Daeron

I get the same ideas, but I also wonder about stronger braces between the rocker panels and the transmission tunnel. I think that probably the best idea would be minimal strengthening of both fronts. I want to clarify something, though: I am almost home engineering a crumple zone with my idea, and that is a DANGEROUS zone to try to walk. If you make the car TOO rigid, you risk transferring too much energy to anything potentially loose in the cabin, like that big melon flopping around on top of your neck. I certainly would stop short of welding a pair of 1" pipes "supporting" the rocker and a pair of similar pipes "reinforcing" the "seat-support" area; but I think that probably the addition of some mild channel to complement the steel that is already there would be a wise choice. Another potential risk in doing this could be the door. I could see where strengthening the lower support areas might embellish the weakness of the door, and the older gen (pre '77) doors do not have the strongest latch mechanism, so integrating them into any sort of "re-engineering" outside of a full race cage seems over the top to me. However, I don't know that strengthening the doorframe area would weaken the door; it might have the opposite effect as well. Just thoughts I have been wondering myself. I am curious to see what other opinions are on this, though; this is just what I have been mulling over and it is all pure conjecture. Anyone think much about this idea?

too bad, too many things to list. My Z has languished for almost three years because of too many other complications to list, not the least of which being three hurricanes. (One of them inadvertently led to it's demise in the first place.) The tires were junk when I put them on anyhow; they're trailer tires (Goodyear Marathon series, big silly donuts.) I have a completely different set of wheels that will be going on it eventually.. but yes, I know; I need to fill them up. All I have at home is the 12volt cheapo inflator pump and I dont frequently park on that side of the house, sue me

Yes, Please!!! that s130 is JAW DROPPING!!!!!!

+1

I went to pep boys and bought one of their top notch covers ahhh.. well over a year ago and I havent had a SINGLE problem with it. It holds on in good wind, its thick, heavy blue material similar to the NISSAN 300ZX cover that my uncle has.. I am 110% satisfied with this purchase. I will go snap a pic and post it up here shortly, it fits like a DREAM with bumpers and airdam installed on a 2 seater 75 280Z. The ONLY problem is that the mirror covers are NOWEHERE near the right spot, and in my book that is a non-issue. The rear quarter anel area looks a little bunched up, but it has held in some significant winds.. If I were to use a bungee cord in the middle I suspect it would hold much better. One other drawback is that it only has one grommet on either side, right in the middle.... but as well as it holds I have never even bothered using THAT pair. I forget exactly which "size" I used but there were only a handful of sizes to choose from; and I believe that the Z (maybe it was a zx) WAS listed on the box and given a specific size to use; if not I used common sense. It was certainly under a hundred bucks, and no shipping. The material is a LITTLE thinner than a top-notch cover, but I was given a Nissan branded 300ZX cover with two small tears in it and I gave that to my uncle because this one fit so well already. Minimal care not to rip it is all it takes to keep it well; I HAVE torn two or three small holes in mine and they show no signs of worsening. I couldn't find it on pep boys' website, but it was the only blue one in the store

and throw the rest of your easy outs in the garbage.

I will also add that an electrical fire can be insidious. You ask for data, and we are doing our level best to provide it. Someone above mentioned that nobody was going to bother going to the expense of performing extensive crash test analysis on the S30. That means, the only way to gather data is to listen to primary sources: your fellow Z drivers. Here is *my* anecdotal evidence in favor of having a fire extinguisher; it mostly shows that it is not necessarily a thirty second window in which to act. Almost three years ago, one night, I had an short which burned a fusible link. Somehow I replaced it with an oversized fusible link, and that night the car had some strange running problem. I immediately drove back home (two blocks) and drove my landlords car; The next day I tried to see if I could get the symptom to recur in the daylight, to no avail. I had driven around for ten minutes with the lights and stereo on, no problems. I park in my driveway, and not ten minutes later a kid who was playing ball in the street was knocking on my door, telling me my car was on fire. There was a small amount of smoke coming out of the hood, I smelled plastic/electrical fire, and my windshield wipers were stationary, halfway up the windshield. (read: as opposed to parked, as I had left them; I didnt use the wipers on my little test run) The fusible link tried to blow, but it was too large. It heated up, and melted the plastic cover (I had JUST found nice ones in the junkyard and put them on like two months before!! )which then caught fire. In the end, the entire link block, right up to but not into the main wire harness, got fried... but nothing else. Now, I did NOT have a fire extinguisher; so all that was handy in my kitchen to put out the electrical fire was SALT. Naturally I rinsed it, but the effects still show there.. and unfortunately the car has been parked since then. However, my point has nothing to do with the salt; my point is, MY fire had to have been burning for five minutes or more by the time it was extinguished; and it had barely managed to necessitate a maxi-fuse upgrade with corresponding internally regulated alternator swap. Personally, I kind of like living. If I can gather enough anecdotal evidence, that *I* feel carries enough depth and wisdom and reliable opinion behind it, that a roll bar and a fire extinguisher are worthy additions to help "just in case" then that is the only yardstick I have to go by. You must do the same; plenty of people thus far have chimed in with at least a few stories supporting the use of unibody bracing and roll bar (if not complete roll cage, for obvious and already stated reasons) and a few stories of helpful and handy fire extinguishers. IF anyone has any evidence that they are un-needed or somehow frowned upon, it would be nice for them to chime in.

