Kronoss

It was great to see Glenn out there again. Heat and humidity was brutal...I ran 2 races back to back and later doubted my judgement on that decision. How Gurney, Foyt, etc survived those 3 hour enduros at Riverside is beyond me. My webers weren't happy with the weather either, way off the pace, I never arrived at a decent tune-up that day. Next time.

Rob, If I remember correctly, they had your pal switch to "189"...hard to see in the pic, but I think the added "1" is on there. Hopefully he had a good time and he'll race with us again.

Hey, thanks Phil!...but the results certainly would have been different had you been there Let's hope you'll be joining us at Blackhawk over Memorial Day. –Mark

Resist the urge to over-modify your car, and stick to the pre-72 SCCA GCR (or SVRA group 8 GCR), you'll be glad you did. I rebuilt my car initially as a legal CP car (except for my L28 block) and had great fun with it. Eventually blew the engine, and what should have been a straightforward engine rebuild turned into a episode of extensive modification and fabrication. I now have a non-legal body (all fiberglass except the roof section), non-legal brakes, suspension, transmission, wheels, tires, etc, etc. Luckily the sanctioning body I run with still accepts it as "vintage", and I can also run in their GT2 class. SVRA has accepted it for group 10 as a IMSA GTU car, but I currently have no plans of running group 10. The buildup was challenging and fun, and the car is still in the teething mode every "new" race car goes through. The few clean laps I made with it this past season proved the car to be very quick with predictable handling and great brakes (after some sorting). But, the same was true of the "old" car (well, except for the brakes), so my 2 cents is to stay legal (and reliable)...and you'll have a blast, plus the car will be accepted just about everywhere you want to race. I'm now atoning for my "sins" by collecting era-correct parts for a '66 Corvette basket case race car I recently purchased, to be rebuilt as a by-the-book B Production racer...no "tricks" this time around.

I race with Phil on a regular basis, and a quicker, safer racer would be hard to find. He's also extremely helpful with his vast technical expertise. There are several competition Z's in our group, and Phil and his immaculately prepared car are quite a combination. Great vid, Phil.

Here's a few I recently discovered posted on a Corvette racing site (vettemod.com)...35mm enlargements taken at Road Atlanta, not sure what year...1972, 73? There were several other interesting non-Datsun images there as well, F5000, Can-Am, David Hobbs, Donohue, etc. –Mark Atkinson

Got the thing started. Had to further massage the accel pump linkages...now getting a good pump shot across the board. Thanks for all replies.

Removed carb 1 to verify accelerator pump operation...no fuel squirt from pump jets when butterflies pumped. Accelerator pump linkage bound up...lubricated linkage and was then getting fuel squirt during throttle pump. Float level checked out okay, main jets clear. Reinstalled carb 1, removed bowl covers on carbs 2 and 3, verified accel. pump linkage was free on both. Ignition on, pump on...end result same. Intermittent firing but no start...plugs still dry. Still something amiss in the carb starting circuit. Hoped to avoid pulling all three carbs off the manifold for a teardown, but now it seems unavoidable. So much for buying "new" carbs.

Thanks for the responses. I'll be doing further examination today. As I mentioned, these are factory new carbs right out of the box. This is a brand-new 12:1 engine, and the timing has been checked several times. In my past experience with Weber dcoe's, they have always been on the rich side, I've never encountered a set that don't even wet the plugs. Over the course of the several starting attempts made yesterday, there should have been fuel running out of the headers. It's even more astounding that they are all doing the same thing, which makes me think that there may be some oddball "packing material" or whatever within the bowls...to me that seems unlikely but I'll tear one down today to verify. Thanks again.

New out of the box 45 DCOE's on a TMW manifold, Carter 4070 electric pump, 4 psi fuel pressure with pump running. Engine fires but won't catch, plugs removed and are bone dry. Carbs full of fuel, evidenced by dripping. Timing checked and re-checked. Assumed float levels should be within spec from factory. Only modification was installing 165 main jets. Fuel doesn't seem to be making it to combustion chambers...am I missing something obvious? Thanks for any and all advice.

Ron, Thanks....that's kind of what I was expecting to hear. To the scrap heap it goes.

