Jetaway

A month later and I wish I had nabbed the driver's side Jag mirror. It's freakin' great. Chris

I was able to give it a bit of a stress test last evening. Ambient temp probably in the high 70s, Sierra foothills, grade steep enough for a passing lane. Floored in 4th and 5th from 2000 -- 2200 rpm and no ping / clatter. 95% sure that it would have done so prior to the SeaFoam treatment in current state of tune so I've got to give the stuff a thumbs up. Chris

Cool. Glad to hear you've got it up and rolling. Chris

You wrote that the carbs are getting gas, but I ask what are they doing with it? I'm assuming that by getting gas you mean the float bowls are filling up with gas. My question is is it getting from the float bowl to the Venturi? Have you checked that the hose running from the bowl to the needle jet is clear? Alternatively, you wrote "verified fuel is getting directly into the carbs." As in flowing into the Venturi? That would be a problem and, believe me, is quite possible. More generally, have you verified that the float level is correct? Too low and you'll get too little fuel, too high it will be too rich and really high you'll have gas flowing out of the carb. On a different subject: Are you sure the dizzy is oriented correctly with the engine? The rotor should be pointing at the cap plug #1 when cylinder #1 is at TDC. Good luck. Chris

Four times in the last two weeks I've seen the same gorgeous, bright yellow Z drive by my house. Since every time its come by, mine has been tucked away in the garage, the owner is probably wondering why the nice crazy man is waving at him so frantically. My wife has seen it the same number of times within a mile of home during the last couple of weeks also, so I've got to think it must not live too far away. I'm not sure of the model/year, I'm guessing its a 260Z or an earlier 280Z, though I couldn't tell you why I don't think it is a later 280Z. I also don't know if it truly is a new kid in town or the result of an extensive renovation / restoration project. Is awfully quiet, so I suspect its bone stock mechanically. On the look out in Manteca, Chris

Finally got around to doing it. Given the reports of enormous smoking during the treatment and not wanting to alarm the neighbors, I wanted to perform the treatment away from home, ideally about 10 miles and also located close to a highway. As a prep, I dumped 1/2 of the can into the gas tank and put around 150 miles on it prior to the treatment. Drove the car around doing a little shopping, then stopped at the K-Mart on Mariposa road, conveniently located, I kid you not, less than 1/10th of a mile from the on-ramp to 99 South. I pulled the air cleaner cover, plugged a hose into the balance tube, turned the idle up to 2000 rpm or thereabouts, then covered one air horn with a piece of cardboard while "sipping" 2 and 1/2 ounces of Sea Foam into the engine. Shut it down, repeated the sipping with the cardboard over the other air horn. Shut it down, put everything back together and waited another ten minutes. I gotta say, I was a bit disappointed with the volume of smoke. Maybe I was expecting a a scene out of Apocalypse Now and it wasn't anything like that. It did seem to discourage other drivers from coming near me at the stoplight, however. Viewed from the driver's seat accelerating up to and cruising at 65 -- 75 mph the smoke lasted less than a mile. May have continued at reduced volume after that as a thin wisp of smoke could be seen coming from the tailpipe after arriving home (10 miles or so) and shutting down. Haven't noticed any differences, but I wouldn't expect anything dramatic, and I haven't taken it out for a ping stress test yet. Chris

Finally got around to doing it. Given the reports of enormous smoking during the treatment and not wanting to alarm the neighbors, I wanted to perform the treatment away from home, ideally about 10 miles and also located close to a highway. As a prep, I dumped 1/2 of the can into the gas tank and put around 150 miles on it prior to the treatment. Drove the car around doing a little shopping, then stopped at the K-Mart on Mariposa road, conveniently located, I kid you not, less than 1/10th of a mile from the on-ramp to 99 South. I pulled the air cleaner cover, plugged a hose into the balance tube, turned the idle up to 2000 rpm or thereabouts, then covered one air horn with a piece of cardboard while "sipping" 2 and 1/2 ounces of Sea Foam into the engine. Shut it down, repeated the sipping with the cardboard over the other air horn. Shut it down, put everything back together and waited another ten minutes. I gotta say, I was a bit disappointed with the volume of smoke. Maybe I was expecting a a scene out of Apocalypse Now and it wasn't anything like that. It did seem to discourage other drivers from coming near me at the stoplight, however. Viewed from the driver's seat accelerating up to and cruising at 65 -- 75 mph the smoke lasted less than a mile. May have continued at reduced volume after that as a thin wisp of smoke could be seen coming from the tailpipe after arriving home (10 miles or so) and shutting down. Haven't noticed any differences, but I wouldn't expect anything dramatic, and I haven't taken it out for a ping stress test yet. Chris

