Dragonfly

Hey Paul, I thought that the guy you showed the picture of was Brandon also until I went back and read the sig. I was there the night he did that burnout and that kid actualy blew out the tire and spent the next 20 or so minutes finding a jack because he had his spare but forgot he needed a jack. For anyone who is concerned the hill on 52 is a very long straight stretch of highway with a gradual crest, enough so that even at a very high rate of speed someone would have to close thier eyes in order to not see a dissabled/slow/eratic etc. vehicle in the road ahead of them. Also the typical non rush hour speed for that stretch of road is between 80 and 90 mph and that includes the cops. Paul, I would like to know how your car does at the next drags, I need to get an idea about racing you again. BTW the last race I ran out there before I took the car apart was 8.7xx at 79.xx mph with a 1.8x 60' time (1/8 mile track for those who are not familiar with racelegal). I am hoping that when I get the car back together I will be in the 8.5 to 8.6 range. I bought one of the other Fidanza's from the same guy you bought yours from, what do you think of yours? I also bought a 6 puck clutch and pressure plate that "southland clutch" told me could easily hold up to 400 hp. Any way hopefuly I will be out there racing again in about two months. Dragonfly

I think that is so the brass won't tear him up so bad when he gets hit by the person who "just didn't see him". Dragonfly

I run a 10 point cage in my Z and I have been pulled over once in it (in socal). The cop did not even seem to notice the cage, he gave me a fix-it ticket for my back tires sticking out past the fenders. As for insurance I use AAA and what they told me when I asked was that the only time my car would not be covered is when it is on a track, or if I put perminent numbers (ie a non-removable race number) on the car. BTW when I was pulled over (above) it was when some ricer was trying to get me to race him on the freeway, after ignoring the ricer long enough he cut in front of me with a good 6" to spare then less than 5 seconds later we go past the cop and he thinks I am tailgating and trying to instigate a race (he told me that when he pulled me over). After looking at me (late 30's, shirt and tie etc.) my car and not seeming to care or notice the full and padded cage he decided what I told him was probably true so he just hit me with the fix-it ticket.

The only way that I know of that you can buy only one is to get it used (wrecking yard or private party), you can do that as a short term fix. What would be better if you have the money would be to buy new rockers, spring retainers, lash pads, and locks, you can buy them from a Nissan dealership or from MSA. There are probably others that sell new ones but I don't know for sure. The reason for getting new parts is because each valve assembly is like a finger print no two are alike, they wear into thier own pattern and when you put a used one on the pattern is different from what was there before which creates accelerated wear as well as other problems like popping out the lash pad or spitting out the rocker etc. In my opinion a used one is better than using what you have now but the assembly should be completely replaced as soon as possible. Here is an MSA link for you http://www.zcarparts.com/store/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TZS&Category_Code=PEM02 Dragonfly

If it was me I would replace the valve spring retainer. From looking at the picture I suspect that the lash pad was either damaged or missing which allowed the underside of the rocker to hit on the retainer, if that is the case you should probably replace the rocker as well and difinately replace the lash pad. Dragonfly

I can assure you that you will never have liquid nitrous puddled up in your intake. What you may get is liquid fuel (gasoline) puddled your intake. A wet system means that you have nitrous and fuel mixed together upstream of the intake manifold (or in the intake) while a dry system adds the fuel on the downstream side of the intake i.e. just above the valves (where your fuel injectors sit). The additional oxygen in the N2"O" combined with the additional fuel (either by a wet system or by increased injectors or injector capacity) is what gives you the horse power in a bottle. The explosion issue is always there but it is increased when you increase the volume of space that has fuel and oxygen combined such as in your intake. Dragonfly

To actualy reply to some of your questions, most of the books I have cost around $20 each, I feel that each one of them was worth the cost, what prompted me to buy them? They were about something that I wanted to learn more about or get more detailed info about. What is lacking in all of the books is there just is not enough information due largely to budget, publisher restraints, and intimidation factor for the end buyer. I have helped with getting a couple of books published (http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?q3=Txsi8wYfvt4= and http://www.authorhouse.com/BookStore/ItemDetail.aspx?q3=LZMU/F2OwBQ=) and in my opinion one of the most important things you can do prior to publication is to come up with a cover and binding edge that cause your book to stand out from the others that will be on the shelf around it and to send copies of the finished but pre-published book to some people you know and trust who can read it and give you a GOOD forward as well as a good "buy this book" referance/endorsement on the back cover.

