jeromio

The big washer gets welded to the strut tube about 5 - 5 1/2 inches from the bottom (of the tube). The threaded collar rests on it. You have to cut off your old spring perch. Do this by grinding off the metal just above the weld. Then turn the strut upside down and hammer off the perch. The O ring is for the gland nut. Throw the old upper plate away along with the perch and the springs. You can keep the old rubber isolator. I didn't cut mine at all, but I think you are meant to cut off the bottom inch or so of the rubber. (I'll be trimming mine when I take my struts off again for sectioning) I dunno how helpful it will be, but I have some info and pics on my GroundControl conversion at http://240z.jeromio.com under the suspension link. Mike SCCA has some good pics and info at http://fonebooth.com/suspension.html, although I'm not sure how similar his parts are to the GroundControls.

What's a GTR motor?

You can use the CV half shafts too - search around the Drivetrain forum for info. Or jut go to http://www.tidalwave.net/~pparaska/280ZCVhalfshaftConversion.htm.

What's a GTR motor?

I have the cheapo electric, noisy-ass purolator pump. I fear fiddling with the carbs too much because then I'll just end up completely disassembling them. The pinging I chalk up to the lean mixture. Actually, the other day I boldly tweaked the screws a sconch and now there is no ping at all. The advance works, I've tested it. When it's running well, it runs beautifully. I've been on the same set of plugs now for a week. Seemed like one was fouled a few days ago - much backfiring and complaining and lack of power. I was pissed so I jut ragged it - drove it at 5-6K for 5 minutes. And it cleared up. I looked for some hotter NGKs a few months ago and wasn't able to find any. I haven't tried any of the "real" parts stores yet though (the ones that close at 5pm and aren't open weekends). I guess realistically it'll be a year before I can put the turbo motor in (not only do I have to find the motor, I have to find the money). So, maybe I should just bite the bullet and rebuild these carbs.

71 round tops 50/50 trans oil and MarvelousMystery (lighter than trans) L28 F54/P79 engine. ShortBlock has about 70K miles on it. P79 was rebuilt about 4000 mile ago. I have the timing set to just below max vacuum (using a vacuum guage on the front carb). It's advanced to about 15 degrees if you go by the marks (the accuracy of which I question). I have the vac advance pulling from the cross over tube.

I did a compression check - all 150 or higher. The shop did a valve job on the head when they did the rebuild. It does smoke a little - but not very much. I do suspect the carbs need to be rebuilt. It's just that I want to put a turbo L28 in it and it sucks to invest in something that's gonna get replaced. The fouled plugs are black and sooty - too much fuel. It's strange - like maybe things are running well and then a glob of crap shoots out and only affects one or 2 cylinders.

So, I have a low mileage junk yard L28 with dual SUs that ran very nicely for about 6 months with a rebuilt P79 head. Then I inadvertently put some stale gas in it (you may have seen these posts over at zcar.com). I have since drained and cleaned the fuel tank and the bowls, fiddled with the carbs, replaced the wires, cap and rotor (car has the Crane electronic upgrade) and the fuel filter several times. It already had a newe Accel coil. I have gone thru about 60 spark plugs. I have tried gapping them tighter (the NGKs come 44 and I tried 32 - have lately settled on 40 which is the lowest setting of the wire guage I have). They keep fouling! And it's very random. It'll run fine, then after a day or a week it'll cough and sputter. When I check it it may be one fouled plug, or it may be 3. One time it was 5. Number one is the most robust - I've only replaced it twice. I'm running 93 octane and occasionally put some fuel system cleaner in the tank (mostly out of desperation). I've leaned the carbs out - I get some pinging on hard acceleration and much backfiring on downshifts. What would cause some plugs to foul and not others? When it's more than one plug, it's almost always been one from each carb (such as 3 & 4). I bought one of those cheesy mechanical "Spark Strength" testers and all 6 seemed very strong - if anything number 1 was weaker, even though that's the one that fouls the least often. What causes fouling? I know that too much fuel will do it, but what else? What should I be looking at? I'm getting like 8 miles to the plug here and it really sucks! I'd appreciate any ideas any of you may have... Thanks.

