thedarkie

I think maybe the Trofeo R will be a better buy. Its not too much more expensive, and its a much much newer tire. The R888 is pretty ancient

Hey guys Those of you running wideband O2s , does it need a direct source from the battery (via a relay or something?) or can I tap off something else in the cabin? I'm a total electrical dummy, and Im not sure if this is a particularly "sensitive" device that needs steady voltage from the battery, something that it otherwise might not get if its daisy-chained to other electrics in the car? Sorry if its a dumb question, I need to ensure Im doing it properly so as not to get false readings or burn through the gauge/sensor! Its an AEM X-series gauge with LSU sensor. The manual basically just says it needs 12-14v on the red wire and (-) on the black - pretty straight forward. Thanks!

I just prefer how 16s look on the car. I know it doesn't make things easier. In all likelihood I will just stick with my Panasports for this summer at least, which means Im shopping for a sticky 225/50. Anything is gonna be an improvement over my old 205s. Shopping list R888 are.. uh.. cheap! 225/50R16 - each - set Hoosier Radial Wet H2O 91H $379 $1,730 Hoosier D.O.T. Drag Radial 2 $323 $1,476 Yokohama ADVAN A048 92W $347 $1,586 BFGoodrich g-Force R1 91W $288 $1,319 BFGoodrich g-Force R1 S 91W $276 $1,264 Hankook Ventus Z214 $251 $1,153 Hoosier A7 91W $379 $1,730 Hoosier R7 91W $379 $1,730 Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R 92Y $261 $1,197 Pirelli P Zero Trofeo R 92Y $260 $1,190 Toyo Proxes R888 92W $198 $911 Toyo Proxes RA1 $302 $1,380

Thanks! Wooow that's tight but damn he made it fit... I desperately wanna stay with 16s. Actually that thread you linked is a further disappointment - he still had traction issues with a 235mm A048. I gotta search more of his posts, did he mention how much horsepower? The rabbit hole goes deeper.... As for chassis and driveline - I think I'll attack that this summer. The front rails are boxed, but beyond that she's pretty much a stock body. Also have an R200 LSD out back, but the transmission will likely be the weak point. Its a WC T5, and while some guys have gotten tens of thousands of miles on them with high HP cars, its definitely not going to take hard launches or track abuse - but Im ok with that.

Thanks! I think I remember now reading that... so mine must be 7" wide. Another limiting factor! Good tip. Actually I kind of want more ground clearance without raising the coil overs, so I might just go with a 225/50. The overall height difference between those and my current 205/50's is 0.8" so it'll give me roughly 0.4" of extra clearance for the oil pan and exhaust

The suspension is from AZCar, their tubular arms and coil over setup. I think you're waaaaay optimistic about how much meat I can fit in the back, 275s seem out of the question. I really like my fitment right now so I'll try to measure how much more space I have to the spring. I'm guessing a 245 might be about max?? I wanna stick with 16s also. As for power - I hate to guess, but similar builds are easily 500hp at the crank so I guess thats one goal to aim for. They're 16" panasports, Im not sure about the width but they may only be 7.5" so Im super-limited with what rubber I can throw on there. I'm really not wanting to change the wheels, so I'll just get the stickiest widest rubber these wheels will support. R-compounds might have to do the job. R1Rs were on my radar - hopefully I can find a shop that would let me mount a few different sizes on my wheel for testing. Like you said, some of them are wider than others so an extra wide 225 might even be too much for my wheel to handle. Let me know how the 888's work out for you - though with this weather I doubt you'll be doing much driving yet do you take yours out in the wet? Thanks for the tip on that shop, yeah Im in the Toronto area so I'll definitely give them a shout when I start shopping tires. You ever drive out this way with your Z?

I've had my 260Z for about 6 years now with a mild Ford 302 that was getting tired and boring, so when an interesting engine came up for sale I impulsively jumped on the deal. Its still Ford Windsor based and I figured would be a relatively straight forward drop-in, but small differences tend to claw away at the bank account QUICK! The heads had taller and bigger exhaust ports, so custom headers had to be made... the engine was lacking a mechanical pump, so the fuel system had to be upgraded, the old distributor and ignition was incompatible with the new roller cam so MSD took a bunch of my money. The $1000 oil pan it came with wouldn't clear my crossmember, etc etc. updated pics from Apr 17 Anyways, I just fired it up for the first time 2 days ago and took it out for a shakedown around the neighbourhood today....... and its already painfully evident that this car, in its current configuration, is stupidly overpowered. I've always loved how aftermarket flares and wide wheels look, but my car is too clean to go under the knife so now I'm basically shopping for as wide a tire as I can fit on these wheels, under the stock fenders. I might luck out with a 225 or 235 in the rear, so it'll need to be something very sticky. Slicks?!?! It never sees rain, hmmmmmmmmm! New engine is in. Its an SBF based Dart block with 4 bolt mains, Diamond pistons, H beam rods, TFS-R heads, and some other goodies. I decided to keep it carb'd despite the new engine coming with a lot of EFI parts - maybe I'm stupid, but I just think it helps maintain some "old school" character. 4 mpg? Who cares If you're having headers made, might as well give the fabricator some creative freedom and see what comes out! He absolutely killed it. Its such a shame its basically almost entirely hidden under the car. Im gonna have to buy some mirrors or cut a hole in my floor so I could look at them while driving. 1-7/8 primaries 4-2-1 into a single 3.5" back section I guess its still a muffler? More like a Coke can.. added just for good measure, in case the system was too loud. It sounds amazing.. not a muscle-car 'hollow' rumble, but kind of an exotic bass feel to it. Very happy with how it turned it, which was essentially a guess.

