Xnke

Yep...I don't like presses that flex when I am doing case forming, so this one is getting built. It's mostly made of 5/8" plate steel scrap, and a few other pieces of "Grade C" scraps...heavy bricks of rusty old steel that I picked up for next to nothing at an industrial yard sale.

I know what you mean, Galderdi...we rarely hear of shootings...mostly just political garbage on TV now. I do a little amateur gunsmithing myself; my first was a M24 Mauser re-stocked, bolt turned and D&T'd for optics, the second was an 1895 manufacture M95 Mauser, reworked completely to a sporting arm, rebarreled from a blank, restocked from a blank, and fitted with optics and iron sights. It shoots cloverleafs at 140ds if I do my part. Right now I'm actually building a reloading press in the shop...

Yep, that's a Pacesetter Header, also sold by MSA and Blackdragon Automotive/Victoria British.

This is the kind of crap that forced me out of school. I can't pay 9,670$ per semester of class, plus another 900$ of books, plus quit my job to go to class, pay another 180$ to park in one of 80 parking spaces in a 12,000+ student school, AND then come up with the money to eat, and put a house over my head. I figure one day when I have a million dollars I worked my ass off to get, then I'll go back to school to get a job where the cash falls out of the sky at me. Yes, I realize that ridiculous sheet of paper means one thing: you literally bought a degree. There is nothing "school" about college anymore.

Check the spline counts on the axle shafts. Those axles are too long for the 280Z, and the input flange on the diff is not the same, but other than that, the differential itself will bolt into place.

Weld thru primers are just generally garbage to weld through. I have used them, but really prefer to not use them, and go back and spray inside the frame rail or behind the panel afterward.

All these mufflers in the tunnel...You haven't crawled down there to see how much room you really have, have you? With a 2.5" exhaust tube, most things you are describing are going to be 4" or more along the center. You're going to have a TIGHT fit along the transmisison, and then you're also setting yourself up to have to drop the exhaust to get access to the driveshaft. The exhaust has four hard points. Gotta clear the trans crossmember and transmission, must clear the rear driver's corner of the floor pan, and fit into the cutout in the front diff mount, and then you have the stock muffler postion to decide on.

One of the better mufflers I've had the misfortune of blowing up was a Summit Racing "Turbo Muffler", it was quiet, had no packing to blow out, and wasn't very restrictive. Unfortunately, it was just restrictive enough that after cranking the car for a minute or so with no spark, then suddenly figuring out that the fuse for the ignition was pulled, resulted in an exhaust full of fuel/air mix and then it lit off and blew the muffler all to hell. The next muffler I tried is MUCH louder, It's a Summit Racing "Fully Welded Chambered Muffler" and is nearly a straight through path...I can look from one end to the other, at an angle, and it's readily apparent that the thing is just a box with two tubes and a single baffle in it. It's great at idle, but just freakin' loud on the highway. I will be replacing it in the next month or two, it'll be good on a different project, one that has more sound deadening... Both of these were 35$ or so new, delivered. I'm running a Stahl weld-up kit header, 44" primary length into a 2.5" mandrel exhaust. I needed 2 180* U bends, and about 15" of straight pipe, and two three-bolt flanges to do the whole job. I used 1 full U bend, and a few sections of the other, I still have about 120* of that second U bend left. a 90* bend would have worked, but usually isn't much cheaper. Columbia River Mandrel Bending is where I got my tubing from; they have good prices and are only about two hours east of me, so shipping was quick!

Look inside the turbine inlet; you'll see the A/R number stamped in the turbine housing. Look on the back of the compressor housing for a metal ID tag, and get the digits...you can look it up by those.

Well, the grievences started this morning, Tony, and the feats of strength will be from 10AM till 5PM, today, tomarrow, the 26th, and 27th...the feasting will be from today at 5.5PM till the food runs out sometime tuesday....there will be a large exchange of gifts and insults on the 25th, along with whatever is left of the feasting. I think that covers the schedule fairly well for a lot of us. Happy Holidays, folks!

Moving to the 180F thermostat has improved the problem; but it wasn't until I blocked off about half of the radiator that i was able to get the car to MAINTAIN a temperature of 180F while driving at 70MPH on the highway. Cardboard FTW!

