Sparky

thanks guys, its been a serious pain getting to that point,but she looks good if you don't stare too long . I will probably end up painting her again in the next five years as the paint and body work is far from perfect....I've been thinking about a nice white with some black ZGs and some big ole wheels, but I might save this one and just buy a RHD basket case to fix up.... anywho...here is a parting shot of the front-

Viper Red: Sunfire Metallic Pearl: Sold the red one to finance the orange turbo car...kinda miss her she got LOTS of attention.

well, you should ask yourself a few questions... are you, or do you want to run a wheel larger than 15" in diameter? what is your intended goal for your car? HPDE? AutoX? Drag? street? Show? if you answered yes to the first question your half way home because you must run 16" or larger wheels to run these brakes. the second question is a bit more tricky as there are many factors to consider. there are a lot more than a few people that will swear that the stock S30 brakes with some good pads and in proper working order are more than adequate in autoX and drag, HPDE's are another story as they tend to get a workout on higherspeed tracks and may fade. Of course there are always exceptions and a few people out there run with the stock brakes. Personally, I plan on running more than a few HPDEs and want that safety factor that larger modern brakes can provide me...but...I will also freely admit that I LOVE the look of big aggressive brakes behind larger open wheels...functional purposeful bling. Now to what your going to need to complete this kit: Caliper (x2)-Wilwood or other caliper with a 3.5" mount spacing for a 1.25" thick rotor. Rotor (x2) 12.19" Diameter Rotor with 8x7 bolt pattern (lots of choices on this one) Brake lines (x2)- there are several shops that can custom make you a set of brake lines to adapt from the stock hard line to the caliper. When I get everything put on the car I will be able to provide more detailed info on this so people wont have to guess or fiddle too much. Brake pads late 260(?) or 280Z Hubs- The spacing is different on the stock 240Z or early 260Z hubs so they will not work properly. I'm making sure my info is correct on the late 260 hub, its really best to just buy a set of 280Z hubs and have new bearings pressed in...its very affordable all will offer a nice piece of mind knowing that everything up front has been gone through. Also, your going to have everything apart anyway so why not? Nuts and Bolts- there are 8 bolts that connect the rotor to the hub. and another two for the caliper. these can be sourced locally or online but its imperative that everyone understands the difference in bolt grades between metric and SAE. I will be making a post about this when we start taking orders and asking everyone and anyone that buys that kit if they understand. Secondarily, I'm looking into a single manufacture that can supply us with a bolt kit and cut us a bit of a break...stay tuned for that one. do you want to buy this kit? YES...yes you do Wow that got there quick! I will be online sometime saturday or sunday so we can chat then to figure some things out, it looks like you've got it handled though

I've met and chatted with him a few times in the past and have mentioned the possibility of a kit for the S30 early Zeds. "not enough interest" was what I always heard and He's probably right. When you consider that they make kits for 55-57 chevy, vintage camaro and mustangs you have to look at the popularity of those cars and how much money they can fetch when they are sold. simply put there are not enough Z people that can justify spending 1,500$ on an AC system when they only payed 2K for the car. I think that the value of our cars has been increasing lately, and is only going to go up, BUT its going to be a while before the new wave of owners come into the scene with money to spend. that said, I was planning on buying a universal super cooler from them in the future when summer hits again, but if they are going to develop a full bolt in kit for our cars then I would certainly wait. One things thats nice about the Z cars is all the room under the dash so I don't think it would take too much R&D to make it work. anywho, does he still have that amazing '53 stude? That car gets me every time I see it, does John still have that '59 el camino?

Those hardware kits are for threaded rotors, while the rotors I'm using are not threaded you can use a different type if you like but those part numbers above don't give any specs so I'm thinking they are replacement parts for one of their kits. once we get everything finalized I will provide a source for the correct hardware.

barely I've had roughly 8 hours of sleep TOTAL for the last 6 days and i'm pooped. I did manage to make it out to the shop though and did some loose test fitting. it needs a bit of tweaking but we are well on our way. I'm actually going to sleep for next 18 hours, but when I awake from my coma I will answer some recent questions.

