JMortensen

One more thing, the SCAQMD had a "pull you over and check your emissions" plan about 10 years ago in the greater LA area. They had a roadside infra red (?) emissions tester that hung out on the 23 freeway near LA Ave for a while in Moorpark. I had a friend who worked right there and had a 510 with Mikunis on it, and he told me all about it at the time. He never got pulled over though. He said he would get up to speed and then throw it in neutral and idle past the sensor at 65 mph... Jon

Grumpy, did you ever hear about Gore's book? I never read it myself, but I understood that he outlined a plan to completely irradicate the internal combustion engine. The democrats' agenda is not all about gun control and abortion rights. As hybrid Z drivers we all have at least one reason not to vote left. Weigh that reason against all the others to determine your vote as appropriate of course... Personally I want to see how Kerry tries to spin his strong support for a failed proposal for a $.50 tax hike on gas now that gas prices are such a big issue. This was a few years back, but CA gas might be hitting $3 per gal now if that had gone thru. And who would that tax hurt? Certainly not the rich people he so badly wants to overtax (guilty conscience maybe???). Jon

It really doesn't get any easier than that when it comes to increasing compression. The shims are cheap and easy to install, and you can buy an old N47 for $50 and take the valves assuming they're in good shape. You could try the Z22 slack side chain guide as someone else suggested (DAW or Lockjaw I think) and not shim the cam towers, but then you'd have to switch out all the lash pads, which is not hard but is time consuming and ~$5 or $6 per pad IIRC and you kind of test fit until you find the right ones unless your machinist has some (not likely) so you might have to buy 4 or 5 sets, and your cam timing is also off at that point (not sure of when that will start to affect valve/piston interference). Either way gets it done, but I'd shim the towers and get longer valves. You can also just have the machine shop order 280Z valves if that's easier. Jon

I think the P79 has the same chambers as the P90. If that is the case, then this site has good info: http://geocities.com/zgarage2001/p90.html Basically you just mill .080, run the .080 longer valves from a 280Z, then shim the cam tower .080, and get 10:1 compression. Don't even need to change the lash pads! Not sure on the N47. Is that the same as the N42, but with exhaust liners? If so, I'd say find a P90 and do it right. Jon

Granted, I've probably got more suspension and tire than most track day types, but this is what happened to my PORTERFIELD R4S pads in a single day at the track. This was with SU's and a lower compression L6. Probably have 40-50 more horses now, maybe even more, but certainly not as much as the V8 guys or most of the turbo guys on this forum. http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=lastup&cat=14901&pos=0 http://hybridz.org/nuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=coppermine&file=displayimage&album=lastup&cat=0&pos=0 Not sure why I can't get these to post right, but the link works anyway. I've run R4 pads on the street, and I don't think its a good idea. They work ok if you keep them warm, but I had a long commute where I wouldn't touch the brakes for 20-25 minutes, and they'd need to heat up before they would work when I got back into town. I just left a lot of breathing room and was extra careful. I have nothing against the R4S pads, in fact I think they would work great on a JSK setup like Afshin is doing, but for the stock setup they can't take the heat that I was able to generate. Note that there is NO pad material left. I got them so hot I'm pretty sure I delaminated the pad material. The rest of the brake system at the time was 280ZX rear disc, ZX master, adjustable prop valve, ATE SuperBlue fluid. This happened at Buttonwillow going clockwise at the end of the bus stop at 95-100 mph (this was the first time that I was able to get on the gas off the hill and keep my foot in it all the way to the end of the bus stop--what a rush! ) . Luckily there is nothing to hit right there. No damage to me, my passenger or the car, just a lot of dust inside, and the Mustang got away. Went to the local parts store, bought some semi-metallics and drove home. Jon

FedEx ground USED to be the way to get around this charge, but they just instated a similarly huge surcharge as well. I agree that they should have told you. Also, shipping is cheaper if you go direct to UPS vs the UPS store. Jon

JSK doesn't make one. The only wilwood setup I've seen for the rear is at http://www.arizonazcar.com. Jon

