Tommo560

what has been done to the cross member is like you describe, except that our hole has been moved down. dont ask me i dont know why, but it seems to handle very well and would have been done for a reason. i had just presumed that moving the bolt hole out gave the car the camber and that that was the only reason for the mod. the problem lies in that they have only plated up the hole and drilled a new one, for starters using the wrong metal and so now the hole is elongated, the plate isn't welded properly, and they didnt put a new washer in place so the rubber things are all deformed.

Safety on the track has to come before some things we felt, so when i get defected for it we may have to modify the cage so that it bolts in at the front. would be a pitty but having the cage means we qualify for targa west, classic adelaide and targa tas, and we already do quite a few hillclimb events a year and when you are doing high speeds with trees on the verge of the road then you need some sort of protection, so this is what we have done. Its actually a P90 head, not as high compression or power as the E88 but apparently the best compromise for a drivable, mild competition car, which just so happens to be exactly what this car is. For the head thickness, the issue is with the valves hitting the pistons because it is such a high lift cam. As for the springs i did have the same thought in my head, but have been told that its not too much of a problem just replacing the one spring. although having said that someone was telling us yesterday that he thinks the car has broken a spring before, so perhaps a new set is the way to go, although the springs dont seem to be fatiged, and still have the same height and compression strength as new... who knows. The PO had the locating holes for the lower control arm moved out toward the edge of the crossmember to gove the car some negative camber, but the welds haven't been done properly (spot instead of seam) and the crossmember hasn't been adequately reinforced where the holes are now, so that has to be done. Thanks 1 bravo 6, was defienately a hard year, and i almost didnt make it a few times, but i got there in the end, i achieved what a wanted (400 club. means an average school mark of 80% or more over all subjects) and now i am enjoying my well deserved break . Tom.

I Finished my final year of high school in November last year, completed my TEE exams and achieved a Tertiary Entrance Rank of 98.00, putting me in the top 260 people in the state to sit the exams. I applied for University and had my application to study Chemical engineering at Curtin University of Technology accepted, as well as my application for an academic merit scholarship which covers all HECS fee's and provides $2000 a year in tax free dollars provided I can keep a course waited average of above 70.00%. So, well quite frankly, with a 4 month holiday ahead of me, and not much else to do but work, my dad and I got cracking on my zed. Here are the results so far with 2 weeks before the next event... After coming fairly close to rolling the car at Wanneroo in November due to coming off into the sand at Colb sideways at about 100 kph my dad and I decided that we should have a little less conversation about putting a cage in, and a little more action :cheeky: . This is a fully cams approvable roll cage and we only need to complete the paperwork before we will receive our cams log book. We painted the cage flat black to match the interior colour so that it doesn’t stand out like a sore thumb when I drive the car on the road, and we will be trimming over those parts of the cage that we can; namely the bars across the roof and down the A pillar. *** :disappoin which is a pain, so they wont appear as pics in the post, but as links instead*** http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/Datsun%20260Z/Cage%20and%20Rust/P1010225.jpg' alt='P1010225.jpg'> The accident also stressed the chassis so much that all the rust in the structural areas of the car has cracked and reared its ugly head . As a result the car is now, as I type, currently having the rust cut out of the rails and new rails being fabricated. Some rust has also been found in the strut towers at the front of the vehicle and where the seat mounts are welded to the floor so they are being sorted out at the same time. With the car being silver we decided that all the chrome parts didn’t really look very aesthetically pleasing, and give the big "WOW" factor that they do on a darker coloured car. To rectify this situation and to make the car look all the more outstanding we decided that whilst the car was stripped for the cage and rust work that we would have all the chrome fittings, including the door handles and all locks, powder coated satin black :bandit: . I currently don’t have any pics but an alarm/immobiliser/central locking unit has also been fitted for safety and to add some creature comforts to the car. We had to pull the motor out so that the panel beater could fix the rust in the rails, so this gave us the opportunity to do the valve grind to stop the compression leak past the valves that the car currently has. When we pulled the head off the whole combustion chamber, piston, exhaust ports, and to a lesser extent the inlet ports, were totally covered in a thick layer of soot because the motor has been running so rich in attempt to fix a flat spot. We went to have the head skimmed today to put it back on the block and we found out that the head is actually already 1mm under thickness to increase the compression, so that couldn’t happen. We also managed to finally track down the man who originally built the motor several years ago and he said that this was something they did to get more grunt out of the motor. When removing the valves from the head for the valve grind we also found a broken valve spring that we are trying to find a replacement for. With the motor not having stock springs, (2 pounds harder and having one less coil, 6 instead of the factory's 7) means that we are considerable having trouble trying to find someone with one spring in an attempt to not have to buy a complete set, and not having issues with the spring binding due to the huge lift on the cam. Although having said that we have found out from the man who built the engine that there are 3 other similar heads in storage in Osborne park, and we should be able to have a look and get a spring from one of these heads when we go to see them in a few days. Another man who has a head modification shop was also able to tell us that Crow Springs sell a spring that matches what we have, but this would be the expensive option and so hopefully we don’t have to resort to this. The panel beater is also going to fix some of the very dodgy modifications that have been made to the cross member for racing applications, and so the cross member has been sandblasted so that he can see what he is working with. As well as making all of the aforementioned modifications I have also spent days working with a wire brush to rid the car of rust on the floor and the boot, and we have repainted these area's body colour so that they look presentable when we take the carpet out when we race. I am also just working to make the car look more presentable in all areas and so we will be installing new carpet soon, repainting the engine bay, repainting the block blue, and I have already painted and polished the tappet cover. The car should be back from the panel beater on Wednesday with any luck and so then dad and I can get stuck in to putting the car back together and take it to the tuner to get the webers dyno tuned for the first speed event series event on the 18th Feb. Tom.

