jeromio

I looked for a 510 when I was looking for (and eventually found) my 240. There wurnt none. I dunno about other areas, but 510s are a rarity in the southeast. A 510 wagon would've been perfect for me since I have a family of 4. As it is now the phrase "I'm running to the store" invariably results in a vocal sibling throw-down between both kids wanting a ride in the "sports car". I don't think I've ever personally seen a 510 wagon. Looks like they're pretty popular at that Shasta event though...

Wow. That looks really nice. I've made headers before which makes me all the more impressed by these pictures. What guage tubing is that, 16? Butt welds, or flare fit?

Great link. Thanks...

No drilling required. Sounds like you have a ZX engine with a P79 head (the steel exhaust liners). This is the same as what I'm currently running. My 240 intake manifolds bolted right on. Nissan kindly made the newer head backward compatible. The exhaust manifold will have to come from the ZX though, since the 240 heads (e88 and e31) have square ports. I bought an MSA 6 into 2 header. They sell a round port one that doesn't have the emmissions holes in it. I'd leave the liners alone. You'd have to have some machined Aluminum inserts made and pressed in - not worth it. The steel is at least smooth and free of casting marks. It's only purpose is to heat up and "afterburn" left over hydrocarbons and NOx. Beware though - if that motor sat for awhile, chances are that the valve seals are shot. My motor had a claimed 60K miles on it, which I believe. Good compression all around, but it had sat for probably 6-7 years and the seals were completely toasted.

Well, I wasted $12 on a roll of 030 Al wire. I'd say you definately need a gun feeder. Also, for Al I think you need straight Argon.

Increasing rear sway bar will decrease roll in favor of skid, right? IE, more rear bar equals more oversteer? I'm getting really comfortable with my current setup (although no track time yet), except for it's tendency to oversteer. I don't have a rear sway bar, was planning on installing one, but now I'm having second thoughts. The front bar is stock (71 240). I have 150lb springs front, 175 rear. It's stiff. You guys talk about 250 or 300lbs per corner?! Yikes. My car is like a skateboard. Expansion joints on the highway are torture. So I hesitate to consider a larger front anti-sway bar. It may balance out the oversteer, but it can only make the ride harsher. My summer project is to stiffen the chassis (full DOM cage and "K" strut bar up front), so we'll see how that affects ride/handling.

The 302 does seem to ride rather high in a Z. Is the front sump directly over the stock cross member? Is there any room to notch a piece out of the datsun xmember to allow for the motor to sit lower? Or is it just directly over it...?

Two options come to my mind: 1) Roll it in front of a big tree or other immovable object, block the wheels, attach a hand winch to the bent part (also called a come-a-long) and pull it out. If it's not budging, you could make some relief cuts with a cut off tool or a sawzall which could be welded after it's straightened out. 2) If thy metal be bent, cut it out! Tear out the whole front piece on both sides and replace it with some custom fabbed metal. If you're going V8, this would be a great way to relocate the radiator at an angle. Or, if yer going turbo, then you could match the chassis to your IC.

I have a quick question for Alsil: Did you end up using the transdap xmember or the zippy aluminum frame mount depicted here? Thanks.

Terry, when you say 4 puck, do you not mean 4 piston? In that case, would the RX7 caliper not be 6 inches of piston area (1.48 times 4)? For the "Second Method", I presume no mods to the hub are necessary? No way am I bold enough to drill out them holes my own self, but there's a local wheel shop that could probably do it. I am intrigued. The Oxandale ZCar R&D machine rolls onward....

Wow. "That's insane, man. You should sleep later.... much easier on you constitution...."

On my 71 the green wire goes to the accessory relay which is energized by the ignition on switch position. I confirmed this by disconnecting the accessory relay and the fuel pump doesn't come on.

I just discovered why the S&W cages are not made from DOM tubing. Yikes. I ordered 2 lengths of 20ft each (40 total, although it may end up being more since they are random lengths) of 1 5/8 .120 wall DOM tubing for my Z. $3.75 per foot!!! (I also ordered 3 lengths of 1 3/4 for the truck at $4.00/ft. Broke = me) Just waiting for everything to show up now. Need to get some 4X3 pieces of 1/8 inch plate made up for the mounting. Supposed to weld the bottom ends to one plate and then bolt thru to another on the underside of the body work for optimum strength, etc. This could prove tricky on a Z with low ground clearance though. I'm thinking of welding nuts onto the underside plates and then grinding off whatever bit of bolt sticks out past the nut.

Having made a set of these in Steel, I can tell you that 1/2 plate is really hard to work with. Although I'm certainly not an engineer, but I do know that 1/2 inch Al would definately be much easier to work with. You could probably use thinner steel stock - I don't know. Avoid the half inch steel though. That was a chore that I would not inflict on anyone. What about the Ross C group purchase thing? I'd wait for that. Bound to be cheaper.

