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nick-james

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  1. Thanks for all the responses. Lots of good info! I agree that our cars are so light, they can afford "some" loss of bottom end power. I called comp cams and they were very helpful in spec-ing me out a cam kit (w/ new springs). They said I'd gain about +70 hp with a fat midrange. I cant even imagine my car with that much extra fun lol.
  2. My Ls1 is getting completely rebuilt due to having an oil consumption issue (worn rings). It's basically stock aside from intake, headers and a 2.5" exhaust. The engine builder wants to know what cam I want. I've contacted four places and I've yet to hear a response (supply chain issues?). I see Jegs and summit both have cams in stock if their websites are to be believed. The problem is, I can't read a cam spec to save my life so I'm looking for recommendations (and part numbers?). The car is just a nice weather street cruiser so I would prioritize a fat midrange above peaky high rpm power. I have stock valve springs too but I'm willing to swap them out as needed. Also its a t-56 manual trans. Thanks for any recommendations!
  3. I built my car many years ago not knowing about suspension. I bought/pillaged a person's adjustable coilovers from their s30 project they failed to complete. I know nothing of the stats on the coilovers I bought other than it rides like a medieval ox cart lol. I'm assuming they went for some extreme track setup and its absolutely punishing on the street. Very bouncy and it seems (my guess) that the super stiff spring rates are overwhelming the damping of the strut. I've actually hit my head on the roof going over a train track. I'm wondering when my strut tower mounts are going to start cracking from metal fatigue lol. I'd like to change the entire setup out with different struts/coils/sway bars. My car is what I call a weekend warrior, daily driver street machine. I want a compliant ride with decent handling still. I'd like to hear some combinations and experiences that people have liked on their cars. I know that many people have had good luck with going with softer springs and increase thickness of the sway bars but I'm willing to hear thoughts on every setup. I do like the thought of adjustable dampers too. If this topic is an existing sticky, i missed it Stats on car: 76 280z LS1+T56 2550 lbs ( don't know the load distribution but probably close to the original car) Thanks in advance guys and gals!
  4. People have done that before. You still have a massive area up front though. I would have also opted for the solid airdamn, not the one with duct holes. The "battle S30" also has an angled radiator. That 'battle s30' is sweet! I wanted to keep the side ducts for brake cooling. The overall goal for me is to 1) Reduce the gapping mouth on the front and only let air in for cooling and keep the hood vents to allow the most air out, hopefully reducing lift. I don't think I can hope for much downforce but I think I can at least get down close to neutral. Even with a choked down ducted cooling path, there is still plenty of cooling. Running sheet metal (or CF) from the radiator to the front spoiler also helps with support. I can imagine at over 100mph, there is a lot of force pushing on the spolier, if anything it gives me some peace of mind.
  5. I'm trying to improve on the aerodynamics of my Z. I've deleted the size markers lights, antenna, side view mirrors (can get away without them in my area) and wipers (sunny day only car). I switched to a vented hood in the hopes of extracting some of that high pressure from the engine bay at speed. Now, my question is: Do people tie-in the MSA front spoiler to the radiator area? The Z's around my area just leave it open, which looks strange to me. It's my sense that it would be more effective to duct it to the radiator. Also, I would like to block off the sides of the duct too since that area of the front really doesn't add to the engine cooling so I see no need for it to pass through the front. I want to make the sheets out of carbon fiber. I mocked up some templates out of card board to see how it looks. Thoughts?
  6. The stock t56 mount. It would be hard for me to believe that the distance between the frame rails has changed that much because of driving fatigue. One possible explaination might be that people have jacked up the cars on the rails and dented or bent the rail. Mine were sorta bent before I added the bullydog rails.
  7. I had to shorten the JCI tranny mount by about a 1/4 inch. It "looks" like it might bend but that metal is THICK and is very rigid. I just cut the thing in two and rewelded (bevel cut). You can take the extra 1/4 inch out of one or the other side, it didn't seem to matter because there is a little "slop" in the tranny mount and it will still be pretty much centered.
  8. Here's what I did to convert an open R200 diff to LSD... I bought an LSD differential from a 240sx. The LSD will bolt into the S30 long nose housing EXCEPT the ring gear needs to be swapped since they are different ratios and you need to match the ring and pinion...so reuse the open diff ring gear. Like an idiot, I took out the LSD and open diff before unbolting the ring gear bolts. It's difficult to get any torque on the bolts if its out. I took it into a driveshaft shop since I don't know how to set backlash. The only hangup is one differential uses M10 bolts while the other uses M12 bolts so a spacer will have to be made...no big deal. Since the LSD differential won't work with the stock U joints, its a great opertunity to upgrade to the 280zxt axles. The 280zxt splined shafts are the same as the stock 240sx stub axles and plug right in.
  9. For the folks that have put plenty of money and sweat equity in making their hybrid beasts, what insurance company do you have? I feel that with all the time and effort I've placed into mine (still not done), I would want more than a simple bluebook calculation of it's value if the worse were to happen and it was totaled out. Thanks in advance for the reply.
