speedyblue

Once again the 280zx member is still attached to the gearbox while the 'straight' 240Z one is on the floor. Didn't overseas 280zx models have a different, stronger 5-speed? I think I read on the Z-garage site that the rear mount was a little farther back and required something to be modified to fit it in a 240z. They must have moved the mounting points back on the car to accomodate the longer gearbox, but then neded special mounts to fit the old style gearbox to the Aus spec models. I guess by using this mount facing backwards, you could fit one of those gearboxes to a Z without having to modify the cross member. Any thoughts?

The Gearbox mounts are the same size and the 280zx one will bolt up to the 240Z no worries BUT the centre of the 280zx one is offset towards the front by 10-15mm resulting in a curved cross member.

These pieces are from a 240Z and a 1983 280zx. The steel plates that bolt directly to the engine are the same, 280zx bolted to the block, 240Z on the ground.

The little steel plate that bolts directly to the block and to the rubber bushed engine mount on each side is exactly the same as the one from the engine that came out of the car. The gearbox cross member id different!! Photos to come. Scott

The Engine mounts are the same. I pulled an engine out of my 280zx last night to pu in my 240 but I haven't checked the gearbox cross member yet to see if I need to swap it with my original one. Should have a definate answer some time tonight.

I'm swapping an L28 straight from a 280zxinto my 240Z. Should I swap the front engine pulley with the 240z one or just keep the 280zx one? The 280zx one seems chunkier. How do they hold at high revs?(7000rpm only, not trying to kill the engine here) I have a vauge memory of someone saying they don't cope with the revs. Thanks Scott

Any money you pour into a car you never get back. That is why it is more often than not better to pay more for a better car someone has done up, than settle on a worse one and fix it yourself. If I bought another Z, I would probably look at 8-10 grand mark. I paid $2100 for mine in about '97, plus $500 to get rust fixed and it was a good daily driver for about 6 years. I picked it up from a wrecker. It was cheap because it was dirty, full of rubbish, torn seats, no carpets and the brakes didn't work. (just needed a good bleeding) Bit of a clean up, new carpets and re-trimmed seats and the interour looked great. Drove like a dream. There are bargains out there but you have to distinguish from the rubbish that is for sale as well. Good luck finding your dream car.

If you can work it in, it is also handy to have a good solid beam running accross the ceiling to hang a block and tackle from for lifting out engines and the like. Also a toilet goes well too. You don't get in trouble from putting grease all through the bathroom in the house. But that may be a bit much in this case. I only know one thing for sure, you can never make the garage big enough!!

Single cam pushrod two valves per pot. I was thinking more along the lines of port design in the head and general efficiency and fuel injection, as compared to 10-20 years ago, and carbs, which are still good if well maintained. The engine I was referring to was the Gen III LS1, which is alloy block, alloy heads, but isn't 350cui. Mounting this in the lower position referred to would mean a better handling car again. Add a hotter cam, decent set of extractors and reprogram the computer and you get a good lump of power, but more importantly torque. One good streetable engine. There was someone on HybridZ or somewhere who was doing this swap and had his story on the net. Thats what made it pop into my mind.

If you are going to go for a V8 just slot a new chevy 5.7L engine in there. Why waste time with old technology. Easier than supercharging or NOS. All alloy, so you don't get the huge bulking weight. The engine can easy push 450-500hp naturally aspirated while keeping up to emissions on pump fuel, plus it is fuel injected for reliability and all the rest. just butt up what ever gearbox comes with it from the factory. Surely Australia isn't the only country tweaking these engines. 1hp per cube is as easy target, so 330hp from a 350cui is a bit weak.

It is one thing to be caught speeding, ie driving faster than the set limit, but how do we know that the limit was set correctly in the first place? New roads are designed with a target speed in mind. This design speed controls the minimun site distance around corners, over crests ect, so it is fairly obvious what the speed should be set at, but what about the older roads that twist and turn through the hills. The road out to my house is signed at 60. It is a good road surface with lots of hills and corners. In NSW there are LOTS of narrower roads with hills, tight corners and blind corners that are singposted at 100kph. It is ridiculus to do those speeds. There was a whole study done (Swiss I think but I can't find my old textbook) on working out the best speed for a section of road. They monitored the speeds of cars and then broke it down into percintiles, eg 20% of the cars travelled under 50kph, 40% of the cars travelled under 52kph, 60% of the cars travelled under 56kph, 80% of the cars travelled under 60kph and 99% of the cars travelled under 70kph. They graphed this against the number of crashes with the speed limit set at different percentile ranges and found that there were the least crashes when the limit was set at the 80% limit. Set it higher, more crashes. Set it LOWER, more crashes. It didn't take in to acount the severity of the crashes from what I remember (cmon, it was 4 years ago) but I bevieve it is still the system used for setting the speed limit in many European countries. Much better than some of the 'stab in the dark' methods used here when the local politicians lobby for lower speed limits. I probably have got a few thing slightly wrong here because it was a while ago, but the majority of it should be right. My long winded opinion anyway. Scott (Civil Engineer and novice road designer)

They have really got to do something. But nothing is going to happen while they stick to the speed kills slogan. I have seen it in a few of my friends (strangely enough mostly female)the attitude that once you get your license you know how to drive. After a few years of driving they come to realise how much they can't drive. (Most do anyway) One who was a real leadfoot rolled her car with her sister in it ( didn't suprise anyone). They were both ok, but her sister didn't learn a thing from it and speeds along narrow country roads, blind corners and all. Last time I was ever a passenger in her car. Why is it that every young guy gets his license and wants to buy a Commodore or a turbo vehicle. It is absolutely stupid. Fortunately I can't comment on my own skills, because I can't observe my own driving independently. I know I drive fast. That is why I stopped driving my 240Z 18 months ago and bought a fourby that I don't drive over 80kph. But the Z is going to be on the road again soon so I am really going to have to show some restraint. The Gold Coast coppers are getting pretty tight with it all, and with all the tools doing 1 wheel doughnuts in their VK commodore wagons with multi colour panels, I don't blame them.

