JMortensen

I was under the impression that for slicks there are a lot more available in 15's. DOT tires I'm not sure, probably about equal. I've got some Yokohama A005 slicks that I listed in the Buy/Sell/Trade forum and no one was interested. $200 for a set of 4, about 80% to 90% tread left, bagged and treated. Might be a good deal for you while you sort out your suspension. They are a little hard for autox, but you don't want to burn through a bunch of expensive soft slicks getting the car set up. I've got 8 tires that I'm selling. Search that forum for more info. A competitive FP car will have a lot more hp than what you currently have, but I suppose it all depends if you want to start out with a nationally competitive car, or work your way up. Look to spend huge $$$ to start and be competitive right out of the box. Jon

One thing not mentioned on that site. If you want to push the stub axles out, get an air hammer with the pointy tip. Stick the tip right into the divot on the inside of the axle, and lean into it. Hit the air hammer, and the vibrations drive it right out. Less chance of damaging threads too. Jon

CO2 fire extinguisher in the intake works. About 12 years ago I was working at a shop and I stuck my hand over the intake of an International Scount with a Nissan diesel in it to kill it, but my boss almost had a coronary. Apparently people have done that and had the flesh sucked off their hand... Jon

There is a 75% rule, exhaust should flow 75% of what intake flows, at least for N/A's. The reason why everyone says to be careful is that you can screw up and make the head flow worse, or very unevenly. You can cut right into the water jacket too. Then the port has to be welded. I had a friend with a SSS 510 head with the huge 1.5" ports. He hogged it out to 1 7/8". The thing runs fine...above 5000 rpm. That's actually OK for him, because it is a roadrace/autox car that spins 8K (I still think its a little much and he would be better off with a little more midrange power). But on a street car, if you make the ports too much bigger, the intake velocity drops, and you need that velocity to make power, at least that is what JohnC is always saying. Since the Z has tiny ports compared to the L4 SSS heads, I can't help but think that you can go MUCH bigger without causing too many problems, but you need to know what you're doing, where to take metal from, and where not to take metal from, and you need a flowbench to make sure that everything is even when you're done. If you just want to clean up the castings and make the port walls smooth, and port match, I don't think you can really do too much damage. I've seen pros do it though, and I don't have the time/patience/expertise to really hog out a head. You've gotta be a special kind of anal for that sort of work. Jon

A friend of mine had just painted her Z black with lacquer paint (the body shop she worked for had some laying around, and let her buy it). She had hundreds of hours in the prep. It wasn't even all rubbed out yet, she still had a quarter panel that needed to be polished. Needless to say, she's driving down the street and a tow truck is doing a U-turn in the middle of the street with its lights on. She's thinking "WTF is that guy doing???" Right about that time, she hit about a foot tall wheel chock dead center of her Z. It took out the front valance, rad support, radiator, oil pan and passenger floor pan. The unibody was tweaked, and the insurance company ended up paying her for the car and totalling it. Debris sucks! Jon

http://www.betamotorsports.com Already bookmarked. Jon

That is the G Machine setup. I don't think MSA actually makes anything (could be wrong) I think they just resell everything. The one on the bottom looks like what I have on my car, but as Mike said it is for a 300ZX, so it doesn't have the bent end like Z's and 280ZX's. EDIT - Scratch that. The one on the bottom doesn't have a turnbuckle, so to adjust it you would have to unbolt the rod end, turn it out a thread or two, then bolt it back up. Mine has a turnbuckle like a tie rod end, and like the ones Mike used to make. Jon

Yeah, I suppose a congrats is in order . I got kinda sidetracked by the fact that you can't order anything off of it yet... Jon

While we're at it what's the deal with Darius? Someone said he might be dead??? Bike accident??? Jon

Are you going to sell parts via the internet or just give a basic description of your biz? IMO you can use the Internet like a big Yellow Pages ad (what you have now), but just about any biz that sells goods will do better to actually get the site e commerce enabled. Right now you can look at it like a Yellow Pages ad, or a "store with no cash register" as a buddy of mine put it. If you had a standard product line you would do well to add the cash register. If everything you make is custom, then forget it and just use the website to get people to call you. Drop me a PM if you want to talk more about this... Jon

I had mine built by a machinist, and mine are 3/4" rod ends with aluminum turnbuckles. Used to be you could order 5/8" units from Mike Kelly. Not sure if anyone is actively selling them right now. It would be a good seller I'm sure if someone made them. Jon

The G Machine stuff wears out a lot faster than a poly bushing. I used mine for 3 years or so and probably had 30K on it and it was still fine, but you won't be able to use it for 10 years without any maintenance, like a poly bushing. The poly bushing works great on the side that takes the braking load, but it is too stiff for both sides. If you use the poly on both sides, as Afshin stated previously, the TC rod is very hard to move through its range of motion. I think that problem would be lessened by putting the rubber on the backside, because it is still flexible enough to allow the rod to move freely and the backside of the TC mount doesn't take the load under braking. Icice9 could test that theory very easily, unless he threw the rubber bushings away when he swapped. Jon

