datsunlover

Wow... Kinda scarry if you ask me..

My $.02 here is this; If you're considering a Z for a future V8 conversion, get a 280z. they are a little heavier, but thats mosty due to the extra metal they put in them! Slightly stiffer and more ridgid than the 240's, stronger rear diff, and IMO look just fine with 240z bumpers installed in place of the big ugly stock ones. Plus, there are more 280s around than anything else, so finding one is easier. If smog is a cosideration, I say definatly stay away from a stock FI Z (280z/zx) cause at this point, it's an outdated system and you'll have all kinds of headaches trying to fix it WHEN it breaks down. There are plenty of newer/aftermarket FI systems out there though, and I'm sure you could get past smog testing. (some searching around this site will find LOTS of info and explainations) Also, I'd say stay away from the 260z's 'smog' style flat top carbs; absolute dogs. If it's a carb'd Z (any year L6) you want, 70-72 'round top' SU's are what you need.

Cool.. Looks a little like a custom body/kit I drew up a few years ago, based on my 85 200sx (daily driver at the time) I'll have to try and find those drawings.. I didn't have any idea how to build it at the time, but I bet I could now.. The funny thing about this, is I just came across a for sale ad last week (local buy&sell paper) for an 86 200sx, which is the same hatchback style as my old 85... just figures though, I'm going to school for 2 months now and I'm broke. Not to mention I have the rx7 out back, and the Z in the garage... crap.

The ironic thing here is that I thought of the exact same thing (3 SU's on a custom manifold) a few years ago, before I found this web site and before I even knew much about the SU's to beguin with! I just looked at the 240 SUs on their manifold and thought.. 'hey, why not 3?!?' I had all kinds of people tell me it wouldn't work, and it would be impossible to tune.. but having delt with some webers since then, and having next to NO problems with my SU's, I think I might try this now.. I have a spare set of SUs anyway, (so 4 in total) and I do know how to weld now..

Hey man, I doubt I'll ever use it again, so if you want it, you can have my old ecu (75 280z) for parts or x-referencing or whatever. If it'd be of any help..

I would say a 350th tranny and a 3:90 gear would be great if you actually DO stay around town. You'll have plenty of 'go' off the line, and I to believe it is the tougher tranny. The 4L80 trans in my truck has been good to me for the last 8 months, and apparently the previous owner(s) too.. 360 000 k's showing and still going strong. Oh, and the truck is a 1 tonne dually with a mk 5 454. Only drawback I see is the cost of rebuilding them... over twice the cost of a 350th or 700r4 from what I've found..

I've had a few 350th trannys, and 700r4's in various vehicles (hod rods, daily drivers) and found the 700r4 likes to 'hang on' to first gear for a long time, and yes it then drops WAY down when it shifts to 2nd. Personaly, I find the 350 to be a pretty good tough tranny, and they are common as flies. The 700r4's can be touchy from what I've seen; Some years are not so strong and you can burn them out very easily (they can be beefed up, yes). Some years have an electronic output for the spedometer, and they only seam to work properly with the original ecu/engine but I've seen 700r4's with a cable spedo as well. From what I've seen, some 700r4s' that need the wiring conections from an ecu (the TBI years anyway) don't like running 'on their own' (IE; without an ecu...Im assuming you have a carb motor?) Also, without a well mached rear gear, they are still screaming on the highway just like the 3 speeds. Basicaly I'd say a 'built' 350th is a good choice for durability and simplicity.. but if you have a 3:90 rear gear, a 60 mph blast down the freeway is gona be really rev happy, and not so good for fuel mileage!

The S/C sucking through an SU carb.. Interesting...

I've been to the original 'showcars' place, and I STILL remember it vividly.. I actually thought I had the wrong place, cause it looked like a scrap yard.. I met up with a fellow hybridz'er there (Jag V12 guy.. good times..) and I think we both had the same feeling about the guy and his 'buissnes' as it was a HUGE mess.. no organization of any sort, just a mess... Fortunatly, I was lucky to live close enough to check it out for myself.. sorry pal, you won't see any of my money!

I forgot to mention that I ran .900" spacers on my Z for about 8 months with NO problems. Although, I built them myself, and made them almost a press fit on the lugs. I had to use 2.250" long studs for the wheels I had (16 x 7 unknown aftermarket 5 spokes) and never bent one. I ran the car past 120mph quite a few times, and generaly thrashed it around hard corners on a daily basis..

