pparaska

Yeah, learned that from Mark and MAD. Take the wire gage number (say 8 gage) and add 4 to it to get the fusible link gage (12 in this case.

Guys, I have a driveshaft loop pic on my site. When I get a chance, I'll measure up the template I made of it and post it there. It was fairly simple to make out of flat steel (2" by 1/4"). I also put a urethane bumpstop on the strap above the differential. Another method would be a U-shaped bracket that bolts where the strap mount does, with a urethane bumpstop you could adjust down onto the diff.

I was talking to an old Z racer this weekend (he has a V8Z that was a blast to drive too!). We were talking about cooling and under hood temps. He said when he was part of an ITS race crew, they did alot of experimenting with this. He first recommended hood vents (a la 280Z). Then he mentioned some aero studies he'd seen. He said that on the race car they took a stock radiator to crossmember pan and sealed it up to the rails, radiator support, crossmember. Then he said that adding vents to the hood in front of the engine worked well, since it is a low pressure area. That coupled with sealing off all the holes in the radiator support got them great cooling and lowered the underhood temps. He also mentioned that building a duct to the cowl plenum through the upper firewall and running it to an enclosed element air cleaner to take advantage of the high pressure there and to get cooler intake charge. I'm looking at doing at least the last trick initially. The first idea about the hood vents sounds interesting. I think I might look for a rod and custom shop to punch some wide louvers on either side of the hood in front of the engine. Then maybe attach a scoop to it on the underside of the hood to direct air from the rad/fan towards the louvers.

I totally agree about fusing things near the battery (or alternator), but I use a different tact. I use fusible links for hard shorts and fuses for short, temporary overloads I've become "fusible link man". I put a fusible link right at the source. Since I don't seem to have any allegance to any maker , I use Ford-style fusible links (from the local parts store). They have a nice little plastic tab on the eyelet connector that has the gage of the link on it. I have a starter solenoid about where the stock battery top was, and I run the power for the stock electrical system from that with a 14 gage fusible link connected to the stock 10 gage white wire. I also have a 12 gage fusible link there, which connects to an 8 gage wire to the alternator, which has another 12 gage fusible link on it's output. Also, off the altenator output, I have another 2 gage fusible link and then 8 gage wire that runs to the fan/headlight relay box that's in front of the radiator support on the right side. Then the wires to go to the two fan windings (low and high speed). Then the common to the 60 amp fuse, then an 8 gage ground wire back to the engine block near the starter where the 2 gage battery cable from the rear mounted battery. So if I have a short anywhere from the remote starter solenoid on, it is either fused or fusible linked. The fuse is for short momentary overloads (hand stuck in the fan blades, etc. , and the fusible link is for major shorts. BTW, Mark at MAD enterprises (seems his web site is down) has the 12 gage fusible links (non-ford-style) and 8 gage "tuff wire". This stuff has really thick, tough insulation that is high heat capable and resistant to under hood chemcials. He's got some really cool electrical parts and kits, and some really good how-to. Call him up and get ready for him to talk your ear off about auto electrics (your nickel, he doesn't have an 800 number).

Hi John, I understand that a company (can't remember the name) still makes a "brute Force" clutch posi unit to fit the R200. Michael (HP Tech) is doing one of those - I think a new posi unit from them is less than $400. The Quaiffe is a great unit, but $1100 is steep, and it would warrant new ring and pinion, in my opinion, which is about $400 or more from Nissan. I'm not sure what size bolts the "Brute Force"? unit takes. Search on HP Tech here and find Michaels phone number if you're interested. Wheel diameter won't affect tire diameter if you go to the correct "series" of tire. There are a bunch of tools on the net for figuring this, but the equation to figure it is simple: Tire Dia. = 2*(section width (mm)*(series/100)/25.4) + wheel diameter. So a 225/60-14 is: 2*(225*(60/100)/25.4) + 14 = 24.6 inches You can play with other sizes to find a width, series and wheel diameter that would have the same (close) diameter. Hope this helps, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Dude, that is the sound of the needles in the u-joints going. Danger, Will Robinson. I was in a GTO once when we heard that under full throttle, and seconds later the FRONT u-joint went out (no driveshaft loop) beat a big hole in the floor, shortened the driveshaft by 2 feet, and broke the tranny case (Turbo 400). No fun. Time for new u-joints, I'd bet. You've got 6 of them to check though.

