MX500

I was too lazy to read everything, I don't know if this has already been mentioned. The diesel has a taller block height so it would be very hard to use the L28 block.

I'm shooting for a compression ratio around 9:1, up to 9.5:1 would be nice, but not necessary. I plan on boosting my car up to about 10-14 PSI in the future so I can't go too high on the compression. I have a spare L28/N42 longblock from another project so I'm not worried about taking too much off this head. How much should I shave of the head to achieve this ratio? .040"? Will I need cam tower shims if I shave the head this much? Ideally, I would like to shave the head the maximum without needing lash pads or cam tower shims. I only have ~90,000 on this engine so the timing chain and everything is still relatively fresh. I'd like to do this the most cost effective way possible. I've heard Norm (12 second SU dude) mention people running up to .080" shaved without cam tower shims with new timing chains. I don't want to go over 9.5:1 compression, so I don't think I'll need to go that far. What is the maximum amount I can shave the head without using cam tower shims? Will I need lash pads? I need some more details on this. I'm pulling my head off tomorrow and taking it to the machinist friday so I need help as soon as possible. My set up: 1970 240Z, 1977 JDM L28 with N42 head (NO INJECTOR NOTCHES!), Comp cams 280S grind (.460 lift 280 Duration Intake and Exhaust), 6-2-1 header, 3" exhaust, 1977 4-speed, 280ZX turbo clutch.

You take the CV's apart and flip the inner u-joint equivilent piece to shorten them.

Clean install, but nobody mentions that the miata seat makes you lose headroom. I just installed a NA Miata leather driver seat in my Z. It seems like everyone has a different way to install these seats. I bend the front mounting tabs flat with a large crescent wrench, then welded studs to the rear of the sliders to fit into the factory seat bracket bolt holes. I drilled the front inboard mounting hole in the chassis to line up with the miata bracket hole. I then cut off the excess mounts on the back of the sliders and also cut off the pokey sharp thing behind the front mounts for weight savings, and to make the area around the seat more accessible. I think I lost about 1"-1.5" of headroom. This may not sound like much to you, but I'm 6'1" and have a very tall upper body. My head is about 1/2" from the roof now when I'm sitting in a slightly reclined driving position. I plan on doing the Miata seat "foamectomy" to regain head room and putting a new leather cover on this seat when I find a passenger side match for it. Aside from that, this seat is AWESOME! It is leaps and bounds better than the stock seat. I have an injured back and this seat helps my driving comfort immensely. It has decent but not overwelming lumbar support and almost too much padding... The cloth miata seats hold you in better, but this leather seat is still much better than my OEM 1970 seat.

I'm looking for a high performance cam for my JDM 1977 280Z engine. It has the N42 head without the injector notches. I want something preferably under .460 lift so I can retain my stock valvesprings.

Hahaha. I have heard of Q45 "R200" diffs, but I thought they were actually R230s? I've never seen a R200 under a Q45 in the junkyard, all the Q45's I've seen have 5-bolt axles/R230's. As for the output shafts being stronger? Who cares? I've only heard of a couple 240SX CV axle failures and they were on 700+ horsepower drag cars. I've personally seen a 240SX R200 diff that had been raped, drifted, dragged, and daily beaten on by an LS1 for over 40,000 miles (yeah, 40,000+ miles with the LS!, not counting the miles on the diff before the motor swap) and it finally failed by ripping the weld from one of the spider gears. It still worked by the way, it just made horrible noises. I wouldn't worry about differential strength. I say go for the swap! I've got a spare S13 and a spare 240Z myself, so i'd love to see your build. As for you guys claiming the S13 suspension isn't a HUGE upgrade from the S30, you've clearly never driven one. The camber increase rates of the 240SX are much better, I can hit the same corners in my Datsun (poly suspension bushings, bilstein shocks, slightly cut springs, bigger front swaybar, strut bars, 225/50-15 falken 912's) then in my 240SX (bigger rear swaybar, strut bars, adjustable tension rods, and a proper alignment. No other suspension mods with the same 225/50-15 912's) and the 240SX is much more predictable, way smoother, has shitloads less understeer, and I can slide through the corner going 5-10 MPH faster than I could ever hit the corner in my Z. The 240SX is way more predictable, smoother, and can actually drift. The Z doesn't drift for ****, but thats most likely due to the lack of LSD and not nearly enough negative camber up front. The 240SX is wayy ahead of the Z technologically. Thats why I DD my 240Z, and I'm building the 240SX as my track ****. The 240SX is way faster, but the Z is a much better looking car and weighs less. Nissan tried to make a modern "version" of the 240Z when they designed the 240SX, and they did a damn good job.