Hiya Van, you might know my dad (John whitfield, aka tt aero) from supraforums.com.au. anyways he has a supra and i own a 260, and not only is the zed faster around the track than his supra (z is not stock obviously) but when i have been out driving in the zed, with him in the red aero supra alongside, the z actually turns more heads and grabs attention more than his supra does, its quite incredible. I'd also like to chip in here and agree with alpha dog and suggest that economically and for your health (i have already spent 4 full days hunched over with a wire brush getting rid of rust... not good on the back that one, not to mention the frustration in spending days on the car and seeing no big results), i also agree that buying a zed that is in reasonable nick is definattely the better option. Tom.

I have had the best luck with wax and grease remover. i have used over a gallon of the stuff allready to get rid of grease and goo i have found smeared over all parts of the car. Tom.

NICE!!! i like the way that it is trying to rock itself off of the jack, that is some killer torque. TOm

Yeah, it was a cheap lesson, and a lesson i will not soon forget. As for concentration, i dont think it was that, i havn't had much track time so i think i was just pushing too hard because it wasnt too fast, the car was just unsettled on the way in and then i lost it. As for the spoiler, the back has been glassed, any lumps were then ground done and smoothed and bog used to fill in the holes at the front. it is now being painted and i will re-fit it tomorow for saturday. Tom.

Well i haven't put this up yet because i am still getting over a sore hand fro saturday. So anyway here's the story. As you might know my car is a track/sprint car, well in the spirit of the car i was out at the last tuning day of the year at wanneroo raceway (perth, western australia), celebrating the day after the end of year 12, and was having a great day, everything was going well except that the car still has a fuel starve problem when under load in fourth up the hill. Out having a great time, caught up with a wrx, had a bit of a play, then went past him, a track car mini catches up and we have a bit of a play, and then he gets past me, so i'm now out almost with the whole track to myself. In the mean while i've been waiting for the 15min session to finish and little do i know that i've been out for way longer than the 15 minutes because the track operator has decided to open up the track for free sessions. so here i am putting arround thinking its probably time to come in, but i'm having so much fun and getting faster every lap, so i keep going. then the inevitable happens, pushing too hard on a set of tyres on its last legs and.... well, here's the result. <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/PB230111.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/PB230112.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/PB230115.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> <img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/Tommo560/PB220109.jpg" alt="Image hosted by Photobucket.com"> I was going into colb corner (a fast 180 degree right hander), just too hot and the rear end started to come around. so i caught it and attempted to turn in again... then the sticky stuff hit the fan. i completely lost control of the car at about 100 km/h and started heading for the sand pit. came in to the sand pit on a bit of an angle, front left in first (hence all the damage on that side of the spoiler), stopped in about 20 m, and according to the rescue crew was lucky not to roll the car in the super soft sand. Anyway, so i've just had my first big spill EVER in a motor car. i finally come to a stop, there is sand everywhere from the open drivers window, my hand hurts, and i'm shaking in shock. instinctively during the spin i put my foot on the clutch and so the motor is still running. i shut it off. i then look for any fire's. none. then get out of the car realising as i go how deeply it is buried (up to the bottom of the door) and quickly retreat to the safety of the tire barrier. Then my hand starts to really hurt as i am coming down off the adreniline, and i realise i must have hit it on the steering wheel during the stop "Great, last thing i need the day after i finish year 12, a broken hand!". the rescue man arrives, we retrieve the car and i notice that the two left wheels have been sanded from where i went in, and the rear left wheel has come off the rim and is now flat (that was a fast stop). I then get in with the rescue man and he takes me to the medic, turns out i have only recieved minor soft tissue damage and should be back to normal in a week. Phew. Fortunately, now, five days later, car is almost in one piece again, new tires are fitted (the ones pictured are my street tires), my hand is on the mend quickly, and my dad and i are preparing for this saturdays Vintage Stampede at the track. But although all is good , i can only help but think that even though it was unfortunate i had a spin and a big off, that luck must have been on my side to get away so lightly with two very close calls. All in all, it was a good fun day, i'm ok, the car is now ok, and i am grateful the this accident occured AFTER my TEE exams, and not during. And that, my friends, is my ride of the day. Tom.

