JMortensen

Eh, I fixed the battery issue and it's running great now. If I find myself putting in a different motor I might switch, but lack of power is not an issue, currently. The only issue I have that I think FI would fix is that when tuned for acceleration there isn't enough fuel to rev the car with no load, so it doesn't heel/toe very well at all. I tuned the carb to rev quickly and that's why it was so incredibly rich on the dyno. I think this is a function of the flexplate and button clutch. It revs so fast that the carb can't keep up, or the carb keeps up and then when that same rev is under load there is way too much fuel being dumped in.

Going to build a rotisserie? Makes fixing rust on the floor so much easier. If you haven't already seen it, 74_5.0L_Z's car is pretty amazing. I think he's now running a 331 or similar stroker. Bad ass car from front to back. Good for inspiration.

As to the separate toe link part of Cary's suggestion, you can read this. If you would prefer to buy, Apex Engineering has basically my end result for sale now:

I used something like tube80z's idea on a set of arms I built but never used. I just added angle iron so that the end links were in double shear. I would suggest you add your connections to the bottom of the control arm so that you can use longer end links, although this gives you a left arm and a right arm. If you put the mount in plane with the control arm you will still have universal arms but will need shorter end links.

Mine's an L33. Has caused confusion in the past...

No offense taken. When I was 16 I had a bunch of friends who got me into Datsuns and they were all purists, so I came up believing that pushrods sucked and OHC was fantastic, that V8s couldn't rev, that the L series was a fantastic engine, etc. Mid 90s we had Carl Beck's email group and I started seeing people with V8s and who just generally weren't so closed minded. The guy who, up to that point, had taught me everything I knew about Datsuns (and was a Nissan master tech and legit Z car whiz) was one of these "don't go too big on the cam" guys. So I had tiny cams in my truck and my Z. Some people on the internet disagreed, and I remember him saying something to the effect of "how do you know that they know what they're talking about?" I decided to get a much bigger cam than he suggested, and it was a huge improvement, at which point I realized that I could actually have a pretty good idea if someone knew what they were talking about. BTW after driving my L28 with .490/280 cam, he immediately went for a .580/310 or something like that for his L18. At least he realized he was dead wrong. Then I started to notice a lot of people like Pete Paraska were talking up V8s and that put a little seed into my brain. Later I was looking for GOOD suspension tech and John Coffey suggested Hybrid Z, and I took a look and found tons of good information. Same friend had a standard autox alignment: -1.25 degrees front, -1.5 degrees rear, 1/8 toe in front and rear, 3 degrees caster. As it turns out, this is a shitty, understeering autox alignment. Hybrid Z recommended a lot more camber and caster, and more neg camber in front than rear, and zero or toe out in front. Again, huge improvement. And all these smart people on this forum were ditching the L series and running V8s. I came to realize that all of my preconceived notions about adding huge amounts of weight to the front end were just wrong, and I realized that I wanted more power than I was getting from the L28/44 Mikuni combo I had, and it was probably going to cost $10K to get another 50 hp if I kept on with it. Also realized that having intake and exhaust on the same side of the motor is pretty shitty, and since these engines are all smog era designs the combustion chambers aren't great, in short, the L series isn't the best engine design. Had the same revelation about my Toyota truck with 22RE. For the longest time I thought that was a GREAT motor. Now I wish I had pulled my head out of my ass years earlier... Anyway I was looking for more power and by this time I had changed my mind and realized that hp is hp and it doesn't really matter what you use to get it, if the goal is to go fast. In fact, the cheaper the hp the better, since race engines tend to wear fast or break, so I decided on the LS since it's cheap and easy. I still love the sound of the L series and don't hate them, but I feel like I have a better handle on what makes a motor good or bad than I did when I was a kid.

Just pull the springs and jack the control arms until they're level, and that should be close to ride height. Can check bumpsteer while you're in there.

