From Smoker to Sssssmokin’!

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Time for an update:

Smelling fuel in the car before starting up I got a little concerned so I pulled off the rear panel by the filler cap and had a good look at the pipework.

The PO strikes again by missing the pipe under the hose and tightening the jubilee clip on the bit of the hose with nothing inside it!!!! [emoji33]

Once I fixed that lot, I set about sorting out the breather hose at the top of the tank - you know, the one that does a U turn.

Not wishing to drop the fuel tank I came up with an alternative solution.

Not only had the PO used standard hoses (not the one with the bend in it); and not only had it crushed but it was twisted also in two places where it was crushed. No wonder nothing was getting through.

I undid the hose from inside the car and pushed it all the way down. Then I lubed up a piece of 10mm copper pipe with silicone grease and pushed it all the way in so that it actually went inside the breather part of the fuel tank itself.

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I then made a joining piece by soldering together 2x 15mm copper pipe joints that have two perfect rings that seal nicely inside a 16mm hose and allow the clamps to sit dead in the centre on either side.

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Then I slid it over the 10mm pipe and in place

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Once in, I added the second piece and marked up for a final cut.

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Finally you can see how solid it is but flexible enough to bend into whatever shape you wish without a crush.

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I was worried that it won’t flow air as well as a proper 16mm hole but in fact at the pump it only clicked to stop when full.


For the first time in my z ownership I have a fuel gauge that goes past the half way point!!!

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But I’m not sure I’m going to like the cost of a full tank of VPower (this was from about 1/4 full).

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I am soooo pleased with it though. I really thought I would have to drop the tank or gingerly fill the last half, but no, easy peasy 2 hour job and a satisfying fill up. Oh I so need to get a life!!!!

Ps. You may have noticed the new rubber. Given that I couldn’t find wheels I like, or make my mind up in time to get any before Silverstone, I bit the bullet on a set of Bridgestone T005 tyres and they proved to be very grippy in the p-ing rain coming back from the tyre shop, providing decent feedback and feeling warm to the touch in the garage. At least I can get to Silverstone and back without falling off the road if wet!
 
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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Yeah, we’re a bit ripped off where we are but competition is scarce.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Not having been able to make my mind up on which wheels I like, I had to buy tyres to get to Silverstone and back safely in the wet.

THANK God I did as it was the wettest / dirtiest / muddiest drive I’ve ever had in my poor Z.

After hours of reading some very good customer real world reviews for the Bridgestone Turanza T005 tyres, on 14-15 inch rims, I bought on that basis.

Wow!!! I cannot speak highly enough about how well these bad boys grip and handle in ALL conditions and on all road surfaces.

The Silverstone Retro Run was a drive through some beautiful twisty countryside roads in the p-ing rain and dirty roads. The tyres had superb levels of grip and inspired confidence going into and coming out of hard fast corners. I would say 90% or more of the dry grip was available in the wet. I could barely wheel spin turning out of junctions without abusing my clutch. I could do that with just modest throttle on the old Michelins.

Pushing hard in the dry and on big fast roundabouts, I ran out of courage and bodywork clearance before the grip. In fact I never lost grip pushing hard. See the “clean” rubber on the edge of the tread blocks below ...

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They provide great feel and feedback without being a nuisance and defo have harder tyre walls than the Michelins as they wallow a lot less on turn in and you feel the steering load up quickly and responsively.

If you wanna stay on “balloon” tyres on 14 or 15” rims then these tyres are my recommendation any day!!! £340 for a fully fitted set (195 70 14 on 14 x 7 wheels - unknown ET but way too much hence body rubbing) - and I would dare to say they will scare the ADR08s in the majority of conditions. Come round Woody, we will have to put that one to the test, if you can keep up on the straights that is! :p
 
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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I’ve now determined that my Z has a soggy bottom! The suspension is travelling 3 inches for that scraping to happen and not always under a huge lot of load.

I have absorbed Woody’s thread on the matter and NO Mr Franky, I can’t justify the spend on Interax ones!!!

I also don’t want any welding or cutting of my tubes.

So going to inspect / replace the springs but would like to also upgrade the struts to Tokico illuminas while I’m about it.

HOWEVER I can only find 1 rear and 2 fronts. Does anyone have a new rear one or a pair of used rear ones they would like to sell me? I will also put a wanted advert up.

Also has anyone tried the eibach progressive springs from MSA? Any experiences to share?
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jonbills

Membership Secretary
Site Administrator
I think you can fit front Tokicos in the back with a spacer. That's what I did. I think it's Bz3015.
Also MSA are selling some Koni ones that seem decent.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
I think you can fit front Tokicos in the back with a spacer. That's what I did. I think it's Bz3015.
Also MSA are selling some Koni ones that seem decent.

Thanks Jon, that’s great to know - I will look into it. I think I have found some in Mexico, so if they don’t turn out to be in stock or shipable, I will consider this.

Bilstein dampers?

