pparaska

I am chilled. I'm just sticking up for what this site was built on. Why do we have an L6 forum? That's a good question. There was a 6cyl forum, and then they all got broken up. And I'm all for tweaking whatever motor you want, Nissan or otherwise. But having a Nissan engine under your hood isn't a necessary condition for someone to be brand-loyal. It may have to do with finances, what they know the most about, what they get a deal on, what aftermarket parts they can get worked on easiest/cheapest, etc., just as you point out. Now, I'm beginning to wonder where you're coming from. Are all people who put V8's in their Zs rednecks in your judgement? I hope that's not what you meant, because that kind of negativity isn't needed here. I wrote the mission statement and I know what it says. As a moderator, I have to come in and set things straight every once and a while to keep things going in the intended direction. That's my perogative. If I'm not all nice and happy-happy-joy-joy when I do it, that's my perogative. And it's fine if he got a deal on an Infinit V-8. I'd love to see that swap! But the way he did it was out of line and I said so. Then the "all Nissan" comment. This kind of behavior is NOT what we want on HybridZ.

"all Nissan" Show me some reason, other than silly brand loyalty, that this sentiment means anything? We're here to make these cars better, not to worry about paying homage to Nissan, Chevy, etc. Read the mission statement. I'm serious about this. HybridZ will NOT be a place where people are allowed to say "it's all Nissan" and defend it. It's not free speech, and it's not a democracy. HybridZ was started to GET AWAY from that BS, and as long as I'm a moderator, I'm not going to let it slide. There are plenty of places on the net you can say "all Nissan" like it's some kind of virtue, but this isn't one of them.

Lone, I built the JTR mount as described (I'd do something much different if I did this again). I added 1/4" steel plate to the floor between the tunnel and my subframe connectors, with 1/8"x1" barstock infront and behind that (1" in the vertical direction) connecting the subframe connector and the tunnel. So it's like a 5 sided box with a vert beefy bottom. I match-drilled holes in the floor-1/4"-plate to match the four holes in each end of the JTR mount, and used snug fitting bolts to tie the mount to the 1/4" plate. So now the JTR mount is part of the structure of the car, tieing the (sub)frame rails together. Look at the bottom right photo HERE to see what I'm talkin about.

Al, great minds think alike! I saw a Civic the other day with some nice OE mirrors that looked like the rake would work well on a Z.

I did the Tercel mirror onto my driver's side, but I need to re-mount it. Hopefully I'll have that done next week and I'll post about it. Pretty easy though.

Thanks for the comps, but you'd want somebody with experience like Mikelly, johnc, etc. driving my car - my hands are ham fists on the wheel! I like the idea of something like a SCC challenge. Some V8 Zs have been entered in the Grassroots Motorsports (mag) $2000, $2001, $2002 challenges, and did fairly well.

Well, I'm happy for you that you found a nice motor YOU want to put in for cheap - I'm all for ANY cool car project! But that doesn't mean that a comment like "all Nissan" doesn't come off as purist. I'll be posting something in the Announcements forum about how this place is run, what the rules mean, etc. I suggest everyone that hasn't been here a while read it. And yes, the founding fathers of this site and others here ARE sensitive to the "all Nissan" stuff. And we have formed this site for just that reason.

Finished? Never. Driveable (made up a word!) Soon? Yes, lots of pictures - when the interior is done and I have it cleaned up. BTW, if anyone lives near me and would like to do a QUALITY photo shoot, I'd appreciate it with beer, wine, food, etc. My photography skills are, well, pretty sorry!

Jon, sorry if I came off sounding harsh or anything - I didn't mean to! Just trying to explain what goes on down at the diff and the mount. Being a mechanical engineer makes me always analyze this stuff a bit deeply. Yeah, I know all about metamorphizing. My car has seen many changes in design without turning a tire! I'd love to see pics of what you come up with!

I'm using an old style Chevy clutch setup in a straight up Lakewood blowproof bellhousing, even though I'm using a Tremec 5spd (converted for GM use). I used a 91 Camaro 1LE option diaphram pressure plate. It's a bit stiffer than stock, but not very. With that I'm using a McLeod kevlar/organic (nee, "dual-friction") clutch disk. This was cheaper than the "centerforce" deal, but probably just as good. Centerforce is just so expensive for what you get.

