Tony D

Nice to see something different once and a while.

"Field Engineer" Check out Google Earth, and go to these coordinates: Lat 6deg 22' 57.86"s Lon 108Deg 23' 22.19" E That is the most recent 'Field Assignment' for me. Matter of fact, that's where I'm at again in 7 hours (should get to sleep soon!) Though I do not work at "S" either... But I can say, I can not stand an office. Sitting in an cubie "designing brackets" for 6 months was enough for me, and I took the first thing that got me to the field. I've been there ever since. My boss is technically 'office staff' but at least once a quarter he takes a field assignment to get OUT! You should like Field Work, especially if you like solving problems. There are downsides, but that is more if you look at it from the perspective of someone who likes to put on a tie and dockers and sit in a cubie 8-12 hours a day. For me, they're merely 'bumps in the road'... Field Guys are designed internally with compliant suspensions so that 'bumps' don't necessarily affect their stability. Then again, that would get into the definition of 'stable' and let's not go there, O.K.? Like someone once said to me: "Dude, we're all 'broken'!"

/Peggy Hill Voice/ "I did not know that!" Cygnus posted: "Normal House crickets are blood thirsty carnivores. They will bite through soft human skin and if the subject is asleep and unaware they will drink their fill of the person's blood. They can not bite through tough skin as on the hands, but any soft, particularly moist skin which eminates the odor of blood within, is prime target for a cricket bite. Many thought this was an old wives tale till numerous crickets were tested, and sure enough they are blood thirsty insects. Also they are known to carry a number of diseases , so this is a matter that should not be overlooked in health issue concerns. Severe infestations should be removed." Bintang is cooooold, Xander. This side of the island is MUCH nicer than Bandung. They even have cute girls here. It appears to be a totally different place than where I was last time. Google Earth will reveal my whereabouts: Indramayu Indonesia. When you look it up, you will see what looks like a refinery... Matter of fact, the roof you see at the following coordinates is the rain/sun shelter over the compressor: LAT 6Deg 22' 57.86" S / LON 108Deg 23' 22.19"E The hotel cabana I'm is can bee seen at: LAT 6Deg 20' 59.76" S / LON 108Deg 19' 24.51"E The foliage you see surrounding the cabanas is Mango Trees. They are everywhere, as Indramayu is literally "Mango City"...the roundabout nearest the room coordinates (just down off the bottom of the page depending on how close you zoomed to find my room!) has a statue in the center of it WITH THREE GIANT MANGOES ON TOP. Kind of reminds me of the 'Boll Weevil' Statue down south in the USA. Strange thing to see a statue of: Fruit. This Google Earth thing is cool. I've been 'following myself' and marking compressor locations as I go along. Xander, you know my address, type that into Google Earth and you can keep track of goings-on in the garden. Last I checked, I could see my Red 260 2+2 in the back! "Big Brother" indeed! LOL

Do you have a carbon canniser on the vehicle, and a completely sealed and functioning EVAP system on the car? If not, that is your problem. The early cars had a terrible EVAP system, and when you get the tank hot, it off gasses through the air cleaner once the crankcase is full of vapors. Most cars have rotted vapor hoses, so there is not any integrity to the original system and vapors can get out nomatterwhere you go. You should be able to put several inches of water column pressure on the gas filler neck and have that pressure hold for 5 minutes. If it doesn't you have a leak and need to fix it. When I redid my vapor hoses to the 3/8 and 1/4" conversion (from the 12 and 15mm hoses that were on there stock) both my 240Z and my son's 510 Wagon could hold 2PSI overnight. Neither of these cars reeks of gasoline after a hot shutdown. If you plug the vapor diverter valve at the front of the vapor line in the car, and make a gas cap to allow you to pressurize the tank, you will be able to test it yourself and go from there. Alternately, you can use the Vapor Line to supply pressure back to the tank, and see if it holds. If it doesn't hold for AT LEAST a minute or two---you have a leak. My bet: You have massive vapor hose leakage. That will do it every time. It's pretty common. Especially with Z-cars this age...

