Warren

My smartphone died last night, so this morning I took it to the service center. I go in, hand them my phone, tell them it doesn't work any more. They tell me it can't be fixed because they don't have the parts and it'll be 3-5 days for the new one to arrive. I ask the woman there if she has a phone of her own. She says "yes", so I ask her if I can see it. She hands it to me and I say "See you in 3-5 days." and head towards the door. She immediately goes into panic mode. I stop, turn around and say, "See how it feels?" Needless to say, the phone is fixed and I'm back up and running. Parts were on the shelf, but they were too lazy to look for them. Bet she's a little more hesitant to blow somebody off again...

Not ALL locksmiths do OLD Automotive stuff. He may be one of them. I wouldn't call him "shitty" for that. You might simply let your fingers do the walking and call around to find one that does do automotive work. The tumbler kits for these old cars aren't in EVERY shop.

I've got a bone stock crank from an F54/P90 combo that was in my 82 ZXT. It's just sitting in my shop awaiting a new home. $100 + shipping and it's yours. No damages, worked perfectly, no undersized journals and will take stock bearings. It's been stored in a well oiled plastic bag. PM me if you're interested.

Find another locksmith, perferrably one who knows what he's looking at. They come apart easily, have standard Datsun sized/shaped tumblers and shouldn't take more than about 15 minutes to completely disassemble, read, make a key for and reassemble.

Here's a couple of better shots of that white one above...it's mine and thanks for the kind words.

1" hole saw with a longer pilot bit. DONE... 2 minutes max.

BEAUTIFUL... See, Grecian Formula DOES work...hehehe Glad to see it Dale.

https://www.dragtimes.com/parts/Datsun-280Z-Tachometer-Harness-_260681661364.html

Have to admit, I've never seen that damage except in one place and that was a larger 2 stroke model airplane motor with a bent rod. Check that particular rod, top and bottom, especially the bronze bushing at the top and I'd be almost willing to bet that it's either severely worn or bent or the rod itself is bent or twisted...usually caused by detonation. I could be wrong, but I'd put my money on the rod before anything else.

http://www.blackdragonauto.com/icatalog/z/full.aspx?Page=17 and even THAT is WAY too expensive. Contact your local locksmith. They're available NEW for less than $50.

Nothing says we can't just show up as a Datsun/Nissan/Infiniti contingent during another event. There are several other gatherings in which we could partake at Silver Dollar. Nobody says you "can't" bring your car and have fun at some other event. It just wouldn't be DNI Only as it has been in the past. It's alot of work to put on a "private" track gathering, and most of their other events welcome us when we show up with our Datsuns...so....................if someone wants to find out what other events they have and coordinate the efforts, just let me know and I'll be glad to modify the website and put it back up (and if they don't want to use the website, that's ok too) I'm just not going to be the one to organize anything in particular any more.

and the year before and the year before and the year before... nobody shows up, therefore, no shows

As the story reads... Click

If that left fender doesn't lift up or come off, you're gonna have fun getting out of the car once you drive it on the trailer. Don't ask me how I found out that non-removable fenders are a PITA. Even if you pull the car on all the way to the right, you're gonna smack the fender with the door. Either make it removable, able to be lifted (from rear to front (so the door clears it)) or plan on crawling out through the window and wondering how you're gonna close it once you do.

Can anybody else get the link above to load? It won't for me.

Don't really know...YET. Hasn't been on a dyno yet. Gotta make it perform reliably first, then worry about the numbers.

OK, it's gone far enough. Satan, you obviously don't know the relationship that Brad and I have (we're good friends who aren't afraid to express our views publicly). The part about the pissing match was a joke, I'm sure. As far as your statement about these cars not being "normal", you're barking up the wrong tree there. Trust me, we (Brad and I) BOTH know how different these cars are. If you knew my build, you'd understand. 4.5 years of researching, consulting, building, re-designing, modifying and testing what "I" wanted, should tell you that we DO know what we're talking about and that it's not how much money you throw into a project, it's more of what you can get out of what you've gotten yourself into that makes the difference. Now for the real reason the turbo failed. It was oil starved, overheated, overboosted and hot lapped. The rear journal bearing wore, the shaft started to wobble and the shaft flopped around in the worn bearing allowing the turbine wheel to hit the rear housing. This friction, along with the wobble caused the shaft to heat up and break just in front of the wheel itself, sending it all the way through the 3" stainless exhaust system, tapping one of the 2 O2 sensors in the piping. It was found, totally destroyed, just in front of the muffler, approximately 9 feet down the exhaust system. That could happen to ANY turbo. After complete disassembly of the turbo it turns out that it was more a case of "operator error" than anything else (Sorry Brad), simply by running the boost controller way up and asking for more boost than I should have under the conditions. I had just run the car down the track and was hot lapping a second run without letting the car cool down at all. The datalogger showed that the turbo had produced 47.7 lbs of boost just before the failure. Had I let it cool down properly between laps and not tried to hot lap it, the turbo might not have been damaged at all and this discussion might not have ever happened. Nobody was "bashing" anybody intentionally. There is a story (in the past, where it belongs) about the origin of my and a couple of other members' turbos that was referred to by me, which Brad picked up and expounded on. That's all...nothing more, nothing less. So don't come in here and go off half cocked telling people to "GO HOME" when the complete story hasn't been publicly disclosed (on purpose). Thanks for your input though. Warren

