260Coupe

Split from this post: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,7252.0/topicseen.html -Lurch. Try and find yourself an airbox from a Prince GTB Skyline, this airbox allows for 50mm ram tubes to fit inside and boosted mid range power nearly 10% and did not harm top end.....(engine dyno'd by Les Collins) .....this can be then fed via a pod filter or as I have installed, a factory 280z air filter housing (bolts straight onto the radiator crass member)....You can then plumb in your crank case and timing cover vents for a more EPA friendly engine. Through all of our dyno testing, this is the only airbox we have found to actually benefit engine performance .......probably due to the fact that it was designed by Prince engineers who used to design aircraft....notice the tapered shape design from front to back . There is some realigning of the rear plate required to make the box fit, but once done it works beautifully and is nice and quiet for road use. As these airboxes are so rare, I am also looking at getting fibre glass/carbon fibre boxes made (by taking a mold off mine) if I can see some demand. Alan

G-Nose Headlight Covers !!!!! Extremely rare...........hmmm price is up there as well http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DATSUN-FAIRLADY-Z-240Z-240ZG-HEAD-LIGHT-COVER-OEM-NOS-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem230528b7f7QQitemZ150410409975QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories#ht_503wt_939

The last set I sourced from Power Play were recessed...........I did have non recessed on my 240 race car for a short time and wondered why it was throwing rocker arms . Try and get recessed lash pads as per the factory parts spec.

Another source for "off the shelf" lash pads is Power Play (ex Dat Rally) in Cheltenham Vic. http://www.powerplay.net.au/ The sell for around $16 each

Paid $6k for my Z31 Turbo 5 spd(an impulse buy) , full history - one owner with 130,000 gen km on the clock. A turbo manual is damn had to find particularly one that has not been messed with. never had a hit and no rust (damn rare as well) Injectors had not started to leak but swapped them out anyway ......Got a brand new set from Five0MotorSport in the US for $400 landed ($370 each from Nissan here in Oz!!!!) Replaced the shocks with KYB gas and installed King springs and bingo.......a great comfy cruiser that actually handles surprizingly well ..... ...for a "fat mans" cruise mobile I don't particularly like the look of the Z31......some say ugly as hell... ....but a great highway cruiser with snooze control and power everything. much prefer a 2 seater but need to back seat now for junior !

Cavity wax and plenty of it !

Simon yep ...........Shannons coughed up with no issue, the assessors always try and knock 10% off the price so the there was some "up lift" in the quote to allow for the knock down. BTW All repairs were made by pulling out the front panel on a jig and then straightened with a hammer and dolly......no cut and shut welding going on here........hence the labour intensive price......$800 in parts (bonnet and r/h headlight surround) .............and the rest in labour and paint. The whole car was then cavity waxed (again) to ensure it will remain rust free for another few years Alan

Not sure what the import laws are now Gav, as I have both a Pommy passport and an Aussie pass port I only had to own the car for 6 months to avoid the import duty, I still had to pay stamp duty and compliance duty and customs duty etc etc.........from memory it cost me around $3k AUD to land the car so it cost me around $9k all up.

His work is certainly not cheap (my repair was claimed through Shannons and was around $8.5k)...........but like all things you get what you pay for. If you a want a faultless finish that you will be 100% satisfied with then it costs money........I would not suggest he is for every body and every Zed, but if you want more than a average job then he is worth considering.

Quite simply Daniel............like yourself Lou only does mechanical work

The biggest issue in the UK which drives depreciation is the huge cost of vehicle insurance and the separate cost of the third party liability cover (we pay this as a fixed sum in te rego) . which depends on vehicle type , engine size etc. Also cars with over 2ltr engines plummet in value due to the perceived running cost expense. When I lived in the UK in the mid 90's I was stunned by the "cheapness" of relativley new cars......I bought a 1989 BMW 325i for 3000 pounds in 1994 (the same car was still over $30k here in Australia)............but then when I went to insure it in London I was quoted $2500 for comprehensive cover! So I stored it and shipped in home. I was content on driving a little 1984 1.3 ltr Ford Escort (a Laser here in Oz) which I bought for 200 quid and didn't bother with insurance (or road tax or MOT for that matter ) - but officer I am a tourist - what is this "tax and MOT you speak of ??