I will mention that the 2+2 does seem to be better while towing the little trailer. I have made some pretty radical manouvres in that and it's been predictable and reliable. My hitch bolts to the Bumper on the 280Z and is meant for the 1000# "Little Trailer" primarily. The other one is a custom hitch I made with the same 2" x .250" wall box tubing in a captive .375" thick end bracket that replaced my stock Datsun Tow Hook in the 'sandwich' between the stock skinny bumper bracket and the body. There is a secondary strap that goes to the rear crossmember behind the differential, but it's more a 'pushing' vector than anything with a torque moment to it. All it's motion is transferred through the A-Arm Bushings to the chassis down low. I have had no issues backing the trailer...the key is to use one or two of those fiberglass bike whips with the flags on them to know what the trailer is doing when you don't have the toolbox on it. You either have to open up the hatch to see the thing, or put something back there that gives you a reference. Backing the trailer is actually slightly easier in the 'racing coupe' than the 'family 2+2'. I do NOT recommend the small-tired trailer, get the one with the 12" tires! On backing the little trailer...I have towed it behind my wife's Navara/Frontier, as well as off the back of my F250 Long Wheelbase Longbed...backing was not an issue with either of those, as long as I could SEE the trailer (which is nigh near impossible in most cases because it sits so low). The thing that helped me with the trucks was putting those whips dead center (well, just offset from the towbar on the trailer) on the front and the back, and painting one Flourescent Green. If you see the Green Pole (Rear Flag) to one side of the Orange Pole (Front Flag) you know that is the way the trailer is jack-knifing, and you can steer to counteract it. The biggest problem people have with backing is they confuse the directions in the mirror, or can't tell which way the trailer is moving until you're well into movement. With the pole, you know IMMEDIATELY if the wheels on the pushtruck are going in the wrong direction and can correct it before it gets too out of kilter. To stow the rods, either stash them in the car, or bend them all the way over the trailer and stick them in a loop you have for the purpose. It makes a nice prop for a tarp if you cover the trailer at night. I came up with that for when it was behind the F250. Even with the tailgate down I couldn't see the trailer. With the flags on it, I could see it over the top of the tailgate no problem. I ended up breaking one of the rods doing something I shouldn't have been doing with it...so I cut them down to just under 4' tall, and stick them in the tool box on the trailer now. I have a little holder on the front and back of the toolbox for them, and it works just as good as with the flags on the opposite ends of the trailer.

I'm with Zmanco, the cranking disable circuit on most Aftermarket ECU's is 300rpms. You can get a fuel injected Z to idle to 400rpms without much effort. Cranking to get it running is literally a 'tick' of the key to get the first cylinder to fire in an EFI car. Basically one revolution, no more than three revolutions on some aftermarket systems to pick up various sensors. But on the stock system, turning the engine over with a cranking voltage at the battery above 9.6VDC will fire the engine reliably and get it running at idle speed simply by moving the engine across the firing point on the distributor. Cranking speed has little to nothing to do with it in an EFI HEI equipped car. It's not a magneto which needs a set minimum rpm to work the impulse coupling and self-generate. It sounds like an internal short to me---something where it's not grounded, or a wire is pinched and turning it in a set manner kills the circuit. Any L-6 Distributor from the same year will work (nissan/Datsun Product) I'm not sure what all this fuss is about '79' dizzies. If it's an E12-80 with a black box on the side, just about anything from any Datsun L6 will work. Even on the earlier stuff (75-78 for sure) 'says' this model year only...but really the pickup and etc all work with exactly the same values, and they all mechanically physically fit. It's just a matter of getting the wires in the right plugs to work with the harness in the car. And that's not a big hurdle, really.

