BadDog

You should've said "you should have noticed it first, that's the view from the passenger seat!"

Yes, the Z was indeed realistic At the end of the show when he hands the homeland security agent their list of demands for becoming employees, one of the things was "cool cars" or something to that effect. If the show was realistic at all, that would mean his Z would get restored and tricked out (that's what you would want too, right? Right!??!?!? ) Sadly, I doubt that will happen. It's CBS, so he'll probably be driving a 2015 Camaro ala Hawaii 5-0 from now on, and we will never see that Z again :-(

yeah well, I hadn't gotten to that point in the show when I originally posted When I saw that I was like "I don't care if its a Ferrari on a runway, the handling at 200 MPH would be squirrely as hell especially seeing there's a jetliner above and ahead of it" and "at 200 MPH that woman would be looking like gumby if she tried to stand up out of the targa roof, let alone hold onto a laptop with one hand". When I was talking about ridiculous tech stuff in my original post, I was referring to things like instantly doing a 3D rendering of a building interior *with animation* as described by a person in real time, all by pounding away at a keyboard for a few seconds, or hacking a government firewall with more keyboard flurries, etc., etc.

When I saw a commercial for this show a few weeks ago, there was a half-second interior shot of a guy holding a familiar steering wheel... sure enough, now that its aired, in the show's pilot he's driving a 240Z. So, all of us emotionally detached IT geniuses who drive Z's should be flattered, I guess? 35 minutes in, and the show's not terrible. I am glad there aren't the typical ridiculously implausible technologies I see on other shows all the time. Well, there is the "hack a network in 5 seconds" crap, but it's only an hour TV show and you have to move the plot along . I'm not sure why the waitress is driving him to the airport at high speed in her Golf rather than his Z... oh wait, I guess she can't drive a stick.

I'll check the plugs again (they're new) after running this way for a couple hundred miles. I need to get some new float bowl gaskets and sight glass setup from ZT so that I can the float levels set correctly. I still have an inconsistent idle.

I guess the answer to that would be "normal": I use the same NGK BP6ES plugs that I've always used i.e. the "recommended Z car plug" :-)

I found a dense closed-cell foam, came in 1/8" thickness, cost me $100 for the roll but I got enough do 4 or 5 Z's. I put it under my carpets and behind every panel. I also used cheap butyl for deadening, and I have the least amount of road noise of any S30 I've ridden in. I don't remember the brand name, but I can try to dig up the receipt and see where I ordered it from...

That's the other weird thing, my plugs almost always read about the same. Might be due to the hot coil and MSD box....

I missed that full throttle had no issues. What are you using for damper oil?

No evidence of timing scatter, it looks to be rock solid. I decided to go back to the basics and check my carb balance and fuel mixture. Its been a while since I watched my z therapy tuning video, and my VCR is out of commission, but this page reminded me of things I had forgotten about: Technical Information Page ..... Carburation One issue was that I had forgotten was that I should loosen up the throttle linkage and balance screws when balancing the carbs. The technique recommended there for checking mixture by raising the lift pin (I didn't even know that was there!) in the underside of the dashpot mount is where it clicked for me. That's when I found that my front carb needed over 2 full turns out more than my rear carb needed. I found that my front carb's float level was way lower than the rear. All these years I've been adjusting my fuel mixture knobs the same amount, and then just test driving to look for issues. I forgot to check them individually for mixture, so I've probably been running with my rear carb way more rich than my front for years now. I still have to do something about my float levels, but this helped so much its not even funny. No more lean ping. Great throttle response, and the engine is smoother at high rpms now. I had my idle suddenly change on me while I was tuning, but that was before I found my fuel level imbalance. Now I'm thinking that change had to do with the front bowl starving for fuel, and then getting more, so the idle would go up and then down again after some revving. I tried to bend my float tabs accordingly, but the bowl gaskets are really old and I don't have anything to make a site glass out of, so I'm not ready to adjust them multiple times in trial and error.

I was having a bugger of a time figuring out why I had lean ping (sounds like shaking a spray paint can) under load until I found that my front crab's float level was way lower than the rear. All these years I've been adjusting my fuel mixture knobs the same amount, I forgot to check them individually for mixture. Try the tips on this page: Technical Information Page ..... Carburation The technique recommended there for checking mixture by raising the lift pin in the underside of the dashpot mount is where it clicked for me. That's when I found that my front carb needed over 2 full turns out more than my rear carb needed. I still have to do something about my float levels, but this helped so much its not even funny.

Update: re-cleaned battery terminals and grounds, put some protectant on the posts, and replaced the terminal clamps. Checked my plugs and remembered that I opened up the gap wiiiiiide to like .75 after I installed the MSD 6A. I thought maybe it was misfiring occasionally so I put new plugs in gapped to factory specs to eliminate that. Idle is steady, but still changes occasionally. Noticed the other day that after hard breaking, the idle dropped to almost stalling at around 500rpm, and then recovered after half a minute. Hmmm maybe that's lean ping under load, not timing. I am leaning toward the lean ping idea, and I do have a little more lean pop than normal (i like to adjust the carbs so I have a tiny but of lean pop when engine braking from higher rpm, but now I'm getting pop between shifts sometimes). I tried opening the çarbs up quite a bit, in 1/2 turn increments trying to get rid of the ping under load. Now they are at 5 turns, about 2 more than "normal" for my car. The ping/rattle under load is better but still there, and I am now running very rich (it stinks ). I have a vacuum tester on the way, but it hasn't arrived yet. I think I definitely have a vacuum leak somewhere, I can hear it whistling sometimes. Afraid its the throttle body bushings and there's nothing I can do about that right now. Jetway, my car had "original" A/C but its long gone. So are the related valves etc., as well as the old smog equipment.

