BenZed

Tuning should be finished this week.

I wasn't dedicated enough to measure the weights of all the bits, but here is a guide to what is worth doing and some estimates: Carbon bumpers: really light, probably only 10-15 percent of the weight of the steel bumpers, so worth doing to save 7kg or so. Carbon bonnet: Only a small weight saving of 5kg, so not really worth doing for the money. Carbon roof skin: Hardly any weight saving (couple of kilos at best), only did it to fill the hole. Fibreglass front guards: Probably 3kg lighter per side, not really worth the effort unless you need to replace them anyway. Fibreglass doors: Heaps lighter, maybe 10kg per side with the acrylic windows, but a complete bastard to fit and not readily available here. Fibreglass rear hatch: Heaps lighter, a good 10kg saving here if you use the acrylic window too, so this is a good one to do. Stripping interior sound-deadening: About 4-5kg saved here, and very easy to do as the old tar comes off easily. Fibreglass dash: Massive saving, about 15kg or more. The heater/fan assembly is really heavy and the steel frame of the dash weighs heaps too, My whole dash and ceramic heater would add up to less than 5kg now. Changing seats saved some weight too as the stock ones are very heavy. The standard spare wheel also weighs about 4kg more than my large Watanabe spare. So to sum up, the weight saving mods that make the most sense for someone less insane are carbon or fibreglass bumpers, fibreglass hatch, acrylic rear window and quarter windows, stripping interior tar, light alloy wheels, lighter aftermarket seats and if you can be bothered, fitting a fibreglass dash and electric heater (also solves the problem of a cracked dash). With all of these changes you can save 50-65kg.

Then I wouldn't have a gearknob... so no.

I had a friend in Japan take care of it for me. I can supply the kits brand new, look for my post in the classifieds section.

I already do drive it on the street I built it mainly for weekend stress relief and tarmac rallies (Duttons etc.) It was fun even with Hitachis, can't wait to drive it fully tuned.

About 13 years ago my first 240Z ran a 14.3 @94 with a carby turbo L28. My last 240Z ran a 12.5 @112 with a 1JZ-GTE. My new 240Z isn't turbo, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was faster than both of them.

Just delivered the car to my tuner to get the computer wired up and tuned. I had the aluminium ram tubes you see here custom made to fit inside the filters. Actually there's more space than I thought, so I might get bigger filters later. Need to give it a bit of a clean too

Just got my extractors ceramic-coated, ready to go back on with the injection. If anyone is interested in getting some coating done this high-temperature black coating cost $400. You can get the polished aluminium finish (slightly lower temp rating) for $320. PM me if you want a quote on other parts (the coaters are next door to my company).

L-series engines are very heavy. An early 240Z L24 is 141kg and later engines only got heavier. The lightest L-powered 240Z I have seen was a drag car in Japan with all of the lightweight mods on my car, plus holes cut in all the internal metal panels, no trim of any kind, plastic seats, aluminium fuel tank and titanium exhaust. It weighed 880kg and ran high 10s with a 350hp L31.

That's without me in the car and almost no fuel. It is tough to take more than 100kg out of any car, especially when it's light to start with.

Another small update, I've just carpeted the interior. The carpet is all unbacked grey stuff like you see on speaker boxes. It weighs almost nothing and you can stretch it easily so it's great for curved surfaces like the wheel arches. I made up new rear panels on either side behind the towers from 3mm MDF, plus a new panel over the tail lights from 6mm MDF. Everywhere else the carpet is glued directly to the painted steel floor. All of the bits that are still visible in white will be painted satin black this week. I don't plan to re-fit the original console, so I carpeted the depression in the tunnel where the choke lever used to sit. This makes a handy place to store bits and pieces. You may notice I also had the door trims retrimmed in black vinyl with dark grey center sections. I'm still waiting on some custom-made induction rams for my injection before I can fit everything, but that should be my next post.

I can supply these Rota Grid wheels, which are 16x8 +10 offset, 4x114.3 PCD in the bronze colour pictured or metallic black for $279 a wheel. The hub size is slightly small on the front, but they will fit using a 3mm spacer. Alternatively you could machine the wheel or the hub slightly to make them fit perfectly. PM me if you're interested. To save anyone asking, no they don't come in any other size, offset or colours. Cheers Ben

Ausplasfab.com.au $160

The PWR radiator is a very tight fit for the engine fan, but it doesn't touch. Fitting the oil cooler was trickier than expected, but it was a cheap kit ($279) and I didn't need any extra parts to make it fit.

