Jeff G 78

View Advert 1974.5 260Z Race/Track Car I bought the car in 2009 and built it into a budget race car for 24 Hours of LeMons. The car was in a barn or two for more than a decade before I bought it and it was a pretty well used up car at the time it was originally stored. From what I was told, it was a Texas car that was moved to Indiana and stored for a while before being sold and again stored. It is relatively solid other than damage done under the battery tray from acid and to both rear quarter panels at the bottoms where there is a bit of rust. I pulled a trash bag full of mouse nesting, dead mice, and droppings from the quarters and the cowl. The floors are pretty solid. Over the years, the car has raced in LeMons, ChumpCar/ChampCar, and WRL and was updated many times to increase performance. The DOM roll cage has NASCAR bars on the driver’s side, an X brace on the passenger side, and a dash bar. I had every intention to keep and continue racing the car, but I transferred from Michigan to Arizona and I have nowhere to keep or work on the car in AZ. I was in the middle of upgrading the front and rear brakes right before the sudden move happened, so I was unable to complete the swap (see details). It would make a great track day or endurance race car Powertrain · 2.8L F54 block with flat top pistons · Engine was rebuilt 20 race hours ago (two races) and was just stripped down for inspection · New oil pump and gaskets · P79 head shaved 0.050” with about 9.4:1 CR · ARP Head studs · Web Racing #91 grind camshaft, with Schneider springs and retainers · 3-screw SU carbs with SM needles fed through stock airbox · 3 into 2 into 1 header with SS flex pipe and MSA 2.5” exhaust · Brand new BHJ harmonic damper with Kameari bolt and washer – needs timing pointer · ’82 ZX electronic distributor with E12-80 ignition box · Lightened factory flywheel · ’82 ZX 5-speed transmission · R200 3.9 FDR differential · RT differential mount · Facet electric fuel pump feeding ½ gallon swirl tank with Carter electric fuel pump to feed engine · Stock ’75 280Z fuel tank with no sending unit for fuel gauge · No fuel rail and no fuel return in order to eliminate vapor lock Chassis · Suspension lowered 1” with cut 260Z coils tuned jounce bumpers that are sized to be in contact at curb height. Overall spring rate 200 lbs/in front and rear · 25mm front and rear stabilizer bars · Poly bushings throughout with ½ poly, ½ rubber TC rod bushings · Brand new rear wheel bearings · Freshly packed front wheel bearings · Front crossmember re-drilled to move LCA pivots for improved bumpsteer · Long racing wheel studs and open lug nuts · Brand new Konig Rewind 15x7 wheels with used slicks to make it a roller Brakes · New Toyota V6 4x4 front calipers · T3 rotor spacers · New 300ZX vented front rotors · Braided SS front hoses · NO FRONT BRAKE PADS – Recommend Porterfield R4-E pads for endurance racing · Front brake ducts · S197 Mustang GT500 rear calipers · S197 Mustang vented rear rotors re-drilled for 4x114.3 bolt circle · Silvermine caliper brackets · NO REAR JOUNCE HOSES – available from Silvermine · NEEDS WILWOOD 1” BRAKE MASTER CYLINDER due to new brake calipers · NEEDS ADJUSTABLE PROPORTIONING VALVE · Parking brake system has been removed completely Body · There are a few minor dents from racing contact, but no major damage ever · Hood is propped up in rear to aid cooling while in the pits to prevent vapor lock · Factory hood hinges and torsion bars with single hood pin securing at rear · Hood has some damage at rear from previous owner – appears that release cable broke and they used a crowbar to open hood · Factory bumpers with no rubber ends left in place to stiffen body and provide some crash protection · No door glass · Lexan rear quarter windows and hatch window · Removable lawn edging front airdam – very stiff and comes off for trailering · Plywood rear spoiler · Paint looks good from 50 feet, but it’s a race car, so looks crappy up close · Windshield is cracked and has been since I got it · Vinyl graphics look good · H4 headlights on relays are very bright. Car is set up for hood mounted aux lights for night racing · Has headlight covers that have a few stress cracks Interior · Older Momo racing seat with adjustable slider and back brace · Catalytic converter hump was cut out of the tunnel and seat was lowered to maximize headroom · Crow 6 point camlock harness with ~2015 build date · IO Port window net with ~2013 build date · Gauges need to be completely replaced – I planned to install an Autosport Labs Race Capture Pro data acquisition system that replaces all gauges with two Android tablets but I never got to it due to the move Electrical · Everything works, but it is a rats nest inside the car - The entire car should be rewired to clean it up and make it more robust · Battery hold down fits an Optima Red Top or Yellow Top – No battery installed · HVAC in place only for defrost with a single toggle switch for full hot and high fan speed · Kill switch located inside car · Push button start The Good · The car starts right up with the manual choke and runs great · I have not dyno’d the car, but it should make around 170 RWHP · Handling is a joy! It’s very easy to drive at the limit and is neutral. Car was last raced on 195/60R14 tires and is now set up for 225/45R15 tires and could go a full 24 hour race on a set with very even wear · Car will go 2 full hours on a tank of 93 pump gas in endurance racing conditions · Car is quiet enough to meet any race track sound requirements · Once completed, brake upgrade will be fade proof and powerful under any race conditions · Car weighs around 2600 lbs and can easily be lightened by several hundred lbs. The Bad · No title – Bill of Sale only · This is a race car and even if titled, it has no turn signals, no horn, a racing harness and a full roll cage – It must be trailered to the track · Needs brake upgrade to be completed – there currently no working brakes! · Should be completely rewired which is simple on a carbed track car · No dash due to cage and gauge mounts are ugly and heavy – Controls and gauges should be reworked · Needs new/updated safety equipment (belts, net and fire system) if raced in CCWS, WRL, AER, etc. I have a lot of photos of the car and I will try to upload more here, but if you are interested, ask and I will be happy to send more. The car is located 45 minutes west of Detroit, Michigan and can be seen via appointment at the property where it is being stored. The car must be sold quickly. I am losing my storage and I am 2000 miles away with no way to move the car to a new location. I am open to offers. Advertiser Jeff G 78 Date 10/28/2021 Price $6,500 Category Cars for Sale Year 1974 Model 260Z Vehicle Identification Number (VIN)  

