josh817

Careless, if its a proper light weight flywheel do you still feel the same way? Like a Fidanza from that ebay link Kenshinx posted? I like chromoly better than aluminum but for times sake and for availability, aluminum may be the way to go. And the drivability, I could care less about. I adjust myself to cars really so when I get into a tail happy, or a sensitive car it takes a day for me to get use to it and then I'm good to go. It also prevents other people from driving it too so when friends ask if they can give it a try I'll say sure and then watch the failure engage.

Nice ebay find... And horror story... Yah I definitely will think twice about it but I also think Steve the machine shop guy would lighten it to a safe amount. We just say make it as light as you can and he has a template to follow to make sure he doesn't mess anything up. The $120 is to lighten, balance, and surface the thing and its Dad's price not everyday customer price. To get an idea on how much of a mark up he allows, Dad sent a set of axles to him to press out the studs. Each stud is usually $20 but Dad's price is $15. So you know.

http://www.zcar.com/forums/read/12/1948051 If that doesn't make you feel like the biggest butthole in the world than I'm not sure what does... Depressing... Even if I did wait to buy carbs I would have never been that quick to see it. They were like ducks and bread crumbs. Damn.

I say just leave it off and wing it if I had such a courageous thought to use duct tape in a motor... Then again Triumph and Jaguar do use balsa wood for crank case seals I do believe...

Uh what? >_>

They are. I bought the clutch because it said it was for an '83 zxt 240mm. This is meant for the T5 tranny because thats when Nissan switched to the bigger flywheel. I'm not sure about the zx but I know when they went turbo they had to make it fit otherwise I bet they would have used the same flywheel all the ways through the series. I confirmed this because 240mm = 9.44" around there and the face of the flywheel the old flywheel was that size, plus when you lay it on there you see that the pads fit onto their surface. On the new flywheel they hung off the edge a little, PLUS I took out the flywheel that came from my spare L24 motor and the measurements for the new and the L24 are the same. Then I confirmed this when I looked in the Z catalog and they show flywheels for 240-280 then there was a separate flywheel for a 280zx/zxt. Basically like I said Nissan used the same flywheel for the 240, 260, and 280 but when they hit the T5 they changed it. Good news out of all of this though! Sent my old flywheel to the machine shop and the price to lighten it is $120! Theres a catch though and I really need to consider it... All we can say is lighten it as much as possible, but that doesn't mean I will get a 10lb flywheel... he may only be able to get it to 15lbs or whatever. I don't know what the material is, steel or iron, if steel then maybe he can get it to 10lbs... I don't want to settle for anything less on a flywheel. I want 11lbs or under, period. I read up that a stroker needs 11lbs or less, anymore you can run into problems. I told my dad this and he thinks its all a bunch of **** but thats a big difference from 10lbs to 15lbs. I want to go back and ask the guy if he knows how light he can get it because I'm serious about this... I'd rather spend a lot more money to get the right weight than save money and have something that has the potential to screw things up and more potential to make my motor girlie and less than what I expect. Of course he's a Triumph guy and his stuff isn't as shnazzy as our Z stuff. > 15lbs is so cool to him 10 is even better so to him 15 is like wow! Not so wow for me... :[ But you never know! Maybe he can get it down to 10 or less! If he can't then maybe I sell that too... and then go out and buy the one I need. TheZStore is showing all of their flywheels for 24-260-280-280zx but not zxt so I don't know what to think about that... If their flywheel still works then I will go with them because this catalog is showing $500 for one in here but TheZStore has a Kameari flywheel for $519 so something is wrong if I can get KAMEARI just $20 more. XD NOTE TO EVERYONE: If you have sent your 240mm flywheel to get lightened please share how much they can get it to or if you think a stock flywheel can even hit the 10lb mark! I am VERY wary about this.

Well... Another day another problem.... Put on my fly wheel and went to do the clutch but oh wait, you have the WRONG FLYWHEEL. >_< Doah!!!!!!! I bought it from a guy who said it was a 10lb JDM L28 Chromoly flywheel and indeed it was BUT Nissan made a flywheel for the l24, l26, l28 which was one size, and then they made a slightly larger one for the 280zx/280zxt. He didn't specify that part... and yah I did ask him the size and he said 240mm which is the one we know of, I think thats it. So basically the clutch pads sit about 2 millimeters off the edge and the pressure plate doesn't even line up. I called him up and he was unusually nice and didn't give any fuss about a refund since I hadn't used it. I think though I can get my monies worth and not have to go through all this stuff with him if somebody on here wants the flywheel. I would like to see $300 for it. Any more details on it are basically like it was made in Japan, resurfaced and I bolted it down but didn't spin it/use it or anything. My plan is to use my refund or if someone wants to buy it, use that money to either A: Buy a new one for the butt raping $500 B: Send my original one to the machine shop and see how much it will cost for them to lighten it. Whichever one works out better... I'll put it up in the classifieds if anyone is interested.

