Kurbycar32

I have ordered from both and had positive experiences. In the case of maintenance parts i just head over to O'reilly and get parts over the counter. Regular auto parts stores have everything you need to keep the car running and if you haven't noticed maintenance type parts are dirt cheap for the Z's. If i need used stuff i get them from my local wrecking yard and Z Specialties Online Store - If we don't have it in stock, we can get it! . Black dragon has also been a good source for some of my parts

Half of my Fathers family still works for GM, most of them are laid off half of the year or more. I get a ridiculous discount on GM cars but theres a Dodge/cummins and a Mazda 3 out front, Z in the garage. I wouldn't buy a GM ever. Build quality sucks top to bottom in comparison to most of their competitors. The Corvette might be the only exception, but for the money I would rather have a Porsche, even if it were slower. Im not saying they dont make a decent vehicle, but in every category theres a better option for the same price or better.

I'm putting together my conversion to SU's from the weber DVG's. I think I have everything but the heat shield, and I just realized that thats how the throttle spring return attaches. If you have a spare i'll take it off of your hands. The SU's are round tops if that makes any difference.

They actually addressed this in Windows 8. Essentially they allow any installed mouse software direct control over the hardware, bypassing the Windows system. If you buy a performance mouse that comes with software you get complete control. Past that the best I can say for the OS is that its stable and generally works unlike the first 3 years of Vista's existence. The GUI is terrible for business usage but every GUI adjustment after release has been for the better, even though its still not great.

I rolled out windows 7 to about 6,000 computers last year and essentially eliminated Windows XP from my whole environment. If you are managing in scale Windows Vista (barf) introduced a whole new generation of group policy and power management features that made things much easier to manage. Vista was garbage but Windows 7 in my opinion the best OS and by far the best software release Microsoft has ever done. Its the only time ever, that a Windows product worked perfectly out of the box.. XP mode was cool but is almost completely unnecessary now that software has had 7 years to refresh to Vista/7 level of compatibility. Windows 8 was generally "OK". Its still not a good candidate for enterprise deployment but for the consumer it didn't have any major release flaws other than most people didn't like the interface. Windows 8.1 is actually much and noticeably better, I am building a deployment system for it right now. If you have to walk into a retail chain and buy a PC just grab one with 8.1 and you are in for a bit of visual shock but its a good OS you will get used to. If you want to get a Windows 7 machine (only minor downsides) you can purchase a business class machine with Windows 8 and exercise your Windows 7 downgrade rights. If you haven't noticed I do this professionally

I saw a set on either one of the Z performance catalogs or jeggs or something. The only set i have ever seen for the Z was something like $1,100 dollars so at that price point i had zero interest In general underdrive kits are pretty awesome. The idea is that through "gearing" you can spin certain accessories at lower speeds than others, saving that energy for the motor. The effect is extra dramatic because lowing the load on essentially the crank is compounded throughout the engine, the same reason you want a lightweight flywheel. On this motor though you are really only pushing two "accessories" which are the water pump and alternator. As-is the alternator barely makes enough energy and the water pump only produces minor drag. Ultimately on a stock-ish motor I don't think you would see much gain in an underdrive system. I put a set of underdrive pulleys on a late model V8 with AC and a bajillion amp alternator and saw a noticeable improvement, but I don't think that would be the case here.

Welcome to Rebello Racing

I think that if the gauges were backlit, instead of how they are lit now (reflection) they would look great. I also experimented with an electroluminescent panel (think timex indiglow) wrapped around the inner wall of the gauges. It actually looked ok because the green color was really close to the stock filtered green look, but they weren't great and would require building an AC transformer to run them. Dont take my experience as a reason to give up though. If you think you can make it better go for it. My conclusion was that the datsun interior is one of those cases where a light bulb just works better. I do have solid state flashers for my LED turnsignal upgrade though

Rebello told me last week that they bought a whole pallet of heads, and they do the porting and polishing in house. If you buy one tell them to give me a deal on porting and polishing the N42 they are using on my new motor.

