MikeW

Thanks for the explanation. I was aware of icing in aircraft engines but never considered that possibility in cars that weren't in extremely cold environments. After researching it a bit online I learned that it doesn't even need to be cold outside to cause icing. With humid air the venturi effect inside the carburetor lowers pressure enough that it's possible to freeze the humidity in the air and cause it to build up on the butterfly valve.

I've never understood the hose from the manifold to the air cleaner for winter use. If the engine is completely cold it doesn't seem like it would help one bit when starting the car. If the engine has been turned off for a short enough time that it's still warm it should crank back up instantly. For performance cold air is better than warm so it doesn't seem like you'd want to drive around with hot air coming from the manifold once the engine is hot anyway. I seem to recall making this statement in the past and someone explained it to me but I've already forgotten the answer. Regarding the the power loss when the engine is cold it could be choke related. While I can't offer any advice with the flap tops I have to assume that the choke principle is the same when cold starting the engine. Especially in cold weather it's often necessary to leave the choke on until the engine has reached operating temperature.

The reason I asked is that it's possible that it's a gauge issue or a sending unit problem. I'd be inclined to take off the radiator cap and measure the temperature directly. The gurgling sound could be air in the cooling system.

I'd think that if the gasket was damaged you'd see an even lower pressure and that it would continue to leak down since the adjacent cylinder would have an open exhaust or intake valve. Let's back up to the overheating problem ... how do you know it's overheating? Is steam coming out or is the temperature gauge pegged to the right?

I ordered tickets a few years ago and hadn't received them for several weeks. I contacted Diane Simpson who indicated that my tickets had already been mailed. A few days later I got this email from her: You are not going to believe this. I have been out of town for a few days and went in to the office this morning and there was your envelope. It didn't have postage on it!! I promise I am not a complete airhead!! I guess I was doing so many at one time that two must have gotten stuck together. I will have these to the post office first thing in the morning. For being so patient, why don't you come by registration and I'll give you a free touring pass for either Saturday or Sunday. Thanks, Diane Bottom line - they were extremely responsive and helpful so I wouldn't worry one bit that the tickets haven't arrived yet. If there was any kind of mix-up it will get straightened out.

Welcome. That's certainly a rare car in the US; I don't know how many were made worldwide. I do know that in the US the 1979 280ZX was the model with the highest production number of any Z car so it's likely that the numbers were high worldwide. I believe that here in the US the fact that it's a 2+2 potentially lowers the appeal. In other markets the 2+2 might have been more popular or even the only option - I don't recall. The value of anything is what someone's willing to pay for it. Since the car is so unique in the US it's going to be hard to find a comparable sale to help judge what someone would be willing to pay. Of course, something being rare potentially increases the perceived value to some people. The condition and especially the low mileage (kilometerage??) also increases value. Finally the fact that this car has a family history quite likely means that it's worth even more to you.

The mirror can seem like you're going to break it snapping it back into place. I recall using a pair of channel lock pliers to squeeze the metal spring assembly at the base of the mirror to make it not such a tight fit before thumping the mounting plate as mentioned above.

To me this has always been a community effort; I merely started the project and it grew from there. I'm truly sorry that damage has been done to the data after so many individuals worked hard to enter and improve the data and in many cases re-enter the data. I'm not the one who decided to use an actual cell color in the paint code cell; someone else must have thought of that and implemented it. Extra columns and even entire sheets were added by others (like spare engines). I'm happy to see that others still find the concept valuable and are trying to improve it even more. If deleting all bad data or marking it as such will improve things then I'm all for it. One option would be to simply rename the current 240Z sheet to "bad data" and create a new sheet with only good data. A number of people wrote lengthy comments and it might be nice if they could copy and paste data as needed from the bad sheet. At one point I had a message saying basically "don't bother trying to order the data, I will do that periodically" which was intended to help prevent accidental damage. Someone must have removed that message. Perhaps something like that should be put back in place. Another possibility that I haven't explored is the macro capability. It would be awesome if it were possible to build an input form that users fill out with just their data and press submit which in turn automatically adds the row in the proper location. It might even be possible for the spreadsheet itself to be locked and only the macro could add new data. Since you're currently demonstrating inclination to help clean things up you certainly have my permission to do whatever you feel is necessary.

