From Smoker to Sssssmokin’!

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
It seemed only appropriate to honour it! The Chief was quite amused by it!


How am I allowed to work in an office!?!? Just a bloomin 5 year old!
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Well, the fun started last night and I have today to get Sean's sexy beast on the car. Header and collectors did not want to stop holding hands but with a bit of MAP gas action and wiggling she let go. Interestingly on the collector the metal started glowing but the ceramic coating didn't bat an eye lid!

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Two observations so far

1. I defo was sporting an exhaust leak on two cycls. I suspect a couple of nuts were not fully torqued. We live and learn.

2. The car has been running way too rich

This will sort it out ;)

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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
An entire child and wife free day - golden hours for Z work!!!!

The day was a race against the clock as rain was forecast for 16:00.

Like all jobs on our cars, it's a lot of excitement, anticipation, planning and doing the job in your head - then the reality of actually doing it and working around stuff or discovering other things you can deal with before fitting! ;)

Previously, I coated the header insides with this bad boy. Not sure how good or bad it will be but at under £40 it's worth a shot and a heck of a lot cheaper than the ceramic coating I had done before. As an experiment I also did just the pipe that goes from the centre resonator to the S bend. That way I can measure the outside temps at a later date and determine if it works.

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This view never fails to scare me!! And it jolly well should!

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You'll noice in the photos that I had gone back to the 280zx dizzy as I've been blaming the 123ignition for my rough running woes. But it made no difference. I suspect the leaks had a lot to do with it. I plan to properly plot the curve of the 280zx before I go back to 123.

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Ports plugged to stop small nesting creatures and debris getting in. I set about fastidiously cleaning all mating surfaces to ensure no more leaks with the new install.

Clearly I've been running way rich as Mr Farmer pointed out and so I de-coked as much as was practical using brake cleaner, redex and lots of microfibre cloths. What is delicious to the touch is how smooth those ports are inside. Someone defo spent a lot of time loving that head.

There is a little extra bit of metal that I think is a mini heatshield on just off the side of the sump. Could not remove it for love nor money, so out came the lump hammer to move it towards the block by about 5-10mm to allow the header to fit.

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A test fit showed that the header plate is not 100% flat and see-sawed from the middle, but tightening it up sorted that out and I'm sure a bit of heat over time will help it settle to it's new shape.

Grinding a mil was necessary for one of the studs to fit.

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Totally not convinced by 18lbft as it felt too little for something that will vibrate and will need to bed in. I went by feel and testing it with a torque wrench it came out to about 25lbft.

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As you can see it's a pretty tight fit to get all that pipework into the engine bay. I suspect I will need to build a mini heatshield to protect the chassis rail paint and the rubber on the compression rod.

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I finally convinced myself to get rid of the manifold cooling pipe between the inlet manifolds - thanks to the MAP torch again, it looks much cleaner.

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Once the manifold was in, I started on the rest, purposely keeping all clamps firm but loose enough to be able to adjust as I went.

The collector pipe work seemed to foul or be within vibrating / knocking range of the gearbox and it's cross member. There were a couple of millimetres of adjustment on the manifold which helped but it is awfully close still. I think the weight of the rest helps pull it down a few crucial mils but a proper test drive will soon tell.

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None of the hanging points align with anything on my 260 - I may have missed something obvious here. The silencer's in particular is about 2-3 inches further back from the mounting points on the chassis. A bit of fabrication coming up.

This view is quite funny but was an absolute joy for working on the rear parts - I am HUGELY pleased with the lift and equally nervous using it, but my confidence has grown.

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All was going perfectly to time and then disastro!! As I was ready to fully tighten the resonator clamp it wouldn't budge - so I tried to undo it. It was resisting hard and just got harder and harder until it sheared. It felt like one of those galvanic reactions and it felt hot to the touch.

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Just to make things more interesting, the heavens opened up. Mercilessly! Poor z with her ass up in the air was saturated. On the upside, no puddle in the driver's footwell, so my temp fix on the windscreen rubber may have worked.

