2ManyZs

The best sounding exhausts on Z's is a 6-2-1 header, with 2 1/4 or 2 1/2 inch pipe and that's it..... Course, it isn't street legal, and now it's not legal in racing (gotta keep the neighbors happy) but what a sound at 6K-7K....... especially under the cross-over bridge..... even my tired old fat 280 sounded faster than it really was, even with a helmet and balaclava on.....:devious: :cross-eye

First thing you should do is validate your temps, with either a mechanical temp gauge or a good thermometer in the radiator. The stock gauges are notoriously innacurate. If the temp is higher than it should be, then you really ought to do a good flush. Secondly, is this one of those temp sensors that clamp on the outside of the hose? If it is, I wouldn't trust it. I had an electric fan on my race car, and wired it to a toggle switch, just to be sure it came on when it was supposed to or whenever I wanted it to. Always best to make sure you really have a problem before you spend money and throw parts at the car. You never know, you might not have as bad a problem as you think.

Double check all your connections and wiring. Clean the terminals on the battery and the cables and make sure they are tight, could be something as simple as a little corrosion, or a bad connections somewhere.

Thanks for the measurements Alan, I printed them out, and across the bottom in big bold letters put, "Remember stupid, this is for a RHD!" just so I don't drill the holes in the wrong places.....It's gonna be a while before I install mine and don't want to forget...:tapemouth

Looks pretty good to me.. even if it is yelloooowww.... Be sure to check for rust just like you would and early car though, the 75 I had, had a lot of rust issues just like and early car would. Just because the 280 is a little newer and has slightly thicker metal in the uni-body than say a 70 would, they still are prone to rust in all the same places. One place to check is underside of the floor at the very end of the floor pan frame rail, right where the floor turns up, I've seen many 280's that had rust here. Dash looks good, bumpers even look good and the rubber ends... those are getting hard to find and expensive to replace. Nothing major as far as issues with the FI on 75's... anymore than any other year of the 280 at least.

Another thing you could try, would be to try a slightly hotter heat range of plugs to help burn the intake charge a little better. If you have NGK BPR7ES in now, try a set of BPR6ES. Might be the easiest and simplest solution, and one we often neglect to suggest too.....

Since the areas are pretty small by comparison to some of the pics we've seen:cross-eye I'd suggest cutting out the rusted area and weld in a small patch panel. Then, POR it top and bottom. If the holes were a bit smaller and not as elongated, especially the rear one, I would have sugggested a coat of POR and their matt to repair it. Cut the holes out to where you are starting to get into unmolested metal and weld a patch panel over it, or cut it out to fit and seam weld in in. The POR putty is more for small diameter holes, such as screw holes, or like I did, used it to fill some of the holes in the T/C pocket the factory left open. I wouldn't worry about the drain holes, as long as you have at least one that you can use you should be OK. Some of the problems I think are directly atrributed to the drain holes themselves, if the rubber plug allows any water under the lip of the plug, it holds it in place and allows the rust to form.

If the sun was out that day, we would see a "shine" off something else wouldn't we? Hope you wear your hat on sunny days......:devious:

Well.... we didn't say... cuz we're trying to keep it a secret... I just got a set from MidwestZ, and last spring Charlie at ZeddFindings said he could get a few sets... They aren't cheap though..:cross-eye

It would probably be easier to put a coat of POR-15 on the inside of the rail before you install it, just do the inside up to the flange that you will be welding. You don't want the POR to contaminate your welds. Then just put a thick coat of POR on the outside to seal up the flange where it meets the floor pan. Or, you could do like EScanlon did with his inner dog legs, thin the POR and using a siphon spray nozzle on an air hose, dip the pickup tube into the POR and spray the inside through one of the drain holes....The rail isn't going to have a drain hole, but if you got a rubber plug like what is in the floor pans and made a hole, it could come in handy in the future so you know there is no water laying in the rails. The rails will always get some water into them, unless you seal up the holes around the T/C mount so that water can't get into them. That's where the water got in in th first place that caused the rust you are seeing now more than likely. You'd probably need a hose of some sort on the siphon nozzle so you could change directions to make sure you coat it all.... this would probably be the best way to do it, but also the messiest....:cross-eye

Or you can look through Pete's web-site and see his modifications with his V-8 conversion.. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pparaska/

I've been getting more practice than you....:stupid:

The simplest way to check for too much play in the throttle shaft would be to spray some carb cleaner around the throttle shaft on the outside of the carb body while the engine is idling.... if it revs up.. you got too much clearance and you would need to re-bush it. I know ZTherapy has the bushings to do the job, don't know how cheap shipping them to OZ would be..it shouldn't cost too much if you can find them locally..

