JMortensen

The idea that the N36 gives a more equal fuel distribution to the cylinders has been backed up by katman and Norm in a previous thread... good enough for me.

If you were at sea level I'd say that combo should get you 160whp no problem. I'd also really strongly recommend that you put a bigger cam in it. Running triples on a stock cam gives you a low end cam with top end carbs. Not a good combo. I don't know what effect the altitude has on cam selection so you'll want to check that out before you buy, but you won't get the most from those carbs with the puny stock cam. FWIW I have a L28/E31 with 280 valves, a .490/280 cam and 44s, the AZC header and 2.5" exhaust. I did a lot of port work on the head myself, and it WAY exceeds your goal. I also shaved the head a bit and ended up with more like 11:1 compression.

Plus a strap, right?

Search for 930 CV conversion. A couple threads on that have been around in the last few months. Blueovalz and ezzzzzz (not sure how many z's on that one).

No. Look inside a strut tube and you'll see that the ID is larger in the first inch or so of the tube, then after that the tube wall gets thicker. So if you cut 2" off the tube, the ID of the tube would be too small to cut the threads into. You might be able to turn the ID of the tube back out to where it would work, but by that point why not just section the tube?

Just putting a hole in the air dam isn't going to do much to cool the brakes. Connecting a vent hose to the air dam and running it to the brakes will make a difference. But it's likely to get torn off on the street. Couple things I don't like about the common Z air dams: 1. They don't fully cover the front tire. Ideally you'd like the air dam to protrude farther than the tire. This is because they follow the shape of the front fender, but it still bugs me. The only one I've seen that does cover the tire is Reaction Research's air dam for the Subtle Z kit, and I'm 99% sure it doesn't fit a stock fender. 2. They leave a GIGANTIC hole between the air dam and the radiator core support. Since the radiator provides some resistance to airflow, that huge hole essentially shovels air under the car at speed. Not as bad as having no air dam, but in order to make it really work that big hole needs to be closed up with some sheet aluminum or fiberglass. 3. They flex at high speeds. EVERY Z air dam I've ever seen has flexed at high speed. The urethane ones bow down in the middle. Mine (see sig pic) flexes back, and the rubber used to flap up underneath the car. After a competitor of mine showed me that picture, I later changed the rubber skirt to plastic lawn edging and that seemed to fix the second problem, but it still flexed back in the middle. Can be fixed by bracing from the core support to the air dam. 4. Most are too high off the ground. If you really want it to work it has to be close to the ground. The closer the better. If you end up with a fiberglass one, I'd put a skirt on it, and again, make sure the skirt doesn't flex at high speeds.

Sounds like the sender hole. I don't know if they're the same, but the 240 sender has a locking ring which screws in and locks the sender down. If they aren't the same you might have a bit of trouble finding that little locking ring if it isn't there...

In response to your question about somehow attaching the Z32 hub to the S30 control arm, I don't think its feasible, because the Z32 doesn't use a strut setup. But you can make a completely custom strut, like Jamie T is doing: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104649 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=100758 I think he had another thread that he started about the custom strut, but I can't find it. I didn't try too hard, so dig a little bit and you may run across it.

510s are fun but are getting harder to find parts for. I lived with a guy who had 4 or 5 at one time (he's been FTD at the Shasta meet I think a couple times now), and another friend of mine has at least 4 right now I think. They were the car of choice, and I was the outsider with the Z. Kinda the same deal as a Z, just a bit smaller. 4 cyl instead of 6. Very light. Fun to drive. Seems to me that they're harder to make fast on a big track, but easier to make handle at autox than a Z. That's the impression that I have of them anyway. Biggest issue with them IMO (aside from rust) is the suspension. You have to section the struts in front if you want to lower them much at all, and in the rear the semi-trailing arms can get to some really funky angles when you lower the back. Slotting the crossmember and sectioning the front struts are pretty much required as far as I'm concerned. One nice thing is that a 280ZX front strut bolts up and is already shorter than the 510 strut, and comes with a vented rotor. So it's a sectioned strut vented rotor upgrade all in one. Do that with a coilover and a camber plate and you've really made a difference. Also there isn't a lot of space for tires, so if you want tires wider than about a 195 you have to flare the car. R160 LSDs from Subarus are pretty easy to come by. Might want to cruise around this site here for awhile: http://dimequarterly.tierranet.com/ I wouldn't spend $1000 on one that has a bad motor and needs both quarters replaced.

