Jesse OBrien

May 1, 2013

I have one in the for sale section as well.

April 30, 2013

I got home from work today excited to find that my clutch/flywheel combo was being delivered. Overall, the quality wasn't terrible, and everything bolted up fine. The Ford Mod v8 bolts don't fit anything on the Datsun, as far as I can tell, but Chevy LS* camshaft bolts could be a match? We'll see, since I ordered some. I never think to go to dealerships, maybe I should start doing that. I also ordered some 3s-gte flywheel bolts, since they're reputed to be the same as the Nissan flywheel bolts. We'll see when they arrive. In the meantime, my Datsun/Nissan l-series rebuild book states that OEM Nissan flywheel bolts are re-usable, so that's the plan.

Unfortunately, I only have 3 pressure plate bolts, so this is essentially just a mock-up until the new bolts come in.

I'm willing to bet that the assembly will need to be balanced anyway, but I'll get to that after I know I have a full car worth of parts that I can assemble at will. Right now I'm essentially stuck in the mock-up phase, but constant progress is keeping me excited about it.

Here's the stock n42 l28 flywheel, the 280zx flywheel that came with my s130 manual conversion package, and the lightened '11lb' XTD flywheel, side-by-side.

You may also notice some wheels beneath those flywheels. Those aren't technically anything special, but they came off my first 240z I had ever owned, and Gollum was nice enough to hang on to them for me when I fled California, and even took the time to ship them out to me (I highly recommend Greyhound if you aren't on a strict time budget). They're just 14x7 (or 14x7.5, perhaps?) aluminum meshes, but I'd say they look perfect on an s30, and tires are obscenely cheap for them. I haven't decided what I'm planning exactly, but right now I think repainting them black with a polished lip would be superb. For right now, they're on the backburner.

~~Nathan~~ Gollum also shipped out my old turbo from my l28et build, a lunky Turbonetics t3/t04e hybrid and a few accessories I had picked up to go along with it. I don't have any immediate plans for it, and it might go up for sale ... or I might start building my next engine with this attached.

I have a bit more research to do regarding the throwout bearing (it looks like I have an early-series 4speed, but a late-model slave cylinder, and it looks like I'll have to find a way to fit them together) and I'm waiting on the rest of the pressure plate bolts, so I can get the powertrain installed.

April 29, 2013

That's exactly what I was asking. Odd, I had search classiczcars but didn't come up with anything. Looks like I've got it backwards, and was just about to try installing this trans. Thanks much for saving me the time!

April 29, 2013

I'm back, documenting progress from the weekend. Very little actually got finished, since I'm waiting on the clutch to install the transmission to install the engine. I can't install the carb manifold until I have the manifold gaskets, and I can't do any kind of tuning 'till it's all installed. As it turns out, the OEM Nissan flywheel bolts are re-usable, but I ordered some ARP toyota 3sgte flywheel bolts that should fit the new pressure plate that's en route to me now.

I spent the majority of the weekend cleaning and organizing the garage. I definitely need to build some shelves or some similar storage solution. I have far too many parts. Since it's high time to start cleaning up the excess, I'm selling off all the interior panels, all the efi bits, and any other non-essentials that someone else might consider to be worth money.

With some luck, that engine will be installed next weekend. It'll still need some small things, like crank case ventilation, fuel lines, fresh vac lines, water pump pulley nuts, a vbelt, etc ... but the broad strokes will be complete by then.

I sourced some seats and small electrical parts from a local on Craigslist who's prepping a 280z for 24 hours of lemons (I've always been intrigued by 24 hours of lemons). We're planning to meet up at the next Mt Ascutney event, 3 weeks away. That works out for me for a few reasons:

I finally get to see a hillclimb event in person, which is the end goal for this car (not on the 10-week budget, of course)
I get inexpensive seats that'll work for now
I get to meet someone who sounds pretty damn interesting

Keep an eye on the parts-for-sale section for the stuff I'm planning to offload.

April 27, 2013

With most motorbike carbs, which is where the bulk of my experience lies, an air filter modification results in a drastic change of how much air is available to the carb. Even drilling extra holes in the airbox on a bike often requires re-jetting. At some point, you'll hit the limit of how much air a carb can accurately meter, and can't tune for any more.

