Drax240z

Uh, just as good in what respect? You'll not be able to 'strip' a 280z down to the 240z weight unless you are using a hole saw. I'm with Dan all the way on this one, 240z is the place to be if you are starting with nothing.

I'm willing to bet your steering coupler is the problem, especially since you've said you replaced your rack bushings. Its on the drivers side, right close to the firewall, almost looks like a hockey puck in the steering shaft. Its less than $10 for a urethane one, I recommend it! Don't worry about sorting out vibrations until after you find the source of your freeplay.

Hmm, I think I'll see if they are hiring at Turbotech!

Hmm had some fun the last day or two. Fixed up a bit of wiring and took my car out for another spin. Well I got a couple KM and smelt fuel, so I pulled over and parked, and investigated. As I pulled over and took my foot off the gas, the car died. Couldn't find a fuel leak anywhere! Spent a full day troubleshooting it at the side of a not-so-busy road. Found out my cap and rotor looked like ASS, so I got new ones. I went through the car and found 4 or 5 things that "just had to be the problem!". I fixed them and no improvement. I certainly saved myself some headache down the road by fixing these things though! Now the car was acting like it wasn't getting spark. 2 & 3 plugs were wet and clean from raw fuel. It would start, but was obviously only running on 4 cylinders. Swapped wires, same problem. New plugs, same problem. Seemed like there was no spark at all, though when I pulled the wire and cranked it, it did have some spark. So the situation is: I've got spark to all cylinders. I've got fuel to all cylinders. (I know because it is being pushed out the exhaust!) It will run, but not on cylinders 2 & 3. Odd. 2 & 3 are not a matched pair ANYWHERE that I can think of. So back to the wiring I did. It seems that when I rewired the 12V power for the injectors, I used a switched source (same one that triggers my fuel pump relay) and it was just too crappy a source to power ALL the injectors. So, as soon as I swapped the injector 12V lead straight to the battery, VROOM!! I am still trying to figure out how exactly this all worked. All I can figure now is tha 2 & 3 were pumping in so much fuel that the plug was instantly wet and wouldn't ignite the mix. I still don't quite get how a bad wiring connection can cause the injectors to stay open too long. Ideas? Anyway, got fed up, spent $60 on electrical goodies, and did a nice 5 relay/distribution block setup on a plate. Now the injectors are running through a relay, so no problems right now! I'm still a bit weary about this one though, as the solution doesn't really make sense to me...

Don it is set up, send your paypal to Tim, at this email address: THepburn@SempraUtilities.com

I'm running 2.25", not too bad to route in the engine bay.

Well the appeal of an IS300 with a supra twin turbo to me is still pretty huge. Its a good looking car, and with the supra engine 12's shouldn't be out of the question. Good milage, comfortable, quiet. I might spend $40000 canadian on the car + engine, but so what? I'd rather have a 3-5 year old IS300 with a Supra TT engine in it than a new base model Impreza, Accord, etc. in that price range. For me it would never be my "fun" car, the Z is that. The IS300 would make a great daily driver, still fast enough to do well on the street, get 30mpg+ on the highway even with the TT engine, be able to take 3 friends to a hockey game with me, and be a perfect car for a 1000km+ road trip. My Z will never have AC, sunroof, power seats, a great stereo, a quiet ride, etc. but that doesn't mean that I won't occasionally want those things.

Take a look for "Roll center calculator" by performance trends. There is a free version out there, and it can get you started with fooling around with those points.

I haven't got much experience with that particular model, but a buddy of mine had a 79? 530i and loved it. He drove the piss out of the car for 1.5 years and had to replace: - The speedo cable. Yeah, thats it. He hit a pylon and that ripped it out.

Well I've done three tube frames, not on Z's but I have a few tips for you. - Buy a tubing notcher and have a quality drill on hand. Use a carbide tipped holesaw, as the bi-metal ones will last you about 1/10th the time, at only 1/2 the price. - Spend most of your time and effort on jigging, and realize that things that aren't jigged well will pull out of alignment when cooling from welding. It is well worth the time and money to have a perfectly flat floor to reference from, either a wooden "table" or my preference, an epoxy pad poured in your garage. (self levelling) - Get a decent gas shield MIG welder. Its perfect for this task. - Have an angle grinder handy, and a few round files. There will be joints that you can't just use the tubing notcher on. Prepare to have to notch some tubes with a grinder and file. Also prepare to have to scrap a few pieces to be used later. - Its worth your while to be able to bend your own tubing, which mean a hydraulic press and some dies, at a minimum. (However, if you only plan on having a few bent pieces, you can farm out this work) - An abrasive carbide or carbide tipped metal chopsaw is handy to have. - Tack weld pieces together when first installed. Do not do any finish welding if possible until all members are in place, as they will help jig the frame and keep it from moving when finish welding. As far as design goes, try to keep everything triangulated, and make sure all substantial forces are at a node. (suspension pickups, engine mounts, etc) Don't be afraid to use smaller diameter tubing for triangulation purposes, as its much easier to notch. (though a bit more difficult to weld in crowded nodes) If you aren't sure about load paths, then talk to a few people in the know at your local race shop, or so on. Also if you are going through this trouble, you may want to explore the possiblilty of increasing castor slightly from the stock design, and allowing for adjustable camber. Probably best to talk to a racer to find out what they would want, but off the top of my head another 2* castor would probably be a nice thing in the Z. (research first, don't take that as gospel because it really is just off the top of my head) And the last, most important thing: Take lots of pictures and show us what you are doing!