I had a similar problem on a friend's 4 Runner that sat for 2 years. I kept on telling him we needed to prime the injectors. But neither of us knew exactly how to do this. So, we just kept drinking more beer and taking turns - one guy spraying starter fluid (basically ether) into the intake and the other turning the key and pumping the accelerator. Eventually it kicked over - many hours later. No, we didn't drive it that night.

I would do the custom tubes. It's true, you can weld stainless with stainless wire and the right gas. BUT, I would just do standard steel and then have it ceramic coated. You can get lots of J or U bends from many different suppliers. Use a tubing cutter. It'll be fun. You're not really having to deal with that many bends (unlike say, making custom headers), and there'll be lots of room in the front there. Plus, as to the weight distro issues, have you factored in the intercooler and plumbing? Plus, with the turbo up front, it'll be easier to get at - and it'll look really cool too. And actually, if you have no welder, You could mock up the tube pieces (duct tape them maybe) and then carry them to the welder's shop when you've worked it all out. That would reduce the cost considerably and you'd end up with nice professional welds (that won't leak). I've never heard of a welder charging more than $50 an hour - prob'ly cost you no more than $150.

There are no rear drive Acuras (except for the SUVs). Seems like any part from a Lexus would be butt-stinky expensive. What would be ideal is to find a rear drive, narrow track CV jointed car that is fairly plentiful and has a strong, LSD. Older 3 and 5 series bimmers are very plentiful for instance. How about Supras? I can't really think of any others though.

Oh, $60 for the set. Dumb = me. So, it's cheaper to do the solid Us than CVs. But, when you say fiddling, is that like 2 hours of fiddling, or is it interminable? There's another Pick&Pull about an hour away that I need to check out. Hrm, new shafts from Carparts.com are $90 each..... Funny though, they've got unique entries for left and right, but identical part numbers. Seeing as how my total expenditure will be over $1000 for this rebuild (bushings, springs, shocks, diff, etc), I may as well kick in the extra scratch to do the CVs.

I am slowly acquiring the parts do to my rear rebuild. My question is, if the solid U's are $30 each (?) then that's $120 (4 joints) vs. $100 for the ZXt CV shafts (assuming this Clark place has more)! It's a 240, so I already have 240 stubs. (I also have the shafts from a 280, but not the stubs). Are the joints even easy to replace? I mean, should I factor in having a shop replace them (I have no press for instance)? That would bump the Ujoint cost up some more. Seems like the CV swap is going to obe cheaper and possibly even easier than rebuilding my existing shafts. Certainly more reliable and robust (I have a stock L28 now, but I'm looking for an L28t).

I got mine from that Nissan dealership in Texas (http://www.onlinenissan.com/) - their price was a bit cheaper than my local dealer even with shipping factored in. For some reason I can't remember how much it ended up being, but I know it was way cheaper than Victoria - perhaps $25?

Oh. Bummer. So, MR2 cartridge then? That's the one with the fatter shaft that necessitates modding the upper mount, right? More questions: which year and is it front or rear that are the correct length and width? Thanks.

So, I am about to take the plunge and buy the GTI strut cartridge for use on the front. My question is this: I have heard of people using the front strut tubes on the back of the car. Since I have already set up my front tubes for coil-overs (they're already nice and painted and everything), it would save me much work if I could simply use them in the back, and then section the rears for use in the front. This all assumes that swapping tubes front to rear is relatively easy though. It's not clear to me how the tube attaches to the spindle. Is it threaded? If it's welded on, then I may as well plan on sectioning all 4 tubes.

This is a stupid question, but from looking at their website, it's unclear to me: Does this Road Dyno have an accelerometer in it? They claim that their software only solution produces the exact same results - clearly that has no accelerometer. They don't mention how they are getting mile per hour figures for either the Home Dyno or the Road Dyno. Unless I am gravely misunderstanding something, it seems as though there is a great deal of extrapolation (or worse) with this device/technique.

