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No word yet from the engine builder on when he thinks he'll be finished, he is going to go with a good used crank instead of repairing the original. All of the connecting rods are still good and usable. I finished rebuilding the head, everything is clean and flat, fresh valve seals and lapped the valve seats while I was at it, ready to go.

I've been eating chili for 3 days straight. As soon this experiment is over I might be able to offer suggestions.

To quote the Black Knight, "It's just a flesh wound." It was just a finger tip. Plenty more where that came from. I was modding a chain link weaving machine at the time. Unfortunately, my Spanish was worse than the operator's English.

No Noah that was my attempt at humor for Mr Mark Maras. About a year or so ago I hurt my hand or fingernail or something really sissy and got on here complaining. Mark operates heavy equipment. While doing some maintenance on a front end loader or something similar he unfortunately lost most of a finger but never said a word until I get on here complaining about blue fingernail. I'll try and find the thread later today. His hands look like sledgehammers! If he's got a daughter and I went to pick her up for a date and Mark said have her home by midnight, 11:30pm and I'm there.

Hey guys, I have owned my 1971 240Z for around 12 months now, but this week I have finally been able to start work on it. I have been going hard on my other project, a 1973 Porsche 911 RSR inspired build, but I am waiting for custom engine parts, so I can finally start my Z project. I bought the car as someones failed project, so it was completely stripped. Everything is there though, and it is an amazingly clean, rust free shell, so it should make for a great project. This week I first needed to replace the front wheel bearings on the 911 so I could put wheels on it and move it out of the way. I then got into doing a stocktake on my Z to see what it needed, and start formulating a plan for the build. Here is the episode.

Tagging Jai so she knows about this thread.. @Redwing

Awe man that (dirty word) SUCKS! Go the oldest painter in town, he has painted a Z I'd bet. Get the parts list from the estimate and post it up. I've put a 240 bumper And Xenon spoiler on mine and have those small pices under the headlights you can have, maybe something else I got? Also Bo Gibbs junkyard from the '60s is right before Albertville. They have 4 or 5 280Zs I get parts off. You now we're gonna keep you and Lisa at the local shows representing Datsun. Cliff

I put an aluminium flywheel on my 2.4 with an early E88, small valves. I went ahead and notched the block while I was there because I have an E31 head with big valves like your N42. Cam kit and all that jazz but honestly I'm enjoying the light flywheel higher revving enough that the cam installation on the E31 has fallen to the bottom of "need to do" list. And as I said before we have way too many cops patrolling the streets in my small town. That's how they're making the money around here. More displacement with the 2.8 block and bigger valve N42 head. If your bored I'd go for it. Some day soon I hope do the same. Hey I know a good page you should read. datsungarage.com That will answer a lot of questions. Cliff Another good read is member Diseazed's builds. He has 5 or 6 240s with hot rodded ZX motors and loves them. Google "Diseazed build classiczcars.com". I think that'll get you there.

Well, I have been known to work in an unorthodox fashion. And, I am an official member of the "Blue Flame Club" so I have background and experience. It's just the creative side of me I guess. As for my wife, let's just say sometimes it's a competition.

You been eating chili for 3 days and looking for a vacuum leak? I think I have an idea of where it's coming from, I'm sure your wife knows.

Nice, them kind of ticket are of no concern to me. I'm (nearly) a felon (non -violent). So as long as I'm not going to prison, it's all good. Plus I got that "Get out of jail free" card. For a little bit at least (Omaha is corrupt as *EYR*#RY). I just want to melt the tailgaters bumper.... sorry, my car is old. File a claim. I just think that would be badass in a Z. As long as it doesn't go back to the engine and kill me. But hey, we all gotta go sometime eh? Better to burn out then fade away! Has anyone ever done this in a Z? Pics? Thanks!

Looking forward to your progress.

I remember my Dad saying he did that to a '57 Bel Air he had. He said they used a spark plug for the ignitor. Something else he said that I've never understood was "uncapped headers". When they would race he would slide something out that would let the exhaust flow straight out of the header, put it back to drive home??? My expirences were flooring an old Pontiac Catilina, kitty cat we called it, for a few seconds turn the key off for another second then back on. BOOM every time until the exhaust fell apart. That was a farm car my uncle had to drive around and check on his cows. Good and toasty heater and cold AC. Had mudder rear tires and no fender skirts, ugliest car you ever saw but boy was it fun for a couple of kids.

Might not be too hard to rig up a dedicated fuel injector mounted near the end of the exhaust pipe with an electric open/close switch and a simple piezo ignitor down stream. Oh look what I found on the shelf, this could be a fun little project.

I'm pretty sure that fuel injection is too efficient. You need to be able to flood lots of fuel into the system to get the flamage effect. Carbureted works best. Sent from my iPhone using Classic Zcar Club mobile

Reminds me of a warning that I remember in a heavy machinery operation manual. "Any primary adjustment (singular) will be followed by secondary adjustments (plural) to compensate for the primary adjustment." That tidbit of info turned out to be the most helpful sentence in the whole manual. I, of course, had to find out why.

You didn't mention the source below. If you liked what you had before, and you're not looking for a big project then just rebuilding it to factory specs would be the way to go. As soon as you start modifying, you end up on a trail of mods to make things work right with the last modification. http://www.zcarsource.com/piston-set-280zx-020-50mm-oversize-81-83-non-turbo-new_8_55194_50979.html

Dave is a really smart guy and well respected but....given your situation I would encourage you to keep it simple and find the right pistons. They are out there on some shelf somewhere. And, honestly your best bet might be to take your time with this engine build and find a complete engine that is for sale but that was running recently. Folks do engine swaps in 280zs all the time. Craigslist typically has full engines for sale all the time. Here is a 75 L28 for sale. Not saying $900 is the right price but usually folks take less than what they advertise. Point is....engines are out there. And, if this is really a 75 L28 engine then it has a pretty nice N42 square port exhaust head. I bet in California Craigslist has lots of options. 75 L28

Hi guys, Wanted to let you know that Jai recently posted an update to her status. Looks like she hit something with her car. Take a look at her status here: http://www.classiczcars.com/profile/30236-redwing/ I hope she can get Redwing fixed up, we may need to help her locate the parts. Mike