Modern Motorsports Ltd

Vortec's are 64cc chambers Pete. Silver, I think you got a great plan for a fine easy power motor. Upgraded vortec heads with a decent newer style grind (as the vortecs flow fine intake and exhaust....so old wide dual pattern cams would not make the most of those heads.....with decent headers (someone was just posting today they'd sell....under the 20+ header post I think) and a vortec intake you're laughing. And money spent on heads and an intake is a GREAT place to drop some coin, you don't loose much on that investment. enjoy.....

quote: Originally posted by danc: Guys: I need a solution on what to do with the return line too. I have an 83ZX Good question Dan, when I was carbed I just quit using my return line thankfully it didn't rust out in 5 yrs as I'm now using it again with EFI. I'm not aware of a simple way for you to employ it, I hope someone else is. I'm curiuos on your one way vent line valve......does it have near zero resistance to vent air but won't vent gas? or it allows vaccuum to be relieved but not pressure? I Had some fuel dribble out of my vent line recently after some hard driving and didn't like that...

quote: Originally posted by blueovalz: I guess I don't understand the towers only cage system. I didn't intend that to be interpreted as towers only. Design was a full tower cap, an X b/t tower's, pity bar on main hoop etc if one can 'tolerate' all that (ie. depending on your car's use). As well the bars are fully welded to the heel plates BUT heel plates are NOT fully welded to the frame/rails/towers...intermittent welds spaced around the plate, this allows some flex of that tie-in and it'll stay part of the cars structure far longer than a fully welded plate that is so rigid the car will part ways with it sooner as it's essentially more 'brittle' and will shear/tear away as the actual car's structure is not as stiff(for lack of a longer explanation). The longer your cage remains part of your structure the safer you are. I"ve seen v. few do it this way (maybe it's more common than I know) but I know the incidents a few walked away from with above design and it's what I'll want when it's done (the cap and weld details etc).

I have a set of proven camber plates with built in additional caster. I'm installing them in my car and wondering if others are interested at all. I can send pics to anyone interested, they work with 2.5" standard coilover springs replacing your stock upper mount. They use a high grade teflon spherical bearing on the strut pivot up top and a torrington bearing at the spring pivot point (as you no longer have the OEM upper bearings). Cost would be ~$220US for one pair to do your two front struts. I need them to allow me additional room to step to 8" long springs from my short 7's as well as the additional castor and ability to back off on my camber (lowering automatically increased camber and decreased castor.....both undesireable IMO and led to dartiness) which will decrease tire wear (higher castor can allow you to run less camber to a point) below even OEM settings perhaps. Drop me a line personally if interested. Thanks. I'll post the pics here once I get them up on the web.

quote: Originally posted by SleeperZ: If you wanted the IC to absorb more heat, it should be painted on the inside On the outside, you don't want it to absorb heat, you want it to reject heat, avoid heat-soaking it. On a rad it enhances heat flow out of the radiator and is this not desirable on an IC as well? Unless your IC is in the actual engine bay I can't see heatsoaking to above ambient temp ignoring the internal flow.(black flow it in as preferably as out? ie. same advantage regardless of direction of heat flow?) Ross (skipped the thermo courses) C

IMO, I'm running a bosch I'm liking a lot already. It's very quiet, mounted with rubber all around and 2 large stainless hose clamps. I've heard enough noisier non-OEM/aftermarket type pumps and wanted a truly quiet one and hoped OEM bosch quality would treat me well, their R&D has to be good. The Ford pump someone else mentioned was another brand, can't recall which one that was though (airtek?). Mine had a 5/8's inlet on gravity side and an M12 fitting on the other side that I adapted over to a GIC fitting to hose barb....be nice to just have a nice GIC hose made up some day. good luck

quote: Originally posted by BLKMGK: Big ports huh? Hmm, I'd always thought of my 'tiny headers', I think I prefer the big ports outlook -enjoying a half full glass

quote: Originally posted by Nick_327Z: Well, he said I could get the wheels, tires, and every part of the brakes for $600. You think this is worth it? I could probably find a shop in town to help make them fit. Thanks for your help. As stated above, those rotors are not bolt on in any way for a 4lug setup. Mark's got custom 2 pc. rotors. ie. only the front calipers were used, rotors are not Z32. And I assume from the info here you know what's involved with a 5lug conversion? (lots in archives here). Those calipers aren't that pricey so depending on what you feel the wheels/tires are worth and you've got budget for the conversion/hubs/spacers/etc. Machine shops can be very pricey if you have then 'solve' your issues, ie. pay them to think. Far different from working out all details and just giving them a drawing of exactly what you want and only paying for machining time.

