johnc

The crank can be knife edged and lightened to about 35 lbs. (from the stock 51). Don't know about the weight in the rods and pistons but I ran the lightened crank, JE forged pistons, and Carillo rods. Figure about $750 for the pistons, $800 for the rods, and the crank was about $1,500 after lightening, balancing, polishing, and nitriding. That was in year 2000 dollars.

Did the MC resiviors go dry? If so, you need to bleed the MC first before bleeding the lines. If not, check for fittings that might be a little loose letting air into the lines.

Windshield washer bracket so you can get to the adjustment from the driver's side inspection cover.

I'll check.

This is great! A complete free form mind dump from a fevered, delerious, drugged up, hungry, HybridZ memeber. I guess we're all this crazy, except most of us keep it hidden.

Never thought about that kind of use. The hatch itself should be strong enough and if the pin-on mounts spread the load over a 2" circle I don't think there would be an issue. The mounting needs to be tight so the hatch doesn't bank up against the mounting clips in the pins. Now, about the Lexan hatch window mounting, that might not survive unless you went to some thicker Lexan (1/4").

I caught a national level 240 autocrosser (who shall remain nameless) with a seam welded chassis. He didn't clean up all the bubbled out seam sealer and a thin putty knife found welds where there shouldn't have been any. I "suggested" that the competitor find a new chassis to use for subsequent National Tours because I would be there with my trusty putty knife and a credit card. He showed up at the next NT with a brand new C5 Corvette. I also noticed some nice, thick, and long "jacking pads" on the bottom of the front frame rails of Jim Thompson's old ITS 240Z. Were these also an idea of yours Keith?

I guess I'm not advertising enough: http://www.betamotorsports.com and go to Products. Real, honest to goodness Carbon Fiber racing hoods for the 240/260/280Z and now for the 280ZX. They ain't cheap.

Datsun Alley is still in business the last I heard. The previous owner of Datsun alley, Marc Jones, just liquidated a warehouse full of 240Z parts. I took a pallet full of 240Z struts, a box of steering shafts, a few R180 diffs, some halfshafts, and other misc. parts. Lots of locals were there scrounging and left with a lot of goodies. I saw one guy leave with 6 brand new L24 blocks from Nissan and another leave with 2 new P90 head castings. And I sell some parts and pieces for the 240Z: http://www.betamotorsports.com

I believe it's the cheater way for classes that do not allow seam welding. Not enough or too many spot welds are an easy way to spot someone who's cheating. Good cheaters leave the factory spots welds alone. Using a 1/8" thick cut off wheel, grind a slot through the top layer of sheet metal until the bottom layer is exposed for about 1/2". Weld up the groove and grind it smooth. Repeat 600 times throughout the chassis.

15 psi at idle is normal for an L6 even 10 is nothing to worry about. 45 psi at 4,500 rpm is fine also.

A lot, and I mean a lot, of the local racers/autocrossers use this exact tool. It lasts about 9 months to a year and its cheap enough that if you forget it at the track, you just buy another one. Most guys carry a spare because when the tool breaks, its trash time.

Reminds me of the old joke: What do a 400hp and a 1,000hp Supra have in common? 12 second 1/4 mile times.

No, they won't be faster the real racing slicks. I should have qualified my statement by noting that if the class rules require DOT-R tires, this size is close to perfect.

You just need to stick a little plastic Jesus to the dash and the car is done. http://www.whitetreeaz.com/plastic_jesus/plasticj.htm

Another way of looking at it: since you've joined the site Jon, I've bought, built, and sold 3 240Zs and you're still working on the same one...

Or you can do the bolt-on horsepower thing and get way more then 200hp: Exhaust - 10 hp Headers - 10 hp N36 intake - 10 hp K&N Filters - 10 hp Cam - 10 hp Electronic Ignition - 10 hp 10mm Plug Wires - 10 hp Electric fans - 10 hp Aluminum Flyweel - 10 hp Centerforce Cltuch - 10 hp That's a 250 hp L6 engine right there...

What I ran on the ROD would work great. 11.5" vented rotors and Outlaw 2800 4 piston calipers. I think Ross at MM has a PBR caliper setup that will fit with 12" vented rotors.

FYI... that scale on the steel comes from the rolling process. The lower priced steel plate and angle is hot rolled (and, surprisingly enough, called Hot Rolled (HR)) which leaves the bluish scale. If you can get it, cold rolled (CR) steel is free of mill scale and is generally a little better quality (1018 or 1020 vs. 1010).

The "...everything else being equal" caveat is a cop out. Everything else is never equal in the real world and that was the point of Mark Ortiz's reply. Controllability, repeatability, balance, and feedback are critical aspects of braking. In a racing situation they are pretty much equal with ultimate braking force. The ideal situation is a braking system with a lot of braking force AND controllability, repeatability, balance, and feedback. If I had to trade one for the other, I would have to think long and hard before I chose ultimate braking. Its pretty scary going hard into a corner knowing you have enough force to instantly lock up all 4 wheels and no clue when that might actually happen.

Hoosier announced that they will be making the above tire size in autocross and road race compounds around March of this year. The tire should be about 22.5" tall and 10" wide. IMHO, this appears to be the perfect tire for a racing 240Z. Its 2.7" shorter then the next avaialble 275 width tire (275/45-16) and 2.2" shorter then a 285/35-18. Also, being a 15 you should be able to get wheels that weigh around 15 lbs in a 10" width and that should save (along with the smaller tire) about 6 lbs of unsprung weight per corner.

It was meant as a friendly lashing...

Known problem: http://www.betamotorsports.com/benchracing/R200handling.html Shortenign the shaft as Jon suggested above is the ideal solution.

Its is a know fact that something seems to do something? FYI... more Datsun people run u-joints then CVs, probably an order of magnitude more. That would support your "fact" that u-joints fail more often then CVs because there are more u-joints out there to fail. You can also say, based on the population distribution, that its known fact that u-joints seem to last longer, seem handle more hard drag strip launches then CVs, and seem to fall on peoples toes more often then CVs.

I have a pair of HS8 SUs that were part of a Vintage Racing project plan that got cancelled. They are from a Rover 2000 TC. I'll sell the pair for $250 if one of you guys are interested.