Thanks djwarner, that's a very straightforward explanation of how to check the vacuum advance. Yes, I may be focusing a little too much on the distributor, but that's what my gut is telling me because it seems like my timing is advancing by itself under some set of conditions (temperature-related?), staying that way for an indeterminate amount of time, and then abruptly kicking back to "normal". The rebuilt distributor isn't that old, but maybe there is a problem with the centrifugal advance or the vacuum advance, I don't know where the "tick" sound might be coming from when that happens. On the other hand, it could just be electrical and maybe my base timing is too far advanced, but under low-voltage conditions everything seems OK and when voltage is "normal" then the idle is higher, pings under load, etc. Changes in the electrical status-quo could account for the abrupt change in idle, but again I don't know where the "tick" sound might be coming from when that happens. I'll explore both of these avenues some more in the coming weeks. Thank you both for your help!

Thanks madkaw, I will double-check grounds and connections. Stock dizzy (rebuilt).

Last summer, I noticed I had some pinging under load (up a gentle hill in 4th or 5th gear) while driving home from a show in Rochester. When I checked my timing the next day, it was dead on what I last set it to in the early Spring. Took it out for a drive, similar temperature and humidity, no problems at all. Not long after that, I started noticing that my idle was occasionally high at stop lights. Not much, just a couple hundred rpm. I figured something was sticking, so when it happened once when I was parking anyway, I jiggled various carburetor, throttle, and choke pieces, but no change. I figured I'd do another minor tune-up, so when I went to do that and was letting the car warm up, I heard the rpm jump a little by itself, and after a few minutes it dropped back down. I can't remember for sure, but there may have been a "tick" sound when it happened. It was definitely an abrupt change, it wasn't gradual. What I have: Stock engine internals Header Open-style air cleaner SU's MSD6A Pertronix igniter w/flamethrower coil Pretty new distributor cap, rotor, and wires Rebuilt distributor approx. 2 years old NGK BP6ES(?) plugs The only recent changes made to anything are the open air cleaner (custom modified stock housing) and some new Hella horns. I do think I have a small amount of throttle shaft air leakage. The distributor was purchased from Z Car Source (i think) and I tried checking the vacuum advance and it doesn't seem to stick, but I'm not sure how to do an accurate/thorough check. The MSD is about 3 years old, and I've had the pertronix and coil for about 10 years, and they've been rock solid except for when one of the magnets came loose in the pertonix setup. Alternator is also about 10 years old. I once had a wiring harness issue (corrosion) where the regulator(?) hooks in and I had to "jump" one wire across the plastic harness connector so that the voltage gauge wasn't getting pegged. I'm considering trying to source another rebuilt distributor to rule that out. I've also considered I may have an overall low-voltage situation (dimming lights etc.) and may need to get one of those 80(?) amp alternator setups. Anyone else have any helpful suggestions? Am I overlooking something obvious? I'd like to get some leads on this before I take her out for the Spring Thanks all!

Yes, I still have the stock Horn fuse in place (which is 10A, but the horns are 5.5A each) and if/when I try the Hella relay I will use a 20A inline fuse between the relay and batter per the intruction sheet. Thanks!

No worries ollie, what's 6-1/2 years between posts? :-) Just consider youself lucky

Y'know, that's what I ended up doing today too just to see if it would work/blow a fuse, etc..... And they are pretty darn loud. I wasn't expecting them to be a single tone though. Anyway, I think the idea behind the relay and direct battery connection is to get more juice to the horns than the stock wiring may be able to handle. So I might still try it that way to see if they get even louder (I don't have a decibel meter though).... but I think that my goal of having loud enough horns to say "Hey, you in the SUV, don't change lanes onto my car!!" has been achieved

I just got some Hella twin power horns from Griot's, and they came with a relay too. Did you ever figure out the answer?

This probably isn't the case since your Pertronix hasn't had much use, but check the plastic "tape" around the Pertronix ring that goes beneath the rotor. If one of the magnets has come out, you will experience the symptoms you've described. Ask me how I know ;-)

I bought the version that had 2 hoods and 2 hoses - my brother wanted to be in on the experience, but the timing didn't work out. I think I put both of my hoses together, and put the pump inside my house (I have a detached garage) in case it rained. My booth was venting (through filters) out a side-window of my garage that was on the opposite side of the garage from my house. I never caught a whiff of anything :-) To deal with the 2-hose issue, I duct-taped them together every coouple of feet of their length. It's not like my gun's air supply hoise was all that flexible anyway, so it didn't make too much difference to me. Maybe I had to be 10% more mindful of hose movement, but I was already trying to keep the hoses far away from my work as it was :-) I bought mine from autobodystore.net If you've never been to that site, it's very helpful. Its run by a pro who caters to novices like us :-) Lots of very good advice on there, and he points out some very good reasons for the seperate air supply. Fresh, cool air unheated by my air compressor was a bonus, but I also wanted to make sure I had plenty of air for my gun. I have a 35 gallon compressor that puts out from 10-15 CFM depending on pressure, and it kept up fine with my HVLP gun even when the tank emptied and the compressor kicked on. But having my breathing air seperate from the gun air probably helped make sure that I didn't run out of air for my gun. Very important to have even pressure when spraying metallic paint :-)

I bought a Hobbyair with a direct feed hood (positive pressure) and a pack of lens protectors. Relatively affordable, good visibiblity, and comfortable. When I was shooting the color and clear on my car's exterior on a hot summer day in my homemade booth for several hours, it kept me cool and comfortable...

it's OK Zedyone, it happens to us all. Must be the carbon monoxide that leaks into our Z's

Bwuhahahhaaaaa >:-] you're gonna love that combo!

Beautiful... great color choice! Seeing the masking and fresh paint sure brings back memories... Please keep posting pictures of your progress