Long time since a post..again

Well mostly nothing has been happening, just racing in the San Diego Club Racing Series, but other than that just been cruising around. The car's been quite reliable, and has really not had any issues. I've gone ahead and taken the liberty and ordered a new MSA fuse box so that I can run the car at night with much less risk of electrical fire. Who knows, maybe then a lot of the peripherals might work!!

That's really it for now. Have a wonderful holiday everyone!

Here's a picture of the new MSA fusebox:

Afterthoughts from an exhausting day at the Qualcomm Stadium

Well the San Diego Club Racing Series was an incredible success today. We got membership dues from pretty much everyone and everyone had an absolute blast. Quick recap on the car's handling characteristics: pretty much unchanged! Predictable and aside from the car pushing from understeer, it's incredible easy to drive quick.

I'll spare you all the details...you guys can check out all the pics here: Click for full San Diego Club Racing Album

Here are some cool shots of the Z being driven by both my wife and myself today :)

Running Event #2 at the SD Club Racing Series Sunday 11/22!

So Sunday I run my 2nd event in the Z at the SD Club Racing Series. The time style has been changed to a rally style timing so that it's a combined timing set up. The idea is for the drivers to be consistent. It's going to be a doosey! I'm a little worried about making some mistakes, but the West Lot at Qualcomm stadium is perfect for a longer autocross course. We also announce the winners for the autocross event after the results get posted...I know I won't be last, but I know I won't be first either lol. I adjusted the electric fan thermostat to kick in a bit earlier this time..hopefully this'll be enough to prevent the car from running too hot and be a temporary fix until I get my aluminum radiators and a Flexalite. Of course I won't be doing that until I get my new fuse box from MSA for the risk of electrical fire. I'll probably be upgrading my charging system to a 280zx alternator as well to handle the extra juice the fans will pull. This car is coming a long!

Immediate concerns:

1) Fuse Box
2) Radiator
3) Fan setup
4) 280zx Alternator
5) Switch the lights out to H4 Halogens and do HID Conversion
6) Put in bought motor mounts
7) Put in 280z Sub Axles

Other than the car is being driven regularly with no problems. I ran with a modded 240sx (N/A and kept up with him no problem). He tried to loose me, but couldn't lol, so it pulls just fine! More later!

Well I've been rather busy with the San Diego Club Racing (sdclubracing.com/forum) and work lately, so a bit of an update since the car had the exhaust put on.

Autocross thoughts: good car to drive overall..has a bit of understeer, but cured with a bit of early anticipation (aka early braking) and smoother driving techniques. Overall the car held up to a total 7 total runs and I improved my lap time by almost a second which resulted in 2 seconds slower than our fastest driver in the competition. I'm getting comfortable with the car and it's easier to gauge the car's behaviour in certain situations. Overall I'm quite pleased with the outcome of the car and how it's handling. It's no wonder why the Z usually dominates it's class and then some. What I did notice however is that the cooling mechanism needs to be looked at. With the electric fan conversion and the stock radiator, the car is fine for a DD, but needs to be beefed up for autocross. I'm thinking of getting a triple row aluminum radiator, which should more than take care of the heating issues.

As I have been rather absent, I figured it would be a good idea to update this post with a video of my new 2.5" header-back exhaust with a Flowmaster muffler. This thing sounds beastly and looks completely OEM. I love it and I've gotten quite a few compliments already on the car's sound. Performance wise, I feel that the car doesn't sputter as much any more and it ends up holding the revs nicely and consistently. At freeway speeds in 4th gear, the car isn't too loud unless going over a certain limit, but hey we would never do that now would we? ;) Anyways, less talk more vid, so here you go! :) Enjoy!!

Exhaust goes in today!

So primary goal is to get the exhaust on today. I called Rising Sun and they'll have the diff mount and the replacement motor mounts so I'll have Kristen pick those up today and then we'll go later this afternoon and put everything on. Pictures will be up soon :)

The new windshield and the sway bar bolts

Well very exciting Friday. I dropped the car off at the shop last night with JG where I'm getting a serious hook up on a brand new windshield installed and a couple of sway bar bolts added on
so that both Kristen and I can cruise up and down Highland Valley and get a feel for the car's handling characteristics at speed. For those that don't know it's kind of a intricate mountain pass that connects the suburb of Ramona from San Diego. It's got everything from fast straights to complicated S-curves and high speed corners. Although we're not going to go all out, we are going to put the car to the test and see how it performs without a tune and exhaust and see the difference with the system and JG's tune. It's an exciting time! I'm hoping that we can get the exhaust done by early next week so that the car will be ready for the meet, but it also depends on JG's schedule considering we also have to put in the motor mounts and the transmission mount.

