Zetsaz

Hmm.... I'll have to have a shop inspect the driveshaft properly. I'm still getting a bit of clunking I can replicate by literally letting my foot on and off the clutch at a standstill. Might be a combination of the driveshaft and potentially worn front diff mount. I already have an RT diff mount with the poly bushing on top, but I didn't get the top mount. More small things to take care of I guess! Debating if It's really a big enough deal for me to worry about now or if I want to tackle the audio and the interior AC lines next.

I'm stoked to try them! Today is very nice weather... somehow. I'll let you know how they feel. Between the mildly worn out half shaft U joints, and the noticeably worn driveshaft U joint, I think it's going to feel great. Was lucky enough to have a better driveshaft on hand. The front U joint on mine was clicking and had noticeable movement even when I was just moving it by hand. I'm concerned I'll have to dump some more money on it soon though. Had heard some transmission or clutch noise in specific cases last time I drove it. Will have to check when specifically it's happening and see what needs to be done. It may be a bad pilot bearing but I'll have to confirm if it was only when the clutch was depressed. Might finally upgrade the flywheel and clutch. I'd been holding off since I couldn't commit to a swap, NA, turbo, or just doing more mild upgrades to this.

Why won't aftermarket 300zx turbo ones work? These are from a 280zx. Another user on this forums makes the adapters. Supposedly working well for him, and the 280zx are shorter than the 300zx so the adapter width is less of an issue with binding. Will have to see once I try them. For less than a quarter the total cost of futofab units, I figured I'd at least give them a shot. I'm doubtful they'll be a weak point with my modest power goals and very conservative use. -Got them installed tonight! (Only took 4 hours longer than expected...) -Also swapped my driveshaft for one my friend had included with the 5spd. Front U joint on mine was fairly bad. I'm sure that was contributing to the clunking as well. -Took the axle opportunity to put lithium grease on my poly bushings. Right control arm was squeaking BAD. Hopefully with everything greased up I'll have a quieter ride as well. -Carpet from Zcardepot arrived yesterday. Fitment is... okay. I'm confused by the thin pieces that go nearest the seatbelt mounts. Will have to check against a friend's original carpet nearby. -My bumpers shipped! Covid has messed with the shipping industry quite badly, I was patient with Datsun Garage since they were very open about the situation from their supplier and offered me a full refund any time I decided I wanted it. Should arrive by Friday Sadly it's been constant rain here, so I won't get a chance to fully test everything, potentially until next week. Excited to see how everything is feeling though.

Hint hint

There's a chance they are the same mounts. A lot of Frontier guys do a "Titan Swap" to get the VK56 instead of their VQ40, and the swap the suspension (apparently it's nearly bolt in?) to get a cheap-ish wider track and long travel suspension

That is phenomenal! Love the blue and brown. Similar to my Z but mine are both dark shades. Beeeaaautiful work!

Thanks for the heads up! First proper drive with the adjusted brakes today and the difference is incredible. I can see brake fade being an issue in racing situations, but for the street I'm already able to lock up the tires with these stock refreshed brakes with good pads and shoes (granted it's a bit chily outside despite the sunshine).

That is glorious

Nighttime brake update: Brakes used to feel really spongy after starting the engine no matter how well I bled them. Always had to pump once before braking to feel right. Turns out the rear cylinders are notorious for not self adjusting when using the hand brake like they should. Makes sense especially since I rebuilt eeeeverything and there probably didn't adjust them properly the first time. Rear drums were slipping off by hand basically. Manually adjusted them and it feels dramatically better already.

Small things taken care of the past week: New driver side ball joint. Was told it was a bit worn after alignment. Hard to tell honestly, but even decent Moog parts are dirt cheap on rock auto so swapped it out today. New battery cable terminals. My 12v+ to relay board running megasquirt/fuel pump/spark/injectors was connected only by the original fused connection for the oem ecu with a spade connector... Not ideal. Hopefully slightly more reliable connection now, and better spark at higher rpm. Ordered a variety of parts as well: -Carpet kit. Debated on custom tan/brown. The price of a black kit is just hard to beat. If black carpet with a brown interior is good enough for Mercedes and good enough for the butterscotch 240z's, then it's good enough for me -McMaster Carr weatherstripping. Hate the rear inner hatch seal and the top of the doors have a gap. Hopefully this solves two problems. -T3 Front and rear strut tower bars. No front tribar right now. Bit over what I could justify in the budget. Fortunately it's an add-on and not a completely different part. -Potential 280zx CV stuff... With my U Joints basically being welded to the shafts right now and longer days happening soon, I needed a cheap option. Was about ready to spend on futofab axles, but this allowed me to get CVs and plus a load of other stuff for less than the futofab axles cost. If I hate them down the road and they don't hold up I'll deal with it then.

