JMortensen

The ZX valves are SHORTER due to the increased depth of the combustion chamber. The 280Z valves are the same length as 240 valves, so there is no difference in valve spring length between the two. I have the 280 valves in my E31, it's pretty straightforward, but if you have other questions just ask.

I didn't realize you were on the other side of the planet. That ebay link is not the one I was referring to. I was talking about a lugcentric spacer. I checked Coleman's website and couldn't find the spacers there. Maybe they don't carry them anymore. Basically it is a piece of aluminum plate that has been cut into a donut shape with 4 12mm holes drilled in the correct pattern. Being that you are in Oz, it would probably be most cost effective for you to find a local dealer or a machine shop that could make some for you. You will need longer studs to use a lug centric spacer. ARP makes a 2.5" long stud, part number is ARP-100-7708.

I don't like this sleeving idea. There isn't a whole bunch of room in the strut housing anyway, so adding a sleeve inside isn't really that great an idea IMO. Where did you section the struts, up at the top, or down lower? If you did them up top you could weld the gap and then grind out any of it that gets inside the tube. If you did them down lower it's going to be pretty tough. I think John Coffey recommends putting a tube inside the strut housing to hold everything in alignment. I did mine by clamping them to a piece of angle iron, and that worked fine for me. If you did the tube inside the housing I fail to see how you could fill that gap without welding the strut housing to the tubing. One other idea which hasn't been mentioned yet is to do like ON3GO did when he screwed up his sectioning. He took the pieces that he cut out and sectioned again and added those pieces back in. You could do that, although it requires twice as much welding.

Section long and add a spacer. Section short and spend $200 on gland nuts or else try to figure out another nut that happens to work. So what I'm saying is... section long.

Coleman Racing has them or there is a guy on ebay that makes them. They're always on ebay and you can pick your thickness and he machines them up.

I wonder if you couldn't find another longer gland nut to fix the problem. The issue is the amount of threads engaged. I know on the "calling all racers" thread there was some discussion about a Bilstein gland nut that was longer. While the Bilstein gland nut might not work on your struts because it has the upside down setup where the strut is over an inch thick, you might be able to call someone like shox.com and find out what the original application was and then get the appropriate gland nuts and make them work. I think filling the gap would work too, but you might have some weld sticking inside the tube which you would then have to grind away, and it seems a bit on the cheesy side to me.

LCA = lower control arm UCA = upper control arm TC rod = tension compression rod or strut rod SFC = subframe connector EDIT - moved to FAQ forum

The auto parts store spacers are just barely too small. It's so just barely that I didn't even notice and I spent months trying to chase down a wheel balance problem. I finally figured it out when the spacer cracked. Got some lug centric spacers from Coleman Racing and that solved that problem.

Not sure what you're referring to Owen. I think you're talking about the slotting that Cary had mentioned and the ID/OD mismatch of the tie rod and the tubing, so I'll respond the best I can based on that assumption. I'd estimate the tie rod was about 1/8" too large to fit into the ID of the tube. So I had to take 1/16" off the outside of the tie rod in order for it to slip into the tube. Cary had suggested slotting the sides of the tube, and I think this is because when Kipperman did his, he used a different tube which had a larger ID. This larger ID meant that the tie rod was really loose in the end of the tube. In order to make it easier to crush down around the end of the tie rod, he cut slots in the end of the tube. I didn't do that because I didn't have to neck the tubing down to fit it to the tie rod, instead I just took metal off the tie rod until it fit in tightly into the tube. I'm out of town, so I can't get at any pics right now, but if that's not the info you were looking for just let me know and I'll try to do better for you.

The purpose for this modification is the reduction of stiction. If you just want to adjust toe, our toe adjuster mechanism works better and is easy to fabricate. I think we have 4 or 5 people running various designs now, but the original thread was Terry, myself, and Jeromio. With respect to how much it could be off, Jeromio's car had a badly manufactured strut and I think he ended up needing both the toe adjuster AND offset bushings to correct the situation. But for a normal car the adjuster doesn't require much actual movement to get the toe where you want it, it's super easy to adjust, and is easier than any of the ideas you guys have posted for adjustable toe on the arm IMO. It's kind of like buying AZC control arms to adjust camber. Yes, it can be done, but it is so much easier to use a camber plate! If I do end up with rod ends on the control arm any adjustments made will be to change the track.

Search industrial supply places for "wire cloth". It is usually steel, and although it may not have the exact pattern you want, it should work fine. You can get various size holes it it too, so finer or coarser mesh shouldn't be tough to find if you want it.

