ZR8ED

Its kinda hard to see in the pic, but do you have a "duct" or "port" in your airdam? If so, you could do something similar to my setup. I ran a flexible hose (approx 3" in diameter) and attached it to the drivers side air dam duct, and ran the duct under the lower rad support/frame rail, and into an aluminum air box surrounding my air filter. Now mine is not sealed yet, (I am planning a redesign) but I have not noticed any negative affects, and I certainly do not have any overheating issues. Its kind of a ram air setup, and is not really an issue if I'm in the rain. The filter always looks dry after being in the rain. Scott.

The diff in an 86 na or turbo were all 3.54 R200's, so it will fit just fine, though there is no difference to your 77's diff except its newer. There are no major items that are easily transferable. If your not too tall, the seats will fit (mods req).

Well I ended up doing the opposite. I have lowered my rear fascia (rollpan) to cover my fuel tank, and I will construct another rear diffuser (more for looks than anything else) I originally had another rear diffuser that I built, that curved up after the fuel tank. Understand though that my fuel tank is the 280 style, and hangs a bit lower than a 240 tank. The original use for the diffuser was to combat fumes getting into the cabin by reducing the turbulence under the car and reduce the vacuum effect/dead zone just behind the car. No the diffuser did not perform as intended, but neither did it turn the car into an airplane or other such unstabling factor. I did however install aluminum mesh in the lower fascia in the effort to let trapped air escape. Time will tell once the new diffuser is made whether it does its intended job, though I am not worried about the car getting less stable. I also intend on extending the front belly pan to cover the tranny tunnel from frame rail to rail, but that is a whole other thread which I will keep separate. As for cutting your roll pan, I do not think you should do it, unless you really want to getting into fabricating something along the lines of Darius's diffuser. If you want to do it "just because"..to experiement..to learn and have fun, then go for it, don't let any of us slow you down. I am enjoying watching your build. Scott.

Well you have shown great perseverance with your car to this point, and though it is not the same, the attitude, stamina, drive, excitement, and future vision are As others have already commented, do not discount or hide from the negative. Understand that it is there, state it as a matter of fact, just do not focus on it. Understanding and focusing on the positive is the way you should look at all of the things in your life. I too can recommend a terrific book that many on this site would also enjoy. It is called "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" It really opened my eyes, and the technical explanations using motorcycles as examples helped made ideas/concepts of "seeing" "click". Good luck, and PS don't worry, this site makes a good sounding board sometimes. Scott.

In my quest for reducing weight in my early years of Z ownership, I removed all of the tow eyes from the car. That was fine until I needed them to move the car on a flatbed...towtruck..from time to time...yeeeshh. It was even more frustrating once I added the lower air dam strip, and the front and rear belly pans. I have since added 1 to the front, and I plan on at least 1 more in the rear. The fronts are pretty easy, as there are two nice mount points on the front. At least on my 280. The bumper shock mounts have nice heavy reinforced mounting points that accept a 14mm bolt if I recall correctly. I'm not concerned about the extra pound or two to have them back. Here is a shot of my front hook. It has saved my butt a couple of times now.

It looks pretty good to me (disclaimer...I am not an engineer, but I have serious steering mods on my z too) IF it runs smoothly turn to turn, make sure you try it with the wheels on the ground. This will give you some extra resistance, that may help you "feel" for irregularites in the smoothness, and will offer resistance to make sure that the extra effort used to steer, does not make the geometry shift. Sorry, not much to add, Just thinking safety first. Scott.

I've been going to the Kennedy Space Centre since the early 70's. I've seen a few rockets and one shuttle launch, and they were all very memorable. I even got a lucky look at the shuttle a year before the first launch, and when I did a public speaking speech in school (grade 3) I got in trouble for lying about a fabulous space airplane, and had to get my parents to straighten the teacher out. It would take another year or so before the first launch, and that teacher to hopefully think to themself "whooops he waaaas right" hehe My little story from my childhood....I got a C in public speaking..hehehe

I don't see why the spark map would not work for you. There is nothing radical in there, and I have not tweeked it to the edge of detonation, so it should be safe enough. I am planning a dyno session in the next week or two (weather permitting) and I am going to see about pushing the boost back to approx where it was before the MS install. I'll post more info then.

I hope it didn't do any other serious damage under the car. Sometimes brake lines/ ebrake cables/ can get whacked. If you don't want to upgrade the shafts, you can always detune the motor! bwahaha! I have never upgraded mine, and until I have a problem, I will leave them alone. (I have worn out a few pair since I have owned the car, but have never broken one) Sorry I couldn't make the meet. I just couldn't get the dyno tuning session with Whiteheads set up in time. The racer crowd takes precidence sometimes. Maybe next time. Goodluck! and congrats on the slip you did get! Scott.

Oh I guess I should mention that I bought the entire MS&S kit. Relay boards, wire, MAP sensor etc. From DIY. Preassembled too. As for some other minor mods that may affect the setup directly. 60mm throttle body (nissan axxes) 2.5" i/c piping and large bar/plate i/c Mallory pressure reg and high flow pump (installed in stock location) Custom intake piping/ducting. I was also reading some other posts about EMI affecting the MS. I still get sometimes (usually with initial startup) the fuel pump relay will buzz, but goes away. The buzzing follows the same buzzing frequency as the fuel pump, though the pump has always been loud. I have the pump isolated in rubber mounts. Still looking at this issue. I'll get some more info up soon..

