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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.

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.

Been a while since I posted any updates. Been moving along. For the Turbo car I decided to build my own wheels. Ill CNC machine the center sections myself and have the lips and barrels spun for me. I really like the old SSR RS8 wheels but finding them in the correct bolt pattern, offset, and caliper clearance is impossible. I fould a set close, from Japan and had them shipped over. Since this car uses Z31 hubs and such, the spacing is out much more than a standard Z so I need a bit more positive offset. I dissasembled the wheels and scanned the center section into my computer and reverse engineered the shape. Next I re-assembled them and had the 245-45-16 tires Im going to use mounted. I test fitted them to the car, and close, but not good enough. This is the fist time this chassis has been rolling on its own wheels in 27 years. Its been on a cart or a lift. Felt good to see some progress now that the suspension, brakes, and cross-memeber are finally complete Scanned this complete assembly and put it in CAD. Now I have the exact shape of the tire on the rim. Cool cross section of it. Finally I scanned the side of the car, put it into CAD. Now I can adjust my wheel center offset for caliper clearance, and adjust it to work with new Lips and Barrels I will order for the proper offset and fit to the car. Having it in CAD alowed me to look at it from every angle and check all clearances, for calipers, springs wheels lip, ect. Even compressing the suspension to make sure I have fender clearance at full travel Final wheel spec is: Rear - 5 lug = 245-45-16 on 8.5" width rim- 27mm positive offset, 2.25" outer lip on the rim Front - 5 lug = 245-45-16 on 8.5" width rim - 31mm positive offset 1.75" outer lip on the rim Next I need to find some time to program the CNC and start cutting chips. But I got distracted on the NA car, so that update is next.

My custom made 3d printed aero hood latches are mounted.

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.

Good progress over the long weekend. Paint, bondo and fiberglass is mostly a waiting game which is pretty annoying. Got the duct glued together and painted so it looks like something. Trimmed it up a little and we are in great shape! The holes in the hood are a little bit large, but that's ok, and will likely get solved with a new hood (fiberglass) or something on top. Also got the transition piece painted which is exciting! This will help blend the splitter into the air dam, and will get taped onto the splitter once I put some trim on top of it. Need to get to work on the new intake pipe as well, going to put the filter over near the wheel for now. In the future, I'll flip the manifold and pull air from the cowl/wiper box area, but that's a bigger lift in terms of fabrication. Can't tell you how excited I am to have a metal fabrication project after 10 months of composites.

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

Hi All! I've owned a few s30's in the past and finally decided to build one. My car background is a lot of JDM cars including Supra's, AE86s, S13s, Skylines, a Stagea 260rs, etc. I have always loved the style of the s30 (don't we all), the aftermarket support for it and the random people who would stop me and tell me about their "Z" story. The story of this build started over a year ago when I purchased this 1978 Datsun 280z. The story behind the car (that I know of) was it is an American car that was brought to Washington and held at a speed shop awaiting restoration. Then was bought and stored in a heated warehouse for years in BC before i bought it. A little side story, I originally purchased a 1971 240z from the same person and they also had the 280z for sale but was well out of my price range. I would have loved to restore the 240z but unfortunately the amount of work it needed was well beyond my budget and experience just to get it to a useable condition. If you looked at it funny, rust would fall off the car. Mistakes we made. I was sold on what it could be but not what it will take to get there. almost a year later the 280z was still for sale, and the price was a little better. With some luck, i was able to convince the owner to trade back the 240z and cash for the 280z. Success!...Now, it seems the 280z was re-sprayed a British racing green but wasn't done the best and was flaking so i believe that's why it originally underwent the restoration in Washington. The car was just a rolling chassis, the front end had been primer epoxy'd and luckily had everything in boxes and labeled like "driver door guts", or "Rear hatch slam", which was nice to see. Now the goal of this project was to be a fun drivers, resto-mod car. It will be getting an RB26 from an r33 GTR, an RB25 transmission, DBW for the factory ITB's, Techno Toy Tuning full suspension, brakes, differential swap kit, running a Haltech S3 ECU and Wiring Specialties Harness, Poly fuel tank with an r32 skyline Radium hanger and Hellcat fuel pump. The bigger ticket items like turbo/manifold, radiator/fans, and then some smaller things are missing but most of the project is there now. I do plan of re-wiring the whole car considering I'm spending money in every other area. Now, just like anyone, I did set out with budget but considering since I last built a car, prices have gone up for parts which I stupidly didn't account for. Also a lot of, "well if i'm already doing this, then i might as well do that", and "since i have this off, i might as well get that." So the budget has been blown....but at least I'm happy! (maybe). BUT as it stands, the suspension and diff swap kit is in and the car is currently at the body shop getting the sunroof hole patched as well as some of the smaller trim holes plugged and a few small rust spots taken care of. Here are some pics throughout the build and as it stands. Any questions, advice or help for some "gotchas" will be welcome!

