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Thanks for the replies and comments. Time is always an issue, however Im at the age now where my daughter is 26 years old and working full time. Been married 30 years so the wife is obviously understanding of my hobbies. Hopefully continuing to make progress regularily. Hoping more people come back to the forum and participate in the community. Here is a picture of me and my daughter when she was probably 2ish years old, same car Im working on now. I need to get her back in the shop for a new photo - Time flies

Love the way this is coming out. its been a challenging balance to thread between making everything neat and tidy and making sure I remember its a race car and needs to be functional. decided to polish the intake manifold and turbo, which looks great but upkeep is gonna be a challenge. exhaust is mostly done and welded. need to make a fancy tip for the back. wrapped the downpipe and mid pipe. need to pull the manifold and wrap that too. originally made a open dump wastegate but then changed it up to recirc it because we have a couple tracks with some noise restrictions. I'll order another v band and wastegate outlet so i can cap the exhaust and run it open if the track doesn't have a dB restriction. Fuel system is done. bulkheaded thru the floor. 3d printed some mounts and have it mounted along the floor. injectors are in. got most of the turbo lines made up. opted for the turbosmart oil pressure regulator for the turbo. i've never dealt with a turbo this small and man its a challenge to fit everything. drain is really tight. hits v band and clamp but think i may have the puzzle solved to make it work. fuel fill is welded up. went with stainless to mitigate the risk of corrosion with ethanol.

Was not implying that the only way to get work done on a project is to not have a wife and daughter!!! I can see how that could have come across. Mine is 14 and will be a freshman this year. Ive got 4 years..... Then who knows. As she has gotten older I've been telling the stories of her helping me in the shop when she was little. Her stepping into a drain pan full of oil in ugg boots that I promptly threw away with out telling mom, Me hearing a pppsshhhh noise and I turn around to see her with a my blow torch pointed at her face, Praise the Lord she didnt click the igniter She would have been around 2 also at those times.

I found the wire. The black with yellow stripe comes in on the turn signal side of the switch (see picture, blue arrow pointing to the wire). I had the ground connected there. That ground, which is on the turn signal side, connects to the ground on the combination side of the switch (see picture, red arrow pointing to the wires). After that all was good. I wondered why the circuit seemed to work fine with my crossed wiring of the black to black/yellow. As it turns out the switch was finding ground through the wiper motor. As I was tracing the wires for the second time, I disconnected the wires at the wiper motor and found my headlight would go out... Eureka! Problem is now solved. Thanks again !

The settings recommended for my setup (front and rear control arms, front crossmember and quick steering knuckles) by Apex Engineered where: Front: Camber: -1.5° to -2.5° However if it's a street car, it can be reduced to negative one to even zero. Caster: +4° to +6° Toe: 1/16" to 1/8" total toe-in Rear: Camber: -1° to -2° Same as above in the front in terms of camber Toe: 1/16" to 1/8" total toe-in I agree for the most part with these specs but unfortunately this was as far as they could go at the moment. At least the car is way easier to steer now and she drives stable and straight as an arrow. The steering wheel does self-center but it could be a bit more. The rear needs a zero toe or a bit of toe in but for that I need to increase the track width of the control arm a bit and then come back for a new alignment. My shocks are a little done for (especially the right rear is nonexistent) but for just cruising around this is good enough for now. I do plan to install a set of coilovers from Intrax (local to me) or KW. I was considering BC Racing but they were discouraged by the shop if I wanted to have them last more than just 2-3 years especially since I can’t park the car in my garage. Don’t worry, she still has a roof over her head as she is parked under my carport with a cover over her. The more time goes on the more things I want to do, it truly is a never ending project. The next thing I would like to do is add a BRE style spoiler and an air dam as they are a bit cheaper then the rest of the suspension upgrades. After that I want to replace the stock shocks with coilovers and some stiffer sway bars. Way down the line I also want to replace the stock EFI system with a Halltech ECU but I will probably combine that with EFI Hardware ITB’s and a Zstory exhaust system. Separately from everything I would also like to upgrade the brakes for a full set of Willwood disk brakes at some point but that would also require increasing my wheel size to 16 inch. But my current brakes work more then good enough and I like my wheels so that isn’t really a priority. And when everything is set and done and I have some money to spare then I will send the body off for a full restoration and probably some carbon body panels. But those are really long term plans, you might have guessed but I am never ever selling my Z. This thing truly is my one and only dream car and I will pour my heart and soul into it.

