Zeddophile

Just to join the rest - neither. Stick to normal vented. Concensus among the Alfa club sprinters and indeed most racers I've spoken to (including one or two who run in Targa Tassie!), is that cross drilled stress fracture around the holes very quickly under track conditions, and slotted doesn't do much other than chew up brake pads faster. Hence my Alfas brake upgrades was limited to slightly bigger (Brembo) front calipers and standard vented discs off a V6, along with QFM K750 brake pads all round. Which, despite having 'Track Day' stickers all over the boxes, are awesome on the road even from dead cold, and even better when you start to push through some twistys. And by reputation, they are also an excellent budget pad for the track, but I'll report on that at the end of March Being that your rear discs will be outboard, I can't see you needing any additional cooling anyway - the rear discs and pads on a transaxle Alfa are not only tiny, but they are mounted inboard (Ie. up against the diff!), and I haven't managed to overheat them under road conditions. Pad choice and fresh brake fluid is the important thing, run standard pads and you will cook them and fade them if you drive hard anyway, and old brake fluid greatly reduces stopping power. QFM also make X500 pads (500 degree) which aren't outright race pads, but are high performance. I had them in the front, and while they stopped well, the K750 (750 degrees) blew them away across the board in terms of initial bite even with light application, and on outright stopping power. They even seem better cold, which leads me to suspect that maybe I didn't bed the X500s in very well - although the K750s killed them from the very first (very light) application when I'd just put them in. As far as brake fluid goes, going on dry and wet boiling point figures, Castrol Super Response Dot 4 (in the silver bottle) is probably the best for most people. It falls a little below the race fluids for dry (fresh) performance, but is a bit further behind on wet (some period of months old) performance, however it costs about $10 for 500ml as opposed to $100 a litre like some of the race fluids, and its available at almost any auto shop and a lot of servos - which means since you'd want to change it at least every year if you are driving hard, its damn good value for money. If even with some high performance compound pads in, you are getting fade, then you'd go to setting up some ducting to direct air before you went to drilled or slotted discs, as its a much cheaper option, and much more effective - cooling doesn't happen without airflow.

Seems logical, as you give it a hard time the whole length of tubing starts to deform and twist a bit, then as it gets worse it gets the uni's out of alignment and chews them up too.... Must be getting to be a pretty heavy tailshaft by now though!

I wouldn't necessarily say that yet, until you post some photos - the bottom section of the front guard is a fairly simple repair to fab up. The sills are more complex, and to do the whole length you'd want a proper sheet folder, but they are also doable. Then again, you could get fibreglass gaurds to try and bring the weight down a bit! I wouldn't rip anything right off to start with, buy yourself the wire wheel, and dig in on both sides (passenger and driver) around the sill and work out whats factory and whats not. I'll have a bit more of a hunt through my photos and see if I can dig up a decent photo of my sills (I'm sure I have one).

Well, before anything else the obvious question is did he swap the 240 struts in? While the diameters are different, the length is probably more critical, and from memory there are 3 different lengths at one end (240, early 260 and late 260), and only two at the other end (240 and 260). I'm pretty sure that the late 260 rears are 35mm longer than 240s, and the late 260 fronts are shorter than 240s (I had modified 240z konis for mine)

Oh yeah - and by the way: GOOD LUCK (not in a sarcastic way) So far the car seems savable, but you are going to need your welding mate to be going for a long time on it, and you will get very very frustrated, and probably lose motivation a number of times. It is NOT going to be a particularly quick restoration, so be prepared for the wait, and be prepared to turn around and walk away for a couple of weeks (I find I come back to it and get much more down in a few days than I would if I'd kept going for the weeks I left it alone). And I suggest finding someone with a running Zed car that you can get a ride or drive in, to help keep you inspired to finish it.