To make the most of the weather I popped down to the local exhaust place and the soot covered chap told me "that's a main dealer part mate"! I did giggle.

It looks like they are available off eBay for under a tenner - thanks again to Mr Huw for pointing it out. I measured 90mm on the broken part.

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A little time grinding off the broken bolt and a tad of creativity later, I managed to do a temp fix - much needed as I can't get the car in the garage and up the ramps without the engine running.

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Also worth noting is that the original heatshield no longer fits and even if it did it would provide very little protection against all those yummie shiny pipes. But it's required for the throttle return springs to hook onto.

So I improvised for now - it's so wrong but works so right ;)

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I set about making a heatshield out of the material Mr Huw very kindly sent me. But it is too floppy and needs a spine to keep it stiff. So I have to think about that one a little longer and come up with something that looks neat.

It was hugely pleasing that she fired up without issue. A bitter sweet victory as I couldn't properly test or rev at 22:00. She is a lot more muted than my old lairy but I didn't get over 2.5k blipping rpm while getting into the garage. More of that anon.

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For now, the Z sleeps in her lair like a soggy dog next to a radiator trying to dry out until I can next find some time to play with her.

First order will be to make some / spot weld mounting points and get the rear to hang properly. Then heat-shielding before a proper drive out. Can't wait!!!!!
 
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good work Ali. How did you manage to dent your shiny header?

When you say the header plate isn't flat, do you mean the manifold plate on the header? if so I think you might be better off getting it skimmed flat?

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johnymd

Club Member
You have to be really careful not to over tighten v-band clamps or the bolt starts to stretch. Then when you try to loosen they will just snap. Been there before with other v-bands. Use plenty of anti seize on the threads and just nip them up.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
You have to be really careful not to over tighten v-band clamps or the bolt starts to stretch. Then when you try to loosen they will just snap. Been there before with other v-bands. Use plenty of anti seize on the threads and just nip them up.

Thanks Johny, lesson learned and I will certainly take your advice on the next attempt.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Good work Ali, especially in one day. Like you I have to do jobs on the drive and it adds so much time and weather frustrations. My wife wants to move but I'm happy where I am however if I can get a big garage..... So all my 'searches' include a 'must have' or 'keyword' of double garage.

A few comments - I don't think your exhaust leaks will be serious enough to cause a running problem. My track car never sealed properly.
Stud torque, be careful, especially if the 'header' is not flat - they are notoriously not flat.
Exhaust close to body/diff etc yep common with bigger systems.

I think you are just experiencing the usual issues with aftermarket components - I've had it and so have my lads with their 'hot hatches'. Some need little tweeks, others are downright poor design/development.

Your exhaust looks very low by the petrol tank - hope it ends up higher.

And yes it looks precarious on that lift.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Thanks Rob, had to keep up with Mr Woody!! And all good advice, good to hear.

The exhaust hanging low is part of the challenge of not having hanging points that are obvious on my chassis. Will have to have a proper look next week and improvise something.

I too have the double garage search issue ;) but my wife flatly refuses to move, she loves the house and the neighbourhood, so for now I'm stuck with a tiny garage and oil marks on the drive way. Maybe if I can get enough oil down to annoy her ...
 

Woody928

Events Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Great work chief! I bet you're looking forward to using her in anger....

Interesting to hear that your stock heat shield wouldn't fit, I had no such drama's by comparison. Also curious to hear what affect your internal manifold coating has on temps, my headers seem to have nicely gone a nice blue across the board now so I'm getting temps of 5-600 degrees! Looks forward to seeing your tweaks...

Also well done for catching up, not half bad for an old timer :p
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Finally got the exhaust to fit properly, it just needed some attention to detail and a new mounting point. Oh and thanks to Sean for the super quick response in sending me a new clamp.

Sean's exhaust is a beautifully tailored fit.

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Interesting that the original had a heat-shield installed around it - not too sure if this was a 280z only item.