I got the correct rotation, just by luck. I bought the water pump last year, before I got the pulley kit, didn’t really understand the difference at the time. Got the belt/pulley kit and since no other accessories, standard rotation was what I needed 😅. 100% of old wiring is gone, using sniper for EFI, got a lights/blinker kit/harness and I’m making/piecing together everything else. I discovered deutsch connectors the other week and bought a kit. These are great for wiring switches and other small wiring. This is a switch for my Wilwood electronic parking brake. I’m not ready to full on wire the car yet, just evaluating what I have and making a big picture plan so when I’m ready it should be a lot easier.

06-14-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: I started the day by cutting and prepping a new throttle to be welded up, keeping the angles for leverage, but removing and bends to make it straight. the one I did before did not work. It needs the bends to create leverage, and a spring mounted throttle foot pad to work correctly. the factory one is bent, so pie cuts were used to straighten it, then chopping and shortening it was required. It now heads to Wagner Fabrication to be welded up and then I will paint and install later. Then I Mounted my dual catch cans. I then mounted up my front blinkers and then went back to the catch cans....tying all the lines in, One line is black braided, and as you can see, I masked off a portion of it and painted it with silver engine block paint to help it match the others. Better than not at all! I also wiped down my forward metal dash piece and set it in then and then touched up some fittings in silver to get away from too much black. I then took my blinker surrounds that have been repaired and sitting in primer forever and sanded them up smooth with some 320 grit sandpaper, and painted them with gloss black rustoleum 2X, and then a few coats of Krylon clear. Also of note, I did cut and place a PCV valve in the breather line coming from the intake back to the catch can. So....a lot of little things today, to include tying it all up and cleand up under there. Definite steps forward today! PICS:

UPDATE: I had great luck with the distributor offered by ZCARDEPOT. Super simple to install and it worked first time, right out of the box. Fun was had by all! While it is more expensive it does not require any change to the current wiring or ballast resistor. The one I posted from ebay above required several changes that I did not care to do.

Thanks for asking. It was equipped with a full cage and harnesses but after taking all of that out, I am going back to a "comfortable sporty". I am too tall to be in a full cage equipped car safely (don't wear a helmet all the time). The seals on the rear are so bad I feel like I am slowly dying even after 10min of driving. I am replacing the rear light and deck seals. Cleaning all the switches and electrical, replacing the interior and getting the heater controls working. I would like to drive it this summer to a few Datsun meets and then tear down the carburetors and front end for rebuilds this winter.

Another productive weekend. Unlike my Turbo chassis that has a late 71 build date, this car having a mid year build date has protection plates over the seat belt pockets. But of course they were used by the PO to jack the car and dented them up. I drilled out the spot welds and removed them, allowing me to straighten the dents and blast underneath them. Before: After: All sprayed with weld thru primer and ready for plug welding back on.

Since the frame rails were dented up pretty good from wrong floor jack positioning, I decided to replace them and this would also give me the opportunity to really get the original metal floors flat, and the metal shrunk and tight. They were surprisingly clean inside. This is the floor pan after removing the spot welds and frame rails. After some wire wheel work, and metal prep acid wash with Scotch-Brite, I worked and shrunk the metal with a shrinking rod and them smoothed it with a shrinking disk. Nice and flat getting it to what original would have looked like, leaving all spot welds and original deformations in place. I then lightly blasted the overlap areas and applied Weld-Thru paint. I then fitted the new frame rails, they took a bunch of work to get the correct shape and to match the original contour of the floor pans. I then copied all the original spot weld locations and drilled 3/16 hole to plug weld. I used several Cleco clamps to hold it in place and tight up against the floor pans. Next I used my MIG and plug welded them in place Finally I will grind smooth the plug welds More after the weekend

