FastWoman

Mine has about your mileage on the original build. It has very good compression and seems solid. It doesn't burn oil. It might have pulled an additional inch of vacuum when new, but I can live with that. I find this a bit miraculous because when I bought the car, the engine innards looked like the inside of a BBQ grill. The sludge was polymerized and abbrasive. Even so, it seems no damage was done. I have no reason to do a rebuild. I suspect 250k with reasonable care isn't out of the ordinary. Of course it would be nice would be to mill the head a bit to increase the compression ratio, but I'm not going to pull the head just for that. But that's just me. If you want to rebuild and can afford to do it... Go for it!

FAIW, I understand that ethanol gas has a higher vapor pressure than genuine 1970's gas, so it's more prone to vapor locking. Furthermore, gasoline blends are varied seasonally with more volatiles during the winter. When these mixes are not conscientiously managed by the gasoline suppliers, you can get almost anything from the pump -- even gas blended for cooler climates with up to 30% ethanol. I suspect that's why some people have vapor lock problems and others don't. Where I live, most gas is @#$%.

Oh, MAN! Is it that hot on America's North Coast?! Yikes! Sure, heat deformed it, and heat can deform it again. Just take it slowly, and don't apply too much heat too quickly in any one spot. Heat both the inside and the outside. Maybe a good place to heat the part is in your oven. Be sure to keep the radiant heat off of it (e.g. with a couple of cookie sheets beneath it)! This might be a more controlled way to apply heat evenly and not to burn it. Try it with a few random pieces of hard plastic around the house.

... however you can still get the intake boots new, at least for a 280Z. (I don't know about ZX boots.)

Soooo... Resurrecting an old thread... My '78's steering wheel looks a bit shabby. It has what appears to be a wheelskins sort of cover on it. It's starting to come apart. I really don't know how the rubber/foam material appears underneath. I'm wondering about re-covering the wheel with something that looks a bit better. Sidetracking just a bit, I also own a Miata. The PO recovered the wheel prior to my buying it, and it looks BEAUTIFUL -- as though it came from the factory. Unlike wheelskins, the leather also covers the padded parts of the spokes. I'd like to do something like that. As far as I can tell, nobody makes a kit for doing this, right? That is, nobody makes a kit that also covers the tidbits on the spokes? I already know the leather skin on the rubber/foam of my Z's wheel has a good feel to it, but I don't know whether the leather tends to walk around on the foam. The leather on my wheel is pretty well stuck in place, but it's probably turned a bit from the way the PO first stitched it in place. Would it be worthwhile picking up a 240 fake wood wheel and leather covering that? Is the wheel diameter similar? Or should I just recover the wheel I have and hope the leather doesn't squirm around? I'm also curious what's underneath the foam. Does anyone know? Are the finger grips molded into the frame of the wheel, so that I could strip down a wheel to the metal, build it up with something like plastidip, and then leather-wrap? Anybody know any good tutorials out there about how to wrap the spoke tidbits? I've seen quite a few on how to wrap the main parts of the wheel. Thanks, everyone!

It's YOUR car! You're the one who's going to be admiring it everyday! But if it were mine, I'd keep the original lime green. It's a rather special color -- unusual -- very 240!

I already do that, ZTrain. I've got a switch wired in the console. I prime before every start. I have no trouble starting, but the engine runs a bit rough until I'm first able to take off down the street. Then everything is fine. Perhaps if I primed for longer... But as long as it starts, I'm fine.

I've heard of carb guys recirculating their fuel. Maybe you could put a fuel pressure regulator right at your carbs, with a return flow line that feeds to your fuel/air separator (draining back into the tank). I don't know whether any of the lower pressure regulators are built that way (i.e. like the higher pressure EFI regulators). FAIW, my 280 will get a momentary vapor lock now after only a few min of sitting. This heat is brutal! I feel for you!

Oh, that's alright. There seems to be a lot of beating all around. I didn't really want that. But I think I got my questions answered. I'll study it further on my own, and when the weather gets cooler, I might decide to take on a project. Dunno. Thanks, everyone!

I've never dealt with them, but I often read on this forum about rebuilt items (e.g. engines) they market that look really pretty on the outside but are junk on the inside. Be careful.

Yeah, I used 5/16" throughout when I did mine. Don't get 1/4" hoses, because they will eventually split on you.

Dave, what would be your expectation for the hp and mileage improvement on a N/A, stock (completely original), original compression ratio '78 engine with MS fuel control, ordinary injectors, and EDIS ignition? As I've said, my preference is to keep the old hardware, just because there's something cool about it, but if the improvements would be great enough, I could be lured to the dark side. And Art, are you saying that I can achieve 280 hp with MSII, stock injectors, and normal aspiration, just by canning the AFM and using the larger throttle body? If so, that's darned impressive!

Well, do dump out your fuel filter to see if you have @$% in it. If you do, then you'll want to see what's in your tank next. There's a drain plug on the bottom of your tank. Put a pan underneath it, and drain just a bit of fuel. You'll want to see whether there's rust/@#$% in it. Another way to check is to remove the 5" dia (?) inspection plate on the passenger side of your hatch area floor. Underneath it is the fuel sender unit. You'll turn a locking ring by tapping it with a screwdriver, and then the entire sending unit will lift out. Then you can peer down into your tank with a flashlight (no sparks!!) and view the bottom. It's worth mentioning that your '78 has a pickup screen in the tank that will be eaten away by any acid wash or clogged with POR15. Obviously if you eat huge holes in the screen there will be nothing to clog, so perhaps that's OK. Then you'll want a coarse fuel filter between your tank and fuel pump to protect the pump. You might need to clean out your tank. You certainly wouldn't be the first person. There are descriptions here and there about how to do it. Basically you'll drain it, pull it, perhaps acid-rinse it, perhaps pressure wash it, dry it, perhaps apply a coat of POR-15 to the inside to line it, replace all your hoses while you're at it, and reinstall. Obviously replace your filter at the same time.

