madkaw

Well I thought I would share this family picture, and you can see it involves two families. I can't tell you how much my daughter loves this car-----still! She has been very patient dealing with the quirks of an older car, but it has been a good car, better then expected for her. Sarah is always riding the wave of attention the Z gives her. Most guys she knows are jealous and in awe of the car. Now that I have painted my car she is wanting her car to look as pretty! I went to visit her the other day on campus and we thought that the pictures would be cool in front of her sorority. My wife and I have discussed giving her our Subaru Forestor as a daily driver next year, but the first thing she cared about was what was going to happen to her Z. I don't know if there is anything else I could have given her that she would have enjoyed as long as she has enjoyed the Z. I told her that the Z will always stay in the family, and it will always be her car----and dad's to play with.

Please post up your finding with your wideband. I wish I had that tool to diagnose a similiar issue. My 2.4(40 over), higher compression with cam and dual exhaust seems to be running lean at top end with SM needles installed. The SU's run great and MPG is super, but I am like Jon and believe they run out of breath at top end. I also have some Mikuni's of the shelf just begging to be put on, but the SU's will have their day first.

Did mine about 2-3 years ago and the prop valve was NOT plug and play. I found out then that I couldn't flare a brake line for my life. I also couldn't find the correct adapter. I wound up having the line made with the proper length and ends and had it sent to me. It was like 10$, but I had piece of mind that the flare was correct.

I had about the same damage on my car from an earlier collision fron the previous owner. My car was basically rust free which gave me more options. I took my car to a frame guy and had the spot pulled out like yours, then i cut out the bad metal(not the whole frame rail), and replaced it for cosmetic reasons. If the metal is sound and you get it square, then bondo the dimple stuff and call it a day. Or cut out the bad stuff and replace.

Thats's interesting, because I am chatting with frank on CZCC and he was the guy before me with his triple mikuni's. He bottomed out their scale at 9.3 or something and I don't remember any plumes of smoke. he did admit that his car is running stinky rich right now. I will have to ask him if i just missed the smoke

I also have ORP less then 5 miles from my house with Friday night drags-30$ for unlimted runs on a premeir 1/4 mile track. I think that will be my dyno for now, and eventually maybe back to the other dyno. Honestly I have been very gentle with this car waiting for the engine to break in, but now i guess it's time to have some fun. I questioned if my diff would hold up also, because of strange noises, but now I have a spare incase something happens. I'll post-up if i make over there in the near future. By the way, I saw no black smoke on the dyno run-a little white smoke, but I expected that on a new engine. My next investment is a wideband set-up, I could use it for my car and my daughter's 81zxt.

I appreciate all the replies guys. This is my first dealings with a dyno run and deciphering a dyno graph-so all of you probably know more then me. As to certain aspects of the run;the engine was running rich at the time of the run. The foward SU piston needle was set too far up into the piston creating a rich condition. Rich enough to soot the plugs-so I figure that is what you are seeing with the low AFR. Needle was reset-plugs looked perfect. The carb floats were set to stock specs at the time of the run, but either my measurements were wrong or the stock specs didn't cut it for this engine. After returning home from ZCON, I adjusted the floats by more then a 1/8" on the tab, and the plugs still look perfect and the engine wasn't as flat on top end-noticable improvement. As far as the flat toque curve, I'm not sure what the deal is there, but this engine runs like that curve as far as having a very solid torque band across the rpm range. I am impressed how this motor will pull from any rpm. Weebeezeed, I am 15 minutes from greenwood. I will not be making any drastic changes based on this dyno run, but it did pick-up my richness problem, and it did show my leaness issue at the top end, so there is something to go by. I would like to find a point with my carburation that I atleast see some richness on the plugs, that i am making significant changes. As far as the 'set-em, forget-em" theroy, how is that possible. If I just went by the plugs and MPG and wasn't worried about anything else, I would have been happy with this dyno run. Now I have made a huge float adjustment(definetly not spec) and it runs better and still isn't rich. Bruce Palmer was the one to suggest float adjustment. Maybe the it is more then that, maybe the fuel pump is not maintaining the correct setting. An interesting note; the Z before me that had triples on his engine was also showing a very rich condition and making less HP then me. Could it been the suffocating heat that day-95+ degrees and humid?

Sam, you will have to update this thread if you get around to using this device to tune. I'm going to get one this week-end and try it out.

Maybe that's what I'm seeing on the graph, I'm running out of air-but guys have seen more hp with SU's. I'm guessing those SU's have been punched out a little to flow more. My timing might have cost me some hp also, since I believe it was set conservative. With dual 2" pipes this engine might need to breath a little more thru the carbs-I see the mikunis having their day soon What kind of compression are you running and what motor?

That's certainly an option, but I can't believe the SM's give out at 160hp. I guess I will tweek some more and see what happens.

Indianapolis

I guess I should have just asked,"hey dudes-howdoa make my car go faster-dudes", and this would have gotten more responses!

