Afshin

The problem is that at least in my book, qualified to run is not the same as qualified to lead. My friendly neighbor (as myself) can easily qualify to run, but not necessarily to make final complicated decisions about multifaceted problems within a intricate system involving thousands of towns, school, billions of dollars, and millions of people …. Every decision has consequences, which Arnold or my neighbor are not experienced enough to fully comprehend. I may agree with my neighbors perpective on many things (he is a great guy), it does not mean that I am willing to put the faith of my state and millions of others in his hands. The point was that what it takes to win is fame and political party (democrat or republican) as opposed to more meaningful qualifications.

Well it certainly seems to be a trend, it starts off in high school were the prom king and queen are selected on popularity and while cute at that stage becomes scary when it apply to leaders. Reagan was an actor, baby Bush qualifications, apart from drug use and drunk driving and almost flunking out of school was, my daddy was president and so everyone knows my name. And now we have Arnold, who despite having enjoyed his first 2 Terminator movies greatly, is less qualified that my neighbor to oversee a state with over 30 million people. The man did not even vote in most election for crying out loud, that's how experienced and involved he is in the political process, now he may be Governor of a state which is larger than most countries. How can you believe that someone who doesn’t vote over half of the time is really interested in the state and how it is run? God Damn that's scary. Anyways people hardly ever vote for a person, they vote for a party and maybe that's why no one knows anything about the candidate except there stance about a few stupid standard old arguments like gun control or meanigless new ones like license fees.... No one even knows Arnold's economic plan, including himself, but who cares, he won't give give driver licenses to illegal immigrants (great now I really know which of the idiots to vote for). But that seems irrelevant, he is famous, he is a republican end of story. 90% of democrats will defend Clinton no matter what he does and 95% of republicans will defend baby Bush or Arnold no matter what they do or know..... It's called bipartisan politics; which is pathetic. ( I guess I will be getting a lot of hate emails now , but remember this forum is for fun, please don't get too serious )

The first and standard well proven mods to do on as already mentioned are a grainger type boost controler, 3" exhaust system and in ZX's that includes the catalytic converter. Also advancing the timming does reduce the lag a little, however it sigificantly limits the amount you can turn the boost up (increases detonation). I tried different timming set up and ended back up with the stock 24 along with the boost turned up a few pounds. ALso get a nice K&N air filter.

A strong vote for brakes and suspension. I have always upgraded my suspension first and foremost. Almost all, if not all great sport cars in history had great suspensions, not all had high power (including many Ferrari and Porsches). Between brakes and power in your case power is huge and brakes are stock = poor combo. You can even do toyota 4 pods, rear disc conversion of choice (280zx,240sx..), SS lines.. eibach and tokico's for under 1000. Then, as the next step get a NPR or supra twin turbo intercooler which is very efficient and cheap since many of the supra people upgrade to greddy..., (but does not look as nice) or whatever one you like. that's my 2 cents

I did a full rebuilt on a l28et, no smoke after 5-10 minutes. the engine ran absolutely great for eight years (I was careful with the break in)until the car was totaled after being hit in the rear by a Ford F150 . Hopefully your's won't smoke either while the ring are seating.

Fully agree with SleeperZ. stock runs about 29-32psi and usually jumps about 4 psi when you disconect the vacuum hose to the pressure regulator.

There are two G-tech the more basic one at ~$70 and the pro at $250 which seems absolutely great. It will give you 0-60, 1/8 ,1/4 mile time and speed, optimum shift points and a full graph of your HP and torque for the entire RPM range similar to a dyno run. It also gives you lateral G's and braking distance and maximum acceleration G's. It will also transfer all the data and plot to your computer as well. The principles behind the calculation are very sound and straight forward. My understanding is that it is actually highly accurate. The Hp reading is lower than the dyno because you are getting wind resistance and loss of HP. The results do not vary from run to run and I had heard from a good source (but did not verify it myself) that they have been used by one of the smaller car review teams. I understand everyone’s skepticism about the product since enough bogus claims have been made, however every now and then it is true. I had a basic g-tech before and it was great and my friend tried his against the track and it was very accurate and consistent. They have been around for a long time and continue to have an excellent reputation and have won some awards. Stop watch methods are phenomenally inaccurate no matter what anyone says and it would certainly be nice to accurately quantify changes in acceleration, HP, torque, braking and lateral G's as you make mods to the car. I just bought the new one myself and will put a post up as soon as I get the chance to fix my cigarette lighter and take it to an open road ( I have a huge work deadline at the moment).

