Betty White: The new 280Z racecar. Ugly Betty's autocross replacement.

[HRH]

Thanks, been a long time coming.  Finishing up my exhaust butchery now, hopefully then some skidplates and after that I should be done underneath the car with welding and grinding sparks.

[Jester]

First race is when?

[LenRobertson]

First race is when?

I thought the autocross was today and tomorrow. No idea if Matt got far enough along to run it this afternoon. Waiting with bated breath for an update. I'm also concerned he may have driven the Z to Deer Park. That car might attract the attention of the Polizei. The car might be in impound and Matt in the slammer! Worried. Check in Matt!!

 

Len

[HRH]

Oh boy, am I tired.  My first inaugural run of the z car today consisted of slowly going down the alley, and then promptly hearing scrape, scrape, scrape at intervals from the front wheels.  So I did a slow 5 mph roll around the block and put it back in the paddock.  Yanked the front wheels to find the tape weights were hitting on the caliper.  There's that little space.  I mean literally a piece of paper between the caliper and the wheel.  Fortunately, that's all it was, so I rebalanced the fronts and put side weights on instead of tape weights.  Problem should be solved.

 

One of the fun parts today was doing wheel replacement.  The extended studs they used don't have the right knurl.  They're a smidge loose.  Not bad, but enough to piss me off.  Plus I had to chase all the threads.  Went fine until one on the front and had issue, then cross threaded a test nut on.  Almost got it off, then the knurls decided not to engage in the hub anymore. So I ran down to NAPA and got 5 (extra) front wheel studs for the Z, which happen to be the same as 510/Maxima, etc.  And they pounded in nice and tight, which is good.  Also a crapload shorter, but anyway, the left front has four new studs, the other wheels are all extended studs.  I had to cut the dome cap off all my spline drive lug nuts too, since the other studs were too long.  The wheels came with them, I hate tuner lug nuts.  Too small a hole for anything else.

 

So after much work today, I have driven the car around the block, but she's ready to go for tomorrow, near as I can tell.  Temp was holding, oil pressure was fine.  Didn't get a chance to put in the boost gauge, but oh well.  So tomorrow I'll get up early and drive to the gas station and fill the fuel cell.  Think it's 10 gallon, not quite sure.  And then it's the first drive and first race Sunday!

 

Yes Len, she's legal for the road.  There's a license plate screwed to the bottom left of the hood now. ;)  It had a bunch of holes anyway.  And a dent.  So wish me luck tomorrow, not only in getting there and back without removing my muffler, but for kicking ass at racing and not getting hassled by the fuzz! :D 

 

 

[Jester]

Looking bad ass Mat! Good luck tomorrow! 

[LenRobertson]

Thanks for setting my mind at ease. I was hoping yesterday that didn't you post cause you were busy working on the Z. I'd like to come watch today but it is about 1 1/2 hour drive for me. I'll stay home and watch the movie tonight. :D At least I assume you got your camera mount rigged up. If not, take a roll of duck tape and tape your camera on the roof - we want movies!

 

So best of luck today and post the exciting details as soon as possible. I have a feeling the guy with the fast T-bird is going to get really nervous when you show up with the Z.

 

Len

[hobospyder]

so how're the races going?

[moath]

Funny how these things take so much longer than we think they will. Way to stick with it!

 

What clubs do you plan to race with?

[HRH]

I race with ASNW.  That's about it due to time and whatnot.  Race went well, didn't come close to the potential of the car, had a lot of missed shifts, 1st instead of 3rd.  Not happy about that but don't think I hurt the motor.  I'll do a compression check later to make sure no valves are bent.  Not sure how high it went, but went higher than I wanted.  Next thing is the new transmission and solid-mounting the motor and transmission.  No more missed shifts that way.  I'm uploading a video to youtube as we speak. ;)

[HRH]

[Datsunawi]

Finally the bitch is out on the streets...Victory!