Thanks Rick. :classic:

1800 is cheap!! i looked at getting some wheels for my z before i did up the stockies, but i was stuck with getting 3 peice rims so the offset was right (did you have to do this?) and it was gonna cost a fair bit (atleast 550-600) per rim, nothing like my dads 2k a piece bbm mags for his supra, but damn expensive for z rims. Tom.

Hi everyone, i am just in the process of buying some holden commodore fronts and 280zx rear brakes for my car. i have the toyota 4x4 4 spot pistons on the front, slotted rotors, with ebc green pads, and some super dooper race pads with about 70% material left. I AM NOT SELLING THIS NOW, but what i am interested in is about how much i might be able to get for them if i sell them. i know it sounds cheap, but i am on a tight budget and was just curious as to how much they might fetch. Cheers, Tom.

Yeah, these cars came standard with rust. I live about 500m from the ocean so that salt makes the rust even worse, but yes these car do rust over here, no doubt about that. infact i just had the car in at the shop because rust had claimed the frame rail where the roll bar mounts, and the car had already had the floors replaced when i bought it, and there are buble in the paint in a few places where it is rusting. The rear wheel well is pretty bad, and there are spots of rust around the tool compartments too, but not too bad considering it started life in Europe, on salted roads. easy answer: They rust as bad over here as they do over where you are, perhaps not as quickly because we only get snow in a few select areas so our roads dont have to be salted in winter as they do when it snows. Tom.

I believe its absolutely true, until you really experiance it you have no idea of how much things cost in the real world. As i said, $50 suddenly goes from being a lot, to being spare change (an over exaduration, but thats litterally how it feels). Tom.

Now thats what i want to hear. I got my z when i was 15 (2 days before my 16th birthday), and just recently had the thing transfered into my name for my 17th birthday. And what can i say but how much fun it is to drive!!!! i love the thing. ofcourse its not standard, far from it (l28 competition motor with tripple webers) :devious: , and sticking to the thread i have done 190 km/h (approx 120 mph) on a race track, and with the 4.4 diff that is about 5500 rpm in 5th, almost topped out (rev limit at 6500). Now i know none of you are going to believe that i bought this car myself, so i wont try to decieve you. my dad wanted a car to race, i wanted a daily driver, so we got this, and we split the cost. but boy-all-mighty has this been an eye opener to just how not far $100 goes. i thought i was rolling it it, 14 earning $50 a weak, i had stacks of money. but not any more, and thats the value in this for me, its taught me just how hard it is to own and run a car. so maybe you think i am spoilt getting a z for my birthday (+ a percentage of the cost from me) but i think it was one of the best things my parents could have done for me to teach me the value of money on a more realistic level than having to buy a movie ticket and drink a week at the weekly movie. Tom.

Yup, roaring motor sounds great in any tunnel, and the bigger the tunnel the better!! Don't you just love it! Tom.

Hi Ron, checked with dad, shipping apparently wont be a problem, so if you can pm me with a price we can get down to sorting it out. Cheers, Tom.

