Dave WM

did you get a chance to check out the AC? just wondering if possible the R12 has not leaked out.

the market can decide on the future if politics don't get too involved. I see lots of issues with electric cars, besides how to make and distribute the power. batteries would need to be recycled to the extreme to avoid massive waste. Can the batteries be produced in volume (is there enough raw material). Sensible people know what works for them and can choose with their wallets. Mandating things assumes people are dumb and cant decide for themselves. Build a better mouse trap and it will sell. Personally I would not count on much in the way of investments, too hard to predict, try to be a diy person, if you can do more you need less. Even the old stand by of land is risky due to the politics of taxation. You cant get more stable than land (well unless you live on top of a volcano or fault line, like much of the west). Personally I would love to see electric cars powered by a APU adapted to burn any kind of fuel, that would be nice. A turbine sounding car that has great acceleration. for those that see personal transport as the cause of the destruction of the world, that's easy, drive less. the problem with predictions is the unknown changes can be completely out of left field. when I was young we never considered "social media" and a driving influence since it was not a part of our everyday lives and at best was maybe touch on in books that were only read by a few. we thought flying cars and travel to the moon would be in our personal daily lives, did not happen, not even close. I drive a 20 yr old chevy suburban, am I a polluter that should be banished for not being green? well given that I work from home (thankyou unforeseen in the past internet) I rarely drive any distance in it, and given that its old means no new cars and associated carbon emissions to make them) I would say I am greener than most that adhere to the religion of green. Its being sensical and what we used to call thrifty. Not everyone can work from home, but many can. Add to that a culture of diy and you can have huge planet saving reduction in carbon (given that is real) by people.

I have run 89 octane non ethanol from Wawa for years now. No pinging, no other issues to report. there is a place that sells higher octane (93) non ethanol (harris oil) that I have run just to see if there is an diff (none). They also sell race fuel 110 and 112, but that is leaded I think, use it for my dirt bike, Very expensive. I bought it mainly since I wanted something that I could buy and have sit for months, IIRC race fuel does not go bad for quite a long time if stored correctly.

check the function of the reverse light if you use a washer. On mine it spaced it out enough to not work. IIRC I used some brush on thread sealant on that one. Leaks can fool you, they often originate somewhere and then migrate to a low point. Lots of oil leaks can be traced back to failed seals in the trans striker rod. IF you pull the rubber boot up and feel around where the trans shifter stabs in (you can do this from under the car with out having to remove the center console) you may find a pool of lube. This is NOT normal, its suppose to be sealed. Anyway if that is the origination point of oil leaks, the only way to stop is to pull the transmission, pull the rear housing and replace a seal and an o ring. this is something that should be done next time you have the clutch replaced, while the trans is out. Also you should replace the rear main at the same time, another source of sneeky oil leaks.

you can def take off the front cover without removing the head. IF the head gasket is really mangled around that area, and if that is the cause for the leak, as ZH mentioned you could maybe fix form the outside, OR remove the front cover and see what can be done to the part of the head gasket that seals the front cover to the head. This would let you get some sealant to replace the damaged area. It would be a good while you are in there time to check the timing chain and guides for replacement esp the tight side guide. If its got deep gouges where the chain run, replace it before it breaks. There is both water and oil galleys inside the front cover to the engine block that needs to be water and oil tight. A good gasket and careful application of a sealer esp around those areas would be a good idea. loosen the oil pan and drop the front edge down about 1/8th inch min in addition to removing all the bolts (don't forget the two top ones that bolt the head to the cover). You will need to get the rad out, the damper, and IF you have AC maybe the AC mount (I did on the low mount compressor), and the fan to get access. Not a hard job but if you break a bolt then it could be a long day. Use proper technique on bolt removal if they seem stuck. I use heat/shock/tighten then loosen, what ever works for you. considering all the above, I would second ZH recommendation about trying an external fix, unless you KNOW the TC guide is an issue. Mine broke on a long drive so I am very focused on that one thing.

Nice to know folks really like these old cars. Personally I could never drive a car that expensive, heck I don't think I would drive something for a 1/4 this kind of money on the mean streets of central Florida. Its crazy time around here everyday.

make sure your volume and tuning controls are on the sides you want to match the face plate you have.

I love this thing OTC Drilling Guide Systems 6982DGS it keys off an existing good hole on the same plane as the one you are working on. use is AFTER you figure out how to get the extractor out. Agree never had luck with extractors, maybe its the cheap ones I have used in the past. I also popped for an induction heater the heat bolts 1st. This all cost a lot of $$$ but the saving in aggravation is worth it. watch out for water pump bolts as well, same thing.

stunning!

maybe its been covered already, but does the car have a cat? if not just adding one maybe a simple solution. If it has an old one, perhaps it needs to be replaced? I don't know how you would test it for effectiveness, only if its clogged or not.

