Wagz

Hook yourself up to that puppy and the gasping will stop! Your lungs will inflate like an airbag in an accident. ...then explode!

Relax. Generally, most everyone here is willing to help if they know the answer. I personally don't post unless I have something substancial to say. Otherwise, you'd have 100s of post saying: "Gee, sorry. Can't help with that one..." I've changed timing belts on plenty of cars, but I haven't personally changed the timing belt on my 300Z and don't really know first hand how to answer your question. There isn't a great contingent of 300ZX owners on this board. Granted, there are some, but not a great deal. Hence, not much response on that question. Try over at z31.com. Since, that board is aimed specifically at your car. Most Chilton's or Haynes manuals at your local library should cover the procedure. Good luck.

Things are looking very positive! I called Nissan USA customer service. Their records indicate that my 300Z has never had the fuel injector recall work done on it and they recommended that I get it to my local dealer. The local Nissan service manager says that as long as the injectors have never been replaced and/or are original Nissan components, Nissan will cover the towing and complete repair of the car! I'm cautiously optimistic. The car is 17 years old, I've owned it for all of 2 months so, I really don't know for sure that the injectors are definatley original Nissan stuff. I REALLY hope so! I'd love not to have to spend the time and $ repairing this myself. Fingers crossed, toes crossed, sacrificing chicken to the Nissan gods... Pete: Thanks again for the tip! U Da Man!!!!!

The Elise in the subject of this month's comparo-cover story in Car & Driver. I quickly skimmed the article a couple of nights ago. The test car weighed 1900lbs. The Lotus tuned Toyota power plant came in at 190hp; had a 4.4 second 0 to 60; ran a 13.2@104 in the quarter-mile. I think the skid pad numbers were 1.06g. Very cool little ride!! They were comparing it against a Lotus Super Seven replica, a Factory Five Cobra replica, a Honda S2000 and a MazdaSpeed Miata.

I figured there would be some kind of info at Z31.com, but you are moving way faster than I am!! Thanks for chasing that down for me. I'll grab the VIN# off the car tonight and make some calls! It would be wayyy cool to have Nissan take care of this. I'll let you guys know how this pans out. Thanks again, Pete!!

I will definately be making some phone calls. Thanks for the tip, Pete!

Shoot! You saw that picture, huh? I knew someone would give me crap about that Tenzo sticker. The honest to god truth is that its my brother's sticker. No, really! I assume it was a leaky injector. But, I don't really know. No way to know now. They're just lumps of goo. I didn't have any work done on it myself. I just bought the car a few months ago when I gave my Maxima to my wife to drive. Gas is getting too expensive for her to use the Expedition as a daily driver.

I hate wiring! I hate burnt wiring even more! Last Thursday I was driving my commuter beater ('87 300Z) and stopped for gas on my way to a meeting. As I pulled up to the pumps, I can see some wisps of what I assumed was steam. Oh crap! it must be over-heating; check guages; nope, temperature was right where its supposed to be. OH CRAP!! I rolled the car several yards past the pumps and shut it down as fast as I could. I popped the hood to find flames eating up the wiring harness on the passenger side. I have a fire extinguisher in my Maxima and my Expedition, but not in my daily driver. Smart, huh?! Sooo, I ran into the convenience store and calmly asked for their fire extinguisher. The attendants spent the next few minutes doing their best impression of keystone cops. Keep in mind, this is in Oregon, where us lowly drivers are too stupid to pump our own gas and we rely on the the 'highly trained professional attendants.' In the mean-time, the flames are getting higher and higher. In the end, I located the extinguisher myself and ran out to douse the flames. The only real fun about it was when one of the brainiac attendants puts his head under the hood after the flames were put out. There was an abrupt and loud hissing sound of pressure being released (probably the fuel system). The sound scared the guy so bad, he damn near jumped out of his uniform as he stumbled back from the car. In the end, the harness is toast; a melted glob o' crap. The plug wires on the first two cylinders are toast and the injectors are just big chunks of nasty looking plastic. Looks like I'll be cruising eBay looking for Z31 parts... Here's a shot of the harness after I spent an hour scraping and cutting plastic and separating wires as best I could, It doen't show the melted components very well:

Sportin' my HybridZ attire:

I've been mulling this same question on my VR project. I've been considering the M3 style hoops myself (although, the ones on the M3 above look too tall). Personally, I just don't like the 180 hoops at all. I formed that opinion when I saw Jim Williams car in Kit Car Mag. Maybe if they were chromed rather than body colored they would look better.