I wouldn't hesitate for a second on that, even with the standard ZX Brakes. It would flat-tow just fine. With a standard 280Z (77) it flat-towed a 240 on a bumper hitch (one of the 'universal kits' they tend to sell these days for 5mph bumpers) and that old Valley Industries Towbar from near Dover Deleware, through PA, up into Northern Michigan and then back down through Wisconsin and across I40 to California without any issues. But that car had FULL synthetic lubes in the oil, I did NOT exceed 65 on that trip (honest! Except in the flat states...then it was upped marginally to the speed limit of 70) And when going through the mountians into Flagstaff, I slowed it down a bit. Simply because I know the differentials get SMOKING HOT when you put a load on them. Normally on these trips I will drive 12 to 16 hours a day. On this trip I limited that to 10 to 12 hours. I got the differential and tranny cooler/cooler pumps from Frank280ZX last time I visited him in Holland so I now have no such reservations about upping the speeds when towing the smaller trailer. With a flat-towed car, I would be conservative. Even at 70 I felt I was pushing it, but didn't want to block the semi's too badly. An R180 towing an 800# trailer in 118F heat from LA to Phoenix will have a differential temperature of over 350F (hot enough to melt the plastic vent breather off the top of the diffy at least)! So towing for long distances/high speeds would necessitate an R200 at a minimum, and if the load was heavy, at least a differential cooler, if not one for the tranny as well. FYI, the GT-R has differential and transmission coolers for the standard cars. Nissan knows a thing or two about putting power to the ground at speed. The diffy coolers I pick up were standard on all S130Turbos in Europe, and when the Z31 Turbo came out, they got both a gearbox and differential cooler. High load for extended periods needs a way to get the heat out! And synthetic oils in those cases are gearbox savers! But back to the comment, for a 1 or 2 hour tow someplace, I'd do it in a second with a 280ZX and a gutted 240Z. Without the coolers and junk. That's no big deal at all, and well within it's braking capacity. JUST REMEMBER: unless you are on FLAT land, NEVER tow in overdrive! It will EAT that fifth gear (it's a good way to toast a marginal clutch as well!). I drove from the I275/I94 intersection outside of Detroit all the way back to California with a bungee across the console to hold the car in 5th gear when it started popping out. THe tranny was crap to begin with, towing about 1000# on the little trailer on that trip probably didn't help it any...

In CA, the South Coast Air Quality Management District would be all over them for malfunctioning equipment! They actually have stickers on the pumps with a toll-free number you can call to report malfunctioning equipment. If that happened down here...you would be in an extortionists heaven! 'I'll not call the AQMD and report this if you guys give me a year's worth of free slim jims and coffee in the morning...'

I had the wierdest experience today. I was on the jobsite and there are crickets all over the place. They were spraying water on the compressor to keep it cool and running, so the insulation blankets are all waterlogged, and crickets are everywhere... So leaning up against a beam, I feel one of the little buggers jump from the beam onto the back of my head, and then immediately onto my right ear, where he took a BITE, and then jumped onto the ground and scurried off looking for something more paletable, I suppose. Has anyone else ever been bitten by a Cricket????? Or is this some strange flesh-eating mutation of cricket found only in Java/Indonesia??? I've been bitten by many things, and I never thought of a Cricket as being a biter. Thing felt equivalent to the old horsefly bites I would get going down the river on innertubes back in Michigan during the summer. Suprised the hell out of me, that's for sure. I figure he thought I was something to eat, jumped on for a taste, didn't like it and went on to find something he did like. But damn!

This post just cries out for the following smart-aleck remark: "And this is why New Jersey and Oregon won't let you pump your own gas!" Sorry, man, I had to say it! LOL Good to hear there was no damage/fire/spontaneous combustion. "Gasoline, like blood, really spreads out further than you think the quantity spilled should!" Did you push off to a safe distance and then start the car? 'Poof!'

