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"btw.. the woman who i bought the kit off of, on ebay. shipped the damn thing with 6lbs of nitrous in the bottle!!!!" That is so funny, was it shipped HAZMAT? Probably not. Be glad it was not shipped through the air or in a hot time of year in a hot climate. The delivery guy would have had a N20 bottle pieces go clean through him. But that was too funny

If you have any power in your engine you will just spin tires in first gear and will probably have to take off from a stop sign in 2nd so that you don't spend all your money in tires. I on the other hand want to find gears on the other end of the spectrum. Kind of hoping to work out a gearing that is 273 or in that range.

Those look very good, I just wonder how much you paid for them and what you had to do to make them work?

Well I will admit that I have destroyed a number of engines running turbos, superchargers and NOS, but that is the name of the game when you try to get out as much as you can out of a motor. Stock cast pistons for 240 through 280 cars can easily break piston lands with a slight amount of detonation at 12 to 15 psi boost so I would not go that way at all. I have done that a few times because of no money back when I was in College. You can run cast turbo pistons from a 280zxt and that will handle 15 psi maybe a little more with detonation but they will go also. Once again I have done this and it is not the right choice either but much better than the stock pistons. You can run trw forged pistons which will easily go to 18 to 20 psi with some detonation and still be okay, but if you get hard detonation or run more boost then they will start to melt down and will also crack the lands. I am still speaking from experience. The final solution that worked is to o-ring the head and block with concentric O-rings and put crush wire in them which will make a good seal/crush on the head gasket. If you run a lot of boost you will strech the head gasket by the number six near the water jacket and the o-ring grooves and the crush wire will eliminate that. Polish the head chambers and valves so that they are at a shine and don't forget to grind down any high spots or sharp areas (hot spots) like between the valves. This will reduce some of the areas that cause detonation. You can have your piston edges turned off so they are not so sharp which is a detonation problem place and then you can have the pistons ceramic coated around the cylinder surfaces so that you protect it from the heat and actually help the lubrication process. Also polish the top surface of your piston, because with forgings and cast pistons there are usually some kind of finish machining being done and believe it or not those small grooves can be a source of hot spots. If you still or just have detonation issues you can always run a water/methonal injection system to dial it out and make sure that it is timing/ boost driven and that you use 40/60 water methanol mixture for best results. I have done all this and more things so I am just letting you know what works so that you can get into the boost you want and reduce/eliminate/counteract the detonation pains. good luck and feel free to ask me about this kind of stuff since I have been doing turbos/superchargers on all kinds of things for around 25 years including a 900 Nija turbo with intercooler and a viper twin turbo. My current Z will be getting an LS1 or LS6 twin turbo which I am designing now.

I did a high temp black wrinkle paint on the valve cover, well twice. The first time I did not prepare the aluminum valve cover well enough and it started to come off in flakes after a while. I then did it the right way and stripped off the old paint cleaned it for ever it seemed with all kinds of cleaners. Then washed it in Isoporpal 98%, bought some aluminum paint prep cleaner at Hilo Autoparts when they existed, painted it with high temp primer and then painted it with the high temp wrinkle black paint. After the paint dried and became wrinkled I sanded the top edges of the letters down to the aluminum and it looked really good and held up great. Nothing wrong with it for the next 4 years I owned the car and this one generated some serious heat (rajay turbo charged running 20 pounds of boost and a suck through carb version so no intercooler). Good luck but remember when doing the valve cover is to make sure it is so clean that it could be in a hospital and they would not care.

I did a few interesting combinations in the past that looked really good. White with a gold pearl where the sun catches it just right it looks like you have gold highlights. Viper Silver with a Gold pearl. This one is really hard to describe but it was really nice looking. The Viper Silver is already very nice but adding a shot of gold pearl and a few coats of clear on top gives it such a deep pewterish color that it seems like it is deep and really wet. It almost appears as if you are looking into like about 1/2" of paint or more and trying to find the bottom. Also with different lights it almost gave a slight brown metalic glow to the car. This was on a viper 1998 so it was a bit easier. One I thought would be interesting if you like red is to paint the car red and do a blue metalic pearl and some clear on top. From what it should turn out is that you have a very bright red car in real bright sun with hints of purple glow and when the light is not so bright it should have a red purple look to it. Pearls are an interesting way to add some spice to the paint that make it stand out from the standard and common paints. good luck on figuring it out. I know my wife will be the one to select the color when we are ready to paint ours so my part is easier. Robert

