jmortensen

Use a cable. Much easier to figure out. I have a cable from a Nissan truck in my Z, but I had to modify my gas pedal to use it. There are some that you can use that setup entirely within the engine compartment. Toughest part is making a bracket to hold the cable housing end at the carbs, and even that is not tough. This might help: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104551

Mike's car had all kinds of adjustable suspension and bigger brakes, so there is no way you could get it into a field as an ITS car.

DCOEs should fit a manifold that bolts to a Z, but the Aston manifold isn't going to have the Z spacing or bolt pattern. You can get a manifold from TWM that requires a bit of modding to get the DCOEs on, or you can try to find a 45mm Cannon manifold and linkage floating around on ebay or something like that. I wouldn't let the manifold keep me from a good deal on the carbs, especially if they were otherwise complete with air cleaners and air horns, etc.

That cam is TOO DAMN SMALL!!! MSA should stop selling the stage I and II and call the Stage III the stage I. Go stage IV or better, preferrably better, for triples. I'm running a .490/280 and I really think I could do better with a larger cam. The .490/280 ran FINE with a 8.3:1 bottom end. I upped it to 11:1 and now I'd like to run a .510/305 or somewhere in there. There are some other issues that you have to deal with like changing valve springs and valve stem seals, but you'll really reap the top end hp rewards for your effort. Without you'll have a top end induction system with a mid range engine build, which nets you a kinda crappy result, as I think Alan was alluding to...

I still think you'd have lots of interest from CP racers, probably $1500 for a brand new rebuild, $800 for a used, a couple hundred for broke down and busted.

I don't own and haven't owned any of these, so I'm just relating the info that I've seen flicker across the computer screen. My impression has been that the Datsun "Comp" boxes that we are referring to in the US are the direct drive dog-leg units. I did have the guts of a couple of steel synchroed transmissions at one point (no cases, but everything else), one was a roadster trans with a 3.3:1 1st gear and the .8 OD, the other Ron Carter said was a real oddball. Had a 2.8 or 2.9:1 1st gear with a .8 OD and had a flanged output shaft and a 2 piece driveshaft. I had a friend in need and I gave him the two transmissions and he put the closer ratio gears on the regular mainshaft that takes a slip yoke. He picked through and used the best synchro rings and used bearings and seals from a standard 5 speed case. Then he put all the guts into a early Z 5 speed housing. He's still running that setup in his race 510 today some 6 or 7 years later.

You want wide? How about these? http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106563 Check the posts from Cary and BRAAP in particular. They must be extra slow, because they not only use 13" wide wheels, but they're also only 13" tall. I guess those guys didn't read the articles in Sport Compact Car that say that 18 x 7's will make your car handle better. Just think of all that unsprung weight and drag they're running... Wish I had some...

The CP vintage Z racers use the Comp trannies as well, as they were available from Datsun back in the day. In fact I believe those are the only 5 speeds that are technically vintage legal. The middle close seems to be the one everyone really wants, with the ultra close not as desireable. That's in my very limited experience seeing other people talk about them on Datsun racing websites. Prices I've seen have been very high, I think Carl is a bit low in his estimations, especially with regards to the middle close box. I used to have a website bookmarked that had all the ratios, but I can't find it now. It had the middle close and ultra close listed as such. This site: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/ has them too, but doesn't have them listed. If memory serves, the second from the bottom Comp box is the middle close and the bottom is the ultra close. If you look at the spread between the gears, the middle close seems like it has a much preferable 3rd to 4th gear gap. Alan, I think that the Comp boxes had 1:1 5th gear, and the Roadster units had a .8:1 5th gear.

I've run circle track steel wheels from Paulsen for the last 8 years. I would assume that they're made the same way the DRWs are but I don't know that for sure. In any event, I've never had a balance problem and they've seen 120+ quite a few times at the track. It doesn't seem to me like it would be very hard to cut the hole true on a lathe, although it might be a bit of trouble finding a lathe large enough. Another option would be to use a hole saw. Terry Oxendale was able to drill the center hole for his brake rotors on a drill press, I wouldn't think that this would be too terribly different. http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&ndx=7&slideshow=0&AlbumId={207ED2D7-2DCC-4497-9C55-8C34FB382123}&GroupId={5F283F02-1DFA-46CE-9CC3-E1E26F40E4B3}&screenheight=768

Looks familiar. Except yours looks nice, and mine looks like some jackass is using engine stands as a rotiserrie! What all are you doing underneath? Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll agree that having the rotisserie sure makes it nicer.