There have been some posts on Craftsman welders before. Supposedly they are extra crappy.

I think I follow. So the tube would be mounted front to back, and the adapter would be side to side? The adapter is 1" OD round. I do have some 1.5" square tube. That might be an easier way to do it. Then maybe form the top of the tube around the adapter as Jolane suggested.

That's pretty much the way my fronts are done too. I had a machinist do them for me, and he took a 1" OD round tube (I think) and welded a tube end into it. It fit really tight, so he hammered it in and did a couple plug welds around and then welded around the end. I am pretty comfortable with my welds, I definitely don't think they're cold. If anything I usually run them on the hot side from what Miller suggests on the side of the welder. I'm leaving town so I'm going to deal with it when I get back, still thinking that honing the outer end might be the way to go from a simplicity standpoint.

I don't know. It seems that cars get faster and faster off the showroom floor, but in low buck racing they aren't making really impressive gains. The autox I used to frequent usually had one of three cars post FTD. They were a Datsun 510, a 70 something Lotus Europa, and a VW Beetle (not bug, beetle). We had some really fast M3s and Z06s, but it was almost always going to be one of those three 70's cars that was going to have the fastest time of the day. It seems to me that you have to have a LOT of suspension and engine technology to overcome the weight advantage of an older car. Again not stock for stock, but modified for modified I'm talking about.

Take a look at the GT40. Right in front of the hole that exhausts the air that goes through the radiator they put a lip. On the GT40 I think it was a little piece of angle aluminum. This helps to further reduce the pressure and increase the suction on the hole at speed. http://www.me.mtu.edu/~prater/carpics/fords/GT40/gt40_2.jpg

Chevron DELO 400 15W-40 non synthetic

Instead of using tape how about PST on the NPT side of the fitting? Seems like it might be less likely to clog something in the fuel system, be it injector or pump or filter...

The fan might work better in traffic, but I still like the idea of a couple of large hood vents. Not only will they let the air out, they also reduce lift from the pressure under the hood at speed and sending that air back out the top instead of around the side or down below the car.

Search for "rotisserie" and you'll find a bunch of guys have gone to the trouble to flip the car over to get at all the rust on the bottom, but Mario is right, unibody construction has "subframes" which are welded to the rest of the body. No separate frame.

That's Tom Nelson. He was in my auto shop class in high school, he was one grade ahead of me! He was a bit skinnier and had long hair back then. That's the second time I've seen his name pop up on this list. I think he built a small block 427 engine for Overhaulin or American Hot Rod or one of those shows and someone had a vid clip of that too. He was a pretty hardcore gearhead back in high school. We would all be learning how to change spark plugs and he was hogging out the intake on his 305 for his Camaro. His parents had a Pantera, I remember that. And then he bought a circle track Nova and converted it back to street use. That thing was pretty crazy... Real nice guy too, 15 years ago anyway. Way to go Tom!!!

Thanks for the link. Got a couple ideas there.

You could easily do a yarn test to check this out. Just tape 2" pieces of yarn around the opening and see where the yarn goes. I bet the yarn goes into the engine compartment. Another way to look at it is like this: the air comes up over the hood and hits the windshield. The windshield is a major obstacle, and the air is forced to change directions to get around. When the air hits the obstruction, pressure is created (stick your hand out the window on the freeway and feel the pressure). You've got an open hole right there, so the pressure is going to force the air down into the engine compartment. I think you're right about the cowl induction hood being a problem Scottie. If you have a cowl hood it is pushing air into the engine compartment from the cowl, while the car driving forwards is pushing air in from the front. If there isn't a good place for the air to go, it's going to get stuck there, as it has to take a convoluted path out the transmission tunnel or under the sides of the car to get out. The shape of your RX7 is similar to the Z. A vent in the middle of the hood should suck air out of the engine compartment, as this area has a lot of flow and no obstructions and is just aft of the bumper and grill and should be a low pressure area. If you have the stock hood you could use a hole saw and just drill a couple holes in the hood and put yarn around the holes and see if it looks like the yarn is getting blown up and away or if it is getting sucked into the engine compartment, then you could cover the holes later with a louvered vent or something like that.

How hard is it to wire a race car? FI, ignition, alternator, starter, brake lights (do you even need brake lights on a land speed car?), parachute. That seems to be about it. Or am I missing something else that's more complicated? As far as fast, I think he wants to go faster than he's ever gone before. If he could hit 170 I think that would do it for him, although we all know how that story goes...

Well if this Schneider issue were a recent thing, then I guess that would apply. Doesn't seem to me that all of the failures that I've heard about have been recent.