Tony D

That's only a 205hp to the rear wheels L20A (1998CC's) with low compression. The L28 accelerates much faster. instead of going the 1.3 miles in 53 seconds, it's more like 45. From a standing start, on dirt... With the L28 and a four barrel manifold, running one time at Carlsbad we had no traction in first or second on street legal drag radials, and because of the 3.36 gearing you could count one...two...three before the cam came on in third and the car started accelerating to a 13.08 quarter mile...spinning the tires through the traps...

That would have solved Frank's Issue with his tow vehicle...for sure!

That guy was a smarmy bastard. Wearing teardrop sunglasses, older dude, too! Literally did a 'look both ways to see if anybody saw him' and got in the truck and drove off. Scenario was this: Guy parks, gets out. Doesn't leave it in gear or set brake. Walks off, truck rolls back CRASH! Wastes the whole rear end of this Camry or something. Guy walks back to the truck, pulls back into the stall, LOOKS RIGHT AT ME, and reparks. Goes into Albertsons. Doesn't say anything. I look at my kid and said "This, is a test..." So I pull my truck to another spot. Where I can see everything. Guy comes back, sees the damaged car. Goes up and looks closer: both tail lights out, his bumper went over theirs, so the trunk is trashed and both rear quarters are pushed in quite a bit. It's in excess of the $500 California reporting requirement for sure. Guy looks left, looks right, adjusts his glasses, and boogies! I wait around 20 minutes, but by now my kid is going to be late for his Scout stuff, so I leave a little note on the wrecked car much like many of my posts at ZC.C "I watched this happen, this is the license number, if you need my help in nailing this smarmy lowlife no good mu*&^(*& then here is my cel phone XXX XXX XXXX, it happened at this time, I waited till this time, and left." I wasn't 10 minutes down the road and got the call, they called the cops and it took them 3 HOURS To arrive. Swore out the statement. About two weeks later a Detective calls me in for a photo lineup. They used CA driver's license photos. One of the guys looked like "The Skipper" from Gilligan's Island! But of the 6 guys he gave me photos of (none of which were wearing glasses) it took me about 5 seconds of looking at all the photos in turn, and pulled out the guy: "This is him" Detective asks a couple of questions, how do I know. How can I be so positive with such a short look. Take another look, this is serious, make sure... So another couple of seconds per photo, same guy. Go over why. Apparently my pick matched the registered owner of the vehicle who's plate I wrote down... Bummer! Detective escorts me out of the building, and as I'm leaving he says "Thanks, Thanks a Lot. Not many people would do this for someone they don't know. Why did you do it?" Looked him straight in the eye, and said "The guy looked like a little rat-bastard informer from the Mob. Greasy hair, and that look left, look right, nobody saw me I'm free and clear look. That last look is what did it. It pissed me off! I wanted to NAIL that guy for THINKING he got away with it." Cop kinda chuckled. Then said "You will probably get a call from the D.A. you picked the registered owner of the truck, and he denied everything. He has no clue we have a witness. If he doesn't come clean, the D.A. will take a phone deposition from you, you will probably never need to come to court." Eeeh! Wrong! Guy lawyered up. I had to go to court. After it was delayed and moved, and delayed, and postponed. I mean, I KNOW what the guy's lawyer was doing. He just didn't realize that I got paid whether I was working or not, and the company I worked for not only paid for my gas and the truck I took to the courthouse....They told me not to miss any court dates so I didn't get in REAL trouble and get constrained to where I couldn't make my own schedule. I guess the damage was over $4000 so it was pretty serious. Normally the owners would be SOL and could only use me for testimony in Small Claims if they didn't file that police report. Something about the 'completeness' of what they got told got that Detective to push it through and nail that guy. I don't think he liked the guy, either. So when you think nobody's watching....they're watching!

Why do people say 'don't go inland'? Because if you are from California, you understand "Inland" means Modesto, Sacramento, Tulare, Madera, Riverside, uh... did I leave anything out Inland California Guys? The only thing you get by going 'Inland' is I5-The Californiabahn. Great for making it from Sacto to LA in 4 hours, but I'd prefer the coast road myself. Yosemite? Tahoe? That's MOUNTIANS guys, US395, not 'Inland'... Inland is where all the smog blows during the sea-breeze. Then it sits there because of the mountians. Except in Riverside...eventually it makes it's way to Phoenix... Inland is a great jumping OFF place... Modesto and Madera get you into great places in the mountians...but they are literally on the places listed on the 'misery index' of places to live (no offense, guys, but they ARE!). I mean, the wonderful smell of airdropped crop pesticides in the morning (or the acrid smell of burning grapevine stubble)... it's the smell....of Madera! If you like flat, hot, and agricultural, then go Inland. If you want scenery, follow the mountians or the coast. At least south of Sacramento to the southern border! Inland Calfornia: There's a REASON everybody goes 80+ on I5!