It's been a while. I moved from NC back to OH for work. My tools and vehicles have been locked up in a storage unit while we are in the process of buying a home. I took the car back to my parents' carport to try to get some work done. However, there were a lot of little things to do. There is a fuel smell on refills, exhaust fumes leak into the cabin, the carbs need tuning, and my shitty rust repair needs some work. Because there was so much to do, it made sense to me to pull the engine. Since I was pulling the engine, it made sense to me to just swap in an RB25. So I pulled the RB from the parts car, pulled the L24, and started fixing all my previous work. My welding has gotten a lot better, but it still has a long way to go. The thicker sway bar and improved suspension was tearing the frame rails apart where the sway bar attaches. So I drilled and tapped some thicker steel and 3/4 boxed the frame rails to try to prevent the same damage in the future. I scuffed up the engine bay, threw some primer at it, and painted it the same white as the rest of the car. I also pulled the dash, stripped the paint, put on some rust preventative paint, and added sound deadening. Next steps: I need to drop out the stock rear end and get an R-200 with an LSD in it. I have a new universal harness to go in it and new gauges in a crack-free dash. I need to figure out what brakes I want to upgrade to. I also need to figure out if I'm going to reuse or replace all the brake lines, fuel lines, and gas tank. I also need to chose what ECu I want to use. Right now, I'm leaning towards a Haltech Elite 1500. Finally, I need to rebuild the RB25 with the oiling upgrades and get it and the RB25 transmission thrown back in the car. I'm spending more hours at work in my new role, but I'll try to post updates. Photos-3-001.zip

No sir. The ZPS prototype was fitted in 2011. That EZ setup is similar, but it doesn't use torque sensors or an ECU. It's also substantially more expensive. There IS a company that "copied" our design, but they use an inferior motor that isn't for automotive use. Found it odd that they ordered two of our units back in 2014. We've also developed an electrohydraulic system for those wanting to retain a hydraulically-powered rack, but don't want a traditional PS pump hanging off their engine. Ours uses an electric PS pump with remote reservoir (not as popular as the original ZPS kit, but a number of V8 swap S30 guys have bought one. Hope that's all helpful!

im not happy voltage drops on this thing. best would be new fuse box re-route wiper and lights. i might try easy re-pin cause common, dome and lights uses same source. if that fuse box connector is some how the issue. on dome light i have not much draw, swap dome and light pins on end of connector

I am working on a 1972 240z (build date 11/71) with my son and we have hit a small snag with the combination switch. Everything about the switch is working well except the washer motor wiring. I press the button and nothing happens. Now, I know the pump works as it is new and I have tested it with a 12v battery. I have also tested the all wires on the switch, both on the connector and an additional blue/white wire that resides outside the connector and is currently unconnected. As it turns out, this blue/white wire that is outside the connector is the one that goes to 12v when the washer button is pressed (see pics with wire circled). I have no clue where it should be connected as there is no obvious connection point. BTW, the switch is unmolested, was fully reconditioned and works well. The car came to us largely as an unassembled project and we have made excellent progress to this point. I am sure I am missing some connection point for this wire but it is not obvious where to connect it. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Converting the 240Z Passenger Seat in a Reclining Seat I found a need to convert my Passenger Seat into a Reclining Seat to gain additional Space. I know later models of Z cars 2 PLus 2 need to have Folding Seats to allow additional passengers into the Rear Passenger Compartment. So i removed the Factory Seat Tilting Mechanism and examined carefully. The mechanism consists of a Tilting Cam that limited the Seat Tilt to 15 degrees. A Steel Center Pin, in this case, operated as a Pivot Pin. So, removing the Cam and removing the Two Steel Pins should allow the Full Tilting of the Seat Back. First, Both Steel Rivit Pins had to be removed. A 4 1/2" Rear Angle Grinder with a Gringing Wheel was utilized to remove the pins from both brackets. Grinding the Rivet Heads off with Grinder Removing the Two Steel Pins-see Blue Arrows Internal Parts of the Seat Brackets Two Removed Rivets, Limiting Cam, and Outside Plastic Knob Weld two 12mmx 1.25 nuts to the Bracket Arms Amazon sells the new Plastic Knobs with 8mm x 1.25 x 30mm for $15. They come in a pack of Four Knobs but you only need Two per Side unless you convert the Drivers Seat too. Insert One Knob in the Center threaded hole to Lock the Seat in Upright Position. And Another Knob inserted in Center Hole for other side. Seat Folded Flat with both Knobs Removed-Maximum Space Available. With Both Knobs Inserted , Seat in Normal Position With Both Knobs Removed- Laying Back -Sleeping Position is possible. With Seat in Folded Position- There enough Space to Several 8 Foot Pieces of Lumber in your Z now. i hope this project will make your Z more useful and comfortable.

