HS30-H

Hi Eric, Amen to all that. I think it will be money well spent having a pro look at it, and fingers crossed you will be happy with the result. Its very frustrating sitting here thinking that I might be able to help a little more if only you were more local to me. I've learnt the hard way, and it really pains me to think that I might have been able to point out an obvious point if I could only get my head into your engine bay.......... Once again, good luck and let us know how you get on. Alan T.

Hi Eric, Glad to hear the car actually runs and you can drive it now. Forget about that start-up trouble meaning anything - I think you are still a long way off needing to worry about that yet, and it will surely improve when you get in the ball-park with your mixture and synchronisation. If the full exhaust system is now connected up and finalised you can progress to fine-tuning the settings. First thing to sort out sounds like that linkage problem; I have no idea at all about the Cannon brand except that I presume many others in the USA use them - so it must be possible to get them working OK. What kind of throttle return springs does it have? Surely it does not just rely on the built-in spring of the pedal or the butterfly return springs inside your Webers? That's a no-no. The better makes of Japanese manifolds I have experience of ( like the HARADA or SANYO versions ) have a fully-adjustable spring setting that allows you to set the amount of power that the return spring exerts on the linkage. In this way it is also possible to change the "feel" of the pedal to softer or harder depending on your preference. Whatever the Cannon has, you will have to make sure that you have enough power in the return spring system to bring the butterflies positively back to the idle setting position. You need to have proper screw-adjuster throttle stops on the end of each throttle shaft ( the Weber bodies have provision for this but I do not know whether you still have them or not ). I think it best to imagine that the whole of the throttle linkage DOES NOT EXIST for the purposes of setting your idle and the synchronisation of the three carbs. It should be possible for you to get a decent idle around 800 rpm with all three carbs in balance WITHOUT THE LINKAGE CONNECTED. Then you can connect up the linkage with the carbs and sort out your pedal travel and feel ( presuming you will be able to adjust the Cannon linkage ). One thing you MUST remember is to make sure that the "Wide Open Throttle" position is finalised with a stop AT THE PEDAL, and not transmitting torque to the shafts and butterflies past the point where they would naturally stop. This would be a sure-fire way to twist the shafts and make it IMPOSSIBLE to ever set a synchronised idle. There is a throttle-pedal stop on the floor of the car, and it is adjustable. My advice is to make sure and get that setting right before its too late. Its plain from your latest post that you do not feel that the settings are yet in the ball-park. Without getting the linkages correctly set and the throttle-stops set, you will not get anywhere with this. However, you are saying that you notice an increase in power. If you got a "20% to 30%" increase in power from your relatively stock engine just by bolting on the Webers then I would be VERY surprised. I would have estimated something much LESS than that. You have to be realistic about this. I don't really know what to think about the "perspiration" that you are experiencing on the underside of the carb bodies. They really ought to be bone dry, and if they are not then I can only imagine an assembly mistake or gasket problem. Is it REALLY gasoline, and not condensation? ( quite often seen as "icing" on carburettors due to the difference in air-density between the inside and outside of the carburettor body ). Sorry - but if it really is gasoline you need to cure the leak. Its not natural to have gas OUTSIDE any part of the carb during running. You said you had eliminated the leaking / flooding since installing the Pressure Regulator - so I am surprised that you have what still seem to be leaks............... The mixture settings are still way out by the sound of it, and you will not get close to curing that by experimentation until you get nearer to synchronising the throttle-stops and the return spring problem. Once you cure that you can start on the experimentation process to pin down the mixture settings.There's a set procedure to this but you cannot start with it until you get those other things ticked off. If the car is now driveable, would you consider taking it to a dyno / rolling road tuner that is not too far away? He would probably spend 30 minutes to make the kind of improvement that would take you days to get near............... Keep at it, Alan T.

........and here's that S30 Sport Wagon design sketch. Maybe Mr Matsuo was inspired by one of the Drogo bodies for Ferrari in the early '60's ( which was quickly nicknamed the "Bread Van".................... ). Alan T.

Hi Mr C, Just in case you doubt me, have a look at this photo from 1968. That's the full-size mock-up of the 2+2 shape of the S30 before it was decided to concentrate on the 2-seater body for the initial sales drive. Alan T

As far as I could tell, the original question from "glowz" did not seem to be about using the Dell'orto carbs on a race car. I don't know about where you live, but where I live its difficult to find "pump gas" any higher than 98 RON. Alan.

