zguitar71

I would go with the Tokico HP's (blue) and the Arizona Zcar springs. I had KYB's and thought they sucked, they were too week for the AZC springs. replace all the bushings in the car with some harder ones, the ABS steering couplier is great for tramsmitting the feel of the road to the steering wheel.

I have Illumina's and like them. I set them on 2 for street driving and 3,4 or 5 for autoxing. When I drive with all my tires and tools in the back of the 240 I set the rears on 3 to deal with the extra 250 LBS in the rear of the car. The ride on 2 is not too firm, I think it is better then the ride I had with my old KYB's. I paid $360 ($90each) for the set of 4 on Ebay new in the box. If I did not have a street/track car I would use the HP's instead of the Illuminas, the higher settings are useless on the street or with not so sticky tires. On 4 on the street tires the car will skip all over the place, way too stiff, but with the sticky Goodyear slicks 4 works pretty good.

Unless you are getting into some serious racing (autoxing, ect) the AZC springs are very stiff for the street and for lighter autocrossing. The shocks on any setting will work for the occasional evasive move on the street, your tires will determine the out come of that situation more than your shocks or springs. Even for the autoxing I do, the springs are good 85% of the time. The money you did not want to spend on the shocks would be spent and more if you go to coilovers or custome made springs. Once I get my dedicated racer built I will occasionally autox my car (for fun) and drive it only on the street, the Illumina's and AZC springs will be perfect for that.

Thanks for the info I will try going down a notch and see what happens.

I have Tokico Illumina's (adjustables) with the AZC springs. For the street I love them. For autox they are not heavy enough. I have been binding the coils on both the front and back. If you are using the Z in stock or street prepared you should be O.K. with that set up. I race in F prepared and use Goodyear 23x9x15 R250 slicks, they are much stickier than Dot race tires and are overpowering the suspension. I would go stiffer but I still drive the car on the street and any stiffer would be a problem for the street. I got the Illumina's on Ebay for $360 (new in the box) for the entire set of 4. The MSA price is way too high. I drive the car with the shocks on 4 for racing (5 if the pavement is glass smoothe) and then go to 2 for the street. On 4 with my crappy street tires the car skips around corners with bumps, on the track it absorbs the bumps beautifully until I bind the coils. It does not happen very often but when the pavement temps are right and the tire temps are right and the corner is right (lots of factors) I can feel the coils bind and the car gets a little bouncy. I am building a dedicated race car right now and plan to use much heavier springs and shocks for that car along with a intigrated roll cage. Autocrossing with a DOT tire like the Hoosier 225/50/15 or something like that I think the springs and Illumina's are great. If you do not go with the Illumina's then go for the HP's (Tokico non-adj). If you go much stiffer that those springs without reinforcing the body you run the risk of stress cracking the unibody from autoxing over time.

920 gold gets me lots of looks, I do not know if that is good or bad but people look. I really like green cars more than orange though so I would like to go with a shade of green that most people refer to as puke green. I first saw the color on an AMG Mercedes 500SEL back in the mid `80's. It was awesome, kinda like 920 gold but in green (920 green?).

That is funny!

A 225/50 or narrower should fit on all 4 corners with out rubbing on either side of the tire. The 8" rim with 0 offset (4.5" backspace) should be fine on the rear without flaring or coilovers. with a 225 do not go over a 50 series or you could start rubbing. The offset of the wheel will determine if the tire will rub more than the width of the wheel. The MKIII is one awesome wheel I hope you can get them for you car I think they will look great.

The 87 300zxt used the Clutch type lsd but the 88 used the viscus type. Spend the $ and get a new LSD from Prescision Gear ($650) or Nissan ($750), I find that getting good used suff from cars as old as `87 is very hit or miss (mostly miss). I have spent more in the long run buying then fixing LSD's that are used. I have heard that the Prescision Gear carrier is the same as the Nissan, they both come from the same manufacturer. Your 4:38 r&p is most likely like mine, a 12 mm bolt ring, so the carrier from either company bolts right in. If you have the 10 mm bolt holes you will need to use spacers.

I have an R200 4:38 LSD that came out of an R33 Skyline from the `90's. They were used in Japan and possibly other countries but not the U.S. My LSD works but the gears are not set right and the diff whines terribly. I am using a R190 right now and the LSD is much better than the 200. The factory LSD was not set with as much break away tourque as the 190 I have right now (about 85 lbs I think). The 200 only has around 45.

The movie came out in the earlier 80's, I was 12,13,14 or so. To this day it is one of the most memorable movies of my life. It is not one of the best but that does not matter because it was one exotic car after another. The sound the cars made was one of my favorite features of the movie, I can still hear the Lambo in the begginning of the movie in my head.

The 81-83 non turbo ZX is not a BW trans. The shifts are better than the BW and the older 5 speeds and the ratios are different than the BW and the older ones. 1st for the non turbo ZX is 3.06:1 which is fairly high but that allowed the ratios (2nd, 1.8; 3rd, 1.4; 4th,1; 5th, .74) to be closer together than the older lower geared 5 speeds. The fifth is the highest at .74 than the other 5 speeds too so high speed crusing can be done with lower rpms. A 3.90 ratio diff or 4.11 works great with this trans.

Rule no. 1 when giving 1st aid or come across an accident scene: do not become a victome yourself. At the end of the video the racer that crawled of the track goes back out to help the workers this time on two feet but he did not seam to be walking too well. He was probably all broken up but the adrinaline let him walk back out, talk about a target on the track. There is no way he could get out of the way if another motorcycle came around again. Plus he has no 1st aid equipment so he really could not do anything but be in the way. But he probably was not in his right state of mind after being in a wreck and seeing what just happened too.

