2ManyZs

The best place to start any type of racing is probably Solo, you will learn more about car set-up and car control then you will if you try to spend a pile of money and go road racing. Once you have seen how much it costs to just run a competitive Solo car, you might decide Solo is where you want to stay. Road racing is fun, but it is a lot of hard work, and getting more and more expensive to run. Here in my region, it costs 300 bucks to run a Drivers School, and you have to run two schools before you qualify for a license. 600 bucks will buy you a lot of seat time at Solo events. Get the rule books, read them, and then decide which way you want to go. Join the SCCA and get a crew license, attend a few races helping out in a specialty, like flagging, or help a racer on his pit crew. I crewed for a friend of mine for two years before I started building my first car. Talk to people and find out everything you can before you start buying anything. That is the best advice I can give.

Would help if you tell us where North Brunswick is, windshield would be hard to ship.

Look through the IT rule book. Brakes must be stock, pad materials are free. Engine is going to be nearly stock, balancing and blueprinting is allowed, no overbore more than .040, stock induction, can't trade FI for carbs. The suspension is really the only thing on the car that you can do a lot of modifications. Coil-overs, camber plates, adjustable shocks (no remote reservoirs anymore), any sway bar, any spring length or rate, any bushing material. The only thing that is not allowed is changing mounting points of control arms etc. Before you do anything, read the IT rules carefully, so you don't spend money on something you can't use. Make a "wish list" of parts and start to work. There is also a web-site just for IT if you haven't been there yet. www.improvedtouring.com Another way is to go to the track and look up John Legg, Wayne Burstein, Pat Sharkitt, Jeff Lucas, Jim Cummings, and get all your questions answered. I may be at the last MARRS race if work lets me have the weekend off. Look for me with a ClassicZcars.com hat on.

I quit back in 95 after my father passed away and didn't get back to the track to keep up my license that year. I just didn't have the ambition after that, a good friend of mine passed away about a year later and I bought his old 240 that he had crashed up there at Summit from his widow. I just haven't gotten around to doing anything with it, been thinking about putting it back together for EP, but have too many other projects right now. I think the 280 you may be referring to is driven by Jim Cummings, a black car that looks to have been painted with a brush? I raced with that car back years ago before he bought it. The PO owner and I had some great races together. I recently sold my old 280, in fact it may be soon at a drivers school at Summit. Haven't heard whether the guy has it ready for the track or not. You can see some pics of it in my photo gallery. If you have questions, feel free to ask and I'll try to help in any way I can. I'm here most of the time.

Well, the first thing I would do is to check the header flange to see if it is warped. Take the header off and use a straight edge across the flange to see if it is warped. Second, look to see if there is any welding slag around the port or ports that are leaking. If there is, take a wide flat file and try to file the port flat. Third, use a good quality gasket, I have had good luck with the gaskets that are covered with foil, not the paper gaskets. Third, when you have it back on the car, see where the leak has been developing, and check the mounting bolt closest to it. If it is one of the bolts that has the large washer under it to clamp down on the intake and exhaust, see if it is at an angle. Sometimes the flanges are not even, resulting in a loose flange. If it is not tightening evenly on both the intake and exhaust you will develop a leak for sure, you could try shimming it with a flat washer cut in half it the flanges are uneven. Make sure all the mounting bolts are tightened evenly, if possible try to torque them all to about 10ft/lbs.

I should explain my first part of my reply. If you ask any racer that has started form scratch with a race car, they will more than likely tell you it is always better and cheaper to buy a car that has already been built and improve on it from there. I ended up spending more on my 280 than what it would have cost me to buy a 240 that was already built and ready to race. And I was a mid-pack car at best. Only a couple times did I ever break into the top ten in a race. :disappoin That was one of the main reason I asked if you really wanted to do this. A lot of the competitive cars may sound like they are really expensive to buy, but when you really sit down and plan out a racing budget you will see that what you plan to do may cost nearly as much or possibly even more when all is said and done.

First question is this, are you sure you want to do this? The 280 is not going to be nearly as competitive as the Rx-7 (you have no idea how much it pains me to say that) so at best you will end up behind most of the RX-7's and the BMW's. Even the 240's are being pushed back in the pack slowly but surely. If you really want to do it, then the best suspension kit would be the Ground Control system. I raced a 75 at Summit point in the past and had 325lb springs in front, 300 in the rear. And spring for the adjustable sway bars if you can afford them, you will want as much adjustability as possible if you plan on running other tracks, or just to maximize the handling due to the weather. Brakes? Well, you can't do much except re-build everything you have to make sure it is in top notch shape, and use plenty of ducting to the front brakes to cool them. Don't bother with the NISMO rear shoes, they don't last. Try Porterfield or you could do like I did and use Wearevers from Napa, they lasted a lot longer and felt just as good. Front pads now are mostly by either Porterfield or Carbotech. If you can afford it, use a Quaiffe diff or at the very least a LSD, you will have a hard time getting it to turn at Summit with a locked rear(been there, done that) and depending on whether you run a 4 speed or a 5speed you are going to want at least a 3.90 rear gear. If you have a 5 speed try a 4.11, 4:37 would be my choice with a 5 speed. Engine mods are limited by the rules, so be sure to read the rule book carefully before you do anything. Tires are as much a matter of preference now as they are a matter of budget, I haven't raced since 95 so they have come a long way since then, best to go see what everyone else is running and get their opinions and feedback on what tires to run. Whatever you do, don't scimp on safety equipment, this is the most important part of any racing venture!

