Arne

Summary of the Classic Motorsport build up: Bored 0.040" All rotating parts balanced 280ZX Turbo oil pump E31 head shaved 0.018", no port changes Good valve job (3 or 5 angle, can't remember which) Mild cam Rebuilt SUs Pertronix ignition in stock distributor MSA 6 into 1 header MSA 2 1/2" exhaust All the normal rebuild stuff, new guides, timing chain, etc. They did a baseline pull of 137 RWHP before the rebuild, got 169 when they were done. Not bad for a totally streetable L24.

Get a copy of the current (Nov. 2007) issue of Classic Motorsports. This issue outlines exactly what you have in mind. They did a rebuild and mild upgrade on an L24 and got 167 HP at the rear wheels. The main difference is that they used the early E31 head, that you don't have. But for street use you should be able to come pretty close to that even using the late E88 head your car came with.

Well, if I was going to drill 9 holes anyway, an extra 3 won't be that much more to deal with. All 12 it is.

Hmm, I can certainly see how that could help a bit, but considering how seldom I'll exceed 80, I don't think I'm willing to mess with the classic looks of the spook for a small additional improvement. Besides, my spook (from Classic Datsun) is very nice quality hand-laid cloth fiberglass, and is much more rigid than I had expected.

Thanks for all the replies, folks. I'll hit the hardware store on Saturday morning and get to it. I'll probably either use 7 or 9, maybe the 6 that Will uses plus one extra at the front center.

Me personally, I'd prefer to stay with the L-series inline six, even if it wasn't the original one. But I too would want to save the original block for the future.

Anyone care to share what they've used for mounting a spook? Types and sizes of fasteners?

I got my BRE from CDM today. Haven't installed it yet, obviously. But holding it up to the car, it looks to me as if it will fit very nicely. Good quality glass work, too. Hand laid cloth, not blown chopped fibers. Any recommendations for mounting hardware?

Guys, I've got a BRE spook coming from Les (Classic Datsun), should arrive in a day or two. I'll post a few pics when I get it.

Further info, now that I am home. My cap is apparently not original, but probably a later factory replacement. It has aluminum contacts, not brass. But my rotor my well be original, judging by the color, brass contact and the logo on it, which I have seen on other early ignition parts. And my car is not a "Series 1" but is actually a late '71 "Series 2". So the color of mine may not be indicative of the true first generation factory original, even if it is original. Probably close enough for me, but maybe not for others.

Chris may be right about the early cars having black. And he is definitely correct about the brass contacts. My original cap is much higher quality than most anything you can buy these days. However -- I can't consider the original sales brochure to be the definitive source for the color. Not because of pre-production photo cars, lack of clarity of the photo or anything like that. But because the camera can't pick up colors buried in the dark and covered by black plug wires. I know this for a fact, because the cap in the attached picture is the pale gray-green cap that I now have safely tucked away. Looks pretty dark in this picture, even though I lightened the exposure a bit. But trust me, it's not black.

Not faded, as I've seen an NOS unit that was the same as mine.

Sorry, no pictures. But the power should go from the fusebox on a green/yellow wire. Its first stop is the hazard switch, then into the brake light switch (still green/yellow). From there it goes to the turn signal switch (still green/yellow). At the turn signal switch the circuit splits - the right side is white/red and the left is white/black. Those two wires go to the right side of the dash where they connect to a bundle going to the rear of the car.

One of many.

First answer, no, a new fusebox and headlight relay won't help at all. The headlights are not involved in this, and a new fusebox won't cure the root issue.Let's try to continue systematically to find it. Don't panic, we'll try to talk you through this. Next step - reconnect the connector under the glovebox. Now uplug the connector from the hazard flasher switch and test again. Report back what happens.

