LeonV

I bought a car on eBay a couple of years ago. Paid the deposit ASAP and then the price in full after getting in touch with the seller. Had the car shipped from Florida and the paperwork mailed to me using USPS Certified (or Priority, don't remember).

Sell to Denmark dude. You may also get away without paying the eBay selling fees if you do so.

Love it, great job Rob!

My point was that there is no way to know whether the transmission came from a Z/ZX just by looking at it. I've seen people get screwed over when they're sold a "close-ratio" gearbox judging by the casting only to find out that it's not actually a close ratio box.

You'll get even more muddled-up when you realize that the casting change applies to ALL Nissan 5-speed boxes! A 5-speed with one ear and the speedo bolt at 6 o'clock may not even be a close-ratio gearbox at all. http://www.gracieland.org/cars/techtalk/gearing2.html

Great stuff, thanks for posting!

Precisely. Many of those "upgrades" are poorly engineered, i.e. pieced together without thought to performance. A prop valve isn't going to help poor engineering. Placing a prop valve in the front will lead to instability during braking, or at the very least longer stopping distances. The harder you push the pedal, the more rear bias you will have. This is the opposite effect of what a proper braking system is supposed to do. A properly placed prop valve (in the rear lines only) will increase front bias the harder you push the pedal, i.e. front brake pressure will ramp up quicker as weight is being transferred to the front. Stoptech has some good writeups on brakes, here's one on proportioning: http://stoptech.com/technical-support/technical-white-papers/proportioning-valves Some good quotes from the article:

Never put the prop valve in the front lines, proportioning is done by limiting rear pressure.

I was in a similar situation with the last Z clutch I did. The flywheel looked great, like a brake rotor. I lightly sanded the surface with some medium grit sandpaper with a flat stone backing. No issues.

Nice camera skills!

I've sold all mine (5-6 sets) for ~$150 each. Edit: However, I sold my last set a few years ago.

I've worked on and driven many performance cars: Porsche Boxster, 944, 911 Turbo S, Cayman R, NSXs, EVOs, STIs, newer Z-cars, all sorts of M3s, etc. Before having these experiences I would romanticize about owning all sort of stuff. That list has shrunk greatly. From a big picture standpoint, including reliability, fun factor, ease and cost of maintenance, the Z is a clear winner. I love the combination of engineering whit and soulful design. I wouldn't sell it to buy anything else. I also have a Honda S2000 and feel the same way about it, to me it is the modern incarnation of the S30.

A/S tires are for the snow, go with "summer" tires. A zero-offset or slight positive offset (+4-6) 16X7 with 205/55-16 rubber should fit well.

Stock unless you feel like wasting money.

I replaced a cam in-situ. It required hood removal, loosening the engine mounts, and jacking up the engine. Be careful with exhaust and various other clearances when jacking up the motor. Depending on your exhaust manifold, you may have to loosen the steering rod that goes from the rack to the coupler. It was a relatively simple and quick job. Dialing in the lash pad sizes for a custom cam is way more time-consuming than the actual cam replacement.

I'd say your inference is correct! Good luck!

Lapping that valve may fix your issue.

http://performanceshock.com/ I've used them to rebuild some old 240Z Bilsteins and our shop uses them all the time.

Welcome! I think the annual ZONC gathering is coming up, they usually do it in July over in Brisbane. I usually try to attend, whether the Z is running or not.

The more cars I work on, the more I realize that what I have is just fine.

Sounds like lean-popping to me, due to some/all cylinders partially misfiring during coast-down. Proper idle jets will get rid of that.

Nice! Looks like a similar but much cheaper alternative to the Motec keypad/PDM we set up in a Civic Type R touring car.

I've used SF Differentials in South San Francisco. I found out about them through a friend and used them to inspect an R180 LSD in the past.

Anyway, sorry to derail your thread, Mike. Your setup looks fantastic!