I feel bad about not checking in for a couple days. If your kid is still stuck in Fresno, I've got a 240Z radiator that I could let you have cheap. Don't know about the fit with a 280Z, though. Write back for details on cheap and how close I am to Fresno. Chris

I have a 1972, not a 1973. With that in mind: 1) The brackets sure look like mine. 2) If I'm interpreting your pictures correctly, the 1972 brackets mount to the body five to six inches higher than on the 1973s. If you follow the curved metal (left most photo) up on a 1972 it connects to a spar with an egg-shape at the front of the car. The front bracket mounting hole is about two inches below the front-most hood hinge bolt and pretty close to halfway back between the front-most and back-most hood hinge bolts. The rear bracket hole is, well, further back. 3) There really aren't threads in the sheet metal per se for the bolts, but a nut welded over the hole on the outside (tire-side) of the spar for the bolt. Since one of mine fell off, it wouldn't be a great surprise to find a pair of holes matching up to the bumper bracket but no threads for a bolt. It's not _that_ painful to use a lock washer and nut to secure the bumper bracket bolt. Chris

A buddy of mine took his car into the dealer and was charged $450 for the test. Man, am I glad it isn't applicable to carbureted cars. Chris

I've always gotten a chuckle out of the Ford Aspire. Aspire to what? Being a car? Also the trend to tagging cars with seemingly random collections of letters: CR-Z EX TL SH-AWD and in a particularly awful example: MX-5 PRHT "That's right, I drive a Prrhttthhh." Nice little car, but, jeez, the name. iChris

I was thinking of this too (re: next reply -- Yes, I do tend to over think. Especially the obvious.) but wasn't sure if I'd be able to spray it in fast enough to allow for buildup. And a little concerned about the Sea Foam dissolving the plastic. Could check that easily enough. Hmmm... I do have a fairly large chemical-resistant syringe. Or, at least I did. Thanks. I think I will go with a spray rather than pour strategy. Chris

I have no idea what the stock mirror was, but my 1972 came with a bullet-style passenger side mirror. I've never been very happy with it because of its small size and laser-like reflection path. Part of my dissatisfaction is, of course, the fact that it has to be manually adjusted (remote mirror control and retractable seat belts about the only really, really, worthwhile advancements in the last 40 years -- in my book) but manual adjustment wouldn't be so bad if it had a field of view wider than a pinhole. I could get it adjusted to cover the blind spot, but if it were bumped or simply vibrated out of position a bit I couldn't tell it was no longer aimed at the blind spot until a "Oh (**&" moment on the freeway. I tried a "GT" style mirror as well, but it wasn't much better. Thus, I've been keeping my eye out for something better. I think I found it. It's from a Jaguar. I didn't pay attention to which model, but a mid 1980s XJ-S wouldn't be far from the mark and it's not like they changed much year to year anyway. The mirror area is a bit bigger, but even better, is convex (objects in mirror are closer ...) and either tinted or polarized. My Z had four mounting holes previously drilled into the door and it matched up perfectly with two of them, your results may differ. The only modification, as it were, that I've made was to wedge a hard piece of plastic under the outside (opposite the window) of the mounting bracket to compensate for the Z's shoulder dropping off at a greater angle than the Jaguar's. It's not necessary, but it looks a little neater as it keeps the mirror parallel to the ground. How does it work? I don't even know it's there. Which is exactly how a mirror should work. Not only is the blind spot covered but the entire lane going back _and_ good coverage of two lanes over. How does it look? I'm not really into chrome and I was worried that it would be to big for the Z, but I actually like how it looks. Like an executive Z or something. I've attached three photos for your perusal. Chris

