RTz

Tease! Did you settle on something or are you still fishing?

You're going to drive it in July

It's a very easy transmission to get along with. It shifts easily with two fingers, the gates are easy to find, and its just as happy shifting at 7K PRM as it is at 2K. I have three complaints... 1) The throws are long. Measuring at the top of my shift knob there is about 5" of throw front to back. There are short shift kits floating around. They move the lower pivot downward, closer to the driveshaft. I remember checking the clearance while assembling, but I don't recall how much room there is or if there is enough for a short shifter kit. I will probably just lower the shift knob about 2" and call it done. 2) In the shift lever itself there is a large spongy bit of rubber. I don't care for the way it feels. I'll remove it at the same time I lower the knob. 3) The overall gearing is short. 5th is 1:1, not an overdrive. I'm using a 3.36 diff which helps, but short tires (~22") so I'm seeing 2980RPM at 60MPH. It's not horrible, but could be better.

Finally wrapped up the exhaust. I added one more Magnaflow (2.5") in the stock location. This helped greatly with the resonances, but it's still too loud for my tastes. Great for a track car, but a little extreme for a daily driver. Excuse the filthy car. I'm guessing it's been over 2 years since it's been washed ... I took the car out for its first lengthy trip, 70 miles, highway and city, mountainous and flat. Not a single hiccup or fuss... First stop was the weigh station. I took it to the same location as before. The car is complete (complete as in fully assembled in like fashion as before, not done ). There is a gas station about 3 blocks from the scales. In both cases I refueled before weighing and removed all non-relevant items (tools, fire extinguisher, coats, etc). The car is now 20 to 30 lbs LIGHTER than it was with the L6. 2420lbs dry. Double the power and less weight. I can live with that Also on my list was to get the car out, stretch it's legs, and look for driveline vibrations. Backing up a bit, I've driven a LOT of S30's, in all sorts of configurations, and none of them have been silky smooth. I've tried many different things and made improvements, but I have never been totally successful with squelching them. Since this car has no U-joints (in the driveshaft) and I spent a good deal of time on alignment, I have been hoping to put the vibes to rest. We'll, I think I did. This is the smoothest Z I've driven. Certainly FAR smoother than it was prior to the swap. I'm gonna check that nuisance off my list, finally. I would still like to swap out the half shafts for CV's. That should finish off the package nicely. Got a lot of tuning out of the way as well. It's beginning to run as expected. Of course it's all the fine tuning that takes forever. I really need to upgrade the fuel system before I spend too much time on it, though. Lastly, Brian of Z Car Customs sent me one of his early ZG-R CF rear spoilers. It was a blem and priced accordingly, but it still looks pretty decent as-is. I'm not a huge fan of raw CF appendages on street cars, so the plan has always been to paint it. I'm very pleased with what I got. Thanks Brian!

There are plenty of other straight-six choices... Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Mercedes, and more. They can all sound 'the same' and most of them make gobs more power (stock for stock). If this is too far off topic for you, let me know and I'll delete my comments.

Years ago MSA use to sell offset Delrin/aluminum bushings for the rear. I don't know if they still do or not. I wouldn't expect that method to help your rubbing problem though... it adds track width.

I ran a 1" MC on my '95 T56 for a good while. Didn't mind it one bit. Do you need it? No, plenty of people use smaller. If you want a little quicker engagement and don't mind the extra effort, it works. Now for my plug... I've still got the Tilton 1" I bought for my M conversion. Removed it a week after I installed it... definitely too big for that drivetrain. It has zero miles on it. You can have it for $50.00 shipped.

Maybe you should be. It's a performance oriented car and this is a performance oriented forum. Your car will handle better at stock height with the stock springs.

Thank you, Matt. This post isn't so much about my Z, but rather a fellow enthusiast. Katokid and I have been talking off and on for a while now, and his project is quickly approaching critical mass. He's one-up'd me by a good margin... a Euro spec 3.2L... http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/97688-s50b32-euro-m-powered-240/page__gopid__917221#entry917221

Very excited for you, David. The Euro spec motor should make for a remarkable Z... 7 lbs/hp, all the silky-ness and music of a straight-six, with a dose of NA ITB response. Jealous, I am. Thanks for sharing

If you lower the bottom perch, and use the same spring, the car will sit lower, agreed? The car is now lower and so is the upper perch/isolator/bump stop. The top of the gland nut remains at the same height, but now sits closer to the bump stop. That equates to less bump travel. Total travel hasn't changed. You are trading bump for droop.

