Tony D

Corner muffler shop with a wire feed welder, a lift, and a package of Mandrel U-Bends available from any number of linked businesses in the various threads that discuss large exhausts here are the site. Want in one hand, search with the other, and see which gives you the better results!

If you go to an NHRA Track to run, hard lines ARE necessary. They specify how many inches of flexible non-hardline is acceptable in each class. This isn't that hard a job, and there are several recent posts where the process is detailed quite well.

To directly and honestly answer your question: Yes, they are the 'wrong' bearing. They are not the bearings that are 'supposed to be in there' if that is your definition of 'right & wrong'....but before you chuck them into the shed's bin... Please look at some engineering texts regarding reducing bearing frictional losses within I.C.E. and you will have your enlightened answer. Damn, another secret is let out of the box for those who can see it!

It absolutely will help. It's been my standard fittment until my last purchase (literally) of their 'new updated kit'---the new routing which uses the three bolt flanges (which I hate) limits the placement of the muffler where I previously could put it on their 'older' system that simply used muffler clamps to hold it all together. The addition of a resonator under or near the transmission GREATLY reduced the boom in EVERY car I've done it to, and there have been many others who have listened to my advice on their 'loud' exhaust systems to quiet it down. My 76 2/2 is quieter than a stock car, using a 2/5" crush bent exhaust and stock cast iron exhaust manifold, but the MSA downpipe for their exhaust (I had the same setup on my 260Z as well...) Nice and quiet, but flowing well enough on a car that turns a best of 15.30 in the 1/4! It really wakes up some people to be next to a car so quiet...yet so quick!

Look at Frank 280ZX's 'White Turd' that was bought out of the SoCal desert, the interior was turning to dust when you touched it anyway, so we stripped it all out put John C's FRP Hood on it, a roll hoop, and went Auto-X'ing at MSA. The performance was surprising especially when we used new shocks with cut 2+2 springs and some 13X7 wheels running gumballs! The car, like my 'Blue Turd' 260Z was a real hoot to drive!

Why not boost the bejezuz out of the Ford Four. Much as I hate to admit it, those little FF's can take a LOT. They had tons of factory development work... I mean, a Mustang with a V8...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Huh? The Ford Factory Manuals should have a pretty good breakdown...and a visit to your local dealer may reveal body harnesses were 'common' with a 'plug in' modular design depending on trim level. They like to do this. In many cases upgrades are simply a matter of getting the right power source and plugging in a factory subharness to the one already existing in the car. But some of it...especially if you get a 'bare bones' model...some of that gets it's own special stripper stuff that doesn't go into ANYTHING else in the rest of the line. If that's the case, you're on your own...start running wires!

That you need a new set of Rod Bolts and Nuts.

^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^

No green light, sensor failure. Get the FSM and sort it out it's a free download. You should easily get 2X that mileage even with spirited driving. A "Rebuild" won't do sh*t for you. This is electrical.

Earlier Cars are your best bet. Contrary to popular belief, the Base Model ZX's were actually LIGHTER than the 280Z S30's they replaced in the lineup!

Rag, Air Hose, Blowdown Nozzle. Pressure into tank of about 0.25psig will push whatever fuel you have up to the front of the car if it's disconnected... You could try blowing in the tank but I'm not Mick...

An oil control ring will not show up on a compression test. Neither will a leaking valve seal. Put one heat range hotter plug in there and hope it burns it off... You can buy a lot of oil for what it will cost to 'fix' what is nothing more than an annoyance. I went for years swapping plugs 5 & 6 in my car as #5 would oil foul. Put it in #6 and it cleaned right up. One day, after extended pounding at 17psi trying my best to kill the engine...the oil fouling stopped and so did my smoking on decel. The ring unstuck. It happens. Don't obsess on this one, move on!

The entire reason for hood flex is removed by installing the vent! Any pressure in the engine bay (which causes the competition FRP hood to flex up almost 3" at the struts at over 100mph) is adequately removed by the 'big oval hole' and allowed to vent out the sides. These have been around since 1973/74...if there was an issue with the 'flexing' it would be well known by now!