Hey Guys, I built a circuit that uses a several relays and diodes to do the logic and current carrying. With several switches an input to the circuit, I can have the two fan speeds come on in many different schemes, depending on how much I want the fan on and what state the Jet fan switch, the A/C Trinary (cooling fan portion) switch, the A/C clutch, and a manual override switch (4 modes) are at. Pretty complicated, but (4) 30/40 amp relays, on smaller relay, and 4 diodes were all that were needed. I have this mounted in an aluminum box in front of the radiator support (along with two headlight relays). Anyway, I will try it first with the fan coming on as little as possible, and see if I need to have it come on more often and/or at high versus low speed for some modes of the switches. The Mustang (late 90s) has it come on low speed when the engine temps are high, and High speed if the A/C is on. I can duplicate that setup with the flip of a switch on the relay box. That will probably be my first setting to try. I'm still weeks away from having it ready to start, but after that, alot of the car body, glass, interior, lights, etc. have to go on the shell to bea able to really test things. I probably won't know until next Summer how the cooling fan works. I can post the schematic of the circuit if anyone is interested. Power consumption is pretty incredible. 35 amps on high speed and 20 amps on low speed, both measured at 13 Volts. The Mustang electrical system calls for a 60 amp fuse. I'd bet that's for the current spike when you turn on the fan from off to high speed. It spikes to over 80 amps for a second or so, while it winds up. Going from low speed to highs speed and it spikes to around 50 or 60 amps. I have a 60 amp Maxifuse in the common (ground) line of the fan.

Isn't the Autopower bar the one that bolts to the inner wheel well in two places each side? I've heard it doesn't do much for rigidity (and I believe it, since those are not where the loads are and they are thin.)

The S&W stuff is mild steel, with a seam, not DOM

The 3.15:1 set has been NLA for a long time. Since the dealers never stocked them, and they were a NISMO part, I doubt there are any at the dealers. 3.15:1 don't get you much for cruising - an overdrive tranny is the way to go for that effect. But they are nice to get some trannies to work at just the right rpm at the strip. Look at my previous post about t350, etc. and you'll see that 3.15:1 doesn't get you but a hundred or two rpm difference at 65. Just multiply the 3.545:1 rpm for a given tranny by 3.15/3.545 and you'll see what I mean.

Making molds. This is how I've heard it's done: 1) Find a donor car you want to copy and a very trusting and understanding owner. 2) cover the bodywork of the donor with mold release agent. 3) Lay down resin wetted fiberglass mat, roll on more resin, maybe a 1" foam layer, more fiberglass/resin to have a stiff mold. DON'T mix the resin so that it cures quickly! Otherwise, you will be buying the donor car a new paint job due to the heat of curing. (I know a guy that rented a Probe and made molds this way. Too much accelerant in the resin and it bubbled all the paint on the car!) 4) Let the molds cure a long time (since you left some of the accelerant (hardener) out to not have it cure hot/quick. 5) Remove molds. Remove release agent from donor car. Wash and wax the donor car.

Pics of the mirror and installation process are at: Tercel DX Side Mirror Adaptation

Hey Fast Frog, thanks for the vote of confidence! I forgot to mention the mandrel bent issue. I just saw a page today about press bent versus mandrel bent pipes. http://www.extrememotorsports.com/mandrel.htm The cross sectional area reduction for the examples it gave, work out to around 20-30% depending on the angle of the bend, etc. The other thing to mention is that the buckling of the inside wall of a press bent pipe adds a bunch of turbulence to the flow, which is not so good. BTW, my entire system was hand fabbed by me and my mini-mig using a slew of 180 degree 2.5" mandrel J bends (cut into pieces) and a stick and a half of straight pipe, an X-pipe, and 10 3-bolt flanges. This took over 70 hours (I work REALLY slow). I made the angles as few and small as possible, and the exhaust is up VERY tight under the car. The blowproof bellhousing and subframe connectors hange below the entire exhaust. You can see the results under "Exhaust" on my site. Well, I need to get the car on a lift to take some installed pictures some day. I still think a cool system would be an single oval pipe with a big quiet muffler. I wasn't about to research all that and took the easy way out . Plus that oval pipe is usually expensive! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

I've heard that some pressure gages might be inaccurate at low readings, but are fine where it counts in the middle of the range. If you are only going to run 10psi, a 15 psi gage would be best. If you are looking at 5psi, and it reads 3psi with no applied pressure, well, I wouldn't trust it until 7 psi or so.

