ktm

I painted my finisher the same color as my rally stripe.

"Shouldn't there be power to both flat connectors (and wires) and if so, what are things to be considered that would cause one to not have power." No, the other is a ground as well and is controlled by your doors. The fat male is the ground for the light switch. The thin female is your power and the other female is the ground for the door switches.

My 225s clear fine except at full lock, where the tires hit the lower valence. However, after switching to a Kaminari air dam, my tires no longer hit anything.

Increasing your tire diameter will not help with handling; increasing your contact patch or tire width will help with handling. You will not really feel a difference in handling going with 195 tires on a 15x7 wheel. The lower ratio (60 series) will improve handling slightly as the sidewall is not as high. If you are going to go with a 15x7 wheel, I would run 205s at a minimum. I am running 14x7 Western turbines with 225/60s.

Didn't you ask this question over at Hybridz? I know that Ron Tyler recommended that you find a replacement harness instead of trying to piece together your damaged one. I fully support Ron's recommendations. Also, you really need to pull your old harness completely out of the car and inspect it. Otherwise you are just shooting in the dark.

If your charging system is not putting out enough voltage, or if your voltage drop to your lights, etc. is too great, they will not illuminate (at all or brightly). I was chasing a charging system problem in my car for a month. Turns out my alternator was bad, so I installed a 94 amp GM alternator.

"Symptoms: Popping at higher RPMs. Popping with choke on. Popping during deceleration. Idles fairly well with no popping. When I try to accelerate from a dead stop the car sputters and wants to die. I have to push in clutch and rev up engine or put choke on in order to accelerate. " Popping from where? Intake or the exhaust?

If you have Tokico springs and shocks, then it is not a stock suspension setup. You will need a spacer with the 20 mm offset. What size I can not tell you as you need to figure that out for your application.

Thank you for the follow-up.

If you are up to it, just swap the tach out for a 280z tach and switch the 280z faceplate with the 240z faceplate. You will have to do a little bit of rewiring as the tachs operate off of slightly different signals, but it eliminates the troublesome inductive loop on the 240z tachs.

You never stated if you checked timing as I indicated in my first post. Also, are you sure that you have the spark plugs setup correctly on the distributor cover? 1-5-3-6-2-4, counter clockwise, with #1 pointing to the radiator.

Do you have an automatic? I think I know the 'relay' he is talking about. I have one too and no one seems to know what the hell it does.

What year car for starters?

The guy in this ad: http://sandiego.craigslist.org/car/488241577.html changed his price AGAIN. He was $2500, then $4500, now he is at $6900. He threatens to use the pay classifieds and ASK FOR MORE.

Have you checked your timing? Pull the valve cover and rotate the engine until the cam lobes for #1 cylinder are making rabbit ears. Pull the distributor cover and make sure that the rotor is pointing to the number #1 plug. Look at the timing indictor on the crank pulley and make sure that it is showing TDC as well. Hybridz is for the advanced Z enthusiast. They expect that you already know how to do the basics. As they like to say, the site is geared for high performance modifications to the Z-series. This site is full of knowledgeable people (Arne, Zs-ondabrain, Sblake, Tony D, jmortensen, johnc), some of who also post on Hybridz and Zcar.com.

I did not speak to the seller. I watch Craigslist as well and saw that car come up. His advertisement was different than the one you posted. He was asking $2500 for a non-op car or $4500 if he had it fixed.

Thanks for the pictures Dave. I've been contemplating building my own and your pictures/write-up help a lot.

You have no idea. He was originally asking $2500 because it needed a head gasket.

The build: Garrett T03/04E water-cooled turbo, Supra 440cc injectors, Wolf V500 EMS, LS1 Coil-on-plugs, etc. No AFM as I am using a MAP sensor. Tony D indicated at "the other site" that his MS'd car does the same thing. "What I believe it is, after careful observation, is the ECU is giving a SPARK concurrently with the initial energization. It SHOULD jump to a spark terminal with closed valves and therefore be muted (if the cylinder has enough of a combustible mixture at all. But if your ignition system is like mine (jumps almost 4" now, WOO HOO!) that jump could just as easily randomly go to another cylinder where one of the valves is open and residual fuel vapors flash in the intake or exhaust causing one hell of an explosive backfire! Mine is occasional, random, and made me question everything I did. Then one day when doing a power-on I noticed that spark from the coil terminal. EVERY time I power on the ECU. EUREKA! That is the ignition source! From there the logic followed. There has been nothing I have done since to lessen it, or stop it. It just happens. Short of a relay that momentarily direct shorts the coil's signal at startup to prevent the coil from making that primary field and discharging, I don't know what you could do to stop it." I am looking for other explanations, though Tony's makes the most sense.

Just happened again. Sounds like a damn M80 going off!

....the fuel system. I am not starting the car, simply turning the key to the ON position. You will hear the pump energize and then an incredibly loud BANG! It only happens occasionally and the car will start up and idle fine afterwards. Most of the time when I energize the fueling system nothing happens, but when it does go BANG! it scares the crap outta me. I have checked all over for fuel leaks, etc. and do not see anything. It HAS to be fuel system related as that is the ONLY thing that is energized when the key is in the ON position. Anyone have ANY idea what the @(#&$(@#& it is? I am stumped.

A loose arrestor strap will cause clunking too. I am about to replace my front mount configuration with a setup called the Ron Tyler front diff mount. It replaces both the arrestor strap and front strap.

I feel I must chime in here. A would argue that a modern aftermarket EMS is benefitial to even the strip cruisers as it opens a WHOLE new world. You are no longer stuck using a dwindling supply of Nissan injectors, sensors, etc. You can install, say, Megasquirt and use ANY injector you like, as well as GM sensors, etc. The flexibility and tunability of the modern EMS' help to extend the life of your EFI equipped car as it enables them to use modern parts.

Arne, check out Hybridz for roof repair/replacement. There have been a few threads, one quite recent, regarding replacing the roof. Another option you may explore is to modernize the seals or sunroof. Pull the old sunroof, strip, treat, and repaint the metal, reinstall the old sunroof or install a new, modern sunroof.

My strut bar rubs on my valve cover and I did exactly what Dave did at first.