Tj

I forgot to menton, the Rota RBX's I'm looking at are 17x9 -13 fronts and 17x9.5 -19 rears. No half measures, right? Also, I scored a set of sweet fender mirrors on ebay that'll be arriving in a week or two. They look pretty close to factory http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/270967000891?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649#ht_3486wt_1348 Also, I bought a pair of used bumpers off Carlos out at Sportsclassic too. I got a straight front bar that I'm going to paint black as well as a shabby but straight rear bar that I'm going to weld up and make into a one piece bar and then paint. My rear bar is way too nice to molest like that. I still need to source a front air dam, the one from Fibresports in Sydney looks ok and I'll save a swag on postage as I can pick it up, I can source flares locally too but for the mean time I'll run without a rear wing. Carlos showed me a BRE style one he had and sat it on the back of the car but it just didn't sit right, was too short. He started talking about getting a run made for 2+2's but who knows if that'll ever eventuate. I'll look at it later. All of the fibreglass will be painted in matching black as well as the bars. I'm thinking a semi-gloss of some sort, not too glossy but not completely matt as it will show all the dirt and marks.

Once again it's been sometime since I posted. In fact, I completely gave up on the car not too long after making that post back in December. The thing was driving me nuts. Once that new engine was in it was running like shiver. I dropped it out to Stewart Wilkins who's been looking after my sister's and brother in-laws rally cars for years and got them to re-jet the carbs. The old duck managed 140HP at the wheels (their dyno's old school I think) and the guys told me that they had no problems doing power runs with it and were happy with the mixtures. I was a little disappointed that was all :-\ Problem is, power runs on a dyno don't really emulate driving to and from work everyday in traffic. It stammers, has a minor flat spot down low and carbons up the plugs fairly quickly. On top of this it developed an issue of vanishing water and a few minor electrical gremlins and then one day I took a good look at it in the garage and decided that I just didn't want anything to do with it anymore. I figured to get it running "right" and looking how I wanted it to look would cost me thousands and I just wasn't in the mood to open my wallet. So I put it up for sale :'( I was convinced that this was the car that broke my heart. I was full of hope and admiration when I brought the thing home from Melbourne nearly 12 months ago now but that had all but disappeared. All I saw in the garage was a time bomb. And in fact I'd grown to hate the look of it. The munted front bumper, the crappy wheels, the 2+2 hunchback. I convinced myself that a 35 year old car was no sensible thing to be expecting to be usable daily transport and then I'd gone and dropped in a cantankerous, stroppy and completely inappropriate motor into the thing expecting an improvement. What the hell was I thinking, I needed another car. The thing is though, I have a bit of a problem. I can't have boring cars. They irritate me to no end, I just can't stand being forced to do what I enjoy most in a mechanical beige cardigan. So the hunt was on for something interesting. I looked at XR4 Fiestas, thinking that back to modern was the way to go. I'd come from an XR5 Turbo focus (a phenomenal car by the way) and figured it's little sibling would be the trick. Too expensive it turned out, I'd still be forking out money out of my pocket. Then I started looking somewhere between my 70's J-Tin wish list and the modern crop of cars. I looked at a GTI-R pulsar for a while. Had the potential to be a brutally quick car that was also not very common and laden with stigmata from the tuner scene (a la WRX, EVO, GTR etc...) but it also had the potential to be a massive money suck. Fixing one would be mega costly if it went fritz. Then I turned my attention to an AE86. "here we go" I thought, best of both worlds!. Classic Japanese sports car, but more modern but still simple mechanically. I was so convinced that I singled one out that was a japanese import that had been built as a streetable track car. Had all the go fast bits, a supercharged version of the 4AGE, LSD coil overs etc etc. Problem was, it just didn't do it for me when I went and had a look at it. It was quick. Astonishingly quick actually, but it was rough, noisy and missing half of its interior. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't some half arsed drift pig slapped together out of spare parts, it was well built but it was too far over the track car fence for my liking. I could have bought it, softened the suspension, sourced an interior and made it into a quick street car but again, that meant spending more money on it. Plus it was interstate so I'd have to add a full years rego plus engineering certificate costs to it. It was a great car, but not great enough to go and spend all my money on. Mean while, over the course of maybe three months I had one serious enquiry about the Zed. One. And even then, after grilling me on the phone for a few days (dude knew his way around zeds) and setting up a meet (meanwhile I spent an entire day detailing the car) he came out, walked around it once and then told me it wasn't what he was looking for fkn time wasters. I started weighing up options. Should I sell it cheaper and wear the loss? should I pour some money into dressing it up to make it a bit more attractive? (should I just set fire to the damn thing ) but all of this meant spending money and not getting it back. And then one day I saw this photo: Sweet Jeebus! It's from an old classified ad on zclub.net from the UK. At first I had to double and triple check that it was a 2+2, it just looks to mean I fell in love all over again. The Zed stays. And I'm doing THAT to it Well, close to that anyway. That car is orange for a start, but the wheels I later found out after a bit of digging are 15x9 Minilites (which I believe are a little different to superlites) They, and/or 15x9 Watanabe's are just too expensive. Especially for a daily. I'm not going to put $2500 worth of wheels on a car and then be terrified of hitting a pothole (I DO live in Sydney after all) or gutter bashing them. So I've settled on the Rota RBX. I couldn't give two shiveres about the whole Rota hate that gets around sometimes, they look great and are affordable. Thats all I need. Big question is what colour do I go? I was originally set on matt black because of that photo, but then I see a few cars with black and polished lips on them and that makes me doubt my choice. I pitched the idea to the little lady about this and she reckons polished lip. In fact she photoshopped this for me. She took this: Yeah I know they're watanabes but they look similar and are sized similar And stuck em on my car..... Apologies to the owner of that stunning 240 :/ Not the greatest but it gives you an idea. I still can't make up my mind though, what do you (if you're still reading this far down) think?

