JMortensen

No, one isn't stronger than the other, assuming you have a manual 280z, because it also came with an R200. Your 280z will have 3.54 gears, and the ZX's may have 3.54s or 3.90s. 3.90s is definitely the way to go. 3.54 will give you a top speed of 190 or something if you check the calculator. 3.90s on the other hand will have your revs a bit higher at highway speeds but you'll get a lot better acceleration.

The 81 is going to have a slightly taller 5th gear. All other gears are the same. So the 81 will give better mileage, but for racers who get to 5th gear, the advantage would be with the 80 (ever so slight advantage). You don't need the driveshaft. The diff should have shorter gears that can make use of the taller 1st 2nd and 3rd gear ratios, so yes, if you have a stock 240 or something like that, grab the diff. This link might help too:http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/

That is the main oil galley. It needs to be plugged at the ends because you don't need oil coming out the front and back of the block, you want it to build pressure and come out through the crankshaft bearings and go up to the cam.

One more thing Richard. A lot of racers will skip over an area that has a WHOLE bunch of sealer by making a plate that attaches to the metal on one side of the seam and the other, and stitch welding that instead. I guess this is pretty common for the dogleg area in the S30 which has a long seam with 3 pieces of metal coming together and about 1/2 tube of seam sealer in it.

How about a Vette PBR caliper?

Pics of the 1000 spot welds method on this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=102470 The point of doing it this way is it doesn't warp the metal.

The seam sealer is a bitch to get rid of. A heat gun and a screwdriver will get most of it, then if you really want it all out break out the picks. I tried a wire wheel and it was OK, but it wouldn't get into any cracks, and as soon as you start welding that stuff catches fire and the smoke gets in the weld and makes it crappy. You can use acetone to clean before welding, or I've been using NON-CHLORINATED brake cleaner, which is basically acetone, xylene, and tolulene. I tried paint remover and found that it didn't work so hot. Eventually I prepped most of it with a wire wheel on an angle grinder. That works really well, but is kind of aggressive. Sandblasting or soda blasting would be the best if you can pull it off, but my worry was that if I stripped the whole body bare it would be a big rust bucket by the time I had all of the things I wanted to get done finished. I think I was right about that. Some of the stuff I worked on a while back is starting to rust. Not real bad, but if it was all stripped bare I think it would be worse.

I think you're going to have to open it up. If it makes the noise when you're not turning its a bearing or the ring and pinion. If it does it when you're turning than its the LSD. Also transmission countershaft bearings make a ball bearing floating around rattle type of noise when they go bad, and the noise goes away when you push in the clutch. Just throwing that out there...

The safest thing is to use all Z stuff. The pressure plate interchanges between the Z and the SX, but I have no idea if the TO bearing and all that does.

Pretty self explanatory today:

In stock form the Miata is the hands down winner. With the AD shocks and AZC brakes and all the rest the Z will eat it for lunch. As far as running canyons goes I suggest you be careful. Those roads are fun for sure, but they are also dangerous. I suggest you find an autox instead. You'll live longer, and believe it or not you'll have MORE fun.

BIG mystery there...

Dunno.

I was going to Lowe's, but they just JACKED UP the prices on bolts like 400%. They used to have big bins full of bolts and they were cheap. I went the other day and now every bolt is individually bagged and the prices skyrocketed. That bolt that was $2.25 last time probably would have been $.60. Screw Lowe's, they're not getting any more of my business. I went to Tacoma Screw and I think they Tacoma Screwed me too. I used to feel like I wasn't getting so ripped off on this stuff. Maybe I'll try a couple more hardware stores before I give up and mail order stuff. McMaster Carr has worked for me before, might have to go that route again, or try to find a Fastenal locally and see what their prices are like.

Don't forget to check the classifieds!

Stock gasket is .050. 1mm gasket is .040. Shaving the N42 changes the shape of the chamber in addition to increasing compression.

I got 32 ONCE in my car with SU's. Tailwind the whole way, I was on the way to the track, it was about 5 in the AM, 5th gear, 3.70's street tires pumped to about 40 psi, MSD, cam, exhaust, and STEADY on the throttle for 100+ miles doing 65 to 70 mph.

That's some pretty serious thread jacking there olderthanme, but I'll give you a short answer. If you took it to an alignment shop they would have some shims to put in there. If you wanted to do it just use washers up to the point where the end of the rod only has one or two threads hanging out the nut on back.

