RebekahsZ

I define legal as lights and wipers. I have lights.... Hawaii in October...pro surfer? North shore might be waking up.

Nap town-I need a set too. If the original poste doesn't buy, send me an email. I would send you a PM but the system won't let me.

The car wasn't registered before? Wow, mine was already a registered, tagged, street legal (well mostly) car. That complicates things. I guess you still have a ways to go. Dude, your drivetrain will be fine. Just keep focused. All you need to do before getting the peripherals done is make sure nothing is leaking so it won't catch on fire. Congrats!

Have been working the calendar. It looks like I'm trying to make this family camping trip happen on Oct 17 & 18. Turns out my daughter has to be somewhere Saturday night, which means i could maybe pull something off. For me, Reynolds is 6-1/2 hour drive. Jnj, where are you located? Where is Bowman dragstrip? I just emailed Alabama International Dragway in Steele, AL for a TnT schedule. I have TnT'd there and had no trouble with tech and made a bunch of passes. . How strict are these tracks? What is the likelihood of getting run off at Reynolds. Who is sti in? If everybody else bails, where wod you want to try to meet? I'm in Florence, Alabama. We might still pull this off with effort. I'm not hung up on Reynolds-the ONLY import that I give a rip about is an S30.

When you can, can you talk about your motor mount system? Show pics ( unless they are proprietary). Are the mounts bolt on or weld on? Do you have a better tranny crossmember that allows for easier exhaust routing? Sounds like we need to consider your mounts and headers as a package. Some of us who do a lot of drag racing are interested in a long tube fender dump style header, too.

And fuel leaks. Check fuel lines under car from tank to rail pretty regularly. My radiator hoses needed several tightenings. Check oil pressure sender for leaks. Check wiring around exhaust system.

Cops.

Yeah! I love the smell of DOT3 in the morning. Smells like....VICTORY!

OMG those look good. Starter clearance? Do you have to remove header to remove starter or oil filter? Many of us have already installed with the JCI kit-perhaps you can get a set test fit on a car that is so equipped. Otherwise your header market will be limited to future conversions.

I have a buddy here locally with a SBC 280z. I have a blast getting together with him. It is fun when even two zs are at the track together. I just gotta get the NHRA mods done before I make any long trips so that I don't make the trip then fail tech. Once that is done I will be much more inclined to take racing road trips.

Let me get a re-cap. So you were able to drop the column how far, just letting the floor mount flex and bend with force from pulling down on the steering wheel? Can you include a pic of your spacer set up?

Amen, Miles. Dave, it is super easy to swap out fluid once the air is out. If I have a super higher temp experience, I swap from one color fluid to another and it only takes a second to know that I'm flushed. I did have a line-lock solenoid o-ring failure recently and I'm wondering if one fluid or another made it brittle(?). I got speed bleeders last year and I can't say enough about them.

Only if you cut the floor out. It is a floor pan thing once you get behind the firewall. PM 1tuffz and ZFan1 for actual experiences.

Stop the presses!!!! We learned something important on the last group buy header project: if you mock up your prototype on a 280z, you wind up with a product that will only fit on a 280z or a late production 260z. But, that product may not fit a 240z or early 260z. The floor pans and transmission tunnels are NOT the same. The 280z and late 260z have a much more roomie transmission tunnel for header routing. In order to produce a header product that fits all S30 models, you need to make your prototypes and jig on a 240z. I bought a set of headers on the last project and they didn't fit. Had to sell them or modify them. I got rid of them after waiting a year for them to be made. Also, if you are building for a T56, you should mock up on a 240z that has an aftermarket SFI certified bell housing, or else you will be in for a rude awakening when you try to get your car inspected to legally run at the speed that it is capable of running. The steel SFI bell housings are wider than the stock bell. There are write ups on the forum on both of these subjects where guys got surprised. I want your enterprise to succeed (I want some) but you will limit your market if you proceed as stated in the original post.