I spoke to JG for about an hour last night with the car's ability to haul ass and all kinds of other things I'm experiencing after driving the Z. For one, I'm seeing that because the Z is so raw and untamed, any other car you jump into after that becomes extremely easy to drive. I took my Spec V out for a spin yesterday and I figured out the car a lot quicker and was able to drive a lot smoother than I did when I daily drove it. I have a theory that might explain that. When you're driving a 40 year old car, all you have is you and the car's mechanicals. There are no electronics, no computer systems keeping you in check, no ABS to save you if you mess up, so as a driver driving on the roads of today you have no choice but to sharpen your senses, think that much more ahead, and anticipate things even more. You also have to pay attention to everything constantly: temperature gauge, volt meter, oil pressure, RPMs, is the car sounding like it normally does at a certain RPM, is the engine response the same as it was a minute ago, etc. With newer cars a lot of things of the aforementioned are just taken for granted because it's newer technology. As such, I am going out on a limb here and saying that you can indeed become a better, faster driver, if you drive an old bucket like this one.

In other news, I hear that my igniter module is coming in sometime soon so we'll see what's up with that and if finances agree with me, I'll probably pick up a new set of stiffer sway bars from MSA or something.

That's it for now! Stay tuned for a picture later on tonight with a new windshield in all it's sexiness!

The weekly car gtg was dead....but eventful!

Swung by the shop to get the coolant reservoir installed with the help of JG's tools so I don't end up spilling freaking coolant everywhere every so often and pissing off the EPA lol. The car is running really strong and we just started looking over the car yet again to see what else needs to get done to it. On the way to the meet I actually ended up running out of gas because I don't have the fuel gauge hooked up because of a bad connector. I need to get that fixed, but I found out the range amounted to roughly 175 miles on a full tank.

Get a fresh oil change, install the exhaust and tune the carbs with the wideband and get a new windshield. I can't pass tech like that at any motorsport event considering there's a fat stone chip in it and the rubber that's holding the windshield in place is completely destroyed and cracked. YIIKES. That I will end up getting done fairly soon. The SDCR (http://www.sdclubracing.com/forum) is starting in a couple of weeks so we need to make sure that the car is as ready as can be.

I'll need to also install the 4point harness soon so that we'll have full flexibility on strap adjustments for any driver.

Getting that much closer to getting done. I'm looking forward to that sexy exhaust too :)
Once I do get the exhaust on, I'll do a before and after vid. I may also convert to HID's sometime soon providing I can fix the fuse box (aka find a better one).

Ordered a Pertronix 1761 Ignitor Module & Coolant Recovery System Resevoir

Just placed an order for this:

http://performanceparts.com/part.php?partID=209989


Looking forward to it coming in :)

And I had Kristen pick this part up for some excess overflow from the radiator -

Kairi goes to the beach!

One of the few things I'll miss from Southern California when I move away from here is definitely going to be going to the beach during lunch time. The weather was perfect, I had some extra time on my hands so I decided to take some time out get Kairi's tan on :) Even got a thumbs up from a guy driving a Viper today. I can't wait till she sounds better with JG's old custom Flow Master Exhaust and we can then tune the carbs with the wideband.

Here's a picture from this afternoon!

Almost over a month with no update...

Sorry folks, things have been really busy over here. In short I'll recap everything that's happened so far:

Timing chain done and valves adjusted
Brake problem figured out (little disc in the master cylinder was loose and had fallen off the from the proportioning valve causing the brakes to either be 100% or nothing).
Car has been Seafoamed
New Battery
New Brass Battery Terminals
New electric fan and internal 30amp override switch.
New Water Pump as the old one was leaking
Oil change done
Motor & transmission mounts bought and ready to be installed

The exhaust is going to go on sometime this week I hope, but she's running pretty healthily now. No problems in traffic and the radiator fan works like a charm. :)

More later :)

The timing kit and oil pump are acquired. w00t!

