JIM73240Z

yep, my golden retriever is up there in years (12) and his hips are not doing so well. he will fall down on occasion and it sucks to see him and he looks at us and with those eyes and is embarrassed. he will still run around and jump and play with our other dog so it is not quite time yet but getting close. for a while after my bone marrow transplant and things were not going so well, i told him it that i thought it might be a race to see who goes first. it looks like he will. my family will be devastated when the old man goes, especially the wife and kids. I plan on rescuing another one soon after hobbies goes. hate the thought. jimbo

We have a 79 280zx at the shop because the car is misbehaving. Once you get the car up to 3000 rpm, it will fall off like there is no fuel to 2800 ish then pick back up to around 3000 and do it all over again if you hold it there. Once you get past that and go all the way to redline, but at 4500 it just falls flat on its face. We have cleaned the TPS, tried a used working TPS. Cleaned the AFM, new FPR, new o2 sensor, checked for vacuum leaks, checked the timing. We have the color tune and can see a nice blue flame in the combustion chamber from idle to red line except for the 3000 rpm stumble where it goes dark. Cleaned the distributer, new wires, rotor, cap, and plugs. We are running out of ideas. and thoughts? Jimbo

with your spitter dilemma, we mad a c channel and attached it to the cross member of our bmw's and then have 4 dzus fasteners up on the air dam. we can slide the splitter into the channel and lift up the front of the splitter and attach the splitter with the dzus up front. takes literally less than a min to take on and off the way we have it. may be a little getto but it works great. the splitter hangs about 4" out front and is made of a honey comb with aluminum skin. light and stiff. i will get pics and post on here for future reference. Jimbo

i am glad to see you make some strides in clifton's old car. it was sure fun to watch it while he still had it out here. that thing was fast and everyone commented on it. love to see it in person now with all of the additions to it. i am sure you were surprised to see some of the things clifton did or left off and it still went like hell. maybe it was fixed by the time it got to you. i remember putting on the larger rear flares and seeing the wheel well not completely welded together like everyone says it has too in order to go fast. clifton made that car about as cheap as possible and it would chase down vipers and z06r's all day long and people hated it. your car is making my to do list much longer. jimbo

you mentioned getting rid of the 3 piece in the back for a small 1" lip. the bmw m3 uses one and we have the wing on top of that for the cars at the shop. i have seen them on fleabay. http://www.ebay.com/itm/1997-2003-BMW-E39-528I-540I-M5-TRUNK-LIP-SPOILER-ABS-/380466746530?fits=Year:2001&hash=item589595d4a2&item=380466746530&pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&vxp=mtr just an idea jimbo

Nice. Last weekend I was shotgun for several sessions in a BMW M3 gutted track car with the whole 9 yards. Fun as hell. Then for the last session went out with in a NA 997. Nice. Kind of sucked sliding around on the leather porsche seat and normal seat belt instead of the race seats and 6 point harness in the BMW. But all in all, that thing was fast, even on street tires. Got a little sketchy in one corner but felt super stable. Lucky dog, you. Jimbo

not sure if the shop is even open anymore. he was moving to dallas with his gf at one point and have lost touch. might go through dave at az car to get contact info as they were pretty tight. will swing by the old location to see if he is still around. jimbo

not sure if the shop is even open anymore. he was moving to dallas with his gf at one point and have lost touch. might go through dave at az car to get contact info as they were pretty tight. will swing by the old location to see if he is still around. jimbo

here is a few pics of mine that i painted in the drive. still need to wet sand more but that can wait until i geet the rest of the car put back together. cost less than $300 for paint and primer. dupont industrial paint. jimbo

working on it jimbo

i like it. took 2 days to mask the lines of the stripes. all in all, not to bad for a first timer in a garage. more wet sanding to come. jimbo

my bad, chemo brain. anyone who has gone through it will know what i am taking about. jimbo

sweet. it the 13/16" that is used right? jimbo

finally, after long hospital stays, the car is painted. i am still wet sanding it but i am not going to get too picky as it is a race car and will get beat up the first time on the track. this is definitely a 10 foot paint job from the garage / driveway. but the rules say it has to look good from 50' at 50 mph.