I suggest an angle grinder with a wire wheel on it - rips paint/rust/bog off, leaves the metal pretty good. I went crazy on mine with the wire wheel on the grinder, I basically walked around the car going "hmmm, that looks dodgy..." and would just wire it until I saw metal. Sometimes that took an inch or so of bog. I suspect you will get some nasty surprises (like I did on mine) doing that to yours, its got some pretty suspicious areas. At 5:24 in your video the lower left hatch 'frame' is in shot, and it looks a bit nasty, like someones gone crazy with sealant. However, in response to your video question, yes your front guards have been seriously reamed. It looks like someone has capped your sill (badly) and then I originally thought they'd welded it to your guard. But I actually think whats happened, is that there is a fibreglass? side skirt fitted onto it (stretching from front guard to dogleg), and they've bogged all around it to smooth it and blend it into the bodywork. I personally would not hesitate to put the grinder with a cutting disc through the outer layer of metal an inch or two behind the back edge of your guard, because I can almost guarantee that under that cap on your sill (if it is what it looks like) there will either be a completely lacework original sill, or the original sill has been cut out, and just enough of an edge left to overlap the "repair" section onto. However, before you go do that, if you look through the holes on the inside of the car at the back of the sill (maybe with a mirror so you can see the top), you should be able to gather enough evidence. Following that, grab the grinder with the wire wheel, and just dig in at about the back edge of the front guard, and see whether you find weld under the bog, or whether its just the bog holding it together. I thought you meant rear quarters with this, and wrote the following then realised you were talking about your front ones when I watched the other video Anyway, I think it may help you, your car looks to have had a worse history than mine , so I've moved it to the end. Rears quarters are spot welded on in a number of places. 1. Front edge, need to open the door and look at the door jamb to see these ones. 2. The lip inside the wheel arch - that lip is actually a join between inner and outer of the wheelarch. 3. Open the hatch, and look in the kind of channel between the hatch seal and the rear quarter. 4. (From here on in, testing memory a bit, may be a little inaccurate!) At just below floor level (behind bumper, remove!), take a line from behind the rear wheel to the rear light, its spot welded to a piece of floor that drops down (pull the plastic trim off the inside, and look down in between the hatch area and the quarter, you should see what I mean). 5. Its supposed to be joined in some way just in front of the dogleg, think it was supposed to be spotwelded but mine was rusted out so I cut it with the grinder, since I was fixing it anyway. 6. Its also spot welded to the sill (jacking edge under car) in front of the rear wheel. 7. Remove the quarter windows (4 screws from inside, come out with whole frame/seal/glass), and there are a bunch of spotwelds holding the quarter to the inner body (which forms a lip that those 4 quarter window screws go through!) 8. Just behind the roof, once its been paint stripped, you'll find a different coloured area of metal on the pillar running down to the back of the car. This is lead filled from the factory, and you'll find a few spot welds under the lead fill (its thick!). 9. There are also some spot welds going in next to the rear lights, I think....

I hate that stage of wiring - always seems never ending. And we have the same multimeter.

You've copped the disease I call stunted modificitus.... When I got my alfa back, the intention was to quad throttle and turbo it, which would have given me the same power as a 180sx, in a lighter car with a much stronger top end, and an equally strong bottom end. But I got halfway there (did the quad throttles), and now I'm thinking I may just leave it NA - the sound is awesome, and considering the carbies were so screwed that it put down minimum 20kw short of what it should have on the dyno (55kw, along with streams of black smoke out the exhaust), it actually feels damn quick compared to what it used to. Plus I'm feeling a turbo would kind of change the whole character of the car, and not necessarily for the better. But back to the original point, I'd get it running, then cough up for a temp permit and go for a cruise. Will tell you a lot about what condition its in, as well as give you more inspiration to get it done through the hard times (and restoring/modifying cars can absolutely kill your spirit in the bad times) so that you get to drive it again. My choice for a zed motor? Still a turbo L series: budget option homebuilt turbo setup on an L28 using a decently designed single throttle intake manifold and a megasquirt, $$$ option turbo setup on an L31, still with efi, but maybe individual throttles. Not entirely convinced on the usefulness of ITBs with turbos, but the RB26DETT uses ITBs, so must be some positive effect. Then again, I'd probably end up keeping it NA for the same reasons my Alfa is, just with a monster L31 build. And kill the sunroof. Extra weight thats not needed, and makes the roof flex more.

Oh yeah - and I just watched the walk around - you jinxed yourself bad at 0:16 seconds I'd be sacrificing chickens if I were you! Your car has some funky stuff going on - long ass gear lever, screen door handle screwed to the boot (and used to be one on the bonnet too!) Love the little diatribe on sunroofs, its so true. And as for the size of a zed? Try this one on - sit in the drivers seat with the door open, and touch the rear wheel. Not too many cars where you can reach out and touch the back wheel from the drivers seat!

