Tony D

I'm having a bad day with the noobs in the zoo...come here for my first post check...and this is what I get. Where's my rope? Time to end it all! LOL (Nothing personal of course!)

Actually, the freon intercoole was done as an industrial arts / automotive enrineering project back in the 70's. That is old news. Now, about that Magnetic Cooling (oh, wait, that was the 1920's) There are very few things that are new. We all like to think we invented something, but fact of the matter is someone out there probably thought of it some time in the past, and did it. Wether they got paid for it or not...that's something altogether different! LOL

So then the G-Tech is low? At the San Antonio Dragway I was pulling something like high 90's and a 15.50 at the top of third gear through the lights. Admittedly I was spinning like crazy on street tires, but it was consistently 1 second faster than the guy in the 76 Silver Coupe that started swearing at me that there was 'no way in hell that engine is stock!'... Yep, from a $100 Junkyard 186K mile 1980 280ZX 2+2!!! Now got 225+K on it, and still running strong. I hear they run the strongest....just before they let go... Incidentally, somewhere I have the weight ticket from the return road scales at the San Antonio Dragway. That was a good Convention...had a blast. Save for that Toyota Truck rear-endo on I-10 in Houston. That caused duress during the vacation.

Without a ported head or a cam, you simply will run more boost to make the HP---there's where your T3/T4 (GT35? Take your pick...) comes in, more flow at higher boost pressures, and that intercooler. With that air, you will need fuel, so there comes your larger injectors. But probably the first thing to do is uncork the exhaust. 20HP from JeffP's observations on an otherwise stock ZX is nothing to sneeze at, and it helps you down the road for everything else. I'm not sure why you used a MAP sensor for what you are doing though. The MAF will measure flow into the engine. Flow is flow, and it correlates fuel requirements based on flow into the engine. What boost that flow happens at is pretty much irrelevant, you just need to tune your tables to match fuel flows to air flows and go from there. MAP sensor for datalogging should be nice, though... WBO2 setup as well?

The other thread pretty much covers the thread sizes---those may be something you will have to order from Pegasus. But the local tractor place may have them. As for my geographic knowledge of various regions...to paraphrase G. Gordon Liddy quoting another federal inmate "Don't mess with Tony D, D knows things!" I'm a literal Johnny Cash Song "I've been every-where, man... I been everywhere!" LOL Like I know how those six Iowa Troopers shoot radar across the river on EB I-80 north of Omaha on the Council Bluffs Side and tag cars coming into the state (they do it crossing the bridge as well on the south side of Omaha...bastiges!) Like I said before, I observe useless things that are completely and utterly insignificant, yet screw with people's heads at the most inoportune times! Somewhere, I believe there is a photograph of me standing underneath the 'Wahoo' sign there at the fork in the road you take to go to Valley coming out of Omaha.

The place in Temecula does classes nationwide. Yeah, I just checked their website, it's the place in Temecula. http://www.efi101.com/press/02-01-07.html They opened a new facility with three dyno bays down there early last year. Big local 'come in and take classes campaign. They were doing classes locally , worldwide, etc (still do). They are about 20 minutes from the house. Right around the corner from where ZCCIV meets. Garrett Engine Boosting Systems is usually looking for people down at the R&D Facility in Lomita. But there are plenty of dealerships and etc looking for good people. It er...uh.... 'helps if you speak Spanish' if you are looking for any kind of shop management position. Search DEVAS there are plenty of references here. Independent hydraulic actuation of valvetrain through electrohydraulic controllers with variable lift, duration, ramp opening and closing speed...the ability to run the engine like a diesel, with no throttle plate at all, engine speed is controlled through alteration of valve lift, timing, and fuel injected.

