Project: track 240z

[Mike]

don't make me get ronal bears and vtak!

[Nis01]

we'll see if you can tell what wheels I'm rolling on when I pass you :-).

^^ Awesome.

I voted for the ROTAs... no particular reason, just like the look better personally. Make sure you get them in gold. :wink:

[.RJ]

gold

Isnt that a given?

[Steve85]

Very cool!

A guy down the street from us growing up used to restore these (and Mustangs). His daughter had a great little orange 240Z that I always loved.

Here is an idea for intake..convert to EFI.

http://www.katicore.com.au/default_files/Page1357.htm

[.RJ]

EFI

Wrong! :lol:

Triple webers look so nice

[Dave]

both wrong, needs more boost! :-)
I guess I should probably update my original post since things have changed a little.
My current intentions, power/engine-wise, are to get mine running properly and sort out the brakes and suspension, and then throw in an L28ET from a '80-'83 280zx turbo. I'm hoping to find a running donor car for this, but that's a little ways down the road. Now if I could find one to use as a DD in the meantime...

[Mike]

noooo! the stock motor is so perfect!

[Dave]

stock motor is good and will allow me to learn the car and sort out bugs without going too fast. More turbo is just more better.
This is all theoretical anyways, I may really like the L24 once I start driving it around and decide not to worry about upgrades (maybe I'll buy an SR20 and a L28ET eventually and find a way to swap between the three easily :-) )

[HAULN-SS]

Yeah..once you get each one in there the first time, you should be able to swap them in and out in a half day each, right?

[Scott]

panasport look wheels were made for miatas, minis and 240Z's IMO.
]

I couldn't agree more

[Dave]

Not much going on. I've replaced my carbs with a pair from a '73, which I took apart and cleaned up. I've also replaced nearly all of the old rubber tubes floating around the engine bay (that's the really crappy picture, I'm going to take it again in better light). Finally, I replaced the fuel pump as there doesn't appear to be any gas pumping up to the carbs either.







So, I'm starting to get a little frustrated, but I think it's because I just haven't been able to get the car in the garage to work on it consistently. Part of me just wants to pull the old motor and stick a running L28 in and go have fun. The other part says to stick with this, even if I have to give it to somebody to let them sort out the little stuff to get it running proper. We'll see what happens, now that my projects are starting to dissipate and I can get back to this car.

[Jeff]

I know the feeling Dave. With so much going on its hard to keep the focus. I can't believe you are selling the Supra...I'm having problems parting with my old Omni.

[Dave]

Real quick update since there's not a whole lot of progress to report.

I had installed a pair of 73 carbs an encountered a hurdle that the throttle engagement for them was different than the one that was on the old webers, namely the webers were cable driven while the oem ones had a linkage, which didn't come with them.

So, I decided I'd keep my eyes open for a linkage and actually ended up finding a sale on ebay for a pair of 72 carbs (more common, easier to tune) that included manifolds and the linkage. I didn't care about the manifolds since they are the same as mine, but it was what I needed so I got them.

Here they are installed:




The next step is to ensure that they are getting fuel, which has been the bigger problem all along. I'm going to replace the mechancial, cam-driven fuel pump in favor of an electric one, which should end up being a good move to make it easier when I switch over to the turbo motor.


Speaking of turbo motors, I've found a couple of them. One I got from a guy in Norfolk with a Borg-warner T5 that I will probably end up taking apart and cleaning up before putting in the car. It's pretty much complete, except for the turbo and wiring, so it's perfect for a "build."

The second actually came with a car around it and it runs. I bought it in a spurt of the moment thought of having it for a daily driver, but considering that the frame literally bent (the body is really eat up with rust) when I put it on jackstands, I think I'll be passing on that. The good thing is that the engine has great compression on all 6 cylinders, so the idea is to to pull that engine and use it as a starting point for the switch over to turbo. It has an auto tranny and the less desirable head (hydraulic lifters), but it will be from a donor so I'll be able to take any parts that I need to get it running in mine.
So, here's a picture of the car:


And a picture of the rat's next that I bought it for (it will be considerably simpler when I put it in mine):


Last, but certainly not least, I've acquired the first peice of the exterior bits that I'm planning to add to the car. This also happens to be the hardest peice to find, since it's no longer in production. I present, the whale tail!


Sadly, this won't be going on for a while. These cars generate a considerable amount of front-end lift at high speed in stock form, so adding a whale tail now would only exaggerate that a lot. Once I get a big of front-end work done to get some downforce there, I'll add the whale tail to complete the job. At least the rest of the stuff is pretty easy to find.

