JMortensen

That looks like the hard way. Fuel pump bolt and last manifold bolt work just fine, even better if you have the stock engine hooks on the car. A load leveler is the way to go, they run about $40 from Harbor Freight. As you can see from Jack's picture, best to drain the trans if you're pulling it with the motor.

This method has a 99% probability of not working in Seattle... If it happens to be sunny and warm the day I get around to it, I'll give it a shot.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=119990 If that's not complete enough, you can download a Factory Service Manual from http://www.carfiche.com.

Got the vents in the mail today. They are plastic, not fiberglass, so I'm hoping a little persuasion and the heat gun will bend them to match the hood. They looked really tall in the photos, but from the flange to the top of the vent is 1" exactly. It would be great if they made another version twice as wide, but I think doubling up on these for the hood is going to be the solution in the meantime and I would think that would be plenty of venting especially with a radiator diffuser installed. The actual air vent size is 15 3/8" x 2"

Not necessarily true. I thought this too for a long time, that since the bottom of the tire moves inward relative to the centerline of the car, that this would equal less negative camber. It's not the case though, because the strut angle changes not only because the control arm angle changes, but also because the strut compresses. Terry proved this point to me with one of his diagrams. It's still on his website: http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&ndx=19&slideshow=0&AlbumId={E19B86F3-5BFB-4733-AF72-09BD805A6F1A}&GroupId={832D28D1-26F8-4E35-B3D1-6BB2152C089B}&screenheight=768

You know that a pin is a better choice than a bolt, right? Bolts have built in stress risers (threads). As far as "safe for street but not for race" I think that you have that backwards. You usually see lightweight/fragile pieces on race cars and street cars have the heavy stuff that can take severe punishment because race cars get inspected a lot more frequently and it's worth the risk to run the lightweight components at the risk of failure for the benefit of speed. I also think that conditions on a track are a lot more controlled on a track, and you won't see potholes, speed bumps, or any of innumerable other unforeseen obstacles on a track. For an example, look at wheels. Race wheels are lightweight and fragile. Street wheels are robust and heavy.

Without fleshing out all of the details, that looks like a huge step in the right direction.

I think they're fiberglass, and I think the flange on the bottom is going to have to be removed before they'll flex at all, but I'll keep the heat idea in mind if they turn out to be plastic.

I put the shims on the very outside, after the spring plates.

Hahahahahahaha.... wait a minute... you're going to crush my Z??? Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah

Please don't look at my arguments against this control arm setup as "my word against his". I am not anti-Dave and I don't take issue with everything he builds (see my persistent defense of his oil pan over the years). THIS part is crap. Big time crap. The only thing worse than the arm is the new craptastic strut assembly he's bolting them to. I'm not an engineer, but I tried to apply what meager engineering skills I have to the analysis of this part and come to the conclusion that I did. Don't take it as my word against his precisely because I'm not an expert. I don't want people to believe what I say because I have close to 10,000 posts here or used to be an admin. Those things don't make me right. Look at the arguments for and against the design and judge for yourself, do not just look at who it is making the argument.

That doesn't make sense, unless you had the wrong pistons in there. The Fel Pro is .040" thick (1mm) out of the box.

The most common Z race car is the ITS car which isn't allowed any modifications to the control arm. Likewise I don't think Street Prepared autoxers are allowed aftermarket arms. I think you can look for GT2 cars, EP cars, CP vintage cars, FP autoxers, and that's about it. Then you have to wonder how many of those guys are going to show you what they have.

Electric fan and water pump aren't going to free up very many hp in my opinion, but I don't have any dyno sheets to show one way or the other. I know when I switched to an electric fan I couldn't tell the difference from the driver's seat. For EFI there are a lot of options. Searching would be a good start there. I think the most popular here is probably megasquirt which has its own forum, but I'd also guess that it's probably most popular because of the cost.

The "standard" numbers I've heard are usually .035" to .055". Some examples of this: http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/techarticles/94138_piston_head_clearance_guide/index.html http://www.302w.com/Forums/forums/thread/1752.aspx http://blogs.hotrod.com/6252212/editorials/hot-rod-engine-tech/index.html http://www.oldspower.com/VB/archive/index.php?t-36898.html EDIT--I wouldn't necessarily recommend these clearances. I didn't read and thought that you were asking what would "normally" be recommended. I like the idea of the smaller gap, assuming that the pistons don't contact the head. I think piston rock is one of the limiting factors here and I think a lot of the conventional wisdom comes from V8 engines which have large bores and would therefore need larger tolerances due to piston rock.

If you're looking for other alternatives: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=129154

Could try searching too. There's been a bit of discussion about those arms. I'm not a fan, nor do I care for the 1/4" bolt to hold the arm in place that Dave suggested a while back. By the way you have the rod ends out too far. According to Aurora bearings, you're supposed to have 1.5 x the diameter threaded in. That leaves you with a max outward adjustment of 5/16". http://www.aurorabearing.com/technical-resources/faqs/default.html

I'll pie cut them if they don't bend. I'm going to have a look at them when they get here. They're very narrow and long, so I'm thinking I might actually get two more and run two on one side and two on the other side of the "power bulge". Was thinking of running them closer to the front of the hood, maybe lining the front edge up with the core support or something like that. I've got a lot of other things on my plate so I probably won't get to this for a while.

It comes from a couple guys here who are building their engines with very tight piston/head clearances. Daeron probably got his info from them and thought that this was the "normal" way it is done, and it isn't. Here is the latest example: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=145256

How about some pics in the meantime?

My car was driveable with a heavier than stock ACT clutch and triple 44s, a decent sized cam and the flywheel. Drove it daily like that for years, no problem at all, was easy to handle in stop and go traffic. My opinion is that the Z has enough rotating mass in the crankshaft to make the lack of mass in the flywheel a non-issue. EDIT--Mine was a 240 at 2350 lbs. I'm sure that will make a difference, but I still wouldn't hesitate at all to get the lighter flywheel.

Flywheel is not a bad suggestion, but if the budget is $1K I'd go with an aluminum one like Fidanza. I can feel a difference between my 12 lb flywheel and my friend's 10 lb, so I would assume there is a larger difference to be felt from a lightened stocker at say 16 vs the aluminum one. The 79 came with a 280Z 5 speed with wide gear spacing and 3.70 diff I think. Switching to a later 5 speed (80-83, NA, not turbo) and 3.90 or 4.11 rear gear would be a nice upgrade. You might be able to get the trans, diff, and flywheel for under $1K.

In CA you have to deal with smog checks every two years. That means you should sell your car and get a 75 or older, in my opinion. I don't think you'll pass with a cam, and I'd guess a cat back exhaust isn't going to do much on a 280ZX. I don't think there is a full exhaust system for the ZX that is CA smog legal. I could be wrong on that though...

Ordered up a pair of these today. In terms of vent shape I think they're better than a lot of what is being used. They have roughly the "alligator teeth" louver shape that you would find on a real race car. Price is right too! http://cgi.ebay.com/SEA-RAY-VENT-LOUVER-EXHAUST-BILGE-SEA-RAY-17-SAVE_W0QQitemZ360135997932QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item360135997932&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A15|39%3A1|240%3A1318

Isn't stainless going to be work hardening as you're cutting though?