280Z Turbo

It doesn't sound like a brake upgrade would make much sense for you right now. There is nothing wrong with the stock Z brakes for street driving, especially on a 240Z. Get some rebuilt calipers, new pads, rotors, etc. and you should be all set. That setup would need wheel spacers in front and 15" rims in back. Some people have gotten Z31 discs to fit under 14" wheels, but I'm not sure how.

I think Rock Auto sells Nissan lugnuts for a reasonable price.

What is the thread size of the fittings?

I have an '81 L28ET in my '76 and I'd like to replace the oil cooler lines and fittings. The long, bulky hoses and the extra long banjo fittings take up most of the right half of my engine bay! With the intercooler going in soon, they are a huge pain to work around. They are starting to crack and just make my engine bay look ugly. Also, the O-Ring between the aluminum oil cooler adapter and the block seems to be leaking. What thread type are the fittings? What are my options for getting rid of the banjo fittings and keeping the stock oil cooler? Where can I find that O-ring?

Thanks. I'm 90% sure I was the first person to touch those bolts since 1981 and they actually came off fine on my car.

I'm changing the exhaust manifold gasket on my Z and replacing all the hardware while I'm at it. Why are the washers so thick? Heat? Load? The bolts are no problem but the thickest washers that McMaster-Carr has are 4.5 mm. The stock washers are 5-6 mm depending on how I measure them. (they are really warped!) Is 4.5 mm good enough? I guess I could reuse the old ones, but it would be nice if I could replace them.

Here's a pic of my new license plate. It's from my dad's '63 Corvette. Michigan allows you to run a historical plate on an old car for a one time fee of $30.

Modern Motorsports 240SX caliper kit. I'd buy the whole kit except for the rotors from him, tirerack has 300ZX Brembo rotors for $22 a piece. See if you can get some decent 240SX calipers from the junkyard.

I wouldn't do that. Your brake bias will be pretty far out of whack. I'd sooner just buy good pads/shoes and brake fluid for stock brakes than just do one end of the car. The only plus side of a Wilwood or Toyota front + rear drum setup is that your rear shoes will probably last forever! On a semi-related note, has anyone ever used stock 2 piston calipers with vented front rotors. If you used some kind of special spacers between the two halves of the caliper, you could have cooler brakes without disturbing stock bias.

That's true, but there's a reason performance cars don't use solid rotors and drums anymore. Even my '02 Focus hatch (which is lighter and less powerful than my Z) uses vented rotors in front. They didn't put those vented rotors on for "bling-bling". I don't buy this idea that you can ruin your brakes with Toyota calipers and 240SX rear calipers. By modern standards, those are not even "Big" brakes. They are simply adaquete. People do this upgrade all the time with good results. That being said, stock brakes in good shape are perfectly fine for normal driving, drag racing, and Solo II autocross. It's on a road course where you can appreciate upgraded brakes.

"that other place" is zcar.com

This forum does go a little overboard with the moderation sometimes, but it is better than "that other place". :shivers:

That's why you tell the parts store to order it. A quick search shows that PartsAmerica.com (Advance Auto, Kragen, etc.) carries those parts too. Napa offers it as well. I'd bet Autozone and Carquest offer them too. Rockauto.com is also a good source for parts. The timing chain kit is cheaper through Rock Auto than MSA. I've never had a problem finding replacement parts.

1.) With Toyota 4x4 S12W calipers up front, the rear disc upgrade is not enough. I'd recommend using the smaller piston S12+8 front calipers. Remember, with the MM brake upgrade, all 4 rotors come off of the exact same car! It uses 84-85 non turbo rotors all around. 2.) Why do you want to use different rotors? 280ZX rotors won't work easily with the MM brackets and they're smaller. 3.) The MM setup uses 240SX calipers, not 280ZX calipers. 4.) I couldn't do it for $300.

Rock auto has it for $85. Any parts store will probably have the same kit as MSA or Black Dragon.

They're never going to build another 240Z, guys. Get over it! Sure...cars are heavier now, but they still seem to perform much better than they did 35 years ago.

Yeah, they do make a 16x7 Rewind. They cost more than Sportmax 002's. Remember that a 225/50/16 will be much better on an 8" rim, though.

I think I'll go with 16x8's with 225's too. I'd like to go 245's, but that's not wide enough for ZG flares and too wide for stock fenders. Sportmaxes may be overused, but they are cheap and I've never seen another Z in person that has them.

Oh jeez... You're not driving without a windshield too are you?

I got the spacers and they indeed were a bit tight. I used a sanding drum on a drill press to open them up a little bit. Now they fit fine.

I'd bet money that they wouldn't fit in a 280Z.

Single stage alkyd enamel black paint. It's actually not for my Z, it's for a Honda CRX racecar. I'm posting this here and not on a Honda forum because I actually want good information. Paint is paint, so I figure it doesn't matter anyway.

Will it work to paint a car in the winter if it's painted in a semi-heated barn? The barn could probably be heated to 60 degrees, but only for the application of paint, not continuously as it cures. The paint that we're going to use is a an alkyd enamel applied over old paint with no new primer. I have my doubts, but has anyone ever done this?

But the cars with 4x100 bolt patterns require positive offsets.

A lot of people have ground down their calipers. If you search you'll find more info.