Black Beaut

Great call on the papertowel method Will! I'll be sure to give that a shot on the next tricky bit I have to deal with. Cheers, Rob

Thanks all! I discovered today that painting the moustache bar suspended on the washing line makes an excellent alternative to fly paper - d'oh!! And despite wearing gloves, I still seem to have a fair bit of paint on my hands - oh well, at least I won't rust One thing that I think would be a good development for the manufacturers though would be a gel version of the metal ready that you can just slap on and leave without it dripping everywhere and you having to stand around like a numpty keeping the item wet, glad no one can see me in my back yard cheers, Rob

Excellent stuff! Are you going to the swap meet on the Sunday? Just to the east of Mansfield which isn't too far from Peter's house. http://www.zclub.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2359 I'm hoping to get along to it myself if I can get out of bed Cheers, Rob

Hiya, In the not too distant future I'm going to be swapping my R180 diff for an R200 so that'll be up for grabs, otherwise you should try Peter MacDonald (pmac on http://www.zclub.net ) or Geoff Gale down in Bristol ( http://www.auto-active.co.uk/ ) Standard ratio for the UK spec 240Z is 3.9:1 btw. Erm, I'm assuming you're the same Jagbabe from the UK of course and there isn't a Banbury in America - well there's bound to be one over there somewhere! Cheers, Rob

Thanks guys! I've got the first coat of glossy black loviness on the main casing now, will be doing the cover with silver later. You'll be pleased to hear that this week is British summer so I'm actually doing it outside, enjoying the sunshine while it lasts and getting a bit giddy on the fumes I'm very impressed with paint, went on real easy and has great coverage, probably didn't need to buy a quart of the stuff - a well, I'm sure there's a few more places I'll be able to slap it on! Cheers, Rob

Hi all, Just in the process of sorting out a R200 diff to go on my Z. I've got hold of some POR-15 after reading many good things about it on here. How many coats do you think the diff should have? I've got some of the marine clean and the metal ready stuff as well - think I need that for the ali diff cover right? I've just finished off cleaning the diff up with various wire-brush drill attachments, still looks pretty rusty but there's no loose flakes on it any more. I've never used this stuff before so not quite sure, any pearls of wisdom about using the stuff? Cheers, Rob

Out of interest, is that kit list on their site anywhere? I don't seem to be able to find it, just the individual parts. Seems like a very good price for the parts you get. Damn, you guys in the US are lucky!!! Cheers, Rob

One rather unflaturing reviewer of the Crossfire in the UK described the curve of the backside as being like that of a dog doing a #2. I haven't been able to look at a Crossfire since without that image popping into my mind!! Cheers, Rob ps sorry for lowering the tone of the discussion :eek: where's the winking smiley gone?!!!!!

Hi all, I've just got hold of an R200 to put in my '73. It's a 3.7 though - you get what you can over here ok I was looking at the old z garage site - http://geocities.com/zgarage2001/engine.html - though and got an idea. According to that site the 3.7 is a 37:10 ring/pinion and the 4.11 is a 37:9 ring/pinion. So my question is are the two ring gears the same and can I just swap in a 9 tooth pinion gear to convert my 3.7 to a 4.11 or are there subtle geometry differences between the two 37 ring gears? OK I practically know the answer is no but it's got to be worth asking the question right? Cheers, Rob

Shame that isn't Midlothian, Scotland Cheers, Rob

Excellent info guys, much appreciated. Seeing as different valves make such a difference I shall wait until the head has been worked on and the new 280 size valves have been dropped in and the inlet seat has been swapped to steel. Then I can get serious about measuring these suckers! Cheers, Rob

Cool, thanks for the extra info there Jon, especially catching the spark plug thread issue, very valid point! I'm planning on building a stroker block to mate this head to with an 88mm bore so like you say the unshrouding won't matter. Definitely need to measure the volume property now though!! Cheers, Rob

