Just bought our first Z (240Z)

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I wasn't referring to the spring softness but the antiroll bar. On race cars anti-rollbars are adjustable (different methods) and it a car oversteers or understeers they usually start to fix it by reducing the stiffness of the antiroll bar at the end of the car that is the problem. So if your car is understeering excessively fitting a stiffer bar may make it worse.

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?img...hUKEwiCx9eoxq3dAhWJT8AKHQO-DssQ9QEwAHoECAgQBg

Useful illustration thanks! Duly noted, I'll have to see how it goes as its not been a constant issue. It's only something on a couple of occasions that I've noted and could be as much down to my driving style as anything else, I'll have to see when it's done as I can alter the toe out and camber on the adjustable bits if I so choose to to change its characteristics. I would like to start looking at th BC damping settings for the road as well though.

Why not just have a built engine on your original block? No need to go l28. :)

L28 obviously gives me slightly more displacement and can obviously be picked up rather inexpensively. Also seeing as I don't have the original block I'm not fussed about changing it. This way I can build an engine at leisure while the car is still on the road being enjoyed and then at the appropriate time hopefully we'll just drop one out and put the new one in before setting it all up. I've also then got a very nice spare L26 to play with if I so choose....
 
Useful illustration thanks! Duly noted, I'll have to see how it goes as its not been a constant issue. It's only something on a couple of occasions that I've noted and could be as much down to my driving style as anything else, I'll have to see when it's done as I can alter the toe out and camber on the adjustable bits if I so choose to to change its characteristics. I would like to start looking at th BC damping settings for the road as well though.



L28 obviously gives me slightly more displacement and can obviously be picked up rather inexpensively. Also seeing as I don't have the original block I'm not fussed about changing it. This way I can build an engine at leisure while the car is still on the road being enjoyed and then at the appropriate time hopefully we'll just drop one out and put the new one in before setting it all up. I've also then got a very nice spare L26 to play with if I so choose....

didn't realise, if its not matching numbers you might as well burn it EXTRA:D

That makes sense to do the engine as you said.
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Well update time again, not too much to report in a way. Since we've had the car back on the road in the middle of July the car has done just over 1000 miles as a shake down to really dial things in and see where we stand. It's made it on various runs out, breakfast meets and car shows in the interim where it's performed very well. It's just been dropped back to passion engineering with a snagging list to be tweaked to make perfect for now hopefully to collect in time for Goodwood's JDM Sunday all being well.

Most notably I took the Z up to JAE with the MR2OC who are great friends and like my second family and had an awesome weekend with them, the car was somewhat stealing the show for a lot of people with people in awe of its condition. Rather unusually for me I entered JAE's show and shine competition as for once I actually felt I had a car nice enough and set about doing some detailing before chucking it in to see what happened. Not knowing very much about cleaning other than clay baring the paint, waxing it and generally giving it a clean up I thought it would be nice to show the car off if nothing else.

Despite some amazing competition in the form of a fully restored Fairlady roadster and another 240Z I managed to win the Retro category by 1 point which completely blew me away :jester: Having spoken to the judge afterwards I nearly threw the competition away and lost a lot of points because I hadn't cleaned the inside barrels of my wheels which just goes to show why I never enter cleaning competitions and much prefer driving and picking up dirt instead! Either way I now can claim to own a show wining car and was quite smug having seen other entrants trailer their cars there or only turn up to enter the competition which just seemed wrong to me! :EXTRAeek:

After a lot of stress and hassle earlier this year its been amazing to just get out and use it, I never lose that smile whenever I get in and just turn the key and just enjoy it. I still find plenty of excuses just to go out for a drive even if I have nowhere to go. The ridiculous attention continues to flow in, on the way back from JAE a guy in a McLaren 720s and his partner were going crazy next to me, taking loads of photos and shouting loads of compliments and loving it despite being in a supercar nearly 50 years younger. Still making great progress, hopefully more positive news to follow shortly.

IMG_7835 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7827 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7818 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7805 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7842 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Photo CO Chris Presley
IMG_7853 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Photo CO Chris Presley
IMG_7859 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Possibly one of my favourite photos that I've taken of the Z to date :D
IMG_7675 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Well time for another update as its been a couple of months. Sadly the car has been off the road for a little while owing to some teething problems and a couple of planned and necessary tweaks since the last major overhaul. The biggest gremlin that we had been investigating was a severe vibration through the car which occurred at both 60 and 80mph upwards which was really effecting drive-ability.

