Z-TARD

Sadly enough, there are chicks out there that will probably dig that car. Undoubtedly, this man will eventually multiply. The end is coming......

"To boldly go where no rice has gone before...."

I bet that guy has to park a few blocks from the union hall when they have meetings. My buddy had a Toyota truck when we were in the pipefitters union, he got so many unfriendly comments about it that he finally stopped driving it to work. You never know, that guy may have a monster detroit V-8 powerplant nestled under the hood of that little car.....

Dan, I'll break out the camera tomorrow and shoot some pictures of my slide hammer at work. it will probably end up being quite a few pictures, actually. Maybe something that could get a sticky put on it sometime. As for the 280 vs 240 stub axles: I've upgraded mine to 280 stubs, I think the only difference between the two is the spline count where it attaches to the companion flange. I think the 280 has like 2 or 3 more splines? The rest of the shaft looks the same, and will fit directly in place of the 240 stubs providing that you use the 280 companion flange as well. I don't really see much advantage to using the 280 stubs though, since most of the stub failures I've heard about were at the point where the shft is joined to the outer hub, which appears to be identical between the 240 and 280 stubs. I've never heard of a shaft failing at the splines. I'm pretty sure you'd break almost every other drivetrain component before destroying the splines on a stub axle. Seems like you'd be more likely to bend the output shaft of the transmission, or snap the driveshaft before killing the stub axles. I think most of the failures are due to road racing type abuse as well. lots of yanking the car through corners at high rates of speed, loading up the stub axle with all kinds of G forces. The drag racing guys seem to break halfshafts and CV shafts before anything else. Long story short: I don't really think that the 280 stub axles offer any advantage over the 240 units. The 280 stubs are more plentiful at the junkyards out here though, so thats what I ended up using. Mike

I have a short nose R-200 out of a J-30. I have lots of pictures of the internals that I can send you if you want them. Mike

I've found a trick that so far has worked every time with minimal swearing involved. It involves a little fabrication, but the end result is well worth it. I purchased a slide hammer from Harbor Freight Tools, one of their larger ones thats around 10 pounds if I remember correctly. I modified one of the attachments that came with it, a hook shaped thing that threads onto the end of the slide. I cut off the hooked flat bar so that only 2" of it was left hanging off the end of the threaded collar, and then welded another chunk of flat bar on the opposite side of it, so that now there are two "ears" sticking out of the front of it instead of a hooked flat bar. I found a large bolt, about 5/8" shank and 4" long, then drilled holes in the ears so that it will pass through them. Next I made a flange out of 1/4" plate steel that will bolt to a standard 4 bolt wheel hub, welded to the outer surface of this, in the center is a loop of 3/8" steel round stock bent in a "D" shape. Once I have it bolted to a stub axle, I can put a long pipe or breaker bar through this loop for leverage. I put another breaker bar with the appropriate socket on the stub axle nut on the backside, and turn the axle so that the breaker bar will jam against the suspesion arm when I turn the outer flange with the pipe running through it. I dont grind the staked portion of the axle nut, just grab the pipe and pull upwards, and if you have enough leverage it will just crack the staked portion of the nut without damaging the threads on the axle itself. After removing the nut and companion flange from the axle, I attach the slide hammer by running the large 5/8" bolt through the ears on the modified attachment peice that I made, and through the "D" shaped hoop on the flange that is still bolted to the stub axle by the wheel nuts. Having a solid connection on the slide hammer is VERY important, I tried using chain bolted to the stub axle the first few times, and it didn't work at all. Using my modified fitting and Flange, I can always get the stub axle out with 3 pulls or less. I've pulled many stub axles with it, and have never had any trouble, even with ones that I had tried at for most of a day while using a chain to attach the slide hammer. Pulling stub axles now has gone from a half day affair to a half hour event. I'll post some pictures of my slide hammer fittings if you want them. Mike

I bet all the turbo guys on here are looking at that $29.95 price tag and saying to themselves :"DOH!" :malebitchslap:

Wuts rawng wif hiz spelink? All in favor of increasing the budgets for public schools say: Aye.........

I'd suggest using a roto zip style cutter, since it would be less likely to leave a rough edge on the carbon fiber after cutting. Lay some masking tape over the area and mark the lines you want to cut on the tape. The tape will protect the rest of your hood from scratches as you drag the roto zip over it, and to some degree will help prevent the carbon fiber from fraying as you cut. Sand the edges of the hole with some 300 grit sandpaper, and then seal the edges with some CA (Super Glue) Sealing the edges will prevent it from delaminating later on. Hope this helps a little, Mike

Supposedly, all the cars in "The Fast and the Furious" were equipped with those, and we all know how fast they were..... I'm getting mine next week, see you boys on the track

Bad injectors maybe?

Your best bet would be to get some aluminized steel exhaust pipe from JC Whitney, and then paint it all black with VHT high temp paint after everything is fabricated. Stainless would be a better choice, but will be more expensive and more difficult to weld since you will need an inert gas fed MIG or TIG welder to do it. Either way, you will have to paint the pipe black, or have it ceramic coated black after fabrication. Mike

Where is Dick Cheney anyway? Has he made any appearances at all since 9-11? Maybe he's piloting the Mars rovers after all.......

