JMortensen

Wow, so it sounds like it's really the breaker plate and mech advance that are the issues with the distributor. I wonder what my current setup would do. I have the breaker plate JB welded so that it can't move at all, and I'm only using the mechanical advance. I specifically did that because the ZX distributor I'm running had a broken vacuum advance mechanism (like all of them) and the stator was actually twisted inside the housing and the reluctor was HITTING it. I'm sure that was causing all kinds of scatter! Anyway after I JB welded it I figured there was no way that any vibration or anything was going to move the breaker plate. I figure the mechanical advance should get more stable at higher rpms since the centrifugal effect only gets stronger as the rpms increase. Anyway I appreciate the response that's very interesting.

Hmm, I don't remember an issue with the tie rods. Disconnecting the strut at the bottom with the two big bolts would have been easier in that case. Still, the back is where people always get sucked into pulling the spindle pins or removing the swingarms from the car where they really don't need to. Just pull the brake lines and the halfshafts and disconnect the bar if there is one and the strut should lean right out.

That sounds to me like you went from a race pad that needs heat to work to a street pad that works at any temp. Bedding in the pads also makes a difference, but I think you're main issue was the wrong pad the first time. A quick stomp on the pedal with the car off will tell the rest of us if you have a lot of pedal movement or not.

According to wikipedia the FE weighs 680 lbs. We show the L28 at 523 lbs. Lets be generous to the L and say that the transmission used with the FE is a full 150 lbs heavier than the L transmission. So now we're at a total of about 310 lbs heavier than stock. Put this in a 240Z that weighed 2350 off the showroom floor, and it's still a couple HUNDRED lbs lighter than a 280Z. Keep in mind we still haven't stripped the interior or added a fiberglass hood or decklid. If you were still concerned about the weight you could ballast the rear 200 lbs and then you'd be right at the weight of the 280Z, only with an additional 4 or 5 or 600 hp.

Looks like they've been there a while. Is that second one a flathead?

Yeah, the Japanese used the P90a with solid lifters, so when you see one it's usually a used Jap engine. Nice work!

I'm a little confused. How do you figure that the pad gave you a squishy pedal? Did you have Nerf pads the first time, Tim? Or are you just saying that the pads worked better so you didn't have to push on the pedal as hard? Just doesn't make sense to me that by changing pads the pedal would get firmer.

Oh yeah, the math. Well lets say you're adding one gallon 110 to 5 gallons 92 octane. All you have to do is add all the octane points up and divide by the number of gallons. So 92 x 5 = 460 + the one gallon of 110 = 570. Divide that by 6 and you get 95 octane.

I don't think you want to do the driver and passenger window. They're a curved piece of glass so you'd have to bend the Lexan to match. Someone here claimed that it could be done fairly easily maybe 2 or 3 years ago, but I've never seen it. Also, the stuff scratches really easy, so just rolling it up and down and having the Lexan drag on the rubber seal on the outside of the window is going to scratch the hell out of the Lexan. I think you could use the stock rubber gasket in back like my 510 friend did, but you'd still need the straps. On the corner windows I think it's a waste of time. Most of the weight there is from the frames I think, and if you reuse the frame and only get a 40% weight savings on that tiny piece of glass that's not worth the hassle IMO.

The optimum hp isn't always where the max advance without pinging is. I was running right about 35 degrees total advance. The potential benefits of the crankfire as I see them are these: More accurate timing. No slop in the distributor gears or bushings, etc. Basically eliminates all the mechanical slop in the system. Programmable timing curve can be adjusted to suit a particular engine. More accurate timing. Less parasitic drag. Hotter spark (I had assumed) Eliminates MSD. Although I've never had a problem, they have something of a reputation for failing. Don't need "pills" for rev limiter. MORE ACCURATE TIMING! There are things that you can't do to the curve with a distributor also. Check out this post to another board from Dennis Hale:

L28/E31, about 11:1 compression, .490/280 cam, ported and polished (chambers too), 280 valves, 44 Mikunis Yes, that's what I'm saying. I think Dan Baldwin had some hp figures on race gas vs street gas that proved my point. He made about 10 hp less on the higher octane gas.

Come on, do a little research man. The 280ZXT is the same engine you already have with a turbo. The 300ZXT is a V6 that is totally different. You'd have to make custom mounts for the engine and trans and thats if it fits in between the strut towers on a S130. It barely fits in the S30. The ZXT would be 1000 x easier.

If you run more octane than you need you can actually lose power. You can buy AV gas from just about any airport that deals with small prop planes. It's not legal for street use, and you can't pull your car up to the pump, but they usually have self service pumps and you can just walk up with a gas can and fill it. What I did was to keep cutting it with regular gas until I found out what octane I needed to run the timing I wanted and not ping. Turns out in my case it's about 95 octane, so I basically just split it 50/50 with supreme unleaded from the pump and that's it.

