RebekahsZ

Went to local Z boneyard. Got suckered into bringing home a couple of nice looking steel rims that measured 15" across the rim and looked just like 240z stock wheels with a hopeful looking backspacing. They had no tires to confirm diameter. Crap, they were exactly that-stock 14" Z wheels. Wound up dragging home a single 15" wheel and tire from a 93 240sx. Haven't test fit them but they have 5-1/4" backspacing. That would work with a 1/2"-3/4" spacer...but will need widening for the back and narrowing for the front. Plan to add pics tomorrow and contact stocktonwheels this week to see if they can help.

I looked back thru your thread and saw your cracked dash. When you get to that point, just cap that thing. I see lots of guys "fixing" cracked dashes. I'm sure they will crack again. My cap took a couple hours to install 20 years ago and I get compliments on my new dash all the time.

The issue in trying to fit 15" wheels over AZC brakes is that for strength, the inner diameter of steel rims necks down-this part of the wheel is called the valley. In the case of 15" MRW wheels, the valley is only 12" in diameter. MRW wheels look like they are made from a basic stamped center welded to a rolled and welded rim, or barrel. There are several wheel makers selling wheels made from these mass produced kits: Aero, Diamond, Bassett. I can't be positive that they get their components from the same place but it sure looks like it. I am not real happy with the stamping of the center where the wheel bolts to the hub. These centers look just like the center of the wheels that a fellow forum member was running who recently experienced a hub failure. The centers are stamped and they certainly are not flat where they contact the hub. I think the fronts would work if I overlook these issues. I found that everything on the 4.5" wide wheels cleared the brakes with a 1-3/16" back spacing. Because of the un-flat centers, I would plan to run a 1/2" spacer and increase the back spacing to the max these valleys could handle at 1-11/16". The rears were another matter altogether. The valley placement on the 8" wide barrels only allows for a 3-1/2" back spacing. I need 4-1/2". So what to do? Does anybody know of a wheel shop that can narrow steel wheels and weld them together? Perhaps I could get a wider barrel that has more back spacing to the valley. Then maybe I could have some valley width removed to wind up with an 8" wheel....

Way to go!!! It's a big day!

I hope some of you guys make it out to Z Nationals to see the Z and its LS-powered tow vehicle in October.

I gotta admit, it is a lot easier to pay somebody to do a swap than to do it myself. The engine and tranny are back in the truck with clutch shimmed and bled, shifter re-installed. The shop ran into clearance trouble with cast exhaust manifolds and just ordered some long-tube headers for the truck-darn?!? Once the headers are in, they start with the more tedious minutiae. Turns out the locker is in the shop but not inside the diff yet. Turns out the truck had 3.08s in the diff, so they are swapping in 3.42s, Im gonna love that-highway towing in 5th has been almost impossible unless I'm passing rice fields and the NV3500 is super noisy in 4th gear-much more quiet in 5th. On the road to Atlanta Motorsports Park, i actually have had to climb some hills in 2nd gear, so i should be able to stay in 3rd now. Wife is getting tired of driving me around-she's actually pushing me into the garage this weekend to get me to put the seats back in the Z. I'm figuring another month on the truck. I think it's gonna hurt when I write that check, but worth every penny. Time to get off my arse and into the shop.

Once I got used to driving on squishy rubber bags of air, I found best traction at 11psi. At 10psi, it just wandered too much for my courage. I have started a night at 15 psi and after a couple of runs and burnouts, the pressure was up to 23. I let air out all night and in the morning my car is almost on the rims if I don't refill when I get home. I'm not brave enough to fire up the compressor on my wife at 1am! Wish we were next door neighbors, what a ball we would have! Where do I lurk to find some photos of your car?

"Somebody" willing to sacrifice a pile of money needs to design a crossmber for short nose diff installation into the Z. It would weld into the unibody and distribute forces into the body correctly. Until that happens, I think we will continue to see these kinds of problems. If you look hard at the tiny tabs that the RT bolts to, you will not bolt it in with total confidence, even with a long nose diff. I'm figuring the Nissan engineers saw these problems, so they put a little motor in the car and cobbled together that crazy busquit and strap contraption that the Z left the factory with. So long as you had 150 hp at the flywheel, at put it to the ground with 5-1/2" tires, life was good. Well, we kinda screwed that up!

When I ran 8.5 and 9" slicks, I ran 15x7s.

8s are fine for even 10.5" slicks. Burnout wear pattern shows full use of tread width. If i check the tread right after a run, the tires do sling taller and they dont wear on the inner and outer inch of the tire at the fast end of the track. But they are supposed to work that way. I've only been dragging for about 3 years. I want to avoid talking about things you already know...been racing long? How much air were you running? Any idea how much hp/tq you are laying down? You obviously have more power that I do.