I do like your old IMSA style flares and I am trying to find out from this group what modifications would be nice to make to these. I am thinking about having him mold a set and make modifications to them at his hourly rate. If others come up with some ideas then maybe I can see if he is willing to do them also and who knows he may be able to create a new line that others could benefit from. My thoughts are two add brake air ducts and to figure out a headlight assembly that might fit and have him make the mounting additions to the body parts. Thank you Oldestzguy for your comment on that it is not wide enough, but is seemed from the pictures to be wide, but that is from the picture. I really like your old style flares and to bad they are no longer being made. So any of you out there have any ideas that might look good or be a good functional add on, well let me know and I will see what I can do to combine the ideas that will work and see if he would be interested in making a set or a few if others want them.

You probably could get one from a Honda or other car that slides over. The one we bought does just that and you could probably buy one similar and mount it yourself. The thing to look for is one the is not mounted to roof frame members in other cars unless you plan on doing welding. I would suggest measuring the size you have and find one in a slavage yard that is the same size or slightly larger. Use a jig saw to open the hole up in your roof if needed and go to a place that installs the ones that glue into place and buy some of that same glue. I would also suggest to add a rig or lip along the front edge of the opening so that you can reduce wind noise that generally occurs. Good luck Robert

They look like the fiberglass headlight close of panels that they use to make and then someone custom fitted the lights in them. Looks good

Most people are not patient enough or can not find a person to work the brake pedal to bleed them correctly. You could do a very slow gravity bleed and it will take you about 24 hours of slowly let it bubble out, or you could try speedbleeders. http://www.speedbleeder.com/ I bought some for my car, one person can do it and it works really well. They are not bad for the price and as much as you have to play with the brakes and other things on these old Z's these things made it nice, just I suggest use a container not a plastic bag and shove some paper towels in the bottom. The key yhing is to make sure there is no bubbles in the rubber tube when you are bleeding and you will know your done. There is one other thing you might want to check if it is not air in the lines. Are you running old rubber brake lines because they can balloon out and you will get a similar foot feel.

Well there does seem to be one person still making the wide body kits and here is the link --> http://www.reactionresearch.com/280yzgallery.html I do not know how good his parts are yet but I am working on some ideas that I will show them and see if he would be interested in making those changes. Some of the changes I am working on is headlight mounting areas, but not sure if they should be fixed mounted or flips, also cooling ducts for the brakes front and rear. There maybe a few more things that would really make the body kit look really slick so you might also want to talk to the guy at Reaction Research. It seems like they make a good product but I have not seen in myself as of yet. Also, has anyone out here used their kit and how did it work out and how is the quality? Just looking for honest opinions on their product because they seem to be the last one out there making kits like these.

Actually the sunroof can be nice if it is done right. I put the largest power sun roof possible in mine and the way the headliner is I could almost hide a role cage along the roof line and wrap the cloth around it. The good thing is that the roof sills or frame are the structure of the roof and the center does very little to speak of. If you want to fix what you have and make it work then I would suggest finding out how people fixed the Del Sol tops because they seemed to use some black silicon that would not stick to glass or release from glass easily and repaired the air and water leaks on most of those cars and they had problems with most of those cars. If you want to do a power sun roof, I could suggest a company that I used in California that did really good workI believe they are called CSA but I will have to look again. They use a sun roof made in Holland that works really nice and includes a role up shade that fits really nice in it. Ours has been in the car about 2 to 2.5 years now and it works great. The only thing is if you drive with it open and you are going fairly quick 110 and up, maybe at 100 also, you get wind cavitation which you feel in your ears by the pressure changes, so I will have to find a wind shade. If you want to go the same route drop me a line and I'll get you the information. Also they work deals if you use cash there. Good luck Robert

About 18 years ago I had a 77 280Z. I flared all four fenders and had 245-40-14s on the front and 295-50-15s in the rear and did not do coil overs. The car handeled very well with the limited adjustments that I could do on caster and chamber. The thing that most people seem to forget about tires is that the foot print area stays the same with the same compound tire so if you run skinny tires the foot print will be long (front to back on the car) and short (side to side on the car). This also means that if you are running wider tires then your front to back length of foot print will shorten and your side to side foot print will get wider. So realize the area of contact stays virtually the same for the same compound tire but the foot print dimensions change. this might help some of you realize how tire sizes also make a differnce weather you are racing on a road track, oval track, 1/4 mile strip or trying to go mudding. If you want some interesting thoughts, think about the jeeps thye used during the Korean and Vietnam wars. The tires where tall, skinny, and had deeper tread. This was to make it easier to gain traction through mud and wet land. They would slide sideways a lot but they would go forward. Just thought you guys might find that interesting.

