Dragonfly

I used to have a ZX-R wing on my 240Z but when I got my carbon fiber hatch the wing came off. It sold for $100 about a week later. Here are a couple of pictures where you can see the wing although not real well... By the way my wife found that wing in the wrecking yard when I took her with me... she wanted to do some treasure hunting for the car. I don't know why the pictures are not coming up but here are the links http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=lastup&cat=11963&pos=9 http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=lastup&cat=11963&pos=7 Dragonfly

I wouldn't go so far as to say that... The members of the club wanted to see the parts and we had our event coming up... It also turned out that racelegal was going to be having their last race and I did not want to miss it so the parts made an apperance there as well. So thats it (until something else comes up). Dragonfly

Here are a few pics of my car with the hood and hatch (they are still in primer). Dragonfly

I like the way your valve cover came out and I also like the way WigenOut-S30's looks (BTW thats the same valve cover I have). I do have a concern though and that is that neither of you said anything about using a primer on the valve cover before painting. I can tell you from personal experiance that if you did a very good prep job but no primer the paint on the valve cover will last about 2 or 3 years then start to flake off, if any contaminants were left on the aluminum the paint will flake off sooner. It is very important when painting aluminum that you use a compatable (with your paint) aluminum etching primer prior to painting. I was not a happy camper when my beautiful black wrinkle paint started to flake off my valve cover. I painted mine right this time but used a "hammered" paint instead of a wrinkle paint this time. Dragonfly

The parts made by John (Beta Motorsports) are intended to be pinned, they have no mounting points for hinges etc. The hood made by Les (Classic Datsun) http://www.classicdatsun.com/new/carbonfiberhood.html is made as a direct bolt on replacement for your stock hood. Both of these hoods are made with a very high attention to detail and they are both at the top of thier respective uses. It is important to remember that 99.9% of the time you get what you pay for. If you want to go less expensive both of these guys also make very high quality fiberglass parts as well for much less money. Dragonfly

Here is a link for you with some pictures and prices http://www.betamotorsports.com/products/index.html but if you think that $675 is to high... you might want to sit down. You should be aware that these are actual race parts and not some of the cheaply made "look at my hood" parts that you see on ricers. As for the hood you where talking about I believe that is made By Les Canady of Classic Datsun, and if that is the case it is a very high quality hood as well but it is made for apperance and not as a race part, his hood weighs 17 lbs and can be attached to your hood hinges/springs and held down with your hood latch. Dragonfly

I recieved the other day my new carbon fiber/nomex hood and carbon fiber rear hatch from Beta Motorsports (John C.) needless to say I am quite happy. My car is now 71 pounds lighter and no longer has the 280zxr wing on the back so the drag has been reduced as well. I don't have any pictures at this time but when I get some I will post them (no digital camera). As far as the quality and craftsmanship on the parts I would have to say that I am very pleased. I personaly do not know much about carbon fiber besides what I have read, but I spent many years as a calibration tech and inspector in the aerospace industry so I feel qualified to say I got what I paid for and I am quite happy. Thanks John. Dragonfly

When a bone-head in an suv backed into my wifes Z, then admited guilt I was able to show the cost of replacement parts (which you have already done) so they just cut me a check for the total amount plus 3 day car rental. I went to the loacal wrecking yard cherry picked the parts I needed and made the repairs myself. Since you could possibly get a door from people on here it may benifet you to try to just get a check from them and fix it yourself. Dragonfly

Those metal support pieces are not going to cause you any problems and you can leave them in place (they're braces). But I was thinking exactly what Sean73 said "did you replace the side seals on the rear main cap?" it is important that they be replaced as they get abused pretty bad by the removal of the cap. When those seals are replaced they should also get a thin film of oil, but it is also very important that the seal is pushed all the way down into the slot then the remainder cut off flush using a sharp razor blade, you then carefully drive the metal shim (that comes with the seals) between the seal and the bearing cap (the two small lips on the seal should face the block and the flat side of the seal should face the bearing cap). I also use gasket sealer on the pan gasket where it meats the rear main cap and cap seals to help ensure no leakage. Dragonfly

Nah I'm not trying to psych you out just telling you exactly how I prep for each of my runs, and trying to help you psych out your opponent although with runs like your pulling I don't think you need to worry about psyching them out. Those were some impressive runs and I think as you practice you are going to find out how much you need to heat your tires and at what rpm you get your best launch at etc. BTW since my dragstrip is a parking lot there is virtualy no traction off the line for anyone so it is very common at the racelegal drags (where I race) for people to do very long burnouts to help them get more grip on thier launch. Dragonfly

I have no doubt that Scotty is correct about me overkilling my burnouts a little (or alot). What I have to try to keep in mind when I reply to a post like this is that I have a lot less horse power than most of the people on here. That is one of the reasons I need to keep my tires very wet while doing a burnout, the length of time I heat my tires has to do with intimidation as a lot of the cars I race are capable of beating me but when I can intimidate the driver... I do pull 1.9x 60ft times while most of my compitition pull 2.xx 60ft's, but I only run 8.9's in the 1/8th (my local track is a parking lot) at 75-76 mph. One of these days I will have enough power in my car to allow me to have some of the same concerns as many of you guys but until then I am going to continue to psych-out who ever finds themselves lined up against me. Dragonfly