Drive it like a girl. That's probably what the first owner did. There have been several similar posts by short-nose diff owners using that style of front mount. It's a bad design. But....I haven't seen anything better. Yet.

Realize that his tires hang out the side more than an inch, so you have to have a lot of vertical clearance between the tire and the fender arch. It is a vertical/squat issue, so rolling the fender doesnt help. And he doesn't have a trans brake either, but he almost hauls his front wheels off the ground. With stock spring rates, his suspension is working pretty hard. With an auto trans, his nose is high and the rear suspension stays loaded on the back, whereas with my manual trans there is a porpoising motion (weight transfer) with each shift. That's why I went with taller gears, to eliminate the very early 1-2 shift. I bet with more power, he would have more rubbing trouble. What wheel are you running now? My buddy runs a 4.5" back spacing 15x8 Weld Draglite wheel with a Mickey Thompson ET Drag 26x10 bias ply slick. That wheel is very common and can usually be picked up used. The aluminum is very soft and all the used ones are warped, but with 10-15 psi, I doubt it matters. The section width is about 12" and the tread is a true 10". I tried them on my lowered Z-no way!

That's damn good! Awesome times. If you are un-flared, I'm guessing you are on 8.5s? My buddy has an unflared 280z with a SBC and a T350. Its a 7.35 car. He runs 26x10s at stock ride height and stock springs. His first year he had no rubbing but as the suspension wore in, he started rubbing this year. He put some coil spring spreaders on. Very ghetto, but he stopped rubbing on launch. I went to 28x10.5 this year and had to cut and flare like a mad man. I have one track where I hooked great on 26x8,5 lots of VHT and new concrete in staging area and thru 60'. But everywhere else I was spinning with the 26x8.5. Went to sticky track with the big meats and dead hooked 3 times, third time broke driver side Z31T axle inside the diff. I bought some narrower 28x9s but haven't been back to track in a couple months. This summer has been terrible for free time. I guess in San Diego it's always summer! I'm wondering whether I should keep the 10.5s handy for nights at the sloppy tracks(?). Traction vs no traction is the difference between 7.0s and 7.30s for me. I'm dropping clutch on a T56 with a 3.54 gear and going thru the lights in 3rd gear. What were your rpms like at the finish in 3rd gear with 4.60s and a 26" tire? Your 3rd is 1:1(?) my third is something less than 1:1 I would assume.

Consider having your tank cut open (a big hole) to clean it out. I NEVER could get all those flakes of resin out of mine and it was a pita and stranded me regularly. Not only did the filter get plugged, but the line was usually plugged too. I pulled tank on four separate occasions for cleaning by a radiator shop with a variety of chemicals but the vertical wall in the tank made it impossible to w rinse all the crap out. Cutting a huge hole in it let me get it clean after I had access to both sides of the vertical wall.

Post up results-I'm excited for you!

Looking great! I have the clutch safety start switch on my truck. I HATE it! I think idiot switches like that are for idiots-don't do it!

Sweet!

I wonder if one would have enough threads on the steering rack after pushing the wheel out? I'm kinda borderline on thread engagement already.

Buy longer bolts

So no timeslips yet? No new ones for me either-this summer has been busy as hello!

NitroPlate.com in Nashville. $218. I went with their shiny silver finish. Ceracoat is supposed to be the best for heat retention, but their coating looks like white coral and I figured it would get dirt and grime trapped in the porous looking finish. I coat headers for looks primarily. You are one of the first guys Ive talked to who realize that crossovers are really just sound devices to get both pipes to "speak" on each pulse. I would probably just do an H pipe for fitment ease, but there are photos in the exhaust forum showing plenty of Gus who managed to fit an X in fine.

Getting the JCI headers to make the 90 degree bend was definitely tricky-I think you made a good choice. And I concur on your plan to cersmic coat-it just makes for such a clean engine bay. I did my engine swap a couple years ago and it still looks like i just did it. I have v-banded my exhaust and I love it. I used the JTR headers, but basically followed your plan, but I went single from the y-pipe back. For what it is worth, dual 2.5" to single 3" made 400hp/435tq on my bone stock LS2 at the rear wheels. Get the exhaust to fit well and be easy to service, but don't spend too much energy on it looking for a lot of power.

That doesn't seem like a lot of gremlins. The gauges and the tail lights are on the same circuit, so that's one. The wipers is usually just a bad motor-that's two. I think all of us have those problems with just about any Z car. If the wiring hasn't been chopped up and you like it-I'd buy it.

One of the nicest mods I've done to my car is adjustable TC rods. Several folks make them from datsunpartsllc.com to TTT to AZC. They are not terribly expensive and they eliminate the goofy stock TC rod bushing.

Beware of placing flares too low on body when you are mocking up at a crazy high ride height. You should mock up the flares at the ride height you plan to wide up and with the wheels and tires that you plan to run. And turn the steering lock to lock. Only then will you know where to place the flares.