Drax240z

I'd rethink it a bit. The beauty of a unibody is that it is light and stiff for its weight. This is achieved basically with stressed shear panels. These panels can be in either tension or compression depending where your loads are at a given time. Even though you are in front of the strut tower, the material in that area still has a vital role to play, in that it resists the deflection of your strut tower. (sometimes under tension, sometimes under compression loading) The rad cross member aids in this as well by transferring some of the loads to the opposite side. Once you start weakening a chassis like that, it isn't so much that high stress will cause an instant catastrophic failure of the metal. More likely, the increased deflection and strain of the surrounding components will cause fatigue on any stress risors created by the removal of the panel. This fatigue will lead to failure much sooner than expected by a simple stress calculation. (which is how we normally would do it in our heads by looking at it, even if we don't cosider it a stress calculation/estimation) For most Z's this might not be a huge issue, but you are putting down some serious power and torque, so I'd be careful with it. If you were to do this, a strut tower brace would be a must, but I would strongly consider triangulating your towers to the firewall as well if not allready done. Also, aim to remove any stress concentrations in your cut. (no sharp edges, file it smooth, nice radius corners, good surface finish, etc) Best bet would probably be to make a large circle, and then flare the edges to add rigidity in that manner. You'll probably have to make a die the same size as your circle to do it well, but a dolly and body hammer might suffice. You can likely regain ~50% of the lost stiffness by doing this. Any material in front of the rad support does almost nothing structurally, as only the headlight bucket attaches up there. I'd say that is free game. And yes this IS guessing and speculation, because I've never done such a thing and tested it. I do however have a degree behind it, so take it for what you will. I'd imagine that if you threw caution to the wind and did it, you'd probably be ok... but engineers don't really work in "probably's" and for good reason.

Well the VG30 has been done too, though it is far from a bolt in like the L28. I am not sure about the T5 on the VG30, but certainly there are trannies out there that can handle some sick power. (Z32TT, etc) Search for posts by ZR8ED and check out his setup... he's running a VG30 single turbo in his early Z. In some posts he's outlined what is involved with the swap. It does involve some fender cutting and so on. But as you say, C of G is lower and behind the front struts. the VG30 is a crossflow head, and has more displacement... both are a great advantage over the L28. It also happens to be one of the lightest V6's around from what I've read. VG30 full T4 setup would be really slick, and yes you could front mount the turbo ala buick GN... there would certainly be room for it. (though custom manifolds would be needed of course) Sounds like you are on the right track!

I'm happy with my NPR intercooler. mid-13's is a easily attainable goal with the L28 as well as the 350. The L28 is a robust engine, and it can take quite a bit of power. There are people on this board putting down 350+hp at the wheels with stock internals. If you wanted more than that, forged pistons are probably all that is needed internally for up to about 400rwhp. This should put you in the 11's in a 240z, assuming you are getting a good launch. A couple of Scotties here got into the 12's with a stock engine, stock turbo, and a few bolt ons. (IC, bigger injectors, programmable EFI) If you put it in the much lighter 240z, you can easily have a L28 in the 13's. Most people like the T5 and say it is stronger, but I am not convinced that the nissan tranny is weak. The T5 came in the 83 280zx turbo MT cars. All other MT cars used a nissan tranny to the best of my knowledge. I guess the nice thing about the T5 is that you can get aftermarket shifters, and its easy to find someone with experience to work on it. Oh, some people like the gear ratios better as well. Gear ratio info: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html Z-car 1/4 mile times: http://grannypotts.freeservers.com/Times.html Best low budget swap would be to get a rusty 280zx turbo, and transplant the engine, tranny and wiring. For a bit more flexibility and performance, scrap the stock efi system and get a programmable system. The SDS (http://www.sdsefi.com) is inexpensive and performs well. Add an intercooler and injectors you are probably close to your goal!

Well I figured I'd post a conclusion to this thread. Turns out all 6 injectors were varnished shut from sitting! (even without fuel in the system) I took off the rail, and using a nail with the system under pressure, pushed the pintle in enough to get fuel out. There was a definite "stick" on each pintle. Once it was reassembled it fired right up! I added some FI cleaner (ie: diesel) to the tank just to clean them out more. The plan is to get some 350-450cc/min injectors fairly soon, so I'll put off cleaning these and put the money towards the new injectors.

Hay, I's gots a edumication two! Yeah Jamie T took to calling his L6 turbo the twisted 6 and for some reason it was in my head at the time I wrote this.

Not on my Z, but... Removing the brake booster out of a junkyard 280zx turbo. Took me over an hour of extremely contorted work. (the car was at a bad angle, 2' off the ground so it was impossible to find a good position) The kicker was that I had intended to put it in my 240z and it didn't fit.

The Volvo intercooler has been used in Z's in the past with reasonalbe success at low boost pressures. I believe one of the scotties is using one (scottyMIz) but had problems with the plastic tanks at high (15psi) boost pressures. Its a good low dollar option from the sounds of things, though I'd spend a bit more and find an NPR intercooler. (oh wait, I did do that) A hybridz is a great first project car... these things are a snap to work on, and pretty straight forwards to find parts for. Plus there are a lot of factory parts that can be used as upgrades. Personally, I like the twisted 6 option, but there are some sweet 8's out there too. Oh yeah, I think everyone on this board wants their car to be like Pete's car.