Yep you heard right. JG hooked me up with a timing kit and Turbo 280zx oil pump. Tomorrow we go out and timing chain, get the clutch slave cylinder on, flush out the fluids, bleed the brakes, and get her started (hopefully) and cruise around to see our hard work in action. Hopefully I can take her home tomorrow. I hate not being able to drive it yet lol. The more we're working on it, the more I can honestly say that the car is starting to get more and more attached to our hearts.

The wife and I are going to enter her in the San Diego Club Racing Series (racing series promoted to any individual that has 300+ treadwear tires and a mechanically sound car), so it's a race to get this thing road worthy and reliable. Since the event is also going to involve a drag race, I'm worried about breaking an (maybe both) axles. I do have a couple lying in wait just in case that were to happen though.

Quite Strange Findings....

So we're getting close to getting the Z up and drivin' around. Aside from the apparent home of black widows and a plethora of other spiders, she's been begging to get finished up. Justin wrapped up the driver side disc brake with the stainless steel line and we set forth on figuring out why the car's timing was insanely off. Popping the valve cover, removing the radiator and bringing the car up to top dead center showed interesting findings. For the sake of mechanical inaccuracy I won't go into to too much detail (as quite frankly my mechanics knowledge is limited at best) but I do remember him saying that the timing chain may have skipped a few teeth. Again if that doesn't make sense I do apologize.

What I do know is that the bolt that connects to the main water inlet to the timing chain was replaced with a longer one. This caused the bolt to push against the timing guides and have it rub against the timing chain. The result was a mostly eroded timing guide and a weakened chain. I talked with JG and told him to just get me a brand new timing kit so we replace this and get the car started.

To ensure that the motor was worthy of this task, we went ahead and a brief compression check across all 6 cylinders. Results are as follows: 150 145 130 140 120 130. These are not completely accurate, but it gave us a general idea for the L24's general health. An interesting note is that there is a oil sprayer rail for the camshaft in these engines. From what I understand that is a rarity considering a lot of cams are self-lubed, so seeing this actually made me kind of perk up. It's such a well thought out engine..well in theory.. THIS particular one however is a bit strange. Someone tell me HOW THE HELL YOU DO THIS??



Here are some others I took with my phone:




I gotta seriously question the mechanical aptitude of the guy that shoves in a bolt that's too long and thinks it's ok. I'm also not going to even START on the condition of the brakes before we swapped 'em out. Let's just say they if the Funk ever died, the existing rotors would've been able to re-ignite the groove. Lame I know lol.

In any case the timing kit is on it's way and after that we're going to hopefully get this car running :)

OT: What do you guys think of the new colour layout?

Too lazy to deal with the custom settings just now but what do you think of the new colours?

Labor Day Update :)

Well who said that Labor Day wouldn't constitute actual labor :p Taking some time to look at some personal stuff over the last few days and give the Mad Scientist a bit of a break, we all agreed to work on the car today. A lot got done thanks to my wife, Justin, and myself.

Quick recap -

• Rest of the fuel lines attached (there were only a few left but I had Kristen do the ones at the bottom of the gas tank since I just couldn't be bothered lol).
• Brake Booster replaced
• Brake Master Cylinder replaced
• Clutch Master Cylinder replaced
• 3 out of 4 brakes replaced (two drums and 1 disc) with a switch to the Stainless steel brake lines which look hot!! :)
  
• Radiator hoses attached
• Thermostat drilled for better flow
  
• Water-outlet swapped out for a better one from the Justin Parts Yard (JPY)
  
• Starter switched out to what amounted to a brand new one from the JPY :p
  
• Bought a bunch of flushing stuff for the engine/radiator aka Seafoam and Gunk Engine Flusher and Prestone Radiator flush.
  

I have to at this point definitely say that I am VERY impressed with my wife's ability with the wrench. You just tell her to get something done and she'll get it done. Not afraid to get her hands dirty and it's fun to work together. She did the remaining two fuel lines in the gas tank as well as the three of the engine fuel lines, helped with the brake master cylinder and brake booster as well. I love having a kickass wife :p

On a different note, we couldn't get the car to start after all that work. For some reason the timing seems to be severely off. Check on the distributor showed it was fine..the spark plugs were fine, the wiring order of the distributor was also correct. You know it's something strange when when the master mechanic and the guy that builds Z's all day long says "This no-makey-sensey." However, with that said Justin is confident that we can get the car roadworthy after one more trip out there.

