All Activity

I am about the furthest thing from a computer/IT expert, so I will leave it here for others more savvy than I to chime in with tech tips and advice for you. However, if you haven't already done so, click on the vertical row of three dots in the upper right corner of your Chrome browser window and that will open up your browser settings. There you can select your desired levels of security, privacy, etc. There's a "Settings" selection at the bottom of the pop-up menu that takes you to most of your selectable items. (Sorry if I'm telling you something you already know.) I should have also mentioned that your hardware and operating system can greatly affect web browsing speeds and response times. My wife's Apple Macbook Pro browses the web WAY faster, with fewer ads, than my Dell laptop....on which I've tried several web browsers (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.) Mozilla Firefox seems to give me the best overall performance for web browsing.

I figured it was necessary to keep the light on. Is it still the same as before the ads turn off with a premium membership or donation? Or are they always on no matter what? I use Chrome, so not sure what settings, do you have a page with instructions on how to set this up, membership benefits, ect? Happy to help. Thanks Jeff

Yes, unfortunately the pop-up ads are a necessary evil. Active membership and annual donations have dropped way off, so Dan has to rely on the revenue generated by ads to keep the forum going. There are ways to control it, however, depending on which web browser you use (and the default settings you've selected within the browser.) Let me know if you'd like to merge your old account with your new account....we can usually do that fairly painlessly. PM me if you'd like to. Cheers.

08-30-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: Started the day with putting some cut leather on the upholstery sections that needed to be covered. Amazing my new seat covers, have managed to have a worn spot....but it's all better now. Working in tight quarters these things happen.:) Then I went ahead and bolted the seats down in then vacuumed it all up and installed the hidden toggle switch to turn on so the car will start, my theft deterrent, and wired in the brake light switch....just running the wires over to the passenger footwell.... labeled, so I can start on that soon. I finally managed to get the last piece of the end links on the steering rack off, and then wire wheeled them down really clean, and used anti-seize and installed the Moog end links for now...I will have to adjust when I am ready to align the front wheels, but for now, a lot of progress made! The whole car is about 75% done already and it's only been a year! PICS:

I used to be a lifetime member years ago before I was away for like 10 years. Had to re-start my account since an old email was gone. So I'm no longer a life-time member, is this why I get such a ridiculous amount of pop-ups that I literally cant even read post? I hate Facebook, but its free and you can read what people post. Is there any solution, or are the ads the only thing keeping this plate alive? Thanks, I really want to be here and share content with others, but it is so frustrating. I want to do a new thread on Flow-bench testing and actual flow bench results, but its out of control. Thanks Jeff

Nope, smart idea. I’ll do that next weekend. I’ve got some shorty headers, but if I need to get a new exhaust I might go long tube. Not sure if the old exhaust clears my new fuel cell, I need to check on that.

Have you mounted the headers to the engine while on the engine stand with the cradle in place? It will be much easier to clearance your cradle before everything is in the car.

Made some progress on the engine cradle. I should be ready to drop the engine in and mark where to attach it to the frame. I’ll be using some angle iron to sit on the frame so the cradle will be welded to that then bolted to the frame.

09-29-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: I mounted the plate I made to cover the hole on the side of the head with some stainless bolts I got, then I mounted up both front brake calipers, tied in the brake lines and zip tied the excess up. Then I went ahead and pulled the TC rods out, cleaned them up and painted them with some rustoleum gloss black, and wire wheeled up the washer plates and installed my new Urethane bushings. I normally would have gone with rubber, but the polys were half the price, so I will use them. While under there, I pulled out the cut off pieces that were the original sway bar end links, and installed the new ones I have had waiting. They are all rubber. Then I moved on to the drive shaft. Because of my trans layout, the factory e~brake tube going across the tunnel had to be cut out. This is fine, as the way I use the car I don't need it, and I can leave it in gear when parked. I suppose at a later date I could fashion up a cable to what is left on there to tie it back in.....I left a piece of the pipe about 1/2 long sticking out for just that. I then mounted up the drive shaft and got the bolts cinched down correctly. Then the problematic part of the day, the end links on the steering rack. Well they just didn't want to come off! It is obvious they haven't ever been adjusted, so I got one off and the other is soaking in PB Blaster! I have the end links I got from Z Car Depot ready to go, they are from MOOG. While under the car, I looked up and saw a world of polished piping so I took a pic! :D PICS:

I got a tradition with my dad that I took over, every time we buy a new vehicle we stop at Mc Donalds on the way back and get a milkshake. This also gives us some time to look and admire our new purchase. We will probably continue this tradition this weekend as I’ll be looking at a 2015 BMW M550D touring (almost 400hp diesel station wagon) as a new daily driver.