I experimented in depth with changing the gauge lights. Ill keep it short: Light is complicated and we have old gauges that are actually lit by reflecting light around the gauge walls to the front of the unit. Because of this lighting by reflection, no LED's look right in there. If you had back lit gauges they would look great. Outside of the gauges LED's are generally awesome. If you replace your flashers with digital units you can swap out your side marker/blinkers as well as your brakes (no modification needed for the brakes). LED's generally aren't as bright as regular bulbs so you might be disappointed in that overhead light. If you used it as part of a LED courtesy light project it would be a good fit but alone its going to be a massive drop in lighting. A "lumen" is a measurement of actual light and is the only real way to compare different types of light sources. My google-foo indicates that the stock 10w bulb generates around 200 lumens of light, the LED makes 12. Heres a watts to lumen calculator: Watts to lumens (lm) conversion calculator

Paint is pricey and if you're talking to a quality shop than 5k for a paint job is fairly standard. I worked in an auto body shop over a summer in college and I can tell you a proper paint job is extremely labor intensive so you really get what you pay for.

Lotus+maserati+ferrari+jaguar+factory5=obscurity

I think Oiluj nailed it but here's my 2 cents: The early 260 and 240 Z's are pretty close, and externally are indistinguishable except by a Z enthusiast. Internally the 260 has a better electrical system and a refined HVAC system, personally I think the early 260 has a more refined dash/center console. The purists however only want a 240z and it will always demand a higher price. As a 260z owner though i can tell you that a small collection of parts are extremely hard to come by since the early model was only made for 9 months, specifically some of the interior parts. I paid I think 2200 for a early 260 in "non-op" condition with a straight body that ran like a champ after 80 bucks in kragen parts so the shop might be sticking it to you on the trade. In that situation I would offer 1500 for the blown 260 and pay 2k or less and throw "stock restoration" out the window in favor of "restomod"

I have done 2 combo switches. Both of them were completely "refurbished" by cleaning the hell out of them, applying dielectric grease and bending the contacts back together. This was on a 260 model so i cant speak specifically for the 240 switch (i'm not even sure if its different) but no actual parts needed replacing. I had to drop my steering column to get the dash out, but it was pretty uneventful. If its stuck you probably missed a bolt. Some of them are hard to access if you still have a windshield in place. The bolts on the far right and far left side need to be lifted out of position, they are kind of placeholders for reinstalling the dash. Not mentioned in the instructions are the heat/ac ducting tubes. Mine were a fabric type material that disintegrated in my hands, i replaced them with later plastic style 280 series tubes from a junkyard. Replace all of your dash lights, its been 40 years and if they aren't dead yet you don't want to pull the dash again to change them later. Dont bother with LED's. Its a whole separate threads worth of information but take the short version and buy regular light bulbs.

Heres the point of view from someone in CA: I'm a former muscle car (specifically Mustang) guy and I have been reading Hot Rod magazine since I was about 12 years old. At least in my opinion the Datsun Z is one of the best hot rod options considering the following: You want a car that handles It must be pre-smog (1975 or earlier) "Light is Might" as our friends at lotus like to say Room in the engine bay is a massive + It never hurts to look good If you take those things into account the only real American option is a Corvette, or maybe a Corvair. Corvettes are crazy expensive at every aspect and there are a ton of them while Corvairs are weird rear-engine death traps without enough following to find parts easily (not to mention super ugly). Everything else is massive, heavy and was never designed to be balanced and handle around a corner. You can see why the Datsun is the clear choice Personally I would not have swapped the motor but they bought that car with an "undesirable" engine swap so frankly it was probably destined for a junk yard anyway. I actually applaud Hot Rod magazine for realizing what other failing magazines have failed to understand: They are content producers and the medium which they deliver their content is changing. While other magazines are reducing content and increasing ads in a downward spiral to bankruptcy Hot Rod has double downed on creating quality content and embraced the same delivery method that is killing their print magazine (the internet). This episode might be offensive to purists but if they had done the same thing to a corvette people would be flaming them in another forum. Exhibit: Corvette Hack Track Test - Hot Rod Magazine . The concept and entertainment value is whats important here. Like Carl said, Hot Rodding is about taking what you have or what you can find cheap and making it awesome. I guess its distinctly different from the car restoration purity

Like timsz said label everything and pull the dash out. If this is the first time the dash has been removed you should take your time and do everything correct. repair bad wiring, check your heater core for leaks, replace your firewall insulation etc. Dash removal isnt necessarily difficult but it can be time consuming so make it your goal to only do it once.