I had very little trouble with SUs on my 75 280 until I rebuilt the motor and put a big cam in it (colt cams 510 lift 280*dur. 'road race grind' IIRC..) but they still work.. just not the best. I'm going to bore them out, and get better needles if I keep the L28 in the Z. In my case, it pulls good too 5000, but they run out of steam around 5500, althought he cam is suposed to make power to 6500. The 'choke' on SU's is basicaly a huge dump of fuel, so ussualy if the car wont run well with the choke off, you need to richen it up a bit. I'd say turn them out about 1/2 to 3/4 turns and see if it runs better.

Man.. Wish I had lot of aftermarket on me one car.. I could have more HP if I did expensive JDM style body kits too..

I would say go with the stock manifolds.. Headers look cool, but make noise and heat. (no mater what they are in) As for muflers, I was impresed with the flomaster 50s my buddy put on his 04 Ram. I've found pickups w/custom or aftermarket exhast to be pretty bad for 'drone' on the highway, with lots of resonation... but unless he was standing on it, you'd never know it was a Hemi! Very quiet around town, and you couldn't hear a diffrence at cruising speeds from the factory system. Now, after about 2500 it would ROAR like an angry bear, but hey.. thats ok by me! I don't know how you're going to 'mask' the sound of the S/C though..

Personally, I wouldn't 'live' with the "unpredictable amount of tire shake" for long, because shakes like that work things loose. I've seen studs that didn't seat properly. IE' the knurl that is suposed to hold it in the hub is not fully engaged. They 'feel' ok when you put the wheel on, but in reality the lug nut is NOT holding the wheel on properly. A few hundred revolutions at speed will loosen them. I've also had a very close call with the knurl diameter of the studs being too SMALL allowing the stud it-self will spin in the hub. I've also had similar shake issues caused by cheep/badly made spacers. It's amazing how bad a vibration you will get if something is even slightly off center of the hub. 1st question; what were the spacers made of? (steel or aluminum?) 2nd question; How tight did they fit over the hub and studs? 3rd question; Were the spacers centered and consentric? 4th question; How much thread engagement did you have in the lug nuts? I suspect your 2" studs were working side to side and striping BEFORE the blowout. This is a guess, because I don't know the measurments.. but a 2" stud going through the hub, then a 1" spacer, then the steel rim hole (probly about 3/8 thickness from backside of the rim to nut contact point on the outside) MAY not have left a lot of threads for the lug nut to grab... that would be a problem on its own, but if there were other issues (with the spacers?) well.. there may be several problems that contributed to your incident..

Interesting note; The guy I bought my MSD box from said he was switching to a Crane ignition system. He told me his reason for the switch was due to a change in the rules at his local stock car track, the officials were trying to even out the field by forcing evryone to run ONLY Crane, or stock ignition. (what would you do if you wanted to stay competitive?!?) I have heard good things about the Crane units, but have no first hand exp. with them.

Yup, same here!!! I had similar issues on one headlight bucket too.. looks like braze to me..

I guess I'm not the first to think of it then.. oh well. (old school engine in a newer car) I was considering using my 280z's engine (rebuild last year, big cam, runs strong) in an 85 RX7.. I happen to have one in my back yard set up for a V8... alas, it sits with NO motor whatsoever, and I don't have much $$$ to play with.. I DO however have a welder, and a good running 280z that needs brakes, suspension, front frame work, and a clunking rear end.. The line of thinking here is that I want to jam the 454 in the Z, and that will take a bit of time to finance and do properly so I'll need transportation for next summer. Also, If I'm gona pull the 1 tonne's 454 (the current daily driver) I'd have 3 vehicles all immobilized.. Hmm.. time to re-organize the garage I think...

Just a silly thought... um, maybe the shifter cable is broke inside the sheeth, or the linkage has poped off the tranny? Not trying to be rude.. but hey, I like to check the simple stuff first! As for interchange, I believe Nissan used that same auto (or something similar enough) in the maximas and the V6 hardbody pickups, right up to 94. I had an N/A 93 pickup with the lateer MPFI V6/auto and it was a tough tranny.. I abused it pretty bad, but it held together.. I'd imagine it would hold up to your turbo..

