Sideways

Heylo everyone! So Ive been digging around for information on l28et connecting rods- and theres definitely some good info floating around, but i realized something- The majority of the threads are 10+ years old- So I figured id start something new. First question- What are the general "limits" of the stock l28et connecting rods? Ill be up front and say Im shooting for a goal of around 500~ whp- And am wondering how well the stock rods would hold up to this. Ive seen a couple of mentions here and there from old threads that they can. But more info is always appreciated. Second- What companies are making good forged connecting rods these days? I remember a handfull of years ago it was easy to google "l28et connecting rods", and find a handful of companies with them readily available. Not all im seeing are companies like CX-Racing and Maxpeeding. Now while I like CX-Racing (I actually use a handfull of their parts on my car currently. In particular ive got one of their t3t4 turbos. Ive been making about 300~ whp on my L28 for over a decade with the thing with no issues), im a bit skeptical for something like a connecting rod. Maxpeeding have had mixed reviews when I see people take precise measurements- So im curious about options elsewhere. Anyone have any good suggestions for good connecting rods today in 2021? Thanks everyone!

Im one of them weirdoz running an XTD stage 3 6-puck clutch. Last time i had my car on the dyno it was making 360 pounds of torque, so not quite the 400- But ive been Driving on this clutch for *years* off an on (At points using my Z as my daily for extended period of time, longest stint was just shy of 2 years of daily use). Some people are scared because of the price (Seriously- Theyre 100 bucks brand new off of ebay. The guy selling them was local to me in LA at the time and was more than happy to let me go pick it up in person), and maybe i got lucky- But ive been relatively happy with this clutch. Pedal is actually pretty darn light, it CAN chatter a bit getting into first- But with half-considerate clutch modulation (and the release is VERY linear on my clutch, quite easy to do), im more than able to get into gear butter-smooth 95 times out of 100, rain or shine, flat or hill. Ive never had a *single* issue with this clutch.

I might be having a lapse in sanity (A known occurrence), but are those front flares? Or are they just "universal" flares not particularly designed for the z?

Next to the description tab is a "technical specs". Clicking it gives you no technical specs, but instead is just them quoting a review. The opening of that review? "I just wanted to drop in and give my impressions on the Phantom Grip I recently installed..." So take of that what you will. I think what annoys me the most is theyre calling it a 2way lsd.

Im with ya on the sway bars, but strut bars?

Whatre those calipers from? Id have to dig to be positive, but if memory serves me right (and it has been known to be wrong), theres actually a couple different s12+8 calipers floating around. In particular there was a mid-late 80s s12+8 caliper from a 4x4 that didnt work, and you needed the s12+8 from the late 70s/early 80s. Or maybe not. haha. Though from the looks of it...

Ive had good success with parts from CX racing. My friend knew one of the owners of the company and I was able to go down to their warehouse in socal. Picked up my pipes from them, couplers, im even sporting one of their t3 turbos on my car. Only paid like 200 dollars for it at the time brand new, its been serving me well for *years*. Made a tick over 300 whp on the dyno at our shop at 17.5 psi. Theyve got BB versions now for not much more, im tempted to get my hands on it and see how it does.

Im failing to see the discrepancy? I was talking about clamping force. Please note: Actual piston surface area =/= clamping force. That was kind of my point. Please refer again to my example again, 2 calipers- Caliper A has 4 pistons of the same size, 2 on each side (a fixed caliper), caliper B has 2 pistons of the same size, all on one side (a floater). I said these would have the same braking force. Lets elaborate on this however and lets plug some numbers in. Assume each of these pistons in these calipers have 1" of surface area, then well use the formula you cited. Caliper A has 4 1" pistons, for a total of 4" of surface area. Caliper B has 2", but gets doubled. Giving us a proverbial 4" of surface area to influence the clamping force. Ie, the same. So as long as these calipers had all other factors being the same (Rotor size and distance from its center, types of pads, line pressure going into the caliper, etc and etc), clamping/braking force would basically be the same.