Great. The 280Z door seals fit perfectly, however the gap is still outrageous at the top of the window. I'm afraid to do anything with the passenger side because the driver side only got worse with new seals. I have since readjusted the driver door with the top as tucked in as possible and the bottom as close to sticking out as possible, and it still is wayyy too tight at the bottom and has a huge gap up top. The bottom of the door now sticks out past the body lines and the top is poking inside the body lines that it is supposed to be flush with. I'm about to beat my chassis into submission with a sledgehammer to make these seal. This is downright infuriating. I may go back to 240SX's after how many F-ing problems I've had with this Z.

I ordered an HID headlight upgrade kit, but the housings are too large to fit my '70 240Z. Does anyone here have personal experience with HID bulbs in aftermarket housings on these cars? I have a budget of under $100 for the H4 housings. Any tips would be greatly appreciated, I'll be ordering the lights within the next few days.

The gap starts immediatly where the window frame begins. I adjusted it as tight towards the inside of the car as I possibly could with about 50 pounds of pressure pulling the top in while I locked down the bolts. The weirdest thing is that I never had this issue before I took out the old seals. The body lines line up FLAWLESSLY aside from the very bottom of the door where its been slammed on the seat belt too many times (NEVER from me, the original owner must have gotten careless in his later years). However, the bottom of the door seals great, its fawkin perfect. The window frame lines up perfectly with the quarter window, it does not stick out whatsoever. I have a spare window frame, at this point, I may just try slotting out the holes in the door frame to pull the window frame stupidly close to make it seal. It will mess up the body line match, but I always choose function over form, which is why my car has a $12 paint job and I've thrown a few grand into the drivetrain and stereo. I'll try to get off my lazy arse and post up pictures of the gap.

Please do us (and all S30's) a favor by learning how to drive a larger, less performance oriented car until you are very confident in your abilities. No disrepect intended whatsoever, but the 240Z is a performance oriented car with ZERO driver assists. Say you come around a corner going to fast, and your dog is in your way, you hit the brakes, but due to lack of experience tyou can't modulate the pedal well enough, lock up the brakes and kill your dog (or it could have been your neighbors kid too!). A modern car with ABS (anti lock brakes) could have helped prevent that. With time, you can learn to modulate brakes right up to the traction limit and not lock them up, but I sure as hell couldn't when I was your age. ABS would have saved me from my first two real crashes. I wouldn't worry about the safety features of the Z, I'd worry about the driver, a safe driver can help prevent some accidents in the first place. Now this is why I said that: At age 16, I attempted my first drift in my '68 Cutlass, I hit a 90* corner going 15-20 MPH in the snow, then floored it... I overcorrected 4-5 times, nearly hit a telephone pole, but ended up not hitting anything. It was a close call and a reminder to not be stupid/ First accident: also Age 16 (still didn't learn). Going 100 MPH in a civic, came around a blind corner (in my lane, I was never dumb enought to cross the yellow lines), there was a dipshit in a car halfway blocking my lane going about 5MPH. I swerved to the right, hit the brakes, the right tires were on gravel, they slid, the left tires grabbed, This made the car to a VERY quick spin to the left, I countersteered in time to keep it from spinning out and guided the car past 4 trees and drove it up an embankment and through a fence. I put ripples in the roof because I hit so hard. However, I missed every potentially deadly object, did not hit the other car, and me and my passenger were unscathed. Second accident: Age 16, bumped into an explorer in a parking lot Third accident: age 17, in my first 240SX, bought some crappy "performance" tires from Les Schwab (F--- those guys, they lied to me)I had hit this same corner with bald tires at the same speed the same morning with no issues. I hit the corner again with the new tires (after driving 30 miles to wear off the slick mold release compound) and I slid straight across the corner and up a curb. I ended up with a steel pole stuck through my passenger side of the windshield, if I had a passenger, they would have came close to losing their life. I've got in about 7 more "accidents" but don't feel like listing them. I havent had an at fault collision in four years, I'm now 21. I may have been more reckless than most, but please take my advice because I learned from experience. DON'T drive like an idiot! Also, it is a good Idea to have a sacrificial first car. Most people I know crashed their first car in one way or another. Buy a Z after you have a few years experience under your belt. There aren't many of these cars left and it would be a shame to crash one. Try a Civic or a 240SX if you want to have a good handling first car, they are a bit better in accidents than the 240Z and had anti lock brakes as an option, some years also have airbags which you seem to have been concerned about. Of those options, the 240SX would be WAY more structurally solid than the civic, I was Tboned by a camaro in my first 240SX, I ended up with only a dented fender, he ripped apart the whole rear bumper and damaged the tail light and rear valance of his car. That idiot floored his car in reverse and hit me when I was driving down the road, there was no intersection, I had the right of way.