"Is there something applied to the rear wheels? " Torque, in copious heapings...

Just remember, there was a 4V Datsun/Nissan Manifold. YEAH, it's a FOUR barrel, here's the comparison: There were dual two barrel inline Mercedes Manifolds. Guys argue about Corvair carburetor placement, too! <EDIT> That bastard yetterben just sent me a link last night to YahooJapan Auctions for an HA30 Cedric four-barrel intake setup complete with original Nissan Supplied Four Barrel on it! Only about $1200.....any takers?

"Buildout Cars" are always a taboo area of discussion. They do things the 'absolutists' simply can't understand...like put round top carbs on a car with 1973-Specification bumpers (talking USA here...) In Response to Carl...my understanding was the 73 cars had the leaner mixtures which also clean up the CO/HC by 'running hotter' but can be compensated for in the upper rpm ranges by more EGR and Needle Taper. Flowbench testing of the P79/N47 head can be found in one of Bryan Blake's Posts, he flowbenched them. (1 Fast Z) Running two heads 'concurrently' may be as simple as a running production change---cars up to midyear ran one, cars after midyear ran another. As they all occur in the same production year cycle for most of the world, you end up with a 1983 with one head in 5/83, and another in 7/83. Such was the situation on S30 doors for the US market in 1976! I would guess heads are no different. Parts is parts. On a side note, things at Eraring Power Generation Station in Dora Creek are degenerating quickly, and ALAS, I may have to make another visit down under..."oh bother," said pooh bear, "those ozzies are biting my arsecrack again!"

PM me anything you got on the car. I have to be in DFW in two weeks. There is a gawd, and he puts me in contact with people with FairladyZ's....

You are less than 20 minutes from me in Temecula. Seriously the primary reason I took the position here in SoCal over the comparable job with the same company in Staten Island New York was... Well, do I REALLY have to explain it? That original company has been sold six times since I left for another job in 1993. The situation here in SoCal is that (Unlike "Falling Down") skilled labor or professional employment is continuous and mobile. You can find a job if you are looking. Having grown up in Michigan, I knew unemployment to be a 'second job' for a lot of people. I didn't want to go through life like that, I wanted a place where....IF something happened, there were plenty of opportunities. Hell, for a brief stint I was even a principal in a small business here in SoCal. Had I not been litigated against and forced to get out of the partnership to ensure the business would survive (it still is in operation as a two-man operation and doing quite well, we keep in touch "just in case"...) I might be even better off than I currently am. But nothing stops me from going back into that job. In Michigan, with business contraction it would be a miserable environment to operate within. And with the state going the way it is... sheesh! "Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there!" Get some decent non-interventionist policies from the state gubbmint, and I'm all for coming back. I just don't want to pay a heating bill for a shop 9-10 months out of the year to keep the guys from FREEZING! That sucks capital, ya know!

I didn't get greedy with my turbo setup, and ran well over 50K miles before putting it to sleep, still capable of more, but just wanting to progress to EFI and not having the time to do the conversion as well as all the other things on the car I want to do... I remember being told how a turbo did't auto-x well, how it was non-linear power, blah blah blah... first run down the course with an instructor in the car and it was like "THIS IS A TURBO CAR? OH MAN I GOT TO DRIVE THIS!" It's all how it's setup. Problem is, even with a very low boost setup, you need BIG STICKY tires and GOOD suspension to keep it stuck down. Really, the car has more power than most people can handle. My car was more at home on a big track doing open track events than trying to do pin-turns and low-speed slaloms. I still remember getting scolded for lighting up my 265's to make a pin turn instead of doing an E-Brake initiated turn. "That's not how you do it!" But the time slip said otherwise... The Corvette guys there seemed to like it as well. One day that one will come back, for even bigger tracks and higher speeds. For an Auto-X I've got my eye on this 510 anyway, and JeffP's old Z32 would make a willing engine donor...

Just to drive home this point, if you are in the US Military and come across the scenario that woldson describes you can be prosecuted under Article 134 of the UCMJ referred to as "Wrongful Witholding" They are lowlives. They need to pay. This isn't a job for Judge Wapner, it's a job for Judge Dredd!

