Jeff G 78

Holy Mazdas Batman!

I didn't reuse it when I did the clay test. It sucks throwing away a brand new $20-$30 gasket, but it's just part of the rebuild cost, I guess.

Sweet! Congrats on the GRM coverage.

Awesome vids. Thanks for sharing them. I can't wait to get mine out on the track.

That's cool Carl. It's funny, because I actually HAVE given Bob driving tips. I was the vehicle dynamics engineer on the SVT Lightning and Bob drove it when he was visiting Ford in Dearborn. He drove a few laps on our handling course and I was giving him tips and tricks on how drive a hotrod pickup truck at its limit. We have worked with him several times out in Arizona when we were testing. He's a nice guy. He's pretty scary to drive with these days though. He can't see too well anymore :paranoid:

Yes and no. If they were off the shelf items, then yes the buyers might want to get them on their own, but a unique DOHC head would require cams that are designed for the specific engine and head layout. 1FastZ bought custom built cams. I'm sure those weren't cheap. Either the head would have to be designed to use some other manufacturer's valvetrain parts (i.e. Toyots Supra valvetrain), or the person making the heads would also need to supply everything required and build enough spares to have stock for years to come. :cross-eye

Also, tooling for gas tanks isn't cheap. There are way too many different tank designs as well since the floor design kept changing over the S30 years. It just wouldn't be profitable. :disappoin

Yep, zpizzaman20 is correct. Look on your carpet and you will find weird plastic chunks. Those are what's left of your plastic button. I replaced mine with a bolt and nut as well, but the buttons are still available for a nominal fee. It's a 10 minute fix.

Arne posts here all the time. Do a search for 'arne'.

Ah yes, that's my old Z! Glenn did a great job with the restoration. The car is very clean and started as a rust free AZ car. I have no idea what he hopes to get out of it, but I assume it is quite a bit higher than the current bid. I know he hates to sell it. Since he has to sell it, I would hope that it stays local. It is probably the nicest 240Z in SE Michigan. I haven't gotten together with him this year, but he had it running very well last year. Like he said in the ad, it costs WAY more to restore a car than it does to buy a finished one. Michael, you must be right around the corner from me - I'm in Northville.

Here in the Detroit area, we have an import parts chain. They stock almost every mechanical part I could need. Look through your yellow pages to see if there are any import part stores in your area. If not, try Napa. They carry good quality parts as well. If all else fails, call Courtesy Nissan or go to MSA for your internals.

That's what I see. It looks like only your '71 still has 240 hubs and rotors. The other two have the later design.

The 240 hub is flower shaped, while the 280 hub is round. Check Modern Motorsports for photos http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=48

You should have at least 1-1.5 stud diameters of useable threads. So, since your studs are M12x1.25, you should have 10-12 threads engaged in the nuts ((12*1)/1.25=9.6 and (12x1.5)/1.25=12). Some lugnuts have a pilot with no threads for the first 3-4mm, so be sure you have 10-12 real threads. 10 is MINIMUM, 12 is recommended.

It sounds like the BCDD. It might just need an adjustment. The BCDD is supposed to hold the revs on decel until the car gets under 10 mph and then slowly drop back to idle. Mine was doing the same thing as yours, but hanging at a bit higher rpm. There is a screw on the bottom of the BCDD to adjust it, but I didn't have any luck moving mine. I decided to disable it and the car now runs much better. If you decide to disable it, remove the rubber intake hose between the AFM and the throttle body. You will see two holes at the bottom of the throttle body. One hole goes to the BCDD and the other goes to the distributor if I remember correctly. If you plug the hole that goes to the BCDD, it will disable it and make your car run better (assuming you can't get the BCDD adjusted properly). In my case, I used a piece of QUALITY tape to cover the BCDD feed hole TEMPORARILY so I could determine for sure that the BCDD was the culprit. As a precaution, I cut the strip of tape long enough to extend upstream and wrap around the opening of the throttle body so that the rubber intake hose would help secure it in case it came unstuck. I didn't want to risk sucking it into the intake. Make sure the tape covers the BCDD hole only (the larger one) and does NOT obstruct the butterfly valve. After replacing the intake hose, take the car for a quick drive to see if the problem is gone. If so, the BCDD was the problem and you can either replace it or disable it by plugging the air hole with some RTV. On my car, the tape trick worked, but at the same time the idle was much lower and the car would stall when coming to a stop when the car was cold. This told me that the AAR was also not working. I replaced the AAR and the car now runs great cold and warm.

