johnc

The balance bar needs to float. The monoball needs to be able to slide left/right inside the mounting tube and the threaded rod needs to pivot.

Ideal primary length for a 4 or 6 cylinder engine under 4L in displacement is 30 to 32" measured from the back of the exhaust valve. Exhaust port length is about 4" so a primary of 26 to 28" is proper for a header. Guys like Jere Stahl, Doug Thorley, and Gale Banks figured this out decades ago. Someone at Burns figured how put that knowledge into a computer.

I can't take credit for making them, although using my monkey-see, monkey-do engineering skills I've made a duplicate setup in a customer's car. The originals on my car were made by Ivan at Bill Savage's shop. Material is 4130 and wall thickness is .083. Forgot, they fit under a stock hood and the hood on my car was pinned on all around.

But Mike, I consulted with "experts" on the design of the front STB mentioned above. Bill Savage did a lot of the chassis design and upright fabrication on Nissan's GTP cars when he worked with NPTI in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has also built a number of off-road winning race trucks for Nissan. I would consider him to be an "expert" on chassis design and reinforcement. You may not like how he (or I) sound, but that doesn't diminish his "expert" status.

Step 1 in building your HybridZ: Ensure the structurual integrity of the basic chassis...

I charge $1,200 to $1,750 depending on how prepped the car is when its brought into the shop. Its all labor, so the more time you spend cleaning and removing the interior, paint, undercoating, and sound deadener the less you pay. Think aobut the seat mounts. If you're planning on replacing the stock seats now's the time to revise the seat mounts to match whatever you're putting in the car. That will add to the price.

Based on some finite element analysis done by Bill Savage there is no need to reinforce the firewall for a center STB mount. In side view the cowl section is a triangle with the firewall as the base. If your STB mount plate spans the base of the triangle (the top lip and the row of spot welds part way down the firewall) you have a very strong mount that spreads the load into the cowl section. I have some close-up pictures of the mounts in one of my galleries. http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=702

That's the 240Z size and I stand corrected too. Take another item off the parts interchange list.

Champion projector tips give you .1 more compression. Also, indexing the plugs helps a little.

Tell them you're towing a vintage Lola Formula Ford race car that you're going to restore. Never registered (its a race car) and it weighs 980 lbs. without engine.

Well, don't count me as a 280Z expert, but I'm pretty sure the gland nut that holds the shocks int he strut tube is the same size on the 240 and the 280Z. FYI... the 51mm and 56mm dimensions are the OD of the tubes. The ID of the 280Z strut tube is slightly bigger then the 240Z strut tube but I don't think the gland nut size changed.

Same, same.

Kenny Bernstien, back when he was either trying to break the 300mph mark or get into the 4s, figured it cost $1,000 to remove a pound from his top fuel dragster. He went on a diet, lost 17 pounds, and later that year hit his target number. Kenny calle dit, "The best $17,000 I ever saved."

The NEMA 6-50 plug is kind of a standard for 220 welders. All the welders in my shop are wired for that. Check the wiring behind the plug to be sure its up to a 50 amp load (to match the plug). I would be surprised if any wiring in a home is big enough for that kind of load.

I'll repeat myself again... Find an independent compressor repair shop and see if the they have a rebuilt 1950s or 1960s Ingersoll-Rand, Kellog-American, Thomas, or other cast iron low rpm compressor for sale. Add a Baldor electric motor and a 80 gallon tank and you're set for anything for the next 50 years.

Sorry, late to the part, cygnusx1 is right. Also, where the caliper is clocked has little to no affect on the sprung mass and little if any affect on the unsprung mass. I tested the position of the rear calipers on the ROD and could not discern any difference in handling or corner weights.

Unfortunately, going forward with the STB will do little to help the strut towers. You really need to go straight across and, optionally, back to the firewall. This design worked very well on my old 240Z and let me increase the front spring rates by 50 lb. in.

Mostly the weaving is done to clean off the tires. When you have to slow down under caution and drive on the non-racing line the tires pick up a lot of marbles. Weaving back and forth, hard, cleans the junk off.

You can also take a bunch of weight out of the engine and driveline. 17 lbs can be taken out the L6 crank. AL or Ti rods save about 5 lbs. A double disc clutch and a minimal flywheel saves 35 lbs. AL small OD gun drilled driveshaft saves 8 lbs. AL CV shafts save 6 lbs. Back cutting the ring gear saves 1.5 lbs. That's 72.5 lbs out of stuff that's spinning. 15" x 10" wheels are about 9lbs each. Hoosier bias play race slicks to fit the above wheels are about 12 lbs each. That probably saves 60 lbs over stock wheels and tires.

So much depends on how much work your nephew can do himslef. Labor is the biggest cost factor. If you want a completely assembled, ready to go set of shortened struts, I sell a double adjustable set for around $4,500 which is comparable to what you pay for a set of Tein RS160s, if they were available for a 240Z. If you can do the work yourself you can do a basic coil over kit including cheap springs and shocks for around $1,000. That price includes some slack for replacing worn out parts.

Material selection has no impact on flow. Deisgn and fabrication quaility is everything. I've had customers bring me some poorly deisgned and horribly MIG welded 304 stainless headers that probably flowed far worse then a stock exhaust manifold.

Regarding Megaphone exhaust tips... They work similar to a rear diffuser. A lower pressure area is created as the exhaust gases expand to fill the increasing area. A good megaphone has a 14 degree cones which, surprisingly, is made of 7 degree sides. This the ideal angle to slow the air down and not have it detach. Merge collectors have replaced Megaphones because you get an even greater pressure drop close to the header collector. A merge collector with a 14 degree cone (megaphone) is what I install on all my customer's race exhausts. And, incidnetally, it does make the exhaust significantly louder even though I normally add 10 feet of 3" exhaust tubing after the merge.

That completely depends on the application. In some cases 1/2" or thicker alloy steel plate is welded with GTAW first, as the root pass, and then SMAW or GMAW as the finishing pass(es). In that situation, because of the slow filler metal deposition rate, GTAW would put more heat into the material and take significantly longer to complete. The root GTAW pass is needed to ensure complete penetration down to the bottom of the "V" in high alloy applications, but once that pass is made, SMAW or GMAW can complete the weld more economically and with less heat input. Conversly, if you're welding .035" wall stainless steel tube with SMAW, when you hit it with a 5/16" 308L-MR rod you'll just blow holes. Just the heat from the scratch to get the rod started will probably sag the material. The absolute lowest recommended gauge for welding stainless using SMAW is .049" thick and that's only for position 1 (flat, butt welds).

A stick weld has a smaller HAZ then a TIG weld? We're talking SMAW welding compated to GTAW welding, right? Per the Procedure Handbook of Arc Welding chapter 5, "The main desirable features of GTAW is the high quality welds it is capable of making... and the small heat affected zone around a proper GTAW weld."

Uuuhh, this thread was from 2 years ago. He might still be looking for the adapters, but I bet he's figured out a solution already.