Tony D

Yes, since I've been accused of being pedantic in the past here, I'll clarify that I was referring to the latch switch as you supposed. Internal structures are bollocksed up anyway, the US doors are impossible for my hands to fit inside and do any appreciable work... I hate the door beams for that reaason alone! not to say they are bad. just makes working inside the door impossible for my hamhock hands. The latch I would assume was a hand-in-hand change with the improved door beam, but not to say 'build out cars' don't exist. I would venture to say the later latch design would give optimal integrity in conjunction with the door beam of the latest design. Earlier cars with that same 'improved beam' and the older latch obviously will not have the same door-closed-during-impact integrity (which is the reason for the enclosed latch). Better than the previous design, of course, just not 'the best'. Ultimately for an early car, the later doors (pre 6/76) with the heavier door beam would probably give you the best door available from a safety standpoint of integrated engineering. But like BJ Mentioned, the doorbeam is pretty darned low to do any good against anything but another Z on the track...

The 2L Bonneville engine we are currently running gets that 'warble' of the F1 engines when we were on the dyno above 9000rpms with the open headers. With the twin 3" pipes, it's a little less severe, and a deeper tone, and we have to get it to about 9500 to have it make that strange harmonic. it's a very distinctive sound, and it did remind me of an F1 engine at full song. Even the guys up on the Lake commented that the 2L engine 'sounds better' than the L28 we were running a couple of seasons ago. It's got far lower compression than the L28 as well (11:1 maybe... compared to 14.75:1 with the L28). Slightly shorter headers, but the same basic design as the L28 units. Curiously, the 2L didn't loose power with the exhaust on the car, while the L28 lost 20HP. That was a shocker! Does sound good. Just got to get a decent recording off the 'helmet cam' during the June meet and I'll try to get it posted. Recording doesn't do the sound it makes justice....

Yes, the change to the 'internal striker mechanisim' for the door latches is what makes them not-interchangable with the earlier cars. The bulge on the door where the internal striker mechanisim makes for a door that won't close on an earlier chassis. This change happened post 6/76...there may be some 'build out cars' but for US and North American Market Models, chances are good if the doors are 6/76 or later you will not be able to forward/reverse interchange the doors. Before that, they are completely interchangable as a complete assembly. There are some interior panel dimensional changes, but nothing that is insurmountable as long as you have the complete door assembly. Fairlady Z's on the other hand, had gloriously unreinforced doors 69-77. It's the only way the factory power window assemblies would fit in the ZL cars for 76 and 77 anyway... Oh, and I'm not saying you need to be an F1 Engineer to tackweld in some bars. Go for it. But if you want a chassis engineered properly for transfer of forces....well you simply don't go adding 'some rocker bars' and hope for the best. Which goes back to someone's original post about 'doing more harm than good' in most cases. Poorly thought-out modifications can kill you, period. "Thinking them out" is one thing, "Engineering them" is something totally different, indeed. Ever see a roll bar break? I have. Ever see the transmission come up through the floorboards during an impact? I have. You don't wan't poorly attached poles swinging around inside the car, hinged from an anchorpoint, and propelled by an outside immovable object.

Just an FYI, the USAF uses that adhesive backed "aluminum tape" as stock in their ABDR Trailers (Air Battle Damage Repair). They fair in riveted panels' leading edges with it, it's both sticky, persistent, and won't peel back off if applied to a clean surface at speeds well over what we will be acheiving in a four-wheeled vehicle. It is the tape of choice in "Tony's Z Graveyard" behind the house for sealing the edges of P.O. installed Sunroofs, windshields that are cracked, or have sealing problems with the cracked and weathered seals... Some of that stuff I applied in 1991, and it's STILL stuck on the root of a Fairlady Z, hasn't lifted yet! So if you are thinking of using aluminum tape to finish your sealing, I'd say it will probably deliver Yoeman Service in that duty! Duct Tape, on the other hand, is very disapointing, even the good stuff made in the US of A. Won't last more than a year, and even less when exposed to direct sunlight.