 

BTW I texted your ass yesterday, did you not get it...

[LenRobertson]

Great to know everything went well. Very impressive video. So does the Z seem a lot different as far as power and handling compared with the Maxima?

 

I'm predicting racing tires on way widened steelies before the season is over. And a trailer so you don't need to think about some mod making it too radical for street driving. Or maybe you plan to use the Z for a fun commuter car to work this summer. :lol: I can understand that urge.

 

Len

[Jester]

Way to go Mat. 

[Draker]

Sweeet!

 

It looks like it did well.

[HRH]

Ok, bought a bore scope from harbor freight.  (Digital inspection camera in case you try to find it on their site.)  It works freakin' great!  Only $79 on sale, well worth it.  Probed all the spark plug holes, found no evidence of valves touching pistons, so that was awesome.  Apparently the Datsun Gods let me slide in my over-revving first autocross outing.

 

I did find 6 blackened spark plugs, however.  Way too rich.  But then, I got back to thinking.  When I was trying to start it with the bad igniter, I had tried it with the fuel pump engaged, which meant fuel was washing the cylinders.  So the plugs would have been soiled by fuel a bit, though they dried out inbetween my finding the problem and starting the car.  Of course, that still means they stood a good chance of being fouled, and I think that's what happened.  I haven't isolated the one that was not sparking, but I threw a new set in and will change the wires later this week and go test drive to see if the issue is still there.

 

Either way, I'm happy I didn't find any dinked depressions on the pistons from the valves!  I will sleep better tonight. :)

[Lockleaf]

Congrats man on getting her running! Even if it's not perfect yet

[Jester]

You can hear it when you finished your lap. All the way back to your parking spot it sounded like it was missing. 

Hopefully the new plugs will fix it. 

[HRH]

I'm thinking so.  New plugs, new wires, then re-testing.  Need to hook up the halmeter too and see how rich or lean the system is at various points.  It may be cranky since I don't have the air bleed solenoids hooked up.  I may hook them up to just filtered vacuum if they need it to lean out the mixture.  We shall see.

[]2eDeYe]

You need some ratsun stickers for that thing. PM me :D

[HRH]

You already got me some!!  Thanks!!  :D  I put it on the back hatch on the top.  I got two from the Flatcat BBQ I think.  Now I can't remember who gave them to me, but I think they were from you.  

[HRH]

I'm uploading a video tonight.  You can't hear my comments, the car is too loud inside.  But I hooked up the halmeter and drove around.  You can see the far right green led lit all the time, indicating pig rich even at light throttle.  I'm suspecting that vacuum solenoid I disconnected down by the AFM.  I'll do some reading if I can find it and see if that holds water.  I thought it was only important during idle, methinks I may have been wrong.

[paradime]

Hope you bit rate is up for the chalange. I'd like to see it.

[HRH]

Yeah, it's slow uploading.  Only at 75% now.  Found the diagram I want, I'm thinking the EGR isn't getting the right vacuum signal to open, it's rather intertwined with that vacuum control solenoid.  Going to print off the diagram tomorrow and do a little more reading, but I have little more info from the FSM.  It's an '81 FSM, but I think the theory still should hold.  We'll see.

 

The other option is I killed the O2 sensor when I had to heat the manifold to extract the studs.  You know, now that I'm thinking about that, I'll bet that's a high possibility.  I'll probably change that out and test first before I fiddle with the vacuum.  I don't know yet, have to fiddle with something anyway.

[HRH]

Video is almost done processing  The comments you can't hear at the start is an impatient Honda that zipped up behind me, eager to turn right and I have no turn signals but was going right as well.  He must have thought he was quick.  He was wrong!! :D

 

[HRH]

Alright, today is my experiment in getting the race car to not run pig rich.  We're going to start with the O2 sensor replacement, then we'll start re-routing vacuum hoses and may even hook up all the original vacuum lines like they were, including the vacuum solenoid thing.