coop

I used to have a 510 that did exactly what yours is doing. I put Redline MTL in and it was like installing a new transmission. I highly recommend it. Totally cured the cold weather related grinding.

Actually, that's just a figure of speech, like "howyadoin?........don't ask." Fuel dripped onto the Stahl headers. Not 100% sure exactly what caused it but a lot has been done to try to prevent it from happening again. Just wish I had an obvious smoking gun, so to speak.

Thanks. Banzai has them and I should be ordering them soon. Coop

Does anyone have for sale, the rubber bellows that goes around the throttle linkage inside the engine compartment and up against the fire wall? Mine caught on fire and is destroyed? Don't ask.

Thanks Carl for keeping me straight. I ain't never gonna make them mistakes agane. Doh!

John, I ran a Javier head on top of a block I built over 10 years ago. With my old exhaust it was fast on long straights. Dropped a valve though while running 7th at the ARRC back around 1999. I think the Speed Source RX7 won that day. Dave thought that Javier's rocker arms were questionable. My new engine is stronger down low which helps out here on the west coast.

Hey John, earlier this year when I accidentally hit 7500 rpm on my ITS engine, the valves floated and cracked a piston. I only rev to 7200 when shifting from 2nd to 3rd at the start of the race and then 6800 for all the 3rd to 4th shifts because that is where the hp curves cross. The OEM valve springs just aren't up to the task plus the power really drops off above 7000. My new Rebello engine has made Dave proud. It hit 205.2 hp at 6100 rpm and 196.8 ft-lb of torque at 5000 rpm. This is up from 200.7 hp and 190.7 ft-lb on the previous engine. Dave thinks that maybe his latest piston rings or maybe my newest Stahl stepped header may have made the difference. So, it is possible to get 200+ hp at the crank with a "fairly" stock L24. All it takes is money and Dave Rebello.

Here is how I hold the pinion flange while removing the nut. Cheap and easy! I found a length of channel iron around three feet long and drilled a couple of holes in one of the side flanges to match the drive shaft bolt holes in the pinion flange. Then I just bolt the channel iron to the pinion flange using the drive shaft bolts. The channel iron swings around and is secured against something like the car body or ground or work bench etc. Then I just torque the bolt. I also have drilled other holes into this tool and use it to secure the rear wheel lug bolts while I torque the nut on the rear wheel bearing. It also holds the fly wheel in place if necessary. I've even welded threaded nuts to it and used it as a puller. I use this tool all the time and even take it to the race track with me. Hope this helps.

you are absolutely right. I was in the terminal after flying completely across the pacific at night and was literally wasted. acetylene + O2 = hot flame. Just got my thoughts crossed.

First off, one should clarify what is gas welding and what is arc welding. By gas welding, many would use that term to refer to oky-acetylene welding which uses a bottle of oxygen combined with another bottle filled with an inert gas(CO2 or argon). Arc welding comes in many forms to include shielded metal(commonly referred to as idiot stick), MIG(commonly referred to as wire feed) and TIG(tungsten inert gas). All are very useful in the garage for restoring and all have some strong points and weaknesses. Gas welding can easily be used for thin metals and body work, especially if you plan afterward to use a grinder and some sort of filler. The weakness of gas is that it does not put a lot of heat in a very small area so it can lead to heating up a large area causing warpage and it does not penetrate thicker metals such as would be used in roll cage construction. Idiot stick welding uses a stick which is coated in a material designed to protect the weld from oxidation. That is why it is called shielded metal arc welding. It works but is very messy and does not work well at all on thin metal such as car bodies. MIG welding can be used in two methods as far as I know - with and without shielded wire. Using shielded wire, you do not need to use an inert gas bottle to protect the welds from oxidation(similar to idiot stick). The best way to use MIG, however is combined with a tank of inert gas to shield the weld. This provides for a fairly clean weld that can be laid down very quickly. MIG is GREAT for use in auto restorations, especially if you are in a hurry. Some say that you can aluminum weld with it but I can't. Also, it may not be able to provide proper penetration of thicker metal surfaces which is no big deal unless you are working on something along the lines of some sort of heavy equipment. Last but not least is TIG. TIG is the most versatile as it can weld all thicknesses of all sorts of metal and can produce attractive welds. It is preferred for aluminum. TIG's drawback is that it takes the most talent to master and it is somewhat slow and can eat up your inert gas supply. TIG welders usually have a setting for idiot stick that you can use if you want to but I find that I don't need it as using the tungsten torch works fine no matter what I'm welding. As far as price goes, generally speaking, from cheap to most expensive they are GAS, idiot stick, MIG, then TIG. There are lots of welding books out there that go into all the depth you need. Also, just do an internet search to get more info. In my case if I had to have only one welder in my garage it would be a TIG, wait, that's exactly what I have. I also have an oxy-acetylene(gas) for blow torch cutting. I wouldn't do withoutgas it as it is good for heating metal for bending and shaping and generally creating all sorts of parts. Of course I'd like to have a MIG too but I digress.