If you search this site for "headlight relay harness" you'll find this post (among many, many others):http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=219583&postcount=156 H4 headlights should work fine in a Z, but proper aiming is critical for them to work right. Sounds like yours are aimed way too high. FWIW, I have used many, many brands of H4 lights, I've put them in every vehicle I've owned since I first discovered them in 1976. I've always felt the very best all around were Hella, followed closely by Cibié and Bosch. Also, IPF generally get great reviews, although that's one of the very few brands that I've never owned so I can't speak from personal knowledge on that. None of those are trendy looking with halos, clear lenses or the like, but they all just flat WORK! Also, my personal experience has been that really high-watt bulbs are a waste. The light output isn't generally the problem, but aiming and directing it is. Monster output won't do any good unless the light is directed to the road where you need it. With true high quality lights as named above, you shouldn't need more that the standard 55/60 watt bulbs to get greatly improved lighting. I've never used higher than 75/90 watt in any of my cars. While I'm on this, let me also add that higher wattage bulbs should only be used in the largest of headlights, otherwise they build up too much heat leading to short bulb life. I've tried the above mentioned 75/90's in a normal 7" light and had relatively poor lifespan on them. The same 75/90's in my BMW motorcycle (light is 8" by 10") or my wife's '91 Jetta (with euro-Hellas, 12" by 8") give normal bulb life. A 130/110 in a 7" is simply asking for the bulb to overheat. Too small of air volume in the light housing. Last comment is regarding tinted bulbs. They are universally bad. The blue tints do not improve lighting, but always reduce it. Worst is that the tinting tends to scatter the light, so that even the best quality lens and reflector can't control it for best use. Doesn't matter what they claim, they are always worse than a normal clear bulb. For details on bulb selection, proper aiming and more, a really great place to visit is: http://www.danielsternlighting.com/ I've no connection with him, in fact have never even bought anything from him. But he does know what he's talking about.

I actually installed the cap, wires and headlights for the Canby gathering last June, just because I could. I don't really show my cars either, but it's kinda cool to have the parts available for others to see.

Go back to low tech. Manually set the engine to TDC, take off the cap and see where the rotor is pointing. Turn the dizzy so that it should fire about there, then put on the cap loosely and see which plug wire the rotor is pointing towards. Verify that the plug wires are correct on the cap this way. Here's a thought, you didn't mention this, but have you had the oil pump off?

Yup, it's a mess. My yellow car came to me with a very ham-fisted fuel injection conversion. While I can't imagine swapping an injected 280Z driver to carbs, I very quickly went back to SUs on the yellow car. Much better than all the garbage you'd need to work through to make it right. (Pictures on my website linked in my signature below.)If you must have injection on a non-injected car, I'd go totally aftermarket instead. You should be able to do that much more cleanly. But it'll be more expensive than even a set of ZTherapy SUs.

I agree with Will, an L24 long block is almost valueless. I couldn't give my spare '73 L24 away intact, I had to disassemble it, then I gave away the head, sold the 9mm rods, and hauled the block to the scrappers. Thing is that if you don't care whether you have matching numbers in your 240Z, you want a bigger motor (same as you yourself are doing). Why buy a non-original L24 when you can get a non-original L28 just as easily. I would have done the same for my yellow project if I hadn't bought a parts car that came with a good L24. Otherwise it would have received an L28.

Agreed. My red car still had the original on it when I bought it. That cap is now safely packed up along with the Koito headlights and date-coded plug wires.

But the extra wire is undoubtedly related to this non-stock gadget. http://asta.bizhosting.com/images/240Z-Aug23-2007-1.JPG

I looked at the other pictures, the battery is installed normally, the same as mine. As shown in this one: http://asta.bizhosting.com/images/Rolfs-240Z-Jlyl200737.JPG

Probably exposed. But I'd start more systematically than just looking for the bad spot. You want to reduce the amount of wire you need to inspect closely. So I'd start by unplugging various parts of the harness one by one to try to localize the problem. Start with unplugging the connector from the rear body harness to the dash harness. This connector will be on the passenger side behind the glovebox. With that unplugged, try the brakes and see if the fuse and switch still gets hot. If no, the problem is farther back towards the rear. If yes, it's in the wiring under the dash. Report back with your answer and we'll try to advise further.

Did you install a new distributor cap and/or wires? You may have the wires one place off all the way around.