Jeff G 78

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

Agreed. $500 - $800 parts car.

Feel free to PM me and we can discuss the specifics of the engine mods I did. I'll have to looks at my pics and see how the pistons were marked. Those numbers *might* be fit. I know that the rods are numbered 1 through 6, but I can't remember if the piston numbers were cylinder numbers.

Congrats Greg and crew. Keep up the good work.

The "standard" shave for a P79 is 0.080" from stock. To do this, you will need to swap the N42 valves and add 0.080" tower shims. I did not go that route. Instead, I shaved 0.050" and left the valves and towers stock. I then modified the cam gear as shown in the "How to Modify..." book using the Chevy eccentric cam gear spacers. I also modified the chain guides to get more travel and I oversized the guide bolts from M6 to M8. With this setup, I get about 9.4:1 CR and it makes great power with little worry about detonation. I think you get 9.83:1 if you shave 0.080". The stock head is 108mm thick, so you can check how much was previously milled by measuring with good calipers. Be SURE the top of the head isn't warped. If it is, the cam will be forced to bend which robs power and will break the cam. Use a straight edge on the top of the head where the valve cover sits and check the flatness with feeler gauges.

Redline for sure. I like MT90 for the trans though. The diff fill and drain plugs can be extremely hard to remove. Use heat if needed.

I've heard you can run the square header, but I've never tried it. I also edited my last post. I had a brain fart and incorrectly said that I use a N42 head on my FI 280Z. I actually run a N47 head on that car. They have the same chamber, but the N47 has the liners and round ports. I run a 6-1 header on the N47 and a 3-2-1 header on the P79. Sorry for the mistake.

To clarify and answer Zed Head's question, I run my F54/P79 on SU's. My 280Z with F54/N47 is FI, but I tried and failed to get it to run right with the mild cam. It runs fine with the stock cam, but the Web #91 cam didn't work at all. Idle was rough and power was way down until high RPM where it was better, but still down from where it should have been. The stock cam makes better power with that engine and fuel setup. The same cam in my SU-equipped F54/P79 260Z is fantastic. As for the ping debate, I'd be willing to bet that it's a regional issue. The Western half of the US only gets 91 octane premium, while here in the East we have 93 at all stations and even 94 at some. I run 93 octane premium in my F54/N47 street car with no issues. EDIT: I mistakently typed F54/N42. I run a N47 head on my 280Z. Same chamber, but different port shape.

The P79 is an awesome head. I run a F54/shaved P79 combo in my race car with great results. I shaved 0.050" and reworked the cam gear and chain guides so I didn't have to change valves or run tower spacers. I love it! With a Web #91 cam, it pulls to 7k and runs strong. The benefit of the P79 over the N42 is that it's much more ping resistant so I can run more advance. Here in the East, I have 93 octane fuel, but with only 91 out West, I'd be afraid of the N42/F54 combo.

That should look great.

Great looking project. Keep the pics coming.

Without the surge tank, the main tank pickup will suck air in the corners and create fuel starvation to the engine. With the surge tank, the main tank pickup will pull fuel down the straightaways to fill the 1/2 gallon surge tank. The surge tank has plenty of capacity to feed the engine through the corners. The only downside is that once the main tank is empty and the 1/2 gallon surge tank runs dry, the engine quits with no warning. The good thing is that on an average track, we can extend our runs from about 1 hour and 40 minutes to a full 2 hours which is the maximum driver stint time allowed.

I autocrossed a few times 20 years or so ago. It wasn't for me. While the time on course was fun, getting less than 4 minutes of seat time for a full day's effort sucked. If you want to "race", I suggest going to a track day at a local track. There is Roebling Road, Road Atlanta, and AMP in Georgia. For about $200 you can get several hours of time on a real track with instruction. For some people, that is enough to scratch their racing itch. At some point you might want to go door to door racing. There are many ways to satisfy that desire, but the costs go up very quickly. Start with autocross, but don't be surprised if you tire of it quickly. If so, take it to the next level.

Nice looking race car. Good luck with the sale. If I had unlimited funds, I'd have a fleet of race cars.

I run the 4070 on my 260Z endurance racer running 3 screw SU's. It works great. I use a Facet cube pump to fill the surge tank and the Carter 4070 to feed the engine. The surge tank allows me to use all the fuel in the tank. Prior to installing it, I couldn't get all the fuel out of the stock fuel tank, but with the surge tank installed, I can run two full hours on a tank. The car runs for up to 26 straight hours on the track, so performance and durability are critical. The 2.8L engine puts out about 175 RWHP.