Sounds to me like you have about the right amount. The reason I say that is because you said the car looked very straight and you also said that you have not found anything thicker than 1/8". As a rule of thumb bondo should not be applied any thicker than 1/8", if you are filling an area that requires more than 1/8" thickness you should do it in layers. But from what it sounds like on your car is that someone actualy took the time to pound out the metal to the point that they never needed more than 1/8" of bondo... that is a good thing. It is better if the metal is worked to the point that bondo is not needed at all but the reality is that most people do not have the time/knowledge or the money for someone who does. Be careful grinding out all the bondo you find or you will have to either work the metal of refill the bondo. Dragonfly

I have a small library of automotive books which include some books on painting and body work. I have found them to be very informitive and the ones that give you test projects to practice on prior to working on your car etc. seem to be even better (good example: books written by Ron Fourner). I personaly like the books like the ones published by HP Books, at this time the only thing I have other than books is a video tape from ZThearipy from several years ago. I think that if someone took the time and money to make a high quality and very profesionaly filmed and edited DVD/tape that shows every step plus gives the viewer test projects to learn on it would be something that I would want in my library as a referance. It sounds like you are trying to decide if you should write a book or something. If that is the case I would recomend that you read several of the books published by HP Books in particular the one called 1001 tech tips. Dragonfly

After looking at the link you provided I can assume that you have a 280zx. After reading the first couple of lines this is what I saw "one pair of Hypercoil's unrivalled quality coilover springs selected to suit your requirements". What that statement means to me is that when you talk to them they will help you to determine what your needs are and provide you with the correct spring rates. This is exactly what would be expected of a profesional operation and a profesional operation is what you will be dealing with when deal with Modern Motorsports. Dragonfly

Go to your favorite bookstore and look for the book "Weldors Handbok" it is written with the intention of helping people to understand each of the different types of welding, prep etc. It is the best book I have seen for teaching welding short of taking classes. As far as the damage on your frame I personaly would move everything out of the way and have someone who is a professional weldor weld in supports on the frame to box it in and create some extra strength. Dragonfly

The comment about 24# of boost splitting the manifold was something I had read and had been told by some people when I was researching building a high boost L28, any way you do it is up to you. Dragonfly

The first thing is that all I have read and heard is that a stock Nissan intake manifold will split at the seams at around 24# of boost, which means either finding some way to reinforce the stock intake or making a custom steel intake that looks like a stock aluminum intake. The other thing is you do not need to increase your bore that much to increase your displacement. Take your LD28 crank (stroker crank) and after it has been fully checked out to make sure it is good have a compitent shop weld up the journals and re-grind them with a greater stroke length. This procedure will increase your torque notibly but you will have to "notch" the bottom of your block for clearance of the connecting rods. This is what is done to get 3.2 and and higher displacement out of an L series block without blowing out the cylinder walls. As for the boost you want to run you need to "O" ring the block/head in order to hold the boost without blowing out your head gasket. Now for my thoughts on block prep... since you want this engine to last more than one race you need to put some TIME and effort into the block. Start by de-burring everything in the block, then carefuly radius every single sharp edge in the block, that includes your mains and caps (use a small sharp file to knock the sharp edge off then use 120 or finer grit sand paper on a small piece of wood to dress the edge after using the file). You should do this to every sharp edge in the entire block except to top (deck) of the cylinders. I personaly spent over a month preping my block. Do not polish the inside of the block, it should retain some texture to help with internal cooling. I have to get back to work right now but don't let anyone tell you it can't be done. Dragonfly

I just re-read z-ya's post and I think that is a very good idea as long as you put the solder on the blade side of the crimp and not on the side were the wire comes into the crimp otherwise you have the problem of creating a stress point in the wire. Dragonfly

I have a book about automotive electronics that talks about installing aftermaket wiring kits, making your own harness etc. one of the important things that he mentioned in the book that stuck in my mind was that you should not use solder to join wire to wire (such as connecting a wiring harness to a pigtail), the book says you should use a high quality crimp connector. The book also pointed out that if you look at the factory harness you will see that any time you have a wire to wire connection it will be crimped not soldered. I found this to be true in my factory wiring harness in my 72' 240. The reason for using a crimp rather than solder is because the crimp allows the wire to retain its flexibility while a solder joint becomes very rigid and can easily break strands of the wire at the end of the solder joint which has now become a stress point in the wiring. If you stick with high quality crimp connectors and use heat shrink over the ends (or the whole thing if it is a butt connector) as insulation and a strain relief you should have many years of trouble free wiring in your car. Dragonfly