Those in the photo appear to be 37 JIC. And this is reinforced by the fact that the page the poster linked to contains only AN/Metric Adapters, so that means 37 Deg JIC fittings (A/N) The standard Nissan stuff is, oddly enough 45 SAE. The original hoses that went on the banjo bolts shown in the first photo, as well as the bulkhead and secondary hose assemblies that went outside the frame rails to the OEM cooler, as well as the Cooler itself indeed have 45 SAE fittings, but the idea behind using the adapters is to get rid of those damn metric banjo bolts in the first place, and use 'standard' A/N Hardware. (though metric banjos are also on that Pegasus page...) If you want EITHER of these fittings, go to any Tractor or Farm supply where they make hoses. A Parker Hannifin Store, Goodrich Hose Store, The Hose Man, The Hose Pros, most Industrial Supply Houses. Not only will they have the fittings, they can make up your hoses while you wait. Failing that, as noted, Pegasus Racing has a full selection, as does Earls Supply, TMR or any number of other automotive racing supply warehouses. But I find Tractor Hydraulic Hose is cheap, it's in stock 3 miles from my house, and for some reason crap for a Massey Furgeson doesn't cost an arm and a leg to get "Custom Fabricated" like it does when you go in and tell them it's for an Import you are hopping up... "It's hot oil low pressure hose, maximum pressure 250psi, steel reinforced lines with maximum flexibility desired." I'm thinking, if you're in Wahoo, a short drive past the 3M facility in Valley just outside of Omaha, and back towards town a piece is a JD Distributor that can hook you right up, if not at the local CoOp or Ag Supply Store. If you see Fuddruckers, the Holiday Inn, or Boys Town, you went to far, turn around and head back! I'm laying money you have a real hardware supply store in Wahoo, and can go to the back where they sell all the hydraulic stuff for PTO and Ag Implements and you will go 'WOW!' when you realize all this stuff was sitting right under your nose all this time. Sure, it's not flashy aluminum stuff, but we're not in an aircraft, weight is not THAT big an issue. And besides, the steel fittings don't gall up and become unservicable when you overtighten them! The pieces are nearby, you just needed to know where to look. BTW, I used the same Tractor Hose place to totally convert the 45SAE fittings to 37JIC, including the two on the OEM cooler---they screw in, you know. Same as on the first generation RX7. Find one of those and you will have more oil cooler than you will ever need!

DEVAS system rears it's head in the wishful thinking of people on the forum once again! EFI University, that outfit from Temecula?

There are basically six pins on the ZXT harness that you need to attend to, and if you have the wiring harness diagram for the 77 you can see places to hook them up to. Some wires either need to be piggybacked for alternative uses if you are not using the whole featured items from the harness (like FICD Valves, etc...) or having a sub harness made to handle the ignition output to the coil/ignitor connection. You could use that portion of the 83 harness, but it's a PITA to excise out of the body harness of the 83 and transfer it. The pins I refer to are the wires that go to EFI relay, Fuel Pump Relay, Power, Ignition and maybe two others (Ignition trigger and Ignition Signal In to ECCS). That's all you need to physically connect of the ZX harness to any application that isn't already hooked up to a sensor, component, or box that you took out of the ZX when you parted it. You ARE using just the ECCS bits from the 83 correct? You're not transferring whe whole wiring harness and trying to make it work, right? If you look at the diagram of the Haynes Manual specified in the L28ET to 240 post that seems to be really popular, it shows the connectors and gives wiring purposes for them. The control logic of the combined EFI and Fuel Pump relay on the 77 is slightly different than on the ZX, but basically you can use an old 77 wiring harness to 'pigtail' the connections from the 83ZXT harness into, and PLUG RIGHT INTO the 77 body harness to make a sanitary no alterations to the 77 wiring harness hookup. You will have to run the ignition trigger wire (yellow or yellow with white trace if I recall) but there really is nothing you need to hack in the 77 to make the setup work. This is the connector from the EFI system that plugs into the main body harness up under the steering column. White, with I think six connectors in it. Plus a single white one on a blue wire that I will talk about later. You just have to pin out the harness properly in the correct connector and plug it in. Randy 77ZT showed me that on his car YEARS ago, and for some reason once I saw that, it was like "OH!" and from there since it knew it could be done, it happened. Unfortunately, right now, I'm like 6000+ miles from any notes or access to photos that would be remotely helpful to you with this. All I can say is 'it's easier to convert a 75-78 than it is to do any 240 or 260! All the wiring is there, you just need to interface like 4-6 wires, and run two more (for the ignitor). Hell, the tach even works! Oh, for a more direct answer to your question: The three plugs into the ECU from the ECCS harness are out to the sensors(inputs and outputs). Basically they are grouped at power/grounds, sensors, and injection harness for fuel injectors. There is a single white spade connector in the main body harness of the ZX that hooks to a mating single spade connector on the ECCS harness---this is where the ECU gets the ignition pulse signal for RPM and Initiation of the injectors (the CAS only gives ignition signals so the ECU can send the trigger pulse to the ignitor, the coil MUST fire for the ECU to sense the coil is working and the engine running to fire the injectors.) This single spade connector DOES go to a pin in one of the three connectors, (input connector' if you want to name it, but it's a separate connection that comes directly from coil negative as an input to the ECCS (and EFI) Computer. Luckily, in the 77, you ALREADY have that wire in the main harness, and it hooks up similarly in the EFI harness there. Then again, that may be one of the two wires I'm thinking you have to run, but I may be wrong. I think the wire is blue and comes directly from the Coil Negative. Same singel white plastic spade connector in both the Z and ZX, and they plug right in.

