PZG302

As the title states i'm after a standard stone tray for a 240. Doesn't matter if it needs a few hits of a hammer to get it straight as long as it's sound and doesn't have holes in it. It will be fitted to the race car to help with the aero according to the rules for 2B Marque Sports cars. Thanks, Matt

Zac, That's not good news...... Looks like it might be time to bite the bullet and get that performance motor!?!?!? What are the bores like in your current motor??? If they are good or a rebore will cure any scratching or scores we can work something out for one of my spares. I wouldn't be using the pistons in the motor so no need to worry about them. You might even get away with just using the pistons out of my motor, a hone and new rings and bearings The motors I have are, as far as I know standard, but haven't been run for a few years, so will need a freshen up, but should be OK to use as a base. Let me know what you would like to do. Matt

The high mount stop light only became a part of teh ADR's in either '85 or '86 IIRC, so there should be no need for one on your Zed. If you do fit one try to find an old XF/EA/EB sedan or equivalent dunnydore at a wreckers.

Zac, Sorry to see you have found the problem, and it wasn't what you were hoping :'( Never good to see things sitting in cylinders. As Peter said it's time to pull the head off and see what's what in there. Hopefully no damage to piston or bore. If it's a simple fix of new valve, make use of the bits you have there where you can to save a few dollars. If the bores are good, and block looks suitable to use for a 3mm overbore I'm sure we can work something out on a swap with my spare N42/N42 motor if you need to go down that path. Stick with it, it will be worth it in the end.....

zac, Come round and pick up the other bits from me, sounds like the retainers, for want of a better description could also be worn, the lash pads should sit in the cap but shouldn't really have a lot of sideways movement, if there is more movement in 5 and 6 inlets compared to the other inlets then it would be fair to say that is the case. Matt

Zac, If number 5 inlet valve is sitting at the same height as the other inlet valves then you may have an issue with the valve springs. It maybe prudent to replace the valve springs, or get them checked at least. With the set up you had there is no real telling what damage has been done. The valve springs may have been weakened a lot quicker than what would normally happen over time. A new set of valve springs should cost around $150. As I said earlier, if you want to try another set, you can have the spare set I have from the bare head. The only proviso is there is no warranty that they will solve the problem, but they would more than likely get you out of trouble. If you swap number 5 inlet valve springs over and it doesn't spit the rocker and lash pad you may be OK until you're ready for the performance rebuild. if you want to pick them up I'll be home all day today. At least it is only spitting out the one rocker now....

Zac, not the recommended thing to do, but after checking timing and mixtures, if you still believe it is valve springs you can try the spares I have. I would say that getting the rocker geometry back to where it should be has put the cam timing out a bit. Have read of the cam section in the books I lent you, that should point you in the right direction. Get the cam timing to where It should be then the rest should fall in place. The cam gear on the front is adjustable for setting the timing. Because the rockers were set up way out originally, now they are better set the cam will now be out compared to how It was before and this will need to be set up again to get everything back in sync. The adjustment should only be couple of degrees.

About 1/2 inch or so thick and also didn't have the little channels on each side like the standard ones have. Also very obviuosly machined up aa "aftermarket". The motor apparently was out of a patrol, so I'd say old mate who refurbished it wasn't used to the L series motor. I'd say when he was told that a bit was taken off the cam for the regrind he got some lash pads made up with the extra meet in them to make up for what was taken off the cam.

Looks like we have the problem solved. Hopefully Zac will be working away feverishly polishing rockers to replace the current set. It turns out that who ever refurbished the motor previously thought you needed lash pads about 1/2 inch thick, which meant the posts for the rockers to pivot on had to be wound all the way down throwing the geometry way off. This meant the rockers were only just on the edge of the pad and that allowed the lash pad to spin. The geometry was so far out that the ends of the rockers were ovoid where they sit on the pivot and were rocking side to side just to operate, again exaserbating the problems with the rockers being spat sideways. Another, more sensible, lash pad was tried and the pivot post had to be bought up about 10mm or so to get the required cold clearance. The wipe was tested and whilst not perfect was a lot better than the previous set up. Zac picked up a set of rockers and lash pads I had from a spare head. These should keep him on the road until he is ready for a proper rebuild. All going well he should be back on the road tonight or tomorrow. So as is usually the case, keep it simple stupid to look at the basics first.

No worries Zac, pm me your contact details and I'll try to get over on the 2nd. Tomorrow looks like it will be a lazy day to recover from tonight

Where in Brisbane are you? I'm not sire of my movements over the next few days, but I should be able to take a quick look at what's going on with these rockers. What you're describing should not be possible with everything working as it should. Sounds like whoever set up the head got something very wrong. Matt

From your description the lash pad is either broken or in the sump. The lash pad will retain the rocker and the two together won't let the lash pad spin. Sounds like you haven't got a lash pad there. One of my old race motors used to spit rockers out if I buzzed the engine over 7500rpm on a down change. It was generally number 5 exhaust and the lash pad would be spat out and drop down the back of the head into the sump. I used to keep half a dozen lash pads on the race kit for this problem.

