Jeff G 78

There are no new '78 sending units. I had trouble finding a new one a few years ago. I contacted Danny's Datsuns in Oregon and got a used one for about $30. It turned out to be my dash gauge, but my old sending unit was in bad shape anyways. All works perfectly now.

Urethane needs to be braced. Otherwise it will flex at high speeds and reduce effectiveness as well as permanently deform. The brace is supposedly simple to make and fixes the issue. I plan on buying the Xenon and add the brace. It's much better than constantly repairing cracks and repainting the fiberglass one.

Guy, you are my hero. You have a fantastic collection of Z cars and Brandon's is one of my favorite 510s. Let me know if you want to adopt a 43 year old Z nut. I can't wait to see the gold one even if only in photos.

No, those are not the exact same. The one you linked to is fiberglass and the tophu530 linked to is urethane.

Has anyone actually needed to use the collapsable tire and inflator bottle recently? I still keep mine in the car, but I have no idea if the tire is any good or if the bottle is still charged. Neither has ever been used and they look like they just came out of the factory. I also carry a 12V compressor in case the bottle is indeed dead.

What company? I am from Akron.

I bought a BMW 320is years ago from Atlanta while I was living in Ohio. It had 5% on all the windows! I drove it home from Georgia to Ohio and I didn't even make it to my house before I was stopped by an Ohio state trooper. I was just a bit over the 50% limit As far as your '73Z goes, I know they are old school, but if you can't do dark tint, rear window louvers do a great job. What I found is that the car heats up from the sun load and then the floor heat gets to you. If you cut down on the solar heat, the underbody heat will not be an issue. I used the over-the-trim style on a few previous Z cars and liked them a lot.

If you are going to Paris, PM one of our members "Lazeum" aka Mathieu Delamaire. He owns a beautiful red '72 240Z that used to be mine. The trip sounds great. I can't wait to see the pics. Have fun!

I have been running Autozone reman calipers on my Toyota 4x4 and they suck. They don't last more than a year before freezing and ruining the pads. They have a lifetime warranty, so I replace them about every 18 months. I should turn them in as cores and get them from a different store. I'd pay up front, but I wouldn't have to replace them so often.

Even a 225/45R16 will save you almost 3/4" in overall height. I chose the 225/50 tires due to their availability and to give me a taller sidewall. Our Michigan roads are horrible and I don't want to bend a rim. BTW, my Hankooks are fantastic tires. They run very smoothly, are quiet and I have no wander. I do still have front run while backing, but I haven't tried trimming yet. I will probably wait until I get an air dam so I don't have to do it twice.

We have had cast wheels widened and while it is common, they will never be as true after widening and they sometimes have very slow leaks. Once cut, the wheels distort badly from the internal stresses, so the wheel fabricator must do everything they can to keep them round. Even the best fabricators cannot get them perfectly round again. I did take a 5100 lb truck up to 164mph on widened wheels, so I did trust them, but there was a constant vibration that I didn't like. We went from an 18x9.5" to an 18x11".

Guy, it might not help enough, but the Panasports that MSA sells are 16x7 +6 offset vs. zero offset for most other Panasport retailers. Mine are zero offset and I had a heck of a time getting the rears to fit with 225/50R16 tires. I tried rolling the lips, but they still rubbed (as seen by the grooves cut in the tire), so I had to trim close to 10mm off the flanges. I have a ton of room on the inside, however. Even if you go with a +12, you would just clear the rear lips with a 225/50, so I'm not sure how much more offset you would need to clear the lip and still clear the strut if you go with a wider tire. It WILL help if the tire is shorter. I pulled my springs so I could trim only where needed for full jounce travel. You can see here what a zero offset with P225/50R16 Hankook RS-2 and 10mm of trimming looks like. The suspension is in full jounce and the tire just BARELY clears Here is the trimmed fender. You can see how the lip is tapered from stock to highly trimmed

25 years ago when I bought my first nice Z, I went to Atlanta to visit my sister and to search for a Z car. I had one week to find a car, buy it and drive it back to Ohio. After reading dozens of ads and looking at car after car that was not as advertised, the day before I had to head back, I found an ad that simply said "'76 280Z, good cond $2500". It had no picture and was burried in the wrong section of the weekend paper. I had low hopes for the car, but I called just in case it was worth looking at. The guy said it was an automatic which turned me off right away, but I took a chance and went to look at it. It turned out to be a very clean car that ran great, but it was an auto and had ugly, sun faded white interior. I bought it anyway and drove it 750 miles home the next morning. Once home, I swapped the trans for a 4 speed and bought a black interior for it. It turned out to be a great car that I kept for quite a few years. I have learned not to believe anything a seller says. Not only does that apply to over hyped claims, but under hyped ones as well. Great find scalveg!