I'm not really discussing performance; this is a bone-stock 2.8 n42 with unknown miles and unknown compression (I just know that it rotates). I just want to get it running as inexpensively and reliably as possible right now. I have an airbox that won't work (square inlet, 3-hole mounting), and the correct stock airbox is prohibitively expensive (I haven't found one on eBay for under $150).

April 27, 2013

I haven't been able to find definitive information on which airboxes exist, or if SU's have been tuned reasonably well on individual pod filters. What I do know is that I have a 3-hole airbox, which isn't compatible with the carbs I have:

Help and/or suggestions?

April 27, 2013

I have a (some-year?) 4speed manual with an 1973 automatic crossmember going into a 1973 chassis. I didn't bother to check if the crossmember should lean 'forward' or 'behind' but I do know that it's much easier to change now, while it's out of the car, than after trying to fit it in the car. Can anyone help me out? Which way does the crossmember face?

April 27, 2013

I'm all for resurrecting this thread. I just picked up this shift knob, which should be going in the car (along with the transmission, engine, and drivetrain) within the next couple of weeks.

April 27, 2013

I just looked around on the ip.board dev section, and it looks like this would be really straightforward to write (closer to 1 month to have it stable than 3). However, to ensure that it's safe and doesn't muck up any existing data (and is easy to throw away when the time comes) it should really create a separate TABLE in the database (rather than appending a separate field to every user). That table would be pretty straightforward, just having a userID (which I would assume to be formatted like 3652-jesse-obrien or just 3652 since I think I can still modify my display name) and a max_size attribute.

It would essentially search through that custom table for the userid (3652 in my case) and if the userid is found, create a variable of $user_image_max for that session. This is just pseudocode to show the logic, but this is pretty much all it'd take to replace that chunk of CSS dynamically. If someone chose not to set that variable, they wouldn't see any change from how it is now. If the board admins wanted to get rid of the plugin altogether, it would just mean deleting the custom application folder, and/or deleting the new custom table. Either would disable the plugin altogether, but I like removing all traces of a plugin instead of leaving code-dingleberries dangling all over the database.


if [ -d $session.user_image_max ]:

do:

image_sizing = "<style type='text/css'>

img.bbc_img {

max-width: $user_image_max !important;

max-height: $user_image_max !important;

}

</style>"



else:

image_sizing = "<style type='text/css'>

img.bbc_img {

max-width: 100px !important; # or however admins normally change it

max-height: 100px !important; # same as above

}

</style>"

endif

April 27, 2013

That's a whole lot of images. Call me crazy, but I think I'd appreciate that thread even more if the size were 640px. The images are a part of the story. They were added in to be viewed.

That explanation does make sense, though. I'm going to look into plugin authorship for IPBoard. Would you mind sharing what version we're currently using, and is that something that might be considered if I can have it stable in a month or three?

April 27, 2013

Pm braap, I believe him or superdan do the coding/updates (could be completely wrong). Having the ability to choose what size you want to view would be way better in my opinion.

It may not be an option, I haven't done any backend work in IPBoard before. I'll offer my hand at it, though. I don't imagine writing a plugin would be too difficult.

April 26, 2013

Ratsun is too extreme in the other direction. I'm just looking for ~640px wide images (ideally), which won't affect the loading speed appreciably. I suppose it'd be nice to be able to set on a per-profile basis (so I could have 640px or 800px wide images displayed, and BluDestiny could keep the current 100px indicators that an image might be in the post).

Actually, I just double-checked, and you're downloading the 640px version of the image, then client browsers are resizing it down to 100px wide and 100px tall. Pages would actually load FASTER with images set to 640px limits, as you wouldn't have to wait for the images to be re-downsized again after downloading them.

Here's the offending code:


<!-- Forces resized images to an admin-defined size -->

<style type='text/css'>

img.bbc_img {

max-width: 100px !important;

max-height: 100px !important;

}

</style>

April 26, 2013

A flex plate is significantly slimmer than a flywheel (they're designed to bend, where a flywheel shouldn't have any discernible flex to it), they're very different parts whose only similarity is that they both bolt to the crank and drive the transmission, and both enable a starter motor.

KellyCo, if you have PayPal and I'm not breaking any rules by selling to a low-post-count member (I couldn't find any specific rules against it) I don't mind selling it. I'd suggest getting one locally though, I'm not sure it's even worth shipping.

April 26, 2013

I was going to ask the same thing. I know people get all excited about the non-cross early 240z dash, but I'm assuming the structure and mounting points are universal. I'd have to see measurements/comparison before I could say definitively, though.

