Gollum

My 75' was built in... 11/74 I think. It might have been 10/74, I can't remember. But it's a VERY low 280Z VIN, not a 260Z. If there's a "75 260Z" rolling the streets of america I think it might be a mistake. As far as I know, when they made the change to the 280Z they did the change to 75' as well. I'm gonna have to try telling people my car is a ferrari sometime... When I got this 280Z I'm daily driving a lady at work asked: "What kinda car is that?" "It's 75' 280Z" "oOo, those were cute cars." She's old enough to remember them to some extent, and sadly that's how the Z cars get remembered by a lot of women.

For future refference, any good divx encoder works wonders on compressing video (google avi encoders). I agree with said comments. The Z06 is nice, no doubt. You could drive it across the country comfortably, and it's a seriously quick car. ...but your car has something it won't have for a long long time, character.

Congrats on the win! .2 that's a pretty good race. So how does it feel beating that much $$$? Was the drive home that much sweeter?

Carfan found the video and IM'ed me the link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=ijJgZWGO3VI I wasn't very right on my quotes, but the idea is still pretty much intact... I question why some people even like cars...

Or old enough to remember those?

I'm not sure. I've never dealt with the 81 CAS setup. I know the guy I bought my turbo donor from blames one of his blown motors on the 81 CAS and recommends using the 82-83 setup. But it should run stock psi levels just fine.

Quote from my uncle a few weekends ago (who's a car nut who's been modifying his own cars now since the 70's) "I really like the 240Z, but the 280Z was kinda known for being rattly." Now, I get where he's comming from, but you have no idea how hard of a time I'd have convincing him how similar the two cars really are, and that if anything the 280Z should be LESS rattly due to being a slightly stiffer chassis with heavier doors etc. In my experience the older the person, the harder they are to correct on information, no matter how wrong. That's the refreshing thing about meeting other people my age. We all tend to listen to eachother equally. The guys my age that won't listen to facts or advice are just the type of people I'd avoid anyways. Nothing beats the owner of a mustang I saw a video of years ago. It was a 99-04 mustang with almost every badge you can imagine. Saleen stickers, cobra snakes, SVT badges, etc. The guy with the camera is talking to the owner about the car: "Wow man, does that have a turbo?" "Yea, it's got a turbo." "Aww man, that must be sick. Do you have a supercharger too." "Yea it's turbocharged. supercharged, the works." "Wow, do you have a rotary in there?" "Yea man, it's got everything." "Oh man, rotors, pistons, valves and all that?" "Yea, yea, yea" I almost died laughing when I first saw that video. Wished I'd saved it.

lgooson - Thanks michanic220 - If you want an engine that will have room to grow, I'd recommend as many cubes as you can afford. Obviously how easy the swap is changes cost, not just the cubic inch of the motor, but I think you get the idea. No matter what people try to say, more cubic inches are a GOOD thing. The only reason this ever WOULDN'T be the case, is if the motor in question just didn't have any good cylinder head options. If you can't get a good cylinder head then power will be hard to come by. But nowdays once you reach the limits on stock heads of most american V8s you can take your pick from various head options for a higher power ceiling.

I almost want to say just leave the firewall like that. This would make drooling over it much easier...

Well, if it's not running now them changing to megasquirt probably won't fix anything. I doubt your ECU is bad, the problem is elsewhere. What AFM are you using? Has it ever been opened and adjusted? A Turbo AFM set to use NA injectors won't run on Turbo injectors, and vice versa. What injectors are you running? Stock turbo injectors are brown. Are all of the sensors plugged in and tested? Most important ones are Head Temp, TPS, AFM, and Dizzy. Your problem is probably something isn't hooked up, or you've got a bad connection somewhere. Are you getting spark? Best way to check would be to use a timing light and check the timing while cranking and make sure your timing is close enough. If you've never heard this engine run, there's always the chance the shaft that runs the oil pump and dizzy is off a tooth or so. Are you getting fuel. This is a hard one to check, but one way would be to use a multimeter on an injector plug under cranking. I'd try spraying something into the intake to try to help it start. Maybe something in the cold start system isn't working keeping it from wanting to start.

I'd hate to sound negative at all, because those are dead sexy... But do you have a weight comparison versus the stock setup? I'd imagine it's heavier, but by how much?

Yea, check the rules. Odds are they're requred to give notice of intent to tow it. It might not of even been the HOA directly, but someone with a contract to patrol and then tow. If you find the legal documents on the matter and go before the HOA showing you were supposed to get a notice of some kind giving you 24 hours of warning, then odds are they'll be on your side of the matter.