06-23-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. Cut and fit the 4" pipe for the intake. Using a 45 degree bend, and the 90, I cut turn/twist, cut on angles, and as you can see in the pics, trim off pie cuts to get the angles going where I want them to. This requires drawing a line where the pipes have to meet and welded in just that spot. It's exactly what I did with the other pipes. After welding, the welds are sanded down smooth and then my polisher does his part to make it look like a seamless one piece unit. I also used the new air cleaner and marked where further cutting on the hood was necessary and then cleaned up those edges. later, I will spray gloss black into the cap and use some q tips to paint the cut edge and it will blend right in. I also got the call to go pick up my 3 parts I had wrapped in black DRY carbon fiber....the cowl, rear spoiler and front bumper. PICS:

I am using the stock headers. They had to get cut short to make the turn around the frame rails. It is using an OEM ecu ( I believe it was manual) that is running UPRev. The mounts are Mckinney that were sold by ZFever. Not sure how they got them sinze McKinney went out of business a couple of years ago.

06-21-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. I started with installing my side view mirrors, and then poured in the engine oil....then decided it was time to get the R200 differential and swap pieces done and out of the way. I first had to clean up the gasket surfaces, then I installed a factory NISSAN gasket, and then filled it with 75W140 Synthetic gear oil. Then I masked off and painted the rear cover with silver engine block paint and then a coat of clear. Tthe case itself I wire wheeled clean,t hen wiped it down and gave it a coat of clear. After that, I painted up the 280Z mustache bar in gloss black and then after cleaning and wire wheeling it clean, I painted the front differential mount in gloss black as well, and then put all of it in the corner out of the way. Quite a bit of work to get it all ready for install. I will remove my existing R180 diff and then clean up the entire area like this before installing the rear end. I also have some TT3 Techno Toy Tuning axle shafts with the Porsche 930 CV joints to put in. PICS:

06-20-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. I wired the firewall forward body wiring today. I managed to get it all done except for the fans. I also installed the turn signal surrounds and upper and lower grill. In doing this, I also started the run of braided line back to the water methanol tank from the nozzle up front. The electricals for the Boost switch was also wired today into the passenger footwell of the cockpit. I don't have a horn picked out yet, but I now have wiring ready for it. PICS:

so, i failed MOT. there was no brake lights. fixed that it was loose connector on brake light switch but i found that parking light fuse was burning hot, measured current draw it was 5.6amps, seems to be common problem to melt fuse box. i did my math thought aging pressed pins heat cycles might have added resistance between those two connection so i soldered every connection. as i said earlier every load has dropped voltage slightly, no load its 13.8volts, press brake and it drops 13.3V. lights on wipers on fan at full blast i remember seen under 12volts on lighter socket. lets see how it goes after this work, if that park light fuse still gets hot first aid is led bulbs

06-18-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: Well, after having people tell me about the intake and issues I will have with the MAF meter, and then researching on it, I decided to just redo the intake from the MAF sensor forward. I ordered some 4" pipe, a coupling and clamps and dug in. I did a layout and then cut the hood to start the process of making additional room for a smooth long radius 90 in 4" along with a vortex air cleaner to give the MAF Meter what it needs. In just a couple hours tonight I got a good start on it.....but I will have to do a notch in the radiator support to get the pipe to where it isn't being forced up over it. I am still waiting on the Air cleaner, but the job is well under way PICS:

Thx for the comments. I have tested the switch and harness connection points and all is working as it should from what I can tell. I did install the honda wiper motor swap with relay so that might be causing part of the issue. However, the fact that the blue line goes to 12V when the button is pushed is still an enigma. I believe the wire should connect somewhere but it is not clear on my harness. I have replaced both the dash (used in great condition) and engine (new) harnesses along with the fuse panel to blade type so it could be a mismatch of parts that is creating the issue. For now, I intend to run the blue wire directly to the washer motor so I will at least have washer capability even if I have to manually activate the wipers.

Thanks for the feedback!

Some updates. We installed a larger clutch master that was very easy to install. It solved the gear release problem with the cd009. We redid the steering shaft and motor mounts. I didn’t like the way it was installed before. Will know if it’s better in about a week or two. Installed a new Garrett intercooler to replace the eBay special I had. We reduced the intercooler pipe size down to 2.5” to see if it will help with spool. Installing a 14psi spring in the wastegate actuator to help hold boost. Will dyno again soon. We also removed the spacer from the skunk2 intake and modified the entry angle. Replaced all the intercooler pipe couplers with the vibrant hd clamps. The old pipes kept blowing off. installed dapper led seven lights. So much brighter than the halogens I had. We installed the rest of the rear t3 suspension bits. we also installed a new t3 steering rack and crossmember, along with BRE mirrors.

Do you have a forward rotation water pump? Most are reverse rotation with serpentine belt. If you try to run a reverse rotation pump forward, you won't be circulating water through the engine. Also, I would start fresh with the wiring. Don't try to reuse the original fuse block or any of the under dash wiring.