That's all for now...

[Goodspeed]

So cool. I'm living my Z fantasy vicariously through this thread :wink: So thats a L28 turbo motor? What are your plans for the bottom end, turbo etc. or are you keeping it relatively stock? Can't wait to see this thing, I hope you bring it to the April campus show

[ScottyB]

Go Dave Go!

love the turbo goodness. so are you going to ebay the other 2 engines once the turbo one is in, or keep them around for parts?

[Dave]

Highly unlikely that it will be in any condition for the show in April, but we'll see.
There are zero plans for building any of these engines. I haven't done ANY research on it yet, but I'd like it to be capable of 400 hp, which I don't think will be a huge stretch for it with the proper fuel and turbo. I don't really care how much power it has, but if it is capable of 400, that means it can run at 250-300 (more than enough to power a 2000 lb car like a rocketship) with minimal stress on the engine.

The short term will see the car continue to run on the carb'd L24 while I start getting it ready for track use and upgrade the brakes and suspension. Long term will see the electronics from the donor car and the spare engine in the track car. I'd like to eventually have a solid 2.8L turbo motor as well as a 2.8L carb'd motor. I'll let you figure out how I'll do that...

Either way, there are a lot of other projects going on so my real goals for the year would be to see one track event running with the L24. There's tons of smaller projects that will be necessary to reach the ultimate goal, so I'm just focusing on one thing at a time right now.

[Chris]

wow very impressive so far Dave. This is going to be fantastic when its done.

do you have a final color chosen yet?

[Ryan T]

Lookin good man. I knew somehow that you'd buy a whaletail since you talked about them so much with the supra.

[Dave]

Super quick update:
got some K&N filters for my new stock carb setup, which should complete the intake side. Still need to refresh the fuel system, and then it should be up and running, which means I should be able to start moving forward with other projects on the car.





I was also able to establish the stock weight of the car as it was delivered from the dealer. With the gas tank empty but everything else still intact, the car weighs approx. 2275 lbs without me in it. My goal, albeit perhaps unrealistic, would be to have it at 2150 in track prep condition with rollbar (cage?) and all frame reinforcements. I'll see how much weight I can get off of it for now, but it's going to be tough considering all the extra tube and such that I intend on adding for safety and rigidity measures.

[Dave]

Took a few pictures today of the car as a refresher:








And then I went to work on it:





The PO must have gotten a great deal on some sound deadening and decided to use it all on the Z. It was all over the car...


That's OK, I got it all out with my chisel and mallet :-)






Who needs a bumper?


All told, I removed the following things today:
-all components of the AC (engine bay and cabin), as shown in the first two pics of today's progress. Opened up the pass. side of the engine bay considerably, dropped a bunch of weight, and overall a good idea since a track car doesn't need AC and the lines were disconnected anyways. The part connected to the blower motor sucked...
-removed washer resevoir, spray nozzles, and windshield wipers. I will be using rain-x to repel water and the car won't be driven in many conditions where the washers would ever be used. The wipers are known to cause a considerable amount of drag on the car's aerodynamics b/c they don't tuck down close to the cowl like modern cars.
-removed engine bay light, didn't work and don't plan on needing it
-pulled the battery and cables. Opened up the area a little and I'm considering getting a lightweight battery and installing in the box behind the seats in the cabin
-removed both seats; this was actually a lot tougher than it is on modern cars b/c of the positioning of the bolts, i was also surprised that they only used 14mm bolts to hold them in...
-removed all carpeting in the car however I did leave some of the weaved paneling that gives it a little cleaner feeling than bare metal
-by uncovering the carpet, I exposed a lot of sound deadening. Took a couple hours to get it all up, but it came up pretty cleanly. Still needs some more work...
-removed seat belts b/c I'll have harnesses and I don't trust 35 year old fabric
-removed the center console covering the transmission tunnel. This will probably be re-installed later, I just wanted it out to make it a little easier to work and not risk slamming down on it and breaking it.


I am extremely excited to say that the car doesn't show any major signs of rust/rot to cause me to look for another body. There are only a couple small holes that shouldn't be there and the metal for the most part feels intact and solid. The few areas that need attention should be repaired fairly easily using some sheet metal. Pretty much the entire car will be getting POR-15 to inhibit rust from spreading or starting.
I'm not sure if you can see it clearly in any of the pics, but the car also was apparently originally orange. The paint shop did a good job covering up the orange almost everywhere, I only uncovered a little today in my extensive endeavours.

Still a long way to go, but today was a huge step forward in progress, if no other reason than confirming that the chassis is relatively rust-free.