Jeff G 78

I run the Porterfield R4S on the rear of my endurance race car along with the R4E compound up front. The fronts last one 24 hour race and the rears are still going strong after about 100 hours of racing and track days. For the street, I'd run the R4S all the way around. Upgrade to ATE or Motul brake fluid and MSA braided hoses. You will be very happy with the feel and power. R4S should be quiet as well. I buy my Porterfields from Livermore Performance in CA.

Uhhh, no. Scrub is the arc that the tire makes on the ground when the wheels are turned. The hub turns on the strut axis and if the wheels are pushed out, the tires will travel in an arc on the ground rather than simply rotating in place. That said, wheel spacers don't necessarily increase the scrub radius. If you install 40mm spacers and then use a +40mm offset wheel, the scrub radius is the same as stock.

I don't remember ever using a gasket there and I've never had a problem.

You need to stay close to zero (about -6 to +6) unless you plan on running spacers. Most aftermarket wheels are for modern cars which use closer to +35 and up offsets. Those will not work without bolt-on spacers and they don't look right on a Z.

Paint the block bare. Use good engine paint and it will not get damaged from oils, lube, etc. If you wait to paint it, you will likely get some oils on the block and the paint will not adhere.

John, does OBX build them that way (wrong) to get around a patent? It seems like a good unit once put together the right way.

This is far from uncommon and most high-end cars are using the technology. Porsches, Corvettes, BMWs, Mustangs, etc. all use it. Interiors are becoming so quiet that cars need some help at times to sound good.

That's awesome Guy. If he is as meticulous as you, it should be a hell of a nice car when finished! If Mike really paid around $8000 for that car, they got a great deal. It looked really clean. I can't wait to see the pictures.

Thanks for posting. I hadn't seen it yet on TV. They made a few technical errors or at least omissions, but overall, it looks like a nice car. I have a Web Racing cam in my car and i'm not sure why they went with a hard welded cam. According to their website, they don't even sell hard welded Z cams. Maybe they made an exception for the show??? Mike paid $600 for the hard welded cam compared to $395 for the new billet. The big problem I saw is that they reused the rocker arms without resurfacing them or even checking them. Considering the cam was supposedly worn, the rockers would likely be worn as well. The rest of the build was pretty straight forward, though they should have ditched the 280Z hubcaps and gone with either 240Z hubcaps or alloy wheels. The car itself looked like a beautiful example with nice paint, so based on Mike's initial internet searches where he found cars from $18,000 to about $25,000, why did they only ask less than $17,000? A $1000 set of Rewinds and new tires would have made the car look much nicer. Then again, I thought I remember it having nice wheels when it showed up on ebay.

I run the Carter on my race car and it works great for a ~200 hp 2.8L with SU carbs. How do you know you have a fuel pressure problem? I'm not talking about the pressure, I'm asking about the symptoms.

John, I can't tell from your pic, are the clevises attached to a ring that attaches to the three strut studs, or are the clevises welded straight to the strut towers?

Ouch! Sorry about your car and your injuries. Hopefully both can be returned to 100% over time. My 260Z race car has a kill switch within driver's reach. Hopefully if I ever have to bail quickly, I remember to kill the switch and fuel pump. Wiring the pump through the oil pressure switch will be on my to-do list.

Red block here too.

My pistons and rods looked about like that. I couldn't find anything that would clean them, so I let the machine shop clean them when I took the block in for cleaning and honing. They came back looking like new. They cleaned the front cover too and that came out even better.

Interesting. Thanks for the history lesson Zed!

Not doubting you, but unless the car is burning oil, there should be very little ZDDP getting to the cat. I am surprised the cats are that sensitive.

My L28 race engine might not see the abuse of stop and go traffic, but it does see 24+ hours straight of race track conditions. It makes power to 7000 RPM and is only shut down to refill the gas tank every 2 hours. I run a Web Racing cam and I only run Valvoline VR-1. The cam looks great after thousands of race miles. I have torn apart many, many L series engines and quite a few of them have had cam wear even though the rest of the engine looked great. I can't say if my race engine's cam would wear without the added zinc, but why chance it?

Two words Guy... Out Building.

Good to hear from you again.

Riiiiiiigggggghhhhhttttttt. ::

I like SU's because the stock EFI doesn't work well with a performance cam. My '78 280 ran like crap with my Web Racing cam, but the same cam works awesome in my L28 SU 260Z race car. For a stock engine, both work well when properly functioning.

I don't know the history of this car and I didn't read all the posts, so forgive me if this has been covered. Is this car unrestored? I notice what looks like rust under the hood seal at the cowl and the seal itself is rather cracked. Awesome car, but it's surprising to see flaws like that on a car that sold for $253,000. Also, what's with the blue marks around the unused holes on the inner fender? I can't quite figure that out.

Is that the bracket for the S130 caliper or the S13 caliper?

I'm in the same boat with my 260Z race car. I bought it with no title. The PO said that the original owner moved from Texas to Indiana and took the Z with them. From what I can tell, mechanically it must have been pretty well used up, but it was pretty well rust-free so they kept the car. They never bothered to switch the title from TX to IN and the Z sat parked for a decade. They eventually sold it as a parts/race car to another Indiana guy who again never bothered to deal with the title since he planned to race it someday. He parked it in his barn where it sat for another 5-10 years. That's when I found it on CL and bought it for $450 to build into a race car. I always wanted to title it so I could at least drive it up and down the road for testing, but my teammate threw the old, worthless dash in the trash when we installed the cage. By the time I knew what he did, it was too late and the VIN tag was gone. Now, unless I find a replacement VIN tag, getting a replacement title will be even harder than before the tag was thrown away. I've had the car 5 years now and would still like to title it.

Welcome back Justin