Hi Mark, That's great news. Glad you are making some positive progress. That stumble on progression sounds like you are a little lean on Pump Jets - so you could try that next size up, as you say. Also remember that the Idle Jets have a fairly big impact on this too; the circuits in the Webers are such that the Idle circuit overlaps with the Accel. pump stroke and you might find that richening up the mixture could help. Anyway, you are obviously really close now and you are being very proactive in hunting down the causes and cures - so you should be fine in the end. Regarding Vacuum Advance, I ran it on my street engine and it helped a great deal with that "driveability" issue - improving the torque in low rpm range. Personally I would recommend it for a daily driver - but if the engine starts getting quite radically tuned then the matter of total advance becomes much more important and it can be blocked off. I hear lots of people debating this issue when peering inside engine bays that are triple-carb equipped. However, many of them are running worn-out and highly inaccurate old distributors that the vac. advance is not working properly on anyway! Having a distributor in tip top mechanical condition with no slop in the bearings is much more important. Regarding venting your crankcase and cam cover - you might find that just running those pipes to the bottom of the engine bay is fine. However, you might get some oil mist in the engine bay that tends to put a fine coat of oil and crud in the engine bay, and it might be more desirable to run a race-style oil catch tank. At least if you vent the pipes low and well back you should not suffer so much from this. I eliminated any valving on mine and just ran the pipes into an aluminium catch tank mounted low on the firewall. Lots of people run those cam cover filters, so you should have no problem there. Now lets just hope that Eric B makes good progress too..... Alan T.

Eric, I did not know that your electric pump was the type that was fitted "stock", and therefore plumbed in series with the mech. pump. You will, as Mark ( benn9090 ) quite rightly pointed out, need to make sure that it works constantly instead of just at low rpm as a back-up to the mech pump. My honest recommendation would be to remove the mech. pump when using the Webers, as it takes a lot of cranking to re-fill the fuel bowls with gas after it all evaporates. I used to find that shutting down a hot engine and then leaving the car overnight would lead to most of the fuel in the carbs actually evaporating due to heat-sink ( and making a really strong smell ). Starting up next day would require the electric pump running for a good ten seconds or so before they had refilled the carbs and got up to pressure. In fact, this has a big impact on fuel economy. I found that I was using a lot of fuel that was not getting me anywhere! Now that I do not use a triple-carb equipped Z as everyday transport I do not notice it quite so much............. You really need to make sure that the float level measurement is taken with the tab on the float pushing on the spring-loaded ball just slightly, and with the needle just contacting its seat ( ie - closed ). That spring-loaded ball in the end of the needle valve will allow the float to keep moving higher even though the valve is closed. You need to measure the float height setting when the valve actually closes - hence my tip to blow down the pipe and hear it physically close. Setting the other tab for the "droop" of the float is much easier, as it stops quite positively when the tab hits the outside of the needle valve body. All the books that I have used as reference in the past seem to give different recommendations for the way to hold the carb top cover when setting the float levels. However it seems that the best way would be to stand the carb top on a flat surface on its side, at 90 degrees to the way it will be on the carb body. Don't forget that both the float parts on each carb need to measure the same - and you can't have one slightly different to the other through twisting or whatever. I guess that is fairly obvious. When you get all your plumbing hooked up, I recommend that you take the fuel pressure reading from the carb that is furthest from the pump. That would always be the one that has the slightly lower pressure reading. Ideally you would want around 3 or 4 psi reading with the pump on and the engine not running, and a lowest reading of around 2 psi when you are running quite hard with the engine under load. Any lower than that and you have the risk of leaning out the mixture - which is not desirable ( prolonged running in this condition could lead to detonation and consequent engine damage ). Too much pressure could also overcome the needle valves and cause leaks and / or a rich mixture. These psi reading recommendations can vary, and in truth you will find that even up to 5 psi the Webers should be OK and not flood. As long as you have the 2 psi or so under load you should be OK too. I think I had around 4.5 psi stationary and 3 psi under load when we dynoed my original 40DCOE setup on the L24. Later on I had some vapour lock problems and used two pumps on the car - but nothing seemed to change adversely. Its hard to tell what the situation will be with the return feed to the tank still hooked up, but actually in your hot climate this may be of benefit to you as it will mean that the fuel is constantly circulating and not getting too hot in slow traffic. I always found that the fuel got hottest as it passed over the transmission, rather than in the engine bay itself. I know it was certainly picking up a lot of heat from that tunnel area, so I lagged the pipe with heat-reflective wrap where it ran through there ( difficult unless the trans. is out ) and this made things a LOT better. Fingers crossed for a good result. Alan T.