In answer to the earlier question if you can go to a paint shop and tell them the color code like Light Metalic Blue 305 and they know what you want. There are very few that can still do that. I talked to someone that lives in Orlando Florida and they might be able to get the actually codes with the matching paint mixes. If he does have it I will post it for all. My suggestion is that all that is interested in the true original colors, please find out the amounts to mix the paint to the correct color/colors and then others will have it also. Maybe we can talk the fellow with this sight http://zhome.com/History/ZColorGallary/ to add it in since they have done a very good job with what they have gathered so far.

Actually there was one done about 3 years ago in Atlanta GA and there was one on Ebay (surprised me), but I can not recall if it sold or not. Maybe it can be found on Ebay if they keep the history, I will try to look tonight if I made a PDF of it back then and if so I will post it for you guys. The one in Atlanta was painted blue with the white stipes just like the viper in Viper paint. It was listed in the Dupont Registry for I believe 26k if I recall. Engine fit nicely but the owner said it was squirrelly. Those engines have some potential but stock they are way under tunned. We did some minor work on a 98 GTS and it was putting out over 560 hp (stock 450). It has had a lot more work done to it now and pumping close to 850 hp. You do not drive in the rain, dust on the road or anything that is slightly loose, especially not when the tires are cold. Also, converting a Z to a V10 viper is going to cost (large stock engine cost) way more than a twin turbo ls6 and they both have about the same wow factor.

I agree with Bill260z, I would change it to DHOC, that is just too funny, but correct.

It's a good deal at 500 and I would buy it if it where near me. Even if you decided to buy another one just like it then you would have some really good spare parts, but this one looks like a keeper.

Well actually matching the old faded and sun beaten paint is not what I would want to do. I have tried to find the original color recipe/code, using the original paint type (paint type is what is also important not the company because many make the same paint type), for 305 (the color grew on me) and for that and other paints there is a special mixing and amount of pigment dies. The thing I was refering too is that it is very difficult to find that recipe. Don't get me wrong matching is fine for people that want to spray some parts of the car or for touch up paint, but if you want as close to the true original color as you can and you are painting the enitre car, well you need the right mixture. Nissan does not have it, nor do the aftermarket Datsun/Nissan stores, and neither do the paint shops since the colors are from a long time ago and they have tossed or retired the books with the correct mixtures. Some people feel its not important or don't care to match the original color and others feel that it is. When people post and want factory original colors, well they will need to find those few companies that are out there that have the right recipes and if someone does find it I would suggest that they post it here so other's that also seek the same could get the paint color they desire since many people are paying 3K to 10K these days to paint the car they may as well get what they want not a close guess.

Actually I am going twin turbo on the one I am working and I really like the general hood shape of the stock Z, but it has always been missing something. I have been toying with the idea to crate a forward facing intake duct, most would call it ram air, but since I am using turbo's that kind of defeats the ram portion but does allow for a very nice cool air coming in from the front/top of the hood. I am planning to put the entire body of the Z in Pro/ENGINEER (if I can get it close enough to true surface wise) and then I can play around with all kinds of body modifications and get a real 3D perspective. once I have it made I will let anyone that wants to play with the shapes and modify it so they can really see if it is going to work. There are some very good artists in this group as can be seen from the art work and if any of you out there has good dimensions on body skin parts for the Z, please send them through. I am planning to have the flares made of sheetmetal from the models I create in the software. With respect to what I was thinking about a ram air type of hood was to make the front part of the hood bulge have two openings with a thin piece of sheetmetal remaining between the openings so it would almost look like nose openings in a way. After that I would build a collector box that could feed into most applications, so others could copy it easily and fit it to what their needs are. Maybe you can picture what it looks like and I have a feeling with your artistic ways you probably could. I definitly like the flare style you have going there and I think that would look really sharp on the Z's. Keep it up and keep going. I really hope you make them.

