[anyone done this to clean up the area behind seat? pics inside.]

Now it looks like a ZX inside, or a 2+2 S30 with the rear seat removed.

[l28 turbo with SU/..... Video]

Original Crown Conversion worked fine with a Single SU, on 2.4L engines at least.

Biggest issue with the old-tech was no wastegate control. At about 17 psi (and rising) on the Corvair the jet size was small enough even with a retapered needle that detonation dictated water injection (non-intercooled).

 

With a wastegated turbo as is now available, and a retapered needle (or even a reworked jet diameter to flow more fuel, and another accomodating needle) yes it's easily doable for reliable results.

 

But the above statement about the Holley is a good point.

And the availability of a Megasquirt makes both issues kind of a 'Why Bother' moot-pointer, eh?

 

No doubt about it, a Four Barrel on a Bug with a turbo is a menacing beast. My highest boost level with the similar setup was around 25...that's when I found out what 'case savers' were intended to do: Keep the heads attached to the block. Did you guys know you could actually blow a head off a VW?

 

Up to that point, neither did I...

[Interest in custom distributor trigger?]

Ya know, JeffP once thought a 7000 rpm redline for his turbo motor 'would be more than enough'.....

 

Once these things get going, especially with a cam and some forged pistons it's suprising how high they will zing, especially in the lower couple of gears.

 

I would say 'yes' it should be O.K. But realize that the distinct possibility exists that the engine may be bumping against the upper limits of the design quicker than you may think.

 

Below 8500 the distributor setup for the TEC was rock solid and never gave us a problem. There may be the possibility that the 'old' system we had on that car may make it into something street-driven of mine simply because of the ease of retrofit.

Once we went above that limit as hinted to by EMotive in their manual, it got intermittent issues, and nothing we could ever trace down to anything other than that setup. It really depends on what your EMS calls for in the way of resolution.

 

I know 1FastZ found out about upper rpm limits really quickly with EFI...I think one of the first things I asked him after he fired off his Megasquirt System in the Silver car the first time was 'Do you have Forged Pistons in this?' Soon, he found out why... "They rev so easily!" LOL Plans are plans...sometimes your foot and your plans don't coincide and you find out 50mph+ in first gear pulling Lambos up an onramp is good sport! hehehehehe!

 

Hey, the appeal for a street driven car for a drop-in replacement is great. My wife's 260 has a 280ZXT CAS setup waiting to go into it for a MS-Se retrofit, more for a 'fuel only' upgrade really, but since I can drop-in a CAS and get Spark Command why not?

[costs of your cars]

Over the last 22 years I've sunk a growing fortune into these cars.

 

Truest statement of the bunch. I gave up counting years ago.

 

JeffP did not, he keeps an anal record of anything he has bought directly relating to his car. At last total, it was over $75,000 on one car.

 

Understand, like many people have said, "$3K this year" or "$15K this year"...

 

These cars, barring an incident with a Mack Bulldog, or other similarly immovable object are remarkably persistent. Persistence means longevity. Longevity means protracted projects, and continuing expenditures.

 

Taken in relative terms, Jeff's $75K really only represents say, $3500 a year for slightly over 20 years. I have to admit it is something like that for me and I'm sure for MikeK as well, save mine is spread over many more cars and projects...all of which are incomplete, ongoing, or otherwise not 'cover of Sport Z Magazine' type lookers as many here are...

 

Asking what it costs up front is subjective, it's more 'what do you want from it'? And put the budget forth from there. It all depends on what you have available and what your finances are...

 

It could be a little. It could be a lot. There is really no telling.

 

All I know is, for the sake of my wife, I stopped knowing any concrete numbers, as if I revealed a detailed accounting as JeffP has done my wife would wig out. As a monthly total, it all looks much more sane: "Meh, I only spent $300 this month, honey!"

 

Yeah, and 600 the month before, 1500 next month, and nothing during December... But over the course of a year, or ten.....it grows to a staggering number you never want to know!

[funny ebay 240z ad]

I would love to contact the guy, but I can't get through to E-Bay as it's a restricted site.