I'm about to take the plunge and decarbonize with Sea Foam. I've gone to their website and they suggest pouring 1/3 to 1/2 of a can down the carb throat. Simple enough with a downdraft carb but I'm not sure how to do this with a dual side-draft setup. Posts here seem pretty straight forward about using it, but I'm not sure enough of my own knowledge to convince myself that I know exactly what to do. I'm going to layout my plan here and would appreciate any comments from those who have done it before to keep me on the right path. 1) Run car 15 - 20 miles as warm up. 2) Remove air cleaner. 3) (see attachment) Front of engine is on the right. I assume this is the balance tube that connects the front and back manifolds. The tap closest to the middle lines up with the left side of the K&N decal on the air filter and is connected to something that modulates throttle closing. The Sea Foam site is quite firm about using an induction path that distributes evenly to all the cylinders and I'm thinking this would be best choice. But ... and here is my ignorance talking. What is the purpose of the balance tube? I assume it evens out differences in engine vacuum between the front and rear manifolds due to ??? Unbalanced carbs? Unavoidable differences created by slight differences in valve settings, carbs, other? If so, wouldn't this mean that the vacuum would always be greater either in the front or rear manifold and thus the Sea Foam would flow in that direction? Or is it closer to a plenum and smooths out vacuum fluctuations caused by the alternating fire of the pistons? I guess regardless of the above, I was thinking of kicking the revs up to 2000 and using a funnel and hose to put the Sea Foam into the tube, maybe 1/2 oz at a time while blocking one of the carbs with a piece of cardboard, then add another 1/2 oz while blocking the other carb, and repeating the sequence four to six times and then shutting down for 15 minutes. 4) Replace air filter. 5) Start up, scare the children with prodigious smoke, and hit Hwy 99 for a 10 - 15 mile run at 3000 rpm. 6) Get home, change the oil and the filter. Chris

As a PO in-training (PO in-waiting? a pre-PO?) I'm sure some future owner will be left scratching her or his head and thinking: "What the heck was the PO thinking?" Well, at least for us fortunate ones who live where 'bitter cold' means we may have to scrape a bit of frost off a window in the morning. Chris

Yeah, that's what I was talking about. It's just some people never open the window, maybe for allergies, maybe for dust, maybe on general principle, I don't know. In my A/C'ed car, I do as you do. Open the windows until the super-heated air is blown out, then roll them up, and if it is summer daytime heat (90s and up) I use recirculate for a few minutes before going to fresh air. QUOTE=EScanlon;363473] Also as far as the ventilation controls, there are only 3 levers and 4 cables/wires, so I'm curious as to what the IPO did that was so bad if only to be able to help others. FWIW E Making me relive the horror, the horror, eh? AWWWWGGGGGHHHh Alright, better now. I don't remember which of the levers has two cables, but as I remember: The temperature control was hooked up correctly. Somehow the PO got the floor vent/ defrost lever (the bottom one) hooked up to the Fresh Air / Heat flap (or the reverse). As a result: 1) The flap controlled by the Vent/Heat lever that determines whether fresh air is forced through the heater core only closed 80% -- 90% of the way. Since the core offers a lot more resistance to the passage of air than open ducts, only a tiny bit of hot air would come out the floor vents (or defroster outlets). Which was quickly overwhelmed by the far greater quantity of unheated outside air pushed through the fresh air vents on the dash and; 2) The floor / defrost controller would only completely seal off one or the other (can't remember which) and would only divert some (half? Hard to tell) of the heated air to the the selected vent. Relatedly, the foam that helped to seal off the fresh air vents and force the incoming air through the heater core had crumbled to dust over the years. It was truly a pain, but armed with a "lost part picker upper" (I'm sure they have another name -- its a long, flexible tube with a claw at one end to pick up errant parts), a blade, and an OTC medication for the resulting back pain, I stuck pieces of one sticky side household air sealing foam to replace the crumbling foam in the airbox. Made quite a positive difference in both the volume and temperature of air delivered to the floor / defrost vents. Chris

I wasn't referring to the physical weight but visual weight. I assumed they were light-weight performance wheels. They certainly are not unattractive and may well look better in person than in photos. Me, I'm better in photos. Preferably taken from Pluto. Chris

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I'd be interested in a pair if under $60. Also, a minor mystery solved! A couple of years ago I bought a pair of tail lamps from a Z being parted out. Oddly, I bought them because I thought the the chrome was in better shape. Turned out, half and half. I replaced the right side with a "new" light but retained my existing left side light. Stepping back to admire my handiwork, I thought the the color was a little different on the "new" light. Even after using a clear plastic conditioner the 'new' one seemed, well, a darker red. Reading the thread I decided to go out and check and found that the right. darker red light is a 220-24152R and the markings (or rather, lack thereof) match up with Mike B.'s pictures of his 1969's light while all my other lights (two not installed) are the later 220-24166 series. If nothing else, at least I know that I've not gone crazy. Chris

Rob, Beautiful and its great to hear that it will be driven as a sports car as well. If you were asking about the wheels: They're not bad but something just doesn't seem right about them. Maybe its the inverted hub that bugs me. I guess, overall, they seem too visually 'light' and don't give the impression of grabbing ahold of and ripping up the road. But I suspect that of all the possible vehicle accessories, opinions on wheels vary the most and are among the most strongly held. And if I look again at them in a few days, I might think they are perfect as I could see them growing on me. Chris