Ok this has been a long time coming. Quick Background. VG30ET with 370cc injectors, t3/t4 hybrid turbo, intercooled, and a 3" ss exhaust. Jacobs electronics ignition, and a few other minor mods. I am running MS&S. The car is running very well. It starts perfect, idles well when cold and when warm. I am at approx 300ft above sea level. At present the boost is set to approx 12psi. WOT In 4th and 5th gear the car pulls hard with very good afr's (12:1). I'm having a minor issue with 2nd and 3rd gear at mid-high rpm under WOT. when I keep the boost at approx 10psi (using the throttle) it pulls to redline with no issues. The car bucks/surges when at WOT only, and only in those gears, and I had reports the car smelled very rich while it did this. (trailing vehicle) I think it has to do with the boost, as I recently turned it up a lb or two. I don't recall it doing that before. I'm still working on it. Anyways, I am posting up some of my information to maybe get some input, but mostly to add to the information base for other VG30ET guys. I have lots of other screen shots that I will add.

Well. Ike's wrath is already being felt way up here in Toronto. They have hiked gas at the pumps 13 cents per litre. The gas companies say its Ike's fault.

Well for the first 17 years of Z ownership, I didn't have a garage. I paid to store it in the winter, and I would borrow my parents garage if I needed to do more serious work. Well two years ago I got my first garage, and had some fun with it. It was a one car garage, but I cleaned it up, insulated it drywall, paint, mezzanine storage, epoxy floor. It was a great little garage. Now I feel like I'm in heaven. Matress and ping pong table not withstanding. I did some more work out there last night, but once those items are removed, it will really open up. BTW its insulated (garage door too!) I hope my heater will heat it up as well as it did in my last garage. I still need to put in the floresent lighting too, as the lighting is not great (way better since I painted the room white!) My wife is asking if I'm keeping the rest of the garage empty for another Z or a lounger seating area! Well...I do watch movies out there while tinkering around! I like the sound of another z though!

I've been pretty busy this summer selling and buying another home. Its been a lot of work, and I have not had much time to work on the Z. But I think its worth the sacrifice. I finally got my two car garage!!!! Its been almost 20 years of waiting, but my Z finally has some serious room. No yard tools, no kiddie toys, no bikes. Only my work benches, tools and car parts are allowed in this garage. I hope to have it all cleaned up and sorted out before it gets too cold out. I won't likely have time to paint the epoxy floor, so I will have to wait till spring. This pic does not do it justice. It was in very dark/dirty condition. I cleaned everthing, painted the walls and ceiling and the shelving. Took out a ton of junk and wood and junk shelving. I still have lots of work to do, but I did manage to get the stereo system and tv setup to keep me entertained while continuing to clean and sort the garage. Ok this post is useless without pics...

That is some crazy linkage! I'm glad to see you locked it all down using those heim joints! I only added one ujoint to my steering to clear the turbo, and it took some setup work to make sure it would not bind. Lots of testing on the hoist before I took it for a drive. I used to think about it while driving initially, but it doesn't bother me anymore, and the car steers just fine on the street, the track, and parking lots. Been installed more than 7 years now!

Good to see you got it back and up and running. Congrats! Scott

That's funny. I missed this thread. My family ran a sign shop in the 70's and early 80's, and among other plastic products, we vacuum formed magnetic signs to stick on cars/trucks. (this is before the large flat sheets of magnets were reasonably avail/cheap.) Infact this was before computerized vinyl cutting machines etc.. The business has been shut down, but I still have all my equipment, letters shapes etc, and I do have 2 vacuum formers left, and equipment to make 2 more. Heaters, vacuum pumps etc. I have one machine that I still occasionally use. Its 18x24, and It was used with fairly thin plastics. (the raw material came in rolls) Pretty much anything you could carve in 3d could be made, but was limited to approx 3/4 of an inch thick, as depending on the shape, the material could get pretty thin as it layed down over the mold. We also did plexiglass forming (plexiglass is a brand name for types of Acrylics and various types of styrenes etc.) We cut and shaped pieces with table saws with fine blades, routers and sanders. You need to be careful not to melt or cause stress fractures (from cutting too quickly) We used various heating elements similar to home ovens. The key to making something is all in the mould or jig. obviously straight lines are the easiest bends to make. Nice and slow even heating makes for nice bends that reduce distortions or whitening (clear plastics). I never thought of making stuff for my car though! Hmm I might have to have a look and tap into my fathers extensive experience with this stuff. I may have to start up this hobby business again....I'm not taking any orders anytime soon. hehehe Scott.

Its normal behavior I think. I have had 17. I currently own my first and second last purchased Z. The first one stays for ever. The second last one is a low mileage wrecked but driveable 88 300zxt parts car. And no the diff is not avail..its my backup lsd. hehehe