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[pebbles]

i never liked the ZX wheels on roadsters

I am suprised at that.
I like the look with proper paint and polish detail. And if dld already has a set,,,,,,,

[dynaguy]

I polished the lip and painted the spokes a charcoal color on my U20 car. Thought it was a nice period look. Pat

[dld]

Dynaguy,
I really like the way those look on your car. Much better than I thought. I really like the centers painted charcoal. What size tires are you running? The set I have are 195/70-14. My car has had the side molding removed as well. Thanks for the photo.

DLD

[notoptoy]

Dynaguy:
Those are the best look I have seen in those wheels, on a Roadster or otherwise. Nice work!

[Datsun.David]

That's the direction I was planning to go actually! Looks really sharp! I might go black now as I found a cool black roof rack and some cool retro black JDM wing mirrors... For the 410 wagon that is.

dw

[dynaguy]

Thanks for the kind comments. The tires are 195/70 x 14. I had to 'massage' the front metal bearing caps to fit the Z decorative caps. Basically, flattened the domed part with a trusty ball peen hammer until the cap would pop on.

Sadly, I no longer have that car. I had purchased a '69 Sr20 project from a fellow, then I was made an offer I couldn't refuse for the silver U20 car. It's been three years, built a house and man land shop. Just getting started on the Sr20 car. Frame has been coated, 300zx brake conversion and RX7 rear end are in the works. Also am doing a flat dash conversion. Will start posting pics of the progress soon. Good to be in the roadster biz again!

Pat Mahoney

[dld]

News. I started the 2L tonight! After checking the compression (120-124PSI) and spark, I fed fuel to by gravity directly to the carbs. It started immediately! Idled smoothly and quietly, I revved it just little and heard no ugly noises. Only bad thing is there is an oil leak between the head and block, right where the main oil gallery is, so the head will have to come off to replace the gasket, but it appears I won't need to do a major rebuild. I'm really happy about this, it makes the $400.00 investment that much better.

[ken__pearce]

I've always liked ZX wheels on a roadster, but I may be biased!

[sports imports]

Ken:

is that the Burrard street bridge in the back ground and the car parked at Granville island in Vancouver?

[ken__pearce]

Ross? That is Granville Island and Burrard Bridge in the background. The picture was taken circa Aug. 1999, and 1 month after that, I ended up living in one of those hi-rises in the background. The car pretty much looks the same. Just got it back on the road about 4 months ago after having the engine apart for about 4 years. Had to move it from storage and wasn't about to tow it (pride) so I finished the rebuild and drove it to the new house. New timing chains, all new valves, thicker graphite head gasket... she is running well once again and I hope to make it to Shasta in 2012.

Cheers!

[dbrick]

News. I started the 2L tonight! After checking the compression (120-124PSI) and spark, I fed fuel to by gravity directly to the carbs. It started immediately! Idled smoothly and quietly, I revved it just little and heard no ugly noises. Only bad thing is there is an oil leak between the head and block, right where the main oil gallery is, so the head will have to come off to replace the gasket, but it appears I won't need to do a major rebuild. I'm really happy about this, it makes the $400.00 investment that much better.

Just for fun, you could try re-torquing the head gasket. Not a big chance it will work, but if you find loose bolts, it might.

[dld]

Dave, that's a good idea. I haven't tried it yet. I went to do it and discovered the head bolts are Hex Heads, 10mm. If memory serves me correctly, this is not stock. I did not have a 10mm hex drive socket, so I had to purchase one today, but didn't have time to re-torque the head. I haven't managed to re-size my photos so I can post them, but you will be shocked when you see the galvanized pipe I removed. I won't be able to start it again until I resolve the plumbing issues. Indications are, at this point, that a PO was making some minor mods in search of performance. I noticed last night that the upper cambracket has been cut off, and there is evidence that acam chain at some point either broke, or contacted the valve cover hard enough to crack it. It's been repaired on the inside with what looks like JB Weld, or something similar.

DLD

[jamesw]

The broken timing chain valve cover thing is pretty common to find. When I wanted a powdercoated valve cover, I took off my original and bought a repaired one - then I ground the weld (it was welded) flush and had it powdercoated.

Regarding the head bolts - yes, that is stock. Kind of a PITA

Cheers
James

[dld]

James, for some reason I thought the head bolts were Standard. I have a 10mm allen wrench, but that didn't help much. I've been thinking I might just finish the repair job on the valve cover and paint it. I'm not sure it's worth having it powder coated, at least not for now. Once I finish re-doing the heater/manifold plumbing I'll be able to re-torque, start her up and pray for no oil leak. I know it's not much of a chance, but things have gone so well on this project so far, maybe I'll get lucky again. I guess I should re-introduce this thread, or continue it, in the regular discussion area instead of here in the introductions.
Thanks for the help and advice,

David

[Gregs672000]

The leak near the rear oil return is a problem that the later head gaskets addressed with a better seal. Be careful of retorquing those head bolts as they are true stretch and technically should only be torqued once, though many including myself have done more... and I have broken one too. I as well have 280zx wheels on my car and while I would like to go to a 15 inch wheel I have not found something I like better to justify the cost at this point. Mine are painted gold in the center spokes, with black in the areas between to set them off. They are a very light wheel (4 lbs or so lighter than the "iron cross" ones as I recall). I was fortunate to have black center caps that fit from another set of wheels. Do watch for bent wheels... I had two that were slightly bent, and the VERY nice out of state Z car wrecking yard guy had to go through 8 wheels to find me a pair that were straight (he spun them for me on a balance machine and was true to his word... kudos to him). The slightly bent ones would work fine in the back and are available if anyone needs one or two (I couldn't put them in the back because I had to modify the rears to accept different lug nuts because I changed out the wheel studs to run spacers for my flairs... whew!)