JMortensen

A friend of mine had a 200SX Turbo. What a pile. Car smoked CONSTANTLY. He never got to drive it for more than a month at a time, then it was time to replace the turbo or whatever went wrong that time. I seem to remember him going thru 3 turbos in 2 years, and also had to rebuild his engine because of his Centerforce dual friction clutch. Apparently the thrust washers in that engine were pretty puny, and using that clutch took them out pretty quickly. I never paid too much attention to that car so maybe I only heard about when it was having problems, which was pretty much a constant, but it really seemed like a POS to me. Could just have been HIS car, and not indicative of the breed. How about a Sentra SE-R for cheap fun? Jon

$76.00??? Geez!!! That's a little steep... Jon

Why is tuning with an O2 sensor a bad idea? Certainly made my life easier... Jon

Do you really want oily crap going thru the AFM? That plan seems suspect. The Bernoulli principle would keep air drawing INTO the manifold I think, even with a turbo. I think the check valve is probably there to keep backfires from igniting the compressed air/fuel/oil in the crankcase. Again, I THINK. Could also be that there isn't enough flow at low rpm to suck... Jon

I got rearended in my first Z when I was 18. I was turning left to go into Burger King, and since the damn window cranks are so far forward I unlatched the shoulder belt. Just then I got rearended by a Firebird going about 45 mph, which pushed me head on into an Acura Legend. Needless to say my face didn't miss the steering wheel. My nose was broken, and afterwards I could hold the steering wheel up to it and you could see the curve of the wheel in my nose. It was pretty gross. A little rhinoplasty later and I was almost as good as new (left nostril still doesn't do much). My wife, girlfriend at the time, hit her head on the dashboard even though she had both belts on, but it was pretty minor, just a little goose egg. I think the lady that hit me was drunk. Never found out for sure. She claimed she couldn't see me, but even after the right rear of the car was punched in about a foot, the brake light bulbs were still all lit, and my left turn signal was still on. NONE of the glass broke in the car. Even the hatch glass. Pretty damn amazing. The front was mangled up to the core support, and after that it looked pretty straight. Moral of the story--Wear your seatbelts! Jon

Are you good at adjusting valves on an L series? If not, by the time you got to the last one it was probably cold enough to throw your gaps off. Also, many aftermarket cams have different specs for lash. Mine is .006 and .008 hot. I've also seen .008 and .010. Maybe do an adjustment cold to .008 and .010 if it took you a while to get through it. The Snap-On crows foot tool for L series motors is pretty handy too, if you can stomach the price... Jon

Well, maybe I'm wrong. Wouldn't be the first time. But the original carby setup doesn't have a check valve in it that I'm aware of, and the ports that come off the valve cover and the block don't have valves in them. I guess I was thinking Chevy or Ford where the PCV valve (the check valve) is stuck straight into the valve cover. I have to admit I'm not too familiar with the L series FI setup. Never owned one, so I've never had to learn it. FWIW--those Volvos have a "flame trap" which is a copper or plastic mesh and that's it. (That I'm aware of) Jon

Raising or lowering the rack WILL affect bumpsteer. It will probably make it worse, but I'm not positive. You would really have to measure it to see what change it is going to make, or see what 300ZX racers do to fix bumpsteer. If they use a spacer like the early Z's, then you'll make it worse. If they use rack spacers to raise the rack, then you'll make it worse. Jon

Would that be considered a Petty bar? The ones I've seen go from behind the driver's head to the floorboard on the passenger side. Some of them were pretty scary, coming within 6" of the drivers head, and one was a street car done by some jack@ss kid who in even the slightest accident would have brained himself on the bar. Oh, no padding either on the street car... Jon

I agree with Bill. Until I get SERIOUSLY competitive I'm keeping my heater. There are other places to lose weight. A friend of mine has no dash and Tilton pedals and homemade aluminum gauge panels in his 510, but he kept his heater and I think it was a wise decision. Every time I've gone to the track or an autox in January I was glad I had mine. Jon