Once you get good clear fluid coming out of the bleed screw, I wouldn't judge you for re-using the fluid and pouring it back in the reservoir. I think we have all been there.

Yeah, I'm pretty tormented about a roll bar design right now. I have a reliable estimate from a good local builder for $1100 for 6-pt chrome moly, but there are so many competing priorities: chassis stiffening, ease of entry, do I want to have to remove my steering wheel to get in (and make a YouTube video of the crash when it pops off!) will bracing to the rocker panel really do any chassis stiffening, etc. so many compromises to be made! Or, go all the way to a cage, and add the time and effort for all the dash work. Argh! I've looked at a lot of examples and I just don't know where I want to door bar diagonal to terminate. And, main hoop diagonal design is so different from SCCA to NHRA. I will likely do the SCCA style with an extra bar or two to comply with both main hoop specs. Decisions, decisions.

What were the symptoms of the failure?

If you don't like the JTR manual, don't even consider the JCI manual. Here is a review: 1. How to remove stock z powertrain in excruciating detail. 2. How to install front motor mounts in appropriate detail. 3. "Now install your LS drivetrain." Not direct quote. But no real instruction. 4. "Now wire your engine." Ditto. Notice that the "how to" is missing from numbers 3 and 4? That demonstrates the level of detail. These guys are fabricators, not technical writers. I still appreciate what they do, but you need your friends to help fill in a lot of blanks.

Use a plate like deja did (a bolt with just a washer might pull thru), even if you don't weld it (mine aren't welded to the floor). Once you have test fit it and have you engine and tranny in and everything is working, put a jack under under the tranny and take those plates to a welder to have the bolts spot welded to the plate so that you can tighten those the nuts from underneath without a helper on the inside. I drop the bolts down from inside so from the interior all you see is a pretty little 3"-ish by 3"-ish painted plate with 4 bolt heads. The whole thing just gives you a small bump in your carpet (or in my case-no carpet).

My friend you have a problem.

I had a car in high school that had an axle seal leak and the oil totally saturated the brake shoes. So I replaced the rears only. Somehow I got shoes for the rear that had a much higher coefficient of friction than the fronts. The rears locked first. That car was freaking scary dangerous-I was a high school punk driving a car that wanted to swap ends-this was before the drifting craze. Took me a long time to figure out the problem. Solved it by changing all four sets of shoes at the same time with same spec and problem was solved.

Acorns, or conical, as SunnyZ pointed out, lug center the wheel. Mag style nuts center the wheel based on the roundness of the holes. As my weld Draglites will attest, the holes wallow and elongate with frequent wheel changed. I think conical nuts are a better plan so long as you are not using thick slip on spacers. Higher end wheels with conical seats can have steel inserts, but in expensive wheels like the ARE do not. If you are going to be doing lots of tire changing, consider putting a scant amount of anti-seize or grease on the conical portion. Those AREs were produced in the 1990s and are discontinued. I sold a set in the classifieds and had to virtually give them away for shipping. They look nice painted or cleared. I just hated keeping them clean.

You gotta plan for that?

I don't 60' that well at every track. I think it has as much to do with track prep as it has to do with my car. Let us know how you do this weekend, Josey.

I too, have read that some 15" wheels will fit. Unfortunately, mine do not. A set of AZC brakes are in the mail to me right now to be installed in November/December. I will be willing to let folks send me any wheel for test fitting. Dave test fit a wheel that I sent him and it took him like six weeks to get to it and two months before I got my wheel back, with me calling him every week to remind him-super nice guy, though. My 15" wheels will require a 1" spacer to fit, which will push the tire out of the wheel well. So, I'm going to have to order $400 worth of new rear wheels with a 1" larger back spacing to keep the tire in the wheel well. I plan to do a write-up. Unfortunately, I haven't found anyone who has catalogued WHICH 15" wheels will fit. I will try to do that based on any wheels folks chose to send me.