bjhines

We cannot discount the possibility that the strut is bent. I have run into this before. It came up one time when camber went wacky with a new suspension upgrade I installed. It turned out that the car the struts came off of was curbed and the welds had cracked and bent where the strut tube was welded into the spindle casting. It may not be obvious at a glance.

My first posts on this site were about the crankcase breather systems on the L-series engines. I used PCV and an exhaust venturi to pull vacuum at all speeds and throttle positions. It was a fairly complex system and it included a vapor separator, fuel tank vent line, and purge valve. I never had oil consumption problems on that car. Tom, I was behind you in a couple of hard left handers after big braking zones and I saw the smoke up close. It had a puff of black that quickly turned to a dark brown mass of fuel smoke. I remember the white smoke either before or after the dark smoke. I think the white smoke was more prevalent when the fuel smoke wasn't so thick.

I ran a nicely rebuilt L24 with a mild cam and good compression for years. I always had to shoot it to kill it with anything less than 93 octane. Use premium fuel and it should not be an issue any longer.

I have some more videos WITHOUT sound unfortunately. I'll get them up in the next day or so. I have been busy this week and I have a long day today.

Go-Go Godzilla!!! I would not likely lay down the cash for this car, but I can see how it will become popular with enthusiasts everywhere. I got to drive this car in hot laps with the most advanced and fastest group. I also took it out to the skidpad to see what it would do. I instructed at Carolina Motorsports Park this weekend with Tarheel Sports Car Club/ Triangle Z-Club/ and Speed Ventures. I had a green student at his first ever track event with a White Nissan GTR supercar. That is a risky proposition anywhere. We see the most spectacular accidents with Porsches, Ferraris, Corvettes, and just about anything with more than 400 BHP. Most of the smaller cars just won't get that far off track. I must say that the computer controls are FABULOUS!!! Your grandmother could drive that car as fast as you. It is simply impossible to apply more power than the traction can handle. You can put your right foot to the floor and pinch the wheel to turn in and IT WILL LIFT THE THROTTLE automatically. It really takes the skill out of driving it. I drove the car in the instructors group for a few laps just to see how it worked. I have some in car footage that is a little hard to see out side the car. But it will give you and idea of how I can apply the throttle and brakes. The main screen in the middle of the dash has been configured with throttle position on the top left, Brake pressure in the top middle, and Boost level in the bottom middle. You can see the bar graphs as I drive the car. I can pretty much floor it and the car manages power all by it's self. Just watch the boost gauge in relation to the throttle position. Here is some more footage outside the car with my green student driving. I have some more interesting footage that is waiting for upload.

2nd on the higher friction pads. I have had great results with highly aggressive friction compounds on several cars. I ran Hawk 9012 Blues on my BMW M3 this weekend and I love them.

Many sanctioning bodies require a "main-diagonal" that runs from the drivers head to the bottom passenger corner. This must be welded to the main-hoop". If you want to reinforce the tunnel then you should run to the corners of the tunnel instead of the top of the tunnel. If you take a peek at the bottom of the car you will see that the top of the tunnel has virtually no strength. The bottom corners of the tunnel have a frame piece that the diff and the rear suspension bolt to. THAT<<< would be the ideal place to mount your tunnel diagonals.

I have been eagerly reading these kinds of threads because I really want some good headlights. I just have not found the right way to do it yet. Good luck on this project(or). I can't wait to see how it turns out!!! Am I crazy or is the headlight bucket sideways in that shot?? Are they side-by side or over and under?

You can use END-Cutting pliers. They are like SIDE-Cutting pliers but they are for pulling finish nails through the back-sides of trim boards(to reuse the trim pieces). They are not sharp enough to cut the stainless-steel clamp beads before you get them fully clamped.

How about formed lexan windows!!!! use 3/16" high impact lexan. A simplified rear hatch. Pantera hatch A cowl-induction carby pan to fit the various cowl-induction hoods. bottom splitter that covers entire bottom fmro the airdam to the front crossmember. radiator splash pan replicas fiberglass doors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^^^^^^~~~~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~~~~^^^^^^^

Wait a minute. The 8.5" might fit with 225/45/17. But a 225mm tire width is the limit with stock suspension and body.

You guys are getting played. Those vids are just for fun.