Pictures? Pictures! we need pictures! I haven't touched my Velo Rossa project in months. The only thing installed on my VR in the last 2-3 months is dust...

I'm reading Tim's response and thinking: 'Holy crap! What did I miss?!!! What'd Rufus do??!!!' Then I scroll down... I gotta admit Tim, you got me hook, line and sinker... That was mean, nasty and pretty funny.

Very nicely done. I used to work with someone who swapped a 327 into a Corvair. Fast car, but not anywhere near as nice as this conversion.

Yep. 20 x 1.5 is correct. I double-checked mine tonight. For anyone else interested, the Snap-On part # is RD7-5 and can be purchased online for $7.35 plus shipping. John - I vaguely remember having the same problem: I thought it was the wrong die at first, but it finally cut/cleaned the damaged threads and worked fine. I don't belong to NorthwestZ. Are there many members in the PDX area?

I ordered one online from the Snap-On site. I don't remember the thread pitch (might have been 1.25). I should be able to get the Snap-On part number when I get home tonight. EDIT: John (jgkurz), I just noticed you are in the Portland area. I live in Hillsboro and work in Lake O. I'll loan you the Die I bought, if there is some place we can meet up.

Not sure if John Washington was planning on posting here (sorry if I stole your thunder, John), but I figured many of you may be interested. I just received an email from him announcing three new versions of a fiberglass hatch he has available for '70 - '78 Zs. Here is the text of the message: Cool stuff!

With a stock bell, you have to use the OEM style clutch and pressure plate, but you have to purchase a special flywheel to adapt it all. If I remember correctly, it may cost a little less initially, but in the long run it will be cheaper to go with the Weir bell because you can use the older style clutch setups that cost a lot less to replace. Double-check it, though. My memory is not a reliable one...

John's site still has a 280ZX conv. and a 300ZX conv. listed for sale. Before I purchased my Velo Rossa kit, I bought the install manual from John for something like $20. That way, I knew what I was getting into before spending the big $$ on the kit. John has a Z Spyder (converitible kit) for 1st gen. Z's. I'd see if he has an install manual to sell. It would be a great source of info on the process.

Weir Hotrod Products 4911 Paoli Loop Road American Canyon, California, 94503 (800) 633-9869 Order line only (707) 647-0513 Tech line only (707) 642-4446 (Fax) Info at Chevy High Performance mag: http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/48446/index.html

I've lived in Washington or Oregon all my life and have taken front plates off of many of my cars. I've never been given so much as a warning for it. The law is the same here in Portland and the first thing I did when I bought a used 300ZX a few weeks ago was to remove the front plate. Makes it tough for photo radar to ID me...

I've used a combination of both methods several different times with no adverse affects. I've used a grinder to carefully grind the peened area down somewhat, just to weaken it. Then I used my impact gun to force the nuts off. I bought a thread chaser/cleaner tool from the Snap-On website to ensure the threads are clean and straight when I'm done.

Are you insinuating that we are lacking in the "good taste" department or that we are all blind?!

My humble opinion is that the easier a tranny is to bolt in, the less desireable it is in a Z conversion. But, that all depends on how you will use the car. The 'easiest' to bolt in and that has tons of clutch/bellhousing options are the old 4-speeds (Muncie, etc.). The later model T5s work fine and bolt in fairly easy, however, unless you find a world class (WC) T5, there are durability issues. Even the WC T5 isn't nearly as durable or able to handle as much torque as the T56. The T56 is the strongest junkyard option and has that nice 6th gear... If money isn't the issue look at a Richmond 6-speed or the TKO trannies.

You'll need a special flywheel to adapt the newer style clutch setup or you will need to purchase a custom bellhousing to mate it to the old style block and use pretty much any standard clutch setup you want. Search the archives this has been covered in lots of detail.

Time or Scotch Brite pads. Man, did that suck...