Arne

I'm currently shooting for both days. Saturday for the swap meet, Sunday to look at other cars.

Who all can I expect to meet at Canby in a week and a half?

Here's another one, but no where near as nice. May be too far gone. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Datsun-Z-Series-HL53-1970-Datsun-240Z_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ6187QQitemZ4645635257QQrdZ1

Just to clarify my three top choices: the Hellas have the best low beam, a broad spread with very few shadows. The Cibies have the best high beam range, but the low beams possess more shadows than the Hellas. The Bosch are midway between the other two - low beam has fewer shadows than Cibie, but more than Hella. High beam not quite as good as Cibie. Now, a few other thoughts. One is that ANY H4 headlight will be a massive improvement over a sealed beam - especially when used with relays. Even cheap Taiwanese lights are a vast improvement. So you can't go too far wrong as far as output goes. Good name brand lights will generally have a better pattern, and the quality and durability of the lenses and reflectors is generally much better. In some brands the reflectors will tarnish or corrode after a short time, but I've had a set of Hellas last over 10 years and still look perfect. (Actually, one of the worst I've used for reflector durability were Cibies, but that set was decades ago.) Also, don't get too excited about higher output bulbs, even if you are using relays to power them. About the max output that a 7" headlight will support is 80 watts. Go much over that and the lamp doesn't have enough air volume to dissipate the heat fast enough, and bulb life suffers badly. And the difference in actual light on the road between 55/60 watts and 80 watts is not very big. (Trust me, I've tried.) Lastly, for the conditions that most of us drive under, low beam performance is much more important than high beam. That's why I prefer the Hellas over the Cibies, even though the Cibies have a little better high beam range. Unlike when I was young in Southern Oregon and all the roads were empty at night, these days there's too much oncoming traffic to use the high beams much. So I recommend paying more attention to the low beams instead.

I have used E-code H4 headlights exclusively in every vehicle I have owned since 1976. I have personal experience with Cibie, Hella, Bosch, Marchal, Stanley, Wipac and Lucas in the 7" round size that our Z's use. Of those, my favorite is Hella, with both Bosch and Cibie close seconds. The best ones have a sharply defined low-beam cutoff, and a broad pattern with minimal shadows.

Well, I see your point, Loren. But I too am old enough to have driven Z's when they were still fairly new, and add that to my 20+ years in tires, and it is my opinion that the narrow tires and wheels weren't the problem. The problem was aerodynamics. Too much airflow under the car. You mentioned two of the fixes - a front spoiler and/or lowering the car. The euro springs I will be using when I rebuild the suspension are also reputed to address this problem because they slightly lower the front of the car, without lowering the rear. Similarly, the 260Z came with the same skinny tires on 5" wheels but contemporary magazine tests swore it was a massive improvement in stability due to the slightly nose-down attitude of the car compared to the 240Z. But perhaps you are right. If I try it and hate it, what am I out? A set of tires. Because I can always pull them back off later.

I don't thin the Euro springs are available anywhere for your 280Z, only for 240Zs.

Gear reduction starters look considerably different. The first 3 pictures are all gear reduction, the fourth is a normal starter.

I was thinking the very same thing...

Not quite true. I have no ballast resistor in my 240Z ('71 with ZX dizzy), and my tach works just fine, thank you. But the first question above is very relevant. What type of ignition do you have on your car?

Well, I'm not going to put them on the car (if I end up doing that) until it is done - probably a couple of years, if all goes well. So I'll "sit on them" until then. And luckily they are the later 'D' style with the better retaining clips, probably won't fall off in normal driving.

For a car that is over 30 years old, if I was going to go so far as to replace the radiator, I would probably replace the entire cooling system, unless I knew its history. (This is not rhetorical, I will be doing exactly this later this year.) Mine will get a new 3 row radiator, new water pump, thermostat, all hoses (incl. heater hoses), hose clamps, temperature sending unit, and heater control valve. In my case, I will have the heater core checked at a local radiator shop, and repaired or replaced as necessary.

A valid concern. As soon as I put them on the car and they get dirty the value will begin to drop. But they are mine, and if I want to have them on the car, I can do that. I'm leaning toward keeping the rims now, although there's rust on a couple of them from something corrosive having been spilled on them in the past. So two of the rims at least will need to be sandblasted and refinished. I'll probably do them all just to make certain they match.

MSA = MotorSport Auto = http://thezstore.com

Ahh! That makes sense, since I didn't see how you could fit much larger a flywheel in the bellhousing anyway. And now that I think about it, a larger overall diameter would require a different starter, since the ring gear would be farther from the centerline.So the flywheel isn't an issue, Bryan. But you'll want to make sure that the larger pressure plate isn't a whole lot heavier than the normal one. But I'm betting that if it is heavier, it'd only be by a couple of pounds or so. Probably not all that significant.

Just a quick note - I had no idea there were so many people looking for 'D' hubcaps. Sure, you hear of a someone hunting now and then, but I didn't figure there were all that many early cars being restored. But judging by the number of PMs I have received on these, there is more demand than I thought. (How did that cliche go? Something like, "Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!") I've received a few gentle feelers, and several more concrete offers, but none so far that are compelling. So here is the public notice folks - for the time being, the hubcaps are not for sale. This may sound a bit silly to some of you, but I am actually leaning towards (eventually) using them with very '70s-looking skinny tires as my daily driver set. I could use the mismatched set of slots with sticky rubber if I decide to do a bit of auto-X. Of course, the car won't be finished for a couple of years at least, so I could change my mind in the mean time. But for now I'm going to sit on them.

Bryan, while they are the same weight, the weight is carried farther from the centerline of the crank. So you are right, the throttle response may not feel as snappy. More inertia. It would seem to me that the only advantage to the 240mm flywheel would be on an engine that makes more torque than the smaller 225mm clutch can handle. At one point (when I was thinking more towards a high performance engine for my car), I figured I'd look for the lighter 810 flywheel. I think you'd be happier with either that or the stock 225mm over the 240mm.

Not the same. You can use one from any '70 through '78 Z (240/260/280) but not from the ZXs. The early 240s had plastic, the later 240s and all 260/280Zs had metal. But they all interchange through '78.

As a rule of thumb, you should have the same thread engagement as the diameter of the stud. So in the case of our Zs, 12 mm of engagement. (Almost 1/2")

My local radiator shop quoted me a 3 row core brand new for $215 with no shipping. Check around locally, there's seldom any need to mail order a radiator.

Cotter pins should always be replaced, never reused.

Yeah, when I had to buy a battery for mine when I bought the car, I got the 24F with reversed posts. Works quite nicely, if you're not too concerned with strict originality.

Cool, wish I could have seen it. 918 yellow was only used in '70 and '71, and that was one of my two top choices when I was shopping for my Z. The other was orange. Your car's gold would have been high on my list, but my wife can't stand it.

Bryan, it may not matter to you but were you aware that the Konig center caps won't fit on the front of 240Z's? The 240Z bearing cap sticks out too far for the short Konig caps. I think they'll work on 280Z hubs, which will fit on a 240Z if you change to the 280Z rotor as well.