Modern Motorsports Ltd

Sorry David, I've not heard of a 280ZXL6 combo with a GM alternator. But any L6 motor with one could be worked from. Can't be any rocket science to it though. Get a one wire alternator and it couldn't be simpler to wire. You can get chevy alt's (and likely other) wired for up to 150Amps etc for not much dough (vs. the 200A units etc). If you get one, I'd pick a small case if they can wire up the amps you want......they're smaller and easier to fit. Some bracketry to be sorted but nothing too extreme by any means. I've had my one wire rebuilt twice now......and no troubles since I moved it away from being adjacent to my headers

Hmm, interesting as I've found all R200's to 1989 to take the same input stubs whether CV or UJ style shafts. I just swapped my companion flanges on my 280ZX from my NA units to Turbo units and then bolted on CV halfshafts (and popped out the UJ diff input stubs as CV has integral stub on diff side). I'm quite curious on which was the 'different' unit or units you came across? Perhaps an R180 diff/halfshaft setup from a 200sx or...???

Cyrus, drop me a personal email (mailto:sales@modern-motorsports) with your phone number and we discuss some various options and your needs related to intended tracks/uses(ie. 130 vs. 165 mph they vary as does the desire from mild to very wild ). My 13" setups clear some 16" wheels.

I'd stick with the 240 or 280 hubs while you're 4lug...you could try heating up the sheared bolts and soaking in penetrating oil. Then an extractor or a left hand drill bit would be my next step....make sure you start with a small bit and a good centre as those bolts are well made and you don't want to wander into the hub metal.

Looks wicked! I wonder how it tolerates dirt/sand getting up and around that butterfly when it's closed??

Nemeziz, if you have it all removed from your car and don't have tools to allow you to remove the 'peened' portion of the nut then you may want to take it to a local garage with a big impact....you have to remove that peened portion first (highly recommended anyhow). FWIW, I supply the 280ZXT stub nuts for the reinstall which are a pinched style that requires no peening and is thus a relatively easy re and re fastener. Good luck!

You can also buy metal tubing with varying wall thicknesses which might make it even easier...ie. a 1" OD with 1/4" wall (and 1/2" ID) for example.

Keep in mind the engine setup (ie. fuel curve/timing) would be quite different for your 'POS' exhaust and the cutout version. You could alternatively have a fine flowing AND quiet exhaust so it's always a fine runner and then, if you want the noise factor, incorporate cutouts for mainly noise and perhaps some performance gain depending on how well your exhaust was done and power levels etc. Just some options.

What's 'wide'? 7" or 12"? A very few bolt on selections are available off the shelf in 7" Panasport, Revolution etc. You can order custom wheels in a mag alloy or steel if you wish. As well you can pick from most anything else in 4lug and mount it up with the use of wheel spacers. Whether you go to a Honda bolt pattern and offset or stay with 4x4.5 but with a positive offset wheel. Another alternative, that could be combined with your big brakes (I have 4 and 5lug big brakes for 280ZX's) could be a bolt pattern change to 5lug if you wish. That gets you into wheels of 5x4.5 bolt pattern (ie. nissan, toyota, ford, mazda....). Very few cheap options if any, but their are options. I've got one set of 280ZX to Honda spacers on the shelf at present, would allow bolt up of 7" width rims to a 280ZX, perhaps wider depending on your specific setup. Pics of the spacer style on my website.

Franklin, the Honda wheels are some 20-30mm further out on the inside face over Z wheels(depends on wheels chosen)so that would easily give you the required clearance for the vented calipers. I've had a few scenarios where grinding on a strut ear or caliper would have made life easy but never took that route, the anal engineer in me prevented it

Yes, get the 2nd pipe wrench and then you can just lay the strut on the ground and hook up the pipe wrenches so one is flat on the ground cradling the strut tube as close as you can grab it to the gland nut (no point twisting your strut tube). Place the 2nd pipe wrench on the gland nut and have the handle 8-12" above the ground and the other pipe wrench handle and you can brace one foot on the strut tube and the 2nd on the raised pipe wrench so you're pushing the upper handle down towards the lower pipe wrench. If need be you can do your volleball jump training or practise your shumka training The dual pipe wrench has always worked for me. Clean the threads as best you can after and use loctite on reassembly as I've had a couple very highly torqued gland nuts come loose after time which is VERY annoying....