Like the snowbirds, I have flat-towed Z-Cars across the country and back. There is nothing wrong with it, and for $60 you can get a tow bar from Harbor Freight. I got a Valley Towbar back in 95, and I tow a lot of stuff around. There is just ONE issue with using a tow-bar: You wreck or tweak your Z, and you're screwed! I would NOT flat-tow a car to competitive events unless it was something like an Auto-X where the chance of curbing the car and bending a wheel off-line is minimal. If you have a real trailer, or even a two-wheeled Tow Dolly, you're in better shape because you can winch it on and drive away. A Tow dolly, you need only two straight wheels on the car...front or back. This is a serious consideration, and for a race car I expect the worst and would plan on bending the car heavily eventually. And then you will have to get it home. This is aside from the fact that you would have to ramp up your coilovers to clear street obstacles flat-towing it. There is no way I could tow the LSR Car to the Event Location at it's racing height. I doubt I could tow it along many of the paved streets in some neighborhoods without it hitting heavily and severely! ****************************************************** On the subject of Flat-Towing, I have a hitch on the back of my 75, and have towed most every earlier year of Z-Car behind it with that tow-bar. I did the same with Corvairs...And did it with my Microbus towing Beetles. For simple transport it's really a cheap way to go. You can get set up now with the HF Bar and a set of Mickey Mouse Lights for the top, along with the adapter for your tail lights to work a flat-4 trailer light system for under $150. But you will need street tires to tow the racecar. And some jurisdictions may look at you strange. But it's within the braking capabilites of just about any vehicle through FMVSS Requirements that they be brake-capable of 2.5X their own weight. That means you can tow just about any other car that weighs less than you with a towbar. And I've lived by that for close to 30 years now. One of these days I just have to get a photo from someone that shows me towing the 240 with the Fairlady 2/2! It does get looks...but I have an R200 and a diffy cooler. ***************************************************************** On the subject of the 'streetable z' instead of packing the inside of the car with crap, buy the small Harbor Freight Trailer for $239 or whatever it is. Deck half of it, and leave the back half open. Put a Truckbed toolbox, or JoBox bolted to the front and throw all your crap in it, and use a chain with a piece of PVC through the center of your racing tire rims and stick them vertically in the open back portion. You strap em down with a single ratchet tie. I loop chain under the deck, as well as have a spare trailer tire/axle/bearing assembly under there as well. This makes race day SO easy, no cleaning stuff out of the car, no ruining any good interior you may have, and you just can't fit all the great stuff in the car that you can on a trailer. All that stuff you normally take out of the car or any valuables like wallet or registration papers are safe it's securely locked inside a 2X2X4' metal box on the trailer and you are on-track. It's nice to put the stuff you take somewhere instead of just laying it on the ground, and that toolbox works great for that. Or you stick it under the trailer, where it's shaded/out of the rain and mist... My trailer weighed 800# TOTAL loaded with three rubbermaid toolboxes that contained a spare differential, distributor, axles, gads and scads of spares along with tools to change it all, and two plastic ramps to drive the car up onto so I could work underneath it without getting the jack out. This is a very viable alternative if you are going to drive to the track in the Z. I loaded my Z up a couple of times and it was just miserable. The little trailer was like night and day. Unhook it, wrap my chain through the spokes in the wheel so nobody drives off with it (tongue lock since did away with that need, or so I thought...till someone decided it would be funny to move my trailer to the far end of the event parking lot when I was on-course...ha ha guys! Very funny!) I've gone cross-country towing that trailer, and the one with 12" tires is safe and sure tracking during emergency manouvres to 110 mph... er... 65mph, that's what I meant to say, 65mph. (55mph in California)

"SAE: Membership Has It's Privilidges" LOL

Using the NACA Duct to a fixed insulated box plenum under the hood with a proper diffuser would give a nice diffuse pressure box effect at speed. NACA's are designed to bring in a lot of air by creating low pressure due to the shape of the duct opening, and operate best in the conditions Helix mentions: High Dynamic (fast airspeed). You will need a large duct and for all the work you will do to properly make the plenum a diffuser box for pressure, you may as well simply duct through the radiator support to a large box there... A more interesting approach is as follows: Is your intake manifold symmetric? Can you make it a reward-facing throttle body by reversing the upper plenum? (Like some of the Buick GenIII 3.8 V-6's.) Then you could use the highest pressure area in the front of the vehicle, dead center of the windshield. Several Japanese Cars I have seen did this, and at least one V-8 Hybrid Z had his aircleaner ducted to the plenum area where the wiper motor resides.

