Gollum

Of those three I'd pick the GTI. Not sure I'd pick a VW when shopping in that price range though. But that's just me.

Seems like the roof line is comming down more. Front bumper of the silver car looks MUCH better than the previous pictures/cars. The headlights aren't AS BAD, but could still use some work. Hood buldge is mediocore. Looks kinda sissy to me. Could be a bit more agressive. But that's ok, hopefully aftermarket companies could make a better looking on with some guts. If they really get it down to around 3000 pounds with the extra power, and the same price range then it's an improvement upon the last one that I'll gladly welcome. The Z33 isn't a BAD car by any means. We all know and agree (for the most part) that it has lots of potential and is a very well handling car when modified and tuned well. Hopefully nissan gives us something BETTER to work with, not spoiling the suspension in favor of cost and comfort. I really want to see some good side profile shots. Looks like the shortened the back quite a bit, which will help the hood look nice and long like the origonal, but I just want to get a sense of how much. I love the long hood look of the origonal S30, BMW Z4, and TVR cars and I'm hoping they pull off that siloette that I love. There's nothing like feeling that rear wheel arch on your back while staring down a long hood line.

Yea, if she's not a real car chick then she might have had NO CLUE as to what she was getting into by "going for a ride". Still though, even if he'd played his cards right and kept the car to 1/4 throttle she probably would have still been kinda against the car in the long run. Better to get her exreme opinions out first. Sure like slow old car displayed, there's better ways sometimes. But I personally feel that in THIS particular case there probably wasn't much else to do. Now, if she'd really liked it instead, then you'd probably have a hard time ever getting rid of her, as she would have been perfect. And do perfect women really exist?

Well grass valley isn't exactly what I'd call "bay area", it's about a 2+ hour drive. But that's still way better than fresno. If you happen to be headed out that way in the future PM me.

The sensor light just needs to be unplugged. I'm not kidding. The actual factory service manual says to just unplug it after the sensor comes on at 30k AFTER replacing the O2 sensor. The plug is located under the passanger dash. The FSM on carfiche.com should have a picture of it. Well hope it all goes well. If you're in the bay area (noticed you're in CA) then maybe we can meet up some time and check eachothers car(s) out.

Today was like most mondays... hard to get moving. You know. Get into work and for some reason the whole idea of work just isn't appealing. So what do you end up day dreaming about when the work isnt' getting done? Today in my mind I built a early 50's forumla one car with riveted aluminum paneling powered by TWO EG33 motors pushing roughly 500hp, 100 more than the forumlas of the time. I'd initiall been thinking of an inline 8 like the motors of the day, but good ones are few and far between nowdays. Then I was thinking twin inline 4 motors coupled, but then realised the obviousness of the choices. Twin flat 6 motors bring the weight total down, bring the CG down, and farther back. They would still sound amazing with open exhaust tubes and ITB's and would have a massive torque curve making it one SWEET modern take on the design.

Depending on the lady almost all cars we here love could fall under that catagory. It's hit or miss with most women though. Either they're going to like flashy cars, or not. Sometimes they know something about cars, other times not. I personally must say I feel sorry for you if your love life revolves around a car. What's next, gonna show her your baseball card collection? Long lasting relationships aren't based around posessions, and hopefully a car doesn't make to big of an impression either way for YOUR sake. But that being said I can understand wanting something nice for dates. A pile of junk like mine isn't something most women would love to ride in (though the car does have it's list of fans), so having something presentable is nice. +1 on the 350Z vote. Only problem I forsee there is that there shuold be a new one before 2010 and prices will drop just like the Z32. Z cars don't seem to hold value all that well. Still great buys though.

And it looks like the fast and the furious crowd is growing up a bit. I'd much rather see Evos and STIs everwhere than honda hatchbacks. Does the popularity or owner group dictate your purchase? If so then maybe a STI isn't for you. I've driven the newer Acuras (RL and TL) and didn't like them. Overpriced hondas is what they are. They're nice and all, but they just don't have enough power, class, and overall finish quality that makes it feel like it's not a honda still, and there's no way I'd pay that kind of money for pretty looking accord... They'll be nice cars when you can buy them used under 10k. I really like most euro cars. On average I'd say I like more euro cars on average than any other area of cars. Japanese cars are great, but many times lack the "whole package" experience. American cars tend to feel cheap most of the time. I really like VW and Audi cars. They just drive so nice and feel well made. Jaguar makes some great cars too. Even old falling apart, slow as dog jags are still great cars to me. Sure they weigh as much as a tank and will break down as soon as you're not looking at it, but they just drive so nice you could just fall asleep while driving thinking it's going to drive itself. But personally, if I was going to spend that kind of money it might be a STI. I just have nothing to compare it to. The EVO's interior is too cramped and overall doesn't feel as well made as the STI. The STI will go 100mph feeling like 50mph does in most cars. It'll tackle the snow and dirt like it was born for it all the while getting decent turbo 4 banger gas milage. The STI also has a pretty amazing resale value. Even the 2001 wrx is still retaining value extremely well here in california.