Got fluid in and bled the brake lines. Smell leak at the line lock, tightened up and everything looks good. Been playing around with the wiring, seeing what I have and how I’m going to put it all together, got some ABS sheets and going to make up some panels to organize everything. Also got the alternator and bracket on and test fitted the sniper.

I don't have experience with the EPS. I am interested. I do autocross with wide tire 275/35-15 on 15x10 wheels on all four corners. While moving, the effort to turn the steering wheel isn't terrible. I try not to turn the wheel while the car isn't moving because I feel that I might over stress the steering rack. The 280Z has a slower rack than the 240Z. For autocross, I would swap to am240Z rack. I measured the difference between the racks in a thread several years ago. Going from memory, the 280Z rack moves 1.59 inches per revolution of the steering wheel, and the 240Z rack moves 1.81 inches per revolution of the steering wheel. The faster rack would benefit more from the power steering, but is usable without as long as the vehicle is moving.

06-13-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE. Today I finished screwing down the carbon fiber and installed the front flares. Pretty much all done. Later I will tape off both sides of each edge and lay in a coat of black pure silicone....then pull the tape off leaving straight lines and let it harden up. Then some paint correction and some clear and the body will be done! I gathered up some parts I am taking to get wrapped in dry carbon fiber (front bumper, cowl, and rear spoiler). PICS:

The factory 2006 GM ECU, called a "P12". Jeremy Gonyou at Lime-Swap converted my engine harness into a stand alone setup and cracked my ECU and programmed it for the turbo. By using a factory setup I retain the variable valve timing and the wireless throttle. 60lb/hr Deka fuel injectors and with an 8 psi spring in my external wastegate.....around 350-400 hp at the crank. Very mild setup.........well over 300 at the wheel, which in these cars is sufficient.

You're probably not far off the mark at that number. Used LSD R180's regularly sell for $700-800; and it seems that R200's long-nose are not so easy to get anymore (IMHO). The real challenge may be finding the buyer that wants the entire lot of parts, especially both diffs. You might have better luck if you're willing to sell pieces individually. (Shipping costs could be a bear...consider looking at discount freight shippers like Blue Lane Freight through Fastenal.) Good luck with it...you've got some nice piece-parts there.

a project car is never "done" but we sure do love upgrades. You dont realize how small these old cars are until you park next to something modern. your bosses BMW was probably huge next to the Z

It took some time for an update but I am proud to say that I did it, the 280z is road legal again!! Aside from the car I have been very busy working in my backyard as the previous owners took out all the plants and then neglected the yard for 4-5 years. But back to the build log. One of the parts I still had lying around where the oil pressure sender and the coolant temperature sensor for the gauges in the dashboard. It really bothered me that both of them weren’t working and I had a feeling that it was just both of the sensors that were bad. So out with the old and in with the new. Or so I thought…. While installing the new temperature sensor into the thermostat housing the housing itself broke. As the break is a really weird one I suspect that the aluminum housing just became pours. Luckly one of the local Z club members had the correct version of the housing and send it to me. I gave that one a quick coat of paint and reinstalled all of the sensors. This time nothing broke and both the oil pressure and coolant temperature gauge finally worked! Now that that was fixed I started working on some of the smaller items on the list. I replaced the air filter, both exhaust gaskets, the horns, painted the front grill and installed the KNAC shield (translated: Royal Netherlands Automobile Club). As I had a bit of time left in the day I also replaced my pre fuel pump fuel lines and filter, installed the new speakers and fitted the fender mirrors. I expected the fender mirrors to be pretty useless but they actually gave me a way better field of view then my old door mounted mirrors! I believe these are the same metal reproduction mirrors as Zdepot sells. As I was in a bit of a time crunch for the inspection I unfortunately couldn’t finish the door cards and seats in time. Luckly the door cards weren’t mandatory for the inspection so I could just simply leave them off the car. As for the seats I reinstalled the covers for now and reinstalled them into the car. The aftermarket wheels the car came on where poking out a bit too much in the rear so to avoid any complications during the inspection I decided to install the stock wheels for now and switch them afterwards. I hindside this wasn’t necessary as they were allowed to stick out 3cm (1,2 inch) past the fenders. Then came the moment I had been working towards, inspection day! I dropped her of at the garage and they immediately started with the inspection and alignment. The only thing they found was they the washer fluid wasn’t spraying but the mechanic traced it back to a pinched line. Other then that the car was in great shape and both the mechanic as other customers were impressed with the car (S30 Z cars are pretty rare over here). Now I can finally enjoy the car and man she drives good! The only thing I noticed was that the rear shocks are gone but it isn’t a problem for now.