Brakes do become quite ineffective once you add tyres that are 4 inches bigger than standard and a car trailer with an 1100 kilo car on the back! Ha ha.... meanwhile, I looked down at my speedo while light throttle cruising up a steady climb in 5th, and had to back off cause I was doing 110. Goes to show, Rover 4.6 + mild headwork + towing cam = serious torque. I've discovered the trick is to tie the body down hard, so that you compress the suspension (assuming you have accessible tie down points :-\), and also tie the lower suspension arms down hard. If the suspension can bounce, it can bounce the tyres and the damn thing starts to crab its way across the trailer. The last one I strapped down didn't move in 40km, despite a few hard stops and some rough as roads.... Its actually the width that worries me, since the whole wheelarch of the trailer seems to hang out either side of mine, and most of the roads I drive on have spots where the lanes get anorexic

You would want it to be boxed up in some way to protect it, but yes, they will take it.

Pity that didn't eventuate. While this is the most intelligent thing yet to be posted in this thread, I somehow doubt our friend has the inclination to go to all that hassle. Although if he has no budget, and is prepared to 'spend what is required to obtain the right car', then surely he can afford to employ the services of somewhere like the Healey Factory or similar restoration specialist, and stop wasting everyone on this forums time - I can't think of too many people on VicZcar who would waste their time doing a concourse restoration, they're too busy driving and enjoying their Zeds, and making a modification here or there as budget allows, for a little better stopping here, a bit more poke there. When the thread is titled and reads like a marketing gimmick, where else was it going to go? It sounds suspicious from the get-go, and every car thats been submitted to him has been met with "NO, that doesn't meet my criteria, go and read my original post." Which is about as clear as the Murray

FTW - for the win

I thought 2+2 was wider....

that bottom one looks so familiar.... the whole left rear quarter of my car was that deep, along with the right hand door, and parts of the rhr rear quarter...

Thats one that existed well before computers, used all over the place. Very useful.

MSCA, or Alfa club? I have the same feeling with a large list of 'want to dos', and not much spare time, but I'm planning my track debut for the Alfa club sprints, which are the other end of March to MSCA (who stole our driver training weekend!) The stress will really set in for me in March, I reckon....

Nah, my zed's kind of funny looking.... only has 4 cylinders, and someones put the wrong badges on it.

As said, can use a 280zx setup, just so happen to have a complete one with everything needed except fuel pump, $200 will claim it. Then grab yourself a VL commodore external fuel pump (or Bosch 070) and a bit of 8mm efi hose, and away you go. Pretty easy bolt on conversion, minimal wiring. Only thing is you might need to do a bit of manipulating to fit the air filter in.

Check this site out: http://www.spannerfodder.com/the_works_escorts-ratios.php Just start with the 3.7 diff ratio, fill in the other fields and see what speed it gives you, then play with the others. Remember, as it tells you down the bottom, tyre size is diameter in millimetres - if you can't be bothered working that out, go here: http://www.miata.net/garage/tirecalc.html

If you're talking track use, then everything I posted before goes out the window - I have a 4.1 diff (factory) in my Alfa, and wouldn't want it any lower, for both reasons of the torque available and the nature of the car. That said, first gear is useless (Instantly revs out, no actual acceleration), and second now goes to just short of 100km/h (due to the quad throttles allowing it to rev out further than buggered twin dellortos). Partly due to a bit of a gap in the gearbox ratios, but still. I think perhaps with a boosted car you probably want a higher ratio for a bit more poke off boost, but if you have sufficient low down torque, you tend to find a lower ratio a bit better - seems a lot of the V8 guys run 3.3 and sometimes even lower diffs for (I'm guessing) this reason. IMO the amount of torque and its curve is one of the two main factors in picking diff ratios. The other obviously being how you want the thing to drive. I find that my Range rover is really comfortable to drive, because the gears aren't short, but it has enough torque that it doesn't matter. If I shift every gear at 2200 with about half throttle acceleration, I can still get to 80km/h before every other car at the lights. And thats nice when you're still waking up in the morning, not to have to rev crap out of the thing to stay ahead of the stream, just getting a silky smooth delivery of power. Thats what happens with a 4.6 litre V8 and towing cam though. I guess the point I was really trying to make is don't just go straight to chucking a different diff ratio in it because it has an auto 3.54 - drive it first, and then decide. Everybody is different, and likes a different drive and a different looking car, so don't go spending up on a diff that you may not even want in the end. You can always change the diff later, its not like you pull the diff out to change the gearbox, so the job will be the same later. After all, you may go and put a 3.7 diff in, because that was in the manual car, and thats what someone else has, and then find that you'd actually rather a 4.1.