Actually, you need a Glasfibre Injection Moulded PLASTIC intake manifold which will insulate the HELL out of the incoming charge from any an all underhood heat. Ever take a gander at what many of the OEM's are doing? Injection moulded plastics can be put into very complex shapes, and do a dandy job of insulating heat and noise as well. Anybody remember the plastic L-Engine Turbo Valvecovers? JDM application. Kept underhood radiation of heat from the slung-off oil on the valve cover to nil, and quieted valve clatter quite a bit as well. Many Cedrics and Glorias had these valve covers. After a hard run, putting your bare hand straight on the valve cover was not a problem at all. The future: PLASTICS

high boost and high compression and high rpm... the multiple coil setups allow charging time to a factor of six compared to one coil supplying the whole engine. if you have intelligent sensing of the charge of a coil, like the old TEC2, it remembered what voltage discharge it took to fire the cylinder on the last revolution, and will charge the coil to that specific output, and a bit more...then move to charging the next coil in the sequence. A TEC2 would run 10 amps for the whole ECU and Coilpack on a Turbo Engine, while an MSD box in the same setup would be running 20Amps +! Lower draw, less wasted spark energy. Allows smaller alternator, saves weight... Many benefits. Our dyno operator said the same thing about the Bonneville car: we could have gotten the same power from carbs, but the reliability you got from that crankfired ignition system is what kept it in one piece for four seasons! The distributor-based systems would not have that spark accuracy. Any engine will benefit from saturate coils discharging a good spark over a larger gap---lights off rich and lean mixtures more efficiently and consistently, meaning more power, and less cylinder to cylinder variation---which can snap a crank given the right circumstances!

Pete, you are absolutely 100% correct! I deal with using I-R thermometers on a daily basis, and anybody who has ever taken the time to actually read their instruction booklet will tell you that Stainless Steel is specifically called out in the I-R Thermometer instructions as a material with radically different emmisivity, causing terribly skewed (low) readings. In the Raytek Bulletins they recomend painting a circular spot on the surface of a stainless steel pipe to get the emissivity into a range where the I-R Thermometer can correctly read it. They also state sticking masking tape onto the surface will correct the reading substantially. Myself, I carry several cans of Flat-White High-Temp Engine Paint for shooting little circles so those that follow behind can correctly follow my temperature surveys of the system. You can see the difference immediately upon drying of the paint. On a discharge manifold pipe I can read 180F on the stainless steel pipe directly, and move a fraction of an inch over to the 'flat white dot' and the reading SOARS to 345F+! Operators, fellow Field Engineers, heck, just about everybody is amazed that the reading can be skewed as much as that, simply from surface emissivity. So yeah, when using I-R Temperature Sensing Technology, BE VERY CAREFUL on what you shoot. Some stuff can really give you bogus readings. The killer is when there are stainless fittings and a black rubber hose. Fitting elbow shows 180, rubber is over 300F! You would think rubber is 'an insulator'...

I guess my e-mail no longer goes to Jeffp's "Trash Bin"... LOL

Verrrrry interesting. Yes, the nose did look extended. "Hybrid G" if you will (snark)... If I can find the photos I took when I examined the vehicle first hand in Atlanta in 95, would you be interested in some scans of the negatives, Alan? I'm curious about the Japanese side of the story as well. When I saw the car, I was immediately shocked at the appearance of so many of the "Yellow Book" Accessories hung on the car. I remember taking a load of photos...but this was the days before all those nice acid free archival negative carriers, and who knows where I stored them... My only saving grace is that I live in SoCal now, and Humidity/Mould Growth does not present a problem like it did in my other living location... P.S. The thing that drew my attention to the Datsun Macau was the original owner's stationing in Okinawa---which was a US territory at the time. There were very strange and special vehicles offered in that market that made their way to the USA which normally didn't get offered in the US market. I knew a few locals how likely were involved in the original ordering / procurement of the car, but when I saw it originally in 95, they were foggy on some of the details as you have mentioned. There was some question in their mind about how it actually was converted/delivered. But with AAFEES (Army Air Force Exchange Service) and the rules for foreign delivery of vehicles (especially to officers) at the time anything is possible. This was delivered during Vietnam, and at that time it wasn't unheard of that CIA Operated 707's loaded up officers personal goods if they had space, and flew them wherever they happened to be going. Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok... At the time, being stationed on Okinawa, and having a few beers with a Traffic Management Officer on Naha or Kadena could get you BIG favors for shipment of just about anything. Ahhh, the 'war stories' of old enlisted personnel....