Glad you are still with us, Eric. In answer to your query, it would certainly NOT be a good idea to run both the stock mechanical pump AND the electric pump that I presume somebody put on your car in the past. If they were plumbed so that the electric pump fed the mech. pump, then you would probably find that the mech. pump acted as a "bottle neck" and pumped only as much as it wanted up to the carbs. If they were plumbed to feed the carbs seperately then you might find that they combined at high RPM to give you slightly higher pressure than you really wanted. Best just to run the electric pump, making sure that it is wired up to run on the full voltage that it needs and only when your "accessory" switch is ON at the ignition. I guess, as its already on and been working, that this is the case. Hooking up both a fuel pressure regulator and fuel pressure gauge will be good, and the regulator will be best sited as near to the where the fuel enters the carbs as possible. But, this will possibly lead to a dilemma with the pressure gauge, as siting it inside the engine bay will not allow you to read it when you are driving the car with the engine under varying load. You might find that you have the desired pressure at tickover and half to full throttle with the car stationary, but the pressure drops when the carbs actually get used hard on the road and the engine is under load. You need to ensure that the demand of the carbs can be met by the pressure and flow of the pump. I have seen some people site fuel pressure gauges INSIDE the passenger compartment ( obviously so that they can be read while driving the car ) but to be honest it has always seemed a little risky to me. If you still have the return pipe connected ( back to the tank ) then this in itself will act as a kind of pressure regulator. Technically, you do not need it - as the "interruptor" design of the electric pump will only pump what is needed, and slow itself down when it is up to the desired pressure. Still, as you have seen from some of the comments before mine, some people DO still use the return pipe with an electric pump. I suppose it must make the pump work a bit harder, but as long as it can keep up it must be OK. While those carbs are off the car and in your lap, do try to give them another once-over to check for missing parts or improper operation. Its certainly easier doing it now than when they are back on the car. Pay special attention to those "Starter Devices" as they DO need to seat properly when in the default "off" position. If you get everything hooked up and just run the pump without cranking the engine, it should "buzz" until it gets up to pressure and then slow down to an occasional "click". You would be able to check your pressure gauge to see that the desired pressure is attained, and that the pump was not continuing to "click" fast ( meaning an obvious internal leak inside the carbs ). As mentioned before - you should get NO drips / running fuel from the carb overflows or bellmouths / trumpets with just the pump running and no actuation of the throttles / butterflies / accel. pumps. If you DO get the continual fast clicking pump and an obvious leak of fuel - then the problem is still internal in the carbs. The suspect would have to still be the float settings and their tabs that actuate the inlet of fuel. Please remember that when you are setting the "float level" - you are actually setting the point where the inlet for the fuel opens and closes in relation to the height of the float. Good luck again! Alan T.

Just so our 2+2 friends have some ammunition to use in self defence; the fact that the 2+2 was designed ALONGSIDE the 2- seater ( and not later on ) seems to be a little-known fact amongst 2+2 owners - and it is always useful to use this as a retort to those ".......the original is better......." jibes. The design team ( headed by Yoshihiko Matsuo ) came up with many possible variants over the "final" shape, but it was decided to stick to the 2-seater body for the first incarnation of the S30. So, an almost perfect incarnation of the 2+2 was conceived alongside the 2-seater - just the 2-seater debuted first. There were a few other "weird" variants mooted in the early days too ( anyone fancy an S30 Sport Wagon?! ). Alan T.

Ben, This must be one of the syptoms of Weber jets having been hard for some people to find in certain areas. I don't think there is any excuse for this kind of "make do and mend" engineering these days, as new jets are only a phone call away. I have seen this kind of soldering and redrilling done VERY neatly in the past, but I'm afraid your jets were obviously not modified by somebody very skilled in the art!............... Phred is dead right in stating that the carb manufacturers don't recommend that you do this. In fact, they don't even want you to "clean" the jets by poking wire into the jet orifices ( quite rightly ). Replacing the jets with new ones will almost certainly make a huge improvement to how the engine runs. Have you checked all the other jets and the Air Correctors too? Good luck and let us know how you get on, Alan T.