I want to know about that hood

But as far as clamping force is concerned you dont count four pistons, you count two. You count the pistons on one side of the caliper, not both, as the braking pressure it being split/halved between the two banks. For example, a caliper made of just two of these pistons (one one side of the caliper), will have the same clamping force as 4 of these pistons in 2 banks. Being a rolla guy myself, Its actually a peeve of mine how popular rx7 brakes are for the rolla community. For 99% of people out there, they are not an upgrade (on the rolla). They see "oo 4 pistons!" and conclude 4 pistons is better than one!" "Moar braking force!" and the like. When in actuality, you need to be counting the surface area of 2 of the pistons, not 4, and the surface area of 2 of thoe pistons is < one corolla piston. They actually have *less* braking force than the stock single piston for the rollas, and in fact most of the people who do these "upgrades" start having issues with the rears locking up before the fronts (And they still conclude they have more front force, it baffles me). The only advantage to these brakes for the rolla is that they run larger rotors, so they can absorb/deal with more heat. But seriously, unless youre making a LOT of power over stock with the rolla, the factory system in good condition can see 20-30+ minutes on the track without any brake fade (on heavy brake demanding tracks to boot such as SoW and the like). All these guys are doing is adding unsprung weight for braking benefits (endurance) they will never see, because they dont get enough heat in their brakes to over cook the stock setup, while throwing off their braking balance at the same time. But I digress. What is the surface area of the stock z piston? what is the surface area of two of these rx7 pistons? Thatll tell you which will have more clamping force. The next area of concern will be the potential advantages of a vented rotor vs the non vented rotor. But what are you using the car for? Do you make a sizable amount of power over the factory setup? Are you doing long extended track sessions? Just an autocross toy? Weekend warrior? If youre not over heating the stock pads/rotors, you will see *no* benefit here, and, much like the rolla guys, you will actually be hurting your performance- not helping it, as youre adding unsprung weight to your car.

Candy bar was a milky way. I SUPPOSE you could substitute something like skittles or maaybe a snickers bar. If you were desperate. As for your real question, im actually not 100% certain now that you ask. This has been my only Z car so I dont have anything to compare it to- I was ASSUMING they were "supposed" to have plastic glove boxes because when I googled/ebayed "240z glove box", i found a plethora of pictures of plastic glove boxes, as well as numerous places calling the cardboard glove box a "glove box liner", so i kind of just assumed they had one and that the cardboard was, well, a liner for it. Maybe someone else more knowledgeable can chime in? Maybe those plastic boxes are more of common-aftermarket replacement? Side note: I have noted one downside to my project. My car now smells like elmers glue. Hopefully thatll air out..

So working under the dash of my Z, I went to remove my glove box to found out the fun way that a previous owner had removed the plastic bin in the glove box, and only reinstalled the cardboard lining (A silly thing not to notice but I never gave it any thought i know. It was rigid enough to hold all the crap I put into glove box so i never gave it a second thought). Upon my attempt to remove it, the glove box lining utterly disintegrated into about 20 tattered misserable pieces. Slightly dismayed as I clutched a hand full of powdered cardboard and staples, I sighed and carried on. Only to have my glove box door meet a similar fate. The hinges, I found out, werent really "hinges" at all- But just 3 pieces of flimsy plastic that have been flexing for years allowing me to open and close my glove box. A few pounds of pressure in the wrong direction (when I tried to remove the side guiding arm that stops the door from falling onto your lap) and 2 of the 3 hinges snapped clean off. Not thrilled at the idea of having a gaping maw into the underworkings of my dash, and having no glove box- I sought to rectify the situation. To ebay I went! I found a replacement bin, lining, and glove box door easily enough. However when I went to click buy, I heard a quick rustling noise and my faithful wallet companion was no where to be found. I looked long and hard, only to find it cowering and hiding under my bed. Its shaking and panic convinced me to seek other options (I tried futilely to coax it out with promises and reassurances but got nowhere, I eventually managed to lure it out with a fresh 50 dollar bill but thats a story for another time). To my garage I went! Sadly all I was able to find was a single piece of sheet metal, an old glue gun, a drill, some duct tape, a rivet gun, and some cardboard. It was at this moment that I remembered "I have absolutely no skills to do this kind of work", screw it! Ive done more with less! Using my feet, a 2x4, and my bare hands, I bent the sheet metal into shape. Just a floor, backing, and roof. I took this, stenciled around on the cardaboard (Double corrugated of course. This is a 240z glove box were making afterall), and cut out some side walls- Which were then hot glued into place (Which I glued in pretending I was a master welder, doing my best to mimic the rolls-of-dimes-beading that everyone seems to love in the interwebs). Surely it was overkill, but I lined the outer-sides with duct tape for reinforcement just to be on the safe side, should the welds hot glue not be up to the vigors of holding together my glove box. Hey hey, I thought- Looking to be quite nice! But as I sat and stated at this metal box, and its cardboard sides I thought surely I could one up this master piece. I didnt want things banging around in a tin box, so to Michaels I went. 4 dollars in materials (black felt and a strip of brown leather) and a 1 dollar candy bar later I returned and go to work. A bit of glue here, some felt there, a rivet or two there and the cosmetic surgery was complete. I wouldnt be sure if it was a success or not until the bandages came off, but I felt the operation went well. It was time to drill it and put it in place. A few tense minutes with a screwdriver later and the implant was complete. The result? Well judge for yourself. A fair warning, im not plastic surgeon- But for the price I paid, im quite pleased with my results Ive a few other changes to make but it seems to be holding up for now. I gave it some time to recover before I started loading it up- Small bits at first, but in no time at all it was holding all my junk! Just have to wait and see how well it holds up now. If you were bored enough to read all of this instead of jumping straight to the pictures, go get yourself a cookie. Im not nearly as funny as I think and you deserved one for that.