I've been meaning to post about it but I took pictures of the roof construction and B pillars of my t-top 2+2 when I cut the top off. Pretty stout design with good crush protection.

I thought it would actually be hauling it, stupid me. The guy I bought my turbo donor from used to use the 83' 2+2 turbo to haul his Z cars around. Pretty funny to see a Z hauling a Z.

Do you have the test result paper? I might be able to help you troubleshoot it's smog issues.

Most of the weight I'm refering to is in the compressor and condenser which are easily removed. When pulling the compressor be careful, as EVERY time I've ever picked one up it was heavier than I expected. When pulling it off it's crazy pulling it out of the engine bay, it's just so dang heavy. The evaporator under the dash sits between the blower unit and the control unit, so there's not much sense in removing it. It's not a lot of weight though. My main reason to ever want to remove it would be the space more than the weight. You could make a pretty huge storage compartment on the passanger side if you took that whole cooling unit out and moved the blower over. There'd be almost nothing but wires behind the first foot and a half of the passanger side dash.

Ditch it. It's a waste of weight. Waste of electricity. Waste of a good looking valve cover. Waste of clutter. My engine takes a couple of turn overs if the engine is still hot and I try to just put the key in and turn it on. If I wait a few seconds for the fuel pump to get pressure to the fuel rail I NEVER have a problem with the car starting right up. And I have a turbo heating up the fuel rail, and it's STILL not a problem. Remove it and don't regret it. If you're worried about the deposits as mentioned before (which shouldn't be a problem on today's fuel) then run some injector cleaner every couple of months, that stuff is cheap insurance.

You'd probably gain a small amout of power, but probably not noticable. But you'll save AT LEAST 60+ pounds if not more. If it's not working and you don't plan on fixing it I'd say pull it. If you pull the condensor as well (no reason not to) your radiator will have cleaner air too. Well worth pulling in my opinion.

[caps used for accenting key words, i'm not angry ] Ok... which engines are we talking about here? Honda has made a lot of variants of lots of motors. I've worked on my fair share of hondas and in my experience NEVER ONCE have I seen two engines of THE SAME PEAK POWER have the non-vtec one get better MPG. The reason why most Vtec equiped madels take a SLIGHT drop in MPG is because they recieve a HUGE performance increase, with increased low end torque AND increased high end HP. It's like expecting a V8 mustang to get the same or better MPG than a V6 mustang. Why would it? You don't buy a Vtec model honda for the MPG, you buy it for the power, thus the extra HP brings the MPG down a taste. All things being equal, in my experience the Vtec WILL get better MPG. Example: Stock B16A is capable of 170hp EASY on a stock motor. If you were to build up a D16 to those power levels in the same care I'll guarentee it'll be getting significantly worse MPG. So really what you need to ask yourself, is how much power do you want? If you want 200hp I wouldn't suggest a SOHC 8 valve 4 cylinder. I'd suggest something that gets near or over that stock, and then modify and tune it for milage. Maximize the low end torque giving up some high RPM HP. If you only want 60hp then I wouldn't suggest a 1.8+ liter 16 valve DOHC 4 cylinder, simply because all of them will be way to agressive for that power level. I'd forgotten to mention the CA18 motor. They're pretty good from what I've seen. Still think the SR20DE might be the easiest way to go for you still though. It'll make enough power to put a grin on your face and still should be able of pulling down some pretty crazy milage.

Ahhh, ok so it's running the stock ECU? Get pics of the ECU and the plugs going into it if you can. I'll be able to tell you if it's a turbo or NA ECU. The factory nissan turbo engines debuted in 81', so it's not out of the quetion the swap was done with a factory turbo engine. Obviously anything is possible though. The shifter - usually in my experience sloppy shifting is from cracked or missing bushings that go inside the shifter. If you take it apart you should see what I mean. Shifter has a single pin that goes through it and the pin rests up against two bushings that keep the shifter semi-insulated from the transmission and keep the shifter from having too much twistability and free play.

Ben, you should still come out to the show. 300-400, maybe even more classic japanese cars. You really going to miss it just because you don't have a car to show? Last year Jay Leno had his 60's mazda cosmo there. At the steep entry price of $20 a head it's still gonna be well worth the money.

