JMortensen

That is BAD news. Those guys were great to deal with and SUPER helpful over the phone. We lost a good one there.

z-ya, I'm not real positive on this so forgive me if I talk out of the wrong end here, but I think the Maxima N47 is a whole different animal than the ZX N47. Combustion chamber is smaller, like a peanut chamber 510 head IIRC.

Doesn't the Maxima N47 have the smaller intake valve, due to cylinder bore on the L24? Seems like the Max N47 would be really good with a bigger intake valve installed like people do with the E31 and E88. If you don't want to go to the trouble, then I'd go with the N42. DOH--looks like Mack already mentioned that and I wasn't paying attention. Jon

All very very very good points. We all need to weigh the pros and cons and come up with our own solutions.

Well everything is out of there now, and I was looking at the bottom of the car yesterday and thinking how much easier this would be if I went with a fuel cell, because the spare tire bump is right in the way making it really hard to prep some of the areas. Just kinda thinking out loud...

Phantom isn't running ITS. Why should he limit his brakes to ITS standards? ITS guys sometimes have 2 3" ducts running to the front. That kind of stuff gets knocked off very easily on the street. Hawk Blues don't stop for crap on the street. R4 pads are iffy. Blacks sound like they would be OK from your previous descriptions. For a guy who wants to drive to the track, run all day, then drive home, stock brakes are NOT sufficient IMO. Especially (here comes the part that John hates) for guys with big hp. If they can get out of a corner halfway decently, they'll have a lot more speed at the end of the straight than an ITS Z. Then they have to slow down for the next corner. I think that's where they lose out to the ITS Z. The ITS guy may be faster, but he isn't punishing the brakes like the hybridz guy is. The hybridz guys brakes go south in a matter of laps, and the ITS guy can continue to push hard (due to race compound pads, huge ducts, etc). I can think of no better way to prove this theory than drag racing, but I've never heard of an ITS car running the 1/4. Still, in the quarter some of these hybrid guys are going 115, 120 mph. How fast do you honestly think that ITS guy is going to go thru the traps? 95, 100 mph maybe on a good day with a tail wind? And how much more heat has to be dissapated when the brakes are used from 120 vs 100 mph? I'm not an engineer, but I know its a butt load more from 120. Braking correctly is the key, for sure. I don't claim to know how to do it as good as a professional racer, but I have had pros in the car with me, and braking wasn't mentioned as a problem area for me, yet I, like Phantom burned up my brakes in 5 laps the last time I went out. I don't think I'll have that problem with the new ones. Ross C is always saying how you can run street pads at the track session after session with his brakes. That's because they can dissipate the heat, and don't need pads that chew thru rotors in order to function on the 6th lap at 1000*. That's what I'm after. That's what I think all these guys should be after. Brakes that you don't have to worry about every 20 minutes. I too, will get off the soapbox now. Jon

Unfortunately I can imagine it. Good thing mine is getting fixed up with some JSK stuff!!! Sounds like you had fun though. That's what its all about anyway

That should do it. Pretty good prices too.

I'd sure as hell give it a try before I took the whole thing out. One thing you can do is to take the spring off and then put the hat back on and bolt it back up into the chassis. Now the gland nut is easily accessible and the suspension is held nicely so you can attack it from a fairly comfortable position, and you have the benefit of not having to worry about scratching the strut shaft (DON'T SCRATCH OR NICK THE STRUTS WHEN YOU'RE TIGHTENING THEM UP ON THE NEW STRUTS!!!). I just went out and bought a 16" pair channel locks to get one of mine off, and it worked great. Much more leverage than my smaller 10" channel locks.

Your clutch slave cylinder is leaking (1st pic you posted). You might not be able to find the manually adjustable slave like you have. Later ones were self adjusting. If that is the case, then just use the pin with the threaded end from the one you have now in the new slave. The internals are the same. To use the self adjusting slave pin you need to change the throwout fork, which requires pulling the transmission. I like the ability to adjust the clutch manually anyway. I'd still say change them both. If you don't and crud goes down the line into the new slave, then you'll have the same problem not too far in the future.

I've bought parts from him on several occasions, and never had any problems whatsoever getting them. He was a real jerk to me once when I was looking for a braking system, I don't like his header at all (same as MSA), and every machinist who has seen my flywheel from him has said "Wow, that's thin. Do you have a scattershield?" But as I said, never had any problems actually getting stuff from him. I like the pan, but it is heavy. If I had to choose between his pan at $545 or the Nissan Comp at $700, I'd save my pennies. At $345, it's a no brainer.

I think Arizona Z Car actually makes that pan. I used to think Malvern made it, but someone set me straight recently. http://www.arizonazcar.com still shows it listed for $349. Just make sure they send the hardware with it, for some reason I didn't get any when I ordered mine about 5 years ago.

It is usually recommended that you replace both the master and slave. Might want to flush the hard line too, and check the soft line for cracks while you're in there.