There was a discussion about wrapping exhaust vs ceramic coating vs high temp paint somewhere here. One person noted that changing from VHT Black to VHT White on a Corvair engines pushrod tubes lowered oil temps. You might try painting the bowls underneath white. You may also want to try fabricating aluminum heat shields that mount under the carb hold-down nuts instead of under the carb base. Wrapping the header or ceramic would help immensely.

I am looking to acquire some 84-87 Z31 5 lug axle parts. I need the rear stub axles out by the wheel and inner axle flanges. I am trying to do a 5 lug conversion on my 280ZX. If anyone has these parts shoot me a message with the price! Thanks!

The first ice cream trip is a great payoff for the hard work.

08-25-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: I had a few minutes this morning, so I went ahead and prepped my new front brake calipers, by mounting the brake pads in and getting them ready for install. I got the calipers and pads from Z Car Depot.

I run 275/35-15 Hoosier or Avon 23x10.5-15 on all four corners. That size works pretty well and is the limit that I can run with struts and the SubtleZ body kit. If I had the SLA suspension, I would use wider wheels limited only by the body work and tire availability. I feel like 10 inch wide front wheels are perfect for these cars, but the rear could use a little more.

There is a point of diminishing returns on tire width. It varies greatly with many factors tho so no one size fits all. Its a balance of contact patch, corner weight and suspension geometry. The double a arm front will allow for a good amount of adjustment with caster, and KPI that we can't get easily with struts.

Good info, thanks. That’s certainly my plan, but good to know it’s the right plan and has some good reasons behind it. I just knew a positive offset was better for tracking, just not necessarily why. I may have asked before but what size tires do you run and if you could, would you go any wider? I was thinking of 305s for the tires and wheel width of 11”, maybe even wider. Still plenty of time before I’m ready for wheels, but starting think about it a little now.

I'll start measuring temps. That'll give me a better idea of what the issue is. I'll try insulating the float bowls too, thanks for the tips.

I would even consider shielding the float bowls. Wrap the bowls with some heat tape maybe. They're sticking out there in the convection stream, the hot air transfers its heat to them as it passes by. Lots of area to absorb heat. The way to approach is to ask how the heat gets there. Is it coming through the intake manifold metal, then the carb body, then to the bowls? Or is it coming through radiation or air flow (convection)? Conduction (metal transfer), radiation (line of sight), or convection (hot air flow). Each mode has a different solution.

I do have a heatshield between the headers and intake manifold, but it's probably not great. Had to cobble something to gether with wire and some pieces of aluminum sheet I had laying around since I haven't seen anyone making a heatshield that fits this setup here. It's probably better than nothing, but it doesn't seem to help significantly. I havent measured intake manifold temperatures to see if it changed them at all. I'm considering wrapping or ceramic coating the headers to see if that helps a bit more. My radiator fan clutch is bypassed, so it's always on and providing a breeze through the engine bay. I could set try to set it or another fan up to run for a while when the car is off I guess. That might help

Do you have a heat shield between the headers and the intake manifold? The carb is pretty far from the head so the heat would either be conducted through the intake manifold from the head or radiating/convecting up from the headers. If it's the intake manifold that's getting hot maybe you could add some insulating spacers between the intake and the head. And add a heat shield for header heat. You might also look at a cooling fan like Nissan added to the 280ZX engines. Might need all three. Borrowed this from the AZC site.

I still have struts on all four corners. Because of this, I am limited to how much backspace I can accommodate with my wheels. All four of my wheels are 15x10 with 5.25" backspace. I run 3/8" spacers up front and none in the rear. So, a 15x10 is actually 11" wide, and a 5.25" backspace is equivalent to a -.25" offset. If you look at the steering geometry of the strut suspension, I have a fairly significant scrub radius. Having a large scrub radius causes a couple of problems. First, the tire sweeps forward and backward as it goes though the range of steering motion. This can cause the tire to contact the fender / air dam. Second, if you have sufficient caster, the tire will rise and fall significantly causing weight jacking effects. If I had the sla front suspension, I would try to adjust to fit the wheel with the most positive offset that I could get. This would minimize scrub radius and maximize control arm length. You will get less weight jacking as you turn the steering wheel, and the wheel will rotate about a point closer to the center of the contact patch.

