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3 years later... took ages to find a good painter willing to take on the project. These days insurance jobs with small panel fixes seem to be more profitable. Luckily I found someone willing to do it in the summer months of this year while the insurance workload is reduced. Prepping... Overall quite happy with the result. Couldn't contain myself and started puzzling together the undercarriage the first chance I got. Pulled lines in the trans tunnel and assembled the suspension component. On the wheel first the first time since 2017!

More pis of it finished up The bottom plate was beat up a bit and bent from floor jacks. So I took off the old one by drilling out the spot welds. I then drew up the shape and had a new one laser cut. The center plate that is welded to this plate, I re-made it as well, but out of 304 stainless steel. This way I can leave it a brushed stainless finish after powder coating and it is a good place to use a floor jack. I then spot welded on the larger plate in the original locations I then tigged the seam between the spot welds Then tigged on the center stainless plate Then blasted the entire cross member and powder coated it in a super black semi gloss powder coat. Powder coated the motor mounts as well I always first do a primer powder coat that is sandable I sand most off this off to fill the small blemeshes Then final coat Finally the brushed stainless plate for the floor jack Next up is getting a new transmission, then finishing the exhaust

For a street car I think the rails make sense. For a race car that has a cage perhaps not. For a similar amount of weight you can triangulate the cage with tubing on top of the floor that extends to the suspension pickup points.

So.......it's been 7 years since my last post. The car basically sat in that drive way for a few years then pushed it in the garage for another4 years where the mice got to it. The gas in the tank and lines went to shit. I replaced the fuel pump and got it kind of running again. Obviously having the car sit outside for so long it pretty much ruined everything in the fuel system. This is where a project goes to die .....you lose interest and end up selling for cheap because it doesn't run. Well ......not this time. Last year the house where I was storing it had to be sold so I needed to find a home for it while getting it road worth again. My best friend who lives in Rochester, NY (I'm in Massachusetts) told me to trailer it to his place and we can work on it together. I know that the carbs need to get rebuilt so I decided to send them to Kyusha House. Here is the before pictures. And after Taka's absolutely amazing work.....

Here comes the Project thread that I should've started when I picked up the car in 2021...... Firstly, I'd like to thank the person who has been the biggest help with this car, and who has ended up being one of my best friends, Andrew Mielke (who owns Milkfab Engineering). Without him the car would not be where it is today! His hybridz profile (check out his z) also shameless plug for his business: MilkFab Engineering Z acquisition: I had always wanted an s30 after growing up hearing my dad tell stories about how much he loved the gold 240z he had when him and my mom were dating. Any time we would see them at car shows or out and about i'd be drooling over them. When I started dating my now wife, I noticed a copper colored Z sticking out of a storage building on the road they lived on. Her and her family started jokingly calling it 'my car' due to me staring at it every time we'd drive past. Fast forward 3 years from then, we were married and looking for a house. She gave me a call because as she was driving to her parents house she saw the car outside and they were working on it, asked me if she should stop by and ask about it. I said 'yeah' never expecting it was actually for sale, and when they told her it was and priced it I was super surprised. This was in early 2021 when Z prices were going up dramatically, and she knew that. I told her we shouldn't get it, that it would be unwise since we needed the money for a house down payment, we had no place to put it, etc. BUT, she made me buy it, saying 'You never know if the prices are gonna keep spiking and you never be able to get one....'. So, we bought it, my parents drove over two hours to come pick it up and take it to their house where I could work on it/store it until we had our own place. My wife is a nurse and worked weekends for a while, which meant I spent many a saturday getting up at 5am, heading to my parents, working all day, then driving back in time for dinner. Over the course of 2021 I got the car 'ready' to come home, and we bought a house for it to come home to. The short of it: Where we started (There is probably more than this I'm currently not remembering) L28ET with no E or T round top su carbs lots of electrical gremlins from previous owner cutting random stuff to try and get the car running Radiator support bent from car being wrecked nasty gas tank Where we are now: Frame straightened L28ET with the E and T many fewer electrical gremlins cleaned gas tank coilovers proper race bucket seat (passenger still gets to bounce around in a nb miata seat lol) More posts to come with some build processes, pictures, stories, and more general nonsense.