I think you missed the exact quote they used: HOT soapy water. The hotter the better. It helps if the block is somewhat warm before you wash it as well as it aids in drying. Steam Cleaning or hot water washing that gets the block to 150F is a nice way to get it dry failry good, and then paint what needs to be painted, and WD 40 the rest. The thing about hot blocks and washing---pores. Anything you put on it will 'soak in' to the extent possible, and 'weep out' over time. Think of it like an oilite bearing kinda... That WD will go in deep to the pores and keep water displaced for some time if you do this operation while the block is hot. Plus, Hot Water and Simple Green or Dawn Dishwashing Liquid cuts grease and oil (surfectant action) much better when hot than when cold. Even with light machining oil, or water soluable cutting oil. Hot as you can stand it through those latex dishwashing gloves!

Mercedes is known for their engineering of the seatback latches not to fail in a rear-end colllision. Something about Frau Knockwurst getting a high speed rearender and being ejected out into the unlimited lane where she lands through the window of Baron Von Shikelgruper's 969 at 320+ kph... Can't have people flying out the wrong ends of the car, they could hit and damage another vehicle! Impetus behind SCCA and most sanctioning bodies requirement for a seat-back brace. Luckily you only broke the seatback---you could have been in bro in laws lap...or worse, on the windshield (or through it) of the vehicle that impacted you from behind. As I recall there was quite the tabloid TV Show about rearward ejections some time ago. Collapsing the seatback totally compromises the entire seat belt system. You just slip out fron underneath it and bounce aroudn. Want some photos of a frontal offset crash test of a 1970 240Z at "35mph" against a Toyota Tacoma? http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2969745/9 I'd put up a teaser photo, but apparently the site is down for maintenance right now, and I can't access the 'small' format photo. Driver had fractured left hand, fractured left clavicle (got pinned three days later) bumps on knees, and abrasions on his right hand where it apparently slipped off the steering wheel and broke out the center pod of gauges in the 240's dashboard...

I'd go with Multiport EFI. I have been in LPG powered ZX's in Europe (Megasquirt Driven!) and they performed flawlessly even in cold weather. My experience with vaporiser carbs has not been as good. If you had some really good friends in Japan, you could have them look up the old Taxicab LPG fuel systems for the L-Engines. They were everywhere and like you said, used a downdraft carburettor style setup. But the newer EFI multiport technology is better IMO, as it will allow you to go with a spare 'cheater' tank of gasoline to get you to your next fillup should you need to do it. And if you are REMOTELY considering a Turbo, then don't bother with the vaporiser carb setup, multiport FI is the only way to go---all components are available to easily change the turbo system to work with the EFI plenum...whereas the carb setup would be a suck-through nightmare conversion with much wailing nad gnashing of teeth. The ZX I was in overseas could flip a switch and select fuel sources: Gasoline running on the stock ECM, or LPG run by a Megasquirt Piggybacked onto the harness through the same injectors. I took some photos, but who knows where they are now...and likely they are 6000 miles away at this point in time. "I'm on the road to Morocco..."

