Dragonfly

Mike, I feel that you are doing the best thing you can considering the circumstances, to me I think they are starting to get to big and they are forgeting who put them where they are. After they piss off enough people and it starts to hurt there business things will change. I will still go to there show each year because I live so close and it is a great Z gathering, if I had to travel anything even remotely close to what you did I would not be back after your ordeal with them. Dragonfly

I think you should go ahead and use the top of the line system, the reason for this is that the predominant engine changes in the past several decades have been in the electronics and management and not in the actual engine. For an L series engine you are far ahead by improving the engine management (electronics) and putting some work into the head ie port/polish good valve job etc. You will find that you will have a very reliable and enjoyable engine. Dragonfly

Great show, I was very happy to be able to meet you guys there. I can not say for sure but I believe that I got to meet all the HybridZ guys who made it to the show. I was so hyped over all the amazing cars in particular the ones with double or more than stock hp for a Z, I found that on my drive back down to San Diego I was in triple digits nearly all the way (and I did not see a single cop). I love driving a car thats got balls. Dragonfly

That is interesting that you say I may have over filled it. I noticed that when I filled it to just below the fill hole like it stated in the FSM that some fluid started to leak out the back over the drive shaft seal (the drive shaft was not installed) even though the tranny was sitting flat. Because I use a small fluid pump I can easily take some of the fluid back out without making a mess. The fluid I used was one of the multi weight types and I believe that it was 85-130 or something like that. I actualy took my FSM to the store when I bought the fluid but they did not have any single weights there so I used a multi weight that covered two of the operating temp ranges covered in the manual. Dragonfly

I put a 83' 280zx 5spd tranny into my car about a week ago the tranny came from the wrecking yard and seems to be in very good condition. What I have found with this tranny is that when the car is cold it is very difficult to shift gears but after the car is at operating temp the tranny shifts just fine. Before I installed this tranny I drained the old fluid out and put in new fluid exactly as the FSM describes. The primary reason for my concern is that I have a 30 exchange warranty on this tranny and if this is a sign that the tranny is about to kick the bucket (in 31 days) I want to exchange it but if it is something from a lack of use (I think the donor car sat unstarted for quite some time) and will work fine in no time that would save me pulling the tranny again. Thanks Dragonfly

Well the good news is that the 240 door is quite a bit lighter than the 280 door (my guess is about 20lbs). The bad news is that the latch mechinism is completely different from one to the other. I am sure you can change out the latching mechinism but it is probably going to be alot of work that will return some of the weight that you are trying to get rid of. Most of the weight difference is in the reinforcement beam in the door, the 240 has a stamped piece of metal that you could bend over your knee while the 280 has a bar in there that would break your knee if you tried to bend it. My thoughts are that unless you are racing and need to pick up a tenth of a second the work would not be worth it. Dragonfly

As I read this guys rants I felt that he must be smoking some of the good stuff, but then I got to the part where he wants money for the secret which tells me that he is looking to make some money on the "sucker born every minute" system. I have read alot about the BRE car and some of the stuff I have done to my z is from there info, the secret to the BRE car was attention to detail, weight, and a good driver. The other thing I noticed was that the Farrari(sp) he used in his picture is a kit on a z car (doors are a dead give away). Do not buy into that crap, if it was real it would have never stayed a secret this long. Dragonfly

I don't have a formula for you but I have some comments. I have several books on handling, suspension, tires/wheels etc. one of the things that these books have in common is they refer to the molecular structure of the rubber in the tire and how each molecule caries a certian amount of load and reinforces the molecules around it therefore the more molecules of rubber you have creating friction between the torque and the road the more traction you are going to have. The trade off (there is always a trade off) is that the more traction you have the more friction you have which means more heat and lower fuel economy as well as more power required to move from point A to point B. Dragonfly

Just call it a hunch but I got the impression you've been in more than one race . I do know the limitations of my car that is why I have commented in the past that I have to beat the driver and not the car . Any way I figured you were just having fun with me. I used to have (many years ago) a 68' mustang that pulled very consistant mid 10's in the quarter and every time I start to feel like my Z is the fastest thing on the road I think back to how fast that car was and I drove it on the street all the time. Dragonfly

SCCA I would have to say it would be in my best interest if you race the mustang in your zstang then if you win I will be vendicated and if he beats you by more than he beat me I will race you stangz . I am not much for going against someone who will win unless something breaks, but if I am going against someone who has the advantage but I have a reasonable chance at winning then I go for it. BTW from looking at your pictures and your handle I suspect you know how to put the power down and shift gears which means I do not have the same advantage over you that I have over some of these kids. Dragonfly

I do not have any real numbers on my car yet as I have had so many other things going on since I got the car running but I will be doing some 1/8 mile runs in May to get an idea of what my times are. I do know that at this time I am replacing my transmission because on the drive home after the race with the mustang my tranny kicked the bucket. I swapped out my R180 rear diff for an R200 two weeks ago because I killed the R180. As soon as I get some real numbers on the car I will be posting them. I do have one real number though, I stopped at a weigh station just before the tranny gave out and with me the wife and the back of the car loaded with stuff (shopping in P.S.) the car tipped the scale at 2720lbs, if you knock off the wheight of the driver and passenger that goes down to 2450lbs, so I am going to round it out to 2400lbs with a full tank of gas and no occupants or bags of stuff. Dragonfly

