Tony D

Simple: 1)Take the locking ring off both tanks. 2)Remove the sending units. 3)Install the 240Z sender into the 280Z tank. 4)Wires are now correct for the chassis, no cutting required. (You do not have a 'low fuel' capacitance sensor to light the light that is not in your 240Z dash anyway.) Comprende Amigo?

Both diagrams are identical. The part is the AAR and is shown on the EFI schematic breakdown. The AAR has power when the key is on. After the car has run a while, heat from the coolant line under it keeps the bimetallic closed to stop fast-idle. The Electrical Connection is to provide power and ground to a heater element in it to heat the bimetallic strip controlling the shutter bypass around the throttle plate to give fast idle speed.

Magnet valves for vacuum regulation of various emissions, heating, and A/C controls. Dropping it down further on the strut would be the most expedient thing to do so you clear the bar...

If you have a MIG or TIG (or even OxyAcetylene) making patch panels that 'lay over' the openings and bridge the radius to the 'low spot' are easily cut out of an old hood or door. Tack welding them in place after completely welding the holes behind will allow them to be skim-coated with filler and always allow easy removal come some future time should a new owner wish to reinstall the bumpers. Of course stitch-welding the cover patches can also be done---but with the caveat that the holes in the low spots have to be plugged as anything getting up the backside of your new panel will sit there, and rot the panels from the backside. Even in SoCal, dust will get up inside there, and retain moisture. I have seen people get round plugs (like for the floorboard) to plug the round holes, and hten weld in the top cover. Last thing you want is 1/2" thick of bondo or tiger hair stuck in there to lift out and crack when you get bumped! Personally, I'd be loath to fill the bumper mounting holes/recesses on the back panel. They work great as tow-recovery points. I have seen some nice 'accent' panels like on an old corvette (mini bumper guard looking things) installed over them with everything else smoothed, and they look really cool. And allows you to keep the tiedown / tow attachment point. They look nice all filled in, but those two little 'bullet' bumpers back there set off the back end and give it a 'finished look' IMO---they draw the eye up to the tail light, instead of down to the color/black line where your gas tank inevitably is showing. Overspray, dents, and all!

The whole crux is the following statement: " and you can get BETTER performance." Simply state your quantifiable goals. If the stock system, or even an aftermarket system delivers 37 degrees center-register what more 'improvement' do you plan on getting? How do you plan to quantify a contention that it will be 'better' performance. The condenser core may well be more 'efficient' but it's heat rejection will be identical in terms of BTU's as the previous unit. It's based on load on the refrigerant system. What have you done to 'improve' that? You have added 'margin' on the liquid side...was it needed? If the original systems were incapable of producing 37 degrees center register (the industry standard) then I would say someone aiming to improve and give 'better' performance would be a simple, straightforward matter. But since the original systems when properly installed and maintained GIVE the benchmark...exactly what are your goals to meet in order to quantify 'better'? I see the possible improvements are in airflow and air-exchange within the cabin (not anything related to the refrigerant side, but the ventilation-fan side). Both OEM and aftermarket systems have responded to massive increases in flow across the evaporator core with MORE 37 degree center register airflows---meaning the components have ample reserve capacity. I am just getting at your contention you are going to make a system 'better' yet have offered nothing more than 'you can get these parts easier' or 'possibly cheaper'---but that doens't go towards improving the systems performance. If you are going to tell us you are going to make a good functioning system 'better' then you need to tell me at least what your empirical goals and benchmarks are for an impartial review. If you start with a car misfiring with fouled plugs on three of six cylinders, are new spark plugs, or different spark plugs 'making it better'? If the plugs are fouling from bad rings and oil depositions, is the replacement of hotter range plugs an improvement and 'making it better'? In both cases I would say it's not, it's simply a normal maintenance procedure, or band-aiding another situation undiagnosed by someone. So goes it with 'improvement' of the A/C system. There are touted 'efficiency improvements' for this component or that...but if the stock system was amply capable of cooling the cabin easily (when functioning properly) how are you quantifying 'make it better'? Or are you simply putting in hotter plugs?

Note somewhere is the story of my socks in Morocco. They did return to me...

Was a discount header brand years ago. Haven't seen them for a while (since the 80's). It was akin to the Wine of the same name: "Pass the word, Thunderbird!"

Phil, will you ever make a video that just gets to it? So what was the practical difference in boost threshold?

manila folder is what I make mine out of...