Well, of course I went ahead and put the interior panel back on before reading the more recent posts. The picture posted by 26th-Z doesn't resemble what I saw at all. However, EScanlon noted that the picture was of a car under restoration and was missing a metal support. If this metal support is a piece of sheet metal extending back to the expansion tank, then it all makes sense. My 1972 had, presumably, dealer-installed air conditioning. I'm not sure why they would block off the rear vents with that option. Generally you'll only be using recirculate when getting into a hot car before switching over to fresh air. And then there's winter. The interior panel didn't (does, now, thanks to Mr. Blade) have a hole up near the Z-emblem. It does, however have the speaker holes and is formed for the evaporative canister. Finally, I can now rest relieved knowing that the Z-emblems are correctly installed. Seriously. You wouldn't believe how the PO had the ventilation controls hooked up. Chris

Oh, yeah, I forgot about the speaker holes. Still, since they are aftermarket, I'm going to go ahead and cut a larger hole into the panel closer to the Z emblem. Re: Bonzi Lon I'm not going to take the emblems off to check, so I'll be using faith that they haven't been switched L to R at some time. Chris

Not sure by what you mean by the sender testing at 12 Volts. It's a variable resistor, not an active component. I had mine out two months ago, and of course didn't save the readings, but I think it varied from 10 to 220 ohms full to empty. Do you mean that it dropped 12 volts across the terminals while installed and with a full, or reasonably full, load of fuel? If the drop across the terminals is exactly the same as from the hot lead to ground, then I suspect a wire became loose or broken in the sending unit. Other ideas: I think its possible to install the sender upside down which, with a full tank, would produce a large-voltage drop signal that indicates empty. Lost the ground to the tank? Not sure if there is a strap or something that needs to be hooked up for an electrical connection. Regardless, tank to any other part of the body should short. Chris

Good Evening, My Z is a 1972. I've always assumed, or perhaps "had faith" is a better description, that the 'Z' emblem on the rear pillars concealed ventilation holes. (If not, seems like a heck of a lot of sheet metal work for no reason.) I've also assumed that a PO had redone the interior using after-market parts. Recently I had the right rear interior panel off to work on the evaporative canister and that exposed the backside of the Z emblem. So to speak. On the interior sheet metal and directly behind the Z emblem is a painted square maybe six inches on the side with an X-shape stamped into it. However, one thing I expected to find, but did not, was a connection or pathway between the cabin and the concealed ventilation hole. I didn't take off the interior panel going towards the front of the car, but after a bit more searching I found an opening created by a manufactured gap (that is, meant to be a gap) where the interior sheet metal terminates near the top of the canister. So, I guess that either by vacuum or pressure air could be drawn around the 'Z' emblem and that in turn would move some air through the cabin. Well, not quite, at least not as far as I can tell. The interior panels (a thin, fairly stiff molded plastic) wouldn't allow for any air passage through them and they match up so tightly that I doubt much more than a minuscule amount of air could get through the cracks given the low air pressure differential. There is nothing in the panels (anywhere in the car) that could serve to vent air one way or the other. So, has my faith been misplaced? Are the 'Z' emblems mere ornamentation lacking even a bare shred of function? Or are these, presumably after-market, interior panels close, but not exact replicas of the originals and one of the differences is the lack of any provision to vent air from the cabin through the 'Z' emblem passage? If the latter (faith kicking in again;)) where was, or were, the passage(s) allowing for air exchange? Chris Waiting with a new blade in a safety holder, which doesn't seem to stop me from going "Oh, damn. Any second now. Yup, there it goes. Thought so." several times a year.

I don't have anything on the 'D's'' but you may want to check out Performix Plasti Dip (spray) for the flat black around the hub cover. I've attached a photo of it used on ZX "Iron Cross" hub cover. Applied it two and a half years ago, still holding and still flat black w/o any greying. Chris [ATTACH=CONFIG]44939[/ATTACH] Well, I hope I attached it with this new-fangled BB program.

An immodest question: Are you sure your tachometer is right? Assuming a stock 4-spd w/ stock rear-end and tires close to the size of the originals, you should be able to get into the 60s in second. Road and Track has the 1970 going 63 mph at 6500. Could be the vacuum advance, though I have my doubts. Easy enough to check, though. Disconnect it, plug the line, advance the timing 3-5 degrees or so to compensate (keep the window down and listen for pre-ignition) and give her a test run. If it runs out to 6500 / 7000 you've found the problem. Chris