  10. Man, I like how I don't post an update for a weeks or two and I'm on page 4 or 5 of the posts! It's nice to see the project area is that busy. Well I found out that the engine cranks over ok. It was purely an accident. I was finishing up the major wiring and testing some circuits for power when I pushed the ignition switch and...whacha know! She lives (sorta). I still need to finish my fuel routing. Here is my new fuel pump relay: 60 amp relay with inline fuse. It will be nice and hidden behind the plastic insert. It would be pretty easy to add a kill switch on the backside if I were inclined to. Believe it or not, those wires are all for the turn/light switches. It's a low priority right now but I might hook them up sooner just to get them out of the way. I really like this dash, its molded perfectly for aftermarket gauges. I'll probably use a different tach but this size (5"?) fits perfect. This is the transmission cross member. It was a pain in the ass to get in. I have aftermarket frame rails which overlay the existing rails so I first had to shorten the support so it would fit. The support is held in place by four bolts on each flange, each requiring drilling. It was no fun drilling through both sides of each frame rail twice. That's 4x4x2=32 5/8" holes laying on my side trying to drill straight. One wiring question I haven't resolved yet is the cooling fans. They are variable speed and controlled by the computer. The computer doen't draw the current but uses a series of relays to power the fans. Relays to me mean binary, either off or on. I'm not sure how they can ramp up and down with a couple of relays. I'll find the answer. ^Got my coilovers! Something has been bothering me. I had a conversation with some car guys that were telling me I absolutely needed to plumb my recirc line into the top vent of the fuel cell and not into the bottom (the sump has two -10 AN fittings). I wanted to plumb both the pump suction and recirc into these two connections off the sump until these dudes sought to steer me straight. They argued that by plumbing the recirc line into the bottom of the fuel cell it would cause "catasrophic pressure" which I took me mean that it would 'dead head' the pump. They argued that liquid is incompressible and you can't pump fluid into fluid. I didn't have the heart to tell them how wrong they are (ever fill a pond with a hose from the bottom?) The tank is atmospheric pressure and has a breather valve on the top so it will never build pressure. The fluid will simply displace some of the air. With the engine running, you will always be recircing less volume back to the tank than you will be taking out so I'm not sure what they were on about. I could argue that dumping the recirc line into the top of the tank is worse for the pump since it has to constantly overcome a static pressure head caused by the elevation change no matter what the fuel tank level is at. It's only a about a foot so the pump doens't really care. The pump will be running at around 58 psi which is about 130 feet of head (ok I used water properties but they should be similar for gas). Either way, the pump will be happy. These two guys were so confident in their ignorance that I doubted myself so I needed to prove the world of physics wasn't folding in on itself so I setup a quick model using some of software at work: My assumption: Walbro 255 lph => 1.12 gpm 1/2" ID hose no pressure drop from fitting (minor losses) pressure regulator set to 58 psig., fuel level in the tank is at elevation = 0.5 (half full) engine is using 0.6 gpm Here is the setup I want to run, the recirc line goes to the bottom of the sump Now here is it recirculated to the top of the tank (elevation = 1) Exactly the same as I had thought. Same discharge pressure on the pump. The only concern I might conceed is there is no siphon break but the pump acts as one anyways.
  11. With the engine bay painted, it was time to put the motor and tranny in. I'm really, really glad I got an engine leveler for the job since we had fresh paint on the firewall and I was more than a little nervous about banging the tranny against it. I used JCI engine and tranny mounts and they worked perfectly despite terrible instructions. It really hit me when I stood back and just thought "my datsun has a v8 now!" One of the nice surprises is how little wiring is showing. The only part of the engine harness that will show is about a 4" section between the motor and the firewall (I mounted the ECM inside the passenger compartment). All of the wiring for the front of the car (horns, fans, headlights, turn signals) runs under the quarter panels so there won't be any wires at all in the engine bay. I'm really trying to resist buying useless parts like AN fittings for the coolant lines and things like that. Oh well, half the fun is brainstorming about "what-ifs".
  12. Here's some new pics: Before: After: Waiting on some headers before we put the engine in. Oh and I got my coil overs welded onto the a-arms, but I don't have any pics of those.
  13. One thing I'll mention when using the bully dog frame rails with the JCI engine mounting kit: I had to cut about 3/16" out of the tranny brace to fit between the rails. Even then it was tight. There is enough play in the bolt holes that you can still just cut one side of it and have the mount still sit in the center. I'm basically at the same stage you are with the build. I'm learning a lot about the LS motors. It's amazing what a decent exhaust can do!
  14. ^that is a front airdam to a civic. Its ricer-ish and i wish it wasnt in the shop haha. Dont worry, im not putting that on my car.
  15. 5/3/12-we started priming the engine bay. To get the really hard to see imperfections, it helps a lot to have a uniform surface. I know its just primer but it got me excited to see part of the car one color even if its gray. If you remember when i got it, the corner had been rusted through. We patched a 1'x1' square section into the firewall. You could never tell it wasnt factory. My friend has some impressive body working skills from what ive seen so far. We left the frame rails in POR15 because the **** is awesome and i like contrast.
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