Interesting thought. Are they a direct fit without cutting and welding required?


I have some NOS Eibach springs in the loft. They have part numbers on them which I'd have to check. They might save you some $$$ if they are the same ones as above?

That’s very kind of you sir. I would greatly appreciate that. I have heard some of their earlier spring kits didn’t fit UK cars very well but I really don’t know my stuff when it comes to suspensions.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
...................I have heard some of their earlier spring kits didn’t fit UK cars very well but I really don’t know my stuff when it comes to suspensions.

You may be getting confused with Tokico.
 

Huw

Club Member
I’ve now determined that my Z has a soggy bottom! The suspension is travelling 3 inches for that scraping to happen and not always under a huge lot of load.

I have absorbed Woody’s thread on the matter and NO Mr Franky, I can’t justify the spend on Interax ones!!!

I also don’t want any welding or cutting of my tubes.

So going to inspect / replace the springs but would like to also upgrade the struts to Tokico illuminas while I’m about it.

HOWEVER I can only find 1 rear and 2 fronts. Does anyone have a new rear one or a pair of used rear ones they would like to sell me? I will also put a wanted advert up.

Also has anyone tried the eibach progressive springs from MSA? Any experiences to share?
6c05818aa950a0d8303330f655c7fe5d.jpg

I have a set of those I will be fitting along with Koni adjustable shocks. Just waiting for the shockers to arrive and I will let you know what the set up is like.
 

Turn & Burn

Club Member
Hi, great build thread and covers a lot of the issues we have as we progress through these projects. How is the ATI damper going? Are you getting enough cooling and has the rewound alternator been a success. I’ve got the same pulley on my unfinished engine and am considering swapping out to the Kameari.
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Hi, great build thread and covers a lot of the issues we have as we progress through these projects. How is the ATI damper going? Are you getting enough cooling and has the rewound alternator been a success. I’ve got the same pulley on my unfinished engine and am considering swapping out to the Kameari.

Thanks dude. She’s never over-heated but temp gauge did go three quarters across idling in traffic on hot days. So I drilled holes in the 160F thermostat. Charging not an issue either but she does idle @ 1000rpm
 

Huw

Club Member
I have a set of those I will be fitting along with Koni adjustable shocks. Just waiting for the shockers to arrive and I will let you know what the set up is like.

Update for you Ali. Been running the Eibach springs and Koni adjustable for a bit now and I’m very happy with them. You can see the difference in built to the old KYB’s I had.

Only down side is the need to buy a special tool to fit the inserts into the front struts. Which was a shame as I’ve not got a use for my big adjustable no more. :(

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AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
The car is running like a bag of nails - still firing only on 5.5 cyls at random but constantly if that makes sense. New cap, rotor arm, leads, spark plugs - none have fixed it. Coil change and earth strap clean up next. It all started when I last did the valve lash, but having checked / adjusted yesterday, still have the issue.

Checked carbs and balance is spot on.

Checked float bowl fuel levels today and they are perfect ...

I bought some banjos from this Ebay seller ...

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/222198287858

As it happens, by a very happy coincidence, the top of the banjo is exactly 23mm from the float bowl gasket!!

Front carb ...

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Rear carb ...

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It seems that my ZTherapy carbs bought 6 years ago, survived the vibrations from the west coast, across the ocean to Blighty and all the abuse I’ve thrown at them to remain perfectly balanced as set up by ZT!

Checked jet heights but they are spot on too.

Checked for air/vac leaks with a vac gauge connected to the brake booster line and all is well there too.

Feeing a little flummoxed but there aren’t a lot of things left to try and it’s not that complex.

On a side note, I noticed on the vac gauge that immediately after blipping the throttle, when the butterflies shut, the vac hits 500mmHg - tempted to add a massive retarded timing there to get pops and crackles on high rev gear changes ;) - silly fun for another day ! Let’s just get the car to run properly first.
 

Rob Gaskin

Treasurer
Staff member
Site Administrator
Ali, you say it's running on 5.5 cylinders. I think I know what you mean but I would expect a faulty carb to affect 3 cylinders.

Are you sure it's fuel?
 

AliK

Vehicle Dating Officer
Staff member
Club Member
Really not sure what it is Rob! It’s happened to me twice now - first time I just pulled the plugs on the side of the road to monitor the mix (pre-AFR days). But I hadn’t broken any plugs.

Second time is now and all I did was remove HT cables, plugs and cam cover to do the valve lash - nothing else in fuelling or electric circuitry was touched. Hence I re-did the lash to be sure it wasn’t that which was keeping a valve open.

Pretty sure it’s not fuel related but thought to check the carbs just in case by some coincidence something happened to them e.g. something slipped through the fuel filter etc.

It also provided me with an opportunity to properly check the float levels which previously I had done by winding the jets down 10 turns. But the banjo method was the definitive way to see what happens especially when revving the engine.

I did start like this ...

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... but soon realised I didn’t need the pipe work!
 
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