Personally, I'm interested in any kind of car tweaking discussion. Friend of mine had a little Datsun 1600. It was like a gocart - very small, very low to the ground, very sporty. That little 4 couldn'tve been making any more than 80hp, but that was plenty. There are a few Datsun roadster sites out there - I know I've run across a few documented roadster engine swap sites. Dunno what happened to my bookmarks though.

What's a Ford 390? Stroked 351?

I got all my info from Terry Oxandale's site. Basically, you have to come up with a way to seal the inner bearing. The solution I used was a stock 280ZXt seal with a piece of rubber to make up the difference. I went to the home center and found a rubber plumbing coupling - it was the center part of a PVC shower drain . I used that along with some of that plumber's cheater black rubber tape stuff. You stretch it, wrap it around, it sticks to itself and then shrinks back a bit. It sounds cloogey, but it ended up looking pretty robust. The other 2 methods are to either use an R200 pinion seal with the outer rubber removed (I couldn't get this to go in the carrier no matter how much of the OD I ground off), or cutting a "ring" of PVC pipe with a section cut out to make it the correct OD.

If you do a L28T with only basic power upgrades - blow-off valve, intercooler, stock ECU, a Scottie downpipe and new exhaust, you should be able to get out at less than $1500. I say that having no experience at all (I have researched this - saving my own dollars for some kind of engine upgrade). Long blocks from most yards can be had for ~$500. If you already have a 5sp, you can just use that. Intercoolers are around $400 or so. Piping, misc. etc. rounds it out. This will make enough power to get the car moving. Certainly if you want monster power - anything over 250, then you're into the bucks as Evan says. But, one way to think about it is that it can be a much more step-wise thing. Get it running in stock form, low boost - it'll be quicker than the L24. Then, as your dollars accumulate, you add the other bits. Definately an easier swap. It's a bolt in. With the V8, you gotta add in the cost of the mounts, the radiator, the transmission, driveshaft, headers, twice the exhaust. It's gotta be pricier. I am lately being swayed by the idea of the 302 though - very plentiful in the yards and at pretty decent prices. Definately do as your friend recommends - take care of chassis, brakes, suspension, etc. first. You should budget for around $2K for that stuff (not including wheels) depending on how much of the work you can tackle yourself.

I believe they originally came with 14 inch, 70 profile - probably 185 section width. I got my wheels from DiscountTireDirect.com: 17X8 with a 20mm offset. They are dual pattern (8 holes) 4.5 and 4.25. They were pretty cheap (had to be, I'm poor) - $1300 with 235/45 Dunlop SP5000s shipped to my door. Coulda been cheaper if I'dve used a lower grade tire. BUT, since the reason I finally jumped in the debt hole for new tires/rims was because I spun out going 50 on the freeway in the rain, I decided a good tire would be money well spent. Oh, they're Konig Monsoons (http://240z.jeromio.com/newwheels.html).

Just to make sure there's no confusion: The general agreement is that the later 280Z stubs are the strongest - hence the group purchase on the weld-on flange adapter to allow for CV axles with 280 stubs. Personally, I'm using the CVs with the stock 240 stubs - it was easier and I don't plan on running 500hp or slicks.

Since the ZXT stub has the same diameter and number of splines as the 240, the argument is that they're weaker. This makes it incredibly easy to use the ZXT CV halfshafts on a 240.

~40mm offset is very popular since that's what the front driver's use. For the Z, 20mm offset is golden on an 8 inch wide wheel (with coilovers!). I'd guess that 20mm offset, 7.5 inch would probably clear a stock strut. But that's just a guess. Better off with 0 offset in that width. I have 20mm offset 8 inch rims and they barely clear the spring in the rear - and I have coilovers. There's space on the outside - in theory I could've gone with less offset. As BLKMGK stated, you'll probably be better off looking for some rims with the correct offset - otherwise the added cost of spacers and studs will eat up your savings. And new studs will require removal of the stub axles - not a simple task. Spacers that bolt to the existing studs and provide their own, new studs, are not cheap.

I have <b>alot</b> of experience with fouled plugs. For whatever reason, my L28 has a plug fouling poltergeist in it. It leaves for long periods of time, only to re-appear. To answer at least one of your questions, it doesn't take much of a fouling to cause an engine to run like crap. And it only takes one plug to ruin the party. More than one plug (on the 6 cyl) and the thing will not want to run at all. I had a problem with my wife's truck - some schmuts got in between the points and caused some ignition problems. This in turn lead to 2 fouled plugs. SO, if your distro went spazmo, it could very likely have caused some plugs to foul (weak spark can do that). Change out all the plugs. If you've already done that and the new ones got fouled too, then I'm all outta answers.

Search in drivetrain.....

When we went thru this several months ago, the consensus seemed to be that the rear MR2 strut was the best choice. But then, it's supposedly only an inch shorter? Also, I don't recall a specific year range being revealed. The 85 GTI carts I'm using (Tokico performas) are working well for me.