Six_Shooter

I'll hold you to that. HAHa I hope to be getting my Z within a month or so. I hope to be driving it in it's current form this summer after that, the fun begins.

That's pretty sweet! I may have to meet up with you to check that out, once I get my Z. Looks pretty interesting. BTW, you missed blocking out the plate in a few pics.

Yeah I'm not worried about the dash removal. This also won't be my first auto to manual swap, just my first one in an S30. I am making sure that I have all (or most) of the parts needed when I get the car shipped, as I wouldn't want to have to source out the more difficult parts to find half way through the swap.

Yeah, really. What can be seen isn't too terrible, there's bound to be more hiding, but it really looks repairable. It's not going to a quick repair for fix that properly, but it's also not impossible. As an extreme example look at Mull's restoration. That car should have been scrapped, but looks VERY good now.

I'd like to see more too.

I should also mention that you will need to at the very least bypass your ammeter when installing a larger alternator. The Ammeter will be matched to the size of the alternator and when you upgrade the Alternator will be capable of providing more current than the guage can handle, this could be a bad situation. To Bypass it, the simple way at least would be to disconnect the charge and load leads from the guage and bolt them together, using a lock washer, and then insulate well. Wraping electrical tape and heatshrink around this connection will do the job. I would recommend a volt guage as a replacment.

So is this a complete list and correct list? starter motor clutch flywheel preasure plate bellhousing throwout bearing trans mount Master and slave cylinders, tube pedals (brake and clutch) The only part I question is the starter. Is that because the OP asked about a 280ZX into a Z? Or is the starter different between auto and manual? I'll need to know for sure as I'm buying the swap parts from the same guy I'm buying the car from. I need to make sure I get everything that will be required.

I understand that much about carbs, what I don't understand is the effect of power valves, and how all these little passages are needed through the metering blocks (Yes Holleys were very abundant when I was growing up). I mean I uderstand teh venturi effect, and the properties that make up how a carb works, I just don't understand how it works the way it does and why so many little parts are needed, at least not in thier entirety. I've just geven up on carbs long ago when on the few cars I had that had carbs ran like absolute Pooh (worse actually), and just couldn't get them to run properly I have been a big proponent of EFI, as it much easier to understand in my opinion and all the "magic" that happens in the box (ECM) is also not that hard to understand, as long as everything else is in play.

Rofl

I'm also curious what the actual voltages are at idle and off idle and at what RPM that a change occurs. What size are the pulleys? From what I've been looking at with the stock crank pulley it may be what I would consider small, and if the alternator pulley is on the larger size this will cause the stator speed to be slow, and have a low charge rate or turn "off" completly, running solely on battery. A 2 Volt difference is huge, about 15% from 14V optimum. That's a large difference, and will severly effect the performance of electrical components. On top of that the stock S30 alternators are rather small, from the information I've seen, less than 60A for the largest, if I've read correctly. This may have been enough for a carb equipped car, running the heater fan on low, and minimal lights, but will usually severly suffer when the defroster is on, or the fan set to high, or even the headlights on. Also realize that at idle the available current capabilty is quite a bit lower, on average about 50% of full rated output, whihc is usually a cold output (more on that later), so now were down to about 30A. Most lighting systems with the headlights on and on low beam will be upwards of about 12 to 15 amps, so about half of the available output, not much left for running the car, or or the fan. More on that cold rating. When electronics are cold they will transfer energy (voltage) much easier than when warm, and some companies will use this rating to make thier product, in this case the alternator sound more powerful than it is. The important rating is the hot rating, the one that is rated onec the alternator is actually at operating temp. In most alternators this seems to be between 70 and 80% of the cold rating, so that 60 amp alternator is now only 42 to 48 amps, take into account that idle output now it's down to about 21A to 24A, not much at all. I would recommend an alternator upgrade, Delco alternators seem to be the most commonly swapped into place of other alternators, heck I even had one on my '81 Honda Prelude, yes it ran backwards and yes it charged just fine. I didn't have a problem with cooling but it could have due to the fan being installed for a clockwise rotation of most engines. Installing a larger alternator is useless without also upgrading the charge wiring, commonly refered to as "The Big 3". This is the charge lead from the Alternator to the Battery positive terminal, a ground form the engine block or Alternator case to the battery negative, and from the chassis to the battery negative. I reccomed 4 AWG for this, even on a vehcile that doesn't have a reason for a high current draw, like a stereo, or lots of other electrical upgrades. The extra capacity of the wire size will ensure there will be no reason for a lack of charging capacity.

I'm still digging the red.

Yep. I have to ask: What does "XP" mean? I keep seeing in in posts on this site and haven't seen it elsewhere.

J. Geils Band. Come on now... Yep Twsited Sister, Metallica, Scorpions, The Cars and many, MANY one hit wonders, Kylie Monogue (I was young during the '80s), Midnight Oil, so many that I can't remember them.

Yep, I have that issue, and part of the reason I bought it.