New to the forum but I wanted to make a summary of my build status/plans for my 1982 280zx. I got the car with 150k miles 7 years ago in a straight up trade for a Kawasaki Ninja 250 (crazy, I know). I was in high school/college for most of that time so my major upgrades had to wait until I got my own garage 2 years ago. Overall goal is an aggressive (~350hp) restomod that I can take to the track occasionally. I've been recording my build progress but only recently went back to edit/upload all of the videos. If you're interested in following along, subscribe to my YouTube! I'll be posting videos every 2 weeks until I'm all caught up on footage. https://www.youtube.com/@engiandesign 2018 (One year after I got the car) January 2023 Engine Bay April 2024 Engine Bay Stripped, and Painted May 2024 Engine Rebuilt July 2024 Engine Bay Mostly Complete Current Mods: Fully rebuilt L28ET Rings, bearings, studs Stock internals Valve job with new valves and seals Cometic MLS head gasket Cam sprocket and timing chain Port and polished head High volume oil pump Schneider stage 2 cam regrind with matching springs, retainers, lash pads and resurfaced rockers Ported exhaust manifold with custom external wastegate piping Tial MVS 38mm wastegate Borg warner S257 SX-e T4 7670 CXRacing Intercooler Kit Mishimoto 25 row oil cooler Mishimoto catch can Champion 3 core radiator FF Dynamics dual electric cooling fans 3.5" cold air intake 240sx 50mm throttle body Aeromotive fuel pressure regulator Upgraded 100 Amp alternator Pallnet fuel rail 1000cc Bosch EV6 injectors Megasquirt MS3x kit from Godzilla Raceworks TSP high flow fuel pump All new glowshift gauges (9 total) CXRacing 3" stainless exhaust modified with X-Force Varex valved muffler Front/rear sway bars 280z style aftermarket air dam Louvers New carpet 4 Infinity 6x9 midrange speakers with 10" Pioneer sub Future Mods Multi-spark ignition CD009 transmission swap Wilwood big brake kit Custom front grill Side skirts Rear diffuser Duck bill spoiler Fender flares Coilovers Rims/tires Seats I'm sure I'm forgetting something on this list but that's pretty much everything. I got it running in July and after a few months of dialing everything in, its finally running great! I'm currently running 9lb of boost on a very conservative tune but it still rips. Luckily my work has a chassis dyno and some very experienced tuners which should help unlock a lot more power. This winter I plan to focus on body work/aesthetics along with rims/tires/suspension. This is my first project car so I welcome any feedback or suggestions, especially related to future mods. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube for more updates!

Before removing the diff, I would check the u-joints on your driveshaft as well.

Bumping zboi's thread so he can continue his contributions to the community. Let's see an update.

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

My opinion: Flares because your tires are fat and need room = cool. Skinny tires that should fit stock but spaced way out anyway = not cool. It's in the same vein as camber to me. Negative camber for better handling? Awesome. Crazy negative camber because you want people to know how much camber you have? Stupid.

A few notes before I get into it 1.I am rewiring my car from scratch. So I have no clue what color wires correspond to what pins, or what year switches I am using 70-78 2. I'm not using the stock taillights, I only have an off, high and low signal, all red(Think Semi trailer lights). So the way I wired stuff might be different for you 3.I feel that if you understand the concept of what I am showing below you can adapt what you have to create something similar. I am an idiot when it comes to wiring, but I got this to work for me so feel free to copy it at your own risk haha. This definitely isn't stock Hazard switch (Ignore the PinX stuff for now, That is how I am keeping track of what wire is going to what pin on the connectors I have) I see the hazard switch as the first step in how the power is routed. The switch has two different states (Noted by the vertical dashed line in the image above), on and off, each with it's own outcome. Hazards on: (Right side of above image) 5 Pins should be connected on the switch when the hazard switch is on/closed, use a multimeter to test continuity between all the pins, and note which ones are connected. One of the pins should receive 12v + from a flasher unit (I am using a PDM (Bussman31s002) to get fused 12v power, then putting that into a 3 wire flasher unit that is adjustable to set the timing of the flashes). So when I have my hazard switch on, power flows through the pdm, then into the flasher, into one of the 5 connected pins on the Haz SW, then a wire out to each of the 4 turn signal lights. This also kills all connections to the "Off" side of the switch. In my case, this disables the turn signals, and brake lights. Hazards off: (left side of above image) there are going to be two sets of two pins that are connected when the hazards are off/closed. Use a multimeter, check continuity, write it down. Feed one of the pairs with fused 12v+. The pin that is connected to the 12v+ gets a wire that is spliced into 2 different locations. Location 1 is the brake switch. Location 2 is a second Flasher unit. These two wires then come back together to feed the Turn signal switch, one flashing, one constant. When the switch is in this position, everything on the right side of the above image is no longer connected. Turn Signal Switch The Turn Signal Switch works off of two inputs 12v constant (Connected to 2 pins that should correspond with your Brake lights, and will disconnect from one of the pins if the turn signals are on in that direction) and 12v flashing (Connected to either the front left and rear left, front right and rear right pins, or no pins at all depending on the location of the stalk. So, for me, If my brakes are on, I get a signal to the "high" side of my tail light. WoodworkerB's website is invaluable. I recreated all of his diagrams with the corresponding wire color of my switch to use for my own project. https://woodworkerb.com/home/datsun-240z-rebuild/blinker-detail/ https://woodworkerb.com/home/datsun-240z-rebuild/datsun-240z-multifunction-switches/ Below I have a schematic of what the whole thing looks like, minus the detail of what the internals of the switches are actually doing, as well as the pinouts. (right most column is where the wire terminates, to its left is where it starts) Looks like the images are tough to read. DM me if you want a full size copy. Let me know if you have questions, or tell me that I'm wrong haha, The harness still in the basement so I would rather fix stuff now than when it is in the car. But as is the lighting system is functional, I pulled out a bunch of stuff to test it all.