I think that if you're using a standard Z strut then a normal 12mm lug nut works, because they are 12mm (x 1.25mm?) threaded and have a 5/8" outside which fits the monoball correctly. That's the way it is in the US, not sure about AU. I went with the MR2 struts and they have a 14mm shaft. I bought the sleeves from http://www.groundcontrol.com and they were cheap. Don't suppose that would be necessary for the guy in Oz, he can probably just have some turned locally, but for US guys that's another option.

That's pretty slick. I appreciate all the info there Paul. This may be one of those things that ends up on the cutting room floor, but if I pursue it you can expect to hear from me again...

No problem. Probably won't be any more vids for at least a year.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=107028 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=111396 These should help you out. Just gotta search for the right thing. In this case e12-80 was what I searched for. There's a whole bunch more if you want to use that as a search term, but the first has some good rebuild info and the second is specifically about deleting the vacuum advance.

This might be a bit much to ask here, if so just say the word and I'll dig further on the MJLJ site. I'm just trying to get some of the basics down, because I've lusted after the Electromotive ignition for years. Looks like the MJLJ might just be feasible, but I'm a bit confused as to how to hook it up with Mikunis. There's no plenum obviously to put a MAP in, and if you went straight to a runner I'm not sure the amount of vacuum in one runner would really work. No TPS either. Not sure how you can overcome that. I am pretty sure the Electromotive unit just runs off a map. I don't see a need beyond gas mileage and low rpm driveability to need the MAP or TPS. Can the MJLJ work with only the map? What else is required? You need the coil packs I assume JY on this, but what kind of price do they bring and what donor vehicle for a 6 cylinder, then the assembled box looks like it is $150, trigger wheel from a Ford? or do you have to get a trigger wheel from somewhere else? I assume there is a hall sensor like the Electromotive or similar sensor which you could grab, maybe from the same Ford in the JY? The lack of a rev limiter is a problem, but if it was run off a straight map the ignition could just be retarded at X rpm. That's how the Electromotive unit works, and I've been in a car that hit the rev limiter and it's like hitting a brick wall. I started in on some of the threads on their forum but it doesn't seem to be a very search friendly environment. I did find one thread that said a guy just left the MAP sensor disconnected and ran it like that. Kinda nebulous info there with regards to older carbed applications.

Don't think so. I too never understood why anyone would buy a new points distributor. Like buying a brand new wagon wheel. I'd suggest a NA 280ZX distributor. Do a search, lots of info on distributors for L series.

This looks to me like a R180 with the more aggressive ramps and 2 pinion gears. Heres the ramp part of my R200 LSD. The way this works is that as you apply power the cross pins move forward to back (in the picture left to right) inside the two outer pieces. This compresses the two outer pieces (pressure rings) which puts pressure on the clutch stack. The angle of the ramps can be more agressive or less agressive. Mine is the less aggressive style. bjhines has the more aggressive style: You can see that his ramps are not as steep which makes it easier for the crosspins to spread the pressure rings apart and so it applies more lockup to the clutch stack. It's a little hard to see in your picture, but it looks like the more agressive ramp to me. The only bad part about yours is that it looks like a 2 pinion. I know 2 people who owned this diff, and they both broke it. They both drove like maniacs, but regardless the 4 pinion is stronger. You can check if it's two or 4 pinion by spinning the ring gear and see how many cross pin ends there are. Here is a top view of the case opened showing the 4 pinion gears. You can see the holes for the cross pins around the edge of the case.

Wrong year Taurus??? Just guessing.

First link doesn't work if you're not a member. Comment on the 2nd one. I watched the video and you could hear the wheel scraping, but you couldn't tell on what. There was also some mention of the holes being misaligned. Holes misaligned is pretty bad and I'm glad to hear the wheel manufacturer seems to be standing behind his product, but as far as the grinding I'd be marking the stub axle and the outer edge of the rim and turning the wheel around and seeing where it grinds. If it grinds on the same place relative to the stub axle then it could be bent. Not terribly uncommon for someone to get in a very minor collision and bend a stub axle. Grinding on the same place on the wheel would tend to indicate a bent wheel.

Yep, only starts getting time consuming when you start disassembling stuff that doesn't need to be disassembled.

If you're just doing springs and shocks you don't really have to take anything apart in the rear. You can actually just disconnect the strut top and swing the swingarm down and do it all right on the car. I know I've detailed what needs to be done at least 3 times, so search and you should find the procedure to do this in the archives. You can do the front the same way, too late for you but maybe not for Ron.

Brown-noser.