Jeff G 78

That's a new one on me Blue. I don't think I've ever seen those before.

It took quite a bit of searching, but Enkei did actually make a wheel that looks just like mine. The Enkei model was called Easyrider. Unfortunately, there are no markings on the wheels, so I have no idea if mine are actually Enkei or not. Here is a picture I found of the Enkei Easyriders. and here are my wheels

We had one of the Vectors come loose last year mid-race. Luckily it didn't come off, but it did booger up the lug holes in the wheel. I hate shank-style wheels!!! They are a pain in the arse to get on and off quickly and the nuts are getting hard to find.

Coop, they were on the 280 when I bought it back in 1990. At that time, the car had been sitting for about 5 years, so they are at least 26 years old - maybe more. I like the wheels a lot, but they have the stupid slotted lug holes that accept multiple bolt circles. I am afraid to use them on the 260 race car even though I need another set of 14x6 wheels for the track. Has anybody ever used wheels with this style hub on the track? I have never been able to verify if they were designed to use some sort of insert. There were "Unilug" wheels of the same era that used a washer with an offset hole, but these don't appear to use anything other than a regular shank style lugnut.

260Z on 14x6 slot mags and 195/60R14 tires same 260Z on American Racing Vectors (aka Dukes of Hazzard wheels) and 195/60R14 tires 280Z on Enkei(?) 14x6 wheels and 215/60R14 tires same 280 on 16x7 Panasports and 225/50R16 tires

Not ALL of them Phillip. I happen to have a bone stock N47 with a spray bar. I bought the head about 10 years ago from a guy in San Diego who claimed the head was owned by a Nissan race team and was a take-off head that had zero miles on it when removed in 1976. The complete head was clearly brand new when I got it. The cam and rockers had no wear patterns and everything else looked like it had zero miles and wasn't cleaned or reworked. The seller said that it was from an early production '77 engine.

You rock Blue! Nice work.

That's the one. Thanks!

I can't find it right now, but somebody once posted a complete Nissan L6 distributor spec chart. Anybody know where to find it?

Good luck Blue.

Then how is it that the S2K guys can solve the problem by reducing the toe-in? I agree with your thinking, but the toe reduction fix works on that particular car.

I just looked it up Arne. They use a 16x7.5 in the rear with a 225 tire. I have read though that their 225 tire is on the wide side of nominal, so when switching to a non-OE tire, a 235 is needed to keep the original tire width. I agree with Leon that it is a combination of toe and camber that's causing the center wear. Toe will wear the outside, but that wear will creep inboard with a lot of camber. EDIT: A quick search on a SK2 forum reveals that toe is the culprit. The setup I found was to use the low end of the toe spec and 2° of camber in the rear. Less toe alone will cause oversteer. The added camber helps the situation. YMMV. (literally )

Looks totally normal. S2000's eat rear tires at an alarming rate. My dad's S2000 wears tires very quickly, though they do wear much more evenly than yours. Honda runs a lot of rear toe for stability, but I'm no S2000 expert so I can't say what happens if the toe is reduced. NSX's wore tires out in ~3,000 miles for the same reason.

Congrats again on a stunning car. The blue one is pretty spectacular as well. Have a great time showing them off.

Happy to hear everything went well Koalia.

That never bothers me because I grew up riding MOTORcycles. They aren't called enginecycles are they? Speaking of which, it bothers me when people say they drive their bike. I think they say turn on because most kids have no mechanical aptitude and cars are nothing more that an appliance. Turn on the stove..Turn on the TV... Turn on the car. Imagine how few kids will ever learn to drive three-pedal cars? Sad...

Why not use a 3.36 rear end gear from an auto or swap in a ZX 5 speed? Tall tires will make your car look really funny and they will probably rub. I tried a similar size back in 1986 and they rubbed over bumps.

The cam must have EXACTLY the right rotation or the sprocket won't want to slip into place. I usually install the cam sprocket bolt and just tighten it enough with my fingers so it can't move out any. I then pry as Blue suggests and while doing that, I rotate the cam a tiny bit back and forth until the sprocket slips on. Obviously it helps to have another set of hands, but I have done it alone many times. That's where the bolt comes in. If the screwdriver slips, you won't have to reposition the chain and sprocket. If the sprocket is visibly lower than the cam, even by a little bit, you might not have the chain wedged correctly and the tensioner might not be fully seated. There isn't much you can do except try to stick a long screwdriver down in front of the block and try to wiggle the tensioner in fully. You can also remove the top bolt of the curved chain guide and rotate the guide to give you more slack in the chain. When doing this, you risk loosening the bottom guide bolt which is inside the front cover, so be careful.

Wow. Perfect!

Wow, that's really generous Guy. PM on its way.

Thanks Darrel, I was trying to remember the name of that company. I assumed they would be more expensive than that. If I don't have any good used ones, I'll go that route. That's what I was thinking too Guy, but I wonder if there's a way I can check not only if it has already slipped, but if it's near failure and about to slip. My October race is 25 hours, 25 minutes and 25 seconds long, so I'd rather not be nearing damper failure at the start of the race. :paranoid:

I'm in exactly the same boat on my 260 race car. Is there any way to tell if a damper is good by looking at it? I have several spare engines that I can steal parts from, but I don't want to waste my time only to have another 35 year old damper fail mid-race. Does the ZX damper have extra pulleys for power steering, or is it still a two row? I'd rather not spend $150 on a damper for a $500 race car, but I also don't want to break a crank when an old damper fails.

I have no issues with working to keep a funky car running, but I get upset with the poor engineering. I have worked on several Fiats and they were a pain in the butt. Datsuns are 1000 times more straight forward and well thought out. If an X1/9 in good shape landed in my driveway, I'd cherish it and have a lot of fun.

With carbs and a mechanical fuel pump you need very few wires to make your car run. My 260 race car has three wires to the ZX dizzy (+, -, tach), one to the starter solenoid, some lighting wires, gauge wires, and a few wires to the windshield wipers and HVAC blower. I started with the FSM (download it from www.xenons30.com) and rewired everything from scratch. Anything that wasn't needed was removed and anything that I could improve, I did. I used 12AWG wire and added relays to the headlight circuits, for example. I used a simple blade-style fusebox and even ditched the ignition key since it's a race car. If yours is a street car, you will still need a horn and turn signals, but otherwise you can get down to very few wires. Just go page by page through the FSM electrical section and decide what you need and what you don't. I'd even suggest downloading the '74 260 FSM since that is closer to what you are looking to do.

Looks are subjective and you should decide for yourself what look you want. As for the quality of the wheels, the Panasports are BY FAR the better choice. If you are considering a cheaper wheel, you should add the Rota RB and Rewinds to your list. There is a good reason the Rewinds and others cost 1/2 as much as the Panasports. They simply don't have the same heat treating and stiffness that quality wheels have. That said, you know what I would go with...