Alfadog, do you agree with me that there are probably many Z cars still being used that are in WORSE condition than the car these guys cut up? In fact, there are MANY cars here in the UK that would be embarrassed to park up next to that shell! I think all of that damage, and what rust there was, could have been repaired very simply. These people can't ever have seen a REALLY rusted out Z body....................... How come they seem so smug about it all!? Alan T.

Amen to that ALFADOG, That looks like an extremely straight and honest car, and would surely be worth what it went for. If Z owners and enthusiasts in CA think that is too expensive then they will gradually see many of the CA cars filtering out into other states or going for export. Here in the UK, there are already quite a few ex-USA "dry state" cars that have been imported and some of them are converted to RHD using rusted out original UK imports as donors.This is much cheaper than trying to restore a rusted UK car, and you end up with something that is better than the patchwork quilt of welded repairs that some of them become. What we will see over the next ten years or so is that the world situation on Z car prices will "normalise" compared to the current situation. The cars that are in the best condition will start to command high prices and move long distances to end up with appreciative owners, and the ones that are not so good will be left to the local market. I guess with the volume of cars in the USA, and particularly in the dry states, that some people might not notice this straight away. However, the fact that genuine factory repair panels ( such as rear quarters, inner wings and doors ) are in such short supply will make highly original undamaged and unrusted cars increase in value.......... This particular car seems to be missing its bonnet / hood emblem ( and I can't see the holes - so maybe its been painted ) and those wheels are NOT rare factory options for the 240Z ( they are the so-called "Iron Cross" alloys and are much later ) - but this always happens when non-Z people advertise cars for sale. Before buying any old car a prospective buyer has to try to learn all they can about the particular model type - so that they will be able to judge what they are looking at. I agree about e-bay though; who would bid for a car without being able to inspect it ( unless it was REALLY cheap )? Alan T.

...and here's a copy of the relevant page in the Sports Option catalogue:

Hi Mike, At the risk of pre-empting Guus's reply to you - do you mean the bumper on his car? I think Guus has replicated the Works "Monte Carlo" bumper that was homologated for Group 4 competition use in January 1971 ( and backdated to Sept. 1971 ) and then seen on the Works Monte Carlo rally cars. Part number in the Sports Option catalogue was 62650-E8700, and the bumper mounting irons were also listed with different part numbers to the "stock" items. In Japan, they have always called this the "Monte Carlo" bumper - but I have heard Europeans call it the "Drop" bumper, so it has a different nickname in different territories. It allowed the Works team to put the spot and fog lamps somewhere that was fairly protected, and from projecting too far in front of the car. Apparently it did not interfere with cooling efficiency even with a full complement of Koito spots and fogs. Here's a pic. of the FIA / JAF homologation paper for the bumper:

Hi Fred! I shall report to my "wife" that I am in fact "usually right" - she might disagree with you!............. I would be very interested to hear about the 1971 BANDAMA RALLY as I have no data on "Works" 240Z rally cars on that event. The car that Raudet and Sausset were using on the 1972 event looks like an ex-Safari car, or it might be a car that was used on the "Kenya 2000" that year ( Mehta won that event ). The Works cars did more events than I ever imagined they did.... All the best, Alan T.

Hi Guus and Rolf, Guus, you managed to capture "Crasher" Fall and "Masher" Mehta in the same photo! You should have thrown a net over them and taken them to the nearest Police station so that they could face questioning into just how many "Works" rally cars they smashed between them!.................. Kevin Bristow ( privateer 240Z rally driver ) was running service for Tony Fall at Ypres - did you see him? Sadly, Tony was up to his usual tricks and managed to hit a wall or something quite hard and bend the rear suspension. He retired before the end, but not before trying to drive the undriveable - he did not want to give up. Apparently, he still has the speed in him; I guess it never dies. Yvonne Mehta ( Shekhar's wife ) was navigating for Tony, as she quite often does. I find this almost as amazing as Tony's speed; she must have nerves of steel and the patience of an angel. Alan T.