Design is identical to what you have. Z31's used the same center section but it simply had a separate cavity to run coolant through as well as the oil. I have seen several 'water cooled' center section turbos installed into early cars in the early 'stock' configuration---they water cooling is supplementary, they still work as oil cooled only in this instance. Some other turbos may depend more on water flow to cool them, but I doubt it. The way most are set up, it's as a thermal siphon for after shutdown post cooling through simple 'percolation' of the coolant through the body. Once the thermostat opens in that configuration, there really is little water flow through the circuit, and that which does occur is of hot coolant back through the turbo to the inlet of the water pump on pressure differential, not so much of a 'forced flow' like in the block. Garrett/AiResearch probably has FAQ and Information on their stuff online, as I recall they have a decent tech section, but forget what all is covered by it. You can check it out here: www.turbobygarrett.com

They move the bottom beam out away from the chassis. On lowered cars you may have to stack them. When you look at what happens to the trailing arms as you lower a bug, they go from a good stable tracking caster, to "Flop Around Like A Shopping Cart Wheel Backwards Caster" That is not an exaggeration, twitchy does not begin to describe it...if your car is raked quite a bit. On mildly lowered cars it probably just makes them twitchy. But if you really rake the car, if you have loose suspension components like tire rods, drag links or kingpins the wheels can actually get into a hysterisis and starte shaking the front of the car back and forth as you hit a critical speed. Hit a bump and the process repeats. Not good! Yeah, I was O.K. driving around town on the skinnies as long as it was below 4000rpms. After that, things happened quickly, the cam was coming on just about that point, and boost would go from nil to 25psi like a sledgehammer. If I drove it like a stock bug, it acted like one. First to 10mph, second to 20, third to 45... My problem was I didn't shift to third when I should have---I would have kept accelerating like a semi-stock bug at that point. But it crossed the 'Hell Treshold' and that was NOT my intention. Even with 'soggy off boost performance' it would outperform any other Beetle in the area, it's just when the cam and boost came on it was like a light switch. Ahhhh, Turbo Technology of the 80's...(er...truthfully the 70's, it was a Holley Draw-Through Setup!) With all it's hairy warts revealed. The good old days....WEREN'T! LOL

Check Flat, Nissan Turbo Gasket, Kopr-Kote gasket to prevent adhesion and promote several re-uses. I have routinely used the Turbo Gasket over up to 5 times before chucking it into the 'Just in Case Parts Bin' They look good, but a Fel-Pro Seminar I went to back in the early 90's said Graphoil Composite Exhaust Gaskets were designed for re-use and re-compression for up to five cycles. So even if they look good, I usually retire them after that point. I have successfully taken them out of 'The Bin' to put on other vehicles that roll into the yard and need a gasket for this or that, where I don't perticularly feel like I want to spend any money on them at this point in time... The Nissan Turbo Gasket is nice and compressy, and the Kopr-Kote promotes sliding for the heat / cool expansion the manifold does in normal operation.