Back to work on the Z Turbo car and taking a break on the NA car after finishing up the body work. Time to dry fit the rear suspension for the Turbo Car. Designed and built my own control arms and rear support years and years ago, finally fitting it up. They are 4130 seamless Chromoly that I polished welded then clear powder coated. Here are the rear control arms. I stuck with the standard urethane mounting bushing fror the inner front pivot location, but used really nice Teflon lined Aurora rod ends everywhere else. I had some 6-4 titanium bar drops and plate, so I was feeling creative and made all the big control arm bolts from the titanium Here it is all installed with the brakes and custom parking brake cable as well as custom CV axles, Diff mount and front mount This is a custom front diff mount with a double hump for the duel exhaust that will fit in very nicely. The Diff is an R-200 with 3.70 gears and a Quaife Limited slip. Can remember where the diff cover was from, but I think it was a Nismo part. I bent up my own sway bars from StressProof steel and made two point adjustment links for the end. I machined some mounts with solid Teflon busings for the sway bars, similar tot he 280z placement, front mount style The bar is sitting too low and will hit the duel exhaust pipes so I need to remake the mounts and raise the bar higher in the chassis. Thats it for now, on to the front suspension and crossmenber next. Let me know if any questions, clarifications or more pics. Busy Summer.

In the place ! some more to do but progress !

That makes all domestic orders shipped! One international to figure out still. Thanks again for everyone's patience while I got through these. I didn't anticipate it to take 6 months! Final tally on the donation amount to come as soon as I tally things up, but it will be over $1k. Funds have been flowing to Dan as needed over the last 6 months 1. 7d2jz 2. MAG58 - PAID - SHIPPED 3. MAG58 - PAID- SHIPPED 4. Crespo79 - PAID- SHIPPED 5. Jeffrox - PAID- SHIPPED 6. jhm - PAID- SHIPPED 7. onthego- - PAID- SHIPPED 8. onthego- - PAID- SHIPPED 9. pepper - PAID- SHIPPED 10. pepper - PAID- SHIPPED 11. ModernS30 - PAID- SHIPPED 12. Masonvonritchie - PAID- SHIPPED 13. rxx2rxx2 - PAID- SHIPPED 14. rxx2rxx2 - PAID- SHIPPED 15. Sonethirty - PAID- SHIPPED 16. S30TRBO - PAID- SHIPPED 17. S30TRBO - PAID- SHIPPED 18. Kennysgreen280zt - PAID- SHIPPED 19. Kennysgreen280zt - PAID- SHIPPED 20. Kennysgreen280zt - PAID- SHIPPED 21. ElliottOhZ - PAID- SHIPPED 22. Oki570Z - PAID- SHIPPED 23. lowrider - PAID- SHIPPED 24. lowrider - PAID- SHIPPED 25. lowrider - PAID- SHIPPED 26. jnjdragracing - PAID- SHIPPED 27. jnjdragracing - PAID- SHIPPED 28. OldAndyAndTheSea - PAID- SHIPPED 29. OldAndyAndTheSea - PAID- SHIPPED 30. JonRHD - PAID- SHIPPED 31. JonRHD - PAID- SHIPPED 32. 75280z - PAID- SHIPPED 33. 75280z - PAID- SHIPPED 34. CalZ - PAID- SHIPPED 35. CalZ - PAID- SHIPPED 36. LanceVance - PAID- SHIPPED 37. LanceVance - PAID- SHIPPED 38. Stunt 39. Stunt 40. _akuma_no_zetto_ - PAID- SHIPPED 41. _akuma_no_zetto_ - PAID- SHIPPED 42. 1 tuff z - PAID- SHIPPED 43. 1 tuff z - PAID- SHIPPED 44. Zlost - PAID- SHIPPED 45. AydinZ71 - PAID- SHIPPED 46. AydinZ71 - PAID- SHIPPED 47. zredbaron - PAID- SHIPPED 48. zredbaron - PAID- SHIPPED 49. zredbaron - PAID- SHIPPED 50. airbrush-ed 51. Chris Damato (FB) - PAID- SHIPPED 52. Chris Damato (FB) - PAID- SHIPPED 53. evildky - PAID- SHIPPED 54. torqen2k1 - PAID- SHIPPED 55. torqen2k1 - PAID- SHIPPED 56. torqen2k1 - PAID- SHIPPED 57. torqen2k1 - PAID- SHIPPED 58. torqen2k1 - PAID- SHIPPED 59. torqen2k1 - PAID- SHIPPED 60. Mayolives - PAID- SHIPPED 61. Mayolives - PAID- SHIPPED 62. Mayolives - PAID- SHIPPED 63. bkz72 - PAID- SHIPPED 64. Wizzurp - PAID- SHIPPED 65. Wizzurp - PAID- SHIPPED 66. Leon - PAID- SHIPPED 67. Gollum - PAID- SHIPPED 68. Gollum - PAID- SHIPPED 69. Gollum - PAID- SHIPPED 70. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 71. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 72. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 73. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 74. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 75. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 76. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 77. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 78. AB240z - PAID- SHIPPED 79. Zetsaz - PAID- SHIPPED 80. Zetsaz - PAID- SHIPPED 81. Zetsaz - PAID- SHIPPED 82. Wedge 83. 24Oz - PAID 84. ihavearustedz - PAID- SHIPPED 85. clarkspeed - PAID- SHIPPED 86. niner11 - PAID- SHIPPED 87. 1970 240z - PAID- SHIPPED 88. 1970 240z - PAID- SHIPPED 89. 1970 240z - PAID- SHIPPED 90. 1970 240z - PAID- SHIPPED