Iain at passion engineering had tweaked the gearbox and diff angles so that they are now within .6 of a degree and we sent the prop off to a specialist near Heathrow as we were both fairly convinced of the cause. We've since had it confirmed that the prop appears to be the cause of my issues for a variety of reasons and we've decided to have a new custom and uprated one made up to the cars exact specs which its currently awaiting to complete the jigsaw so keeping fingers crossed. Also did hot oil changes on both the gearbox and diff now they've been run in on the car to keep everything in order.

The car has had various bits tidied up, we've added an extra mishimoto fan on the rad thinking of hot European trips and Le Mans traffic. Engine bay wiring is also getting some attention however the headlight wiring was looking particularly tried and we had been suffering with one of the high beams failing, given the car is driven regularly and at night there's been some work to do. All of the headlight wiring and connections have been refreshed and we've also acquired a plug and play loom with relays incorporated for both the headlight system, interior lights and taillights from the USA to take as much strain out of the system as possible and hopefully protect the headlight combination switch and fusebox. Some uprated Osram Nightbreaker H4 bulbs have gone in to the headlights at the same time to freshen things up.

There's also been some work up front on the chassis to allow the fitment of the uprated ST front anti roll bar to complete the suspension work, sadly some welding was required before bolting into place some reinforced straps over the chassis legs (I think that's right) to mount the anti roll bar off of to keep things in check. The idea being the extra reinforcement will keep things together and reinforce the key areas so that the anti roll bar can do its job effectively without putting any undue stress on the chassis. I'm getting quite conscious of the chassis age and want to try and uprate it where possible in a non invasive way. Triangulated strut braces front and rear are on the long term list in this regard still however money and priorities are constantly changing!

Finally I've placed a deposit on a Zstory Race Sport system with JDM muffler for delivery early 2019 to help the engine breath a lot easier. It will be great to get rid of the home made rear section which I'm sure is choking the engine now. Things will likely slow down for a while though as I have to leave the car behind in my dad's safe hands as I head off to Singapore for at least a couple of months with a new job opportunity in the New Year. Only time will tell how fast things will move from here or not, hopefully the car will be back with me again shortly to make use of some of the last dry Autumn days....

IMG_7960 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7962 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7961 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7964 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7965 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_7966 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
 

Ian

Club Member
It is never ending, you'll always find something to do. But once you get to this point its nice as most is done and you can just tinker away improving things slowly as you go.
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
It is never ending, you'll always find something to do. But once you get to this point its nice as most is done and you can just tinker away improving things slowly as you go.

Lol very true, there still seems quite a long way to go though. At the very least I've still got the exhaust, AFR gauge, 4 pot brake setup, strut braces to go on before I'll feel like I'm really just starting to getting around to the tinkering stage :blush: Then I'll be faffing around with other sets of wheels/tyres and mirrors will finally get looked into seriously.

I'd love to look to build an L28 then but I have a feeling it may be time to commit resources to the next project. Alfa Romeo 105 series coupes are calling me and look sublime!

Looking great ! Still need to see this car in person. Bet it will be next year now!

Thanks dude, I could say the same about yours ;) Not quite sure what events I'll get to being out of the country by the looks of it but hopefully my dad will still take it :)
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Well I'm pleased to say that the car is back and tucked away in the garage for now. Picked the car up on Saturday morning and was straight over to Wheels in Motion to correct the alignment on the car which needed to be redone on all four corners due to the complete overhaul done on the car this year. Safe to say there were some hairy and slightly sideways moments on the way over there with every corner having its own idea of where it should be going. The good news was despite the monsoon weather and all of the standing water I was driving though on the way home the car felt completely planted and much more sure of itself and its even fair to say that the windscreen wipers performed valiantly getting me back in one piece.

The car has been away for a variety of reasons however the vibration we were suffering from was ultimately prop related and the installation of a new single piece custom prop which was uprated with larger greaseable joints which has completely removed the issues. With the suspension setup and solid diff mount there's still more feedback going through the chassis that originally however that seems to be expected. The upside is now with those issues resolved and drivetrain overhaul the car seems to be happy to shift up to around 6k rpm which is higher than I previously thought however it really needs a dry day to properly explore the current levels of performance both engine and suspension wise now. I'm even thinking that the very hard all season michelins may get scrapped in favour of some much stickier Yokohama AD08R's given they're availability in the perfect size which will hopefully step the handling up another notch again :devil:

Underneath the front of the car the new front anti roll bar mounts have been bolted in place and I must praise Iain as he really has outdone himself with the work on these, they are very subtle but have really beefed things up so that we don't have any concerns. At the same time the entire headlight wiring loom has been removed and used as a template to build a completely new and more weather proof wiring loom with the addition of the relay kit from the US to massively improve the reliability. While I was there we've dropped some Osram Night Breaker Lazer bulbs in which have massively improved the lighting and was very noticeable from my limited use coming home in the rain, there seems to be plenty more light upfront now :DWhile in there sorting the wiring, Iain also noticed that our sidelights had previously had their wires cut to be removed from the system with the bulbs hijacked for our indicators in the past. That's since been rectified and the wiring reimplemented so we now have independently working side lights and wing lights working as well.