My 1962 Deluxe Microbus did 15.50 at Milan Dragway back in 1983 (Turbo City Conversion Kit on 2110 Mill)...it weighed 2315# without me in it. My 67 Beetle was much quicker, with the same engine swapped into it. Oak Trees make you want to learn about 'CASTER SHIMS' before what you feel like will happen...happens! Best story I had was running around town with my slicks in the back seat 'area' of the 67, and driving on 5.60-15 Bias Ply Retreads from Sears. A brand-new 84 Crossfire Corvette rolled up along side me at the stoplight of US23 and Numan St. in Tawas. He started doing foolish stuff because the my bug was idling at something like 1800 rpms, and roughly at that so I had to keep blipping the throttle to keep it from stalling. I guess he thought I was 'revving' the car...I guess I was. Well he showed me. Took off a couple of car lengths. I kept my foot in it totally forgetting I had the biad plies on it, and as I pulled along side him in 2nd gear doing 35mph, the boost came on hard and I lit up both rear tires, started going squirrely and all I could think of was 'OH SH*T NO SLICKS!" (as they clunked around the back seat area reminding me they were there, and not on the rear of the car!) So I let up, the back end caught, I jumped a little wheelie and shot out about a car length and a half in front of him...aat which point I realized "OH GREAT RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE STATE POLICE POST!" (Chastising myself for being an idiot and wanting to get the HECK off the road and shut down before someone impounded my car and thrw me in Jail, I took the next side street exit off US23. Bozo in the Vette comes from the right hand lane, across three lanes to chase me!) After I did some zigs and zags (with vette boy following me) I pulled over and wanted to just walk away. Guy rolls up and is all enthusiastic and wants to know what I got in the car. I thought he was chasing me to kick my a$$ or something! I was apologizing profusely as he rolled up 'Man, I'm sorry, I almost hit you, I was stupid, I totally forgot about not having my slicks on. I didn't mean to go onto boost like that..." All he can say is 'MAN THAT'S ONE HOT BEETLE-BUG! What you got in there, a Chevy Motor?' Yeah, after that came the Toronado Conversion. What can I say, I was stupid in youth. I didn't mean to be on the car and have it go into boost, but I'd gotten so used to driving around on the slicks and the grip they provided, when those $19 retreads saw power, they just squalled and lit right up. I just couldn't spend the money to keep slicks/stickies on the car. Eventually I compromised and installed my dad's Impala Take-Off Tires. 235 78-15's I believe. They stuck decently for spirited driving, and the price was right. 235's on the back, and 5.60 15's on the front. Goofy looking as heck. And squirrely with the lowered beam as you mentioned! LOL

We didn't! It stuck through the hood and had a large scoop facing forward in the slipstream over the hood. Andy commented that over 130 the car actually seemed to be pulling much harder through that relative rpm band than it seemed to on the dyno. I guess that's where we got the idea that there was a restriction somewhere downstream of the VV setup of the Predator. RElative Cam position (as revealed by wipers on some bluing applied as a tattletail) indicated that the venturi was opened more under load on the lake than it did on the dyno. Normally that would mean it had a higher vacuum signal in the manifold to open the venturi up some more (all readings at WOT). The way I could best describe the engine with the four barrel