Dragonfly

Yep, I get the same thing... my situation is compounded a little because I am the President and the "tech guy" of ZCSD. but what I do is this: Advice = free Referals to relaible ASE certified mechanic = free Work on family members car(s) = cost of parts Work on friends and club members cars = cost of parts, nominal $$, and I make them do as much of the work as they are capable of with me acting more as an instructor. Making them do the work also insures that when they find the part that is going to cost a bundle they don't blame me and ask me to fix it for free since I was "working on thier car". Thank goodness I am not a computer geek as well... Dragonfly

Experiance is the key... this sounds like a very close race and that means "luck" will be on the side of experiance. I have raced several DSM's (all wheel drive with 24-26 psi boost) and I can tell you that I beat most of them purely on experiance, but when a good driver gets behind the wheel I see tail lights . Dragonfly

Just a little more information for you... my car has 10" wide rims but they are 16's instead of 17's, I am running #300 X 12" springs and my tire diameter is 25.2". With this setup I have 1.5" clearance from the top of the tire to the fender (I don't know your offset so your measurements will most likely be different), I have 3/8" clearance between the bulge of the tire and the outer most portion of the spring. This setup gives you very little room for error so follow the advice of the others who have posted about taking accurate measurements. As bad as this may sound to you now remember that after you get the car rolling you will need to insure that your suspension is correct and you are not relying on the quick fixes to keep your car under control while driving. Make sure to RECORD all the measurements that are being taken now so you can referance them when you are ready to complete the fender/suspension work. I have no doubt that this will be nothing more than a lesson learned before long and you will be out driving that nice looking z and giving someone else advice on thier setup. Dragonfly

My first thought is that you cooked your starter and quite possibly a couple of relays in the process. The reason I say this is that when you put the neg. cable on the "lower" lug of the starter (z starter not ac delco) you created a direct short when you turned the key. Most likely the same is true with an ac delco. The only thing the black and yellow wire does is provide enough juice to trigger your selinoid everything else is handled by your battery cables. Since you are still using what sounds like the stock wiring there is a very good chance that the "interlock" relay is bad or fried, when the interlock relay does not work all you hear is a single click when you turn the key then nothing. The best way to remidey the problem is to remove the interlock relay and run a new 10 gage wire from your key switch to the blade on the starter. Good luck Dragonfly

Jonas, like John C. said "go for it" but I would like to recomend that you get some books on aerodynamics and do some reading then since you live in Huntington Beach you are close enough to contact Group Z about "helping" (start as a gopher or whatever) Andy with his record setting 2+2. Andy is the guy who owns the car John mentioned earlier in this thread. After spending some time with the guys who are pushing the envolope for top speed on Z's then you will be far closer to realizing your own goals. One more very important thing is you better have a truly SAFE cage in any car traveling at those speeds. Good luck on your quest. Dragonfly

Well I figured out where my response dissapered to... I had made my above response for the guy who was asking about removing his front sway bar for better launches. Now what concerns me is was it me or was it the computer??? Whatever, sorry about the wrong response in this post. Dragonfly

Just to let you know the fron sway bar will not do anything for your launch (installed or not) so I would'nt mess with it. My car has the fron bar on it and the back bar removed and I pull mid to low 1.9 second 60 foot times, but I am also using drag radials at 12 psi. In my opinion your going to be much better off using the proper tire than messing with your sway bars. Dragonfly

I have not run the car in the 1/4 so I don't know what its Q.M. times would be. The tires hook up well enough that they knocked .4 seconds off my 1/8 mile time. I did only put the races that I won but on the other hand I won 9 of the 10 races that I ran, the only one I lost was a mustang that ran 8.5 seconds at 88 mph and the video was similar to the first one (kinda hard to see) so I decided to leave it out. BTW my best run was 9.0xx seconds at 76.xx mph. I think with a few more runs on these tires I should get into the very high 8's as I was knocking several houndreths of a second off each run. Dragonfly

Ok thats weird... I tried the link and got an error also but when I pulled it up the long way (through the website) it came up fine. I will try it again and see if it works this time http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289844391 if it doesn't work try a copy and paiste. Dragonfly

Last Thursday I went to the racelegal 1/8 mile drags with my new Nitto 555 drag radials, a friend of mine took video of the races so I thought I would share them. Here is a link to the mpegs http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4289844391, this is on Imagestation and it requires that you be a member in order to view. If anyone would like to host these in an esier to access environment please let me know and I will get the mpegs to you. Dragonfly