Yah that is a good idea although the I have it set up you can see that the air dam doesn't have any way to wiggle back and forth if I were to hit a curb which it can't go over. I think even with it able to move and at slow pulling in speeds, you wouldn't be able to stop in time until it tore a hole out like it did before. If any of you dudes can do me a favor and see how much space there is between the radiator and the water pump pulley (not the fan, the puller since I won't be using the fan). I want to see how much room I have to work with so I don't get this 5 1/2" thick fan and have it not fit. Everything I'm looking at is 2000cfm and up so I think I'll be set with one of them.

The foam stuff is like rock solid but I worry the same thing. Or long term effects like the wood rotting or something. I think my only problem though with it now is that resin will melt the foam. I talked about glassing it on the car but I've seen some other dudes on here where they took it off and it was a disaster underneath so thats a no go. The whole spoiler is hollow so I may just drive in some seriously long bolts to where you put stress on the bolt rather than the block of wood. Its been up in storage for a while because I was originally going to get started with body work until the motor started losing compression and I was like forget it. Nobody on here or other boards seemed to know how theirs was mounted so I guess a ton of people just bought the car with it on. Even then, they couldn't tell me which is funny because its only a matter of opening the hatch, taking the back panel off and looking... The instructions that came with mine literally said "1. pre mount 2. trim to fit 3. mount and secure" and they gave me 8 4" sheet metal bolts. I was like uhhhhhh what do these bolt to.... This is why: I'll run the bolts through that section on the hatch. But as you can see, the whole thing was hollow and the only the to mount it to we that tiny skinny lip which was in the front so it wouldn't even be secure. Some people said fill it with resin which would be a good idea, until you see how much resin that is... I just fear it cracking. Thats why I hate fiberglass. You can't secure it as tight as you'd like because it'll break, so then you have to gingerly hold parts together and I don't like the thought of body work kinda flapping around. I must say though, the braces at the bottom on mine really stiffened it up. Even if I do hit a dog, cat, raccoon, baby, tire, rock, pinto, curb, girlfriend, etc. it will still break... just not so much... EDIT! Just had an idea. What if I took the concept of Quins radiator shroud engine underside plate thing... but do it on the underside of the air dam. Get some sheet metal and basically do the same thing that the bracket is doing. This way if you do slide over something, that lip there won't catch when you back up because essentially the lip would be extended to the chassis by sheet metal. Perhaps it could also give so same air flow direct like a shroud kinda, keeping air from coming into the grill and spilling out towards the ground. My mind seems sort of cluttered but it makes sense in there!

Yah I have fiberglass kit with the resin and stuff but I hate working with that crap so much. All I know is that this aircraft stripper is killer stuff. Makes the paint blister up and you just use a putty knife and it falls off, unless if its recent paint, as in not 30 years old. The BMW had a different do on the passenger side and that paint took me all day to get off because it only took the top layer at a time. Same for bondo... you're better off using a sander for bondo removal. I have a constant fear of anything fiberglass, breaking. There was one day where I pulled into a parking lot and slow pulled up to the parking curb thing. I heard it slide over nicely so I was like ok let me gingerly back up... Bad idea... had a piece of rebar sticking 1/2" out the top, and it caught on the air dam and just tore it off. Tore the holes out on the buckets and part of the lip of the air dam... I fixed it easily but its just given me a hate for fiberglass. It may be light but leaning on it or hitting something on the road I'm screwed. I planned ahead while I was repairing it and decided to give it some bottom support in case if I hit a small poodle or something... 4 bolts on each side hold it at the top and then the bottom I bent some 1/8" iron flat bar and made brackets. Braced it at the bottom so it doesn't tuck under the car if I hit something, or even from the resistance at high speeds. Goes to some empty holes on the chassis.... Which is a scary thought because I have no idea what use to go there but thats ok. I also have to finish up on my duck tail spoiler whatever you want to call it. It was hollow and we weren't sure how to mount it... So I bought some of that foam sealant for outside spouts. It swells up like popcorn and it hardens. Put some blocks of wood in there too. I sanded it down even, and now all I have to do is helicoil the wood. We'll bolt it right through the wood so we don't stress the fiberglass and have that break too. Lets not get to far on body work yet though... That radiator comes in on Wednesday. Once its in, I'm buying and I'm putting the motor back in. All it needs is the flywheel and oil pan really. THEN I move onto all the stuff that drives me crazy.

