5thhorsemann

Thanks, she gets a bunch of attention even with 40 year old paint and primer patches. I'm only weeks away from paint and chomping at the bit to get the new silver laid down. Dropping off the truck motor today to get the machine work done. As soon as it goes back in its off to paint for the Z.

$23,900??? are friggin you kidding me, tou could have a really sexy set of triplets sitting next to yours for that kind of money. YIKS!!

I personally haven't tried to fit these on a Z, I'm not a fan of DRIVING a lowered Z on the street, and it would look like a 4X4 with flairs at the stock ride height. I have seen them installed on a 280 and the guy did a nice job of cutting the fenders out and fitting them up although he did say that there was quite a bit of shaving and shaping necessary to get them right. FWIW, he is a highly skilled body man.

Just looking at the resiviors and caps, it looks later than 73, the length looks rite, but the booster itself is much larger in diameter.

So I got the fuel pressure gauge installed this week to complete the three gauge set. I love the placement and ease of read while driving. I also love the way you can actually watch the thermostat open and close as you drive down the road, it opens at 185 and closes at 180, so as you drive down the highway the needle rocks back and forth between the two. Here's a shot of the hood. I'm hoping that once the car is painted (before the end of the year) the hood will blend in a bit better with the lines of the car as at this point I am comitted to the scoop as a perminent addition. Edit, Damn, I need to clean the windshield!

Start by plugging the vac port on the front manifold behind the isolator. Next hook the crank case vent to the PCV (balance tube center). put the air cleaner back on the car, these carbs need a filter to increase the manifold vac to run if they aren't properly tuned. Cap EVERYTHING that isn't being used on the manifold, and hook up the hot water circuit to the manifold, if you let everything get up to temp it will run better.. My 73 wouldn't run off idle when I did the conversion at first untill I put the air filters on and dialed the carbs in from there. Once I got them really close I was able to take the filters back off and fine tune the carbs. Edit; check the bamper oil as well.

Just a sidebar for expiditing the diagnosis of overheating/ intermittant electronic module failures. Keep a can or two of "Canned Air" with you when on the test drive, when the car dies try a restart ONCE, if the car fails to stare hose the suspect component down with the can inverted so that the liquid refridgerant in the can is hosing down the heat sink section of the module. This should cool the module down enough to get it working again. FWIW

I would direct you to the Locktite PTFE thread sealent (paste) It's wonderful stuff. It was we used on all the fuel and fluid fittings requiring sealent on flight hardware back when I worked in an aerospace lab. NEVER HAD A LEAK ON ANYTHING WITH THAT STUFF! BTW, heat shouldn't be a problem.

I would think you would have to do a risk/ reward analysis beforehand on this one. If she is anything like mine there could be quite a bit of pain involved.

Dude, I know all about Calie's political situation, being the political junkie that I am. I live in the fee state, just outside of Bodymore Murderland, a suburb of Washington D.C. Politically we are California east. Tax wise we are like 1 or 2 on the list, I paid upwards of 52% in income tax's alone last year, and almost all of the Z's you can find back here are total restores for rediculous money, or total rust buckets. If I had a few hundred grand laying around I would be the east coast largest importer of Cali cars.

I hate you Cali guys, the quality of the cars you can get your hands on make me sick.

Bruce, I THINK (I say I said I think) it's because the power comes in on the R/W then splits into two circuits (left and right headlight or hi and low beam, I can't remember which) goes thru the fuse box and on to the head lights on the lighter gauge wires. It's been a while since I got into the wiring on the headlights to do the relay upgrade, but I remember it was a confusing design that seemed to be the product of value engineering as opposed to reliability and simplicity.

The question here is what will bring the most money at resale on a restore. If the car is being redone to a close to stock condition, then original paint is the most desirable. It may not bring the quickest sale, but usually brings the most money. If, on the other hand, the car is getting body and powertrain mods, then doing a color swap to one of the more popular colors will be the best choice IF DONE PROPERLY. A good paint job is labor intensive, lots of teardown and prep, removal of the doors and glass, the motor and fenders, etc, etc, etc. I personally like bright metalic silver with hews of gold in it on early Z cars.