You guy's are too kind. My stock tachometer had become sticky on the top end and the stock speedometer isn't readily adaptable to this conversion. Time for new gauges. I liked what I was seeing from Speedhut, so I rolled the dice. Conveniently, they build a GPS speedometer. Since there are no speed outputs on the ZF transmission (electric or mechanical), this made things easy... GPS antenna... Drove the car into town and ran a few errands. The speedo worked beautifully. Time will tell how well it works in more challenging conditions. To get the car up and running, I used a stock Datsun EFI pump and regulator (with the stock carb'd tank). The intention has always been to re-vamp the whole fuel system when I was ready for another project. It's looking like I'm going to have move that project's priority up a couple notches as I am running out of duty cycle around 5500rpm (due mostly to the lower fuel pressure).

Easy miss... thread title was vague. Fixed.

http://www.hammondsplains.com/z/zworld/zraceproducts/ I seem to remember another, though. Hmmm....

Jon, I think he is talking about 'hood lifts'. I've seen the conversion as well. I'll do some digging when I get a break. EDIT: Drats, Waddie beat me to the punch.

Maybe you should wear some dark sunglasses

You are correct, I prefer less chit chat and more technical discussion. No, I'm not a fan of asking questions for the SAKE of asking questions. It consumes bandwidth, pollutes the database and reduces the effectiveness of the search engine. Yes, I am not usually stimulated by subjective questions on a technical forum. And subjective questions about undefinable moving targets are even less useful. The average Z on this forum probably swings 15-20% in value just between winter and summer alone. And you've been kind enough to narrow it down to "one day". What good is a question if critical information is unknown or left out? How much faith can you put in an answer if it's based on guesses? What good is an answer if it's wrong? And yes, I *AM* the worst Admin here, but you're stuck with me P.S. It would a good idea for you to read... http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/89218-locking-out-accounts-of-members-posting-without-a-location/

I just hope I didn't 'pressure' you into it. You know I'll support whatever direction you choose.

And none of them were mild street cars relying on pump gas. Please keep some perspective on what Ross is building. It's not an F1 qualifier, Top Fuel, or NASCAR. It's a mild motor, running mild boost, on inconsistent fuel. For his goals, a +/- shift of 2 degrees from MBT won't be consistently measurable with common dynamometers. Been there, done that. Further, if you are attempting to run that close to the ragged edge on a street car, I would probably recommend getting some counseling for that gambling addiction you're fostering Yes, modern OE engine management REQUIRES them. Not for the purposes of power or melted pistons. They're there to meet the stringent regulations of OBD (miss-fire tracking is the big one). Not only is this complexity not necessary for most of us on this forum, none of the mid-range EMS's have the ability to take advantage of that technology. It's moot in Ross's case. Additionally, all things being equal, two position sensors have twice the potential for failure. Lose either one while visiting Aunt Nelly in Nebraska and you're parked until diagnosed and repaired. Lose a cam sensor on a modern OE car, and you'll still limp home. Different technology for different purposes. Apples and pears.

Worry about it when "one day" comes. What its worth today is likely to be something different when you sell it. It's a pointless question, in my opinion.

Thanks Bo, Succumbed to peer pressure ... I thought I'd give the GPS speedometer a whirl. I don't have a speed sensor (mechanical or electric) so this is an easy solution.

With a traditional distributor, yes, there can be a fair bit of slop. With a turbo ZX distributor, the only slop is between the crankshaft and spur gear. I'll bet the slop is less than you think. A few yeas back, I ran a test with a standard distributor. I posted this shortly after... I installed a VR sensor on the crank of my 510 (still L- powered). I also installed the matchbox style elec. dizzy. This sensor is also VR. I then took a two channel O-scope and data logged both VR's. Keep in mind that the dizzy still had mech. advance (also vacuum adv. but disconnected). In general, 80% of the time, they 'scattered' inside of 4 deg. That's WITH the advance mechanisms in place, and that is where the brunt of the slop is going to be found, by far. I bet if KTM puts a timing light on his car, the crank damper will appear to be rock solid, or pretty close, as long as there isn't excessive wear on those two parts. Don't let us dissuade you. If two sensors makes you happy, go for it. Just trying to make sure you get what you want.

I would say that foreigners do, in many cases, understand our grammar better. One of my closer friends is not native English. He could rip my grammar to pieces if he wished. It's a social problem, not a geography problem.

That only applies to whichever trigger you are relying on for timing events. Crank sensor in your case. Wolf phraseology would be "Reference+Sync". Reference being the crank sensor and sync being the cam sensor. Again, this applies to your particular situation. If you think about it, using the example you listed above (in the sticky), the 6 evenly spaced slots would be "reference" and the additional, closely spaced slot, would be the "sync" pulse (only happens once per 720 degrees, correct?). The difference is that you're splitting the duties between two sensors. Make sense?