Well, I did say if it was I'd never seen it before. Since I was only 7 in 69 I guess that gives me a way out without chewing on the shoe leather, doesn't it? Hmm, you could switch back to the stock ignition with just a flip of a switch? Wouldn't it be nice if they still did it that way? Just think, it's like having a backup ignition if one fails. Kinda makes you wonder why they stopped doing it like that, except they want to sell you another complete ignition when one dies. Guess that is why they make everything so cheap now, so you'll be back to buy another one when the "new" one fails. :tapemouth

If it is some sort of ignition box, it's a type I've never seen before. I think it may have something to do with the alarm, I'm basing this on the light on the left side and the Static above it. I've never seen an ignition module have a switch on it either. Hard to read the printing on it in the pic.

I found the site from the links on SportZ magazines web-site. looked around through all the Z sites and ended up here. Been here ever since. :cross-eye

More than likely it is the rheostat, not too hard to replace, if you can get your hands in there to reach the backside of it. :tapemouth

Of course, this being a Nissan/Datsun site, shouldn't you at least take a look at a new Spec-V SE-R? Might be hard to get the keys away from her again after you tell her you just got done running an Auto-X with her new car. :cross-eye

If you are getting the bushings, you might be ahead of the game to go ahead and get a set of steering rack bushings while you are at it, if you haven't already. If you want, it might not be a bad idea to get the urethane bushings for the sway bar too. If you are going to do some, you may as well do them all while you have it apart. Hmm, perplexing problem. I guess the best thing to do is to try one thing at a time. Do the bushings, then we'll go from there with all the other alternatives. You might even find the problem while you are changing the bushings.:cheeky:

Have you tried the wheel and tire on another position? Try swapping it side to side on the front, or better yet, if the tires are all the same size, swap it to the back. If it stops the shake in the front, then it is in the wheel or possibly the tire. If the shake or bounce continues with another tire and wheel there, then it's down to a suspension problem. Even new tires have been known to be slightly out of round at times. Or else the wheel may be bent slightly. Try it and see what happens.

Wait for the Turbo PT Cruiser to make its debut, and then tell her it's the next best thing to a mini-van. Not that I'm partial to Mopars. If it ain't a Datsun, it better be a Dodge. That's my motto.

Lot of neat cars there. Hmm, that GT-2 car looks interesting, take parts from this wrecked IT car, got a set of triple Webers, just need a set of wheels. Hmmm......:cross-eye I like the ex-IMSA GTU 240 too........... too many cars, not enough garage...........

Wheel bounce? Steering wheel or the tire itself? Could be more than just bushings. Could be rack bushings, tie rod ends, strut cartridge bad, ball joints, tire out of balance, tire out of round, a whole myriad of things to check.

First thing you need to do is check the wheel cylinders and calipers for any leaks. Second, bleed the brakes, you may have contaminated fluid. If that doesn't help, you probably need a new master cylinder. While you are checking for any leaks, it would be wise to check your pads and shoes at the same time, make sure you have no mechanical problems, such as a seized e-brake cable that is not working the rear adjusters. It could be your rear brakes are so far out of adjustment they may be causing part of the problem. One way to check this is to pull up on the e-brake handle a couple clicks, if the brakes and brake pedal feel better, you need to check your rear shoes and/or re-adjust the rear brakes. Usually having to pump the brakes is because of air or water contaminated fluid. One of the above is more than likely the problem, just need to try one thing at a time to find out the cause.

Wheel bearings aren't tight enough, rotor warped or has excessive runout, piston hanging up in caliper, tire rub, wheel contacting ball joint, could be a lot of things. :tapemouth Guess it's a process of elimination to find the problem.

Well, hmm. Rebello claims 200-225 area with their IT legal L-28's. That is with only a 40 overbore, stock pistons, stock cam, balancing, blue-printing, and very minor porting and nearly stock FI. How much? 225-250 if it is done right, would be a bit dependant on which cam, carbs, and other bits you use. Would be nice to see just what it would do on a dyno. My choice would be with an E-31 with the later 280 valves for even more compression.

Well, using heat won't hurt the master if you are taking the lines off to replace the master cylinder in the first place. Just don't get over zealous with it. I think with a line wrench you may find you may not need it anyways. Heat is usually the last resort anyways.... or should be.....

You can't apply classic car values or status to a car that is going to be mass produced in numbers that will put Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, and a few others TOTAL yearly production to shame. Nissan themselves didn't get to the 40,000 production mark with the 240Z until it was well into the second full year of production. The others achieve their status because of the low volume production numbers. The 350 is going to be produced in numbers of around 40,000 units in its first year of production. I seriously doubt if Ferrari, Lambo, Aston, Bently have sold 40,000 in the last 5 years, that is what makes them so special, exclusivity. The only thing this guy has done is paid 60 some thousand dollars more for number one than if he had bought number 2! And did he truly buy the very first 350? Nope, kinda doubt if it is really is the first one the way they describe it, it may have VIN number 0001 but in truth it is only the 1st one offered to the public. Perhaps if Nissan had only produced 2000 for the US as did Honda the first year of the S-2000 production, then he may have had something worth a lot more than the next one in line. But when you figure they already have over 7500 pre-orders and plan on a production run of 40K plus the first year? Nuttin special.

Phooey, forgot where you were when I answered. Hmm, have you looked on Ebay lately? I think I just saw a set of 280 panels on there. Looked at too many parts tonight. :cross-eye Have you tried MSA? They might be able to source them, seems the later ones should be much easier to find than the early 240 panels.

BTW, the line wrench will also come in handy when you find a stubbornly rusted bleeder screw. You will twist one off in a heart beat with a regular wrench, but using the line wrench 99 times out of 100 they will come loose. You apply pressure around the whole fitting instead of just on one side. Twisting a bleeder off can ruin your day very quickly, especially on the rear wheel cylinders. :tapemouth

NOS would work, but a 4.11 out of a scrap yard or parts car would be cheaper. Well, maybe..... then you would want.......:cross-eye