2ManyZs

OK, so much for my silly idea. Now for another one. Have you looked at the taillight bulbs? I have seen taillight bulbs blow a filament, and the filament breaks and crosses over to the other filament and causes all sorts of weird things to happen. I've seen a taillight short out all the lights on a trailer when I worked in a truck shop many years ago. Never hurts to look right? Only other thing I can think of is to check the ground wire that connects the headlight and turn signal switch and the ground wires on the wiring harness in the engine compartment. If it's not there then it probably will require some work and/or replacement of the switch at the stalk.

To tell the truth, I'm kinda curious as to what happened to the other engine aren't you? Are you planning to send it back as a core or are you going to take it apart and try to find out what the heck happened? Besides, if it didn't hurt the bottom end you have an L-28 to hop up for your 240 if you ever want to.

Well, if the right ones flashes OK then it probably is in the switch. Before you start tearing it apart check one thing first, check to see if your steering column cover panels have moved and are not allowing the stalk to completely activate the switch. It's happened to me before, so try it and see what happens. Try some spray contact cleaner into the switch before you start looking for another switch. They aren't cheap, unless you get lucky enough to find one used from the same year car. They have different plugs that connect to the wiring harness, so you will need to find one with the correct plugs. I know that there is a difference between 72 and 74, not sure how many are interchangeable.

200hp is possible out af an L-24 but it is going to cost a lot more than you may be willing to spend. Here in the US, Rebello engines is charging 4-5K for their racing engines with that kind of hp. You might get 20-35hp with head work, cam, carb and exhaust mods. The easiest and cheapest solution to getting near the 200hp range is doing these mods to an L-28 with the early carbs and intake.

There should be some type of check valve but am not sure if it is in the fuel damper or if it is separate from it. The fuel damper is on top of the electric fuel pump, it's purpose is to even out the pulses from the fuel pump to avoid high/low pressure spikes in the fuel rail. Since I no longer have my 75 service manual I can't say for sure where it is but am pretty sure there is a check valve back there somewhere. Have you tried it without the mechanical pump in place? Actually, it's not needed with the electric pump. Might not hurt to try it sometime just to see what it does. It is possible your electric pump is not working at 100% and is not pumping at the needed psi. Got another one you could try?

A fan shroud will help a tremendous amount. It will allow the fan to pull more air through the radiator especially when you are sitting still or in slow speed traffic. Timing that is too far advanced will also contribute to running a little hotter than normal. If all else fails you could try a 160 dgree thermostat. If my memory serves me correctly the hose that goes to the heater control valve should come off the Y in the rail along the side of the block. The return hose is the short one that goes to the back of the head. This might be part of the problem, I think you do have them backwards and are trying to force water against the flow. The line coming from the lower radiator hose is the line that feeds water to the block and should also feed the heater and the intake/carbs. Diluting the mix wouldn't hurt, just drain a little out and add a quart of water to it. The oil pressure drop probably was due to the low idle, but installing a new sending unit would add to a little insurance that everything is working right.

Well, as far as the oil pressure problem. First thing to do is to change the oil pressure sending unit or verify the oil pressure with a mechanical gauge in place of the electric one. Doubt you would have heat if you hooked up the hoses wrong so that is probably not the problem. Since it is probably warming up (even in NY state), you might want to check or replace the thermostat just to be on the safe side. Of course a new sending unit there might be the culprit too, hard to tell how much corrosion is on it, or if it has ever been replaced. Best to start with the obvious, before we go to the other causes. It could also be your mixture of antifreeze and water, most of the time a 50/50 mix is recommended. It is possible to get too much antifreeze in it and it will not cool as effectively.

Good looking wheels, had a set similar but not exactly like them till last week, unloaded them on the guy that bought my 280. I think you would be a little happier if you go with the 60 series tires. A little less sidewall height, a little less sidewall flex and an overall better look on the car. I've run 205's, 215's, and also 225's with no problems.

Just about any of the Z parts suppliers can get an airdam like that. MSA, VB would be the first places to look to find one that is cloest to the same. MSA has a pretty good selection of styles. If you get one like this I would suggest getting one in urethane, a fiberglass air dam is not a good idea if you plan on lowering your car.

Not sure exactly, but all the ones I have messed with it almost seemed to be about the same as wheel bearing grease.

Looks pretty darn good to me, no obvious rust thru in the body. Looks better than the free 72 I got. Lots of work yes, but geez, it's a 72, could have been a lot worse.

Mike, sounds like you may get your hands dirty on this one. One possibility is that it dropped the valve seats, or maybe they were hardly there before. Another possibility is the valve guides have dropped or the valves have siezed in them. If the valves have hit the piston and bent there has to be a reason for it, that is what I'm wondering about. Guess the only way to find out is to get your helper and yank the head off to find out what has really happened. BTW, don't forget to use the block on the cam chain or you'll end up pulling the front cover too.

Well, that isn't good at all. Must have had a bad timing chain or tensioner and when you started it up it jumped the cam timing. If it is the valves being bent, you should be able to just get a rebuilt head or rebuild the one you have and I'd definately do a timing chain while you are at it. Of course if it has damaged the pistons, well, we know the rest of the story. In answering your other post, I ran an ATK crate long block in my 75 for a couple years on the street, then raced the car from 89-84 with absolutely no problems with the motor. IMO the ATK crate engine would be an excellent motor for a street car. They do quality work and the motors themselves are not too expensive. You might try to go to them directly instead of buying one from MSA, you might be able to save a few bucks.

Hmm, guess I started something didn't I? Seems they both have that "What do you want?" look on their faces. Mine does the same thing everytime I pick up the camera, she looks at me with that look that says "you are such a fool" that I quit taking her picture. Got about 200 to choose from anyway.:eek: If we are going to trade pics of our pets we should at least identify the breed for the rest. Mine is a Sussex Spaniel. Oldest and rarest of the Spaniel breed.