The best hiding place is in plane sight... with my car I have the switch in plane sight but you would never know it was a switch. As an example in my 260 (which I sent to the scrap yard after a long hard life) I put a small switch inside heater/ac panel and I used the ac on/off lever to toggle the switch on and off, since my car had the ac removed this system worked great. Now with that example of how to disguise a switch its time for you to let your imagination run wild. Dragonfly

Dambro do you have access to Auto CAD? The reason I am asking is because when I was in college as a project I drew in Auto CAD the complete wiring diagram for an early 260Z, on the computer it is in color but I also labeled all the wires with the correct colors in about twice as many places as the FSM did. The drawing I made is (when plotted out full size) 9 feet long by 3 feet wide and if you have access to a color plotter you can have a very easy to read color diagram to hang on your wall. If you would like me to email the CAD drawing to you let me know and also what version of CAD would you would like it in. Dragonfly

Dennis thanks for keeping us updated on the trial as I know I have not been keeping up with it myself. This is going to be my last post on this thread as I can see be re reading the thread that I am letting far to much emotion and opinion get into the way of reality. I am going to try to put into a simple explination of my feelings on the actual incident. The guys racing are the reason for the accident the girl driving the Geo was in a position to prevent the accident from happining but did not. It is now up to others to determine the amount of responsibility each person involved had and how they should be held accountable for their actions. I wish the best for everyone involved. Dragonfly

Mike you are absolutely correct and I know with your background you are one of the people who is truly qualified to state some of the realitys and legalities involved, even though I get wound up I will never take anything said personal. This is also a good time for me to say that everything I am saying is MY PERSONAL VIEW AND OPINIONS and in no way should they be associated with zcsd etc. I hope to never see 75 mph limiters installed on cars and with the trend from manufacturers I probably never will. Dragonfly

I am going to move away from the theme of this thread for a minute to try to explain some of my earlier comments. First off it is important to note that people are generaly lazy, most people will not go very far out of their way to do anything they do not absolutely have to. With that being said we could have 25 conveinently located race venues and we would still have races on the streets "why spend an hour of my life going through tech etc. when I can spend less than a minute to show this whimp who is king". Now where I blame the city of SD, I agree that the city has no obligation moral or otherwise to provide anything to a special interest group nor do I think that the city incourages any one to race. My issue with the city is that they have a piece of unused land (used to be a city dump but has been filled and they put a freeway on one side and a bussines distrect on the other side leaving a large empty area in between) that is sitting there creating dust and has been vacant for over 20 years. The city was asked for permission to use this land and offered a reasonable lease rate, the city said no and did not that I am aware of offer a reason for declining. The other issue with the city is that they have found that creating revinue by issuing tickets in therre normal fashion has impacted the cities growth (no one wants to live where they get busted constantly), so the city has discovered a great solution if they can create the feeling that racing is a huge problem and that any vehicle that has a visible or audible modification is a racer then there is no public outcry when the volume of tickets is increased dramaticaly for the racers but the general motoring public can cruise around at 85 to 90 mph and not worry about getting a ticket. As an example there is a section of freeway where I was cited for 70 in a 65 zone in my Z but a few months later I was in a hurry and went by at 85 in my beater truck, I saw sitting there the same officer who had cited me in my Z, I thought for sure I had a fat ticket coming to me but he never came after me, since then I have seen several "ricers" pulled over in that stretch. In and around San Diego the only time I ever see a car being cited that is not modified it is only by CHP and never by SDPD. For the reasons above I personaly feel San Diego incouraging the view of a crises that is blown way out of proportion. Beyond that my feelings are that if you are busted doing something illegal you should pay the consiquences and if your actions cause the death or injury of another the consiquences should reflect that action. This thread has hit on an aspect in my life that I am very passionate about and that is why I am getting so wound up here. Dragonfly