After almost 25 years, still together.

Let that ship sail! Find another decent body for a few grand and save yourself a ton of time and money. I've seen many "resto plans" dye on the vine after the joy has passed, months and years go by and the person doing it burns out. Just my ywo cents!! Good luck.

Looking again at the pics.....if you don't want to dip it, no sense in really even trying to restore it. It needs it so desperately, you should do it, or just find another Z car IMHO.

Ford 8.8 Super Duty 8.8 Differential Installation- First of all, I want to apologize for taking so long to finish this posting. I had to paint my house and had some other people's projects to help them with. The first thing that I had to do was to find a method of jacking the front end of my 240z high enough to use high jack stands. Because of the low ground clearance of my Rocket Bunny Front Air Dam and Low Vehicle Height, even my 3 1/2" Low Clearance Floor Jack would not fit. I solve this problem by purchasing a pair of 3 1/2" Car Ramps. They cost about $36 on Amazon. raises vehicle by 3" These ramps were about 28" long and would work on low riding vehicles. Short steep ramps would not work. They are very light weight and can be sacked together (taking a small storage space). jacking cross member The Ramps worked perfectly as my floor jack fit under the Front Cross Member easily. With the Car raised on Four Jack Stands about 6" off the ground, disassembly of the rear suspension can now take place. I designed my exhaust system for easy accessiblty. It consists of Three Sections-One -Front Motor Exhaust Pipes, 2-Middle Section with "X" Pipe after the transmission and Third- Rear 90 degree Exhaust Pipes with Two Turbo Mufflers. The pipes were also, connected together with V Clamps for fast disassembly. Next, the Two Rear Control Arms must be removed from the Strut Spindles. First, the Threaded Cross Shaft must be removed. The Tapered Shaft retaining Pins must be removed. With the Locking Nut removed, the Pins are removed by tapping them cafefully upwards. now, the Threaded Cross Shafts must be taken out. Because of Corrosion and lack of Lubrication, these shafts usually are difficult to remove. You can not hammer them out as both ends has threaded ends and hammering will damage the threads. ZDEPOT sells the Removal Tool but I made mine own. The tool consists of an Internal Threaded Rod which screws to the Threaded End of the Cross Shaft. The Larger External Tube( 1"OD" acts like a spacer of the Threaded Rod. A Large Nut on the opposite side of end of the Threaded Rod operates like a Forcing Screw to pull the Cross Shaft outward. I welded a proper size Lug Nut to the other end of the Threaded Rod. See Posted Pics for Size and Dimensions of this tool. Metric Lug Nut welded to one end of the Threaded Rod 15/16" Nut( pulling nut) placed on the opposite end of the Threaded Rod Removal Tool installed on Cross Shaft Rear Suspension removed With the Rear Suspension and Differential Removed, install the Differential Support Bracket on the two Long 17mm Mounting Bolts for Trial Fit. This test fit checks if any Fuel and Brake Lies and Hand Brake Cable are in the way. In my case, the Fuel Lines had to be extended and Hand Brake Cable modified. Differential Mounting Bracket Trial Fit- Next-Trial Fitting Differential Cage and Mounts Next-Differential Installation

yeah, Bad Dogs I hear are good, and that you can put them over the factory ones, but if the factory ones are rusty, then they need to be repaired/patched first or removed and replaced with these. I I think they way blok did his with thick heavy steel is probably the ultimate (the youtube link I posted earlier).

I think the VQ37VHR is a great swap. Trying to make over 380whp is going to be a nice challenge. I would say possible, but the juice may not be worth the squeeze. 350-380whp is going to be bananas on an s30 chassis that is dialed in right. I would still jump into doing the swap even if 350whp was only decently achievable.

2.0 is coming along.

01-04-2025 UPDATE: I got it wired in and installed.

