Zmanco

Check if the back of the pad is completely flat. I had a set of Hawks that had small bumps in the metal plate right where the caliper makes contact. That tilted the pad so the bottom (closer to the center of the rotor) edge made contact first.

I found this on McMaster: http://www.mcmaster.com/#4860k143/=4sd5um If I'm reading the drawing correctly, it looks like the BSPT is 19 threads per inch and the NPT is 18. That would explain why they look the same but don't fit. Can anyone confirm that the thread on the stock turbo oil pan temp sensor hole is BSPT?

I tried installing a 3/8 NPT temp sensor into the threaded hole next to the drain plug on the stock turbo oil pan but the threads obviously aren't a match. Before I start buying adapters, can anyone confirm what the thread pitch is? I'm guessing BSPT?

IIRC in a perfect setup the bar should be in the middle of the notch. But since you were happy with the performance before the HG blew, why not set it up the way it was? IIRC, the spec is .008 cold for the intake valve with the spring removed. But if you're hearing noise with a non-stock cam, I would suggest you also check the wipe pattern. It's likely that is the main source of noise and you're a) not going to get rid of it by adjusting the valves, and may damage the cam and/or followers over time.

Which hole was the cam gear mounted on before when it pulled to 7k? I'll guess it was #1 and you've reassembled with the cam timing advanced resulting in the power peak being moved to a lower rpm. Or perhaps you put the chain back on 1 tooth off? It sounds like somehow you have the cam timing advanced now.

From what I've read elsewhere, exposure to ozone and UV from sunlight are two of the main things that cause tires to age. IIRC, I think it was Consumer Reports that was saying a general rule of thumb is to replace tires after 6 or 7 years regardless of tread depth or mileage.

That's exactly how I did it. Side flanges are changed the same way. It's a lot easier with an air gun.

I have to ask what you've installed in your Z that requires that much current? Even with both fuel pumps, 100W high beams, driving lights, Megasquirt, cabin fan, efans, etc all running at the same time, my load is below 100 amps.

What CR are you guys running? I think that has to be part of this discussion.

The amount of fuel required WILL change as you change timing. However, some ECUs can adjust automatically via either EGO feedback (not recommended when under boost), or by including the MAP value in the ReqFuel calculation. Megasqurit II/Extra supports this and I use it - very nice to be able to make changes like this and not have to retune the VE tables.

I just looked at a datalog of a 4th gear pull I did from 5k to 6k and it took 3.6 seconds. It was at full boost already below 5k. I know that I was starting just after the torque peak so it's probably less than that from 4k to 5k. I need to finish my tuning on a dyno this winter so wonder how this setting affects the measurements. Assuming that we only use measurements at full boost, my intuition says that the HP and TQ readings should be the same regardless. But I have near zero experience with dynos so am I missing something? Thanks.

I'm afraid I don't remember - I swapped it out for a CLSD a few years ago. Perhaps someone else knows?

Tony D, do you have an idea of the order of magnitude of the resistors? It sounds like you might have done this before so wondering if we are talking 1k, 10k, 100k, etc? I'd like to make sure I have an assortment before I tear things apart - I might pick up a few potentiometers to do the adjusting and then replace it with a fixed value later. Plus, at least for the oil pressure gauge, I might just add the resistors in near the sending unit - there's a little more room to work around there

There is whine between 50 and 60 mph when under accel but not on coast/decel, but it's more of a resonance than gear whine I think. From what I've read, this was a common issue for early Z's "in the day" and there was a TSB to add a weight to the diff. I tried that and it only helped a little. It's silent the rest of the time. The rest of the car is loud enough that it's not an issue for me.

On my 73 240z the fuel gauge and oil pressure gauge are pretty far off and I'm wondering if there are adjusters on the backs. The last time I took the HVAC panel out I notice the plastic for the screws was beginning to fail, so I'd rather not pull it out if there's nothing that can be done with the gauges. So do the fuel level and oil pressure gauges have an adjuster? And have any of you successfully used them to make them more accurate?

I doubt you would be able to even spin the cam by hand with that discrepancy. I'd also be concerned with stacking 4 shims under something that is relatively tall and narrow like the cam towers. FWIW, I went the kameri route for shims when I shaved my P90 head. I hated to pay as much as they wanted for what was essentially 5 pieces of metal (each shim is .080" thick so no stacking), but in the bigger picture I figured I didn't have a better option. You might want to consider just sending the silverseal stuff back and ordering the Kameri.

Sorry, F/R = front / rear. On the street I run 26/20 which seems to wear pretty evenly. Plus it's a lot smoother on bad roads. There's still more than enough grip to get arrested I'll try going up to 40 in the front next time I'm on the track. And they do squeal just as they loose grip. They're a really forgiving tire and probably the best tire in its price range I've had yet. But they don't have much grip when cold or wet - and even 50 F is cold for them.

Thanks for the additional feedback. Here's what I've concluded so far: 1) I need to change to stiffer springs. 2) I need more neg camber and maybe more caster too. 3) I need to check if the rear ARB is binding and change it if it is. 4) I need to cost out buying new springs and LCA/TC rods vs. going with coil overs and camber plates. Seems like for the range of adjustment I'm looking to accomplish both could get me there. 5) I should run softer on the Illumina's until I have stiffer springs. 6) I need to continue to work at driving smooth. Given I'm used to a relatively underpowered car, this is a continuation for me. I think the challenge now is to stay smooth with the additional power. As for sectioning the struts, I'm thinking I won't need to do that as I don't want to lower the car more than it is now, and I'm not having suspension travel problems, even with the softer tokico springs. Thanks again for the ideas. I've got some part searching/pricing to do...