Funny you guys both said the same thing. The door is aligned perfectly. It never had the slightest issue until I replaced the seal. The passenger side is still functioning perfect, the driver side is just retarded. BTW, maxima or integra seals wont work unless you want a big ugly flap all around the inside trim of the seal. I spent probably 4 hours looking at every possible option. The KIA seals were just too thin, I tried three sets on in the parking lot of the junkyard and they all had fat gaps at the top of the door. Before attempting to replace the seal, the door worked great. It closed very very very easily, but held firmly and never rattled. I'm a mechanic, I can assure you it is in proper alignment. It's as if the old seals I removed were MUCH thicker than the Kia seals. I also tried the PIECE OF **** Black Dragon Auto 240Z door seals (which were mislabeled left to right, so I had to try both and make them both unreturnable, F--- those guys...). Those seals may have worked but my car has 280Z style seals so I had no means to attach the seals to the door opening. I've had the car for over a year and put 20,000 miles on it. I'm very familiar with how great everything worked before the attempted seal repair. The door always closes the same way, it's never changed, I've never adjusted it nor do I need to. It is in perfect adjustment, the body lines line up great. Which 280Z style seals do people complain of being "too thick"? I think I need those. The Explorer seals I'm using are 10-20% thicker than the KIA seals and still have a 1/4-1/2" gap all along the top part of the door, but they seal great everywhere else. What the hell could be the issue???? I even adjusted the top half of the door as inward as possible before locking down the bolts after replacing that window last night, and it still has a HUGE gap. Remember, there was no gap at all before removing the old seal, Now there is a gap. I never touched any door mounting hardware in this process.

My 70 240z had old when I bought it. As you can imagine, they leaked horribly. I tried the Kia sportage seals that everyone claims work GREAT, but they don't work on my car. The bottom half of the door was VERY VERY VERY tightly sealed, and the top had a huge gap. WTF? There was no gap with the previous (280Z style) seal, and it sealed out air noise very well on the freeway. I switched to a ford explorer seal since it was the best fit (in terms of thickness) of all the hundreds of seals I found at the junkyard. I installed the seal, now the door is impossibly fucktarded hard to shut. It's not as if I'm lacking in strength, I just hate slamming my doors as hard as it needs. Well, today after closing the door (no harder than its been being closed for the past two weeks) and my driver side window shattered. Thats rediculous. I should not have to slam my door that hard. Whats wrong with my car? The door lines up very well with the rest of the cars body, in fact it actually sticks out further at the bottom than at the top (remember, its too damn tight at the bottom and wayy too loose at the top). The door used to function perfectly, and had no gap whatsoever at the top of the door frame. I did not unbolt or adjust the door at any time, and my hinges are not loose. ould new 280Z seals fix my problem? Are they thicker than the kia seals? I need help asap, because I only have one spare driver side window and I'm installing it as soon as I finish typing tthis. I can't afford to break more parts.

Also, I have a MIG and stick welder and a grinder. I'm no spring chicken when it comes to welding, so that is not an issue for me. I'm just on a tight budget.

Background info: 1970 240Z, second owner, first owner kept the car in a very salty area. 390,000 on the chassis, 80,000 on the swapped L28. Runs like a bat out of hell. As you can imagine I have some attachment to this car. I'd prefer to keep this car somewhat original, but definately driveable. I'm never going to bastardize it with a V8 swap, but I do plan on moderate suspension modification and track time after it is retired from daily driver duty, so the car will need to be structurally sound. The "frame rails" or whats left of them are surprisingly rust free, however after years of dumbfawks jacking up the car in improper places, the rails have been pushed up about 1-2 inches in random places, the worst parts are at the rear end of the frame rail, and at the end right under your feet. So those should be replaced, or atleast be beaten savagely back into place. My main issue is that the floor pan was also smashed out of place, so I'd need to beat it back flat. Do normal 240z's have flat floor pans? Or are they flat enough to put on a straight subframe connector? I also have rust in the strut towers, I have ann excessive amount under the battery tray (in my opinion, however seems pretty average for a never been rust repaired Z) I also have an unnerving rust line (yes, its all the way through) on the 45* part of the strut tower that is below the battery tray. The car still drives fine, the strut towers havent came apart(yet). Should I just cut out and patch these holes, or should I replace the frame rails and do tubular front strut towers? I have a structurally complete '73 240Z at my disposal, which is solid where my '70 has rust. Should I quit bitchin' and start stitchin' in those "new" pieces of sheet metal from my parts car?

Background: 1982 280zx turbo, Rebuilt injectors, turbo, new head, etc, under 1000 miles ago. Car has sat for 2 years, but ran this poorly before it was parked. My car will not rev past 3500 RPMS, and it bogs and dies when I give it full throttle. It runs very rough and idles around 1500. The exhaust smells rich, and was slightly black, but I adjusted the air flow meter and it looks a bit cleaner, but the car still runs like @#$%&. What could be causing this? I messed with the timing this morning, and it actually ran worse when I advaned the timing, but the car doesn't ping, so It seems like the timing about right. Could the air flow meter cause this? I disconnected the throttle position sensor and the car still ran the same. Could that be part of the problem?