Take a really close look at those side seals as well. I did a rear main once on an L then got to do the job all over again along with the pan when I got the car back together realized the side seals were also leaking, masked by all the oil and years of grime on the rear of the block.

Hey dude right there with you! I've been working on my z since June 2015. Kids, houses and responsibilities have all pushed it farther and farther back. But I feel like this is the year and I'm hoping you get back in the game too! also, are the Howe Racing TA2 front control arms made for the 240z or do you have a different cross-member up front? They sound enticing for sure!

Good update! This right here ^ is why I committed to keeping mine fully a street car and I'm glad I did, but part of me also wishes I could go race occasionally without being scared I'll ruin it haha

Howdy HybridZ! Seems like the trend, y'all get an update at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year! Might need to reframe my temporal perspective and do every 6 months. This was a slow year for the car and myself. First year since I've owned the car that it hasn't gone to any events! Wish I could say it was because I was doing a bunch of sweet mods and we're hitting the track hard next year, but that's not how it went. Overall, since 2020, the "smiles per $" has been way down, and I think I probably burnt myself out doing the V8 swap as quickly as I did it. Combined with the wreck, I felt like I really needed to step back, re-evaluate and take the year off to figure out how I want race cars to fit into my life! A big thing I've found is that since this just isn't a street car, and has no ability to be a street car, it's tough to get that "just gonna go drive the dang thing" and get excited about the project. Starting to find motivation again, which is nice, and I'm aiming for an event or two next year. That's not to say I didn't get ANY mods done this year! I got the Haltech 2500 into the car, and got it tuned. That was a fun small project, with a bigger price tag, but I'm hoping that it solves a lot of problems moving forward. It did reveal that some of the problems with this current engine are just that. The current motor is a L33 aluminum 5.3, but it's just not making great power. Compression and all that looks fine, but it's only putting down 330hp, when we'd expect closer to 400. Putting that out of my mind for now, and going to run it like this. A new engine is just not in the budget right now. I also did quite a bit of work on the front suspension. I've been running the Apex Engineered arms up front, and have been happy with them. Full disclosure, Ohm is a supporter of the build, you may have seen the car on his page! After running a handful of events, I felt like I had 2 problems to resolve. 1) I needed more track width. I have a 1" spacer in the front, and it's just another thing to check on the car, also while making scrub radius work. 2) I needed a beefier ball joint. The Apex arms use a factory sized ball joint, that is a better material, but after running a few track events, getting up on curbs and getting pretty spicy, they were just not up to the task. Bigger is better, so I went and upgraded to a Howe Racing TA2 front control arm, with their thread in ball joint. The arm is 2" longer than factory, and allows the use of an improved ball joint, the design of which is derived from a 3/4 ton truck. I feel pretty good about this mod! I got some work done on managing airflow on the front of the car. With the freshly chopped fenders, I needed a way to get air out of the wheel well, and made up some Kevlar pieces to help with that. I also made a plug for a radiator extractor vent that will help direct air out the hood, rather than spilling around inside the engine bay. I'll need to snag one more fitting for the dry sump, but otherwise, things are looking in good shape. I'm excited to let the car be "done" for a little bit this year.

I love it when a plan comes together. This is custom titanium banjos, which will come off my balance bar and hold my heat shield on!

Like many other Zs my 50+yr old staked ujoints were making some clicky play and of course there is not much good information out there. After some research online, the staked ujoints can be replaced but restaking them properly requires a special tool which is quite expensive (500$ to a few thousand). Also many shops will not touch these components for liability reasons. So what I did was I carefully ground down the stakes with a dremel tool and pressed out the old ujoints. For the new ujoints I actually had to do the job twice as I initially purchased some ujoints recommended by the classic zcar forums. What I found was the caps were so soft that they ovalled out when pressing in and caused binding in the joint. The country of manufacture were not specified on the boxes, and when I cut the joints out to redo the crosses were also soft. After many years of dealing with poor quality aftermarket parts, I should have known better and the solution I found was to purchase high quality Made in Japan Toyo joints PN ST-1540 (15mmx40mm), and when pressing these in the caps do not distort or cause binding. I believe this is an OEM part and OE supplier. Pressing the new joints in, you need to be careful and press the caps to the appropriate depth to achieve 40mm cap-to-cap, centered in the yokes on either end of the cross. Similar to what is done in the 4x4 communities I decided to tack weld where the old stakes were, 4 per joint and air cool after each tack as to not overheat the parts. I know this is much stronger than the factory arrangement as I was able to press the OEM caps past the OE stakes whereas I could not actually press out my first install attempt (before I realized the poor quality bearing issue) with a 20 ton press without exactly grinding down the spot welds for fear of bending the yoke ears (the poor quality soft caps were all kinds of mushrooming out and distorting unlike the OE hardened caps). Hopefully this helps someone. This has been on my to do list for the better part of a decade and I know from inspecting many columns and steering shafts over the years that there are a lot of worn joints out there. Edit: per suggestion from @NewZed the joints which did not work are as follows: https://www.driveshaftparts.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1100 From this thread at classic Z cars: https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/63434-steer-column-u-joints/?do=findComment&comment=629099 When I was researching the above joint, it seems many of the same appearance above are sold under different name brands are coming out of China, probably from the same or similar factories. Also some tips: I practiced the tacks on a few spare caps I had laying around and they blow through super easy compared to thicker driveshaft ujoint caps. So focus your torch on the cast yoke, one small dab of filler, and lightly wash the filler down onto the cap. Work quick so you put the minimum heat into the parts. I used tig as that is what I currently have available but mig with small wire may work as well. Consolidating comments to FAQ from discussion thread: Another option could be to plate in like below- I did check and 15mm washers are available. Due to the construction of the s30 steering yokes, I'd recommend washers sunk into the holes versus plating above the recessed bearing surface so the bearing is fully captive and cannot move. This will make sense if you are servicing the joints and have the parts in your hands. See picture of washers welded to yoke ears. This way per @NewZed comments the metallurgical properties of the bearing caps are not affected.