I also agree with Dave on the head gasket. While many have done well with the fel-pro, a small but significant amount of them seem to have failed. I think the extra money for the Nissan one is money very well spent. Also you may want to consider using some lock-tite on the manifold bolts, I have seen enough of them loosen with time causing leaks, specially from the exhaust manifold. Also you see why I had suggested re-torqing the head, some things are just good/safe habits. I have learned that in the long run double checking everything saves a lot of time. So, in light of the fact that some of the oil passages were blocked, make sure you inspect the head very very closely you could have subtle but still important damage (e.g. came lobes , cam bearings, valve stems... , make sure there are no marks and check that everything moves smoothly without any binding...hopefully not). I'm glad you are making good progress, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Ditto, it all sounds right. Don't worry there will be plenty of tension when they are on the car. The same thing happens in many cars when you put on the shorter springs, I have installed eibachs on Z's, supra mach III, 240sx and honda prelude and did not need a spring compressor when installing the eibach's in any of them because of the lack of tension with the shorter springs . Results were great on all of the cars. Enjoy the ride.

I would strongly suggest that one should avoid the temptation and not drive the 'family" car hard . I can't say that I would ever push my minivan hard enough with my kids wife or anyone else in it fade the brakes, way to irresponsible (unless you are joking and I missed the sarcasm). I have the Z to prove my skills and have fun with .Everything has it's place.

Mine were daily drivers with nice shiny paint, spooling turbo’s, lead foot and rotting chassis (bad combo). We finally gave up on NJ/East coast 2 years ago and decided to stay out here (wife and kids all like it). Jersey I’ll be sure to let you know when an network administrator position opens up (unfortunately, at this rate it will be another 5-10years)

Excellent point rags. BTW how do you and Jersey keep your Z's in such nice shape with the NJ climate ? My previous two Z's from my NJ days (Paramus and New Brunswick) rotted out a long long long time ago despite all my love and effort to maintain them Fortunately now my california Z does not have a single spec of rust. How could I ever return ?

With all due respect, we are not talking about paint prep, the car was not being painted, so adherence of paint is not an issue of relevance. Secondly, it's not good to introduce non paint related substances prior to painting relates primarily to grease/wax, not soap which can remove foreign substances, including grease and washes off with water. And again, the topic was wet sanding to remove scratches, not paint prep. And while soap is not needed for wet sanding, it's certainly helpful for people who are inexperienced at wet sanding. Simply Not True, take the sandpaper, leave on piece in for an hour and wet the second for an instant, then bent the paper and see if they are both as soft or compliant. Or leave a piece of thick paper in your toilet boil over night (it will be mush)and compare it to a paper which has been wet for a minute. They won't be the same.

The ceramic brake pads are marketed for low noise (less prone to vibration) and very low dust. they are not meant to provide better braking or increase fade resistance. I believe the braking performance is similar to good quality standard street pads. I have them on the family car and they are quite nice for that purpose as well as Sleeper's wagon, but certainly not for my Z I also spoke with one of the chief technicians at precision brakes (they deal with professional race and high performance brake applications). He said that the ceramic pads (wilwood) were not as good in terms of braking performance than the other high performance street pads and recommended against them for a "street rod" type of use and said that they would definitely not be suited for even mild track use. He confirmed that they are quiet, very low dust and otherwise good for NON highly aggresive driving.

Hello back to you RacerX, I guess you were not able to make it to the last bay area meet in union city. All is well on my end. Car is running great, all I need now is some free time to install some nice new toys I have awaiting patiently in the garage. BTW do you work close to the city ? If so email me and let me know where so I can stop by if I'm ever in the area. Afshin

I'm glad the 2000grit/soap water/3M combo worked, I've always sweared by it. 3M products are all great (meguiar's mothers also have good products but they are variable and a lot of the non proffesional line up products they have are not that great, so you need to know excatly which one to buy). I'll aslo add in my 2c about bringing out a deep rich shine to the paint: 1)use clay bar as suggested by RacerX, it's absolutely great. You can find mother's at most stores. this will remove all the imbedded crap in the paint (you won't believe how smooth the paint will be after you use it) 2)use swirl/ fine scratch remover (not compound), again use 3M. meguiar's has a good one in their prof. line up (I can't remember the number), but the regular one is not that good. this will add much depth to the gloss by removing most microscratches. This step can often be done twice to help remove swirl lines. 3)then use a good wax (too many choices to go over, Klass, carnauba, synthetic....). I bet anything you will be highly pleased if not amazed at the results.

As already mentioned you may want to show it to a body shop, they my be able to buff the spots off in a few minutes with a good power buffer. If you are going to use sand paper I recommend you use 2000 grit as opposed to 1500, let the sandpaper soak (softens the paper) in a bucket of soap water (the soap makes the sandpaper glid easier)and then keep it constantly wet (or it will be more likely to scratch. do it gently and EVENLY, once you are done it will look hazy but smooth, then use a compound by hand to bring the shine back (using buffers without experience may cause more damage). I strongly recommend 3M scratch/swirl remover, it's excellent and not to hard to find. You can pratice on an old fender,hood.. if you or any of your friends have one in the backyard...Good Luck

I can't remember for sure which of the turbo books (I think it was "how to turbocharge your car.." by David Wizard), but i distinctly remember the author recommending to stay away from wrappers for the very same reason that Tim mentioned. I have stayed away since.

