Bluto

I am looking for a good tire size/ brand/ model for this summer. The wheel will be the sportmax 002 in a 16x8 size. The car will be a 77 280z with coilovers/adj. illuminas, welded diff, camber plates, cage, brakes etc. The use will be as a dry weather driver and to drive to the track for as much school, solo I/II and hpde/tt as I can afford. My expectations: hopefully a summers worth of use and at least a little track performance. There is a chance I may have a track buddy who can haul a set of wheels/ tires to events for me, so any track only recomendations would be cool too. These would be a 16x8 also All thoughts, ideas and opinions appreciated Thanks, Sam

Soko has shut down in chicago Sam

Please let it snow here like that!! I just got an 89 soob RX ( hi/lo awd w/ locking center diff, Turbo!) and the winterforce tires came in the mail today.. **doing the snow dance** Sam

Alan, If you were to make a coffee table style book with all of your pics and info I would pay whatever you would want to charge for it. I dont think I would be alone in that. Sam

Thanks for the plug MIB, Engine is over 100k but has new injectors per the nissan recall in the last 4k miles. 50$ to crate it and you cover shipping, Id recomend R+L Carriers. I have forklift access to keep shipping costs down. Email me directly at bluto2ooo@hotmail Thanks, Sam

Howdy all. I have gotten some requests to ship to Taiwan and hong Kong for some ebay items and was wondering if anyone had experience shipping to these places. Fedex quoted me $60 to ship an envolope to taipei taiwan. ack. Thanks, Sam

I think abit is owed to poetic license there.. no paragraphs neccesary. That was a straight beat.. can you jive? Thanks jack Sam

Dam cool indeed! fwiw you ideas and exploration of a seldolm tackeled subject have givin me a ton of insight on the tc rod in the grand scheme of datsun FR suspensions, I hope to put your(and others who have chimed in, johnC, tube280z to name a couple) theories and experimentation all to good use very soon. Cheers! Sam

Im not too sure about going with 18's, feeling a little squimish about considering 17's. Thanks for the info though. Sam

a few pics, one of the diff, another of the results... lol http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=6432&cat=500 grenaded both outer u-joints and tweeked my halfshafts. Sam

Ahh, very cool, I have been eyeballing your car for awhile now. I didnt realize you were on hybridz also. I think you have the widest wheels I have seen on a 510 so far, whats the width on those? I am weighing my options for my 510 and the price of ford motorsport cobras at a 17x9 just cant be beat at 99-120$ a piece. but gah.. so big/wide. and no lip.. =/ anywho, enough of the hijack, I like your airdam ideas, looks much better and probably more functional than the other enourmous 510 airdam I have seen around. Inspiring work, Sam

I don't have any delusions about poor condition handling with this set up, my daily driver last winter was a mustang svo, certainly not the torquiest thing out there but the rear end was still plenty tight(tighter than any of the GT's ive owned) the first few times we had sloppy weather found me pointing in the wrong direction more times than I care to admit.. I swore I would never drive a datsun in the winter again(my first Z rusted to little pieces in a few short Illinois winters) so this will be just one thing to help me stick to that. As for wet weather, spring is here and Ill be prepared(I hope!). As for adjusting the rest of the car to compensate for the under steer, the only new bushings on the car are the mustache bar bush's so I'm starting with a clean slate(or perhaps a 20 year old ragged out slate.. haha) and will be swapping everything over gradually until I take the Z off the road to begin body work once the 510 is street worthy. Sam