Now that doesn't make any sense at all.....:stupid: Camber plates or stock "top hats" (insulators) ?.... The only thing I can think of is I believe there is a difference in the thickness of the insulators between the early(pre-74)and later cars... maybe you guys grabbed the wrong ones? There's no difference in the length of the strut housings between a 73 and 72 so that's out.......and you used those springs before on a 72 and it was lower.... something here just doesn't make sense.... Only reason I mentioned camber plates is that some are designed to mount on the underside of the strut mount, while some are designed to mount on top in the engine compartment, but even that shouldn't make that much difference.... maybe an inch but that should be about it...... This one is a head-scratcher for sure Pete... and Ken can tell you I can't afford to scratch too much or I'll be wearing a hat all the time..... BTW, love the paint scheme on the car.... hate to be the first one to put a scratch on it.....:devious: Thinking about it a bit more... do you have the sway bars hooked up or not? I got to thinking, you guys plated the frame rail where the sway bar mounts which would lower the bar itself... maybe that could be what is trying to hold the car up, too much tension on the bar itself? As you can see I'm kinda grasping at straws here.........:disappoin

That looks to be one of the systems that puts fuel and NOS into the nozzle, which would make it a lot simpler. You'd only have to plumb another fuel line to supply the solenoids that control the fuel flow to the nozzle......perhaps you'd have to run a seperate line from the tank..that I don't know... Only thing you have to think about now is the rest of the driveline, can it hold up to an extra 150+HP? And do you have the ignition that can hold up to the demands this system would need? I didn't read all the specs on your car on your site.. but that's something else you'd have to consider as well. Only time I've ever been around nitrous oxide was in the dentist's office.... :cross-eye

That would probably be the biggest issue.. of course, then you've got to find a way to mount the throttle trigger switch, and plumb the system. Then there is always the issue of enough fuel, but that all depends on how much NOS you are going to use... And then there could be an issue of jetting of the carbs at WOT with the NOS on.. whether or not you would have the right amount of fuel to mix with the NOS so you don't end up burning a piston........you would probably need quite a bit richer mixture when the NOS is on... and would that affect the carbs mixtures when under normal driving? Or would this system have the nozzle that feeds fuel and NOS at the same time? If so, then you'd have to not only plumb in 6 nozzles for the NOS, but you'd also have to plumb up another fuel system for the nozzles..... Lot's of "ifs".....no real answers from me cuz I don't know that I would want to try to figure it out... especially by the trial and error method.. could get expensive....:cross-eye

At least he isn't trying to make a huge profit off them because they are NLA.....

Reasonable?:cross-eye Nope, none that I can think of... you'd almost have to have a NOS fogger nozzle in each of the intake runners downwind of the carbs. Unless you used an airbox such as TWM has and then you could put the nozzle in the airbox, but then, you might not get even distribution to all the carbs. If you had FI it would be simple....

It's OK to remove it, but, the worst part is you'll have to pull the hub to do it... Probably easier to just get a good set of tin snips and trim it a little to fit the caliper.....or a Dremel tool and then just file it (or sand it with the Dremel) off where you cut it just so you don't snag your hand on it later....

Getting back to the original thread subject... look what I just found on Ebay....not a bad price for 4 either..... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2430893810&category=33700

JSK has the spacers on Ebay as well....

Car isn't painted yet so no need for a grille in it just yet...:disappoin I did get mine from Nismoparts.com last year....the only difference in the mounts will be if you have a 73 or later car.. BTW Brett, MidwestZ, our new advertiser can get the grille and will ship overseas and you'll also get a 10% discount by being a member here. Check out the other thread on the grill... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=52888#post52888

Believe ZeddFindings will sell just the rails, and they shouldn't be too hard to take off with a good spot weld cutter. You'll have to grind the flange clean along the bottom to find the spot welds and then just drill them out. When you put the new ones on, you can either have them spot welded at a shop, drill holes in them and fill them with weld as a replacement for a spot weld, or seam weld them back on. Spot weld cutter I have are from Eastwoods and they work excellent. Right now the pair are on sale for 42.99 for a 3/8 and 1/2 inch.. part number 19004 But to be honest, I think on a Z all you would really need is the 3/8 cutter as most all the spot welds on a Z are rather small and they are all the same size that I have found so far....

FWIW, the grill that is available now does have the gunmetal grey finish. Mine looks to have a decent coat of paint, but before I put it on the car I'm going to put a couple good coats of clear on it just for insurance.... I guess we refer to the grill as the Nismo grille, because the only way we can get them in the US is to go through Nismo to get it. Another thread just ended up discussing the grille and where it can still be found.... http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=52833#post52833 Chloe, just curious if you can also get the grille? Nismoparts.com won't ship overseas, so was curious if you could for anyone who might want one....?

Here's a pic of mine that is still waiting to go on the car....:disappoin