Great work so far! I’m sure this will be an awesome build. I suspect you will be running fender flares or a wide body kit seeing as your wheels are poking out a bit?

11-01-2025. 260Z work. I got the engine compartment sanded down after the glaze and then cleaned up the crossmember and rack with cleaning solution "g@s" and a toothbrush, and then steel wool, etc. Then I vacuumed out the cowl and primed it with rustoleum rust primerand top coated it with gloss black paint, then painted the engine bay with filler primer. Once dry I will use some spot putty I picked up on the areas that need it, hand sand it smooth and filler primer over that. Once it is good, then I will progress to color and then clear. Busy day! Pics:

Yes, still working on then, just have not posted anything. Bought some expensive components that take time to recover from. A blank PAMS head, that I then designed and has DelWest make me titanium intake valves, Inconel mnemonic stainless steel exhaust valves, also MoldStar 90 seats and guides. Had it assembled, and ports cleaned up for some nice flow numbers. Also purchased a Nismo 6 Speed Trans that was also strengthened and modified by HPI in Japan. I take some progress pics soon.

Picked this up from local hot rod shop for my 240z SBC 350 project about 13 years ago. Circuits: Electric fan relay Fuel pump Radio and amplifier Power windows Summit Racing/parts store etc probably have this fuse box.

Got the sensor figured out. It is idling around 130-140 F. Should be OK. I have to post a video. Sorry but I think this thing sounds bad ass. I have an insert in the exhaust so I dont need earplugs.

Update: after speaking to Cortex and getting some spindle dimensions from them for CAD mockup, looks like I’ll be using their Radial X spindles. Very exciting stuff, I am a bit weary about using aluminum spindles but the car is a track car and last weighed at ~600# over each front wheel so I think I’ll be alright. Thanks! Excited to share my progress with you guys. I’d eventually like to make my work/design open source and see what more talented suspension engineers can do with it. If I didn’t just buy one of these yesterday I’d offer to trade you a complete kit for one of them KN20 heads XD. A bummer indeed, just another bump in the road! Funny you mention Stock Car blade-swaybars. It’s basically all I’ve been looking at for switching over to that design. Plus the parts are pretty cheap & standardized. Thanks everyone.

This is awesome. We haven't had a good engineering project on here in a while, so this is a good to see.

The hairlines weren't that bad, it was the handful that were going through the edge of the rotor that I was worried about. Friday marked my first return to the track in almost 2 years. Knocked off a bunch of rust, the car worked the whole time, and I made a couple changes that were impactful and improved the car. I went pretty slow, so y'all could enjoy some v8 sounds for longer than normal

It was a good idea not to wait on rebuilding the 3.54 diff. The new LSD arrived weeks after I expected it and there's no shot I would have been able to swap it into the spare R200 before my trip. I'm excited to get this together in the winter though!

Some of their stuff is good and some is hot garbage. Max the owner doesn't stand behind his product and has a tendency to try and blame "modifications" to your car as the reason. I have a lengthly (4 page) post on classic z car about my problems with his door assemblies. Resurrected Classics door problems I have their door weather strips and their fuel filler neck and the are excellent. My advice is no matter what you buy test fit as soon as it arrives and go from there. The doors were so bad that I ended up not using them. Max refuses to refund my money so I make sure to take the time to tell people about my experience. Do not trust what he says as he says whatever he needs to to get out of doing the right thing. Caveat Emptor with this guy for sure.

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

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

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.

I just found this site as i started building my Z, and will be following along as you finish up this project. We are on somewhat similar paths so this will be fun to watch it come together.