manifold on it was like an old Capri with the German V6 in it and the US spec Two Barrel. Engine pulled well to 4500 in that case, but simply would not any faster. Many Ford Fans swore there was a rev limiter on the engine. But put the Eurospec IDF or a Rochester 500cfm 2G on it and the same engine would twist the tach around to bury it. Totally intake restricted. Well, we put the predator on there, and it should have been the 'IDF' for the Datsun...it was more than enough flow, and supported a 500CID engine at 6500 rpms quite well. But we just couldn't get it to open up and rev well above 6500-7000. Put the Webers on it and ZING to 7500. TWM's ZING to 8500,9500+!!! It should have done that with the flow capability of the Predator. We lightened all the springs and cams to let it open up and allow max flow, but it never did. I mean it's a 950cfm carb for gawds sake...it 'should' have been enough. We were running it on only 176 CID...which explained why it would idle at 2200, over 2X what the 502 ran it at for idle speed. AFM was good all the way up, it wasn't going rich on the top end or anything to limit flow. WE actually tweaked it a bit richer than the dyno pulls from what we saw on our AFR meter on the dash during the run, and that's when Andy commented on the picking up acceleration at the top end. It's what kind of sold me on running Mustang-Style Load Bearing Dynos over inertials. When you only get one run (maybe two) in a month, your car needs to be right as it drives OFF the dyno, not adjusting for radical mixture changes (outside of normal density checks) just to get it to pull correctly on the top end. I think the 45's had a theoretical flow capability of soemthing like 1100cfm if memory serves. For the difference in the way it pulled, it wasn't 'small' like the difference between the 650 Holley and the 950 Predator. It was a BIG bump and increase in RPM capability of maybe 500-1000 rpms. I don't know if we could have even kept the engine running using an 1050 Dominator on the thing, and for the costs involved it was Cheaper to go with the Webers which were a 'borrowed from Dave' situation. When we maxed out the 45's, the Dyno Operator was suggesting 55 Webers for our next step in power, and the costs for the manifold and carbs were comparable with the TWM setup (around $4K USD at the time, plus EFI system, plus Tuning...) But ultimately the EFI gave us rock solid consistency, the ability to turn the key and have the engine fire up and idle while warming up at a speed relatively low (hell we could idle the ITB's to 400rpm!!! Threshold of the 'cranking limit' on the TEC.) and all on a 39F November Morning. Such was not the case the previous November with the Webers, or previous Novembers with the Predator! Ultimately, the car went 143.325 mph at El Mirage with the Predator on it. The Webers got to the 150's, and TWM went into the low 160's, with mid 170's at Bonneville. I think the 2000 SCTA Rule Book has a picture of our car on the cover with that predator sticking through the hood and a 'cosmetic' scoop we stuck on it for most of the photos (hey, it was chromed!) Putting it all in once place like that, I can see now we made X HP with 650cfm, X+ with 950 CFM, X++ with 1100CFM, and ultimately X+++ with our final 45mm ITB setup (forget the cfm of that potential, but I know it's measured at a different manifold depresison than carbs...they pump air easier as they need no restriction to work! So maybe no restriction on the front end of the Four BBL Manifold would work well. 1100CFM air doors are plentiful on E-Bay... But we sold ours long ago.)

