240ZMan

Bo, great idea. Next time I have mine out I may do that. Do you by any chance remember the thread size?

When I installed a 5 speed in my 73, I had a hard time finding an R180 diff. In the end I found a 4.11 from the front axle of a Nissan 720 4x4 pickup. It bolted right up after I swapped the flanges with my original 3.36. There is a great thread (sticky) on this at hybridz.org. Unless you improve the breathing of your engine at high revs, I suspect a 3.90 could leave you frustrated. Check out: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html If you still have the stock 4 speed and stock cam, your torque will rapidly fall off after 5500 rpm. With 195/70-14 tires this combination is good for 1st gear: 29 mph 2nd gear: 47 3rd gear: 73 I suppose 2nd will be very "entertaining" but perhaps a bit "brief". John's suggestion of using a 3.54 might be a good compromise, and would definitely be much easier to source.

I'm sure that my 73 isn't exactly the same as your 280, but I found it easier to just remove the front wheel. 2 of the philips head screws that attach the headlight bucket are positioned so that it's hard to get the screwdriver on them straight with no angle. It would be very easy to strip the heads. Taking the wheel off allowed me to get in with a better angle for my hands.

Arne's points probably preclude using the N47 on your block, but in addition to that issue, the N47 has round exhaust ports and the E88 has square. I've read that it's no big deal to bolt a square port exhaust to a round port head (although the reverse is NOT ok), but if you're going for max performance, then I think you'd want to match exhaust and head port types. Also, I believe the combustion chambers are a little bigger on the N47, so you might see a little drop in the compression ratio. I think unless you plan to go more agressive with the cam and improve your intake and exhaust breathing, you'd be best staying with the E88.

That is a good (and common) upgrade for early Zs and quite similar to what I did for my '73. In general, the later 5 speeds from the 81-83 ZX are considered more desirable as the 2nd and 3rd gear ratios are closer together. Also, check and see if the differential was swapped to change its ratio. Stock for a manual was 3.36, but with the 5 speed you'll want at least a 3.70 or 3.90. I went with a 4.11 since my engine makes its power above 3k rpm. Given this car has triple weber DCOEs and a schneider cam, it will likely not have as much torque at low revs, so a higher ratio for the diff helps get the engine into its power band sooner. What's the asking price?

Last year when I rebuilt my L28 the Black Dragon kit only included pistons and rings (no rods) and the rings were cast iron. I went with a kit manufactured by ITM which includes a Moly top ring for durability. I've been very happy with the results, and it was a little cheaper as well. You might check on ebay as there was a guy selling them this past summer.

FWIW, for the street there's very little performance benefit from the upgrade as the drums work quite well if only used for a few stops at a time. For me, I got tired of the pedal getting longer and longer on track days as the shoes wore and didn't self-adjust. I suppose I could have brought a jack and stands to the track and manually adjusted the shoes, but that would be a hassle, especially when it's my turn to work the corners between my group's sessions. No denying that the discs look better than drums One more thing, if you do plan to track the car, make sure to install a proportioning valve where you can get to it in the cabin. Last track day, after 3 sessions of excellent braking, I began to get lock up during the 4th session. When the rear end got loose as I braked from 100 mph to 40 mph for a hairpin, it was NOT a fun thing to feel the rear end begin to move around on its own. :surprised Half a turn solved it and no track time lost.

I converted the rears on my 73 to discs for a LOT LESS than $840! Wow. Got the brackets from Modern Motorsports, SS brake lines from MSA, rotors (84 300zx) from local Checker store, and calipers (93 240sx) from the local JY. Go with some decent pads, such as Hawk HP or HP plus. I don't think I spent more than $425 total, plus some time to source everything. The parking brake cable brackets on the 73 can still be used. You just need to make a "link" and get a clevis pin at the local hardware store. Or you can buy that already made from Modern Motorsports as well. Just swap the right cable to the left side and vice versa and everything fits. Also, you might want to consider adding an adjustable proportioning valve while you have everything apart. I didn't see one in the MSA kit. Depending on which pad materials you use front and rear, you may need one. You don't want to lock the rears first! In all fairness to MSA, my rotors are solid, not drilled, but I don't think you need drilled rotors on the rear unless you have some serious power. There's a great thread (sticky) on hybridz that covers all this in more detail.