As I said, the Panasports fit with no spacers. Again, not sure why MSA doesn't recommend them to you as that's where I bought them.

I wouldn't use a machinist that I didn't trust - ask around at the local speed shops for recommendations. If you can, find one who has experience with Nissan L engines, although that's not essential. You didn't say why you have the head off and took it in to be checked, but I'd have it resurfaced too. You might have a machinist that you DO trust take a look and see what else needs attention. Valve seals are easy to do with the engine off. Will the head be disassembled before he resurfaces it? (I've always brought the head in bare so don't know if it's done assembled.) I ask because he could also check the valve guides for wear. It's a lot easier to do all this now, but you need to be able to trust the guy!

Earlier you said you're not an expert with MS. If you don't mind a suggestion, start with fuel only and get the engine up and running. Spark control is really nice, but if you try to do too much up front it can be a painful task troubleshooting it. Also, in the world of MS, there are various version of hardware and firmware. Let us know what hardware you have and we can recommend options for the firmware.

John and Jon, thanks so much for the responses - I was hoping you would both weigh in. A few thoughts/clarifications: - I'll check the rear bar for binding. The good news is that it's rather dirty under there so I imagine if it has been binding that I should be able to see some marks. - I thought the springs felt a little soft. After the holidays I'll do the swap to the 280z tokicos. John, just to confirm, are those linear springs? And should I plan to cut a turn or so off to keep the height the same as with the 240z tokicos? - The driver of the 300zx rode with me and made the same comment that with the power of my car he thought the faster approach would be slow in / fast out. He was running a NA and the track is 5k feet elevation so he was more focused on momentum. - John, is your suggestion to go with the 3/4" rear bar to avoid binding by the way it mounts, or because you think the rear should have a smaller bar? It pushes more on high speed entry I suspect due to the CLSD locking up, so I have been reluctant to soften the rear. - How much camber/caster can be gained with plates and the stock strut assemblies? I like the idea of changing the settings for the track and then back for street, but I thought the stock spring perch would hit the inside of the strut tower? That's why I went with the camber bushings, but which only added about 3/4 degree. In a perfect world, I'd be happy with the 1 degree neg on the street I currently have, and the ability to add maybe another degree for the track. Is that achievable with camber plates and stock strut assemblies? - Jon, you mentioned sectioning the struts. I thought that was only done as part of converting to coil overs. Were you suggesting to do this with the stock strut assemblies and Tokico 280z springs? - What is the effect of reducing rear toe? Would it help reduce understeer? How does it affect the suddenness of the transition from understeer to oversteer? As I'm asking all these questions I'm wondering if there is a good book on suspension tuning principles? Perhaps an equivalent to Maximum Boost for turbo charging?

Last weekend I took the Z out to High Plains Raceway for the first time since the turbo swap. My primary goal was to test/tune the engine and make sure that nothing overheated and that it all stayed together. The good news is that it ran great and for the first time in my driving experience, I have enough power to throttle steer the car in 3rd gear at 80+ mph. This completely changed my thoughts on how to approach higher speed sweepers I also did a few ride alongs and in particular, in a stock NISMO 350z and also a mostly stock Z32 2+2 NA (only upgrade was stiffer struts). I noticed that both cars were far more forgiving of fast transitions, such as going from throttle-on through a turn into hard braking for the next turn in the other direction. Both cars kept the rear end planted. In my 73 (more on the setup in a moment) doing that at the same speeds would almost certainly result in the rear coming around and spinning. I'd guess that my entry speeds were 5+ mph slower because of this. Here's the track map: http://www.highplainsraceway.com/images/track-map-large3.gif The two turns where this was the biggest issue were 5 and 10. Both are downhill approaches and the initial turn in speed is ~70 mph (or more). So I'm looking for some advice on how to start sorting out the suspension. Current setup: 73 240Z - Tokico springs and Illumina struts - 1" bump steer spacers - MSA camber bushings up front - 1" front, 7/8" rear anti roll bars - 16 x 7 Panasports with Dunlop Direzza Sport Z1 Star Spec 225/50-16 - MSA strut bars - Powerbrute CLSD - Tire pressures: 36/30 - Illuminas F/R: 4/5, later in the day 2/5 I'm attaching the last alignment sheet when we installed the camber bushings. I started the day out with the struts set at 4 front, 5 rear which is how I've run in the past. As the day progressed I gradually softened the fronts down to 2 (where I run on the street) and left the rear at 5. This seemed to help with the initial turn in, but didn't make much difference that I could tell with keeping the rear planted. My primary use of the car is street, but now that the engine is mostly sorted, I hope to do maybe half a dozen track days next season. The point is that I want to improve track performance, but not to the point that the car is miserable to drive on the street. In hind sight I'm wondering if I was going in the wrong direction softening up the front. During these transitions it seems like the weight is transferring both rear to front, and also side to side. It seems to be the combination of both at the same time that upsets the car. Perhaps I should have been softening the rear to give it more grip? Before the track day I had been thinking of swapping to custom LCA and TC rods in the front next season to allow more camber and caster. But as above, I expect those mods would give me MORE grip up front, and that probably would make this transition issue worse, no? So I'm looking for some advice on how to attack this. If possible I'd like to keep these springs and struts and solve this with suspension settings. My instincts tell me this would result in a setup that would still be streetable, and would make the track handling more forgiving. Thoughts/Suggestions? Alignment 2008-06-24.pdf

Don't you need to hone the cylinders to break the glaze? I've always been told that just throwing new rings on without doing that results in rings that never seal properly. Or is that just an old wives tale?

By "x-factor", do you mean offset? I have the same setup on my 73 and run 16 x 7 Panasports. IIRC they are zero offset. No clearance problems at all. MSA sells them too - not sure why they don't recommend them for you?