Dan Juday

Take your car to the "on ramp near the Mather entrance to Hwy 50" in Sacramento, California and the EPA will measure it for you.

Got my sump from Jeggs. It is 2 1/2" deep and I have 9" of clearance from the bottom of the sump to the ground but I'm not running the stock fuel tank.

Just so we compare apples and apples... I have a sump and have no starvation problems. But, I did not cut out the bottom of my tank. I drilled holes so that the bottom of the tank would act like a baffle keeping the fuel in the sump. If Mark did this as well and still had starvation problems than no argument from me. Do the surge tank.

Even with three wraps of the ghetto strap and two clamps the rear u-joint was still wacking the parking brake parts on hard launchs. Big tires+big torque=streched cable. So I had a local welder/fabricator make me a Ron Tyler designed diff mount like Pete P's. Just printed the drawing right off Rons site and handed it to him. $6 for a tranny mount at Napa and I had all I needed. For those of you thinking of going this route as well a couple of insites. I would shorten the diamension across the top 1/8". It was a very tight fit. Could be because my car still has the original undercoating. It took a floor jack and a few heavy wacks with a hammer to get the bolt holes to line up. Also, perhaps I bought the wrong tranny mount but I had to slot the already somewhat slotted holes inward about 1/16" each. Not a big deal but I remember Pete saying that his lined up fine. I used four flat washers, two on the mount stud and one under each of the long diff nose bolts to lower the nose a bit more for a near optimum u-joint alignment. This required grinding notches in the crossmember so the bolt heads wouldn't hit it. I know others have said that you can just cut out the middle section of the crossmember all together but I like the fact that it ties the bottom of the tunnel together there. That must be benificial to the overall strength of the unibody. Took it out for a test drive with my son and I am very happy with the results. Got on it very hard in the first three gears and not a click or a vibration. Scared the pants off the boy! Thanks again Ron and Pete.

Fiberglass has several potential pitfalls. If the glass is not layed up evenly the panel can "move around" or deform with changes in temperature. Cracks. Stress cracks from poor manufactuing practices, poor fit, and simple body flexing. Cracks from small rocks being flung off the tires onto the underside of the fender making stars on the top surface. Cracks from bone heads leaning against your fender. There's poor fit problems. If you buy top quality parts ($) and pay a top quality body shop with lots of fiberglass experiance (more $) you can achive acceptable results. But IMHO, steel is by far a better choice for a non-modified street car. This coming from a guy with four fiberglass fenders on his Z.

Wrong place: Across the street from a cop. Wrong time: After midnight. And one bored cop. Been there, done that. I was less amused than you were though. Hard to believe even after all these years that at age 17 I got away with telling off a cop.

Terry, use the LT1's ECM and relay to run the fuel pump. It also recognizes when the oil pressure drops to 0 psi and will shut it off. So safety is not compromized using the ECM. The ECM will also prepressurize the supply line before starting and repressurize it after shut down. Trouble shooting will be easier if you retain the GM wiring as well. The VATS does more than just shut off the fuel pump. It disables the injectors and that can't be jumpered out with a simple wire. The VATS can be eliminated with Tuner Cat or you can just include it and use the resistor. I did this and then later edited it out with Tuner Cat. The good news is that you have the key and hence the resistor value. Take a look at your Helm manual and find the ignition switch. Just solder the resistor to the wires that go to the "pellet" in the key switch. I think the harness has a connector just for those two wires. Good luck!

And those who actually drive there Z's. I'm surprized you don't have a heater in your Z, Tim. I've heard that older people get cold easily.

Yes, but don't forget you have another radiator in the system too, the heater core. If you still have the stock Z heater I would recommend sticking with the original pressure spec.

JTR sells the adapter. https://shell7.tdl.com/~jags/Datsun_Order.html part # DAT-110 $49 Take that and a GM driveshaft back to your driveline shop. In four years on this site I can't remember reading of even one JTR adapter failure. You should buy the JTR book. It explains all about your swap, including the driveshaft, in great detail.

COZY Z COLE Donating Member Joined: Oct 02, 2003 Posts: 210 Location: FAIRFIELD, CA. Spoken like a true Californian.

Thanks for clearing that up guys. Sorry for my miss-que. There were so many changes to the 1st gen cars you really do need a program to tell them apart!

A little update on the Daytona Coupe. I've learned through the grapevine that it was sold by the original builder about 10 yaers ago for well over $20k. The body kit is from the same molds that John Washington a.k.a. Reaction Research owns to produce the current spyder kit. The rearend is unique. It was done in steel and is shaped to a more accurate curve. Also the side window rear louvers were custom done to better match the Ferreri. The builder still has the molds for those louvers.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2488314208&category=7251&sspagename=rvi:1:1 http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=7251&item=2488264578&rd=1

Thanks Steve! As always you are a wealth of info.

Well I guess Kit Car Builder mag had too many shots of my car laying around from the last issue. Apparently (I haven't seen it yet, John Washington dropped me an e-mail) there is a pick of my Z on the back page of this months issue as well. In this pic you can even see my ugly mug behind the wheel.

"The body parts are from John Washington. Subtle Z fronts and YZ out back." Wow, what a cool idea! Seriously Rufus, your plan looks great. Much more ambitous than mine with the full tilt front end. Closer to Terry's league. I like the use of the cheek panels. One of Johns great ideas. He really is a quality guy. I had another thought on your fender cut line. How about a curved horizontal line that would intersect the fender arch at 90* and also the door seam at 90*? In other words it would start off from the door seam horizontal and as it heads to the fender arch it would drop off in a gental arch downward until it reached the fender arch hitting it at or about 90*. Just a though. Terry might jump in here and offer some thoughts on whether this may or may not be a good idea.

V.B. shows three different part numbers for the Z31 n/a rear rotors: 64-807 '84-'85 64-811 '86 64-813 '87-'89 What are the differences and which ones should you use if you are using the 240SX calipers with the Modern Motorsports brackets? EDIT: Wait I got a clue. Some of these are four lug and some are five lug, right? Fill me in. And are there any other differences?

Well, I'm partial to the cropped look (spoilerless). But that is sweet. Hows about a full on side shot?

I could be wrong on this but worth checking out first. I believe the '73 and the '75 had different shaped tanks. I know for a fact that the the later 280's had a different tank. If so it would not be a direct bolt up.

I've seen pics of these Z's several times but I've never before noticed the custom windshield. Take a look at the pic of the engine bay and look at the relationship of the hood latch to the windshield base.

Swapping out the stock taillights? Who would do such a freakish thing? Looking sweet. Keep the updates coming.

Mike this is very good news. Apparently I've missed your other 17 posts. Glad to see you read and post here. Also glad to see you're expanding your product line. I just mentioned in another thread that you now have a ZX section. That's great! Next swap I do ("Over the Rainbow" playing in the background) will be an LS1. I like Mike's (mas280) set up better than John's Cars. And the price is better. I hope you persue your efforts with Mike (the other Mike) and produce the mounts. Please keep us up to date.

They also have a whole new ZX section that includes headers. Mike Knell really should check in here and let us know what's going on in his skunk works.