Ah whoops, just wanted to clarify- That picture is NOT a picture of my interior! It was just a picture I found of the heater box to show what i was on about haha Thank you for the FSM link. Ive got a copy on my laptop but was on my phone at the time. Very handy information to have! Sadly AC wont be a practical option for my car. Its an l28et with a larger turbo, intercooler piping snaking around the front of the engine, with a bigger radiator, and thick electric fans. Getting a compressor to fit anywhere up there would be a pain in the boot. As always, thank you so much everyone

More confused indeed! Sadly the PO cut all of the cables to actuate everything and completely stripped/gutted the heate control panel (No levers, no switches, no upper vent, no radio). So ill be actuating everything manually by hand until I can secure myself some replacements for everything. I dont have a "Defog" position lol. This isnt a "nice street car" really and is more of a "fun toy", so itll be awhile before I get around to it- I just thought it might be neat to have some heat seeing as it gets below freezing where I live haha Ill just have to muck around with it and figure out what everything does as best I can i suppose!

Im in the middle of working on my z and have a totally obscure question in regards to how the air vents blow when the heater is on. Does the hot air only come out of the side vents (big round ones), or does hot air also come out of the center vent above the weather controls/radio? My car is half gutted under the dash so im trying to piece everything together, using obsurce pictures and "logic" to figure out how to do it. From what I can see, the blower motor blows air into the top right of this box The heater core is lined along the bottom. To turn the heater on, that flap comes up and routes air down through the core- With the hot air then exiting the 2 vents along the front bottom (Or the side panels if you open it up for the foot well). This flap seems to close off the center vent above the controls completely- Leading me to believe the hot air only exits through those few ducts along the bottom, which as far as I can see only feed air to the side vents (ie just to the left of the speedo for the driver, and just to the right of the glovebox). Is this relatively correct? Again ignoring the foot well and window vents, im just wondering if turning the heat on blocks the center vent there, meaning you get no hot air out above the vent over the controls/radio? Thank everyone!

Well if it used to boost fine, and the wastegate is known to not be an issue, next thing to look at might be the turbo itself?

I didnt say I didnt like em cuz theyre hard to find cheap I said I dont like em when they go for the money they seem to noorrmmaalllyy go for, because on the upper end that they go for you can have a brand new unit that it even better in all regards, or on the lower end, you could buy an "also used" lsd (which probably wont be a couple decades old at this point) that is also better in all regards Im not a fan because at those prices, "for the money", theres much better options. When they go for cheap though? Totally into them. They may not lock as hard, but when youre paying the right price its hard to complain And you can indeed buy new shims/clutches- And you can also indeed orient them to get quite a bit of lock up, but even with this done- theyre still inferior. Theyve still only got a few clutches inside them. A kaaz r200 clutch lsd for comparison will have 20 clutch discs. I hear you on that. As long as its in decent condition for 400 bucks? I can promise itll be a lot more fun spinning 2 tires instead of one! Making new friends is a perk in its own right