That's just about the stupidest thing that has been written on this entire website.

TLDR; Vendor sold a "bolt-on" part that didn't fit. They ghosted me after I asked about it. I filed a credit card dispute and won. Be careful this holiday season. --- Just a heads up for anyone considering buying from "Flex Engineered" during their Black Friday sales. No, that is not their real name, but you can figure it out easily (fabricators of suspension parts and other things). I don't wish to even give them the SEO. I recently had a pretty frustrating experience with them that I feel the need to share. I was going to keep this to myself, but as they are advertising Black Friday savings - I hope to save at least one person from their hassle. I bought a set of “bolt-on” hood hinges from them, advertised as compatible with the Datsun 240Z. However, when I tried to install them, it was clear they hadn’t properly tested these for the 240Z. The hinges wouldn’t fit because they interfered with the grill mount, which is placed differently on the 240Z than on the 280Z. After some research, it became obvious that "Flex" didn’t take this difference into account. Basically, they used me as a test mule for a product that wasn’t fully developed or properly tested. The worst part was how they handled it. After I contacted them with photos showing the issue, they initially responded but then went silent for weeks. They even quietly started changing the product page and removing photos to cover up the problem instead of addressing it directly. It wasn’t until I filed a dispute with my credit card company that they sent a return label - no explanation, no apology, just a blank email with the label. If you’re thinking about purchasing from them, especially during their sale, I’d recommend being cautious. Your purchase might go off without a hitch. But my experience showed they might release products before they’re properly tested, and they don’t handle customer issues very professionally. There are other vendors who prioritize quality and honesty with the Datsun community - "Flex Engineered" just doesn’t seem to be one of them. --- Edit: Apex Engineered

Looks like I missed some updates! In September I showed my car in a local event, TougeCon. They had a nighttime parking garage meet that I installed underglow for, and a daytime "car show" at the town square. Was the first time really getting the car out, and it garnered a lot of attention! I still haven't dug into diagnose whether I still have the noise issues (probably, I still see some spikes on CLT and AFR), but as mentioned in this thread I did finally resolve my jumpy tach. Turns out using a 12V zener was allowing noise through, and using the proper 18V zener cleaned up up. It's nice to finally have a solid tach. I picked up a cheap Chinese touchscreen head unit that runs android, so I could load ShadowDash and connect Bluetooth to Megasquirt for logging and some extra gauges. It's pretty slick! I have it auto-uploading logs to Google Drive when I hit Wi-Fi, and can download and burn tunes. In the last couple weeks I noticed a distinct whine after the engine got up to temp. It sounded like it was coming from the block area on the passenger side. Eventually I realized that back when I did the L28ET swap in 2009, I blocked off the inlet/outlet on the factory oil cooler since I didn't have a filter stud handy. It must have been bypassing oil the entire time I've run this engine. 🤦‍♂️ For now I got a stud from Nissan, and have an oil cooler coming from GRW. After the tail light swap, I realized the late-style license plate light wouldn't fit the early panels. I took inspiration from Skillard, and fabbed up a simple blanking plate using LEDs. I also pulled the trigger on a fuel system refurb. I'll be retrofitting an Aeromotive Stealth 340 into my factory tank, using a Radium stainless 10 micron filter, and upgrading to PTFE lines to eventually run E85. No more fuel slosh and starvation! In the meantime, now that the engine is broken in I've been working on dialing in my tune under boost. I set up some knock ears using a knock sensor, portable audio amplifier, and some headphones, and it seems to work pretty well! Once I hit around 10psi in any gear, I can clearly hear some ping. I'm holding steady at < 12:1 afr, and have backed my timing out to 19*, but still haven't gotten it to go away completely. I'm going to drastically pull timing and richen things up to work from the other direction, but that's already less timing than I'd expect necessary.