On a high revving N/A 3.0L engine, a 0.63" orifice in the block hole to the manifold vacuum log was more than enough evacuation (with a K&N Filter on the top of the valve cover, or ducted to the intake filter housing for fresh-air makeup). I think this is the same size JeffP put into his turbo car after we discussed it. Jeff went with a catch can/oil separator to prevent buildup in the intake as well. If you look at the Z32TT, they are notorious for a poor PVC oil vapor separator. It's not uncommon for them when run under boost hard and often to puke the intake full of oil to the extent that it starts damaging things---if not looking like mosquito abatement in the third world. For any pressurized / vacuum system, the larger area of capicitance the smaller vacuum or pressure source you need to bring it to a given pressure vacuum. Usually when setting one of these up, you will put in a coalescant to knock down the vapor to droplets that won't be entrained in the airstream back to the intake manfiold. This lets you use a non-restricted vacuum line for maximum evacuation when it's needed. The Mitsubishi PCV's (some of them) use a restricted PCV, but not the datsun. Coincidentally, the .063 Orifice for the Mitsu PCV is pretty close to the same idea GM used on the Corvair---it's tube has a .100" hole in it down the tube, and it fed to the air cleaner and the base of both carbs. Adding volume in the form of a separator tank will give you more time on-boost before pressure comes to a level where it causes leaks or pukeover, and will take slightly longer with a restricted vacuum source to recover to true vacuum.

Electric Brakes, or even a hydraulic surge brake would take most of the issue out of the braking in panic situations. When I was towing with a Suzuki Samurai (Shhhh!) I had the brake controller set so that when I touched the brakes the trailer stopped the little truck! (Dual Axle Trailer) If the loading wasn't right that old trailer had a nasty wag to it, and a tap on the brakes would stop it post-haste! On small vehicles for towing a full sized trailer, IMO brakes on the trailer are mandatory. You can tow two VW Beetles (about 2400#) in an M151 1/4 Ton Military Trailer behind a JDM Suzuki Jimny with a 550CC Two Stroke Three-Cylinder (with the back end loaded to the roof with another 250KG of Aluminum pistons and tranny cases/heads/etc)... So you can get by with small power. You just plan acceleration and don't pass a lot of people. But brakes. Going downhill in the Jimny was a hairy time when loaded like that!

you close your eyes for a tack weld? maybe that's why they get so scratchy by the end of the day.... (Makes mental note: "Try closing eyes before pulling trigger for tack welds...)

I've seen what gets those mileages, and of the lot, the Mini Clubman Estate is the only one I'd be caught driving around! I voiced my opinion of the classification of vehicles that gets that kind of mileage earlier in the thread, and the Citroen and Skodas fit that bill to a "T"! Now, drop your mileage requirements into the mid 50mpg range, and a LOT of sexy cars (and performance oriented diesels) are open to you. Move it to the mid 40 mpg range and you are in 7 Series BMW range! Huge Cars with excellent handling. I really beat the hell out of the 320D I had earlier in the summer. I mean I hammered that car, using the 'sport shift' gate on the autobox and was four-wheel drifting around the twisties like nobody's business! It was a very rewarding car to drive at speed. Rock solid and positionable. And I was getting 40mpg beating the hell out of it. Oh, and did I mention it ran along from Barcelona to Valencia on the Toll Road at a GPS indicated 255KPH (speedo said 265...and curiously was 10 high throughout the whole speed range, very odd!) From a 2L turbodiesel in a 3-series BMW. I'd buy one.

A clutch is a wearing part. Multiple disc setups have a thinner facing simply as a function of the area allowed. I was going through a disc a month in Japan when I was running around. If it got heavy use, the single discs were wearing out sometimes 3 times a month. So frequent 'rebuilds' of a clutch that actually holds, has smooth engagement, and can shift lighning fast sounds like a good trade-off for me. Multi-Discs: they hold. They won't chatter. And they're great on the synchros. If you don't want to spend $1000 for a clutch that has all those attributes, I might say it's going to be tought to fill that bill. Indestructible Parts with all the features you want. Low Price. Pick one. BTW, I don't know that 200mm is considered 'small diameter', for a multi-disc that's freakin HUGE! Most of the stuff for racing is 127mm, or the new carbon stuff is 101mm! I specifically said 7 3/4" multi-disc, not 5"... My suggestion was to use some of the Endurance Facings more used in Rally Competition instead of the Sintered Metal facings normally used for light vehicles. As long as the bellhousing is properly ventilated, you can even use some of the lower coeficient of friction metal facings and get some slippage for street manners. "On-Off" and vague engagement point is a valid concern, but with experience it gets easier to drive them right. And failing that the linkage is fairly easy to change for less advantage and more feel on the pedal. It's a proven formula. No secrets here. The new frictional materials make single discs more common...but you are already seeing the issues with heavy discs...