Hi Mark, Happy 4th of July to all you rebels over there. I have to say that I feel we really ought to have a National Holiday over here in the UK to celebrate the fact that you dumped us............. Sorry to hear that Webers are akin to Unicorns in your neck of the woods, but actually it seems that people are frightened of these little jewels the world over............ The problem that you describe certainly sounds like an Accelerator Pump Jet problem ( too much gas being dumped in when you hit the throttle ) - but that might be due to something else. I am wondering about your Accelerator Pump Rod stroke................ Your Needle Valves also sound a little large ( not that this would necessarily affect this particular problem ) and the standard size in the rebuild kits is 1.75. Maybe you might consider changing them back in the future........ From your photo, I can see that your old brass-float "Flat-Top" ( pre-emissions type ) 40DCOE-18's are just perfect for a mildly tuned L24 / L26 or even L28. However, I hope that this is a "before" picture, and that you have rebuilt / cleaned / restored them by now! I also hope that you have re-attached the Starter Device to that centre carb - as its missing in the photo. Weber themselves even recommended the 18 series as the best choice for the L24 / L26 engine. Your jetting sounds just about optimum for a BASE LINE setting - but do remember that each individual engine is different, and a proper rolling-road dyno set up would probably change some of those jets to fine tune your particular needs. You CANNOT do this off the page and expect to be spot on. Remember that these sidedraught carbs are PRECISION measuring devices, and just a single step up or down in jet or air corrector sizes will make a very noticeable difference to your state of tune. Like I say - it needs an expert to set the final percentage. You have to figure the cost of this into the conversion. I took my last built engine ( which I thought was running pretty good ) to a dyno tester and we put it on his rollers. He ran it up and we saw a peak of 158 bhp at the rear wheels, but it sounded a little "fat". He told me to go and get a coffee and come back in half an hour. He changed the accelerator pump jets, the mains and the air correctors ( leaning the engine out through the Accelerator Pump stroke and through the transition onto the Main circuit ). Final figure was 167 bhp at the rear wheels and much improved driveability. I could not believe how the car was TRANSFORMED on the drive home; it really sounded crisp and seemed to be another engine altogether. As I say - the changes were very small indeed............. In your particular case, I am wondering of you are trying to put the cart before the horse - so to speak. It seems, unless I misunderstood, that you have not yet got your full exhaust system hooked up to the car. If this is indeed the case, then its much too early to judge anything yet. If I misunderstood, and you have in fact now got the full system connected - then it might be worth checking your Accelerator Pump Rod stroke ( thats the little rod thats got a little hook on it and attaches to the Accelerator Pump Piston. It is pushed up by that little cam connected to the spindle, under the cover at the "back" of the body ). The recommended Pump Rod stroke is 0.394 ins. ( 10mm ) and you can measure this by taking off the top cover of the carb and actuating the throttle. You can measure the actual stroke of the rod. This Rod stroke is the thing that measures the duration and timing of the Accelerator Pump shot ( not the amount of fuel it pumps - which is governed by the size of the Accelerator Pump Jet itself ) and it makes a HUGE difference to the driveability of a carburettor conversion on a particular engine type. If the Pump Rod stroke is any more than 10mm then I recommend that you buy new ones and change them. All this "advice" I am giving is deeply ironic; my present car is running Mikunis! They just seem more "correct" for the Japanese-spec. theme of my car. However, I do have to say that they are not superior to a good set of early DCOE's in the performance department. The Mikunis do not have such a good "transition" as the Webers ( when the main circuit takes over from the accel. pump ) and this is probably connected to the design of the Accelerator Pump itself. These carb postings really give you good typing practice........ I wonder how Eric B is getting on? Happy jetting all, Alan T.

Hi Guus, Isn't that the year when the Bandama Rally failed to get a result because all of the competitors dropped out? I think they all crashed or broke down before the finish - very unusual! Raudet and Sausset from France were driving in a "Works" 240Z, but I don't know the registration number of the car. It was probably a car that was left in Africa after the Kenya 2000 or the Safari ( maybe the previous year's Safari event ) - maybe one of the high-speed Tender or Practice cars. My list of "Works" cars is getting quite long now - but still MANY events that they competed in keep coming out of the woodwork, and yesterday I found a photo of ANOTHER "Works" car that I had never seen the registration number of before. I am getting close to 50 different "Works" car registration numbers now........ Happy hunting. Alan T.

