The CAM-Z: autocrossing a Z28

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Awesome!

This brings me much joy!

Because life is better with the T Tops off

AClockworkGarage said: Saturday I will be taking the car down to Groit's for Caffeine and Gasoline. and the race next week. I think we're gonna make it.

Fantastic news! Enjoy!

Yesterday was the soft deadline for this project. Let me present to you a photograph of my car, not at my apartment.

That is refreshing...

I took her down to tacoma for Caffeine and gasoline. The theme was "supercars."

one guy was doing it right...

it only looks expensive...

but my favourite car there was this little oddity.

I've never seen one in the states.

Afterwards I drove over to bill's to see the Alfa before he takes off for dirtbuttistan.

Then a trip home on the freeway. All in all a good shakedown.

We're in the home stretch. I spend Monday afternoon tracking down rattles. I replaced all the dash hardware with stainless screws and washers and tightened everything down. I also remounted the gauge pod. lastly I put some weatherstrip tape behind the lock rods.

It's not perfect, but it's worlds better.

This afternoon I met up with another local third gen owner and exchanged some federal reserve notes for a set of manual seat rails.

The car has electric seats and they are seized in the full back position. I can reach the brake but have to poke the gas with the tip of my foot. My arms are locked in the full extended position to reach the wheel.

Getting the old seat out was a bit of a PITA. but I was able rig something up using a ratcheting 13mm and a long 26mm wrench. It was silly and awesome.

I took the new rails and soaked them down with WD-40 before I went down to pull the seat.

It was a little tough to get the old rails off, but I eventually got it. I found the build sheet tucked into the seat, but sadly it had disintegrated.

The manual rails bolted in place and them got hosed down with lithium grease and knocked back and forth with a deadblow until they moved freely.

I was a bit of a pain getting them back into the car around the cage. I'm glad I had a t-top to remove.

The new rails move the seats about a half an inch towards the outside, I ended up pulling the outside cover off the seat to clear the door bar.

But it's done. I can fit comfortably and reach all the controls naturally.

I just need to give her an oil change before the weekend and She's ready to run.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Are you keeping the seat motor assembly? It appears to be the same as the Vette, I'd be curious if they could be cleaned & lubed to get working again if you're interested in getting rid of them.

Given the conditions of the electrics in this car it is possible that they actually work and just weren't getting power.

I'm going to hold on to them for now,and maybe reinstall them later once I sort out the wiring.

The season opener is tomorrow and I have just one last mod before we set off. I said at the onset that my goal was to de-white-trash this car, and I will. But as a sign of good faith and hopefully to coax a little co-operation from her, I'm going to give her one last yee-haw.

Before:

After:

Yup. I am a method actor.

Mainly it is to remind me that autocross is my hobby and that it's supposed to be fun. Too many people take it way too serious. My move into CAM was not so much to be competitive as it was to have a blast.

Last year two teenagers showed up in an IROC and just tore it up, blew donuts and smiled as big as possible. People shook their heads at them, but I knew they were the ones doing it right.

Yee-haw.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

You win! Good luck at the race too.

We loaded up on Sunday for our redneck ride. I can't believe I left the house looking like this.

The highway trip was troublesome, still having transmission issues... more on that later...

We arrived to find a Charlie Foxtrot in full swing. At the second session registration time the first session hadn't completed their first runs yet.

I tech'd my car, grabbed my helmet and previewed the course by bumming rides as a passenger in my buddy's Miata.

It was a lousy course design with a double crossover, which meant if a car spun, the car behind got red flagged because there was a risk of intersection collisions at the second crossover. Unacceptable...

Finally it was my turn to run, We lined the car up and slapped on the magnets. We put the icing on our yee-haw cake with this magnet from my GRM secret santa, who has as of yet, not identified themselves.

I sort of dodged a bullet, the only other car in CAM-T pulled out and opted to run in Time Only. Obviously he was afraid of facing Billy-Bo-Bob-Jay and his Farting Donkey, or more likely he wanted to run in both AM and PM sessions. Probably for the best, he had more tire on the front than I had on my whole car.

Check out the BMW art car in the background there.

I got three runs, plus a re-run as there was a course worker on the course during my first run. She did great for a challenge priced pile. Unfortunately My club decided to roll all the CAM classes together placing me against a Z06, and a new challenger. Back to my familiar place at the bottom of the list...

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

That still sounds like a successful day. How long are you keeping the Fu Manchu & mullet?

I shaved it the minute I got home.

and it's not a mullet, I just have long hair.

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Dude, you took a car that didn't even run and turned it into a contender in mere months while enduring one of the crappiest winters and recovering from an injury! That outing is still impressive as hell to me. You should run an ORSCCA event in Packwood so you can beat me and the Cobra!

Another stressful couple of weeks. The car Did well at the event but not on the highway. A continuing transmission issue is giving me a top speed of 60mph at 5500 rpm. I'm clearly not getting into third gear. I really don't know what to do about that.

The tech inspector at the event was not too thrilled with my front suspension, suggesting I replace my front wheel bearings. So I did.

I started with this:

I gathered all this:

And stuck it all here:

Did Honda design these calipers? The bleed screw is just in a terrible position but other than that it went together smoothly.

What brand pads and rotors are those? Also, are you sure the rotors are on the correct side?

They're SSBC, the Pads are Reybestos. These are the pads SSBC recommends with these rotors. And yes. They're absolutely on the right sides. They come with a cheat sheet...

The car has been running a bit like crap. Feels like it has a blown head gasket. I checked and there's no oil in the water, no water in the oil. Then I found this...

Gah... I threw a new clean filter on it, and replaced the lines and clamps. She seemed to run a little better but still chugging and fighting.

While I was in the neighborhood I replaced the rusty old return springs. Gotta keep the tech guys happy.

I now have a significantly stiffer pedal and a bit more piece of mind.

I did some "tuning" on the carb after work today. If you can call my ham handed screwdriving tuning. I can get the motor to start easy and idle really well or I can get it to make power when I'm on the throttle, but it wants to die at idle. I can't seem to get it to do both.

I picked up a rebuild kit for the carb, but I might not need it. If I can dial this thing in It may just... work.

I have had a car burn when the glass on one of those filters broke. They scare the beejesus outta me.

Find and download the edelbrock carb tuning manual. Sounds like you need a rod change from what you are describing. It will walk you through getting it dialed in.

I'm assuming that the inside of the carb probably looks like the inside of that filter...

In reply to AClockworkGarage:

Is there another, smaller filter behind the inlet hose on the carb that may be clogged as well?

Really enjoying this thread. I hope you get the trans sorted soon.

Shouldn't be on an edelbrock.

Is the choke opening the whole way? What about the air door?

there is a screen in the inlet that I haven't looked at yet. I figure If i'm going that far I'll just rebuild the stupid thing.

I kind of wish I had the money to just replace it with a grown up carb.

Id go fitech before a carb. But i hate carbs.

If you're buying I'll go FI.

Fact is I don't like this car. The plan is to sell it for whatever I have into it in September and continue my Quest for a GMC Caballero or El Camino.

So I really don't want to sink too much money into it.

If I do keep it it will get a 3800 out of a with a holden intake and a big turbo. Eventually...