olie05

You were right! the alignement guy didn't look at the threads and just started pulling on the wrench (when he should have been pushing... or pulling from the other side). I got home, got out the WD40 and a propane torch and got to it. I took it back to the shop and now my car's steering wheel is straght and it only pulls slightly to the right. I'm happy. Thanks for the replies! -Oliver BTW, for future reference, my car is a 77 280z and it had reverse threads on the drivers side. Don't know if its stock or not but make sure you check before loosening anything.

Furry bary, if you take on the swap, please keep us updated because there seems to be a lack of documentation on the other rb awd z's.

panda wheels would look wierd on a z (no lip at all) my opinion. sakura's, on the other hand look very nice on a z.

I left out the rear wheel specs since he didn't adjust anything and nothing changed but here they are: Left rear camber: -1.0* toe: 0.54* Right rear: camber: -0.4* Toe: 0.34* The T/C rod bushings are almost gone on this car so that is my first upgrade to bushings. Jon, the toe out I'm guessing is from the Eibach springs I put in. I never had the car aligned because I didn't have the need to. Then I put the springs in and the car wandered alot on the freeway and such. Seriously, I thought he was going to be able to get everything correct. I guess alignment shops have limited capabilities. Someone told me they coul adjust a certain amount of camber... also, out of curiosity, what are they going to be able to adjust in the back? -Oliver

Ok the guy aligned my car to the best of his ability with the electronic devices hanging off my wheels... Left Front before adjustment: camber: -0.8* caster: 2.1* Toe: -1.41* after adjustment: camber: -0.9* caster: 2.1* Toe: 0.15* Right Front before adjustment: camber: -0.1* caster: 2.3* Toe: -1.46* after adjustment: camber: -0.1* caster: 2.3* Toe: 0.19* He couldn't get the left nut loose on the tie rod so he didn't adjust that side, so the steering wheel is crooked. But i'm going to go back there if i can break it myself and he said he'd re align it all for free. The guy kept talking about how one of my wheels is tilted more than the other... which from the readings it seems that he was talking about the negative camber, which isn't even off that much. My left front tire was worn... like insanely compared to my right one. The inside is almost bald of tread now. Can anyone tell me whats going on with my suspension? -Oliver p.s. thanks for reading all this for those of you that got this far!

That happens to me everyday with SUV drivers, but i'm not on a motorcycle. For some reason they think that z's don't exist because they are so small and they tend to look right over my car. For a while i considered putting my rear bumper back on. I'm actually considering getting a motorcycle for nice days to commute to school next year. maybe save some money on gas, and have fun while i'm at it. I want to start on a 250cc bike and learn how to handle it well. Hopefully it won't get me into too much trouble. -Oliver

Ok the idea of a roller rocker seems kind of like an unobtainable ideal... So, for the future, when i have the money to do it, and so that I can start acquiring information about it now, does anyone have any good links to camshaft profile website that would help in making a roller camshaft based off a non-roller? I'm thinking a custom made billet piece... Rocker arms seem like something that would have to be made on autocad and sent off to a machine shop with cnc capabilities, and again would have to be based off the dimensions of the original rocker arms. Of course this set up would only make sense if I used Kameari chain tensioner kit as well. These are all plans, I'm not planning on doing anything soon. Just looking for some more info on the subject. -Oliver

Ok i've been thinking about a roller rocker set up for L6's since I read this thread (actually the idea popped into my head a long time ago but I didn't think twice about it.) can you put roller rockers on a non-roller camshaft? for example, I find some random roller rockers that work off a domestic car or something, and just install them with an aftermarket cam... would it work? I'm not saying I have a roller rocker that works with this setup, but its worth a shot looking for some, right? that is not cool -Oliver

Phantom, Isn't the corvette with an LS1 rated at somewhere closer to 30mpg highway? How do you explain the mpg you got with your set up? Do you use a 5 or 6 speed? What measures were taken to keep the odometer correct with the differential swaps? Not trying to call you out or anything, I'm just looking for some more information. When I'm trying to save gas I set my mental shift point for 2,000rpm. As phantom pointed out, The more you use the gas the lower your mileage goes, so I try to stay light on the pedal, but I don't even try to document my mileage, because I have different outside diameter tires and a 3.9 diff. and the speedo gear is not right for my setup. I really want a 6 speed transmission to drop the rpms down when I'm cruising on the freeway. I see about 2,700-3,000rpm keeping up with the flow of traffic (speed limit is 65... I think...) so a 6 speed would keep my gearing with the 3.9 and give me cruisability. -Oliver

There are plenty of junkyards in houston where there are always a few z cars to pull tranny's from, If you would be happy with a 280zx transmission... bolt on and go for ~$60 -Oliver

I'd like to get more information about sunbelt's cam grinds. Anyone have their contact info, or more info about this cam?