I read it again, and you are correct. He did pick up a ZX distributor. BUT, it is well proven that you can run HEI on a Datsun distributor. There is an article about it on www.zhome.com in the Index of Technical Articles. And that's made by GM! There is no way to stamp the voltage signal needed to trigger their module as "GM only". I've got friends who have run Chrysler modules for the last 15 years on their Datsuns. Sorry, but the reality is manufacturers do not have some proprietary control over inductive voltage, and they can't make some voltage work differently than others so that modules work with one distributor and not another. Here's an article that may shed some light on why these things work: http://www.kemparts.com/TechTalk/tt10.asp It may also shed some light on why they AREN'T manufacturer specific. The article does talk about some that run a lower voltage, and I haven't tried every module in the world so I don't know if that is a problem or not. What I can tell you is that the HEI and Chrysler work, so that should mean according to the article that most Ford modules work too (since it says they run 12V as well) although they're notoriously failure prone so why bother. It also leaves open the probability that just about any module from any car triggered by a Hall sensor will work, as long as it runs on 12V.

Hmm... well, maybe it ONLY worked for 240zwinter. Or did you not read the whole thread? Here it is again: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19098 Regardless, it did work for him despite your saying that it wouldn't work back then. I'm not a betting man, but I'd put $50 on it working a second time. Care to take me up on that beandip?

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19098

That's the distributor that started this thread with the crappy vac advance. Here's a couple links for you: http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

The grease just allows the weights to pivot. They don't move very far at all. The grease will sling off if you put too much on, but the type of grease I don't think is very critical. I just used wheel bearing grease. I did use the same grease on the distributor shaft though, and that goes 1/2 the crank speed, so figure 3600 or so max in my case.

No, I thought the post from Matria was current. I don't know anything about the 280Z distributor except it uses a trigger wheel and one sensor. Totally different internally than the ZX AFAIK.

IME the vacuum advance assembly is the weak part of that distributor. Everything else is rock solid and works every time, but that stupid vacuum advance sucks, so I just disable it. There is a thin snap ring on the bottom of the breaker plate/stator holder piece. Take it off and you can remove all the vacuum advance balls and the plastic pieces and the shims and stuff that holds them. Then you're left with the breaker plate and the part that holds the stator. You need both of these to reassemble the distributor. What I did was in 3 spots around the edge of the breaker I sanded them a little, and put three big dollups of JB weld and then set the top piece on the dollops. I also JB welded around the bottom, and let the top piece slide into the bottom about 1/8". Once that is dry it will firmly lock the vacuum advance so that it will never move again. The only caviat here is that the distibutor shaft needs to fit through the plates without rubbing, so you might have to grind a little with a Dremel to get everything to work together when it dries. If you get the stator part perfectly straight then you shouldn't have to grind, so I used some nuts to keep the distance between the two pieces consistent as the JB Weld dries. You might also have to tweak the pedestal that the stator sits on so that the stator and reluctor don't come into contact. That's no biggie, just take the stator off first, because you'll crack the magnets on the bottom if you try to tweak it with the stator on. Then you can cut the arm off of the vacuum advance dashpot, and just leave it attached to the side of the distributor (or plug the hole if you prefer). Now you have a distributor with mechanical advance and no vacuum advance anymore, which is fine because the ZX distributor only has about 17 degrees of mechanical advance. Install it and set it around 18 degrees advance at idle, and it will be a lot snappier off idle and should get you into the mid 30's for total advance. Works great!