Allright, I will open my mouth, and if I HAVE to insert my foot than I shall.... ..but MY uncle still has about 80% of the water injection system installed on HIS 240, with a 280 motor in it. Anti-detonant, is anti-detonant... it helps to allow the driver to avoid detonation. It can allow you to use low test gasoline on a car that would otherwise require 93 octane; it can allow you to unlock more power through less ignition advance, and it can allow you to run a higher compression on pump gas than you otherwise would be able to. (okay, so the first and last items on the list are virtually the same thing, re worded..) My uncle used it for YEARS, but some time ago it got dismantled for some reason and now what is left on his intake manifold just sits there. BUT yes, it can be done, and it DOES have positive effects as I listed above. Is it worth the expense and hassle? Apparently, the consensus thus far is a resounding no.. but my uncle seemed to think it made a difference. The water or alcohol injected serves to help discourage pre-detonation; whether the car is breathing naturally or a forced induction system is used. It is almost certainly not worth using with a stock NA motor, unless for some strange reason high test is not sufficient to remove your pinging. HIS car was running something like 10:1 compression ratio, with an N47 head and an unknown (to me) aftermarket camshaft. In all honesty, I *do* have to say that recent advancements in my own knowledge are leading me to believe that my uncle doesn't know too much about camshaft selection; SO that may have something to do with why he needed the additional anti-detonant... but to GROSSLY over summarize what I have already mentioned FAR too briefly, using a water injection system is not entirely dissimilar to running higher octane fuel.

awww hell... i wont ask no questions, that just SUCKS. I had my Z impounded once... I had a warrant for failure to appear when I was misinformed that one court appearance subseded another on a driving w/ suspended license charge.. cop swerved out of traffic to make the left turn, then u turn, to get behind me a at a LOONG redlight... because, get this: He said he saw my lack of a front bumper. I spent a night in jail because I took the bumpers off of my car. Yes, there were extenuating circumstances and i do not BLAME the cop, but still...... Good luck in court, and FIND a way to borrow the money needed to get the car back YESTERDAY.

This is one of the best threads on "How do I make my old car safer?" that I have ever read, anywhere. I nominate for sticky. Armand: for a sixteen year old in a sports car, it sounds like you have already taken care of the most important aspect of your own safety: the loose nut behind the wheel. You SEEM to have a very sober judgment of your own personality, and I applaud you for that. I rolled a honda civic several years ago; It was pitch dark, and my brother woke me up after 3 hours of sleep, after a MAJOR concert, and had me drive him to his bus stop as usual. Since I didn't have to go to work that morning, I decided to take his out-of-state registry civic hatch (~1990) with functioning defogger, windows, etc rather than my 280. SINCE I wasn't in my car, and I was going back to sleep when I got home anyhow... I did NOT smoke a cigarette. Man, I wish I had. After we waited five minutes for his bus, I rubbed my eyes and took off down the road.. somewhere along the line, in under two blocks, I drifted back to sleep just enough that I slowly eased off the road, halfway into a ditch, then hit a culvert where someone's driveway passed over that ditch. One complete revolution counter clockwise looking at the rear of the car, and one and a half flips end over end later, I was leaning against a guardrail between the sidewalk and a small canal. My only injuries were a few light scratches, and a bruised ribcage from the seatbelt. That seatbelt, and a tale of my dad's, were all that kept me alive; the guardrail went through the windshield right about the point you would touch if you reached your right arm straight forward and up slightly, about an 8 o clock position from the rearview mirror. My dads tale involved flipping a VW van end over end with my then infant eldest brother in the passenger's seat, neither of them wearing seatbelts. Dad's one arm on the steering wheel held them both in the car. My two hands locked on the wheel of the honda saved me. Being FULLY aware of the risk you take every time you put the key in the ignition is more important than a seatbelt; seatbelts are safety item number two; all other concerns (significant though they are, I do NOT want to take away from that) are less important than those. My dad's story and my own instincts are all that saved me, (well, the seatbelt, too) since I was for all practical purposes ASLEEP when I did this.