NASA: Not About Space Anymore. I think we'd have better luck if cobbled together a rocket made from old discarded datsun parts and sent it up. Imagine the commotion in Mission Control as a V8 datsun zooms across the landscape in front of the broken rovers camera.....

"klatu! Veratta! Ni........." Sign me up for one too.

You may want to check out the Pro Topline heads on this site: http://www.gofaststuff.com I have a set of the 220's, and they are very high quality heads. I haven't installed them yet, but the flow numbers are right up there with the AFR's, for quite a bit less money. Mike

Back Side: Front Side: The center of the rotor required the removal of approx. 1/32" from the inner diameter to fit over the 280Z hubd (Converted to 5 Lug). Hope this helps a little. Mike

I just put a set of these on the back of my Z also. I'm going to be using the 2 piston calipers from the Z32 as well. I'm not sure if the Maxima brackets will work, as the Z32 rotor has quite a bit of offset and will put the rotor further inboard than a Z31 rotor would be. I'll post some pics to show what i'm talking about. Mike

What about drilling new holes in the mounting plates in the car, about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch inboard towards the trans tunnel? Or you could add some apacers to the outboard side of the seat under the bracket to make it lean slightly inward. Something about 3/8" thick might just give you the clearance you need, without making the slant of the seat too noticable. Hope this helps. Mike

I didn't notice any problems with my elbows hitting them while operating the shifter. The seats are very close fitting though, so one person may hit while another of a different build may not. I definitely like having the shoulder support though, I think it will make steering a lot easier because you can use that extra support to push against the steering wheel while turning. I'm extremely happy with what I got for the money. Compared to the 3A seats at Pep Boys that cost the same or more depending on the model, I think these are much better seats. The material is higher quality, the seems seem much more durable, and they seem to have had a lot more attention to detail during construction than the Pep Boys 3A seats. I checked the DAD website too, and these same seats are listed at $725 a pair. http://www.dynamicautodesign.com/index1.htm

Thanks, I was really going to be dissapointed if I spent all this money for a 360 horspower motor. 450 is about what I've been targeting for horsepower levels. I realize that the practical application is often much different than the thoery, but it's nice to have a ballpark estimate of what I'm going to have. Mike

I just downloaded the Virtual Engine Dyno last night. Not sure if I like it or not. There seems to be a problem with the cylinder heads section. I put in the specs for my Topline cylinder heads, and if I calculate the HP using flow numbers I get 304 ft lbs for tourque and 362 horsepower. When I switch it to calculate using the port sizes, it jumps up to 420 Ft lbs and 540 horsepower, which is closer to what I'm expecting with my combo. Has anyone had similar results using this one? I triple checked the flow numbers just to make sure they were entered right. If anyone wants to double check, here's a list of the components I'll be using. Eagle ESP cast steel internally balanced 383 crank. 2.10 rod, 2.45 main. #103507501 Eagle ESP 6" Forged H-beam connecting rods (floating pin) GM 3970010 4 bolt main block. 9" deck height. Comp Cams hydraulic roller retro conversion #853-16 CAT Stainless steel roller lifters 1.55 ratio 3/8 stud JE SRP forged flat top pistons #138093, 1.125 copression height -5cc dome. 416 grams Pro Topline aluminum 23 degree 220cc intake cylinder heads 72cc chamber, 2.02 intake 1.6 exhaust valves 80cc exhaust #123-2000-20 Flow rates@28" water Intake Exhaust .100" 70.74 56.90 .200" 146.41 100.99 .300" 204.62 156.94 .400" 249.84 176.85 .500" 264.62 186.34 .600" 272.23 190.13 .700" 282.08 194.87 Holley Street Avenger 770 cfm carburator #510-0-80770 Wieand X-celerator intake maniflod (X type single plane with split runners and divider plate in plenum) 1800-7300 rpm range. #925-7513 Still looking for camshaft. Virtual Dyno was tested with Comp Cams Magnum Hydraulic roller retro fit 270HR(any other cam suggestions are more than welcome) Thanks for the Links, Grumpy Mike

Yeah, they come as a matched pair with recline controls on opposing sides of the seats. The sliders could maybe use a little work, as they are really close to the base of the seat. I think you could probably bend them downward at the last 3 or 4 inches to gain some clearance. Not really an issue unless you plan on adjusting the seat on a regular basis. They are pretty light, lighter than the Camaro seats I was using. I'd geuss maybe 15 to 20 pounds each. They are just a little lover 20" across at the base, so plenty of room for mounting in our cars. I mounted mine about haf an inch inboard of where the stock seats were mounted, it puts the upper shoulder support about 1/4" away from the door when it's closed. Glad I could help out, Mike

Every Infiniti J30 I've seen has had the R200 VLSD, but they aren't the same as the R200 from the early Z cars, and parts interchange would be very difficult. Mounting one of these in an older Z and finding a way to use the J30 halfshafts would be the easiest way I can think of to make them work. The ratio on the R200 VLSD that I have is approx 3.90:1. Hope this helps. Mike

here's the same seats I got for my Z, except for $10 more than I paid, but minus the $80 I paid for shipping. I highly reccomend these, very comfortable and supportive, and they sit pretty low in the car.http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2454306469&category=33701&sspagename=STRK%3AMEBWA%3AIT&rd=1 Mike