Lower than 100kpa at WOT could be elevation too, if this log happen to be somewhere higher than your used to logging take that into consideration aswell. Id think where you have the filter should be a good spot for air. unless the aero is really creating a negative pressure spot for some reason. If thats not the case id think your on the right track with looking at valve train stuff. But don't rule out the sensor itself or the hose feeding it.

My photo album for the build is located here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/FEXaWgYEMedA2FJv9 My first project car is a 1973 Datsun 240Z. Like many cars, it was mostly stock with a lot of rust when I bought it around 5 years ago. I taught myself to weld and did all the rust repair. I replaced floorboards, frame rails, and many small patches in the fender wells. Then, I rebuilt the braking system and replaced numerous broken or rusted-out parts. Next, I re-gasketed the engine, drained the fuel tank, and cleaned the fuel system. I took the car down to bare metal and tried a DIY paint job. After that, I drove the car for about 3,000 miles around town and on a couple of road trips. I had my fair share of trouble. I had to replace a fuel pump, the alternator only puts out about 12.5 volts, and the wiring harness is starting to show its age, and the previous owners that created a rat's nest. Recently, I purchased another project car that came with a lot of parts and swapped them on. I added TTT coilovers all the way around, Arizona Z Car lower control arms front and rear, Arizona Z Car tie rods, upgraded front sway bar, new front valance, fender flares, and trimmed fenders for clearance, Watanabe wheels, and Toyo R888s (215 front and 235 rear.) I also cleaned up the interior a lot with new door cards and interior trim pieces. Recently, I replaced the billet diff mount with a new polyurethane one, fixed a lot of my early welding, did a full engine service, got the door handles working promptly, and modified the exhaust because it hung about four inches too low. After this, I put about another 2,000 miles on the car. All this work has the car in pretty good condition, but there are still a few things left to have a true daily driver quality car: 1.) Fix the exhaust. I got it tucked up nicely, but between my poor welding and previous owners, there are several leaks, and it sounds terrible. 2.) Rewire the car. I have the brake, reverse, and running lights working. However, I have never been able to get the turn signals to work, and the gauges work very seldomly. I have purchased a 21-circuit harness from EZ Wiring and will rewire the whole car in the next month or two. https://www.ezwiring.com/product-page/ez-wiring-21-standard-wiring-harness 3.) New gauges. EZ Wiring sells new gauage kits. I'm not sure if the 50-year-old gauges are broken or if the wiring harness is bad. So, I think I'm just going to replace the gauges with a set I know will work with the new harness. https://www.ezwiring.com/product-page/shark-mechanical-gauges 4.) Re-attach the skid plate. I had cut the plate off because the bolts were rusted and stuck in the car. I fixed the plate by welding some washers on the bolt holes, but I need to drill out all the old bolts and tap for new ones. I don't have the car lowered that much, so I'm not too concerned about it, but it would be a nice piece of mind. 5.) Alternator. Ever since I have owned the car, the alternator has not worked properly. Recently, I had the alternator rebuilt with quality parts and bench tested. I know it works, but the car is only putting out 12.5 volts when running. I have played with the wiring and got the alternator to put out 14 volts, but then you can smell the wires burning from too much juice. Like I said, there is a rat's nest from the previous owners. I am at least the fourth owner, but I don't have a full history of the car. I have an FSM, but the wiring guide no longer matches because of all the other owner's work. This is why I plan to replace the whole harness. I'm hoping the new harness with better relays with fix my charging issue. 6.) Alignment. After I put the new suspension on, I did a garage alignment, and it is pretty good, but I would like a professional to take a look. I have that scheduled for next week. 7.) New Dashboard. My current dashboard is pretty rough. It has several cracks and looks pretty bad. I have a newer, crackless dashboard. When I rewire the car, I'm hoping to swap the new one in and put some sound deadening behind the dash while I'm at it. I'll post my progress if anyone is interested, and I'm sure I will have a couple of questions. I know the last finishing touches take the most amount of time. I'll also answer any questions anyone has, but I'll warn you that I'm a hobbyist. My full-time job is as a lawyer, and I'm by no means the best mechanic in the world. My welding has also gotten a lot better, but it surely isn't that good. Thanks!