Changing diffs is entirely up to you - the auto ratio is usually 3.54, where a manual has something more like 3.7 or 3.9 (can't remember which). If you have a fairly well powered engine, you may find you like the auto ratio anyway. I have a range rover with a torquey motor in it, and it still has the 3.5 diffs in on 32 inch tyres (accepted ratio to return to standard gearing with that tyre size is 4.11). I actually really like the gearing as it is, and don't want to change it, as first gear is actually usable for more than half a second, and second gear runs out to 80km/h, yet the thing still accelerates hard enough to keep in front of WB v8 utes off the lights (that was due to a longer second gear ). Not bad for a 2 ton 4WD. I've also had a car trailer and car on the back weighing in at a bit over a ton, and I could barely feel it until I tried to really nail it - cruising off from the lights there was no change in power. If I was to change the gearing, I definitely wouldn't go to 4.11s, makes the gears way too short. I'd probably change the transfer case high range gear from 1.2 to 1.4, and only because its a little ridiculous to be able to reach 130km/h in 3rd gear in a large 4WD. But then again, in 4th up a hill it happily pulls away from 80km, so why waste the time?

Nothing useful, no.... Just one of my mates humping a thrust bearing..... (don't ask) I'll have a look sometime anyways, might be able to find something....

Dragged out of hiding, I wrote this a couple of years ago after converting my auto 260 to manual using a 280zx gearbox, and since then keep being unable to find it when someone asks how to do it and whats required. This list should have every part required for the conversion, and the steps should hold true for most conversions, although keep in mind my car was a late 260, there may be some differences to a 240. Thanks to StevoGJ for the photos supplied, and confirmation of details with the late 260 conversion. Anyone who would like to contribute experience from an earlier car would be most welcome. Thanks also to Lurch for the comprehensive list of donor gearboxes in the thread linked to shortly below. PARTS: - You'll need a gearbox. See this thread for possibilities and discussion thereof: what gearboxes fit? - Remember to get the gearlever with it, or one to suit. The levers may differ between the possible donor gearboxes. - Manual brake pedal and and clutch pedal (also one of the bolts at the top which retain the pedal, along with the plastic bushes and return spring (See second photo, Step 5, items B and C), you will remove another bolt and spring from your auto brake pedal). 280zx pedals are NOT suitable, 240 and 260 may interchange (unconfirmed) - Flywheel (bolts to the crankshaft) - Clutch friction and pressure plates + thrust bearing (usually all in one kit when bought new, I wouldn't bother getting secondhand personally, bolts to the flywheel), - Spigot bush for the rear of the crankshaft, should be available from the same place as your clutch kit (Brake shops, Repco etc) - Clutch fork and pivot (if not already in the bellhousing of gearbox) - clutch master cylinder and the little pin (See second photo, Step 5, item C) that attaches the pushrod to the clutch pedal (NOTE: 280zx master cylinders have the bolt holes rotated about 45 degrees from a 260 one, so aren't suitable. 240 and 260 may be interchangeable - unconfirmed), Cylinder on the left is a 280zx one, note that it has the mounting holes 45 degrees to the ground, while the 260z on the right has vertical mounting holes. - Clutch slave cylinder (if it didn't come with the gearbox) - flexible clutch hose (to go between hard line and slave cylinder, if you get a crappy one a brake place should be able to make a new hose from the sample) - and either the metal clutch piping, or a metal rear brake line off a zed (can be reshaped to fit, as i did with mine). Optional parts (Not required to have a drivable car, but recommended) - Rear main seal for the engine (there will never be a better time to replace it, mostly as a preventative measure if not leaking, and they are relatively inexpensive) - Rubber boots to seal transmission tunnel around gear lever against fumes, and a bracket to clamp it down. You can probably use a generic brand one from Bursons/Repco/Supercheap etc, or spring for the genuine article (which may not fit so well if you have to cut the tunnel for the gearlever, as noted in step 5) - Pretty gearstick boot (leather, vinyl etc) to cover the rubber boot, or to cover the hole in the floor if you didn't fit a rubber boot! PROCEDURE: STEP 1 - Remove tailshaft, then remove auto (DUH!) Don't forget to undo the torque convertor bolts... STEP 2 - remove ring gear from back of motor, carefully install spigot bush, after priming with oil (fill centre with oil, squeeze your fingers in