Hi Eric, Well at least you got it started with the spray - so now you know you can narrow it down to carb trouble........ Sounds very much to me like you do indeed have carb float level problems and / or problems with the needle valves. Benn9090 has a good point about fuel pressure regulators, and I did not mention about these because I thought you were using the stock mechanical pump. As he says, they are the best way to make sure that you are not over-pressuring the fuel supply at the needle valves ( they CAN be overcome and flood the carb ). In my experience, about 4psi pressure right at the needle valves is not enough to overcome them and will help to ensure that you still have enough pressure at high rpm and times of high gas use like climbing a steep hill. Don't get this psi rating mixed up with flow rates - which are a different thing altogether. I honestly think that a Bendix-type electric pump ( which are usually rated at around 5 to 6psi I think ) situated near the tank would drop enough pressure down the length of the fuel line to only give you around 3 or 4psi at the needle valves. Added to this, you are using that special three-outlet fuel supply pipe with a return pipe still connected - which would certainly be acting as a sort of fuel pressure regulator anyway. So, I don't think you have a problem of too much fuel pressure per se - but you might like to eliminate it anyway by installing a fuel pressure regulator. My current car does without one, and runs a Mitsuba pump rated at 4psi with no return to the fuel tank. While you are ticking off possible causes of problems, you might like to check out any identification on that electric pump body to see if it is indeed the Bendix-patent type, and not something with a high pressure rating ( like the type of pump on an injected car ). I think its very unlikely, as your car was running fine with the SU carbs that were on it before. The float level is the most likely suspect, and at this point you can concentrate on the setting for the float when it is shutting off the needle valve - ie when the float is high. This is where you might find that your needle valves are not shutting off, and fuel is leaking into the overflows and into the inlet tracts at the back of the butterflies. If you turn on your ignition ( electric pump "on" ) without cranking the starter, and fuel is leaking / dripping anywhere then TURN OFF and get to the bottom of the problem. The carbs should be DRY and not dripping / leaking unless you are cranking the throttle. The vacuum of the engine draws fuel and air through the jets, and you should not get any fuel dripping unless you are activating the accelerator pump jets by cranking the throttles / accelerator pedal. Even then it would take a real lot of pumping to get a real dribble going, so I reckon you are still looking at a needle valve / float setting problem. You might like to try setting the tab on the float to shut off the needle valve whilst you are blowing into the fuel pipe for that carb ( you will need four hands to do this ) and then measuring the gap at the point where the flow stops and you cannot blow anymore. You can bet that the tabs will need to be bent so that the fuel flow shuts off when the float is "lower" ( as its shutting off too high at the moment ).That "blow-through" test is a good way to make sure that your needle valves are working correctly anyway ( and that you remebered to put the aluminium crush washer between the needle valve body and the carb top cover ). If this still doesn't work, and you still have fuel leaking out of the carbs with the fuel pump switched on, then I do not know what to suggest apart from taking all three carbs off and stripping them completely to make sure that they have not been mis-assembled or have parts missing. You can never trust an unknown previous owner not to have messed with them, and if its your first time to strip and clean a set of DCOEs ( I don't know how far you stripped them, and I'm hoping you did not have any parts left over ) then you would have to admit to the possibility of human error. It sure took me a long time to learn about them, and I made plenty of errors along the way................ Did you put the proper o-ringed gaskets between the carbs and the manifold yet? I am presuming that you did this by now. PLEASE be careful of fire. It is so easy to get one started with fuel leaking and live electrics nearby. Good luck and KEEP AT IT! You will feel like a million dollars when you get on top of it. Fingers crossed for a good result, Alan T.

Hi Glowz, I can see why you were enquiring now. A hottish L28 with a decent cam would certainly benefit from a set of triple side-draughts. Maybe you could go up to 45's on the L28 as long as the chokes are not too crazily large. However, one thing that I noticed in your post has worried me; a compression ratio of 14:1 is never going to work on normal or even race type gasoline. That's the kind of compression ratio that would need to run on nitro methane or methanol!!!! I would check that out if I were you, as 10.5 or 11:1 are just about the highest you could go without running into serious detonation problems without running "funny" fuel. Alan T.

Please don't. I happen to think that Dell'orto carbs are so ugly that only their mother could love them! They have no advantages ( or disadvantages ) to speak of in comparison to all the other dual-choke side-draught carbs that you might choose - apart from the very important one mentioned above. Okay, I give in - they work just fine. In a nutshell, don't bother putting triple side-draughts on an otherwise stock or stockish L-series Nissan / Datsun engine. If you DO, make sure that they have quite "small" chokes ( venturis ) so that the incoming air does not stall as you open the throttle. Small chokes lead to better driveability for a street engine, and the most common mistake is to install carbs that are too big or have chokes that are too large. Leave the big carbs and big chokes to the racers........... There are plenty of good books out there on the subject that give much better advice than I can give here. Mind you, they don't usually mention anything about the Dell'ortos being the Bride of Wildenstein of the carb world........ Of course, if Mr Dell'orto's lawyer is looking in - I don't mean it really, sir. Alan T.