Nah, talked to him on Facebook about it. Was referring to baffled/chambered/diffused similar to a Flowmaster. Not a fan of Flowmaster sound, but it's something to consider. I got the super turbo on and finally got the exhaust tip loose from the MSA muffler. Honestly I think the exhaust top made a bigger difference than going from the Ultraflo to the Super Turbo. Maybe it was just a matter of getting the pressure wave to exit farther from the rear valence. At cruise you can hardly hear the exhaust, it's all wind noise now which is nice since it'll help me figure out which seals I need to adjust and finish up. I was noticing a strange sound today that I'm fairly certain is the brake cables brushing up against the half shafts. My hangers are torn so I'll have to buy new ones. Can't tell if I want to get a hoodliner, or not just yet. The hood is a huuuge resonance point. Car is feeling better and better with every tweak, but at this point, as far as being a cruiser I think it's... Hoodliner, finish seals, stereo... And if my bumpers and headliner would arrive already I could finally start to finish up the interior.

Diffuser muffler? Do you have a link?

I gotta say.... Tinkering with the IAC and idle advance makes this thing feel almost new. The closed loop idle control made cold start when I checked it during lunch feel satisfying instead of like a chore. IAC opens on start up and I have it tuned close enough right now. No more blipping the throttle to get it to start. Idles a bit high on warm up and comes down smoothly as the coolant temp goes down instead of bogging down and stalling like it did before. VERY satisfying

Spent maybe a solid 3 hours after work today tinkering around with things. Mounted the IAC Block where the ignition coil normally went. I'm still not sold on the square block, but it's an alright placement for now. Drilled and tapped the holes it already had on the back to be M6x1.0 like most of the bolts holding the car together and bolted it on from the opposite side in the wheel well. Only attached with two bolts for now, that way I'm only drilling one hole right between the original two for the ignition coil bracket. Didn't want to add more holes than necessary to the engine bay if I change my mind on how I'm doing things later. Notice the hose routing is... not ideal in terms of a tidy engine bay I want but it'll do for now. Also finally used the 3D printed TPS bracket to replace the random piece of sheet metal the last owner had it bolted in with. Spent most of the time tinkering with my idle settings. My idle was nice and stable when warm, but I hadn't bothered diving deeper into it. Realized that I didn't have VSS turned on for engine state, so Megasquirt was always assuming I was at cruise and not switching between engine states. Now the IAC is functioning properly. Messed with IAC and Idle Advance to get target RPM and I think I have it in a pretty good spot. Responds within a second when I put the high beams on and crank the fan all the way. Settles into the target rpm within 2-3 seconds. Also finally turned on Idle VE since I hadn't bothered doing that at all. Now my AFR isn't floating around at the lightest change when it's just idling and I leaned it out just slightly. The engine bay is becoming less tidy as I make it closer to the cruiser/touring car I want but that's alright. Tidiness balanced with servicablility and driveability is what I'm aiming for. I'm still having an issue with a sticky throttle at small blade angles. Tends to stick slightly instead of closing all the way. I think if I swap to a 240sx throttle with a spacer, switching to a throttle cable will take care of the problem, and the spacer I would probably have to use could be tapped to be the hose entry point to make my routing on the IAC hose much shorter. If I decide I want turbo power it'll also keep things more serviceable.

That Dynomax Ultraflo you first linked is exactly what I have now. I'm gonna try it with the muffler tip that came with the MSA unit (45 deg cut aims it slightly down once it's out... if I could just get it out of the MSA muffler right now. It's a bit stuck haha). If that's not enough I'll stick with the Dynomax Super Turbo which is supposed to be much quieter. Fortunately they're quite cheap. Both new are less than a Borla XS and I can still return since Dynomax has a pretty straight forward 90 day return policy. For now, thermostat is going in tonight and I'll finally be able to check some things at proper operating temp. IAC pigtail should arrive by tomorrow afternoon and I'll be able to fool around with that.

This exactly is part of the struggle with quieting our exhausts compared to bigger American cars. Length of the muffler makes a big impact. Unless I start cutting at the piping, longest I can fit is about a 14" housing

Interesting... I'll have to look more into it. My understanding from other members is the "super turbo" is quieter than the straight through and isn't a chambered design, but sound cancellation and harmonic resonance is a such a fickle science. Will look more into it later in the day, currently on lunch.

