jmortensen

Just as a reality check, the Z aftermarket is PUNY compared to the other car makes out there. The guys at MSA could make 50 times the sales (albeit at a lower profit margin) if they sold Mustang or Camaro parts. I could be wrong, but I don't think that anyone at MSA is buying a yacht anytime soon, and if I were going to start a mailorder biz for Z parts I doubt hiring a bunch of telephone operators would be first on my list of things to do. Victor, you called on Monday morning right? I've worked in a bunch of mail order businesses and Mon morning is always the hardest time to keep up with the phones. If any of those businesses I worked for actually hired enough people to keep up with the Mon morning rush so that there was no hold time, they would have 10 employees sitting on their thumbs for most of the rest of the week. I'm just glad that they still make parts for our cars, and that businesses like MSA and VB and Modern Motorsports and Classic Datsun and Zparts and Zedd Findings even exist. As long as they are selling quality parts and aren't ripping me off I can deal with a little lackluster service. Try getting a hold of Ross Corrigan sometime. Sounds like a complaint in the making, but then again, try getting a CV adapter or a billet stub axle from ANYWHERE else. These companies aren't JEGS and they aren't Summit Racing, and they never will be.

3.36 is the tallest gear ratio I know of. It was also stock on manual 240Z's so is probably the most plentiful R180. With a stock 240Z 4 speed and 3.36 and 225/50/15 tires you're going to be gear limited to 153 mph. You'll never get there with anything close to a stock Z though. This might help you: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/transmission.html

IME wheel bearings make more of a growling noise which changes with load. You can usually identify a bearing noise by swerving side to side. If the noise changes pitch or goes away while swerving, then it's a wheel bearing. Thunk or a thump huh? If it changes with vehicle speed then my first thought would be a U joint, but you say you just fixed those...

In CA they do. As I said in my previous post everyone I knew who owned a Harley in CA bitched about being pulled over for noise. They all said it was a "safety feature" because if they were in your blind spot you could still hear them. Not sure that I buy that argument, but it was a big enough problem that they had a rote argument to tell the cops when they got hassled...

Actually the only sticker on my car is a Cal Poly San Luis Obispo sticker. They might pull me over for my license plate frame though, because it says: TRD What's that spell???

Try over at www.hybridz.org. All of your questions have been answered before. Read the stickies in the V8 forum and search the forums. You should find everything you need and more.

The master has to fully relax to release it's pressure. When the piston in the master goes all the way back it opens up a little hole to the reservoir, and the pressure just gets released. If the rod between the back of the master and the reaction disk is too long, the pressure can't release. So as you drive longer the brakes get hotter which expands the fluid which has nowhere to go and basically applies the brakes more and more and more until you stop. You have to have a little bit of play between the rod and the master, 1/8" or so. If not, the problem you're experiencing will result.

So how then is this not an abridgement of First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights again? Poodles or honor students are fine subjects for stickers, but when a sticker says something that could be construed as having to do with import cars then one immediately forfeits their rights??? I can't believe that I'm reading this on a Z car website! Talk about self loathing...

Tomohawk, I'm all about the "your rights end where my nose begins" thing, but if you really think that putting a sticker on your car should be considered probable cause for the cops to pull you over and inspect your car then our ideas of "freedom" and "where my nose begins" have some pretty serious differences. Ed is right, if they're breaking a law, deal with them as such. If they aren't, leave them alone. Anything else is not freedom. Putting stickers on your car very well might insinuate that you have a race car, but it just as easily may insinuate that you just really like stickers. It shouldn't be an offense worthy of pulling someone over until the law is broken. Ed is wrong about the bikes though. Everyone I knew in CA who had a Harley had been hassled about loud pipes at least once.

Sounds like a good revenue generator to me. Stickers are probable cause to pull you over and search your vehicle??? What kind of crap is that? There is no definition of stickers either, could be anything from a giant Japanese word that probably translates to dumbass across the hood of your Civic, or it could be a political bumper sticker or anything. So the cop is a democrat and you're a republican with a bumper sticker and now he has technical probable cause to stop you and inspect under the hood? Sounds like too much police power to me. Oh right, it won't be abused will it? Cops would never pay undue attention to a Vanagon covered with daisies and Grateful Dead bears and pot leaves... :? There are already laws for loud exhaust and loud stereos. It's called disturbing the peace, and I wish officers would enforce those laws more vigorously to be perfectly honest. There are also rules about rearward vision. Think of all the delivery vans that don't have rear windows at all. The law in CA anyway states that if you don't have a window in the back you have to have both side mirrors present. If you've got both side mirrors present, the cops should leave you the hell alone regardless of how big your wing is. This is America damn it, and if I want to be really stupid I should have the right to do so without government interference. Drifting and street racing are already illegal, even where there are no laws geared at drifting and street racing. They are covered by the same law that covers wandering all over the road while on your cell phone; it's called reckless driving. Still we feel a need to pass more laws to fight crimes that can already be fought with the existing laws. There is no need to trample civil liberties to jackasses from drifting and street racing, but those who seek to protect us from ourselves would like nothing more.

