Jeff G 78

You could go JY hunting for another cartridge strut with the same diameter from a more common car and then cut and section the new top onto the damaged S30 strut.

Numbers on the doors!

The C clamp style works well for what you need to do, but in the future, at some point, you will need to pull the springs with the head on the engine and you will wish you had style #1. When the head is off and I need to pull the springs, I have a plywood "workbench" that has two holes drilled in it that match the end two head bolt holes. I have a small wood block trimmed to the right size and thickness to hold the valves closed and then I bolt the head to the bench using carriage bolts and woodworking wingnuts. I can then easily remove the springs and valves. One downside of the style #1 tool is that it is very hard to use with performance valve springs. It works great on stock springs, but the springs next to the towers do not leave enough room to get a square bite on the spring cap and compress it. I have always gotten it to work, but not without a lot of swearing.

I fabricated an Optima battery hold-down bracket for my race car, installed an O2 bung and made some L brackets to install headlight covers to the buckets. A few days ago, I powder coated the mustache bar while I have it out for new bushings. Tomorrow, we should get the engine back in and the mustache bar installed.

A quick internet search didn't help. I found people claiming everything from zero to +12mm for the six spoke wheels. I would trust the zero claim the most since the site listed the offsets and weights for many of the common stock and aftermarket Z wheels.

No, but I'd guess between zero and +6mm.

Tom, This website should help you understand. Play with the offsets and watch the graphic. http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp

Positive offset pushes the wheel inward and has a more flush face look. Negative offset gives the wheel a deeper dish. Modern cars have +40 - +60 offset. Near zero offsets are extremely rare these days.

Correct. The bearings do not know the difference. The loads would be exactly the same as if you use zero offset wheels.

I'll try Steve. Over the last few years I have spent all of my (very limited) Z time and money on the race car. My street Z has not come off the dollies or out from under the cover in two years. I stored it for winter and never woke it up after winter. I hope the fuel stabilizer is still doing its job. I really wanted to get it out this year, but once again, the house and race car took priority. Maybe after my race next month I will try to get it out for a month before it gets stored again for winter.

Hmmm, Toronto is only fours hours away. I might be able to make it.

I'm a bit confused Zed. Drums get BIGGER as they get worn and when turned. Why would the shoes be made for bigger drums?

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.

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.