Thailand has a good selection of bad beers. It was a pretty random guess at what the alc. content would be though. They had Leo (lion) beer, and also super Leo. Same beer, just more alcohol, and the standard leo was a full strength to begin with. Definate hangover material.

I will get my 240z back on the road this year! I am mid way through a bit of a fix-up involving installing an L28 and gearbox from a 280zx, and adding a G-nose to boot. After that will be some rear disks (once again courtesy of the 280zx) and possibly even some better front breaks. As well as an even louder stereo. Here's to hoping.

The Solex lock are great things, but a word of warning, file off the little locating pin on the key so that it looks like the emergency key that comes with the locks. The lock can quite easily move in the barrel, causing the pin to not line up and the key to not go in. Nothing like climbing in through the hatch to get home, and then out the window to get the emergency key. If you lock them by pushing down the inside lock, then it can be unlocked that way, BUT if you lock it with the key from the outside, no amount of pulling at the lock thing on the inside will unlock it, hence having to get out through the window.

Sounds like it may be starving for fuel. It might be worthwhile to replace the fuel filter and check the flow from the pump. If the rubber hoses are breaking down from the inside or something, that would cause a problem too. It would seem there are a lot of people out there running tuff engines with twin SU's, so there should be no reason why you cant join them.

I have Never seen another 240Z in the Broadwater carpark, not that I frequent it all that much anymore. I used to idle through there every now and then but my Z hav been off the road for 16 months now. Should be back on in a month or two though, depending on when I pull my finger out and get to it. I actually cruised through there in my soft top International Scout the other weekend and there seemed to be more Jap bikes than cars. It was schoolies though, so most probably opted to cruise further inland.

Kings never sold superlows for the 240Z because it would be sitting on the bump stops with them in. The Z struts are pretty close to being fully compressed as is and the extra 50mm bottoms them out, plus because it is a stiffer shorter spring they aren't captive when you jack it up. I had a chat to them about this a while ago. Competent suspension shops (ie not pedders) can cut your struts open and insert a block of some sort to stop the strut extending so far, hence keeping the springs captive. I think I was quoted under $500 for new low kingsprings, new munro shocks, installation, plus shortening the struts and lower the 'Spring mounty thingy' to lower it all to the legal level(100mm allround). It would have thrown the camber out too much though so I never got around to it. Has anyone fitted those K-mac adjustable strut tops to a Z-car? They would fix it perhaps. Are they even available for a Z-car?

I think the concern with the handbrake cable is it is too short and won't reach to the 280zx caliper. Two options I have heard to fix this: 1. Put the left caliper on the right side and the right caliper on the left side, but this leaves the bleed screws on the bottom. 2. Extend the cable. I am working up to this conversion at some stage. I have the discs and calipers but haven't go the brackets yet. Since I have a whole 280zx for parts, I was going to see if I can use the handbrake cable from that as mine has snapped and hence needs replacing. If you haven't had your stock brakes fade yet then you just haven't been driving hard enough.

Not interested in thermo fans? Think about how much power it takes to spin the fan at 8000rpm (the front pulley is larger than the water pump one, hence gearing it up) There will be a few kilowatts there. If quarter mile times are what you are after, the heavier flywheel will be what you are after. The extra mass rotating helps on gear change and take off, but if you are track racing, lighter is better. Flat top pistons, like those in the P90 block give the 10:1 comp ratio, so yours may be less. Remember, if you put a new head on with a half worn set of rings, the rings will wear out faster. but by the sounds of it, your rings are sealing fairly well.

I'm running them on a 6 inch rim and they go great The tread wear is farily even. It did wear out in the centre first by about 2mm but it was probably because of overinflation (35~38psi) I had to lip the rear guards a little, but it only took the use of a block of pine and a rubber mallet. Looks tough though.

I was running 215/65's on mine and the front rubbed on that lower panel at the front. Bent it out of the way and had no problems with it since. Now I'm running 235/60's all round but I have noticed one thing. As you go wider, it grips worse in the wet. Hot rodders had some sort of 'rule of thumb' about width versus weight, and once it is exceeded the load is spread over too greater area or something. OK in the dry though. But I do remember the nice wet day I had with a rather past it L24 engine. Spin through first, slam into second and keep her going. 80kph and still fishtailing down the Gold Coast Highway in the morning traffic. Good if you are ready for it, very bad if you are not. But Alas, now I am fitting a nice G-nose and in a trial fit, noticed that the big feet will no longer fit. And I really loved the stance of wide rubber hanging out the front too.

Pinging is bad because it is the first sign of detonation! Very bad for an engine. It is a souund that can be heard from the engine. The engine would be most likely to ping going up a hill at low revs (about 1000rpm or so working hard) with the accelerator to the floor. Hard to explain what it sounds likethough. If your car pings, back the timing off a degree or two. There should be a little metal tab on the block right near the front crank with numbers on it. It may be dirty and need to be rubbed with a rag to see the numbers clearly. Something like this. ^^^^^^^^^ l 8 6 4 2 0 2 4l l-----------------l plus it may have a little 'F' and 'A' or perhaps different to specify degrees before and after top dead centre.

Well I checked the 280zx out and it ranged from 140 to 150 so it looks like the brakes aren't the only thing being scavenged from it. One engine swap to go.