Blatant opinions and armchair engineering follow... this is the thought process (i.e;, brain fart) I had on this topic: I don't want to debate frictional wall losses now, but dual 2.5s have considerable more cross sectional area (39% more). But as noted, more wall area for frictional losses (it's more involved than that - where is Michael Ol - he's the aerodynamicist Ph.D. around here ). The ratio of wall area between dual 2.5s and single 3 is 1.67:1, so yeah, there are some drawbacks. Personally, I wanted to do a single 3.5" system, which would be lighter (a plus) and flow about the same as dual 2.5s. But... Something to consider is the type muffler available for your use. Most mufflers that handle 3 and 3.5 are race type or too loud for my tastes, in general, although I haven't heard one of the new delta 50 series Flowmasters in the 3 or 3.5 inch single on a V8. The regular or old series Flowmasters in that size are too loud for me. Call me a wuss. Anyway, that, along with the ability to tuck dual 2.5s up better (for ground clearance) than a single 3.5 and the muffler issue is what drove me to dual 2.5s. Also, I've learned that (in general) to lower noise without increasing backpressure, you need alot of muffler volume. That's another reason why I chose dual Dynomax Super Turbo Hemi mufflers. LOTS of volume there. And a sweet sound (on other V8s I've heard - mine is still in the incubator ). So muffler choices play a big role if you want the system to be quiet and flow well. Another thing to consider is resonant frequency of the pipe wall. The larger diameter pipes have lower resonant first frequencies, for the same material type and thickness. Generally, lower resonances are more powerful and can create more discomfort than higher frequency ones with the same sound power. Oops, there I go again engineering the damn thing. Sorry. I can't help myself - please send money for the shrink! [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited July 05, 2000).]

...especially if you have a heat gun. I bet the amount ot time is the same, after you figure cleaning up the chemicals and making sure it's out of all the seams (which is next to impossible, IMO). Stripper is great if you can assure it won't get trapped somewhere. Otherwise, I stay away. Once you have a heat gun/scrapper going, with the car turned on it's side on a rotisserie, I'd be 4-6 hours and you'd be done, if not quicker. The clean up with the mineral spirits is fairly quick also. Have the Por-15/Miracle paint ready after that so it doesn't flash rust. There is a slight e-coat or galvanizing of the metal, but it may be gone in some areas if water got near it for long. Then fix the rust and go back over the new metal with the Por-15/Miracle paint. Have fun.. Pete

1:1 top gear (T350) 24" tire: 3226 rpm at 65mph 25" tire: 3097 rpm at 65mph 26" tire: 2978 rpm at 65mph .68:1 top gear (Tremec 5spd - don't know the 700R4 overdrive ratio, but it's close) 24" tire: 2194 rpm at 65mph 25" tire: 2106 rpm at 65mph 26" tire: 2025 rpm at 65mph As you can see, its a huge difference. Just take the T350 (1:1) rpm at 65 for the tire size you have and multiply by the overdrive ratio of the 700R4 to get the correct rpm at 65 for that trans and tire size. I'd say yeah, the overdrive is important for cruising. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

I would think powder coating would be a better option for the window trim, since it gets alot of UV. Of course, I'm not sure the powder coating material is very resistant to UV either. I guess both could be waxed with a UV protectant of some sort. I think getting a nice looking finish would be easy with the powder coating. Maybe if the Miracle Paint (better UV resistance, they say) was sprayed with several coats that would be o.k. too. The straight black is high gloss - I wouldn't want that on those parts, I'd want a semi-gloss black, like you can get in powder coat. Hirsch automotive has a black chassis paint that is semi-gloss, and they say it is tough, but I can't tell if it is as good as the Miracle Paint. Maybe POR-15 has a product that is semi-gloss? BTW, Hirsch Auto's catalog is at: http://hirschauto.com/prod01.htm

POR-15 and Hirsch Auto's Miracle Paint are awesome. They are about the same, but Miracle Paint is more UV resistant. For the underside it doesn't matter. These are both moisture cured Polyurethane paints. Very tough and it will pull moisture out of rusty metal and coat it well. On clean metal, rough it up a bit. Get lots of painting gloves. Once this stuff gets on your hands and cures, it really stays for days. Testiment to how tough it is. IF I were to do the underside of my car again, I'd do it with one of these. The stuff is expensive though. And the shelf life is very short, like 6 months. Instead of trying to get the lid off, Hirsch says to jut puncture the lid at the edge in two opposite places and pour out of that. Then seal with duct tape over the holes immediately after pouring. It will harden over on the top surface of the paint in a few months, so you'll have to break through that later on also! I paint all the little parts I make or put on my car now with it. I have black and silver. I'd say it's equal to or better than powdercoating, as far as toughness. I've had both chip with the usual knock from the handle of the ratchet. The paint is alot easier to put on! (I don't have a powder coating system, but want one!) Of course, touching the paint up is easy and matches well. Brushing it one works well, as it levels well, and I don't ever get brush marks. I find that the Miracle Paint is fairly thin. YMMV, but I like it.

