Doug71zt

It's kind of a crapshoot when it comes to which size rotor fits under what wheel. I know for sure that a 15" wheel will not fit over my 11.75" rear rotor with a Z32 caliper. Single sided sliding calipers offer more clearance but not on my car thanks. You pretty much have to find someone that is running the same wheel or get the pieces and try yourself. Cheers - Doug

For 15 inch rims I think that the maximum rotor dia will be about 11.5". That is what Dave at AZ zcar used on his first kit. I think that he just turned down the 11.75" rotor. It was a tight fit on my 15" wheels. Building up a kit for 15" wheels should be easy as the wilwood superlight 2A caliper is a bolt-on and the mount for the rotor is a pretty simple piece. The only pain is turning down the rotors every time you need a set of rotors. Maybe Coleman racing or someone else could supply the correct size if you group ordered. Cheers - Doug

I'm running .810 thick by 11.75 Wilwood rotors on the rear with 1.25 by 12.2 inch on the front - the brake bias is quite good without a proportioning valve ( I have one but it is full open) - the stock pressure reduction valve is gone also (its a 240). BTW I'm using 300zx tt calipers all the way around. I don't see any reason to go bigger on the early cars. 280zx may be a different story though.. Hope this helps - Doug

12 years on my MSA braided lines with no problems - don't think that you need to be worried. I should have got the clutch line also - maybe this winter... Cheers - Doug

Hey Cody - It was on a radar gun - not sure how accurate they are but the cops seem to think that they are - I guess that I could try the flying mile - Doug

Hey Cody - That would be on a straight stretch of road about 10 miles from my house. I don't live anywhere near a city. Just 8 miles of straight, flat road (that was reciently paved!!). It really doesn't take that much road to wind it up anymore. Cheers - Doug

Just cruising around, my engine runs at 15-19 inches of VAC. Same as a NA engine, Boost only picks up when you get on it and get the turbo spinning. That's part of the beauty of turbo engines - You have a nice, driveable car which can be a real fire-breather on the boost. I wouldn't be surprised if the turbo engine will be quicker than your NA plant as it has a lot more torque and there's no waiting for the RPM to build to peak power. Have fun - Doug

Scott - It made quite a difference seat of the pants in my car, even when I had the stock turbo. It's a bit of a PITA to put on,having to remove the manifold and injectors, porting, grinding, etc. I ran a consistant 13.2 @104 with stock pretty much everything, SDS and a supra IC. Tip-in response is sharper, which is sometimes not a good thing, but I noticed that the car revved up quicker. I'd like to take a look at your car, as I'm in Richmond for the next 5 weeks working at YVR airport. PM or email me if you are interested. Nice trap speed. Did you see a brand new burgandy 03 SVT Cobra out at Mission when you were there? It's a co-worker's car. I think it ran 13.0 out of the box on street tires. Not too bad but $50K. shock: Is your buddy that runs a NA car Mike by any chance? I saw him run a couple times last year. Any some other guy with a direct-port NOS set-up on his 280Z Cheers - Doug

Richard - you've got mail...

This is just my experience but I don't think that the improvement that you'll get with DR's justifies the cost unless you are going to run them all the time. I am going to 16" MT ET streets for the track. I had Nitto DR's and they just don't hook like a slick. I was blowing them away at 3500 coming off the line. They hook better than the Khumo's that I run on the street but they aren't slicks. I got my best time by walking them out of the hole with the clutch - pretty expensive launch technique though. 1,83 60Ft. I should be able to get 1.5-1.6 out of slicks. Just my opinion - Doug

I did the Autometer install also. I recently sacrificed my stock oil cooler for additional intercooler space and looped the oil cooler lines. On a top end run the oil temp went to 220F after less than a minute at 15 psi boost. With the cooler - it never went past 180-190F. BTW - the Z runs at 168 mph at 15psi on the radar gun. Stock body with an airdam and splitter. I think its time for some more aero tricks IMO the oil cooler is required for a turbo conversion but I wouldn't worry about an oil temp gauge if you have a cooler. Doug

Well said Jamie - I'm going to throw my $.02 into this. I inspected Rick's old car for Mike before it was purchased. I'm an aircraft engineer and I see no issues with stress risers on Rick's engine mounts. Aircraft engine mounts are tinfoil compared to the massive billet construction of the RB mounts. If you are building light, highly stressed parts for aircraft, stress risers are a concern - they aren't on a engine mount for a car that may see 500 hp and is rubber mounted. IMO Rick is providing a specialized part for a microscopic market. They are well designed, made of quality billet and fit the engine quite far back and down in the engine compartment. You could buy the 200ZR mounts for $60 each and ship them from Japan or NZ and pay a little less than $295 for mounts that don't put the engine in an optimum position in an early Z. If you step back and look at the big picture - they could be the cheapest part that you buy for your RB conversion. I know that when I do my Z with an RB, I'll be calling Rick. Doug

