jmortensen

If you like to race, buy a car. If you have the money and you like to putz around in the garage, or if you're especially anal, build the car.

Ah, got confused. Thought the turbo and the automatic were the cars, but it's a turbo automatic, and a 5 speed NA. If you have a ZX 5 speed I agree that a 3.90 would be a better choice.

I thought all the turbos had 3.54's. Just looked it up, and that's also what the transmission calculator page says: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html

Haven't seen it in person, but I understand that the 2L turbo head has TINY ports.

I haven't seen one in person, but from what I've read it is not a desireable head. Very small ports compared to the rest of them.

I apologize for my part in the argument, but I think the root of the problem is Bryan running around in a bunch of threads telling people that their cars don't handle well that is the problem. Maybe we should change his handle to cardogman1. I agree wholeheartedly with Gary's first post. If you want big hp and you don't want a turbo, then the best option is a V8 swap. There are kits available for the SBC, both the older SBC (through JTR-Jags That Run) and the new LS1 (John's Cars). That is the easiest way to get 300+ hp in a Z, barring turbo. www.hybridz.org is a great resource on turbos or V8 swaps.

I'll share my 240 accident story. In my 72 I was stopped waiting to turn left into a fast food joint. I was wearing my lap belt, but I had just unhooked the shoulder harness because I couldn't reach the damn window crank with the shoulder harness on. My girlfriend (now wife) was in the passenger seat with her seatbelt on normally. I got hit by a late 90's Firebird doing ~50 mph. Her car hit mine right about where the right tail light was. The hit pushed me across the road into oncoming traffic where I hit an early 90's Acura Legend almost head on. The Acura was going ~35. So I figure I took a 50 mph hit to the rear and probably a combined 50 mph hit to the front. This hit then spun the car counterclockwise about 270º where it stopped in the middle of the street. We're talking two HARD hits. Now for the damage. The rear of the car was pushed in about a foot and a half. The nose of the Firebird is really low, so it hit the Z under the hatch. Although the hatch was tweaked, the glass did not break. In fact, NONE of the glass in the car broke. There was no gas spilled at the scene. In the front the car was mangled up to the radiator core support. Once there, the damage was pretty minimal. I'd guess that the core support was pushed back maybe 2 or 3 inches, and the frame rails from the firewall forward were pushed over to the left about the same amount (because the hit from the Acura was slightly off to the right side of the car). I broke my nose on the steering wheel. I jumped out of the car and started walking towards the restaurant to get help. At this point I realized that my wife wasn't with me. I went back down to the car and had to really yank the door open. She was crying but OK. Despite being belted in, she hit her forehead on the dashboard. When I later tried to close her door, it was bent so that the door overlapped the jamb by about an inch and a half. So the chassis was seriously bent all the way up into the rocker and floorboard area. When the cops arrived they asked what had happened and the lady said she never even saw my Z. She never even touched the brakes. The cop asked if my lights were on (it was dusk) and I said, "Look for yourself, they still are." Despite the hit and the broken tail light lens in the RR, every single BULB in the rear was still on, and the blinker was still flashing. So I think the Z is pretty good in a crash. I don't know that I'd be too keen on testing a side impact at the same speeds, but the front and rear definitely absorb energy well. I still can't believe that the glass didn't break! I guess I can thank the engineers for that little miracle.

Shorter 280Z pickup IIRC. Call Dave. He can tell you for sure.

LT1 is iron block "older" generation small block. The LS1 is the newer all aluminum V8. Both engines came in Camaros and Vettes. The engines are totally different internally, but share similar displacement and size. LS1 seems to make huge power compared to the LT1 with similar mods.

The difference is that a quote in a magazine IS taking into account the readership, and the sponsorship for that matter. You really expect Morton to say anything negative about a Z in Car and Driver in 1970??? This argument has spilled into another thread that it shouldn't have, but I'll restate here that I think the basic problem is that Bryan has no frame of reference to judge the statements made by John Morton. The statement that a stock Z is soft and squats is so true I'm baffled that anyone would try to argue otherwise. Morton's comments were about what it takes to make a "race-winning sports car", not about how the car drives on the highway. His comments in Car and Driver were about a road car, and were probably (IMO undoubtedly) colored by his sponsorship from Datsun.

IIRC the L28 pan has a shorter and straighter pickup. The L24 has a longer pickup that sits further back in the oil pan. I think ***but I'm not sure*** that the L24 pan has the baffle further back as well to match the pickup. I ran into this problem when I bought the AZC aluminum pan and had the wrong pickup a few years back, and I believe this was the cause.