Long time ago I had a 85 RX7. That was a great car. Very smooth. I concur on the wind up, blow up, "rotaries are unreliable" equation. My car had a buzzer at redline. It was a key piece of hardware because unless you were actually looking at the tach, it was hard to know you were at (or over) redline. Very smooth powerband. I got terrible gas mileage in that car - the 4 barrel's butterflies were always open. Lots of fun though.

Another technique that has worked well for me - esp. with thin to thick unions, is to lap joint the metal - maybe 3/8 to 1/2. Then set the welder fairly hot and weld on the thin lapped side, in the middle(-ish) area of the lap. It will burn thru the thin but not all the way thru because the other metal is on underneath (or on top if you're under the car). Then, as you move along the seem, you zig zag and melt that exposed top lap of metal. If you're really concerned about the rust, you can either grind off the underside lap or "seal" it with a weld on a low heat setting (much less chance of burn thru). It really is amazing how thin the sheet is on these cars - and no zinc or anything! I've replaced all the rusted out bits with 14ga.

Wow. Very impressive. Those brakes are like art. I covet this car....

The GTI (or MR2) cartridges are needed when you shorten the front struts. My plan is to do the front to back switcho and then section the rears by 4 inches and use them in the front with '85 GTI cartridges. But then, this plan is on hold since my engine recently became infested with demons.

If there even are any wrecked ones yet, I'd guess that a salvage yard would want many dollars for it - like maybe $4K. You might be able to find a complete rollover which would be between $6-8K. A new one would likely run around $6K.

That link to the 350 swap in the Z31 seems to be broken. Big bummer. Since no one else has done this, I will volunteer to say, "Go to http://www.jagsthatrun.com and order the manual - money well spent it will be". I haven't done any kind of swap except for L24 to L28 (Not for lack of ambition, just lack of dollars). But that is what everyone says. The JTR book is packed full of zcar V8 swapping knowledge goodness. Although it is slanted towards early Zs.... [This message has been edited by jeromio (edited September 20, 2000).]

Zxs are rear steer? Didn't know that. As for ackerman/steering geometry - if anyone is going to attemtp any kind of chassis wierdness, I strongly recommend buying a Lego Technics set - a good one, like the latest Car Chassis one. It's a good way to get a feel for how things like ackerman, suspension geometry, bumpsteer - all that stuff - fits together. You can vary the basic elements - steering arm length, for instance, rack placement, control points, and then see how it affects the behavior of the wheels in relation to the chassis and in relation to each other. For instance, simply flipping the steering knuckles 180 and transposing the rack placement (back of crossmember to front or vice-versa) will result in anti-ackerman steering (wide inside wheel, tight outside). Not a good idea. It's cheap (less than $100), it's definately fun, and it will help a great deal to figure out your options before you mess with your actual car. Think of it as a real time, 3 space, tactile modelling tool......(or at least tell that to your wife when she sees the Toys'R Us bill).

I'll be so bold as to state that all of the controls are in the same positions, RHD/LHD. Each cable ends at a control lever. They are all pretty easy to trace. There are 4. You just follow the cable to it's terminus lever and then get a phillips in there to loosen the screw that clamps the cable to the lever. There's also the screw that secures the clamp for the cable sheath though. For at least one of these, the sort of angled bar phillips tool (comes with most Craftsman sets) is required as there is no room to get a proper screwdriver in place. Personally, I have converted over to a 280 vacuum operated system. I bought the whole enchilada from a pick and pull as part of my A/C upgrade. Does it work? Hell no. All kinds of vacuum lines and I dunno what or where they're supposed to connect to. The old cable system was a way huge pain in the ass muscle - the levers were all real sticky and requred huge effort to operate. BUT, they did, in fact, operate. I'm sure that if I ever get this current system working, I will be able to select temp/distribution, etc. with a flick of a finger. I gots me some hopes. I had considered replacing the vacuum actuators with electric - then I added up the cost (cough).