Here is a link to the tool that Lance suggested: http://www.eastwood.com/jump.jsp?itemID=10966&itemType=PRODUCT&path=1%2C2%2C372%2C373%2C376&KickerID=40&KICKER Just put the wand in at either end and spray your rust proofer in there. Could even drill a hole in the middle to make sure you get good coverage...

The rears are longer because the stud also has to go through the brake drum and the hub. On the front the rotor bolts to the other side of the hub, so the studs can be shorter. You could buy the 20mm longer studs or the ARP studs, figure out how long they need to be and cut them down if you have to.

More stuff up for sale: http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsellszparts

3/8" is about 9mm longer.

I particularly liked the Rotary Spitfire they did some years back. Nothing like putting a light, powerful motor into a light agile chassis... wonder what side of the V8 vs L6 argument they'd be on...

I happened to have a stock stud and a RX7 stud handy today. The stock stud has about 15/16" or 24mm of thread showing as installed in the hub. The RX7 stud was 1 3/4" or about 45mm showing. So I was a little off before. The RX7 is more like 13/16" or 21mm longer.

Fair??? Why is fair even an issue here? Fair to who? Both engines fit in a Z, one puts out 325whp and gets ~24 mpg, the other puts out 115whp and gets ~24 mpg. I'm sure if I owned the LS1 I'd think it was plenty fair.

Just a little note on mpg since that is something we can compare in real terms. LS1/T56 combos are putting down mid to high 20's as far as mpg. That .5:1 6th gear certainly plays a role, but mpg of V8/6 speed is comparable or better than a L24/4 speed.

Also you can drill a hole in the backing plate and feed the studs through and not have to pull the stubs.

2nd gen RX7 studs have the same knurl diameter but are 12 x 1.5mm. The factory stud is probably ~15mm longer than the stock stud, so that might work. If you need a really long stud ARP makes a stud for the RX7, also fits a Camaro. The ARP part number is ARP-100-7708, and the threaded portion is 2.5 inches or ~62mm. If you have Nissan wheels with the Nissan lugs, Toyota makes a lug nut that works and has the 12 x 1.5 thread pitch. I got some off of a 4 Runner.

We put a T in there to connect all the hoses up to the filler. It was a steel T, so he cut it short. Good point about the static electricity, I'm just passing on what we did on his, but apparently we were wrong in that one aspect.

Your 73 might have the electric pump, but that should be the only difference.

My bro-in-law just got a Z that had been sitting for about 10 years. We removed all the 35 year old hoses and replaced them, but we T'd them all together then plugged them into the filler neck hole and completely removed the vent tank. It cost some $$$ for fittings, I want to say about $60, but was well worth it. The one thing he made sure of is that the steel T that went into the filler neck was cut really short. It's pretty far down in there, but you can only imagine what would happen if you got a spark between the gas pump nozzle and the fitting... Pulling the tank is pretty easy. You have the fuel sender, 2 wires. The filler nozzle, one clamp. Then you loosen the two straps and disconnect all the other fuel lines as it comes down. It's a 30 minute job to get it out.

Something was wrong with your L24. Stock L24 should do 7000 rpm no problem at all IME.

Once again, I'm not twisting your words, or Dave's, I'm trying to compare REAL WORLD situations. If you guys insist on comparing a mythical pushrod V8 to a mythical OHC V8 or a theoretical OHC 6 to a theoretical OHV 6 fine. The benefit of that discussion will be just as theoretical. As I have said multiple times now, I voted for the OHC in the poll because I believe it to be a superior design. I haven't seen anyone who disagrees with you or Dave or anyone else about that. Maybe whoever voted for the OHV engine will speak up. Until then you guys are preaching to the choir, but in the most useless way (comparing theoretical engines to one another). I'm just trying to dispell the myths about the OHV engines in Z's. The easiest way to do that is to compare real evidence. As Lance said "This debate will go on forever unless you define the question to a specific point...." It really seems like nobody on the OHC side of the argument is willing to do that. I'll bow out again until somebody wants to talk in terms of reality. Right now you might as well be arguing whether chocolate or vanilla ice cream is better.