I bent mine, front and rear, in all kinds of directions. No problems.

Here's a crappy drawing on bending the bar. Just lay it over the base and push on the bend. Keep measuring eyelet to eyelet. Bend one side until they move 1" apart, then flip and do the same on the other side. 10 minutes max.

Bend the bar. If you have a press you can bend them pretty easily. Surprisingly easily.

Here is a partial list of what Larry has done for me and my friends who all grew up 510 and Z people: Rebuilt engines Rebuilt transmissions Diagnosed various electrical problems Installed limited slip carrier in a Z and my Toy truck Built a pie cut exhaust for truck Installed coilovers (cut spring plates and welded new perch on) Cut holes for GC camber plates Helped me make strut tower bars Changed out a timing chain on my Toy truck cam swaps rebuilt and tuned SUs rebuilt and tuned Mikunis and Webers valve adjust (can do an L6 in about 10 minutes flat, does them hot and gets it done before they cool enough to screw up the lash setting) converted a dual point distributor to single point by changing out the breaker plate brake upgrades rear wheel bearings installed Tilton pedal box I'm sure there is a lot more, but that's what I'm coming up with off the top of my head. Needless to say, he can do just about anything. When I moved out of CA about 17 years ago his welding wasn't very good and his fabrication skills weren't super high level either. I imagine he's improved a lot in that time though.

The scoop will eventually be sealed to an airbox on the underside of the hood. It isn't now, but that's the plan.

Just a little race recap/brag. Super happy with the way yesterday went down. I've had my 5.3 swapped Z out I think 5x, and every time I've had mechanical issues. Not yesterday. Well, I did have some driveshaft bolts loosen up, but I fixed it at the track. Went to Evergreen Speedway's autocross in Monroe, WA. This is a 5/8 mile asphalt oval with a smaller oval in the infield. They run it as kind of a roval with slaloms for autox. There are workers there, no cone shagging, and they limit events to about 90 to maximize runs. I ended up with 12 race runs and another 3 fun runs. Finish line is down the front straight, I was hitting about 90 mph. Mark and I worked on his car all day Saturday fixing a throttle cable issue and bracing his fender so that the tire didn't hit it, then raced all day Sunday. It was a full weekend. We wore Beta Motosports T-shirts in honor of JohnC and of course our cars have hoods and hatches from Beta, mine FG and Mark's CF. Still miss that guy a lot. About midday someone asked what my times were like. I had no idea, so they looked it up (phone app) and I was 5th overall. Then Mark got a rerun and I was able to ride with him and he went into the first turn 10 or 15 mph faster than I was. After using this data point to adjust my driving I ended up placing 2nd overall, and 2nd in class behind a supercharged, stripped S2000. Very happy. Mark was about 1.5 seconds behind, still in top 10. 9th actually. A very successful outing! Anyway, Mark is much better at sharing videos and pics and tagging appropriately than I am, so hopefully he will see this and post some more up, but here is my FB page where we have both posted a bunch: https://www.facebook.com/Jon.E.Mortensen And here is a link to one of my earlier runs. I did better later on, but I kept leaving my phone in my pocket and it was damn near impossible to get out, put the phone in the holder, get it all set up, and get back in the seat while in grid, so I didn't have any vids for the last half of the day. https://youtu.be/XmwkU3N8FB4

FWIW, I would prefer to have a stiffer pp and a normal style clutch than a puck clutch with a lighter pp. Seen flywheels gouged from puck clutches, a friend had the thrust bearing on the crank destroyed by a puck clutch in a CA18DET, etc. I ran an ACT stiff pp with a stock disk and that held down my L28/Mikuni combo just fine.

Sure. Relatively slow speed, say 30 or 35 mph. 4th gear with clutch in and floor it. When the engine gets up to ~5000 rpm, dump the clutch. The rpms should immediately fall to 1500 or whatever it would be at that speed. If it comes down slowly, your clutch is slipping.