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Three weeks until I'm home and properly working on the car before a long road trip. I've been creating a detailed list on some Google notes of everything I hope to accomplish. I'll update once I truly get to it, but for now just wanted to share my excitement for my new brakes. Was in Utah about two weeks ago for a handful of days for a music conference and my brother was kind enough to let me borrow his truck to drive up to Logan just for one evening to have a quick dinner with the siblings up there and I took a quick trip to my folks' place late in the evening and opened up some of the parts to keep my motivation haha. Also had a big box of new seals from Resurrected Classics. They were kind enough to give me a steep discount on their weatherstripping kit when I asked if I could get it without the door seals since I had already purchased the S30 world seals before they released their kit. Looks like they were kind enough to give me the discount and kept the door seals anyway! I'll be making a thorough comparison of it against the Precision kit I have, mostly to see if it's truly far better for some of the worst fitting parts.

Went out for some Auto-x this weekend, and had a proper blast. Highly recommended for anyone here who still hasn't gone to try it. Enjoy a slow lap, some V8 noises and straight cut gearbox whine. I have a handful of things to think about and address moving forward, but overall I'm very happy with where this sits. Next up is OnGrid at the Ridge in late July for more testing, and maybe, just maaaaybe a little redemption.

Also not a facebook user here, but speaking in generalities: 1. In 2025, I would think seriously about the value proposition of buying a Z. Some of us have been dabbling in this hobby/affliction for nearly 30 years, starting back when these cars were cheap, plentiful in junkyards, and blank-canvases for modification. And today? Completely different game. Hard to tinker with a 50 year old car, just as a tinkering-car. Even harder to get the performance out of it, that was the stuff of our dreams in the 1990s. 2. These cars are becoming expensive. Even woebegone projects are becoming expensive. For the less-familiar, it's a costly trap!

it can seem like the page is dying off.....but we actually get new members every day, and if you scroll to the bottom and look at the numbers, we get a lot of visits daily.

Broken photos and links is honestly one of the biggest detriments separate from the attention span and social media issues. Most forums barely make enough to sustain themselves so the self hosted photos are always quite small and it's a bit frustrating when you're trying to see something in detail. I've been thinking of hosting my photos elsewhere but a lot of places like imgur could end up suffering the same fate as photobucket someday. That being said I'm still regularly updating here and directing people here when I can. I'll say one last thing that's a praise of forums and makes me hate social media lately - AI accounts and scammers making the 50th shitty group called "S30 240z 260z 280z and 280zx lovers and owners group" with stolen photos from reputable people make me want to blow up some Facebook servers. Drives me insane. Every few days lately someone posts about how someone scammed them out of money from some group. If you're even remotely active online the accounts have so many red flags too, so it hurts to see.

I have finally switched my focus to getting this car running again. This weekend I painted the engine block of the new replacement engine. I was hoping to get it in the car, but various things slowed down my progress. I thought I had a pilot bushing on hand, but couldn't find it. So, a trip to the store for that... Couldn't find the torque spec for the ARP flywheel bolts and wasted time looking for that. Little things like that eat time. Anyway, a few pics: With the back plate, flywheel, disc, and pressure plate now on, I am about ready to put the engine in. I think I will strip and repaint the motor mounts first. Then, I'll put the engine in and start the work to mount the oil tank for the dry sump. I will likely need to cut some of the inner fender well on the right side. I don't like going that route on my "early" Z, but I dislike blown motors more.

Update: I figured out why my RPMs were so low and the IAC wasn't adjusting its steps. My TPS in the Closed-Loop Idle PID Activation Settings, was set at 0.8. The actual TPS was 1.1 that day which meant that the CLI would never kick in when I was sitting in the car at idle. I re-calibrated it and decided to play it safe and set at 1.5. Today the car's CLI worked as intended. I am still dealing with wonky IAC which can be at steps 90 and barely allowing any air in. Also, I noticed that even if I select the MAT table to be used for reference, the ECU was still looking up the CLT settings. I posted this question on the msextra site, maybe it is a code glitch or this is how they designed it or I am missing another table. I might just use the CLT reference table and call it a day. I am posting the updated tune and the drive log. 2025-07-03_12.14.29-drive.mlg 2025-07-03-v104.msq

