pparaska

Stony, I'd try to support it at least in 4 points on each side of the car, a total 8 points. If you're undoing the structural support of the bottom of the car, then I'd prop up the front and rear of the car on sets of jack stands, whatever, to make sure nothing moves about that hinge you create about the center of the car by removing floor material. That's what I did anyway. [ October 02, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Jim, you may have an alternator that's has some sort of bypass in it to turn on the field as soon as it hits a certain (low) rpm. The idiot light is a very old idea, and yes, if the bulb burns out, it won't charge. Maybe a relay instead of the bulb, and then run a bulb or LED off the relay. I'd think an automotive relay would have comparable coil resistance to a bulb, and would last longer. Of course, you might want to fuse this with a small fuse also. BTW, I like idiot lights. Maybe that says something about me. [ September 28, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Jim, that stock steel bumper is about as good as a piece of cardboard. I doubt it would do much. It MIGHT spread the load a bit, but if it's much of a hit from the rear (or, someone oversteers and goes backwards into something with it!) then I doubt it would do much. Which is exactly why I'm using mine as a bumper cover and adding a beam behind it.

The DSM world has had their share of clutch probs on hopped AWD cars. I have one that's not very hopped up at all (just running 14psi boost is all) and I'm using the Centerforce dual friction (CFDF) setup and it works fine. I believe it's actually just a stock pressure plate (from comparing the two) but the only difference is the dual friction clutch disc. Works fine for me, but then I'm not putting much more than stock torque through it. People that do make lots of torque with the AWD DSM have fried the CFDF quickly. The guys that race DSMs seem to use a 4 puck clutch. It's like an ON/OFF switch. Not much fun on the street.

Nathan, I had that same idea about a bumper behind the sheet metal. I also like the look of "no rear bumper" on the Z. I think that this can be done. Cut the stock bumper mounting brackets from the rails behind the sheet metal and add (weld in) a piece of curved sqaure tubing to the bttom of the rails. Good idea! I think this will work well. Instead, I took the center of a stock 240Z bumper, added some short tapered ends that run out to the corner of the car, but don't wrap around, and took 3/4" of depth out of the bumper. I also had it painted the same color of the car. I need to get it mounted and take some pics. Anyway, I have made heavy duty mounts that it bolts to and that also has a piece of bent 1" sched 40 black pipe that fits inside of it. You can't see it, but it is the actual bumper, and the stock piece is more like a bumper cover .

Jim, if you use a big enough wire from the alternator output and run it to the pos battery cable at the starter solenoid, the sensing wire probably doesn't need to go to the battery, but just the alt output. I'd use at least 10 gage wire, but I used some 8 gage wire. I also ran 8 gage wire from the bottom pivot bolt (put a ring lug between the alt case and the bottom alt mount) back to the negative battery cable end that connects to the engine block near the starter. There can be voltage drops on both sides of the circuit, and my POR-15'd alternator mount didn't seem to have good continuity between the alt and the block where it's mounted. Details, details...

I looked around a little bit and couldn't find a 1:1 version. One thing I've heard people do is run it inside the car and pop through a hole in the tunnel to minimize the curvature of the cable.

John, I understand the opinion of your driveline specialist on u-joints versus CVs. The problem is to get a Z to launch well, it seems the trick is a soft-ish rear suspension, and there you are going to have a bunch of squat. That means a bunch of angle on the u-joints, and where the angle will be largest depends on how high the diff is raised. If you raise it by removing all the mount material above the mustache bar, then this minimizes the u-joint angle at full squat to some degree, but then the u-joints will have a larger angle when it's not squatting. Don't raise the rear of the diff, and the angle will be large when at full squat. I think this is the reason the CV is a better solution for the rear of the Z or any other IRS in most instances. Put a stiff set of springs and shocks/cartridges in the rear and you can keep the u-joint angle variation due to suspension travel to a minimum. But I keep hearing that this is not a good recipe for a good launch in the Z.

I agree with TimZ. I don't have the calcs in front of me, but the average diameter and the surface area matter. The diameter is a large contributor. I'm having problems with the turbo small engine needing more clutch than a V8. What matters is the torque on the clutch - that depends on what the engine can put out and the gear the car is in (the overall ratio). Yes, the shock of the turbo coming on tap does have a slight effect, but it's the torque that matters most. Sorry, one of the resident mechanical engineers HAD to pipe up on that one.

If that's a 75 motor, it may have severely dished pistons and a low compression unless you use 64 cc chambers. Even still the round dish takes away torque producing quench in the chamber. I don't mean to be negative, just passng some info along.

