Layla - Identifies as a Japanese muscle car

[OdinZ]

 Even @gav240z enjoyed driving the V8!

Next up, a trip upto Dave's @KatoKid place to buy some wheels he listed a few years ago, I always liked them, but then sold my Z at the time, so didnt really have a need for them. 

 

[OdinZ]

Day before Highball Cars & Coffee @ Bosch HQ, time to change the tiny  jelly bean wheels that I borrowed to pass roadworthy

New wheels are 16x8 0 offset. Tires are 205/55/16 Bridgestone RE003s

To give you an idea about clearance to the front struts (car is lowered at the front):



 

[OdinZ]

Some pics from Highball, the turn out was huge, and there was about 8x S30s on the day. I drove up with @Mike260 and another mate in his GF8 WRX
      

 

There were a few photographers out on the day too:





https://www.instagram.com/p/CeYKDASp2GW/
 

 

[gav240z]

4 hours ago, OdinZ said:

Even @gav240z enjoyed driving the V8!

haha covert filming!

[OdinZ]

uhoh, what's going on here:

 

anddddddd, she is no longer a V8 Z. A somewhat sad moment 

[OdinZ]

So to carry one from the last the post, the boys at @C.A.R. suddenly had some space in between some of their bigger restorations to get the V8, the engine bay tidied up, painted and the L28 in, mind you our conversation a week prior was, let's book this in for next winter. 

Any way, off the boys she went. Didn't take them long to get the donk and box out of the bay and the rest of the hardware. 

No rust was found, just a bit of surface rust needed cleaning up around the battery tray of course. 

 

Also my 71B box from my last Z was disassembled to bevapour honed with the new rocker cover.

Clean up of a set of headers I had hoarded too:

 

 

[OdinZ]

Some more making parts look nice:

 

*mechanical fuel pump to be removed

[OdinZ]

And now the paint prep

[OdinZ]

The vapour honed rocker cover and the 71B gearbox reassembled:

[OdinZ]

Time to start putting everything back in, I have to say, I am very glad we decided to zinc plate the hardware and paint the block and anything else that needed painting.

 

Next post, the engine and gearbox will be installed in the bay

[OdinZ]

Engine & gearbox in:

  

 

Engine bay wiring harness off to the auto elec

From this:

To this:

[OdinZ]

And now the crown jewels, the triple OER45s on the Kameari Harada manifold:

 

 

[gav240z]

Engine bay looking so much cleaner!

Any feedback on tuning of OERs? How does Les find them compared with Mikuni/Solex carbs?

[OdinZ]

After a couple of small set backs and trying to find the time to get some things sorted, new rocker cover gasket, replace the brake master and re-do the fuel hose path as we got it wrong the first time, finally got the Z for an alignment and also just made it to the annual Z BBQ at @Gordos. This car has not missed it since I have owned it. It made the drive from Berwick to Lilydale and back, with coughing and lean spitting, it still needed a good tune and the floats adjusted out of the carbies (OERs have float adjustment screws).

    

 

 

Edited December 15, 2025 by OdinZ

[OdinZ]

After the BBQ, Les Collins Racing was able to squeeze me in for a look over and maybe a quick tune up. I was able to sit (stand) through the whole process as Josh went through balancing, changing the floats and we changed over the main jets a couple of times. The initial bench jetting (based of Les' recommendations) was close, but in the process of getting the Z driveable, another mechanic had gone to rich on the mains to combat the float levels being out. 

Lambda sensor attached, we went for a few drives trying to iron out the lean spitting down low, and sorted out the richness up top. Les jumped in for the final adjustments, changing the idle jets a couple of times and got it as close to perfect as possible. One of the downsides to OERs is sometimes they can be a bit lean on very slight throttle. Further modifications to the carbies will be needed, but that will be for another time and perhaps when we change from the HM style headers to the SWM headers. 

 

19 hours ago, gav240z said:

Engine bay looking so much cleaner!

Any feedback on tuning of OERs? How does Les find them compared with Mikuni/Solex carbs?

Aside from the above, Les/Josh didnt comment on the difference between them. Main positive is that the OER carbs I ordered are set up with Weber Jets, which makes tuning easier if you carry as many spares as LCR do. The downsides to Mikuni's these days is availability of spares, and some hardware are just complete odd ball sizes.

And now for the first video after tune, as Les calls it: "An angry L28" 

*Note: this engine was NOT built/refurbed by Les Collins Racing, only the carbs were tuned there