No idea how the car will drive with this head on it as I got it on Ebay. My Z's a '73 so it's probably go the late head on it anyway, certainly hasn't got any power that's for sure You might want to consider shaving your current head, that would probably work out cheaper than sourcing an early E88 plus you won't have to mess about reseting all the lash pads and stuff! It wouldn't take much of a shave to get the chamber volume down to the early head spec I'm sure. Cheers, Rob

helloooooo, echo, echo, echo Any thoughts peeps? I filled out the custom piston form on Top End's site but not heard anything Cheers, Rob

Check out this thread: http://www.classicZcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=13114 There's some pics of my shaved and ported E88 which is still open to debate as to whether it's early on not - probably not. Also Carl has attached an image of the early E88 chamber. Shame it's a head off job though! Cheers, Rob

Lucky guess I swapped everything up front I could find with urethane bushings, control arm, radius/tension rod, sway bar drop links, steering rack and coupler. Hopefully they should last a few more miles Cheers, Rob

Hi All, Managed to finish up the front suspension this weekend. Little bit knackered now but good to have got it all done. Just need to get a brake pedal back before I can try her out again - then of course start planning the rear swap, whoopee! Cheers, Rob

Hi all, Well plans are afoot to knock out a bit of a stroker engine. I've pretty much finalised the piston spec as above. The low compression height is to help keep the compression to around 10.5:1 and allow plenty of valve clearance without having to machine the piston tops. I've already got an E88 head that's been shaved by 0.030" so compression isn't a problem. Only problem is finding a piston to this spec. So far I've got a quote of £125+VAT each from a company for forged pistons. Yes that is nearly $260 :eek: The best bit is that they probably wouldn't be able to deliver for 6 months :sleepy: I'm waiting to hear back from another company but I thought I'd pop over the virtual pond and see if you guys have any recommendation/ideas. I've got no problem with importing pistons from the US (or OZ for any of our southern hemisphere cousins reading) if the price works out right. Also while we're on the subject of pistons, what are your thoughts on cast v forged? As I said the planned compression is 10.5:1 but the engine won't be revved over 7k. However I am thinking - further down the line - of trying a low boost supercharger on there and simply dropping the compression to around 9.5:1 with a 2mm head gasket. Cheers folks, Rob

Cool, thanks. Here's a couple of pics of my head. That area is clearly less pronounced on mine. What do you think? Cheers, Rob

Thanks guys, I was thinking about working out the volume of a 0.030" high cylinder but wasn't sure what the diameter would've been, 83mm makes a fair bit of sense though :stupid: Now then on to verifying which type E88 I've got to start with. What are the give away clues? Mine has 42mm inlet and 34mm exhaust valves. Still has brass inlet seats but the head has been given a workover already so they might have been changed in the past already. Having bought it from the joy that is Ebay, it's origins are a bit of a mystery. Cheers, Rob

Hi All, Does anyone know roughly what the chamber cc will be on an E88 after a 0.030" shave? I need a figure to plug into the engine calculator. I've been guessing at 42cc so far. Cheers, Rob

Thanks All, I got them out yesterday using the drill method, brute force and hacksaw. All virtually painless - gasp!! Cheers, Rob

That's sounds like another good method, thanks Marty. Should've said that I'm replacing with Energy Suspension bushes so I don't need to retain the original outer bush, just need loads of silicon grease. Cheers, Rob

Thanks Chris! Seems that Ebay-UK has a pretty reasonable price 1 ton press just begging to be added to my junk collection Cheers, Rob

Hi, Sorry to dig up this old thread but it's on the right subject for me at the moment. I'm going to be tackling the control arms this weekend and wondered if anyone has any DIY alternatives for removing the original bushes other then burning them? I've only been able to find this one (very helpful) write up on the job: http://www.AtlanticZ.ca/zclub/techtips/suspension/frontcontrolarm/index.html Cheers, Rob