Hi HybridZ, Some of you have already seen my Apex Engineered Track Attack information/discussion thread here, I've decided after reviewing the design of the Apex Engineered front suspension kit, the best solution moving forward is to design my own. In this thread I will be documenting my progress and hopefully gaining knowledge on suspension design from you guys (or from what's left, f**k Facebook groups). To start... Why don't you just use the AE kit? It was $4000, you're just gonna waste $4000??? (Yes) Not enough shock travel, that's pretty much it. Once I received the shocks from Viking I realized immediately that 3.20" of stroke was not going to be enough and thus set out on a fool's errand to find alternative solutions. Viking shocks, from what I've found, have the most shock travel per the physical dimensions of the shock that I've seen so far. They're compact and the adjustment knob is well-designed to take the least amount of space with respect to the rest of the shock body. Very nice, but I will ultimately use either JRi's Mod series DA shocks or Penske's 7800/8300 series DA shocks as now, getting a shock long enough to reach between the strut tower and the LCA is more important. Design (pictured with 17" diameter wheel) The most prominent feature of my SLA design is the UCA pickup being located within the engine bay. The shock tower must be cut and a box structure is welded to the frame rail. This design is based on both the Maier Mod 2 design and Cortex Racing SLA kit seen here: Maier SLA Design Cortex SLA Design The reason I moved the chassis pickup for the UCA inboard was to extend the length of the control arm which should allow for a more compliant spring than the offerings from Apex. Mike Maier inferred the reason for the obscenely high rates was to keep the super short UCA from camming over and ruining the geometry. Fine for a super stiff autocross car but for a road-course car with kerbs, burms, and undulations in the track surface? Unacceptable. With this shock, I'll be looking at around 7-8" of total shock stroke travel. The remaining part of the design lies with the spindle (not shown) and the boxed-structure (also not shown). The boxed-structure was fairly straightforward to design - shout out to @Ben280 for sending me frame rail measurements while my car's been at the body shop. The boxed structure welds to the chassis frame rail located in the engine bay which the cross-shafts then mount to. The spindle is obviously not straight forward, fortunately for me there's plenty of resources on the LocostUSA forums for me to look at as well as Chassis Design and Race Car Vehicle Dynamics by Milliken and Milliken. Once the completed version 1 of the design is done, I’ll begin FEA with a safety factor of 1.15-2.00 at some lateral load to make sure everything should work without buckling. Until then, I have two separate designs, one utilizing Mustang II style cross-shaft mounting structures and one using Maier’s. The main difference being the orientation of the cross-shaft mounting bolts to the boxed-structure with the Mustang II’s bolts facing down, and Maier’s facing sideways. With the bolts facing sideways relative to the longitudinal axis of the chassis, side load is transmitted into the boxed structure through the bolts on their axial axis as opposed to their shear axis. Bolts do not like shear, however the Mustang II design is insanely popular so I suppose I could be overthinking this. Maier Cross Shaft Mounting Design Cortex/Mustang II Cross Shaft Mounting Design Methodology Starting with a 3D scan of the 240z that I re-topologized into ~10000 quads, I modeled an accurate-enough solid body of the fender well and shock tower. From there, I (roughly) modeled the Apex Engineered LCA (will probably try to use the T3 ones I currently have installed on the car as they are boxed structures), the Penske 8300 coilover at ride height, and upper control arm. You may have noticed the bottom of the shock clipping into the LCA, please ignore that, you didn't see that. In regards to swaybars, I will try to get the OEM sway bar design to work with my suspension, however due to the bottom of the shock being mounted on the LCA roughly where the swaybar links, this may be difficult to engineer. I could copy Maier’s LCA design, using a bent-tubular lower arm picture here: Moving forward, it might be easier to design my own boxed structure and try to mount a blade-style sway bar instead. Procurement While there's going to be a lot of custom laser cut metal from SendCutSend, I wanted to keep this kit as OTS as possible. I am not particularly interested in spending buku-bucks on one-off billet parts nor am I keen on dipping my feet into scaled automotive aftermarket product design & manufacturing. That being said, the spindles will likely need to be entirely custom if I can't find an alternative OTS. If I can find an upright on the market that fits my criteria I will definitely go for that, I’m trying to avoid using a Mustang 2 spindle as its shorter than I’d like it to be and completely wastes my steering knuckles and 370z spindles supplied from Apex Engineered (though steering knuckles and spindles are relatively cheap). Next Steps The complete version 1 of this design will be complete soon. Once I've finished my spindle and boxed structures the real work starts, articulating the design through all of its axes of rotation and movement will reveal conditions of binding and the dynamic geometries of the suspension. I started work on this project about a week or two after I placed my order for Apex Engineered SLA kit and have been doing it in my free time which is quite difficult to come by. God willing I shall endure.