Kinked_Chrome, I haven't yet made the 4-5 lug rear adaptors and feel they're not cost effective as everyone wants a different width out back and making them one pair at a time results in a silly endcost, so restudding the halfshafts to 5lug (in stock ) allows you to use spacers as well over long studs or bolt on spacers. For the front, have you got 5lug already? 5 lug hubs have a greater offset so be sure to calculate required spacer thickness with the hubs you'll be using as 4 and 5lug hubs sit differently in your wheel well. Denny, I've got the long studs in stock typically. If you need to reach me your sure bet is via email as I can't routinely check web forums. HTH

Comeandzpa, I've got billet aluminum spacers in the correct thickness for +38 offset for both Z and 280ZX in stock/ready to ship. What's the bolt pattern of the wheels you like? My adaptors are finish to a 4x100 (Honda) bolt pattern but any other needs can always be met with a custom order.

You can never 'bolt up any' aftermarket offerings. You do have to match specs (bolt pattern, offsets, and width considerations) to ensure a compatible fitment. This shows positive offset, negative offset would have the wheel mounting face to the left of the wheel centreline Simple explanation of offset/definitions Simple link for comparing how changing from to a different offset and/or width will affect your clearance I'm not aware of a simple bolt up larger wheel for a 280ZX, a few had 15" rims but not a big gain IMO. What size did you want to go to? You can restud with longer studs and use 20mm spacers to run some larger wheels but after that effort you're still in older rims and might have preferred to run my Z to Honda adaptors to then have your choice of dozens of current wheels new and used. Any q's you have left feel free.

Welcome DRIFT MASTER Not sure it'll handle as similarly to your RX7 as you may like but if you enjoyed the ride of prior prepped Z's and think a similar setup or notch up in some categories would satisfy you then by all means enjoy the planning and you'll be enjoying a supercar once complete:) You've certainly found a fine place to field your q's and contribute your experiences as well I like your handle, a friend's plate is 'L8APEX' which I'm fond of as well

Yes, I haven't come across many Z's running them but moreso Skylines, BMW's, and some Zerious Honda's. Their's lots of great info noted above, and yes you don't typically get lots of instruction/info from GC. Their intent is a racing supplier to folks more in the know I guess and hence aren't always so open to longer phone chats with individual customers. The tokico's DON'T last so long with spring rates much above 250, I proved that in the last two years blowing out my front Illumina's fully with 375 lb/in which I just replaced last weekend (with same struts, but now 'soft' 225 lb/in up front) but also got my custom MML caster/camber plates in with a custom MML torrington bearing and seal setup to replace upper strut OEM bearing 'rotation function' and within upper caster/camber plates is a HD teflon spherical bearing that should last longer than some other lower priced units I've seen in action rattling (no rattles from my setup, slight vibe on low speed sharp bumps at present, but no rattles) along with my custom MML 280ZXadjustable TC rods (Mike Kelly didn't have any quite yet and local friends done them before). Running 8 degrees of caster now and loving it with minimal camber for great tire wear:D But I'm babbling now A while back while working with a customer I polled around amongst some racers for Advance strut feedback and consensus was they had some initial development issues that they worked through very well with their customers (whether directly or via vendors as I am) and they're putting out a quality product with that strut. One customer of mine I've setup with the Advance struts and coilovers. Advance was chosen on their history/price vs Penske's (or KYB's which haven't seen any redesigns in some time) the Advance struts were basically THE option for his rather hipo roadracing ride with nothing stock but perhaps his roof (lots more was considered!). Customer recently finished installing Dando's stiffener kit (highly reccomended, 6 pieces at $40US each and lots of elbow grease)and is progressing on his other systems. As noted by others your total suspension, rims/tires/tire type (ie. street/R/full slick), chassis additions, cage style/quality, total weight and distribution, hp/brakes etc all are part of the big package requiring consideration as part of your total setup including struts whether $40 stockers up to the Advance struts or Penskes etc. PS I haven't had time to write up on my new suspension mods but I love my new alignment:) Likely too much caster but driving quick and doing nasty lane changes on very GROOVY pavement thru curves is now easily done as car is not darty whatsoever. I spent 30 minutes in the alignment shop and we had my desired settings dialed in. Lots of fun exploring limits and then fine tuning to the sweet spots PS the Advance struts require the larger diameter 280Z strut tubes which isn't a bad thing if you're racing that hard as they're a stouter piece anyhow. Good Luck and any q's feel free.

OK, in line with my other ongoing recent exhaust threads including moving collector via welding or custom flange adaptor Best quite freer flowing combo I'm now wondering if I'm best to return/trade my new painted Hooker headers for the ceramic or stainless steel version? I saw on Long's that his ceramic ones had a single coating location nickel sized flake off.....anyone with feedback on their coating durability..... And other issue is the thermo characteristics of stainless.....ceramic coating does keep heat in the air to get it out via the exhaust and keep it out of the engine bay......is stainless similar at all? Seems to me it would be quite a bit hotter in the engine bay which I don't want.....all feedback welcome!

