Pomorza

Hello all As I keep seeing a lot of chatter about the suspension kit MSA sells (eibach springs and tokico shocks) I decided to give my opinion on them as I just happened to put them on this weekend along with hyper flex bushings. Bushings The bushing were rather disappointing in my opinion for a number of reasons. First off not all the bushings fit. To be honest many of them were too large and required either sanding to fit or required me to use a lathe to make them fit. Once everything was together though I must say I'm rather please with how well they work. They are a bit loud at times but I can live with that. If you plan on using these be prepared for some finangling and choice words. Springs Eibach lowering springs I bought from MSA. They are shorter, as in A LOT shorter than the ones that are on the car. Don't be amazed when you first compare them with what you pulled off your car. The difference will be staggering at first. The shorter of the two pairs goes on the front while the longer ones go on the front. Once you have them installed they shouldn't lower the car very much. In my Z the front end dropped about 1/2 inch while the rear actually raised up about 1/4 in. or so. (and no I'm not joking it raised the rear end up.) In my experience doing the job spring compressor is needed to get the old springs off but not necessary to put the new ones on as they are so much shorter than the originals. Struts tokico come in the little packaged that MSA sells. They are direct bolt ins for what I can tell. They do come with instructions that they should be submerged in a light weight oil. There's a thread here about what to use, I just went with some 10w-30 oil in place of what was in the struts. All in all my suspension is about 1000% better than it was before. The old suspension parts were all the stock originals so you all can image what that felt like driving. I'm not sure how I'll like it in a year or two but for now its great Hope this helps everyone who has questions. If you have anymore don't fret to ask as I have the whole procedure engraved in my head at the moment. Jan

Found that Oriely's has Moog ball joins for 55 a piece. Bought them as I need them this weekend and have all the suspension stuff off and new stuff ready to install. Thanks guys for all the help. Mine are um dead, as the tops move about a 2-3 inches in each direction. Thanks again Jan

Hey guys. My ball joints on the Z are, well to put it nicely, dead and I require new ones. I found ones at autozone that run for ~$40 a piece. Has anyone ever used these? Jan

Sorry guys for not being up to date. I took the car into the shop the other day to get it looked at (and get the rim fixed). According to the mechanic, other than rearranging my alignment I didn't do much damage. The ball joint(s) are in really bad shape so I need to replace those before anything really goes on. The rim was about 80% fixed as apparently it is made out of a rather hard alloy that the machinist had a hard time bending back. Jan

Wow this thread made my night. Wow Jan

Sorry I didn't know the technical name of them. Yes rivets that would make sense Jan

Said clips Jan

Hello all Over the past couple of months I've been investigating exactly how well the rear section of my car is sealed. This past week I discovered, by accident mind you, that the tail light gaskets were no longer really doing much of a sealing job. This weekend I finally had time to actually take the lights out and see how bad the situation was. Well, the gaskets, which I'm assuming back in the 70's were rubber, were hard as a rock. They didn't come off as much as fall off. Taking the light out of the rear of the car most of the gasket material fell to the ground. I replaced the gaskets with new gaskets I had picked up from MSA the week before. The whole process went rather peacefully other than the nearly everyone of the plastic clips broke. Which begs the question, does anyone know where one can procure such clips. Literally all but two of the ones holding the rear of the car one broke. Thanks Jan P.S Pictures 1. is the driver's side with new gasket 2. Older gasket from passenger's side 3. Completed Z

Bit off topic here. I've had this same issue earlier when I bought my Z. The previous owner decided that rich was just not rich enough, and had it set so rich that it barely idled at anything lower than a 1k. When I went to pass emissions I failed with CO levels in the 2k range. Secondly, that ticking noise is the injectors. I have the same noise (it drives me nuts) when the car gets warm after driving on the freeway. I've cleaned and cleaned them with everything under the sun (other than take them off) and nothing seems to help. Jan

I will check again. That tie rod is rather loose to begin with as it is in need of replacement so that maybe what your seeing. Jan

I'm going to check the rack here in a few days when I'm disassembling the suspension. I think I have to take most of it off to get the new bushings on it. (I got carried away and bought every possible suspension bushing on the car). I'm just hoping I can get that rim fixed. It's not even a year since I put those on there. Jan

