Tony D

The pump and gasket are the same number as the L28 pump... It's the same pump. It's why aftermarket, the 'turbo auto' pump is still readily available, and CHEAPER than a standard N/A pump... it's the one still in current production!

No, to the thermostat housing. Look at the diagram provided earlier. Let's not degrade this into 'ZCar.com Generalizations' type answers, it's been far to specific in the discussion thusfar to let that happen.

In some countries, chips work as a fine heating medium. If you get them fresh, you can form them into bricks for more efficient packing into whatever furnace/stove you have. Cow Chips, Buffalo Chips, Sheep Dip, etc... It all burns fine! Buying a tank is not cheap, and they 'all' will have the same price when they factor in transportation costs.

Watcha need a front-sump for, got a Skyline? They should be fairly easily obtainable, they were in Skylines that way. The older ones had 'hammerhead shark head' kickouts on the sump as well.

You guys are discussing two different things: Production Welding, and Artisanship. If it's from prints it's one thing. If it's from a rough sketch and 'conceptual discussions' it's entirely another. 6 Sigma is good for meetings with Doughnuts. You can apply it to shop floor layout, and tooling so that the environment is as efficient as possible. That is probably the most you can hope for unless you are willing to invest heavily on skills training for TCN's which may or may not appreciate your investment in them, and leave at the end of contract to use all your nice efficiency training to great effect for your competitior. I see those ads in the paper all the time: "So-and-So has left the company with his passport in breach of his employment agreement, and is sponsored by So-and-So Company, anybody employing him is doing so illegally." Like JohnC said: skilled fabricators are your best bet towards efficiency---if you get out of their way and give them a good working environment with proper setup areas, tooling, etc. they can be very effective. Most inefficiencies in the stated country (or is that emirate...) can be traced to employment agencies not really screening their TCN's really well, so you get a guy that SAYS he is a welder (electrician?, mechanic?, yes yes yes, I can do it all yes yes yes!) but that meant he spent 2 years laying bead in a Bangalore Factory until a robotic welder replaced him. He never did any prepwork, never any setup, they just came by on jigs and he laid down the bead with his MIG or Sick. They can lay great beads, but ask them to set anything up, or use their better judgement if they see an area that may require an extra gussett or thicker fillet...FORGET IT! Add to that a shop that isn't climate controlled (you think I'm joking?) and you have the formula for a job that will take forever. GM's assembly plant was AirConditioned out in Kansas. Beancounters really didn't like that idea, none of their other plants were A/C'd at the time. Found in short order that efficiency swings throughout the seasonal changes were MUCH more controllable, and that overall production efficiency was higher there than anywhere else. Most of it was attributed to the comfort zone on the floor and being the proper temperature. I am constantly told to slow down in-country by TCN's who work at a much slower pace. They don't drink as much water as I do, either. Which do you want? A lower water bill, or work done quickly and efficiently? Don't overlook the importance of aven marginal improvements in working environment at your shop. Small things like water cooler stations on the production floor can greatly increase productivity. I'm sure if Demming were alive, he could analyze your process and figure out a way to do what you want. But there is no shortcut. Catagorize the steps in the process (think macro, not micro), quantify them in terms of manpower and expected scheduling, then set goals and keep track on if you meet them or not. If not, why not? Eventually you will ask enough questions through the process to increase efficiency and workflow. And this comes back to what John C said earlier again: Skilled Fabricators need to be 'left alone'---during these questioning sessions, ASK THE PEOPLE ON THE FLOOR WHAT THEY NEED OR WOULD DO TO MAKE THE JOB GO FASTER. They know their jobs FAR better than most people think (managers, that is) and can be invaluable as a tool to improving workflows. Nobody WANTS to do a bad job, if they feel they have input to give that will make a concrete improvement (and maybe make their life easier in the process) rest assured they will speak up. Workers being ignored and not given a chance to improve their environment is a sure blueprint for discontented and non-productive (or under-productive) workers. Most people want to take pride in the work they do, but if they don't feel they have any input towards making what they think may be abad product better...they withdraw and 'work to rule' and you get what you get. Good Luck!