 

If anybody has e-bay access, you can maybe direct him to this thread, and send him my e-mail (in my profile) so he can send me a ping, and we can go it from there. I'll be stuck here and whatever they did to my computer to make it access this network, it now won't go to the Hotels unrestricted network, and 'system restore' is not doing the job of rolling back to previous settings, so I'm stuck watching from the sidelines!

 

I am in So Cal (Riverside), and I should be back in the area before (gawd willing) the end of the month to come and personally pay the guy a visit. If all meets expectations, I can come carrying cash and bring a trailer to take it away the same day!

 

Hell, the other day when I saw this I could ping the ad and at least see the photos, now all I get is a 'Grey Screen' telling me "SAMIR Restricted Site, Access Denied"...

 

SAMIR: "Societe Anonmye Morocaine de L'Industrie du Raffinage"---things are frustrating here in Morocco right now! Rather be there to follow up immediately!

[A few pics after my car was all completed, and driven to MSA.]

Datsun 1200 Ute....

gaaaarrrrggggggh!

 

Stick it in a container and send me one! My wife would be confliced over that for sure!!! 30+mpg AND a ute bed to haul the hay bales for the animals... An 'easy sell' if I ever had one. Put some shiny paint on it so it looked decent and the boy would be sullenly driving the Y2K Frontier to school instead of the Ute...which I'm sure he'd prefer!!! LOL

[New shell]

great find and good history. Its not an S30, its actually an S31.

 

Uh....loads of documentation aside (all which shows it as an S30...or more appropriately an "HLS30"...) What on earth would make you say it's 'actually an S31'?

 

Not only is it decidedly not an S31, I can show from the photos right off hand half-a-dozen easy and definitive clues supporting this:

1) S31's did not have the gas tank sending unit access hatch in the right rear of the cargo floor.

2) S31's had a full sized spare compartment, and a standard 60 liter tank. This car has the North-American Market tank, as well as a space-saver spare tire well. That rules it out as a Eurospec 260Z (RLS30) as well.

3) S31's did not have the (Removed) metal garnish/finisher on the rear apron between the body and the bumper.

4) S31's did not have the door reinforcement present in this vehicle.

5) S31's did not have the license plate holes in the position of this vehicle, and if you look closely you can see the S31 pattern holes are neither reworked, or have never been used (perforated) from the factory.

6) S31's were a JDM-Only model. This car is obviously LHD, and therefore could not be an "S31".

 

Speaking as someone with two S31's, and who has owned half a dozen of them over the years, I can most definately say this car is not, has not, nor ever will be 'An S31'.

[Dual engines in an S30?]

I'll hand it to the guy... he knows mechanical... but he needs to have somebody else do the body work.

 

Don't know about that, as a former winner of 'best paint' as well as a three-time 'Overall Best of Show' winner I think he has all the bases covered.

 

You are commenting on a car in primer...which may have won 'best in-work' this year. (I don't remember, anybody?)

 

The bodywork looks fine to me, even in primer. If you have a problem with the styling, that's one thing...but the bodywork from my firsthand inspection was pretty sound, same as on all his other cars.

 

Last year he brought a 240 with a complete 350Z powertrain in it, as well as most of the 350Z interior in it...seems he comes up with stuff different every year.

 

Speaking as someone who's projects take...er..."Forever" (and I'm talking now going on their second decade in some cases!) seeing a guy that turns out a completed, or almost completed car---to a very high standard of finish and functionality every year, year after year will not get me chucking stones at his work...that's for sure! The guy is an electrician, he does not have a 'shop' he is not 'in the business' these are his cars, or stuff he does for his family members!!!

 

Styling of the body aside, the car worked and drove, and he ran it at the autocross the day before the show. Considering the car had it's own hydraulic jack/rotisserie to make it pivot on it's own axis for the show display...that says something when it was all done in less than a year!

[Making my own EFI intake... The First Casting]

You will change the map signal compared to the barometric signal it gets when originally fired up. I think the foam dual layer in a larger oval filter on the extreme end of the trumpets would work well.

Herve Oulette had TWM ITB's on his 'Silver Elegance' and had a clamshell filter that clamped over his trumpets. He simply removed it when it was being shown.