Turns out that I definitely will be out of town that week. Sorry to miss it, hope you all have fun.

I'm running with the 6AL as well. I have them gapped at .050. When I had my triple webers, opening up to that gap improved drivability. After converting to Megasquirt fuel injection, I recently switched to the resistor versions and tried .044 and then 0.50. It didn't make any difference. Perhaps with the more precisely measured fuel mixtures the larger gap doesn't make that much difference?

Then let's go ahead and choose Wednesday the 29th at 7:30 pm at Dave and Buster's off of Colorado and I25. Having said that, as I type this I'm supposed to be out of town But I'm expecting that trip to fall through.

Please keep posting the plan to this thread. I'd sure like to join, but my schedule is all over the map right now. Darrel, D&B is a good location - I like it. The only other place I can think of is a little place called Duffy's that has amazing Sticky Buns. It's a bit further south, not far off I25 at Hampton IIRC. If it turns out that the time to meet is in the morning, might be good to meet there for coffee and buns.

Bartman, you're a heretic!

Art, it appears this thread has morphed into a feedback channel for you about the magazine, and so I hope I'm not out of line throwing my thoughts out. I just had a chance to go through the new issue this weekend and came away with these thoughts: - It's become a very professionally produced magazine. The pictures, print quality, etc are first rate. - There is a lot of diversity of the Nissan's covered. For the reasons above, I understand why you have to do that. If the magazine isn't financially viable, then it won't last. However, for me, as an owner of a 73 240, I find it hard to get excited reading how some new owner of a Nissan can't wait to put even larger tires and rims on it. Cars are a balance of form and function, and for me, taking off 18" rims to go larger is way too far in the "form" direction. In fact, I'd argue that articles that educated people on the downsides of those "improvements" would be beneficial to your readers (even if some of your advertisers didn't like it). How about a test putting stickier rubber on the stock rims and comparing that to stock rubber on bigger rims? A LOT of your readers would learn A LOT! They would save money as well and/or have more money for mods that really made a performance difference. - I hope this comes across the way I intend it: There is an overall tone that is almost too positive. Not every change I've tried on a car gave me the results I wanted. Sometimes I learn more from the "misses" than the "hits". When I read someone get excited about how much power they "found" from a muffler swap on an otherwise stock engine, I'm struck by how badly people want to believe they made the right choice. Probably we all fall victim to this to some degree, but claiming a mod was a success without some form of measurement or verification seems to be a disservice to your readers. You have some very talented and experience people on your staff. It would be great if more of their experiences (successful AND unsuccessful) would come through to help guide those just getting started. It's a shame to have their valuable information given similar weighting to unverified claims of success from newbies. I read just about every car magazine that has any relevance to me and find the ones I continue to subscribe to are those which don't sugar coat things, are direct and critical where appropriate, and from which I learn. In that regard at least, I'd like to think that I'm not too different from most readers of car magazines. Thanks for listening.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. Mine still works reasonably well, but it's one of those things that I've been keeping my eye open to find a replacement before it fails. I'm thinking I'll pass on the ebay strut and when mine begins to weaken, I'll try one of the local parts store replacements. I'd rather buy a better quality unit, but for the early Zs it doesn't appear there are any sources other than these universals.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/NISSAN-240Z-1970-to-1973-Rear-Hatch-Lift-Support_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ33656QQihZ013QQitemZ230154360042QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW#ebayphotohosting Has anyone tried this replacement strut on a 70-73? I can see that the ends are not the same as the OE strut, but it looks like it could be made to work.

Good point Darrel. There's another thread discussing the same topic (cams, timing, etc) that I've been participating in and I forgot which is which. Sorry.

