zmanofwashingto

Greetings from Snohomish Washington. My name is Oliver Naugle, and I'm commonly referred to as the Z man or Z man of Washington. I'm new to this forum as of the last week of December 2002. Thanks to Enrique (escalon) for informing me about this site. I've been repairing and building cars since I was 15 years old, and even helped teach a year of high school auto shop in 1973. I have a long time love affair loaded with extreme passion for the z car. I bought my first one in 78 brand new. A black pearl edition, and still own it today. I now own about 60 or more of them in various stages of repair. My oldest one is #23. I've been repairing and restoring them since 78 when I started working at a dealership in Kirkland Wa. I got married to a beautiful woman in 92, and we're still married. Happily to I might add. It helped when I got her hooked on zcars too. She drives a 1980 zx coupe. Our only kid that lives with us is our always entertaining pomeranian, Misty. She likes z cars too. I take her to work with me every week day at Z Specialties, and she fits right in. I've made my life's work z cars, I even work on and drive them in my dreams, as if I don't get enough of them during the day. I can't help it, I've been addicted to z's for too long now, to even considering giving them up. It's easier to tell you about the vehicles I own that aren't z's, than list all the different years of z's that I own. 2 Datsun pickups, a 67 Jag E type, and a 57 Chev Sedan Delivery. I've owned the deli longer than I've been working on Z cars. I haven't been able to have much fun with z cars away from work for the last 7 or 8 years because I'm too busy trying to keep the business moving. As if I didn't have enough on my plate already, we bought a new shop with an acre and a half of commercial real estate that we're trying to develop and turn into the Z car headquarters for the greater Seattle area. It's a dream come true in the making. That also means not being able to spend any time going on local club events, rally's and meets too. I keep hoping that things will improve next year so I can get out in the real z world and ENJOY THE RIDE, like I want and need to do. Maybe part of this new year will be the turning of the tides. Anyhow, when I can find the time, and can pull myself away from z's, I still play my guitar and sing a little. (I use to be in a band years ago) I also like flyfishing in my small lake that I built at my house out in the country, and have my hands full maintaining our almost 4 acres of property. I'm gradually making it into a small park for our viewing, entertaining, and relaxing enjoyment. That is the only vacation that I seem to get, but it could be a lot worse. With all of this going on, and I still want to get back onto my project cars for myself. A couple of stock 70 240's, and 2 extremely modified 240's with lots of horsepower and custom bodies. They had to get moth balled due to lack of time and money. I'm sure lots of you can relate to that. Sorry about the long post, but like Enrique, I type fast, and sometimes have lots to say. Looking forward to getting to know you all better in the future, and even help some of you out. Keep on Z'in. Z man of Washington www.zspecialties.com

First of all, all of that STUFF is neccessary for you to pass underhood smog inspections. If you don't have to worry about such things, then by all means remove the smog systems. You should leave the pcv system operational though. It does in fact, keep the engine from building up more gasses in the crankcase, and that system will rob zero horsepower or efficiency. The AB valve system, the egr system, and the smog pump system all 3, do in fact rob some hp and some gas mileage, but it's not very much. Almost completely unnoticeable, but still every little bit helps. You can also remove the water flow through the carbs, and the smaller water line that runs through the intake manifold. It's the one that taps off of the center/top of the tube that runs behind the engine from side to side. Note that on that particular tube there are 3 outlets all total, and the one that goes to the carbs is a threaded in fitting, and you can use a regular pipe plug to fill that hole. Be sure to plug off the lines that go into the air cleaner from the systems that you remove. Keep on z'in. Z man of Washington www.zspecialties.com

Actually MSA sells body gaskets by Precision Mfg., which is the same company that we buy from. We have most of the gaskets in stock too. The factory Nissan inner hatch gasket sells for somewhere's in the neighborhood of 130.00. I haven't sold a factory hatch gasket in years, because the ones from Precision are just as good, and about half the price. FYI, this is my first post to this forum. Z man of Washington