Thanks for Repairing my PassWord Problem. Is there anything that I need to do prevent this problem from occurring again? Toolman

Got the front wildwood brakes installed today! A couple small quirks along the way on my install: First side I installed the rotor on the adapter ring to the hub wrong and the caliper didn't line up. It has two separate mating surfaces, one for a 240z and one for the later 280z hubs. Since I've replaced my 280z hubs with the T3 hubs, I failed to realize they're essentially a universal hub for early and late models which is why they had an extra shim ring of about 10mm to account for where the 280z mounting surface is. I took the ring off, so technically I had to install them where the 240z ones are, unless I wanted to run my rotor ring AND the hub spacer shim that they came with. Avoiding too many unnecessary pieces so I redid that side to mount on the 240z mating surface of the adapter and we were fine. Problem 2 - because I ordered the 280z brake kit, the included hardware also assumes you're still using stock 280z hubs. It's on and worked on my short drive, but I noticed in the picture where they're installed that the bolts don't go all the way out to the mating surface for the wheels. Quite a few threads left unengaged. It's probably safe for the time being, since I thought about the forces on those specific bolts and it's not really in or out since they're perpendicular to the rotational force applied by the brakes. I also didn't feel like I had particularly few threads engaged as I was bolting the rotor to the hub. Probably safe for casual driving, but it's a high priority fix right now to get the correct length bolts from T3 or locally. Better safe than sorry! Other than that I'm really happy. Bled the system with my new Motul brake fluid, which should cope much better with the heat off the turbo vs the cheap generic O'Reilly fluid I had before.

Update: replaced the mustache bar bushings, re-torqued the strut lock nuts. I don't hear any more banging noises now. Still not sure what fixed it though. When I was checking my rear Bilsteins with springs compressed, I didn't feel any extra movements to give me that noise. I also swapped my master, slave clutch cylinders and clutch hydraulic hose. The old ones had some 'brake fluid sludge' inside from the internal leakage. I adjusted the clutch pedal at 8 inches (i have a carpet/sound insulation), the master cylinder rod of the replacement unit was the same length, no need for an extra nut. I could put the pedal at the max height (over 9.5 in) and the rod was still good. The free pedal travel is within specs, 15 mm. I was observing the operation of the slave with my $20 endoscope, 15 mm of the clutch pedal before the slave starts its movement. The clutch fork throw is half an inch (12.5 mm). I could push the slave's rod back towards the front, the rod gets back to its self-adjusting position. I did some searching - it sounds like 15 mm is a better number. My reverse and 5th get engaged without grinding noise and without any difficulty. The clutch operation is smooth. I used Rockauto's Luk's: LMC245 and LSC199 parts. Appreciate your guys' help. After fiddling with my closed-loop idle, I am still chasing my tail. I posted a thread on the msextra.com forum at: https://www.msextra.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=82151 The RPMs get dropped very low, the ECU is not commanding enough steps for my IAC (or it is telling to give, for ex., 60 steps with not much difference). The car is driveable, but with rpms sometimes hitting low 300-400s, which is not good (CLI is not even running when it happens). Here is my updated tune and drive logs if anyone wants to take a peek. Thanks, Den 2025-06-29-v102.msq 2025-06-29-cold-start.mlg

06-28-2025. Putting the new turbo on. With the new turbo to manifold piece, I had to actually remove the intake manifold, put it all together, and then slide the manifold back on. It WORKED! Look at those HUGE ports! I haven't seen them in awhile! That's my Russ Racing prepped and shaved E31 head! I have it almost all assembled, I had to "slip" the top hose clamp up a bit to get a really good seal clamped down. Looks "different" but it is SNUG. I vacuum tested the new wastegate actuator......WAY too high (boost crack at 15 psi !!!) , so I put the older one on, and it boost cracks at only 2.5 psi.,....but I didn't port the turbine housing this time, so keeping that in mind, I think very little boost will be bleed off....enough to protect the engine, but it's going to pump quite a bit of air and fuel! (boost creep expected). The Skillard brake master cylinder heat shield I ordered came in, and is waiting me to custom mod as needed and install. Also went ahead and started clamping down the vacuum hoses to avoid any more hoses blowing off under boost. I have also added on a few pics of my intake ports if interested. Almost done! It is now HOT, have to keep stopping and wiping my face off. I think it was over 86! cheers! pics attached.