Some areas of the chassis have been treated from very minor surface rust that had developed and been covered in wax oil for protection however I seriously need to get the car professionally undersealed to protect the chassis for the UK climate. If anyone has any recommendations in the South of the UK I'm all ears for suggestions?

Minor tweaks have also been done to tidy up the engine bay wiring including the movement of the electronic ignition module to move things along, there's still plenty to be done though. The exhaust has been repainted in VHT paint to tidy it up but its really highlighted how restrictive the exhaust becomes by the silencer, I have no idea what the diameter is however I have high hopes for the full Z story system that's arriving for the car in the new year :)

I'm sure there's more however those seem to be the highlights, we're getting closer and closer to getting the car where I want it to be. Lots of little details and mods here and there to get her where she should be and I'm desperate for a dry day to have some fun but that's enough for now. On to the exciting bit now, the shiny bits :coolgleam:

IMG_8147 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8148 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8203 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8150 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_8180 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_3526 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

IMG_3529 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

My exhaust restrictions, no idea how much difference to expect with the shiny Story one going on...
IMG_8168 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

Where we now stand
IMG_3531 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Looks great Woody. Has the new prop sorted out the vibration?

Thanks dude :) Yes, the transmission vibration has completely disappeared! Got some minor feedback still due to the suspension and diff mount setup, hoping to get it back out on Sunday assuming its dry to have a proper play and see what its like now.
 

Ian

Club Member
All top stuff. Change to the Yokos, you won't regret it, truly a great tire, have them for my Z although yet to try them on that, I did however just recently put them on my EF Civic and it made a massive difference, dropped my 0-60mph time to 5.2 seconds and have massive grip in corners with good feeling also.


Bay looks good, only things I see letting it down are the light and the fuel filter bracket. That would be a quick fix with some black or silver paint.
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Thanks Ian, great to hear another positive review of them. Everyone seems to rave about them and I now have the setup to really benefit from them I hope! Certainly good enough for Alfaholics builds :)

Keen eye, the light, fuel filter bracket, bonnet stay, brake master cylinder reservoir caps all need to be blasted and plated. I agree they look really shabby now and let the engine bay down, problem with fitting lots of new and restored shiny parts! :blush: I've never really owned a car with a show standard engine bay before now, problem is that means I occasionally have to clean it....
 

toopy

Club Member

I'm assuming that's the temp sensor for the fans in the lower coolant pipe, mine is in the top hose, but I've read recently and now seen it here, that it's better in the lower/rad outlet hose instead, but can't remember why. It seems to work perfectly well on mine as is, just wondered what advice you had to position it as you have?
 

Mark N

Club Member
The coolant in the lower hose is downstream of the radiator and has been cooled by it.
If additional cooling is required the thermo switch will start the fan to supplement the radiator.
The coolant in the top hose will be hotter as it has not passed through the radiator and your fan will be on longer, cooling the system more than the set point of the thermo switch.
 

toopy

Club Member
The coolant in the lower hose is downstream of the radiator and has been cooled by it.
If additional cooling is required the thermo switch will start the fan to supplement the radiator.
The coolant in the top hose will be hotter as it has not passed through the radiator and your fan will be on longer, cooling the system more than the set point of the thermo switch.

Thanks for that, makes more sense for sure, that would also explain why when the fan does come on, it cools the temp to a bit below normal before it stops.

I had a revotec set up on my Mustang which worked pretty well - that was in the top hose.

https://www.revotec.com/acatalog/Electronic-Fan-Controller-Hose-Fitting.html

That's the one i have, and it works very well.
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
The coolant in the lower hose is downstream of the radiator and has been cooled by it.
If additional cooling is required the thermo switch will start the fan to supplement the radiator.
The coolant in the top hose will be hotter as it has not passed through the radiator and your fan will be on longer, cooling the system more than the set point of the thermo switch.

:iagree:

Revotec is a great setup as well, my dad's Healey is running that and it works very well!
 
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