Dail-in-Cams. I got one of those, but not in that good a shape! Mine was experimented on quite a bit. Not quite as easy to adjust as my new Tomei, but it works well. Read the sticky on how to time your cam for why the thing is on there in the first place.

Yeah, the originals were better. I'm not going to go into my involvement, but the rules and politics got bad when money started rolling in, like with anything. Now...meh. Better than boxing I guess. But really restricted from the original format.

When they allow groin shots and joint strikes, I'm interested... Till then, more 'sportfight'...

I too, am often stopped by the police, just to have a conversation...

Randy77ZT: "but i have been determined to go as far as i can with my parts combo so i can see the result.its a male pride kind of thing-i am not giving up until i get some results" You and JeffP need to bond when you come to LA Randy!

As a frame of reference, 20 hours is three days shop work. And $1000 is $50 an hour. I would consider that a ballpark if you have done all the mechanical stuff. It may take less time, but you never know what you will find inside a used wiring harness. And if it doesn't work out properly, it's them you will come back to looking for a free fix under warranty!

You should probably give Art Rinner a call over at Sunrise Z in (Glendale?) Sunrise Z 420 W. Broadway Glendale CA 818-240-1594 Keep in mind having someone else fix your project will always be more than having them do it from the beginning. They likely will have to 'fix' things you were satisfied with, but as a shop they can be held liable for should something go wrong. Art has done L28ET's into S30's before, and has a regular L28ET - Megasquirt Conversion business going at his shop. The problem is finding time in his schedule to fit in this kind of 'rescue operation'. Tell him "Fat Tony from L.A." sent you...

Does it happen when the car is stone-cold?

That's what sleeves are made for! If you can catch your fingernail in it, you should apply one of those Federal-Mogul Shaft-Saver Sleeves. Stainless Steel and thin... If you are spunky and can wait for the next business day, take your stock crankshaft seal down to a seal place and ask them if there are any other configurations available. many times you can get triple lip seals on anything 10mm wide or wider. It's been a while since looking at the recess that goes into, but if you can run a slightly wider seal you have some alternatives: 1.Drive the seal in slightly further to ride on the ungrooved surface. 2.Get a wider seal with a 'double' or 'triple' lip which would likely have seal lips running in a different spot anyway. Investigate the rubber used in this case, fluroelastomer is a good choice if you can get it. PTFE should be shied away from as it WILL groove the shaft in short order unless you put a sleeve on it. 3.Put a sleeve on the shaft and run what you got. Don't forget copious application of Loctite 609! These seals aren't special, you can get them from just about any good bearing and seal house. I've replaced single lip seals with doubles before, and the results were pretty amazing (we had a crankcase pressure issue due to leaking cylinder liner o-rings). Where we formerly were puking oil out the front and rear seals, we could actually (after double lip seal installation at PTO and Pulley End of the crankshaft) pressurize the crankcase of the engine to nearly 5psi before getting fluid leakage on a dynamic shaft seal! That was more than acceptable, as our crankcase explosion vents lifted at something like 5" Hg or so. That kept all the 'steam' from the leaking water coming out the crankcase vents and not making an oily mess all over from shaft seal leaks. Good Luck!

Crazy Dreams many times conflict with the reality of physical laws. People need less encouragement to 'feel' and more stress needs to be towards the 'think'... If you have a 'crazy dream' that is always busted and you never drive it is that still a 'dream' or is it a 'nightmare'... The key to any turbosystem is to be realistic in expectations, and engineer to a set of defined goals. Once you reach them, be happy for a while, and DRIVE the car reaping the 'treat'... But too many times, too often in fact, I watch guys tear into perfectly good long blocks under misguided assumptions left over from the 1960's about what 'needs' to be done to a turbocharged car. Take a good look at Saabs. If they have a 'low pressure' turbo system (by their definition, less than 1 bar positive pressure) they don't even include a boost gauge because they don't consider that stressful enough to warrant the gauge! Coming from the turbocharged small displacement VW world, everybody was running a 20 or 25psi wastegate (and this was the 80's!) Now it's even higher. The stock Nissan OHC is a damn stout engine, and with no modification will easily return 'lifetime' reliability (100K+) at the 300HP level. What boost level is needed to achieve this is dependent on turbocharger and top end breathing. But that horsepower level barely gets this engine to 100HP per litre. And it's built to handle that all day long. Keep if from detonating (that means FUEL AND SPARK far more than static compression ratio at this power level!) and it will live literally 'forever'! It saddens me to see people throw a bunch of money at a car because they were 'told' stuff was necessary, when in fact, they could have saved that money and used it for far more important things (like a chassis modification to better handle the power, or gawd forbid a much-needed driver improvement class/track time!) In fact, if guys would leave their car alone, and take the first $2000 they normally would have put toward 'car mods' and invest them in "driver mods" like a driving school they would reap driving rewards in EVERY car they drove. And in many cases they would realize how far beneath the potential they have been driving the car they had already sitting in their hands! This is especially true for the younger set, in many cases they have not been exposed to the FULL capabilities of even a stock S30. If they knew, and could extract it, think of the treat...the joy they would get from what they have-and everything from that point onward! Put $1500 into a turbo and a set of pistons, and one plugged injector and you're back at square one... I digress...