The Great Gonzo... Think Jim Henson was a Ted Nugent Fan? LOL

"Clark's Corvair Parts"---Shelburne Falls MA. They're the 'Big Dog' when it came to Vair parts as long as I could remember. There are a lot of smaller local suppliers, but Clarks had a loyal customer base that was centered around the SERVICE they provided. Technical information from long-employed people who KNEW the product. I gladly paid more for a part from Cal Clark (whom I met personally in 1994 after buying parts from him for nearly 15 years at that point!) because he made a point of letting people know what was in the works, and WHY his parts were either not exact replicas, or were better than original. They had a way of pricing parts in 'kits' for basic everyday 'limp it along maintenance' all the way up to full resto stuff. They poured money back into the business buying infrastructure like a 100ton press (to make sheetmetal pans IN HOUSE!). They weren't perfect, you had to weld them---but he explained the difference in price between his $100 pan that you had to weld, or an exact replica which would really be indistinguishable from the original when installed was about $700. Cal figured it was better to sell a $100 part that took a little work to 'make perfect' than to try to sell a $700 part which was 'exact and perfect, but out of the price range for most of his clientelle. As most of his competition hung it up, he bought them out. Now he offers THEIR lines of parts as well. If you have a Corvair, sooner or later you will be calling Clarks. Unfortunately, I'm not seeing that type of investment in Z Car vendors. Onsies-Twosies, or specializing in one component or another, but not a consolidated one-stop source. I think the biggest thing Clarks had going for him were his people. They KNEW what they sold. They KNEW what it was going on. They KNEW how to install it. It is pretty shocking when you start talking with what you would THINK was some female order taker, and she starts rattling off a tool list and what you have to watch out for when doing this or that. Dealing with competent people who KNOW what they are talking about is so rare these days it's refreshing! And in the 10 year hiatus from calling them, my customer number stayed active. When I finally did call in for something after my restoration, the first thing out of the girls mouth after I gave my customer number was 'Is this still going on your 66 Corsa Turbo? Did you ever install the turbocharger, or are you still running the Isky cam and forged high compression 110hp motor in there?' After talking some more, they asked 'how do you like the billett flywheel you installed, have you had any issues with it?' I mean, they are combing the customer for things they actually seem concerned about. I support all my local specialty vendors because I have seen the payoff with Clark's. Even in 1979, when GM still had parts for the car available at the dealer---many independents and even some GM dealers would go to Cal for specialty stuff that he had which wasn't available from GM any longer or on rebuilt stuff they knew was of BETTER QUALITY than what they would get from mass marketers or even authorized GM rebuilds! Now, (egads) 31 years later, they still have the same pulpy paper catalog, and now an online equivalent. Try and get a Corvair Alternator at AutoZone... Been there, done that! Seen it firsthand. Support your Z-Specialists.

Crap, no photos of the rims on my car originally: 14X13's, running 295/575R-14 Dunlops with 14X10's on the front. Looks like the black car, save they are 930 Turbo style flares, instead of the 'bubbles'... I've been debating what wheels I'm going to use to get back to the original look, as the Countach tires aren't as available as they once were (335-35-15's)... Tire compounds have made huge advances, you almost don't need those wide tyres any longer... but damn they look bitchen! Those 17X11's look pretty good. I had 10" in the back with 265's for years, but they looked so small in comparison to what was in there originally. The narrowest tire that looks decent in the back are 295's... Got to do something to upsize that rubber out back.

The overall layout of the tubing is similar to other tubular a-arms I've seen made by professional chassis works in Europe. Execution of the welding looks less than desirable, but at this point, anything is better than nothing. But general layout looks no different than pro stuff done by certified engineers.

If this was an API machine, I could just goodwill the fuses, they're only about $5000. But this is an industrial machine, selling for about 1/10th the cost, and they cust costs by sourcing the switchgear on their own instead of through us... "You do the work on your own, you accept those risks!" How hard is this as a concept to grasp? Apparently with Dxxxxx'x Exxxxxxxxx in Australia, it's not graspable!

Muahahahaha!

With the way the electrical contractor is crying about the fuses they chose for the machines I started last year, I may just end up back there to pound heads. "Stupid choices in engineering (without consulting us) on your part, does not necessitate a back charge approval on my part." "Sometimes you eat the bear, sometimes the bear eats you!" What is it with contractors wanting everybody to pay for their mistakes in specification of components?

I was drinking heavily in the Lounge... It should say '327'...

DITTO, I was 325/350 on a 225mm and had no slippage issues...

OMFG... That book was $184 when I bought it in 1984. I would love to have a copy, but not $799 worth of love! I have now moved the bastard who 'borrowed it' from simple a-hole to 'shoot in ankles on next sighting, move to knees, then hands, then elbows'... Yeah, that's the animal.

