pparaska

Call me a worry wart (I am one), but hard mounting an Aluminum racing radiator to a flexing radiator support MAY bring troubles down the road. These things aren't the most robust structural designs and Aluminum, well it fatigues no matter what. I think rubber mounting these things is a VERY GOOD idea for all but purpose built racing machines like Scottie's. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Man that sucks. What does the management think about all this? A console shouldn't be too hard to find if you don't car about cracks. I've had good luck with Clark Z Cars of Arizona (clarkzcarsofaz@webtv.net).

Yep. That's the place where the body is soldered together at the outer surface. There are several layers of steel in that area, as can be seen in the Datsun Shop manual. The inside is welded together. I think a good thing to do would be to melt out all the solder and Mig weld the area and grind/smoot it down. Wished I'd done that. It seems the street rodder guys do this all the time. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

There's a test where they put a huge weight at the end of the hose and swing it around. Not sure what the specs are on failure mode, but usually, the hoses that aren't certified just haven't been tested but are probably o.k. I got the Russel hoses (P/N 8655) for the 240Z and they are DOT legal. They have a sleeve of plastic that extends out of the fitting down the hose an inch that is supposedly there to keep the fitting from chaffing on the hose and abraiding (sp?) it. I ordered these from Summit, after calling Russel for the correct part number. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Doing the front control arm pickup point raising that JTR recommends does away with the crappy bumpsteer that the Z has. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

As soon as I get off my duff, I will send SuperDan the pictures of Terry's car that I've scanned in just recently. He sent me some 30 or so pictures and I need to select which ones to send to Dan. Look for Terry's car in the Member's ride section. A truly beautiful piece of art and engineering work.

Good call on the mechanical advantage and the firewall flexing, etc. The decrease in the mechanical advantage (and therefore the increase in the pedal force needed to depress the clutch) is exactly the inverse of the increase in fluid volume moved in the equation I gave above. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

According to Mardy at Raxles.com, they are breaking the "stick" of the halfshafts, not the joints. He said he has been making replacement halfshafts with custom sticks that aren't as thin, nor stepped down so quickly that are living much better.

It sure seemed to me that the guy that posted about his stroker not putting out power you would expect even from a well built 2.8 meant it wasn't tuned or set up correctly. There does seem to be some kind of mythical thing on Zcar.com about the 3.1L being some incredible leap in performance over a 2.8. We all know that if they were built with the same level of preparation and correct parts matching, that the 3.1 would run by a factor of (3.1/2.8) better than the 2.8. There is no magic. In fact, the rod to stroke ratio could actually be seen as less benificial for a high rpm motor if you used the 2.8 rods in the 3.1L. That said, I was down in Huntsville this week and met up with Morgan. I'll tell ya, the sound of a lopey L6 and then as it revs throught the gears is very tantalizing ... It brought back fond memories of my L6 days. Sweet little motor it is. And no, that little isn't necessarily derogatory either. Some of us like REAL tons of torque, only available from boost or LARGE increases in displacement. You end up with a different car though, and one that may not be for everyone. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Cool! I want that data on the underhood pressures. Can't wait to see pictures of the hairy Z .

I'm sure Scottie will chime in - he's had both a V8 Z and now has a GNZ. The GNZ is not documented, but then Scottie can give pointers. Someday I hope to get a ride in his car - with that V6 mounted so far back it's got to handle nice! 400+ hp (I can't remember what he's got it running) in a Z is quick, no matter how it's done!

Someone on one of the Z lists said to get some seals like you put in storm windows and staple them to the existing dried out rubbers on the outer window/door trim. I bought some that looks like it'd work, but it's a light gray. I was going to try to mount it so that it's not seen from outside the car, below the top edge of the original rubber. I'm thinking about just biting the bullet and spending the money on the stock replacements though. I don't know if it's worth the trouble to try the method above. My time is worth something, I'm told. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Michael (our resident aerodynamicist) will hopefully chime in soon. I'm sure raking the windsheild would help some, but the slope of the back window is important as well. Now changing THAT would be a bit of work! The way it was explained to me was a good rule of thumb is that asking the air to turn more than about 7 degrees is asking for flow separation. I'm sure I've missed some nuances here or totally messed this up, but I think the idea is sound - decreasing the angle the hatch makes with the horizontal-ish direction of the air coming over the roof would keep the flow attached and get rid of the large vortex behind the roof/hatch line (or a bit further down the hatch). Actually, the way Michael explained this to me (while sitting at my kitchen table drawing some sketches), a spoiler creates a stagnant vortex at the lower end of the hatch that serves to let the flow separate up higher on the hatch and do away with some of the vortices at the back of the car. Man, I know I've screwed this up now. Michael, help!

Rick, thanks for joining in. I see you work for Nissan-usa as an engineer and love V8Zcars. Any chance you can get them to put some cubes that rev in that new Z? Welcome! Tell us about your car! (in a new thread) ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

That part I understood. I was just concerned about getting the same exact gear meshing when swapping another carrier into the case that had the 3.545:1 pinion in it.