Agreed, it needs a different valence. I got a Xenon for mine, but I haven't pulled the trigger yet on the bumpers. I will do powdercoated to match my dark gray Panasport spokes.

The clutch diameter and the discs remained the same for all base with a larger diameter for the 2+2 and turbo cars. What changed was the thickness of the pressure plates over the years and that's why the collar changed many times. A lot of clutch kits now include the collar since it's hard to know what parts have been swapped over the years. It's best to measure the height of your collar and then buy a clutch kit that matches that collar height.

You match the sleeve to the pressure plate. I think I have the chart somewhere. If I find it, I'll upload it. EDIT: Here is a link to the previous discussion with the chart.

I want to say his first name is Greg, but that's relying on 25+ year old memory. He was a bit grumpy and rough, but at the time, I was able to buy a 99% rust-free rolling shell for $650. It's now restored and is a beautiful car.

Hmmm, I have no idea these days, but that *might* be the same guy I bought a '72 rolling shell from back in about 1995. His name was Clark and he sold Z's and Z parts from somewhere in AZ. Even back then, he was slow to respond and when I got the car, he had swapped some body parts with the car next to it. I bought it sight unseen and had it shipped to Michigan. He sent pics of a bunch of different Z's when I told him what I was looking for. In the background, there were a bunch of other Z cars. I picked a car based on pics and his description and when the car arrived, the front fenders had bondo in them and clearly didn't match the description I was given. I looked back at the pics he sent and I could tell he had swapped them before it was shipped. They matched the car next to the one I bought. Overall, I still did well. The car was pretty much what I wanted and it is now owned by another member here and is in Paris, France.

That's what I raced on for years. They are really small for street use, but were the only good performance tire in a 14"

Be careful, I've had several old tires explode during storage. The belts broke and the tires exploded. One was on a car and the other was stacked.