No clue. Probably 2.5 or 3 times as much as the 240Z would be my guess. But why are you even asking??? Once again, to reframe your question in the context of Morton's statement, purchase price is not a factor in sports car racing. They don't have classes based on cost. Classes are based on engine size and chassis configuration.

Right, that's the problem. You have no contextual knowledge of what Morton was saying. He said: He's speaking in RACE-WINNING SPORTS CAR terms. And in race-winning sports car terms the car is soft and squats a lot. The car was undersprung. The stock geometry sucked. The chassis wasn't very stable and flexed too much. Those are the problems that BRE addressed, and hey, whaddya know? The car won races. He says the handling is "more like that of" an American car. I can't believe how much that statement is getting to you. Compared to other sports cars in the class, it was. Having driven MANY early 70's 911s I can tell you that they feel a lot stiffer than a stock Z. My favorite that I got to drive was a bone stock 74 911 Carrera CS. Compared to that car the 240 does feel like a wallowing American car, like it's damn near going to scrape the door handles going around corners. That CS felt about as prepared as my very modified Z did.

Bryan needs a back to back ride in a stock Z then a race prepped Z on a track. Then he'd understand. Right now he has NO CLUE WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT.

Bryan are you going to pop into every thread and tell people that their car handles like an American car? What an infantile thing to do. Chris, John Morton said that the Z handled like an American car. And he was right. I don't know about your Z, but my Z pushed HORRIBLY until I dialed in a bunch of caster and neg camber and got to about 250% over the stock spring rate (which you have to MODIFY the car to do, which was Morton's point). The Z is a GREAT PLATFORM FOR MODIFICATIONS, and therein lies its beauty. It was not designed nor built as a race car with an interior. It was designed and built as a CHEAP, lightweight, attractive, sporty car.

That's interesting Ian. I had read that the shorter knuckles were standard issue in other countries, along with the "Euro" springs, 5 speeds, and a bunch of other items that were only available to us through Nissan Comp. I had thought that the steer knuckles were one of those items. Maybe in other European countries or Japan or something... ???

Oh geez. Just looked again and the main hoop isn't even a hoop!!! Looks like they have the thing welded at the corners. Someone needs to learn how to design a cage.

Lots of nice stuff there, then you come to this: . WTF??? Is it just me, or is this not the single dumbest cage design ever. Maybe someone could design a cage where a bar wrapped all the way around your head so that you could hit it while decelerating and turning in both directions. I suppose that would be even dumber... Apparently my link no worky. I'm griping about the last shot of the orange/red car with the bar from about shoulder height to the top of the A pillar with NO PADDING.

EXACTLY!!! The US version is definitely the watered down boulevard cruiser. Yeah. What's with starting threads then hoping that they die off?

They're probably quoting the ACTUAL lift. What you're used to seeing is the lift x the rocker ratio of 1.5. So a .350" lift at the cam lobe is .525" when you actually get to the valve due to the rocker ratio. That's my guess anyway.

I always use my IR 231 put it on 5 and hammer away until they're as tight as they'll get. Never had a problem. I'm running about 90 psi in the lines. The IR 231 is rated at 425, but mine is old, so I don't think it's still putting out that much torque.

I suppose the bigger the tank the more reliable it would be, but if you think about it the surge tank on your Z when it had SU's was the float bowls in the carbs. They can't hold much more than a couple ounces. I'd just make it big enough to comfortably put the fittings on. Probably in the 16 oz range or so, and that would be more than enough fuel to ensure that it didn't starve.

Surge tank isn't a bandaid. Lots of race cars use them. Lots of FI fuel cells have surge tanks built into them. It's a good idea and a cheap way to run injection without having fuel starvation issues whether you have a FI tank or not.

Evil Twin, are you in the US? Because only the US got the "long" steer knuckles. The "Nissan Comp" steer knuckles are standard equipment for Euro and AU and Japanese cars.

This will probably come as no surprise to Bryan anyway, but I thought John Morton was dead on with his comments. I also don't think he should have worded them differently or tried to take into consideration the audience. The truth is what it is, and Morton shouldn't have to apologize for it to save anyone's feelings. That's how history gets corrupted. If you jump in your Z on the weekends and take it for Sunday drives, and that's the extent of your Z experience you will never know how right Morton is. If you take your bone stock Z to an autox or a track day you'll soon find the limitations of the squishy Z suspension. A track day is even more of an eye opener as you'll get a good look at the large number of (slow) cars that pass you.