Front frame rail mods are done! Made a plate that goes all the way across the frame rail and up the side. I looked at the rail and it was visibly sagging on the outside end, so I decided to wrap it up on that side. I cut off the little flange and welded it up after clamping everything together. When I cut the flange off it was easy to see that the end of the rail was spreading pretty badly. That end of the rail was open about 3/16". If I had welded the angle on the other side it probably would have been fine, but this side was definitely the weaker of the two and had already broken the flange at the spot welds so I think I did the right thing. Then I made a 2x3 plate to go on top. I did just as I had said before, and drilled and tapped my tube for the 7/16" rod end, and left enough sticking out both ends so that I could weld it up. I still need to cut the top of the tube off. Nice part about this setup is that I also drilled holes for the original swaybar mounts. If for some reason this idea doesn't work out I can spend a couple minutes with the grinder and maybe a few more with the welder and revert to the poly bushing, but the support from the tube will still be there. Looked at the rear bar, there is only about 4" from the end where I would cut it off and the first bend on the bar. Thinking about welding a piece of 4x1x.25 bar stock vertically and drilling holes in the conventional style, then running the front with the slip fitting that Cary describes. The front has 9" of bar before the bend, so it has plenty of room. I guess I could just do a shorter sleeve in the back, but then it's not as adjustable as it could be the other way. Have to mull that one over a bit more. Another thing. I was looking at the plate I welded to the top of the frame, and looking at my strut tower bar, and thinking I should just weld a support from one to the other like this: In my case I'd just use a length of that 1x1x.063 square tube, since I can't ever see needing to remove it. That red car makes me oOo

My Z doesn't have rear steering, so my rear tires don't pass over the same points as the front when turning. Besides that issue, if you aren't getting ANY yaw out of your car when you're driving at the track, you need to step on the long skinny one a lot more.

Those should be the same length as the Bilsteins that katman recommended in the sticky named "calling all racers". The bilsteins should be fine for a street spring as is. If you want to get really crazy with the spring rates, revalve them as he suggests. My understanding is that the VW insert is 2" shorter than stock. That OLD SECONDHAND info, so you might want to doublecheck that before you start buying parts. The MR2 insert is 1.625" shorter than stock IIRC. So you won't be able to use the MR2 insert in a housing that has been shortened for the VW insert. There might be another strut that is short enough like the Koni possibly, but check that sticky. I've had 2 cars with Bilsteins though, and I love em. For me it would be an easy choice. Did the GC guy say WHY the VW was a bad choice? Valving? Was he thinking this was a race car and not a street car?

If you've got fluid moving from one reservoir to another you need a new master. It's as simple as that.

I think you've been reading too much about the Chapparal sucker car. You're not creating a whole bunch of low pressure under a Z, nor are you likely to create a whole bunch of downforce unless you're going really crazy with the aero mods. The idea is mostly to prevent lift. If you can get a bit of downforce more power to you, but we're not dealing with 1500 lb springs because we're making 1000 lbs of downforce like a real aero car. What you're trying to do with the air dam and side skirts is block the air from going under the car. Yes, this will produce a little bit of a low pressure area, but without venting the radiator air to the hood exclusively I think the low pressure is pretty much gone by the time you get to the firewall because most of the air going through the radiator ends up under the car. What does happen is as you drive the car around a corner at 120 mph the air hits the car at an angle and can get under the rear of the car. You might also have a good side wind. Skirts keep this air out and help cancel that lift. That's my understanding after reading some books, thanks for that suggestion though.

My understanding of it was that the side skirts were mainly to keep air from going under the sides of the car while turning, but I'm sure there is some benefit to keeping the air that comes off the air dam from re-entering the underside of the car, and when turning that's probably a lot of the same air...

OK, that's a good answer. Actually its exactly what I did. I set the alignment where I wanted it on the street which was 1.8 degrees neg in front, 1.5 rear, 1/8" toe in front, 3/16" toe in rear, 5 degrees caster, then when I went to the track I had the camber plates so I could just adjust those in for the camber. I don't recall exactly how much adjustment the plates were good for, but it sounds like the AZC plates have more adjustment than the GC ones. Although I never set them up to the camber I wanted with the plates all the way up, which I assume you did. I still think you should add more caster though. It really helps turn in, and doesn't make the steering twitchy IMO. It will make it harder to turn though.