Use an external cooler, its cheap and easy. You can't just 'hook it up' to the radiator; it would have to have a separate cooler built into it to accommodate such a thing. IMO its a stupid design that OEMs use and its a potential for disaster if it leaks. T5 swap would be nice! You'd need to take care of clutch hydraulics, modify the mounts, and get a new driveshaft. Not a plug-n-play job but not too hard either.

Just measured my old exhaust that I had on a mild 5.0 swap. It was shorty headers into dual 2.5" pipes merging into single 2.5". Muffler oval 5x11 by 14" long with 2.5" in-out. The car wasn't obnoxiously loud at all just FYI.

^^ good reminder, totally forgot about those videos.. the header one is appropriate for me - just goes to show how much power is lost/gained on a 500hp motor when going from cast shorties to mid length to long tubes.... in conclusion: not much!!! 10 horsepower lost or gained at 500, in a 2500lbs car, really won't make much difference. I don't think Im gonna sweat the details of packaging my custom headers, just gonna let the fabricator do his thing... it really won't matter in the end.

Don't know that I'd be willing to compromise so much of the performance-side of exhaust design just to quiet it down. Don't you think it'd be better to hang onto longer primaries and more pipe volume, and just stick on a larger muffler at the end?

Key word being "mufflers" here.. you're doubling the canister volume by using two of them. My 363 swap is done and I had to have a new exhaust and headers made to match the taller heads - I'll be selecting a muffler soon but am only going with a single out. I have to measure the space to see what the biggest can we can fit under there is? ] Magnaflow makes 22" long 5x11 oval mufflers with 3.5" in/out, does anyone have something of similar size and can comment on noise? Definitely DON'T want to be setting off car alarms.

At your skill level you probably shouldn't make plans to swap in a non RB engine which is incompatible with whats in the car right now.. its just too much work. Sort out the rest of it first. If you're gonna be chasing more horsepower, get the goodies from an RB25DET engine or swap a complete one in place. Turbos are good

Darius' early videos of his Z ripping burnouts and racing that old 99(?) R1 were what got me absolutely hooked on Zs... its awesome that you still have that car (massive transformation)

They're fair-weather cars up here. Nobody drives them in the elements.. enthusiast-owned, obviously. Who else imports a skyline? Oh well, just sayin that there's a closer option for buying R32s if other Americans are interested in these cars; with the CAD so low, it'd be a bargain.

Cool. Did you look for one in Canada before importing from overseas? We have a ton of em here, our import law is 15 years so even R34s are here now. Lots of R32s to choose from, and with the Canadian dollar being in the gutter you could probably score a sweet deal.

Depends which way you bashed what. They DEFINITELY don't fit properly (centered) with the original hump in the tunnel.. so unless that's largely gone, you're not getting 'em in there correctly.

May wanna try fitting those seats now while the interior and floors are bare... I'm betting you will find that the trans tunnel hump on the drivers side will prevent the seat from centering properly, and that wing will definitely be hitting the door/glass/b-pillar

Obviously I was joking, but font kerning is a real thing. Its exactly because of the reason you described that any designer would adjust the kerning manually in order to make it look right. Here's my attempt, and remember Im just a carpenter, not a designer :) Top is default font spacing, bottom is kerning adjusted on the DAT and WOR

Listen man... I've been kerning fonts and building motors for ages. If there's anything I've learned, its that improper font kerning costs HORSEPOWER. You don't wanna lose HORSEPOWER to some piddly fonts, do you? god damnit I can't stop looking at the intake and hard line pics.... damnit damnit damnit

The kerning on your fonts is terrrrrrible make sure to adjust the "DATSUNWORKS" to bring the A and T closer together in the final casting /nerd

Aftermarket seats for the 260/280 are a pain in the ass. Make sure when you get suggestions from other Z owners, that they've gone through it in a later year car with the trans tunnel hump. The passenger side is easy enough, but drivers side requires work. At minimum you'll need to bash in (ugly and cheap) the tunnel in order to center the driver seat properly. To do it nicely would require cutting and welding, and all the associated prep and finishing work! From there, you also have to make sure the seat is narrow enough to fit properly, and forget about wide shoulder bolsters. Just a warning.

Check out this write-up http://www.speedhunters.com/2013/10/ole-orange-bang-star-bash-bust/ Enkei Compes in 15x8 0-offset with 225/50 tires mounted. He rolled the fenders but that was it. They look real nice IMO. 16s would be nice too.

I have a 302 Z but no further pertinent information to post because my speedo doesn't work, and my fuel gauge only ever reads 3/4 full Therefore I'll just post this: it sucks gas like its going out of style, because I drive it like its stolen!

My 260 has a Ford 5.0L with aluminum heads. I'll bet its better balanced and overall lighter than the original engine and transmission. The fact that the entire engine sits behind the front axles is a benefit. With that said, the stock car is far from heavy to begin with. In my (biased?) opinion, this engine suits the car incredibly well. I'd just as readily drive with the L6, but 300+ ft-lbs of torque is a lot of fun in a small car like this... and there's something nice about the Ford small-block that I can't put my finger on. I feel like the car hasn't lost an ounce of character.