ZR8ED

As mentioned above. if the wastegate has not been modded ie where you running stock boost before?.. if so, then the extra length of the i/c pipes and the pressure loss of the i/c would give you the feeling of a slugish turbo... even more so if your i/c pipes are not as short and efficiently laid out. If your i/c pipeing is larger than stock, then you have even more air to compress before the throttleplate before the boost can rise..hence more turbo lag. I don't think the 3" exhaust is going to be noticeably benificial when you have actually slowed the response of the engine from the intake....(i/c and pipes) When you start to turn the boost up, THEN you will see the changes.... you may still find a slightly slower response from the turbo, due to the same issues (longer pipes and i/c to pressurize)...BUT then it should come on like a freight train. Have some patience, and wait till you can crank up the boost some... BTW also mentioned above, WHERE you measure the boost pressure is important to consider.. the acuater gets its signal from just the other side of the turbo housing... your guage most likely reads from the manifold...those two signals are now going to be reading much differently from now on.... the manifold will ALWAYS read a lower boost level than your wastegate actuator (assuming the stock actuator getting a signal from the stock location on the turbo....) Good luck!

Well I suppose I should join up. My 280 is just packed up for winter, but my 240 is still in full swing for being assembled. Kinda cool too. I now own the first production year and the last of the 1st gens. Anyways.. the 240 has had every single wire removed...every wire...dash everything... are ya following me???? EVERY wire. I have been spending the last month installing a complete wiring harness which I picked up from the buy and sell here at hybridz. New rear brake cyl, clutch master cyl, bleed all lines, fab mounts for the headlights, rebuild a set of SU's and install, dismantel all the windshield wiper bits and get it unsiezed and working smooth. install and construct a washer fluid delivery system. I've also installed the seats into a custom mounting set up (from custom floors..new mounts were constructed.. all square tubular stuff.) The car is almost there.....I was hoping to have it done more than a month ago, but hey... :"while I was at it" struck again... So i don't know what # I will be assigned, but I can assure you this little Z is not going to get the better of me....no matter how much money I have to throw at it..hehehe Money seems to be the only real solution for working on Z cars. I'm trying to keep it a budget car (not my usual style) but it seem I have little choice, and I need to do it this way so I can keep both toys. Two toys are better than one, and really.. who am I kidding...my 280 is my baby, so it is going to get the major funding.. I'm still wiring the GM alternator, and the fuel pump, and then it is just some clean up stuff...Engine already runs beautiful.. it should run low 15's high 14's easily.. Progress is getting slower as the cold continues to hassle me, but I will keep up the progress reports... This Jackstand Racing sounds much better than the other club I was a member of back on zcar.com... NIC (No Idle Club)

1982 supra GTS and newer all had LSD's 3.7 ratio. Even the old ones are bullet proof. (There are some pretty mean mkII's running around with mega hp and stock rears. The only prob with the supra diffs, is that the "snout" is shorter than our R200's. I'm sure it can be engineered. Nice bonus, is that you may be able to adapt the supras CV shafts. The car is wider than ours, so they need to be shortend, but who says you can't add on Z outers... kinda make it a custom shaft, but that should not scare anyone on this board too much. hehehe It is definitely an option to the expensive lsds for our cars.

My bipod was my Supra buddy..The only way he can be a tripod is if he takes his pants off, and there is no way in hell I'm going to let him do that near me! eheehehehehe (Autin Powers humour attempt baby...) That was a very impromptu attempt.. a quick pass by, and then we got the heck out of there. Tripod use seems to be inevitable now... Its pretty hard to get that shot by hand... He was standing less than 6ft away when I passed him....yup..you heard me... He's a good friend that trusts me.

You said outside the box, so I'll bite. How about..dare I say..an Electric Z? No one can complain about the torque curve of an electric motor..or should I say.. torque plateau..hehehe I've seen lots of home conversions done to other cars, but have not seen one in a Z. It be a great alternative for those in CA who just want to cruise...240 style.. no emmisions problems... or think of it as an affordable commuter car?..... dead simple.. lots of room in the engine bay... It may not be a "handling" car, but hey..might be able to keep our z cars when they run out of fuel, or when it hits 100.00 per gallon..

