion I went to oblige pulling the bonnet release however a second later I was pulling a very screwed up confused face as I was holding the handle in my hand with about 40cm of cable visible and the engine bay sealed shut. Having realised there was nothing I could do I instantly got several very helpful responses from the usual suspects on Facebook following my pleas for help including the offer of tools and help from a fellow member at a local campsite :thumbs: On reflection though we concluded that there was no real need to access the bay with everything running well that we’d just leave it well alone for the weekend and worry when we got home and had better access and a cold engine to faff with given we had no guaranteed way to fix it even if we opened it up

 

Several more days of racing went by with visits to other favourite locations such as Hotel de France in Chartre-sur-le-Loir where despite other tasty machinery being parked with the GTR and Z parked together drew a lot of looks and sparked more chats. The car continued to perform very nicely chewing through the miles well into Sunday afternoon as we were returning to Caen for our return crossing following the race. As we made swift progress through the French countryside it was apparent while slowing down to pass through towns that we were smelling a sulphur/bad eggs smell. Quite apparent it wasn’t going anywhere and some scanning over our notoriously ‘reliable’ gauges and it was clear that the Amp gauge was up at maximum +45. Some discussion later and we concluded the voltage regulator had decided it was the end of its days and to give up. Given we were still ticking over nicely and there was little we could do (assuming we were correct) we opted to continue making progress for Caen. The car kept eating up the miles all the way to our obligatory stop in the Wine cave before shooting the last few hundred meters into the Ferry terminal. Having pulled up in the usual queue we made for our usual beer to relax and ponder the machinery and kick tyres with all the other brits waiting alongside.

 

With the queue starting to move we had to stop chit chatting and jumped into go, a quick turn of the key and nothing….. stone dead nothing… No problem we thought a quick bump start and we’ll be away, no such chance with several of us pushing not even a hint in first or second gear. Pushed to the side several brits seeing our predicament kindly came over offering a battery charger and jump leads. Alas our trivial bonnet being locked was suddenly a big issue! A few discussions with the port authority and having been told we couldn’t be towed with cars having to make their own way to the boat and no tow hook fitted our options were looking thin on the ground….

 

Several conversations later and that annoying tow rope was suddenly looking very appealing. Having fitted it around the front subframe/cross member we had a big rig turn up with two kind French men from the port. A lot of stress and some giggling later and we had been towed to the back of the ferry, literally being the last car pushed down the ramp onto the boat before departure. Disaster averted the AA were on standby for our arrival back in the UK, the next day having watched every vehicle possible disembark little old us were left in the corner awaiting the ports recovery rig. Not so expected was the jobs worth who arrived refusing to tow us off of the boat on the basis we had no tow hook and he therefore he ‘couldn’t’ tow us. Much bullshit later the car got pushed off to await the AA. Immigration cleared with thanks to Portsmouth port authority we sat and awaited our man in yellow. Agreeing we were buggered we arranged for the car to get towed to Iain to get the car on a high lift to get some decent access.

 

All arranged we drove not so tastefully on the back of an AA van to West Sussex to be cracked open and analysed before heading back to work as originally planned. By the afternoon our broken bonnet release cable and knackered voltage regulator both confirmed we set about with repair options. Looking to bring the car slightly further into the 21st century we’ve opted to move onto an internally regulated 280zx alternator for hopefully some more reliability. New battery to be sourced and bonnet release cable on route repairs are well underway meaning she should be back on the road in no time.

 

All ranting aside one day soon I plan to be performing some work by choice which I would like to be do as an ‘improvement’ rather than our usual list of essential areas of attention. Suspension is well and truly on the cards with hopefully some T3 components in the pipeline while other items are sourced including the dreaded conversation of suspension struts. I’m watching a few threads with interest however having chatted with Franky Intrax sounds like a very nice option if I can stretch to the costs.

 

Other than the minor episode which I now look back and laugh at the car performed faultlessly on its first ever trip to the continent eating up the miles and is hopefully the first of many trips planned over there. I’ll never get bored of saying that I am still blown away by the help I’ve got through the community across our ownership of the car, I still giggle to myself when I see the attention the car gets and love sharing my experience with all of the people I’ve encountered since day one of owning the car. I’m not sure this one will ever get boring…..

 

I really have now said far too much so I’ll leave you with some pictures to look at from France in the meantime rather than listening to me drone on!   