I was in a class with a guy who was a California Native, who was currently working/living in Chicago. He made a valid point about 'The Midwest' which I took to heart living and growing up there. "Why the hell do they call it 'The Midwest'? I mean, I hate New York and how they think everything is derived and revolves around them? Ever been to NYC? It stinks---I mean, literally has an odor to it. I grew up in Huntington Beach, and I moved EAST to come to Chicago, and frankly 5 months out of the year it more resembles the Mid EAST than anything else. What does Mid West mean anyway? I moved to the Mid East." So, I don't say 'midwest' any longer. Phil converted me. And he still is stuck in Chicago, complaining about white crap that falls from the sky and worrys about his water pipes freezing. Believe me, not everywhere in SoCal is LA. I paid almost as much (75%) for my cottage in Michigan for vacation as I did for 2.5 Acres of land and my house in SoCal. In 13 years living here in SoCal, that little purchase (even with the dive) is worth FAR more than I paid for it. The place in Michigan? I remind my wife every summer when she wants to go on vacation that the money we spend on that two-week vacation hut each year would pay for a LOT of 'Wife Come Along' Examination Junkets in Asia... Outside of housing, that's about it for "cost of living"---Michigan's Taxes aren't much lower, and state sales tax is close to comparable. Oh, but hey, if I was in Michigan right now and lost my job I'm SURE I could pick up another one within a week....NOT! Job situation there is similar to what it was when I left in 84. PLUS my kid's college education will be a FRACTION of what I paid back in the 80's. When a dollar really was worth something (like 268 yen!!!) And seriously, that is why I've stuck it out here, some of the best colleges and post secondary schools with the LOWEST COSTS in the nation. Sorry U of M, but you ain't worth it. Cal Poly, UCR, or Cal State Fullerton will work just as well for the boy, and a cost significantly lower than your extortionary rates! But you ARE correct about vehicle costs being higher. I have to own four Z's to keep in circulation at all times. I mean, while you guys in the Mideast get to take your cars off the road for 5 or 6 months solid to work on them and get them looking pretty, I got a show this weekend, a club drive that weekend, I mean it's incessant: drive drive drive drive! I spent over $800 a month on auto-related expenses last year. Tires, oil, more tires, gas, Insurance. I mean all I ever DO is drive the damn Z. I NEVER get a chance to take it off the road and just tear into it and get it looking good. I just rotate to the next one and on the odd weekend when nothing auto-related is coming off, I get time to repair what broke or needed attention...just in time for the next club event, car show, racing event. It's brutal and not for the faint of heart. So take you time relaxing in that -20 garage watching blood ooze out of partially frozen knuckles, of breathe heavily of the heady odor of volatile organic compounds unleashed in the basement while you refinish that panel. You not only are saving money on not driving your car half the year, you're content to live in 'god's country' middle indiana. Oh waitaminit, That's Michigan's UP. INDIANA??? You just got dead grass and miserable weather. YEECH! That's like Omaha in February, without the river or the hills! Forget THAT!

I live in the southern tip of California, the farthest point in the contiguous USA I could get from where I grew up. I wanted a position in Hong Kong. I now service the Asia Pacific Region from my offices in SoCal. I saw the writing on the wall in Michigan growing up that the cultural attitude there was wrong for me, and for sustainability of local enterprise. I have been proven correct. My job title: Freelance Asian Breast Density Inspector and Philanthropist. Why get a local job? Haven't you had enough of those people already?

American Cars open from the front because they are always in the service stall having the water pump changed... Nissans always had you fiddling with the SU's or the alternator, so you needed the hood clamshelling. I guess if you plan on a V8, then your water pump access will be speedy!

Absolutely not! Everybody knows red as a background color for exhaust housings just makes their flanges look bigger than usual!

"If you think that $500 is too much for a "piece of pipe", you build one and sell it for less.....or learn the skills to do it yourself." +1 I was greeted with open hostility the last time I made this same suggestion. Guys' gotta eat, what do you expect him to do, give you charity because you can't do it yourself? You've consumed 3/4 of his working day on your project, time which could have been spent doing profitable 'short work' jobs that come into the shop routinely. $20 for a 15 minute bracket fix and 0.3oz of welding wire is FAR more profitable than tying up your lift for 6 hours making one exhaust system! This kind of attitude is why JeffP refuses to make any more of his $1500 stainless steel exhaust systems for the ZX. He wasn't making money on those, it was almost cost-basis. If you want quality, you will pay. If you buy cheap, you will pay! Either way, YOU PAY!