April 26, 2013

I'm not sure why the decision was made to have such teeny little thumbnails be the default for externally hosted images, but I'm not a fan of it. I looked around and couldn't find a specific setting for thumbnail sizes, so is there some way it could be changed globally? Is there a reason not to?

I'd just like to be able to read a thread without having to click images one at a time to be able to view them in context.

April 26, 2013

I have a good 240z source one, if you decide you need a solid starting point. I'm interested, but I've realized that I don't care about my interior to spend more than $500 on anything that isn't safety-related. There are a couple of very minor cracks in the top, but I'd just sand and gloss those to make a mold from them.

April 26, 2013

Just to be clear, this would just be a replacement for the plastic face, correct? It would still use the (heavy) steel structure that backs the dash?

April 26, 2013

I have one, but I'm uncomfortable with the idea of selling it to someone with 0 posts outside of the classified section.

April 26, 2013

This weekend will be the beginning of Week 5, which is my halfway point to getting this thing to move around on the road legally. A few things have happened, other things are making good progress, and a handful of things aren't happening. I'm going to start with transmission-related progress, because that's all that's holding me up from getting the engine into the bay.

The flywheels I have are rustier than I'd like, and the clutch is pretty badly worn, so I ordered a cheap 240sx XTD clutch/flywheel combo, along with a set of ARP Ford Mod v8 pressure plate bolts (I have flywheel bolts, and couldn't find pressure plate specific replacements, so I just ordered the same pitch/thread/length ... which happened to be Ford v8). The flywheel says it's an 11lb, and the whole thing was only $220, and what's the worst that could happen?

... I guess it could come loose and cut off my legs. That's probably the worst-case scenario. Oh well, I accept it.

The clutch master I have is from an s130, which means the holes are in all the wrong places. I might just end up ordering the right one rather than drilling more holes through an already-flimsy firewall. I've been down this road before, and have multiple ways I could solve the problem. I'm not worried about it.

The slave cylinder is something I haven't seen before. The 11/16 rod is about 2" longer and is threaded, so it's adjustable. That slave cylinder is completely seized, and I couldn't get it to wriggle loose, but that threaded/adjustable plunger is interesting. The problem I can see with this is that I'm not sure the newer 3/4 slave cylinder is long enough to actuate the throwout bearing. Is there a longer throwout bearing I should be looking for?

I swapped in my automatic transmission crossmember for the manual transmission crossmember, but I wasn't sure if the mounting plate is supposed to lean toward the front of the transmission or the rear. I'll find out this weekend, when I try mocking it up to ensure that the driveshaft is the correct length. I also received my new shift knob, which was surprisingly inexpensive ... and came with a freebie keychain that has kind of made my week:

Back on the engine, I think I mentioned that I picked up some round-top SU's from John at Bad Dog. I've decided not to tear them down completely since I don't have any replacement jets/needles/gaskets in case I break/strip/shear anything, but I pulled the tops off and cleaned the slides. After the car is running I hope to give them a more thorough rebuild/cleaning, but they're in good shape for now.

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the 3-hole airbox I have will fit these 4-hole carbs, unless I'm missing something. I imagine I could tap some new holes, but I don't know where all the air/fuel channels run in these. I'm also missing a chunk of throttle linkage on my firewall, so I may need to convert to a throttle cable. Lastly, I ordered the wrong manifold gasket (I bought a round-port instead of a square-port). Oops!

Speaking of throttle linkage, I have the other end of the throttle assembly in now. Thanks again to John at Bad Dog for setting me up with the right pedal set for an s30.

The e88 head is all disassembled and packed up until I have time, money, and the need to send it out to a head builder. It seems like there are quite a few reputable, experienced head builders, and it's going to be difficult deciding who to throw my money at when the time comes.

The n42 head (which is on top of the n42 block, which is going in the car in the immediate future) has nicely tapped manifold holes, and because I ordered an l28e bolt/stud kit before buying the proper l24/l26 stud-only kit, I ended up with a bunch of spare studs. I decided to break all the rules and replace the brittle old thermostat housing bolts with new stainless studs, and I'll keep a close eye on them to see if/when they fall apart. It's really nice to have all these studs go in by hand cleanly and snugly, now that the threads are thoroughly cleaned.