 

Let's face it, when you're driving down the road, you want an effective filter. When you're showing the car, spend 3 minutes less polishing the rocker panels on each side and remove the filter and stow it under your sweater under the gas tank at the rear of the car. Stick Racquetballs connected with weedwhacker string in the trumpets like a real Hilborn Racer and just lie to the gawkers 'Sure, I run thataway all the time, just plug up the stacks when I park. Haven't had a problem in years!'

[Aftermarket 240Z front bumper]

BAH! SAMIR is blocking all my E-Bay access. It's like they expect me to work while I'm in their clutches!

LOL

 

Hope I have internet at the hotel this evening, this one will be revisited for sure!

[New shell]

Wisconsin Discount Stereo! LOL

 

I guess Crutchfield put them out of business. That is funny.

 

Someone who buys my VW Bus after I die will find a similar trail.

 

$23 for a K-Mart Battery. Those were the days! LOL

[S30 right hand drive conversion]

Thank gawd someone understands the English Language and used "Mooted" in the proper context.

 

I swear if I saw one more person say 'your argument is mute' I was going to go climb the tower and go on a killing spree!

 

My last Fairlady (The ZX) actualyl came form my WIFE! She was driving the 75 2/2 RHD to work one day, and someone approached her and said "Hey, we got one like that in the back yard (RHD), it's a 280ZX though, do you want it?"

 

My wife came up to me (and believe me, she was eating crow) and said "You're not going to belive this, but...uh...er...someone wants us to GIVE us a Fairlady 280ZX."

 

And to her suprise, my response was "Give us a ZX huh? Can they send me some photos first, before I go over there to look at it?" I mean, it was a "ZX"...what did I want with a ZX? LOL

 

She wanted it, though. It has A/C and she knows I don't want it, so it's 'safe' for her. I won't be modding it or anything...

 

So it sits in the back yard. Untouched. Still. But I gather parts, and some day, when time is in surplus I guess I will get around to it! LOL

 

But SHE brought it into the back yard. Kinda shot her 'if another one comes in, one has to go' edict. She wanted it when she saw it, and then had to justify why we should break the edict she herself had imposed, and that I had been complying with for some years!

 

Once it was dropped though, the number went from 18 or so to 32 relatively quickly in retrospect...

[Dual engines in an S30?]

Should anybody forget the wonderful SHO powered Festiva? Not dual engined, but right along the spirit here at HybridZ.

 

I always thought, since I'm more of a GM guy myself, that a Supercharged Buick 3.8 V6 powertrain would work exceedingly well in a Geo Metro...same concept Renault R5 on steroids.

 

Gives you Hemmorohids...

 

From eating Altoids...

 

Made from the hooves of cows!

 

"I digress"---blame it on Frank. The French have warped my mind here...

 

But back on topic (kind of) anybody that was at MSA this past year saw the mid-engined 240Z with the V6 Maxima Engine in the back. From there it's not that much more work to add another... And that was not on any 2+2 platform!

 

A 2+2 I figure would accomodate Olds Toronado Drivelines. I know they fit in the back of a VW Bug...

 

Two would work nicely and the cable shifter for the Autoboxes would not be that difficult to work out at all.

 

And like the Hyundais with two engines, you can always disengage the linkages and put one tranny in "L" and one in "R" and see what kind of zer-radius smoke show you can produce!!!

[Interest in custom distributor trigger?]

We started having issues on the TEC2 unit using the Electramotive "Small" ring in the distributor once we exceeded 8500 rpms...just as Electramotive said we would.

 

For cam trigger, as TimZ says, the distributor is a perfect place for it...it's basically only 'return' signifying where #1 TDC is---and that window for tolerance is pretty wide. Basically any time before #2 in the firing order is ready.

 

I'd be shy of using the Dizzy for actual timing if you are considering higher revs. Our system was directly off the spindle, with a mag pickup through the vacuum advance hole reading the 60 toothed ring normally found on the crankshaft. The small diameter (from what EMotive explained) was the source of resolution errors in the processor at elevated engine speeds.

 

For a street engine it may be acceptable below 8000, though. We were fine to that range. Above that, however, we started having sensor errors in the firing, and I'm convinced it was due to the gear lash in the sensor letting the teeth 'rattle' as they rotated causing trigger errors.

