ta240

Update, I picked up some 1/4" brass fittings. They start out a bit loose but as I tightened them in they seemed to block it off pretty well.

anyone know the what type and size fitting to use for blocking off the air rail ports on a 72 exhaust manifold?

I had one years ago from MSA that would suck into the fan too. I wound up strapping it to the support infront of the radiator to keep it from getting pulled back. Mine was a bit warped when I got it so I thought that was the cause.

thanks!

I misplaced my service manual CD. Anyone have a good how-to on removing and reinstalling the door glass? -Trevor

I wanna play too: I went with a radiator setup similar to the V8 conversion ones with some help from: http://240z.jeromio.com/camaroradiator.html that allowed for more clearance for the fan. I had just recently bought a new controller for the fan: http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=FLX%2D33054&N=700+0&autoview=sku It is supposed to turn the fan on at half power when it first starts heating up and then go to full power if it keeps getting warmer. I hadn't had a chance to install it yet when I bought a replacement Z. I think I may stick with a stock fan and radiator setup on the 'new to me' Z though. I had put the temperature pickup for it at the bottom passenger side of the radiator. The instructions say to put it on the drivers side closer to the top so it can sense when the water gets hot sooner. That is probably a better idea rather than wait till too hot of water is heading back into the engine.

yep, all they need is the standard price drop as the technology gets better and more common. It basically runs off laptop batteries. I read awhile back about all the testing and batteries that caught fire and exploded while they tried to figure out how to keep them cool. Just replace the engine in the Z with batteries up front and put the electric motor back where the gas tank and spare tire currently are. And no more changing oil! You just have to hum to make the engine sounds as you drive We went on a tour of an old gold mine in the area once and they had people acting out the parts of the people that were there back at the start of the 1900's. The lady was telling a story about her electric car dieing on the way into town. Can you imagine if cars had gone the way of electric what our battery and electric motor technology would be at today?

you are thinking old technology. Even the latest stuff can be smaller and lighter: http://www.teslamotors.com/ <- I'd take one of those any day. just imagine when battery technology makes its next jump.

I get nervous on the freeway in the Z with some of the monster vehicles out there and can’t imagine being in one of those tiny things. I know there are all sorts of videos of them crashing into walls and each other showing how safe they are, what I want to see is one getting plowed into by an SUV. It is much like the current frontal crash tests for cars they smash the car into a stationary object so the smaller the car, the smaller the force. That is why the small print on the frontal crash stars says that they are only valid as a comparison between cars of the same class. I keep reading articles about how you are twice as likely to die in a crash in a small car as compared to a midsized car. I remember seeing a biodiesel z on ebay once. Any one do an electric Z?

So people won't be doing Hydrogen power conversions on their Z's? I think the guys at hybridz.org will be all over that

probably not the price you are looking for but last time I was at zcarparts.com they had new ones. -Trevor

Especially if it completely goes away after 2008. There are unique factors to the car that will make it stand out and in a bit of similarity to the early Z's it was an attainable car that could take on much more expensive cars. Although an 8 year run is a long one there are probably plenty of people that wanted one but couldn't justify it till the kids were gone or other reasons.

I think the drop in HP is due to the different method for calculating it they started using. The first years of the change showed HP staying the same and torque going up slightly. A large portion of the changes to the Z weren't a gradual evolution they were battling changing requirements for much of it. Although some items were added as mere luxury as the years progressed the added weight of safety items and added smog restrictions forced changes that didn't necessarily result in a car that was considered 'improved'. For example if I had to leave my Z stock I never would have considered buying a '73. While at the same time I do miss some of the more 'plush' items that my 280 had. Although even on it a lot of the changes were there to try to overcome the negatives forced on them. The true aficionados will know the differences but I see the S2000 changes as more like the differences between the 1970 through 1972 Z's. I have trouble telling what is different, while when people ask what year my Z is and I say '73 I often get the "that's too bad" look and have to tell them that it has the earlier carbs. So although now there are probably few if any looking for a low VIN S2000 in 30 years when there are much fewer S2000's left like with the 240's now it may be something people look for.

I think what it will really take for the cars of today to be collectable is a major shift in the market. Either the manufactures all go after some new styling change. Like the change from the big flat sided boats of the 50s to the curved in at the bottom look of the later models or government intervention. Like the 1-2 punch of smog laws and safetly regulations that did in the cars of the early 70s. If the government came out tomorrow and said all future cars must get 40mpg or more, many people would cling to their current cars. Or all cars must have big enough bumpers to hit a wall at 30 mph and not receive any damage. The future cars wouldn't look much like the current ones. It could happen on a smaller scale, say if Chrysler decided that sales had dropped on the 300 so they weren't going to make it anymore or if the new PT Cruiser came out and looked nothing like the current one then there would be a solid line that some people would stay on the other side of. It still has the problem of in 20 years where do you get a new traction control dohicky. At least then it would be "hey, you've got one of the original (insert car here)" rather than "Oh that is the old (same car), have you seen the newer ones?" On a side note: I wish I could edit posts for longer than 5 minutes. Sometimes my brain doesn't work that fast.