Here are some pictures of the damage done. The rim is I think the worse of it as the lip is nicely bent inwards. I don't see anything bent or out of wack, the only noticeable difference between once side and the other is that the driver's side tire is pointed outwards a bit by that I mean the front section of the tire is pointing a bit more outwards than the rear. I'm redoing the entire suspension in the near future and replacing all the struts, springs and bushings so I'm going to have everything apart pretty soon. I will though take it to my alignment shop (which happens to be my local mechanic) and see what they're opinion is. I don't need to download the copy SteveJ as I actually have a physical copy of both the FSM the Haynes manual and the original owners manual. Jan P.S What is TC? I'm very bad at these acronyms

Ah I see. The lowers look in good shape at least at this point. I have noticed that I bent the lip of my rims in one area. Jan

What is LCA? Jan

Hello all I was forced to drive onto a median earlier this evening. Median is like the little concrete divider. I hit and drove onto it at roughly 35-40mph. The steering wheel is now pointing a bit to the right when the car is going in a straight line. I'm thinking I just messed the hell out of my alignment (as I hit the front left wheel) but what are the chances I did any real damage? I spent a good 30-45 minutes inspecting everything I could with a flashlight. It all looks like it should but its dark and rather difficult to see. Sorry this is rather vague and out of left field but I'm a bit worried I might of broken/bent something important, like the rack or something. Thanks all Jan

Yup that's the next step. Just need to find the time (and $$) to do it. Jan

Fixed. Pictures included. Jan

I'm not positive if were talking about the same thing here, but I have a fuel pressure gauge mounted on my Z right past the fuel filter. I just went to the local race shop and picked up a standard FP gauge. It does the job just fine for me. I do have a suggestion though as I've met someone that had a similar issue. When your first start your car and it runs like car, pull on the harness going to the computer (and by pull I mean GENTLY TUG). A friend of mine had an issue where the solders on the inside of the computer (the FI one that is) were loose causing the thing to loose connection with the rest of the car. I would personally start with the basics. Make sure your have enough fuel in the car and that your AFM and TPS are set correctly. Also check all the connections and connection points to see that they are on tight and aren't covered in crude. Remember these cars are 30+ years old. Even the best wires and connectors will have issues. Jan

Bit of an update. I pulled the carpet off the floor the other day. Found that I had a massive surface rust issue on the floor board. Before heading of to get a heat gun (or ice) i started chipping away at the tar mat. Came off like paper. Didn't even have to force it at all. I sanded it all down and found that most of it except for one area was just surface rust. The seam between where the floor pan meets the fire wall (there a bit of a dip there) has straight through rust (:mad:). Going to meet with the metal guy pretty soon. Should be an interesting day. Jan

I'm going to agree with fastwoman here. You have fuel leaking out of something or back into your tank. I installed a fuel pressure gauge after it started doing this as I suspected I was loosing pressure. Long and behold, when I turn the car off for a long period of time the pressure drops to ~0. I would first check the injectors, and cold start valve. For what I remember the check valve in 280z's is in the actual pump (of course) which means a new pump may be the way to go if that's what it turns out to be. Jan

Hey guys. First off. Can this update be made on 280s. As have all the parts needed but the motor doesn't seem to fit. Is this a 240z exclusive upgrade? My old motor no longer works so I though this could be done? The problem I seem to be having is that the cage for the new motor is too big for the opening in the vent. (cage=fan thingy). Its about an a quarter inch wider on each side. Any help would be great. Jan

From all the material I've read on engines in the past five months, the consensus in most of them is that you should not use synthetic oils in a new engine until it hits 5000-6000 miles. I don't know if anyone asked this but what color is the smoke? Jan

Did you use just some spare sheet metal or did you actually buy a floor pan and cut it. If you did use metal what gauge is it? Jan

I'm saying this just for arguments sake. Power and displacement are never truly linear. Why this may look like it is, it has to do more with the amount of air and fuel being pushed into the "bigger" parts then the size of the actual bore. Example. I have an L28. If I was to stroke that out but leave everything else stock (cylinder head and fuel curve) I find it highly unlikely that I would get nearly as much power if I did what Z train did and added a better cam (which I assume would increase air influx) changed the fuel curve (in his case a better carb) and increased out flow (header). We can argue about this day and night but what he says is true. If your going to update your motor you UPDATE your motor not just the block. That is pointless and a waste of time and money. As you guys pointed out earlier a motor build is purely personal. If find having more than 250 hp in a Z unnecessary as they have plenty of it stock. But then again I know a friend of mine that had a 1000hp blown V8 his car. Its all preference. Jan

This was what it looked liked when I bought the car. Back then it was still sturdy enough to hold the water away. Now the middle of the rust is pretty much non existent and water just pours straight in. Jan