Yes, the mirrored side will reflect more heat. Sandwich it between two plates of the stainless, with the mirrored sides both facing the heat source. That would be like a double-stainless heat shield but instead of using an air-gap as an insulator (which actually is very good when using stainless) you will have an even better insulator, the ceramic. Some Stainless Pop Rivets or the like would hold the whole mess laminated tightly as if it were a single piece. Mount it on some Bakelite or other high-temperature non-conductive standoffs and it would be very efficient.

Pump, Oil Thermostat (bypass to filter), Cooler, Filter, Block Service Port. Best if you run an oilstat to keep from overcooling your oil. You do want some heat in it! You forgot the third alternative: Turbo Timer. Set your parking brake, turn your key off, remove it and yourself from the car and walk away. Automatically turns itself off after a requisite timed period. Or Running a water cooled turbo, where the suction side of the water pump can thermal siphon throug the turbo after shutdown, and cool it with water as well. Synthetics are resistant to coking, hence their popularity with turbo owners, amongst other items... The P90 head hasn't anything to do with oil routing lines. The block has an adapter for the oil cooler on it, and the lines come from there. Gozeouta and Gozinta fittings I believe is the technical jargon used to refer to them...

The Manifold Vacuum with the Predator was such that it was indicating airflow restriction downstream of the carburettor. The VV in the thing was nowhere near where it 'should' have been even with custom camming of the mechanisim. Fueling was adequate, but the VV mechanisim was not opening further as it should with an engine flowing that kind of air. We spent a fair ammount of time with both a larger holley and the predator. We got slightly more out of the Predator than we did out of the Holley, but in the end it was only about 215 at the rear wheels. When you compare that to almost 100 more with the same cam, head, block, piston, etc....but at almost 8500 rpms instead of 7000. I can't recall the exact datalogs but with the TWM induction setup we are running something like 95 or 98 KPA at WOT and peak HP (forget which), whereas with the Carbs the manifold vacuum signal was nearer several inches of mercury. The Webers moved our power peak up 500 rpms to 7500 instead of 7000. With the other manifolds and 'more than enough carb' the carb flow was there to accomodate that kind of rpm, but we never got the vacuum signal at the carb to allow that metering to take place. The main problem we had with the carbs was that they need restriction to work, while our engine wanted and liked less restrictive flows on the inlet side. Maybe with an EFI Air Door the results would be different---that may be something you can tell us. But again it depends on the use of the engine as well. Power at 7500 or 8500 is probably not an issue on the street. Does that make sense? The Holley gave good results, but with a 650 we figured to try the Predator since it was supposed to flow more. When the VV Predator got on there, it ran stronger to be sure, but it just started getting sluggish above 6500. I posted some dyno sheets long ago, but I wouldn't even know where to find them other than to say generic ZCar.com...and then someone else was hosting the images. The idle signal was a problem for idling as well. The Holley idled around 2000 rpms for proper smooth operation. The Predator 2200. The Weber 45's 1700. Down low the plenum wasn't happy with our overlap and vacuum signal. I think the datalog shows us idling now around 58-65 kpa. Besides, I'm in Spain now, getting ready for a flight to Morocco, and then on to Nigeria...so I couldn't find those dyno sheets even if I did know where my wife relocated all my files to! >:^( The dyno curves look similar to yours anyway, just with a peak closer to 62-6500 and tapering off slightly faster. I want to say 213 with the Holley, 217 with the Predator, 237 with the 45 DCOE's, and 256 or 286 initially with the TWM 45 ITB'sand TECII. With the Webers the power fell off quickly past power peak, even at 7500. We were loath to run to 77 or 7800 for fear of loosing acceleration time. The Predator was kind of 'flat' from 6500 on, similar to your graph. When you compared the Webers to the Predator, the jump of 20hp was at 7500 rpms, over where the Predator was at that point of the rpm curve. At the Predator power peak of nearer 6500 rpms, the power difference was more like 7hp difference, but it kept pulling towards higher rpms. That made for us being able to pull between gearspreads better. When we went to the TWM setup, the difference at 7500 was more like 17 hp, but that more than doubled by the time you hit 8300 rpms compared to the Webers (close to 40HP more at that point!) Curiously, the same cam in our 2-Liter has a hellacious output dip at 5K rpms now...but pulls like gangbusters over that point...to over 9500 rpms. Different engine, different characteristics. I always found that interesting.

I'm humongous, corpulent, fat, call it what you will. With a similarly porportioned friend in the car the Tokiko Illuminas give a nice controlled ride, while the HP's felt like worn out stockers to me. If you have weight in the car, the damping reacts differently than something light. Like John C said, it's the combination that can make things feel rougher than they really are. My experience has been comparable with John Mortensen's, except that one day I forgot to put the things back onto "1" for the highway drive from a car event....and it was almost 6 months before I realized it. Highway driving and maybe 'getting used to the control' made me drive around on 5 since. I live down a washboard road. Not everyplace in CA is like you see in the commercials. In fact, the roads downright suck in most places as the state is...no. No, I won't go there. "The roads aren't as smooth out here as you are led to believe!"

Flopped Type 2 Bus Transaxle runs V8's on the Dunes at Glamis. They are very stout. But even the stock VW thing would hold up admirably with a stock L28ET power/torque as long as the standard torque mods were done. Remember, get the right Beetle (not necessarily a Super Beetle) and the car is only around 1200# with the driver's seat, interior panels, and back seat removed...take out the engine and there's another 250 gone... Now start adding L28, bracing, adapter plates, radiator, etc.... It's not moving a lot of wieght, the tranny can be pretty light, especially if you aren't doing holeshots and drag launches. Even a VW engine can bend the frame horns doing that crap! Light Bugs are scary fast with power added. All I got to say is 'CASTER SHIMS'!!!