Thank you both immensely. I may need to swap the ECU on my DD subaru, and I think i will need to change the pinout since the only available ECU is from a different year. You've given me hope that I CAN in fact find the "locking tab" even though it is a TOTALLY different vehicle; none of my subaru people have been any help in this.

Its over a month old NOW, but check this out.... http://fortmyers.craigslist.org/car/307304502.html "motor, suspension, and turbo all bob sharp" 83 turbo 2+2 for $3500.. apparently, its a worthy investment for PARTS alone!!!!

at around 3500 RPM?? stumbling? does the urbo have the same style throttle position switch? I know that on my 75 NA stocker, any time i got a drop of water under the hood the TPS went schizo and the engine REFUED to go above 3500RPM. I punch the gas, it revs freely up to 3500 then just.. poof... until the needle dipped back down to below 3 grand, then vroom.. poof.... vroom, poof... Might be worth investigating, the TPS is basically a three position switch.. Idle, cruise, and WOT. if your WOT contact is poor then you would have the problem you are mentioning. Of course, my mouth may be writing an invitation to my foot, since I do not know what kind of TPS the turbos used, but hey.. I'm just tryin to help. If I am wrong, hopefully someone will correct me so I will know not to say this next time.

If you are going for a simple rebuild, to essentially turn your stock ZX NA motor into a stock ZX turbo motor, then you have everything you need except for a set of stock turbo ZX dished pistons. The stock 82 ZX motor came with flat top pistons, which yields a higher compression ratio than the dished ones; this is good for an NA motor; but unless you are getting into building a beefier than stock motor you want to used the dished pistons. I would recommend against trying to go any farther than stock, without being EXTREMELY patient and doing a good deal of research, reading, and searching here on hybridZ, clicking on links, and buying a few books. Go to the FAQ forum; check the hyperlinked table of contents out and read up. For a newbie, or for ANY of us mere mortals like you and I, building an engine is not unlike painting and bodywork.. PREPARATION IS EVERYTHING. Once you have a clue how much you do NOT know, then you have a much better handle on what you DO know. Also, never forget that the requests for you to "search" that you see so often on this forum are not limited to just typing in "zx turbo" and hitting the "search" button; it means get inventive in your search terms, check out the "similar threads" feature at the bottom of each thread you turn up in your search, and read, read, read. REsearch, not just simple searching, is what you require. hope this helps..

I would say a test is in order.. see how different they sound when held flush up to the radiator. The question is, are the fans "torquey" enough (for lack of a better term, its really a matter of how much force they induce on the air they move) to force air through the coils of the radiator. If there is an audible difference between the fan operation out in the open, versus up again the radiator, then I would say no go. If they dont change pitch when you set them up against the radiator, then it might be kosher.In that case, your big concern would be moisture. PC power supplies transform 120VAC to 5 and 12 VDC, all internal power inside a computer is DC. Your idea is crazy; but it MIGHT be just crazy enough to work; I would just mount a pusher fan on the front of it though. I save the PC fans for post hurricane times, when my landlord and I are living off of 12VDC!! Radiator fans, turn signal bulbs, headlights, and PC fans abound!

Hiz and herz was kind enough to point out a flaw in my relay write up; i intend on fixing it as soon as possible but just in case I forget, may as well mention it here that apparently, terminals 87 and 87A are NOT parallel outputs; it appears 87 has power output to it with the relay energized, then when the relay is not energized power is output to terminal 87a. disregard the post if you didnt read my relay write up linked to above; but I wanted to make the note here for posterity's sake in case (as I said) i dont get around to fixing the write up before i forget.

I did this write-up on my subaru website, but the information is as appropriate to Zs as anything else. I realize you already said you have a power box from a neon, but check this out anyhow... http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showpost.php?p=598608&postcount=1

seriously.. it would cost less than that to have a machine shop weld some aluminum onto a stock nissan valve cover, and just machine the words into it... Anyone ever read a book by Philip K Dick called The Man In The High Castle? That item there has "historicity"

WOW thats freakin NUTS I just came across this thread while searching about the idea of a turbodiesel in a Z... and I had to refrain from posting in it because it was a 2 year old thread.....but I found it before having checked any new posts on the forum in the last two days.. so I go and see whats new in the L-6 forum, and here is the thread I just read!! strange days.... (it goes without saying that when I read the post before this, I failed to catch that it was a day old...)

naw, later NA 280ZXs came with the same hood. The recent aerodynamic testing just *might* explain why...