In other news, I went out and picked up a second piston oiler, these things are amazing. I've talked about how much money you save by buying wd-40 in bulk before, but these oilers just work a lot better than aerosol cans, and i can really get the oil right where I want it. I picked up the second one for PB Blaster specifically, so now the taller one is full of WD-40 and the shorter one is PB Blaster. If you're considering going this route, I highly recommend getting one with the thumb-plunger over the trigger-plunger. I believe I picked up the trigger-plunger one at Lowe's very inexpensively (it's not very well put together, and leaks a lot) and the thumb-plunger one at Advance Auto. Neither was more than $10.

I also just restocked on safety gear, received my ultrasonic cleaner (my results have been lackluster thus far, but more on that later), and picked up some drill bits to replace the ones that were missing. These all get rolled into the budget for this car, even though I'm sure they'll see lots and lots of use other than that.

I'm making good progress, and I think I'm still on schedule to finish all of this within the proposed 10-week timeframe. I am not going to stay under $2500, though. I'm not willing to sacrifice the quality/safety of the build that much. I'm still fighting the urge to replace all the bushings ... because that's a fast road down the 'while im in there' path, and I just want to keep my head down and get it done. I'll be happy to see it running/driving, then I can start working toward the next phase of making it fun.

April 26, 2013

I just finished making the molds and the first batch of roller derby carbon fiber plates (the best competition is heavy billet aluminum ... imagine swinging having that pendulum swinging around on the bottom of your foot), and have another roll of fiber and another gallon of epoxy/hardener sitting in the corner staring at me. I've been considering taking a mold of my uncracked 240z dash and seeing if I can bypass having to use the steel reinforcement altogether.

I'm not trying to step on your toes ... quite the opposite. It's something I've considered a few times, especially with the scarcity of dashes right these days.

It's tough to turn a profit on small runs of composite parts though (speaking from experience). Most of the work is directly related to mold-making, not the actual manufacturing. The primary manufacturing expense is related to sourcing good tools (vacuum infusion is much more consistent than wet-forming, and allows for tighter tolerances, less extra weight, and slightly more rigidity), but hiring a manufacturing company is always an option. The mold would still need to be made first, though.

Also, it's much more economical to start with fiberglass prototypes (I would expect to go through 3 or 4 prototypes before I had a good working mold) than to start with carbon, since the manufacturing process is nearly identical but the materials are roughly 1/3 the cost. Another option is to use Aramid (Kevlar), or a carbon/kevlar hybrid.

April 26, 2013

Keep up the good work, man! You've definitely got it easier than I do, that's for sure. Let me know if you need a hand the next time you're up, and I may need a hand installing the l28 if you come up next weekend.

April 21, 2013

Still no photos. I'm a little concerned that my phone may be gone forever now.

Last night I realized that I had ordered the stud/bolt kit for an EFI n42 (bolt for the intake and studs for the exhaust) rather than for a CARB n42 (studs for the intake AND exhaust). I found that out halfway through installation of the studs, then found that the other (rearward) half of the studs were seized. I had ordered a drill from Harbor Freight but it won't be here 'till mid-week, so I headed down to Lowe's to get a propane torch. After an hour of heating the seized studs, spraying with PB Blaster, tapping with a hammer, and twisting with vise grips, I finally got them all out. I decided that I didn't want to go through that again, and chased all the external threads in the head with a tap.

After that, I started eyeing the e88 head that was slumped in the corner, and went through the same process with it. I suppose my plan is to build the e88 head a bit more seriously while I'm driving around on the n42 head. When that's finished, I'll take a weekend to refresh the n42 block (new rings, hone, and probably bearings) or source a second l28 block and pop the 'built' e88 head on that.

Coming up today:

Replace the carb boots on my Yamaha xs650 (there's a vac leak somewhere, and they look pretty crusty anyway)
Install the new pedal set
Install the transmission on the l28? - Where can I source pressure plate bolts? Are they shared with any other more-common vehicles?

I'm considering ordering an Exedy clutch with a Fidanza flywheel, although that would definitely put me over budget. I'd much rather not have to worry about the well-worn clutch falling apart or tearing off any small bits and having them foul the input shaft of the transmission.

April 14, 2013

3 weeks in, and things are moving along smoothly. I just got back from meeting up with John from Bad Dog, and picked up a few pieces from him to complete the build.

