cygnusx1

Wow illegal to run with parking lights? Another senseless law. Conflicting laws even! In Italy, some cars have a switch to turn on the lights on the street side of the car so that when you park for a quick moment, the side of your car is visible to the street traffic.

I have to find out who carries the gator belts.

I am going to take the alt apart today and see what the brushes look like. Although I would like to upgrade to a higher output alternator, this one was fine until a couple of weeks ago when the light began coming on at idle if I was using a bunch of accessories.

When I worked at BMW and Honda I used to take kitty litter or oil dri absorbant granules, spread them over an oil slick soaked in the concrete, and then grind the powder into the concrete with a brick. This really soaks the oil out of the concrete.

Thanks guys...this is the coolest $30 i have spent on the car...well maybe not as cool as the mechanical boost controller for $6... Yes those are 14 year old sealed beam halogens. The wiring...well there is none. I just opened up the connector for the side marker, tucked in the ends of the tiny wires, and snapped the connector shut tight around the wires. Ghetto but works, and is still weather-tite. Pictures don't do it justice. But here is a photo after I completed both sides.

I like the second one. Nice photochopping. I already stuck them down like the original photos. I can peel them up and re-stick them if I get bored with them. The wire just pushed through the gap under the headlight bucked and was long enough the reach the connectors in front of the radiator following the original side marker wires. This CAN'T be an easier install! Now I need to figure out how to splice in the wires non-destructively.

I tried the full circle but it's too much. I also tried just the top half. The bottom half give the best reflections inside the bucket. It makes the glass lens and reflector of the headlight really sparkle. I am working on wiring them to the side markers. Running the thin wires back through the headlight case. Yes, I might be guilty of "bling" but I am also doing it for safety.

Opinions please. I found these really cheap 12volt ultra bright, and ultra thin SMD strips, embedded in a silicone strip, with self adhesive backing. I bought two 12" strips, but they come in 24", and more I think. They use almost no current. They are white light but appear slightly blue. The camera exaggerates the blue. http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=72_107&products_id=24355 I have been nearly killed a couple of times when people come across the double yellow in broad daylight. Yes, the Z's are small, especially in silver, especially when other drivers are in SUV's on their phone! How does this look? I think it looks phenominal. It really pops out those headlight buckets for daytime running lights.

Not sure if this helps you but they might be able to put one together for you. http://www.importperformanceparts.net/imports/pek-nissan.html

I also have a place in my heart for anything Alfa. Their classic engines looked, sounded, and were engineered way ahead of their time. Hemispherical chambers, dual overhead, crossflow, superchargers! Alfa had it all. Check out this GT-R! DROOL Supposedly, it's a flat black vinyl wrap on the car?? http://www.nagtroc.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=22992&view=findpost&p=329541

I second the experience.

Freeze plugs are there so that when you are finished with the engine block, you pull the plugs out, and the block becomes a tweety bird condo...and keeps the little birds from freezing in the Winter.

When i first did my turbo swap, I walked into a well stocked auto parts store and began opening air filter boxes on the shelf to find the largest one that met my dimensional needs. I figure that a OEM air filter would have enough filtration for what I needed, and the fact that it was going to be BIG, it would flow more than enough. A plus would be that I could get replacements at an auto parts store. Currently I run an "ebay" cotton cone-inside-cone filter. Watch out because some of these have an internal cap that can come loose and get sucked into the compressor! Especially if it was cheaply assembled with hot-melt glue. Sorry I don't have the specs of mine handy. It was a cheap ebay one though. I don't run oil in it. Not sure if it requires it or not.

Ahh maybe that's the issue. I don't leave my adapter in place. I remove it after the charge. I know that's kind of a no-no but I guess that's why my adapter didn't work right.

I mentioned earlier, the adapter that came in my conversion kit needed modification. If I screwed the adapter on far enough for the o-ring to seat, the pin would hold open and the system would evacuate. I had to drill/cut/file to make the aluminum adapter work. I'll try to get a pic of it. The adapter was from a walmart or kmart boxed conversion kit.

Is it just me or does anyone else want to squeeze those cars down the long, cold, wet neck of a Corona!

Cool!

I think the Fel-Pro's are not as blowable, as the Nissan Gaskets. The OEM gasket seems to be the most "Piston Saver". The Fel-Pro that I used, seems stiffer and more brittle than the factory one. The factory one had more flex to it, with a narrower "blow out" region on the intake/exahaust side. Just my observations. Fel-Pro Nissan

When I rev the car at idle, especially when its warming up, I hear a rattling from the turbo area. At first I thought it was the rotor slightly catching the inside of the housing but the turbo still spools up fine there is no rattle with any load on it. Sometimes I hear the rattle when I am coasting foot off the gas. Tonight I grabbed the wastegate arm with a pair of channellocks and forced the puck over to open the gate. When I rev it up and hold the puck open, the rattling goes away. Is there a possibility of some interference with the puck/arm and the rotor in the turbine? Or could it be just the puck rattling? It could also be that the spooling does not occur when I open the gate, so the turbine doesn't rattle either. Any ideas? Experiments I can try?

This guy is using "the force"! Thought some of you would like this.

New problem. Today I thought I saw the red alternator light on while the car was idling, but then it went off as I was driving. At the next traffic light, at idle, the alt light came on again. As soon as I get off of idle, the light goes out. I noticed that there are two parts that can be ordered to replace in the alternator. The Brushes and the Rectifier. I am not an EE. Which part should I order. My hunch is that the brushes are worn. I don't want to buy an alternator right now and besides, it's seems fine, mechanically. Edit: It's 280ZXT alternator, internal regulator. Unknown age. Thanks!

Just to let you know. My 76 factory A/C has been running R134a for the past 10 years. I have had no issues. I changed as many o-rings as I could reach in the unions to assure tight seals. I didn't even drain the compressor. My systam had been open for about three years prior to me replacing the evaporator, condenser, and dryer bottle. I added some of the recommended PAG oil that is compatible with r134a. Then I pulled a vacuum on it for a couple of hours. Turned off the pump to make sure it held the vacuum. Then I charged it with about 75% R12 capacity of R134a. I had to customize the R12-r134a charge adapter that came with my K-Mart conversion kit.

That's going to look great at night when the turbine is cherry red hot and sticking out of the hood!

BTW: Clive, It was MUCH MUCH easier to pull the trans with the downpipe out of the way! We should have removed the DP last time we put in the trans. LOL.

Lazy me got into the garage at 1pm this afternoon. Working slowly, it's 3:30 and I got to the bottom of it. I decided to do the quick fix and NOT miss driving season. It is pretty short here in the Northeast. I heated up the fidanza flywheel to get it easily off the back of the crank. As I pulled off the flywheel, the rear main seal fell onto the floor! It worked its way out of the rear of the block. No wonder it was leaking! I already have the new seal and I am going to use some sealant on the outside of this seal. Easy fix, and should be back on the road, right as the rain ends for a nice weekend! Luckily, I caught it before any oil got onto the clutch. The true plus side of keeping a neat and tidy engine bay is being able to spot problems early.