Mr.Woof's72z

I haven't posted on here much, but I've been driving my '72 240Z for almost 3 years now. Until recently she didn't have any mechanical woes besides a point replacement or valve adjustment here or there. And then... I was cleaning up the engine bay, getting the last bits of crud and accumulated gunk from 40+ years, and all around just getting her looking nice (wash, wax, polish). When I went to start the car up...nothing. Turned over, but wasn't getting a spark at all. A friend and I tried to figure out what went wrong, traced back through the wiring harness to see if there was any damage or a wire that was pulled loose. The only way we could get the car to fire was to bypass the resistor. Since it was an old coil/resistor I decided to pick up a new MSD Blaster II and matching resistor and throw it in. I was still getting full voltage from my wires so I wired up the new resistor and coil and the car started right up. About 20 seconds into it's idle it started lagging, and eventually died. The wiring on the original distributor has two black and white wires and a green and white wire, black and white coming from the "start" position and green and white coming from the "run" position from what I remember from looking at a wiring diagram. After it died, I just wired up a 12v wire to one side of the resistor and the other side of the resistor to the coil with the included jumper from the MSD resistor. Had the same problems, started up GREAT, idled well for 15-20 seconds, then slowly died. I have asked a few knowledgeable people here and there, most have said that something is getting too hot in the wiring/distributor, causing things to overheat and go down. A few other people have said that the fuel pump/lines are the root of all this evil. I know very little on the fuel pump for these cars, so it could be something along those lines that I have completely missed, but it was running so perfectly for so long right before I decided to clean up the engine bay, which makes me think that the fuel system is not the issue at hand. I consider myself a weekend mechanic who is terrible at troubleshooting, so I'm looking to you guys for some help/hinters or just some ideas that I have blanked on, any help is greatly appreciated! Car set-up: L24 w/ E88 head Mild cam (unknown duration, etc) Weber 40DCOE's 6 into 2 headers Monza exhaust MSD Blaster II coil w/ resistor Aside from some Tokico springs, some body mods, and what is listed above everything is stock. This car is too much fun to let it sit! Please help!

Anyone heard or have any experience with them? I can't find any info on them to save my life, and I've checked google, MSN, yahoo, AV, all the major search engines. The only things I've come up with is a Spitfire Sway Bar and an RX7 sway bar F/S on ebay. When I bought my Z it included a box that said Turn Six Sway Bars on it, along with a new yellow rear sway bar already installed. Trying to see if these were/are any good or if it should be taken out and replaced. It seems to really help with body roll, though my only other experience driving another Z other than mine was 3-4 years ago in a 280Z, I have a 240Z...Any help would be greatly appreciated!

So, I have a leak coming from the middle carb (side drafts). It seems to be coming out of the carburetor itself because gas drips out of the intake. I took the tops off to check the floats and none seem to be damaged, my first idea was that the floats were not doing their job, therefor letting too much gas into the carbs. In the end, I will probably have the carbs rebuilt by a local weber guy, but is there anything else could check for that might be an easy fix?

I did have to keep reminding myself that no matter how much I love Z cars, it will not be my car and I would be working on it just for the enjoyment of working on Z's (my friend is the one who is interested in owning a Z after seeing and driving mine). We have not had a chance to check out the car in person, though the seller gave me TONS of very detailed photos, though I don't know how old they are. The 240 body and undercarriage looks very good, and all spots where they are prone to rust seems to be in good condition (again, from pictures, not firsthand). Regardless, it will be a long shot if we do manage to pick this up before someone else does, he's already had other offers on the car but would like to sell it to us because I own a Z and both my friend and I seem to be more mechanically oriented then some of the other people who offered. We will see...

1972 240Z and 1974 260Z. It's local, my friend is looking at getting a new car and I already own a '72 240Z. I did a mild restoration on my dad's MGB a few years back but don't have as many tools as I'd like in order to do a restoration on these. Our goal is to get the 240Z in good shape, and if time and resources allow possibly get the 260Z running and driving. So, for those who have done restorations before, what's your take? Both cars are F/S for $3000...

Had new brakes put on all around this fall. As for performance (that you can't see): Turn 6 Sway bars Tokico Springs (lowed around 1") Targa Exhaust Camshaft (unsure of what one, rough idle and strong power from 3500 +) 3 into 2 headers (pictured) Bjhines - that is exactly what I want to do, just with shorter horns like someone else said. I don't have the time or money to really work out something, if you have any other help in getting a project like that started (hell and finished) I'd greatly appreciate it. If you get around to it a PM would be amazing.

No air horns, it's something I've thought about but money needs to be headed elsewhere before I pick up the horns.