Amazing when you go 'cross platform' and start mind-expanding, eh? That was sold with every blow-through setup sold by Claudes' Buggies back in the early 90's. When you read through it, you realize they asked a lot of questions about paradigms laid down in the previous decade, and then dispelled them conclusively one-by-one with facts and diagrams. There was an undergraduate engineering text 'Turbocharging the Internal Combustion Engine' that I bought from OPMAP Technical Books back in 1984 which was REALLLY informative. But like lending tools or your Katana, once it's out of your hands to what you think is a 'trusted' individual, you get skrogged in a most unplesant way. I can't remember the author, nor the isbn (damn my memory!) but that thing was well over 1000 pages and I think it was responsible in large part for me getting the handle 'turbotony' back then! I didn't pick up "Turbomania" till I moved to SoCal in 89... but it was a confirmation of what I'd been seeing in VW development for close to 15 years at that point. Now remember, nobody turbo'd a car till Vin Diesel came on the scene in FnF1 a couple of years ago....

Z-Ya, PM me and I can e-mail you some Comp Pan Photos. RIght this very second, it's 345pm in Narita's Star Gold Lounge, but in several more hours I will be landing in LAX (about 8 hours before I left according to the clock) and can take some snappies of the Comp Pan I just bought off e-bay. The windage tray is pretty straightforward. Hell, I'll even put a ruler into the photo so you can scale it in your forgery attempts! LOL

My ploy and M.O. is this: Hey Mr. Counterman, I need the NAPA Heavy Duty Equivalent for a 1963 Chevrolet Byscane 350CID V8 with a 160 degree thermostat. Then, punch a 2mm weep hole for bleeding the air out of the system like the Nissan has, and you're in like Flynn even in East Rumpskrog, NJ (or even more remote Sheepslover, MT!) Trying to get 'import parts' from local distributors can sometimes be a drag. Luckily the venerable Small Block Chevy shares our Nissan 54mm Thermostat configuration. And if you own a 240Z with a two-bolt flange.... you know all those Chevy O-Ringed Thermostat Housings, and cool billet pieces? Yep, they fit juuuuust fine on your Nissan lower housing! I'm amazed more people don't know this little tidbit, and revel in my own crappulence when I have the opportunity to repeat it and drone on endlessly like this.... Thanks aarang!

I bought a Harbor Freight Radiator Tester. OH MAN I forgot how handy those things were! With the usual caveat of 'change to a good Liquid Filled Ashcroft Precision Gauge' they function great, and will show you interesting things about your cooling system. (And with their included adapters, just about ANY cooling system!) Whoodathunkit that a 20+ year old Chevy heater core and hoses would stand up to 45psig static pressure? They did, and gave me much needed confidence during recent water pump leakage diagnosis. Next time I come to Oz, should I pack a 'sacrificial tool kit' to accidentally leave under a rock some place near Eastern Creek Raceway for some deserving Aussie to find? Save shipping, use my baggage allowance and entry exemptions to cheat your local import duty people. I'm up for international intrigue on a chicken-foot scale! LOL

Trust me on this, we don't EVER want that thread started! Once you start THINKING about that, you start asking questions... And that is dangerous! Right offhand, the first thing that comes to mind this year is '370Z Sport Package' Frankly, I'd much rather have the 370Z Sport Package than the 'deferred gratification promise' inherent in the.... I'm stopping now... I'M STOPPING NOW! QUIT MAKING ME THINK OF THIS! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

They are of a genre not discussed in this thread... Claymation. Not 'cartoons'... If we really want to parse stuff, some of this Japanime would at one time been cringing-running fodder if you called it a 'cartoon'...depending on what the comic book guys were wearing at ComiCon. "Worst Characterization....EVER!" I digress (not to mention the more than passing resemblence to Comic Book Guy of Simpsons Lore...) Anything which reveals the sinister intent of penguins is all right by me. Pass the gor-gon-zola please, I'm feeling a mite peckish. (Not to mention the acrobatic sheep. Everybody knows I'm a sucker for acrobatic sheep! No mere wellies for me, I want EXCITEMENT in my life, Grommit!)

Actually, you're using the 'standard' thermostat. 82C. Cold (or Frigid, in Nissan Speak) is 90C, and Tropical is 72C. That's 160 (162), 180 (179.6), & 190 (194) F for you non-metric types!

I do have a 510 you know...

I've used HKS and Tomei CrMo one-piece flywheels for years. They are considerably lighter than that one, so I can only guess the weight is carried behind the pressure facing and in the area around the crank mating flange---would have to see it to confirm, but I would think it would work fine. I think I paid $215 for my Tomei sniped at the last second, they are normally 1.5X2X that price. The lighter weight would not be an issue in a Z so much as a Frontier that was rock-crawling.

But it's in not in NEW JERSEY right? That HAS to account for some kind of multiplier, RIGHT????? LOL