Engine

The l28c is coming along pretty well. I just picked up a rack of carbs with a manifold and the crossover tube, along with some misc. little bits I had been missing, like a water pump gasket. I ordered a pile of stainless bolts and studs to replace the crusty old ones that had held the manifolds and water pump on, so I'm waiting on those for final assembly.

Still needs:

Exhaust manifold - The stock l28e manifold weighs about 2 tons and I'm not excited about re-using it. This can wait 'till the engine is installed in the car.
Oil filter - I know it's an inconsequential cost and job, but every little holdup counts in a 10-week build.
Carb tune - The carb manifold says 'e88' so I can only assume it came off an e88 head. I'm not sure if these carbs even came with the manifold, but I'm guessing they'll need a coarse tune then fine tuning to get everything running properly.
Throttle linkage missing pieces - I'm going to have to hunt around a little to figure out what I'm even missing, but this should be easy.
Misc nuts and bolts - Already ordered, but I'll still have to make sure they're the right parts. I don't appear to have water pump pulley nuts, so if anyone knows the part number right off the top of your head, I'd appreciate it.
Alternator and Water Pump belt - I don't have one, it just needs to be ordered.
Fuel lines - I'll probably just use new rubber lines. They'll last through the season, without any major complaints.
Fuel pump - Will a mechanical l24 pump fit on an n42 head?

Transmission

The 4speed I have is in reasonably good shape, but I've noticed that the slave cylinder that's on it is not what I'm used to seeing. I'll get some photos this week to illustrate what I'm talking about, but it appears to be an adjustable-type slave cylinder. I have two 'standard' 240z slave cylinders, which should be just fine on it, but I'll have to make sure they work with the throwout bearing.

It looks like the trans crossmembers are completely different between the auto and manual transmissions, so i'll have to do a bit more reading on that. I'll also have to measure out the driveshaft to see if it's different, I haven't found a definitive answer on it yet.

As for the clutch, I'm looking for first-hand feedback. On a semi-stock l28 (let's be very optimistic and say 150-200chp) and a stock flywheel, what's the going recommendation?

Body

I was lucky enough to score a fiberglass 280z air dam, which will end up on the car as soon as it's ready for assembly. It wasn't exactly something I was planning to pick up, but I'm certainly not going to complain about it. Again, photos to come soon.

I also got the correct pedal set from John, so I'll be able to get those in and start reassembly of the interior. I still haven't made a final decision on seats, but I'm leaning toward a Kirkey drag seat for now, then move that to the passenger side when I decide on a final driver's seat (probably just a Kirkey road race or similar).

I don't have a brake booster or working master cylinder, so I'll have to start that parts-hunt soon as well. After that, I get to run all the necessary lines to all 4 corners.

I've also just discovered that a good friend of mine is a welder at a local fabrication company, and lives right down the street. It looks like she'll be happy to help me out with the body welding, roll cage, control arm relocation, and whatever else I need. All I have to do is help her find a first motorbike and to give her a hand if it breaks down on her.

More updates to come this week. I just sold my camera and haven't received the new one yet, and I don't know where I left my phone last (it's not a very important item in my life, overall). As soon as I have a photo capture device again, expect an update with visuals!

April 8, 2013

Thanks, that's right in line with what I was looking for. Running at 4k rpm @70mph is pushing some kind of limit. If I could stretch that down to 3k I'd be happy. I'm going to have to do some math to lay out what my gearing currently is, and what I really need to make a 4speed feasible.

If I go with 5speed, it'd probably be out of a 240sx, since they're really plentiful around here, and I already know they're 'strong enough' but I wanted to explore the 4speed option first. Since my car isn't even running yet, I'm really just worried about highway speeds and 1:1. As I said, the only solutions I can see for that are final drive ratio or a wider differential, but I'm not convinced I'm increasing power enough to still have a driveable/raceable car.

As far as racing goes, I suppose you could take that term with a grain of salt. Relatively low power and short runs (a typical hillclimb run around here is less than 2 minutes long) mean that there won't be excessive load or heat, but I'd rather not have to replace a transmission more than once each season.

April 8, 2013

I honestly doubt a typical inspection center would even notice that you're missing a bumper, unless you have the late-model s30 bumper shocks sticking out there really isn't a good way to identify that there was a bumper there to begin with.

Also, the 240z bumper didn't really do anything (other than get mangled) in a crash. It's more of an accessory than a safety feature.

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Posts posted by Jesse OBrien