Jim you are absolutely correct in your post and mine does read as if I feel the racers are getting the short end of the stick, please allow me to clarify a little. I wrote what I did because I place some of the blame on the city of San Diego, I personaly do not agree with street racing and I only race on the track (that is one reason why I am a volunteer with race legal). I feel that everyone should be held responsible for their actions and in this case nature held the girl responsible for her actions and the courts will hold the racers responsible for theirs. Here is an incident that happened in SD a little over a year ago to give you an idea why I think the city of SD condones people who do not pay attention to reality. There was a high speed chase where police where in persuit of an armed suspect, the suspect blew through a red light at a very high rate of speed aproxamately 3 seconds behind the suspect where several police cars with lights and sirens going. Sitting in the left turn lane on the side street a lady saw her light turn green she then saw a car blow through the intersection at a very high rate of speed, rather than looking or listining to what was going on around her she pulled into the intersection and was T-boned by the lead police car, she died instantly. The city of SD found the police at fault in this accident. I once heard a crash investigator say that the best way to prevent crashes was to install a 12" sharpened steel spike in the center of the steering wheel, that way everyone will pay attention and not do anything stupid behind the wheel. Dragonfly

I would like to put my 2 cents in on this as well. Jirst off I have not been keeping up with this as my wife does not like to see me get that wound up. Everything I have read in this post has been valid in my opinion but here is some more information that you will not see on TV. The street they were racing on is two lanes in each direction of travel with a center turn lane, on one side of the street are a set of trolly tracks then just beyond the tracks is a frontage road, on the other side of the street is a frontage road. Imperial Ave. is also a very straight street in that area and has been used for many many years by street racers because it is so easy to see whats around you. With that said I feel that the statement "there is no such thing as an accident" is very true. The guys racing were taking a chance as there is no doubt in my mind that they could see the other vehicles before they started. I also feel that what killed the girl driving the other car her boyfriend and severely injured her brother was a blatant lack of awarenes on her part, as stated earlier the speed limit is 50 mph and left turns have yeild signs, the only driver who will make a left in fron of oncoming traffic that is only a half block away (and for all practical purposes traveling 50 mph) is someone who never looked up before turning or someone who is in enough of a hurry to be willing to risk thier life by turning in front of fast moving traffic. In San Diego at this time they are trying to make an example out of everyone who has any mods to thier vehicle, and I believe that had these guys been driving at or below the speed limit and not even known each other it would have still been all over the news as a drag race related accident. Something else to keep in mind is that in the past few years in San Diego they have started a program called "Race Legal" that has taken a lot of races off the streets and with that the number of race related accidents/deaths has decreased. One last thing and I will hop off my soap box for now, race legal has asked the city to allow them to take a piece of city property (which has never been used for anything) and allow a perminant 1/4 mile track to be built (no city expense) and the city turned them down flat with no explination that I am aware of. The message that sends to me is that the city would rather make money off the kids in the streets than provide a safe alternative. BTW no matter what you may hear on tv the city of San Diego has nothing to do with race legal, race legal is funded by a grant from SDSU and is run by voulenteers and set up on private property (Qualcomm Stadium parrking lot), which they have to pay to use. Ok I think I will stop for now before I write a book. Dragonfly

It may not look like it is screwed in but it is, the way I did it was to take a cutting wheel on a dremmel tool and a notch into into the end so it looks kind of like this ( ) the notch should go across both sides but only needs to be just wide enough and deep enough for you to get a flat blade (such as a paint scraper) in it, then you can grab the scraper with a pair of pliers right next to the nipple (but only touching the scraper) and unscrew it. After it is out be sure to clean it before putting it into the good engine, you don't want any metal shavings getting into your engine. Make sure to tighten it into the good engine enough that you can not unscrew it with just your fingers. If you would ever like to meet me you can look me up http://www.zcsd.org and show up at one of the club meetings, or events (no need to buy me a drink all my advice is free). Dragonfly

I have to agree with the guys above about just using the threaded insert from any L series engine at the wrecking yard and running your engine with a regular oil filter/system and no oil cooler. I had one on my car which I drag race and auto cross and I took it off for the reasons mentioned by Katman. If you are insistant on running the oil cooler let me know as I have all the parts you need and I will let you have them for a lot less than Lee (the guy at the wrecking yard), but you will see it is money better spent elsewhere on the car. Dragonfly

That sounds to me like the previous owner used the cooler and mounting hardware from a stock 280zxt. The stock 280zxt has a plug in the pressure relief valve location and uses a hallow bolt through a banjo fitting (to the oil cooler) to hold the oil filter assembly in place. If you ever get the chance to see on in person you will no exactly what I mean but it is hard to describe without a picture. Dragonfly