I think the special tool is a slide hammer, because the thrust and rear mains have a threaded hole in them. Might be some type of puller, but I used a slide hammer attached to a bolt screwed into the mains with the engine on a stand. The different size bearings are probably for cranks that have been turned. They would be undersize, probably .010, .020, and .030. The regular size bearings are called "standard". I would imagine your engine would use standard bearings, unless it has been rebuilt before and had the crank turned (not usually necessary on an L series). What the others are saying is true. Jon

Is that going to be deep enough to pull air from inside the fenderwell, or is it even intended to? Looks really cool , but I'm guessing you got your inspiration from the Indonesian guy with the dubs and his seemed deeper, plus he's got a lip in front to help create a little vacuum there. My wife read this and thought it was insulting (she is a little sensitive though), I hope you don't take it that way...

I was just looking at that article. You really don't need to take everything out. You can disconnect the brake lines, take the 3 nuts off inside the car, disconnect the sway bar if you have one, and then just pull the suspension down so that it leans out from under the car. That would save you a bunch of time. You can use your spring compressor right there with the strut hanging out of the side of the car. Not sure if you would need to disconnect the halfshafts or not. Probably not.

As far as the SAE stuff, I've got 3/4" TC rods, 5/8" rod ends in my camber plates, and most everything I buy aftermarket is SAE it seems, so that's never been a turn off for me, but I think gramercyjam has a point about possibly sticking the wrong bolt in the wrong hole, so I think I'll do just what I said and paint that hole and bolt day glo orange. Interesting about the welding. A couple of my buddies took a welding class and they always use a pull motion. I guess I'll try both and see what works best. Thanks again.

Well I think I'm going to use Rolocs then my wire wheel on the angle die grinder. I'll then follow up with some industrial Rustoleum, and see how it goes. Gotta get the tires outta the garage and pull the gas tank and diff. Looks like its going to rain for the next week and a half, but at least this will give me something to do... One last question on welding upside down. I hear the best thing to do is to use a push motion instead of a pull motion. Any other tips before I dive in. All previous suggestions were appreciated!

I just got my Millermatic 135 off ebay with Hobart helmet and a pair of gloves for $607 and free shipping. Here's the company's items for sale right now: http://cgi6.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewSellersOtherItems&userid=weldfabulous&completed=0&sort=3&since=-1 Add $230 for an extra spool of wire, CO2/argon tank, a nice wire brush and a better regulator, and I tell you, this thing welds AWESOME. Much better than the cheapo welders I had used before that didn't have the infinite wire speed and voltage controls. I'm REALLY happy that I paid the $$$ to get a better quality welder, and the price really wasn't as high as I had thought it would be. I'm a very inexperienced welder, limited to what I learned in high school auto shop 12 years ago and a few lessons from friends while fabricating this or that coupled with a couple minor projects (weld this bracket, weld this exhaust pipe, etc), but I can weld like a pro with this thing!!!

I've got a bunch of Roloc pads, but I was worried the plastic scotch brite pad material would get in the seams as was previously mentioned about the plastic wire cup brush I have. I suppose if I clean it well it may not matter too much.

I hope they train them on how to drive the thing. I can see cops smashing into guardrails and buildings at 150 mph already.

If you view seller's other auctions he's got a couple nice 1st gens there too.

I love Toyotas, and I've owned one for the last 11 years, but I gotta say majik sounds a little sycophantic here. I guess your friend missed out on the 3L head gasket fiasco, and has never seen a 22RE break a timing chain and bend valves (mine did that at 45K on the Toyota timing chain), witnessed a 22re chain break the plastic guides several thousand miles after installation and watched the chain eat thru the timing cover, seen broken Birfields on the 4x4's, or had problems with the tiny little turbo on the 22RE trucks getting burnt up. Another small thing, I know, but I've replaced the fan resistor in my truck 4 times now. These are all Toyota truck specific problems, because neither I nor my friend's own any Toyota cars. I'm sure there would be a similar list of car problems if we did. Toyotas are great, but no manufacturer is perfect. I think most of the problems I just mentioned would be on vehicles that are too old to bother having serviced at the dealer anymore and some wouldn't be covered under warranty, but they're out there believe me. Side note-- just to poke fun at the Supra ricers in my old hometown (there were LOTS of them) I got the following license plate frame "TRD--What's that spell???" and stuck it on my Z.

I should also mention that I just sectioned some struts and it wasn't hard to do with the proper tools. Jon

I think you can live with 2" lowering without sectioning the struts. I know plenty of people who have run Susp Tech lowering springs without sectioning. Yes, you will bottom more frequently. If you want to go any lower, then you'd definitely want to section the tubes. The Tokico Illumina part number for the front is BZ3099, you can use that to cross reference the correct KYB part. I believe it is from an 87 MR2 rear. The front struts will go in the back, the MR2 struts will install in the front. You can also trim the bumpstops to get a little more travel too.