NewZed

In a recent thread here or on another forum somebody realized that if the little right angle tab on the top of the shim is broken off you can use them on either side. The tab seems to be for installation ease. Grim's new pad idea is a good one though. I'd go with the organic material, avoid the ceramic.

Many people have found that certain pads will always end up squealing unless they have those shims. I asked about performance because "glazing" generally lowers stopping power. If there's already goop on the pads, you might try more grease or spray-on anti-squeal and see if it gets better. I fought squealing brakes for quite a while, until I found some shims.

Do you have the factory shims behind the pads? Might just be squealing. Not sure what you mean by glazing, they're going to get shiny. Does performance change?

I see. You can see it in the drawings too. One thing that people need to do sometimes is to grind a new notch in to the other side of the sleeve/housing if they want to use their 4 speed sleeve in the later transmissions. Or you can get a 1980 ZX or later sleeve. I think I see what you're trying to do now. People have the same problem when they swap in a 1980 or later ZX transmission and try to use their 4 speed sleeve. A new notch in the 4 speed sleeve, or a 1980+ ZX 71B sleeve should work. Your 75 4 speed speedo sleeve is probably steel though, so a little hard to grind or file. But people do get it done. You can test it by installing the sleeve with the retaining notch on the wrong side. The gears will probably catch then.

What's the primary resistance of your coil? As I understand things, you can still burn up even the bulletproof ignition transistors if you have a low resistance coil, or set your dwell too long. Even with current-limiting transistor assemblies. They generally don't like stray sparks either. They're bulletproof when everything is working like it's supposed to, otherwise they're sensitive.

Finally read your reference and see that it talks about the pin and the sleeve. I checked my 1976 4 speed and it has a steel drive gear inside the transmission, not white nylon (plastic).

There's a very small roll pin holding the shaft with the gear on it, in the aluminum housing. You might be able to swap the shaft and gear in to the housing and get what you need. Looks like the roll pin is in the same spot, would not be surprising if the shafts are the same design and will swap. But the number of teeth is probably wrong (red versus black), so you might have to buy a later model gear and shaft with the correct number and swap it in to your 71B housing. My 71C had the same size gear as my 71B's I think, but mine is a 1985 300ZX 71C. Doesn't answer your question, I know. But I do have an 83 5 speed that has the white drive gear.

Seems like you have some internal dissonance. Wobbling between power, nostalgia, and money. This thread actually covers everything you're thinking about, just for a stroked engine. And the guys who've built power in the past, like JMortensen and John Coffey and others, have added to it. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/24798-na-31lhead-camshaft-questions-no-shortcuts-max/

The other end of the spectrum is weight. You can cut quite a bit from a 280Z, apparently.

You just need to spend your money in the right place. You've already saved distributor and header money, just through discussion in this thread. That's about $400.

That is the essence of what I've extracted from what's out there. But I just saw your comment in the other thread about your LS engine in the BMW track car. So the real question is, do you want to make "vintage" power or just power? Or be unique? Some people out there are actually destroking their L28's to make a high-revving lower power potential engine that's fun to drive. Lots of different things you can do. Just trying to fit your stated goal and add a few not obvious things, like the fact that you'll have essentially the same ignition system with a ZX distributor as what you have now.

Seems like you really have a vision of what you want to see when you open the hood. Triple Webers. The early ZX distributor has about the same timing as your 77 unit, and 77 has a decent electronic ignition module. No great reason to change distributors. In addition to what I mentioned above about cam profiles, others have tried the mild cams and been disappointed. Your list is the basic "incremental change" list that people put together, then wish they'd gone bigger or spent money elsewhere when they were done. Seriously, the only thing on the list that will add much power is the cam profile, and without the head work the potential won't be realized. If you're going to do actual track time, spending money on suspension might be more effective. Again, I'm mostly regurgitating what I've seen. You've only searched for a few days but if you keep reading you'll find that you're about to spend much money, time, and effort and have essentially the same performance when you're done, with less reliability. Your list is more of a "this part broke what should I replace it with" list, instead of a performance build list. Don't like EFI - switch to carbs, clutch wore out - go heavy duty, distributor died - get a ZX replacement, etc.

