Jeff G 78

Correct Gary. When I saw your quote, I realized I had a typo in the formula. It should have read (RON+MON)/2.

IMHO (as an auto engineer), it's not so much how stiff the car is, but how bad your roads are. My '78 is a blast when I take it to the smoothish winding roads of Ohio, but here in SE Michigan, we have some of the worst roads in the country and frankly, it's brutal. It feels like the car is going to break whenever I hit a sharp frost heave or road repair patch. The poly TC bushings are likely the main culprit since most of the bone-jarring ride is due to a lack of suspension recession. All cars are designed to "give" rearward when the tire hits a bump. Think of it as trying to catch a hard-thrown baseball barehanded. To keep from stinging your hand, you pull your hand back as the ball reaches you. If you do it right, you barely feel the ball, but keep your hand stiff and it hurts like crazy. The poly TC bushings keep the front suspension from giving rearward upon impact. The spring rates and dampers only control the vertical movement of the wheels, but the bushings contribute greatly to the impact harshness. The other issue you might or might not have with the setup you mentioned is bump steer. My '78 has Tokico springs, Illumina struts, MSA bars and poly bushings throughout. The bumpsteer is terrible. We have a few concrete on ramps and on those where the slabs are no longer even, the steering wheel saws back and forth several inches. My 260 race car has a similar setup, but I relocated the LCA pivot points up 3/4" and out 1/4". The steering is rock solid with no discern-able bump steer even on very rough tracks. This spring, I hope to find the time to modify my '78 crossmember as well. I will also swap out the TC bushings for rubber to improve the impact harshness.

I don't have an owners manual handy, but from what I recall, it says to use 91 RON, not 91 (RON+MON/2). 91 RON is what we see as 87 at US pumps. I have always run 87 in every Z other than my 10:1 CR 280. My 260 race car gets only 87 and I run the wizz out of that motor with no issues. In our last race, we completed 1400 miles in about 22 hours of actual on-track time.

Some are easy, some are horrific to install. As for the ride, it will be way worse, but it all depends what your roads are like and what your tolerance level is. I would do it, but at a bare minimum, use 1/2 poly and 1/2 rubber on the T/C rods.

Well played ConchZ, well played.

25 years ago and long before the internet, I did the swap by myself in a weekend. The key is to have all of the needed parts ready to go.

I've never heard of road course bracket racing. Pretty cool! Where is your cage builder going to land the rear diagonals Steve? Mine go to the top front of the shock towers, but they are a bit steeper than the 45° recommended angle.

My bad. In your first post, you mentioned bracket racing, so I figured it would only be a drag cage. You might consider adding an additional driver's side door bar up higher. Z cars are so tight though, that you really need to gut the door and do NASCAR bars which might or might not fit into your plans for the car. Here is mine.

I'm a road racer and not a drag racer, so it might not matter for what you need, but I see no way to get 360° welds around several of the bars. For example, in the last picture where the door bars meet the main hoop. The door bars are down tight against the boxes and also tight against the rocker leaving only about 180° of the bar exposed for welding. I also see this issue at the front of the door bars and even the A-pillar bars where they meet the rocker boxes. In most road racing sanctioning bodies, anything less than 360° is a fail. Again, it might not be an issue for your needs, but I wanted to point it out so you can ask your cage builder if needed. Otherwise, the cage looks pretty good.

Works for me too.

Pull the distributor and see what the shaft orientation is. When I bought my 260 and tore the motor down for gaskets, it went back together and didn't run. After checking the rotor, it looked exactly like your picture. I knew I must have put the shaft in a tooth off, so I pulled the dizzy and checked the shaft orientation. Hmmm, it was at 11:25, right where it was supposed to be. Since I only had eight weeks to build my race car from the ground up, I left it alone and rotated the wires on the cap to get the car going. Later, when I got a newer distributor, I compared the 260 dizzy and the ZX dizzy and sure enough, the orientations were different. I have never seen another one off like that, but mine was different than any other S30/S130 dizzy I've seen. Looking at the way they are built, I never did figure how it could have been built wrong. The point of my story is that is is possible for the shaft to be oriented correctly and the dizzy be off. Has anyone else ever come across a Datsun distributor that was off 60°?

Looking great Brandon! Keep the pics coming.

Looks great Brandon!

You are likely right Jim. I was only going by what I read online about the large diameter hose and even if I did find out it was available, I wasn't about to spend $101 for a vent hose when I bought my whole race car for $350. I restoration project is a different story though and $101 might be a bargain for originality.

I don't have near the stiffness John does, but my inside front gets light as well. This is with cut springs and aftermarket bars. This is my $500 crapcan racer.

Dammit, I typed out a nice, long response and my computer decided to reboot. Dropping the tank isn't terribly difficult, but be warned that the "While I'm At It" syndrome will take over. The tank drop will be easy if the strap threads and nuts are not rusty. It they are, soak them for several days before you begin. The biggest thing you will find is old, dry vent hoses which, while you're in there, should be replaced. This requires the interior trim panels to be removed and some fabrication work since the large vent hose in the back of the tank is NLA. It has a 180° bend molded in, so bulk hose cannot be used without additional hardware. You can find a how-to online to make a copper fitting to replace the 180 in the hose. This is easy, but I would recommend incorporating beads on the ends of the copper to keep the hoses in place. I didn't do this and had the hose pop off. I had to drain and drop the tank at the race track which cost me a lot of time and aggravation. When you replace the hoses, be sure to use fuel-rated vent hose and not heater hose. I had to special order the 5/8" fuel hose as it's not very common. Chances are very good that all of your hoses are way overdue for replacement anyways, so use the opportunity to do it right. Be sure to seal the hoses where they go through the floor. You are probably getting exhaust fumes sucked in through the old grommets.

Careful, I might not leave!

The next time I'm your way, I WILL stop and see your amazing collection in person.

I agree Guy, but he should probably keep working to improve before restoring his own Z. Brandon is more than welcome to hone his painting skills on my Z.

Take a white or yellow paint pen and draw a line across both pulleys. That way, if they don't stay lined-up, you will know it slipped. I do this even on good dampers.

I have watched quite a bit of BJ this year as well as many BJ's in the past. The prices overall are WAY down this year. Cars that used to bring great money are now bringing far less than what it costs to restore them. One example was a '65 Vette with a 00005 VIN. The car was beautiful inside and out and it brought something like $40,000. A few years ago it would have easily been a $100k car. That car's selling price was very typical of the cars I watched go across the blocks. There was a numbers matching '69 Mopar 440 convertible that sold for $30k. A friend of mine sold his '69 Road Runner 383 in decent driver condition for over $30k about 7 years ago. The BJ car would probably appraise for close to double what my friend's is worth.

Do you have the wrong pulley/pointer, or is your damper torn and rotating? If the damper is ripped, you need to replace it right away. Not only can you not use a timing light, but you can break a crank. My race car damper ripped and was so bad that I could spin the fan with the engine off. Another member was kind enough to give me a good damper and I'm back in business.

Did you buy the ex-Bondurant car when they switched to using GM products? I know that there were some great deals on cars that were brand new. The old pre-'99 cars were pretty used up. They are super easy to drive and are very durable if taken care of.

My Z looks way worse than it really is because I don't have the money to hire the body and paint work and I have zero bodywork skills. I do everything myself on my cars and house, but auto body just isn't my thing. I have tried it and I suck at it. It's awesome to see others do it so well! Keep the pics coming.

Very cool Brandon!