Here's what's remaining to be done:

• Flush fluilds out, including gear oil.
• Bleed brakes
• Get it started
• Tune the carbs
  
• Cruise around!!

Very close now and I'm excited. Once I get a feel on how it behaves, I'll take it up and down Highland Valley (SLOWLY) and keep an eye on all the vitals. After that I'll have Justin take her for a spin and see what he thinks. I'll have to replace the motor and transmission mounts before I get all crazy though, but something tells me she'll do just fine after that :)

Yes folks, I DID take a few pictures, but was really busy working. Will post up later! Time to go to sleep!

No car work today unfortunately

Been working on a gigantic project at the office for the last couple of weeks and it's made it impossible to think of anything BUT code, so unfortunately I had to cancel the car work session for today. Considering it was still over 90 degrees in Ramona at around 5PM today, I think Justin was grateful lol.

However, the PCV hose came in from Motorsport, so so at least it'll idle correctly after it's done. I am worried about the state of the engine. With the sheer amount of corrosion that came off the water inlet upon removal of the radiator hose, we're worried that some of that crap is in the engine. Let's just hope for the best! I may need to place the order for the inlet from MSA again if I can't find it locally.

More soon I hope!

And the work begins...began..oh whatever

Wednesday night was car work night. Met up with Justin and the wife since I had to work late all week and had him get started on the rear wheel cylinder. PITA!! I can see why so many people switch to RWDB's!

In any case, we installed the new fuel pump, new spark plugs and new spark plug wires (Kristen had to help with the distributor positioning...I just couldn't figure it out lol), new radiator hoses are test fitted, but not on because the water return assembly is completely rusted and disintegrates on touch. It's a wonder it was still in one piece, so I have to get that from MSA most likely. Also noticed that the radiator cap is made by AC Delco, so I placed the order for a 13psi rated one from Rising Sun. No AC Delco parts on my car thanks. Seems like I'm going to need about 2 or 3 feet of 5/8" fuel hoses rated at 50psi to continue some of the fuel line connections in the engine bay. After that we kind of ran out steam, but at least it's somewhat coming along now. It's always nice to see new parts go in. This will definitely help the morale of things :)

Unfortunately the hope of getting her autocross ready by the 30th won't be happening. I've got to get motor mounts and a new tranny mount before then as well and that'll have to wait until the finances get settled in a bit. Not only that the jobs are taking a bit more time than expected because of the condition of the car. It'll also take a while to redo the brake lines w/the stainless ones picked up.

However, I want to get this ready by mid September. I already got a letter from the DMV that I need to get liability insurance for this car (since I didn't register it as non-op just yet) so I want to make sure it gets on the road soon!

More to come! Stay tuned!

Prevention of oh-crap-I-should've-bought-that...

So I went through a mental list of the things that I bought already and realized I was missing a new fuel filter and a thermostat. When I originally drove the car home I noticed that the temp gauge creeped up and I think that was due to a stuck thermostat. After letting the car cool down and sit for a bit and restarting it, I found the temp to stay stable, but still I want to make sure that it's perfect, so I just ended up picking up another one with gasket from Rising Sun. That really saves the last minute scramble, which is quite helpful. Last thing I need is to to have not everything and have JG yell at me :P.

So yeah next week I put all the stuff in! w00t!

Rear Right Wheel Cylinder & Stainless Steel brakelines

Finally found 'em, but had to resort to picking them up from Motorsport Auto. Freakin' expensive. Damn near $200 for the lines and the wheel cylinder plus ground shipping. Bah humbug! I was hoping to save some money, but not to happen this time around.

Oh well! From what I hear they'll be coming in a couple of days and they should be on the car hopefully soon. A plus side is that the item is actually a Nissan Factory part, so that's a good thing and should last a while.

On the upside, I hear that the Justin may be available this week to get the car finished up, but I'm not sure where we're at just yet, just glad I got all the parts in! :)

The partsen are in! w00t!