Hypothetically, most of the Z forums nowadays are pretty dead. There may be a handful of posts on each one every day. Even though a lot of the information in forums is old, there is still a lot of relevant information on them. It would be sad to see it all get lost. I guess social media or smart phones are to blame. I'm not sure if there was an app for each forum (like a hybridz app) if that would help at this point or not. Everything that is posted in social media pretty much gets lost and is very hard if not impossible to find again, and its mainly just pictures and comments, nothing too technical. Does anyone think that there would ever be a world in which forums would merge before they got totally lost? Like several of the Z forums combining into 1 large Z forum (if that's even possible with the different software they use) to get the handful of people on each one all together so there are decent numbers on one. I worry that one day several of the old forums will cease to exist and all the information in them will disappear forever.

make sure you reinforce the sway bar mounts in the front.

I’m new to this platform so I don’t know anything, lol, appreciate the advice. I’ll add some bracing. I’m planning to run some big sticky tires up front, figured the assistance would be needed, this system has a dial to vary the level of assistance. We’ll see, can always switch back, I’ll hold onto the existing column for a bit just in case.

Got the steering column off and cleaned up a little bit. I’ll get the new electric power steering on soon, looks simple enough.

Yup prolly right ……part of my problem is car is at body shop across the ocean and they want me to solve this issue. Grrrrrrr. Until I can get back there and get eyes on it and give direction all I can do is research and use great resources like this forum. Thanks for the advice.

I don’t mess with Facebook/Instagram too much, just post occasionally, but I certainly don’t go there for technical info, that’s what the forums are for. Is there a way to get the forum hosted or accessed through an app? For example I access the370Z.com through the app Tapatalk and not the web.

Every single off the shelf airdam will leave the front of the tire exposed with ZGs, and they won't line up right where the fender meets the valance meets the flare. You're going to have to DIY it if you want that section to be perfect. You can start with an off the shelf fiberglass one, or take any of them and Jerry rig something if you don't want to make a whole airdam. It's a good idea aerodynamically to cover the front of the tire. Seen many people add a strip of aluminum to the back of the airdam to do this and bridge the gap to the flare at the same time. This is also a bit clunky looking but it is more functional. Dug around in my pics for a few minutes but couldn't find an example. I believe username Heavy85 (first name Cameron, can't remember his last name though) had something like this on his hillclimb 280Z if you want to dig some more. He crashed it maybe 10-12 years ago so there won't be current pics.

Thanks for that response . I know you are right about most dams needing slight mods to fit but the ones I have bought just cannot be altered to match the missing metal I took out of the fenders. Skillard has a whole dam and splitter combo that might work but its $750 before mod and paint. Here’s what I am after….. plus I have the 3 piece stock valance to work with if need be.

I had a conversation with one of my suppliers regarding the510realm https://the510realm.com/. He spoke with one of the site's admins and the traffic was still up, but content input had dropped. I think people are using message boards for research on topics more than supplying content. FB has turned into the place to post projects and i think this is driven by the instant gratification it provides, but retrieval of technical information on FB is horrid. It may be because MBs generally stay on topic while FB posts are ALL OVER THE PLACE with many of the posts adding zero value to the topic. If I'm looking for technical data and how-tos, MBs are the go to. If I want to sucked down the rabbit hole and see cats dancing in dresses, its FB all the way.

