JMortensen

My wife and I are trying to figure out where to move when she's done with school at the end of this year. We had been thinking CA, and that has long been my goal, but in looking at houses it seems that we'll be "house poor" if we go back to any of the areas we'd even consider living in. Maybe there is an area that is still cheap enough for us to buy in??? She is a Registered Dietitian and will have a MS degree when we leave. I have my own business and I can work from pretty much anywhere as long as I can get to a UPS or FedEx drop off. My priorities are as follows: 1. Better climate than Seattle, not too hot, not too cold. No Phoenix, AZ, no Bangor, ME 2. Less traffic than Seattle, it's REALLY bad. 3. Lower latitude 4. House at least 1500 sq ft. 5. Garage an absolute must, separate shop even better 6. Road racing / autox venues within a couple hours tow 7. $300K or less 8. Safe community 9. Land??? Her priorities: 1. Must be within commuting distance of major city 2. Structurally sound fixer upper OK -- notice this is HER priority, as if she'll be fixing anything 3. Close to medical care 4. 3 bedroom / 1.5 bath minimum 5. Within 2 hours of friends or family 6. Safe community Now if I could somehow wipe out her #5, then that leaves us WIDE open. We could go pretty much anywhere in the whole country. I've got basically a year to do that, but it's hard to convince someone without a destination to point to and say "Let's look at Boise, or Albuquerque, or Little Rock." I don't want to live someplace that is so expensive that I can't do anything more than pay the mortgage. Unfortunately, our family and friends are all in CA in the Sacramento area, San Luis Obispo, and LA. We did LOVE San Luis Obispo, CA. Couldn't really ask for anything more, but since we sold our house there the market has just about doubled, and that precludes us from going back unless the market dips pretty dramatically. So anyone from anywhere in the US that has a good suggestion, let em rip. Whereever we go we're planning on staying for a good decade, I'm tired of all this friggin moving and want to grow some roots and start a family. Thanks for any and all input.

Mike, go buy the How to Modify book. Several pics of the engine in there. Looks like a long tube header, engine layed over, big huge heat shield, and the intake gained about 8-10 inches in length when they layed it over and it has a fairly huge plenum on it. I'm sure you could get more out of the pic than I can, since I'm not a turbo guy. Also there is something later on in the book about them using L24 rods, not surprising really as it's easy to do and gives a slightly better rod ratio.

That doesn't say much. My cam was reground by American Cams in SoCal and it was within .002 of the advertised lift. Plus the regrinds have the benefit of being made from stronger steel. There have been a couple post about poor metallurgy on aftermarket new camshafts. I like regrinds. May be a problem getting the HUGE lift numbers on a regrind due to the reduced base circle, but to this point I have nothing but positive things to say. BTW, your friend did multiply the lift on the lobe by 1.5 which is the Datsun rocker ratio, correct? I'm sure he would have been pretty pissed off if he didn't and his numbers would have been way low. I only ask because so many people here have mentioned Delta as a good source...

Yep. Hi octane for sure, but it'd be fun...

Wider track in the front than the rear will turn in better. You can adjust the track with the control arms you mention. It looks to me like the MM arm has a lot more potential adjustment than the AZC arm. There is a rule about rod ends. You want at least 1.5 x the diameter of the rod end inside the control arm. So at least 15/16" of the threads on the AZC rod ends should stay inside the control arm. The MM setup looks like you can move several inches.

EFI to carb is not CARB legal. ANY smog tech will fail you as soon as they open the hood. Smog isn't what it used to be. The penalties for passing cars that aren't legal are getting a lot stiffer, and the techs are A LOT more knowledgeable. 20+ years huh? How old is the crappy FI on a 75 280Z? My math says 31 years. And the FI sucks, and it would be EASY to make more power with carbs. You may say more sensors and electronics are better, but I'll take the hp anyday.

1. Upload the picture to the photo album area. 2. Go to the picture in the album, right click on it and select Properties. 3. Copy the location of the picture from the Properties window. 4. Make a new post here, and paste the location. 5. Put image tags around the location like so (img)http://www.locationofthepicture.com(/img), but use [] instead of () 6. Drink a beer in celebration of posting a picture to hybridz. 7. Have another

I hear you John, but with all the crap I'm taking out of the car I think I can afford a couple lbs of paint or undercoating especially if it will keep the car from rusting. I guess I'm a little sensitive on the rust issue because I had a shop paint this car and the rust was coming up within 2 years.

I think he meant SAI and KPI. Steering Axis Inclination and Kinpin Inclination. As to an explanation of those measurements, I'll leave that to someone who actually knows what they mean...

That actually looks like bedliner Austin. Do you recall, was it polyurethane? If it was, then it basically IS bedliner...