so i bought a morroso thermostatic plate for the z and the plate is about a 1.5" thick. this makes putting the oil filter back on impossible. so i need to lengthen this some how. a 8an fitting has the same threads so i tried going to the HD to see if i could make a coupler. no go. i also thought of using a female to female 8an coupler and then a male to male fitting to attach the filter on but looking at the inside diameter of the an fittings, it is smaller than the original tube and i am afraid of oil issues. how hard is it to get the old one out and put in a new longer one? any thoughts or suggestions? jimbo

just like all porsches, it like a lot of oil. my step son spun the rod bearings and killed a motor. found one for $100 and swapped it in after taking the pan off and replacing as many seals as we could $50 (from a gear and seal store), timing belt ($250 ish), gaskets ($300 i think), and the clutch ($650). then labor. it is about a 40 hour job according to what i saw on the inter net and personal experience taking that thing out and shoe horning in the new one. his is a 86 944 and i was unimpressed by its get up and move but it handles nice. i'm sure it it lost some weight it can finally get out of its own way. jimbo

yep jimbo

Well, it has been a long tome since i have updated this. The economy killed me and have not had time to do much going back to school and working multiple jobs. I finished the brake lines, rebuilt the motor, stabbed the motor and transmission in, got the starter and alt on. I mounted the MSII and relay board and I think I have it working mostly right (I think). Started the rewire process and have separate looms for rear body, front body, and engine, so that any trouble shooting will be a little easier. Then over Memorial weekend, took my 3 girls hiking and somehow tweaked my back to the point that I can not move. Went to the doc for this and routine test and have been diagnosed with Leukemia. Yeah. Found out for sure yesterday, go for bone marrow biopsy today and start chemo this weekend and will be in for 4-5 weeks. The car sat for several years with no work done, i guess it can wait a few more months. Jimbo

All cars are not equal. Even in spec classes, the rules are set up to level the playing field, car set up can make a huge difference in the outcome with equal drivers. The Nasa Director here in AZ had a civic that he would be hanging with vettes and vipers all day long in a certain class. That thing was suprisingly fast. Then there is Chris Rado with his Scion. He was smashing course records. FWD, RWD, AWD, if you are smashing records, that is a fast car. He had that big ass ugly wing on the front of the car that was pure function over form. Not arguing that it was ugly, but YOU cannot argue that it did not work. Jimbo

+1 to the response above plus you can have money left over for big brakes that wont kill the budget. Willwoods are nice but overkill. I know, I have them on my car in the garage on stands. There are other options out there that can get you front and rears for the same price or less than the Willwoods and maybe get you ahead on something else. Jimbo

good lord, was that hood made from paper. crap there were huge holes opening up at what seemed like slow speeds. Jimbo

I would have the rear diffuser near the bottom of the list of items to try. The z car is not exactly clean on the bottom. A belly pan / splitter to the x member and call it good. vg's are a must for a wing. Although there there was a comment from Ernesto Roco who had an insane mustang said that he picked up 200-300 rpm at the end of a straight without the vg's. you can find him on youtube. The further down the splitter is and further out in front, the more down force. Vent the wheel wells, duct the radiator, and some canards. i do not think we can get much more from these old bricks. Jimbo

did not feel like going through the whole thread but cant sleep and watching top gun. the scene where mcgillis chases cruz in her speedster and runs the stop sign, right when she stops the car and confront him there is a z in the background. Jimbo

Thanks, I will try again tomorrow when I get back into the garage. I know I tries TS and it had a an issue with my versions I guess. I would have to hook it up to tell you but the jist of it was the comuter was responding back saying it was v2.892 but TS was expecting 3.??? back instead. Again, have to hook up to find out for sure but will try again. Jimbo

Ok, so I have a MSII V3.57 and want to use MSII. So i laded the firmware 2.892 and was ready to start on a getting my maps ready. I go into the configurator and go to the megatune 2.25 and find the MSII.2892.ini file in the list and highlight the file and try to activate but the activate is greyed out. I have been all over the ms site and all I get is "Highlight the file then File->Activate and all will be well with the world". Wrong. What am I doing wrong? Jimbo finally getting back to the car