Odd. Maybe he has you on Ignore and that's what happens. No offense. I just posted in his thread. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/127430-no-overheat-still-get-oil-cooler-for-race-car/

Testing Leon's problem - http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/127475-database-error-when-trying-to-reply/?do=findComment&comment=1191560

I've heard of these sprockets with no notch. It's a dilemma. You do have the bright links though, and the parts are new, so the best you can do is follow the procedure in the FSM, for new parts installation. 42 links between the two marks. The notch and groove are more important for showing wear, I think, and as a secondary check.

You might search out some of JMortensen's comments about cam profiles. He's a proponent of big profiles and says that most people can go much bigger than they think, if I recall correctly. HD clutch is vague. A lightened or lightweight flywheel would be worth consideration. Fidanza, or a lightened 240mm flywheel are common ways to get there. There are some programmable timing options out there that might be better than just taking whatever curves you get with a ZX distributor. And you'll have a hard time finding an early ZX distributor in good shape. You'll probably have to buy reman. But you could transfer the centrifugal advance mechanism over, probably. You can also get electronic ignition via other routes. If you're going to have the head off you might as well have some work done, if you can find a shop that knows. That seems to be where people get the most bang for buck. Just regurgitating. Add real detail to your plan before you tear things down and you'll avoid headaches.

I saw your original post, opened it, and noticed that there was no content. Haven't had any problems myself though. Your post today is odd in that the thread shows "started" three days ago, but doesn't show "edited" in post 1, even though you must have edited post #1. Maybe that's a "Site Support" thing though. Edit - Testing Edit... Edit 2 - mine shows Edited. Weird.

Don't see how you can move the trigger wheel and have timing at 8 degrees no matter what. It's like you have some other sort trigger mechanism. Like you forgot that you're running a regular distributor or something. The 8 degrees no matter what you do is a clue to something.

In theory the hose to the filter should provide a slight vacuum, pulling air through the filter you have on the lower hose, through the crankcase, and in to the air filter housing and engine. The road draft system that's described would really just reverse the flow direction of the blowby gases. If you have lots of blowby you'll probably still get the smell. And if you have lots of blowby, blocking the lower hose would probably oil up your filter. So, you could block it like AZC says and all of the smell would probably be be consumed but there might be new problems. There is no "period" for any of the possible ways you could go, or "entirely wrong". And there are a variety of reasons to do any of them from saving the environment to saving your oil, and levels of difficulty, from simple to complicated. Best to just read up on PCV systems and choose a method. You could block the lower hose while you're reading.

You can block the lower hose. It will just be a 60's style crankcase vent. Blowby will get sucked in to the engine and burned instead of sucked in to your nose. Blocking the lower hose will be one level better than what you have now, but not as good as full "positive": vent system. If you read down to the bottom of the AZC link he describes blocking the lower hose.

You could block that lower hose and run a hose from the valve cover to the air filter, like AZC describes. http://www.arizonazcar.com/cableinstall.html

Actually, big-picture and big-money wise, the type of connector is really barely worth a thought. It's just two wires, easily cut and spliced. One of those mental traps we fall in to. Funny.

If you're running stock engine control then you'll want to match specs on the the coil so the ECU can handle it correctly. Thought you might be running Megasquirt.

Modern coilpacks (actually all engine bay components) are designed to handle very high engine bay temperatures for 100,000+ miles. Seems unlikely that they would be overheating. Might be in the same boat when you're done. Forgot to say that another reason for overheating might be bad ignition settings. Too much "dwell".

There's no significant drop in RPM when the meter reading drops. The load on the alternator would jump, like it does when you turn on the wipers, fan and headlights, causing RPM to drop a bit as the engine strains to turn the alternator. Seems more like you have an open circuit at the meter leads, or on the circuit the leads are attached to.