When I was a teenager I learned my lesson about not using jack stands, I was working under my 71' charger when my 4 year old nephew decided to help, he helped by pulling the release lever on the jack. I was very fortunate that he was not able to pull it hard enough to release the jack instantly or I would not be here. I always use jack stands now. I also use a jack stand under all 4 corners, here is my procedure for that: I jack up the front of the car place my jack stands lower the car onto them, check the fitment (adjust as needed) lower jack to about 1 inch below crossmember then forcably shove car from all four sides, remove jack and do the same procedure from the back. In doing this I know that the car is not going to slip on the jack stands no matter how much I try to torque something from under the car. Dragonfly

Yes I did drill the oil holes into the small end for pin oiling, I also chamfered the holes using a 100 deg. chamfer bit. What I found out the hard way is that in the book "How to Build your Datsun OHC Engine" (I believe that is the correct title) by Frank Honzowitz that when he talks about things like that he is refering to full race engines that will be taken down and inspected/rebuilt after every one or two races. My engine was holding 20psi oil pressure at idle and 70 to 80psi when driving, the pins were brand new and the rods had been lightened, polished, oil holes drilled, balanced, and shotpeened, that left me to believe that the problem was I was not tearing the engine down and inspecting these wear surfaces like they should have been. The primary reason I am saying anything about this is to save some others from falling into the same trap I did by thinking you could build an engine by following the instructions in a book for building race engines then drive it on the street and feel like you do not need to tear it down for inspection because it is not being raced. I'm not giving you a hard time for asking a legitamate question I am just realizing that I did not go into enough detail in my last post. Dragonfly

Here are some lessons from the "been there done that / learned the hard way" section of my engine build-up. This is concerning the use of free floating pistons. Also the following comments are for engines that are going to be street driven and not torn apart for inspection and rebuild every 1000 miles or so. No matter where you read that you do not need to use a bushing for free floating pins ignore the urge to cut that corner (I ended up with 4 siezed pins in the rods). If you have a chioce of retainers for the pins use "wireloks" as they will not under any circumstance allow the pin to exit the piston. If you use a "spirolok" to retain your pins be aware that they are made in specific sizes none of which are the correct size for our rods which means the piston manufactuer has to compromise on the retaining grove for the spirolok (that one cost me a complete teardown and resleaving the #4 cylinder). Aviod using teflon plugs if you can as they will wear a grove into your cylinder wall over time, and if you let them go long enough they can come out and break the skirt off your piston. Make sure when you have the work done that the shop doing the work documents there measurements of center to center length of each rod after they have been fitted with their bushing, this is very useful if you are doing a true blue printing of your engine and it can allow you to optimize piston and rod configuration (this is also important for your bearing shell selection on the rod big ends). What all this stuff I am telling you now adds up to is trying to make each cylinder cary as close to an equal load as each of the others as possible. The last of my rambling... be careful of what corners you cut to save a buck, I saved $12 going with "spiroloks" over the "wireloks" and I also saved $72 by not using bushings in my fully prepped and balanced rods, I then spent $1200 to repair all the damage done after about 5000 miles of driving. Dragonfly

I understand that this is one person who is playing nice nice to a special interest group but what is of concern here is that it was known for a long time that when we reached the 'date' that was on the original SB 708 an ammendment would be written by someone to 'update' the bill. It is very important that we make our represintatives aware of our feelings on this in order to avoid having one of them swayed by some special interest group (besides us). Here is a copy of the letter that I have written, I did not put the name of my rep because I am faxing it to all the reps for San Diego County rather than just one person: This letter is concerning the proposed amendment to SB 708. I would like to let you know that I am steadfastly against this amendment. There is no justifiable reason to punish the owners of classic cars in an effort to meet clean air requirements, it is well known that the majority of the cars that will be affected by this bill are very well maintained and seldom driven. My suggestion is that you look into taking care of the air at the primary source (large businesses that buy up air “credits†so they don’t have to lower their emission levels) and allow the general public to enjoy their mobility and their hobbies. Please represent us by voting against SB 708. I would like to know that I made the correct choice in my vote. Thank you, Miles Gray President Z Club of San Diego If anyone else would like to use this with their name I have no problem with that. I also have no problem with constructive critisism of my writing skills - just be aware its to late to make changes in it now. Dragonfly

Outside of CA you can contact your own congressmen and tell them of your dissatisfaction with what CA is trying to do and see if you can get them to apply some peer presure to the CA polititions. Also get involved with your local car clubs, the stronger the car clubs are the more pull they have. Read up on the information posted on the SEMA website http://www.enjoytheride.com so that you can be better informed of what is going on not only in CA but in every other state as well. Dragonfly