Racer X

There is only one hole in the center bearing cap. I welded a bolt that fits the thread in the cap, to a nut that fits the thread on one of my slide hammers. Doesn’t take much to lift the cap out of the journal.

Probably patterns.

The gear teeth look pretty good, nice wear pattern. Does look like a high mileage engine though, lots of varnish. I had one on a race engine shear the teeth clean off. Happened at Portland, going down the back stretch. Accelerating hard, just shifted into 4th gear at about 110, when it went. Flames shot out around the left and rear edges of the hood, and then nothing. I coasted into the paddock, almost to my pit location. When I pulled the hood off the air filters were blown apart and burned. I suspect the distributor spun a few more rotations and the gear train was turning the crankshaft, out of sync with the distributor, and the spark plugs ignited the incoming air/fuel mixture when the intake valves were opened, resulting in vigorous explosive fire coming out through the intake.

Mild steel. And a bit of brazing rod.

Haven’t heard the name Satch Carlson in a very long time. Used to read his column in Autoweek. Also enjoyed his accounts of the AlCan rally. He vanished from the scene rather suddenly. Seems he was accused of sexual impropriety involving a student of his.

Love the Rover setup. It would be an awesome swap into a Z. The carbs you have are different on the manifold side, longer runners. They must be from another manufacturer. Didn’t Jaguar use SUs?

Whining from a ring and pinion indicate the gear engagement isn’t correct. Did you see the wipe pattern after it was set?

Hmmmmm….looks like it was set up for a V type engine, I’d have to guess a V8. So there wasn’t a Rover or other British marquee that used something like this?

What if a resistor is placed inline with the bulb?

There used to be a guy who produced plug and play headlight kits that routed the main battery voltage to the headlights via a relay, improving the headlight performance. He also made an upgrade harness (again, plug and play) that replaced the red and yellow side markers with a double filament bulb and socket, giving side marker turn signal functionality.

I have ripped most of my CDs, and digitized several of my vinyl albums (I have a couple hundred), and keep a couple of backups. About 7,500 songs so far. I then put everything in iTunes on one of my laptops, then mirrored on (first, many years ago) an iPod 80 gig classic. Later I picked up an iPod 6, and copied everything to it. When I finally broke down and gave up my flip phone, it was an iPhone 6 (a little over two years ago, the last iPhone to have an earphone jack). Again, another copy of my iTunes library. I got an iPad last August for my birthday, so yet another duplicate of my music. The 80 gig iPod classic is docked in a 24 bit converter that is connected to my stereo system. The iPod 6 is currently in Eddie, connected via USB to the Alpine stereo. I sometimes take it out to the shop and connect it via USB to the Harman Kardon stereo I have out there. The iPhone 6 gets connected via USB to the stereo in Mrs. Racer’s Toyota Corolla, and the Alpine (also USB) in my Subaru Legacy goon. If I want to use it in the Ram I need to use the headphone jack and use a cassette adapter (poor option). The Ram stereo is an odd size, with few options for aftermarket upgrades, and in 2001 when it was new OEM stereo didn’t support addons. I also have an XM radio, with a lifetime subscription. I have a cradle in the Ram, the Legacy, Eddie, in the house on my stereo system, and in the shop connected to the Harman Kardon. So, when I’m not tuned in to racing (four TVs in the house, two in the shop), that os what I have going.

Ingenious Steve. Nice work.

Well, at least we can point you to the resources that will.

As mentioned, the ZX is a completely different animal, body wise. Nothing will interchange from the earlier series Z. Add to that most owners of the 280Z don’t care for the look of the 5mph crash bumpers on the 280Z and remove them, sometimes doing the conversion to the smaller, more aesthetically pleasing bumpers from the 240Z. Also mentioned is the offering from Skillard. The ZX does share similar parts, the rear axle half shafts and differential, transmission and engine, and wheels. The ZX versions are updated, and can be used, in some cases requiring a bit of fettling about. I used earlier 280Z halfshafts on my 79 280ZX, bolted right up. 280ZX rear calipers are swapped to earlier Z cars to convert the rear drums to disc brakes. I believe the clutch master and slave cylinders are the same too.

