z boy mn

I haven't purchased this part from MSA, but I have bought a lot of parts from them, and so far they've all met or exceeded my expectations. Not sure this helps you or not, but I'd be comfortable with what they sell.

I have the issue that EuroDat mentions...when it's cold (which is often in MN), it's really hard to get it into gear. I was thinking of changing over to synthetic to see if that would be better. Once the car warms up, it's fine.

I just changed my rear diff from a 3.90 to a 4.11 LSD. The 3.90 was a little loose and clunked some, but it was a spare so I didn't care. I had the 4.11 rebuilt and put it in a few days ago. The new one has no clunk at all, and there is a whir that accompanies it...until about 55mph and then it howls like an opera singer. It stops at around 65. I know it's all super tight as it's new, but I'm wondering if it'll ever go away. Anyone else broken in a new diff before? I also seem to remember that the tranny had a whine in it at about the same speed in 5th gear, and I'm thinking maybe the tighter diff is making the tranny whine worse and that's what I'm hearing? I'm still breaking in the diff, and it gets pretty danged hot after just a few miles so I'm not going very far. My thinking is to take it for some more shorter rides and not use 5th to see if that changes anything. It also has the solid mount to the tranverse link...maybe some cushion in there would help, too?

I'll poke around today under the hood and see what I can do. Thanks for all your suggestions! Also, I didn't know there was sometimes called "side gapping," Dave, thanks for the heads up--I did do a search before I posted this and didn't find anything on indexing, but this sounds like the same principle. Has anyone else done this? Looks like a pretty heavy mod to a spark plug.... Also, I noticed at Summit, Jegs, etc., they sell indexing washers. I'm assuming if I use those I'll need to leave the original crush washer that came with the plug on the plug and add the indexing washer in front of that (i.e. closest to the engine). I saw a Youtube video yesterday that said to cut the crush washer off, but that sounded like a bad idea to me. Of course, my plugs have been in and out some 30 times this season (I keep notes), so I'm not sure they have any "crush" left in them. Oh, and Carl, thanks for the warning on the pop-up piston variety...luckily, mine only pop down! :-)

Thanks, John, and just to be sure...the intake one is the one to the right (as you're looking at the spark plug side of the engine).

Hello everyone, I've been tuning up my triple webers, and everything is about perfect. They're synched, the jets are right, they're all a nice even color, and it starts, runs, and drives well. So, now I'm wondering if it's worth indexing the plugs, too. And, as the valves are so closed together, where should the gap face? My assumption is that the gap should be pointed up so it's exposed to both the intake and exhaust valves, but would it be better if it were angled to the right (2:00) or left (10:00)? Curious!

Feels like it's just right. Carbs bottom out just before pedal does, but I like it that way. Still no road tests, but the snow didn't stick so that's something. I'm not sure how they could "over open" ...doesn't that just mean you'd jump to warp speed? ;-)

It's still not on the road (it's snowing right now) so I can't offer a real road test perspective, but from the garage the pedal feels great. Sorry the pictures aren't all that clear, but I think you can get the idea. (I also replaced those plastic bushings in the manifold to remove any slop there, too. They were hard to find, but seemed to have made a difference.)

Here's a couple photos of what I did. I can't road test it yet, but it works really smoothly. 10mm rod ends and threaded rod, plus an aluminum nut I made and welded to the valve cover. VERY smooth now, and no flexing / binding / bending. Yay!

Thanks for your input, everyone...I just put the shield in and used a little Permatex on the lowest corner and edge. If it rattles, I'll add more. I feel a lot better knowing the Permatex will hold up. Jeff, glad to hear the chunks didn't cause any damage on the way down! When I was chipping the goop off it seemed very brittle, so my guess is it would break up pretty easily if it went down another way, but I'm glad it's not in there anymore. Thanks again!

Hello Kurby, I do have some of the gasket maker and could use that. It's good to know it won't come off under the pressure/heat. Depending on the response here, I might try it out without sealing the shield for now and just see if oil comes out the top.