All this talk about 'throwing' and not one person mentions 'throwing money out the window'... Chances are any bearings and rings you put in will be of LESSER quality than what Nissan used originally. "And then you go through all the break-in crap"... With all the jabberjawing and debate, the engine could have been in and running by now! I bought a 'low mileage engine' let it sit in the side yard for FIVE YEARS through countless typhoons and when it came time to install it I got chocolate fudge out of it, along with several gallons of water. I pulled the head, cleaned the piston domes and combustion chambers with lacquer thinner, reassembled it with a new Nissan Head Gasket and boosted it to 300+HP. I had oil control problems on #5 which eventually got me upset enough to try to kille the engine and swap to another one. What I ended up doing running 21psi of boost was UNSTICKING THE ONE OIL CONTROL RING and CURING my oil control issues in that cylinder. That was at around 5000 miles of operation after install. 45,000 miles later, it's still running strong. Now, I didn't have the ability to put in ARP's then. I don't like Nissan Rod Bolts. My ONLY concession to doing anything futher to what you have is this: Pull the rod/piston assembly and scrupously clean the rings and grooves of the pistons to make sure the rings won't stick (aren't sticking) and install those ARP rod bolts. Reassemble it and ONLY buy a part to replace something that is OBVIOUSLY unserviceable. There are THOUSANDS of engines out there that prove the materials and components in a factory-assembled engine are the RULE and not the exception. Frankly the quality of rings has gone downhill since the engine was manufactured. You can't get Nissan Rings any more, so at 75K, that engine still has 175,000 worth of miles on it ringwise. I have an engine in my Fairlady that has 185psi of compression at 225,000 miles on it. Don't "THROW" anything into that engine! Chances are you will end up with something of less quality and less longevity than what you have there already. The ONLY exception to that would be the rod bolts, ARP makes better units than Nissan did... Or leave it alone.

+1 to KTM, I have been at 325+ since 1985 on a stock 1977 NORMALLY ASPIRATED Nissan Bottom AND Top End. I changed stuff that bolted on to the block. The most I did internally was clean the tops of the pistons and combustion chambers with laquer thinner when I replaced the STOCK Nissan Head Gasket. I also pulled the oil pan to clean out sludge, and replace the leaking gasket. I've got to ask: WHY would you put forged pistons in a car only making 350HP? All you will do when you detonate is break a set of $600 pistons, instead of a set of $200 pistons. I have seen closer to 500HP on stock bottom end, but that is a 'short distance proposition'... For me, I've got well over 50K miles on that setup and still not a complaint at that power level. I think that is acceptable longevity, as I know people with FORGED PISTONS that haven't successfully made that kind of 'drive time' on their engines yet as things keep breaking. Get greedy, things break. Experiment, things break. If you know what you want, where you want it RPM wise, and plan on being contented at that level there is no reason under the sun why you should spend extra money for pistons you will never utilize to their potential (and likely have oil consumption issues with on a street car anyway, compared with cast items!) "I HEARD"? I know. I did it. Then again, "I got a friend who knows somebody, who's uncle said that..." Please, lets' not go down that road here!

I humbly stand corrected, L-Engine Cranks are notorious for going out-of-round, do not use Plastigauge or you could seriously mislead yourself into thinking the crank journals were round, and then go on to checking oil clearances indirectly through physical measurements. Good luck with removing that crank / engine / whatever...

Oh, if you pi$$ me off, I can be very irritating. Not like here, I mean REALLY irritating, not in a cronic jockitch-that-doesn't-respond-to-Tinactin kinda way, but a malicious irritation! And this posession of my goods (especially when there is undoubtedly a LIST of people on the device you could call to ask where to return it...) This would pi$$ me off! I've made phone calls to people who freak out over how much I know, and then thanking me because they didn't realize they left their portfolio with checkbook, ID, credit cards sitting on a parking lot post! (Near a truck stop, no less!) I mean, right is right, and wrong is wrong. There is some stuff in between that people in power set up, but I'm not getting into that. Hell, I've turned around to make statements to the police after witnessing parking lot transgressions by slimy bastards who think they got away scot-free from backing into, and trashing someone else's ride. The sight of them in court being called to pay for their smarmy ways is eminently satisfying ("And where were you, Mr. D. And were there any witnesses other than yourself?" I was parked next to the gentleman, when he parked. After he left and his vehicle rolled into the other one, I waited, and then moved to see what he would do. My son was with me, we were on the way to the Boy Scout Meeting so he could present his Eagle Project to the board for approval."---you could see the defense attorney just shudder when he realized he didn't ask that question in THAT way during depositions. D'OH! 'We got a guy doing a stand up thing, and his backup witness is a Boy Scout working on his EAGLE PROJECT!' That dude was BUSTED! )