Hi all, I've been dealing with some heatsoaking issues on my setup. I have a holley 390cfm 4160 carburetor on an Arizona Z car manifold and aftermarket headers (unknown brand) in a '77 280z with the stock L28. I'm not sure who else is running this setup, but I know it at least used to be somewhat popular, so I figure most of the issues have probably been figured out, but I haven't come across much information on solving heatsoaking issues with this setup. There is no room for a phenolic spacer, as the air cleaner already contacts the hood when closed. It's a 2in air cleaner, and it doesnt look like theres a way to reduce that height to squeeze a spacer in there. I have a heatshield between the headers and manifold, but that only helps for continuous driving. If I ever park for between a couple minutes and an hour or two, it still heatsoaks and I get a super lean AFR. To mitigate this, the best thing I've found is just running jets that are way too big, but then I'm obviously running too rich when I'm not heatsoaked. Size 62 jets seem to put me at a healthy AFR when I'm heatsoaked, but I really should be running 52 or 53 jets for optimal AFR. I don't have a fuel recirculation setup, so it dead ends with the carburetor. I'm doubtfull that this would help a ton, since the carburetor itself has no fuel outlet, and by running a lighter 8.5 power valve in the holley, I can lower the AFR under WOT sometimes, leading me to believe most of the vapor lock is in the carburetor metering plate. I'm considering trying this anyway, since I don't think it'll hurt anything. I'm also hesitant to try a heatshield like this one, as it adds height, even if I skip the smaller plates and only add the main heatshield, and as I mentioned, I'm already contacting the hood at the vent. How much has this been an issue for other Z owners running a 4-barrel setup? How impactful have fuel recirculation or the Jegs style heatshield been for other setups? What solutions have I not found yet? Thanks

spent the last few days focusing on fixing some steering geometry. If you guys remember this car came with the 240sx knuckles and if you've ever done any research on that swap, its hot garbage. I spent some time adusting ackerman right off the bat and made it so it was drivable and made a small adjustment last week. My plan has always been to modify them and get all the geometry dialed to how i like it and then scan it. and make a billet version that is modular and can be tweaked in from there. Anyway. This weekends goal was to dial in the mechanical trail and some roll center correction. The 240sx knuckle on the wrong side of the car made the mechanical trail very large so the car had very very heavy steering feel. I did some measuring and made a decision. Clipped off 8º of angle off the ball joint mount. and offset the mount to where i wanted it. Designed and machined an adapter block and welded it on. came up with a quick bumpsteer kit as the knuckle needs to have the tie rod mount lowered by a good bit. didn't take good photos but the car drives SO MUCH BETTER. steering feels great. "light" (for manual steering) but centers still centers well and has good feedback. Took the wife to get ice cream last night and what a great feeling that was after a year of work.

08-23-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. Today was another tough one. 4+ hours in getting the clutch master cylinder rod screwed in to the custom clevis on the pedal arm and then everything bolted back up, adjusted and set up. VERY hard for me to get in there, and I am old, so it is a ball breaker. I knew it would be and put it off for months, today I did it. I managed to get the trim piece I mentioned yesterday painted silver and then after the clutch, I tackled the next issue. I don't know how, but there is no bar from the brake pedal arm to the switch so the brake lights will come on and go off. So, I simply took some sheet metal, bent and hammered a 90 and then with a sharpie and my angle grinder cut and formed a piece that I am bolting to he brake arm, that will stick out and push the brake light switch closed when the pedal is released. I drilled 2 holes through the arm and this sheet metal bracket It's hanging up painted and will be install with 2 1/4X20 bolts and nuts. After it was done it was time to relax a bit with a couple Coors and look around, I taped one of my atlas emblems to the front corner of the hood. I don't know If I will use it there or not, I can either paint it flat black to contrast on the gloss powder coat, paint it datsun metallic blue like the engine compartment, or I don't know, any ideas?