I don't know 'bout 'club events or to a repair shop' but about the only time I'm driving the hot car is during a club function. And my preferred repair shop to fix that streaky wiper is just around the corner from where I work. Wouldn't make sense to drive back from work home, pick up the Z, then drive back to work (arriving around 8pm) to get it fixed... There would be no legal basis to support any citation for a car being driven anywhere that wasn't 'club or repair shop' linked. That is as simple as anybody making a simple declaration on the spot. What exists is the insurance company limitations on coverage for collector vehicles. "Pleasure usage" is a key term in many policies, and if they are granting 'collector car insurance' to 'pleasure use vehicles' then it complies with the letter of the law, and you are covered by functional criteria only-no visual. There are no mileage limits other than what your insurance company imposes, so shop wisely! They have moved compliance checks for collector status to the insurance companies, and basically they don't want commuter vehicles being exempted from the full-on smog testing. Ever notice the 'historic vehicle' plates used to have a form to fill out, now it's not in the DMV catalog? Now you have to make a statement of fact and go through all sorts of hurdles to get one of THOSE issued. Why? Because they don't want to issue them as once you get one that's it for anything they have as restrictions over your car. It's the only exempt plate a private person can get. Yes, exempt. Same classification as municipal vehicles and police cars, exempt exempt. No more of the testing which I refer to as anachronistic and bureaucratic at all for an Historic Vehicle Plated Z. But I'll keep it under the lid for now only because I'm supposed to... There's just no practical way for them to enforce that phraseology to deny collector car status---It specifically states you have to have collector insurance, and that is how they identify the cars. The DMV finally moved up to the 21st century with such technologically adept states as Alabama and had all insurance carriers in the state submit insurance information via computer! So they know what coverage you have, and smog you accordingly. Unless you are driving well beyond 2500 miles per year locally with your car (in which case you shouldn't have collector car insurance anyway, it's a regularly driven vehicle!) it's likely not an issue, and that is the threshold in many Insurance companies policies with the same verbiage of club events, parades, repair work, etc etc etc. Though the 'pleasure use' is still the most liberal and IMO the best policy to get. Most of the insurance companies will let you bump any mileage restrictions on your policy for infrequent out-of-state events. I told them I was going to drive cross-country to attend a Z-Car Convention in Canada, and I expected to go around 18K miles that year. Ended up going 18K miles in the trip, and all the agent said was 'which way did you go?' trying to figure out how I put 18K on in three weeks when in a straight line it's maybe 3200 miles. Hey, "Enjoy the Ride"! The letter of the law says that ANY engine replacement or swap be reported to the DMV for recording of the appropriate information as well. If you don't do it, it's an illegal engine swap/replacement and subjects your car to impound. They only press it in the cases of street racers, but all those L24 serial numbered 240Z's with L28's in 'em without a valid engine replacement record on file are crusherbait as well. It's all in the V-Codes. I blame the Tool Shed for directing me to revisit the post, and thereby bump it again.

If it 's controlled by an OEM computer, I posit the Motec can drive it. This is nothing difficult, this technology has been around as stated for the diesel world for years. I doubt the OEM's are using processor speeds faster than aftermarket offerings. And if they are, people would be ramping up to drop their aftermarket systems and hack the stock ECUs. So this is where Diesel Technologies landed. South Carolina. PCM Bosch bought em, shut em down, and moved south. Good to see they are making good use of the technology they acquired.

Middle tank is 260Z, you can tell from the size of the return fitting compared to the 73 and earlier tanks. Fits earlier chassis just fine, we put one in JeffP's 73 240Z that went to Norway. 280Z tank fits to around the 6/76 chassis date when they went to the space-saver spare in the USA, or any of the S30 or S31 Fairlady Z's with EFI to end of production. Fits earlier cars with above notations, though I just slackened off the J-Bolts in the 74 260Z-T conversion I did and it was all good. Tony D was flying to Spain when this was posted, and now that his job is done, he's surfing the internet at ...er... 3.27 AM local Tarragona time. And tomorrow he's driving back to Barcelona to catch a flight to Morocco (Casablanca)... Will there be anything else before I go to Nigeria and get abducted by oil crazed revolutionaries? (On the slate after Morocco)