pparaska

I got mine today (Thanks Mike!) Boy was I surprised. Two little hunks of some kind of metal - looked like it was powdered metal of some kind. I was expecting springs to go in there too. I guess if it works, it works! Anybody installed one yet? Did you have to machine/sand/grind the side gears? BTW, the instructions don't say how much play they should have once installed. That seems wierd, as I thought that'd be critical.

Sounds great - where are the pics? !!

Yep - been there. I bought mine from Energy suspension, right in the store in Pheonix. I had to cut the larger diameter that you can see once installed to about half it's thickness. What a pain!

Jeremy, you coming up too!? Drag Mark Icard along, and all the other NC area crew! The Mid-Atlantic HybridZ bash is going to be a blast! Oh, I bet you can make it in 2 hours 55 minutes

If you have or can get the use of a 0.0001" graduated dial bore gage, measure the cylinder it goes in. Then go to Summit with a 0.0001" graduated 4-5" micrometer and measure a few pistons to find one (of the same brand and part number) that has a diameter that will yeild an acceptable piston to bore clearance. Summit should be able to provide that info from the manufacturers catalog. Once you have that piston, just have it balanced to within a 5 or so grams of another piston from your set and you'll be fine.

I've read that the best place for the H- or X-pipe is where paint would burn off the head pipe. This is usually somewhere in front of or under the transmission. But there's no room for that in a car like the Z. My X-pipe is just behind the tranny. As far as muffler placement, one of those links said as far rear as possible. But that's for performance. As Mike C pointed out, having a tailpipe behind the muffler(s) helps to let the muffler(s) muffle. Hence, my post about adding something to the outlets of my rear-mounted mufflers.

Mark,everyone, Sometimes I get my panties in a bunch and just go through the lastest page on the forums and shuffle posts into the correct forums. Then someone will, post "Hey, what happened to my post. So then I learned to make an announcement that I moved things and to look in the correct forums where they belong. I guess I just haven't done it in a while. Others (moderators) can do it to, but it takes time, etc. To me the big thing is that when using the search button, it'd be nice to just look in the transmission forum for tranny info. But I know damn well that if I do that, I'd be missing alot of info that was posted here or in another forum. Oh well, I think self-policing is the answer. In other words, be careful what you post where. Another issue is cross-posting. You know, someone wants everyone to see their urgent question so they post it to a bunch of forums. That makes a mess and all the responses aren't in one thread so it's less useful to everyone.

Owen, yeah, that part was a cast iron hunk. DAW/Oltmann: I found a site that says the valve that Nissan is using in that muffler uses Inconel to survive the heat. You might want to look at the deisel truck "jake brake" industry to see if parts for one of those might be good.

Supposedly, even the short Z432 style spoiler (my favorite) or the BRE style one that some of the mainstream vendors have will create enough of a stationary vortex over the lower hatch area to help with the exhaust problem. I hope it does (I have a Z432 style one on my Z).

I pulled my suspension first when putting it on the Rotisserie (but that's easy, as an assembly, there aren't many bolts/nuts to remove). When I was ready to put the car back on the ground, I did put the front and rear suspension on the car, but only at last, and only had minimal undercar hardware (parking brake, fuel, brake lines) on. I also left the differential and halfshafts out. The idea was that holding up all this weight from the ends was tough on the mount points and and the ends of the unibody that weren't designed to be loaded like that. I only left it up like that for a day or two before resting it on the ground.

John, thanks for that input. It'll be interesting designing a bracket to weld to the bar to make the eye bolt be in tension and not shear. But I agree that's what should be done. I can't remember for sure, but OG Racing in Manassas VA has a picture of a BMW that was in an on-track "bump-bump" and it shows the windshield broken up pretty bad. I asked about it and they said that they use that picture to show people why brand X's racing harness should not be used. They explained that the belts give in the first "bump" and loosen the driver enough to let them move too much. It might have even failed on the second "bump". In other words, the belts gave the first time someone was thrown into the belts, but the second time they didn't do their job. I'm not certain, but I think Brand X was Scroth.

Cool deal. Man, the housing supply is incredibly bad in my area. Hopefully in yours too, so you can get busy!

Heh, manicure, shmanicure. I don't need no stinkin' manicure! Yeah, 5 16 hour days of thrashing in the garage will tear the hell out of your hands and cuticles! I'm not sure what year they're off of. But I believe it's mid 90s. Look for non-remote adjustable mirrors, like you'd see on a Tercel DX. Thanks for the comps (and the razzin') guys!