I guess the end of the story here is "be the change you want to see". Hype the forums, post on the forums, link to the forums etc. Viewership drives ad dollars which means things will stay solvent and remain online. In that vein, have we done a sticker fundraiser lately? I miss the old HybridZ forum header with the logo too. Can we bring that back?

pm'd you

Searchability, and the loss of a lot of photos because of imgur/photobucket policy changes have been hugely detrimental. Even back in the day, I would use Google to search HybridZ, rather than use the forum search tools. It's tough for sure. I think the forums that are thriving right now have had a strong social component, rather than just knowledge, and don't have a facebook/instagram equivalent.

Yep...on the very long list of things to do.

New to Z cars....man, I would buy a complete driving car, and buy the nicest one you can afford. You don't even know if the Z car bug is going to bite you or not. A project like this is for someone who has been a Dat-Head for a long time, has the room, the money to fund it, and wants a project to fix. The worst thing a guy can do is get a project car and tear it all to pieces. for 99% of the people out there, the project just becomes too big, too overwhelming. Fix things on a car a section at a time, and I would recommend buying a car that really doesn't need anything.....at the age of these cars, they will always need something as you go along.

Thanks for the links, saved me so much extra work. Here's the new layout, seems to operate smooth, clears everything. Hopefully I didn't miss anything important....

A single page is easy to do by just downloading the html from the menu. Doing the whole site you need to use some tools that will go through the whole directory and do each page individually for you. I haven't done it yet, so I haven't worked through it fully. If/when I do, I'll make a post so others can do the same.

Yeah the broken thread links stink. The pictures might be even worse. I always upload my photos to the site rather than link to a hosting service. Threads that are 20 years old still work great if the poster did that.

How do you download it to back it up?

If I know the answer to a facebook post is on here, and I'm not busy at the time, I'll try to put in the link to here, or say its on Hybridz. I don't know if that makes a difference. Once a few years ago, someone asked "What's Hybridz?"

Have you done a build like this before? If you are unfamiliar with Zs, I would suggest buying a running and driving stock or near stock Z, not an unfinished project with a bunch of aftermarket parts. This is one of those things where you really need to be familiar with how they go together. And who knows how many pieces are missing from the project, and how much it'll cost to repurchase all of them one at a time. The shell looks pretty good, some of the parts are decent. Seems like he spent a lot of money on wheels and flares. Looks like probably a stock L28ET in unknown condition, and a set of coilovers from a brand I've never heard of. CX Racing as far as I know is chinese stuff, not sure if it's any good or not, and he lists the turbo as a BW T4 with a value of 600 which makes me think it might be some old journal bearing turbo. He has quite a bit of stuff from Skillard, which I'm not really a fan of, from what I've seen it's mostly sheet metal parts that are only suitable for a race car. The brakes are nothing special. Kinda comes down to personal taste as to whether or not you like the build he's doing. Personally, I'd be building it a lot differently.

Apparently it is not in running condition. So, basically, it is a collection of parts. Looks like he wants about 75% of what he paid for the parts. That seems steep. $28,500/38,290 If you wanted that exact set of parts then you might consider it as a 25% off sale. But since the car is not running you can't tell if the set of parts will actually make a nice car. Not even clear that the engine runs, and it doesn't say anything about engine condition. Besides that you'll need to pay for a paint job for the hood if you want it to look decent, unless you ho with the classic primer black. Also, I don't see the shiny rims on the spreadsheet. They might not be included. Looks like a risky endeavor unless you plan to sell the parts separately for full price. Good luck.

Whenever I answer something on Facebook that has been discussed thoroughly or answered on here, I try to provide a link and mention the name of the site. Maybe "brand awareness" will gain us a few users. I don't think it will ever come back, though. Attention spans are too short. I always have hoped that Dan would give a warning before shutting the site down so that I'd have a chance to download it in full. Maybe I should just start doing a backup every few months just in case that doesn't happen. There's too much valuable stuff here to lose it all.

Ask one of the AI's and see what it says.

