AlwaysBroke

http://www.reactionresearch.com/automotivedetails.htm They have the Subtle Z and 280YZ kits.

That is tooo true! That was the hardest thing about putting the 4.3L in mine. It took me over 2 years with my only job working >35 hours a week at Wendy's. (Now that Im in the military and have a desposible income I just dont have the time. Such is life) Its so easy to get frustrated and overwealmed with all the little details involved. If you do decide to go for it, Its best to break the project up into smaller parts so you can have little successes along the way, keeping up the momentum. And when you hit that brick wall and the momentum is gone, go somewhere else on the car and find a quick little project that you can do for cheap. It will get you motivated again to want to get that thing on the road.

You might have the voltmeter wired incorrectly. A voltmeter must be wired parellel to a resistor (measures the change in current accross the resistor) and a ammeter is wired in line with the current. (it measures the actual flow of electricity) If you use one in place of another without rewiring it you could see all sorts of problems. Or possibly the resistor that it is measuring across is burned out. What it uses as a resistor, I have no idea, but if the resistance is too high it could be high enough to pass through the voltmeter and do some strange things.

Ok, to answer some questions: The fuseable link is in a small clear topped box on the passenger side of the firewall. It is a wire that is only rated up to a certain amount of current or it will melt and disconnect. As for your Side markers, I dont think they are supposed to blink. If its not something unique to Zs in that part of the world, it is something someone did and it should be easy to find the cut and crimped wires and put it back to normal. As for headlight relays on a Z, there arnt any. Why? I dont know. Datsun put them on the roadsters but I guess they got too cocky with there wiring to put them on the z. Due to this, If you put a high wattage bulb in it, the current passes through the whole system and can melt some wires. Its just a thought but one of the wires going to the bulb, or ground comming from it could have partially melted and be arching. It is very advisable to install a headlight relay so you can put more power to the bulb without overloading the system. Also I noticed that if you use the Sylvia (sp?) silver star bulbs they are much brighter than normal Halogen without overloading it. Manuals, I have been very pleased with Haynes' manual. (other than the fact that they say you can just pull out a spindle pin with your hand , In reality it takes an act of God to get that thing out) The best place is a factory service manual, If you can find one. Im pretty sure that someone has posted a downloadable FSM somewhere on here. Hope this helps some, Nick

Update, I put it back together and it runs great now, the best its run since I built it even with no vacuum advance. Im not sure exactly what was wrong but it was probably the obvious and had something in the seat. I also noticed that the holes, in the body for the power valve, had a chunk of metal, from drilling the hole, slightly in the way. Im not sure if it has anything to do with it running better but its the only abnormality I saw.

Im gonna put it back together and see what happens. It is possible that the fuel was all the way at the top, although I was certain (now Im starting to wonder) that I saw the top of the float in the sight glass. BG said that was entirely to large and that they didn't even make something small enough. But there has to be a way to make it at least bearable until I can save up to get something else, and BG would not even give me a hint. What carbs are you guys running nowadays? Is Holley still the reigning champ?

ok thanks. i will go ahead and replace the valve tonight while i already have it apart. is there anyway to reduce the amount of vacuum its pulling? I think it might have too much and its causing the vacuum advance to break. Also has anyone ever worked with a carb on one of these motors? I really want this carb to work but I need a starting point, im running around in the dark.

I dont think its the seat because the bowl was dry so it never even had a chance to seat. Im still learning about this kind of carb so what does the power valve do and how can I check it? I called Barry grant and they basically just called me an idiot and said that this carb wont work on my motor and they dont know what im talking about.

Anyone? I was going to get a vacuum gauge today and see how much it was pulling, but... Now Im dumping fuel out both my secondary boosters. Could these be related? At least Im living up to my name

I have a Demon carb, and this morning fuel was DUMPING out both my secondary boosters. It was not my float because the bowl was completely dry. (Dumping out so fast that the bowl couldn't even fill up) Does anyone know what this could be? My first guess was that jets unscrewed and fell out, unlikely but ok. I took the whole thing apart and I cannot find one thing wrong with it, except one stud was broken off. I doubt that it had anything to do with it as the seals were super tight.

A little while ago I was fighting with trying to tune my carb. when I noticed that the vacuum advance did not hold air, causing a vacuum leak and no advance. I thought that that was kind of weird (its only a couple of years old) but I went ahead and replaced it. Now its a week later and the same thing happened! What would cause the diaphragm to keep ripping? The setup I have is a 4.3L V6 (practically the same thing as a small block Chevy) It has a Demon 525cfm carb. and a Mallory Uni-lite distributor. I checked to make sure that the vacuum was connected to the correct port and it was. However, the line (just some clear plastic tubing that I had lying around at the time of the build) was blackened and hard on the end that is connected to the carb. I'm not sure if that is a sign of anything.