The neat thing is that it is only a modified version of the classic fishmouthed-X-bar. I used 2 V-bars with gussets for an even stronger connection. I saw no need in the center down-tube except for jacking the car from the middle.

I put a fair amount of thought into this issue. This won't work for a stock wheel becasue it bolts directly to the steering shaft. Most steering wheel conversions use an adaptor to bolt a universal steering wheel to your steering column. This adaptor is usually 3-4" thick. This means that you would use a flatter wheel(less dish) than the stocker. This will place a flat(Zero-dish) wheel a little too far away for most people. You would need one of the moderately dished(~30mm) wheels to get it just right. If you add a bolt-on quick release then you are going to increase your stack of parts by ~3". That will bring even a flat no-dish wheel too close for comfort for just about anyone. The first thing you need to know is... How close do you want the wheel? This is a variable answer question. Different body shapes and seating positions will make this a hard to answer question. The answer I found with most tracked 240Zs with race seats is more easily measured from the firewall-flange at the bottom of the steering column to the flush face of the wheel rim. Put a board across your wheel and pull that tape. Most measurements from track equipped S-30s range from 30"-34". Mine is 33.75" from the flange to the face of the grip. I have the OMP Velocita wheel(350mm with no dish) I purchased a thin-Profile NRG quick release mechanism. It is only 1.5" thick as opposed to most of the other bolt-on styles that are 3" or more. The adaptor I used is a Japanese brand I will have to look up. It is pretty standard fair for S-30 to Momo/Sparco/OMP 6 bolt flanges. Both the adaptor and the quick release are double drilled to accomodate 2 6-bolt patterns. 5 bolt patterns like the Grant/Nardi/Personal wheels are out for most of the adaptors. Here is a Momo adapter ....

This is why I did this. and not this!!! I have seen others do this I realize that this is considered safe, but what does it do for weight and stiffness? ...

I would not drive mine without a helmet. There is very little clearance between your head and the halo tubing. I have struggled with that part of the cage design. Here are some pics with the padding on. My helmet is nearly always in contact with the halo bar. The door X-bar is 2 V-bent tubes with a 14gauge gusset. I still need to pad the lower ankle area with more SFI high density padding.

Honestly... The car will need to be very light, with 50/50 balance. You are looking at a Turbo 4 cylinder if you don't want a nose heavy vehicle.

I took a look at those vents... They are not opened up very much. The die that they used to emboss the vent openings is only offsetting the edges by 1/4" to maybe 1/2" in the middle. That is not going to do much good for venting air. The biggest problem comes in the smaller sizes. The side vents look like they have less than 3/16" opening. The short video clip clearly shows a different louver shape than any of the other pictures on the site. They have pried open those louvers to get some actual airlfow. Trying to open them up to that extent on a smaller panel would distort it terribly. They look nice though with all the different finishes and all. If you want louvers then why not the MSA louvered hood and cowl panels??? There are 5 times as many louvers on the MSA hood than you get get on those puny little panels.

WOW!!!! bent gas pedal!!! I don't believe it. Are you sure you don't have a worn out mount on your gas pedal. I have a late-1973 240Z with most of the 260Z parts changeovers. My gas pedal is made of heavy guage 7/16" ROD with a weded pivot and a flattened end where the linkage pivot was mounted. There is NO WAY I could bend that pedal without destroying the carby in the process. I modified my pedal in several ways to get the most out of my set up. But there is no way I would ever bend the pedal without knowingly destroying the carby. You just don't do that man!!!