I'm figuring that if the stock radiator (which was really crapped up) cooled me fine with a turbocharger, it should cool me fine without. To keep all the junk out of it I'll use distilled water, put rubber pads between it and the body of the car since thats ground, use water wetter, and because its Texas, only use 25% antifreeze. Plus the fact that this motor isn't intended to last 200,000 miles so you know... I need to get a hold of a guy in Louisiana soon too. He wants a P90A hed to play with, and I'm throwing in the new/refurbed/cleaned whatever you want to call them hydraulic lifters from the P90A I converted. He says he has a 4 disc brake kit never used he'll trade with me for. I'm also wanting to get metal headlight buckets since the fiberglass air dam bolts onto it. I'm growing a hatred for fiberglass because of the cracking and brittle state of it. When I start painting I need to find out if Aircraft Stripper eats fiberglass. Used it on the BMW and it worked like a charm but the BMW doesn't have any fiberglass on it either... The drivers side beam near the hatch is filled in and I'm scared to see how much car is REALLY under there... No rust problems, just some service along the front edge of the hood and in the door jams. Sand it right off. Then I have to fix the ass of the car where the muffler is....

Ok boys enough monkey business. Lets get serious about radiators and electric fans. Dad is saying there are $145 new 280z (3 row) radiators at our local shop. However, I have found $210 aluminum (2 row but out performs a 4 row stock) on an ebay store. Do you think a stock radiator will work? Now for electric fans. I'm looking at 2000cfm fans. I am seeing a 14" fan but if I do this I will only be able to use one. If I use it with the stock radiator, do you think 2000cfm will keep me cool? Keep in mind I'm not racing this thing. Maybe mess around a little bit each day on the streets but this isn't a track car so overheating an issue? Also keep in mind this is Texas, and it gets to 104º.

I have a T5 and it still has the square head fill nut. Replacing with an actual hex nut would be a bright idea since I only have so much luck until it goes. Its an american tranny too so you don't have to find metric.

I wouldn't use a fire bottle unless if you are really wanting the fire to be out. The material inside an estinguisher corrodes metal. Thats why when you do flag duty at tracks for clubs, if its a small flame ask the driver if he wants to use it, because it will ruins a motor and each the body.

Yah those suckers are hard to get out. I had to take mine out 3 times in 6 months cause of a tranny leak. Now it just drips every once and a while so I don't care. What I am always worried about is the car falling on me. I was tugging and pushing so hard a hernia wouldn't be so surprising. While I was under there I noticed I needed some floor plugs and while I was looking at the interior of my car from underneath it... I found a remote! Apparently, the stereo has a remote! Now I'm a cool kid who can change station 10 feet away from his car. @_@

Keller is in Texas, just north of Fort Worth. And yah Dad has done it for other things. When he sold our karts he promised to get me something else to race in because he knew I loved racing so much. Not so much empty but from age 10 to now I've been waiting for it. The BMW qualifies, but I don't think it will ever be finished.

How about a 240sx radiator in a 240z? Anyone know if that fits? I'm doing a search for info here and I honestly thought some hybridz'ers would have done some sort of custom jobs for their radiators since everything else is custom on some cars.

An illustration of my frustration.

Dudes I've been gone to this church camp where you have 1 hour of church and the rest of the day to bask in the sun with hotties. Had to get my groove on for a week of my summer atleast. He already picked up my starter motor, and then told me the news about the radiator which pissed me off because that radiator was ready the week of June 22nd. The guys called him but he never called them back, nor did he say anything about them even calling up so I had no idea either. So now I'm here, looking for a new radiator when I could have purchased one last week before I left and had it already shipped here. I swear I'm about neck high in peoples **** right now. Like I complained about before, nobody can do business. If the 300zx radiator will fit then I already have my hands on a $15 one... Heard nothing on the headers so god knows whats going on with that... I'm going to have to borrow money from mom. About $150 I'm suspecting which I can handle but with the radiator thing and then lets count on a rocky road ahead I am planning on taking back my DGV carbs he mooched and selling them like I was going to do. I have a feeling he thinks that I am going to be all leisurely now that I missed my deadline goal... I'm still pushing hard and the radiator is my only set back. I'm betting by the time I buy one and get it over here it will be next week... I work Mon-Wed and Dad will probably do what he did when I tried to get him over here just to pull the motor. "Yah I'll be over there today.... Sorry I got caught up in things, I'll be there tomorrow" <== for two weeks. Snag him on a Sunday and he has nothing but Willie's reading class until 12 so thats my attack date. I will assure him that the BMW doesn't get anything done to it until I actually have a car to drive to the shop. He said he would give me his Honda since he has a little truck now, but that hasn't happened either. You get use to the empty promises after a while...