When you upgrade your oil pump to the turbo one you are increasing the volume of oil more than the pressure. Changing the spring will increase the pressure on any Nissan oil pump but only the "turbo" pump has the increased volume that you are looking for with the upgrade. Remember that oil pressure above what the engine needs is nothing more than un-needed drag on the engine and excess stress on the oil pump shaft. Dragonfly

Wal280Z I drew the entire wiring diagram in Auto CAD as a project when I was in college, so the drawing is not a scan or a trace-over. BTW I got your email and I sent you the drawing. Dragonfly

Send me an email milezgray@yahoo.com and I will send you an Auto CAD .dwf drawing of the entire 260Z wiring diagram. I will also send you a link to were you can download (from Autodesk) a free .dwf viewer which will allow you to view the drawing, zoom in and out (with very little loss of resolution) and print the drawing to any printer or plotter. The drawing itself is scaled 1 to 1 so if it is plotted out full size on a plotter it will measure 3 feet wide by 9 feet long... that makes it fairly easy to trace out a circuit. It may be a day or two before I can send it to you though. Dragonfly

You were asking about using two Felpro gaskets with the Felpro cooper shim in-between, well that is exactly what I have on mine. As mentioned in one of the other replies you are going to have to take a close look at your timing chain, what you will find which is what happened to me is that the timing chain is a little to short. What I did to remedy that problem was to insure that no shims were being used and to use my old chain guides and tensioner because they were worn enough to allow the chain to just fit. Here is the info on my engine. cam: 270/270 .46 lift head: P90 shaved till each chamber measured 50cc's block: F54 de-burred, casting flash removed, all edges radiused pistons: Arias forged flat tops, 356 grams each, full floating rods: L24, race prepped, shot peened, balanced Crank: LD28, wet magged, polished, balanced Compression: 9.7:1 (run 89 octane California gas) Timing: 18 deg. at idle, 35 deg. mechanical, all in by 2500 rpm's (no vacuum advance, phase manualy set and locked in place) Head gasket(s): Felpro, cooper shim, Felpro **** NOTE**** if you are over-bored (like mine) spend ALL the time needed to get those gaskets lined up perferct around the bores because the gaskets are not made with the best of tolerances and if your piston even lightly touches the gasket you will be pulling it apart and replacing it reeeeaaaal soon (experiance speaking). I have been running it like this for 3 years now (after replacing the head gaskets that were touching #5 piston) and I have not had any problems with it. I race this car on a regular basis and I drive it on the streets often enough to say it has been quite reliable. I agree with those before me that you are going to be hating it if you run anything higher than 10.5:1 compression, and IMHO if you would like to drive it just a little more often try to lower the compression to somewhere between 9.5:1 and 10:1. Dragonfly

Forgot to mention... they also provided food and drink, and in the passenger seat of each of the CTS-V's was a professional driver/instructor who would give tips and advice as he felt neccesary. I got a "good job" from the instructor after pulling the Caddy back in line from the very short lived drift. Dragonfly

Not only did I get to drive one (actualy I drove 4 of them), but it was on a autocross style course with a dragstrip start. It was less than a 1/4 mile because they didn't want people getting the cars over 100 mph. This was an event sponsored by Cadillac to allow you to drive thier cars and the compitition to thier cars ie BMW, Mercedes, Lexus... This is the website http://www.drivesummit.com from there you would need to call the 800 number to get a registration number etc. Now for my opinion of the car this is a Cadillac with the heart of a Vette and having driven a Z06 on a similar course I can say that yes the Vette will easily beat the Caddy but the Caddy will hold its own against nearly any production car on the market and it still has the comfort of a Cadillac. Out of 5 runs in 4 cars I managed to get one car sideways and it pulled right back in line almost instantly. I wish I could actualy afford one of those, that would make such an great commuter car. Dragonfly

Here's the link that Blueovalz was talking about. http://www.stoptech.com/whitepapers/warped_rotors_myth.htm I think that it is very possible that Pop N Wood is correct about the pad material being stuck to your rotors and that being your problem. As far as the mechanic saying the rotors are warped... did he/they take them off the car and measure them with a test indicator or did they test drive the car and say "yep there warped". If they only did a test drive they could easily mistake a 'bump' (brake pad residue) in the rotor as the rotor being warped. Read the article from the link and you will learn how to check and clean up your rotors. Dragonfly