I just based my comment on the stock bolts. They're 12mm IIRC. No reason not to drill out the bushings and slide them over a 1/2" bolt. One more thing I was thinking is that it would be pretty easy to shim between the crossmember and the bottom bushing to change pinion angle, which might be really useful for our V8 swap members.

Why do you need to resurface the pp? Is it warped? The mating surface is attached to springs, so I don't think it would be possible to resurface it on a lathe. If the thing is not warped just reuse it. I've reused the pp quite a few times. You can just slap it in there, or if it was abused in it's previous life, you might just hit it with a angle grinder with a sanding pad just to scuff up the surface (lightly, don't want to cause a problem, just break the glaze if there is any). I do the same thing on rotors BTW. No need to turn rotors every time you change pads either.

I'd be a little wary attaching the diff to the chassis with 3/8" bolts. I'd prefer to see 1/2" bolts. At the very least you should be using Grade 8. Other than that looks cheap and easy to do.

Right, so a Volvo 850T which runs 5 psi boost and 10.5:1 compression or something like that has very little lag, and I realize this as I used to work for a Volvo dealer in the mid 90's and drove them all the time. I think the 850T would have to qualify as the least laggy turbo I've ever driven. Actually they're a lot of fun until they burn an exhaust valve. But when you're looking to extract 400 hp out of an L28 you're going to be pushing a LOT more boost with a lot lower compression, which is why I said I'd rather drive the V8 turbo pushing 5 lbs of boost to get 400 hp than the L28 pushing 20lbs to get the same power. That was the problem which utvolman99 was asking us to address, right?

FWIW if you do drill a hole, make it more like 1/8". If you go 3/8" the thing will never warm up. I did 1/4" in my pickup and even that takes forever.

I haven't used the metal headgaskets, but my understanding is that it is a laminated gasket with stacks of .2mm layers of gasket. So I think you can get the 1mm gasket and peel off 2 layers, and there you go. I read about it here, might want to search. I think Dan Baldwin was talking about it on an OLD thread. If you search, you'll probably find it on one of the threads when we were at each others' throats arguing about quench or something stupid like that...

IMHO it needs a bigger spoiler, something more like Terry has. Very nice though!!! Wish it were mine!

You could drill a small hole in the thermostat. As far as Nissan getting everything exactly correct, well I'll have to take issue on that. Remember what site you're on Tony???

Can't you just take the 1mm gasket and peel off a couple layers?

Well Rebello built his engine, they should be expert enough to decide if it was necessary...

Cary, I think the reason for the heims is because they're easy to mount. If you recall I did mine with no heims. Actually I used heims and cut the bearing off and just used the threaded stud. It was kind of a PITA. Would have been a lot easier to stick a bolt through the square tubing and run rod ends.

Damn that looks pretty good jonny! You have any other pictures of the front end?

In general a stiff aftermarket clutch should last longer than a stock clutch, because it doesn't slip as much. It sounds like your problem is clutch chatter. Clutch chatter is not an indication of a worn out clutch. It is an indication that the clutch might be wearing a groove in the flywheel, but it doesn't mean the clutch is bad. The universal clutch test which is really hard on everything so you don't want to do it too often: Find a hill that you can drive up at 2000 rpm in 4th gear. Do that, then push in the clutch, rev it to 5000, and side step the clutch. If the engine rpms come right back down to 2000, then the clutch isn't slipping. If the engine hovers at 5000, then slowly creeps back down, then the clutch is dead. Again, this is really hard on everything, so use that at your own risk. Stiff pp, and a normal non puck style disk is my solution. Gives you a higher clamping force on the disk, so more torque capacity, without using the super aggressive pucks which will dig into the flywheel. ACT makes a more aggressive than stock non puck style clutch. That might be a good option if you feel that a stock friction disk isn't aggressive enough.

That's a neat option! Looks like you still have enough room to get a ratchet on the fill plug too. Very nice!

I've only heard of people losing lobes on Schneiders. I've never known anyone who lost a lobe on a regrind, which is what all my L4 and L6 engine racer friends run. I don't think any of us has ever had a rocker resurfaced, my rockers have run on 3 different cams without being resurfaced. Silent, my suggestion to you is to get an old stock cam and send it off for a regrind and see if the same thing happens again. I have a suspicion that it won't.

You could disconnect the vacuum line to the booster and drive it down the street, then reconnect and see if there is a difference. Just be aware that you'll have to hit the brakes really hard to stop. Or you could start the car, then turn it off and pump the brakes about 5 times. You should feel the pedal change and get rock hard after about the 4th pump or so.