When the hit man is here let me know I want to watch. I keep waiting for those darn ricers to chalenge me so I don't have to work so hard but I keep getting mustangs. I told my wife that if I see a Saleen pull up I'm just going to say thank you but no, on the other hand any n/a mustang is fair game. Dragonfly

I have only had two races in my car and both of them were mustangs, the first one which I posted on here not to long ago was an easy kill, this one is a different story. I was in Palm Springs for a run with a few different z clubs and after everyone parted ways the wife wanted to do some shopping... well after shopping we were ready to hit the road when this very nice looking brand new (still had dealer tags) mustang pulls up beside me, he was not revving his engine but he was looking at my car and smiling and letting me know he wanted to race. We had an easy half mile or more of clear road so I told my wife to hang on, the light turned green and we both rolled out then hammered it without any tire spinning, in 1st we were even, in 2nd I pulled about 1/2 car ahead, in 3rd I was about 3/4 car ahead, I hit 4th gear at 100 mph and by the time I was rolling past 110 mph he was 1/2 car ahead of me, at that point we had to brake because we had traffic ahead of us. The guy in the mustang gave me a thumbs up and complimented my car which made me feel pretty good, but what made me feel even better is how much I suprised him and the fact that I found out later that was a supercharged mustang. I do realize that had this kid known how to shift better he would have taken me from the begining, but I know he will be a lot more cautious with Z's in the future. Dragonfly

Thats pretty funny that you are going from the avs to the Falken. I was just at Discount Tires trying to order the avs intermediate for my z and I was told that they did away with the entire line of tires and the next set of tires on my list are Falkens which are going on the car in the morning. Dragonfly

Good job Mike, just goes to show that those power adders (cage and yellow paint) just can't put enough out to hold with a turbo Z. I am sending you an email so take a look. Dragonfly

I have the S&W 10 point cage in my 72' it does have the pockets for the seatbelt retractors and the main hoop fit right into them which for me was a problem. When you purchase the kit it has 6" by 6" steel plates that should be welded down then the tubing for the cage is welded to the plate... that 6" plate does not fit into the retractor pocket. I welded the plate over the top of the pocket making it like the earlier 240's that did not have the pocket, using a protractor I was able to cut the bottom of the main hoop to the correct angle to weld to the plate and therefore set the main hoop a little higher in the car. If you want to be sure that your cage does not punch through your car in the event of an accident I would recomend that you use the 6" by 6" plates. Dragonfly

No... do not put teflon tape on your brake fittings. All the brake fittings are compression type fittings and should not have teflon tape used on them, if they leak there is something wrong with the fitting and it should be replaced. The reason not to use teflon tape on your brake system is that the tape shreds on the ends when you tear it and apply it to the threads, those torn pieces can (and after time will) come off and start to float around in your brake system potentialy causing problems. Dragonfly

I am 5'-9" and I have the bar going straight across behind the seat (not notched back like Tim) and I fit comfortably. It would be in your best interest to place the seat where you want it and are comfortable, mark the location and make the measurements for your cage around that location. If your going to be sharing a race track with any other cars I would recomend that you add at a minimum a diagonal bar behind the drivers seat and weld in a seat support that allows you to attach the seat to the cage so there is no slop in the seat. Measure... measure... measure... then weld. Dragonfly

I have the S&W 10 point cage in my 72 240 and like many others I had to make some modifications, I think that is because each car and driver is different. If any one here is going to be at the Westcoast Nationals (Motorsport show) in May I will be there and you can get a first hand look at my cage. I would say that $150 for the cage is a good price, having a custom cage made and installed is going to cost allot more. As long as you are using the car for mostly street driving with some racing rather than the other way around the design of the cage is fine, it will add support to all of the factory support that is made into the car. I would recomend that if you are ever involved in an accident that impacts your cage no matter what cage it is you have the cage replaced. If anyone is building a race only vehicle than you should have a cage in your car that will make Katman smile with pride. Dragonfly

The other night I was at the race legal drag races in San Diego, most of the cars there where rice and the track is 1/8 mile. Several of these Hondas etc. where having trouble breaking into the low 11's in the 1/8 there is no way they could pull anything worth bragging about out of the 1/4. I did see a first gen eclipse AWD that looked very plain and he pulled an 8.0 sec. 1/8 mile that was very impressive, so there are some out there but very few and far between. Dragonfly

Mike did you get the email I sent you with the excel spreadsheet attached? It gives you speeds at different rpm's depending on your tranny, diff, etc. but it also tells you how wide your tires are how tall they are and so on, all you have to do is enter the tire size and it does the math. Dragonfly

When I was shopping for forged pistons I talked to JE and to Ross, neither of which did much for me, I finaly ended up going to Arias and having them make my pistons for me. I paid just over $800 but what I got was 6 pistons with high silicon content (made to my specs) each one was lightened, 6 high performance wrist pins, spiral locks (full floating pins), moly rings. It sounds like a lot of money at first untill you start comparing everything you get from one mfg. to the other. At this time I can say I am very pleased with thier work and support. Dragonfly