Through one of my contacts in Japan I can now source O.E.R. products like the 6-throttle injection kit I'm using on my car. This kit is available with 45mm throttles or 50mm throttles. The kit includes the throttle bodies, manifold and linkages. Additional parts like injectors, fuel rail, air filters and throttle-position-sensor can be supplied at extra cost. The 45mm throttle-bodies are designed to take one injector per throttle (6 total on the L6 kit) while the 50mm throttles can take a second set on the underside if needed (for example if using methanol fuel). 45mm throttle body kit for L6 $2300 50mm throttle body kit for L6 $3150 For anyone interested in triple carburettors, I can also supply the chokeless O.E.R. Racing Carburettors, which are available in 45mm, 47mm and 50mm. An L6 manifold is available to suit these carburettors (right up to the 50mm type). The 50mm carburettors aren't cheap, but if you've ever priced a 50DC0E Weber you'll know these are actually good value. A big advantage of OER carbs over most side-draught carbs is that the accelerator pump and float level adjustments are on the top of the carby so they can be tuned easily. 45mm carburettor $530 47mm carburettor $580 50mm carburettor $1000 A complete 45mm carb kit for L24 is $2240 (including manifold and linkages). A 50mm carb kit is $3650. Any questions please PM me. Cheers

Do I have ADR Approvals? You mean an engineering certificate? The car is a 1973 model, so it doesn't have to comply with much in the way of ADRs. The ceramic heater is fine, legally all you need is some kind of demister. As for the CF, that's probably the last thing anyone will think to book me for. I probably should have said 'keep it registered' rather than 'keep it legal'

Yes, 935kg as I posted. Haven't really punted it around a track yet, so can't comment on the bracing yet.

Actually it was well over $10k and I can assure you it is very easy to spend that much on a serious engine build. It's all the little bits like rod bolts, metal gasket, valvesprings and so on that really add up. There is a lot of money in machining, balancing and labour to consider too. If you only think about the big parts in the engine you will be boggled .

No worries Gavin, send me a question sheet and when I have everything finished I'll take the photos for you.

Thanks fufu, GBA etc for the positive comments. I'll try to organise some video clips of it on the dyno and on the track when the time comes.

My engine build cost well over $10k I may be able to supply the OER throttle kit new. PM me if you're interested.

Yes I am the Ben Ellis that worked on Hot 4s, HPI, Zoom and Drift Battle. The car worked out very nicely and is still appearing in magazines in the UK. Here is a pic of how it looked the day I sold it.

Don't want the cage for weight reasons, but may add one later if I need it for racing in other classes. Only plan to do the odd tarmac rally or hillclimb at this stage. I am making some custom side intrusion bars for it too. As for the head, not sure about the port size, but I believe the valves are still the normal size for a P90 head.

The standard Hitachi carbs have been bolted onto the engine so I can run it in, then I'll get the injection set up fitted and tuned. The wheels are 16x8 and 16x8.5 Watanabe RS, which fit perfectly without spacers. Some other bits worth mentioning include the Raybrig headlights, which have blue reflectors but produce bright white light. The exhaust system was ordered from Japan too. It sounds good but doesn't fit well so I might have to splash out on a Fujitsubo twin system, with twin rear pipes mounted one above the other (432 style). I painted the tail light surround in a colour called tungsten, which is a bit brighter than the original gunmetal colour. Since these photos were taken I have got the doors and hatch to line up better and I've fitted an oil cooler kit along with the PWR aluminium radiator in the picture. I'll add some more pics and power figures when the injection has been set up. As it stands the car weighs 935kg with an empty tank, so hopefully the L31 can provide a good power to weight ratio. I still have to tackle some other issues, such as the LSD, suspension and brakes, so I'll post these things up as I go. I have driven the car a few times already and despite having no interior trim or sound-deadening it is really not too noisy inside. The engine is very responsive even with the Hitachis and sounds awesome. The idle is very lumpy too. Can't wait to hear it with the six-throttles wide open

In the interests of light weight I sourced a number of new composite panels and parts. The front guards, rear hatch and dash are all from Alfa Fibreglass in Melbourne. The complete fibreglass doors and front spoiler were imported from Japan. This is the most popular style of front spoiler in Japan and the only one I like to be honest. The guards took a bit of work to match up to the doors and headlight surrounds, but soon all of these bits were rolled across the road to be painted white. I also ordered a pair of carbon-fibre bumpers and carbon fibre bonnet (with fibreglass frame) from the US, so these bits didn't need painting. I masked up the carbon roof so only the side sections were painted, which worked out pretty well I think. Once the car was back I set about fitting a pair of Bride 'Holding Monster' seats on generic rails, along with a set of 3-inch harnesses. The dash shell saved a lot of weight, especially as I ditched the whole heater/fan assembly in favour of a little ceramic 12V heater to blow into the demister ducts. The original gauges went back into the dash with a bit of fiddling so it looks fairly normal. Next I sent the original glass from the hatch, doors and quarters to get remade in acrylic, which was cheaper than expected. The windows still wind up and down, but you need to help them a bit to stay in the bailey channels. The rear window is the same thickness as the original glass, so it went into a standard reproduction rubber. All of the rubbers have been replaced with a kit I ordered from the US too.