Naw lets drag the average back down a bit Terry.. 33.... heck my "new to me" 240 has an older build date than me!!! Had my 280 since 1989. As far as trivia goes. I was born 363 days after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon...(Ya I'm wierd too)

I believe I can offer some seat of the pants experience here. I have used stock sized tires 195/70/14.. 225/6014.. 225/50/15... a combo of 225/50/16 front 245/45/16 rear, and now my 235/40/17 front 315/35/17 rears on the same car with very minor changes in the rest of the suspension during those years.... I believe the smaller wheels "feel" lighter..less rotating mass.. much easier to steer, and much easier to spin, and lots of howling protest from them when nearing traction limits. I have heard time and time again over the last 15 years, that the 225/50/15 is about ideal for our z's... they have a nice crisp feel to them (tires were firehawk svx's..and yoko A008's) When i went to 16's, launching the car hard became much more difficult (had plenty of hp at that time..)... it slowed the accel a bit too. I had to change my gear set to get the car to pick up speed again...(I know that part of that is the extra ratio of the larger tires...but I still had to change the gears to gain back what I lost.) The 16's were awsome on the track...I could corner like I was on rails (seat of the pants)... They 16's did not like the uneven pavement.. car got more "darty" on highways, and there was much less warning when the tires were running out of traction... I had to add a wing on the back of the car to get it to be half decent in a heavy rain... with wet roads it was fine... The 17's I run currently are working out great! The rain handling is better than when I ran the 16's... even though i have a smaller wing....(better tire compound I think is doing most of the work) The handling is down right wicked, but some of that is due to the set back nature of my particular engine swap choice. I did have to loosen up some of my front swaybar, cause I picked up more understeer with the new tires... It handles very very neutral... compound is I think the most important...the larger the wheel combo, the more careful and thurough you need to be to get the car set up... My 17's give me plenty of capabilitiy, that actually overshadows my suspension.... It is now time to upgrade the suspension to more effectively use my larger wheel combo.

I had an 84 limited edition 50th anniversary turbo 300zx. I sold it with close to 290km's on it...turbo still pulled hard...turbo was still good after next owner blew up the engine after neglecting a repair on the car...(I know I took the old engine back for parts) dumb fool!

I'm going to take this a bit easier now... I thought it was pretty expensive, but this shop is a respected speed shop..(ala twin supercharger install on a viper gts) Guy just loves Z though... I'm going to get the material myself, and see what can be done about putting it together. I know a great welder/fabricator that can help...For 1100.00 its worth trying on my own... I think I may just replace the part of the exhaust that is factory stock...that ought to free up enough to be able to notice if its worth the effort to redo the entire exhaust... Thanks.

Penguin: I don't think anyone else's street Z has a lower air dam than me... Mine is about 1.75" off the ground...pretty low.... As for the rear bellpan. Mine is complete...I just need to install it now...I got held up with bigger probs this summer and it got left on the sidelines. This thread is pretty old, and was meant to deal with inherent issues of installing aerodynamic equipment on our car, that makes any exhuast issue more severe... No one here is going to remove spoilers, wings etc.. to solve the exhaust problem...I know I won't...and a straight pipe out the side is not an option after some of us have spent big money on large exhaust and mufflers. I had thought about what can be done with out changing these things...My reasons are for exhaust fumes, and I just love the "Geewizz" factor of a rear bellypan (I already have a large front pan) Its all about keeping the air under the car moving faster than the air on top and beside...AND keeping the exhuast low to the ground to try and get a scavaging effect... But in the name of performance I think reducing that vortex behind the car may be of other benifit as well... I know with my wide body styling, I've made it worse..but I'm not going to change it back...so I've been studying other answers...which have created more questions of course. I hope more people will look at this thread and post what has worked/ not worked for them for reducing fumes in the car.....If you read all the posts, there doesn't seem to be one sure fire solution... Always looking for options and ideas..... Thanks,

My front springs have several inches of up and down play when the car is fully jacked up... As someone mentioned.. use some safety wire to tie them down. That way they will stay lined up correctly when the car comes down.. As for unloading the car like that on the street....you will have much bigger problems if you get the car in the air like that...I have not even come close....car is very solid... I recall cutting 3-4 coils out of my front springs....and trust me..that is very low... my car has much larger tires than what I had on originally (225/60/14's)... that brought my frame rails under the floor about 2" off the ground. The car sits much higher now. I am running chevette springs in the back with 1.5 coils cut from them..much stiffer than stock..work awsome.. $50 brand new...hehehe I was going to put them in the front, but with my engine sitting so far back, I just do not need that much spring up front..that is why i have left them stock in the front...Though I am going to replace them in front...the bottom of my airdam is about 1.75" off the ground...toooo low even for me..... 8)

Hey guys. I've posted some new pics, and added another short vid to tease you a bit till my full "Back in Black" vid is complete... http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4290955091

Here is mine: It is old, but still shows the position of the I/C

I lowered my car 3" by cutting the stock springs...infact I still run my same original stocko front springs..I had them cut 13 years ago I think... you do use heat after cutting them! I cut mine with a torch...I then heated up the last 1/2 coil red hot..I then flattened it slightly. This takes the pressure off the tip of the spring (why many cut springs break or fail) Now that it is flattend and STILL red hot, you keep the heat on it and slowly take the heat away... 1-2 min I figure...this helps realign the molecules in the spring...They all need to be laying the same direction.... I have pushed my car very hard through the years...no probs....