I've sold 22 heads.

I just bought one and it should be here in about a week. I'll let you guys know how it ends up working for me.

@jhm Yeah it seems like it would be really useful for making quick alignment changes without having to bring it to a shop and having them do it for you. Save a lot of money too ofc. Looking at their website, they have a lot of testing data which looks pretty promising. Like you said though, I would prefer to see some reviews and data from users, not just the manufacturer. Like Sam said, you buy a 99 cent token for each alignment you want to do. I might just buy one since its only $40 and then take it to a shop to get an alignment check and see how accurate it is. @Sam Henao This looks really cool, but I do have some concerns about the pricing structure in the future. Are there any plans to get rid of or increase the price of the tokens? I would hate to buy it and then have the pricing model be switched to a subscription system or something. What exactly do you mean by most advanced algorithm? Thanks for responding, this looks like an awesome tool.

I finished up the front crossmember and motor mounts Started with a stock crossmember with the need for new engine mounting since I moved the engine in the chassis back about 1 inch. I extended and boxed in the existing upright Some grinding and blasting to clean it up 3 D printed mockup of a machined bracket I made to accept the moustache bar busings. I designed these years ago and have been in the NA car for 15 years. Worked well I machined this weld in bracket out of a solid chunk of steel because I wanted the details for the bolt holes and you could not do that with bent sheet metal. Stupid but fun. More soon

Hello this. This is my 1974 260z 240sx suspension Custom double wishbone front Cantilever rear.... To much to list but enjoy the pictures. My 2jz /cd009 got stolen I'm unfortunately going to have to sell it. Will post it in the for sale group soon once im legal lol. Hope yall enjoy my hybrid z

Found a few more issues: The EDIS module had an intermittent ground on pin 9, and working backward I found a cruddy solder joint where I was experimenting with a diode. My PIP/SAW shield was grounded at MS and combined with the VR shield at EDIS pin 7, creating a ground loop. My PIP/SAW shield was combined to another ground where I connected the MS harness to the EDIS harness, ground loop #4. With all of that cleaned up I still had RPM spikes. I enabled Noise Filtering and that seems to have fixed it, but I'm not really happy with masking a noise issue. I'll try to scope the VR and PIP signals at some point, and see about adding a condenser to the coil + just in case.

Hey Derek, you know my neighbor John at HyTech. Fun stuff. Someday a LY head if we could find the time?

He's actually a member here. @jdmjunkies.ch

Assuming you are maintaining your OEM 4X113.3 when stud pattern, and 0 offset: Koenig Rewinds are the cheapest of the lightweight wheels. My 15X7’s were only $106/wheel from Summit, and weighed 14lbs each. On the expensive end, I also have Ray’s Volk TE37’s in 15X7’s and 11lb. Aluminum wheel spacers are not the end of the world they are less than 6” in dia, so the rotational inertia is far less than what your wheel is contributing. On a 15” wheel, most of the mass is way out at (for example) 13” from the axis of rotation. Rotational inertia is proportional to the weight, but also how far the weight is from the center. Greg Ira used Aluminum wheel spacers, and he is a three-time SCCA national champion. When you are trying to maximize allowable track (rule book), using OEM struts, limited camber adjustment, and a 0-offset wheel, sometimes it’s the only way.

At long last I can post a few reveal pics, now that the "look" is complete! Though, I do still need to drill the body to properly mount the front and back bumpers. The paint is TH1 Midnight Blue Pearl from the R32, ceramic tint for heat rejection since I'm AC-less, and partial PPF on the buckets, hood, and behind the tires.

I just complete the install of the MFactory LSD in my 1978 280z and wanted to share my experience. First, I am a reasonably good shade tree DIYer and I found the installation to be very easy. I did have to purchase a dial indicator on amazon ($60) to check the lash on the ring and pinion as part of the installation but everything else I needed was standard stuff in my toolkit. I also replace the carrier bearing with ones I found on RockAuto ... TIMKEN 30209C (Standard Replacement) for about $95. I don't know if I was lucky, but the ring and pinion lash was well within the specifications using the original factory shims so no changes were needed there. I also found the ring and pinion gears were in excellent condition overall with good mesh pattern. The most time consuming part of the install was getting the differential out. My car's driveline is largely stock with the exception of the 280zx turbo half shafts using with Milkfab adaptors. So far everything appears to be tight and right. Why did I bother to do this? I bought the car online about 4years ago. Of course I did the right thing and purchased it sight unseen (based on description and pics) and found I had a leaky head gasket shortly thereafter. The car had sat for a few years prior to my purchase so I was not completely surprised it needed work. Luckily the coolant only leaked into #1 piston and I caught it very early. As I sorted it out I discovered the engine was a Rebello stroker (3.1) -- lucky me. Once I got things straightened out I found a drive line clunk and so I was off trying to fix the problem. I tried to work through the lower cost items first so I replaced the diff mount, secured a technoversions diff mount snubber, upgraded to zx turbo half shafts (rebuilt junk yard finds) as well as new 1310 ujoints for the prop shaft. Still no joy as the clunking continued. That meant I needed to check the differential center section. What I found was a lot of slop in the center section but the ring and pinion in great shape. I guess I could have gone the route of a rebuild of the open diff but, truth told, I wanted the LSD option and chose the MFactory option. So far, so good. I would also add that the purchase experience was very easy with the unit arriving within a few days after payment and exlifesaver provided advice on the install. Thanks again.