Word! There's lots of engine options, so lets get to them! Hey look everyone, he does have some Z bones in him after all. (just having fun, hopefully you know you'll be family here soon enough) Ok I like the SR20DE suggestion. I'll list some other swaps that should be in the right vein Mazda BP Engine Toyota 1RZ Toyota VZ Nissan VG Toyota GR Nissan VQ Overall I think motor choice is going to come down to two main factors: 1) What transmission options are there 2) How much power does it produce The power and price are loosly tied together, and how much power you want is all up to you. As long as it's a newer motor it shuoldn't be too hard to get decent power out of it while retaining some efficieny. There was some talk earlier in this thread about piston disabling during cruise. I'd highly recommend against it. GM was NOT the first company to experiment with this idea and most companies that tried it failed, the engines weren't reliable and had issues because of it. From what I've been told (by someone who's worked for nearly every auto manufacture and would still be working on cars if it weren't for injuries, who's a close friend of mine) that the issue is that when you start disabling cylinders to start to have oil sealing problems around the piston rings. The rings get cold and start to leak. His thought on the new LS2 and other engines doing the cylinder disabling again was that they must be using an ALTERNATING disabling method, so each cylinder fires every other time, but all cylinders are actually still firing. This in effect is LIKE having half your cylinders gone, but that's not what's really happening. If someone actually knows how the system works, please share. But unless I could find out for sure how they're doing it and replicate it in the same way, then I wouldn't bother. Too much risk.

HybridZ is not a democracy, though something tells me we have good enough members that it would works as one. (NOT suggesting anything here) We have fine rules that have been well enforced to bring a fine community together. Without the members hybridZ wouldn't be what it is, but that doesn't mean we should all be handed out equal power. Nobody (certainly not woldson) attacked the moderators in this thread, yet several of them have come out to appoligize for any possible previous behavior that might have been out of line. This shows the amazing character of our moderators and how little we actually appreciate them at times. Seriously, have you guys BEEN to other message boards. Have you SEEN the kind of crap that goes on? Moderatore death matches including flame throwers, trolls that ruin just about any section, and threads that never stay on topic... If this is a party then other message boards are a day at the courthouse. They just plain SUCK. Two thumbs up to HybridZ. I wouldn't mind cussing being allowed, but I certainly don't mind the filters, it makes the guys that try to get around them look kinda childish though. Does it really take less effort to think of ways around a filter than to think of another word?

Vapor lock isn't THAT big of a deal on these cars, I should know. I'm running a TURBO motor with a giant heat radiator called a turbo sitting right under the intake. I'm running ZERO of the STOCK heat shields, and I'm running the earlier NON webbed intake manifolds, so even the intake doesn't block the injectors much from the heat and I STILL don't have issues with vapor lock. bjhines is on the right track I think. The problem is probably within the distributor still. These motors are extremely reliable. I have no doubt that if well taken care of any of them should reach 400k miles at stock power levels.

Jeremy Clarkson's review just about summed up my opinion very well. I'm not sure if you can find it online though. Basically it's just too expensive. It's not better enough than the competitors to be worth the price premium. And with the turbo charged version I'd just argue that it's too heavy, and if you're going to strip it anyways why even buy it? It's nearly as heavy as a mustang for crying out loud. I'd guarentee for the price of the turbo version (starts at 35k) you could buy a new mustang and use the money saved to bring the weight down to the stock BMW weight. And guess what? You'll have a motor with tons of potential still, bigger wheel wells that can fit larger tires, and more room to haul people and junk in the trunk, plus V8 growl. There's other options too. The pontial G8. The camaro when it comes out. The killer I think most of us are waiting for is the new hyundai coupe. More power to him because BMWs are cool. I hope he loves it. I just wouldn't spend my own money that way.

Yea, you're not going to see much gain in anything. I wouldn't be surprised if you're slower than before. Turbo charge or nitrous. Otherwise just get as agressive as you can with the timing and get the fuel mixture dialed in. Not much else I can think of for you to do.

Please more pics of the engine. Using the low temp circuit to richen mixture isn't a good idea imo, because it's not increasing the max output of your injectors. Adjusting fuel pressure is much better for minor tweaking needing more fuel, but that's a bit hard to adjust from the cockpit You're only getting 4PSI? Should be getting closer to 5-7, not over 7 though. I'm curious what turbo to intake pipe that is. It isn't stock that's for sure.

Nice. Thanks for all the hard work. It'll be nice to have the FSM to refer to, not just my hilton's manual. Keep up the good work.

You kinda answered yourself later in this post. It's all about the ECU you're running. You can only run as lean as it can get you quickly back to safe ratios once you're under load again. Gotta love modern turbo cars. It's amazing how lean they actually run in full boost without ping issues. The WRX EMS is amazing though. I'm not sure if the WRX is the same as the STI, but I simply can't believe anything OEM is so advanced after working with it. How many ECUs have datalog ability built in able to measure all sensory systems (rpm, knock, narrow band, boost, etc). I don't know about most of you guys, but I find it much more entertaining and fun to find ways to modify my car to get better MPG, not driving habbits. Sure slowing down can gain you significantly better effiency, but who wants to drive 50mph when you're traveling 500+ miles? I'd much rather improve my aerodynamics so what I used to get at 50mph I can now get at 65mph and drive 65mph with a grin on my face.