mom'sZ

Jon: I think there is no doubt that it would be better areodynamically to have a lexan window in there instead of nothing at all. I think a mirror mounted inside (out of the air flow) would also be better. I seem to recall a study being done by the state troopers in my state that found they used less gas running the A/C with the windows up then not running it with the windows down. Only thing I'm wondering is would the speeds you obtain in an autoX be high enough (for long enough) to make a difference?

I wouldn't be to quick to toss the stock 280z fuel injection in favor of carbs. The stock fuel injection is a good simple reliable system. Like any other part of a thirty year old car, it must be brought up to factory spec, but once done it will perform well for years with zero maintenance. First step is to replace every vacumn line on the system. Unless recently done, they are cracked, crusty and old. Second step is to disconnect every electrical connector on the fuel injection system and blow out with some electrical contact cleaner spray. The fuel injection wiring harness is a complete separate wiring harness from the rest of the car. There are only around a dozen connectors. Clean 'em up good. The connectors onto the actual fuel injector get crusty, but new replacement connectors are cheap, available and easy to splice in. Download the fuel injection 'bible' (search). It's the factory service manual for the fuel injection and it explains the whole system and give diagnoistic procedures. Go to atlantic Z car club web site and check out blues tips for modding and maintaining the system. (again search man search) Once the above is done, this system will perform nicely. Replace the stock air filter with a high flow cone filter, install your header, have the exhaust shop plumb a 2 1/2" pipe to a decent high flow muffler and done. I wouldn't worry about a rear disc conversion, just get the stoack brakes working well. Replace the bushings in the suspension (or have them replaced by a reputable Zcar shop) and enjoy. If you do decide to go carbs, PM me and I will buy the fuel injection manifold, throttle body and air flow meter from you.

If you are pointing at the thermotime switch, that would only effect the mixture during start up / warm up. The water temp sensor on the other hand would screw up the mixture at all times. It's been my experience that when the temp sensor goes bad, the mixture goes full rich and the car will barely run and smokes like a dog. It (the water temp sensor) is cheap (15$) and available at any auto parts place. Replacing it is cheap easy diagnostics. My thermotime swith has been disconnected for months but I live in florida. All these comments are based on 280z 75 -78 stock fuel injection. Both sensors run into the fuel injection harness, a completely seperate harness from the rest of the wiring. It starts at the ECU, next to the drivers left foot, on the kickpanel. It runs through the firewall on the drivers side and up the inner fenderwell. It crosses from the fenderwell to the engine about where the strut tower is. It is the same harness that the fuel injectors are hooked to. Both those sensors are wired into that harness. The water temp gauge is the only other wire hooked in that area. It is a single wire connector which is on the end of the engine bay harness which comes through the firewall on the passenger side, runs up the passenger side fenderwell, through the core support, across the front of the core support, back through the core support, and back up the drivers side fenderwell.

Hey NCchris: This is just my humble opinion... but I would most definitly NOT cut out that toolbox area. That is an important structural part of the unibody. Now if you were to add subframe connectors, a roll cage and other stuff to reinforce the chassis, it would be less important, but unless I had a compelling reason to do so (like something else NEEDED to go there) I would leave it in. The best 'tub' cars use both the stock unistructure and the added cage members to build the most rigid platform. O/T but are you the guy that bought those hosed lower front control arms from me?

very VERY important! The wheel houses are one of the strongest parts of a unibody. Back in the day, I remember a friend 'triming' his wheel openings for tire clearance. (he said "they were rusty anyhow") Not long afterwards a good holeshot retired the car.

Well mine are ground control, they bolt in (from the underside) and had no clearance issues with the hood but the adapter / sleeve / collar GC sent to make them work with my Konis allowed the struts to stick up enough that they (the struts) hit the hood. Another call or two to GC and they sent me some others that worked better.

Hey I figured some of you turbo guys ect. might know this. Those silicone elbows, tubes that people use for intake systems, how flexible are they? I want to replace the one between the AFM and the TB and the one between the AFM and the filter. The AFM and TB are both just over 2 and a half inches (2 9/16") Will the silicone elbow stretch over that? or should I find some 2 and 3/4"? Thanks

Grump: I just ordered a leveler from jegs a few days ago. Last time was a pain without it. Nifty idea for the swivel, where can I order one of those?

I'm not sure of when the crossover was but the 75 & 76 had the N42 head without the EGR and the 77 & 78 had the N-47 head with the steel exhaust port liners and EGR

Wheeler: Just so you know, I think BJHines touched on this, the unibody shell must be stripped down bare as sand will go EVERYWHERE! and I do mean everywhere.

Thanks for replying Larry that first link shows converting a 77 for the ZX distributor, got some good info but I need to use a 76 - 78 distributor as per class rules. Will the guts swap over? I didn't appear so. Anybody know of a good ignition for this car?