I'm not really knocking that system, but it seems a bit extreme for a way to do automatic "cutouts", kind of like what Owen is talking about. Those have been around in JC Whitney for along time (or used to be) and could be used to the same effect. DAW, I agree that your method sounds better. Throwing a jake brake on the exhaust like that just seems strange to me. I guess it gets the job done, but for all that complication, I'd rather seen the problem solve with something like your talking about.

Jim, those flat spots are from Scottie hangin' the hoops for half way down the track and them having to "catch up" all the sudden when the hit the pavement but aren't turning yet . Kind of like what happens to an airplane's tires when it first touches down . Scottie, I've heard of a bunch of weird things causing this. I think Dragonfly's post needs to be paid attention to. It seems my years of reading about this problem on Z's points to play or slop in many places that can be the cause of this vibration. No tire/wheel is perfectly balanced or perfectly round /concentric with the bolt circle or hub center. Your rack bushing situation would be one of the first places to look. Also, follow the tighten, back off, tighten procedure for the wheel bearings in the Z shop manual. I've heard of both of these as being a problem with vibration in the front of the Z.

Umm... Things are looking up, huh? Sorry about your brother. Hope you feel better, and what's a contractor's license going to allow you to venture into? Lot's o' $$$$ so you can fund a nice fast HybridZ after all the bills are paid, I hope!

Wow, that's pretty incredible (that last link). I'd need two, and they'd be best after the muffs (according to the article). I'm thinking there might be an easier way to skin this cat... What about a spring loaded baffle up inside the muffler output? Exhaust pressure would push it open. Wow, that sounds a bit silly - just thinking out loud.

240Ztt replied with info on this place: http://www.okinawaimportmotorsports.com/2002/parts/engine/main.htm But I clicked edit and lost it! Sorry dude! That's what you get with an ADMIN that clicks "Edit" instead of "QUOTE". Duh. I was originally responding that for $3800 US, an RB26ETT seemed damn good. How much to boost it from 300hp to 500 or 600hp?

Yep, I'm all for that! My next options are to put something in the flanged connections just before the mufflers. Good idea. My car is as "anti-rice" as I can make it. No non-weight saving carbon fiber, no big tip, no glitz, except for the wheels and underhood goodies. Just my way, I guess. The mufflers are painted with a high temp flat black paint, including those dinky 2.5" outlets! Rice is a long fad I don't want to be part of! 415cfm / 2.2 = 188.6 hpSo one muffler is only good for 188hp, without "losses", in the estimation of that equation. Two would be good for 377.2 hp. I'm willing to give up a few horsies to get some quiet and stealth. Anyone seen theses wire mesh cones you can put in a collector to "muffle" things? I'm thinking of trying something like that. The other thing is that I've heard two mufflers that identical can cause resonance - and I have some of that too. So mod one muffler or both differently and maybe get away from the resonance too.

I can't blame him. His wife's car is going to be faster and handle better than any minivan or SUV he could have bought for that money. I'm jealous! Yeah, the Z market is depressed comparatively, but the price of exclusivity is always high! Mike, get the hole saw out and start lightening that Stang!

Thanks GF! The main reason I went with this kind of mirror is to keep from mounting a mirror to the door panel. Even though the door is a bit reinforced in that area of stock mirror mounting, it always seems to be a place where rust starts or cracking of the steel occurs. I found out about these mirrors from Jim Biondo. But some of the late model Honda Civic mirrors look a bit better, to my eye.

The Turbo 350 project would be cool. But for many of our uses, having a 350 with 15 psi of intercooled boost may be more than many want or could use. My feeling is that a high efficiency axial blower or a Eaton (Magnuson) blower providing 10psi without an intercooler on a 400 hp small block would give you about 560 flywheel hp, and be very tractable around town. And you'd not have to deal with some of the heat, plumbing, controls issues a turbo would have. Of course, plumbing the intake to the rear of the SC may cause a few headaches of it's own. And you'd almost have to go with EFI to get it to work. But this needs to be compared with a probably a bit more HP from a 10psi turbo setup on a SBC. That said, Scottie is making tons of torque (like 500 ft-lbs?) at the starting line with his near stock GN setup. That's and incredible power to weight ratio in a light Z and probably unbeatable in the US for a bang for the buck setup! I'd love to have another Z with a GN setup!

Bill, there are many different sizes. Check out those on THIS SITE to get an idea of the range of possibilities of thickness and bore diameter. I think a typical crushed thickness is 0.039" and a typical bore size for a 4" bore application is about 4.1" to 4.2"

Well, I finally got one installed. The write up is HERE

Thanks LightningZ!