Hey Everyone, Don't count me out just yet! I'm working on a huge project right now and its been given a priority. sorry to say that MY poor planning and MY poor planning alone has left me scrambling to finish some prior commitments. One of those commitments are the brake kits, but I refuse to compromise on quality or fitment in order to meet a loose deadline. I hope everyone understands and trusts that come saturday night (I promise ) I will have detailed pictures and good news and holiday cheer for all. I've been working on a design project for a local private school for the last two months, all my work and sleepless nights in the studio culminate on friday morning at 8am when I walk into the schools auditorium and present my design in front of the faculty, students, and financiers. Needless to say it takes alot more of my time than I would like, but its necessary to work hard at this stage if I want to be a successful Architect in the near future. I know that I've said in the past that I would have this ready by X time, or photos at Y time only to disappoint when that time comes...I really wanted to thank everyone for your patience and encouragement. stick around for just one more week and we will get this ball rolling at a steady pace.

im interested if you still have them!

Looks good, I really love that colour combo and contrast of white with black accents. it works really well on the S30 and I hope to use that colour combo on my next Z car project.

ouch, getting your jaw wired is NO fun at all. when I was a wee lad I crashed my bike hard flying down the biggest hill in the ol hood. Broke my jaw and fractured my skull. I ended up sliding on my FACE for about 20 yards according to my neighbor. My mom had to scrub the gravel out of my face everday for two weeks thankfully though I have minimal scaring..but my jaw does that stupid clicking thing all the time now, and you can still feel the offset in the bone sweet!

very nice! love that dish!

I wish I had a hill available..but even if I did I cant even drive the car, and the local neighborhood association is full of busy body weenies I will try the funnel method though...am I understanding that you just place the end of the funnel in the filler neck and thats it? I was looking for a specialty tool thats made specifically for purging cooling systems, its like a radiator cap with a small container attached that you fill with water and then compress with an air compressor...I'm i crazy or does something like this excist? Brand new Nissan thermo, and I removed the thermostat thinking that it was the problem (('ve had new ones go bad) but the problem persists... It never had a hose just a port plugged up..(so thats what goes there!)but I have the run this same housing setup in the past on multiple Z's with no problem. I'm wondering if the thermostat wasnt getting coolant and that caused a steam pocket to develop in the engine that wouldnt allow it to build pressure and pump. it seems unlikely to me, but i will check into that later tonight when I go to work on it. Is there a post or site that describes the drilling of the T-stat? I will search later, but if you know it off had that would be helpful. I'm hoping that its not my new radiator and hose routing causing the problem, I've done this so many times in the past though on all kinds of cars with no problems... o-well, just another bump in the road. thanks everyone for the suggestions. Hopefully I will have a positive update tonight.

Well, I went out to tune the Zed sled today and ran into my second little issue with the car since I got it running. After a few minutes of running and tuning for idle I noticed the water temp indicator on the haltech was in the red....reading 210 and rising. I turned on the electric fan and it kept going up till about 220 when I shut it off. I let her cool down and tried again this time with the fan running from 190....same results. So I pull off the cap and put my hand on the radiator to find it was cool to the touch well, I left the cap off and started the car again and watch the water level drop about an two inches...indicating that the water pump is trying to pull water up in the block, I topped it off and when I shut it down it puked all the water i put in out the filler neck..AIR POCKET! Well, I jacked the car up from the front and fiddled with the hoses with no luck, jacked it up from the rear and tried to force the pocket out with no luck This is the first time I've ever had problems with air in the cooling system on a Z car, coincidently I recently installed a AFCO alum. radiator and had to engineer some new hoses.... So I come here today for advice, and a recomended plan of attack... opinions?

and if I had the money I would fly out there just becuase! would love to check out that car show, looks fun.

