Captain Obvious

That's a fantastic pic!! Is that the summer that Bryan Adams talked so much about?

Another question while we're talking about such things... I've noticed that they used a number of different designs for the heat shield between the pan and the exhaust. I've got three different versions here. Top two are one style, third is different, and bottom is different again: Question for the Z trivia guys... Anyone know the lineage? What year(s) used which style?

Jeff, That's what I was thinking as well. For ease of installation (and raw material yield), I don't think I would make it all one piece, but I can't come up with any reason why you wouldn't (or couldn't) want extra support for every oil pan bolt. I'm also thinking that it wouldn't need to be exactly like the original two pieces. There are geometry options that would make it easier to produce. Anyway, I'm just musing here and wishing I had access to a water jet too! Haha!

Man... Every time I open this thread, I'm hoping and expecting the "Eureka!! I found it!!" The suspense is killing me!!

I trash picked a treadmill a while ago and stripped out the motor and DC controller*. I've repurposed that thing for so many different test applications that I've forgotten half of them. Here it is recently spinning up a Z distributor so I can poke around inside the stock ignition module: * Best time around here to find such a thing is in the spring. 1) People are doing "spring cleaning", and 2) The luster of the new year's resolutions have worn off.

Ummmmm... Site, I'm thinking that's not the author he was talking about.

And if someone was going to make custom pieces, would it be advantageous to make them longer than the stock ones to pickup more (all?) of the oil pan mounting bolts?

Jeff, Wow... I was just thinking the exact same thing yesterday! I'm putting stuff aside trying to get ready for a plating run and I was messing with some of those stiffeners. I've got a couple different sets and they are all bent and rusty. I was thinking it would be really cool to have some made from a thicker material and maybe even stainless.

Doubtful unless the linkage to the throttle opener system is binding up or something. Next time your idle hangs up, pop the hood and start pushing on different places on the linkage(s) and see if you can figure out where it's hanging.

Haha! Yeah, we'll never know for sure. And of course, all this chatter about what we think was a mistake may have all been perfectly intentional from the very beginning for reasons we don't know.

Gross. Congrats, I think that's the worst I've ever seen. Here's hoping the block and head don't look as bad!!

I don't have one here handy to compare, but I believe the servo diaphragms should be airtight and hold a vacuum. I think if yours won't hold, it's probably got a hole (probably age crack) in the diaphragm.

Haha!! Gotcha. Well I would be happy to berate my PO..... Here's a pic of the kind of PO handiwork I found on my car when I dug into the suspension. Yes, those are huge gouges of missing and upset metal on the precision bushing surface. I'm thinking he split and drove the old bushing out with an air chisel. And heat. Lots of heat. Enough heat to blue the ends of the control arms.

Haha!! "He hates these cans!!"

No, not at all. I'm imaging a conversation like that because I've heard it a thousand times in the engineering department. You're rushing around near the end of a project and some little issue raises it's head... You have to make quick judgment calls between project schedule, cost, and result quality. It happens and I'm not berating anyone. I've been there many times! The only thing that really went wrong (in my imagined scenario) is the memo to the documentation group informing them of the change didn't make it. Or maybe even that did, but they decided that since they already had 10,000 books printed up, they would fix it in the next rev. And maybe THAT didn't happen.

I've heard peopled talking about that in the past, and I'm not going to throw my body in front of anyone's train, but I think it's a bad idea. Clearance (gaps) are an enemy, and Carroll Smith says that bolts are strictly for clamping, not for anything else. I'm not a ME or a suspension expert, but I wouldn't do it. I've been known to substitute and modify stuff all over the place, but that isn't one of them.

LOL. I think I do a lot of that. Probably more than I should. Haha! Good luck with the project and hope it turns out well. My PO installed suspension was a total mess when I got my Z. I've since redone everything, and man.... Is it 1000 times better than before. Other than some steering wheel vibration at highway speeds (comes and goes), it's a pleasure to drive!

Well I hadn't thought much about a sales prospect, but I didn't hate making these. However, I didn't make the internal threads yet* as I did not have the correct tooling. I've got that tooling (special taps) on order and if that tapping process doesn't turn out to be a disaster, then I could probably be convinced to make a couple for sale if people need. Of course, that tapping process (especially in stainless) could still turn out to be a disaster. I'll let you know after the taps arrive. * The astute viewer might ask "Then how does it look like your brass tip is threaded onto the antenna in your pic???" The answer is... I drilled it out so it just slips over the threads. Proof of concept for outside shape only. I'm not really worried about tapping brass. The stainless concerns me more.

Yeah, I think someone missed a detail somewhere. Everything about the whole situation would make much more sense for the bushing to be symmetric. Assembly process would be foolproof because you wouldn't need to pay any attention to which direction it went in. and the documentation wouldn't have to mention anything about it because it just didn't matter. On the prototyping floor... "Hey Boss. I'm putting these bushings in and when I do that, I can't get the strut casting in between them. What are we going to do?" Boss says : "Hmmm... I'll let engineering know." Engineering says : " Oops. We'll need to either:" a) Change the strut housing design to reduce the width. b) Change the rear control arms to increase the span between the bushings. c) Change the bushing so things fit together without interference. And "changing the bushing is way cheapest and easiest to change, so lets do that." Draftsman/Designer says : "I can't shorten the outsides of the bushings because we need that length for the rubber washers. Should we eliminate the rubber washers and make the bushings symmetric, or should we make the bushings asymmetric and keep the washers?" Lead Engineer says : "Crap (in Japanese). I really want to keep those washers. Make the bushings asymmetric and make sure you let documentation know about the change because they'll have to describe how to put the bushings in correctly!" And that last part never happened. I wasn't there for any of it, but that's how I see the whole thing.

I have a bunch of turbo parts around here that I'm not going to use. I'll look to see if I have a cam. And even if I do, I don't remember if it's a regrind or stock. I'll check. Glad to help with the throttle body! I finally gave up on the S30 throttle body completely and switched over to one from a Sentra.

So @Zup, I got your chewed up (what used to be an) antenna tip Perfect for my experiments. The first thing I can tell you is that it's chrome plated brass, not stainless. And I expect this to be the case for those antennas on ebay. Why is that important? Couple reasons: First, it means the prospect of buying something similar off ebay and taking a dremel to it isn't going to work unless you plan to send it out for new chrome plating afterwards. Second, it means that the "color" is different than stainless. Now unless you think some judge at a concourse show is going to dock you points for having a stainless antenna tip instead of chrome plated........ With all that said, it was tropical storming today and I had some time in the shop. Here's some pics: I had some other antenna here from a later year that I could mess with too: I made two proof of concept tips. One brass, and one stainless: The stainless would look better if I polished it. I didn't bother with that. Would still look different than chrome plating, but closer.

Than you make four out of four people now to support the theory of being designed that way. Thanks for the data point. Such a small difference though. It screams "oops" at the factory that they fixed by modifying the bushing.

What's the number and grind stamp you're looking for?

Excellent. Glad to hear they went in without incident. Out of curiosity... Did you find the same small amount of asymmetry in those outboard bushings that I did?

Sorry... One more thing while I'm in here. The rubber fuel line in this pic doesn't look right to me. Looks kinked. Is that just a trick of the camera angle?