Marty Rogan

MFBA has been hosting an event at Road America in April and October for the last 10 years. The next event is scheduled for April 30 - May 1, 2011. This is a much improved date over the past several years and should be great fun! If you have never driven Road America, I highly recommend it.

Did you change the calipers recently? Try this method: If you still have a spongy pedal, try this trick that a racer taught me a long time ago. Bleed the rears properly first. Then on the right front caliper, remove the outside brake pad. Use some padded channel lock pliers and press the piston carefully into the caliper. It will travel farther than with the pad installed. BE very carelful when you push the pedal down, that you don't push the piston out past the seal. Do that a couple times till you get all the bubbles out. Replace the outer pad. Then remove the inner pad and repeat the process. Then move onto the drivers side and repeat. Every time I would put new calipers on my race car, I could never get a firm pedal until I did this extra step. After doing it once, it was bleeding as usual. Marty

I found another one for sale: http://www.zcar.com/cars_sale_1970-83_240z_260z_280z_280zx/1972_datsun_fairlady_z_for_sale_894326.0.html I remember someone wanting one. From the pictures this one looks to be in pretty good shape. Marty

If you didn't bed the brakes in properly, you could have excess pad material on the rotors. Beandip provided this very good article from StopTech that explains it and some suggestions for getting rid of it: D:\Profiles\c13003\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK6D\StopTech Balanced Brake Upgrades.htm Hope it helps, Marty

I have a very low mileage one available for a good price: http://www.datsunclassifieds.com/showproduct.php/product/5242/title/l28-engineonly-4-2c000-miles/cat/4 PM me if interested. Marty

Whenever I have to park my cars in the sun, I place a white cotton towel over it to protect it. As far as protectants go, I use Vaseline. It is a petroleum based product, just like vinyl. When I got my yellow car, the dash was uncracked but kind of getting hard. I used Vaseline on it a couple of times per year and kept it covered with the towel while in the sun. After 7 years, there still were no cracks and the material actually softened up quite a bit. And it is a very inexpensive product too! Take it as you will, but that is what has worked for me. Marty

I have my blue Z insured with State Farm. It is an agreed to value of $14K. I have not bumped it up in a copuple of years, so it is probably too low. Anyway, I can drive it for pleasure up to 2,500 mile per year. I can occasionally drive it to work, as long as I don't drive it every day. This coverage costs me around $50/6mos. I store it in the winter, which knocks in down to under $10 for the other 6 months. All I had to do was send them pictures and the value that I wanted on the policy. I have had this policy for about 10 years and I am very happy with it. Marty

Damn, that sucks! I know Don Bunt. He's a real nice guy. He put a lot of work into his car too. The Kink is a really deceptive corner. Just looking at it, it appears to be a mild right hander. But if you get your turn-in wrong, there is very little run-off area, probably 15 feet at the most and you are into the wall. Just about every track weekend that I have been there, it claims at least one car. Best of luck to Steve and Greg! Marty

I wonder what performance mods they did to the car to get it to go 160+. Marty

Congrats on a fine effort!!! The car looks pretty decent. Amazing that you could a 14 hour race on stock brakes!! Marty

Arizona ZCar sells a Wilwood setup for the Z. It's very nice. http://www.arizonazcar.com/

Has anyone seen this one in person: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Z-Series-240Z-1972-240Z-BROCK-RACING-ENTERPRISES-BRE-tribute-car-/250675117569?cmd=ViewItem&pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item3a5d66be01#v4-37 It looks nice enough in the pictures, but hey, Internet pictures usually make things look better than they really are. The car seems to be pretty true to the BRE design though. It is located near Sacramento. Is there a good Z Shop in that area to have it checked out? The car is interesting, but seems a little steep at $13,500 to start. What do you guys think?? Marty

Make sure you fill the tank so that no condensation builds up in there. Marty

Why would you want to shave off .080 off the head? If it is that badly warped, you might want to find another head. Your compression ratio will also go way up. Only shave off as much as you absolutely have to. You also might want to re-think the metal head gasket. I looked into that recently. Then I came to realize, that the head gasket is a fail-safe for the engine. If the metal headgasket does not blow, then you will start blowing your new internal engine parts! I ended up going with a new stock gasket from Car Quest. Their "OEM Replacement" line is the same part that Nissan supplies, at only about 40% of the cost. Just my 2 cents. Marty

After you replace the leaking wheel cylinder, re-bleed the master and then the rest of the corners as described above (farthest to closest). If you still have a spongy pedal, try this trick that a racer taught me a long time ago. Bleed the rears properly first. Then on the right front caliper, remove the outside brake pad. Use some padded channel lock pliers and press the piston carefully into the caliper. It will travel farther than with the pad installed. BE very carelful when you push the pedal down, that you don't push the piston out past the seal. Do that a couple times till you get all the bubbles out. Replace the outer pad. Then remove the inner pad and repeat the process. Then move onto the drivers side and repeat. Every time I would put new calipers on my race car, I could never get a firm pedal until I did this extra step. After doing it once, it was bleeding as usual. Give it a try and let us know how it works out. Good luck! Marty

Sorry, missed that on the first post.

When it happened to my car, I was away from home and had to drive it for a while. It brought tears to my eyes, so I would call that a "rather potent smell", ! Besides, how many 240Z's have you seen with a catalytic converter installed?

I had that happen to my '70 once. A wire going into the voltage regulator corroded and it over-charged the battery. That is what I would suspect happened to yours. Marty

The head gasket on the race car blew recently (280ZX turbo engine with P90 head). The previous owner told me that he had this head heat straightend and decked .008 -.010. How far can you shave these heads before you have to use cam tower shims? I have a machine shop checking out the head right now. I suspect they are going to want to shave it a bit to be sure its flat. Thanks, Marty

I went back after a short break and looked at it again. Then I turned the engine slightly in the opposite direction. That took the slack out and allowed the tool to slide in. Sometimes it pays to walk away and get a new pespective.

I know the last time I used the tensioned tool it pretty much slid in easily. This time, I can't even force it in. Man, I really didn't want to have to take the front cover off this engine!

My Race car blew the head gasket last time out (240Z with L28 turbo motor). So today I started in on removing the head. When I went to push the timing chain tension tool in, it did not want to go inat all. When I looked closer, the manifold side of the end chanin was already very loose. The plug side of the engine is still tight. Does this mean that the tensioner has popped out? I haven't even removed the cam gear yet. Le me know what you think. Thanks, Marty

How can I get into the Nissan Fast System, so I don't have to bug you anymore? I need to look up the manifold gasket part number. Thanks, Marty

It was quite a while ago and I don't have the paperwork here at the office. If you want to order today, just call them. They found it pretty quickly when I called them. Good luck. Marty