Sorry to say, Phantom, but the thermostat I removed behaves perfectly. I have a 1.76mm hole drilled in it (the drill bit was handy) and it will be sitting on the shelf in a labeled box until it is needed or the problem is solved. I am currently running a 180F thermostat, and the problem is somewhat alleviated; although my cabin heat is still quite lacking.

Ah, the things you learn by test-fitting! I fell into the same trap; but my FS5W71C was obtained from a 1987 200SX. My stock driveshaft fit perfectly, once the stock dust shield was removed. The dust shield on the rear of the transmission provides that protection now. Your transmission is missing the rear dust shield, I would suggest replacing it.

well yeah...the thing is a pig to drive cold. It will warm up in the driveway to 190F now, sitting idling. the electric fans cut in at 180F radiator temp. Drive it around and it'll remain nicely regulated in town, although it was 70F out yesterday. My buddy's essentially stock-plus-MS1e ZXT runs a rock-solid 164F all the time, unless we just get rough with it, say six or eight back to back full-sprint highway runs of three miles, playing around the ramps. Then the oil temps come up to about 270F and we back it down...water temp comes up to 175F. That's it. Ambient temp that day was 89F. He also has heat at the vents...real heat...in two minutes of idling. Mine never gets as warm as his does in two minutes. Mine also never comes out of warmup mode and is just AWFUL on gas if I don't drive the piss out of it, given that the air temp is 40F or less. Again, yesterday it was 70 degrees and the car was absolutely a joy to drive. I'll get some short datalogs of the (admittedly imperfect) tuning, right now is the time to work on warmups but I can't even get it fully warmed up, so it's not working out well. Yes, the 5/6 water lines return to the lower thermostat housing, and are controlled by the thermostat. The heater core inlet is from the cylinder head, and it returns to the inlet of the water pump.

New 180* thermostat installed. as soon as the sealant cures up I'll top off the radiator and go for a drive.

Yeah, that diesel fuel treatment is a great way to spin bearings and wipe cams. Also, you MUST use an L28ET dizzy on an L28ET, unless you change the distributor drive shaft. Unless you change the shaft, and the distributor, you MUST use an L28ET harness and computer. your factory 76 computer WILL NOT work with it. So, drop the oil pump, swap the drive spindle, swap the distributor, and then you can run the 7.4:1 compression L28ET in place of an 8.3:1 compression L28E. If you can't tell, I am not exactly recommending this plan. You also will NOT be real happy with turbocharging the motor on the stock 76 computer. It does not play nice, and is not exactly modifiable. Your stock transmission, starter, and engine mounts will work. You will need to check your clutch engagement, and be sure that you can fully engage/disengage your clutch. This is dependant on the transmission, flywheel, clutch, throwout bearing, and throwout bearing collar.

Ok, letting it sit in the driveway for half an episode of Topgear, and it warms up to 191F. As soon as I start driving, the temp starts falling, till about 145-150F. Even driving with the heater core turned off doesn't change anything...heater core turned off and driving still falls to 153F. The thermostat isn't even opening up other than what the water pump is pushing open...and if the heater is on then there is a full 3/4" bypass around the thermostat.

Alright. So I have the 5 and 6 external water lines run along the cylinder heads; stock heater hose connections into the cabin; a 160F thermostat, and a stock 1972 radiator, that has been cleaned out and refurbished. New Atsugi water pump, and MS1E is reading a GM temp sensor in the stock sensor location. In the summer time, the 160F thermostat will keep the engine around 180F, with no AC on, or 195F with the A/C on and the dual 12" fans running, get into traffic on a 100F degree day with the A/C on and you're pushing 210 degrees in two minutes. Now that it's getting cold, I can't get the temp up over 150F in stop-and-go traffic, and on the highway at 65MPH it's running about 145F. I have a candle in a cavern for heat and defrost, and in the 20 minute drive to work, even with a 10 minute warmup I STILL never get out of warmup enrichment so the Z is drinking fuel like it's going out of style. Anyone got any ideas? Radiator cover? Summer and Winter Thermostats?

Turbo rings are not the same as non-turbo rings. N/A rings are 1.2mm, 1.2mm, and 2.5mm, IIRC, and Turbo rings are 1mm, 1.2mm, and 2.5mm, from top to bottom.

Assuming you want to buy an L28ET dizzy, yes. You take the original wheel out, and put the new DIYautotune wheel in.