300 is nowhere near the limits of the stock system, especially if you use 450cc Bosch Injectors and jack up the fuel pressure (pump upgraded)... Jeff was supporting 450 flywheel HP at that point. It is making more now.

You should come out to the El Mirage Land Speed Event second Weekend in June, we will be running there again, after we install the BadDog Frame Rails to satiate the tech inspectors... Otherwise I'll probably drive by, I know the area...

I'm going to forward this thread to JeffP so he can check it out---he's on the dwell thing with Nisstune right now, and his mallory coil is giving him fits...

Bummer, "Wrong Coast" Currently there is a person in Ventura CA selling out of his Z-Business, and liquidating many vehicles. Though he's not returned any of my calls, so does me no good, and by July, I suspect all the 'good stuff' will be gone. You may want to coordinate through Frank Poll in the Netherlands (Frank280ZX) he and his bud Ad currently have three (four...) cars in my yard, and I will be packing a smaller sea container for them sometime in the near future once some other Homogolated parts are located and shipped to my address. There should be plenty of space in even a 20 footer with three cars in it, but you will have to coordinate through Frank for payment of pieces to pick up on this end. I will be going to MSA this week to pick up some of Frank's Backorders as a matter of fact. MSA has all the parts you were thinking of...too bad you weren't here last month for the MSA show... Matter of fact, you may be able to source your parts in Europe through Frank/Ad there in the Netherlands. 40 footer last year, 20 footer this year. Lots of different parts........ Good Luck. My buddy "El Dupa Griggs" (LOL) may be in Buffalo by the time you are there...we all call him Drewski. But alas, the wrong end of the state for you to hook up with him. That all depends on if his job offer in Buffalo comes through.

I just got around to this post... lots of conventional thinking, and some unconventional as well recently. But what of one of the most powerful L28ET's at the time: The Electramotive #83 Car? It's manifold was a plenum simple log-style, no taper, with large diameter tubes that were flanged to a Cannon Intake Manifold that was bolted to the head. The plenum and initial runner sections were connected to stubflanges on the Cannon via some Rubber Tubes and Clamps (maybe for vibration, mabe for practicality in installation----who knows?) But one of the intersting variations was that on some permutations they pressurized the plenum section on a T/B mounted facing the head, between cylinders 3 & 4. I know the dynamics of a diffuser being placed so close to flowing air results in a much improved pressurization of the vessel the air is flowing into, and may solve some of the issues you guys are seeing with the tapered conventional front-entry plenums. Eventually, I believe Electramotive used the two-piece plenum design, with conventional front entry, while BSR stayed with the mid-plenum entry. Absolutely no dimensions as requested, but I thought since nobody has mantioned that possibility (AZ Z-Car once offered a manifold like this as well I believe) that it may be worth investigating as well.

Dale Earnhart's car had a cage. He's dead because he didn't use his seatbelts correctly (or that is the supposition)... You can not design for every eventuality, you can only design for the most reasonable forseeable eventuality. If you want a safer car, buy a new one. As for the rockers, I have seen a 'hidden cage' installed in a 280Z by someone in Holland. The guy cut open the rockers, and installed some largish CrMo tubing that tied into a full hidden cage system within the whole framework of the car. There was over 400 hours of preparation in the modifications to the unit body to accomplish this---all under the watchful eye of former a F1 Engineer and FIA Certified Cage Installer/Engineer. If you have that level of expertise, go for it, cut those rockers open! And yeah, on an S30. 400+ hours of chassis prep.

I have been through Phelan 8X in as many days (actually 16X...coming and going on the 138 and Sheep's Creek Road....) A Federal Car will pass to Federal Specs if all is working correctly. Don't think the MS will solve a problem you have with a bad sensor or bad connections. You are either rich or lean, and doing a tune-up is a good place to start. Get the EFI bible and go step-by step through the EFI system cleaning and checking as you go. The stock Federal EFI system spins the Dynojet on my 75 2+2 to 147hp, and passes smog easily. The only reason I considered MS for it was to get an O2 Feedback Loop and leaner for Cruise. But to reiterate, NO, it's not CARB Legal to install a MS. And to do it and conceal it, you usually have to hack the stock harness (easy enough to do) but if your STOCK HARNESS is ALREADY giving you problems, then fix those FIRST otherwise you will only compound your issues. BTW, what Texas Car do you have? a 76? That would be the last year of "Federal" with no EGR. It should say in the stickers on the car "NON CATALYST" and etc. relating to the Federal Status of the vehicle. I don't plan on being in Phelan again now till the first or second weekend in June when I will be running the Land Speed Car up at El Mirage...

