260DET

What concerns me are the VQ unknowns, eg the possibility that the cylinder liners may not stand up to say 500rwhp, which would be quite a dramatic event Professionals may be able to afford to blow up a few motors to see what works and what does'nt.......... On the other hand the capabilities of the VG engine are well known and good parts for them are cheap. At present I'm thinking VG30DET, yes thats one 'T' not two, with a single GT35R, forged pistons, bigger throttle body and maybe Eagle rods. Should do 500rwhp OK?

If you want to get serious consider a gear type (Quaife/Torsen) diff. I have one in a R180 and love it, so nice accelerating out of corners. Adds another dimension to setup, more potential to exploit, if you really want to get right into it.

Here is a pic from my gallery, this method is no cure for those with stripped stock bolts of course.

Great idea. For those without any cage bars in the dash area, I'd look at putting a horizontal brace bar in to help stiffen the body and then attaching the dash to that.

Yeh, the flared in look which builds on the Z's existing curvy body shape can't be beat, nice one. BTW Porker is slang for Porsche in some parts of the world

Don't have any weight comparisons for you but lets put it this way. The stock hatch is quite awkward and heavy to lift, a fiberglass frame with bonded in plastic 'glass' is light as in comparison. I'm guessing that replacing the glass by itself gives the biggest weight reduction, it should be possible to work this out by researching the weights of both materials. To avoid scratching, just use high pressure water to clean it, don't touch it with anything.

Wooooh, heavy duty serious work there. What is it going to be used for?

Pics of that would be good in due course Jon, I'm still not sure how that setup works, call me thick, call me dick I'll do a pic of mine when its done.

The circle of never ending mods Re the sway bars, try this experiment. Take a wheel off, disconnect a link from one end, slide a large piece of pipe over the end of the bar, work the bar up and down while watching the mounts etc to see what happens when you load the bar up. Very educational. My thoughts are that ~25mm is the maximum workable diameter for a front bar on a S30, ~18mm for a rear. Going from a 22mm to a 23 front bar improved my best lap time by almost one second, car rides well on the road too with 250lb springs all round and good Koni shocks. Trying a 24mm one next time, rear is 18mm, not touching that.

So you formed the ring cross section shape by using your tool to clamp it into shape, bit by bit? Great work, looks like a bought one

Some useful ideas above, yeh, a pic of the heim joint with ears would help, the picture of it in my head does not look good at all Here is another idea, which I've started to do. It came about through a suspicion that when the bar is working hard it could well be rocking the mounting brackets from side to side. Which prompted some thought on how to better fix the brackets to handle such side stress. So, the brackets have been extended on the outer side to be flush with the outside edge of the rails when bolted up. There is a flange on that outside edge, two holes have been drilled through the extended part of each bracket and that outside edge. Big enough for 6mm bolts, which is about the limit given the size of the flange. My swaybar brackets are aftermarket, 3mm thick steel so stronger than the stock ones. Basically just welded a rectangular piece of flat onto the outside edge of each leg. The stock brackets with two 8mm mounting bolts are entirely inadequate once the sway bar size gets over ~20mm in diameter IMHO.

Yeh, heavy eh.

Had a good look through the Maxima site, bit of a worry all the problems and not a lot of power to show for it. Really any decent modern 3 liter turbo V6 should do at least 400WHP with just a bigger turbo and maybe a few basic mods, no problems.

Since going up to a 23mm front bar the mount bolts won't stay tight and being 8mm bolts they are not that strong for their purpose, plus a 24mm bar is about to be fitted. So I'd like to improve the mounts but without welding in new bits. Has anyone come up with something fairly simple that solves the problem? Thought of tapping the present captive nuts out to 10mm, if somehow the tap could be kept straight in use. But it seems like a new heavier mounting plate is required that can somehow be attached to the rails without welding. Bolting right through the rails without inside spacers is going to tend to crush them, any ideas, solutions?

Pity its not possible to put two FJ20ET engines together. The two liter FJ in the 260 puts out 270 WHP until the injectors max out, once bigger injectors are fitted 300 should be possible at under 7000RPM. Thats with stock everything including the gasket set, except for forged pistons and bigger big end bolts. Modern all aluminium engines, phttttt........

After more research, its hard to tell fact from fiction, plus a lot of the problems encountered in factory setups like the Maxima for example could well be engine management related. If it was me doing all the things some do to their Maximas, a good stand alone engine management system would be the first priority. Anyway, my present impression is that the VQ is not a great engine to expect a big increase in power from. Stock headgaskets are trouble prone, ARP studs are required for the heads. Plus the full floating cylinder liners are not hi po friendly, apparently they should be replaced by a one piece insert on each side, sounds expensive. So for the power I want the VQ is off the list.

Pic would be good.

Done a search? This rear multi link suspension subframe topic has been discussed before, for one there is a Sydney based S30 with it done. But doing it adds a heap of extra weight, at the back too which is not good either. Can't see the point in a S30 from an efficiency point of view.

Looks cute, in a inconspicuous way

Interesting idea, only possible on a stock car along each side of the bonnet bulge though. They will slope of course, maybe two or three each side?

You may be better off asking at a Z32 specific forum, most of the knowledge around here concerns S30's and S130's.

As SB says, the AU import rules were changed recently, generally more restrictive now. But pre 1989 cars can be imported, basically as of right although written permission is still required. Done all the AU end research on that, maybe should set up as a car import consultant. And of course a 280ZX would have to changed to right hand drive to be registered for road use. Which is a PITA but bugger it, I want one Well, its either that or bad women

Thanks, anyone you can recommend SB?

One for US$1500 would be OK, have to do some searching to see where to buy one in California. Auctions?