Just my opinion here, but watch out mounting any radiator (especially one that's all Al like the Griffin) solidly to the radiator support. There's a good reason that the OEs mount them in rubber mounts - the radiator support is not rigid and it flexes. This puts loads into the radiator it was not designed for. Can you say leaks? I know that the stock Z radiator was solid mounted, but hey, they leak from time to time. Sorry to rain on any parades, but this is important in my opinion.

Mike, I seem to remember the old rule of thumb being 10psi for each 1000 rpm being a good goal for oil pressure. Anybody know if this is right? Rich idle. Yeah, primary jets could be rich, but what about the power valve. The get blown on backfire. Then they leak fuel all the time. I installed a check valve (Spectre?) in my Holley to help that from not happening. Check a Jegs or Summit catalog. I think Holley makes one now.

In an old Hotrod mag article, Jim had told us that it was a Corolla mirror. After a bunch of hunting in the car lots, and sending mirrors back and forth to Thompson Toyota (great guys) I have the 96 Tercel DX mirrors. They look like Jim's but after telling him how they mount to the tercel, it sounds like I still don't have the correct mirror. That's how the correct info got into the later articles, BTW! I worked with Thompson Toyota and Jim on this over the phone. There must be another Tercel mirror that had the simpler mounting that Jim was describing. I figured that Thompson Toyota had done enough and I gave up... I will have to grind/cut away the cast aluminum mounting bracket so that it is flush with the plastic part that you see from outside. Then a custom mount plate will have to be interfaced with what remains of the mirror mounting bracket and connects to the window frame and lower window trim piece. I haven't attempted this yet. FWIW, the mirrors I have now are from a 96 Tercel DX, without the remote adjustment on the interior. You adjust them the old fashioned way - thumbs and fingers on the mirror glass! The part numbers are: Left side: 87940-16780 Right side: 87910-16780 You can pop the mirror glass out (just gently yank on one end) to get to the screws that hold the mirror bracket to the housing. Looking at that cast aluminum bracket, I think I will ask a machinist friend to mill off the protruding area that would need to come off. I will take pics of this part and post them in a few days. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Incredible! I love it. I'd love to know more about how he put the Procharger on, what if any intercooler, etc. Any body know from looking what kind of induction setup (brand, model) that is? Thanks, Cahant for posting those pics! Could you get your buddy to do a write-up of the cars parts, specs, etc. to put on your site?

Andy, Mike, thanks for all the feed back. I will install the roll bar the way Andy did, as that makes the most sense to me structurally and room-wise. If you mount it on the 3" wide shelf like Andy did, it ties well to the cross brace under the floor directly beneath where the shortened bar lands. I've decided to take the 6"x6" plates they send and trim them to sit on that raised area, and meet up with the curve that is the intersction of the inner fender and the raised shelf. About 6 inches inboard of that point is where my subframe connectors weld to the raised shelf and that frame member. I will have to trim the frame support bars that angle toward the center of the car at the shoulder bend of the roll bar so that they land on top of that subframe connector. I will take pictures of all this and put it on my site. Of course, Dan is free to link to it so it can be a tech article. I plan on doing the hard part of this project myself and getting every thing tacked in and hire a professional welder to do the real welding. My 110V MIG welder and I aren't up to the task. Mike Kelly you interested in being my professional welder? Come visit, weld, drink beer, bench race? Did I mention lately that this is one kick a$$ forum? I love all the expertise around here!

Andy, I got my 8 pt kit today. A few questions on how you fit it in. The roll bar: Where did you connect it to the floor? It seems that to make it parallel with the leading edge angle of the quarter window, you'd have to shorten the legs and have it land just behind the top of the seat belt retractor pocket, in front of the wheel well on the raised portion of the floor behind the seat. I'd like to keep the seat belts if possible (although I'll probably replace the webbing), so this would work well. The way it comes, it's about 3 or 4 inches too high to fit up on that raised portion of the floor. If you mount it down on the lowest portion of the floor, in front of the seat belt retractor pocket, then it's too short by a few inches, and would be in front of the quarter window by a few inches. The seat wouldn't go back far enough either. The rear bars: I think I will run them to the front/top of the strut towers to tie in that area, and then go from the back of the strut tower top to the floor rails that go for/aft. I can use the door bar material for that, since I'm leaving those out. If I ever want door bars, I'll do it the way John Washington has the VR kit done, with a low, kinked door bar and a tie in to the back of the rocker box area. Thanks, Pete P.S. Anyone mind if I move this thread to the Chassis Forum? [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited June 28, 2000).]