madkaw

Thanks Terry for the reply, I was a little worried about what kind of movement would be there.

I do have in the poly bushings and I am running the RT mount. As far as the vent goes, I took out the original and inserted a nylon hose so it would have some flexibility. I just need to figure out a place to stick the hose or find a filter for the end. My cross brace is welded lower then yours so you probably have more clearance then I do in that area.

Well I finally finished my latest(while I'm at it) project. Now the parts are painted and installed for good-I hope. Jon, I hope you see this because I need to ask you about the clearance between the moustache bar and the reinforced uprights. I put large washers between the diff and the moustache bar to space the diff forward away from the uprights now that the uprights have more material on them. Even with that, the breather off of the diff is right up against brace that connects the two uprights. How much movement can one expect from the moustache bar?

Here the latest. I recieved my heim joint set-up and welded a nut onto the bolts on the rear control arm. Jon, as you can see the bolts turned out to be very short. I might have actually got away with drilling and tapping the bolt since there was ample clearance between the cover and the threaded rod. I believe this will be plenty strong for what stress it will endure. I need to make slotted holes now in the uprights and make some nutplates.

Well here's my 81 zxt(actually it's my daughters-I bought it for her:wink:). I bought it for 1500$ and it has 91k miles on it. I have put more money and time then what I should have for a college car, but I wanted my daughter to have something cool to drive. I told her that if she ever earned a scholarship I would buy her a new car, but I think she rather I paint her Z and keep it going instead. I forgot to add that everything works on this car-down to the clock!

I think I have the uprights finished. I started making it too big looking for strength, but then I noticed the clearance on the moustache bar getting too tight, so I widdled'er done a bit. Now clearances look better. The diff vent lines right up (in the way)with the brace work, so I had to notch it(the brace) for room. I think I will run a rubber line in the vent hole so I can direct it around the brace. I need to elongate the holes for adjustment and make some of those handy nutplate pieces that BlueOvalZ made to make adjustments easy. I just ordered the heim joint today to finish out my plan to connect the control arms. I found a complete set up for about 50$ using .5" ends. Once I get the rod ends I can figure the length on the bolt to be welded to the control arm pivot bolt.

That bolt that I used in the pic is way too long, I just used it as an example. Since my control arms are just flopping around there in the picture, it is hard to tell how long of a bolt I will need, but I was figuring that the heim joint would be about 1.5 inches off the head of control arm. I am with you Jon in keeping the bolt as short as possible, PLUS reinforcing the uprights so that the heim joint is only really there for adjustment and not carrying much of the load. Next time I have time, I will bolt up everything and take better measurements and some more pics. Now to learn how to make TIME:)

I know this thread is a little old , but the context is very relevant so I thought I would ask your opinions on an idea I had. I am also installing an LSD complete with cover on my s-30. I would also like to have the toe adjustment advantage(while i'm at it thing you know). My option would to be weld studs or bolts on to the control arm pivot bolts as a mounting point for my heim ends and for adjustment( inplace of the transverse link) The bolts would only need to be a 2.5 inches to clear the fins and I would reinforce the uprights like Jon did with his, so the load isn't on the heim ends. It is just a very simple place to have the adjustment. I guess the question would be-is that area strong enough? That pivot bolt is 7/8" approx, but don't know it wasn't made for that kind of loading.(although loading would be minimized by upright reinforcement) If this is a viable option, what grade of bolt would you use and would an half inch bolt be plenty big enough?

It sounds deep and throaty and just better all the way around. My daughter even liked the way it sounded-of course she was just glad to get her car back:) I am still really impressed by the bang for your buck with this improvement-especially since I had to do the job anyway. Now I need to start shopping around for an intercooler setup.

Well after hours on my back and a lot of cursing(wasn't really that bad) I got the exhaust done. I had the flange made by a local machine shop out of 3/8" steel. Nothing fancy, just a rectangular flange with 5 holes punched in it-40$. I managed to utilize the 2 band clamps to have 2 seperation points. Of course the use of band clamps meant that the ends had to butt up square. Getting it all the come togther was the hard part. I had to remake the joints on the downpipe twice. My welds aren't the best, but they should hold just find. After driving the car I am a true believer of the added HP from this upgrade. Definite improvement all the way around. I actually timed the car before changing the exhaust. I did some "passing gear" runs timing the car from 50-70mph. Now this car is an automatic, so I let the car downshift on its own. Before 3" 50mph-70mph 6.5 seconds after 3" 50mph -70mph 4.9 seconds I think that is very respectable improvement for the little investment in time and money, especially since I needed a new exhaust anyway. The exhaust tips were chaepies from autozone.

I Have been following your thread on the members projects and you do nice work. I went with just 2 disconnect points using the band clamps. I'm going the cheaper route with two 8$ clamps. Now I need to come up with the flange for the turbo since the one I ordered is incorrect.

Well I hit my first bump in the road since the flange I got does not fit the turbo. I ordered it with the pipe but the bolt pattern is square instead of rectangular like on the stock turbo. So off to the machine shop I ran and I am having one made. This will slow things up since I need to tie the front with the back part of the exhaust so I can check clearance. I'm not happy with the back half and I am going to shoot for more clearance. I almost forgot how much this is a pain in the back to do-I said almost:)

Drax, the exhaust you have now is exactly what I am building -sorry to hear it sounds like a motorboat. It actually didn't sound too bad in the video. I don't know if you can achieve the sound you want easily with the turbo, but good luck.

