Owen

None of us plan on crashing but sh*t happens you know As to how important the subframe connectors are vs the cage, the connectors give you the flat plane stiffness while the cage would give you the 3-D stiffness. I would do the connectors first as mentioned before, the cage should tie into the connectors. Weight, depends on the tubing, Pete used .0830 or something, I used 0.120 cuz that's all they had, I saw Tim240z's car on the weekend and he used something else. I believe the chromoly cages are lighter and stronger but more expensive as well. Owen

Good point there, I have mine installed at the water neck also. But which is the "correct" way and which is the "best" way? Owen

Good lord, Scottie that's a lot of work! How could anyone who's been following threads here expect to see the finished product in a couple of weeks?! I guess Steelman isn't married and doesn't have a job so he spends all day polishing his wheels in his mother's garage or something... Keep us updated Scottie, you know who your buds are here, nevermind the idiots. Owen

Are you the guy who emailed me? If not, I "dealt" with the GM dash harness by not using it. I spliced into the ignition harness and all the rest was ripped out. I have the 18-circuit harness. Owen

Nice flares Kimi! What I'm interested in is how did you find out about the swap or did you come up with it yourself? When did you do the swap, etc? Finland seems so far away but here we are putting V8s into Datsuns...cool! Owen

Shall we call you Initial Z then?

Ahhh, I finally can visualize what Tim has been talking to me about for the past 2 months Except I thought the thing would be mounted under the car, great work Terry! And if the batt can keep things going for 40 mins at a standstill, this is looking better and better! Owen

The S&W kit is pre-notched but usually the pieces are too long anyway. I ground mine, used some extra pieces and traced the curve onto the piece I was going to cut and went from there. Messed up in one or two places though... Tim240z: see this page, down in December. http://v8zcar.topcities.com/s30z/quo.htm But for some reason my cage page has disappeared... Owen [ October 17, 2001: Message edited by: Owen ]

Well then, I'll speak out of complete ignorance too! I sprayed the floors with heat paing, Dynamatted them with two layers and then coated the whole interior with Dupont truck bed liner. Underside of the floors are heat paint and bed liner. The exhaust pipes are also sprayed with heat paint, inside and out. I had to hammer the tunnel for the T56 and when I did the floors, I actually did weld them up higher than stock, not on purpose though... Passenger side 3" pipe tucks up higher than the subframe connector and you can barely see it from the side. Driver's side had less clearance so I used 3" tubing CAREFULLY squeezed into an oval with my press. The lowest part of my system is where it runs under the diff. Will use oval tubing there as well. Oh, header collector and J-bends are 2.5" which then open up into the 3" pipes which merge into the single 3" muffler. Got about 1" clearance between the pipe and the slave cylinder. Not pretty and not super efficient, but it looks like it'll get the job done, hopefully... Owen

DPMG, I'm just kidding Just thought some books by your side when you can't sleep at 3AM would be helpful. And Ross, I'M NOT DONE ASKING QUESTIONS YET! Remember, I started the first forum only to help myself! Owen

Very nice. My two fave colors are silver and dark metallic blue. Gonna go with the blue this time. Owen

Really nevermind, just gave Summit $400 of my money for the cell and a bunch of other crap! Owen

Tim240Z, I mounted mine in the hollow as well. Did the same as MikeKZ but didn't have to notch back the center bar. I did the diagonal (centerbar - hoop intersection) down to land on the top of the subframe connector on the back shelf. Owen

Just my opinion, but they look too "truckish"... Owen

Naturally, the first question would be...welded-on or bolt-on brackets for the rear discs In case you don't know, the older Maximas had a bolt-on bracket which can be used to adapt 280ZX rear discs onto the older Zs. Mine came off an '83 Max. Owen

I welded from underneath and did a horrible job! Never again will I do it that way... Tim240z, I DO have the pictures up! They're just hard to find...really bad pictures too. http://v8zcar.topcities.com/s30z/chas.htm Owen

Actually...never mind...I just rechecked Summit and their aluminum 15 gallon cell with sender is $199 20x18x10. If I'm concerned about weight, I just won't fill it up all the way! But then the fuel will slosh...but I'm gonna go with this one. Owen

I've found some Triangle Eng. fuel cells on http://shop.store.yahoo.com/gofast/ I like the 10 gallon aluminum one with the sender for $234. 17x17x9 But what's the reason many of you went with the larger capacity? Clearance on both sides and weight are my concerns. Owen [ October 16, 2001: Message edited by: Owen ]

My hoses better have been real or I'm gonna be pissed! But yes, even real hoses will fray even if wrapped in tape. It depends on what you cut it with. I tried once with a sawzall and a metal cutting blade...that one didn't last too long. The teeth of the saw blade catch on the steel threads and just tears everything up. I didn't have one of those big cutoff wheel machines like they show in the instructions, so I used a small 4" dia cutoff wheel on my handheld grinder. Works much better I was thinking though, maybe a piece of wood or plastic stuck inside the hose would keep the hose from flexing downwards when cutting it? My problem is getting the hose all the way into the fittings, I have a small leak and will need to rebuild it. Owen

I'm not sure if he vented it or not. I just saw the pix in one of his links to the pix he posted online, I've heard of the suction doing that too, but never really saw a picture before. The aluminum Summit unit is only a little bit more but I'm worried about the quality. Owen

I've decided to switch to a fuel cell but can only afford the Summit brand and I definitely need one with a sender. Tim240Z showed me some pix of his, which I like. But after seeing Mark Wicard's picture of the same tank which collapsed on itself, I'm having second thoughts. There is an aluminum cell, also Summit brand, for a little more. I'm naturally thinking I should go with this one. Any comments or ideas on another source? Thanks, owen

Damn, you're all over the place ain't ya? Not to sound snobby or anything but ya gotta do some of the work yourself. A search at Google.com on engine basics, engine tuning, etc. will give you $hitloads of info. You'll no doubt discover people say many different things about the same topic. howstuffworks.com is an ok place if you want some basic info. Or go to your local college and buy some of their automotive technology books. Good luck! Owen

Like BLKMGK said, read read read! I hardly knew anything at first and now I know almost nothing But seriously, if I can do it, it can be done cuz I'm no engineer. Check out the magazines, spend all day at Borders or Barnes & Nobles, watch Hot Rod TV, etc. I just try to ingest as much info as possible. A lot of the info out there is directed towards newbies like me and there is much more for the advanced people. I bought John Lingenfelter's book which gave great info on different displacements, intake runner sizes, cam sizes, exhaust sizes, etc. This kinda info helps you identify your goal and which combination of parts will get you there. Also, check out other people's websites. They mention certain things not mentioned in the JTR manuals. Like, I had to grind the engine mount for clearance for the steering linkage...using the Griffin aluminum radiator requires a slightly different mounting config than the Camaro rad, etc. My goal is all street. 383CID with a T56, TPI fuel injected. My clutch is a twin plate heavy mofo but I have a crazy idea in the works to lighten it up. I drive over an hour each way to work everyday so my Z is gonna have to be able to do the same. Many thanks to those who have helped me here! Owen Santa Rosa, huh? I was up there a couple of months ago at the Snoopy museum. [ October 12, 2001: Message edited by: Owen ]

Could someone explain the rivet and lead process to me? I've got a couple of sections I need to do where the metal is really thin. Also MAACO, I heard that it depends on the shop and the people there. My friend bought a Z recently, 240, with a MAACO job and it was nice! So there are some places who do it right. Owen

Oops, I thought he said fuel "filter". Sorry, Owen