Virto

You have to wonder which of them contains more plastic.

No, I wouldn't think that it would add that value to the car. Would the car be worth more with a quality paint job? Sure, but increased value is determined by the quality of the current body/paint. If you're keeping the car for the foreseeable future, is high-quality paint work worth that much to you? I just don't think an early Z commands a high enough price overall that bodywork and paint will dramatically increase value.

Ishino is very likely the OEM manufacturer. Buying the gasket from the dealer just means paying more for the NISSAN cardboard backing. I have to second Marty's idea, if you have access to a carquest. And now off-topic, Marty, how did I not realize you were so close by?

Good to keep in mind. I really just wanted the set of studs, assuming that some will break off when the manifolds are removed - no reason to try bolting everything back down on old studs.

Yhea, I could see that - and I do have a feeling the R200 makes things a little more difficult. But, my good mood has been ruined for the night, . Dog decided to go get skunked right in the face, but I had no idea since I was out the other side of the house with my pipe. Didn't realize until we stepped back inside, and the first thing she did was run and dive under the bed. This is the 3rd time this year, and 5th in the last two years. I'm not getting any more used to it. : P

I think the Bad Dog plates are like 35 bucks, but they do look fairly simple. Just depends on if you'd rather spend the time fabbing some or buy them and weld them on. For 30 bucks, the cost seems reasonable.

Dry ice works great, you're right about never going back to heat gunning it. Have you planned to reinforce the mounting for the sway bars? There was a post just today about the effects the upgraded bars can have on even rust-free mounts on these cars.

It's slip fit - keeps costs down for them, that's why it's only 150 bucks on top of the header. I'm not too worried about the muffler - I know some folks had to rotate it or just replace it. If I have to, I'll probably be able to just swap it out with one the shop owner has. Flex pipe is a good call. I may bring that up when I drop off the parts. Honestly, the muffler may be too big and hang too low, but it'll sure look better than the hole-punched rust can I've got on it.

Well, I'm in an even better mood now. Jeff from MSA emailed me and knocked 40 bucks off the total. Parts should ship out today.

You could try something like K-seal, which is mostly just copper fragments that will fill and seal small holes. I've had really good luck with it, but I'm not sure if you can get it in Finland. There may be some kind of similar product, however. I would suggest not bypassing the transmission cooler by using a manual transmission radiator, unless you're planning to add a smaller transmission/oil cooler in front of it. You'd obviously have to fab up some kind of mount for it.

Well, I know they have a hard time telling colors apart, based on the fusible link order I placed back when I got the car out of mothballs... If there's any damage I'll throw a fit. It's not easy to come up with disposable income for me. If there's some scratches in the coating, that's fine, I'll sand and repaint. This is certainly the largest thing I've ever bought from MSA. Wires, bolts and books don't really require too much special handling.

Well, I placed the order today. I figure they're paintable anyway, so if they come nicked up I'll just respray them. Or possibly wrap them. I made the mistake of searching for videos of the 3-2 installed and I can only hope mine ends up sounding half as good.

It looks to be similar if not identical - for all I know, MSA just resells the Pacesetters. I did stumble across those this weekend and have them bookmarked at home. I figure since I'm doing this, I may as well do it all at once, which is why I'm leaning towards the MSA setup. Header, new exhaust, new studs and bolts...just makes sense to get it all out of the way now - I've always been way too skilled at putting off something here and something there.

The exhaust on the car is rotted out in place beyond the manifold, so it all needs to go. Originally we were just going to patch the holes and replace the EGR tube and then worry about the rest of the system next year, but if the intake and exhaust have to come off, it's probably best to do it all at once - and having something custom bent wouldn't be any less expensive than the MSA exhaust. I'm going to try ordering the header and matching exhaust - if, for some reason things go poorly, I will probably take you up on your offer. Seems a lot of people have tossed OE manifolds recently, they're surprisingly hard to find, unlike the intakes. Thanks though, Jeff.

Well, I think I'm leaning towards the 3-2 and matching exhaust. I talked to the shop owner today and he thinks it's probably the better way to go, since they'll connect to the factory EGR and there's no real way of knowing just how well another 35+ year old manifold will hold up. If ever I wish free shipping was an option, this will be the case, . Amazon spoils me. I see a number of folks with 6-1, anyone have anything to say about the 3-2?

I like the 6-1 look, but I'd be killing my wallet just to spend the 500+ for the 3-2, the 2.5 premium exhaust and the new mounting hardware, not to mention the 50 or so to ship all of it. The 3-2 is available with a smog fitting to run the EGR tube. MSA doesn't state if it'll fit the stock tube (that I just bought) or if one will need to be fabricated. If something needs to be mocked up, I could turn around and return or sell the EGR tube and at least get that 70 bucks back. If I go the header route, I already decided just to buy the matching exhaust, since it's all bolt-on. It's not any more expensive than having a custom one bent up after the fact, and the little shop the car is at could do it at the same time. The two big things that are keeping me from ordering the parts today are 1) money, including how much I'll pay for labor, and 2) Illinois smog laws. See - Illinois only exempts cars from 1948 or before, or cars with antique plates...which means I couldn't drive it on the street. There was a law that exempted a large number of 95 or earlier non-OBDII cars if they had a valid smog test at the time the law passed. The problem is that I can't verify if the car did, which might open me up to getting a sniffer notice in the mail.

Sure enough, there's the recall info right on 194. I can't believe that they thought a spring clip was going to make everything OK - but I guess back then getting a replacement manifold wasn't much of an issue, either. Thanks for the help and insight fellas. I've got a couple of feelers out now, and I can find intake manifolds left and right, but exhaust seems harder to come by. I'm kind of leaning towards MSA 3-2 headers with a smog fitting (gotta pass a sniffer) if I can't find a manifold.

Well, let's start with the good - the new master cylinder has solved my braking issues. And now let's get to the part that's even worse... So the exhaust is shot, that was a known factor, and we knew the EGR tube was rotted out. What we didn't know until today is that the EGR port on the exhaust manifold was welded up by the PO, badly. We also didn't see that the manifold was cracked until we tried replacing the EGR tube. Does anyone know which exhaust manifolds fit a bone stock Federal L28 - and then the next part of the question: does anyone have one in good nick lying around that they'd be willing to sell? Trying to get this back on the road is killing me with one thing after another and I'm starting to scrape the bottom of the cash barrel.

Oh it's way old - 1987. There are still some un-circulated ones available on ebay, but they're too old to order the original classic autos sheets that they were part of.

It's not a current stamp in Vanuatu - I can't find it in the past issues either, so it may not be available anymore. I'm going to keep looking though.

That's too funny, but also oddly brilliant. I've seen plywood areo before, but I'd have never even thought to make that leap to the lawn and garden section.

Jeff, I always love seeing pics of your racer and the BRE colors are a favorite of mine, but I can't get past the fact that it looks like you have a piece of lawn edging bolted to your front splitter.

If the master is leaking, it should be swapped. I tend to follow the line of reason that you may as well do both at the same time and avoid having an issue pop up later. The line will obviously need to be replaced, as well. These parts are fairly cheap, may as well take care of all of it at once.

Check to see if the exhaust manifold nuts are tight. They will work themselves loose sometimes, especially towards cyl 6. I wouldn't worry too much about the manifold being warped just yet. Does sound like it could be backfiring either thru the carbs or the exhaust, though. How do the plugs look?

I also run BPR5ES-II and I was under the impression that they are the hotter plug, not cooler - 6ES is usually preferred.