Jeff G 78

Keep in mind that 14" tires are getting really hard to find in anything other than minivan grade grip. Go to TireRack.com and check out your options for a 195/70R14 before you spend any money on used rims.

Paintjob looks rather familiar, Check out my BRE LeMons racer... #46 was taken for that race, but we will be using #46 for our ChumpCar race in three weeks. What race are you entering? Let me know if you need any advice or setup info. Like d240zx2 said, Troy is another great source of info. EDIT: Was that you guys who rolled the S130 in LeMons after clipping another car? That was a sad ending for the ZX.

Looks like a perfect LeMons car to me!

I have no idea if it's still in business, but many years ago, while visiting my sister, I stumbled upon Z Car Atlanta. It was a Z-only JY that had at least 100 cars. Right across the street was a Porsche-only JY.

I lowered my LeMons late 260 by cutting two coils off each spring and then adding jounce bumpers from some new Nissan (Sentra maybe?) that are in contact at curb height. It's only a track car, but it rides much better than my 280 with Tokico springs and it handles great. Check out my Facebook page for pics of how it sits. It rides on 195/60R14 tires.

Based on the first line of the OP's question, there is NO WAY I'd recommend triples. They sound fantastic and can be made to run great, but they are magnitudes harder to tune than SUs even for the experts. Do yourself a favor and take Bruce up on his invitation to visit his shop. Spend the money and take home a set of his beautiful SUs. You'll be very happy.

I think POR-15 is as great as long as the instructions are followed EXACTLY. Cheat even the slightest bit and it will fail. I have done two Z tanks and both are doing fine so far. One was done a year ago and the other is going on four years. To do the job right, it takes about a week of back breaking labor. On both of my tanks, I had to add many pre-cleaning steps prior to even starting the POR process. I rinsed the tanks with water and lengths of chain at least 50 times first to get the majority of the rust out. After the water only rinse, I used water and muriatic acid to further prep the tanks for the actual POR treatment. I'm pretty sure I did a thread on it last fall. I'll look around and post the link to the thread when I find it. EDIT: I must not have posted pics. Here is my 260 tank before and after POR-15 This is the inside of the tank after the Z sat in a barn for 15 years or so After a few water rinses, this is what I got out After a week of cleaning, here is the same tank inside ready for the sealer step Finally, after sealing

Hee hee. Glad I could "help". I'm like the schoolyard crack dealer giving away free samples. Now that you have some spare parts, you're hooked like the rest of us.

Sounds right. The lugnuts for the steel wheels are cone seats and the alloy lugnuts are the shank style. Do NOT try to use the tapered cone lugnuts! With a small ruler, measure the thickness of the rim through a lug hole. Repeat for all four rims as they might not be a matching set. I have a set of rims that look identical, but the hubs are thicker on two, requiring different length nuts. After 35-40 years, you never know for sure that one or more wasn't replaced at some point. Once you measure the rims, compare the thickness to the various shank nuts available. Keep in mind that the nuts have a loose washer that must be used. The nut measurement must be taken with the washer in place. The shank from washer to the end of the nut MUST be shorter than the wheel hub thickness. 1/16" should be fine.

Thanks Michael. I'll check them out. I can buy the long length all day long for just over a buck each, but to get the mediums, I have to pay $4/ea. :tapemouth I could cut the longs down, but they are chromed and tapered, so it would be a pain.

Yep, as Carl said make sure you get shank-style lugnuts that are slightly shorter than the thickness of the wheel hub. They come in three lengths ranging from about 3/8" to a little over 3/4". The 1/2" depth nuts are getting rather hard to find in M12x1.25. I have searched high and low locally for a spare set for the LeMons car and have struck out. I'll have to order them online and pay $$$.

Hey Carl, when did the mailing list finally go away (I assume it's gone)? I gave up on it in the late 1990s once ZC.C, and CZCC got established. It was simply too hard to do everything in slow motion with the mailing list. Personally, I kinda like having the three main S30 sites. ZC.C is the general, catch-all site, HZ.O is the serious-mod site and CZCC is the mature crowd/purist site. I visit all three for very different reasons. I spent most of my time on ZC.C until recently when they made a software upgrade. I hate the new look and gave up due to its shortcomings. The crowd over there is getting more and more immature as well and most of the old-timers have left for good.

Welcome! First rule here is that you have to post pics. I also race a 260, though at a slightly lower level.

Richard, here's the mustache bar I was talking about. This is what an R180 bar cut up and converted to an R200 bar looks like. Keep in mind that we did this in the middle of the night while the race was green. We took measurements of both diffs and made a drawing on a cardboard box. With drawing and R180 bar in hand, we went looking for 1/4" plate steel and a welder. Luckily, we found a guy with a mobile welding truck who was spectating at the race. It took about an hour for him to cut, weld, and drill and cost us only a bottle of Crown Royal

Richard, you seem to get the whole LeMons concept. It's not that we race cheap cars, it's that we never give up and find creative solutions to engineering problems. It's easy to throw money at a problem, but it's more fun to backyard engineer something that works just as well for very little money.

Hey Julius, welcome to the LeMons club! Been there, done that!!! Follow my LeMons Facebook link in my sig for pics of us swapping our failed R180 with an R200 mid-race. We didn't have an R200 mustache bar with us, so we made one at the track in the rain at 3am. The bar came out so nice that we decided to keep running the fabricated bar even though I have an R200 bar in my garage. Send me a PM to discuss the fun.

We did the mod on our 260Z LeMons racecar. I'm pretty sure our fuel starvation problem is due to poor tank venting. The car runs great for about 20-25 minutes and then stumbles badly under load at higher engine speeds. Several people have suggested that we we have a venting problem. Can you further explain your second mod?

If you want people to know what they are, refer to them as Dukes of Hazard, or General Lee wheels.

Your '70 is far from stock, so why not take the opportunity to upgrade it to discs? The ModernMotorsport adaptors with S13 calipers and '84 Z31 rotors would make future brake work much easier. I have drums on both of mine, but if I need any major parts, they will be replaced with discs. I hate working on drums. EDIT: Oops, I reread and see that this is your 12/71 car. I guess I don't know how stock that one is. You could always steal the brakes off the '70 and upgrade that one as I said.

I haven't seen one JY S30 in Ohio or Michigan in over ten years.

Oh boo hoo all you people in the south who can't find S30s . Try finding one in the Great Lakes area.

Free Z cars are always a gift. No matter how badly rusted, you have a parts car which will come in very handy. Strip EVERY component off the parts car including every nut, bolt, and washer. Put all the fasteners in a box for later use. Keep every last part that comes off the shell including all rubber body plugs, wiring harness, etc. Your "good" Z still needs a ton of work, but the spare parts will help quite a bit. Keep posting pics and good luck!

I'm going to have to find some good used locks for mine soon. Both door locks are worn to the point that the key will barely unlock the door. The "D" post in the pack of the lock is rounded such that the lever doesn't move far enough anymore.

I have owned 10 S30s over the past 25+ years and the ignition lock was worn out in every single one of them. Not only can you remove the key in most Z cars, but other similar keys will start the car. Toyota keys work just as well as Datsun keys. Not much good for theft protection.

That shell is better than most rust belt cars. It would last about two minutes around here.