8.3% Variance between cylinders? In spec...move on...next!

What kind of rpms are you guys thinking of turning that stretching a rod to put the top ring over the top of the deck? If you're 0.040" in the bore, hell even 0.020" from the ring coming out, you are more than far enough down the bore... Only way to tell is assemble it and turn it over.

To distill it for those who may have missed it the first time around: "Casting numbers identify assembly components/sourcing as a last resort in field failure investigations."

Do we want to get into why torque is a terribly inaccurate method for measuring tightness? Like 60% of the torque is underhead friction, 25% is thread friction, leaving only about 15% of the torque to actually tension the fastener and clamp the parts together? If not, please play particular attention to the numbers above and draw the conclusion that anti-seize on the threads applied correctly so as not to goop out and get under the head of the bolt is a good thing. But if you get lubricant under the head of a bolt that is being torqued to a specific value, that the value MUST be recalculated as lubrication under the head SIGNIFICANTLY changes how much tension is actually applied to the bolt shank, and can lead to fastener failure!

I made a pass once. Once. Someone had the sheriff come by closely thereafter. Then again, they didn't necessarily have to be on our street to hear us either!

I have a Trust header on mine, the price then was 45,000 yen, and that would indeed equate to $600 or thereabouts today. The other more expensive headers are set for custom applications, but the pricing shown is about the range, you can spend anything you want, from a low of around $600 to a high end of MAYBE $2000 US. That's 160,000 yen at todays' exchange rate. Remember, when the yen was 268 to the dollar? I do, that 160,000 yen header that costs you $2000 today at 77 yen per dollar? It was more like $600, and those BEAUTIFUL 45,000 yen Trust/OS/Fujitsubo headers were only around $175! It's the decline of the dollar that's made the parts expensive...thing is the quality remains the same as when you could buy them dirt cheap. Try that in America with anything and see if it holds true! The deals in Japan simply have gone from 'Super Killer' to 'market priced'... hell their gasoline prices remain around 100-125 yen per liter. Same as in 89... But the dollar price? That's escalated. Sucks to be tied to a currency that is deflating/inflating/tampered with artificially, huh?

If you have pan and pickup on an L28 block, unless if was originally some JDM front sump thingamajig, it should go right on. I welded a 15mm fitting (I think) on my stock L28 pan to take the drainage. Worked for 40K+ miles to this point. No Issues.

Serious racers have known of these variances for decades. "Production Tolerance" is what it's called. Casting numbers identify assembly components as a last resort in field failure investigations. Before anybody mixes and matches rockers...MEASURE EVERYTHING. Do this, and you will find some very interesting variances which can affect the performance of the engine cylinder-to-cylinder. There is a reason some people degree each cam/rocker/valve assembly one time before going on to the next stage of assembly.

Argh... Deck height is irrelevant if you have a gasket thickness that is compatible with the amount of positive deck height. I thought I just explained that---it's what the 2mm gaskets were designed to accomplish... You are more than welcome to spend $600 for a set of pistons which are correct pin height to be able to use a standard gasket. Or you can spend 1/3 that price, and just put the 2mm head gasket on and be done with standard-availability popularly sourced pistons. See the logic of the design criteria? "Clever those Japanese!"

I REALLY like your pre-muffler. It is a MUCH better mounting arrangement than MSA uses in their current kits. I have the same header, and HATED the 'new routing' they used. Your thoughts on the premuffler positioning run alongside what I was thinking would have to be my only option for modification and getting that damnably loud singe-can configuration MSA sells back to where it is on everything else I used from them (with the addition of that 18 to 36" glasspack up front under the tranny!) With a staggered dual-tip exhaust it would look very 432 OEM like (save for it being a single pipe front to back!) Nice looking job!

Good info on the "Esteem" A/C pump! I didn't think they could get much smaller. That must be a cranking little rotary! File this for future reference. Any chance it will mount where the Power Steering Pump went? Or check out accessory drives for different models using the LSx engine---maybe the drive configuration moves the alternator, and you can use the alternator mount from a different configuration in addition to a different belt to mount it there instead. Good Luck.

FSM 73, FSM 74... Compare, adapt, complete!