I sectioned my struts about 1.75" to gain back suspension travel at a specific ride height. I run tall (25.") 225/45/17 tires so the car is really not that low. If you are not going to shorten the struts and run coilovers - you will not have that much suspension travel at a decent ride height - IE you will be very close to running on the bump stops. You will have to run a heavy spring to prevent bottoming out all the time. I run a 175FR/200RR and it havent bottomed yet. But - I run a 240(lighter). I run the adjuster up until the spring is just preloaded with the car off the ground - It seems to have the right suspension sag at this height. If the suspension gurus could step in - I'd like to know how much of the travel of the strut should be taken up in sag for the correct operation of the suspension. Thanks - Doug

Hi Drax - I'm trying to find my old values for stock injectors - I have 550cc ones now with 3 bar so totally different. Email me your excel sheet and I'll try to post my old values. I ran between 12.9 and 13.2 on them so they should be close. I'll be in Seattle for a couple days next week and then in Vancouver for the next 6 weeks so I may be away from the computer for a couple days at a time. Cheers - Doug

I second Lockjaws opinion on the exhaust. Scott - I'm coming out to Vancouver for work for the next 6 weeks - PM me - we got to hook up for Mission - I usually go out with the guys from work - Mustang SVT Cobra boys - put I'd love to see you run the Z. Good Luck - Doug

I have a .75" spacer on my TO4E .60 a/r compressor - the stock heat shield fits well. Hot end is a turbonetics/ford T3 .63 a/r stage 3 Cheers- Doug

I second Timz's opinion - although it makes you wonder when you have people asking to buy one-off parts from your car when you are done with them! For me - the upgrades never stop - that's most of the fun. Cheers - Doug

Looks like a pretty simple system. Clutch master cyl to make the pressure, line lock to hold it. Sounds a lot simpler than the ATTESA or whatever it is. Wonder how much Veilside charges for it? Doug

Try ditching the muffler, have you shortened the WG actuator rod? It may not be holding the WG puck closed tight enough or it may be hanging open a bit and bypassing exhaust past the turbine Good luck - Doug

First time I really put the boots to my new hybrid - the boost gauge went off the end . That would be 22 psi on a stock engine. No damage on the engine but I have lots of fuel and good ign retard programmed in. Don't worry - you'll hear the knock. Just get you foot out of it if you hear it. Doug

The mustache bar goes behind the suspension brackets with the R200 installed. Meaning that the bar is to the rear of the mounts. Hope this helps you out - Doug

Yes 3 psi is too high a pressure loss - those supra IC's are good for up to 10psi only - IMO. We have one here in the club on a "500HP" turbo240 that never comes to the track Guess it's a special supra IC.

525- No the turbo engine is very stout - its the turbo that won't take it. To make boost in the 15 psi range on the 2.8 - makes the stock turbo overspeed like crazy. It makes a lot more heat as its not running in its most efficient area. An IC will take some of it out but the overspeed is hard on the turbo. One way to combat this is to short-shift it at 5k and use the torque. I ran consistant 13.2 at 10 psi with a MK3 supra IC and ran 12.9 with 15 psi. That would be 18 psi before the IC as the pressure drop is rather large -yes 3 psi - I tested it. No doubt the SDS does good things for HP - it gets rid of the AFM right off the bat. Cheers- Doug

Jersey isn't that much of an anomoly - He's just driving it right. Scottie and I both ran very low 13's/high 12's with a stock hairdryer - but with SDS. But you got to know - the stock turbo won't be up to it for long. Plumb cool air into it, IC it and run a mandel bent downpipe and exhaust and it may live a while. I could run consistant 13.2 @ 103 with my car with stock pump,rail, turbo, injectors. To get consistantly into the 12's takes a big step. Good luck - Doug

I run a 245/50/16 Nitto DR on my car which specs at 26.5" Doesn't look jacked or anything. I'm going to look into a slick that will fit in the stock wheelwell with coilovers. ET Drag 26.0/8.5-16 I think is the size available. How much do these tires grow at the big end? A couple inches dia? Sorry to highjack your post Scottie but I thought that this was related. Cheers - Doug