Got a lot of the rear track attack kit put together today. It went together pretty well, their videos are very helpful. Only minor issue was these lock washers being too big, just ground them down a bit.

I don't know how you have the engine placed, but I would offset the engine about 1 inch toward the passenger side. The drive shaft angle is easier to minimize with the engine shifted in-line with the pinion. This also makes the weight distribution a little better when you are in the car.

4200 engine update. Progress pics of my intake. almost ready to go to the polisher!

So after doing a valve adjustment my ITBS did sync up better . I guess I will have to keep an eye on that. I took out most of the injector trims and my afrs between the banks paired up better -especially at light cruise . I also worked out linkage issues I was having. You get no instructions with this kit and there was adjustments that I could have done better like the main rod-the only rod-to bellcrank. I didnt have it pulling the linkage in a straight line. Also found the linkage on the side of the ITB loose . This caused the linkage to rub against the body of the ITB. I got all this sorted right before ZCON . It was 4.5 hours to Nashville on smooth highway. 80 mph is where she likes to cruise . AFR's were around 15 on flat ground. No issues on the round trip. Got some great compliments from Peter Brock on my airbox . Cold idle is still 650rpm and about 800rpm when hot . AFRs at idle are normally around 13.1 Now to move on to IAC . I gave up on it right before I left .

Car is getting some tail tonight!

People's Choice at a small cars and coffee in town this weekend. Brakes feel really good. It's weird feeling how firm the pedal is compared to the originals now that it's all stainless hoses and the rear has been upgraded. Even the parking brake is better than I expected! Getting wheels balanced today - I know for a fact one had a couple weights knocked off, I can see where the adhesive was, and I'm still upset about how many weights they used to balance one corner. Someone wasn't doing their job right when they mounted the tires I think, because there's no way you need two long strips on opposite sides to get a wheel balanced.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Once, you installed the Differential and Cage with the Support Bracket into the Two Vertical Mounting Bolts, the Two Forward Differential Mounts can be installed into the Transmission Tunnel. Left Mount Right Mount Note-Earlier 240z has mounting bolt holes close together so drilling an another hole maybe necessary(call Vlamir for assistance), Important Fact------My New Ford Motorsport Super Duty 8.8 Differential came with the Large Aluminum Pinion Flange so I had to fabricate a New Crossmember for clearance problem. I decided to modify the Original Nissan Differential Crossmember. Pic shows Sonan Adaptor on the Pinion Flange. Pic of 8.8 Differential with the Old Style U-Joint. Note the Close Clearance between Flange and Incredible Extreme Crossmember already. Original Nissan Transmission Crossmember taped and marked for metal cutout on top area. Cardboard Template of Aluminum Flange marking Side Cutout. Using 4 1/2" Cutoff Wheel to cut out Top Section of crossmember. Top Section of Crossmember removed. Both Side Sections were cut out to form the Lower Round Shape. Finished Crossmember Side View View of bottom of Modified Crossmember. Finished and Mounted Crossmember. Next-Modified Driveshaft and Driveline Alignment.

Small fiberglass update. I got the general shape made, and it's ready for trimming and bonding together. I'd like to test fit it on the car, and make sure the radiator is picking up in the right spot. Excited for this, we've got fully ducted air going into and coming out of the radiator now!

Thanks, calZ. I switched my throttle cable at the TB from the very top position to the bottom one. I also tried the middle one (not much success there). The car feels normal again.

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-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).

240z hidden drive by wire actuator for my ITB setup. This is design number 4. This plan utilizes a Efi hardware actuator. The goal is the same length arm to the bell crank and distances from shafts and the rod. So the rod passes through the firewall evenly and doesn’t walk from left to right. This will mount to the pedal plate and the steering box mounts. So behind the firewall Prior designs walked too much in the hole and I don’t want that.

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.

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.

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