Frank, thanks for the compliment. Patience - that's a nice way of putting it . I think of it as anal retentiveness . Therapy for this mental malady is only a few years down the road, I believe. You think I'm patient? You should talk to my wife - Waiting ten years for me to get out of the garage - now THAT'S patience. The woman's a saint, I tell ya. I fully understand not wanting to tackle building a full mandrel bent system laying on the garage floor. It was fun though - creating a tight exhaust that should flow well with some pieces of curved and straight pipe is a bit like art work - you get a real feeling of accomplishment when it's done. The difference is hobby versus build it and drive it, I guess. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

This has come up before, so you ought to use the search button at the top of the forum to search for 280ZX and see what you get. I don't think the 280ZX needs alot of reinforcement as compared to the 240Z for running 350ish ftlb of torque. More than that and a roll bar tied in well is always good. Ross C and jhaag should be able to help. Although the JTR focuses only on the earlier Z's, alot of the info is still useful for a ZX conversion as well, especially if you're going with a SBC. Weclome! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Lone, thanks for the plug and assuming I was a gentleman . I built mine pretty quick and dirty, but it was plenty strong and stable for a Z shell. I did put the suspension on it at the end, and it didn't break. There's a picture off of the main page of my site. I built the wood stands, but had a professional welder do the welding on the steel parts that would hold up the car. Chris's rotisserie is much nicer. No wood , and very well engineereed and built. On this sandblasting topic, I have a few thoughts. If I were to do it again, and my driveway was not sloped so much toward the street, I'd tie two rotisserie stands together, put wheels on them, and then roll the car and all out into the driveway, etc. Heck, I might even do it with the sloped driveway and use a come-along to transit the car in and out of the garage. I had a guy come over with a gas powered compressor on his truck and a pot type sandblaster. He had a hard time seeing what he was doing in the garage and missed alot of spots - not really his fault. Those sand blast helmets are very tough to see out of, especially when the sand erodes the "window" you look out of even tiny bit. I went and rented a sandblaster and went over the stuff he missed, after I saw what the situation was. You need lots of light to be able to see with that sandblast hood on and there's nothing better than diffuse light from the Sun for that! I had put up a plastic sheet barrier between the car and the part of that garage that has the door adjoined to the house to keep the sand dust out. That worked, but having 4-6 inches of sand under the car when done was pretty messy. If I were to do it again, I'd put alot of effort into getting the car outside. Oh yeah, if you've cut the roof, floors, or rocker panels off the car already, I'd do something to stiffen it up before putting it on the rotisserie. BTW, I used the sand residue in the spreader to help break up the clay soil in the yard. . The paint chips, well, there wasn't very much of that stuff that you could see. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Oh yeah, the ring bolts again. I forgot they were 12 vs 10 posi to non-posi. I was concerned about not getting the gears to mate close enough to where they were with the non-posi carrier and ending up with gear howl. Oh well, I guess if somebody does make up some 10 to 12 mm ring bolt sleeves, I'd be interested in a set.

I have a similar question, about a set of R200s I have. I have a 3.7:1 300ZX LSD R200 that needs a few clutch parts (no biggie). The issue is that the edges of the pinion gear are sharp, and I believe that this is not such a good thing as far as a determinant of the condtion of the ring/pinion. I have a 3.545:1 non-posi R200 that I believe the ring/pinion is good in. The question arises, can I take the posi unit and swap it into the no posi case with the 3.545:1 gears. I realize that I should be very careful to get the ring in the same position as it was with the non-posi carrier, and will probably need shims I might not have to do that. But since the pinion depth won't be changed on the 3.545:1 case, and I'm just swapping the carrier units, I should be able to get the ring and pinion to mesh with the posi carrier the way they did with the non-posi carrier, no? This set of diffs are a backup, as I already have a good 3.7:1 LSD R200 in the car. Sure would be nice to have a spare though, and to be able to change the gear to a bit higher ratio (lower numerically) as I have a 3.27:1 first gear. As it is, I'll probably never use first in spirited driving. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

WOW! That's a sweet ride. The detailing, bodywork, bracketry are like artwork! Did you have to do any sheetmetal work to get the procharger to fit? ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Mike Kelly, Chris, and I were in a junkyard today looking for seats, and Mike saw a Z32 w/o an engine and said he'd like to do a V8 in one some day. I't sure looked like there would be room for a V8. Chris mentioned the Ford SBC for size and I agreed that'd be good since there'd be not room to move the engine back from stock to help the CG weight distribution issue. Maybe an LS1? ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

No biggie. A year or so ago, I thought of backspacing and offset the same way as you stated. Sometimes that 1/2" wheel lip is important though.

Actually, that's not quite right. Check this out, I "borrowed" it from the Fiske web site: Backspacing is measured from the inboard lip of the rim to the mounting surface. Note that this the part of the "OVERALL RIM WIDTH" inboard of the mounting surface, including the lip width, not just the "RIM WIDTH" part. So the calculations are: Backspace = Offset + (Rim width/2) + (lip width) or Backspace = Offset + (Overall Rim Width/2) and Offset = Backspacing - (Rim Width/2) - lip width or Offset = Backspace - (Overall Rim Width/2) I thank Jim Biondo and Fiske for keeping me straight on this. BTW, the lip width is usually 1/2" (~13mm) on most modern AL wheels, so it makes quite an impact if you're trying to fit that last little bit of wheel against a spring perch, etc. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Yeah, POR-15 is a polyurethane, but it's probably not flexible enough for that. Sounds like an experiment is in order .