They don't have a single 5 lug option listed on thier site for these rims. I think the issue is the spoke count, as one hole would be going through a spoke. BUT EVERYONE, check this out! They have the group by rims listed on their site now. http://www.rotawheels.com/wheels.asp?wheelid=34 This should confirm that the wheels WILL continue to be sold after this group buy. At what price, I don't know. I'm curious as to why Kim won't get some more color options on the RB's though. Maybe he does have more on the way and only talking to people about what's on hand. Sounds strange to me, but who knows. On the positive side, this group buy might benefit the Z community for a long time if Rota keeps these size options. I know I'd be interested in them for a ZX if I ever poured money into one.

Hey, at least you can get up to freeway speeds in less than 1/4 mile... You just have to look at the bright side when the car is that gorgeous.

I've spent a fair amount of time around FFR cars and around FFR owners, and I have little doubt in my mind that they're far more refined than the origonals they replicate. I've never met a FFR owner that tracks their car that regretted owning the car. With a well designed chassis and parts that truly work with the chassis there's little fear of it being a rattle trap or feeling like a tin can. That being said... I wouldn't touch this dino replica. I might like some kit cars out there, but I'm not stupid. Now, if only the Ariel Atom was availible in an affordable kit...

I still find it funny when I see a speaker cabinet for sale and people advertise "LOUD"... as though the speakers make sound magically all by themselves. Some of these have REALLY got me laughing guys. Ok, I have to admit. I've known since I bought my first Z there was a difference, and it didn't take me long to learn the difference. But I have to admit in order or explain an AFM before I've compared it to a MAF. The way it measures is completely different, but they're both doing the same function for an ECU, telling the computer how much air is entering the engine. In the same respect they're also similar to a MAS. All three provide the same data, just vastly different calculations on the part of the ECU to make it meaningful data.

It might just be that it gets damp and the moisture has pulled the paint off.

I'm glad to see the rust wasn't too deep. Sad to see such young cars get rusty. At least this car has an owner that's going to take care of it.

Well how far is your commute Mr.Diesel? If you were driving as much as me you'd be spending around $200 a week on gas. That'd be more than half of my weekly take home. I'll be going to a school this fall, so my commute to work will probably dissapear. I'll probably have to find a part time job close to the school and move out that direction. That will cut my fuel costs a ton, and as long as I'm making enough I should be able to freely drive around california on the weekends. Luckly it looks like things might work out on the job front with something else I do.

That's an awesome engine choice! Maybe in 20 years when they're everywhere around here I'll consider that swap myself... BMW makes some nice motors, I doubt many here would even attempt to argue that.

Well my DD "runs" just fine It just likes to eat gas. The PO that did the turbo swap used the 280Z intake, and removed nearly everything from it. There's no air regulator, cold start valve, thremotime switch and water temp switch. It's also eating gas because it's not getting into close loop, I believe. So I'm probably running around 12-13:1 on the freeway. I have been driving very economy minded, and rarely, if ever, get into boost. Lowering the boost levels would have zero effect on my economy. I also thing the car could use new wheel bearings all around. None of them feel or sound terrible, but that doesn't mean they're not causing excess resistence. What I think I'll do for the time being = Drive the spare 280ZX NA I have. If I can sell it for a good amount of money I'll try to find a small japanese truck. Realistically I think even if gas went up to $7 a gallon I should be ok with just getting at least 30mpg.

It's a noble idea, but it's gonna cost a lot unless you work at a machine shop and end up doing 90% of the work yourself. As others have said, the power is in the head. Those power levels won't require a massive redesign of the bottom end on that engine. 600hp out of 4+ liters is nothing for most production engines nowdays. You can reliably boost a 1UZFE to 500hp out of 4 liters, and the bottom end is fine. Just changing the pistons out to some lower compression forged pieces raises the HP limit a ton, well past 600hp, out of a measely 4 liters. I wouldn't worry about finding a motor with the perfect features, such as bore/stroke ratio, as much as I would worry about finding a V8 with heads that flow amazingly well.

I see space between the firewall and valve cover! Evil! I'd just switch to hood pins myself. Looks like there might be clearence issues with the heater core lines going into the firewall, no?

Born on 7/7 Mike? Me too. It's a good day isn't it? Well, happy B-Day and I hope you enjoyed yourself.

The thing is though, is that if we're talking about racing on a smooth road racing course, then the camber and toe change doesn't matter much, here's why. Where it's going to kill you the most (camber and tow changes) is on sweeping turns that cause the car to roll. When you're driving on a smooth surface like say, laguna seca, you can run a super high spring rate with a decent size roll bar and due to the very limited amount of travel the camber and toe should maintain decent levels mid corner. The main place you'll feel the camber and toe changes would be under undulation, and it those wouldn't kill your lap times unless they're mid corner. Now, if we're talking about the nurburgring... Sure, the Z31 suspension is probably quite a bit better. EDIT: OH yea, but with setups like this driving on the street would kill you. No really. You're bum would just be a lump of goo. This is the upside to well designed suspension, that it can be made to handle well and be comfortable. Unfortunately many trailing arm designs don't have that ability.