A picture is worth a thousand words, so yeah I got two!! Pardon the picture quality suckage. I took these with my camera phone as my wife happens to have both cameras with her on her "Girls only trip" with her sister and mom, but I wanted to share regardless.

I'm still on the lookout for one rear right wheel cylinder (preferably Dorman brand) and I think I might say screw it to the stainless steel lines and go for the regular hoses to get the car on the road for the time being and see how they hold up in autocross. Regarding that, I did some soul searching and decided to get the mechanical fuel pump in for now until I decide on what I really want to do with this motor. I might just do an L28 turbo swap, but honestly I'm kind of starting to get attached to the L24 (even though we haven't really worked on it just yet to find out the condition). Maybe that'll change after I actually drive it around some. Justin seems to be confident it'll hold up for a race on the 30th, so we'll need to put this thing together pretty damn quick! I'm excited!!!!!



And finally, here's a pic of something pretty nifty on the Fuel Pump box. I didn't know that the original mechanical fuel pump used in the 240z was also a bolt in for the Skyline GT-X (yep not a misprint). That's pretty freakin' cool (at least I think so). I'm so glad I picked up this car with just little surprises that you learn here and there. Anyways :



I recognized the HS30, the S30, and didn't know what the KGC118 was, and I found it out it was the GT-X.

Here's a cool vid I found of one on youtube. I gotta say it reminds me a bit of a Chevelle which I guess was the style back then. I gotta say though, it's hard to believe that these even came from the same country. The GT-X looks like it was designed stateside!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8f_mju234Q

Last batch of immediate parts ordered

Ran into a bit of an issue right off the bat last time with some parts not being in stock, so here's kind of the list:

- From Rising Sun -

Upper and lower radiator hoses - ordered
Clutch Slave Cylinder - ordered
Clutch Master Cylinder - ordered
Brake Master Cylinder - ordered

- From Other Sources (MSA/Kragen/Autozone) -

Universal fuel pump 12V fuel pump 2.5-4.5PSI 30gal/hr rate (I'll need a switch)
Passenger side wheel cylinder - have to find a vendor that can ship me one..everyone is out of stock!
Voltage Regulator - gotta decide on brand and go from there.
Stainless Steel brake lines - deciding on brand
170 degree Thermostat

Build progress halted a little bit..

Hi all,

Instead of doing a half-ass job on these items, I figured the best thing to do is to gather all the parts and try to do them with the help of my friend in one fell swooop. I've got a few other parts that need to come in, but I'm very pleased with the rate these are coming in by. Some crucial items like the PCV hose, as well some other tid bits that I can't think of off the top of my head need to ordered first and then I'll be able to do the entire job without running into frustrating delays.

I have decided to actually not work on the car this weekend to save myself from getting pissed off that I just have put another bucket load of money into parts and haven't gotten it off jack stands yet. Purely psychological at this point, but hey what're ya gonna do. As such, my original plan to get the car up and running by the 8/2 autocross event has been kind of set back. Now my more realistic expectation is to just get it off stands by the end of August. Between handling my marriage, work, my consulting gig, my race-team for the SDGC, things get pretty hectic, and honestly I'm thinking of taking a day off this time around to enjoy my weekend.

I feel as though the car is just begging to be driven and I want to get it to that point, but if there's one thing I learned from working on the Spec V, you can't rush good quality parts for good money. Despite the fact that this is a Datsun, and parts are cheap, I'd rather take my time and not take shortcuts. The car will still be there when I go up there in a couple of weeks. Thank god for Justin's generosity lol.

More later..hopefully with a pic of the boxen o'parts!

Parts Ordered!

Okay folks, so for all guys with Z's out there and don't already know of a company called Rising Sun Imports, I wanted to let you guys know these guys are legit and are very knowledgeable about the parts they have. Very thorough as well..even asked me for build year month.

Here's a list of parts I just placed the order for:

1. Centric PosiQuiet Brake Front Pads
2. 2x Rear Wheel Cylinders
3. 4x wheel seals
4. 2x front rotors
5. Brake Master Cylinder
   
6. Clutch Slave Cylinder
7. NGK Spark Plugs
8. NGK Spark Plug Wires

They should be in by Tuesday. I plan on getting this car back on the road by the August 30th autocross.