I doubt we'll see a resurgence of forum activity. I agree with @Derek, the trend since 2010 or so has been towards short-form social media, soundbytes, instant gratification scrolling, and now AI. Unfortunately e-commerce has basically all but migrated to other platforms as well so it's near impossible to fully unplug if you're looking for parts. We're a small remaining userbase but I think we can at least keep the HybridZ discussion boards alive. Which are good reminders, just put in my donation to HybridZ operating costs and time to put down the phone 😁

I got my hatch hinge seals from Vintage rubber back when those weren't available basically anywhere and they seem pretty good quality. Cheaper reproductions are now available, but after my frustrations with the fitment on a lot of the precision kit I don't think I'd bother. Vintage Rubber's kit is expensive, but it seems like it's far more complete than any other. It has damn near every single piece of rubber you can find on the car. I know for a fact the kit from Resurrected Classics has most of what you could want, but something like the hatch hinge seals aren't in that kit, just as an example. There's one piece that I didn't even have to install to know it's better than most other kits and that's the hood to cowl seal. The Resurrected Classics is a good reproduction of the later style with metal insert so it just sort of clamps on without the need for adhesive. It's longer than necessary though, which isn't ideal for a piece like that where cutting the metal inside is tricky sometimes.

Thanks for the tip, tbh I was probably going to toss it. I haven’t been having much luck selling anything coming of the Z and don’t have much room in the garage. Only stuff I’ve sold has been off the 302 engine such as carbs and headers. I’ll make a spot and hang onto it.

06-07-2025. More work on the Z car. Swapped out some fouled plugs for a new set of NGK BPR6ES plugs. Gapped at .032 and I put a daub on anti-seize on the threads to make them easier to take out eventually. Then I swapped out my thermostat, and started the car and it works! After that, a long item waiting project.....drilling a second set of holes in the stainless steel washers I use with my hood pins. They have 6/32 screws holding them in place. After getting everything on the engine sealed up, I started it and it smokes like an old 2 stroke SAAB. The back firing situation that blew my hoses off apparently blew out the carbon seals I had in my turbo, so the turbo had to come off so I can get it fixed. at the same time, I removed the brake master cylinder and booster. Initially I was going to eliminate the booster and enjoy all that space, but results are very mixed on doing that, save for the professional setup made by Chase Bays, that costs $750 for the master Cylinder and then you need flexible fines to go from the master cylinder to the proportioning valve. I have decided to re-drill mounting holes and move the booster and master cylinder over to the right about an inch. This will give me the much needed room to put in a heat shield between the master cylinder and the turbo and exhaust. To keep the pushrod for the brake booster straight, I will take a piece of thick steel and drill 2 holes, 1 inch apart with a hole drilled in one side where the original rod will go through with a nut on the front side that will be welded to the plate and then tack the rod flush with the steel plate. Then the other hole will be 1 inch over and will be where the clevis will hook on to the brake pedal leg. saves me some money, get to keep the nice brakes and look much better etc. in the engine bay. Pics follow. Cheers!

If you're using the stock rack you need the 113 u-joint listed above. You can then mix and match to any custom (weld-in, double-D, etc.) linkage between the rack and the steering coupler.

i have some incoming gravel road driving so i put audi 3.0tdi filter. holset flange is 100mm and audi filter is 102mm. if anyone needs one part number is below. in EU that filter was 6.5€ i mean k&n filter takes gadfly but mosquito goes thru 8k0133843d

There are couple of ways that you can attack this. 1. You can add a u-joint and rod end support between the existing to get you under the motor mount. 2. You can raise the motor mount pad to allow the existing shaft to pass under. That may cause other issues like hood clearance and drive line angle. 3. You can shift the entire steering column inboard and down. I did this on my car using some 1/4" aluminum plate at the firewall and where the column bolts to the pedal box. But mine is just a race car. My seat is moved 1" closer to the centerline, and I wanted the steering wheel centered on me.

This is the most activity this thread has seen in years, ANOTHER WEEKEND UPDATE! Got the intake welded up, some gasketing on the radiator extractor, and got the car back on the ground. Also got a nut and bolt done on the car. I still need to bleed the brakes, and do a quick fluid check and I'll be in good shape for a few events!

