Gary in NJ

Is the red car the parts car?

Timing. Have you checked the timing with a strobe? If so, was the idle set correctly with the vac-adv disconnected and plugged?

Healey I like the tune-up parts that MSA carries. It's all the same quality of the stuff I use to get in the 80's. They also carry NGK plug wires. I've always liked those too.

I just replaced both master and slave this evening. I used the parts out of the box without swapping any older parts. I did measure every thing before installing and the parts acquired from MSA were spot on. Regarding bleeding, my son sat in the car while I worked the bleeder. I had him pump three times and hold. On the 4th cycle it moved the slave and by the 6th I was pumping pure Dot 4. An straight forward job if ever there was one.

Perfect compression I'd say. Were those fresh plugs? A proper plug reading should be performed with fresh plugs. #4 could be dark for some very simple reasons; i.e fouled plug, broken wire, defective cap or a spark plug wire that wasn't properly seated. I'd perform a proper tune up (including a valve lash adjustment) and see if that doesn't cure the rough running.

A leak down test (aka diffential compression) is the tell-all method. Harbor Freight has a tester for around $30. Not professional grade mind you, but it is something you will not often use.

Outstanding. I'm really diggin' those seat covers. Are they custom?

No. Is your fast idle screw out at all? That should be fully retracted after the fast balance is set.

I use K&N filters on everything but my Z. I just don't put enough mileage on it to justify the expense. The paper filter does a better job of filtering, but I make that trade off on my other cars and motorcycles (my airplane too). The job of the idle solenoid is to increase the idle and to keep the engine from stalling. At night there is more load on the engine due got the lights

Shouldn't the grose jets (float valves) be changed in pairs? I suggest looking at both carbs. Once you see how easy it is to set the front, you'll see that it's worth the effort to check the rear.

My money is on a stuck float valve.

I would install a higher capacity radiator before a trial-and-error prone electric system.

Looks like you have yourself a good parts car.

A mettle of a sports car (especially those manufactured 30-40 years ago) is not measured with a stop-watch, but by the feedback and "excellence" they return to the driver. By your example, a Toyota Camry is a better sports car then a Mazda Miata. The 280ZX made good use of 10 years of track time and advances in tire/suspension technology that were unavailable when the S30 was designed in the 1960's. Also, when the 240Z went on sale in 1969, the average car price was US$3,900; the 240Z was US3,500. In 1980 the average car price was US$7,200; the 10th Anniversary 280ZX was US$14,000. The ZX was clearly designed for a different buyer.

The 911 has never been an "everyman's" sports car, so I don't place it into the same category as the 240Z. I'm sure there wasn't a lot of cross shopping between the two at the time. In 1970, if you wanted an affordable sports car, you were shopping mostly British brands (that were quite dated at the time), the 914 and perhaps the RX2 or RX3 (if you were "in the know"). The success of the 240Z brought us cars like the TR7 ("the shape of things to come"), RX7 and a bump in sales of the MGB. But by then, the 240Z had begun its metamorphosis into a bloated and smog-conforming GT, resulting in the sports-car insult that was the 280ZX.

Help, I have fuel squirting out of my fuel lines but more importantly I need to get my radio installed. I'm sorry Sledge, this struck me as funny on a slow Friday afternoon. I think yo may be in need of a FSM. Try looking under the resources tab www.XenonS30.com

The body of your car looks dang good. So does the paint. If the interior looks as good, that car is a keeper. Repairing small rust problems is certainly achievable. Leonard has given good advice, deal with the issues you know, rather then getting a different car and dealing with new issues.

That's a great outcome. I hope they locate the SOB that kept you a wake for a few nights.

Nice score.

It's obvious. The headlight covers.

That makes perfect sense as the torque peek of the engine occurs around 4400 rpm. If the flywheel was warped, you would feel a violent shimmy as you release the clutch. In any event it's good practice to have it resurfaced. If it's been resurfaced once before, you may need to replace it.

Good for you JC for taking a perfectly logical approach to entering motorsports.

This is starting to sound like 20 questions... Did you disconnect (intentionally or unintentionally) any of the connections at the coil when you were under the hood connecting the battery cables? Next.

I've heard of 10 and 20 foot cars, but 1500-mile is a new standard. A few years ago I had a really nice '89 KDX200 that I restored from a box of parts. I raced the bike in hare scrambles for two seasons and then retired it to fun-bike status. About the same time I came across a similar bike without an engine and figured I would buy it as a parts bike. I cleaned, tagged & bagged the entire bike. It was also about that time that I stopped breaking parts on my KDX. A few years later the KDX was sold, & I've been stuck with parts ever since. I have a collection of bike parts from the last 30 years from dozens of bikes. It's for that reason I wont purchase a parts car.