Hey Reverend, just an update on my end. I'm putting together the carb assembly I talked about and you tried, and I think I figured out a way to keep the bar from deflecting. I'm using another bracket that comes off the valve cover to negate the tendency of the rod to pull away from the motor. I'm using heim joints and some threaded rod. I'll have a photo when I put it all together. Good luck with your tune-up in the meantime!

I've been cleaning up a valve cover I got on ebay and after beadblasting and polishing I looked at the red/tan hard goop that seals up the shield for the breather at the top of the valve cover. A lot of it was crumbly, so I scraped it all off and cleaned everything up because I didn't want it flaking off and getting sucked into the engine. Then, I reinstalled the shield. I'm getting ready to install the valve cover and thinking maybe I should replace that red/tan goop with something? It appears it just seals the shield, so my first thought was I don't need it...it's not likely oil is going to go around the corner and out the breather, right? (I just have a filter on the breather anyway.) But...I'm still new at this and thought I'd throw it out to the experts. Do I need to put something in to seal the shield? And, what should I use (my first guess was RTV, but it doesn't seem tough enough)? Thanks in advance!

I had this happen to me, too, and I noticed it was only on hot days when the car had been sitting in the sun or the engine was warm from driving around town. I think the solonoid was getting overheated as I had clean connections and lots of juice. I swapped the starter out for a spare I had and haven't had the problem since!

I've never had overheating issues with my Z, but others here in MN have when it gets really hot and muggy, especially in Twin Cities traffic. What my PO did as a precaution was install an electric fan with a manual and temperature-controlled switch and took out the stock fan and clutch assembly completely. He also installed a 3-row aluminum radiator with a 180 degree thermostat. As I mentioned, I can drive the z on hot days, sit in traffic, run it in a parking lot, and it never goes above 190. Of course, we have 2 feet of snow on the ground still, so maybe it just so cold here in the winters it never really warms up!

Hi Reverend, I can't guarantee it works just yet, but I think it will. It sure looks a lot clearer without that extra piece, and everything feels really smooth. Of course, we still have 2 feet of snow on the ground, so I won't know for sure for another month...or two...when the roads clear. :-(

I installed the Eibach springs last winter and discovered the bump steer spacers had already been installed on the car by the PO--maybe because he increased the rim size. For what it's worth, I called MSA and asked if I needed to reinstall them and they said I did or the geometry would be all out of whack. Generally, I trust what they say, so I put them back on.

I just found a picture of the test bracket I made to make sure everything lined up smoothly and the carbs opened all the way. A simple fix. Since then, I made a custom rod that has a heim joint at one end (carb arm) and hooks to the pedal assembly on the other. Hope this helps! (P.S. No idea on the coolant leak...good luck with that!)

Hey Reverend, I want to chime in here as the photo a few posts back (#48) is from my engine bay...and I stripped it off the car this year as it was binding up. :-( What you see there is how I modified the firewall bracket to make a "repeater" of sorts, but there was so much slop that it never hooked up correctly and the rubber washer/o-ring in the stock firewall assembly didn't let it rotate smoothly, so it would stick. Plus, there was so much side tension that both the repeater on the firewall and the bar on the carbs would deflect a lot when you stepped on the gas. The car originally had the repeater assembly with a long rod that attached to a bracket on the closest carb cover, but that didn't work well either. My solution this year (untested yet as it's still COLD in MN) was to eliminate that middle piece, put a heim joint in one of the arms on the carb rod to account for the misalignment, and make new connecting rod that goes from the pedal all the way to the bar (it was about 11"). I did lots of figuring, and my mock-up worked great...but, no real-world testing yet. I do have some photos on my other computer I should be able to find if that would help. So, if this helps, don't do what I did (or maybe you could try it but do it better somehow). My next solution was to just switch to cable. Top Performance had a cable kit for about $100, I think.