Paint match was perfect and new custom made brackets for the spoiler and grill were fabricated. The Grill was almost destroyed in the prang, this was completely dismanteled and every slat straightened and the vertical joiners re-made from scratch ...............and mounted so solidly you could use the grill as a tow point !

The end result

The repairs in progress

and more ........radiator support panel twisted and inner guard compressed

More bent pics

Hey Guys If you are looking for an absolutely first class restoration or just an accident repair then talk to Hardy Kuhn at H & R Classic Restorations in Lilydale, Vic. Hardy specialises in Austin Healy's (mutiple international Concours' winners) and has moved onto Datsun Roadsters and now dabbling with Zeds. Hardy is a first class fabricator (he hates the term "panel beater") and can frabicate any part from scratch if the need arrises. His work is certainly the best I have ever seen with his eye for detail that surpasses most others. http://www.hrc-dat.com.au/ My Zed went from this

Yep.............entering my Sports 2000 for the Sunday. Just hope I don't get pinged for noise again !

Spend the extra $$ and always use a genuine Nissan thermostat........they almost never go faulty and jam open/closed.

Yep I agree...........my testing was not the most scientific , there may have variations to wind speed , weight, temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity, speedo variations etc etc ........(but I do recall the weather being calm with little wind).... I read in some literature some where that the G- nose improved top speed by as much as 8-10mph.........hence I tried my own basic form of testing with just experimenting with headlight covers. Whilst my methods may have been "less than scientific" I did find them to be repeatable at the time . On the subject of a G- nose - For Datsun to actually produce a more streamlined front end ..........there must have been some valid reasoning for this (ie better CD /less drag). Car manufactures rarely spend money and produce aerodynamic add ons if they do not actually work on the race track (ok with exception to cosmetic spoilers and wings as fitted to modern road cars) Whilst you CD calcs show little measurable change may be this is better demonstrated in practice? Alan

Good point Simon ......Hush my mouth ......what was I thinking .....I should know better than to suggest any form of "testing" be performed on "performance" mods I did however test head light covers on my old race Zed and they improved top speed by almost 5 mph.........sorry to mention the word test. cheers Alan

G. be aware of the additional parasitic drag caused by the big IMSA spoilers..............what you gain in down force to assist with rear tire adhesion and corning speed may be negated by added drag and sacrifice to the straight line speed. From my own experience-some years back I tried one on my old 240z race car and found I was 5-7 kph slower down the straight at P.I with little difference in corner speeds (as opposed to no rear spoiler at all) ..........and up to 10kph with a stiff Southerly blowing (best times at P.I are usually set before the sea breeze kicks in) Unless you are running slicks and 300+ hp I would try the small "stock" rear spoiler (IMHO) Anyone done any actual testing on this ? Alan

Hey Dimitri I would have been interesting to Dyno your Zed before and after to see what difference the exhaust changes made. The factory rally cars had twin pipes as did the early BRE 240's so one could assume there is a performance gain ....but by how much is the question Alan

My head is an E88 on the L26.........as originally fitted (I bought the car with 50k on the clock ...so unmolested. I too thought it would have hardened valve seats .......until I pulled the head off and was in for a surprise

Hi Simon Yep I swapped out the Cannon balanced manifoild for the Datsun Competition independant runner manifold and we dyno'd. Result on chassis dyno - Little/No repeatable difference in power ! Result on road test - as anticipated, as the brake booster was only getting vacuum off one cylinder, the brake suffered at low rpm...........toodling around in a car park in 1st gear with multiple stops caused the brakes to lack suuficient boost to be effective..........multiple hard stops also suffered from lack of boost. Now these results were on my engine........that is not to say that the IR manifold may prove to be beneficial on a full blown, big cam race engine ??