Looks like Laguna Seca.

Greg, was the problem that you couldn't see and if so, doesn't that car have a history of not being able to see in the rain like way back at Mid Ohio? Any thoughts about installing some sort of small electric hot air blower? Just wondering. Don't mean to be intrusive.

Looks like he finished second in very wet conditions.

I would like to go but there are two other priorities for me on the same day. There is an SCCA speed event at Reno Fernley Raceway that day and an even higher priority Vintage Race, the Porsche Datsun Shootout at Las Vegas that weekend. I will be running in the later if my car holds up next weekend at the SCCA double regional at Laguna Seca. We'll be running our newly installed Rebello ITS LEGAL engine(205 hp on the dyno). Can't wait.

Something you might think about if you are changing altitude a lot. I invested in an air density gauge. I have Dave Rebello dyno my engine at sea level in dense air. He records the density and sets the carbs appropriately. I note the mixture settings. Then, I take the car out on the road in the Nevada desert on a hot day at 5000' elevation and re-tune them to the thin air, noting the new mixture settings. Then I graph the mixture settings vs density using the data points to make a line. Of course I do separate lines for each carb. Now I have a means of making very accurate and fast mixture settings. I do this every time before exiting the pits for a track session. I takes only about 10 secs a carb. Believe me this works like a champ! Obviously you won't have Dave do your initial settings but you get the idea.

Jeff. Mine were just like yours. Got lots of complements on them.

Jeff. Those could have been my old wheels but mine weren't slotted. They looked good with the gold trim and the yellow paint job. Sort of like a Ferrari. I found them to be a nuisance when I started to run them in ITS back in 1987, what with always removing them to bleed brakes, etc. So I switched to a proper lugged 14x7. I would never run the old shank type of wheels on the track. In fact, I once had a shank type of wheel modified with pressed inserts in order to use the beveled lug nuts. Nice.

JEFF, Where did you get those "280Z on Enkei(?) 14x6 wheels and 215/60R14 tires" wheels? They look just like a pair I used to run on my street car back in 1986.

My old 260 had that problem. It had a boost boost pump back near the tank with a teeny pre-filter that would easily clog due to the rust in the gas tank. That pump and clogged filter could not pass enough fuel to keep the carb bowls full during extended high load situations such as climbing mountain roads or in your case, 95 mph runs. The filter in the engine bay looked OK, masking the problem. Check to see if you have that pump and filter back near the tank. If they are clogged, you'll need to clean them and possibly repair the tank to prevent further fouling. If they are clean and the engine bay filter is clean, the other advice you've read about adjusting float bowl levels is good. Another trick I used to do is to T a fuel pressure line between the mechanical(or electric) fuel pump and the carbs, and run the line to a pressure gage taped to the windshield. Take the car for a run and see if you get a dropoff south of the 1.5 psi range. If so, your fuel pump is weak or there is a clog.

Barely poking into the picture on the right in the third row is the white 280 of Frank Leary. He is running the mags that I occasionally will run on my car for vintage events. He went on to win the runoffs in 1978 with that car using bigger and better wheels.

I am running 10:1 compression ratio per the rules of the class and am required to run OEM valve springs. My shift point from 3rd to 4th is 6,800 rpm and I will only run it up to 7,200 rpm at the race start when going from 2nd to 3rd. These values were determined by graphing the intersection of the power curves between the various gears. When I took the head off this engine, four of the pistons had little smiles in the top where valves had indented them. The cracked piston had the worst indentation so I just assumed that the stress of the impingement combined with the forces up through the pin caused the failure. I would never run an L Series engine up to 8,000 rpm without some serious strengthening of the valve train and using forged pistons etc. I did not notice any damage to the valves, however.

Unfortunately, this engine was built to .040 over, the limit of the rules and it did indeed damage the upper 3/8" of travel on the cylinder wall. Since I can't bore any bigger, it requires a new sleeve. My engine builder, Dave Rebello has some spare blocks so we went with another block. The new engine is ready for pickup and it dynoed at 204 hp with 197 torque, both up from my very good old engine. Can't wait to get it to the track with a rev limiter this time of course.

This is the result of a missed shift and subsequently hitting 7500 RPM in an ITS engine. Doh...

Look again. It's the esses at Road Atlanta, the Runoffs around 1977. But yes, definitely a classic.

What do you say when they ask you "how fast will it go?"