JMortensen

Most classes are going to limit your engine choices, so you may want to consider that. Figure out what class you want to run in first. As to Johns assertion that L24's hold most class records, that's usually because a 240 with an L28 wouldn't be legal. Jon

Looks really good! That dashboard looks sharp though. Both types of sharp. Sharp pretty, and sharp "I just cut my thigh on the dashboard!" Jon

That totally reminds me of the Penn and Teller show "Bullsh!t" (sorry Nic - that's the name of the show). But that is WAY dumber than the episode where they were getting petition signers at the Earth day rally to sign something supporting a ban on dyhydrogen monoxide. The paralegal had time to look it over. I do like the "deadly if inhaled" bit. Clever. Maybe not quite as dumb as the other "Bullsh!t" bit which almost made my wife puke. They had a "mucus mask" treatment that they were getting people to subject themselves to in a shopping mall. People who wanted to try it had about 10 snails put on their faces for a couple minutes. Nothing like 10 snails creating a big foamy snail trail mess on your face and then showing that footage to millions of people. That show was the only good thing about Showtime... Jon

When tires are balanced on the inside only it is called a static balance. I am not an engineer, but from what I've been told static balance only works when the tire is rolling straight. As soon as you turn static balance goes out the window. I can tell you that balancing with weights on both sides (dynamic balance) is really the right way to do it. Static balance is a joke IMO. It is also possible that they were balanced dynamically, but one side did not need weights on the outside of the rim to be balanced. Jon

Were the wheels balanced with weights on the outside of the rim, or only on the inside? If inside only, have them do it again with weights on both sides. Jon

I say get the kid a STOCK 87 Volvo 240. You can't kill them, and he would have a tough time killing himself in one. It sounds like the kid needs to mature a little bit before you build something else for him. Jon

I assume that when you say you took it apart that means that you tore it all the way down. You can't really feel bad bushings with everything still together. Here are some teardown instructions for a ZX dizzy. I think all the L series distributors are similar inside, so it might help. http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html If the bushings are good then I would guess that it is the gears causing the slop and swapping out dizzys should do nothing to help, but will let you know for sure what the problem is. Good luck, Jon

Super Mario Bros??? Jon

No. The ring gear bolts in the earlier diffs are 10mm. The ring gear bolts from the LSD diffs are 12mm. So you would need a sleeve to sit in the carrier to use the LSD with an earlier diff, or a shouldered ring gear bolt. Ross has said that he would make the spacers, but he needs a group to go in on it, or it wouldn't be worth it to him. The halfshafts do work. Jon

I wish we had this: http://www.popsci.com/popsci/auto/article/0,12543,358540,00.html I kinda like doing the driving all by myself, but that still seems pretty cool. Jon

Since you said it has a flanged output shaft it must also have a 2 piece driveshaft with a slip yoke in the middle. If that is the case then it has Porsche steel synchros and the same 5 speed bearings as the regular transmissions IIRC. Take it to a Porsche shop. They can rebuild it and get the synchros. They can either order bearings by number, or get a bearing kit from somewhere. Jon

Not trying to beat a dead horse, but you are describing a roll bar here, not a cage. I agree with almost everything you said though, particularly this: My main point is that if you don't wear a helmet you don't want metal next to your head - padded or not. I had an Autopower roll bar in my Z, and my old boss scolded me for not having padding on it in the middle between the seats. I asked "Why would I need padding there" and he got even more emphatic that your head will whip all over the place in the event of a serious accident. He's been roadracing for 30 something years, so I think he has some pretty good insight on what's going to happen if you crash. Since you are 5'7", if you wear a 4 point harness your likelihood of hitting your head on a good cage (which by the sound of it you have) is pretty minimal I would guess. I don't think that likelihood should be underestimated for people 6' and taller though. Especially with some of these cages I've seen where the bar above the door isn't even as high as the door frame itself. I don't have definitive proof, but I'm SURE that the reason that rooflines in cars keep getting higher and higher is to prevent head injury. I just don't want someone to spill gray matter in a botched attempt to make themselves "safer". Now I'm probably the preachy one... Jon

http://hybridz.org/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=31910 Look about 3/4 way down. Modifying just the vacuum advance is probably not what you're looking for. What you want is to "recurve" the distributor. You've got the right year distributor so that disabling the vacuum and running a lot of timing at idle should give pretty good results. Jon

I've always heard brown is good, black is best, white sucks. That's pure HEARSAY, so I really don't know, which is part of what ticked me off about the L6 valve stem seals. If you change the seals make sure you get the plastic little straw-looking tool (slides over the end of the valve) which allows you to slide the seals right over the retainer area so they don't tear when you put them on. It's hard to tell if either of the seals would function better, but its a fairly safe bet IMO, I've never had good luck with the stockers... Jon