The combination of pad compound, ducting and adjustment needed to make the stock brakes function at an OK level as a race car is not convenient or usable on a weekend warrior IMO. Pure street car, maybe, but not for anything that's driven hard on a track or even on a long canyon road. I've never heard an ITS or any other road racer sing the praises of the stock brakes. They were good for 1970, but time moves on. Jon

The 280ZX has a smaller diameter rotor, so the pad will hang off the edge of the rotor. The usual setup is early 300ZX rotor with a 1/2" spacer to get the caliper to fit over the rotor correctly. Jon

So far I think I've found the best prices at Behrents. Apparently AFCO has some good deals too, according to Afshin. Looks like Behrents' webpage is down right now. http://www.behrents.com I figured out the difference in the calipers too. The Superlite is physically larger and heavier, and uses a larger pad than the NDL. I had to special order the NDL, NOBODY stocks them except these guys: http://www.precisionbrakescompany.com/ and they were $30 higher than the competition. I called so many people that I can't remember who I actually ordered from, but if you want I'll let you know when I get them. Jon

What size wheels? You can run the JSK kit inside MOST 15" wheels. Modern-Motorsports makes a 13" brake kit which is gigantic and will clear MOST 16" wheels IIRC. 13" is damn huge, but some of the hardcore roadracers say unnecessary, John Coffey in particular. You would NEVER fade them though. I chose the JSK kit based on my 15" wheels and price of the kit overall. JSK's is not complete, just rotor hats, bolts and caliper mounting bracket, you can buy your rotors, calipers and pads to suit your needs. There are a couple of us just doing this now, so we can help if you decide to go the JSK route. Looks like my JSK front kit is going to end up at about $550, but that is not including ss lines, master cyl, and adj prop valve which I already have. Only the front end too, but I think its a pretty killer deal. I scored on ebay on the kit too. Would have been $675 or so otherwise. Still an excellent deal at that price. http://www.jskinnovations.com The page for the normal 4 lug 70-78 stuff isn't working right now for some reason, but this one for the 5 lug setup does work. The kit is basically the same except the hat is made for the 5 lug on this one and the one I bought has a shallower (is that a word?) hat for the 4 lug. http://www.jskinnovations.com/Wilwood3.htm Jon

Looks really good Richard. It's easy to see that you put a lot of thought into how/where it bolted up. Please let us know if you can feel a difference. Jon

I could use one too. If you find one, I'll be next.

EDIT-opie, you are confusing two entirely different things. American cars have "carrier breaks" where you use one carrier for 2.73-3.54 gears, and a different carrier for 3.73 - 4.11, as an example. A ring gear spacer sits between the ring gear and the carrier so that you can use a 4.11 gear on a 2.73 carrier, for instance. Nissans just have thicker and thicker ring gears the lower the gear ratio, and AFAIK there is never a need to change the carrier when changing gear ratios. IMO ring gear spacers (not bolt spacers, but ring gear spacers) are a bad idea. The carrier has a pilot where the ring gear fits on very tightly, and when you use a ring gear spacer the ring gear is no longer press fit on the carrier, and you have to use longer bolts to attach it. So basically the ring gear is now supported only by the bolts, which are longer and weaker than the originals, and you've now put in a lower gear ratio, which means more torque going to them. Not good. This is a ring gear BOLT spacer we're talking about. The earlier R200's had 10mm ring gear bolts, the later ones had 12mm bolts. The bolts go thru the carrier and screw into the ring gear. So if you have a later LSD from a 300 ZX and you want to swap it into an earlier housing (for a different gear ratio) you have 12mm holes in the carrier but 10mm threads in the ring gear. So you need a spacer to take up the space in the holes in the carrier. No machining needed. Just get 12mm tubing with 1mm wall thickness, and cut it to the thickness of the carrier, deburr/chamfer, and drop them in. The bolt heads on the 10mm bolts are 14mm so they should easily cover the ring gear spacers. Jon