Hi George, In one of my garages - just about ten miles from your home - I have a good used tubular 6-branch exhaust manifold and a 2.5 inch exhaust system with single "Turbo" muffler. The exhaust manifold is in great condition ( it has been "hot metal sprayed" for longevity ) and the exhaust system was only about 6 months old when it came off the car. It would be a cinch to fit to your car and it would make it sound a whole lot better than stock too. You will probably notice a small power and torque increase over the stock manifold and system. Give me a call if you are interested. All the best, Alan ( HS30-H )

Sorry, I just noticed something from your photos. I can't quite make it out ( maybe tired eyes ) but how have you connected the fuel supply for each carburettor? I can see the "front" two have got hoses on them individually, and I presume that the third one has too - but what are they connected to? If you are using your old standard-spec. metal fuel-supply rail, then it only has two OUTlets for the old SU carbs. The other ( smaller diameter ) pipe is the return to the tank. I am worried that the final carb is connected to the return pipe - I hope that I am wrong. Anyway, you might like to try blocking-off the return pipe until you get the problem sorted, as if it is still operational it is losing you fuel pressure from the stock mechanical pump. With a single electric pump rated at around 3 to 5 PSI, you would be able to delete the stock fuel rail and use either the NISMO fuel rail for triple carbs ( three outlets and no return ) or run your own flexible fuel pipe from the pump or filter up to the carbs. As long as the pump pressure is not too high then you would not need to have any return pipe whatsoever ( but you need to block the return to the tank, otherwise you will get a fuel leak if you overfill the tank or park on a slope.... ). Good luck, Alan. ( HS30-H )