I, too, would be interested in 'The Book' encapsulating Alan's hoarde of information. The tidbits I see never cease to amaze me. Alan, the 'oval' opening seems to be an interesting permutation---what are the chances that the 'Datsun Macau' car had one of these front ends...from the photos the owner had at the time (halftone xeroxes of xeroxes of news clippings) this may be a possible, perhaps? Though I think the Macau car seemingly had more of a "GTO Ferrari" FRP complete nose...it was hard to tell from the photos on the display. I really need to find those negatives, and have them reprinted---I can't find my prints anywhere from when I saw the car in 95... Hopefully, I will be at Spa to see one of those such Group 4 Efforts materialize this year. I will take photos there, rest assured! LOL

Hmmmmm, you mean like my street car is set up....mowhahahahahaha!

There were... The timeframe of the Original Wangan Midnight Series, the late 80's (my time in Japan) you could pick up those engines in Mainland Japan complete out of the junkyard for between 50 and 100,000 yen (Ju-Man). That was the cost of the surge box ALONE, new. Thankfully, Japanese didn't put much of a priority on 'secondhand' parts, and if you found one that was impounded for racing, and sent DIRECTLY to a scrap yard, the entire engine would set you back maybe 5,000 Yen. I had a scrapyard where impounds went on a regular basis, and I bought countless headers (Greddy/Trust) for $7 (700 Yen), Completely worked Heads for 3,000 Yen ($30) and on one occasion I bought a complete, NEW set of SK Tripples (40mm) on the manifold for 1,000 yen ($10...actually at that time it was closer to $4.50). The owner had put them on his Skyline, tuned it at Goya Tuning, and maybe had 250Km on them when he wrecked streetracing and the J.P.'s impounded his car. And I was there for the scavenging. New OS Header was a whopping 700 yen .... it was all sold by weight and metal content. Man, I took some good stuff out of that yard over the years.

First, the Yahoo Japan Auction unit is an HKS Type 1 Surge Tank, and is designed to work with blowthrough CARBURETTORS. The second posted photo (HKS Surge Tank cast onto it) is designed to work with blowthrough CARBURETTORS. BOTH are modified by plugging the float bowl pressurization holes to work with ITB's. As for the SSS Devil Z shown in "Wangan Midnight" as someone who has seen the car in person I feel I can comment on the series and the car itself: Originally the car ran Blowthorugh Carbs. In the series you can see that if you watch closely. Over the time the series was being shot, SSS (Speed Shop Sinohara, owners of the car and builders of same) went to some cutting edge Analog EFI Standalone system---so during later episodes (after the wreck and resurrection) you will see there are Injectors and ITBs on the Devil Z. Both HKS and SK had primitive EFI systems available in the late 80's for ITB's. I have two of those Type 1 tanks, as well as a Type 2 on the way (minus the inlet piece which was sourced separately)... Why so many? Because I have Mikuinis, Turbo Equipped Dellortos, and a set of Period Correct HKS ITB's... The question is which car will get which. And one day I will vend off my SK Plenums... For the individual that PM'd me about the SK plenum...I can't find the Separator Baffle for inside it, otherwise I would have replied to you. It's not much use to a Carburetted Setup without the separator baffle...now if you have ITB's maybe I misread your PM... then maybe we can do business. But I digress... In short, neither of those plenums was ever designed for ITB's as it's primary usage...when these came out, Carbs were king...

Word to all: Mechanical Cams and Followers Make Noise. If they're quiet, they're tight, and if they're tight, they'll burn... Learned that from VW's a looooong time ago.