Twisting about the pinion centerline is reacted by the mustache bar. The only loads the front of the diff see is the vertical reaction of the pinion on the diff case up front, pushing it up under acceleration. There's a bit of side to side, caused by u-joints or CV-joints being out of phase side to side (that could be handled by phasing them as you insert the side axles (u-joint halfshafts) or CV-shafts into the diff. Something below the diff. Well, I just left the crossmember there, since I had modified it earlier for duals with clearance. But the diff front end gets pushed up usually and the only reason it'd get pushed down would be doing hard acceleration in reverse. The GM diff mount is interlocking and should be able to handle that. The ground clearance issue is if you run dual exhaust or a 3" pip with the front diff crossmember, you have to run it low under that crossmember. If you removed the center, you could raise the exhuast. Scottie's strap has metal to metal contact when the stock mount stretches under acceleration. I wanted rubber to be compressed above the diff nose, hence the Ron Tyler mount.

Hmm. Purist police here. I don't understand how it being all Nissan means anything. Please read the opening page "Mission" statement. Purist junk like "all Nissan" has no place here. If you're kidding, fine, but I don't see a smiley. If you're not, leave that garbage out of any posts here and take it to Zcar where that sentiment is welcomed.

Dan, I agree, it IS a Ron Tyler mount. His idea, AFAIK. I also agree that lowering the front of the diff is another great advantage! The issue with getting it too well aligned is that if there is less than say 1 degree of total u-joint angle, the roller bearings can brinnel the u-joint cross surface. But don't worry, with a V8 old Z, you have lots of things working against you getting this low of a u-joint angle: - short driveshaft (especially with a JTR position) - the diff is offset so that the pinion is to the driver's side of the tunnel. - if you do like JTR and move the engine to the passenger side, this and the above diff location issue makes a 1 degree or more u-joint angle in the horizontal plane. - low engine location (JTR) usually means a low trans output shaft. - high angle on diff (until you lower the front with a Ron Tyler or other custom mount, and/or raise the rear of the diff My car, with the Ron Tyler mount, raised mustache bar (cut urethane top bushings) deletion of the JTR engine crossmember spacers, raising the tranny tail up as far as possible with the Tremec, all added up to a total of about a 1 degree vertical component for the u-joint angle, and about 3/4 degree for the horizontal component, giving a total u-joint angle of about 1-1/4 degrees. It'd be hard to get it much smaller than that!

Maybe if the left and right caster are 2.7 and 3.6 respectively, that's what's causing it? As Tim said, shouldn't it be opposite to counter road crown? If so, road crown and that caster set up might be adding up to a pull to the left? I think Scottie is getting to the idea that maybe clamping down the mounts is compressing or bending something in the rack housing making it bind? Could be. Have you tried disconnecting the steering from the rack? Is the steering column binding? Are the tie rods at there angular travel limit due to lowering?

Thanks for that info Larry! I posted this on Chevytalk.com in the Performance forum and someone replied that they'd done what you said might be possible - 600 body on a 750 baseplate. The guy said it worked well for him. This is what I may try doing, but it seems that his suggestions for trying a few things (idle fuel restrictions, powervalve change, lower the float level) are warranted before I start machining carb parts! My next choice after his tuning suggestions would be to move all the good parts from the 3310 to the 1850 baseplate/main body, since I have confirmation that all the parts should move over. After that, I can see that maybe the 600 main body / 750 baseplate might be good for added signal at idle. Any idea where you read about that? Thanks! Pete

Mike, I'll be sending you a check for one soon. Hold one for me please.