The ZX turbo trans requires some modifications that the others do not. The non turbo 81-83 ZX is the best 5 speed IMO. It has the best gear ratio spread and a stronger 5th gear.

http://www.ccwheel.com/files/home.php They are very nice wheels, a set should run $1800+.

The stock brake system should be fine for your car. The weak area on the 240 brakes is their tendancy to over heat. You should not be having that problem if you are driving on the street. I have been auto crossing with the stock (I do have stainless lines, but that only affects the feel of the brakes not the power) system in F prepared for 2 years and have not had a problem, I have even turned the rotors blue and not had a problem with the power of the brakes. The stopping distances I experience between the race tires and street tires is very big. That difference is not the power of the brakes but the difference in traction of the tires I use for the track and the street. If you are not able to get enough power in your system to lock up the front brakes first then there is something wrong with the brake system. You might try looking at the proporing valve. With my stock system I can lock the brakes (front) with either tire type I am running, to stop well I have to modulate the brakes to keep them from locking. Before you spend a bunch of money on everything try a better set of pads, something made for low heat friction (street driving/autocrossing, NOT ROAD RACING). The larger surface area of the 4 piston caliper pads can acually make too much heat for the stock rotor to disipate. So if you are dead set on going to a 4 piston set up then the vented rotor type might be better. I do not think you will be able to stop any shorter with them (4 piston) than a properly working stock system though. Your brakes are only as powerful (with a properly running system) as the grip of the tires you are running. When you add braking force in the front you will upset the front to rear brake balance so you will need an adjustable proportioning valve or some other type of brake biasing system to restore your braking system's balance. Make sure the machanic bleeds the Master cylinder befor the rest of the system. If there is a small amount of air in the MC then the system will work but be very weak and spongy. There could be air in the front chamber of the MC and not in the rear, that would upset the brake biase to lock the rears and not the front. A properly running system should not lock the rear first, that is a very dangerous problem.

I have been thinking about a quick release steering wheel but if there is a spline in its place when it is removed then the theif can use a set of vice grips for a steering wheel. The removal of the rotor is a good idea and you can also use line locks for the brake system (hidden under the in two different spots for the front and rear). If you use a combo of some of the things listed in the posts mabey the thief will get through some of them but get frustrated and go away before they get all the tricks figured out.

The problem will be the compression ratio. If you build a head for a 3.1 to give you 10.5:1 compression the 2.4 would have very low compression with that same head. The valves used to get proper breathing on a 3.1 will hit the sides of the L24 block unless you eyebrow the cylinders (requires puilling the enigine and tearing it down). I think you should save your pennies and build the 3.1 without compromisses. To use a head that works on the 2.4 you would loose lots of power on the 3.1. I would go with a P90 head from a ZX turbo for the 3.1. Get the one with mechanical lifters not the hydraulic lifters (later models (`83 I think)). The P90 head has very straight intake and exaust ports, the exaust are square like the older heads (like your 240 head) and the compression would be around 9.5-10.5:1 depending on how you set the head up. You could make alot of power for a street car with that head. Really you could use any head for a 3.1 but I think the P90 is the best for a street car because it was made for a turbo so the head was designed to flow air better than the other heads and it is said to have the most efficient burn design or quench. But no matter what, you will have to modify (port, polish, cam, ect..) any head you use to get big power out of a 3.1 so it is going to cost you money either way but that is how you get 300+ HP out of the 3.1 and still be very streetable.

You might try a 205/55/16. They are very close to the original tire diameter and not too wide for clearance issues with the fenders. I have heard of people having problems with 225/50/16's especially on lowered cars. There are tons of tire choices in the 205/55 size.

I have a series II from 1-`71 HLS3023876.

Well I have the z as seen in my gallery and in my avitar to the left but I now have another `71 240 that is being made into a F prepared car. I am building it with a friend. We are boring the block (L28) 40 over and using an E31 head, ported and polished, larger valves and a stage 4 cam (.495-290) and 45mm Mikuni's. The car will require race fuel as the compression ratio should be around 14:1. There will be a roll cage that ties to the strut towers through the fire wall, into the trans tunnel, ect. It will have flares and 16x10 wheels with Goodyear 23.5x10.5x16 R250 tires. I have 5 diffs in the garage right now and will run the ratio that is most appropriate for the race we are running (4:38, 4:11, 3:90, 3:70, 3:54). When the car is finished it should be right around the minimun weight of 2100 LBS. I am very exicited about this project; however, it has just started and will be around 2 years to complete (money).

I am currently in the process of stripping everything out of a 71 in order to make a race car. I had no idea just how unsafe the Z cars are until I started into this one. I have been driving another 71 and autoxing it too (the one in the avitar) and allways knew they were not the safest cars out there. Now after taking one down to just the unibody for the first time, I understand just how dangerous these cars are. The sheet metal is very very thin and there is nothing in place to protect you from a side impact except for the thin metal of the door shell. My car is very low to the ground and more than once I have been nearly hit by trucks and SUV's because they cannot see me. This Sunday a friend and I (also driving a 71) were nearly hit by a truck changing lanes. I do not want to end up like the people in the picture did. These cars are dangerous but I am not going to stop driving mine but I do drive more defensively and some of the high speed runs over the passes around here might be a thing of the past. The car's light weight is what makes it so fun but the catch is; the light weight (no safety reinforcements and thin metal), that is what makes it so dangerous.

I removed the blower to get better access to the heater core where the hoses connect. I have a 71 but I think the design is the same. I got it done with out removing the dash. I removed the conduit that routs the air to the defrost too.