Bastaad, you're thinking Chevy or something. The PCV in an L series is a hole covered with some folded up screen in the side of the block. The vent on top of the valve cover is baffled. That's it. No one way valve in either case. Connecting the PCV to the intake is a fine idea, and it won't hurt anything. The only thing it will do is add oil and crap to the air fuel mixture, but that was part of the original design anyway. At least it should definitely show you whether or not those hoses are the cause of your exhaust smell. I don't think your noxious fumes are coming from the PCV though. You might get a whif, but not enough to complain about. Another cheap easy thing to do if you think that your seals are bad is to pull the front crank pulley and pull the front seal and look at it. See if it looks burnt. They were lubed before installation, right? Anyway if the front seal looks good I'd hesitate before pulling the tranny to get to the rear one. Jon

Put them in your album, or if you don't have space, email them to me and I'll put them in my album. I think that's a pretty cool thing to have available for all of us... Jon

Well, so far everyone in Los Osos is OK. Los Osos is built on beach sand, which isn't the best idea but apparently it took the shock out of the quake, which is kinda backwards. They're all saying it was a strong rolling, where people in Paso Robles felt a sudden jolt. Haven't heard from any of my mechanic friends. I always dreaded the thought of being under a car on a lift when an earthquake hit... Jon

Sh!t. I used to live in Los Osos, which is right next to Morro Bay. Phone lines are down apparently. I hope all my friends are OK... Jon

Am I the only one that noticed that the alternator water pump combo only puts out 15 amps? Great for a racecar, not good for a street car. Just trying to save you guys several $100s. Jon

OK, I was thinking the whole tube was packed with crap. Have you been able to tell if it has stopped yet? Jon

Did you clean out the pipe when you rebuilt the engine? If so, I'd say its odd that it would be plugged so quickly. What is plugging it? Carbon, dirt, what? Jon

Some mathematician figured out a formula for the possibility of aliens visiting Earth. I learned about it in an astronomy class about 10 years ago. It was really long and had some pretty funny variables like the amount of time a life form would have to embark on their mission to Earth before their civilization destroyed itself. The point is that the likelyhood of other life is pretty damn high, but the probability of them coming over for Xmas dinner is pretty damn low. Jon

The rotor bolts to the inside of the hub. Putting a spacer in moves the rotor closer to the strut, not the hub. Jon

krazik, Is that aaa.mpeg you? Very nice driving. Very good video too, although the last two had your helmet a little too much in the shot. Awesome stuff. Jon

Well thanks, but that was Jeromio's idea. He deserves a lot of credit for this one. We'll have to call it the "Jeromio link" or something. Jon

Sorry, that was badly worded. I am talking about your idea of slotting the center of the link and having 2 overlapping pieces. If you make the turnbuckle big enough (like the 5/8" stuff I'm thinking of using) then you don't need to slot and overlap the center of the link. Just leave it out and let the turnbuckle carry whatever load is there, which again should be minimal because the outer ends are locked into the slots on the uprights. That's what your last diagram had shown, and I just took that idea and ran with it. I was still planning on slotting the uprights, but eliminating the center part of the original link. Jon

Just clean it and leave it open and see what happens. You won't be using the K&N when you route the PCV to the exhaust, right??? Good luck. Jon

The valve cover and block vent both go to the air cleaner on a carbed Z, they don't need to be "connected" to allow the air to circulate. A blocked PCV will blow seals for sure. If you think yours is blocked, fix it then see if you still have leaky seals. I don't think the block vent would be likely to clog with dirt, seeing as it always has pressure, not vacuum, and dirt isn't likely to get in there. A K&N is a good idea, though, just to be sure. Definitely take the blue shop towel off the block vent and clean the motor and see if it is still leaking. The vent at the valve cover is baffled and I don't know if it would allow pressure to escape fast enough to prevent the seals from leaking due to pressure. When I worked for Volvo, we used to see B23 motors covered in oil all the time. We replaced the PCV and the valve cover gaskets and oil cap seal, and the rest of the seals would be ok. Jon

Instead of pulling your trans to fix your rear main, pull the whole engine. Take it to a place with an engine dyno, and check it. Then you can tell us all the RIGHT number... within a couple % for deviation. Not too much trouble, right? Jon