Dynamax straight through? I have a Dynomax Ultraflo I've tried and the sound was worse. This is a Dynomax brand I ordered as well. I think there are some nomenclature weirdnesses when talking mufflers. The one I ordered isn't a big straight through or cherry bomb looking one, it looks almost like an oem and has the redirected airflow with holes in the channels as well as matting on the inside. The straight through Dynomax Ultraflo doesn't sound bad outside, but it's just so loud when casually driving around.

Small parts updates: Exhaust: Have been upset at how loud the MSA muffler is considering how... not... aggressive my engine is. I ordered a Dynomax Super Turbo since I've heard they're decent quality and not too loud. Here's hoping it's a bit less obnoxious because right now even with the resonator it's still annoyingly loud (for my taste) until you're cruising steady at 3k rpm. Bumpers: I finally got an update that my bumpers are are arriving at the reseller and will ship out as soon as they inspect them. They've been stuck at port for a while now. Shipping industry in general has been very slow, so I'm not blaming it at all on Datsun Garage who have done an excellent job maintaining communication. AC Hoses: Decided to ahead and order the Vintage air hoses and drier. Shipped yesterday. Opted for the extended length. Most of the brackets/tie downs from the factory AC were all on the rubber parts, so I'm hoping it's actually reasonably tidy if I route them the same way. The extended length will allow me to relocate the drier up front or wherever it looks tidiest, since my fuse block that replaced the fusible links is mounted where the original drier was. IAC: Ordered the pigtail I need to wire the Jeep IAC. I've seen some people use a Bosch unit that's round, but I think my block will work for now and I'll still be able to mount it where the original ignition coil was. Thermostat: I've been meaning to do this for ages, but just never got around to it. When I was cleaning up the gaskets and replacing the water pump a few years ago I replaced the thermostat, but the parts store gave me a 160 deg unit. Finally purchased a proper 180 deg unit which will let the engine run better and actually give me heat on cool days.

I'd have to go digging for the picture, but I just opted to have a shop pull them for me. Was worth every penny for my peace of mind, but when I picked up my stuff one end of the threads on both of them was crushed down about a 1/8-1/4" if that gives you any idea how much force was required to press them out.

It's probably just poor color accuracy in the picture. I'd describe it more like a warm white, just like home incandescents which usually look yellowish or a very very light orange . I'm pretty sure the included LEDs are warm white instead of "sunlight" or a more pure white like what I installed in the dash. I could potentially replace them pretty easily, but I kind of like the contrast. I keep forgetting to take a pic while it's light out now that it's back together, but here's another from while I was testing. For now, the controls are mounted on the metal plate I had cut, but I really do want to mount them on a more accurate 3D printed plate I can epoxy or plastic weld to the HVAC panel. Cousin's printer went down after finishing my vent and the school's are still at warehouse since we don't have students back at the high school yet. Also, my turn signal switch fell apart after trying to repair it one more time. My $5 fix has been documented on here before, but I don't like the way it returns (or rather it doesn't), but at least the signals are reliable now until I do a more OE style fix that doesn't stick quite like this or just pony up the money for a really well refurbished unit.

Check 1, 2. Check 1, 2....

911s are weird mix of "it shouldn't be this effective" and "let's dump money at engineering to solve this problem" resulting in an amazing car that's better than just about anything out there despite that intuitively you'd think it shouldn't work with the weird weight distribution. My 2 cents, if you're building a Datsun to the extremes that you somehow need the Track attack or suspension that much different from stock, you're better off just racing a Miata or a Porsche. It'll be less money for a better car. You'd have to REALLY love the body style of the S30 to commit to that much of a change. A lot of people here have built amazing custom suspension, so no disrespect to them, but most people I see going to extremes like this on facebook or elsewhere rarely ever drive or even finish their cars. I'd rather be out cruising and having fun in a "just okay" car that looks great, and didn't cost me as much as a 911.

Honestly it's the same even with mine. I'm sure it has some hidden rust, but most of it was sandblasted before paint. There's no rot anywhere that I can see, so I've used internal frame coating anywhere I could reach to hopefully prevent rust problems, but it seems like the smallest bits of exposed metal can spread rust. I'm at a point where I just don't worry about it as much because I just want to enjoy it.

Despite the rust, my first shell was suprisingly complete... But did not have the compressor. I haven't bought one yet. Probably won't get it until spring. The original isn't great anyway, but the winter I've saved for anything inside the car. I don't have a garage and my carport is downhill from the alley so anything I have to work on for more than a few minutes outside the car or on the floor isn't a fun time. I'll check into adapters before I order anything! If not I'll check with a local shop to see if they're willing to modify my lines.