Wade Nelson

I worked in a shop which did a fair amount of muffler work. In general one can expect ALL exhaust studs / bolts to strip or break when you try to remove them. They've seen too much heat, too much corrosion, too much road grime and salt. You're very unlikely to get them to unthread with a socket wrench. All you'll do is frustrate yourself Spray 'em with PB blaster or similar and wait thirty minutes... Or you can torch 'em, or you can spray freeze 'em, ... Working in a shop we'd use an 1/2" impact wrench which will either forcibly unthread them or break the stud off. You may need a wobble, but be sure an use an IMPACT wobble and not one designed for a hand wrench. I STRONGLY suggest you spend your time drilling out the remains of the stud and replacing it with a bolt and nut instead of wasting 2-3 hours wishing and hoping an exhaust bolt, ANY exhaust bolt will magically unthread without stripping or breaking.

My suggestion is that you IMMEDIATELY put a fire extinguisher (or two) and kitchen mitt / oven glove in the trunk. The fuel rails on these beasts have a bad habit of cracking and spewing raw fuel all over the top of a hot engine. You need the oven mitt to open a hood with a roaring fire beneath it without burning your hand. Practice once or twice opening it with the mitt on, and if it ever actually happens, LOOK AWAY as you open it so you don't lose your eyebrows. I've had three friends lose V12 Jags to engine fires, all the exact same cause. I also "offered" to put one Jag Flambeau on the side of the I-17 freeway out but a quick discussion with the owner revealed he'd prefer to collect insurance on it so we let it burn. You NEVER, EVER forget that smell!

I finally did it! I pulled the trigger on a 1997 Porsche Boxster with only 45K original miles! They hardly come any cleaner than this. Yes, I know the "early ones" are a lot more problematic than the later ones, but this is the one I could afford! I'll be giving a driving report ASAP!

Wow, wish I'd known about using Flex-Seal a week ago when I had the windshield out for replacement!

Hey Steve I want the hood off that silver one! Where's it located?

How about an 07 or 08 Porsche Boxster. And since you liked the MR-2, you might REALLY like the Honda CRZ even though it's a front-driver.

I've never seen a more worthless thread than this one. It only takes 3 things to make an engine run. A combustible air/fuel mixture, compression, and correctly timed spark. Yet after over 128 posts it has STILL not been determined which of these three items is lacking resulting in this motor not running properly below 4K. Someone needs to get back to basics.

I worked for Motorola.

I helped program the 6805 MCU to monitor load (vacuum sensor) and rpm and do a table lookup from a 2d map as to the "correct" pulse width. From there we added acceleration enrichment, crank enrichment (similar to choke), 30 seconds of hi idle on start-up, idle boost when Air Conditioning was commanded, and other "features" in software that mimic'd what the best carburetors & assorted folderal did. And that was just getting started --- no carburetor EVER did decel fuel cut-off for improved MPG's.... We once had acceleration enrichment and decel fuel cutoff programmed "too close" and the car bucked like a bronco as it threw you (and your foot) on and off the gas, first enriching (added power throws you back in the seat....foot comes off the pedal...back into decel cut-off, you get thrown forward, foot goes back on the pedal... we laughed all the way back to the garage in Tempe... 02 sensors, knock sensors, coolant temp sensors, idle air control, mass airflow meters were well in the future when we began driving the first D-EFI controlled Audi around the block under 6805 control... "Look Ma! No carburetor!"

FWIW I've used a hot glue gun to attach the foil bubble wrap to the insides of engine compartments, bottoms of hoods, etc.

Purple 280ZX in Bayfield Colorado. I drove this one awhile back when it was for sale out by the "Hogs are beautiful" ranch. Seemed to be lacking some power. I'd have bought it but that color...ugh! White 280Z? in the VI Grissom HS parking lot in Huntsville Alabama, see it roaring up and down Bailey Cove road now and then. I've seen a late (turbo/) white 280ZX in and around Durango, Colorado, once parked at Trimble Hot Springs? A blue / gray? 240 or 280 outside Publix grocery on Whitesburg Road, seems like it's an employees vehicle. Picture attached... Yours???

