BoldUlysses

Stunning! There's no more beautiful engine (and yes, that includes our L2Xs).

Gorgeous E34! The M-pars and M-sport mirrors really set it off. Are you over on Bimmerforums? Your username looks vaguely familiar...

Does the M-Sport package always include a 6-speed? An E39 540i/6 is a dream car. There's a silver one with Style 32 wheels around town that I lust after.

Why not sell it? Most folks who drive E46 330s rave about them. Although the interior quality and especially cooling system quality do leave a lot to be desired. The earlier E36 is even worse in the interior quality department, if you can believe it. In my experience, a lot of Z drivers seem to admire the old 2002 in particular. Maybe a kind of grudging respect for a capable contemporary?

Attended my third monthly local Z club meet last Tuesday, and I was struck by how many of the guys either own or admire BMWs. I myself DD a '95 525i 5-speed and previously owned an '86 635CSi 5-speed: Just curious as to how many of us are BMW fans as well. What do you have / admire?

I love this picture of an L-jet bay: Makes me glad to have a 240Z with all the emissions stuff removed. Clean...pure...

Post it up! Even if we don't understand the words, we can gawk at the pretty pictures and plug a sentence or two into an online translator if we're really curious.

Thanks for the clarification, Carl. Learn something new every day! I like the Spook but really want an air dam better integrated with the wheel arches... The BRE piece just looks too tacked on for my tastes.

Thanks Julio. What does this mean? They are in good shape. Don't really want to polish them (I prefer the au naturel aluminum look) but I wonder how that will play with the chrome center caps, when I get them.

Not to be pedantic (but I am anyway ), but L-jet isn't technically electronic fuel injection (the "E" in EFI). It's analog, centered on a crude computer that meters fuel but leaves timing to mechanical and vacuum advance. Can't wait to see pics!

The Z went fuel injected primarily for emissions reasons. Compared to the simplicity of SUs, L-jet is complex and finicky. Guys convert back to carbs for ease of tuning and performance.

Depends on which carbs they are, because that will affect the availability of repair parts. For comparison, I just had my SU's totally refurbished by ZTherapy for close to $500.

A '75, you mean? They were fuel injected, not carb'd. It'd actually be easier to clean out the fuel system if it WERE carb'd. The L-jet has sensors, injectors, etc that gum up and fail; with a carbureted system, you can chase the fuel lines, replace the fuel pump, rebuild the carbs, clean out the tank and you should be good (which is what I'm doing to mine at the moment, which hasn't run in eight years...).

Jon, Yikes! That's really scary. My dad was my Z's original owner and we never wore the shoulder belts growing up. Actually have lots of memories of being ferried around behind the front seats when there was more than one passenger, legs down in the space between the seats and rear deck, laid out beneath the glass watching the trees go by overhead... We're lucky we never got pulled over when driving like that. Or got in a wreck. I'll probably insist on using the shoulder belts now that I have kids of my own who'll be going for Z rides. -M

Early Z owners: Do you wear your (non-retractable) shoulder belts religiously? Or just the lap belts?

Thank you sir. I suppose I could use it, but I don't really fancy my Z sounding like a Mack truck all the time... Will order a new fan clutch.

My '72 is missing an engine-driven cooling fan and clutch, and I scored one from another owner; however, the hub appears to be seized. Correct me if I'm wrong, but at ambient temperature, I should be able to turn the water pump pulley mounting flange by hand, yes? And there should be molasses-like resistance in the clutch itself?

Thanks Carl! Great to hear from you. I'm psyched about the tires, and I love the white lettering. Can't wait to drive it and see how they feel, but that's a little ways off... Understood about the molding. I just hate the way they clutter up the side of the car. A member of the local Z club (Triad Z Club) wants it, so it'll go to a good home. His '72 is orange and already has molding with white inserts—pretty crazy. But he says it came like that from the dealer, if not the factory.

I don't want to slam it, but there is more gap than I'd like... Maybe an inch lower, front and rear. With a full tank of gas and the engine bay buttoned up I'll have to see where it sits and go from there. Can't stand the rub strips on the side, either. When I dive into the bodywork those'll be the first to go. Ugh.

Got the new tires on yesterday. 225/60-14s on 14x7 slotted mags. With some Simple Green, several scrubbers and some elbow grease, the wheels cleaned up pretty well. The lug nuts are still nasty, but I'll just replace those outright. Also need center caps. Yeah, yeah, needs moar low, yadda yadda. There are no fluids in the engine bay at the moment. Or carbs. So some weight is off the front axle. Also want an air dam. Front of the car looks too light without it.

I was playing basketball in the driveway last night with my son, and my neighbor walked by with his two wiener dogs, and starting asking me about a "dachshund" that had showed up in my driveway. His dogs get loose from time to time and do "visit" when they do, so I was a little confused, and...then he enunciated and started asking me about my Datsun. Said he used to own a '78 280 and cried the day he sold it. It's amazing how many people have connections to these cars, whether individually, or through a spouse/S.O., friend or coworker. And remember them.

Will I be able to reuse them without having to scrape them off the manifold, spacers or carbs if I install them dry? There is coolant passing through... Yeah, yeah, I know; I'm a cheapskate.

They do look great! I can't take credit for that. I got a set of spacer gaskets too. Any recommendations about what to coat them with during installation so I can reuse them? Grease? Silicone?

Thanks Steve, Pam and Bruce! They look great! Clean as a whistle. They even retrofitted a knurled mixture adjust knob in place of the notched disc, at my request, after initially denying the request (understandably) saying they'd prefer to keep cores together. Big ups! Hoping the new throttle shafts perform better than the old (previously ZTherapy reman'ed) shafts. I have quite a list before I installed them and fire it up, so it'll be a while before we see them "in action." And I promise I won't touch the float height, no matter how sorely I am tempted.

My 240Z is a 7/72 build, apparently right on the edge of some changes like brake and clutch hydraulics and carbs. I'm ordering parts to get it running, and want to replace the clutch master and slave cylinders. When it was running, last time I replaced the clutch MC, I noticed the throw was shorter than the old one, and it didn't feel like the clutch was completely disengaging even when the pedal was all the way down. I think I got the wrong MC. My question is, can I just order the master and slave as a set for, say, a '73 Z, just to make sure they "match?"