A few things: Some of the cams you're looking at are pretty big for the street meaning they won't be much fun to drive in any kind of traffic. You should determine if you've got dished or flat top pistons. A big cam with dished pistons further hurts your low end torque. How much street vs. track driving do you intend to do? I had my stock cam reground to the roughly the same specs as the last cam you listed. I was able to run with the stock valve springs and retainers and only had to change my lash pads. It is NOT the most HP you can achieve in any way, but it's a very streetable engine that pulls well to 7k and beyond. You might consider that as a stepping stone to see how you like an engine that makes most of its power at high revs. Coupled with a later 5 speed and 4.11 (or 4.37) and it's a very entertaining package to drive. BTW, this is with an N42 head. Last, I agree with the comments earlier about heads. E31 is desirable mostly for those who are racing in classes that restrict what can be done. For the street, I'd say take 1 of these approaches: - If you don't want to do much machine work/porting, go with an N42 or N47. They're easy to find and have the bigger valves and on a flat top L28 make a CR of about 10.3:1. With a bigger cam you should be able to run on premium without having to retard the timing. - If you're going to do head work, go with a P90 (or P79), mill it, shim the towers, etc. It's got a better (higher quench) combustion chamber and if you're going to invest hundreds (or thousands) of dollars on porting, it's the better head to start with.

If you haven't already seen this, check out http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html I have an 81-83 5spd with 4.11 and love it, but I like to shift a lot. Also, I've upgraded my cam so the engine makes useful power up to 7k rpm. This combination wouldn't be as much fun with the stock cam. You should take your engine plans into account when planning your driveline.

http://denver.craigslist.org/car/375253152.html I don't know anything more than is in the ad, but if the car is as he says, it might be a nice find.

You're correct, it's not a "big" cam. But you didn't say what your goals for the engine are, so don't know if that's a good or "bad" thing. As for triples vs. SUs, you certainly have more carb than you'll need for your engine, but I still think you should go with the triples because you can tune for part throttle and WOT separately. With SUs you'll either have good power at WOT and be rich everywhere else, or the reverse. About the only way to tune with a bigger cam and SUs is to grind your own needles. And then there's the sound of triples

You might want to price out a set of ITM pistons. They came with rings (moly on top!) and the total price was a bit over $200 IIRC. A decent set of rings is over $100 by themselves. You're going to need to hone the cylinders anyway, so the extra cost to bore .10 over isn't much. Figure about $5 per piston to swap the rods. I'd guess that the extra cost of going to flat tops would be about $200. I went down this path last year and am very happy with the results on my L28. Reground the cam with Delta Cams, kept the stock springs, and it pulls strong to 7k now. Regrind was only about $125 including shipping. In a few weeks I'll put it on the dyno for a tuning session and will find out how much power this netted me. Just something for you to think about

The bore of the L24 and L28 are different, and unless I'm mistaken, dished pistons were only used on L28s and are not available for L24s. I'll guess that when the previous owner had the engine rebuilt, they started with an L28. You might want to measure the bore: is it 86 or 89 mm?

The 2 dyno operators I've used estimated 15% to 20% for drivetrain loss. Keep in mind that is only when you're in the gear that has a 1:1 ratio (4th gear on both the 4 speed and 5 speed transmissions for Zs). Any other gear has additional losses. Also, FWIW, at those session we had a few stock 280z cars. They were all around 122 rwhp corrected IIRC. We didn't have any stock 240s but I'd expect it to be less, even accounting for the additional smog equipment of the later 280zs.

FWIW, there's a guy with a chrome bumper (pre '73?) vette who comes to our Z club track days. He's got a roll bar and some engine mods (not sure what though). He's about as fast as my L28 240 on the straights, but has weak brakes and evil handling through the twisties. It's not fun to get stuck behind him since all the passing is limited to the straight and he doesn't often pull over to be passed. I know his handling is evil because I've been stuck behind him before for laps at a time. His braking points are much earlier than mine. Not sure if there is much correlation to the newer vettes you originally asked about ...