I had my drivers side snap where the rod becomes threaded. I had just done some drag runs with some friends...I was on my way home and hit the brakes for a red light, when "thunk!" the car veared left sharply and I had to becareful stoping the car. It was ok when driving...but when stopping..it was scary.. I replaced mine and replaced my worn bushings with poly bushings..no probs since...this was more than 8 years ago... (mine looked rusty in the area where it met the frame mount.) but the metal was clean where it broke... Lucky it didn't break while racing!

Yo2001!!! That is frickin cool!!!..off topic, but I like where you have your turbo timer/ A/F ratio monitor!! I have the same one..I have mine on the steering column between the speedo and tach...easy to read, but tough to adjust... I have a leather/carbon fibre Momo shift knob.

Not turbo as far as I know..I DO know they come with a 200hp v6.. or that the mazda 6?.....

Hey Russ good to see your still lurking around! Drop me an email sometime and let me know whats up?.. you still Z'ing?

It will be ultra cool to prowl the streets with my own Z this time.

Here is a pic of my passenger motor mount. You can see how this is much stronger, and would not require 1/4 plate steel. The reinforcing to the frame rail extends further aft of the mount..the drivers side is FAR more involved as it required moving the frame rail out of the way.. The top portion of the mount (rubber part is stock 300zxt)

Here is a pic of my rear flare mould.

Thanks guys! I'm really happy with the look of the car. I still have my rear belly pan to install (already been fabbed on a metal brake). Still some detail stuff to clean up as well..and for good reason.. Some members of my Z club are trying to arrange a group deal to have our cars shipped to the MSA show next year. If we can get the price reasonable, you will find my black beast sitting there..hood open of course...it may not be a show engine...but I'm sure it still has some "geewiz" factor going for it. 8) Rufus: Are you a member of a local z club?.. my club shares events with the Rochester group...we go to some of theirs and they attend some of our events as well. I'm only 2.5hrs from NiagraFalls. You may want to attend some of our events.... Our "Zfest 2003" was larger than the national Z convention...157 cars were there. We have events all over southern Ontario. I've managed to meet quite a few fellow Hybridz members over the years..I hope to meet a lot more. Also: I ordered my air dam from a catalogue at a local speed shop almost 14 years ago...I have no idea who made it anymore..only that I have not seen one exactly like since.. the MSA unit is pretty close.. The rear flares are fibreglass, and have that spoiler as part of the mould. The flares are from a set of moulds I aquired a few years ago. They were hand shaped for a race car owner. He never used them cause they were too big hehehe. He still runs a similar flare..but only about 4 inches..hehehe. Mine are a one off, and I have still hold the moulds for them. The three vents at the rear were designed by my mech and myself to let trapped air out so they would not act as a parachute hehehe. The mesh is expanded aluminum, and are simply epoxied in place from the inside of the flare... The mould is the entire quarter panel.. all of the C pillar..to the tail lights, all the way around to the back of the doors. most of the original quarter panels have been removed, and the inner fender was rebuilt to accomodate the new fender... all of it was bonded on and rivited... they are not perfect, but have the look of an original hand made design...I may have them reworked slightly when I repaint the car..I'm happy with them none the less... 8) Johnathan aka Spotfitz: Glad to see you haven't given up on your project. Its a long road for sure, and tough to keep the enthusiasim going when you haven't seen the car on the road for a long time.. Good luck to all on their respective projects.

Oh and on the subject of the MSA show, A group from my club are trying to arrange shipment of our Z's to the show...if we can get the price down to a reasonable amount, you will see my black beast sitting at the show....hood open I might add... 8)

The JTR talks about using plates to mount the engine...That is why they are so thick..(I had the manual, and I've seen the diagrams, and I know what you are talking about....) The stocko Nissan mounts are thin boxes.. My new mounts look a lot like the stock ones..except mine aren't heavy guage sheet metal. Plenty strong... You should think along those lines as well.. The JTR also is set up to mount the v8 to the stock nissan mounts on the crossmember.... mine...and thinking of the size of a rotary, his will be behind the cross member as well, and will likely end up being mounted to the frame rails themselves.. I'll post some pics of mine...

My car has gone into winter jail this weekend...very depressing, as I just took delivery of some new parts I would have loved to install and start playing with.... Its been a heck of a season for me with wild highs and brutal lows, all of which equate to large $$$$$ spent on the Z. My 240 will be packed up this weekend as well...I want to keep it as a low budget project, so It will sleep till spring as well.... SOoooo I have no Z's to keep me occupied, so I intend on living vicariously through others! So on to your projects folks! I'll watch, read, listen, laugh, take notes, make jokes, help where ever I can, help even if it is not needed, heck I might even help when I don't know what I'm talking about! ..just kidding on the last one Its benchracing season for me!!! Yehawwww!