[Turbo z gas tank]

I replaced my vapor hoses with 3/8" fuel line and have noticed NO degradation in venting/filling of the gas tank. I used Nylon 15 to 10mm barbed reducers (much like the standard pieces Nissan Used) at the tank, to do the conversion. I have the 15mm vapor hose in about a 2" nub out of the tank, attached to the reducer.

 

Advantages: No big cost for the molded vapor hoses, and easily replaceable with standard fuel line available anywhere. Tested vapor integrity to 10psi while pushing out a big 'oops' dent in the tank from a big rock...

 

I used some 1/4" lines on the boy's 510 Wagon when we did his car, and the advantages of them is you can fit three hoses through one hole, and bacically put a heater-hose blockoff cap over the remaining holes in the rear floor to cap them securely. All invisible.

 

The only pain was that you have to seal the big 15mm hole to a 3/8 hose coming through the floor. I used heat-shrink tubing over some molded plastic reducers I had laying around. Don't know what they were for, but they were 5/8" on one end, and had step downs to 1/8"...I just cut accordingly and stuck the 3/8 line through and sealed it with the heat shrink to keep everything secure.

 

On the boy's 510, we actually elminated the vapor tank...primarily since it wasn't there anymore... That system I pumped 5psi into and didn't find a single leak. No more raw gas vapors around the car on a hot day! Woo Hoo. Seems the gas doesn't 'go off' as quickly once it's capped up good and tight!

 

I digress...

[Z32 transmission install .. number 3]

If anybody wants Hard PTFE bushing stock, I literally have BOXES of PTFE Extruded rod in 1" diameter (maybe slightly larger...) laying beside my storage sheds.

I have been cutting off 6 to 8" sections for use as Split-Bearing and Seal drivers on Centrifugal compressors. I leave them with the customer or with the distributor. For small bushings it's great stuff. And seems to hold up well under impact from mallets driving aluminum and steel bearings/seals out of turbine casings.

 

Bryan, if you want some, stop by on your next trip out. You can have a rod or two. I think they are 10 feet long, and something like 24 to a box. I have several boxes. I'm sure my wife would be happy to see some leave the yard.

 

Stuff turns well in a little 6" Atlas Lathe. Handy crap to have laying around. I'll trade anybody with Oilite Bronze stock in similar dimension laying around. 2, 3:1 trade...anybody? Bueller?

 

"Copolymer Acetal" BTW...

[Making my own EFI intake... The First Casting]

I just ran across something in a VW Magazine (probably from July, DB&HVW's) in their 'New Items' section there was a set of air cleaners like you proposed to make. There was something in there about new low-restriction filters for 48IDA's or 51.5 IDA's. It's back at the hotel...which doesn't have internet, and where I won't be for at least another7 hours...

 

They used what looked like a grey felt-looking compound in the screen sandwich. They also showed some smaller individual-stack K&N style filters that had air-trumpet clamps on them.

[Custom exhaust clearance "tunnel"]

Then again, this is another advantage to guys with RHD cars...the exhaust exiting the side of the car directly offends the passenger, leaving the drive unaffected!

[Central exhaust pipe]

i know that the BRE racing Z's had twin pipes coming from the middle....but i'm sure that required some modification of, if not relocation, the fuel tank....

 

Nope! They followed the countour of the stock 60L tank, or the optional 100L Rally Tank with nothing more than a heat shield on the top of the pipes. The BRE car had a different fuel system, but the rest of the world using that same exhaust in stock-or-FIA competition using the stock gas tanks did little to nothing to them to run the megaphones straight out the back.

 

Originally, the Datsun Competition Parts Department had the exhaust systems available with the premuffler in the trans tunnel (acts as a crossover pipe mainly) and the Twice Pipes were flanged just in front, or to the rear (I forget which) of the differential, for easy trackside fittment of either silencers for road use, or megaphones for track-day use. And for quick replacement to prior configuration for the ride home or non-race transit sections between stages.