Neato! I put one in my Z a couple of years ago and I love it. Is that an aluminum block, and what kind of heads are you using? Im having some 2003 Vortec heads ported out to use on mine and they should flow just as good as the Brodix heads, only about 2 grand cheaper. Lunati is selling their Voodo cams for these motors and they are the best that I could find right now. What type of aspiration do you plan on using?

Great lead!!! It looks like its off a GSXR, and those are only $30. I never would have thought of putting a bike mirror on a car but I think it works on the Daytona, and the S30 is very similar. I might try these and mount them a little farther forward where the fender ends maybe. What do you guys think. These are the GSXR and BRE mirrors

http://www.bre2.net/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=B&Category_Code=mirror Has anyone put these on a Z yet? I think they look pretty good and they are very aerodynamic to boot. Only thing is that they are really expensive. I'm not sure if anyone else sells these geared for a less wealthy market base.

I don't doubt it for a minute that the straight panels (Strakes) in the diffuser would help smooth out the turbulent air, which is why they are allowed. But if you look at the GT40 diffuser they don't incorporate that, for whatever reason, they only have two expanding chambers. I was looking at the SCCA rulebook the other day and I noticed this: 5. Diffusers are allowed at the rear of the car only and shall have no more than 25-inches front to back of expanding chamber. Vanes or strakes are allowed inside the diffuser. A diffuser is defined as an expanding chamber between the vehicle and the ground for the purpose of accelerating air ahead of it to develop low pressure. I'm not saying that it won't smooth out turbulence, just that I think that if expanding chambers were built, using the proven NACA duct formula, a much greater improvement would be seen.

Ok, so Ive been looking over diffuser designs and I think I have noticed something. Is a good diffuser just an upside down NACA duct? Correct me if I am wrong but It is using a duct to actually suck accelerate the air out from under the car at a faster rate than it is entering causing a slight vacuum which causes down force. That being said, would it be beneficial to place fins under a smooth bottomed car going at an angle from the center front of the car to the outside rear? The thought behind this is to help pull some air out from underneath the car helping to cause a vacuum. Does anyone know if any of the race cars use this or would it just cause turbulence if the fins do not come in contact with the ground?

I believe it was a Z replica GTO in the movie Delirious with John Candy.

Thanks jbk thats exactly what I was looking for. But do you know if there are any clearance problems to expect with the rear sway bar?

I went through a couple of t-5s in search of one with the right gear ratios. http://www.thirdgen.org/calculations this site has a good chart on the ratios of t-5s in cameros and firebirds which are plentifull and you can normally find the right one in your local junk yard. Now as for what I found out with a free t-5 we had laying around, 4.03 is waaaay to short for such a light car (I would reguarly just start off in second and be just fine). now my 2.95 seems just right. As for fifth gear I have a .63 which is really nice for top end speed but below 75 its about useless, and the maximum speed limit in Hawaii is 60 so you see the predicament. I had a .76 in the first one and it was fun as crap. I could just sit in fifth at 2 grand and climb any hill. Its really what you are looking for in a transmission but I hope this helps 1974 260z with Chevy 4.3L v6

Ok, well I broke my car again. Or as I call it "Systematically improving my car through the exploitation of weak points." I dropped the clutch off line, for the first time since blowing up my old R180, and my u-joint at the Diff. After taking a closer look at it I noticed that the whole yoke was twerked, and two sides of the joint were severed off. Now the front one is fine as it was off the blazer that I got the motor out of, but I would like to get a larger one for the rear. Does anyone make any larger yokes and u-joints that will mount up to an R200? thanks for any help Nick 1974 260z with Chevy 4.3L V6

I've heard a lot of people talking about doing a Chevy 4.3L conversion. I finnished putting one in about two years ago, and I've not found anyone else that has actually done this. So, if anyone has id like to hear basicly how you went about it and what your impressions are with how it turned out. As for mine, it was a fairly straight forward instalation. I used a crossmember made by Speedway Motors that the motor mounts bolted to. I bolted this to the "frame rails" in the engine compartment, and the exact spot that I wanted it had the steering column right in the way. So I drilled a hole in the crossmember and welded a tube going through it for support and I feeded the steering column through it. I bought the radiator a little tall and sloped it back to make it fit. Now getting the headers to fit was a fun job. I spent two days with an Oxy-Acetylene torch bending them down to clear the fire wall and I still ended up having to cut a chunk out of the corner of the transmission tunnel. The motor has .60 overbore, comp cam lifters and rockers, malory distributor, and a Demon carb. Ive been spending alot of time trying to tune the carb, it seems to be a little over carburated. I like the mod, it has a lot of power wile still maintaining a very light weight and greatly improving on the weight distribution.