Chino 240Z

What happen to the Classic Zcar Club Store? I can't seem to find it? I was interested in some of the cool mugs, shirts, and Z logo stuff. Is it here and I just don't see it? Thanks, Craig :classic:

That's on my to do list too! I have a steel braided hose hooked up for my Oil pressure gauge but my oil temp. sending unit is tied off to the side. I would like to add a "T" fitting so I can install both Press. & Temp. together. Is there a fitting that will fit both? I'm gona have to run it by my hose guy, (Bonaco in Upland, Ca.)he's probably got it on the shelf?

Well, I found "The Z Store" had the same air horns for a few dollars cheaper, and then they had the ITG Air cleaners and also the K&N Air Cleaners for SUs. In the past the ITG filter material fell apart on me. I have used K&N type units on a sandrail and it they did great. For now I'm leaning towards the K&N style, prices not bad and performed well on my other vehicles. Comments for a few more days before I buy? . . Thanks Craig.

While Z Therapy is building up some of his race modified SUs, I am looking for some new air horns and an air box to fit them. I found the TWM products (twminduction.com) and they look pretty good. But before I spend the money they want for them, are their others to compare? Don't need a filter system, just the the tubes & box. Thanks, Craig :classic:

I would agree with Rick about the cooler air. Getting cooler air from up front of the grill would be your best option and easily done too. If it's dryer vent hose it may easily be damaged or fall apart which the hose from Race Parts Wholesale works great. Here is an older picture of that idea I used in the past, since then I have changed it and added an HKS filter infront of it, but same idea of getting fresh cooler air from up front. Craig

We just ordered up a set of SUs from Z Therapy and they are back to using the needle & seat type of jets, which work just fine. heck they have been around for years and are still in use today. Anyways the supplier just couldn't get them to Z therapy for some time now, and hey, the show must go on with or with out. Oh well just have to keep a lookout for a set of grose jets to make the up grade in the future.

You guys are lucky it could have been more! A person I know caught someone getting into his car and so he beat the living day lights out of the bad guy and now he is the one in trouble with the law. Go-figure! Hey, grab your coil wire and pop it out when you go in at night and at least it won't start. Get a motion light for on top you house, garage, or parkway. Kill switches are cheap too. Good luck, and be careful. :ninja:

Did you say the engine was new to you and you just installed it? I have seen new headers get cherry red hot when they are first fired up. After they go through a couple heat cycles they don't seen to glow like that any more. Breaking in new headers seem scarey. I was standing next to a guys car while he broke in the headers and the heat burned the plastic clutch line and release the clutch and the car jumped foward with the throttle about 2500rpms and stalled at 15 ft. out! Lucky no one was infront of the car. That's on of my rules when someone has a hood up and firing it up, I always stand to the side, and also out of line of the fan, just incase the fan decides to let go and the blades take flight! Well hope the headers are cooled down some. You can have your headers coated at Jet Hot Coatings. They will coat them for a couple hundred, and they look nice too, rust and all! Headers in my Formula Firebird have been coated and you won't believe hot much cooler they run and how fast they cool off sooner so you can work near them faster. The stuff really works! Next time the Z headers are off they are goin in too!

Dip sticks are often traded or mixed up from a 240z to 260Z over their past 20 to30 years of life. The barrels at the end of the stick are the same diameter but the stick length may be a little longer on a stick from a 260. Either one will work fine. You should see the oil level between the 2 lines on the stick which will work fine. I think the oil chamber inside holds about 2cc to 3cc of 20SAE oil.