[loud exhaust ticket]

I would fight it just as you are going to. See, in my case, I KNOW I'm wayy over the limit, whatever that is in CA. You just can't have "quiet" twice pipes

 

You would be very suprised what 'loud' is, in California. The test is VERY specific, and is the reason a lot of the 'ricer tips' have the 45 degree angle on them pointing to the sky. The CA test gives a specific distance behind the car, and that little deflection upwards makes curiously loud sounding exhausts pass with flying colors.

 

In many cases with four cylinders, it's intake noise that gets them pulled over, and there is no way to replicate the noise in front of the judge on a free-rev. Curiously there is no induction-noise limit for veicles in CA, and when tested many ticketed vehicles pass. Greddy was giving out copies of the CVC with each of their exhaust systems for a while, and a 'certificate of compliance' for people to show to the judge to get their tickets tossed out.

 

I have twice-pipes (modeled after the Z432 OEM System) and while there is some resonance at torque peak when free-revved, on the road the car actually falls eerily silent around 90mph. Were I geared correctly, this could happen around 70mph as well. All depends on tuning of the system.

 

As people have suggested, find out what the section of the law is that you were cited under and test compliance accordingly. They can't just right 'loud exhaust' normally a citation must have vehicle codes attached for the violation to be valid. If they cited a moving standard when they tested you stationary, make sure you pass the stationary test and argue that you aren't looking to get out of a ticket, that you realize he made a clerical error, but that your vehicle indeed complies with the section he MEANT to cite you under.

 

As for the License Plate...here in CA, it must be visible from the front of the vehicle, and at a height no less than XX" (I think it's 17) and no more than 54" from the roadway. Meaning one properly propped up on your dash would comply (other than the 'no covering' ordinance) And if they cite you for that, yo usimply show up with it on the front bumper.

 

Not that I EVER would sign off my own fixit ticket and go directly to the courthouse to pay the $10 Administrative Tax with an unfixed vehicle...but I'm not beyond suggesting that is a totally illegal and viable option to someone inclined to flaunt the spirit of the law in such a way...

[Racing G Nose Or Msa Type 3 Spoiler]

All I can say is, if there is a next round, as long as I get my headlight covers back...they're available. I didn't have them at the time of the first test.

 

That should put this issue to rest once and for all.

 

We wouldn't consider running the car without the covers at Bonneville. And the rake, accompanied by the G-Nose makes 173.325mph on the short track a 'one handed drive' as long as the rear tires are getting grip and not spinning. Very little sensation of 'lift' as compared to a stock Z, and even less once the radiator opening is blocked off for the F/FALT runs.

 

I'm with Mike on this one, 'it's useless without photos'... And in any case, it's still a guess without actual testing.

[Making my own EFI intake... The First Casting]

People mistake the use of an IAC to think it actually controls idle speed. It does NOT! It compensates for loads on the idle speed like the alternator charging the battery, fast idle while cold, kicking up the speed when the A/C is on, stuff like that. Base hot no accessory idle speed is set using an idle speed screw, and then compensation is done with the IAC afterwards.

 

Actually, making those blocks would pay dividends...that looks a lot like the blocks that came out in the early-mid 80's in Japan when the first analog Fuel-Control Computers were being introduced. The ITBs were all set to run closed throttle, and idle synch and idle speed was all done using a separate manifold block with tubes to the manifold.

 

Didn't anybody ever wonder why the runners on some JDM manifolds have those 1/8 npt plugs in them? Now you know!

[S30 right hand drive conversion]

Thats a good point on the wiring, youd have to shorten one side and lengthen another. That would look terrible.

 

Also where in Nigeria are you going to be? Lagos or Port Hartcourt? My dads leaving on monday for Lagos. We dont get to go this time.

 

Both---on the way to Bonny Island. Is he going to be at the Shell LNG 6 Project? Send him an e-mail to try to contact me. I'll be heading down Sunday the 13th and going out on the Twin Otter from Lagos Monday Morning. I will be working with Entrepose in the LNG6 Train on the Instrument Air Compressor Skids. Have him ask around for the "FS-Elliott Rep" I will be there at least a week.

 

Sorry for the Threadjack. In retrospect I should PM this... But internet here in Morocco comes and goes without notice so it's here first. Now to copy and paste....

 

I'm with Stealth Z, same timeframe on Okinawa, same timeframe buying the cars. I don't know how long 'your whole life' was at the time you had to switch, but it was no big deal for me.