Might consider putting the ZX block with the 280Z head. 10.5:1 compression for free...

Thanks! That sounds like a damn good idea. Anyone else.

I have some rust in the LF A pillar right where the lead is, and the pass side B pillar. I want to cut this out and weld in new metal if necessary, but I don't know how to remove the lead. Been searching the archives but haven't found anything more than a passing mention from Dan Juday about removing the lead from the A and B pillars. Dan said "grind it out" in that thread. Is that dangerous? I have a mask that's suitable for organic vapors. Should I wear that? Should I actually take my grinder to it, or is there a nicer way to get in there, wire wheel or something? How about melting it off? Too much heat for the surrounding body work?

I'm getting close to wrapping up my under the car stuff on what will be exclusively a race car, been stitch welding and patching rust, etc. Now I have a bunch of exposed metal on the bottom of the car, and I'm particularly worried about the wheel wells. In the front the paint was largely stripped off the inside of the wells. In the rear the factory tar stuff held up much better, but I stripped a lot of that out to stitch weld the seams, so now that area is unprotected. I have Zero Rust and I plan to shoot the underside of the car with that, inside all the frame rails, etc. The problem I think is that the gravel and rubber that is sure to be flinging around in there might chip the Zero Rust right off. When this is done the car will either have all the rust treated or removed. I just don't want to have more rust issues down the line. Is undercoating the answer? I've always had a bad impression of undercoating in general, but maybe just in the wheel wells wouldn't be so bad. Is there a paint that is strong enough to use in the wheel wells that won't chip off?

I wonder if you could legally get rid of the AFM...

No ****! Isn't it illegal to let your car roll backwards across a 4 lane road and hit something? Ticket yourself there dumbass!!!

That piece that you're talking about reinforcing is one side of a triangular "torque box" that makes up the main structure in the rear. The deck, the vertical piece, and the floor inside the toolboxes make up the torque box. I stitch welded mine to stiffen it. I think your brace might do something, but stitch welding might do almost as much without adding weight. It sounds like you're basically spending all of your effort to strengthen the frame rails. This is a car with struts, so bracing the strut towers is just as important. As fastzcars says the strut towers are really flexy, so you'd probably FEEL strut tower bars where you might not feel the benefit of the brace you're talking about. I don't think your proposed brace would hurt.

A friend of mine had a ported 12A with a 44 Mikuni on it, and a 9 lb flywheel and a header. It was really hard to get off the line, but when it hit about 3500 rpm it would SMOKE the tires until you let off. He also had 2 GSL-SE rears (LSD with discs that people keep mentioning). He ended up selling it to someone who made it a track toy, but Buster's suggestion of a Weber is right on the money.

I kinda like the Hybrid Z spelled out. I'd buy one either way though...

Yeah, I eventually tore that motor down because the crank pulley came apart and F'ed up the front of the crank. The pistons were FINE. I think next time I buy plugs I'll get them again. They were 944 Turbo plugs IIRC, I think they were the BP6ET's. Also I seem to remember another rotary spark plug that didn't have any ground electrode at all, but instead the whole area around the center kind of angled in towards the center electrode. Never used that one, but it would be even more open as far as the spark goes...

Just because the valves are bent doesn't mean the head is totally screwed. Depends on how much interference there was. When I was on the way to my wedding reception my Toyota truck snapped the timing chain and bent two valves. It wasn't even running, I just hit the starter and it spun really fast and had no compression. I ended up changing the timing set and driving it home on 2 1/2 cylinders. It was BARELY an interference engine, so the valves weren't that bent. Ended up throwing two exhaust valves in it, and doing a valve job and that was it. Didn't even need valve guides on the two that hit.

I had this problem on my car as well, luckily only on one side of the car. My plan was to leave out the little brace for the fender. My car had dirt and twigs packed into that area, and that rotted out about a 6" square patch on the fender. I figure I can make another brace myself if the fender needs it, but that brace is like a wall that holds all the crap in there and that's what rots the fender..

Sometimes the dowel comes out of the end of the camshaft and then the cam gear spins on the end of the cam until valves get bent. That's another unpleasant possibility.

That means I ain't ****, but it's also a true statement. I got sucked into the weenie cam just like everyone else... When I bought my .490/280, I heard: "You won't be able to drive it on the street", "It won't idle", "It will be impossible to drive in traffic". BS!!!

I'd buy it. I also love that body kit. I had three friends who were very much into 1st gen RX7's and they can tear up a mountain road like nothing else. I think if I had to name the car I've been airborn in the most or completely perpendicular to the road while sliding the most it would have to be an 82 RX7. They may be down on power a little but so is a Miata, and I'd buy one of those too. Not every car needs to do a 1/4 in 12 or less to be fun...