15x6 right now. (Honda wheels with spacers) 16x8 on my shelf waiting for 5 lug conversion. (3rd gen RX7 wheels, 15.4lbs each!!)

So Jon, did you remove the header wrap and have your heating problems dissapear? Good info...

I have the same problem in first gen rx7's. I'm way too tall for them, and I'm only 6'0".

Sounds fishy to me... especially at $300.

Heh, just ordered the stuff I need from Mcmaster in order to make a MBC. I'd better break in this engine before it gets here! Off to go driving. :D :D

What engine, what mods? What fuel pump are you running? What is your EFi system, stock? or something aftermarket? What fuel tank are you using? Need some more info please!

Yup I had a fun time, but finally insured my turbo Z today. Its a long story... ah what the hell, it might be worth a laugh. So I arrive home late from my eye appointment, and have only a few minutes to get to the insurance office, and then to the garage to get my provincial safety inspection done. (its an out of province car) Go to start up, dead battery. Oops. I wired up my injectors to a constant 12V instead of a switched 12V. Well no time to fix that now, swap in another battery, keep the injectors on 12V and go. Start it up, everything is ready... go to put my seatbelt on and the fuel pump cuts out, and the car dies. Hrm, thats new. Start up again fine, fuel pump works... maybe just a fluke. Let it idle for a few, go to put my seatbelt back on, and the car dies. WTF? Oh, must be this battery is down on power too, and when I let it idle the fuel pump can't draw enough to keep going. Hmm, swap in another battery. Start up, same deal. As soon as I am all ready to drive away, the pump stops. Argh!!! Finally, I clue in... start the car, pull seatbelt, pump dies, release seatbelt, pump starts, pull seatbelt pump dies... Huh? So I just decide to go without the seatbelt for the moment. (turns out that when I looked for switched 12V to trigger my fuel pump relay, I used the seatbelt warning buzzer 12V line, and of course its worked perfectly in the driveway up until now because I haven't had the seatbelt on in the driveway.) Get to the insurance office (I allready had a temporary permit) and all I needed them to do was a visual confirmation of my VIN number. OK, no problem... right? They come out to check the number, and duh, it doesn't match. WTF now? Well turns out I am on crack, and when I swapped in the best dash I had, the VIN number from that car went with it. I had always assumed that the VIN was attached to the unibody and not that dash, but 2 years ago when I put this dash in I didn't check. So now I've got a problem... or do I? Well since I was the last owner of the car with this VIN number, and it was taken away and crushed, there is no problem at all! I register the car as an aglomination of a few cars, with this VIN number, and viola! No more inspections, no $100 fee, and I'm driving. I can't believe how docile the car is with the base SDS maps I made in my driveway. Seems to have lots of starting torque, even with the touchy, not-so-broken in CF DF clutch. It drove like a dream compared to my L28 SU'd 260z! I love EFI. I've been babying it, set the rev limiter to 3250 for the first miles until the engine and clutch are broken in. It sure feels tight, no creaks or groans, very deep sounding exhaust note, and everyone and their dog in my backwards hick down just oggles when I drive by! Even though the car is a few different colours, its still an eye catcher. Only running stock boost at the moment, but I might have an issue there. I didn't really get on it, but I can hear the turbo spool and the BOV vent on shifts, but my boost gauge still shows vacuum. I guess this is totally possible since the BOV is on one side of the TB and the boost gauge hose on the other. Stock 7psi minus whatever the pressure drop is from the IC and piping... And I'm going to try to keep it there for the first while until things are broken in. Other interesting notes and differences from my 260z: - The Autometer gauges are awesome at night! Wow, I can actually read them easily. - Short throw shifter is a little too short. I'll have to make another one or weld a piece onto this one. (Well it isn't a short throw, I just cut it... too much) - The stereo rocks, but I just want to listen to the car! - Throttle blips are very responsive and double clutching is way easier with this setup. - Probably will be a loud car on a trip until I put some carpet in. - Even without the strut tower bracing I had in my 260 (front and rear), this car feels stiffer. The urethane bushings probably help the feel too. WOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Jeromio has some good info on sectioning his struts on his webpage if I remember correctly...

Hey Al, good luck with all this, and certainly you will have time to build another Z soon. It sounds like a great father and son project for a few years down the road. All the best to you and your son.

Ergh? Is that correct? Odd.

Ah yes! I guess as long as you go int he right direction. (ie: don't use a file, use a mill) then it should be doable. Still not sure what you do with the chamfer, though I suppose not all wheels use a chamfered bolt/but combo to ensure concentricity. (D-slots ofr example, use a straight hole and nut)

Well I'm interested in knowing this hammer technique! Don't suppose you have a digital camera and can do a walkthrough for us?

Likely not a good idea, as I can't imagine how your get the wheel to mount concetrically with your hub. The bolt holes are usually chamfered along with the lug nuts to accomplish this, they self center. If you slot the holes, you need to go in exactly the right direction, and move the chamfer as well. If it is not precise, you'll get some baaaad sounds at speed. (and the vibrations to go with them)

I think there may be some problems with your testing method. Depending on how the bolt hits the floor, it will vibrate at a different frequency. Hence the sound difference. If you are pondering using studs, do it. Studs are a much much better fastening system than bolts, and I am sure every automaker on earth would use them if the cost was less than bolts, but it isn't. If you are building an engine you want to keep, studs are good! If you are going to use bolts, get new ones, unless it is a JY engine that you are just throwing together. (which I've done, and reused head bolts with fine results) If you are looking to make some power though, I'd be wary.

Dry ice may work. A powerful heat gun and a putty knife works pretty darn well too.