That's gotta be a future Darwin award. Right on Terry. That's definitely gonna affect your weight distribution though... Jon

You could put a rubber bushing on the rear and use the poly on the front (for us Z guys we would want poly in the front and rubber in the rear too, even though the TC rod is the other way around), and move the TC rod up and down to test how stiff it is, and let the rest of us know how that works. If you prefer you can get the G Machine setup from VB, or get a custom rod end style and have adjustable caster. Jon

Mine is a "dead head". Never heard that term before now. I believe the specified fuel pressure is 3.5 psi, I think 6 psi will pump gas past the needle and seats. I have a simple Purolator fuel pressure regulator on mine to get that pressure. I've never had a problem with vapor lock. The triples that I've seen with vapor lock problems have all been run without insulators. Bad idea. Supposedly the Nissan Comp rubber insulators are the best, but I've been running the stock Mikuni asbestos insulators, and my carbs aren't hot to the touch unless it idles for 1/2 hour on a hot day. Even when they get hot, they don't vapor lock with my setup. The SU's I had on there previously did vapor lock, and that problem went away when I completely did away with the mechanical fuel pump and the metal fuel rail even before I went to triples. The stock fuel pump and rail are the two main causes of vapor lock, IMO. A return system would definitely extend the life of your fuel pump though. Jon

Look at the 280ZX boot. I think it comes with a metal flange that you can sheet metal screw (or use nutserts and capscrews if you want it to be fancy) to the tranny tunnel. Looks very similar to what the other guys have, but a little cleaner IMO. Jon

I can't believe how few replies there are to this thread. I'll just say this because I don't have a turbo, but I've always been interested in it: It seems like porting the manifold to the turbo would do more for your turbo then just an exhaust side port job on the head. I think it was Cody ZXT who had before and after pics, they were posted on a thread that was discussing Extrude Honing a few months ago. He had taken LOTS of metal out of the manifold. Rebello will clean up the ports nicely, I'm sure. And I'm sure it is worth the money. I think you would get more from doing what Cody did. Probably a lot more, from the looks of it. Just my uninformed opinion, but maybe it will get the thread rolling... Jon

Be sure to thank BOZ. He probably saved you a lot of hassle. The sides of the nut are hammered flat against the 2 flat sections on the stub axle to lock it down. You need to carefully and completely cut the peened area away with a cutoff wheel before you try to take it off. Get a GOOD LIGHT in there. If your stubs have been out before (if someone changed the wheel bearings previously) some mechanics peen both sides, some just one. I spent a long time cutting away the nut on one side on my car, then wasted the threads when I took it off. The mechanic who was in there last had peened both sides. I even had the car on a rack, and I just didn't put enough light under there to see the peened area. Let's just say my thread file and I were good buddies that day. You can get 280ZXT nuts to replace the old ones, they don't require peening. Jon

Please tell me this is BS... please... Jon

I always thought that the spare tire well wasn't the best placement because it is higher than stock. Jon

Just one more thing. Mid 80's Civic or Integra motor bolts right up and is about twice as powerful as the stock motor. Just need to make 2 little jumper wires and you're back in biz. I understand if you don't want to fix it, I just thought I'd throw that in... Jon

Every Z I've bought or any of my friends have bought has had a gummed up heater control valve. Fix that, put new hoses in, adjust the cables, and I'll bet you dollars to donuts that it works great. I did that on mine and it burns my toes off now. I almost never have the heater control valve more than 1/4 of the way open. Just too hot. One more thing, there is a weird wire linkage system inside the heater box (plenum???) under the console. I've fixed 2 of them now. The rubber grommets break down, and when you move the lever on the console the wires just slide through the levers that close the side doors, instead of grabbing the levers inside the box and closing the side doors. This is easily fixed with a pair of extra long needle nose pliers. Tweak the wire ends a little bit tighter and things will start moving again so you can switch from floor to defrost. Bastaad, I was also thinking of removing the heater from my car, but after the SCCA runoffs 2 years ago I decided to keep it. The EP Z should have won, but his windshield fogged and he couldn't see where he was going. Plus it's like a witches boobie up here... Jon

Makes me wonder if I should "stitch glue" my subframe... In the end I think JohnC is probably right when he said that the pieces need to be made to be bonded, but it is kind of an attractive option if it would hold. Grind the spots to epoxy, get the right epoxy, mix it up, and you could do the whole car in a few hours. Jon

Yep. Looks like a big overgrown Z in person, maybe a little low on the hoodline... thanks for finding a good pic for me. Jon

I talked to one of my 510 buddies, he uses the same kit as the Z on his car. I should have remembered, but he reminded me that I gave him my old kit when I took it off some years ago. It is on his car now... Jon