I agree that you should check the oil pan bolts again... and again... etc. If you use a torque wrench and tighten them to the 5-7 ft/lbs as called out in the FSM you will find that by the time you get back to the first bolt it is no where near the correct torque. The reason is that the oil pan gasket compresses a lot. I would Highly Recomend that you use a torque wrench and tighten them again and keep on tightening them until you achieve a consistant 5-7 ft/lb reading on every bolt. If you need to change your rear main seal again the best way (you will hate this part) is with the crank out of the engine, the second best way is with the transmision out of the way and the rear bearing cap removed, and the worst way (most common) is rip the old one out and hammer the new one in place then cross your fingers and hope you did not damage it. However you decide to do it be sure to put a thin film of oil on both the inner and outer side of the seal (inner contacts the crank shaft and outer contacts the block and bearing cap), think of this film of oil just like the one you put on the seal of your oil filter when you change it. A quote from one of my engine building books "if the engine is for racing any oil leak on the exterior is un-acceptable". You may not consider your engine a race engine but if you don't want a trail of yuck all down teh underside of your car you will get that taken care of. Dragonfly

On my car I run 275/50/15 nitto 555dr's and I have found that for them to get a really good hook I need to spin them up for about 10 to 15 seconds with plenty of water on them (in the water box). Let the other guy heat his tires first then heat yours after he starts, he whould be staged as you finish your burnout, then you stage last so your tires are still as hot as possible. You will also find that you need to increase your launch rpm or you will bog the engine because those tires are going to grab and not spin like your street tires. Dragonfly

Opinion again here but since you say it is being used to hold the hard line where the hose and hard line come together I would in that case leave it there. The reason is because even though the hard line is ridged it is going to be flexing somewhere at the other end because it is no longer supported, that means sooner or later you are going to get a fatigue crack in your hard line and that would be bad. Dragonfly

I have not used that brake system but here are my thoughts. If you are not using the mount, and you have no intention of going back to disk brakes... what do you need to keep the mount on there for? Dragonfly

I like the way you think, but I have to do it the hard way first, it's just in my nature. Dragonfly

OK I'm convinced, but now I have to be sure to be do a good enough job that people will be impressed (like the one in the picture). Dragonfly

Well Tim I am a glutton for punishment... but if that thing starts to get the best of me it will end up with only the bellhousing painted. My real concern is the paint not allowing the transmission case to disipate heat well enough. As far as painting something that no one will ever see... well that is practice for me to get my prep and attention to detail skills prior to painting anything that can be seen. Dragonfly

I am doing some work on my car which will include pulling the drive train so I started thinking "well on American Hot Rod (on Discovery Channel) they always prep and paint the transmissions before they put them in the cars maybe I should try it as well". I have noticed that it is always automatic transmissions that they paint and mine is a manual (BW T-5). So I would like some comments and thoughts on this. Dragonfly

I have an electric water pump on my car that is turned on and off manualy, I forgot to turn it back on after stopping to meet some club members and I got on the freeway... a few miles down the road I notice steam coming out of the front of my car, I turn on the water pump look at the temp gage and it is maxed. I pulled over shut off the engine left the water pump and fan on poured some cool water over the top (not into) of the radiator to help cool things down. When the gage read normal I headed out to the Autocross with the other members and raced the crap out of my car, that was over a year ago and no problems whatsoever. As for the fan belt try taking a perminant marker and painting the row (v-groove of pully) of each pully the belt travels across then run the engine and see if the ink is only removed from one side of any pully and not the other, if you have belt alignment issues that will find them. That belt is cheap so I always keep a spare (new one) with my tools in my car. Dragonfly

At the last ZCSD dyno day the majority of stock L series Z's put down from 110 to 125 rwhp, so I would agree that the numbers you got are quite good for bone stock. Dragonfly

I was looking at my latest email from Summit and they have a virtual car show (as well as a real one) where anyone who would like to enter there car can for free. I was looking at the cars that are entered and I saw only one Z and it was a very stock looking 50th AE so I decided to put a pic of my car in and give you guys a link to the entry form so if anyone here would like to put a pic of your own hybridz in this virtual car show you can. Here is the link http://www.summitracing.com/vshow/entry.asp, there is a link in the page so you can see the cars that have been submitted and you can also vote for your favorite. Dragonfly

Ivan, the reason I said "serious engine" is because you went to the effort of buying ARP studs in the first place... There is a book called "Engineer to Win" that was written by Carol Smith (you can find this book in almost any Barnes and Noble) the book goes into amazing detail of what can happen to a stressed metal part that has a scratch in it, there are a lot of good photos as well. A story of what happened to me is I tried to save $15 by using "spiroloks" on my new engine instead of "wireloks" the results of that savings was that one of the spiroloks came out and allowed my wrist pin to score my cylinder wall. The cost was $1000 to repair the damage, replace the damaged parts, and purchase the wireloks with new wrist pins. I now have a $3000 engine in my car that cost $4000. The lesson here is don't try to save a buck now to find it will cost you many times more later. Dragonfly

Replace the scratched stud, it sounds like you are building a pretty serious engine and you don't want to build it again because you decided to save a buck and ignore an oops. As far as my opinion on the stud issue I agree that you probably created hydraulic pressure in the hole. My suggestion is to get some rest, then when you are fresh go back out take a new clean rag (t-shirt or some other thin cotton rag) then use a screw driver to push the rag into each of the holes and let the rag soak up any liquid that may be in there. Dragonfly

Sounds to me like you don't have an engine problem so much as you have an electrical problem. The primary thing that electricity needs is a good path to follow, so I would recomend that you replace your battery cables (both of them), make sure you have full battery output while the starter is cranking then try again. There is the posibility that you may have gotten some condensation in your distributor which has the potential to kill your engine and make strange things happen. If you can use a hair dryer on high heat to blow out the inside of your distributor cap, if the problem is beyond what I have mentioned let us know what you find and we can go from there. Dragonfly