Well I got my car together just in time to drive down to Zcon. The engine was running really well with about 1000 miles on it. I got outstanding MPG with my SU's (26-28mpg) with my 3.7 LSD. I hadn't even taken the engine beyond 5krpm's till this point. They had a dyno at track days so i thought-what the hell-I'll give it a whirl. My timing was set conservative at 10 btdc at idle and 35 degrees all in with my zx dizzy. I am running SU's with SM needles. Other specs: 2.4 40 over with eyebrowed cylinder bores Assembly balanced, new pistons,stock lower end Compression running 195 across all 6 cylinders Head is early e-88,, shaved .10 ,semi closed chamber with larger stainless valves,unshrounded to ring on headgasket Schneider stage 2= 480 lift,270,270 Headers 6-3-2 duals 2" all the way back with crossover As you will notice with the graph I was slightly rich until I started into the power band, then she just fell on her face at 5100 and ran out of gas-basically. The richness issue was the foward SU piston needle beeing to far up-in the piston(figured that out later). The leaness was from improper setting of the float levels(I summized) After getting back from Zcon I when in there and tweeked the floats(big tweek) and noticed a more willing engine to rev, but I believe there is still quite a bit there.I pulled the plugs after the tweeking and the plugs looked about perfect. I was expecting to see more carbon as I made such a large adjustment, but they looked the same as before I adjusted. Do I tweek the floats until she doesn't run well anymore or the plugs change color, or is there something else I can do to fatten her up on the top. I have a set of tripple Mikuni's 40mm sitting on my shelf, but I am holding off putting them on until I have reached the limit on the SU's I have on there. I would like to do a fair comparison of the two set-ups and pick the best for overall satisfaction. I have access to a dyno here locally, but I want to do some butt dyno work before I cough up the 100$ per hour for a real dyno. Maybe after fattening up the fuel I can work on more timing, but the fear of running lean will keep me where I am at now.

Chris, I think the only issue is the MC booster studs spacing. The earlier 70-72 used the smaller booster unit and the spacing between the clutch and brake MC booster was narrower then the later years using the bigger booster-thus the clutch rod won't line up with the pedal. I learned this the hard way and have a excellent pedal box for a 73 on up that I can't use now. So it depends what your chassis was set up for-bigger or smaller booster.

I was looking for feedback and I truly appreciate it. Like i said, i was impressed to read that some tuners prefered this method over the more costly versions saying that the human ear was very good if not better in picking up the detonation. It a lot of cases you get what your pay for, I think in this example I think you can get away cheap in a trouble shooting or tuning device.

That would be great for a fuel injected motor with an ECU, but I am just an NA guy with SU's. From what i read in articles this device is more reliable then the expensive gadgets you can buy. The experiments done showed that the human ear was more reliable in deciphering engine knock(if you know what you are hearing) then almost anything you can buy. At 30$, it is a good start to avoiding damage to your motor. To say you are taking a chance on hurting the motor by relying on your senses I think doesn't take into account that you are actually trying with this device. What's nice about a device like this is that you could diagnose or pinpoint almost any noise on your car in any place while your driving. For me it will help diagnose a rear end noise from my diff(I think it's my diff). IMHO

By the way, I wish i had some more cash so I could make an offer on your cartech. I have some newer mikunis sitting on a shelf for this car, but in the end i would love to go the blow thru route. Good luck on your 2jz, maybe I come up with some money in the near future-my wife is getting a raise, maybe I nask for a loan-LOL

Thankyou very much. I have poored my heart and soul in that thing the last 2 years. The best part is not what you see, but what you hear. I need to get a sound clip of the exhaust put up!

Wasn't sure what forum to put this in, but I thought it was interesting to say the least. In pursuit of the perfect tune requires a lot of tools or track time it seems. I thought this would be an invaluable tool in regards to tuning-especially our engines and detonation. With a noisy valve train and my loud exhaust I am not sure I am hearing or deciphering properly detonation. I plan on making this tool to help me seperate noises and troubleshoot. I want to get the most out of my engine without hurting it(timing advance), so I would think this tool would be a no brainer. It's much cheaper then the LM1 I would love to have, and the LM1 won't detect detonation. Of all the reading I have done about our problematic #5 cylinder, I want to be sure that I am not advancing my timing to the point of damage. I am suprised I have not stumbled upon a thread of someone using this tool with all the work that has been done trying to remedy the #5 cylinder issue. http://autoweb.autospeed.com/cms/title_DIY-Detonation-Detection-Part-2/A_0353/article.html Love to hear some feedback on this

Okay, I guess I have something worth showing off now!

Just by the pictures the tires look to stick out further then mine. Different make of tires are a variable too.

There is another issue to consider, rubbing inside the wheel well once you clear the lip.Ask me how I know!!!!!!! I am running 17x8.5 with +4 offset with 245/45/17 tires. I cleared the lip once I modified it with some cutting, but now the tire sidewall rubbs on the curvature of the wheel well(right above the lip). My car has 1" lowering springs. Being that your offset is 0 you are out further then me, but I have wider tires,so it will be close. What I did was remove the spring and ran the tire all the way up in the well with a 235/45/17 and it cleared. Then I got greedy and went for 245's. You need to allow for buldging of the tire under load.

Bob, I reread your post and I could just move back the bracket i have now guess. At this point I will have to get another bushing since I altered mine. Anyone see a problem(since I will be fabbing anyway) to use a urethane type bushing(similiar to the type on a RT mount) or will this be to stiff compared to the stock and harm the motor mounts. I believe the bracket i have now(horizontal) has good rubber bushings to isolate noise. Somewhere on this site someone has done this, but can't find the tread to see how's it's working for him.

yes bob that might be the easiest solution since I do have one of the horizontal cradle types somewhere. I guess I will go back to the fab shop and set it up for a urethane mount and make the angle brackets to suspend from the verticle mount so I can use the other type mount.

The plan stands that if someone will buy my fiberglass fenders I will order the ZG flares,so I'm with you there Jon. I wanted to do this in the first place but shyed away from cutting on my rust free quarters and thought I diverted the situation by checking clearances-but alais I got greedy with one more tire size and here i sit-rubbing!