Brad, it DID come from "PROVEN" company, unfortunately, they've PROVEN to have provided several bad units (and not just to me). I'm currently exploring all of my options, including a completely different setup (engine-wise, that is).

Sorry for not getting back to this sooner...been moving and NOT paying attention to the computer or posts. The specs on this POS were: .70 a/r 61mm inducer flow: 65 lbs/min 832cfm turbine: T3 .82a/r housing stg5 turbine wheel 360* thrust bearing (journal, not ball bearing) *same compressor section as GT35R (with journal bearings, not ball) Has me wondering if I even want to fool around with Garrett again, since they're claiming that "something" went through this turbo... Yet, honestly, NOTHING went through it but HOT AIR (and oil after the breaking of the shaft). Needless to say, I'm stuck now with NO turbo and a lack of desire to replace it any time soon. (Change my mind, PLEASE...I miss driving the car.) Oh and Yes, JSM... I did trailer the car to the track that day.

I have the studs, still in the sealed box and haven't read the included instruction sheet at this point, but I'm having a hard time with realizing that 60 ft/lbs of torque is what they're calling for on a turbocharged motor. The reason behind this is due to recently rebuilding and installing ARP head studs on my 91 Toyota Cressida with a 7MGE (NON-Turbo) and the instructions calling for 125 ft/lbs of torque being used on that engine. Both engines (L28 and 7MGE) use cast iron blocks with aluminum heads....so why the high torque spec on an NA engine and not on the Turbocharged one? Now I'm NOT doubting the manufacturer's judgement or specs, just wondering why such a low torque requirement (by comparison) on a turbocharged engine whose cylinder pressures would be so much higher (under boost) than a normally aspirated engine with a higher compression ratio. Perhaps I'm just reading the requirements wrong and not taking the compression ratio differences into account, but still. It would seem (to me) that you'd want MORE torque on a turbocharged engine than an N/A one. Am I the only one who sees this as strange? If so, perhaps I don't fully understand the concept in use. Anybody care to discuss this?

CQ CQ CQ DE N4OVI, 73

Evan, I know, right? Gabe, all I can do is hope. Scottie, not to worry, I like air and breathing is one of those "mandatory" things. Jacob, thanks for the old info, but how much of that post is truth and how much is babble from a disgruntled employee? That's the question. MReddle, I guess we'll see in the near future if my fate is the same.

Rick, Fascinatingly traumatic, yet horrifyingly expensive as well... Hope you're right and they find that it was defective...That would just make my day. yetterben, it's NEVER good to see ANYTHING fly out of the exhaust, but then that's obvious. Prox, It's been sitting in the garage, not even being driven. That happened on the 12th pass down the track in the car's new life (2nd pass of that day). The car still has under 350 miles on it since the build. Too many other irons in the fire. I've been ok, just busy doing other "life" things. O2 SENSOR UPDATE: The O2 sensors are ok...seems it only touched the narrowband (thank God, that's the cheap one) on it's way through the system, leaving only one small mark (aka dent) on it near the end. The LM1's sensor was untouched and appears to still be in perfect working order.

It's been sent to Garrett for their determination of what went wrong. They'll probably come back with some BS excuse like "oil starvation", "oil contamination" or some other "user error"... (It's NEVER their or their builder's fault.) What's next is probably another new center section, at the least...possibly a new compressor housing as well, which really sucks, because the current one was Jet-Hot coated (more $$$). We'll see how expensive this is gonna be first before the real "What's next" can be answered. Also, I'm sure it took out both of the O2 Sensors (LM1 and narrow band) downstream from it's normal position...I just haven't pulled them yet to see.

Found the exducer (hot side) wheel in the exhaust pipe, just in front of the muffler (no cat). That explains the big cloud of smoke at half track that the car disappeared behind looking from the burnout box downtrack.