I'm also looking for a source for those long studs used for the down pipe flange.s

Didn't slow n rusty do a 3.5".

Well I am finally getting around to fabbing up the 3" exhaust for my daughter's 81 280zxt. Anyone that has done this project that wants to share some helpful hints -PLEASE chime in here:) I am planning on a 2&1/2" downpipe transitioning right into 3" the rest the way back. I have purchased 2 bungs so I can reinstall the O2 and later installal a wide band. I do not plan on running a cat. I purchased my mandrel stuff at http://www.mandrel-bends.com/catalog/. They seemed to have the best pricing and a sweet transition piece. I am using all 16 guage aluminized to a dynomax 3" inlet to twin 2.5's. I have started the project-starting from the rear. I think the "over the hump" part around the diff will be the most difficult. Infact, my first ? is the clearance in that area. I tried to take level pics to show how the pipe hangs around the diff area. The bend is maybe one inch below the lowest point-being the sway bar---do you think I have this up tight enough? I am worried about getting to close around the CV. I am planning on using 2 exhaust band clamps(butt type) to make the exhaust removable as needed. One band clamp will be near the front,probably right after the down pipe and the other will be wherever I have another set of factory pipe ends that I know will butt up squarely-probably around the diff somewhere. It looks like I will be able to use all of the original hangar hardware-atleast the rubber hangar parts are still good and I can modifly off of that. Any comments on the band clamps? I know the V style are better, but these are 8$ a piece. I used them on my duals for my 240 and they tightened up nicely, but I have no actual run time on them. I need to find some exhaust tips for the muffler. I was hoping to find some cheapo chrome tips for now instead of the high dollar SS. I know I am sounding like a tight ass here, but I have spent 2k in the last 3 months on this car and my daughter is attending IU right now and you know who is footing the bill. She absolutley loves this car though and I need to get it back to her soon.

Where the X pipe ended up was just a matter of where it would fit. The L6 set up is NOT condusive to this arrangement. It would have helped it I could have afforded the equal lenght headers from Stahl, but the MSA header,(cheap=affordable) are unequal so I tried to adjust for that after the collector. There is very little room to be Xing around under there. Atleast my car is painted and I can start installing all this hard work. Ironically, I need to finish my daughters 3" exhaust on her 81zxt before I can mess with my car. Way too many Z's in the garage right now:icon6: I like doing exhaust work-except the laying on your back stuff, it is fun fabrication for me. My daughters car will be a challenge too.

It is kind of funny to call this windshield repair since I broke the windshield taking it out:icon56: I was doing well until the tool I was using hit a snag and I leaned a little too much and next thing I know-crack! I had already researched prices for new ones and found someone to install a new one for 165$, so I could live with the loss. Let me backtrack for a second and say that I did follow my previous plan and sandblasted the area around the windshield before trying to remove it. It actually worked out well to keep the sand out of the inside of the car-even though sand still got in, so maybe that's how the water got in. I really only found one hole where it rusted thru, and that wouldn't have let water inside the car. I think the fact that the rust was so bad that the seal was no longer effective and that seemed to be proven by how easy it was to cut around the glass. The pitting was substantial and must have led to the leaks. I decided on por-15 patch for the repair. It would stop the rust, plus the putty like substance would fill the voids and small holes left by the pitting. I took care to only apply it in the molding area and not on any exterior surfaces that need paint. The exterior stuff I sprayed on por-15 paint to be later top coated with tie coat primer -then finish color. I haven't finished yet, so here are some pics of what I did do.

The rotas were not part of the group buy since they are 8.5" +4 offset. I believe they were 700 shipped. As far as cost. I probbaly have 1500$ in materials-that's all materials.

The car has 1" lowering springs-of course it doesn't look like it now. Thanks for the comments guys.

Hey guys, I shared this at CZCC, but I also frequent this site so I thought I would share here also. It has been a long road, but I have finally painted my car. Actually my friend painted the car with my help when i could. The color is true red by Mazda. It is a base/clear coat. It will need some serious color sand and polish, but I am very happy. I can finally start putting my car back together-instead of taking it apart:-D I think the color will work out well since I am blacking out all the trim. This color really blings in the sun.

That's funny Chris-that's the LAST thing I want to do at 60mph

Actually most locomotives are turbocharged, but I don't get to play with the wastegate.

Actually I'm an engineer, but I used to be an conductor. Conductor's job is a little boring on a freight train-until it breaks in half-then the conductor has to get busy. At least I have some thing in my hands to play with all night(the controls), so it helps keep me awake. It's torture when you have a heavy train an no power-then it's a long night. Now you get a 8000ft train and 14,000tons and about 16,000 horses and then things get fun-for me anyway. There is nothing like a challenge to keep you in the game. Sometimes I think about the discussions here about torque and I just smile while I look at the "effective effort" guage on the engine pushing 50k-100k lbs of torque:shock: and that's just one engine. I will try and take some pictures next time I am on an engine that has a locomonitor that I can show the engine rpms, horsepower and torque and finally amps-it's kind of fun to watch the numbers Enjoy a brief ride http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/_mad_kaw_/

yes it's heavy which effects my 0-60 times:)