Whoever does this first is going to have to buy a stick of tube I'm betting. It would be great if that person would cut up a bunch of these and sell 'em cheap to hybridz guys. Maybe throw an ad in the classified section... I know I've talked to 10 or so people who had a passing interest. Good way to recoup the price of the tube (which shouldn't be terribly expensive anyway). If I do it first I promise to do the above, but I've got other projects going right now. Jon

http://www.swagelok.com/downloads/webcatalogs/MS-01-157-SCS.pdf Part no SS-T10M-S-1,0-6ME http://www.eagletube.com/metric.asp http://mdmetric.com/4300/R-Metric%20Tube.pdf Part no R12x1 That's with about 5 minutes worth of checking... Jon

Yes, it should be possible, but why? Most people do away with the vacuum, but even hardcore racer types leave the mechanical intact. I JB welded the vacuum advance plate to the breaker plate on my ZX dizzy. I would think just take the weights off of the shaft and JB weld or safety wire them so that they cannot open would get the mechanical disabled. Jon

I keep thinking somewhere out there somebody is making a 12mm OD tube with 10mm ID. I don't think the material is terribly important, neither is a press fit. You don't have to press the normal ring gear bolts through the carrier, after all. If someone could locate that, you could just cut them to length, clean up any burrs, and drop them in. Jon

The N36 rumor is that the 260Z intake manifold is worth 10hp vs the 240 manifold when running SU's. Supposedly Rebello uses only the N36 for their ITS buildups. Always struck me as BS, but who knows... Jon

I've got a friend who has a funky Nismo LSD that is a gear drive unit, not clutch or VLSD. He says that the side gears have a different spline count than the clutch units. Maybe the same as the VLSD, don't know. I'd find out the spline count of a clutch unit and check and see if it matches the one you're buying. Jon

Well after talking to Wilwood and about 30 suppliers, I ended up with NDLs, which ARE stiffer than billet NDL's. $115 each. I did not see any narrow mount Forged Superlites, I was looking too. Oh well, I'm sure they will still be fine. Wish I had seen your post though Afshin. Brake line question: I already have ss lines in front for the stock setup, and I used the S shaped hard line again on my Toy calipers. Is there any reason why I shouldn't just cut one end off the S shaped line and put a 1/8-27 NPT fitting on there and save some $$$ on new ss lines? Thanks guys. Jon

In mail order businesses it is common practice to charge you right away when a product is being drop shipped. This is because the merchant (MSA) is really a middle man between the customer and the supplier. I do this all the time in my business. It's not always convenient for the customer, but it is not crooked. FTC says a mail order business has 30 days to ship after charging your card, or else they need to get authorization from the customer again for the additional delay in writing. ALWAYS go to the merchant and ask for a refund before taking it up with the credit card. An honest merchant will give you your money back if you want it, or will give you an update on the expected shipping time and let you decide whether to stick it out or not. Charging back via the credit card should be a LAST resort. Jon

So I just realized you have this caliper in your pics: http://www.behrents.com/Merchant2/4.19/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=BPW&Product_Code=WIL120-3xxx Anyone have any feedback on UL vs NDL vs BNDL??? I still figure I'll be saving better than 5 lbs per side vs the Toy calipers I've got now. Not too worried about weight, I just want what will brake the best and most consistently. Jon

Thanks Juan. That company has the BNDL, but I've only been able to find the one source for the 125-6500 caliper, which is http://www.precisionbrakescompany.com. This is the caliper you show in your pictures, and I think I've convinced myself that it is the caliper I should buy. Anyone else know of a source for these? Where did you get yours Juan? Come ebay or high water, I'm buying your damn brake kit this week (FINALLY!!!) Jon

It appears to me that there are two calipers that fit the JSK Wilwood setup: the Narrow Mount Dynalite, and the Billet Narrow Mount Dynalite. The regular version looks to be stiffer. The billet is .2 lbs lighter. Anyone have any opinion as to which to choose and where to buy? I was reading through some old posts and found Behrents which doesn't advertise the Billet ones and http://www.precisionbrakescompany.com which has both, but the regular is CHEAPER. Thanks, Jon