Easiest way: Undo the clamp on the fuel filter. Wrap a paper towel around the end of the hose, and wiggle it off. There will be a small shot of fuel that soaks the paper towel, but it won't end up in your face. Obviously use this method at your own risk, because I'm an idiot (non-expert) and am unqualified to give you this advice.

I'll try that. Thanks. I think mine is completely dead, though. I tried working on it when I had the throttle off, but I couldn't budge any of the screws. Hopelessly corroded. I said, "Oh well..." and moved on.

Yeah, but deleting the BCDD wouldn't resolve the problem. It would only clean up the engine compartment. I thought it might be interesting to install an electric air valve bypassing the throttle. It could be actuated when the A/C compressor is running (eliminating the hard-to-adjust A/C high idle doobob), when the engine is cold (eliminating the unreliable air regulator), and for a couple of seconds when the throttle slams shut (eliminating the idle sag).

Well, if his is like mine was, then the jam nut might have come loose, allowing the threaded rod to wiggle and rotate. The PO cautioned me before I test-drove the car that the clutch engages close off the floor. He wasn't kidding!

Those dashpots would cause the throttle to hang open if they started getting crusty inside, so sometimes they were backed off enough to do no harm. I've not heard of a malfunctioning dashpot causing backfire before. However, I do know that a really steep RPM drop from a really high RPM can result in afterfire (out the exhaust, not the intake) as you cross that 2500 RPM boundary. What happens is that fuel is cut until you reach 2500, and then it is reintroduced. Then SOMEHOW you get some unburnt fuel reaching the hot exhaust, and .... pop! At least that's why MY engine does if I rev really high and don't ease the speed back down. I confess I don't know what a TVS is. I'm guessing one of your diagnostic toys?

There are no master fuses other than the fusible links. If I understand correctly, you ran the red (+) cable to the engine ground and the black (-) cable to the hot post on the starter? If that's what happened, you might have destroyed your battery. Does it have voltage? Will it put out current?

If I had a fixer-upper Z, I wouldn't trade for your car. As Arne said... I'd much rather have a Z! However, if I weren't a Z enthusiast and had a non-running, but otherwise reasonably OK, Z sitting in my barn, then I might trade my fixer-upper Z for a running car. Dunno. And if I were just some kid with a Z who wanted to go fast, I suppose I might bite too. It all depends on who you approach.

Thanks, guys! Dave, if MSII can be used with the cursed AFM, I'm definitely interested! I'll check out the FAQ, Steve. Oh, and I was thinking about the distributor. I don't really need a CAS except for sequential injection, which y'all say isn't a big deal anyway. Otherwise I presume the distributor's reluctor signal could be used trigger the MS, which would handle the spark advance and drive the coil. I would need to disable the vacuum (and also mechanical?) advance. Do I have that right? Anyway I'll check out the FAQ. This all sounds much more do-able now. The only part of my EFI that I really WANT to replace is the ECU, as I don't really care about the originality of some box hiding under the kick panel.

I understand what you're saying, Leon, but I think some of the old stuff if kinda cool. The engine is the soul of the car, and I hate to go overboard with modernizations. If MS had a way to incorporate the AFM, I'd probably be all over that! I may still bite on the MS, though. I think I would want to keep the distributor and not go EDIS, but it would be cool to be able to disable the advance mechanism and make it a hybrid CAS/distributor sort of device, with the MS handling all the spark advance. ------------------ Rob, I suspect your mixture is way off!

Dave, I think what you say is true. I've got my EFI tuned (via potentiometer) a bit on the rich side, and it seems to like it there. I'm sure I get at least 22 mpg on the highway. In fact I'm sure I'm fairly certain I'm in the mid 20's, but I'm perhaps tuned leaner than you are, and I probably drive a bit slower. The next time I'm on a good stretch of highway (which is very seldom these days), I'll have to determine exactly what I do get. So I'm still on the fence about MS. Instead, I'm wondering whether I could preserve my antiquated analog AFM system and get the greater efficiency by rigging an accessory circuit to tweak the tuning of the EFI in real time, based on the output of a wide band O2 sensor. Or maybe I could have a mixture selection switch that would switch me from rich (performance) to lean (for cruising). But I suppose it all starts with the sensor. How much should a muffler shop charge me to weld on a bung? Any great ideas about where to mount the extra gauge? Pull the clock, perhaps? (I kinda hate to do that.) And where should I mount the flux capacitor? Should it go in the rear of the center console area? (I have a high voltage relay that looks a lot like the doodad in the movie. I'm often tempted to mount it under the hood somewhere as a lark -- to see how many questions I get about it. )

I've taught quite a few people stick on my little '92 Saturn SL2. It's got the easiest transmission I've ever driven. I taught my reluctant stepson on that car and then sent him back to school with the car. He was reluctant because (1) it was old, and (2) it's hilly where he goes to school. He quickly learned that driving the car was a lot of fun. Then we gave him back the automatic station wagon and took back the Saturn. Of course he also likes the wagon, because it holds lots of friends (er... and beer kegs?) and has a huge engine in it. Anyway, we did our job correctly as parents. I think his first "bought" car will probably be stick. Moreover, his second "bought" car will probably be an antique! Now if I can just teach him enough about the workings of a car that he doesn't say silly things like "turn on" and "turn off."

So his car doesn't go very fast, but it sure is efficient!