Hi Eric, First of all I think you should calm down a little and stop worrying about updating your ignition system. If it was fine before you fitted the Webers, then it will still be fine now. However, those "mysterious" left-over wires need to be put out of the equation somehow. Not having seen a Z with all the Californian smog-control equipment, I am afraid I cannot advise you what to do with those wires. However, if you have a spark at the plugs then they should not be affecting things too much. Second thing to do is to take off the carbs and install some "proper" o-ring equipped gaskets ( one of the most popular brands being called "Misab plates" after their maker ). The people who supplied you with the jets should be able to supply you with these. Please do not try to re-use the old ones, unless they are in TIP-TOP condition. As you have been advised - these are necessary to stop the carbs from "foaming", which is something that the DCOE style of Weber is rather susceptible to. This will not stop your engine from starting, but they need to be on there and you might as well do it now as it will change all of your throttle-stop and linkage positions when you space them out. These will also help you to ensure that you have not got a massive vacuum leak on the joint between carbs and manifold..... Those funny washers are also mandatory; they will help you to avoid overtightening the carbs on the manifold. You might not believe it, but the Webers need to "move" on the manifold, or at least have a little "give", so that those o-rings are allowed to do their job and isolate the carbs from frequency-induced foaming of the fuel in the float bowl. The "Cotton Reel" type of rubber washer seems more common here in Europe these days ( a rubber cotton-reel shaped washer with a cup washer at either end ). Again, this is to help you to avoid overtightening the joint between carb and manifold. Whatever you use, make sure that you do not tighten all the way....... Third thing to do is to resolve a question regarding the "Starter Devices" on the carburettors. Some people refer to these as the "chokes" - but in fact the chokes on the Weber DCOE are the removable venturis that govern the amount of air that the carb sucks in ( you will remember that I advised you to keep them down to about 30mm or 32mm for an other-wise stockish L24 ). The "Starter Devices" are on the manifold-side of the carbs, and you will see a little lever with an arrangement for attaching a cable to pull them into an "on" position ( ie: choke "on" for starting ). Unfortunately for us and our Nissan / Datsun "L-series" engine, these need to be pulled toward the FRONT of the car to engage them - and consequently the stock choke control cable is difficult to utilise without having a long looping curve on the cable. NEVERMIND, as in California you really ought not to need to have the Starter Devices operational at all. Here in the rainy and cold streets of London, I used to use a 40DCOE-equipped L24 every day for a few years. Just two pumps on the throttle pedal was enough to start the car from cold, with just a light feathering of the pedal for the first thirty seconds or so being enough to give me a good idle. So, you do not need to have the Starter Devices to be operational, BUT the fact that you have mentioned that you can hardly move them is most worrying indeed. The lever operates two pistons, lifting them off their seats to reveal the starter circuits. If these pistons are stuck in the "off" position ( ie: seated at the bottoms of their bores ) then it would be OK - the carb would work normally. However, if they are even just slightly off the seat, or one of them is, then it will cause you grief in tuning the carbs. If I were you, I would take off the Starter Device covers and investigate fully why they are not moving. They may be gummed up with old fuel and black deposits, and they DO stick. The pistons are made of brass, so be careful with them; if you scratch or score them they will be even worse. The fact that you mentioned that the Starter Devices are seemingly stuck makes me worry whether all is well with the provenance of the carbs. They look very clean indeed ( I am sure that you cleaned them etc ) but did you go RIGHT through them? Did you fit new springs to the Accelerator Pump Rods ( attached to the butterfly spindle )? The Starter Devices are right next to these, and I am sure that you must have seen them.The pistons need to be removed and the bores cleaned right out to make sure of doing the job 100%. The operation of the Starter Devices can be tested with the carbs off the car. They should be quite free, but you should feel a little resistance as the pistons push against their springs as they come off the seats. When you pump the throttles ( by hand is best, with your head and eyes down the throat of the carb so that you can see the jet end exposed where it comes out into the venturi ) can you see the pump jets squirting fuel? I would be inclined to manually test them individually when they are off by putting some fuel in each bowl and pumping the throttle. Are they squirting neatly and evenly with a nice sound? If they are, then the engine really ought to start at least. Running at idle is another matter. Did you rebuild / recondition the carbs yourself? Your fuel level in the bowls looks OK - but that is no way to measure them. You really need to set the float-height accurately as per the diagram in the Weber gasket kit. You need to bend those tabs on the float for both open and closed positions. Float height and consequently fuel bowl level is VERY sensitive on the Weber DCOE. Please do not underestimate this. The Webers are precision measuring devices, and will not tolerate any inaccuracy in set-up. You have the "old" style brass floats, in keeping with your "old" style "flat-top" pre-emissions DCOEs ( thats good ), but they can be fiddly to bend the tabs up and down on. Taking out your spark-plugs will of course tell you whether you are flooding the engine ( causing it to be reluctant to start ) or not getting any fuel in at all. I would have thought that something quite simple ( and hopefully easy to fix ) is wrong, as you really ought to have the occasional "kick" from at least one or more cylinders as they try to fire. Stupid questions such as firing order ( did you take off the spark-plug wires when you fitted the carbs and manifold? ) should be eliminated of course. Lastly, and this should have nothing to do with your inability to start the engine, I would advise you to think about an electric fuel pump and deletion of the return pipe to the tank. Mine was all the better for this ( the Webers need a constant PRESSURE - not necessarily a constant flow.... ) and you will find that there might be instances when your stock mechanical pump cannot keep up with demand. You will notice this especially on starting, as you will have to keep on cranking the starter to pump fuel up into the fuel bowls ( they tend to drain down, due to evaporation caused by a hot engine as much as anything else ). Remember that your return line to the fuel tank is lowering the PRESSURE at the carburettor inlet valves. The Webers would prefer about 3 to 5 PSI constantly, which your stock pump will not always be able to supply. Again, not necessarily related to your non-starting woes - but worth thinking about. Don't start pointing the finger at things that you think might be culprits yet ( such as the jet sizes etc ) as I can assure you that you are well in the ball-park there. You might also like to back out those mixture screws a little more than 1 or 1 and a quarter turns; maybe two or two and a half from the seated position, as long as they are all the same. The final adjustmant will take time and you may not be happy at first.............. I would certainly sort out the O-ringed gaskets and Starter Devices questions first. Shame I can't just jump in my car and come over, as I feel it would be MUCH easier that way!... Sorry for the long post.... Good luck, Alan ( HS30-H )

I recommend you take off that "shift kit" and put it back to the standard shifter. I have heard more than one story about those things breaking and making it harder and harder to shift....... Sounds like something is broken with yours too. Going back to a "standard" shift-lever mechanism, but with new bushes, will almost certainly improve your situation - I'll bet my hat on it. Good luck, Alan.