Well done on getting the car through. Listening to the cricket on radio, and the flood updates, it looks like most of the state is unedrwater. I was supposed to be doing road surveys from Toowoomba, through to Chinchilla, Miles, Eidsvold, Biloela and up to Gladstone, as soon as I got back to work on the 4th. Looking at the weather I won't be out until the end of January at the earliest

Gee you must'nt be driving fast I'd be lucky to see the tacho when I'm on the track. I'm slowly being convinced big lights are the way to go!!! having said that, I do like to have quality guages to see what's happening after or before the event, though looking at the oil pressure guage is acary after a race and you're idling back into the pits.....

I'd still trust a corrected mechanical or electronic speedo over GPS any day. I work with GPS constantly and the errors that occure even with so called survey accurate receivers is eye opening. Note that the accuracy you will get from even the latest SRF chip set will be in the order of +/- 5m when you have the minimum number of satellites, no interference, no reflection of signals and so on and so on that I need to deal with on a daily basis. I actually use two GPS units of different manufactures and accuracy to track my path for video surveys.

Hmmm, perhaps some work is needed on suspension now...... Looked like a.fun drive

I feel for Kyles family and friends, and it is such a shame that he felt he had to take this route to sort out what was going on in his life. I just read this blog on the SMH website and thought it relevant, especially for those who might be needing a bit of a hand. sometimes we can be our own worst enemies. http://blogs.theage.com.au/executive-style/allmenareliars/2010/12/17/hardenmyheart.html My thoughts are with Kyles family and friends.

Az new injectors supply new or remanufactured injectors. For the Z the model is AZ135N-6, they are supplied as new injectors, and from memory I bought a set for around $420 from repco, they were on special at the time. They also do performance type injectors as well, maybe worth checking out their website to see if they can do what you need. http://www.aznew.com.au/main.asp?section=Products&subsection=New Injectors and Component Kits

Dave, Not sure it would be worth bringing the cars over as the 350 won't be able to be driven on the road here unless it's converted to RHD. depending on where you're looking at settling the 280 maybe OK as a left hooker, being more than 30 years old, it could be registerable in Qld, not sure about other states. For the racing, there are a couple of classes you can play in for full circuit racing, and for sprints and hillclimbs the scope is wide open for doing pretty much anything. Here's a couple of links to the rules that a Zed would run in, the first is for our historic racing Group S category, http://www.camsmanual.com.au/08_historic.asp you need to click on the link for Group S cars, which is historic production sports cars. This category is very restrictive in terms of modifications allowed. The other category a Zed can run in is what I race, marque sports cars, Group 2B. This category allows more freedoms, including running slicks, but you must still run an L series block and they are reasnably standard. http://www.camsmanual.com.au/02_race.asp#2nd Click on the Marque Sports cars 2B section to get the rules I run to. The other categories show what else we race down here, from open wheelers, through to touring cars and onto off road. Hope this gives you an idea of what we race and what might interest you. Matt

Jees I'm in trouble then as I also have a haidresser's car....... But the V8 makes up for all the girly cars.....

Mmmm, time to check the regs.....

Peter, Any tyre from a 215 through to a 245 will fit on an 8 inch rim. Any tyre that fits on the rim will have a load rating that is suitable for a relatively light car such as a Z, even a stationwagon . There are three rim widths that are shown for tyres, the optimum rim width and then the minimum and maximum, you shouldn't have any trouble finding a tyre that will fit the rims. If you have any worries about what tyre to get speak to some of the shops around you that sell motorsport tyres. I don't know of any shops off the top of my head in your area, but have had good service in the past from these guys.....http://www.keith4wheels.com.au/ Good luck with the search

Thanks Peter, Looks like Jason claims them, they won't fit on my car with my modified struts. My 18's have an offset of -2mm and the tyre clears only by a couple of mm. An offset of +4mm will have the wheel touching the spring perch, or the tyre rubbing at the very least. Looks like I will have to go to Superheavy GTR's at 15x8 -4 offset. Matt

Greg, The $2,200 entry fee is for flag to flag racing by Production Sports Cars with CAMS 2B and 2F log books and the drivers must have a full national circuit racing licence. The regularity entry fee looks to be around the same as FOSC at the $750 mark going by what Tir33d put up in the first post. This would be what you did last year on your 2S Cams licence. Other racing categories may or may not be charged the same as Prod Sports or the regularity guys, there isn't a lot of info up yet. Saloon cars are being charged an entry of $1,540 according to their entry form, but I don't know what track time they are getting. So for a cost of $1,100, providing you can get someone to trust you to drive their car, it is pretty good value. I would be there if I had a full licence, but unfortunately don't have the budget to race at least 3 times in NSW and Vic plus what maybe one meeting a Warwick to get the upgrade in time, so will have to wait until 2012 to have a crack at Bathurst for an hour long enduro.

Greg, When you look at what the utes and other support categories paid to be at the October race and the entry fees to run support at the 12 hour, you get, $2,200 for 2 1/2 hours track time at Bathurst in a proper 1 hour race and 2X half hour races, thats not bad, or 1.5 hours of racing plus 45 minutes of practice and qualifying for $1,100 per driver I know what I'd be paying for When I last saw what entry fees were for the utes, it was a lot more for an entry fee and it is a closed shop, and pretty much the same for most of the categories that get to run at Bathurst at the October and 12 hour meetings. The regularity fees look to be similar to FOSC. The other categories will probably be paying less because they won't have the one hour race that Production Sports Cars do.