Here is another exerpt, it is from Wednesday and is the results of some kids playing "ricky racer" in traffic. Remember these read from bottom to top. Incident: 0490 Type: Possible Fatality Location: SB I5 JSO PALOMAR AIRPORT RD Zoom Map: 1126 6J Info as of: 9/2/2004 8:20:53 AM ADDITIONAL DETAILS 6:38AM - VERY 23103, HIGH SPEED, LN CHANGES 12:32AM - PER DYNAMIC DETAIL ENTRY AT MIDNIGHT 06, IT WAS 1039 TO WESTERN THEY CAN RELEASE THESE VEHS 7:21PM - SENT TO 92-S5 VIA MDC FOR INFO/1039 S5 REG INFO 3:57PM - SIG ALERT CANCELED, TRAFFIC RETURNING TO NORMAL 3:04PM - SIG ALERT CONTINUES ON CAD #635 3:02PM - PER CT SENSORS, SB 5 TRAFFIC IS BACKED UP INTO CAMP PENDLETON 3:00PM - OFFICERS HAVE CLEARED THE SCENE 2:55PM - PER OFFICER AT THE SCENE, RACING WAS INVOLVED IN THIS COLLISION 2:54PM - 13X SIGN TK 1097 WB 78 JEO JEFFERSON, RS "ACCIDENT AHEAD PREPARE TO STOP" 2:58PM - WE HAVE RECEIVED SERVEAL MEDIA INQUIRIES ASKING IF THIS WAS RELATED TO VEHICLES RACING ON THE FREEWAY 2:45PM - PER D1, EB TO SB IS NOW OPEN 2:29PM - 2:29PM - THE SUSPECT VEHICLE WAS NOT DAMAGED, IT JUST CAUSED THE COLLISION 2:17PM - SUSPECT VEHICLE: SIMILAR TO HONDA CIVIC, LOWERED BODY, DARK OR PRIMERED BLUE GRAY, REAR SPOILER, ANYONE WITH INFO SHOULD CONTACT CHP DISPATCH 2:17PM - 2:03PM - PER B92-5, FOR CT SIGN TRK, TRAFFIC IS BACKED UP TO 78, MIGHT WANT TO MOVE NORTH 1:40PM - 1039 S&R TOW FOR EVIDENCE , ENRT 1:33PM - SIGN TRK 97 SB 5 JSO O SIDE ONR CD WITH "ACC AHD-PTS" 1:18PM - EB PALOMAR AIRPORT ROAD ONR TO SB 5 IS CLOSED 1:13PM - PLS ROLL EVIDENCE TOW 1185 TO CD 1:09PM - PER FD, DOUBLE 1144, PLS ROLL OMEGA 1:05PM - SIGN TRK ENRT FROM KEARNY MESA 12:56PM - 1039 SDPD 12:57PM - PAR ONR TO SB IS ALSO BLOCKED 12:56PM - #1 BLOCKED, PLS ISSUE SIGALERT 12:56PM - SIG ALERT ISSUED 12:56PM - POSS 1144, UPDATE MEDICS, 1039 -- 12:51PM - 1039 RANCHO FD 12:50PM - LOOKS AS THOUGH THE VEH ROLLED AND NOW IS BACK ON ITS WHEELS 12:50PM - SOLO VEH IN CD , RED CRX, MAY BE A CEMENT TRK ALSO INVOLVED IN CD ALSO Dragonfly

This is a link to the CHP incident page http://cad.chp.ca.gov/ from here you can pick just about any "large" city in California and see what is going on at that moment. I check this site regularly before hitting the road so I know how bad I am going to get screwed. Here is an excerpt I took this morning because I thought it was funny... Incident: 0257 Type: Hit and Run - No Injuries Location: SB I15 JNO VALLEY PKWY Zoom Map: 1129 4G Info as of: 8/26/2004 8:38:46 AM ADDITIONAL DETAILS 8:08AM - PER RP ANOTHER PTY STOPPED, CLAIMS SHE SEES THIS MC DRIVER DO THIS ALOT 8:08AM - RP IN WHI FORD EXPLORER, MC USED HIS HAND TO BREAK HER WINDOW 8:07AM - PER RP CHANGED LN, MC HIT HER WINDOW These things read from bottom to top. Oh yea I ride a motorcycle to and from work and although that was not me there have been many times I have wanted to do that. RP= reporting party MC= motor cycle LN= lane etc... Dragonfly

What 2126 was talking about I call a 'pack mentality', most people do it without even realizing it, that of course brings us back to the root of the problem of the fact that most drivers are completely un-aware of anything that has to do with driving. I'm not going to say anymore or I will get myself all worked up... Dragonfly