 

And since then, driving several RHD vehicles of my own here in the USA since 1989, I've really not run into anything that would be a real 'drop dead inconvienience'... Like Stealth says, it's humorous to swing through a Drivethrough backwards once and a while, but it's no different than getting into the In-n-Out burger Left Side Drivethrough. I can tell you it's a LOT more inconvienient driving a LHD F350 through the left side of one of those than it EVER was driving my RHD Z through the Right side of the same joint! No real reach-across.

 

Passing is best done properly. If you are so close to the tail of the car you are trying to pass that you have to go 'that far' out to see oncoming---you're inadequately driving the car. Prepare a bit better. Overtaking is something done smoothly, from afar, and with a shift as you pass the slower vehicle. If I can pass people towing a trailer, with three people in my 2+2, at 65mph on a twisty Michigan Backroad without problem...I'm thinking the problem may be more on the driver's end than the vehicle's orientation.

 

Maybe some people are more adaptable than others. But I'd not see RHD or LHD an issue in any country.

 

SIZE is FAR more a concern than driver position everywhere I have gone.

 

When it was time for me to rotate from Okinawa, the government was not shipping RHD cars for a period, so I had to leave my Fairlady there, and ship a 240Z back. After filling out all the paperwork, I was offered a 1971 Fairlady Z 432 as an even across trade for my 240 CHASSIS! Woah. Had only I the money to have shipped it on my own, and not already filled out the government shipment forms in triplicate to ship my 240... I would have had a Z432 now, instead. And still bought that one in Arizona in 1990 for $1000 (my most expensive). That one had been in the USA (Airzona) since 1976 when a DOD Schoolteacher rotated home to AZ. Rust on an early Fairlady? How many FairladyZ's do you know spent only 5 years in country, then went to ARIZONA for the rest of their years?!?!?!?!?

The 75 2+2 I got for $300 was in better shape than the 71, the only appreciable rust was in the rearmost rocker panel area. Another long-term SoCal Fairlady Z.

 

It's like anything, when you look, you can't find one. When you aren't looking, or broke, they show up. Key is putting aside the money as a 'just in case fund'. I would say with $2000 laying in a fund, you could find a decent RHD if you have the patience. If it doesn't need to be running...the price goes down QUICKLY!

[funny ebay 240z ad]

I may have to contact that guy...

 

For that lowered reserve price, I might bite. There are some pieces I 'need' off that car. All depends on documentation provided at time of sale.

 

Unfortunately the jobsite I'm at blocks the login to E-Bay so I'm stuck for now till I get to another internet node to try contacting the guy again.

 

Can you see me with ANTOTHER Z? Muhahahahaha!

[A few pics after my car was all completed, and driven to MSA.]

NAPS:

Nissan

Anti

Pollution

System

 

The EFI JDM cars had a stricter emissions criteria to meet than even California Specifications!

 

The Four Cylinders with the crossflow-heads got the "Ultimate" NAPS system: NAPS-Z as we all know "Z" is signifying the ultimate evolution of the design. Originally the L20E and L18E existed, and those cars had the same "NAPS" emblem on them, but due to the later changing of Emissions Restrictions within the JDM (not the USA as many people mistakenly thought) the EFI L-Heads were supplanted with the LZ series of heads on the pre-existing blocks-then they got the distinctive badging of "NAPS-Z". The pre NAPS-Z L18SSS EFI intakes are nice pieces if you can get them. If you are a four cylinder guy, that is!

 

The "E" is signifying the EFI system, and was first employed on the 1073 cars at the Tokyo Auto Show---the 260Z's Debut there was for the Fairlady 260Z-G/E a 2.6 Liter EFI car with power windows in 2+2 form. This was adopted in Showa 51 (1976) the car produced in S49 and 50 were of the later body style but still had carburettors. I think midway through S50, around June or July the EFI conversion occurred.

 

As for how many Z's do you need... Poor question. It's more how many do you want. Nobody needs a Z, and I don't ever justify it by need. Well, almost never. If you need parts, you need parts. And having a second Fairlady Z with power windows comes in handy as spares are hard to find...