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Looking at the above diagram, I retract my previous statement about the hanging points on the rear silencer, they were always meant to be where Sean's silencer has them.

I improvised a hanging point using the suspension cross member's drain(?) hole to hold it in place better.

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With about 1500 miles under the wheels on the new engine and the new exhaust fitted, it was time for a final RR tune.

I made the mistake of putting the 123 ignition back on as the tuners, being proper old skool, refused to use the app to change the timing and loosened the base plate to rotate the dizzy!!! I could have cried with laughter and also cried that I now need to re-install it all over again!!

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They also went ultra conservative on timing by setting it at 27 degrees. They were horrified with my 34 degrees. But then again, when I changed the timing to 34 degrees post tune, I started getting running on, so I dialled it back to 30 and all is well again but with the benefit of low end torque back to pre-tune levels and no noticeable drop in power as the advance curve builds gently from 30 degrees @ 3000 to 36@ 7000. Rev limiter set at 6500.

I discovered that my collector to header joints are blowing. Re-installing / tightening the clamps I can't get it to stop blowing, any tips or tricks here? And yes they are pushed all the way in as far as they would go. I don't like the idea of using exhaust paste but it's all I can think of.

The headline figures were:

232BHP @ 6400rpm
211lbft @ 5000 rpm

Another great build by the PMAC/Tim/Skiddel dream tream.

Despite the fact that the power was still climbing at 6.4k, the tuner backed off to "avoid melting a piston" he said. The AFR was heading into the high 13s. The curve wasn't as flat as I'd like, with small dips at 2.5k (I'm told this is the cam) and one at 3.5k (I suspect modified needles).

Spinning the wheels is very easy and the car is a total giggle to drive, Quaife LSD is the next project once I finish with the carb tuning etc.

I am absolutely convinced that the SUs will work well if setup with more care and attention. I strongly suspect the needle reprofile is causing the second flat spot. I have developed a newfound geekiness for this topic. Suffice it to say a full write up will follow.

Here's a teaser showing the difference between the profiles of the needles modified by the tuner compared with another needle with a progressive profile.

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I wrote to Z therapy to enquire about bigger nozzles to deal with the top end lean condition and got the reply below which is great. They could easily have sold me new jets but instead I got good advice. I love those guys!

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I have started some tweaks and needle work with very promising results so far in the mid range. The AFR has been invaluable for this.

Worse case I set the jets to original height and go back to the modified needles.

These arrived last night so the needle work is about to take a leap forward this weekend:

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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Well this happened tonight! Thanks to a very kind Mr. Woodrow!!! Top chap!

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Personally I really like my car on its new wheels! :p

We had just taken it off the jack so the rear was sitting high but once settled it looked awesome!!!

Woody’s 240 I feel really suited my wheels too and he really should consider swapsies :p

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But then it all got a little late and a thief in the night came to visit!

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Again can’t thank woody enough for coming down the M25 after a long day at work and playing wheels with me.

His car is MIGHTY impressive on the twisty stuff and has a really lovely power curve / sound! [emoji106][emoji106]

Now I can’t decide if I like the wheels one colour or two tone!?
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Woody’s did look fabulous!!! Oh decisions, decisions!
 
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SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
All silver but not my favourite choice of wheels (no offence Woody).
 

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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Thanks Sean! Appreciate the perspective / thoughts! Would love to hear from others.

On a different note, it was really interesting to see how similar yet different your system sounded on his and mine with different engines. You really can’t compare exhaust note without doing it on the same engine!

Ps. What is your favourite wheel?
 
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SeanDezart

Well-Known Forum User
Every engine is unique...and every driver also !

Hard question !

I like those in my photos, I have Rota RKRs shod with track-day tyres and a set of Atara Pisangs for the road. I did have a set of Rota BM8s for the track but finally found the design a little too 'heavy' - I wanted finesse !

Watanabes are lovely but I can't get to grips with the snobbery that they seem to behold.....I want my Z to 'talk' and not just the wheels.
 
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