2ManyZs

I guess the question is this George, are you going to put urethane steering rack bushings in? If you have the strut assembly off the control arm you should be able to get just enough room to remove the bolt if you unbolt the ball joint so you can raise the steering arm up off the control arm and that should raise the tie rods enough to get the bolt or bolts out. If you are planning on replacing the steering rack bushings, then you might as well loosen the rack, it's only 4 bolts to loosen, so you can raise it a bit to get the bolts out. FWIW, when I rebuilt mine, I inserted the bolts from the back and put the nut towards the rack so I'll never have that problem again.

Sounds like you did alright with the oil rings, as far as setting the end gaps. There is always the slim possibility they might have moved a bit when you put the ring compressor on and installed the pistons. I'd go ahead with checking the valve stem seals and if nothing looks bad enough to be causing the problem, I think you should figure on pulling the head. I know, a head gasket isn't cheap, but it's a lot easier than pulling the engine...If you pull the head and don't find any scratches in your hone job in the cylinders, you can pretty much rule out the rings as the problem. Which will leave you with two more alternatives. You could have had a defective headgasket, or there is a probem with the head itself. BTW, did you happen to check the oil pressure? Just wondering if it showed anything abnormal...

As far as I know, there is no difference in the top and bottom rails, or scrapers. But, the question is, did you set the gaps correctly? The expander ring should be set with the gap over one end of the piston pin, and the top rail is then put on the piston with the gap set at 10 o'clock( with 12 o'clock the gap of the expander ring) and the bottom rail is then put on and the gap set at 4 o'clock. Also and just as important, is that the ends of the expander ring spacer ends cannot overlap, but must only butt together. This needs to be double checked after installing the side rails as you can disturb the expander ring spacers when you are installing them... If the engine is pumping out that much oil, I guess it is entirely possible the oil ring end gaps aren't set correctly and that is the problem. I know you didn't want to hear that.....:disappoin If you aren't sure, you might be better off to take it back down and double check now instead of taking the chance of damaging the bore or pistons....

Is this the pic you are referring to Royce?

Have you tried to adjust the striker plate at all? If you loosen the bolts that hold it to the door jamb, there is a bit of adjustment there, although not an inch, but it might help. When you put the door back together, did you move the plastic adjustment nuts on the latch rods inside the door? They can be a bit finicky to say the least. Perhaps one of the adjustments either on the outside door handle or the inside handle is causing the latch to bind up when closing... Unfortunately, this is one of those things that you just have to sit and play with, as there is no true adjustment method other than trial and error. Every door will latch differently due to the adjustment differences in the stirker plate etc.... Is there play in the hinges? Can you get the door to move up and down when open by picking up on the back of the door?

The best thing about the Toyota caliper swap is that they don't require any machine work or modifications to the strut to mount them, they bolt right up. Just be sure to get the correct ones, the ones with the W or WS (?) on the caliper are made for vented rotors.

I'll admit you have me stumped on this one. The only things that can be wrong are either it is not the correct shroud, or the radiator is not a 240 radiator. It's possible the radiator is an aftermarket radiator that is not completely true to the original specs...... Did you try to mount it in the opposite direction? If I remember right, the fan opening is offset and not in the center of the shroud... been so long since I saw a factory shroud on a 240 I can't remember, but I know they only fit one way....

I've got my e-mail feature blocked, but you can send me a PM with no trouble Rolf.

Wasn't someone looking for a fiberglass hood no too long ago? http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2408223782&category=33646

To be absolutely honest Rolf, I see nothing in that cars history to make it special. It is only a Regional champion in ITS. Here in the US the SCCA has Regional only classes and then they have National classes that are invited to the yearly SCCA Runoffs to compete with cars and drivers from all over the country. ITS has never been a National class and perhaps never will be. It is a nice car, but it has no special racing history that I know about. If it were a multi year champion at the SARRC invitational that it run at Road Atlanta every fall, which is the Improved Tourings unofficial "Runoffs" then it might be worthy of having a bit more of a "gilded" history. Or if it had a history of racing going back to the days of C Production or perhaps a win in a 24 endurance race it would be worthy of the praise. Sadly, the price of 240's in SCCA ITS racing is bottoming out here in the US as the SCCA has allowed cars like the 944, 325IS and later RX-7 to compete and they have nearly made the 240 a backmarker except for a very small number of well-driven and well prepared cars that win a smaller amount of races than they have in the past. A 240 that might have sold for 10K or more in the past is now lucky to fetch 5K as the cars just can't be made competitive with the cars on the track today. It's hard to compete with 30 year old technology against cars that are only 10 years old. My 280 was in 9th place in the Regional championship here in 1993( my first year of racing), only competing in half the races that year, so a Regional Championship is not a good judge of true caliber of the car. Every region has different numbers of competitiors in the class, and the competition is not the same across all regions. Last year I practically gave the car away just to get it out of the backyard...:disappoin

Get some real gas additive. ATF only works in diesels...... A gas engine doesn't have enough combustion chamber temp to burn it completely so it won't do a bit of good, unless you want to leave a little red streak on the pavement behind you....It will onlu foul your plugs and cause you more problems than you had ot begin with.

