Drax240z

First of all the stock control arms are not 10lbs. I had been told this over and over on the internet until I actually weighed one. A bare, 240z fully stock control arm with no bushings weighs exactly 8 pounds. Maybe the weight I have been told are with bushings? (either that or my scale is way out) [soapbox] As far as 'pleasing the general public' goes, we've been over this to death here. 74_5.0L_Z just posted some super information, and I'm happy to see that. It's funny, but you'll notice guys like Ross never get questioned about this stuff... There is a reason. He has a reputation as an engineer for producing a quality part, and for serious R&D work. People that don't demonstrate their qualifications at all often get scrutinized by the general public... I think it was one of the jon's that said a while ago that he wouldn't trust a janitor to perform brain surgery on him. Well duh, that will kill you. So would you trust someone less than qualified to design key suspension components for your car? Perhaps death is less likely than with our lost janitor in scrubs, but you get my point. (hey, maybe he stayed in a holiday inn express last night?) For me, once you get into suspension and brakes a large amount of responsibility is on your shoulders to produce a quality & safe part. Not to say those that aren't properly qualified can't make these parts successfully, (hell, look at Mikelly, he made control arms successfully and he's only a secret agent!) but they do have to demonstrate that they've provided some sort of consideration towards testing, strength analysis, SOMETHING that validates their design in it's entirety. Jamie, engineers are designed to be critical of everything. It is our nature for better or for worse. An engineer can make anything sound like a bad idea. Considering this in the grand scheme of things, I think it is probably for the best too. False optimism isn't a trait I'd feel comfortable with in an engineer. "Oh yeah, looks good enough... right?" I applaud you for your efforts with Mike to do what you did, I have some notion of the testing you guys did in order to validate your design. I think the mistake that most people make here is to announce a new product they are making without also announcing the pains they are going through in order to test their products safety prior to selling it. [/soapbox]

Tony can you send them along my way as well please? drax77@NOJUNKshaw.ca will work... if you take out the NOJUNK part.

Awesome! My favorite thus far:

Where were you 3 weeks ago? Too late now!

260DET I completely agree with you, and don't think chromemoly is a good material for control arms UNLESS it is for an all out race application, where strength to weight ratio's are key. (4130 excels here) "Chromemoly" has become a buzz word in the car industry of late, much like "Titanium", "Aircraft Grade", "Billit", etc... Not to knock 74_5.0L-Z's work at all! I am just generalizing about public perception having little touch with reality sometimes.

Those are some seriously respectable numbers in my books!

It looks even better in person! I managed to catch it last year at the all Nissan autocross/show & shine in Vancouver. Looks and sounds mean!

Buy NGK BPR6EY-11 plugs. Seriously. Gap them at ~0.035" and start fresh. Had a Z in here yesterday that was running new bosch platinums, and we swapped them out for the NGK's. Solved all the problems the owner was having with the cars drivability. Even if it doesn't solve your problem, it's a very good place to start IMHO.

2-5/8" autometer gauges fit perfectly in the stock 240z dash, fully back as the origional gauges do. Remove the stock gauges, keep the plastic bezel, insert autometer 2-5/8" gauge from the back. The autometer gauge will nestle nicely into the plastic bezel from the stock gauge, stay in the stock position, and all you have to do is figure out a way to mount it rigidly and wire it up. Looks factory when done. No cutting necessary.

Gollum, with all due respect please keep the speculation to a minimum... this site is built around facts from people that had done the swaps themselves. You'll notice that the people responding to the origional question have had both cars, so they are quite qualified to answer such a question. As far as the origional question goes, from what I've priced out the ~300rwhp mark and above is about where the V8 gets cheaper for reliable horsepower than the L6Turbo. Either way your car will be a riot to drive!!

A couple more pics, this time showing the gas cap.

Propane...

Phantom, don't trust the self adjusters in the rear brakes, adjust it manually and get it close. My self adjusters weren't working at all, and they really don't work that well unless they are brand-spankin-new. Try adjusting them manually first and go from there.

I adjusted my rear drums last night and gained a lot of overall braking ability from 15 minutes of playing around. They don't suck, they just need to be in good shape and well adjusted! (as john has stated) This discussion has not really touched on how important quality tires are to the overall braking of the car either. It doesn't matter how good your brakes are if your tires suck!

I think another company that makes those axles is "torflex" and they are the cat's meow for building a trailer.

I'd recommend redline 75w-90 oil... it allready has the additive in it if I am not mistaken. (read the label, but I am 99% sure it has it) You'll love that diff! (I don't have one, but one of the Z's at the shop does, it's great)

Thanks for all the kind words guys. A little info on the paint: I started with 5 spary cans of pro-form etching primer, and followed that up with 11 (yes, 11) cans of Plastikote T-8 Satin Black paint. It was quite difficult to get decent coverage with the spray cans, and honestly I don't think I'd do it this way again. Recently I just found that Duplicolor makes premixed primer and premixed paint (with hardener, reducer, etc. mixed in) and I have access to a spray gun. It would have cost me the same in materials either way, but I think the result would be a bit nicer with the premixed stuff out of a real spray gun, and likely there would have been less waste. This paint looks decent from ~5' but any closer than that and well... it's only a spray can job so don't expect that much. I had another motive for using this too, I am hoping to paint the car "for real" next winter and a satin black guide coat will really help me get the car straight. I was surprised with how well the satin black hid imperfections. It is much more forgiving than a gloss black, that is for sure! Homestar rules! For those of you that has no idea who Homestar is, all I can say is go to http://www.homestarrunner.com and spend a few minutes going through the '1st time here' cartoon. One guy at the track said: I'll see if I can get some pics with the gascap in the next few days.

I also decided that I was tired of driving a multi-coloured car! So in the midst of my reassembly, I painted the car satin black. It isn't overly beautiful, but I did spend a fair bit of time on bodywork and I wanted to protect that work with something. I am not sure if I am going to stay with the no bumper look or not... It was mostly because I did an all nighter to get the car ready for an autocross, and I was too tired to put them back on. There are no shots of it but I installed a GSX-R gas cap as well, which fits really well with the black/chrome theme. I also swapped in the Hyundai marker lights which I really do prefer. Roll bar, coilovers and a few other goodies should go in this weekend.

Perfectly said guys.

Yummy project! Looking good as usual James.

Fair enough, but I can get 500rwhp more reliably and for less money out of an RB swap than a L28... and I'm not interested in running nitrous to get 500rwhp, let alone a 200 shot!

I would have to agree with the "without" crowd... the shape of the fins don't seem to fit well with the shape of the vent. Just my 2cents!

Yeah I just meant for the injector sizing part...

No provisions for number of cylinders without editing the formulas... just food for thought but it might be worth adding.