quote: Originally posted by BLKMGK: Ross, what were your measurements? Sorry I missed this when you posted it Jim. I'll have to dig those up, but I'll be sending them diagrams of my steering shaft and rail locations relative to my engine block/oil pan interface and exhaust port locations both laterally and vertically so if they don't fit it's either my fault for poor measurement or theirs for poor fabrication. Yet to find out if my geometry will require major tweaks (ie. more $) or not. Are you buying them coated already? Or shipped uncoated for fitment/possible tweaks and then returned for coating in final configuration? PS that 1404 gasket you pictured sure looks familiar(felpro race)...if I added up how many of those I've changed I'd have likely paid for new headers! [ September 25, 2001: Message edited by: Ross C ]

quote: Originally posted by FTSzero: I just bought an 83zx and want to start working on it immediatly. [ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: FTSzero ] Are you sure your rust is very minimal? Your rails/rockers/floors/wheel well is dead solid? The more work I do on cars the more I know my next one I'll want to buy the best one I can afford so I can spend time doing 'upgrades' and not 'maintenance/repairs'. Just a cautious warning if you're starting from scratch you have nothing to loose from switching cars now.......It's always after friends dump lots of $ into fixing a car they find a much better one for a fine buy under their nose....... -if yours is definitely the one then freshening your brake system is a great start, flush it very well and check pad wear and rotor condition. And DO get an alignment shortly, they've often told the tale of a twisted car or two and you'd rather know earlier.... -then a complete bushing replacement is a fine thing to do and if timed with other related parts can save down time in the future. good luck

Balford, I run the Hammer shifter (been told it's same as the megashifter, just a leather boot and diff. handle...some models are a bit taller/shorter, universal hammer is as short as any B&M has in ratchet as I recall) and like it. It's a bit stiff from Park to Drive but all other movements are fine. I used a stock Nissan shifter for a few years but finally got the ratchet action for security at my roadcourse lapping day events so I had some tighter control on my shifts. As far as looks, check out the base pieces, the boots/knobs etc can all be bought separately which is about all that makes up the looks although spoons might differ a bit. It was a GREAT surprize Xmas present to me or else I"d have got the megashifter I didn't want the 'pro-stick' look although it certainly had some appeal to me. more info in the search fxn etc.

I believe those are the work of Craig Borden of ZCarCreations.com I heard two fine reviews of Craig's CD's from some WA members.

Nick, is it backfiring/popping at the intake? Or in your exhaust? Backfiring/popping when you're getting into it is typically IME timing. I troubleshot this for quite a while once as a mild timing change of 2-3 degrees didn't change it at all...turned out it wanted another 6 or so. If it pops in the intake when you back off of it then it's commonly lean (that's how I'd set primaries on my qjet, 1/4 turn out past 'pop';^)). Just turn your dizzy a bit to advance it and try it...if improved turn a bit more, (if not a larger amount)...if all solved then pull the timing gun and see where you're at and make sure total advance isn't too high (ie. max of 38, with 36 more common). The first adjustments take a couple minutes max just rolling and then stomping on it to see and backing out and adjusting againg...and don't run it up high in the rpm, you're just testing full load at lower rpm's, ie. change from no load to full load and making sure timing is OK. good luck

Omar: -it's how you shift/launch that will kill that trans.....not near as much so the power under the hood. I'd NEVER give up cubes as they're free power....(I had a 327 for a few years and now a 350/both were great but cubes is just free hp and torque with milder idle etc compared to same peak hp/tq from less cubes). -vortec heads will dictate the vortec type intake, Yes others have used non vortec intakes and they say it works fine....the ports do not match properly and what looks like a small mismatch to us is very important to the airflow and their power production, vortec's are 64cc heads so they can work fine on a 327 or standard 350 bottom end etc. - in my 280zx either my 325hp cammed 327 or my current higher cammed 350 both run to 6grand no sweat and it's only me that forces the shift.....I've not found either motor to 'rev' differently and I do understand the wear issue 327 vs. 350 but either can last a long time....then again 327 might just be plenty of power if it meets your goals easily....since you were talking efficiency it's easier to get that with milder cams which only make bigger numbers with bigger cubes typically (at reasonable cost), when GM gets 250hp+ out of the vortecs with short rockers and TINY roller cams it shows what a decent build can produce

"I wish I had a crystal ball back in 1988 when I bought the 15's" You don't have to stick with older rims necessarily. You might be suprised at what you'd fetch used and then be able to buy new or near-new/used for. I sold my 2 16x7 zero offset sets of rims and did my 5lug conversion, bought 2 fine sets of 16x8, 15lb@ Rx7TT wheels and had some $ left over. Some older mustang lovers might like your rims or a Z guy throwing slicks on his for a quarter miler etc.

wouldn't a 'bump-steer' (I know that names not completely correct but we know what they are) spacer help out his scenario assuming he wants to keep his Xmember lower? shaves 1/2" from frame, left with 1.5" drop and a 1" or thicker bump steer spacer is a simple job right? then a relocation of his inner pickup point to optimize it all and things should be a LOT closer to being correct?? I'll be doing a similar thing to my ZX with ~1" xmember spacers.

quote: I would love to take a rollbar to the strut towers instead of to the floor but I suppose it wouldn't be quite as strong. Opinions? Anyone done this already? Several California racers at least have done this. Make sure you put a FULL cap on the strut tower when you tie this in. Otherwise it has in the past just crumpled/punched thru the tower. At least a largish heel plate at a minimum. Quite thin sheetmetal unsupported their and the cage can transfer immense force to the towers and without a large enough bearing surface the rear will still crumple forward (ie. cage punches thru towers). I know Richard King I believe has the 280ZX Autopower cage but I've yet to see pics...please Richard...