"This is under light driving around 40-45 mph, low vac (25-35 kPa) and rpm (about 2100). Maybe I will try leaving it at 15 and targeting 16 with EGO Control. See what that buys me." The answer there is 'wrong gear for speed'! Shift down one gear, raise your rpms to around 2700-2800 and try again. You're lugging the car, and mistaking the bucking for 'lean surge'. Do a datalog on injector pulsewidth the way your currently driving, and then make another pass under the same conditions using the lower gear and you may be suprised by what you find. You should not be putting a load on an L6 much below 2500, and ideally 2700. Same as a 5.7L V8 turning at 1200. They don't like much of a load that low in the rpm band in a stick.

7 3/4" Custom Dual Disc with inertia ring. If you have a big enough mill, you can make the flywheel from billet yourself, and utilize the same common components for the cover, disc, and slipper ring that the NASCAR guys use. You will rebuild it for around $300 a pop, but it's a fully organic lining with the same slippability. Just make sure the splines in the center are hardened correctly as they have been know to shear well before they should! Without the flywheel it's under $700 for the AP Multi Disc. With flywheel, depending on who makes it, it's between $1000 to $1500. I just say inertia ring because most of the multi-disc clutches get a bad name because they are low inertia units, and drivability suffers. Make that flywheel with an inertia ring (at least some, and not just a .375" vestigal flexplate looking thing to hold the ring gear in the right spot...) and it becomes easier to get good starts and slip it a bit even with the quick in/out action of the flatter diaphragm setup on the multi-disc setups. They have been using that kind of setup on the street in Japan for over 25+ years. HKS has them for about the same price, but you got to go to them for the rebuild parts. With the NASCAR stuff, it's less expensive and you can easily get all the stuff redone within the USA. Even surplus NASCAR parts are available for 'econo rebuilds'.

Coral Snake Venom in the Coffee... I could tell you a story about Denial of Medical Treatment in the military by a sadistc SOB of a supervisor... Matter of fact, I was almost through with it and the thing got eaten... I can't relive it again right now. Even to this day, my blood pressure rises thinking about it!

It is on a turbo, though... ZERO exhaust pressure downstream of the turbine is the ideal curcumstance. On an N/A, the lowest you can get is the best, as long as you have a crossover pipe to equalize the pressure (or pulses, if you want--if this is required on the engine design you are making the exhaust system for) between the two pipes you can package equivalent cross section with lower groundclearance. If you look to the Z432, which was a 2L engine that had the potential to rev to over 10K rpms in race trim, but which had to run the factory exhaust Nissan chose a twins system (twin 60mm pipes) with the resonator acting like the corssover pipe. The header on the Z432 (which was mirrored in the JDM for the L-Series) had divorced pipes at the collector, and all the way back. Any crossover was accomplished (I suppose) in the chambers of the premuffler, while the muffler out back was divorced chamber. I cut apart the muffler can once to rewrap the glassfibre and it was divorced chamber. The premuffler was not opened up, so it may be divorced there. I have said in the past it was crossing over in there in a common wrapped chamber...but that is my assumption. When I cut my system apart to replicate it, I will get the information once and for all. Some of the 'other' manufacturers sold the same system as Greddy/Trust and used twin glasspacks as premufflers, and the exact same can as I had out back so it may indeed be segregated all the way back as Oz Connection suggests!

Ask me how I know a fart from an onion-rich meal of multiple Philly Cheesesteaks and cheese has over 590BTU's. Hint: 20 something Males. Analytical Test Equipment. Flatulent Propensities. Active 'Dare Culture' at work and a locking door on the loo... Somewhere, there is an annotated Infrared GCMS of a fart entered into the logbook at an institution which shall remain nameless. Curiosity never sleeps.

What are we talking here, like scores or just scratches? Something a light stoning would clear up? Photos would be good in this instance. Even Celphone photos! LOL

Awesome!