Alright dudes I'm back and I have a really quick question for anybody on here. Doing a search doesn't help when I keep finding the wrong stuff and I need a quick response. Stock 300zx radiator fit in a 240z? Had my core flushed out and it had tons of holes in it.... >_<

So... you just put it on bare metal? Does it not work well to go over some rattle can primer or rattle can paint? Only saying this because if you get the whole car down to bare metal you have to be fast, especially if you live in humid areas. Surface rust appears like within a week... Other than that my only questions are 1: the mineral spirits is to clean the surface or to thin the paint. Enamel may be a little rough for a spray gun...Lacquer thinner maybe? 2: Any sort of system for clear coats to protect it a little bit?

Yah I'm 6' 3" too. When the Z was delivered I was welcomed by a surprisingly spacious cabin. I really to like the area in the legs and stuff. The only thing thats not comfortable is how high the window sits. I can't lay my arm out without like dislocating my shoulder. Don't like to set it on the arm rest thing because I don't want to screws to pull out. We're still trying to figure out if that bar is mandatory. If you've ever seen Greg Ira's GT Z you can see he has one going from behind the passenger, across, and up to the center of the bar which runs along the dash. His bar is higher though I think. http://youtube.com/profile_videos?user=jmark240z ^ His Z is lovely. Makes me want to take my l24 crank, and buy an F54 block, bore it to 90mm and just have this giant bore small stroke motor that screams, and then dies... :/

