Countdown to ZCON

[madkaw]

Well I left off with the dash lights giving me headaches. Well I realized after investigating that I put some of my dash lights in the wrong holes in the speedo. The bad part is there is no way to get in there and swap out with the defroster ducting in the way--soooo, out comes the dash. I also noticed that my ampmeter guage wires were not tight-bad scenerio that had to be fixed. so I lost a half a day, but all lights working-almost. I had traced all my wiring and have assigned all the loose ends to where they need to hook up to, except an ignition hot plug(green wire and black/white stripe), not sure what it hooked up to. All guages work-even the fuel guage(small triumph since this is a CJ5 tank and fuel sending unit), all lights work and my combination switch operates the way it should-any ideas on the plug?

I recieved my airbox back from the powder coater, and of course it needed some tweeking too-can't anything just bolt on!!!!! The airbox would not slide on because of the M/C bleeder on the M/C just stuck out too far on my 15/16" upgrade. well I just had too cut off the end(1/4" worth) and it slid on.

My new mufflers arrived to tame the wild beast. My twin magnaflows(all of 11" casing length) should fit in there nicely-after lots of work of course.

Maybe this next week can think about plates and insurance and start breaking this baby in

[d240zx2]

Wow! Now how pretty is THAT? Awesome job, Steve.

[madkaw]

I had a pretty decent week of progress even though some of the time was towards the redo of my exhaust. What i find interesting is that I spent more time redoing my headlight assemblies and installing them, then i did hanging new mufflers. Installing headlites also included putting on my lens covers-which is kind of a pain to get on straight. The best part is that most of my ventures ended successfully so my only complaint was the HEAT.

After installing my new mufflers I drove the car around the block again and thought that this will work nicely. Besides the noise of the tire grinding on one of my fender lips, the other noises coming from the exhaust were muscular, but not overbearing.

I called the insurance company and now i'm insured ready to drive(except for a plate). I need to install the hatch seal and door seals so the car won't rattle me to death, and possibly roll a fender so I don't eat too much rubber, but I'm ready to break this engine in. Just from my little put-put a round the block I can tell this engine is very strong!!

http://s2.photobucket.com/albums/y9/_mad_kaw_/?action=view&current=MVI_2290.mp4

[Walter Moore]

Interesting shift lever you have there.

The car is really taking shape I see. Great work.

[madkaw]

BW T-5 trans with a pro-shifter, stock 280zxt boot.

[gregs240z]

Wow Steve! You've made a ton of progress since I last saw her. Keep on pushing you'll make it yet!

[S30Driver]

Car looks fantastic Steve, best of luck finishing it for the show....

What caught my eye is the T-5 installation, I will be swapping motors soon this summer with the BW T-5 & am curiious about the tranny crossmember for the s30.

What is the best route to aquire this, does anyone make them for sale over on hybrid z?

I know I will have to shorten the driive shaft & change the rear flange to accomodate the turbo shaft as well.

[madkaw]

I believe I use the stock crossmember with slight modification. I had to modify the tranny mount more then anything. Drop me an e-mail sometime and I had foward some pics.

[madkaw]

Well I actually put some miles on the car, but with some issues. I believe i have brake rotor issues so I took all my rotors to the machine shop this morning to have them checked. the rear was really bad and I hope it is just the rotor. I had the hubs turned before I modded the rear kit on and I hope it was done right.

Well the machine shop called as I am typing and said all the rotors need a touch. The rear was out .006+, so I hope that was the issue. He said the rotor had high spots so maybe that was the audible part that I was hearing.

The good part was the motor felt good-although still pretty loud. i had to go with SM needles in my SU's since it was to lean-and it did make a nice change.

I got to say that my family-especially my wife has been wonderful thru all of this. I am spending my entire week of vacation busting my arse on this car and doing NOTHING else. I need to make a decision whether I am going to make it to Zcon this weekend. A good day today would make a difference.

I am also realizing that my body is not up to this pace. I have taken more tylenol this week then i ever have.

[madkaw]

Well I had several issues going on at once-but by far the brake issue was the scariest. The skim cut at the machinist cleaned up everything and the brakes will put you thru the windshield----but smoothly now;)

The exhaust needed some resonators to help calm the resonance at 2500rpm. The drone was too loud and annoying to deal with. So I called Summit and ordered some cheapy 20$ resonators and installed them. The installation went smoother then I could imagine(it all actually fit under there), so I couldn't be happier. I still get some raspy resonance at 2500, but it is negligible. The only other thing to do is put some tail pipe resonator in.

I've put about 125 miles on her now and I couldn't be happier with the sound and performance so far. I have limited myself to 4000rpm, but she pulls strong all the way from 1500rpm. Cruisin rpm at 80mph is about 3000-3200-I think I could put 390 gears in this thing. Temperature is rock solid, as well as oil pressure. My only conplaints are that I think I have a tire out of balance that is making a lot of road noise and I get tire rub on all corners-but it is very light. I don't know if i can squeeze anymore room out of my fender lips-so anyone selling their ZG's. I am going to make a last ditch effort to make the stock fenders work on Wed.

Big items left to do are

install carpet

install plastic interior panels

install front bumper

change out faulty MSA instrument light bulbs:mad:

Color sand and buff out car

[madkaw]

Steady progress, but too much to do in the amount of time, I will need to prioritize my to do list so I can get to Zcon. The interior is done, except for the 2 pieces of carpet behind the seats(got shorted by MSA).

I have the front of the car wet sanded and buffed and I am very happy with the outcome. I still have a lot of buffing to do and it will eat most of my time.

I still have only about 250 miles on the car so I need to get out and drive-but that takes time, time I don't have a lot of. I am waiting on my halfshafts to get back from the driveshaft shop from beeing balanced. Still have something going on in the driveline that I have to narrow down.

Somewhere in there I need to sleep too!

Oh yeah, and watch my son swim in state competition.

[gregs240z]

Looking good, Steve! Can't wait to see it someday soon.