The S2000 was mentioned as an example. Not only did Honda produce a lot more of them than was expected, they gave the new ones more power, fancier sound systems etc. I think it helped the 240's that it wasn't until they came out with the ZX turbos that the cars in stock form were faster than the original. Will the 350Z be in demand or will people just replace them with the 370Z?

How many will still be running in a few decades? I know overall cars are much more reliable now but with all the electronics and regulations on them are people really going to be able to keep them going? A bit of duct tape and bailing wire will keep a Z on the road for quite awhile. Try that when the computer controlled thingymajig goes haywire and they aren't available anymore. I know different states have different smog laws but that would seem to be a limiting factor. It could get very expensive trying to keep up all the systems so that they'd pass smog year after year. The cars mentioned above definitely have the uniqueness and character to stay, however as mentioned 'old' cars are now looked at differently. Each new model year has to be bigger and faster than the last. We have Toyota Camrys that will do 0-60 in around 6 seconds. Does that seem ridiculous to anyone else? Yes, many of us try to make our Z's faster but the ongoing quest to get family cars to have so much HP that it is really useless just baffles me. Will anyone value a 2005 Chrysler 300 when the 2012 model has 650 HP, 23 airbags, 18 speaker 2,300 watt sound system and can not only park itself but will also feed the parking meter? Does the 350Z have the styling to last? Each year will find faster and better versions of it so will people value the early ones? I like the Z because it has style that you can't come close to without spending well over $40,000 today, its fun to drive and fairly easy to work on. However, my sisters minivan will probably outrun it at a stoplight. I guess maybe as long as there are people that value something other than HP ratings and the number of cup holders maybe people will hold onto their 300's and Mini's etc. The DeLorean is definitely unique enough to last, but how many other 80's or early 90's cars do you see around that are in good shape? For the ones that aren't in good shape what are the odds that anyone would spend what it would cost to return them to good shape? Edmunds.com recently added a 1984 Ferrari 308GTSi to their long term test fleet: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/LongTerm/articleId=121288 it is interesting to read their ongoing logs about driving it.

but they also got the "get in, sit down, shut up, and hold on" air freshner

Yep, I found that out the hard way. On my white Z the fusable links were missing and I didn't know it. I was driving along when the car died and smoke started coming out the dash and filling the amp guage. Had the car towed home and it turned out the alternator had shorted out and things heated up till the weak link (amp guage) gave out. I was very lucky it went before the wiring. I replaced the amp part of the guage with a the volt part from a 280, bypassing the old amp guage connection. Added the fusable links and added a good sized wire with its own fusable link directly between the battery and the alt. Then proceded to add a fuseblock in the engine compartment which fed the headlights and other high draw items to take some of the load off the stock wiring. I don't know if I want to do all that on the 'new' orange one so for now I'll leave the high amp alt off of it.

Will the amp meter still register anything if you have a connection directly from the alt to the battery? In my white Z the amp meter got fried so I replaced it with a volt meter before I did the alternator upgrades. In my orange Z I'm not up for ripping into it just yet to do something like that so I'm hesitant to move the high amp alt to the orange one. If the battery were ever to go dead in a parking lot that would be a lot of load to put on the wiring after jump starting it. With the alt trying to charge the battery on top of running everything else. If you have direct wiring from the alt to the battery it makes sense to run add on accessories directly off the battery terminals, but with the stock setup wouldn't it actually be not the ideal setup as the amps have to make a complete trip from the alt through the interior of the car and back out to the battery. Putting a lot of wire between the alt and the accessory. And making it look like your battery is charging more than it is?

The dents are very round. Our guy uses the spoons from behind the dent method. He's removed some dents in the past that I didn't think could be done. One on our other car was right on the character line and a good solid crease line going against it. I can only spot where that was by the slight dent in the paint there now. I guess since we go to him because he's good I should just trust his opinion on it but I'm not looking forward to having a rough drivers door from now until the car finally needs painted or I break the 'gotta have a Z' curse.

Our paintless dent repair guy didn't want to try removing the dents in the door on my Z because he said the paint probably wouldn't hold up to the bending back out. I think it is the original paint and no telling how old the dents are. The dents are quite deep for door dings and it has 3 of them within about a 10" area on the drivers door. I was hoping to get them popped back out and don't really want to mess with having a body shop do it as I can't imagine anyone being able to match the look of the 34 year old paint. Anyone familiar with removing dents with old paint? Will it likely split or do that wonderful spiderweb cracking? -Trevor

maybe its those things sticking out of the side of the neck:

Will an early 280Z manifold work with carbs on a 240 (e88 head)? Would that be a workable way to get away from the airpump rail?

not having any problems. Just looking for something that doesn't stand out so much on the router logs:classic:

is there an ip address I can type in to access the site rather than the domain name?