For some reason the quote didn't pop up when I saw your post. I know about the piston speed already, it makes sense in my head, just needed a reference. Without the 3500ft/min = reliable rule thing, I wouldn't know where to go. The story behind the BMW is that Dad had bought it for himself. His first car was that model BMW. Then he saw his '39 midget on ebay and he has been dying to get one since grandpa use to race them. Scary thing is this car has a huge folder of pictures and documents and some of the races it went to, grandpa went to also. At that point Dad offered the BMW to me for my first car. We started digging in until he saw how much some of the stuff was to make it a good street car (trim, carpets, etc) and he freaked out. So then he offered to make it a race car/hot street car so he can drive it instead of put it in storage every month. I would gladly do the Z instead. It makes more sense with money, and know-how but not so much for competition. Only 2 other Z's in the club and they have a butt load of money in their cars. When Dad raced his Spitfire he was making 2nd place with $13000, 1st in points because the lady who placed 1st on the track ran smaller wheels and had points taken out. Now days, to make first, you have to have $150000 into your car (the Porsches) so its major money burn. 1 of the Z's keeps up with the back of the Porsches, and behind him is a huge gap, and then all the other cars. Only 1 of the Porsches runs unfair mods, all the others are game so its pretty scary. With that said, I'm not sure why Dad didn't throw me into a Triumph. He's been around them for over 20 years and he knows all the tricks for them, plus they're cheaper to win. His basic rule is only run what you can afford to win, if it means going into a lower class, fine, atleast you won't be last and with the way we're doing the BMW, I'm going to be pretty far back there. He expects me to kick all the other BMW's asses though so it will be good fun. XD If September comes and we aren't done he will either rent a little Vee or we're considering throwing a fuel cell and a cage in the Z with the harnesses and stuff. We can take them out and put them in the BMW when its done. Thats cool because the new comer class doesn't have any rules for the cars so they will allow my stroker. I don't think they do points in the new comer class. I think I have to do 2 events in that and then I actually get to go into the Groups whichever one that may be. My only worry for rentals or my own is that if you break anything you are destroyed. I don't think my motor will last several 20 minute sessions of really hard driving. Lastly... the only thing I dislike with Dad's attitude is that he guilts me into working on the BMW. People joke around and ask when its going to be done and he goes with it and is like "Well if he would stop neglecting the bimmer and slow down on the Z maybe it will get finished" and I'm thinking wait a second... You are living on the edge with money right now, you haven't quite stabled out financially yet you want me to hurry up on the BMW? I'm excited to see it be built but there is going to be a point where you won't have money to go any further. To put things in prospective the car has been sitting waiting for me to do body work on it since summer. Then we need paint, which Dad can't buy now. Then a cage, we're doing our own wiring, we already have a running motor but wheel freshen it up to be slightly mild, and then suspension. Since February Dad has been saying he is saving for a cage which costs $600-$800, we'll probably do the $800 because he doesn't trust his welds when it comes to safety. Its July now and there still isn't a cage. If it takes that long to get $800, well we have several years until the car is done unless you make it big. Not to mention he is trying to get his midget up and running but you can't find Ford Flathead V8-60 parts anywhere. Summit had some heads on back order for several months, when they came in they called him up and said it would be $1200 and they're just regular heads, nothing special besides being new. So his priorities aren't quite set. Now you may say why don't you pitch in and help, I am paying for my safety stuff. I will not pay for anything on the car itself. Reason being, out of all the cars Dad has built over the years and owned, he spent about a month or two having fun and then he sold it. I can see this being the same case. I build, he funds, he is in a tight spot for money some day or something and he realizes hey wait a second... I am funding a BMW RACE CAR AND I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY >_< then he sells it and I'm out whatever goes into it. He did it with the karts when I was younger but I did the same thing there. Bought the helmet, suit, gloves, shoes, he did the other stuff. I think his old helmet and suit will fit but it may not meet safety standards now. I just don't want to dump money into something that isn't going to be built how I want it, and that isn't showing very good hop for a future use. He's wanting to run a muffler and crap like that but its a '68, you don't need a muffler if its a '68 to be registered for the street I think. I finally negotiated to a slip on system so we can open her up at the track. I want a really hot cam, he doesn't, I want to run the 45mm Webers he bought for it, but he doesn't want to run them right away. He ays he wants me to run a downdraft first time out for reliability. Thats cool but guess who he took that from, my spare Z parts... Thats the only other thing I don't like, he's always looking to save money and now he's snabbing my Z stuff. I bought my triple carbs with a "performance" filter, pump, regulator, gauge, and extra jets. He tried to take the pump, filter, and regulator for the BMW and set it up on the shelf of BMW parts. I'm like uh no I want to use that filter so I don't have to go out and buy the little plastic ones, same for the pump and reg. "Oh well the reg. won't work for this pump, regs only work with aboit 8psi into them, otherwise the difference in a 2.5-3psi pump won't work with the reg. Besides this pump should do that, and Webers like around 3psi..." Ok.... So he has a customer car come in. To increase his profit he charges the same for a pump, but uses mine instead of buying one. This way he skips the initial purchase and I'm out a pump. Yah... no... not happening when I paid for it... funny thing is he then used my gauge in the setup and it was doing 8psi. Well looky there, looks like I'll be needing it now to use with my reg. I'll take my gauge too, thank you. >:| I was pissed about the carbs too. They're the DGV setup and I know people don't want it for the Z cars but list them on Ebay as DGV's Triumph Z Fiat, and then you have the other crowds who like them wanting to buy. Dad took the carbs so we can have manual choke for the bmw. I didn't say anything because if he would like to play the mooch my stuff which I was going to sell so I can pay for parts game, thats fine because I'll keep the $100 you wanted from me. He payed for the exhaust on the Z and when I sold the turbo, the downpipe and stuff went with it. He fairly asked for the money he paid for the exhaust and I said ok. Well, those carbs you took, which were meant to pay for the headers from selling them, were just bought from you. No swindling Josh, right? Told my mom how upset I was about him trying to take and use everything and it was really hard to explain until he did it and I nudged her while he was discussing how the pump wouldn't work with the reg. until I kinda burst the bubble and told him the guy sold his entire carb setup to me, so yes it does work otherwise he wouldn't use it. I purposely take home the jets and stuff because thats an expensive thing for him to mooch, and I KNOW he will mooch because remember, yesterday was dyno day, and he was tuning everyones cars. That would have been lovely to have a chest full of assorted jets at your hands and then when its time to tune the stroker, I don't have anything to use right? /end another rant Z car in the club, there is another 3 liter car but he's slower than the 2.4 plus he doesn't show up half the time, plus he gets points deducted for the 3L. x_x

This is interesting. I'm going to read up more on that one site you sent the link for and then see if there is any detailed information about that formula thing. I don't know how much the hardware can hold though. I mean I didn't use any special grade material which tells you tensile strength stats and stuff (ARP).

Well thats exciting news! I was sitting here thinking oh god I have to wait a month until I can sport around in my car now. Then again 5k is fairly high for the motor. I didn't build it with 8k intentions. There isn't anything up there for me, cam only lasts to 7000-7500 or something like that. Hey big boy, she's getting married to some thoroughbred texan cowboy. He thinks he's a big man but I like to make fun of him and mess around all the time. He has a sensitive side that if you poke just right the response is hilarious. He has a baby face too. XD oh well.