Do you have your timing curve nailed down? My L28 liked 14 degrees of initial vs. lower stock setting...I didn't lose MPG when I did a custom exhaust and went from 3.36's to 3.9's BTW. Stayed at my steady city mpg of 23, engine was easier to use around town and highway rpm's didn't hurt it at all with up to 30mpg achieve on 140km/h+ average long trips with the L28EFI setup. Rear gears are great for power gains as long as it doesn't stick your rmp's beyond your tolerances. 3.9's or 4.11's make a very sweet change Good luck, an Oz bud who was here on an internal work exchange for 2 yrs is flying back to Adelaide tommorrow and we're all missing him as he's a great bloke Hoping to visit sometime

Well weighng it like I noted above I know it'll take a lot less time to have a piece of flatbar angle milled than the full welding operation so will be cheaper as either rate is hourly and seems to be more suited to my needs (perhaps anyones?). The welding and iron porting would be quite timely and not such a welcome task. The washers will be a similar smaller piece of flatbar that I just cut up and might even contour side lips to 'hold' against header to prevent rotation during install or have flat sides cut so I can hold it square with a 7/16's wrench (for ie.) as I tighten header bolts. I have seen double header/adaptor solutions on some pretty custom rods and in practise race cars that didnt have sealing issues that they passed on. The hooker flange is very beefy and face is milled flat so all looks promising. Separate 'pieces' for the adaptor would be cool (ie. 3 pieces, centre and two outers) but invite install and sealing/uniformity issues I'd fear.

Great stuff guys I'm enjoying asking some q's I got my headers/ended up getting a new/painted set to modify and then coat once modified. But after doing measurements on my present setup and proposed headers I'm not dead certain of the precise modification required as the angle of my header/head flange is not dead vertical so nailing down the collector angle/lateral distance requires a uniform flat plane......long story short I've got 1-3/8's tolerance total to fit the collector into so ~5/8's per side which is not too much considering I need the collector pulled out ~2.25" and my rides my daily driver.. And looking at Hooker's welds they look so fine, already fully finished on inside etc. Seems a rewelded flange might be a lot of work let alone porting that flange after (thanks for the procedural tips Jeromio!). I'll get the welders thoughts on it but an aluminum angled 'sandwhich' is looking more attractive. I can have it made/angle milled to my guesstimated 13.8 degrees and then test fit it all up. A few big advantages here IMO: -very easy to have this flange remilled sharper or softer if it's not bang on the first try and aluminum's quick to mill so not too pricey at all (ie. not like rewelding a flange or having my car down for multiple days) -ease of port matching the aluminum to my heads one side and header flange on other.. -if ever required I could easily replace that header without tossing away big mod $ and can easily put another identical Hooker (or other) in it's place (if so I'll likely return my painted set for a coated set) -last and least but perhaps of some use is once done it could then be replicated for others to use if desired as 280ZX header solutions are not a dime a dozen The assembly would take a bit of finesse/double gasketed etc but once done it should seal up and be a fine solution?? I assume 6061 aluminum should be used to resist warping vs. plane aluminum?? (planned flange would be ~5/16's on top side and 13/16's thick on bottom side, ~2-1/8" tall etc).

Thanks for the info and responses to date guys I should've mentioned my dad's 240Z LT1/T56 has a 2.5" Y to a 3" single -> BIG Bottle (long and large OD, inhibits ground clearance somewhat) and then some 3" muffler out back. His sound is PERFECT for me.....at idle nothing different from a stock L6 and at cruise quite pleasant with some gain on throttle as per normal. They've done a number of trips now and it's 'fine' in my Mom's opinion so I know it's quiet besides my own trials. But I had some concerns the bottle he has or muffler might not be ideal (not saying his is choked, although that could help me , his was done by local shop with local/non big name parts). His setup/cam etc isn't same power output of my own setup although close so I don't want to just copy his setup without some extra research. But his did prove to me a 3" can be done quietly. I had a look at Dave G's exhaust pic and I'm not sure that cat setup would clear under my ride comfortably? The cats look like they're right under or just rearward of the transmission? I've got a large/flat trans pan that's not too high in my trans tunnel... I do like the idea of moving the 'merger' rearward as dual 2.5's have 9.8 square inches of area vs. 6.1 for the single 3" (38% more area!). A little further rearward and the gas is a lot cooler (particularly in duals with greater pipe area/convection/transference etc). I did query the exhaust shop about merging my Y behind my trans pan instead of in front of it and he wanted to do it in front, don't recall why in particular, perhaps geometry of the Y transition and fitting the intermediate muffler before it goes into the upbend over the rear crossmember towards rear muffler etc as seen in Dave's setup their isn't that much length to fool around with. Here's Dave setup to have an idea of length's available. I like the idea of stuffing THE largest reasonable muffler in the rear location as it just seems the larger case can do more dampening with minimal loss (correct?). Dave, I'm planning to do this as soon as I've decided on components and have my header mods (or header spacer mods, see other thread) complete. Mike, thanks for the differing 3->2.5 input. I'm not feeling so adventurous having already done two exhausts that could've put money somewhere else by now......I don't disagree with your suggestion in any way and it may very well work fine. I've just had enough of any 2.5" components at present...had them loud and/or restrictive in various combo's and seen a couple 3" combo's in V8Z's that sounded quieter. Another sides my dad's was Dustin's setup in Oregon in his 280Z V8....he had a huge bottle, purple hornie perhaps, I don't recall exactly but quieter at lower throttle/rpms and a distinctive growl at WOT.