if your engine is not firing on #3 and the cylinder is just moving up and down, oil will just sit on the piston rings instead of getting combusted with the spark and fuel. That oil could cause a higher reading than normal. Do you really feel a lack of power as if your engine were running on 5 cylinders? maybe you just have a really clean cylinder...? j/k -Oliver

I fixed it! hehe... The felpro gasket is much better quality than what I had in there. You can see it just by looking at it. I'm just having problems resetting the timing and re-tuning stuff that became knocked out of adjustment ...I'll fix it in the morning. I'll report how it runs later. -Oliver

I got the head off yesterday. The headgasket blew on the #4 cylinder on the drivers side. There is still an issue with the #5 cylinder, because on the head, the exhaust valve is starting to go white on that one, but the rest of the exhaust valves have the normal color of metal. Perhaps I have a crappy injector on that cylinder? I need help diagnosing what my engine is doing! -Oliver

Randy, I have ARP head studs, and the part that gets me is that I rebuilt this engine about a year ago... bastaad525: You might be on to something with this lean condition thing. Is it totaly mysterious or is there some substantial evidnence to go along with the theory?

This sucks. I was on the freeway, and I pulled up next to a 350z with some nice deep dish wheels and he looked over at me and we started racing. Downshifted to 4th and then got into 5th. At around 4000 rpm it sounded like my exhaust manifold fell off of one of the cylinders. So, I limped the car home, cus it still ran, and now I have a head gasket to replace. Now, I know I'm not going to avoid the "while I'm in there" disease, so what should I replace while i'm in there? I already ordered a felpro headgasket, and i got a new felpro intake/exhaust gasket. I'm also planning on replacing the cam with one from my spare head, because that one has matched rocker arms and lashpads, as opposed to what the machine shop guy did with mine, which was to NOT match them, so maybe I can save adjusting my valves as often as I do. Oh yeah, I think I know why that cylinder blew. If anyone remembers, I posted a while back about my compression test results, and all of them read 210psi's except for the 5th cylinder which read 235psi. I got a rough calculation that if 10.03:1 cr yeilds a 210psi reading, then a 235psi reading must mean i'm running 11.22:1 on that cylinder. (rough calculations based on 10.03/210*235) I'm hoping when I pull the head off I see something obvious that I missed when I was building the engine on the 5th cylinder. -Oliver

THANK GOD! road racing is where its at! -Oliver

Great story bastaad525! I guess we can make this the street racing thread now... Comming home from work saturday morning (3am-ish) I was on a major highway (5 lanes wide) and this little crx came up next to me looking like he wanted to play. Now, I know that crx's aren't very powerful cars and I shouldn't waste my time with my monstrous Z, but my friend was following me in his altima, and his previous car was a nice CRX HF-body SI-engine hybrid, So I kinda started going a little, maybe up to about 85mph and pulled ahead of him, and then I see him starting to come up to me in my rear view mirror. As soon as he was next to me I downshifted to fourth and just put it down to the floor. Needless to say, the CRX became a small dot in my mirror. ...and he was trying. It was fun for me 'cus I never street race, and hardly ever find the need to put the gas pedal all the way to the floor.

I want chills. My car needs to grow up and become a Ferrari already!!! -Oliver

I remember reading somewhere that the ca18det was a very reliable engine, And it came in the 180sx in japan, so it is already rear-wheel drive. You may also look into the sr20de, since an N/A sr20 would probably get better gas mileage than a turbo one. The plus side to this is that the sr's came in sylvias also, so it will go in easily rear-wheel drive style. Also, there are a few people on this board that have done the SR swap, so you will be able to ask someone for advice in that field and maybe even get them to make you mounts. -Oliver

Interchangability... The z and zx came with the same engine and I believe the same mounts from engine to crossmember... So If you use the right combination of parts from someone who installed a GN into their early z, you should come up with a set of mounts that might work with only a few modifications. -Oliver

Can I be on your pit crew for D1?? ...I'm not kidding... anyways, what color did you finaly decide on? -Oliver

I installed the parts today. I have to say it handles alot better than it used to. The bouncy-ness keinoze describes seems like it will be a problem once I wear the front shocks out, but the koni's are working really well and they are really stiff for having them on the softest setting possible. BTW, has anyone made the mistake of forgetting to install the bearing in the front strut mount? I ended up having to redo the entire right side because I didn't see a bearing fall off when I unbolted the strut. oh well, its on now, thats all that matters... -Oliver

I have springs and shocks ready to go on to the car, but i have 2 different kinds of shocks. For the front I have boge NOS turbo performance shocks, and for the back I have Koni "D" style adjustable shocks. The springs are Eibach progressive rate springs (sportline i think). The koni's I notice have alot more resistance than the boge's when compressing the shock. The koni's are adjustable for resistance on extension, and that is where the boge's seem to match the koni's. With that information, can anyone make a guess as to how my car will handle? will it tend to over steer or understeer or what? thanks... -Oliver

they look like the Victoria British steel flares to me.