I'm of the thinking that if you are reparing a problem, the step approach is the way to go. currently I'm working on my 91 Toyota pickup which has a blown head gasket and an oil leak on the front of the block somewhere. It also has an intermitant tapping noise that I haven't been able to pinpoint, so I am going to pull the motor and do a complete teardown/ rebuild. In this case jumping in with both feet is the order of the day, so every step gets double checked before moving on to the next step.

Can you shoot us a pic of the underside?

Just from the pics, I see a bunch of rubber stuff like hoses seals and boots that are rough. My first addition to your list of things to do will be this, and I highly advise you give it high priority as these out of site out of mind hoses are almost always overlooked. LOOK AT THE FUEL TANK PLUMBING!! All you need do is pull the rear and pasenger side interrior panels to expose and inspect these hoses, well worth a half hour of your time. Great car!

Gotta love those "Custom door panels" it's not even a decent parts car.

I know I'll be watching, could be a good excuse to take a road trip down south. Do you have any skin in the game here or has the insurance company already squared with you.

Im not familiar with the EFI system on the L motors, but a faulty crank case venting system could also make the car smoke at high R's, and could cause a fuel delivery problem as well.

That was something I would never have thought of, it never would have crossed my mind that an air slug in the tubing would have an affect on the reading at such low pressures. That said, I bid a bleed on the some odd three foot nylon line, no change, but worth trying none the less. I've been paying close attention to this pressure lag at startup. If the car sits for less than a few hours there is little or no lag at all. if it sits all day or over night the lag is 2 to 3 seconds. I think when I do the Captian Obvious cam oiler install I will take a look at the check valve too. I'm not really worried, I have great confidence in the Amsoil's ability to cling to the motors guts and provide enough lube at startup to get me through the lag time. As the temprature drops I am also starting to see that old cold starting problem increase where the cranking time is getting longer and longer, the cooler it gets. This is something that I need to address soon, might have to start a new thread on this as I have no idea where else to go with this one.

I've seen a bunch of L28 power trains for sale, CHEAP. By the time you advertise and deal with all the details of the deal it usually ends up a wash or even costing you money. If your wiring and tranny and diff are all good, I would do a rebuild with some performance mods, or buy an L28 thats already been done. Thats likely the least expensive way to go and still end up with a good result.

Sorry, I fat fingered the key board, that would be 24 psi at idle, warm. At cold start it reads 35 psi at idle. I have also noticed that it takes a second or two to see any pressure at the gauge at startup, is this normal for an L24 or should I have a look at the check valve.

Thanks for the complements. Did quite a bit of driving this weekend, I now realize just how bad the original oil pressure gauge is. I left all the electrical gauges and sending units in place, the oil pressire gauge is SLOW on the read, you could loose all of your oil pressure and it would take a long time to see it with the gauge. On the bright side, I have good oil pressure, solid as a rock 42 psi at idle and it rises steadily to just over 60 psi at speed. I'll post more picks once the fuel pressure gets installed.

Good eye E. The reason I would have opened the switch for an inspectios was the corrosion on the metal parts in the pick.

I'll start by saying I am a huge fan of mechanical gauges, and always hold the electrical gauge readings suspect. I will also say that having the mechanical pressure gauges (fuel and oil anyway) in the car with me will not happen, a tubing failure or broken bourdon tube can cause a mess on an oil gauge and a blow torch on an illuminated fuel gauge. So earlier this year I put a cowl induction scoop on my damaged hood to forever rid myself of the vapor locking problems with the 240. I don't really like the hood as much as the stock look (which I love) but it did the trick. So now I have my mechanical water temp and oil pressure installed, waiting on the third cup to add the fuel pressure. I plumbed the lights on the gauge faces to a 15 PSI pressure switch in the oil line, so if I loose pressure, I loose lights, just added peace of mind. As seen from the drivers seat, the 2 5/8 inch autometers are easy to read and you don't have to take your eyes off the road. I like the hood a little better now.