I just installed a welded diff into my z this weekend. This is my daily driver. I have heard the good and bad, and figured if I could live with open exhaust for 3 months (turbo motor)I could deal with anything. The thing that stood out in my mind when deciding to do this was remembering when phil(prreith on this board) was having issues with his quaif at a track day event at black hawk. after talking to other Z racers and hearing that they were all using welded rears as opposed to some sort of lsd. I had a friend weld my diff up for me, I have a 175amp mig in the shop but the friend welds cranes together /bow... He used 110,000lb tensile strength 1/16th flux core wire so I have the utmost confidence in this rear end(plus I beat the piss out of it in front of my shop after the install.) After the install I did figure 8's in gravel for a good 10 minutes just make sure everything was well lubed and not on the verge of grenading. After I had built my confidence abit It was off to the pavement for the worst abuse my transmission had seen since the stock l28 was removed and the turbo motor was swapped in.. No more 1 wheel peel for me, No sir! The tires do squeak alot but I am ok with this, it is especially noticeable in gas stations and store parking lots. makes me giggle, Im giggling now just thinking about it. I have to admit, I hadn't seen johnc's thread prior to this and I wish I had. I will have to go back and find it. The diff was cleaned very well but there was no talk of preloading the gears. The spiders were preheated with a rosebud. This was to ease/aid in the welding process and ensure everything was as oil/moisture free as possible. And, I love it, straight line acceleration is more improved than I imagined it could be. Acceleration out of turns is also much improved( I will admit that some of this can be attributed to driver enthusiasm). While cruising the steering feels abit stiffer but just barely noticeably. I had also read that parallel parking can be more difficult.... yes, definitely. ( I have to do this every time I park at home.. haha) Lack of power steering really shows its ugly face here, this will surely have me considering power steering when I move on to meaty beefy big and bouncy(Who album or song title comes to mind??) front wheels. I am altogether very happy I made the swap(especially since I had a ujoint going out on my other axles, r180 =>r200) and will be pulling the diff from my 510 to have the same thing done. I had planned on posting pics and will do so when I bring the digi camera home from the shop. Hope this helps, Sam

My Z does duty as a parts hauler but I have never put an engine in there. no car engine anyway. wild. Sam

Much thanks to Braap, Dave, Jmortensen, Drax and tube80.. That was what I was hoping/expecting to hear.. Ideally Ill have a rack and member to start with by the end of the week. As for brakes and struts to use.. Im not sure if I will leave the brakes stock or bolt up the wilwood bits and pieces I have been gathering for the Z. I was just about ready to do a complete suspension/brake/wheel upgrade on the Z but the 510 is going to be much cleaner (rust, paint and overall fit and finish on the mods) so it may get all the new bits. Ill post pics and updates(probably more than a few more questions) on this thread. Thanks again, Sam

I didnt take any pics but I cut a section out of the top of my tank to determine if it was useable/ scrape crap out of it.. I also welded a sump on it after that. I also had it sealed when finished, make sure you do it after any welding as that would pretty much fubar the sealant. Im not sure if Im stating the obvious but you mentioned in oppisite order before, so just in case. and.. this was done with a mig. Sam

I know we have few folks on the board who have spent more than a few hours on 510s and 510s dont have a hardcore rip it apart and rebuild it forum like this one. If anyone has some insight on this all help is appreciated. I have swaped the ford 2.3t into my 510 and need to switch to rack and pinion due to the starter location(next to the oil pan vs next to the block on a L series motor) The plan is to do what Braap and friends did on the vg30tt/510. Swap in a rack and pinion from a 280z. They used 200sx(I belive) struts but I think the 280 struts will be workable? My question to Braap is, would you do anything diffrently if you had it to do again? like the location/length of the tc rods? I would like to use a monoball setup like you guys and Brian F. did on his yellow car, but Im not sure if that will happen right away or down the road. To Jmortensen and anyone else who has experience with modded 510s.. is there anyone else who has out there who has gone this route for steering? I know Bryan Feldman swapped to a race rack but I am going to try to get this done with what I have availible(cheap) Thanks Sam

Wow.. coupla tidbits I noticed in there.. Was/ Is it setup for a parapalegic? looks like a hand throttle/brake unit on the steering column Rear brakes look like they are motorcycle units?? you can see floating rotors on the watts link pic.. Crazy stuff! Sam

SBC 400, Your project is awesome, is there any chance of seeing it up close and personal? I would be very grateful for even a quick walkthrough and a few questions. I am not planing anything of this magnitude but I would love to see how you have gone about planing, jiging, and building the car.. what tools you have on hand etc. Thanks, Sam

I have all my parts and am bench testing everything now, It will all go on the car after I get my wbo2 hooked up and running smoothly. This will all be run on ms&s extra. Im also working on edis4 on 2 other ms cars so I am knee deep in ford ignition at the moment. If noone else beats me to it I was going to offer up an out line for the setup to be posted, kind of a step by step from mobys setup to a running edis 6 motor. Sam

Is your alt over charging at all? I cooked my first megasquirts injector drivers because of that, it was blowin a few fuses also. G'luck with it, Sam

Time to check for spark and compression... Gonna go to sez? I am not sure yet myself.. theres a possibility of the 510 and the Z going though. Good luck, Sam

I wouldnt mind filling up the parking lot of my storage unit up with z's... Fridge, barbeque and tools there.. just about everything a body needs Also located about smack dab between the chicago folks and the central IL folks. Food for thought. Sam ps. Congrats on the new Z Z0wner.