A common misconception is that Humidity adds somehow to the loading of the A/C system: it does not. COOLING is the only thing A/C has to do, dehumidification automatically takes place during this process. It's why evaporators can't run any colder than 35F...any colder and the copious condensate that forms rapidly turns to a big block of ice and renders the cooler ineffective. 'More is not necessarily better' is the watchword. If anybody has ever taken a car into the SoCal or Southeastern Desert areas they will have experienced the worst thermal loading possible. Humidity removal is a secondary byproduct of the cooling process. All you need to insure is you have a proper condensate tray and adequately designed drain tube from the evaporator housing. If you time the compressor cycling, and monitor the head pressure (and know what you are looking at) you can gauge how efficient each portion of the system is doing it's job. That a compressor cycles on and off signifies you have 'excess capacity'---you will notice nowadays the A/C tends to cycle ON a lot more than OFF when it's hot out. You will also notice cooling efficiency goes up when the car is moving forward rather than when standing still at idle. All signs that the components are progressively getting smaller, and working harder. Yes they are more 'efficient' but they are also working at 100% capacity far longer. The net result is that any deficiency at all in the system will result in marked decrease in the cooling capacity and a miserable cabin environment. In the old days, the systems were so grossly oversized it wasn't funny. I could make condensate appear on the windshield, side windows, and hatch glass in my 75 Fairlady Z with the stock Nissan In-Dash air. I actually had to turn the adjustment knob down because it would literally get meat-locker cold inside sitting in the sun parked with the engine at controlled idle (the vacuum dashpot kicking up idle when the compressor kicked on). The 75-78 systems were better than the ARA and Frigi-King simply because they were a blow-through evaporator core and less susceptible to leak dilution of the cold air. But the JDM system in the Fairladys sent to Tropical Climates with the little knob way up under the dash...AMAZING! And yes, it used the 'old style' flat copper tube and fin condenser... The size of the components in the ARA and Frigi-Kings was oversized because of the draw-through aspect of the evaporator. Blow through that puppy instead and you will get a meat locker inside the car it's so oversized! There are tag-on under-dash units that will fit under the glove box. Give those a serious look---I can remember FOG coming out of them they were so cold! And since they usually have dual fans and can get decent air-exchange in the cabin (plus be mounted anywhere) they work exceedingly well. Everybody gets stuck on the paradigm of an A/C system having to blow from the front of the car through the stock registers. The under-dash units work great and will cool the interior just as well. EVEN BETTER you can place them BETWEEN THE SEATBACKS blowing FORWARD and get a very efficient cooling without having knee clearance or fusebox (260 or 280Z) issues. This is where the Toyota 2000GT had it's aftermarket A/C pod... Worked great!

Er......... Does the term 'firewall' have any meaning? I don't know of a single sanctioning body which will allow a single walled fuel ANYTHING inside the passenger compartment. Generally the requirement is secondary encapsulation with sheetmetal of a specific gauge, or construction of a firewall to 'segregate' the fuel section to someplae NOT directly accessible to the driver. What you do on your cobble-job streeters is your business, but in a sanctioned racing series where a tech inspector, or worse yet a track or sanctioning body will be possibly held accountable for someone's bone-headed self-immolation you got to realize they take it kind of seriously. I would say putting it behind a properly segregated firewall would make it acceptable, but with as little details as was given for being 'turned away' it's hard to say what their objection was. I have seen fuel cels in the spare tire area, but they have always had secondary containment (another layer of sheetmetal minimum) to keep any chance of a ruptured cel from splasing willy-nilly into the passenger's compartment. With a surge tank mounted that high, outside of any roll structure, I could see where containment and proper leak segregation would get a non-compliance ruling. I mean, am I the only guy who sees that? For the street, you can do what you want and get away with it until something terribly tragic happens and nobody's the wiser. For a race series...expect to have your logic scrutinized from an impartial level (and in some cases be ready to be viewed with a prejudiced eye...)