Meh, he's a paid supporter of the site. I figured I'll give him his moneys worth

You should really just post on FB because they love trolls and useless posting there

I have two heads in stock as I type this so the head can actually be purchased. I can't help that you can't afford it. That's a feature not a bug. For the very beginning my goal was to provide the components so that talented engine builders could make the decisions on the types of components they wanted to use. Based on what I've seen and taking the pricing of the relatively simple L6 head as the baseline I highly doubt it. I'm not really sure what I did to put a burr under your saddle but you remind me of the guy that starts a fight in the line to get into the club because he can't afford the cover charge. Just get out of line and go somewhere else.

I track my Ford powered 260Z. My personal experience is that transmission gearing is extremely important to getting the most fun on the track. In Florida, you will most likely be doing track days at Daytona and Sebring. Both tracks have very fast sections. Before doing track days, I autocrossed the car. In autocross, you only really need second gear if you have the right differential / tire height. I used Hoosier 275/35-15 tires and have a 3.36 rear end. With a 1.94 second gear in a T-5 and 6,500 rpm, 2nd gear was good for 73 mph. When I started doing track days, I needed all the gears. I had replaced the stock 1st through 4th with G-Force gears and shafts, but fifth gear was still stock. With that set-up, these were my gear ratios. 1st 2.95:1 2nd 1.94:1 3rd 1.33:1 4th 1:1 5th 0.59:1 Worked great until I needed 5th gear. that big a drop absolutely killed the fun (no acceleration in 5th). After my first time a Daytona, I changed 5th gear to 0.81:1. The .81 gear absolutely transformed the car. Now 5th gear is warp drive. The transmission that you show probably doesn't have a good selection of gear ratios, and probably won't hold much power. If it were me, I would get the new TKX with the close ratio rears. That transmission will handle the power and maximize you fun on track. If I didn't already have so much invested in my T5, I would get a TKX. This is the TKX I would get: https://www.speedwaymotors.com/TREMEC-TCET18084-TKX-Close-Ratio-5-Speed-Ford-Manual-Transmission,452007.html?srsltid=AfmBOoq-x1paVSDoNvgI38myLy79UBWXzZFW-QeQ4bK1_vWnSHM7bEEJ Gear Ratios 1st - 2.87, 2nd - 1.89, 3rd - 1.28, 4th - 1.00, 5th - 0.81

Excited to see your progress! Even though the KA24DE is a bit dated, I honestly think they remain heavily underrated. So many people moved away from them to the SR20, but the KA is (at least in my opinion) much more stout, and it's hard to turn down so much extra displacement. It would be my choice of affordable swap if I was in a 510 wagon which I've always wanted. Even the sohc version in my D21 has proven pretty great, though it's now relegated to farm truck in mexico with my parents. It's interesting that you didn't like the CD009, with how popular it is. Though I know most people have to swap shifters which affects how it feels a lot. I really liked the later JK in my G37s when I had that. Synchros were great, and the stock shifter felt "short enough" to not want to change anything. I hate short shifters and the notchiness, however. On my 71c trans I'm switching to the stock shifter housing and a nismo solid shifter. Throw will be a bit longer, but I want a slightly closer to stock feel and to not feel like I'm screwing up my synchros from a too-short and notchy shifter. Also, surprised you got such terrible mileage on the 2JZ. What was your rear end ratio? My L28ET gets me 22-23 highway mpg when I've done roadtrips and it's not even really particularly well tuned for it. I've been tempted to switch from my current 3.9 rear to a 3.7 - the 3.54 seems a bit too long for my taste, but I think just swapping to the 3.7 might get me to an easy 25mpg with better tuning.

On the plus side this is the most action this thread has had in ages.

I started typing a number of snarky responses and have settled on Wow what a shitty thing to say.

I've been doing the best I can on FB to try and encourage people the return to the forums to no avail. The general attitude is, and I quote, "too cumbersome". People would rather have the wrong answer in a hurry than the right answer that takes a little work. There are so many FB groups for the S30 that there is no way to get any kind of quality answers. I don't know how many times I could of contributed to someones question but didn't because I knew the answer was easily found on one of the three forums. You are starting to see that AI is burrowing its way into the FB groups as well. Sad times these are.