Pop-n-Wood said: "Race cars need fire extinquishers cause it is high risk driving. The risk on a street car should be SO LOW that they should not need fire extinquishers." Should not NEED extinguishers is one way to look at it. I guess the TUV required triangles and seatbelt cutter/window breaker in Mercedes is foo foo stuff as well. Being prepared with a competent emergency response kit is the responsible thing to do. I don't go anywhere without a fire extinguisher, and on half a dozen occasions I have USED it, and NEVER once on my 35+ year old car. But the new BMW that started smoking on the corner of Crenshaw and Torrance Blvd? That owner was glad I had a Halon unit---too bad the FD didn't listen, and used an AXE to try and open the hood of her Bimmer. As I walked up with my 5# Halon unit, they admonished me 'stand back sir, we're professionals' as they hacked at the FRONT of the hood trying to cut out the 'hood release'... I reached into the open driver's window, pulled the hood release and sprayed the whole thing as the hood opened to the front and pivoted up.... Or the VW Bug owner who stopped at a light with me behind him as smoke and flames started to be visible in his rear vents. Fact of the matter is the VAST majority of the motoring public is grossly underinformed and just plain ignorant of their vehicles and basic maintenance. The last thing I need is a Car-B-Que holding up L.A. Traffic. Smother it, leave a card, and move on. Then smouldering remains attract far less attention than something fully ablaze. Take what you want when you drive. Chances are someone out there, like me, will be able to save your ride with OUR extinguisher if something happens. At least you hope someone will stop and render aid. As for the Austin-Referred to Incident, it's somewhat of an Urban Legend: "I've also heard of people dying from a 10mph collision, and even an incident here in Austin where a Semi's wheel came off and bounced across to the other side of the highway, over a median, and happend to come down right on a woman's windshield, killing her instantly." It didn't happen in Austin, it happened in Garden Grove, on the 22 Freeway as a Westbound Container Vehicle lost it's rear axle. The assembly went on-end, hopped over the hood of a 1980 Toyota 1-Ton Pickup driven by H4-Lights, and unfortunately went into the EB SR22 Fast Lane right into the lap of someone. This was several years ago. The fire extinguisher in John's Truck didn't do too much for the occupants of the Eastbound Vehicle. Dead on the scene. We thought we were dead as well. Man, that was....199....7, 8? Maybe. Man, like 10 years ago. On an interesting note, I got a discount on both my homeowners policies after the underwriter did home walkthroughs. He was impressed that I had properly functioning fire detectors in both homes, but that was a 'requirement' for the policy. What I got the discount for, was having 1, 5, and 10# fire extinguishers positioned next to the furnace, in the bathroom, and near the stove in the kitchen. "Mitigation of Damage" is what he mentioned. IF a fire does start, having an extinguisher will most likely than not LIMIT the damage done. This mitigation could be the difference between a REPAIRED vehicle under your insurance policy, and one that is a total loss. Standing back and 'letting the professionals handle it' has (literally) burned me or people I have seen more than once. Taking a cue from your own statements, Pop, it's bad enough we have to settle for what we get these days, if people were more responsible for their own the world would be better off. A fire extinguisher is me being responsible. It's a mitigation, not a prevention. Once it lets loose, better to mitigate, than immolate.

And someone insisted they 1) Never took their hands off the wheel (non-deformed wheel, and broken finger---my presumption is from the helmet crushing siad finger aginst the roll cage, speaking frorm personal experience in a similar incident that happened to me in 1981) 2) He had the perfect line, and then "it just went away" That's all I'm saying about that incident.

I have no idea where the cooling airflow comes from when it's all plugged and panned. Even without a pan, with the radiator blocked, it doesn't seem to really affect it. The temperature we saw at Bonneville can probably be directly related to holding the car at 8000+ rpms for five miles straight.... I mean, I never took a static pressure reading in ALT configuration, but now you guys got me wondering if we indeed have some sort of 'negative' under there, and the radiator is basically 'ground breathing' for circulation. Our Bonneville car is pretty low, without anybody in it, I can't fit my wrist sideways under the T/C section of the frame at the firewall---I have to use a can picker-upper to stuff the plugs in the header collectors. Though now since we didn't see any loss by running the twin 3" exhausts, we can plug them at the rear of the car instead of trying to plug them from underneath.

All I can add, is make sure whatever fuel lines you use, that in the area of the flywheel it is behind at least a 6" wide strap of 1/4" thick steel. The last thing you need is the clutch, flywheel, or pressure plate to frag out something and cut a fuel line as it passes through unimpeded. On the Bonneville car, we passed our brake lines (fuel lines and cell are all up front) through a section of Sch 80 Piping that we secured to the frame rail with some padded Adel Clamps. Second to last thing you want, is after it frags, cuts the lines, and starts a fire...is to find you have no brakes to stop quickly...