Flying MobilOil's Pegasus would be preferable to Merpati Air...

'Xnke' The condensers that are commonly fitted to the S30's are effective, yes, but not even close to the level of the newer designs available. Would you run a turbocharger intercooler designed like the S30 condenser? This isn't an intercooler is it? No, of course not, because there are more effective designs available. The condenser in an A/C system is the same thing, a charge cooler located after a compressor. And if the current item does the job, what do you expect to gain from 'more efficient' units? Overcooling? Unless you have seen evidence of the prior system not making capacity, 'upgrading' is a theoretical crapshoot based more in 'well lets do it anyway just because' than logical thought or engineering. As I said, the Mazda condenser I chose to use is more effective, has a greater capacity, and I was able to fit it in space available. Not to mention it is lighter weight, and offers less restriction to airflow than the old tube-and-fin type. There, a scintilla of some cogent thought arises: possibly lighter weight (whatever that difference makes) and possibly less restriction to airflow. Marginal reasons to upgrade, but possibly worth it. Possibly. If the original wasn't performing. The original performs---that you don't have one makes this an acceptable choice in your application, but don't get people thinking there is anything wrong with the original components. They are more than up to the task at hand. As I originally stated, the problems with the Aftermarket systems generally stem from improper installation and air leaks than undersized components, they are grossly oversized matter of fact! Going in the opposite vein---would you install a GTR 500HP capable Intercooler on your stock ZXT? Well, sadly to say with this 'more efficient thinking' vein...it's possible you would---and reap no advantage from it. Planning on driving in mudcaked ralleyes with the A/C on? Then I guess that may pay off for you! Also, the S30 is not the most ideal situation for climate control...lots of window area, and little to no insulation, except what you install after you pull out all the old thin rotted stuff and replace it. No worse than a Geo Metro---look at component sizing on it and realize how terrible OVERSIZED the original 70's era stuff was! The condenser core was good enough for a MUCH larger car, as was the Evaporator---matter of fact, that same evaporator was used in ARA's kit for Chevy Full Size behind the dash setups! This doesn't mean the components are undersized for an S30 due to 'not ideal situations' but again, most shortfalls in these early systems are due to poor installation and leaks in airpath, NOT components being undersized! They are grossly OVERSIZED as a matter of fact. Another issue for me is the flow through the core...I will eventually have a turbocharged engine with intercooler infront of this, and then the radiator is behind this. They will all be ducted together, with a fan shroud, but that is a LOT of flow restriction possible! Then proper airflow management will be necessary on the Condenser as well as the evaporator. Making it "bigger and more efficient" is a ham-handed way of getting around proper airflow management. It may work, but don't give the impression there is anything wrong with the original stuff supplied with the ARA or Frigi-King kits. If they worked fine for countless thousands of miles in my turbo car without an issue, methinks you are going into 'overkill mode' out of some misguided notion that there is something wrong with the components as sourced originally. There is not. People apply patches and fixes to something which is poorly designed or not understood. They proclaim victory over a problem which didn't exist. I can see not having a condenser and then saying "this one will work" but having an original ARA or Frigi-King condenser in-hand, I would be sorely tempted to 'forego' your 'upgrade' simply because it's unrequired even for the application you state. It's plenty oversized. Now, if you got one which was HALF the square footage so airflow over the radiator was only HALF restricted---you might have something there. But as it is you have effectively restricted flow through the whole radiator, with the same realitve delta T across the device---so what have you gained? Nothing, in reality. And in terms of system efficiency??? There is no free ride in thermodynamics. That you didn't have one, and found this one fits is the biggest justification for using this part. Don't think you have gained anything in 'efficiency'.

Don't know about a Civic Fan never installed one. I had ZX's coming out my butt some years ago, and was determined to make what I had fit---so I did. The fan is a large part of the A/C equation. As long as it's not hte 240 fan, you will get better airflow and that is what matters. If you don't want to cut your fan housing, forget about the 280ZX fan.

I gotta fly coach next week. It sucks. Especially when the guy you are meeting in Indonesia is flying there Business Class. My ticket is 1/5 the cost of his, and I'm going to Bangkok afterwards. Man I miss Business Class... Oh, wait, you are using veiled codespeak. I blather mindlessly, I digress...