Look at it this way, torque is what gets you off the line and gets the vehicle moving. The L-series does not have the torque that a low revving domestic straigth six has because it has a small displacement. If you look at one of the hottest sports cars to come from Japan in the last 10 years you will see the similarities with your Z. The Honda S2000 has very impressive HP numbers from a very small displacement engine, yet it lacks torque. If you read all the tests of the S2000, they all say the same thing, lack of low end torque. Get that little Honday revving in the 4K and up to its 9K rev limit and it does fine, below that and it is a bit of a slug. Your Z is in the same dilema, it has good power, but it will always be a bit low power in the lower revs, unless you do something to improve it. Two things that will help it significantly are a light weight flywheel so the engine will spin up to higher revs quickly and a lower rear end gear ratio.

According to this post by Royce, he weighed an L-28 and a 4 speed as 600lbs, so add just a bit for a 5 speed, maybe another 20lbs or so... Look at this thread http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3848&highlight=Engine+weight

Actually if you go to MSA's web-site, they are looking for help.. Maybe when they get their site set up for the secure ordering, that will help with getting through to a person on the phones... Hmm, too bad they aren't closer... might be a fun job with some "benefits' worth having... at least until my car gets back together...:devious:

Sounds as if you may have a loose connection, probably at or around the coil. If it dropping all the way to zero, it sounds like the connection is broken. Double check all your wiring connections at( and around) the coil and replace any terminals that are loose or damaged. Not dropping to zero all the time is a good indication of a loose terminal that is not quite losing all, but most of it's ability to conduct the proper voltage to the tach.

Fuel tank capacity for a 240 is 15.9 gallons. 280's had a slightly larger tank at 16.3 gallons if I remember right. Have you checked your vent hoses on the tank to see if any are blocked off or crimped? You may have trapped air in the tank while filling it, and therefore not getting the tank full.

Here's the link to the auction Rolf. I remembered seeing a thread in the Z Car on Ebay forum here and looked back through and found it. You should be able to e-mail the seller through Ebay and see if he still has it. I don't think it met reserve either time it was listed. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2403442231&category=6187

All the shrouds are two piece if I remember right, but by the sounds of it, you may have a shroud for a 280. The 280 radiator is a bit larger than the 240 radiator and the shroud is about an inch or so too big, both in height and width. If you line up the mounting holes on one side, and the opposite side is past the holes, then I'd say it's a 280 shroud for sure. The 280 shrouds are a dime a dozen, the 240 shrouds are hard to find....:disappoin

Well, it sounds like a good idea, but, I think you will find those cells are usually fairly small in capacity... One of the main reasons for putting a fuel cell in the car other than the safety factor is the ability to lower the bottom of the cell to a point that is lower than the stock tank. This will substantially lower the center of gravity of the cell versus the stock tank. Also to be able to offset it to the right or left a bit to help with the balance as well as lowering the center of gravity on the rear of the car. Even with equal sized cells, say an 8 gallon cell, it would be a major improvement if the bottom of the cell is on an equal plane as the rear suspension crossmember versus 2 inches higher than the top of the stock tank. It's a bit more work to mount it down low, but the benefits would be worth an extra afternoon of work.

Looks pretty darn good to me too... Perfect looking dash, everything under the hood looks to be close to stock, not to much changed.. Only thing I see that might make it look better would be new carpet, but that's really pretty minor. If he can show proof of the low mileage, the car ought to be worth second look and is possibly worth more than 5K. Not good if you are the buyer, but it looks to be worth considerably more than the typical 75-78 280's you see on Ebay.

Carl, I don't know that we really want to know how Beandip got his, do we? Maybe that's part of the reason he was a firefighter....:nervous:

The best advice I can give is to get a Factory Service Manual. They are expensive, but, compared to the other manuals you buy, they are worth every penny. I've got an old Haynes manual that has a small section on the 280's, but it shows evertyhing except the vacuum line diagram. I'm fairly sure the FSM has one, and will have much better electrical diagrams as well. The FSM has a very large section for trouble shooting problems with the fuel injection as well as test to perform on the various sending units and sensors. It is money well spent if you hate banging your head against the wall when it comes to fixing problems on the FI and ignition in the 280's. Andy Russell should have one for your year car, you can contact him at z@datsundude.com The FSM's are 72 plus shipping....

If you want it just a tad quieter, Dynomax has a stright thru race muffler that could be used in the tunnel where the pre-muffler or resonator was in the stock system. I bought one from Summit Racing for about 40 bucks and put it on my straight exhaust I had on the race car and it quieted it down considerably. Might just do the sound trick without cutting down the flow you have gained with the new system.

If you pull the turbo off the intake and find oil, you know it's the turbo. You might be able to see if you pull the inlet off the turbo, but it would be better if you pulled the turbo off the intake or intake plumbing. If you find no evidence of oil at the turbo, it has to be after the turbo, either in the valve seals or somewhere else. Sometimes you will see oil leaking round the turbo seal where the impeller housing bolts together, but not always.

If I had the money, I'd have to make a difficult choice between this and the 260 on Ebay right now... Oh well, don't have the money for either, so I guess it doesn't matter.... Just wish the guy with this 260 would quit listing it when I'm un-employed... He did it last year, and now here it is again.... http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2407528101&category=6187