Racer X

The rubber blocks act as insulators between the fuel tank and the body structure. Be sure to place them where they were originally. The stock oil pressure sending unit isn’t very accurate. Using a good quality mechanical gauge will give a better reading of oil pressure. At idle, an engine just started with cold oil will have higher oil pressure than a hot engine. The rule of thumb for oil pressure is 10 psi for every 1,000 rpm of engine speed. If a hot engine doesn’t have 10 psi at idle, the cause should be investigated.

Woah, Cliff! Ease up there. Don't want to wear it out all at once. 😂

I’m always skeptical of cars from areas that salt the roads heavily in the winter. Rust is enough of a problem with Z cars and adding the de-icer makes things worse.

You should be able to look through the opening the sending unit goes in. Use an inspection mirror and a flashlight.

Yes, adding an additional filter upstream of the fuel pump would be a good idea. Can you see inside well enough to see if your tank has the screen like the one ETI4K has?

In addition to Clint's reply, ETI4K posted his: In the fuel injected Zs the tanks had screens to reduce debris from getting pumped to the injectors. The holes in the injectors that the fuel sprays from are very small, and clog easily. Clean fuel is very important.

Actually I think evap is a misnomer. The fuel tank has a very large inlet opening, and isn't thoroughly baffled. My guess is that the engineers used it to catch any fuel that would slosh up during cornering, catch it, and then let it drain back into the tank. It appears to be a complex solution that other vehicles don't seem to require.

I just had another, closer look at the pictures. Besides the bodywork, I see he shows the rear brakes being converted to discs, then fully restored to OEM later. And while he has the hub apart he doesn't replace what look like original bearings. The engine is shown disassembled, but not machined. There are pictures of piston rings in a dirty cylinder, like one would do in a clean cylinder, after machine work is finished, to check end gaps. Similarly, the differential is shown opened, but not disassembled, cleaned, inspected, and reassembled with new bearings. Suspension and other bits look to have been cleaned, wire wheeled, and painted. Sure, better than nothing, but no substitute for media blasting. Clearly not a $45,000 car.

It should be OK. Every evap tank I have ever had out of a Z has been clean and shiny. Wouldn’t hurt to have a look at it, do you have the inner trim panel removed?

It has 28 terminal connections. Hmmmm…… Does a Z even have 28 circuits? Sheesh, with that much connectivity, you could control every circuit in a Z with one switch! 😅

Hagerty has been pestering me lately to increase the insured values of the Zs I have insured with them. I have the brown 72, and the red 71 (the race car) insured for $25,000 each. Hagerty is suggesting I go to $35,000 each.

225/45ZR15. They are close to the same overall diameter as the Hoosier tires I run on the race Z, and about the same width.

Are you asking me? 225-50 or 55, I think. 15x8 inch wheels. I’ll check when I get home. I run Hoosier Street TD, 225-55 bias ply on my race Z, on a 14x7 inch rim. Perfect fit.

I don’t have them mounted yet, but I picked up a set of BF Goodrich tires recently for one of my Z cars. I also picked up a set of Konig Rewind wheels. I’m thinking it will be a perfect combination for my Z.

I saw that too. Easy way to bend valves. I made a stand for L series cylinder heads. A simple affair, bolts to each end of the head and allows for the head to be positioned for chamber and port work, then assembly and initial valve adjustment.

Yes, that is what he is talking about . They are there to cushion the door from hitting the jamb. And the Z currently at auction has one on the driver’s side, but the passenger side one is missing. Certainly a small oversight on the part of the seller, something which would require little effort and expense, but may keep more serious bidders away.

Yep, the only way is to reach up from underneath to push the latch to the released position. It will be easiest from the passenger side, as the exhaust will be in the way on the driver's side. A long prying driver, like this should get you there.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday. Here is a little drawing I made around 1980, when I lived in a waterfront home on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. I hosted a party every year, charcoal grills cooking meat, lots of beer to drink, and fireworks. Lots of fireworks.

Telegram. The original text message.

I have seen it on torque converters, and driveshafts.

When I was still working as a journeyman mechanic at the local electric utility I held ASE Auto and Truck Master certification, and was a certified Mobile Fluid Power technician (hydraulic systems). Can’t say that I have ever seen additional weight added to a flywheel for balancing. I have seem where material was removed, by drilling.

An engine is an engine, cast iron, steel and aluminium. Doesn't matter if it was made in Japan, US, Europe, Mexico, Brazil, or China. The principles are the same. Sure, the rotating assembly can be balanced as a whole, or separately. But it is always better to balance those items I mentioned as a single unit. The damper is keyed to the crank, so no need to mark it for reassembly, the flywheel and clutch cover are not, so the must be marked for reassembly to the orientation they were in when the assembly was balanced. After the machining of the crank is done, the machinist I have used assembles the flywheel, clutch cover and damper to the crank, performs the balancing work, then disassembles it all. The piston and rod assemblies are balanced by bringing the weight of each assembly as close as is possible to eac of the others. It doesn't matter what language the manufacturer speaks, the materials and processes are the same.

Why not the flywheel? The flywheel, crank and damper are usually balanced together, and having the clutch cover with pressure plate balanced at that time is something that should be done. The pistons will need to be fitted to the bores. When you use, say, twenty thousanths oversize pistons, the piston is measured and the cylinder bored and honed to fit that piston. Each one is fitted and marked for the bore it was fitted to. Then the connecting rods are checked for squareness and that the pin and journal bore centerlines are parallel, the pistons fitted to the rods, then the assemblies are weighed, and if needed, material is removed until everything is within a tolerance (I forget right now how close is considered the same). This is all very important stuff, especially for an L series six cylinder, as the crankshaft is quite long, and vulnerable to torsional twisting fatigue under load. Are you looking for cast pistons? Forged? Billet? Also, keep in mind, engines usually only have enough cylinder wall thickness to go two steps overbore. You've alread taken one cut. It is fresh. It is starting to sound like sorting this out by taking another cut is going to cost more than having pistons made, to fit the overbore you have now. Search the innerwebs for custom made pistons. JE is one I know of, although I have not used their services.

My toolbox has a full compliment of SAE and metric wrenches and sockets, from very small (I think the smallest is 5.5mm) to very large (2 1/2”, and a 4 foot pipe wrench. All my hammers are sized in ounces or pounds. Most of my machinist tools are in fractional inches, but I do have a couple of calipers that read in inches and millimeters. All of my torque wrenches are in inch pounds or foot pounds, if I need to torque something in metric (kilograms centimeters squared),? I do the conversion. I have two sets of taps and dies, inches and metric. None of my screwdrivers are metric. But I do have several Oklahoma Micrometers (crescent wrenches) that are inches on one side and millimeters on the other. I’ve been working on my 1995 F150 Eddie Bauer the last few weeks. Very aggravating that some fasteners are metric, others SAE.

So in all of this there has been no mention of the rotating assembly, crank, rods, damper, flywheel. Are you not having the bearing journals checked, and machined as needed? Are you not having the rotating assembly balanced? All the fuss over cylinder boring and pistons is wasted if you aren't also having the other work done as well.