on either end until the oil oozes through the porous brass to the outside). If you chose to replace your rear main seal, do that now. Then bolt flywheel on - OBSERVE TORQUE SPECS. Probably wise to have the flywheel machined flat before installing to give a good surface (about $50?) STEP 3 - Install clutch and pressure plate, making sure clutch plate is properly aligned. Use a universal clutch aligning tool, old input shaft or my favourite - broom handle with electrical tape around it. Also make sure that the friction plate goes in the correct way - most will have 'Engine (flywheel) side' or 'Gearbox side' printed on them. If it doesn't, look and see which way will not allow the friction surface to make contact with the flywheel - that is the wrong way. Generally the side of the plate where the centre protrudes more faces the gearbox. STEP 4 - Remove speedo drive from the auto, fit to manual box (speedo drives are matched to the diff). Remove the crossmember from under the auto, and fit it to your gearbox. While you're at it, join the two wires together which prevent the car being started in anything other than park and neutral, otherwise the starter motor won't work when you are finished. Make sure you get the correct wires, there should be some for the reverse lights as well (which you don't bridge, simply refit to reverse light switch) STEP 5 - Install gearbox. With the auto crossmember, it should line up fine. 2 notes here about 280zx boxes, if you use one: 1, The bellhousing bolts need to be longer (Ie: get manual 280zx bellhousing bolts). 2, The transmission tunnel hole needs to be trimmed between 10 and 50 mm at the front edge. Install tailshaft. Should fit easily. STEP 6 - Unbolt and remove the cover plate over the clutch master cylinder hole (on passengers side of brake booster). Bolt clutch master cylinder in place. Master cylinder in position. Remove the auto brake pedal (bolt (same as A) at top of pedal, and a pin with a clip (same as C) on the pushrod from the brake booster) YOU SHOULD NOT NEED TO REMOVE THE WHOLE PEDAL BOX, as the manual and auto use the same pedal box, just loaded with different pedals. Definitely the case in a late 260, and should hold true for early 260 and 240 (confirmation would be appreciated for the latter two). Install manual brake pedal (reverse procedure) View of pedal box loaded with manual pedals with no dashboard covering it! A is the retaining bolt (pivot point), B is the return spring, C is the pin which connects to the clutch master cylinder pushrod. Install the clutch pedal, using the other retaining bolt you got, along with spring and bushes. Fit the pin to connect the clutch master pushrod to the clutch pedal. Install clutch slave cylinder if it wasn't already fitted to gearbox (Note, bleed nipple must be at the top, otherwise it'll never bleed up). Install hard clutch line (or shape and fit your rear brake line). See note 2 at this point. Fit flexible hose between clutch pipe and slave cylinder. Image showing clutch master cylinder at top, with hard line running down to the flexible hose which is bolted into the slave cylinder at the bottom of the picture. Fill with fluid, crack bleed nipple on slave cylinder and wait till fluid starts to run out (hopefully it should run after a couple of drips). Bleed with the help of someone else. STEP 7 - Check everything is tight, check the clutch freeplay, then start car in neutral, push clutch pedal in and carefully attempt to engage gear. And that is your manual conversion from start to finish. About a days work if you are mechanically minded and have all the bits when you start. NOTES: (will update if and when necessary) 1. With the speedo drive gear swap, you may need to knock the pin out of the gears, and actually swap the cogs themselves over - as in fit the auto gear onto your manual speedo drive gear housing, and fit it into the gearbox. 2. If fluid fails to start running out of the slave cylinder bleed nipple, there are a couple of things to try. First, try to avoid having your metal clutch pipe running higher than the master cylinder bore at any point, and also avoid having it go up then down. When you follow the line from master to slave, it should always be getting closer and closer to the ground. Any higher point (especially higher than the master cylinder) can potentially trap air. Second, get a syringe with some tubing or a vacuum bleeding kit, and try sucking the fluid through from the nipple. I have managed to bleed some of the most troublesome clutch lines ever using an old syringe of about 100cc capacity, and heaving on the back end of it to suck the fluid through, and then only got an assistant to bleed with to double-check.

Bah - Finally found it, was hiding inside another post in the clutches section for some reason Will put it up slightly edited as a new post.