Z-Gad

Thanks for the vids... WOW that track was hooking!!

These cars are tinker toys... there is always something that needs to be worked on. The good part (for the early Z's) is that they are simple to work on once you get your hands dirty. Just a handful of metric tools and a shop manual will get you a long way. It is a great car to learn the ropes on. I would advise you to buy something that has spent it's life in the southwestern part of the country though... Arizona, New Mexico, etc. You'll be SOOOO far ahead in the long run. My 240z I bought here in Florida for $800. I drove it for 6 months until I drove through a puddle at around 40mph, and water flew up from under the passenger's side floormat and hit me in the face!! I started on what I thought would be some minor rust repair and ended up replacing the floors, framerails, rockers, rear quarters, inner wheel arches, fenders, doorskins, and hood. For what I spent on that I could have had a really good starter car from the southwest. Hindsight is 20/20... As far as what I have in it now, well, I have a ballpark, but try not to think about it too much. I throw all of my receipts in the circular file... I will never get out of the car the money that I have in it (not to mention the time), and having the evidence lieing around is just bad news (My wife a couple of weeks ago came across the receipt for my new CCW's - OOPS!!) Good luck w/ the hunt for your first Z car and be patient...

Regional airline pilot... I fly a CRJ900 based out of Atlanta

Glad to see you're still lurking about!! Nice find

You have a good baseline to start from. It also looks like you have some of the right parts to go forward as well.

Stunning Yasin!! The wait was well worth it

Happy Birthday Rick!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice looking manifold Joel!! When choosing your turbo, what characteristics are you looking for... Do you want a quick spool? Do you want max power? What rpm would you like full boost and what do you consider "full boost"? These turbo characteristics will change somewhat with your choice of a/r on the turbine housing... the larger the a/r, the more power it will make, but the slower it will spool. Mike

The Thagard intercoolers were for the 240z. I run one of them in my car...

That's never IT, but looks like you are getting close

Nice smooth run!! Congrats on the 9 sec run!! Mike

No doubt in my mind you would've had and 8, if it wasn't for the the drama... So, how does it feel jumping from the high 10 second ride to a low9-high 8 second ride!! Watching your vids has me motivated to get mine back together. Appreciate the updates and the vids Clint!! Mike

If you can run an additional temporary gauge on the turbo side and compare the pressure on that side with the manifold pressure. That will give you some idea of your pressure drop. Mike

I have an old E31 head that was used in a GT2 car many many years ago that uses a small stemmed Chevy valve. It was ported for running long tracks and high RPM's with huge intake/exhaust ports. The idea was not only less weight with the smaller diameter valve stem, but better flow around the valve stem as well. The shop owner that built the head used to be buddies with a guy that made aluminum baseball bats. He would do some portwork, and take the head over to have it X-rayed to determine the thickness of the port walls and then would port further and X-ray it again and then flow bench it. This process was done over and over until he was satisfied with having the largest port / best flowing head he could create. Although he used the Chevy valve as a template to do the guides and seats, he had custom valves made to utilize nissan valve train components ... something about class rules back then.

Awesome Clint!!! The car looks/sounds great!! BTW, I hit the nitrous at around 3400 rpm's to spool the turbo. You don't have to wait until you see x-psi to do so. Just be ready to go, have the car's rpm's coming up and squeeze the button Mike

Lookin' good Clint... just awaitin' those track numbers/ vids

Thanks guys OK, have a little time sitting here at the airport... The front diff mount is a tubular design with reinforcement plates welded to the subframe as well as the area inside the storage boxes behind the seats. I went with a top mount design for the diff, as the most force directed up from the nose of the diff. The storage bins were cut out and new metal welded in around the brace. The bolts drop through the floor in the hatch area to mount to the "ears" or the Armada differential. As far as the rear of the differential, the subframe was notched and boxed in to accomodate the rear of the R230. The "dogbone" which attaches the dropdown mounts had to be trimmed slightly as well to clear the rear cover, as I had asked Gabriel to drill the holes for the rear diff mount higher in the mustache bar to accomodate a "full squat" under launch, so some clearancing was required. In order to use the Arizona Zcar Wilwood kit, I had to take a deep breath and cut the lower "ears" of the TTT backing plate to accomodate the Wilwood caliper mounts. Other than that, everything bolted togather easily. I am looking forward to having the car back in the road and hope to be ready for the track by the end of September for some 1/4 mile results w/ the new setup. Pics of the new CCW's to come once the BAMF ZG's are mounted... Regards, Mike

TTT kit installed w/ Armada 2.94 gears and Z32 LSD with Arizona Z car Z32 Wilwood rear brakes... Photos here in my album!! http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=7981 I will do a write-up on the details at a later date when I have a little more time. Mike