I'm definitely new at diagnosing problems, but I listened to the video a few more times and it really sounds exactly like the sound I had last summer. The leak for me was right between the carb and the intake manifold...the sound came for the piston sucking in air on the intake stroke and had a very mechanical tenor to it...but it was just distinct puffs of air. I didn't have any smells anywhere...probably because it was on the intake side. I did notice that my idle dropped some, but that was probably because that cylinder was running a little lean. I looked for the video I made of my sound so I could post it and you could hear how similar the sounds are, but I must have deleted it. :-(

I'm not sure if this helps or not, but I had that exact noise (from what I heard on the video) last summer. I have antivibration mounts on my triple webers, and during a backfire through the carbs, one of the o-rings was blown partially out, creating an intake manifold leak in cylinder 4. It was that same chugging with each stroke of the motor. I listened and listened for days and when I had my head stuck in there I finally spotted the rubber o-ring. It sounded very mechanical at first, but once I replaced the o-ring it went away completely. So, my (very amateur) vote is for some kind of in-take or exhaust leak. Good luck!

I did the Carter fuel pump last summer and am happy with it. It supplies plenty of fuel for my triples and holds steady at around 3-5 PSI, so no need for a regulator (for me, anyway). It is on the loud side, even with the vibration mounts, but that just lets me know it's running. The only issue I had was getting recommendations on the return line. Most folks (including Top Performance) said it didn't need a return, but I kept hearing the pump dead head. I called the manufacturer and they were horrified (they said it needs fuel running through it to cool it), so I put in a return line. Bad sounds went away and it runs like a champ. I'm still not 100% sure if it needs one or not, but it seems happier this way. Also, I like your "rolling upgrades" option. I got my Z from someone who did everything at once, and 16 years later it wasn't up and running yet. In the end, we put it together together and he got to drive it 8 miles before I drove off with it. I need to go pay him a visit now that it's running well and let him scream around the block a few times! Good luck with the new motor, sounds like a fabulous way to celebrate spring!

Interesting results on the under-hood temps. It makes sense that almost all the heat will get sucked away when you're at speed. And, I suppose that when you're at a stop light, you don't need all the extra HP the colder air might make. ;-) I'm leaning toward trying to adjust the box I have now, but after seeing the one made out of a valve cover gasket, I'm thinking that would be cool. Even better might be to cut off the top and put in plexiglass. I wonder if I can find a valve cover somewhere! :-)

Thanks for the links...I love the look of those carbon fiber horns. But, I bet those are out of my budget...just like the Top End Performance box, which looks great. I am thinking maybe I can borrow the dimensions to adjust the squareness of my box...might increase the air available to my rear carb if I stick with what I have and tweak it some. Also, I know it's sheer vanity, but I'm not crazy about the "look" of the ITG filters...I'm sure they work well, but if I go with singles I think I'll stick with the KN kind. There's a lot of muck on the roads here in MN, especially in the spring, and it seems like they'd just absorb every bit of it like sponges. It's hard to imagine all the air they need is able to come through a 3" tube, but of course that's where it leaves, so maybe it's just fine in terms of breathing.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions...I love the idea of all this extra HP the cold air is generating, but I'm just not sure it's a reality. I've seen the math (see Engineering Explained: ) but...Right now, the air box is a real pain to work with, but at the same time it helps hold the heat shield under the carbs in place...my original plan was to build something like this: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/attachments/carburetors-s30/22848d1209041965-some-triple-weber-pics-car%2520shows%2520084%5B1%5D.jpg If I dump the air box, I'll have to come up with another heat shield...one that doesn't rattle. I also did some thinking about how the air gets into the airbox. The photo doesn't show it, but in the front there's a flexible hose that connects to a filter in front of the radiator, but gnoze points out, unless the airbox is shaped properly, it seems the air inside the box won't be equally distributed. Gnosez do you have any photos of your airbox? How did you figure out its dimensions? I'd be interested in it if you want to PM me. With individual filters, I also like the idea of flowing in fresh air...hmm...I'll think about that some more. Maybe some kind of funnel... As for individual filters, those little air horn filters look super cool, and they don't take any room...but I wonder if they filter well enough. Weber Redline Air Filter Assemblies Questions questions!