Hmm, this doesn't sound so good.:mad: Try this, pull the plugs and turn it over. Still making noise? Try turning it over by hand. I'm just grasping at straws here, but it might be the starter. Either it isn't engaging the flywheel completely or the flywheel is losing teeth. It will make an awful racket it it is skipping on the teeth, hard to tell without hearing it, but keep yer fingers crossed, maybe it won't be so bad after all. If you had it running before without any funny noises this would be my first guess. We'll keep our fingers crossed:rolleyes:

Sorry, guess I had a serious case of "cabin fever" last winter. Took me a while to find a good Z site and I guess I got carried away huh? You should be glad I can't type as many wpm as EScanlon, or I'd be up to double that number by now. Now that summer is finally here, my postings are going to be fewer, all this Z talk has me motivated once again. So my thanks goes out to everybody for giving me the desire to get my butt back out in the garage and get my 71 finished as soon a possible. And for everyone who has been answering the questions I wasn't sure about, keep it up, I still have more to learn. BTW guys, if so many of you didn't live on the "wrong" side of the country, I might have been able to turn my hobby into a business...

The calculator should be in the downloads section. That's where I got it from anyway. Lot of fun to play with when there's nuttin' else to do. BTW, I wouldn't think the 4 cylinder L series rods would be anywhere near strong enough to put in the L-24 thru L-28. Not only that but you would run into piston problems. Not sure if the wrist pin is the same on all L series or not.

I tried it in the calculator and got to 8.9 with an E-31 and dished pistons with a 1 mm head gasket. Could go a bit over 9 if you had to deck the head 10 thousandths to true it. I think the easiest bet will be the flat tops. Ought to be able to run 91 octane without too much trouble if you keep it close to 10:1. Most of the new cars on the road now are running near to 10:1, but with the old engines without the benefit of the new computer systems running the ignition, injection etc. I think I'd go to 93 octane if possible. There is always the idea of using a custom piston (pricey) with a lower pin height or a higher dome.

Well, Scott Bruning sold out ZTherapy not too long ago, so let's hope the new owners keep up with his quality of work. And yes, their SU's are probably the best and easiest thing to upgrade a Z. If their carbs can supply a 200+ hp race motor in a Z, why spend the extra money on triples and go through the hassles of tuning? Now if the motor is really wild, then the triples might make more sense, but how many people go that far on a street car when it boils down to the bottom line? BTW, MSA still sells the bare 4 barrel intake for those people who still want to go that route.

Congrats, sounds like you now have one less project to do. BTW, good thing you stated that that is you in the pic, some people might have mistook you for Bill Gates, not that you are a bit of a computer nerd, but you do look a bit alike in that shot. Too bad we all can't have his money if we looked like him. We would all go have our hair cut and be buying up glasses huh? Is it idling rough after a cold start? Did you check or replace the cold start valve (injector) in the front of the intake? It may be loaded up with the same junk as the rest of the injectors. It's basically your choke on the FI cars.

Hmm, good question. You could easily ring up a hundred bucks in parts if you are going to do a serious tune-up. Hard to tell what the labor rate is in your area, could easily end up being double the price of the parts. If you aren't sure about the carbs you could just have him do them and do the rest yourself. Adjusting the valves isn't too difficult, swapping out the tune-up parts is fairly easy and you would end up saving enough to take the family out on the town for a weekend get-away. Too bad you live just a little too far away, or I would volunteer to give you a hand doing it here. I'm pretty rusty on the carb tuning but with all the postings here I bet we could get it pretty close. I guess it boils down to what you are willing to pay. I'd say you would be looking at close to 300 bucks at least if he is any good and charges accordingly.

Oops, too late huh? Meant to remind ya in the first post, just got in a hurry. Hmm, my camera is charged, too bad I can't get the darn thing to take a pic in focus. Guess I need to play with it some more, without messing it up! :eek:

You can get the adjustable camber bushing for the rear control arms which will give you the means to adjust the toe setting on the rear. As far as the front end goes with the wandering problem, some of it will depend on the size and width of the tires you have on the car. You could try to run it a little closer to zero toe if you are running a fairly wide tire. Camber change after installing the lowering springs will also contribute to it. You didn't say anything how your camber was in the front so I'm just guessing here.

Just as a reminder Mike. When you take the clips off the plugs on the injectors don't pull on them, use a pick or small screwdriver to GENTLY pry them loose. They get very brittle, and if you try to force them they will break and then it's time to buy new ones. Luckily MSA has replacements if you need them, plus the clips if one "flies" away. There are two o-rings that go on the injector, the small one on the nozzle where it mounts into the intake, and a larger one where it mounts into the mounting block. Don't forget to check or replace the short lines on the rail at the same time, if you are going to the trouble of changing injectors you may as well replace these at the same time. Use fuel injection hose on them as they do have quite a bit of pressure in the rail. If they are bulging at all it's time to replace them.

Sounds to me more like it could be a problem in the cold start circuit. Water temp switch, thermo time switch or the cold start valve (injector), or it could be the air temp sensor in the AFM. It might be either only working intermittantly or it could be just that the one time it either over enriched the mixture or didn't richen it up at all. There is also a cylinder head temp sensor that's involved too. UGH. Lots of things to check. You didn't say what color the smoke was, I'm just arse-uming it was black? Just in those few things, between all of them it's about 300 bucks for new.:mad: I'd check the wire plugs to all of them first, then using the service manual as a guide (hopefully you have a factory manual) you can check all the switches operation in the plug to the ECU. I'm pretty sure it tells which pins or for which. Sorry, I sold the 280 the other day so I don't have the 75 service manual anymore to use as a reference.