Illuminas on 1 ride softer than the HPs. I ran Illuminas on 1 with 200/250 rates, camber plates, heims jointed control arms and TC rods, and had no problems at all. Daily drove it like that for 5+ years. Put the struts on 3 and it would make you pee blood practically. Couple of times I have them on 3 or 4 at an autox and forget to turn them down. SORE BACK by the time I'd driven the 2 hours home. I'd suggest the Illuminas for your softer rate springs on 1 or 2 for street driving. Zguitar71 might help too, as he's running 180/200 springs with Illuminas. For sake of comparison I have a friend who has the Tokico shock/spring combo and her car rides marginally smoother than mine. Not hugely different IMO, but hers is noticeably smoother I'd say. I just bought BZ3099s but haven't run them yet. They are 1 5/8" shorter than stock. So that's not going to be a huge change from what you have now. Is it worth all the hassle to get an extra 5/8" of travel? I'd guess not.

If you're not boring the block, just using standard pistons, and the head hasn't been shaved, you're looking at 7.38:1. Very low compression. Nowadays that's considered low even for a turbo. With flat top pistons it would be 8.52.

That fridge makes me thirsty just looking at it. It's kinda hard to see detail, but that looks really acceptable. Would you say the same seeing it up close and in person?

It's pretty easy if you do it right. Pull the nuts in the center of the strut. Then jack the car up as high as you can. Jack stands next. Then disconnect the brake lines and the halfshafts and the sway bar(s). Now pull down on the strut assemblies. They'll fold under the car, and next take the 3 nuts off that hold the struts in the strut tower. Now you can pull the springs off. Put the top hats back on the struts. Then you lift the control arms back up and put one nut on. Now you have the strut and control arm conveniently held in place with no spring on, and you can use a big pair of channel locks to break the gland nuts loose. Once they're loose, then you can take the nut back off the top and lower the control arms down again, and this time pull the struts out. Next you put your new struts in, pour a little oil down the tubes, and put the gland nuts on. To tighten the gland nuts, put the strut top back on and stick it back in the strut tower and hold with the one nut again. Then pull it back down, take the strut top off again and put the spring on. Put the strut top on again, this time for good, and put the strut back up inside the strut tower and put all 3 nuts on. Reconnect brake lines and sway bars and halfshafts. Bleed brakes. You're done. Not pulling the struts off the car really saves a bunch of time. You won't need a spring compressor doing it this way either, since your Tokicos should be short enough so that they don't need to be compressed. Good luck.

Sorry Tom!!! The guy I know who had one that blew up, was sent back, blew up, etc was an active member here for a long time, Zvoiture was his screen name. Anyway he bought his maybe 2 years ago, so unless he somehow got a hold of an old one, his should have been a newer model. We discussed it on a racing site, and the general consensus was that it is not reliable and offered no advantage over the Datsun stuff.

FWIW the page by Joe Demers says that internally the E12-93 is the same distributor as the E12-80, so technically you could buy one of those. Potentially it might even be cheaper since they seem to be the red-headed stepchild of the Z distributor world, and then run an HEI module. Just another option. EDIT--Arne I just read your post again, and you were saying just what I said above. Sorry, I didn't read...

What money and labor? You can get a used E12-80 distributor from a JY for $50 or less all day long with the module. If the module goes bad you can use an HEI module or a Chrysler module that costs $15 at any auto parts store. The ignition advance curve is way better for performance than the 240 distributor. The wiring consists of adding 2 wires. It's a very easy and cheap swap, I'd guess just swapping it in is even EASIER than adding a Pertronix system. I always go through a new distributor and disable the vacuum advance system, because that is the real Achilles' heel of the ZX distributor. The vacuum advance system does fall apart. But it can be fixed permanently in place for the cost of some JB Weld.Here's some info on the swap, and tearing down the ZX distributor: http://www.jrdemers.com/280ZX/distributor/distributor.html http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html I've heard many cautionary tales about the Mallory distributor, but I'm glad to hear that yours hasn't been problematic Ted. I do agree about the Magnecor wires though.

That P79 of Arne's with a dished piston bottom end is going to be 7.3:1 compression or whatever the turbo engine is. Not enough for a NA engine. Forget about P heads unless you just end up getting a whole engine from a NA ZX that has the flat top pistons and the P head. Go for either the N42 or N47, but stay away from the P79 or P90 unless you put a different block in the car (or different pistons in the block).