I don't know of the thread off hand, but a quick search for GM alternator swap should get you there. My guess is that the initial swap will be around the same cost for all three give or take, but the Maxima and certainly the GM alternators will be a breeze to find down the road. I'm sure the Z Specialties unit is great, but if you are broken down on the side of the road some day, you will be unable to get a quick replacement. BTW, 2 posts in 4 years??? Slow down there cowboy!

Unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago. Depending on what you want, you can upgrade to a Maxima alternator, a Z Specialties unit, or a GM alternator. You will need to convert to internal regulation which is easy. From there, they will all be similarly priced. I have around $100 in my Maxima 100+ amp alternator and it looks exactly like the stock one. The GM swap will be cheap down the road if/when you need to replace it, and the Z Specialties 105 amp is probably the easiest, but doesn't look quite stock if that is important to you.

Nope, he's running an L28ET at 3.1L. He recently changed it over to run on E85 where he said he gained horsepower and broadened the power curve.

The key to the vented rotor brake upgrade is thermal capacity. The stock brakes have plenty of power to lock the stock tires. Once you put the car on a track, the thermal requirements go way up and the stock brakes eventually reach their design limit. The vented rotor setup can dissipate much more heat and therefor run longer and more consistantly before boiling the fluid, warping the rotors, and breaking down the linings. The four pot calipers allow for more even clamp load on the rotors and apply additional clamping force. Once the tires are upgraded beyond what was available in the 1970s, the brakes can be used harder without lockup. The key is to be able to modulate the clamping force. Brakes that are very binary are worse than ones that can be easily modulated. Having more clamping power along with linings that are progressive will allow for much better brakes than stock. As for the rears, the drums work great. Most people change them for appearance and ease of service. Discs do not require adjustments like drums, but the overall braking is no better.

I have been dragging my feet on this for months. I have installed several in the past with success, but I need to install it in my '78 now. The best advice is to get a patient, meticulous friend to help. Don't ask your wife or your buddy that is always in a rush to hack stuff together. It's all about getting it straight and working from the middle out.

You can make about any amount of power you want out of a turbo L28. Tim Z over on Hybridz is making around 650 to the wheels. It cost big bucks to do it right though. 300 RWHP is doable with little more than junkyard parts if you find the right combination of parts and fuel delivery.

I happen to drive an '89 Toy 4x4 (vented S12W caliper) as my DD, so when I needed new calipers, I did a bench test fit on a 14x6 zero offset Enkei rim I had laying around. I used an old Z hub/rotor and spaced the caliper so it was centered over the rotor. Surprisingly, I had plenty of clearance to the 14" rim. I took several pictures that I could post later if needed. I currently have the stock 2 piston/solid rotor/drum brakes on my Z with the braided SS lines and a proper bleed and the pedal feel is great. The SS lines are a must.

Hee, hee. LeMons is becoming a huge thing. The creater thought most sanctioning bodies took racing too seriously and he came up with a goofy, silly, relatively inexpensive, yet REAL race. It's the best racing bang for the buck out there. If you're bored, do a LeMons search on youtube and see what it's all about.

Is that just a static bench test Stephen?

Yeah, I'm thinking it's going to be both a LeMons car and track car. So far, I only have the pictures the seller has sent me. Once I get it, I'll post some better pictures.

I know I should search rather than asking, but since we are on the AC topic, how can I tell if the compressor is good? I do not have the AC compressor installed in my Z and really need to get it working. Z cars really suck in the humid late-summer days. Black vinyl and poor air flow don't go well together.

Great job Greg! It's good to see the old Z getting wins! Sorry to hear about Tom. I had never heard of him, but it's sad to hear about a fallen racer. At least he was doing what he loved to do.