12/26/08
Guess what? I haven't dropped off the face of the earth after all! But I will admit that there hasn't been all that much going on that's newsworthy. But since the end of the year approaches, I'll recap a bit.
The first thing to note is that the second anniversary of the red Z was about a week after my previous update. And this second year saw another 3000 miles pass, about the same as the first. It has seen its share of changes this year, too. Most obviously the absence of the sunroof and the new paint. It was a nice looking car before, and it's even better looking now. Add in a few of the minor additions (FM radio, better headlights, etc.) and the end result is a great looking, nice driving 240Z. I enjoy driving it, even to the point of not worrying too much if I'm getting it dirty.
I have spent some time lately working on one of the remaining areas that still bug me - the wheels. Regular visitors may remember that when I had the mags polished, two of them didn't turn out all that well. So I've spent several hours with fine sandpaper and polish working to improve the two worst wheels. And that has gone pretty well. I've been able to make a noticeable improvement in those wheels, enough that they no longer attract my attention every time I walk by them. Admittedly, most other people never noticed the problems before, unless I pointed them out. But now they're not even as obvious to me, so I think this will do - until I happen to stumble upon the perfect set of wheels at some swap meet somewhere.
And lastly, I think I've been able to finally pin down the ignition. I've gone back and forth several times between the original points ignition and a later electronic ignition from a 280ZX. The original points worked fine, but there are advantages to electronic that I wanted - primarily less need for choke on startup and quicker warmup. The ZX ignition gave that, but I found that the ZX advance curve is just too aggressive for my car with its higher compression and early combustion chamber shape. With the ZX ignition the car would ping under load even with stock timing and premium fuel. So I went back to the points some time ago, and that's where things sat, until today.
Today I installed a Pertronix Ignitor conversion into the original distributor, along with a matching Pertronix coil. This should give me the results I want. Since I'm still using the original distributor, the advance curve is unchanged, it's the same curve that has worked well all along. But I still gain the hotter and more consistent spark from the electronic trigger and the new coil. It's all in place, timed and running. Now I just need to start driving it.