Anyone, anyone...Bueller? I searched every thread I could think of here and on HybridZ to find some sort of ID guide for these transmissions...but perhaps this really is just a plain old 5 speed, or one of the "diesel Maxima" versions.I have nothing on hand here to compare it to. Do all Datsun comp transmissions have the "monkey motion" shift mechanism?...as this one doesn't. It's currently taking up valuable shop space, and will be destined for the dumpster if no answers can be found. –Thanks again

Hey guys, Here are a couple of pics of the "mystery trans". The gear tooth counts in black are for the mystery trans, the yellow counts are from pg 146 of the classic "How to Modify Datsun" manual which shows an exploded view of a standard 5 speed (this assumes I'm interpreting the parts drawing correctly) and the corresponding gear tooth counts for the stock 5 speed. I verified my counts several times, and it appears they are different than a stock gearset. I'm fairly certain this is not a "dog leg" style gearbox, as a quick shifter install seemed to indicate a normal 5 speed pattern. As you can see this unit is not exactly ready to run, and had "needs syncros" written on the case. The shafts do spin freely though. If it's a close ratio box, I'm sure someone out there could certainly use it for spare parts, or rebuild to live again. I'm running a G-force T5 in my car, so I really have no use for this one. I've held on to it just in case it really was a CR box, and wanted to verify it as genuine before deciding exactly what to do with it. –Thanks again

I have a Datsun transmission on the shelf that came as a spare with a race car I purchased last year. It's supposedly an actual Datsun comp 5-speed, and I'd like some help in verifying firstly that it really is a comp trans, and if so, which gearset it has. The tooth count on the mainshaft gears (from the clutch end of the bellhousing) are: 21T, 26T, 28T and 33T. The countershaft assembly (machined as one piece if that's significant) gears are: 32T, 28T, 20T and 15T I couldn't locate a serial number anywhere on the case. I can post some pics if that will help. –Thanks

Anyone know if repro steel (or fiberglass) entire door skins are available anywhere? I've surfed extensively and haven't found anything other than the partial repair panels. –Thanks

Allrighty then...enough said. –Thanks

Hello, Anyone ever ordered anything from these "Showcars" folks? If so, how were the parts and the overall buying experience? They appear to be the supplier to MSA for some fiberglass bits. I'm specifically interested in their 2-piece G-nose. This would be fitted to a track-only car so the part would not have to be concours-correct, but it would be nice if the "massaging" required for a decent fit was kept to a minimum. Thanks for any feedback

I'm trying to locate a set of the elusive L24 rods with the 9mm rod bolts (bolts would be upgraded to ARP) but so far no luck. Plan B is to run the more common 8mm L24 rods with ARP bolts. Plan C...machine the 8MM rod to accept a 9mm bolt...but I feel this would actually be weakening the rod. Would the "plan B" ARP 8mm rods live in a race motor with a 7500 RPM redline? (with an occasional "war emergency" blip to 8000 RPM). Carrillo/Pauter are not a financial option at this time. –Thanks for any feedback

Thanks everyone for the feedback thus far. I realize the non-world class T-5 used in the 280zx is fairly straightforward swap, and I'll probably go that route. Why I was asking about the input shaft specs on the 280zx T-5 was to see if a Ford world-class T-5 (I have access to one) could be made to work by modifying the input shaft to work with the datsun clutch assembly. There are several choices of input shafts (sline count, length, etc) for the WC T-5, but what I'm finding is that it probably isn't a feasible project. I've been running stock 4 and 5 speeds in my road race car, and they're just not holding up, so I've been looking for something stronger, and with a better gearset choice...which the world-class T-5 has. Unfortunately there isn't any way to "upgrade" the non-world class T-5 in the 280zx, but it does seem to be a stouter piece than the Datsun 5-speed. I've given up on finding or being able to afford the "competition" Datsun 5-speeds, so I'm looking at other alternatives.

Can anyone out there tell me the spline count, input shaft OD, and input shaft length measured from the mounting face of the trans (or any other dimensional info that might be helpful) for the 280ZX t-5? I'll also be looking for the appropriate bellhousing if anyone has one available. –Thanks for the assistance Mark Atkinson