Snailed

That should be ok, but if you can get another 1/2" or so I would do that. What is the O2 question?

If you don't want to 100% original and can fabricate, just make your own. My '71 had a little tweak and a bad repair on the right front rail so I made new rails, bent the upper rail on the RF back into alignment and stuck it all back together. It's some work but my car very straight and will be stronger than stock when I'm done ( I hope).

I have been working on taking the manifolds and wiring off the engine and cleaning up parts of it as I go. I also got some aluminum 300zx or skyline calipers. The rears bolt on to the q45 spindles with a little trimming of the dust shield and the fronts may be fit to the Wilwood spindles or I may look at something a little smaller to help get the brake bias to the rear a tiny bit since I am guessing I'll have a 55%+ rear weight. I'm starting to think I won't make my weight goal...looking at lighter seats and maybe not making the tunnel quite as strong as planned. Today I started fitting the engine and removed the tunnel. I'm raising the engine and moving it back a little, mostly so I can duct the radiator and intercooler exhaust through the top of the hood. This put the #1 spark plug slightly behind the front axle line. It looks like with the engine and pinion both at 0 degrees, I can get about 2 degrees total on the driveshaft split equally front and rear. I need to play with it a little more ans then start making front engine mount brackets. I'm thinking about using poly bushings for the engine mounts.

The seals should still be fine even after six years. If you don't already have one, I would bet that a ~.080" restrictor would make the leaking stop. An unrestricted 1/4" feed line is way overkill for a turbo feed line.

Nice, you're going to like that setup I bet.

If my primary need was for a small vertical band saw, I would get a quality portaband and a table stand from swag http://www.swagoffroad.com/SWAG-V30-Portaband-Table_p_55.html It would be easy to store and you could always use the portaband in the conventional manner for other projects. Tools at home despot are really hit or miss on quality, regardless of brand. I would much rather support a smaller tool supply store where they sell mostly to contractors and can give you lots of good advice and stock replacement parts. It might cost a little more at first but in the end I never regret buying from experts instead of moms that needed to stay busy once the kids went off to college.

Hey, just trying to keep the information straight. Sharing a discovery is what this place is all about...it just didn't happen to work out. My measurements could be wrong too. I would encourage another opinion on this.

I did one smaller patch today and then dressed all the welds on that side and metal finished them. It's pretty smooth but it would need more work if I was trying to make a show car. I might straighten it out a little bit after I media blast the whole car later. I threw on a coat of primer so it doesn't rust while I finish the rest of it. It's easy to wipe it off with thinner if I need to weld something, like the seam between the rail and the inner fender. I'm thinking of using a progressive rate BMW steering rack...I'm doing lots of research on the suspension now.

I took pictures for anyone interested.

RebeccaZ, you made me curious. I'm down at the shop working on my Z and I just had to weigh some bolts (we have a huge stock of new hardware on hand). I had trouble finding many grade 5s in the exact same configuration as the 8s. Some had thicker heads or a slight taper before the threads start, etc. I couldn't find any metric bolts in different grades that matched, we don't have as many metrics unfortunately. We have lots of stainless bolts too if anyone wants weights for those... First, I weighed two 5/8" x 3.5" bolts on a digital scale. One grade 5 and one grade 8. Except for the platings and the marks on the heads, they were identical. The 5 weighed 157.7 grams and the 8 weighed 157.3 I also found two 5/16" x 1" bolts but the 8 had a taller head. The 5 was 10.7g with the thinner head and the 8 was 11.6g My conclusion is that there is no real difference that would add up to more than a gram or two on a whole vehicle Time would be better spent cutting off unused threads and swapping in slim nuts where it was safe. Changing to aluminum bolts works in some places too.

Yes, people do it. It's too big a compromise for a street/track car in my opinion. I would rather have a slightly heavier exhaust than risk having all exhaust gasses dumping out under the hood in the middle of a 4th gear highway pull, 50 miles from home. For a strictly drag car it might be a reasonable trade off though.

This^ Look at how OEMs build stuff. They have millions of dollars invested in cooling designs that work. They all use pullers with shrouds and usually air guides on the front too.

Aluminum is fine for exhaust but it needs to be built with a little more attention to detail for it to last on any type of car. Don't run it all the way to the engine, start a couple feet back. A flex joint to isolate it from engine vibration and movement is very important as are hangers that prevent swinging and are designed with large surfaces in contact with the tube to prevent cracking (straps). An aluminum muffler can be a big weight savings too. You can also look into thinner steel tubes and lightweight racing "mufflers". Burns Stainless sells some sizes of tubing in 18g/ .049" which would save quite a bit of weight. I'm hoping to have an example of a light S30 exhaust to show you in about a year and a half...sigh

This is the stickied welcome post for the forum; "Finally a place to showcase all your custom projects that really don't fall into any other category. This forum is intended to share information amongst those that are making custom parts for their cars, as well as those with general welding/fabrication questions. So let's see pics of your projects, whether it's downpipes, differentials, control arms, or fence gates!" I posted something I made that didn't directly have to do with cars and it was moved to the non-tech forum even though it fits the above description. I think there are a lot of techniques, materials and ideas from outside the car industry that can be really useful for car people to see and adapt to their projects. For example, the project I posted had a cool trick for finishing the ends of pressed beads in sheet metal panels that I picked up from making electrical cabinets at an old job I had. Maybe it was moved for another reason, but I would like to be able to share other things with the Hybrid-Z guys that might spark a good discussion or help someone out with a project so I decided to post this here.