You will not be able to use the welder at all with that unit. Inrush current will very likely lock the engine up on arc strike. You want at least a LITTLE overhead, and make sure you look at the momentary current output as well.

Ok, let's get your numbers straight first. Many of the values you have listed are just flat wrong. P90 head - 53.6cc Nissan Factory F54 gasket - 1.25mm 280zx Flat top pistons - 86mm bore, 1mm milled crown 280z rods - 130.3mm Crank LD28 - 83mm This combination will put you at 2.9L displacement, and 9.7:1 compression ratio. Piston will be smidge under 1mm over the deck. With the most common headgasket out there in the US, the Fel-Pro MLS, you'll have about fifty thou piston-to-head clearance. I'd call it acceptable, but you MUST ABSOLUTELY MUST DO NOT SKIP check your final deck clearance once the engine is assembled using plastigage, in this case. (Yes, the common parts store Fel-Pro gasket is a metal shim gasket, with rubber "printed" onto it. The other part number that you are also able to get is still a 1mm gasket, but it's a traditional fiber gasket with steel fire rings.) Change out to either Fel-pro gasket, still 2.9L displacement but now 9.95:1 compression ratio. HK$$$$$ head gasket, will put you at 9.0:1 compression ration and slightly more detonation prone, due to the wider deck clearance. Run an appropriate cam and you'll have no problems with 10:1 compression and pump gas.

Alright. The bottom in is a fairly simple deal, in your case I would do the following for a non-exotic mashup, IF I was going to do anything but a stock dimensions rebuild with forged slugs L28 crank, stroke 79mm L24 rods, at 133.3mm ARP Rod bolts Z20S piston-this can be hard to find, but forged units would be 85mm diameter, 35.5mm pin height, and have zero dish, with a standard Nissan ring pack P30 block, wall-thickness checked and bored to 85mm I'd go with the 280ZX turbo/auto oil pump. Don't know if you got the KA24e engine over there in the pickups, but that pump is the same. Now, since you're saying you will be required to run an E31 or E88 head; then things are going to get interesting. You have the advantage of a little bit better gas, but not much. I'm running 87 octane here, at 9.7:1 compression; so you should have little trouble with what I propose. Take the E88 to the welding shop, and have them weld the chambers up, till you end up with something that looks similar to the Maxima N47 small chamber head. It'll take time with sanding wraps and carbide bits to get it cut back out to the smooth heart-shaped chambers that you're looking for, but it's worth it for the properties of such a chamber design. Cut the valves out to full L28 size, and run a Nissan L28e headgasket, instead of the L24. Arrive at 39CC combustion chambers, for a 10.9:1 compression ratio. The ported intake and should be done carefully, making certain to keep some taper between the carb throat all the way down the the valve neck. Just having a honkin' big tube isn't as desirable. Cam selection will be important...look for a cam with about 220 to 230 degrees of duration at 1mm valve lift. Lift, with the stock retainers and Rebello Outer Spring set (which I find to be an excellent cost/performance ratio for a street build) should be kept under 12mm, and you will need to use the smaller Ford valve stem seals mentioned elsewhere on this site. You will have significant cam lope at idle. This helps to keep detonation under control by lowering the effective compression in the lower RPM band, and essentially raising the compression as RPM's climb, so by the time you're up to full static compression or better you're above the RPM band that detonation normally occurs in. A stock cam grind will leave you stuck running very weak ignition timing, or costly race-only fuel. Personally, I would go with a programmable ignition, but the factory distributor can be recurved to provide about 24* of idle timing lead, ramping up to about 30 degrees of lead by 2400RPM, 34 degrees at 3000RPM, 36 degrees at 3500RPM to top out. This is only a starting point on timing lead; your engine builder will be able to help considerably with this. As for the exhaust, well, Good luck. I dropped the cast steel manifold and went with a well-respected header design, but since you can't run headers you'll need to figure out how to get around the limitations of the stock manifold. It's not a terrible piece...but it is cast steel and can be welded.I'd get a cutoff wheel, pop that sucker open in two halves, and "port" the interior of it as much as I felt I could go before welding it back together.

Munters, can you list out EVERY limitation that is placed on you by the state? I.E., matching number block, exhaust, intake, must be carbed or fuel injected, available gasoline grades, ect? Once you know all the rules, you can look at how to evade them without breaking them.

... Have you LOOKED at the factory car? The FACTORY supply line comes off the oil pressure sending unit!