I agree with Carl. Decide on your upgrade goal first. I put some good quality shocks on a previous Z for street and it did me good, with out sacrificing a nice ride for my better half (Wife). But now we built a road race car and our goal was performance and went with 400lbs. coil springs & non-adjust. Tokico shocks up front and 350lbs. coil springs with adjustable Tokico shocks in the back. Added strut brace up front and welded gusits on rear towers. Also installed heavy duty sway bars and poly-bushings, then camber plates into the system too. . . talk about Cheeze Whiz, Cheeze Whiz this thing sticks and handles like it's on rails, but you feel it in your seat, and wallet too! Wouldn't want to daily drive a car that felt so hard. (j. m. 2 cents)

Victor, you're right. I've learned alot about these SUs lately, and by pulling the cable you are pulling the nozzle jet down and this changes the fuel level at the bridge. And yep, the gas is richened for a cold start,and is slightly pooled at the bottom of the carb. You can't see this unless you have your air filter off, and carb apart. If you have someone pull the cable you can watch the linkage pull the nozzle jet down under the carb. No butterflys doing work here. Your throttle cable / pedal works the butterfly in the carb. My Z has the choke cable removed (nozzle springs still there)smog, vaccum lines and anything else that is not required on the track. Not street driven, to bad, but sure looks better with all the garbage off.

Hey Phred, When I was talking to Steve @ ZTherapy over the phone he mentioned 3 1/2 was more than enough. And I'll have to look at the video again, but I think they talked about the fuel pressure being from 3 to 3 1/2. . . I recall some old Webers I had once didn't need alot of fuel pressure either.

Gavin, from reading your entries, I know you can handle rebuilding these SUs, no problem. Steve has been racing for many years at ZTherapy and has alot of knowledge to share to us all. I hunted and purchased 3 good books on Z carbs, shop manuals, and they still leave alot of questions. But when you listen to Steve discuss the history, good & bad points, problem areas, tune-up hints, and watch him take the SUs apart, rebuild, install and tune on the car. . . Dude, we were out in the garage before the end of the 1st tape and had the job done. The SU carb is a funky design but it works, (you do need the 3 major components of the carb set up proper to perform at it's best) and is often put onto larger engines. If you purchase a set of his carbs, you have 30 days to send back the cores (your old SUs)without a core charge. If you want machine polished carbs with reanodized gold hardware buy his set. They look sharp and run better than new. If you don't care about stained, dull carbs you should buy his rebuild kits and keep your old ones. He also offers a selection of main jet needles for a more hot-rod tuneup. Oh if you buy his SU carbs or rebuild kits, they come with the videos. If you already have the videos he will drop the price of the carbs or rebuild kits. Gavin, I once had 2 custom Fender guitars built here in California and sent them to a mate in East Ballarat, Victoria Australia, and it wasn't to difficult. So I think you can if you really want to. Let me know if you need help. Good luck, talk to ya later. . . Craig

I had a sandrail years back that I had the transaxle polished out and oh-boy it looked nice. We clear coated it and it still dulled under the clear, but not as fast, and it did chip up and scratch too. I guess these days there are better clear coats, but the best results I have found is good-old-fashioned elbow grease, Mothers polish, Never-Dull, or your favorite metal polish and a little time. You gotta stay up on it, to keep it lookin nice.:nervous: Wax on - Wax off!:rambo:

Yep, It's what you said! But it's not until after I build the whole puzzle that I can see the picture, but it all makes sense now. I need to know what happened, why it happened and how to keep it from happening again. It's amazing how many people at the track that work on cars look at these carbs and say "what the. . . ", wish ya luck and walk away scratchin their head. Oh well, hope I can pass some info and help on to others someday. Cheers :classic:

Okay, so here's the deal with the SU carb problem. Finally had time to get back to them and after talking with Z-Therapy about the problem of both going bad at the same time, and I purchased their tape about SUs (Just SUs) I can't believe how cool these carbs are. The results: Both floats where way-outta-wack, flooding or as Cindy my wife said "drownding" in fuel. But how? Well it was a very hot day, and just after a 1/2 hour of pushing it hard on the track, the heat from the engine, headers, and the outside temp., the fuel expanded enough to push the fuel floats to their limit and I not knowing where they should be I could not get the flooding to stop. What can I do about it? 1.) I learned that they should be about .55" or 9/16" from bottom of lid to float while holding upside down and the float gently resting of the needle valve or grose fuel valve. Bend the metal tab slightly to bring to proper measurement. 2.) I have a heat shield and wrapped headers but that may not be enough to keep the heat away from the fuel bowls. So before shutting off the car, turn the fuel pump switch off first and let the engine idle and bring down the fuel level in the fuel bowls. Therefore if it gets too hot it won't heat up the fuel in the bowl so much that it pushes the floats out. 3.) Some people even cool down the carbs with fans, cool moist rags on carbs. & bowls or what ever with hood up after they have parked the car. I need to find a program that works best for me. But knowing how the carb works and how to drain the fuel out of the drain plugs on fuel bowl, and adjust float, fuel mixture nut, nozzle jet and main needle will get me out of trouble and back on to the track. Well, I feel a little smarter now, which is rare, and I think these dual SU carbs are what I will go with and put the triple Webers back on the shelf for now. Oh and Steve at ZTherapy nailed my problem on the head 1st time. They do sell beautiful refurbished SU carbs, rebuild kits, and individual parts that you might mess up while tweaking on these carbs. The SU video tells it all! Thanks Craig

