Drax240z

Up here those things go for not much money at all. Probably can get bumpers for around $150CAN, taillights for $50 and a grille for $25. The problem is they are hard to find and even harder to find in good shape.

Jesus Christ, I can't believe it was only 5 years ago that I wrote that. I guess I've come a long way since then. Honestly in the end I ended up parting out the car and finding a rust free shell to deal with. Best move I ever made on that project, and I'm still driving the car today for that reason. Knowing what I know now (and having done this repair to other Z's 3 or 4 times now) it is rarely worth the trouble unless the Z is exceptional otherwise. There is no way you want to tackle this job with a stick welder, you need MIG and we're not talking flux cored here. Even then if you don't know what you are doing you're better off finding someone that does to help you out. This job is in the area of 30 hours work to do correctly, both sides. This includes removing the engine, (trust me, you could do it around the engine but it will take twice as long) front suspension, and aligning the car perfectly on a jig. The actual fabrication portion is probably about 10 hours for both sides. Throw in finishing, paint and reinstall and it can add up fast. Another thing I've done that worked out well was to graft a complete front end onto a damaged car from the firewall forward. There are caveats for sure, but it can work very nicely as you put the seam in a spot where it is hard to see. Anyway, not recommended unless you have a) the right tools, boatloads of time, and c) someone knowledgeable that can show you the way.

Cool man, thanks for the update! Glad he made it through.

Only `cause we love ya Tim!

Nice parking brake Tim!

Dave Lum is the mans name IIRC, and the car is actually pretty darn fast! He's a NW guy, I've raced against him a few times. I have some vids of that car that are more impressive. Smoking them up at 50-60mph darius style in an autocross.

I just bought a 1988 535i ( e28 ) and love it. They are easy to work on, parts are a bit pricy but not too bad. Great highway car and still has some 'fun to drive' factor in it. A newer 5 series would be that much better I think.

Hey Jim, been running across your posts on supraforums the last couple of days as I've been working on a 2jz-gte IS300... Glad you haven't forgotten us!

Sorry bud, that isn't close to my complete "mod" list. 8.3:1 compression, N42 head Mandrel bent 2.5" downpipe, 45* angles Mandrel bent 3" exhaust, magnaflow straight through exhaust Medium NPR intercooler SDS EM-3E 440cc/min injectors 60mm throttle body Port matched intake manifold More I'm forgetting... So is 1 extra point in compression over stock, a 3" exhaust, 2.5" downpipe, 60mm TB and SDS worth that power? Doesn't surprise me if they are. Remember that includes removing AFM and corregated inlet tubes and replacing them with mandrel bends as well. Between exhaust and intake flow increases I could imagine a large increase in power from my setup compared to yours, and even with your elevated boost levels. Also at 233rwhp at 14psi I would say you are the abnomoly for power, on the low side. Your 110mph trap speeds would indicate you have more power than that I would think. In the end though, even if you buy all that stuff, tuning is going to give you MUCH more return for each dollar spent than the mods will... (at least once you have something that is tunable running your engine)

Well poor boost control, and some other mechanical issues at the moment. (my turbo is pretty bagged) I had it set at 9psi a while ago but the spring in my grainger valve is wearing out and it seems that boost levels are dropping over time. I haven't had a chance to tune WOT much yet, and I want to do that before turning up the wick. Also I have plans to move my air temp sensor into the charge pipe before anything else, to try to gain some consitancy in my mixtures. Baastad: The 5% number you hear may still be accurrate. All the dyno dynamics operators I have talked to include a 17% inflation factor in their machines, and most do not tell their customers this. They do this to reflect the dynojet numbers, which are unfortuantely "industry standard" because they are the cheapest dyno's available, and therefore the most widespread. My numbers are raw output from my dyno without any external corrections aside from atmospheric. As an aside, I can screw with corrections to get the dyno to read as much as 4 times what the actual reading is. How much do you trust your dyno operator to give you the correct info? Even a well reputed shop near here we've found use this 17% inflation factor, without ever telling any of their customers. I guess if you can make 200hp on one dyno, and 234hp on the dyno down the street, people are going to recommend you use the higher reading dyno. Sad but true. Luckily we are the only Dyno in down, and we can educate our customers, and give them a raw file, and also a file that is labelled as an inflated inertial dyno comparison sheet. Maybe this weekend I'll have a chance to dyno the Z some more. Lots of other cars in line too though!

You aren't our youngest member, however, many of the other young guys on this site do display a certain level of maturity that makes it hard to tell them apart from the rest. What is it you are saying? Absolutely nothing. Much like the origional question that has no information in it, any answer you give it is useless. If you have a question. Search. If you can't find the answer in a search, look for yourself around the forums and see if you can find it. It HAS been asked before. There are dyno graphs here with the information I suspect our first poster is after. Absolutely horsepower numbers are completely useless information in reality, and they should only be used for comparison purposes between cars on the same dyno, or by different states of tune on the same dyno.

Just thought some of you guys might be interested in seeing the dyno of my car. This is done on my dyno dynamics single retarder dyno. Dyno dynamics units read in general about 17% lower than a dynojet. L28, stock T3, 6psi boost. SDS, 60mmTB, 3" exhaust, 2.5" downpipe, 440cc/min injectors, NPR intercooler, etc. etc. Yes, this is at 6psi. 198rwhp, 241ft-lbs of torque. This would be about 232rwhp on a dynojet machine. All of the tuning I have done to this point is part throttle mapping, making huge gains in drivability, responsiveness and fuel economy. I want to finish that before I turn up the boost any more. Of note: Look at the engine fall on it's face starting at about 4500rpm... My only theory there is the stock cam, and a smallish air filter. (which I can easily dyno test) Saddest part is I've had the dyno just over a month and only had my car on it for a couple of hours! Damn paying customers keep taking up all the time on it.

My rule of thumb: Cruise: Tune for 15.5:1 AFR Small Hill: Tune for 14.7-15.5:1 AFR Medium Hill: Tune for 14.0-14.7 AFR Large Hill: Tune for 13.0-13.5 AFR Full Throttle (boosted engine): Tune for 11.5-12.0:1 AFR

Wish I had that much room... looking good!

That's frickin sweet.

I think it depends a lot on the picture you are trying to do, and the size... I wouldn't go with a much smaller image size than mine with the white borders. Damn Owen, that last one must have took a lot of ink!!

OK, grabbed a camera from work just to show mine off.

Just looks like apples and oranges to me... .64AR vs. .86AR... 2 different dynos... A better comparison would be to post the compressor maps of each turbo and compare those. At least that is comparing apples to apples.

All this proves is 2 different dyno's read differently.... without using the same car and the same dyno there isn't much point...

Woo, did one today of my car and it turned out really well. Too bad I don't have a digital camera to show you guys. And now that I am done I realize that owen posted a link to software that would do all the dirty work for me... doh!

Hey that's pretty cool, I think I am going to try something myself.

I'm in Victoria/Cobble Hill on the island... feel free to stop by my shop anytime!

If they are LSD's I would say either will hold up just fine.