I converted to a side post Optima red battery yesterday. new battery cables were required. By chance i also received my new inspection light lens from eurodat and installed that too. The install looks much more clean but i want a new metal battery tray installed when the motor is pulled out.

. lets put it this way, i have Some money but I'm certainly not made of it. If the choice between parts is a $70 carter that we know works but might make noise, and a $129 pump thats perfect i'd spring for the perfect pump. The $300 mallory is too rich I did look into a RX7 pump, I found the main difference is that its a different type of pump . Brand new replacements are around 80 bucks and carter even makes one, I think i might give it a try: https://www.rockauto.com/dbphp/x,catalog,26,partnum,P60504,d,CARTER_P60504.html Carter overview of pump types: Carter Fuel Delivery Products. Complete Fuel System Solutions for the Professional. Fuel pumps and accessories. Heres what I have on the list of things to buy: Valve cover gasket water pump gasket (new water pump last year) intake/exhaust gasket Motor mounts 240mm 280zx turbo clutch kit from LUK, #06-032 (rebello recommended LUK) Fuel pump Side post battery and related cables Stuff to do other than the obvious engine swap: strip engine bay paint repair rust found after stripping engine bay sandblast/paint crossmember repair/replace/improve battery tray paint engine bay make fuel system pretty

While I was working with a 260 with a different core, I have to agree with this. I ordered and received 4 different cores from 3 different companies and found them all rotted and rusty. Ultimately I took mine to a good radiator shop and got one that looked brand new, because they made it there.

Crossmember is a great idea, I cant exactly remove that while the motor is installed.

Thinking about clutches: The upper limit of theoretical power for this car is about 300hp, will a stock clutch system handle that or do I need something like a centerforce? Zboy: The tip on the return line is great, thanks for that. Zedyone: I checked out the mallory pump, thats a $300 unit. I have a 5 speed manual

The hood vents and mirrors contrast perfectly with that orange, I also love the wheels.

Condodger: I offered him cash! Dave didn't seem to care one way or the other which is weird considering transaction fees. 2% of $$$$ is $$ The car has a stainless system in it now thats in good shape. I do have a header thats getting put in there Dave mentioned that even with the new oils lacking zinc the motors hold up fine but that wasnt exactly a recommendation one way or the other. The Radiator is factory. When bringing the car back to life I flushed the radiator myself then painted all of the non-grill area. It passed pressure tests and keeps my poorly running motor cool now. Radiator upgrade is part of my AC conversion so its definitely on the list. I am considering changing out the fuel pump with one of those carter rotary pumps, then eliminating the pump in the engine compartment. With that would come some stainless braided fuel hoses and maybe some kind of fancy fuel rail.

wow you guys are junkies for engine porn The motor i went with is the Rebello "Standard" build. I made it clear that I want drive ability and reliability over performance. Frankly I was happy with a 200hp motor and when Dave said his entry system was 240hp out of the box, and 300 with some custom head work and triples I was pretty stoked. From Dave: Longer 240 rods ARP rod bolts Crank stroked from 79 to 80mm 89mm Nissan KA24E pistons 63DI cam kit turbo oil pump clivitte rod bearings SU reconditioning and modification After restoring a car and a few motorcycles already I have become a big fan of what I like to call a "rolling project" The goal is to keep the vehicle operational as much as possible to keep from losing interest or parts. I accomplish this by only taking apart one system at a time, focusing on it, and putting it back together as quickly (and correctly) as possible to prevent losing parts or forgetting things. It results in some duplicate work: The brakes for example. I completely refurbished the stock brake system despite the fact that I want to upgrade it. On the plus side ill start that upgrade with zero frozen bolts and a known working system, minimizing potential problems when the upgrades come time. It also allows me to spread the cost of the car's projects over an infinite time span since I rarely "need" expensive components, and I never need a huge pile of expensive components. I rescued this car from its certain doom less than 2 years and I have been driving it for over a year. The initial restoration of stock functionality only cost me a few hundred bucks and I got to enjoy the car while I upgraded one system at a time.

Perhaps, but not today. Lets get this thing driving first