FINALLY!!!! something has come along to make me ECSTATIC that my Z is still languishing under the cover in the driveway!!! I dont HAVE to be "patient" about any of this; by the time I get around to BODYWORK.. this news will all be old hat! TonyD, regarding your last comment.. I just got back from a one day AutoCross event with my brothers in their 240.. they are shooting for ITS class, so the car is more or less in stock form. Today's event was just a "Test and tune" day.. BUT there were lots of EVOs and WRXs out there.. and the Z turned a MUCH quicker time, with one drive wheel (open diff) than any of them could put up with FOUR drive wheels.. My brother Tim (a member here, but I don't know his handle) got a REAL kick out of that. Oh, and Mikelly.. rest assured that the Z torch will live on as long as we can keep the cancer out. My first memories are riding around with my dad in his 72 drinking chocolate milk and going "vroom vroom" on sunday Mornings when my age (only 2!!) excused me from regular church attendance...

not much help, but unless it was particularly high quality even a "new" clutch disc COULD shatter.. not all parts are bulletproof, and I could imagine a possible situation (say someone drove a long distance with their foot resting on the clutch pedal) where the clutch disc may have been damaged in a way that it cracked. All it takes is one chunk of material in the wrong spot. BUT if it is new, then I am probably off-target. No worries about the brain fart, it happens.. everything you described pointed towards "not disengaging" anyhow, I am just a stickler for clarity. My apologies for nit-picking.

I assume you mean it won't disengage, and you can only shift into or out of gear with the engine off? If the clutch wouldnt engage, then the position of the gearshift would never matter, you would always be in neutral.. The two statements are mutually exclusive. Is it possible that your clutch plate shattered?? I nursed a dying clutch for the first year I was driving my Z, and when I finally wore it to the point of trashing the rivets holding the friction material to the sprung plate, my clutch was TOTALLY functionless.. I was about 1/4 mile and two left turns from my house, and I panicked and let the car coast to a stall.. (this was before I knew about synchro shifting) I wound up having some kid on a four wheeler push me from behind, with the transmission in first, while I bumped the starter, and just awkwardly drove home stuck in first. However, one time I had to replace my clutch master and the store gave me one with a fork connecting to the pedal that was too short, and it resulted in the same situation, pushing the clutch pedal did not disengage the clutch. If you recently replaced the master, that might also be the problem.. this is somewhat related to the "broken pin at the top of the clutch pedal" someone mentioned already. Seriously, though, my bet is shattered clutch plate. When they break they can essentially become wedged between the remaining sprung plate, and the pressure plate, and become impossible to disengage.

I haven't done it myself yet, with the Z-car, but I would say it is well within your grasp if you feel the initiative, and have the tools. I say "and if you have the tools" not to cover any exotic stuff you need to do the job; rather, having the tools generally indicates that DO you use them, which generally indicates that you know HOW to use them. Save up a bunch of empty soda bottles, and cut the lids off of them. Label as much as you can, and organize the bits as they come off; this can help make re assembly easy. If you are going to disassemble your own head and re use the valvetrain components, then take a cardboard box and keep your rocker arms, valves, lifters, etc all clearly labelled as to what cylinder they go to... sorta like this: (this was on my subaru engine, so i have two cylinder banks.. and I didnt remove my valves, but you get the idea.) This is only really necessary if you plan to re use all of these parts; THAT decision is in your hands. I was only doing a headgasket job. There is a reason the book is called "How to rebuild your datsun OHC Engine..." This is because it tells you how to rebuild your datsun OHC engine There is also a "How to MODIFY" book that makes for excellent reading; and if you are getting into THAT, may as well go for how to hotrod and RACE your datsun. I believe all three are available through motorsport auto; I do NOT think all three names are *quite* as similar to each other as I have made them in this post, but you should be able to figure out which ones I am referring to. Thats the best advice I have to give to you. You already know that the book(s) will be your friend, and judging from what you have already gleaned you ought to be able to figure everything out; just follow specs.

"Bea'iful Plumage!!!!" "This.. is an Ex... Parrot!" *I* saw the subject and thought, "I, too, have a problem with pining for my Z.. I havent DRIVEN it in almost THREE YEARS:cry2:" back on topic, though; although I am no sage I will add my two cents that you NEED to find out what kind of pistons you are running. Stock (NOT wildly modified, I should say) N42 head on a high compression turbo motor is going to ping like mad, and if you have domed or flat top pistons in there, then you have high compression.. the N42 head was designed to be used with dished pistons, at a *fairly* mild compression ratio.