Just to add some closure to this posting, I'm feeling pretty good about having just sold to a Datsun enthusiast who is taking on the restoration of this 240 to add to his 510 and 610 selection, and lives within 50 miles so I can keep up to date how it's going. Thanks again NewZed for your suggestion

So far so good! I have 80 miles on the rebuild, and nothing too concerning yet other than a bit of valvetrain noise I'm hoping is resolved by a hot adjustment when I hit 100 miles. Currently the car is at the tint/PPF shop, so I'll get some "complete" pictures in the next week or two after I pick it up. It's been fun getting back into MS tuning after so long, and I'm finding a LOT of areas I needed to improve. So far I've: Upgraded from MS2/E 3.3.2 to 3.4.4. Swapped from don't include to include AFR (used a spreadsheet to convert VE). Swapped from the old to new baro mode (had to retune most of my VE). Dialed back and smoothed my timing, primarily in the idle and cruise areas. Increased my tps, rpm, and CLT/MAT lag factors. I must have had the scale backward in my head originally, as they were in the 90's and barely filtering. Leaned out my idle and cruise areas significantly. Started dialing in my MAT correction, based on Gollum's findings. With all of these changes the car is running better than ever. I've always had issues with low rpm and cruise throttle transition jerkiness, no matter what I did with AE. I suspect I was way to aggressive with my timing, and had some drastic transitions causing the behavior.

SOLD!!!! Selling my ECU! This has successfully run 2 versions of my L28 (one with ITB's) and a LS V8. Megasquirts are known for being very powerful for the price and have a huge community behind them. Lots of details, here's a link to the data sheets: https://www.diyautotune.com/product/megasquirt-iii-ems-system-with-ms3x-expansion-v3-57-assembled/ New is $700, I'm asking $500 shipped. Sold!!!!

Last bit of body work was the hatch slam. I did not replace it entirely. After getting a Tabco replacement and then a classic fab replacement, I decided mine was not bad enough to justify changing the entire part out and reducing the originality as the replacement parts are not a 100% The original paint Drilling out the tack welds After drilling out the spot welds and cutting part of it away, I blasted the undelay of framing. There was some corrosion deepen than I liked so I cut it out and patched it. Then ground it back and sprayed it with a weld through primer Next I removed the rest of the panel, blasted it and replaced the little bit of rusted metal. Tig welded it and ground it flat along with some dolly work to make it flat after welding I then tig welded the old spot weld location and ground them flat so it looked like a new panel again. All the underserface of the rebuilt hatch slam got coated in weldthrough primer. I then applied a weld through seam sealer. I used the old pc of metal to mark the exact location of the original tack welds Final to tack weld it in. Looks great and factory original in my opinion

I just ran across this, I can't believe it's been this long. Still love the Z. The only thing I have done to it in the past several years was recovering the Miata seats with upholstery from lseat.com. is this site still active?

Update : I had been fighting an erratic wideband on the rear collector -cylinders 4-6. Well it turns out I still had a leak at the collector which is before the O2 sensors - dammit . This is a Z story header and collector . The collector pipe was modified for my exhaust and I thought I had the flange true , but it still leaked . This time around I eliminated the gasket all together and used Red Loctite only . At the same time I had a new O2 sensor installed since I was that deep into it . I DID see evidence of a leak but changed the sensor anyways . FIXED! This change helped so much with the tune and you could hear it ! I was able to get the banks to harmonize much better with AFR’s and sound . This helped to mitigate the drone I was getting at low rpm cruise . I thought this would also fix an issue I’ve seen on every intake I’ve used where the AFR’s between the two O2 sensors would be different during high vacuum running - light cruise . Megasquirt didn’t seem to be able to compensate in those scenarios though I had two separate O2 sensors dividing the banks . I ended up going into the injector trims and adding fuel to 1-3 since they ran really lean under high vacuum . Maybe they suck all the air out of the plenum before it reaches the last 3 cylinders . I added almost 20% to 1-3 . At this point the AFR’s evened up and you could feel and hear the difference . This is probably the best I’ve had my L running . Happy guy right now

Don't tell my wife Like I tell other people. some like to fish, some like to bowl, I like to make.

So this is the finished product if anyone else is interested. It is made out TPU which is very flexible (and hard to print). I have used TPU to create plugs for my floors, wiring grommets and other such.