I was thinking that was the link provided, I sent that to a few people I knew a coupld months ago. A sig I use on another site:

Yep. And tuning for no EGR depending on the system can be easy or rather difficult. I have been thinking about looking into the systems that these cars (namely the S30) use for an ECM and what it would take to tune them, I have equipment to tune GM ECMs, and programs that will tune the bin files for others such as Ford, and few other less defined ECMs. From research the foriegn ECMs seem to be less documented and more difficult to manipulate, this is probably due to the lack of people's desire to use the OEM ECMs, since something like MegaSquirt, FAST, AEM, BS3, etc are available and some even offer a PnP option, so it only makes sense to move to something easy, even if it doesn't offer all the advantages that an OEM ECM would, such as emmisions controls, OBDII compliance, in some ECMs, such as GM, a lean cruise mode, that saves fuel if the throttle and other paranmeters stay at a constand for a longer period of time. Another safety built into some OEM ECMs is the ability to enrichen the fuel based on time. I have read that there was a caddilac ECM, used with the N* I believe, that would richen the fuel mixture after being at WOT for more than 30 or 45 seconds, as the cylinders would then become overheated and melt pistons. This is something I have not seen in an aftermarket, not saying they don't but haven't seen it defined as an availble option or parameter, though I do recall long ago that Haltech was looking at including such a thing is certain models. Unfortunatly I haven't looked into Haltech in a long after figuring out that a GM ECM would probably do everything I need it to do and more.

I say this to everyone that says EFI is difficult, and unfortunatly until that person actually recearches and plays with it, they never understand just how simple it is until they already have thier vehicie running on it. I come from a family that only ever had carbs on thier cars, and don't understand exactly how a carb works, yet I understand EFI very well. I've even convinced my Grandfather to convert the '70 Chev to EFI in the spring. It will be just TBI, but still a step up from the carb that's on it now that works, but isn't the easiest to run with.

Yes, cylinders fill fine without the EGR, at WOT, where they can fill. at anything less the cylinders do not fill completly, hence the lower power out put, what happens though is hot spots within the cylinder, due to wider space between the oxygen molecules or less fill, as it were, the exhaust recirulated into the engine via the EGR allows these hot spots to be filled with an inert gas, creating no extra power, but allowing the combustion chamber temps to kept in check, lowering running temps and subsequant exhaust temps. Sometimes it's not possible or esy to tune for lower NOx, hence the introduction of the EGR. If it were that simple the OEM would simply due away with it all together. Less parts = cheaper to manufacture = more profit.

I didn't understand it for a long time either. The EGR helps as already mentioned to keep overall temps down, the temp of the engine, the temp of the exhaust, etc. What benefit does that have? It has the ability to reduce pre-det, reduce emmisions and make the engine overall more effciient in part throttle condistions, where it does it's work. At WOT the EGR will close or "shut off", due to low or no vacuum, so it doesn't hurt performance or WOT performance in the slightest. Although your engine probably won't have a catastrophic failure due to a lack of EGR, it would be a good idea to keep it in the system however. "The EGR recylces unburnt exhaust into the intake" This is false, the EGR has NO ability to channel only unburnt fuel or unused oxygen back into the intake, it is simply a valve that samples a small amount of what ever is being sent down the exhaust pipe. Also the exhaust is all "burnt" exhaust gases are inert and will not burn. only fuel (using the general term of fuel not specifically gasoline) will burn, as long as there is also enough oxygen particles present. This inability to burn what is coming through the EGR helps fill the cylinders, more than would be with no EGR, make the engine more gas pump friendly. It all gets pretty involved, but is worth it IMO to keep the EGR, I will be on mine and when the next engine goes, and the engine after that, etc. the only way the EGR will ever be removed is if the engine I'm installing didn't have one or has not place for one, some late '90s Fords were this way, and have been told a few other manufuacturers did similar.

I don't like yellow cars and I don't like the G-nose, but I like that car.

I'm wondering the same. It sounds like the old problem of someone with incorrect parts/tuning for the given application. I know of quite a few cars running 2000+ HP on EFI, some on Race gas (110+ octane) some on E85 (though I've only seen north of about 1300 HP on this), some on other fuels, like Alcohol. True a lot of these cars are running multiple injectors per cylinder, but even on single injector per cylinder set-ups there are injectors out there that could literally flood an engine very easily. 160 lbs/hr injectors anyone? There are some 210 lbs/hr injectors that are supposed to be released shortly. Look at the Hot Rod Pump gas drags, these are cars that must weigh 3300 lbs. If you look at the times they are running, they are getting into mid 8s. That means that most of these cars are making somewhere around 1300 HP, and they do it on 93 octane gasoline (Rocket Brand), most are EFI. So unless this guy is making insane amounts of power, it sounds like it's just more tuning that is needed. Sometimes that tuning requires swapping to a larger/smaller injector, or changing the TB.

I know, if I didn't already have the engine engine that I want to swap into my Z, I would be that much easier convinced to go LSx. I have a couple other engines in mind too.

I vote leave it alone, painting those two parts black makes it look like you're mid body work, or just too cheap to get it painted, after replacing some body panels. the only way to make it look decent in black is to not paint the entire panel, like leave the out 2 inches and then pinstripe the edge, along with leaving the raised part in the middle red. The air dam in black doesn't look right here, as suggested, maybe with the rockers also done in black may look better. Overall though, i'd say leave it as it is. If you serach on classicZ, there is a guy on there that has some pics of his red Z with a black hood, doesn't look right at all IMO.

Awesome pic. Kinda off topic question though. I keep seeing that same lower chin spoiler/valence, but haven't found out wether it's a stock piece or an aftermarket. Most S30s I see for sale have that rounded under lower valence, as does the one I'm buying and really like the one on your car, so where can I find one? Heck, I'd even borrow one to make a mold off of it, just to have one.

That's pretty cool.