I think the sketches look great, there are only a few things I wonder about. The first being if you use a V8 set-up those hood ducts may not work out so well and would there be some chance to work in a ram air duct in the center where the hood bulges up in the front. Also, on the rear wing maybe similar to what they used on the GTS Viper would be a good solution. I have been trying to do similar stuff but putting into a 3D cad package. So if anyone out there has very good dimensions of the Z I could fairly easily turn it into a 3D cad model that you could rapid prototype and get the touchy feel perspective. Just an idea. Robert

The light blue 305 is difficult to find someone that can mix it so it is like the factory color if anyone has the correct mixing amounts that would be a good thing to post. You can not get it from Nissan at all and I myself have not found a paint shop in Houston area that knows the correct mixture. I am currently looking myself so when I find it I will post it for you and the rest that want the correct color 305. Robert

I have to agree with Scottie-GNZ on not focusing on the HP, get it right and see where the HP ends up and usually it turns out that people are satisfied. Also if you still want to run the high compression find a or design a good water injection system and mix 40% Meth to 60% water. Edelbrock use to make a Vara-injection system that worked well. But if you have the money and the time the best intercooler system is to have a dual fluid flow (air as one fluid obvious) the second is to run lines from your AC compressor so you can use freon as the second fluid. This will drop your intake tempurature down a good 50 to 60 degrees, which means you can run higher compression and more boost. Also you did not mention if you are running forged or turbo pistons. My suggestion is find some forged 280ZXt pistons which have a higher top and the piston lands are set a little lower, because if you are running cast pistons you will break your piston lands and get some serious engine bucking (for a lack of a better word). For good reading and info look for books on turbo charging. The better Author would be Corky Bell who designed and made turbo kits in the past for Z, RX7, and several other cars. He has done some very interesting stuff - he last resided in Dallas area. Good luck.

Kind of a long shot but you may want to concider that someone tried a radiator fixit in a can or a treatment of some sort. I have looked at on of my neighbors cars about 2 years ago and it sounded the same and they tried several different things they found at the local autoparts store to patch the radiator, believe it or not including a few eggs. They patched the radiator with all this crap and it did stick leave enough crap in there to not allow the thermostat to fully close and kept the car running to cold. I helped them flush the system several times, change the thermostate and flush all the heater lines. It finally cleared up the radiator fluid and soon came the leak back in about a week. They finally bought a new radiator, flushed it again, and I have not heard anymore about the radiator water looking funny or the heater not working. This liquid looked like someone poured brown gravey into the radiator fluid and it would be in globs. Maybe you should check into radiator attempted patching. For head gaskets being blown you would notice a compression drop so you can test for that and chances are you would find traces of radiator fluid in the oil and coming out the exhaust as white smoke. Good luck. Robert

interesting so one cylinder bank has two glowing header tubes. Could you do a compression check on all your cylinders and see if those two cylinders are different from the rest. I am just wondering and this could tell somethings. Also when you run the car see if you get puffing from the valve cover (crank case pushing air up known as blow by). You probably know where I am heading but I hope I am wrong. Robert

To get a high reving engine you will end up giving up on your low end take off without slipping the clutch and lettling your revs go high. I designed and built a turbo Z some 18 to 20 years ago. It would rev no problem at 8 to 9k but I never went over that. I also ran a big Rayjay, aluminum rods, had a custom head made from a blank, custom cam, 194 and 202 valves. The car was insane and the moeny I spent was even more insane. You can ge the power you are looking for out of a 4 cylinder but the engine will not last unless you spend more money than its worth. If you are dead set on non-honda, well I would suggest taking a Supra Twin turbo straight six (these engines seem near bullet proof). Get rid of the turbos (since you want NA, I would stay turbo myself) and build up the engine. There seem to be lots of performance parts for these engines and they are around 15 to 20% more than working with chevy parts from what I have seen. Some of the cars I have helped with have dyno tested at 800 to 1100hp but they are Twin turbos but that engine is so tough it seems like you would have to try to break it. I hope you build what you want, even though many here are doubting tom's and think you are going the wrong way and I kind of do too but that is why you are here and I would say we should help and wish you luck. Robert