Looking at the race results and race entry sheets I recognize plenty of names, including the J. N. Nerheim listed at the entrant for this car. It used to be owned by another pair of guys, Doug Smith and Herman Whacker, who had two of these, painted identically, numbered 33 and 38. We ran Conference Production, E (not SCCA E production), on DOT radials, and also GT2, for extra track time. I also see that Bob Merrill is listed as the car owner in the Conference logbook. He also had a real GT2 Z, shown in this photo: [url=https://flic.kr/p/SBs2Y3][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/2881/33218995286_8dde01ec03_h.jpg[/img][/url][url=https://flic.kr/p/SBs2Y3]Bob Merrill[/url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/racers_albums/]Racer[/url], on Flickr (edit: I don’t know why this stupid forum software won’t let me insert images directly inline from my Flickr account. It sucks, as I can never slip them in where I want them, they always go at the bottom.) (The ugly green, blue and orange car in the background is my race Z before I owned it.) Another note, Mr. Nerheim used to race an old Austin Healy in Conference. He drove it to the track, pulling a small utility trailer with a set of race tires, jack and tools, swapped the tires, went racing, then swapped the tires on Sunday afternoon and drove it home. Except the time he wrecked it. Then it went home on a trailer.

Dennis Collins, friend of arse Monkey Richard Rollins.

You got lucky. I had a similar experience many years ago. I had a 65 Comet, 289, 3 speed. The choke was stuck on one cold winter morning. With the engine running, I removed the wingnut on the air cleaner, and lifted it up. I fumbled the nut and it fell into the carburetor throat. I could see it laying on the throttle plate. I shut the engine off and fetched some tweezers to retrieve the nut. When I was trying to grab the nut I bumped the throttle linkage, and the nut fell into the manifold. Like an idiot I tried to start the engine. It rolled over, the intake valve opened, the nut fell into the cylinder, and when the piston came up it stopped the engine from rotating. The next day I pulled one of the cylinder heads (luckily I guessed the correct one the first try), and there was the nut. New head gasket, new intake manifold gasket, and back in business!

I’ve actually cut up a few cars to avoid the paperwork hassle too. Still a bit of bother, as you can’t reduce an entire car to a pickup load and get the scrapyard to take it, so several trips, with a fender, door, a hood, then another with a few more bits, etc.

So sort of, on all points. My experience has simply been I have had vehicles that didn’t have titles, that I wanted a title for, or I had a vehicle without a title I wanted to scrap. The salvage yard wouldn’t take them without a title, or at least an affidavit of lost title. For the former, an affidavit is filled out and submitted at a vehicle license agency. A search is conducted using the VIN, and if it turns up no liens or registration records, a new title is issued. For the latter, an affidavit is filled out, and you call the sheriff. The sheriff comes by, inspects the vehicle, calls in the VIN (if it has one), and if it comes back clear, you get a document that allows the scrapyard to accept the car as scrap without concern about illegal activity.

Fat fingers/autocorrect. Should be “lost”. Sorry, eh?

I agree it is difficult to tell, the screen grab from the video is poor. But I see what looks like pins for the hatch, so that explains why no button is visible. The apparent width of the front end is an illusion from the camera angle. I’m still convinced it is a Z.

You can always apply for a lost title. Pretty easy process, and given the age of the car it likely won’t show up during the title search.

Looks like a Z to me.

If you wanted to try the screwdriver method, it wouldn't hurt to have a look at one, and share what you find. Again, I'd like a look at the rest of the valvetrain.

It isn't easy to see, but it looks like the wipe pattern is close to the edge. You don't want the cam lobe to wipe off of the pad, which is hardened steel, as is the tip that rides on the lash pad which sits on the valvestem. The rest of the follower is (I think) forged steel, but not hardened like the pads. It won't be happy wiping the cam lobe, and both will wear out very quickly. You've mentioned the PO has done some work to this engine. I know that to "cheat" the follower ratio and gain more lift, the geometry can be adjusted towards the pivot, effectively changing the ratio of how long the side that pushes the valve is to the length of the side that pivots. I'd also be interested in seeing the rest of the valvetrain, for all the valves and cam lobes. The ones you have shown so far don't look bad, but I wonder why they don't look shiny.