the chimney is sealed off by the old AC air box (there is a door that opens to the cabin or the chimney), so you lost that when you removed it. Now you just have a big gapping hole, so yes you have to fabricate something to close that or you will have a massive constant inrush of air from the cowl. I would just get a plate and use some silicon to seal it from the bottom, rather than welding up around the cowl and risking a leak. If the chimney is in good condition and the factory seam seal is in good condition you only have to worry about air coming in. If you start welding up around there you would likely damage the seam seal so you would have to really dig into the whole setup to make sure its water tight. You should look very closely around the chimney now that its all exposed to asses what needs to be done while the dash is out.

that would be fun to play with. hook up to a continuity test, then inside a sealed camber, pull a vacuum and listen. See how deep you have to go to activate, then I presume you could compare that to a air density chart to confirm what altitude triggers it. I assume there are other variables (temp, humid). still just checking to see if it works would be fun.

one of my plans was to hook a scope to the injector and observe the duty cycle, see what sensor effect actually look like. This is one of the test I wanted after my failed attempt at getting to the top of pikes peak. Been busy with other stuff so have not gotten around to this test. I will try to see if I can find out the effect of the alt switch this weekend, I don't think my current harness is set up for it so I eill have to see if I can get work around to get wires to the correct ecu pins and try it out.

trying to lean out the mix to lower CO, the alt switch may be the ticket as a work around. If its working you may notice a higher rpm due to leaner mix at idle.

IIRC there are pins on the ECU, your wire harness may not be have matching pins so you would need to figure out a work around for that. IIRC its a simple on off switch that connect the pins that activates it. You should be able to find it in the wire diagrams for the harness.

see if you can get past the Bermuda triangle of pikes peak. You may want to remove the air filter. I would have tried that but with so many other cars on the road I did not want to try it again. Its not a big deal to turn around (could have just backed down if the engine was completely dead) but I did not want to create another traffic jam.

it was nerve wracking for sure. I am sure the other cars must have thought I was nutz.

nope, I plan to see if I can add the high alt option and will manually trigger it while watching the color tune plug. I presume it leans it.

its pretty complicated to get the various duct work to make that happen without purpose built air box, the VA is a generic unit design to just take in cabin air and heat or cool it. trying to plumb from the chimney to the intake would require more custom duct work, a way to operate the blend door, all outside of the VA control design.

you could hook the rheostat in P with the coolant temp sensor vs series. that would allow you to make the resistance lower (could even just disconnect the sensor completely that way, and just use the rheostat like a choke lever. the issue is I think below a certain resistance the ecu does not lean out any more. that is a guess based on the idea that it ignores the input from the sensor once its over 140f. If you decide to hook up in parallel you would want a higher value since leaving the sensor in circuit will cause a lower resistance. something like a 10k would be so high that maxed out it would not reduce the resistance too much for normal operation. It would make the circuit some what more critical in how the range of the pot would work. Prob best bet would be just hook up the rheostat of about 3k-5kin place of the sensor and use it like a manual choke. that would allow you to manually mimic the operation of the sensor. A fun example is using a pot like this and a color tune plug so you can actually see the effect. I did something like this on my spare engine that is mounted to a test stand.

just for grins, remove the fuel return line for the metal hard line that goes to the tank, and just have it dump into a container. then to a engine off pump on test (solenoid disconnect, ign key to start) get a reading see if you still have 40psi. want to make sure you don't have a restriction in that return line to the tank.

agreed that is the best starting point get a good static pressure.

think that works the other way, higher (more) vacuum lower FP, maybe a bit more ign advance for more complete combustion, (and more vacuum for that mater). I would like to see the baseline vacuum, tweek the dist a few degrees more advance. the 40/32 sounds like he is about normal vac though.

if everything else is sorted you maybe able to lean out the idle air bypass on the AFM to get a lower CO emission, if that is where its failing. You would need to remove the plastic plug on the AFM CCW the screw (its prob stuck) to bypass more air AT IDLE 800rpm. I would not do this unless you have a way to test the CO while adjust to see if it actually helps. Once the car is fully warmed up the temp sensor in the t stat should not be enriching iirc it stops at about 140f. Going to be tough with out a way to monitor what is going on while making tweeks.

My main beef with the aftermarket types like this that do not use the stock blower setup, is the lack of a vent. Main reason why I stayed with OE, but others say you do not need a functional vent, could just roll down windows. I am not convinced but anyway if you are going this approach, then completely useless to fab up a tunnel just to block it off. Personally I don't get the appeal of the after market types. The OE unit works well, is VERY simple and has little to go wrong and is well... OE. The biggest deficit was the expansion valve NLA status. there are brand new evaps that are setup for commonly available expansion valves. they are a bit pricey at about 300$ but given the engineering required to fit in an aftermarket, seems like that is a good deal. get a modern compressor if you must, and a PF condenser, convert to R134 and you have a thoroughly modern system setup that has fully functional controls including the ability to vent in air for those that have more moderate temps and don't like the sound if wind from open windows. I am also thinking a little bit down stream here, but if I ever sell my z, I suspect originality will be king like it is in the 240 segment. OH SHUCKs, I just saw the 240z is what we are talking about, ok I retract all the above unless you are talking a 280z, the 240z AC was always lousy. Just another reason why I prefer the 280z over the 240z. I don't race, I do live in high humid and temps so the 280z superior stock AC makes me prefer them over the OE 240z lousy dealer added AC.