I also finished cutting the new Tar paper that will go on the interior floors and trans tunnel. I have a laser cutter at work. This is a Nissan part and still available as blank sheets. Unfortunately, even though it is correct, it is expensive at $100.00 USD per sheet. It took 6 sheets for the entire interior. This is the material on the laser After the metal is ready, I will epoxy coat it first then apply the sheets. Unlike OEM that had bare metal under it, this should be substantially better at keeping water from getting under it and rusting the metal

06-07-2026 ATLAS Z UPDATE: Continued progress on the engine harness wiring and installation. Starting to take shape....about 95% done. PICS:

Been a busy couple weeks but been chugging along. Got the fuel system started. mounted the ethanol content sensor, fuel filter and fuel pressure regulator. ordered line/fittings twice and still came up short on fittings and line. hopefully the last of it arrives today so I can finish it. Got the rear brake caliper bracket machined up from a high alloy steel. Due to the design i had to come up with i wanted a high alloy steel to be nice and strong. Got the clutch line made up and bled it. clutch seems to work even tho i just bled it solo. i'll get the wife out to get it perfect but it does work. I got the exhaust mocked up and tacked together. Need to come up with a nice tip to get it out just past the bumper.

When I installed my cam, I had the engine on a stand with heads off, and used a dial indicator to find top dead center as accurately as I could. Once I found TDC on the #1 cylinder, I made marks between the rear flange of the crankshaft and the back of the block. Later, when I went to install the harmonic damper, I verified that #1 was at TDC, and that the timing marks were properly aligned with the timing indicator. They aligned perfectly. I'm using a Romac Balancer on a Ford 5.0L Stroker. The factory balancers have a rubber ring between the hub and the outer ring where the timing marks are located. The rubber fails and then the outer ring slips relative to the center hub. After that the timing marks are arbitrarily located and no longer consistent. Long story short: Find and verify TDC, and make sure the balancer marks can't slip.

These parts came off of another Z I stripped for parts 10 years ago. Never got around to installing them on my car, and time to find a new home. I'd be happy to re-sandblast anything that has surface rust and throw some paint on if asked. Calipers: S12w (or whatever, the bigger 4 piston) toyota calipers, 280ZX (Maybe maxima?) rear calipers (powdercoated gold), at least (3) sets of rebuild parts for each. Caliper brackets: TTT Front spacers, OEM? steel adapters for the rear calipers Pads: Powerstop pads for the toyota pistons, whatever I could find on rock auto 10 years ago for the rear calipers Rotors: R1 concepts and stoptech rotors, and rock auto ZX rotors. At least when I bought it, the 280ZX and/or maxima stuff was HARD to find. I'm not really sure how to price this - $600 for everything? Make an offer. Located in Charlotte, NC.

Nice, what are your plans. Get her up and running, full restoration, something else?

I love me some carbon fiber 😍, can’t wait to see the final result.

Welkom! It’s good to see you posting here as well.

It's been awhile, but thought I'd update with something funny I discovered. I've never really trusted the harmonic balancer and where it said 0 deg was. I tested with a piston stop and knew it was off a few degrees, but it wasn't enough for me to worry about. This thing is megasquirt tuned, so I really can just give it whatever timing it wants and be good with that. So I got lucky with someone selling an aftermarket balancer, used. It's the 90055 Pro Products PowerForce damper. I set my old balancer at 0 deg, right on the mark before I pulled it. Here is where the new balancer is showing it should be: The white mark at the top on the balancer is 0 deg. It's probably close to 15 deg off lol. This is before I torqued down the bolt, so I know I didn't move anything when installing. And now that I think of it, I've always had an issue with sync loss events if I went above 28-29 deg at light cruise. I also tried sneaking up on 30 deg at idle just to see what it would do, and it would sync loss every few seconds. But other than that, the car ran great. If anyone else has megasquirt and is having weird sync loss issues, make sure to check your balancer as it may have spun. I've attached pictures of my old balancer too. You can see the rubber is definitely cracked.

Found another RSX seat. It's not an exact match. The stitching pattern is different b/w the seats, and the plastic trim in the headrest area is a different color. Obviously I'm not going to fix the stitching, and I'll just paint those plastic trim pieces black and be done.