O.k., so I've finally given in - the 750 vac secondary (list 3310) is probably too big to get a decent idle out of with my 9.7:1 compression and 274/280 (236/240@.050) .501"/.510" Comp solid lifter extreme cam. I'm running a Holley 300-36 dual plane. The idle is VERY rich (idle screws change the idle quality, so the plates aren't opened too much, plus I measured that), and it loads up at idle and needs to be held at 2500+ for 10 seconds or so to clear it out. I've tried an 8.5 power valve (new) and put the primary jets to 70, added a secondary metering block and put in 74 jets there. But that stuff should have little effect on idle mixture. The float levels are set to the bottom of the site plug holes. I have 5 psi of pressure at the firewall mounted regulator, according to a new VDO pressure gage. So I'm thinking the throttle bores are just too big with the OE venturis to get a decent signal with a 1000 rpm idle @ 13 in/HG vacuum. I have a 600 vac sec Holley ( list 1850 ) that I could put on, but it needs a rebuild. I'm thinking I'd love to swap the good parts from the 750 to it, if possible. I think that the secondary metering block, center hung float bowls, screws, fuel line, vac sec spring quick change cover, and electric choke mechanism MIGHT swap over. Anyone have any ideas which of these parts I have on my 750 (3310) will go on my 600 (1850) ? TIA,

Mike, I'm interested in getting one, but I need to first know if it's a direct bolt together install or whether machining of the side gears is necessary (per the Honda page in the other thread). Thanks

One thing I like about the above-the-nose differential mount that Ron Tyler made me is that if you want to, you could remove the center of the stock front diff crossmember, leaving only the ends that hold the front control arm bushings to the unibody. That way you can run exhaust easier. This is what Ron has done on one of the cars he built. If you're going to the trouble of building something like a pinion snubber, why not just build the mount I have and gain exhaust clearance?

Tim, you bumm! Just kidding. I got it very close to finished thrashing to go to MSA, but Life happened at home (lots of honey-do's) since then so I've spent maybe an hour since before the MSA event working on it. Yes, that's KILLING ME! As soon as I get it done, I will snap some digital pics and update my web site and signature! One of the ideas I got from the MSA show was to use 280ZX side marker lights. One of our nice members here is sending me a set, so I hope to put them on before I "debut" it on the web, etc. Man, I hate those 240Z side marker lights! Talk about a styling screw up! I'm having some electrical problems and I need to build/put a smaller carb on the motor as well, so it may be a few weeks, the way things are going.

Thanks JIm, I'd forgotten about that car! Ken's (the owner) phone number is on the page, so give him a call. I believe he still wants to sell it. Here's the link: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pparaska/kenz4sale.htm

Thanks, I wish I could claim that I made it, or point you to a supplier, but I bought a custom unit there. Jim Biondo made that out of thin walled AL tubing and had a race shop weld the threaded inserts into it. Then he attached it to cut down Jim Cook racing strut bar mounts. He sanded the tubing down and had it clear coated. I'd love to make similar ones to go to the firewall someday, or replace the entire setup with a light weight AL set. The strut bar I have is SUPER light, and since it's straight and a fairly large diameter (1+ "), it's not going to bend or buckle, and I doubt it compresses much. How about somebody make a set like this out of AL or Carbon Fiber tubing? You can by carbon fiber tubing ready-made (.e.g., http://www.apsltd.com/depts/dept1542.asp) and all you'd have to do is bond threaded AL roundstock into the ends. Heck, I bet one of these race suppliers can get lengths of that stuff made up WITH the ends installed and then you'd just add heim joints. Just make sure you make the inserts several inches long, as the ends of the tube deform strangely under tension/compression (actually wrote my master's thesis on that topic!) Personally, being an ex-composite materials engineer, I abhor carbon fiber for LOOKS. To me a strut bar would be a PERFECT application, as you want strength, high stiffness, and light weight in this application, all are attributes of carbon fiber composites.

Use some really nice high strength steel too! I like johnc's suggestion on the 1/2 Chevy lugs too! And thurem is correct, some of the (3rd gen?) F-body hubs will fit right onto the Nissan spindle.

's o.k. I won't tell a soul Jim, this is what I did, in a way, but I cut out about 1/3 of the spare tire well (thinking I would put a mini spare in the remaining area - gave up on that with my big brakes needing a big wheel). Check out the pictures on my site (under exhaust mods) and/or come by my house to see it in person (I'm near rt 29 and rt 216). I'll send you an email. I just didn't want to bother with a fuel cell. If I ever go to EFI, I'll build/buy a surge tank and hook it to the stock tank with a pump between them.

Thanks everybody. I'll be putting one in one of the head pipes, right after the block huggers.