I also should note that I picked up some H4 beam headlights (Autopal) from ebay a while ago as well. Comin' along!! :D

Quick update

Okay so time for another quick update for the Z car. I went to Ramona and wrenched till about 10 tonight getting the gas tank in (thanks to JG for the positioning help). Lost a washer but found a few others. Seemed to be missing a bigass hose clamp too, but it so happens that JG had one lying about. Even chrome. Something tells me I'll be heavily in debt with him as the creditor if I keep this up lol.

So gas tank is in which makes me happy. Next time I go out there I'll attach the fuel connecting hoses to the fuel pump, and most likely replace the pump when I'm down there. For the sake of continuing and buying the more expensive parts first, I'm going to focus on the brakes and a voltage regulator as well.

Stainless steel brakelines, two front seals, two rear seals, rear wheel cylinders, and a new brake master cylinder with DOT4 brake fluid. Stay tuned, this car is coming along :)

What she could look like when repainted...

I'm toying with the idea of repainting it the stock brown color (Color Code 114). It looks pretty sharp... Going to get some 15x7 gunmetal wheels which'll make it look sw33t!

The List!

All rightie then. So last Sunday I went to Ramona and picked at the vast sickening amount of information that is inside Justin's head. Upon initial pickup we noticed that the car had a tremendous gas leak. Suck-city, so I ended up getting a freshly pressure tested gas tank that had been re-sealed and was in great condition for $150 bucks up in LA off of hybridZ. One step closer to being done :)

I also needed some tires that were in good shape and picked up a set from a local guy here in SD..actually that was a wheel and tire package. The wheels I'm not too crazy about, but can't say no to 200 bucks for a set of Kumho Ecsta AST's with 75% tread left. The extra wheels were a bonus. I found out that the wheels that are on the car right now do actually fit..it just so happens the wheels on them are too wide in the back, so once the car is actually done, I might throw on some slicks on them.

Here is a list of new/good used parts that Justin recommended I get. Seeing he is who he is, I didn't want to argue with him. It's a long list, but being a Datsun, it's not going to be that expensive to get back on the road. A lo

(Update 7/18)

• Brake Master Cylinder - on order
• Brake Booster - acquired
• Distributor - acquired
• Crank Case Ventilation Hose
• Radiator Hoses
• Thermostat
• Heater Hoses
• Misc. Hose Clamps - acquired
  
• Voltage Regulator
• Fuel Hoses (3ft of 3/16", 4ft of 5/16", 3ft of 1/4") - acquired
• Clutch Master Cylinder
  
• Clutch Slave Cylinder - on order
  
• Brake Booster Vacuum Line
  
• NGK Spark Plugs - on order
  
• NGK Spark Plug Wires - on order
  
• GL-4 Transmission Fluid - acquired
  
• GL-5 Diff Oil - acquired
• Valve Cover Gasket - acquired
• New Exhaust System - pending
• Engine Oil - acquired
• Oil Filter - acquired
• Engine Mount
• Transmission Mount
  
• Steering Rack Dust Boots
• Urethane Bushing Kit
• Stainless Steel Brake Lines
• Fuel Pump & Bracket
  
• Rear Wheel Cylinders x2 - on order
  
• Rotors x2 - on order
  
• Pads - on order
  
• Front Wheel Seals - on order
  

That's all for now. I'm sure there will be more that come up as I'm doing the build. This is of course not counting any engine setbacks, which I'm sure will come up once all the other problems are taken care of.

Stay tuned!

1st post w00t!

Hello all, so I've decided to actually keep a running log on my Datsun whom I , with my brother's help, have named Kairi. Fitting if you think about it.

Anyways a brief overview of what we got here.

1973 Datsun 240z with a build date 0f 12/72. Consider this a 72 car. It's got the usual rust problems of the 72, but it's in slightly better shape than most considering the price I paid ($1300.00).

So what does 1300 bucks buy you?

Take a look (pictures courtesy of my lovely wife):




As you can see the car isn't actually all that impressive, but it had a straight frame and not as much rust as I am used to seeing. Title was clean, and the previous owner even had the original AC unit to go with it. Looks mostly complete, so I can actually turn around and sell it for somewhat a decent price. Cool!