Jeff G 78

I install everything I can before dropping the assembly into the car. I use the stock lifting eyes on the front and back of the head. I have tried several different methods over the years to tilt the powertrain with varying degrees of success. I bought a balance bar before my last install and it worked okay, but it didn't have enough travel the way I hooked it up. The next time, I will try to start with it all the way at one end of the travel to get the maximum tilt. When I installed the powertrain in the pic above, I did it alone and simply used four adjustable straps. Two on the front and two on the back. I would leave the front straps really short and then alternate the rear straps back and forth to lower the trans tail down low enough to fit under the firewall. Once in low enough, I would work the two front straps down to lower the front of the engine down. I can have the engine sitting on the mounts in about an hour working alone or about half that long with a helper.

YES Cliff, it is easier to install with the header while the engine is out of the car. I roll the stand to the side so the flanges are up at a 45 degree angle for easier access. I then install the carbs and even the air cleaner assembly before decking the powertrain. It's very easy to make sure everything is properly tightened when it's looking right at you. I've done it this was about 15 times over the past 35 years in various Z cars.

Yes, they fail and when they do, bad things happen. My experience is with racing, but I have also failed one on a street engine. Luckily, I caught it before crank damage occurred. The best prevention is to have your damper rebuilt by a quality shop like Dale Mfg. or buy a quality aftermarket damper.

Sounds good. I tried to flush mine with everything I could think of and then I removed the baffle to see if there was anything caught. There was grit everywhere! Luckily, it was just a spare cover I was experimenting on, so I threw it away. If you are putting the baffle back in, just make sure you use an epoxy that won't come apart over time from the heat and oil.

Be VERY careful with that valve cover. I once tried to blast a cover without taking the proper precautions and media got under the baffle. There is no way to get it all out until the engine flushes it out and into the oiling system.

Wow, it sure looked kinda, sorta, almost like a Z.

I run SU's on my 260 race car and my '78 has the stock L-Jet EFI. The '72 I had with triples ended up in Paris with forum member "Lazeum". I was moving and was forced to give up one of my projects. I should have kept the '72 and sold the '78. That was about 10 years ago before 240Z prices skyrocketed. Oh well...

It sounds like Weber is still the best gamble for long-term parts availability even though they might not be the easiest/best to work on. I had a Z with DCOE's years ago and I long to have triples again someday. Good luck with your borrowed carbs!

So, can a 280Z valence be swapped for a 240Z valence for a small bumper swap? Most people have to weld up the bumper shock holes when they do the swap.

Good call Steve. You're right about IdahoKidd.

Hmmm, I never knew that either. Nice to know.

Sorry to hear about Kathy. The Z community is thinking about you and your family.

When you dead head the fuel supply, be sure to plug the chassis return line to the tank so no fuel can puke out while driving.

Was that question for me? Either way, I do not run a return. I tried it with and without and found no benefit to keeping it. Before I eliminated the OE rail, it vapor-locked worse with the return.

One of the things I tried over and over was return vs. no return and not using a return seemed to be better for some reason. With the rubber hose replacing the OE rail, I did not run a return line. I looked through my files, but I don't have any pics of the new routing. I will eventually take a few pics and post them. I'm going out of town again for work, so it might be a week before I have time.

Yep, that's what we do.

I was part of the previous discussion. My racecar was a nightmare. It would run great for 30 minutes and then start acting up. At first, it would break up at high RPM and then after a bit more time, the engine would misfire at lower and lower RPM until it wouldn't pull at all on the straights. We changed everything including fuel pump(s), ignition, exhaust, heat shielding, carbs, etc. The only thing that worked was ditching the steel fuel rail and replacing it with rubber hose. The heat was transferring from the head into the fuel via the rail mounts. Once we made the switch, we have never had a minute of trouble with vapor lock.

Looking good!

You can get Rewinds really cheap from time to time from Discount Tire Direct. I bought two sets of 15x7 for my 260Z race car for $360 a set delivered.

There are no storage bins either. I think they were trying to make it more luxurious and quieter with the high deck. I liked the '76 cargo area better.

No Cliff, the '78 floor is spaced up like yours, but without the angled back. There is a plastic interior panel covering the tail lamps. The '78 uses the same spare and canister as yours. The hatch area in my old '76 was much more usable due the extra 3+ inches of cargo depth below the window. The only good thing about the raised floor is that it makes a wonderful place to hide audio equipment. I have two amps and a crossover sandwiched between the floor and the wood deck forward of the tire well. Eventually I will build a speaker box like the one MSA sells and put a sub in the tire well in place of the nearly 40 year old inflatable spare. As a hobby woodworker, I can't spend $150 for $30 worth of MDF.

BRE show isn't until Feb 20th. I'll only be there through the 5th. I will try to get to MSA though if I can. I have a few hours of downtime on the 4th. The beauty is that I can buy big stuff and ship it back in a van we'll have out there.

What about the www.xenons30.com site? That has all of the FSM's and FI manual. I thought they were all correct, though I'm not sure I have ever looked at the '77 FSM there.

Hey Cliff, I have a N47/spray bar head on my '78. I thought it was a unicorn, but apparently there were a few '77's built that way. I bought the head about 15 years ago. It was pulled from a new engine in '77 and had been sitting on a shelf for 20 years before I bought it. The story was that a race team owned it and had pulled it when they got the car new. It was really neat to see a brand new head that old. The cam/rockers had no wear pattern yet and the head had clearly never been touched. I put new valve seals in and dropped in on my flat top engine.

Does the '77 have a trap door in the rear deck for the fuel sender like the '78 has? If so, you could look in the tank and see how bad it is.