On our way South in France
DSC_0618 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Beautiful war memorial
DSC_0628 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Giving the lady a rest 
DSC_0630 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Home for the weekend
DSC_0646 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

A quick diversion to Breze for a change
DSC_0650 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

DSC_0653 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

DSC_0663 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

DSC_0668 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

The dream team (incase you've never seen the faces behind the project)
IMG_2045 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Lovely French S30 racer
IMG_2090 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_2089 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Evening visit to Hotel de France with our neighbour and Godzilla in tow
FullSizeRender-2 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Our rescue steed in France, helping out a fellow Brit after us...
IMG_2392 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

and our trusty steed for the UK
IMG_2398 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Edited July 5, 2017 by Woody928

[Patcon]

Dragging an Aston Martin off the ferry. Got to hate that. Understandable on the 40+ year old car but the Aston is much newer and much more expensive!

[Woody928]

On 5/20/2017 at 0:19 AM, Zedyone_kenobi said:

WE have have many many forts along most port cities that served much earlier than the civil war.  In reality many forts were built, rebuilt, and added to over the decades of time.  The owners and enemies varied over the years.  Even though we started out over here 'officially' in 1492, a native population of nomadic and non nomadic native Indians were already well settled.  It is very interesting what we chose to bring over from the mother land and what we did not.  Castles represented centralized power, and form its very beginning, America was about every man making his way himself, taking care of himself, paving his path into the wild.  Centralized power is what most colonists were running form.  Just a thought.  I did a 9 day driving tour of Ireland, and it was simply spectacular. Also went to london a couple of times for F1 races.  Your entire country, is breathtakingly beautiful!

Thanks for sharing, interesting to know a bit more than before. I've never made it to Ireland before however from what I've seen its beautiful in places. Thank you very much, I'm told its not a bad place then again its all I know.  I think the same can be said of so many places though, The West coast of the states is beautiful from my trips over there and come this August I'll be sampling its offerings by visiting Boston, New York, Philly and Washington for the first time.  

France is always amazing every time I've been. 

13 hours ago, Patcon said:

Dragging an Aston Martin off the ferry. Got to hate that. Understandable on the 40+ year old car but the Aston is much newer and much more expensive!

It had a fuel leak having chatted with the owner, despite knowing members of the Aston team there was nothing they could do so it was going back to the local dealer in the UK. In fairness the DB7 model is over 20 years old now so hardly a youngster I'm therefore less surprised but certainly wouldn't want to pick up the bill! DB7's can be had for about £30,000 now so relatively speaking not too dissimilar to the price of our Z in the greater scheme of things. I'm sure the parts will cost a small fortune though. 

 

[black gold man]

Were you in Ireland to join the Y A N 

 

[Patcon]

4 hours ago, Woody928 said:

I'm sure the parts will cost a small fortune though. 

My oldest son was interested in getting an Aston Martin and I started looking for them at the salvage auctions. I could get one for about 12k or so and could probably have it finished for under 20k but the parts are stupid. Brake rotors are $1,250 a corner etc. ,etc. I told him you could pay for the car but you can't afford to drive it! A DIY brake job is close to $6,000, unreal...

[sweatybetty]

in this picture you have both a spray bar and oil holes in the cam. how does that work?

[Zed Head]

Good eye.  Honsowetz says that when people do that they usually open up the oil passage in the block to increase flow to the head, to supply both.  His has been working so it must be right enough.

[Woody928]

17 hours ago, Patcon said:

My oldest son was interested in getting an Aston Martin and I started looking for them at the salvage auctions. I could get one for about 12k or so and could probably have it finished for under 20k but the parts are stupid. Brake rotors are $1,250 a corner etc. ,etc. I told him you could pay for the car but you can't afford to drive it! A DIY brake job is close to $6,000, unreal...

Haha how does that not surprise me, they're silly money! My dad always told me you have to look at the cost of these cars from new to appreciate what the relative parts/running costs will be. Seems to ring very true from everything I've heard and been told. I think I'll just stick with the Z. 

9 hours ago, sweatybetty said:

in this picture you have both a spray bar and oil holes in the cam. how does that work?

 

8 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Good eye.  Honsowetz says that when people do that they usually open up the oil passage in the block to increase flow to the head, to supply both.  His has been working so it must be right enough.

Given my complete lack of knowledge in this area I couldn't clarify. Is the spray bar a stock item? I know the cam is schneider aftermarket one which would explain the holes but don't know about the spray bar. 

Surely more flow can only be a good thing? (All I can confirm is the engine has been running better than ever following the rebuild)

[240260280]

2 hours ago, Woody928 said:

Surely more flow can only be a good thing? (All I can confirm is the engine has been running better than ever following the rebuild)

 

Absolutely... "belts and braces" racing trick.  Some also enlarge the orifice in the oil passage feeding the head to provide more top-end lubrication.

[Mark Maras]

 The 2.4's and 2.6's? used the spray bar. I don't know the exact changeover date.