Leon

:lol: OMG, that is hilarious! ModernS30, forget what I said, you're threatening my ability to browse HybridZ at work.

FWIW, headlight buckets go for about $20-30 a piece. A G-Nose is going to cost you magnitudes more than a couple of headlight buckets and random bits like the grill, etc. However, if the G-Nose is exactly what you want, then go for it.

Race Car Vehicle Dynamics ("the Milliken book") has a nice section on tire physics and is overall a great book. You'll likely have to read each section multiple times and take some time for it to sink in, but it has some great information.

This is called the "weed through" period of engineering school. Online homework is a terrible thing, make sure your professors understand this. Make sure you show them what happened and they'll help you out. Don't be scared to come to office hours! However, some students will quit because of it and others will plow on. It depends on whether you have the will and determination to go through stuff like this. Many times, the "weeding out" period does a decent job of sorting out those that are truly uninterested or incapable. Of course, some programs are better than others so use you judgment and more importantly others' experiences (hopefully someone older than you/alumni that went through the same program) in order to decide whether it's worth it for you. I got as many books off Amazon, or other sources, as I could. BTW, this is just a tip, but don't sell the books that are important to what you're studying. They'll come in handy as reference material. I hear you on the financial side of it and that is definitely a huge problem in the US. Fees were continually being hiked while I was in college, and I'm sure the trend will continue. I never did buy a parking pass throughout the duration of college (stick it to the Man!), I always scouted out the area and found the free spots whether I lived on or off campus. I enjoyed a longer walk to class, anyway. Good luck and YMMV.

I run my triples from the stock mechanical pump, but I'm planning to wire in an RX7 pump I have laying around in the future. Search for fuel pump and Webers and you'll find tons of info.

Here are the tire/wheel sizes in response to a PM, the setup is 16X7 wheels and 225/50-16 tires all around.

This would require an assumption that the relationship between tire size and maximum grip is a linear one, and that all equally-sized tires are equal. There are a ton of variables that play into this, so I would have serious trouble making these assumptions. IMO, there are two ways to choose a tire, either experimentally or from the manufacturer's tire data. 99.9% of the time, you don't have access to tire data which means you should go about it experientally. The right tire is the fastest one.

1)P30/E31 is an L24 2)The manifold is an E88, it does not mean that it came from an E88 head. That's a stock, round-top manifold 3)The flat- and round-tops are both "performance" carbs, people just don't like the flat-tops 4)See #1. I agree, run it if it's in good shape and don't worry about what's inside You're going to have to put in some of your own research. There is a ton of information out there. BTW, you can use carbs on an EFI head...

If your old transmission is truly a Nissan (not Borg Warner) ZX unit, then the transmission you picked up is not a Z or ZX one. The spline count on all Z and ZX transmissions is the same, barring the T5 that came with the ZX Turbo (not sure on that one), so there should not be spline meshing issues.

The 280ZX cooling fan mounts differently from the 240Z fan. Take a look at my cooling fan for EDIS thread.

I should be checking out "a car" today! I'm ready to take the plunge...

Of course! I'm supposed to meet rejracer sometime (trade parts), maybe the three of us can meet at your place since you're kind of in between us!

It is very much a matter of torque to yield. When you torque down the bolt, it does stretch. However, if you don't reach the yield point of the material, then it returns to the same state when loosened. The bolt stretches and then goes back to its original length, as long as you stay within the elastic limit of the material. Another consideration I've mentioned is bolt fatigue. If the OP plans to reuse the bolts, then a close visual inspection must be done paying special attention to local cross-section diameters. Like I said, I would rather just buy new studs and be done, however, if done right then the old ones may possibly be reused.

Same here. I need to pull my door card and adjust the window regulator as well, locks will be inspected at the same time.

Exactly. These are not "torque-to-yield" fasteners. They are reusable if you have not over-torqued, and if they haven't fatigued. Would you rather quantify these, or just buy new ones? I'd get new ones.

The E31 was in '71 240Zs as well, up to a certain point (6/71 maybe?).

Spot on with the resistor comment. Bringing up the timing curve is a good point. One of the reasons I wanted to get rid of the 260Z distributor was because the timing curve does not match my setup. It has a lot of mechanical advance (26deg!) and I'm running triples Webers, which means there is no vac advance. The result is that my base timing can't be more than 10BTDC and there is no load sensing advance to boost fuel economy, therefore the spark timing is far from optimized for the operating range of the engine.

Wow, stupidity at its finest... I'm worried about my keys as well, moreso because the driver's side lock is very tight. I need to get on that, good call on checking the key for cracks.

The FSM has been instrumental in helping me deal with my early 260Z. I suggest you first reference the FSM (hint-hint: the wiring diagram and ignition sections) and then try the archives for some of your questions. I will say that I stayed with the 260Z's stock ignition versus a ZX distributor because I did not see much to be gained (and rebuilding the ZX unit didn't seem worthwhile). If you plan to run the ZX unit, I would at the very least take it apart and regrease. I found that my unit had a broken ball bearing carrier on the breaker/advance plate (typical problem), and then found that a new breaker plate is about $75 shipped while a refurb'd ZX distributor is about $100. I decided not to spend any money on it and am now going to fully programmable EDIS, as it is a truly worthwhile upgrade over any distributor ignition system, for the Z anyway. I saw no reason to get fancy coils and distributors when I could have a rock-solid, crank-triggered ignition system that I can completely tune with the press of a key for a few hundred bucks.

The half-shaft in a C4 Corvette does act as an upper control arm (or more accurately, an upper suspension link which helps form a virtual control arm). He is talking about the axles' ability to compress and extend, which the Corvette axles do not do because of the necessity for them to be stiff suspension links!

This man speaks the truth!!! I love how my fiancee gets excited about seeing them now and tries to differentiate between the different models! She took a picture of an orange Fairlady a few weeks ago because she "knew I would be excited." BTW, do jackstands wear out?

Hey, thanks! A couple of days ago, my fiancee asks, "what percentage of the car do you think you've worked on and/or changed?" My first thought was, "not really that much." But then I started really thinking about it: the entire suspension is either new or cleaned up and painted, the entire cooling system is new (hoses, water pump, radiator, thermostat housing, pump inlet), I added the triples and header with a new exhaust, put in new seats and console, bunch of gaskets, and a different diff. That feels like the majority of the car! These old Zs are so simple that you can revamp the entire car and not notice! Pretty soon, I'll be putting in the flywheel/clutch, ZX tranny, LSD, new carpet, and finally finishing up the EDIS wiring. A rebuilt L28 will make it in there eventually. I hadn't even realized it...

Read the exhaust sticky. Diameter and length depends on your goals, along with your cam profile.

Yeah, not a good idea...