Nice find! I made my own for both of my Z's with Optima batteries which are about the same height as your battery. I think I have about $20 in steel for both and for the most part, I only used basic tools, though I did have to put a few welds on them. I even posted a dimensioned drawing on here 15 years or so ago.

In the early 2000's, Ford SVT bought a used Dodge Viper as a competitive vehicle for our upcoming Ford GT. It was low mileage and looked good, but it ran like crap once we got it on the track. We found that a PO had used anti seize on the plugs. Once everything was cleaned off, it ran great. At the time, nearly all of us had been using it on our personal car plugs, but I never have since. I have enough old car gremlins to chase and I don't need another one that is self induced. 🙂

Be careful. Anti seize has been known to cause misfires due to disturbing the ground path of the plugs.

Wow, those look terrible. Did they forget to use spring steel?

I think the packed mud is a clue that the car spent time on a dirt road. The mud likely packed between the coils as well as below them and caused coil bind when subjected to full jounce travel over the rough dirt road. The owner likely overloaded the car often with kids and stuff in the trunk making the situation worse. Once a coil broke, the car would sit lower and when not repaired, the next weakest spot failed from being subjected to unusual forces from the spring position. The rust might be minor, but it did likely factor in a bit.

I can't believe Fidanza supplied dowels that are clearly the wrong ones for their flywheel. I've never bought a Fidanza flywheel, so I can only assume they grabbed dowels from the wrong bin when they packaged it. Glad shortening them worked.

Yeah, that's your problem. They are bottomed out in the flywheel, right? Do the pressure plate holes match the smaller diameter of the dowels, or are they loose?

Do you have calipers? If so, measure the OE pin diameter and the new pin diameter and see if they match. When you say they are stepped, does the step sit flush with the flywheel? If not, the PP will sit on the step and never seat against the flywheel.

The tolerance between the dowel and the pressure plate is off a bit. Check for burrs on the dowels and PP holes. The dowels should be snug but should not impede the PP from clamping down tight against the flywheel. If you must, gently file the holes just enough so they slide over the dowel pins.

I used TEP years ago to lighten a flywheel, but yeah... That's a pretty narrow focus that there is only one way to build an engine.

Good for you Cliff. I did something similar, but stayed within the same company. I went from a high-stress job that was very rewarding 5% of the time to a simple non-rewarding job that I can walk away from at the end of the day and I don't have to think about work until the next morning. Work/life balance is more important than anything else.

I have a 78 280 and a late 74 260. I have the swap on the 260 which is a race car. Look at the hub in my pic. The face is round which is different than the 240 and early 260 which have scallops between the wheel studs. The early hubs are thinner which means the brake rotor hats taller. The 240Z spacers are around 0.625" thick.

I did a quick spec comparison between the 505 rotors and the Z31 rotors. The OD is pretty close, while the Z31 rotor is thicker by 0.078" (2mm), the center bore of the 505 rotor is smaller by 0.193" (4.9mm) and the overall thickness of the 505 rotor when laid flat is 1.63" (41.04mm) which is greater by 0.23" (5.84mm) than the Z31 at 1.4" (35.56mm). The bolt circle is also wrong, but it appears the ones you pictured have two sets of holes, so maybe they fit? I don't have my sheet handy where I measured the spacer thickness, but I recall it being somewhere around .355" (9.0mm). I'm sure you are right, but based on the specs I found, I'm not sure how the 505 rotor would work as the overall thickness is somewhere around 3.5mm off compared to the Z31 rotor and spacer combo. Maybe the US spec 505 is different than the UK spec 505???

The spacer is required when the 1984 Z31 rotor is used with the Toyota V6 4x4 caliper. There are two spacers - one the is thicker for the 240Z hub and one that is thinner for the 260/280 hubs. The hubs are scalloped on the 240 and round on the 260/280. The Techno Toy Tuning spacers like mine have a pilot for the rotor to keep them centered. Many of the cheaper spacers do not. Here in the US, getting Peugeot parts isn't an option.

Yep, those are the right parts.

Mine don't have a lot of clearance, but it's more than zero.