There's no real reason to follow through on it, it works, it's been done. Mid-Late 70's at Dominguez Hills College in L.A./Long Beach. The key is sizing the capacity of the thermal rejection and accumulator so you can actually cycle the compressor. Running '100% Duty Cycle' is not something you will be doing with a turbo car on the street. But you can easily chill the incoming mass flow to a set temperature above 35F consistently enough for reasonable acceleration bursts (say a minute or two.) The HP you will use compressing the refrigerant may or may not be offset by the power gained by the air density increase. But again, the key is accumulator sizing. The larger accumulator you have, and the more time between applications to charge it to a high enough level, the smaller a compressor you can get away with in the system. This is for a system to go to 35F. If you want a higher temperature, of course then the job becomes easier. And if you ALREADY have an air/air intercooler to get it within, say, 9F of ambient temperature already, using a conventional condensor core in a 'Vortech Style' cooler to trim extra heat off the inlet charge for 'perfect' intercooling and consistent density into the engine becomes even easier. Ease, being a 'relative' term in this case...

My source died. Eberhardt "Eddie" Bromert, former Waffen Panzer Trooper in WWII. Guy refit his entire 55 foot trimaran after getting exposure to a small sheet of milspec honeycomb. Stopped his wood refitting, spent three months solid, every day the library was open reading on the subject. Then tore into his boat, and started doing it all in aluminum honeycomb. Tore out stuff he just installed! Floors, walls, shower cabinet, deck hatches you name it! Eddie refit everything with honeycomb, and could quantify his weight savings on every part. I don't recall exactly but one teakwood hatch he had was something like 140#, and the composite one he made to replace it not only was more water-tight, but weighed on the order of 25 or 55#, and he had something like 12 of them on the boat! Of course, he was getting...er... uh... 'Discounted' Milspec resins and component parts from an...uh... 'associate' down in San Diego. Lots of his stuff was 'grey'... If Eddie was still alive, he would talk your ear off about it, Carl. He would also tell you about the time he met Roger Penske while driving at Sebring. An interesting fellow to be sure. Unless you have a source for surplus/'discoounted' composites you may be better served using aluminum framing on the trailer to keep the weight down, and then using conventional skinning techniques (aluminum sheeting)... The costs related to composite panels can really escalate the project to "Ferarri Level". Might try Polycore: http://www.polycore.com.au/ The link is the main page, this is really what you want to see there "Wingy's Trailers": http://www.polycore.com.au/Polycore-Preglassed-Panels.php I believe if Eddie had access to the internet, he would have spontaneously mutated into a self-levitating brainsac, such was his ability and thirst for knowledge. His buddy Pete always said 'Adolph did that to him!' and then would roll his eyes at a 78 year old guy acting like a kid over some gadget that was 'best in class' at whatever it was supposed to do.

Yes, knowing what state it was located in would be helpful, or perhaps contact information. Maybe SOME of us actually have Fairlady Z 2/2's and could use things like interior parts which are different than US models... HINT HINT HINT!

So denial that you're buying stolen goods makes it O.K.? Then posting the photos at the paedophile website is just 'devine retribution' for their lack of moral standards. Really, I'm amazed. I don't go certian places because of the likelyhood of stolen property being sold. I couldn't live with myself knowing someone's bread-and-butter (their tools) were taken and then bought by me. Frankly, I'm restraining myself from stating things drawn from conclusions after seeing the photos. They are travelling quite a bit. Must be because they save so much money buying stuff stolen. They deserve some heartbreak. People who profit from stolen merchandise deserve heartbreak. Denying you're supporting theives doesn't make it right. Nor absolve you from some morally correct retribution for your ill gotten booty... I bet the paedophiles will like it if you mention Chunkito's Booty in glowing terms. Posting mamasita on Craigslist as 'lonely latina looking for love' in the multiple partner personals would be good. You got the number, right? I'm sure Mr. Chunkito would love getting inquiries on his hot babe of a significant other from strange men. Stir that pot. They DESERVE it!

Just remember that payment schedule when considering building equity in your house. Now is the time to buy...