JMortensen

I have them posted on my FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Jon.E.Mortensen Don't have a lot of time these days. If you (or someone else) wouldn't mind reposting here I would appreciate it.

I appreciate the shout out, but I don't have the time anymore.

Sorry to hear this. He had been having some health issues but didn't seem like this kind of thing was imminent. Another loss for the Z community.

Why not just disassemble/reassemble? I can't imagine how you could get all the bearings in there and have it "wrong" but should be easy enough to redo it.

I guess you'll need to weld aluminum to do intercooler piping. Otherwise, the $400 220V Harbor Freight unit is supposed to be really good value. No, I'm not kidding. Won't do AL though. http://weldingweb.com/showthread.php?563691-New-HF-TIG-stick-machine

The rod length is measured center to center, so the diameter of the journal would be irrelevant. My understanding is that he was welding and grinds the cranks to get more stroke (actually I think now I heard he's having cranks forged). He's also using diesel blocks now from what I understand, which allows more rod length because the deck is taller. There is a limit to how close you can get the pin to the deck, so taller deck, longer stroke and as long a rod and as high a pin height as possible.

I recall about 10 years ago you used to be able to get a whole set of Ross forged for about $500, but you had to know the specs. If you called them and asked for an off the shelf Datsun piston, it was $900 or something like that.

You can do the struts without taking the control arms off. You can take the control arm off with the strut to change the inner bushings, too. But when you take the strut off of the control arm, you're entering a forbidden realm. Beyond this place, there be dragons. Search "spindle pin puller" if you want to save a whole lot of hassle.

Not going to work. I was pretty sure the 280ZX stub and bearing are the same as the 510, which is smaller than the Z. Just verified that on Timken.com. Z rear wheel bearings are RW116 and RW117. 510 and 280ZX bearing numbers are RW101 and RW125. The ZX stub shafts are smaller. I believe 1/16" smaller diameter.

Totally agree with Chickenman. I'd rather have the engine built with dished pistons if the cam is going to be stock. If you're going with flat tops, get a bigger cam and do the work to make it function (shorter valve stem seals, different springs and retainers). Only disagreement I have is that I'd have gone bigger with the cam than he did. Otherwise, like he said, you'll be retarding the timing to the point where you're leaving a lot of power on the table to prevent pinging. Flat tops and N42 with a minimal shave just to get it flat would put you in the 10.5:1 range or close to it. N42/N47 has a crappy combustion chamber. It's going to ping unless you run a big enough cam.

Last I heard you can still get them from Nissan. I also sourced one from a guy who was going to sell me CV boots when I had M2 going, so if you have a local driveline shop they might have one that works that you don't have to wait for.

Yes, you would want to move the xmember to the pass side. There isn't much room there, certainly not enough to fix it, but might make it a little better.

Those are some crappy numbers, I hate to say. Even the rear has a significant problem, which is A LOT of toe out. That's enough toe to wear out a set of tires pretty fast, not to mention it should have a scary tendency to oversteer, if you could ever get any grip out of the front end. Guessing this is a street car based on the Eibach lowering springs. I'd suggest you loosen the front crossmember bolts and try and shift it to the right to correct some of the camber issue. You won't get it fixed, but might be able to improve it a bit. If you want to go further you can slot the holes in the strut tower to adjust camber, do plates, or do adjustable control arms (look out though, you'll have to push so far out on that right side that you will need to be concerned with running out of length on the tie rods. In the back the simplest fix is going to be camber bushings. I wouldn't try to change the camber too much, just fix that horrendous toe out situation. For street car, I'd run about 1/16 or 1/8 toe in front and rear. Good luck with it!

FWIW you can weld mild to stainless without any special set up. It ruins the corrosion resistance of the stainless in the area where the welding is done, but you're already welding to non-stainless stuff anyway, so What?