That's a perfect example. I did a snap spin at an autox once. Turned into a full 360. When the car stopped spinning it grabbed really hard and I smacked my head (inside a helmet) so hard on the door frame that I saw stars. The last thing I would want on the street is another 3" (2" + padding) of room taken away so that I would be even more likely to hit something with my head, especially since I don't drive around town with a helmet on . Might make a good case for adding padding to the stock vehicle, but IMO this doesn't prove your point for putting a bar in that already limited space, padded or not. The SW bars I've seen have the bar over the door WAY too low as bluevx1 mentioned, I'm not sure about any of the others. I've seen "custom" cages with Petty bars 4" from the driver's head with no padding, and halo bars that were pretty close too. The worst was a friend's rock buggy that he built. Awesome machine, but sitting in the driver's seat you had about 2" between your head and the cage which directly above the driver was just a small rectangular hole. Not even a chance of putting a helmet on and getting in the thing unless you were 5'7" or less, I'm betting. If that thing were rolling it with me in it my head would be bouncing off of all 4 sides of that rectangle, no doubt. rc240z's cage is about the best I've seen. The bar over the door is very high and tight against the roof. http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=6553&password=&sort=7&thecat=500 I wish I saw more that were like his, but most of the others that I've seen don't seem to take this stuff into consideration. I am going to put a cage in my Z, but I almost never drive it on the street anymore. Pretty soon it will be on the street only to bed in brake pads and stuff like that. Jon

Thanks to both of you guys for taking the time to take pics and all that. I think I underestimated the Nissan seals before I saw them, but the price on the Ford seals looks like a winner. Jon

Don't bother. Jon

I would try to get 18-20 degrees advance at idle and 34-36 degrees full advance, should be all in at 2500 rpm or so. You can cross reference your distributor and how many degrees advance it will have on the following site: http://home.att.net/~jason510/dizzy_specs.htm You can also modify the amount of advance and when it all comes in by changing the springs in the distributor to lighter or heavier springs, and by narrowing the slots so the mech advance doesn't travel so far. This mainly relates to the 240 dizzy. The ZX has a pretty good range already and lighter springs according to the chart. Here's another dizzy reference: http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html Personally I disconnected the vacuum advance and JBWelded the mechanism on my ZX dizzy. They never work anyway (diaphragms always tear), and the last thing you want is the vacuum coming back up at the end of a straightaway and advancing the crap outta your ignition. If you are driving on the street, you'll get slightly better gas mileage/driveability with the vacuum advance, but IMO it is not worth it. If the jet blocks (long tubes with the jets in both ends) are OA, you'll probably never get rid of the midrange stumble. I just ran across something recently that said the 8 jet blocks don't have the big gap from the pilots to the mains, so they are better for street use. I think this was due to a change in the size of the aeration (sp?) holes in the blocks. Probably better for autox too, I'm going to try and track some down for my carbs. Jon

I sold my Autopower bar to Auxilary. I added a bar for the harness and tried to get it as close to level with the seat back as possible. Worked really well. I don't know what that thin piece is for, but you can flex it by hand once the bar is mounted. I wasn't going to trust that thing to hold my belts. If you email me I'll send you some pics, or you can PM Aux, I'm sure he has some too. Jon

If you can find a rebuild kit then you can pull it apart clean up any burrs, replace the seals and reassemble. The easiest way I've found to remove a stuck piston is take the caliper off, hold the piston that moves with a c clamp, then put compressed air to the nipple on the caliper. Use a regular old air spray tip with a rubber end and just hold it against the nipple and let er rip. When the piston comes out it will splatter brake fluid, so don't do this right next to your car (and make sure you don't have a finger in there when it goes). Make sure the piston and the caliper don't have any burrs in it before you reassemble. A stuck piston will probably make it pull to one side under braking and will wear the pads unevenly and is just not safe, so you should really fix it ASAP. Jon

It almost looks like you could take the rear shifter extender thingy off (looks like it bolts on???) and have the shifter in pretty close to the right place. Other than that it looks heavy. Is that just the picture adding 40 lbs? Have you weighed it? Jon

Nice pic Aux! If you look at the pic you can see one distinguishing feature that I'm 99% sure the VLSD won't have. The cross pin hole in the carrier with the V shaped hole. You can see it really clearly in Aux's pic. There would be no reason for the V shaped hole in a VLSD. Jon

IIRC, there was a different spline count on the VLSD. If you could dig around and find that, you could just count the splines and know for sure. Sorry I can't help more. Jon

Don't really know what's needed. Maybe CV adapters would do it. I'm just not sure. You can make a case for or against the VLSD system, but I personally like the clutch style. VLSD has to have build oil pressure in the carrier from spinning a tire before it reacts. Clutch type works all the time. The case for the VLSD would be that the clutch type works all the time, so it makes turn in not quite as good because it wants both rear tires to go the same speed, and you have to overcome that resistance before they start to differentiate. Jon

Fords are notorious for the modules heating up and not working on the V8's and V6's I think, not sure about the 4 cyl. You let the car sit for 1/2 hour, then it runs fine. Drive around a little, and it dies again. That sounds like datsunlover's boss's problem. Jon