I'm fairly sure the answer is no. The retracting lap belt was added for the 1972 model year. The retracting mechanism itself is installed in a pocket that was added to the floor behind the seats which has two threaded bolt holes per side. My 9/71 car came with the pockets but without the retracting belts themselves since it was a transition time of the year. There was a factory rubber plug on each side in the unused bolt hole. I was able to add retracting belts later. I could be completely wrong about this if the 280Z design was changed back to no pocket and only one hole per side. Didn't the 280Z also have retracting shoulder belts?

I agree that it would be easy to put together a web page for this so that people could still enter their own data without waiting for someone else to get around to publishing it. The problem is where to host it. The online spreadsheet I used is free. Once again, ideally it would be hosted on this site but I've suggested that in the past. If it was hosted elsewhere there would be a cost associated with the domain name and server.

I certainly apologize for the damage done (presumably unintentionally). I created the spreadsheet in the first place due to the difficultly of getting my car added to that other list. I'd heard the same from others. It seemed like letting everyone handle their own data would keep the work load off of a single individual. I had hoped to go back and manually fix the data based on past revisions but unfortunately even the oldest revision is broken. I should have been downloading it regularly. I agree that it's even worse than before since someone has sorted all of the columns. The data is all there but not matched up. At this point it seems like there are two options: 1) get everyone to fix their data and come up with a way to prevent damage or, 2) give up on it completely. I'm open to suggestions. As I've said before ideally this data would be hosted on this site in a proper database. It would even better if it was part of your profile where you could add one or more cars with all of the appropriate data and then have a master view that's read-only for all cars.

"(DO YOUR research!!!)" because I certainly didn't do mine

Mine finally arrived safely today. I was starting to wonder since others on the east coast got theirs last week. Thanks for the hard work. This will give be some incentive to dust the car off and drive it.

I understand enough about braking and hydraulics to be dangerous so I apologize in advance is this is a dumb question. Is there a standard distance between the brake pad and the rotor? Presumably you'd want them as close as possible without actually touching all the time so that the pad would move a very short distance. I understand the leverage increase obtained by increasing the pedal arm ratio as discussed above but changing the master cylinder piston diameter or caliper piston diameters would have a similar effect on pedal effort required versus braking power.

As I recall the Jasper facility that does import engines is somewhere near you in the northwest, not at the main site in Indiana.

When I get the time I'm planning on going back through old revisions and try to straighten it out. I originally used a different online spreadsheet that required me to grant access on an individual basis which seemed like too much work for me and the people entering data since they're have to ask for permission to even get started.

I'll look for an original panel as well. I think some of mine were cracked so I replaced them.

When I bought my car in 1985 the interior was all black and I didn't know that wasn't original. Later I discovered that my car was originally #113 green with the butterscotch panels that had been dyed black. The backs of the panels are still butterscotch but I had good success removing the bulk of the black dye with acetone and then used SEM to change the color once again to my current medium gray. It could be that there just isn't a SEM color close enough to the original. To my eye 15173 CAMEL is the closest: http://www.msitrt.com/SEMchart.htm

From the web page: Rebuilding consists of New: Throttle shafts & bushings, Throttle discs, nozzels are rebuilt with new jet tubes, upgraded nozzel to float bowl fuel hoses with upgraded hose clamps, meetering needles, floats, float valves & pivot pins, air piston return springs & all seals & gaskets. That doesn't appear to be shown on the site.

Ok, thanks for your effort. It's possible that Robert just doesn't have the experience that Henry had regarding the Mitty (Henry races every year). I was there last year only one day but didn't bring my 240Z because of the rain forecast. I plan to this year if the weather is good.

Every year the GA Z club has the same spot just infield of turn 11 - on the right after crossing the bridge. Are you doing this in an official position? There's always been way more than 15 cars and a much bigger tent than 10x10. Here are some shots from the past: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=20173 Note the size of the tent here: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=20168

That's why I was wondering. On the other hand, I polished mine up fairly well and will be sending them off to them at some point.

ZTherapy?

I didn't see your earlier post until now. That's really cool - I'm looking forward to being there.

Is this for some contest where the answer is already known? If not it may simply be possible that no drivers exist that fit the criteria. If only Mario Andretti had won a desert course you'd have a clear winner. From wikipedia "He was also one of only three drivers to win races on road courses, paved ovals, and dirt tracks in one season, a feat that he accomplished four times"