I swear this thing has something else go wrong BEFORE I even get the last thing fixed! It's POSSESSED by a demon -- despite the Holy Water I put in the radiator!

In a field outside of Corinth, Mississippi. Note the wooden gas cap. Who here will chip in to give this once fine machine a decent burial --- or the crushing she deserves?

I found out where I screwed up today. I smashed the wires to the #2 injector underneath the valve cover after checking the valve clearances. It made a nice ground causing that injector to squirt anytime the ignition was on. So it A) Wouldn't build fuel pressure, Consequently wouldn't start C) filled the cylinder / crankcase with fuel causing hydrolocking / very difficult cranking. I still may have one other injector occasionally sticking open. Need to put a stethoscope on it. Otherwise car is running fantastic.

Yeah, it was a real bear having to work with his ghost. We had spirits, mediums, Tarot readers, you name it trying to discern how Herr Bosch wanted the company that bears his name to implement fuel injection digitally. For instance, Madam Suarend INSISTED that exhaust gas temperature sensing and knock control form the primary feedback loop for Bosch's D-EFI. Whereas Senora Sweed said that wastegate control with octane sensing and the new, LAMBDA sensor should provide the primary feedback. Working with dead automotive engineers, it's not for lightweights. As for "How to improve" the L-Jetronic system, in what way would you like to improve it? Fuel economy? Power? Everything's a trade-off. Elsewhere in this thread there is a description of the resistors in the L-jetronic and what each one affects. If I wanted to "improve" the L-Jetronic system in one particular area, I might begin by altering the values of one of those resistors, OR, as this hack does, replace it with a potentiometer so I could vary it while driving. Of course I'd also want to ADD an 02 sensor or an Air-Fuel Ratio sensor to my exhaust stream so I could have a guage and get some feedback on what I was doing, short of putting it on a dyno or sticking a gas probe up the tailpipe. Did you even bother to read the article about Harley Davidson EFI that I posted? If you really want to "improve" the L-Jetronic ANALOG system you first step would be to COMPREHEND how more modern, digital EFI systems work -- and fall short --- and then see which of those lessons you might apply to the L-J via analog circuits rather than digital "hacks." Oh, and have a great day...

Had a new windshield installed today. The fire cracked and destroyed the old one. WOW, what a difference! I can actually see driving into the sun. The old one was about as pitted/sandblasted as a windshield could possibly be, even before the fire damage. Best $250 I've ever spend on this machine. Wish I'd done it the day I brought her home!

Even with air over hydraulic suspension and 6" of lift in the cubby I'll bet that thing's hell getting over speedbumps.

That reminds me --- need to tighten the line on my clutch slave cylinder as I seem to be leaking a bit of fluid...it's a relatively new slave so almost has to be the line.

A stick-shift Z-car left in neutral should tow just fine.

Or perhaps he's an electrical engineer with a long history of working on fuel injection systems (going back to Robert Bosch's ORIGINAL digital EFI based on the Motorola 6805 MCU...which he helped program) and you misread his original post.... really? REALLY!

Autozone has your condensor for $7 Ignition Condenser | 1972 Nissan/Datsun 240Z 6 Cylinders 2.4L 1BL 2 Carb | AutoZone.com

Go to the junkyard and get ANY condenser out of ANY old car's distributor, and chances are 95% it will work JUST FINE. What happened to your old one? Yes, they indeed ARE "basically all the same." The SIZE of the condensor, which is actually a capacitor, should roughly match the size of the coil (capacitance versus inductance) to prevent metal migrating from one contact point to the other. So if they're slightly mismatched you'll just wear out points slightly faster. Big whoop.

Really?

I'd like to point out that this is how a lot of the "go fast" boxes work. You know, you hear about guys "chipping" their trucks or motorcycles. The systems can work in one of several ways, but "sensor offset" is the leading mechanism for "fooling" the EFI system into running an engine richer or leaner. A lot of times guys install these, it briefly runs rich (more power), then the long-term adaption of the EFI system nulls it out and 30 days later they're back where you started --- provided you didn't melt your catalytic converter with all that extra fuel... Here's a great article if you'd like to learn more: Written about Harley Davidson EFI & such but the principles are the same Dr. Dyno explains 02 sensors and closed-loop systems