Murph

Easy I recon. Do you remember Matts 260Z? Looks identical to mine, except it's pretty much perfect. He was interested in selling that for around the 13k mark. L28, tripple webbers, fair bit of work on suspension and brakes. Beautiful car....makes be very very jealous! Ran a 14.4.....so pretty stout in a straight line....that's as quick as most turbo imports with the basic mods.

Nice! Now do you have one of it being driven in anger, Ron?

Thanks guys. 240ZX: The vents line just runs over to the other side of the engine bay (open to atmosphere), just to keep it away from the exhaust should there ever be a malfunction and the bowls overflow. 240ZMan: My comment on it being down on power is based on how it was running a few days ago, before I installed the XR700. It's not much of a difference, it's just sort of lost its edge you could say.

Very good points there Gav! *Datto jumps off the 180sx ship* You could certainly buy yourself a VERY nice zed for 15k. You'd be likely to get something a good bit quicker than a stockish 180SX for that matter....and would handle better, look better and have elevently billion times more sex appeal than ANY 180sx would ever have a hope of having. So how's this for a secenario mick: Keep the mirage as your daily driver and buy a nice zed as your fun car. As gav was saying theres plenty of good reasons. For a young bloke such as yourself one that's well worth seriously considering is the vehicles depreciation. You'd certainly be throwing away a good chunk of that money on the 180sx, where as the zed will only increase in value. If you want speed, I don't think you'll be that disapointed. Even my busted arse L26 (about the slowest zed you'll ever get in) will stick with a stock SR20 180sx to 100kph or so. Besides if you ever need a real speed fix, do what I do and take your mates turbo import for a blat for a night. Maybe sell the mirage and buy a bike as you'd suggested ages ago?

First things first, where should my vac advance be hooked up to? First pic shows where it was originally hooked up when I first got the car, 2nd pic shows how it has been up until recently (please excuse the shithouse pic....it's all I have that shows it). I assume the change happened when the new carbs went on (they were nicked, I didn't install the new ones). Is there really any difference between using either position? Now, it had been running fine and dandy up until late last week when I installed a crane XR700. When I first took it for a drive after setting the timing I had forgotten to hook up the vac advance. So with it running, removed my plug (from the nipple on the carb) but oddly it didn't run badly with the vac leak, then hook up the advance and revs increase as expected. Ever since then however, I don't seem to get any vacuum on that nipple at all. I shoved a piece of wire down there to try and clear any blockages....but that made no difference. Since then I hooked it up to the nipple on the manifold where it was originally and it seems to work fine. However, the car does not feel the same to drive and does seem to be a little down on power. Mind you, with the XR700, it runs and idles soooooo much more smoothly than it ever has. While I'm at it, where should the ignition timing be? It's a 74' 260Z, but the dizzy is from 75' 260Z 2+2. The hanes manual suggests either 7 or 10 deg it seems to run better at 7 than 10, but still feels down on power a bit. Any help here would be great. Justin

As much as I'd love to see the ol' girl on the road (seeing as I'm a previous owner), I'd have to also agree with the others. I think you could build up a pretty nice zed for 15k if you're careful with the $$$, but it's still not going to be something you want to drive every day. Maybe spend 10k or so on the 180 (I wouldn't be spending 15) and put the other 5k into getting the body work and paint work done on the zed.... That way you get the side project kick started and you have a good base to work on. The main things the zed really needs is rust/body work, paint, interior, engine + box (mickie is still welcome to my old L26 if he wants it, just to get it up and running). Mechanically it's pretty sound, seems to have relatively low km on it. Of course if a high powered engine goes in, then brakes and suspension will be a must. Wiring should be fine mick. Here's a pic.

I know exactly how you feel mate!

I have a good complete L20B and could use an L28. Now you have to come to australia to do the swap. Interesting idea though. I'd be tempted to go the L20A idea though. I don't know that the work required to get the L20B in there would be worth it. Let us know what you end up doing!

There's no rush on it as I have a spare flywheel here that I can play with. I have had a lot of people recommend avoiding machining the original from a safety point of view. Besides, I doubt there's anyone around here that I'd trust to do the job. Anyway, I just wanted to see what was available in the way of brand new items, then decide based on that.

Anyone know where I can get a light flywheel in australia, either new or 2nd hand? I'm thinking something in the 10-13lb range. Thanks, Justin

ZIII: I wouldn't be too worried about the 14.8V. That's going to be within spec for pretty much any automotive device. Also keep in mind you're likely to have a bit of an additional voltage drop over the wiring between the battery/alternator and any devices in the car.

Happy to help.

Weird. Lucky nothing worse happened.

Maybe....but I can't say I've heard of it happening before.

Glad to see it wasn't in a zed car! With some cars anyway, you'll find you need to have the key in, and turned (say to acc).

You're quite right, it does totally depend on having all the gear required to do it real time (which we do now). We have found though that after spending some time to get a feel for the system, that you can quite acurately predict the actual AFR from the theoretical AFR in ROM Editor. I think this really depends on power levels. You can do a pretty good job of it on the street with some patience. We are finding though that we can't safely tune our guinea-pig (R32, RB20DET, big ITS turbo, ~20psi) on the street anymore. You just can't hold it at a given load point on the brakes anymore....unless you're going VERY fast. So that'll be seeing the dyno soon. (Just in case you're wondering, we're using about $4k worth of ARF meter, not something cheap)

Wow! That'd take quite some abuse (or defect) to shear something that size. That's concerning.

On related note, what are peoples thoughts on the change in combustion chamber shape when you shave a head?

Getting someone with a big f-off press to remove the old bearings is a good idea. I tried it myself......now that was an exercise in futility! Btw, I have a similar vibration problem....I'm also assuming it's the driveshaft. Whenever I get around getting the new motor and box in the zed, I'll be getting the driveshaft balanced. I hope that fixes it.

Supercheap Auto? They sell DBA as well.

If you have someone local that can remap stock nissan ECUs, I'd be adapting a R32 RB20 item. They're cheap as chips and have so many more features and more tunability than most ECUs on the market that it just aint funny. Unfortunately there aren't too many people that do them. A few of my mates have been reprogramming them for a while now with excellent results.

KPGC110 Road Test KPGC110 Drawing

Putting it in the gallery is probably the easiest way about it. Alternatively, I could host it if you like?

Damn that's a nice 1200!

I'll give you $10.