My car is a 77 280z. It has the factory electronic ignition. When I rev the car to 6K the stock module overheats and the car won't run very well. So I've read a bunch and trying to find a good ignition solution for the car. It's a scca its road race car. I found this thread where Jon M. discribes using the 79-8x ZX distributor with a GM HEI ignition module. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=110022&highlight=HEI Does this work with the 76-78 280z ignition? (the one with the module on passenger side kick panel, not the black box mounted on the distributor) Toward the bottom of the thread savageskaterkid posts link to dimequarterly article about how to do it. (great!) Here is the article (thanks SSkid) http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com/articles/tech_hei.html Here's anouther thread where Jon post article on Joseph Demers web site about how to rebuild distributor http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=107791&highlight=HEI With a wiring harness diagram posted. I would also be willing to use a pertronix or Crane (although I like that the pertronix doesn't have an external module like the Crane) I must use the stock distributor housing by the rule book. Any advise?

tony I did paint and body work for 25 years. I painted a lot of chrome bumpers and such, doing custom work. I paint over chrome with no problems with the paint chipping off or otherwise. But I would do a few things to make sure it (the paint) would stick well. First, I'd really give it a good scuffing, not with a scotch-brite either, usually a DA sander with 80 grit on it. Then I'd prime that with some high quality primer surfacer to get rid of the 80 grit scratches. Sometimes I used an adhesion additive first. I don't remember the exact brand but they probably have different stuff now anyhow. Ask your automotive paint jobber. Also, some painter types hang out in the paint forum here at hybridZ and might offer some more useful advise.

Now there ya go.... good stuff, thank you Bo here's another thread about wire size from our megasquirt section http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=124879

Wiring stuff is not my favorite task. I don't cheese ball it because it can be dangerous but I tend to get something working and figure on going back to 'do it right' later. Well almost everthing else is done and later is fast becoming now So... here is my question. What gauge wire is safe for what amp draw? How high of an amp draw should be operated by a relay? I'm no EE and haven't a clue. Now this is for a race car. Some of the circuits are mission critical. Cooling fans, fuel pumps, data aquisition systems, gauge lights, driver comfort items, all these types of things need wired up. I've looked at prewired kits and such, and will probably buy a switch panel with circuit breakers built in so driver can try to reset, but the harness itself is to specialized for any kit to suit me. So a chart or something? amps vs wire gauge or is it more complicated then that? Also any source for automotive type electrical supply on the net

And what.... steal it? ...joking

L-28 engines (that's what it is right?) have BSP threads (British Standard Pipe thread) You can get fittings and pipe plugs from McMaster Carr

I've donated and I'll donate again, ads or not.... this is the best internet site period Thanks SuperDan, thanks HybridZ

OTM: I think this is a good idea. I think I may have even suggested something like this in another thread. Done right, it could really help with side impact. There might even be room for two bars in there. The most important aspect would be to try to make the bar and it's mount plates wider then the door opening in the body. If you look at most modern cars, a lot incorporate aircraft style doors. It helps aerodynamics but it's also a safer design for side impacts. The door itself is much larger then the opening it goes in and overlaps the body as much as 3 or 4 inches all the way around. That makes it harder for another vehicle to penetrate the cabin. The unibody deforms, but the door doesn't push through. The main problem with a full cage in an S30 is that the interior area is small. The roof bar running from the main hoop to the a pillar area has to go by your head, depending on how tall you are and how low the seat is, with in inches of your head. Like BJhines has pointed out and I can confirm, your head often touches the bar. There is no other place to run it.

280Zforce: Like gret/jas said I had to trim a slot into the bottom one on each side where the end tanks are. My rad is a fluidyne 24 x 19 Didn't use the top mount only the bottom. It comes with chevy style rad rubber mount thingies. If the same thing is made of aluminum now though notching it like that could weaken it. (I still want one, the steel one is kinda heavy) They had them in stock and UPSed it right out, I think I had it in 3-4 days

I'm guessing 'whatever' John

Spyder Z: You may have problems using the autopower bolt in. Most cages are custom made however and the driver's size and getting him comfortable inside the car are a major criterion for the cage design. For what I paid for the Autopower cage plus having it truck shipped from Cali to Florida, I could have had a custom cage done locally. For a taller driver, the cage is constructed with a couple of S bends in the crossbar of the main hoop to allow more seat room. The additional room is needed for the seat back brace. Anyhow, Pop is right, roll cages are for race cars (mine is a SCCA ITS)

Bartman: It is my opinion that one of the benefits of the wheel well mounted Autopower bar is that the main hoop is further back then it could possibly be if it went all the way to the floor in front of the wheel houses. I'm six foot tall, and to be able to work the clutch pedal I sat with the stock seat about one or two clicks up from full back. At two clicks foward, I have to tilt the seat back one click from fully upright to be back away from the wheel enough to be comfortable. In either of those two configurations, the seat back is pretty much against the crossbar. All the way back and tilted back a click or two probably won't work.

I wanted to comment further on this one thing you said. Like I said in my post above, the ECU has it's own positive and negative power feed. They are somewhat larger two wires running along the top of the firewall from the drivers side to the battery. They are not as thick as battery cables but are thicker then most wires in the harness. When the battery cables are replaced during the service life of the car, often a universal type cable is used. Often these universal cables have a second smaller cable coming off the terminal and often on the posititve cable the second smaller cable includes a fusible link. I don't think the car comes stock with this fusible link in that configuration. But since the car needs a second smaller wire (for the ECU harness) that smaller wire is used for this purpose. I think the ECU is fused else where. But if that (non stock) fusable link (attached to the batttery cable) is blown, power will not reach the ECU and no joy.