I like that forming die

So our Target special dish rack drain pan has been dumping water all over the counter for too long. I decided to make a simple stainless one that will actually guide the water into the sink. I made it from .065" 304ss with one polished side. The beads for drainage were just done on a roller and I finished the ends with a punch I made. The legs are just welded along the top edges and I polished turned up sides and welds on a 10" buffing wheel.

Thanks guys Yeah, generally bigger turbos will come on later and make more power...the turbine a/r doesn't really tell you anything though. You could have a 1.22 a/r housing maxing out at 250hp or 1500hp.Mine just looks so big because it's twin scroll, they are just fatter because the volute has a divider down the middle. Also I got the 4" inlet port shrouded inlet on the compressor cover which only comes as a compact housing, making the turbine look even bigger. The manifold runner volume does have some influence on boost response but I think it might limit flow if I ever want to put a big boy turbo on it (I won't be surprised if I buy I 2jz block and build it as soon as I get this thing on the road) we'll see. No quick spool valve, this will be a divided manifold.

Thanks so much for the encouragement. So I got the battery tray patch made and welded in today. I made it out of one piece and the amount of shrinking was a little excessive on one corner but overall it wasn't a bad piece to make. It's not exactly original. I took out that weird little jog where it meets the firewall because it was easier and I think it looks better being smooth. I snapped a bunch of pictures too in case anyone wants to see one way to do it.

It's freezing outside and I had the day off so I put a few hours into the 240. I got all the ugly metal cut out and fabricated a patch for the firewall. I wish I had the engine mounted already because the tunnel was in my way the whole time and I may end up removing it anyway. The panel stayed pretty straight and it's TIG welded so I probably only have ten to fifteen minutes dressing the weld and metal finishing it...and about three hours getting it to that point haha

I finally made some time to work on this. I got the large patch piece on the inner fender welded in on top and tacked to the rail. I'm leaving the center section unwelded because I think I'll probably remove or reshape the strut towers once I get the front suspension fabricated and installed. I used a torch and scraped a lot of undercoating off the top and bottom of the former battery tray area to see how I far I need to go with my patching there. I had drilled out the spot welds and removed the tray a while ago so it was pretty easy to see where the rusted metal was once the tar was scraped off. I'm going to have to split two seams here to get to the rust I can see. I have no doubt that I'll find more than I can see from the outside...

I got a new windshield today. I'm not sure how many people get excited about having nice new glass, but I know I do

You really can't say "completely wrong" and "no issues" until it is tested for a long time and done more than once with a very, very good reliability since this is a safety related system. Remember the scientific method from science class? Another thing to watch out for on forums is people doing something once, not testing it scientifically, and then telling everyone it works with no issues Hoses with braided covering are a maintenance item. Dirt gets between the liner and the braid and wears itself away until it is no longer serviceable. That doesn't happen with hardlines or rubber covered lines. That's probably why 99.9% of vehicals are sold this way and why many braided hose replacements are covered in rubber. There are also a lot of other reasons to not use braided hose for the whole brake system; -dramatically shorter replacement interval than steel, copper-nickle, or SS hard line -large bend radius -abrasive covering requires a lot more clips to protect adjacent body work or components from being cut -larger OD of -3 hose take up more room and is harder to route cleanly -no option to replace only the sections that get dirty and flex and wear faster -more expensive It does work, and people do it all the time, I just think it's a poor choice for a street car.

It's not rare for people selling older cars to peel up the carpet for a potential buyer. Ask them to do this for you. You should really poke all over any suspect areas with something hard but if there is bad rust you might put a big hole right through an area that looked perfectly fine. It could be awkward if that happens so you probably want to mention that you need to litterally poke around the car. Every car will be a little different as to which areas are rusty so I wouldn't rely only on what people suggest here. Look over the whole car. I'm sure you can search for the word "rust" on here and find a million pictures to help you see where they tend to get rusty. The UK is very moist so I would bet there will be some, somewhere.

You're right, it doesn't. I have put cable actuated, modified GM TPSs under the dash on cars with electronically controlled transmissions that were still running carbs. This was primarily for cosmetic reasons but the resolution was excellent and the functionality was very good and it could be adapted to virtually any car.

A new weight loss car? It probably shakes you like those fat jiggling machines too I bet.