Absolute QUICKEST way would be to get your hands on a cheap stock r200 and slap it in within a couple of hours. If your local market is like it is here, theyre CHEAP to buy (I wouldnt spend more than about 100 bucks personally) As far as your other options go- Ill go against the grain a bit and state quite bluntly that I am typically *not* a fan of the 300zx lsds (assuming that 300zx dif you mentioned is a 300zx clsd). Biggest reason being because of the typical price they go for. If they were cheap, Id probably reconsider- But for what they are? Theyre usually far too expensive, imo anyways. I regularly see them go for 6, 7, or even 800 bucks. And it always baffles me. For 800 bucks you could have a *brand new* tomei clutch lsd- that swaps in just as easily- And would run circles around those 300zx lsds. Theyve only got a few clutches in them, even when they were new they didnt have stellar lock up, let alone now that theyre decades old (ie: worn the ef out. inlift city). You can rebuild them (A member here actually makes new discs/clutches for them- GREAT quality, can not knock them at all!), but when you tack in the price of doing that on TOP of how much you paid for it, again, I cant help but go "...why?" for the previously mentioned reason. And if youre willing to spend that much on a used, factory, weak lsd (in terms of engagement- not how much power they can hold. theyre fine in that category), why not buy a used kaaz/cusco/tomei/etc for the same price (or in a lot of cases ive seen, less). Now if they were like 2-3, maaaybe 400 bucks (For a low mileage one in good condition with good lock up)? Ya, id see the viability in them. This is actually how much they were when I first got into Z cars- I actually bought a clutch rebuild kit before I had one because i was anticipating getting my hands on one, but they suck up over the years and I said screw it. I instead went the obx route. Im a HUGE fan of this diff. Theyre a bit pricier now, but still cheap- around the 400 dollar mark (I picked mine up new from a guy who bought it and never got around to installing it for only 200 bucks, his loss was my gain ) I got some ring bolt spacers, bought the upgraded hardware (case bolts/washers, like 20 bucks in hardware), and have been extremely happy with the dif. Mostly street driving, but from what I can feel it engages quite nicely. I stacked my washers a bit aggressively for a bit more preload, and have no trouble keeping both wheels spinning. Donuts, power slides, small drifts, 2 tire peel outs- Its been doing it all for me just fine. I would go this route again in a heartbeat personally.

Love that last pic- Have you made any steering mods yet or still stock in the steering department?

So like quite a few others here- Ive been playing with ideas on "how" to go about blocking off the grill, and constructing something to seal the front end together. Its worth pointing out that Ive got a turbo charged car with a relatively good sized intercooler (Isuzu npr) to work around up there that limits my room a bit. Its also worth pointing out I lack any respectable fabrication skills, and was looking for a solution that would let me do this a bit easier (rather than try to muck around with trying to mock up/measure/cut/trim/ponder over doing cardboard templates). I think I came up with a solution, and would love share it to get some feedback from others on here- And if its a decent idea, maybe itll help some others muster up the courage to do it themselves. My idea? Chicken wire! Laugh, but afterwards hear me out. This stuff is stupidly cheap (50 square feet was 10 bucks from lowes, and for those that dont have them- this is the equivalent of home depot), light, and stupidly easy for me to work with. Take a section of it large enough to cover the area in question, and start playing with it. Because its metal you simply bend/twist/wrap it into place, and it keeps its shape. Dont like how that sits there? Simply bend it another direction. And because its an open grid, not only can you easily see *everything* thats in the way at all times, its painfully simple to "deal" with whats obstructing you. Oh look, theres a bracket in the way? Snip snip snip, bend, voila. I didnt have much time to play before the rain stopped me outside- But I thought I'd share what ive started with just to give you an idea of how it plays out to work with the stuff: Hopefully you can see what I mean with this picture about how easy this stuff is to work with- Ie where Ive easily snipped the wire away from where stuff was in the way (Intercooler tabs, hood prop, etc)- And hopefully make it easier to visualize what I mean by how convenient it is that it keeps its shape as I work with it. The idea then after I finish constructing this, is to use the mesh as a skeleton- then Ill resin/glass over it. Me being me however, I intend to make a few different examples, simply lining the skeleton with ductape for now as I use my magnehelic gauge not only to verify the effectiveness, but possibly find better designs- Ill then make a glass/resin version of the final design.

I appreciate the effort/skill involved with crafting this, buuut.. I dont get it

Its a 3 piece aluminum set up: 1 piece was as simple as could be, literally just an off the shelf 90. The other 2 pieces, the one right off the turbo, and the one right off the throttle body, were fabricated from various bits and tig welded together. This pic should ive you some idea of how theyre running/routed.

Just to give you an idea how they fill the front: My npr intercooler had the tank outlets cut off and replaced with straight pipes fixed at an angle for easier installation, with the piping routing through the two big holes at the top of the core support. You can use the outlets the npr has stock, but youll either need to get fancy with your piping, or trim your core support a bit depending on which exact npr intercooler you get (Theyre all similar enough, but the details on them can be slightly different)

Worn out tie rods dont give you hundreds of pounds of lift on the front end alone. Stock, these vehicles are literally losing around 10% of their weight off their wheels at at these speeds. Most of it over the front wheels. Being well maintained has little to do with it.

I get what youre saying, buuut iunno how inclined i am to agree. But I guess it depends on how much is a "reasonable" amount of power to you. You could add 200 pounds to a 2200 pound car making 200 hp, increase the power by only 50 hp, and have a notably faster car. It really doesnt take a low of power to offset the weight, within reason. The trickier bit imo is the downside to handling.