The Z Owners of Northern California (ZONC) is one of the oldest Z car clubs in the nation. We are proud to be a part of this group and support its members, like former ZONC president Ken C. Ken brought his 1970 S30 to Z Car Garage for a dyno tune and minor sorting. In true do-it-yourself fashion Ken performs most of the work himself, even installing a set of our Z Car Garage CV Axles in his garage.

 

“When I was 19 and in the Air Force I saved up for a Pinto, saved more for a Maverick…then I saw a 240z. I always wanted a 1970 and got this one in 1985. I drove it everywhere including Maine. I do 99% of the work myself with lots of details/upgrades like a huge cooling system (custom shroud) to support the A/C, rebuilt steering rack and all lightning.”

We recall seeing Ken’s Series 1 240z at the ZONC Annual Car Show in Brisbane, CA where he picked up an award for his efforts:

 

You can imagine how honored we were to have Ken let us work on his Z that only he’s allowed to work on. He had built a Rebello 3L with 5-speed/stock clutch and wanted us to do final sorting:

“Rob has always supported ZONC, done good work for its members so I trusted him to help get my Z in shape.  It was running too rich, stumbling and it would die when A/C  was turned on.”

 

Rob dyno tuned the L-series with SUs gaining more hp/tq and eliminating the hesitation Ken reported. The dyno plot shows his old L24 from a ZONC dyno day at the shop vs the current Rebello 3L now making a stout 183hp/191tq at the wheels. Enjoy this dyno video with sweet L-series music:

 

ZCG CV Axles

Z Car Garage is proud to offer a CV axle conversion kit for your Datsun S30 and 510. We have sold over 100 sets of axles, with customers installing and enjoying them on everything from street cars to full-blown IMSA racers. These CV axles will help transmit power to the ground and ensure smoother operation compared to your standard half shafts. Full details can be found HERE

 

Ken had purchased a set of our ZCG CV Axles and installed them himself.We love to hear from customers that are using our products and he reports that the axles were easy to install and well-engineered. Thanks Ken, and nice work:

“The ZCG CV axles—much smoother happy with less vibrations, best CV axles I’ve ever seen. It took me about 90 minutes to install. Super simple and easy and Rob is of course always supporting his own products with great service.”

 

Please contact the shop or visit our website to order your CV Axles!

 

Time To Enjoy The Ride

 

Ken continues to enjoy driving his Z, to shows or cruises and around town:

 

More inspiration for the Do-it-yourself’er…Ken is also restoring this ’72 S30 back to its stock blue/white in his garage (and kitchen)!

 

Thank you Ken for entrusting your Z to us. Ken is an avid baker and makes his own jerky, we also thank him for the cookies (which he’s known for) and snacks he provided to the ZCG crew. LONG LIVE THE Z!

 

More pictures in the gallery below: …[read more]

 

We love to hear about Father-Son project cars! Liam O’s father has owned this ’72 S30 for many years and he wanted to restore it with him. They had the engine built by Rebello and a body shop perform final assembly of the the car. Liam was experiencing a heavy exhaust smell inside the cabin and it simply wasn’t enjoyable driving this beautiful Z. He contacted Z Car Garage and upon inspection we found several items needing attention.

First, we corrected some cooling issues and installed a Koyo race radiator:

  

Before we troubleshooted the exhaust/fuel smell in the cabin we fixed the exhaust system. This L-series cylinder head had square exhaust ports and the header that was installed on the engine had round ports:

 

We installed the correct, matching square port exhaust header (6 into 1) from MSA:

  

We replaced the exhaust system:

  

Next we tackled the cabin to seal out unwanted exhaust. The door seals were replaced:

 
The venting for gas tank and associated vapor hoses were all replaced. If they’re old and sweating fuel vapor you will smell fuel inside the cabin. If the car is not sealed up, you will smell exhaust. Sometimes it can be overbearing:

   

William painted hatch area to get a nice seal on the weatherstripping/seals:

  

We ended up going through the entire car, adding some nice ZCG touches along the way. The engine was treated to a major tuning session on our dyno:

 

The Rebello 2.8L street engine with SUs made 168hp/171tq to the wheels:

 

Engine bay all buttoned up:

  

More little things like painting the brake booster. We also went through the entire braking system:

 

  

It’s no mystery with the Z’s hatch design and aerodynamics that having no seal (or a compromised one) in that area will result in exhaust smell in the cabin. After we worked on Liam’s car we had reduced the smell, but it wasn’t totally gone. We have our own apparatus to run a smoke test inside the car to visualize leaks. We sealed it up and took it one step further by adding a high flow cat in the back of the exhaust system. Now Liam is driving this Z all over the Bay Area and he is tickled pink about it. So are we.

  

Long Live The Z!

More pictures in the gallery below:
…[read more]