Have you tried changing the latency of the USB to seriel adapter? I cannot recal the exact figure but I know alot of people have had to do this to get the Haltech systems working.

thats awesome, I love those older non Z datsuns! Ernie, if you want to fly me out to cali I will drive the car up the coast to you whadaya say! lol

Check in this thread for the calculations needed to determine proper size- http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=78488&highlight=intercooler I ended up going with 2.25 and think its perfect for me. in the above post its mentioned that you should only run the larger size if your planning on making more than 500hp because it will have an effect on intercooler effeciency.

alright everyone, I've got the hat in hand and it just needs a wee bit of tweaking before its ready, I will post some pictures ASAP. Z31 people, good news is that the hat will fit on the Z31 hub. bad news is that it will require an entirely different caliper adapter. another thing that is bothering me is the offset of the face of the hub in relation to the rotor surface... in other words, if you chose to use this hat on the Z31 hub you may find yourself on a long search for wheels with the proper clearence, and that leads me to another issue... 15" turbo swats will NOT fit, its close...but Plan to run a MIN. 16" wheel. While most of us plan on running larger wheels anyway, I know there were a few of you that wanted to stick with 15"s (I was one of them) sorry guys, I was really hopefull that they would clear. it might be possible to run a wheel spacer to gain the clearence needed but that might put the wheel in fender rubbing range. One possible solution would be to run a smaller diameter rotor and fab a new caliper bracket, lets keep this in mind and see what we can come up with! more updates to come, I'm currently at school right now but plan to head to the shop tomorrow to do some more work on it.

I went to a "Green Energy Fair" this weekend and talked to a rep. for Ethanol. I'm seriously considering doing this to my Z. Haltech supports dual maps so with the flick of a switch I could run one or the other. He had his car there, a very nice red supra turbo with a single conversion. according to him, I would just need to increase my injector size and increase my fuel map accros the board 25% to make up the difference. He also stated that Ethanol runs cooler essentially cooling the intake charge. He mentioned that I would need to watch my alum. fuel lines because I told him I wasnt sure if they were anodized or not. another thing he mentioned was that his exhuast temps were way down in the 700's... hmm, There are several local retailers in my area, and I won't be driving my car that often so it might just work out for me. Im still on the fence, for every source that tells you one thing there is another that will tell you the opposite. professional and personal agendas abound in energy consumption/production... who do you believe? that leads me to another question, can you distill ethanol from fruit or veggy waste? seems to me that if we all took some time to seperate our wastes we could put a small dent in the needed resources?

Not a problem, any questions or concerns you might be having are totally within the topic. I really encourage an "open forum" of sorts about this type of thing. With all the combined knowledge and skill on this site we can really create a nice product that everyone can enjoy and be confident in. thanks again everyone for your continuing interest and patience

No criticism taken There are several fantastic aftermarket Z parts suppliers already in business providing great products and great prices, this run of hats and adapters are meant for the notoriously thrifty Z car enthusiasts that wish to piece together their own kit on their own time without having to drop 700$ at once. I'm not trying to compete with the existing vendors nor do I want too. For the DIY'r that may have certain parts in hand already or that may need to modify it to their unique setup I feel this kit is ideal I've also offered to supply a set of 280Z hubs for those that really need it. It will take a little longer to ship and the cost of shipping hubs negates what cost or time savings one might see in the end, it really is better to just take your time and grab parts while you can, or save your dough and buy from Ross or Dave. .

As of now we are looking at having the end user supply all the needed bolts and nuts along with a set of 280Z hubs. A pair of hats along with a pait of brackets will be 200$.

Congrats Alan on your latest acquisition, I must say I am a good bit envious at the moment, on one side there is the car, and on the other side there is the story behind it. The generosity of the Japanese people never ceases to amaze me... Also really love the SW meshies that are on the car now (been looking for a set in the states for a while but I just haven't found the right deal yet) but those Watanabes are incredible and will no doubt look amazing on the car. Again congrats, If I make it to London in the late spring or summer I would love to take a quick look at it if at all possible.

The driver of "YellowBird" in the Ruf video "Faszination" is actually Stefan Roser, AKA sideways Stefan. Here is the full Ruf video:http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7007840369175411712&q=ruf+yellow+bird For those interested Ruf recently released a new version of the video called "Faszination Plus" A bit spendy at 99$ but it would make a cool gift for the Pcar fanatic.

Hey gang thanks for all the great advice and responses! I really like the idea Of using scantly clad Asian hotties but they are in short supply here in the San Antonio....No shortages of Latin cuties though I had a major laptop malfunction on thursday that caused me to waste a whole work day on diagnostics. then this saturday I went to Dallas for a Italian car fest so it looks like I will have to put off the wash for a few more days...(this wait is killing me!) O-well, it will happen enventually thanks again all!