There are several types of B-quiet brand materials. I would not worry about cleaning too much for the tar-based materials. Get the dust off and remove any major spills with a mild solvent and/or soap. The B-quiet materials that have a foam layer may need more careful treatment. You might consider laquer-thinner or acetone to clean the surfaces prior to application. The more powerful solvents will also remove paint so be quick and be careful. I would not apply anything to the floors that is not COMPLETELY sealed to the sheet-metal. I would completely remove rust and repaint the floors before applying anything at all. The foam backed material is not suitable for any location that can get wet. That means fixing that rusty, leaky cowl/wiper-box. These are essentially the same treatments that Datsun-Nissan installed 35+ years ago. The B-quiet tar/aluminum backed mats are exactly the same thing the factory installed on the floorboards. The problem with the original installation is that they were installed over primed but unpainted steel. They tended to trap moisture and rot the floors. Modern cars have similar treatment applied in a more sophisticated manner. 1. The B-quiet tar-based mats have an aluminum finishing layer. This just keeps them neat and lint free. Forget any thermal properties of the aluminum. It is at best a reflector on the inside only. 2. The factory Nissan tar mats have a primed inside surface to accept paint without dissolving to goo. the factory relied on the paint to keep the lint from collecting. The multi-layer, Foam-backed B-quiet materials are essentially the same treatment the factory used on the firewall, under the dash. The loose layer allows vibrations(sound) comming from the inside surface of the firewall to be captured and damped in a soft layer of foam or fiber-matting. The hard inner-layer acts as a barrier for the sound caught in the foam. The heavier the barrier material the better. That is why the best "blimping" materials use a layer of LEAD sheet to most effectively stop noise. 1. The B-quiet materials use foam sheet with a heavy rubber or vinyl as a barrier. It appears that they have versions with multiple layers of foam an vinyl. 2. The factory used sisal fiber mats backed with a hard layer of tar-impregnated cardboard. The key to sound control with the multi-layer materials is to completely encapsulate the area being treated. This is hard to do considering the number of brackets, wires, hoses, and convolutions that are in the way on our firewalls. This is where the factory application of these materials fell short on performance. There are far too many open holes in the hard layer to work effectively. If you want to do this right then all openings must be sealed air-tight. You can't just use duct tape, It must be a hard, dense layer of material used at the cuffs as well. Lead-tape would be ideal if you can get it.

You can get a short 14" round filter element from Summit or Jegs. I think 1",2",3",4" are all available. http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=SUM%2D239317&N=700+4294925239+4294925170+4294925169+4294891681+4294744163+4294791516+4294791303+115&autoview=sku or MrGasket part #1480A http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=MRG%2D1480A&N=700+4294925239+4294925170+4294925169+4294891681+4294744163+4294791516+4294791303+115&autoview=sku K&N offers an open top filter lid in a 14" dia. That should allow plenty of airflow into the carby. You have to consider that the choke horn will come very close to the aicleaner lid. That will cause the air to make a very tight 90degree turn and obstruct flow to the primaries. For this reason I would suggest an open top element like the K&N one. K&N part #66-1401 http://store.summitracing.com/partdetail.asp?autofilter=1&part=KNN%2D66%2D1401&N=700+4294925239+400171+4294839057+4294756019+4294755998+115&autoview=sku ...

The front rub issues are usually due to increasing caster by lengthening the TC rods. This can be done with thicker or harder bushings, extra washers, or simply ensuring that the TC-"hockey-stick" to ball joint connection is made with the control arm pulled as far forward as it can get. Other things like installing the inner-pivot bushings backwards can cause the front wheels to move forward from their normal position. Check that last one because the arm does not like to move well if it is binding.

That black outer-braid with the black connectors would be soooo nice!

Hmmm... about this criticism... I make a lot of stuff myself. It is to serve a utilitarian purpose, not to blow my wad on pretty bling-bling. There is always someone who has more money and more time to make up parts from exotic materials with screen printing and placards from aerospace industies. That's just fine for a multi-million $$$ race industry leader. It becomes bling when you see it on someone's hot-rod or amature race car. I am a professional wiring fabricator. I assemble all sorts of high-$$$ connectors every week. I don't use very many of them in my project cars though. That is money wasted that could go into so many other things to make the car faster or the driver safe and comfortable. I am not a millionare with a collection of rare and blingy vehicles that serve no purpose except as dust catchers. I cannot hope but notice that the critic uses common Deutsch connectors instead of the metal bodied CMT-style sealed aircraft connectors with air-tight, bonded, and Tee-d silicone jackets covering 100% of the wires. I am APPALLED at the partial-spiral wrap of electrical tape on those wire bundles. How would you ever survive re-entry with that load of BS.

I thought you guys might like this overly-studly BMW S-52 engine. Honestly it's NA with 220,000 miles on it and the only thing done was to repair a crack in the head. Here is the repaired cracked area in the head I had to use a Degree wrench for this job. ...