If the knurled nut with ball bearings imbedded in them have been adjusted and you don't know where they are? you can start from scratch and then fine tune them. And that would be to close both of them by turning them up until they stop, then back them both open ( or down) to 2 - 3 full turns. I set mine at 2 1/2 turns. The ball bearings that you see are there to help you count your turns and help see how much you have moved the knurled nut. Set both the same amount of turns. Now with the car running you can now adjust them open or close a little at a time to find the fastest idle. To far one way will start to rough up or slow your idle so then you bring it back the other way and the idle will increase and smooth out until you have gone to far the other way. By closing it you are leaning it out, and by opening it up you are riching up the fuel. To much either way will slow and rough your idle. So by working it a little at a time you can find the best & smoothest idle. This should give you a good point to start fine tuning them. I would probably run it a little rich rather than lean, more engine damage could result from being alittle lean than rich, or wetter. You also should check the butterfly valves inside the the carb. to see that they are open equally, and a base starting point would be just cracked open tiny bit, the vaccum should pull enough air in to get it started. The Uni-sync meter will aid you in adjusting the butterfly opening so that the air flow in each carb. is the same. But these steps were the basic steps I took to get the carbs back to a starting point where I could get the car to at least run. From there begins the fine tuning. Good Luck Craig

Hey the Video was the best $20 bucks I have spent in a long time. I got the 2 tape version, the single tape is only $15. I have got through the 1st tape and went back out to the car and opened up both SUs, cleaned up things, made the adjustments, pre-set the idle and mixture settings and fired her up and varoom she was doing fine. It was very late and the neighbors were asleep, so when I get time to make the final adjustments I think I good to go. I think ZTherapy has the unisyn flow meters for sale for around $30-$40 frog skins, I need to get one too, so I can finish up the tune-up. Hey Mr. Killer240, that is not easy typing all that. I think tuning is actually easier than typing all that huh? Thanks for listing all that information. I have purchased 2 books on SU carbs, found a shop manual from a Datsun mechanic from many years ago (we found it in our neighbors garage while cleaning it out to help him move) also printed up lots of info. I found on this site & others and now the ZTherapy tapes, our library has grown alot overnight! Now that I got my problem worked out i need to go back and finish up my thread about the SU carb problem I had at the track the other day and why it happened. Talk to you later. Craig :stupid:

Your cell project is moving along good. Are you running the fuel line through the car or under the car through the tunnel? What is SCCA rule on fuel line through the car? I have been using the Holly Red pump (which I think is now colored silver or something but still called the Red pump?) and I can still see 5.5 to 6 psi up front, but I knock it down to 3.5 to 4 psi with the Holley Press. Reg., but I don't have custom needles either. I don't know for sure, but I recall the Blue Pump not recommended for continuous use or daily drivers. Short runs or drag racing and as high as 15 psi., so what is the life on a Blue pump anyways? Have you seen one go bad? Regards Craig

Not a good picture but maybe it might give you an idea of the finished install? This one is a 12 Gal. unit. One line is fuel a line to the pump and the other is a vent line to the outside of the car. Fuel cells can be messy if you spill or drip fuel inside the car, but in a race application, usually door windows are removed for safety, and you don't get fumes buildup, but that High octane sure has a sweet smell . . :lick: