Hugh

Heck, if you pull open my glove box, the whole thing comes out in your hand anyway.... I don't keep anything in there.

Scottie, you freaking rock, dude! I got your package, quick as hell. I didn't know the switches were supposed to click so well... mine are so worn out it just kinda slides into place. The one you sent me is like click click click! Well... I've got a project for tomorrow afternoon, now. I will go install this and pray the wiring is good.

As long as you can adjust fuel flow, you should be fine. I imagine the NA motor's compression is gonna want some more fuel.

I used Aquamist water injection on my last motor. It cuts out top end horsepower a little, but allows you to run higher boost without knocking. It also seems to add a little torque somehow. I've found that water injection is great, as long as you tune around it. If you have an already tuned car, and then throw in some water, it will just make it slower. If you back off the fuel and lean it out a bit with the water in there, you will start to see the benefits of it. It's great if you run your injectors near their limits. Leaner running at less duty cycle, and the water does the cooling instead of dumping fuel. Intake air temps drop nicely with water in there as well, probably accounting for the gains in torque I bet. So if you just throw it on the car and expect it to work wonders... its not really. However, if you're running non-intercooled, it make a nice replacement for the intercooler.

That was unexpected...

Heh heh... glad I didn't run down there. We don't have Advanced Auto around here. (I don't think) Anyway, I am buying Sottie's, so problem is solved. Thanks guys!

PM sent. It will be good for a 73?

My friend dropped his car on himself once. He was stuck under it until his wife found him. He was using a spare tire jack to change the oil. Luckily he made it out ok (lots of cushion for the pushing) I've seen some pretty crazy stuff happen working on vehicles... and it all goes through my head when I jack up a car. I get it placed on jack stands, then shake the car around to see if it will move at all. I'd much rather dump it off the stands then instead of having it fall on me later. Good move not getting under it until you make it safer. Great idea, just needs some work.

I got pulled over today for not using my turn signal. The cop gave me a ticket for broken turn signals, no proof of insurance (I am insured, I assure you I had the card for my old car, and the company never sent me a new one for this car) He also ticketed me for having no license because I've been driving on my out-of-state license. :| Anyway, my blinker switch is broken, and I've been having trouble finding a replacement. (its also not so high on the priorities list until now) I need to fix this before I can get that signed off on and reduce my fines. Anyone have a source or a good one laying around?

It's just a computer graphics issue. My lights don't look pink in person. If you look at the pics I took of the turn signal lit up, you can see it is plainly red and not shining pink. The problem with the photos is that my digital camera sucks, and I was taking pictures of a light that was lit up... Common sense says it ain't gonna look right. Don't be afraid of white LED's. These ones are showing through the red extremely bright and pure red. I assure you. I think I did say that the pics don't do the lights any justice... Another thing is you can adjust the distance at which you set the LED's behind the lense to adjust how clearly you can see each LED. If you put them back another half inch or so from where I have them in those pictures, they will be much harder to make out. EDIT: If I was starting over at this, I would use red LED's in the housings, though... just because the LED's themselves are brighter. I used all white to simplify ordering the things.

Are these stock replacement fenders? (no over-fender at all)

In a drag racing situation, I realize that lift can cause high speed unstability like through the traps... but how much do you think decreasing flow of air under the car would help out in a straight line? I don't care to add any un-needed downforce... but would like to help it move along straight.

Yeah, red LED's are the brightest. When you buy super bright LED's, they list the measurement of how bright they are. I just bought a bunch of white ones because they're bright enough (obviously) and its easier to mount them in any color lense I want to.

My car has the ghetto-fab hose routing from the heater inlet to the outlet on the side if the motor. The hose that was on the car when I bought it was leaking... as it was not even threaded heater hose! I blew it out within a week or so and had to replace it. I went down to the auto parts store and found one bent in the shape I needed, cut it to fit... and it works great now. Pretty? No... but neither is anything else under my hood.

This is a great thread. I think many of us have wanted to do this but didn't know how. You lost me somewhere in this post though... I think I'll go read more threads on mounting autometers. I've been thinking I'd like to get a tach with shift lite built into the main 5" ring... because I don't like the look of a shift lite on the dash. If I were to buy that type, I don't think this mod would be very feasible. As far as making a square hole for a high beam light... why not just use two Blue LED's mounted side-by-side or something? It should look good and obvious enough that your high beams are on. If you absolutely need to make a square hole, I would make a template out of something strong, lay it on and tape it in place. Then use a dremel side cutter wheel to make the four cuts. You will need to make some sort of lens, then... and it could really get messy.

Jay Leno says driving a turbine engine motorcycle is interesting, because throttle changes take over a second to do anything. He said if you hammer it, you wait, and then HOLY CRAP! The problem is on the other end... if you want to slow down, you still wait.

I always like the look of a molded in body kit after the car is initially painted, but - I've seen far too many cars with kits molded in that crack along the molding and blow paint/filler/bondo/fiberglass/whatever it is out. For this reason, I prefer not to mold fiberglass to metal. I'm sure it can be done right, but I've seen so many done wrong, you know?

When my charging system wasn't working at all, I drove my car for about a week on the Optima red-top I put in it. (wasn't new either) I realized after testing the system that I was seeing about 9.5 volts or so while running... and the battery consistently powered all my electronics and the engine without a single charge in a week. Cut off the engine, I saw 12.2 volts or so. I've been using Optimas consistently for about 4 years now, and I'm not willing to stop. In my old 180sx, I once left the dome light on all night. When I came out, I turned on the key and the voltmeter on my dash read something like 3 volts. I cut off the light, and turned the key over. The car started. It recharged on the way to work... and I never had a problem after that. I second the over-voltage thing. Over charging won't only kill the battery... it could really cause an unsafe situation.

Japan does have things that are distinctly japanese... however, if you go there you will see that what is cool is foreign. It's their culture to want to be like other countries... I'm not saying its a bad thing... hell, some of the best rock music ever made comes from England... and I'm American. I didn't mean any disrespect when I said it, either. I don't see anything wrong with perfecting things. A good example is the Nissan Titan truck. It's produced in America, with the help of some of the Japanese Nissan engineers and designers. They looked at all the American full-size trucks, figured out what the people didn't like about them... and what they did like about them. Then they incorporated everything they'd learned into building one of the best full-size trucks ever made. Nobody can deny, its a great truck. To see the die-hard Ford owners at the Nissan dealer makes me laugh... but it makes for great competition. This means Ford will have to improve the hell out of their trucks to hold onto those who could stray towards a better truck made by a "foreign" company. (funny, its built in AMERICA, not Mexico like so-called "domestics")

According to this thread, none of this technology is new. It all came about back in the early 1900's, and therefore nothing new has ever been made.... its all copies upon copies, improving and making it cheaper all the while. Every country in the world that produces cars is doing this... hell, nothing is "original" anymore. Who cares? My point was, they weren't in the market before WWII, and when they hit the market, there was nothing left to invent... everything had been well established, and they just started off with what works. (just like every other company was already doing... copying from eachother) There was nothing special about the Japanese military technology in WWII. They had shear numbers, and extreme dedication to duty. The rest of the country was poor, and stuck in the dark ages. I learned this through reading, studying and by visiting museums in Tokyo and stuff like that. I'd say I have a general idea what it was like. For an example of what Japan went through in the 50's, take a look at what Russia and the Eastern Block are going through right now. Coming out of the dark ages.

This is the Japanese way. They absorb everything they can from the world, and take what they like. Then they make it better for less money. (for the most part) There hasn't been much ground breaking in engine design since WWII, and not much was going on with Japanese international trade when they were under the imperial government. They pretty much came out of the dark ages in the 50's.

I hear that... I like all-red taillights... seeing people drop large amounts of cash on orange turn signals just burns me... I'd much rather keep them all red. Sorry I don't have an answer for your question.

I figured it was something like that. Anyway, the old argument of Japanese companies not being able to make a motor with any real power is right out the window with that Q45 engine, ha? It makes a LOT of power by American V8 standards, or any V8 standards for that matter. I couldn't believe it when I was reading the article way back when the new one was coming out. 340hp NA is no joke, especially from 4.5 liters.

It's amazing that you would post this today.... like we were on the same wavelength or something. I was sitting next to one of these Aston Martins in traffic today... in awe of how beautiful that car is. When I pulled ahead and looked over, I thought "Damn, that grill would look awesome if I could put it on my Z somehow" No kidding.