Well I'm finally getting around to cleaning the engine bay of my car since I bought it (over a year ago) so I figured I'd throw up a few pictures. I know, it needs a wash, wax, and quite a bit of polishing here and there but there's only so many hours in the day (most of which are accounted for with school). Here she is in her present condition: And a shot of the left side: Right side (not as interesting, I know): From the top looking down, left side: And lastly, the interior (Not as clean as it has been, but not as dirty either): It's a work in progress and I absolutely love it. Just put brand new pads, rotors, shoes, had it timed, fluid changes, and a new exhaust on (and that was expensive) and it is running excellent. The wiring for the tach is very different/confusing so I'm still trying to figure that out (have some great shop manuals) but overall it's a great car and definitely a lot of fun to tinker with. As you can see, the engine bay is quite dirty (how I bought it) but with about 6 hours of work and a lot of degreaser and paper towels I've been able to bring it back to life, sort of. I'll post some more pictures up when I can finally brag about the engine bay, but for right now it's a great driver and I'm perfectly content.

Some more pictures...

Pictures of the engine bay will come in less than 2 weeks, I'm at home waiting to head back out to Colorado and can't wait to get back in this thing.

This is one of my first posts on this forum so I figured I'd start it off with pictures. Sorry for them all being of the right side, it's all I have on my computer at the moment. Trust me, the left side looks just as nice...All of these were shot in Steamboat Springs, Colorado where I have been living the past 2 years and where I also bought the car. How it got up there I have no idea, but I've since moved so don't worry about any winter driving! Specs 1972 240Z with 86,580 miles Triple Weber Side Drafts with K&N Filters 3 into 2 headers (Unknown) Targa Exhaust Camshaft and Lifters (Unknown, grrr) Tokico Springs (lowers car >1") Turn Six Rear Sway Bar Front Skirt (Urethane) And of course the Whale Tail This is my first car, took me 3 years but I finally bought one I bought this car last year in late September/Early October with 83,550 miles for $3,250.00. It came with all of the original parts plus the huge list of performance everything, though little was known about the car and much of the performance parts are still unknown/un-named until I can look into them further. So far I've spent less than $200.00 in getting it tuned up and looking nice. I have loved early Z's since I first laid eyes on them (12 years old looking in Want Ad Digests) so when this came in the local paper in Steamboat Springs listed as "1972 240Z, looks clean, drives nice, make offer" I had to check it out. As it turns out it was a lot more than a clean, nice driver...

Wow thank you for the detailed response. "Big Money" to me is over $1,000 so by stepping up to the Unilite and something similar to the HyFire VI (I say similar because the HyFire is a little overkill for what I would like) in my opinion is worth it. My car is the only place I'm spending my money which helps quite a bit. As far as tuning Webers, from what I've read online and been told by different mechanics in town here is that with enough background knowledge on how the system works I can get a good idea of what needs to be done. Fortunately I've been able to find a huge amount of info on different jet sizes, venturi sizes, emulsion tube sizes, etc to get a good idea of what sizes will work best for the setup I currently have. So far all I have for the engine are headers (3 into 1s) and for what its worth the Targa Exhaust from Motorsport Auto. Are you saying I won't notice a performance difference between the Triple Webers and a rebuilt pair of S.U.'s? I've got quite a good book on S.U.'s (How to Build and Power Tune S.U. Carbs, bought it because I was going to buy a 1976 280Z with S.U.'s before I found the 240Z with Webers). If I were to go back to S.U.'s...what is the asking price for used Weber carbs with K&N filters (I will get sizes of jets, etc when I get back)? I'm assuming I would come out ahead of the game, which would be nice if I were invest in the ignition, and since you're saying I won't notice a difference in performance without serious $ and time spent on the Webers I see no reason not to. I'd really love to hear your opinion on this since you are the first one to recommend going back to S.U. carbs since I won't notice a difference in performance (and I'm assuming/hoping there won't be...) Thanks again for your input, hopefully you can help point me in the right direction.

Thanks again for the info on the ignition, looks like I have a nice list of parts to look through. Do you like the Crane HI-6 more than the XR700s (is it worth the extra money)? I'll see what they do for adapters, hopefully all the problems I've been having will be taken care of when I get back to CO. If anyone else wants to give me info on ignition that would be great (something I'm lacking knowledge in...) and thanks again.

Thanks again for the info on the ignition, looks like I have a nice list of parts to look through. Do you like the Crane HI-6 more than the XR700s (is it worth the extra money)? I'll see what they do for adapters, hopefully all the problems I've been having will be taken care of when I get back to CO. If anyone else wants to give me info on ignition that would be great (something I'm lacking knowledge in...) and thanks again.