OK, what's changed/new since I last looked into this? I want a quiet (not kidding, stock corvette quiet or quieter would be sweet and make my chemo induced tinitus happier!) system that'll flow 350-360rwhp without great losses. Local shops I've talked to don't offer up any tried and true combo's. I'll have 1-5/8's primary new headers to replace my 1-1/2 set. Then plan is as follows: 2.5" pipes off of my header collectors which will then merge (very smooth Y, not sure if available Y's will be workable as it's a 90 degree bend that has to be done their...) into a 3" single just ahead of my transmission pan. Then this 3" single will lead into either a 'resonator' like this one Their's a local Vibrant Stainless steel bottle with stainless steel wool with a straight thru 3" in/out and 5" overall diameter available in 12" and 18" lengths that might be suitable. From the 'intermediate muffler/resonator (perhaps an oval borla small case)' 3" pipe on back to a muffler. At present I have a 14" case dynamax turbo..so I can fit in a 14-16" case and their is quite a bit of height/room available if required. (present system is being replaced as it has too many imedances for my power jump of the last few years) So any other suggestions on intermediate and rear mufflers or otherwise? Stainless steel (not a special desire of mine, but might last better?) Borla's seem quite reasonably priced and a few locally have said they're quieter and flow better than others they've played with (flowmasters etc). Spintech feedback reccomended a sportsman XL in the back and a Pro Street as a resonator which is $175 in mufflers and the pro street wouldn't tuck up in the tunnel as high being 6" in width as the 5" bottle would......maybe not an issue but I don't want a clearance issue on my ride at all. I'm quite fond of the Borla oval types for my intermediate muffler but they're pricey when I'm planning on using two, this one's $170US alone! (any deals to be had??) Borla Oval case specs for picture below I did look into the 'bell' connectors I mentioned in the header thread but exhaust shop felt they were best when you have a straight shot at them as they're sensitive to being bolted up at the correct angle/bang on. Enough of my babbles....any and all feedback is welcome!

Ooops! I thought only I got the hard questions, especially at work lately! Your 'racing history' and high handling expectations says a lot right off the bat. Sometimes I get guys who after a few q's I flush out that they've driven cushy stock cars all their life and want something that handles really well but no stiffer........their solutions are vastly different:) The tokico's allow you to run it softer on the street and stiffen it up for higher speed handling improvements (low speed you still don't need it much stiffer than the mid tokico setting as you need some weight transfer) One q I have left is where do your Velo Rossa fenderlips finish up relative to stock fenderlips? If they end up further out at all then that's fine. 10" long springs can then be used as you'll have lots of room for your tires to sit beside your coilovers, 10's are preferred when possible as they allow more room before coilbind whereas 8's have less freelength until they bind so one should go a little stiffer on 8's..............I have to fit 7's up front on my ride and I run 375 lb/in but my rides a little different. I'd reccomend 175/225 f/r spring rates with tokico illuminas. If you truly want a more comfortable street ride you can go 150/200 and that will be a fair bit more comfortable for daily bumps. I'd hesitate to go below 225 for a rear spring rate with your torque plans combined with the lowered body and thus less desired strut movement. Depending on your height you need to drop your car (find out the framerail height of another velo rossa build) then sectioning will be required as tomahawk mentions.

Sounds promising Mike. Mike wrote: the cable attaches with the stock early Z cable What do those with late (280Z) cables do? You've got my address to ship my 15 pairs to, I look fwd to getting them shortly

Don't rule it out due to some inner rust. I opened up a 3.36 that was very rusty IMO inside and washed it out a lot with brake fluid and it was rebuilt with a posi and is living happily in a friends ride.