I was on the hunt for something with brake ducts (for aesthetic reasons primarily) but that looks pretty good. Will be interested once there's a price posted up to consider.

Some other car clubs I'm involved in have impromptu meets at either The Cricketers Arms hotel in prospect, a great country style pub with decent food, usually on weekend arvos but they're open every day. The other is a mid-week night meet at Harry's Cafe DeWheels in Liverpool. There isn't the huge crowd that you get on the last Saturday of the month so its much more laid back and quiet. Plus the hotdog van is open every night. Both are good for short notice meets. All you need to do is suggest a day, work out a time and leave it at that. If you do them regularly enough people stop squabbling over dates and times as they're not so concerned missing one meet as there'll be another shortly after.

I scored these this morning they look pretty clean. They look genuine too, or at least close enough to it for what I want.

Oh cool. I must have misread that. Thanks for the clarification

Thanks for that. Not a big issue, they don't seem to be any more difficult to fit and they don't look too dissimilar. Did I read correct somewhere that there's an issue with them clearing the bearing cap on the front hubs?

Is the RB available in a 15X9 in a negative offset such as -10 like the Shakotan is? Or do I need to go up to the 17" RBX?

Yeah but that's it. Whatever... CAR NO LONGER FOR SALE Had a sudden and surprising fondness for the old duck creep up on me that was also given approval by the minister for war and finances. Gonna keep it and finish it (and do something about that manky front end )

Looks like you made a fan at the JDMST EOMM the other night, spotted this on another forum;

BUMP $12,000 FIRM - CAR ONLY Parts no longer included in sale price, will be available separately. Need to sell soon.

Model: 1977 Datsun 260Z 2+2 Location: Sydney - Western Suburbs Item Condition: Pretty good! it's my daily drive Body: Super straight with only one small but serious rust bubble in the passengers side front guard and a tiny pin hole in the bonnet. Recent high quality respray by previous owner Mechanical: L28 2.8L engine with triple 45mm Webers with K&N filters. Less than 2000km on new motor Port matched E88 head Hypotechnic flat top pistons, approx 10.5-1 compression ratio Mild Datrally cam (74 deg) with vernier cam gear Heavy duty valve springs All new Electronic Ignition Carter 4070 Electric fuel pump and quality fuel pressure regulator New clutch master cylinder Recently re-jetted, tuned and dyno'd by Stewart Wilkins Motorsport Tokico Illumina adjustable shocks and matched Tokico lowered springs (car was lowered after these photos, will post photos soon. The difference is dramatic) Polyurethane bushes through 90% of the suspension. I have the remaining bushes to be changed included with sale Price: $14,000 ono Registration: June 2012 Extra Info: All original interior with the exception of the 240K steering wheel. Original 260Z steering wheel is included but is in poor condition. No rips or tears in seats, only one small tear in roof lining. Has a cap on the dash, but it looks original Cosmetically it only needs nicer wheels and a new front bumper (the original is a bit bent) to look 100% Asking price includes a big pile of spare parts including the original L26 with early round top Hitachi SU's with original air cleaner. It is my daily driver and has not missed a beat. Will start first go. Gets A LOT of attention. Clean and complete example, make it your daily drive or save it for the weekends. Reason for sale is to save for a house Pictures: Contact Details: Call TJ on: zero four three two - one nine zero - five five four (edited so Skynet can't find me )

Stiva's 260 coupe is running 15x9's at -10 with stock struts I believe. But the 17" rim might fit a little different. I had a little bit of a measure this weekend on my 2+2 that sounds to be lowered the same as the one described above. Its worth noting that I'm looking at Rota Shakotan 15x9's in -10 offset (also available in 0 offset and 15x8 in 0 offset) and I measured (through the spokes in my existing rims), from the face of the rear brake drum, out 124.3mm (as best I could with a steel rule) which from my limited understanding should be how far out the wheel will sit. I.E. 9" rim = 228.6mm. the centre of that rim will be 114.3mm (+0 offset, right?) therefore -10 offset would have the rim 10mm further away from the car, meaning: 114.3mm + 10mm = 124.3mm from the hub. Am I right? or have I got it all arse-backwards? I am a drummer after all, I usually only count to 4 Anyway, by my - probably shoddy - mathematics this wheel will just fit in the rear guards of a 2+2. The fronts might be a little tight. As for backspace, I'm yet to measure that. That may be another story :-\ It's a shame the Shakotan doesn't come in any higher offsets than -10 (or do they?) a -20 or so would do the trick and fill out flares properly, -10's look like they wont.

