HowlerMonkey

I've done so in my capacity as general manager of thier direct competitor Blue Streak. Since cardone's product line is so wide, there will be multiple facilities involved in parts remanufacture. There will also be a few technicians who take short cuts but it only takes a couple of complaints for the company to eject the lamer. Sure, you can find a company that specializes in a narrow product line range that might do better work on a specific part but, most of the time, your only choice is used or them. Far more common are "installers" who suck and send back a product damaged by said installer over and over at the expense of the remanufacturer.....because they can't fix or diagnose a car. Guys like that compromise the bottom line and force prices higher. That said, 90% of ecus sent in to us tested ok. Usually that customer springs for a replacement under our critical core program and his ecu, after testing ok and remanned, is sent to another customer who has success while the original customer calls to say our replacement ecu is bad because it does the same thing as his original unit.

Can you quantify "junk"?

Last time someone complimented my M30, it was in traffic. I came out the next day to a missing..... rear view mirror, all dash switches, 5x ecus (one ripped from the harness), a drill, a timing light, and even a few french fries cleaned off the floor along with some change from the console.

Nice choice. I feel the sr20det in the 240sx is done to death and that the early Z car is a great marriage to the SR20. You definately have to let us know the miles per gallon figures since they will be pretty good. As far as Alfas go, I really want an alfa milano verde 3.0 to build up possibly for SCCA Improved touring.

We have a set of gauges under the hood where the dyno operator can stand and view them safely while the guy inside the car can pay more attention to keeping the 2,000+ hp under control. Still not safe enough for me......I campaigned for a long harness so the gauges can be brought to a safer distance.

I fail to see this rhetoric posted anywhere by the site owners and moderators or in the rules linked below. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

Jwt sells these and it's not super easy to do it but it might be cheaper than the cam itself. http://www.jimwolftechnology.com/customer_part_detail.asp?PartID=500

The lexus IS250 and IS350 cars have a power steering rack that isn't much larger than a hydraulic rack. The guys at JM lexus were replacing them like wildfire because customers complained they could hear a noise they hadn't ever heard on any previous car........DUH. Because of huge demand, I would think pricing and availability might be common but we were required to bash them in with a hammer. If you could find a lexus technician with less scruples (you know....the guys who replace them under warranty to earn the labor when nothing is wrong with the car)........you might be able to swing getting one pretty cheap.

Many of the rotary guys use a "power pulse presilencer" which is a stainless steel packed muffler. Rotaries have such a huge overlap that they can't tolerate any backpressure, make big heat, and are super loud. I'm not sure how much it will attenuate sound but I used to use one on each primary pipe and then a huge single chamber muffler after it was collected near the rear of the car.

Forgot about the H190 in the rear. Since the Z31 300zx has 4 lugs and the wheels bolt straight on the maxima without spacers, it might be that you can get larger brakes simply by bolting on the calipers and hub/rotor/bearing assembly.

By "breaker plate" I mean the movable part where the stator mounts. You should be able to grab it and move it a bit and the spring tension inside the advance mechanism should return it. Also inspect around the periphery of the plate and see if you can see broken parts or a ball bearing ball that has fallen out.

It's possible that the infiniti M30 rear control arms are identical. I can take pics with some measurements of the arms I picked up to do the 5 lug conversion but dad is in town with his plane so it's flying time. If I can, I will take measurements of the front struts to see if they are of similar dimension. As far as the driveshaft, the 240sx and M30 both have two piece driveshafts and the maxima had about 4 different versions so you might be able to find the "front half" that will bolt in to your existing "rear half" of your driveshaft and avoid cutting anything. If you do need to cut, I recommend simply having a driveshaft shop make you a 1 piece shaft with the parts on each end that fit what you have. The aussiebluebirds site has some good information on brakes.

A 225/50-15 is around 23.9 inches tall vs 25.6 for the 225/60-15.

True.....the "dot legal" tires used by many racers are usually wider than the pedestrian tire of the same "size". You can go to tire rack and check section width vs tread width which may give you enough information to find a tire that will fit best and also has a treadwear rating higher than 60.

Maxima wagons are super cool. Don't forget the 300zx four lugs that can be had for free quite often. 225/50-15 work well on that car. This one was a 5 speed with turbo hardware from a 280zx and a R200. I compared the clutch pedal with one from a S12 200sx and they were nearly identical in most every dimension.

There are many guys running 911s with 15x9 with 225/50s because of availability issues.

I would design a head that is simply a lengthened head of something that already exists and would fit cam followers, lifters, valves.....etc. from said existing head. Since someone already made a head from a couple of 240sx twin cam heads cut to fit, it would be the easiest.

Certainly not a pencil.

Original poster should also check whether his breaker plate is stuck in the fully advanced position. He should be able to move it with his hands and be able to see it return to it's fully resting position.

A soft pencil is the wrong material to suggest using because it is soft enough to catch on the spark plug threads with even the slightest amount of angle away from optimum. It's obvious the pencil angled slightly, grabbed the threads, and was folded into the combustion chamber. The proper advise would have been this........ Since your car does run, take off your cap and turn it until it's starting to approach where you currently have the wire for cylinder 1 on the distributor cap. At this point, you should be able to see the piston coming up and near top dead center. Only then do you stick something in the spark plug hole to get it as close as possible to top dead center. I'm also willing to venture that his timing mark on the pulley matches top dead center and that his issue stems from either an improperly indexed oil pump shaft or the plate on the bottom of his distributor has been adjusted full deflection in one direction. Original poster should inspect his distributor and will notice that the metal plate that the distributor hold down nut clamps can also be "re-indexed" to gain a bit more authority in adjustment. If it's already adjusted fully one way, try it in the middle. By using both adjustments, you surely can get the timing dead on whether you have to rotate the wires on the cap one position or re-index the oil pump shaft. It's up to the owner to determine which is worth his time.

If you're burning enough oil to kill the cats, you are burning too much oil. Most of the Z cars that were made with catalytic convertors as original equipment were also built when oil had high levels of zinc.

From here. http://www.showcars-bodyparts.com/280zx.html

If you're going to make an expensive casting, the profit margin would be much higher if you made strengthened crankcases for Rolls Royce Merlin engines. You could sell at least 10 right off the bat.

I believe the driver's axle shaft is shorter than the passenger side. I'm not sure if it would cause the noise you hear and it's pretty hard to install the longer one on the shorter side.

Do you have a front sump oil pan available from that same car?