I dont know, but shipping from the states is probably going to be a killer because a boss is not the lightest piece of equipment. Prices vary a lot from US to AUS, for instance, new over here a boss would cost $110AU, which converts to $80US, and i am almost certain a boss would not cost 80USD to buy new in america. so for second hand prices i have no idea what sort of dollars we would be looking at. So i'll have a look into shipping costs because my dad has imported some stuff of similar weight and will know prices, and i'll get back to you and see if we cant arrange something. Cheers, Tom.

Still looking for a momo boss. i know i can get one brand new but i would prefer to get one second hand if possible. if anyone has one for sale, or knows somebody that deos then if you can please let me know then that would be great. Cheers, Tom.

What rear brakes are they? if they are the 280zx conversion then i might be interested in them, if you can pm me with details of what they are, what condition they're in and what price you want for them, that would be great. My_Mad_z: i'm in perth and i havnt heard of pick-a-part, but what sort of place is it so that i cant see if i can find some parts for such a rediculously low price. one question though, what sort of condition where they in? i want something in reasonably good nick so i dont have to be replacing anything soon, and so that i know it will be able to handle some hard slogging at the track. Tom.

Thanks for the photos lance, and thanks mrdatto for the info and part numbers. Gav, try this http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showpost.php?p=112497&postcount=3

Thankyou, If its not to much trouble then some pictures would be a great help, also will these brakes fit into the stock steel rims? Thanks, Tom.

Hi Everyone, i am looking at doing the rear disc brake conversion for my 260z and i was wondering if anybody had done the conversion. if you have can you please help me with some info on how to do it, what i need to do the conversion, and where i can get parts at a reasonable price in oz. also i need discs that can fit in the stock 14" steel rims as i use them with my street tires. If you need some backround, the car is a road-going club racer (sprints, hillclimbs, and the sort) and i need the discs because the drums are dead and they keep overheating when i run at the track. the front brakes are the toyota 4x4 4 spots, and i would need something in the back that is not going to be way overkill, and the handbrake will still work on. If anyone have done this and can help me then that would be greately appreciated. Thankyou, Tom. __________________

oh well, that might be expensive now but its good to see that that is where the prices are heading for these old classics. Tom.

Heya Guys, Been using the car for the odd event over the winter (not too much has been on because one of the race tracks has been out for over a year now), but had some runs at wanners and the new hillclimb over hear, GREAT FUN, and i even piped my dad, Rich Davies, and even Garry's v8 Z! Last time i went through a set of pads was interesting. Out at the local track for an event and both dad and i were driving so the car didnt really get a rest all day. Anyways i went out on what i though was the last run and sure enough 4 laps in (last lap) i could hardly pull the car up comeing down back straight (200KPH down hill into slowest corner on track (about 90 i THINK)) so i pulled in at the end of the run and see dad waving me over. "we've got almost no brakes" i say,"it'll be fine" says dad. so anyways out he goes has hids last run, and whatta you know, 5 k's from the track i could here this aweful grinding when i put my foot on the brake. So, anyways have to drive home with out using the brake pedal (THAT was interesting, handbrake (when desperate) and motor only for 40/45 mins). anyway asses the damage the next day and the brake pad had completely gone, there was no pad material left on it at all. Was an interesting trip home but atleast the pad didnt wear through when dad was on his run or there could have been some serious damage done. cant seem to find any photos but that was definately one experiance i'de rather not have to go through again, even if only to avoid all the blaring horns i copped on the slow trip home. Anyway, back on topic, hopefully when i have finished my uni entrance exams (TEE over here, HSC in sydney, dont know what other names it goes by but there are a few) in about 6 weeks, hopefully the 4 months i get off will give me some time to get stuck into working on the car. Right now thinking of putting a cage in but otherwise i have a stereo to go in it, a car alarm, some new carpets, dash needs fixing, and otherwise it generally just needs tidying up a bit and some rust inspection (and hopefuly nothing too serious). Tom.

I've done 200kph (125 mile an hour) in my z at the local track (that is redline in 5th for me) and 220 k's (140 mph) in my dads supra tt, but at those speeds in the z the car was so shaky i had to get a spoiler just to keep the thing going in a straight line. i must say 150+ mph would be neat, and sorry to berate you but doing those speeds on the roads, no matter where the road is/goes/comes from, is a bad idea. Tom.