Is it close enough that you can do a bit of grinding on the caliper to get wheel clearance? At least it would let you drive the car a bit before shelling out more $$$ for wheels.

It isn't that amazing. Society tends to aim itself towards protecting the stupidest of the stupid. (ie: the guy who decided with his buddy to chop his hedge with his lawnmower, and both lost all their fingers. They sue and win, now you won't find a lawnmower without a warning label... Just a simple example of how we protect people from their own stupidity) Not to comment on anything listed here, we all make mistakes from time to time. Some are a bit dumber than others however. At least most of us learn from those mistakes!

Heh, Rodney Sparks... Now there is a name that I know well. How's it going man? Haven't heard much from you since the mailing list went down, I guess you didn't bother with fsae.com. Did you make comp this year? If not, you missed an interesting one. A hybridz might be as close as you can get on the street to the FSAE cars. At least affordibly. Welcome aboard.

I seriously doubt the plugs are the problem. What I would do is get a friend to help you, and get in the car. Have your friend take a garden hose to all the door seams, and find out where the leaks are. Make sure you check the hatch seam, door seams, front windshield, rear windshield, etc. If it is that bad, you should have no problem locating where the problem is. Likely you really need some new door seals or something similar.

Personally I would scrutinize your choice of tires before looking to change to a different diff! What brand of tires are you running? The grip that you are going to get out of your tires in a straight line is surprisingly unrelated to the tire width. (well, not unrelated, but compound matters very much more) Also, are you able to cope with the additional RPM's it will take to go the same speed with a 3.7:1 ratio over a 3.36:1 ratio? I'd spend the money and time on trying out some new drag radials first. Just my 2 cents.

The beast started for the first time today! Yay! I just sat there idling, blipped it a bit, and thats about all, but finally it runs. For some reason the charging system isn't working, but that should be a minor fix I hope. Now I just need all the lights and I can go get insurance and drive! Anyone that has removed their voltage regulator to go with an internally regulated alternator in a 240z, do you have a record of what you did to get it to charge?

Yeah it is awesome stuff. We used it on our adjustable pedal box in our FSAE car, to reduce sliding friction. Worked great. I'm not sure offhand how pricy it is, but for most spacers and so on I find Nylon, Delrin or Teflon is usually sufficient. (or aluminum in the application you are referring to) I'm not sure that you really gain anything from the properties of this material in the application you speak of...

You guys get me the budget and I'm in! Bench racing time. $40,000 is a lot of cash to play with if you have some facilites allready. Oh crap you mean US$, that is a lot!!! I think you could make an AMC Pacer beat a viper with that much to throw at it. I guess it depends if you are talking about $40k in raw materials, or if you are paying for labour for everything. With it just in parts/materials I think it could be well beyond a viper. (again, providing you had a good shop with some decent machines and tooling, a TIG, brake and shear, etc) I would think a ~2200lbs Z with 450+rwhp and a wheelbarrow load of traction should do it. Not hard to get that kind of power, not hard to get that weight (providing you go to a well designed tube frame), and a lot of time and research into suspension, wheels and tires, and I think you should be there. (if you are going tube frame, you might as well go dual a-arm...) The question is, is it still a Z?

Bump.... Anyone with some ideas?

I'm no chevy expert, but isn't the LS1 all almuninum?

Well your problem could be entirely the dirt clogging the filters if they are really that bad... try taking it for a run with clean filters or without filters and see what happens...

Pulling my hair out a bit over my cars lack of starting with the SDS. Yes, this is the same car I started working on years ago, but until this past week haven't had time to get back to it. Well, my time is now! Using SDS EM-3E with an L28ET. Stock injectors (low impedance injectors and the resistor pack built into the SDS.), stock turbo, stock almost everything at this point on the engine. Spark is strong. Fuel isn't! I have pressure to the rail however, (verified by loosening the feed line)and if I compare the compressability of the rubber hoses before and after the FPR I am pretty sure its good to go. (ie: hose won't compress before FPR because of fuel pressure, will after the FPR) Stock FPR and rail for now too. When I crank it over I get no hint of it starting... I've upped the knob to max rich, and now I've upped my fuel start values as well to ~120 in the 20C range. I've turned off all the fuel cuts (rpm, map, etc) just to eliminate that as a possibility. Checks have revealed battary (12.6+) voltage at the injectors. As far as I have been able to find, my grounds are good, though I suspect I am having a grounding problem somewhere. Anyone have any other ideas?

I certainly know OF him, but have never met him... I haven't had time in the last couple years with school to get to local car events, even Z ones. Chances are I'll get over to the big one in Vancouver this september though, in which I am sure many of those guys will be around.

Heh, interesting site! A lot of those guys are in my car club, or its parent club.

As a Canadian I have no idea what the yellow reference is towards, but when I read it at first I thought the same thing Davy did... The last thing we need here is more closed minded insults flying around IMHO, in jest or not. Since you made the comment, perhaps you can explain it David?

mMmmmMMMmM.... M Coupe I've always liked the Lexus IS300. Nothing special... until you shove in a supra engine and tranny.

By going with coilovers you can use a smaller diameter spring, and also lower the bottom spring perch to accomidate a wider wheel. With the lower spring perch where it is, the rubber will touch it if you go too wide. If you can lower it down so that it is lower than the rubber and wheel endge, then you can get another inch or two of wheel width in there.

I'm 99% sure its just standard foam insulation for houses, etc...