"I don't think that the sway bars will have any effect on ride stiffness, at least not going straight." Tim, with my 280zx (ie. stiffer OEM chassis than a Z chassis) swaybars made a very noticeable difference. It eliminated a lot of chassis flex that you routinely feel just driving over a curb etc and makes those bumps feel a lot 'bigger' than before. Just my experience. And shocks can most certainly affect ride feel. In general terms they are your rapid/transient response mechanism and springs are for less 'instantaneous' responses. It's been said not to run too soft a shock with tokico's as they are a stiff shock and a soft spring won't give them enough support and can then blow the shock as it takes on too much load. With my illuminas I can tell if they're set on 3 or 1. (I never go to 5 on my ride)

what size/ratio tire do you run, that can be a factor, less than a 50 series get's a bit 'harsh' IMO, 225/50/16's on 7" width were a lot friendlier than my 245/45/16's on 8" width.

"I have 150lb front and 175lb rear springs and my car is stiff. Really stiff." Interesting, my fathers LT1240Z has 175/225's and his felt quite comfortable for daily use and occasional track stuff. I wouldn't call it 'stiff' in a comfort sense, just a nice handling sense. He is also running the larger swaybar upgrade kit and strutbraces front and rear. It's quite soft in comparison to my 375/250 'track' oriented setup. Stock springs were 125-140 or so were they not? Other friends are running 175/225 or 200/225 in V8Z's that I know of. If much track use was intended and you have great traction and big brakes I'd be curious to see what 250/225's would feel like...decrease the nose dive that I did notice was a lot more present in my dad's setup with stock brakes and above spring rates than it ever appears in my setup with 13's.

Vented or non-vented rotors Peter? A friend just did a driving course last wknd and boiled his MC with some high grade brake fluid in his 3rd session. He has toyo 4pots and vented rotors FWIW. I'm trying to pinpoint some weakness in his system as I wouldn't have thought they'd boil like that on him. If his fluid was synthetic or silicone and had excess water in it it might make more sense. For yourself it depends on your expected uses for the car. 4pots will work fine for single street stops, vented rotors more so for repeated street stops....track experience with toyo 4pots I haven't heard too much of except up above which I still think he has some unfound problem as Z31 rotors last quite well on Z31's for heatsink etc. It was good meeting up with you the other wknd

Anything round can work for bending hard brakelines', large sockets/ratchet handles etc, round edge of an anvil....even to 'buck up' for new universal hardlines and bend them yourself, they're only 2 or 3 bucks a piece. I've seen 'old' ones crack under minor restressing so do be careful if keeping old ones.

I've heard TONS of guys think they have LSD's because they spin both tires/leave even black marks. Nissan's IRS hooks so fine this is not the tale of the R200LSD. Has be spun up in the car to see the lockup with no load etc, doesn't take much to overcome it up on the hoist but it's still easily discernable. Talking gear ratio bumps, I did 3.9's from my OEM 3.36 and it was AWESOME (OEM powertrain)back in '94! I only wish I'd been aware of 4.11's back then

It's your choice, 1% power gain /10 degrees farenheit...you could see 40-50 degrees difference in ambient temperature to underhood, let alone the potential pressure advantages. Less advantageous for milder setups perhaps. I agree, most ramair setups I'm not fond of their looks no matter what kind of tubing etc. But I'm thinking of going thru an inner fender or sealed to a modified hood to keep the engine bay area looking relatively minimized.

Welcome John! Great to see you here, I'm sure some of the racers will pipe up on your q's. Michael Spreadbury built a strutless 510 with a mix of mazda etc A-arms etc but I'm not sure where it's documented.....I'll chase it down. Do they still have the Unser wknd once/season for your racing series? ahh, here's some link's to Michael's builds (FWIW, Michael's a helluva guy who's given me great input over the years and is just as enjoyable in person!) pics of Michael's strutless wonder click thru 'strutless conversion' within this URL once opened direct link to strutless pics and info.....mazda and toyota A arms used... Here's Pete's writeup on his altered front end which was basically a new front frame from firewall fwd AIR,Pete's struct. mods search of the forum showed Chris's website dead.....any update on how far he got or is along with his full tube frame effort or a new web?