I don't *think* so, but you can go to their websitehttp://www.panasport.com/ and call them. There are several distributors around that you can go to. Your dealer should be able to buy them from one of them. Do a search on Panasport as I think Les Cannaday (sp?) sells them, but I don't know the website. I got mine from the East coast distributor, but he closed up his shop. I got his last set. Good luck!

I'm with you there. I have seen a few that look awesome, but I don't see the point.

You posted the email addy, not the link to the sale.

Sorry to hear it won't be sold. Don't count autos off your list so quickly. The auto to manual swap is very easy and increases the number of potential cars you can buy. Many times, the autos are in better condition than their manual counterparts.

I caught that, but I took it as "it's an old Japanese car - it must be good". I too have an old 'Yota truck as well as my Z, so I just assumed that's what he meant. :cheeky:

It looks to be a no brainer, but just as a sanity check, take a very weak, flexible refrigerator magnet and go over the entire body inch by inch. You will quickly learn exactly how much filler is in the car. It doesn't look like it would have much, but you might be surprised at what you find. This shouldn't keep you from buying it, but it might change what you want to do with the car. If you find no filler with the magnet, it means the car is a good candidate for restoration. If a lot of filler is found, the car might make a better ugly daily driver with a cheap paint job. It is always good to know this up front rather than after you get into a project that isn't worth finishing. You can't go wrong for $300. I have paid much more for much less.

Every Z I've owned has puked a clutch slave cylinder at one point or another. I don't even think twice about it. I drive it without the clutch to get it home and buy a rebuilt one for $10-$15. The rebuilt ones seem to last fine. It is always the 20+ year old slaves that have crapped out on me. They take less than 1/2 hour to replace and I've never even had to bleed one due to the simple design and position of the system. I simply gravity bleed the new one for a few seconds and button it up. I've never had any air in the line. As far as Rock Auto goes, I've bought several things from them with great success. Prices are good and shipping is quick. I have a good import auto parts store locally though that almost always has most Z parts in stock. Unless I need a special item, I can pick it up the day I need it. Good luck with the car and hang in there.

Well, since Arne started the updates, I guess I'll do the same. About a year ago, here was my assessment Since then, I got the car on the road, did some tuning, and updated it with new wheels and tires. It is now a good sunny-day driver. It still needs a paint job and some finishing, but if I had to, I could drive it long distance without worrying about a breakdown. I put about 1200 miles on it this summer before it got too hot to drive it with no A/C.

I've bought lots of tires from both Tire Rack and Discount Tire Direct. I've also bought brake rotors from Tire Rack. Tire Rack has been great. I've never had any problems and have always received the tires within a day or two. Discount Tire Direct was good, but not nearly as seamless as Tire Rack. They don't tell you that tires are out of stock until after you order them. I waited several weeks for my Hankooks and I had the same problems with Michelins for my wife's 4Runner. With Tire Rack, I simply order online and wait for them to show up, but now I always call Discount Tire Direct and have them check stock before placing an order. One thing that Tire Rack does for sure and Discount might do as well is drop ship. If you have a local place that you trust to mount and balance, ask them if they accept drop ships. If so, have Tire Rack ship them directly there so you don't have to deal with the tires at all. Tire Rack's website lists local tire stores in your area as well, so you can simply choose one of them and drop ship with confidence.

I have a '78 FSM as well as a '76 FSM and I have not found the vacuum diagrams to be very useful. I would love to see a real photo with labels showing each vacuum line and its routing. I have one or two lines on my '78 that I simply cannot figure out. I have looked at the FSM until my eyes went blurry, but it didn't help :stupid:. I also have a '75 parts car to look at for help, but there are too many differences between the years for it to have been of any help.