The pic of the red caliper is the one I have seen/worked with. My only complaint is getting the two pins out.. although a 4x4 sees a lot more 'crap' than a Z would, so I doubt they'd get gummed up and rusted as much. Are the differing spring/retainers year specific? Or is it just whatever they had at the time of production? (I know there are quite a few listings for EVERYTHIG toyota truck related, sometimes 2 or 3 ieven n one year/model!)

Ahem..ah, ok.. I think I'll agree that the front lock up is bias induced. It's just being amplified by the heavier forces of the toyota calipers. Its always been there, but you just don't notice it with stock front calipers. I blew the rear main brake line last summer (at the 'T' block above the diff), and in a desperation move to drive the car for another week or so till my truck was ready, I put a pipe plug in the proportining valve at the firewall. IE; I ran with front brakes ONLY. (yes, the stock ones.) To be honest, I couldn't tell much difference. Still took the same "gear down like a madman and mash the brake pedle for dear life" to haul the thing down from any serious speeds.. it was really easy to do a burnout though! heh heh.. I had the exact OPPOSITE problem in my 85 rx7 V8; Chev 10 bolt rear end with all new drums/shoes, and stock mazda front disks. Heavy braking would actually lock the REAR first.. which was a little scarry.

I've got a few McGiver's under my belt.. Had an 85 200sx with a tiny little pair of vice grips holding the distributor cap on cause I broke one of the screws off in the housing, and didn't want to pull the thing out to drill it out.. ALSO on that car, the wires for the sending unit rotted off the top of the tank.. my fix? Duct tape. heh.. both these "fix's" held for about 6 months! The first summer out with my Z, I used those same vice grips to 'pinch' the fuel feed line to the carbs so the float bowls wouldn't go dry. (I was using bits and pieces of the stock FI lines/rubber and it was looped back to a return.) Problem was, there was no restriction so once the bowls filled and closed, the fuel just rushed past. Strange, but after the bowls ran dry, the fuel kept going past to the return. I think I ran for about 2 months with the vice grips on there..

Must be a problem with canadian insurance co.s... I had a lot of trouble a few years ago getting my 85 rx7 insured. As soon as I said I had put a V8 in it, they said 'sorry, we wont touch it.' I ended up getting it insured as a stock 'unmodified' RX7. (didn't say it had a V8) I asked my current ins co if they'd insure the same car (I recently got it back and am considering re-building it a 3rd time) and they said no as well! even to insure my STOCK 280z, they want a full apraisal/pictures and will impose milage constraints on it.

10K rpm seams a bit high for an L series motor making only 230... and not really usefull anyway IMO... FWIW; I did basicaly what you are talking about with my stock 280z L28. Mine was previously rebuilt (about 2000ks on it MAYBE) so I lucked out by not having to buy pistons, rings or bearings, as they were all in mint condition. (I also had a buddy who builds engines help me out a lot) It's an N42 block and head w/stock valves and heavier springs, new timing chain/gears, replaced all gaskets, a turbo zx oil pump, Colt cams .510/280 cam, and the stock manifold to an open 2" exhast. Runs on 72' SU carbs and a 280zx dizzy w/MSD 6A box. The 3:90 rear gear and 240sx 5 gear went in at the same time too. The cam is suposed to make power to 6500, but due to an issue currently with the MSD box (maybe..) and the fact that the SU's just cant feed enough air to the engine, I'm out of 'pull' by around 5000rpm. No dyno sheets, but we've calculated it to be roughly 200ish horse. Feels about right to, cause it pulls a lot better than it did in stock form and the LUMPY idle is pretty cool.. :flamedevil: I still can't get past built stangs or camaros, but it hangs pretty good, and it's fun to drive either way. I'm into it for about $1400, but like I said, I got lucky with the main bulk of engine mechanicals being good to use. I'd say you're into at least $2500 to do something decent, but you'll be happy with it in the end.

$900 barely runing, full of holes, bald tires, and 100 miles to drive it home... I think I burned $40 in fuel.. Actually, my post picture (small and hard to make out, but hey..) was taken about 2 days after I bought it..

It was always my understanding that an FI car would have trouble with a big cam (high lift and overlap) and the ecu would get 'confused' and not be able to run the motor properly. Maybe newer and/or aftermarket FI systems can, but I KNOW that there are diffrent cam specs listed for say, a 1st gen SBC/BBC for carb or FI. If there are diffrent listings, there must be some reasoning for it. Hell, when I got my colt cams .510/280 cam , I was told it would NOT run properly if I ran FI.