even if real brief, wouldn't that ruin the bearings on a good turbo ? i never tried running a turbo without oil to know how long it would take to burn the bearings (my guess not very long), but I certainly would not advise it unless you know for sure that it can be safely done ( I really really doubt it). Don't do it, unless you need a excuse to buy a T3/T4

As far as I know when turbo seals leak, there is no smoke at start up, none at idle (or some if the seal is really shot) and the smoking increases dramatically under boost/spool. Not necessarily I believe more often the seal leaks oil into the exhaust causing smoke as opposed to into the J pipe. I know of failing seals (one z, one supra and a saab) causing lots of smoke with minimal oil in the J pipe and no oil whatsoever on the plugs, which were resolved with new/rebuild turbos. All 3 only smoked under boost

Hi Jersey, I say go for the T3/T4, it really pulls a lot harder. However, there will be limited gain if you don't intercool 8) the car since you won't be able to sustain high boost with the high T3/T4 flow. I got mine for $450 from alex costa (precision machines) and it's worked out nicely. Also you still need to make a few minor adjustments to fit the t3/t4 such as shortening the J pipe, and adapting the AFM to turbo boot since the inlet on the t3/t4 is much bigger. you may also want to consider a spacer for the manifold to turbo section, but can do without it (I got all the fittings/adapters I needed from home depot). Sincerely, Jerky boy

Hi Bastaad, well the whole thing is certainly confusing. At this point without seing the car it's difficult to make any further calls. The problem is still by far most consistent with leaking seals for the same reasons as before, which were, pattern of smoke (at start up, after idling, not during cruising.), and happened immediately after the head rebuilt.. Also it seems more likely that faulty seals may leak more and less at different times based on how they are seated, accounting for the variable amount of oil on the plugs (as opposed to failed oil rings). Off course I can't explain why the seals you looked at seemed OK. We know it's not the turbo, it certainly does not seem like rings which is further confirmed by the nice compression numbers you got (don't worry, the leak down test would be needed if the compression was low ) nor does it seem related to ventilation/pressure. It doesn't seem like you need a bottom end rebuilt, but then if the guy is willing to do it , why not ( assuming that you are planning on keeping the car for a long time). Unfortunately, nothing makes perfect sense, but overall leaking seals make the most sense (I don't even know if the sentence makes any sense). If you get the chance try asking a couple of engine shops/rebuilders for their opinion before you pull the bottom end apart, maybee there is some trick for checking seals or we are forgetting to consider something. Also make sure you get the nice seals that Tim offered. Hopefully this saga will end soon.

you lucky dog. I guess I know who to call when I need a relay or TPS or better yet, how about I pay you double your investement $66 x 2 = $122. I'll give you cash as soon as you deliver the stuff to my garage .

let me summarize something: 9/9/03 I recommended you check compression twice 9/10 sleeperZ recommends you check compression 9/11 I recommend you check all spark plugs to see if oil is still on all of them later 9/11 I tell you how to check compression by yourself and sleeperZ reminds to disconnetct injectors if cranking with the key 9/14 (35 posts later) you still did not do either, I get annoyed and said that you need to be more systematic in your approach 9/18 (56 posts later) I again recommed that you check all spark plugs to see if oil on all six and to check compression 9/20 (over 60 posts later) you finaly check the plugs and say that there is oil on two (when we had to assume all this time that it was on all six because you would not recheck), and maybe you will check compression Well how can I (and trust me many others) not get annoyed when you put so many posts asking for advice, and then ignore so much of it. It took over 60 posts for you to confirm if oil is leaking into all six cylinders. This was a crucial data point, which is why I recommeded that you recheck it. It was very clear if all six cylinders had oil with a clean J pipe and normal compression that it was the seals, which is why I needed you to reconfirm that indeed oil was in all 6 cylinders. And it is nice to check compression to see if there are any surprise and evaluate the bottom end. you had checked compression before the oil leak, who the hell cares about before the oil leak. Now I'm telling you again that it is important to confirm wether you have proper compression in all SIX cylinders or NOT. Now tell me how important was it to recheck the plugs, how hard was it and why it took you so long to do it ? BTW I'm not saying that whatever I say is correct or that my opinions are so valuable that you should listen to me, because it is clearly not so. What I'm saying is that you have the responsibility of providing accurate data points and confirming them when posting, specially when it is easy and cost you nothing (i.e. checking spark plugs and compression).. So when sleeperZ or I or any one asks for logical and accurate data points relevant to the problem such as compression or make sure that oil is leaking in all cylinders, you have the responsibility of providing that data if you wish to continue posting on the topic or you will be wasting our time. I'm annoyed that this post has been clicked/read 783 time, the whole time with all of us assuming that oil is leaking in all cylinders because who would not confirm such an important data point as I requested so many times and that you still resist checking the compression in an engine that burns oil.

I fully agree with Cody, turbo used to be very different years back, smaller (used to come out every other month), more tech, less junk. I also find sports compact to be the best overall and with more tech oriented (as opposed to hype) articles.