Terry, I don't know if the bulb really matters. It needs to have a few ohms of resistance is all, I believe. Also, if you've hooked the field wire to +12V, I am confused. Usually the field source wire IS the idiot light wire! You sure you don't mean the voltage sensing wire? That's the other small wire of the two small ones (the large wire being the alt output). If the battery is relocated, it's a good idea to run the voltage sensing wire all the way back to at least where the pos battery cable ends at the solenoid. If the charge wire has enough voltage drop (resistance), the battery will never get fully charged. Guys, I don't know what's been up with the site lately. Sometimes I can't open a post, etc. Maybe SuperDan knows?

I've seen the bent seat belt bar done before (Andrew did something like this.) It just doesn't look as clean to me, and I couldn't handle the roll hoop NEXT to the seat - it had to be behind it for my seats. Jim, I don't know - I think it MIGHT be better to take that crush zone out of the rear of the car - the gas tank/cell is where that crush zone is! Mike Kelly is living proof that having the bars go all the way back keeps that from happening! I may add some from the top of the tower to the back of the car later. I also run a removeable strut tower bar.

Yes. Back in the early eighties there was a somewhat local 67-ish Chevy II running around with a 6-71 huffer being fed by twin turbos. I don't know how well that worked, but it's been done. That car was in the local "World of Wheels" shows and HotRod magazine or Car Craft.

The major mode of heat transfer inside and outside of a radiator and IC to the surroundings is through convection. Radiation has a back seat, but is not insignificant. Radiation is all about the emissivity of the surface (polished AL being low emissive) and area. The product of these governs radiant heat transfer, as well as the properties of air and temperature differences. Worry about getting more presented area and air flow to present to the IC first, as well as an sufficiently large volume and efficient internal design and good conduction between the fins and tubes, then worry about radiant transfer later.

Per David Vizard, mismatch at the bottom of the exhaust port can actually be a good thing - anti-reversion, that is. The top of the port (and the sides at the top) should match well, but having the port step downward to the header at the bottom of the port is actually a good thing for low speed torque, and doesn't hurt high speed power. However, that mismatch at the side of the port and header tube shown in the picture doesn't look good. If you haven't read Vizards book on modifying SBC heads, I highly recommend it. There's alot more in that book than just info on how to hog out material in the ports. The entire breathing of the engine is discussed. Great book.

I love the car, hate the trans! I'd go after that retaining bolt, most likely. But get on dsm.org and use the search engines, faq, etc. to look this stuff up. Lot's of stuff in those VFAQs (visual FAQs) and past email digests, etc. You might want to join that mail list and ask about this - lots of knowledge on that group. But check the FAQs first - that group hates old newbie questions - you'll get an RTF (read the FAQ) if it's a common question. You might consider doing a tranny swap for a 94 tranny if you can find one and yours is hosed. The 94 had alot of the bad tranny stuff fixed.

Maybe I missed it, but I haven't seen the Mitsu 4G3D (?) Eclipse Turbo 2.0l engine. The engine has been used to take 3100+ pound AWD Talons and Eclipses into the 9 second 1/4 mile. One guy (David Buschur) built a RWD Eclipse using this engine and a Powerglide. There is a large aftermarket for this engine and it is quite strong internally.

I love it. I wouldn't change a thing but to cover the center of the wheel caps. Those flares and dished star wheels look absolutely menacing! I love it!

Check with Mcleod. You can go with a stockish pressure plate and a dual friction disc. Mcleod sells just the disc for many applications. I have a Ford 1-1/16" spline disc (Mcleod dual friction) between a 1LE Camaro flywheel and pressure plate. I hope a Ford vs Chevy war doesn't start out in my bellhousing

YEs, that was the problem - 2D. I like! I've actually been saying to myself that a Bullit Mustang wouldn't be too bad for a daily driver .

You're probably in the 300-325 hp range. Torque could be as high as 350 ft lbs. But Ross is right - it's how you shift that trans and how big and sticky the tires are that really make the difference. Shift it easy (no side stepping the clutch and no powershifting) and it will last a good while.

Sounds like you have a sneek circuit through that relay for the hi beam light. You might try a diode in series with that relay to let it only get a signal (ground) from the hi/lo beam switch.

Thanks for that info Dan. I'll be looking at those RE730s for my DD.

Just my opinion, but they look too "non-dish" to me. I'm an old guy, showing my age I guess.

Mike, The 240Z headlight wiring goes something like this: -the power comes into the car on that big white or white/red wire, -then to the head light on/off switch, -then splits out to the headlight fuses (left and right) -then to the common on the headlights, -then the high beam filament side of both headlights are tied together back to the high/low beam switch (one pole) and the low beam filaments side of both headlights are tied together back to the other pole of the high/low beam switch. -The arm of the high/low beam switch is then grounded. So make sure that you have the hi/lo beam switch hooked up right. This is one area that the designers of the 240Z REALLY screwed things up. That has got to be the stupidest headlight circuit I've ever seen. HTH,