From me personally? No, I haven't seen your latest update. Does it, uhh..... involve involuntary eyebrow removal by any chance?

Don't know if this is common knowledge or a repost but I learned something from it.

JNC ran an interesting article a while back comparing the CSP311and the S13 Silvia. There was some very interesting design details carried over that most people wouldbt have noticed.

Oh wow! If only I had the money :'( As long as the body and interior is complete these wouldn't be too difficult to restore, thwyre mechanically the same as the roadsters. Swapping body panels on them would be a nightmare as I believe they're all hand beaten and therefore all a little different, let alone finding replacement panels in the first place.

The datsun 2000 sports my old man just acquired has a set of 14" Magnum branded 5 slotters on it with a fair amount of dish (havent taken them off to measure width and offset yet. While I'm not a fan at all they are very period correct as they've been fitted to the car since the late 70's as far as I can tell, possibly earlier.

You mean like the one Shin Yoshikawa is building? http://www.studiotimecapsule.com/aluminum_datsun_240z Not billet but still damn cool.

Indeed I did say to myself when building this motor that I wanted something I could learn to set.up the old fashioned way as opposed to the "plug n play" of efi I could invest in a wideband O2 sensor and use that but I still wouldn't really know what I'm looking at. I want to tidy a few things up first so there's less fiddling to do on a dyno, that way I'm not paying labour cost for silly little things I can look after myself. But you're right, if its dyno'd I'm not.making assumptions. After driving it to work this morning I can confirm that its jetted wrong for the road. Bogs down right in that spot where you want to to pick up of the line then it starts to play once the revs are up. Heard the exhaust popping a little so its still a bit rich.

For what it's worth, I've read recently that R30 skyline starters bolt straight onto U20 motor, therefore, might be some use.

Sorry guys, got a little busy this week. I did include a link that had all the details in it but I'll copy paste them now, was in a bit of a hurry before. Unsure on the rest of the internals of the webers, I didn't write them down but I'll pop them back out tomorrow and write all the details. The above is a slightly paraphrased quote from the engine builder. So I may have it sorted (reasonably anyway...) over the last few days the old man and I took the carbs back off and modified the manifold gasket to suit the ports. Also, with a lot of patience, dad undid the retainers on the linkage shaft and very gently tapped the end of it with a light hammer until it slowly freed and then gave the bearing surfaces a buff with some wet/dry and they're good as new The static timing is now bumped up to 15 deg but it seems to have helped. It still bogs down pretty badly until 2500-2750 rpm and then gradually clears. Once it does however it's off like a bloody shot! Still, it's bogging down more than it really should. But, once I get the parts missing from my electronic dizzy I'll set that up and then send it down to SWR to get the advance curve set up and the jets sorted out. It's not perfect but it's getting there. Thanks for the pointers

Great! I'll suss it out

Quick question, can you still buy replacement internal parts for the 280ZX electronic distributors? namely the "stator"? The one I have is missing a few bits. The bigger one of these two things. Just wanted to know before I go and start harassing my local parts place

Hey guys, Just finished dropping in my new engine and I'm coming across a hesitation issue under load (acceleration) and I just wanted to run a few ideas past you before I start pulling things apart again. First off, a little about the engine. I bought it of Stevo_gj who bought it off Tyson a while back, heres the for sale thread with all the particulars in it: CLICK HERE Anyway, it starts, it idles, it revs freely (once warmed up of course) but when driving it, even the slightest bit of throttle makes it bog down. I've tried gently and slowly rolling on the throttle and also tried driving through it but it doesn't clear. There's a few other issues that I know I need to rectify but I don't know if they're the cause. Firstly the manifold gasket is stuffed and I've proved it has a leak on the centre carb. I have a new gasket but the ports are too small. Can someone like Stewart Wilkins enlarge them? or do I need to track down someone who makes them bigger? Also, It's running some sort of aftermarket fuel pump but I don't really have any way of checking pressure or flow. I'm waiting to hear back from Gareth to hear if that Carter pump he has for sale is the 4070 that comes highly recommended, If so, I'm going to jump on it. Finally, the throttle linkage shaft is not quite right. The bearings on it are a bit seized up making the throttle hesitant to return to idle. I've got a heavy return spring on it while I'm fiddling with it but it doesn't work the best. Could this sticking shaft be twisting the linkage shaft making the carbs open out of sync? Also, the electronic dizzy that came with the motor is missing a few bits (that I haven't had a chance to chase up with steve yet) so I'm running the original points dizzy off my old stock engine. I know it works because it was running fine on the old motor. I know it needs to be re-weighted but if I'm going to fiddle around with a dizzy, I'll get the electronic one working again. Now, Dad has set the carbs up and he's fairly good at it. As I said earlier it revs quite freely without any fuss while parked out of gear, but its when I try and accelerate putting the engine under load that it doesn't play along. We advanced the base timing a little today and it improved it but not completely. We're reluctant to advance it too far though to avoid pinging. Is there anywhere else I should be looking? Thanks guys.