jmortensen

That is a really good tip, thanks. Before I use mine again I'm caulking the crap out of it!

I think that is a good deal. I got one that is similar but without the stand from HF a couple months ago. It was big enough to put all of the suspension pieces in, which was what I was looking for. I think it's basically the same unit. What I was looking for was one that is big enough to put control arms and other suspension pieces in. I have used it quite a bit now, and I'll give you the cons of mine. 1. Dust. Lots of dust. I hooked my shop vac up to the vent hole and that helped a lot. 2. The seams of the cabinet leak abrasives on the bench. 3. The gloves are a little short, so it can be hard to rotate larger parts around in the cabinet. 4. The gun leaks air, so I found that I couldn't open the door without disconnecting the air supply. 5. The air hose for the gun and the siphon for the abrasive come from opposite corners of the cabinet. Makes it hard to aim the gun in some directions. 6. I didn't read the directions so I bought a 40 lb tub of abrasive with the cabinet. The directions said it should need no more than 10 lbs of abrasive I think. When I put in the specified amount it wouldn't feed properly. I overfilled it and solved that problem. 7. The one I have didn't come with a light. Other than those minor issues, the thing works pretty good and I was able to clean and paint all of my suspension pieces without too much hassle.

Yes, this is correct. I went round and round and round with Dan Baldwin and others on the IZCC list maybe 5 or 6 years ago, convinced that smaller wheel cylinders would have more travel, and that would mean more rear braking. In actual practice, once the brake shoes touch the drums, the pressure is more important because the travel is minimal. The larger wheel cylinder has more pressure. Took them a while to beat it into my thick skull, but it is true. Smaller master = more pressure Larger wheel cylinder or piston in a disk setup = more pressure Confusing but true.

I'd bet its an alignment issue. Unfortunately there aren't many adjustments to make on a stock S130. It's not a weight issue though. You just can't make them light enough for that to be a huge issue.

The car won't be as comfortable or pretty. Other than that, no. Any idea how much weight you've removed? I'd be surprised if you got it down as light as an early 240z, so traction in the rain shouldn't really be THAT bad...

Looks good to me! I'm sure you shed quite a bit of weight there too vs the stock dash.

People expect you to try and educate yourself first. The problem with your question is that it's so vague that there are a million different ways to go, and nobody wants to write a novel to try and answer your question thoroughly. You have to take some responsibility and do some reading and researching for yourself. That's a nice way of saying what I'm sure a lot of us are thinking, which is that we can't (and don't want to) wipe your arse for you through the computer. Get the How to Modify Your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine book (you can find it through the link that Justin gave in the previous post) if you insist on making your power with a normally aspirated L6. You'll spend a hell of a lot of money building an engine that requires race gas and has a lifespan measured in hours to get 300 hp. If you want something more modest, you can do a cam and triple carbs and all that. Regardless of what you do, people are still going to expect you to do some research on those topics so that when you ask a question it is specific so that we can then give a short answer.

Your goals are not compatible.

Best by who's definition? Mine would be to put a V8 in it. If you do an LS1/T56 combo you'll get better mileage than the L24 with SU's too.

Consider 45's. 40's are too small even for an L24 IMO.

Do you do a lot of burnouts or drag racing?

Betcha it turns left really good... apparently that's what it was built for.

Love the strut tower on the second one.

You need to figure out what class you're going to race before you buy ANYTHING.

Autox is not a spectator sport. Inside the car is quite a bit more exciting. You always drive 10/10th's at an autox, where you almost never do in a road race with the possible exception for qualifying. The speeds are much lower, and you won't get to pass anyone, that is true. But don't write it off because it isn't fun to watch. Here are some in car vids. I think you might find these a little more interesting than watching from the outside:http://www.siastuning.com/Video's.htm You'll NEVER see the other guy's face as you pass in road racing. Your head is in a helmet, his head is in a helmet. Plus you'll be looking where you're going not at the guy you're passing. Did you see the ad for the ITS car for sale? Ugly color, but looks like a good deal.

The shortnose R200 came in after 89. 240SX, Z32's, Q45's and many other Nissans have them. They can be installed in the S30 chassis but its kind of a PITA for no real appreciable gain (except the easy availability of viscous LSD). Here is my contribution: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=114798

The best fiberglass and CF hoods and hatches by all accounts are the ones from www.betamotorsports.com. Fenders don't weigh much in steel (11 lbs I think???), I doubt you'd be able to cut more than a couple lbs off the fenders. Might be worth it if you're trying to cut every last oz, otherwise could be considered a waste of money...

The only adjustment available on an otherwise stock 240 is front toe. This is easily set with a tape measure and a buddy to hold the steering wheel straight. If you want to adjust things for autox then you're looking at buying more pieces like adjustable control arms, camber plates, camber bushings, etc. If you're serious about the autoxing you'll be wanting to do a lot more to the suspension. Just make sure that what you do complies with the rules for the class you're going to run.

I think it needs to be said that when you make a mail order purchase it is usually expected that returns will be less s/h. Many companies artificially inflate the s/h charge and that is a crooked thing to do. You seem to indicate that this was the issue in this case, and if so that is a problem that should be reported to the BBB, or you could dispute the charge with your credit card company. On the other hand many customers expect that they won't have to pay the shipping charges either way if they return something that was as advertised. This is also unreasonable in my estimation. I've changed my policy in my own mail order business, so that I give free shipping, but then deduct the s/h charge from the refund if the customer returns at no fault of ours. That seems to work for most people, but still occasionally you get someone who doesn't want to pay shipping in either direction. It just doesn't work that way in most places. One more thing, there isn't ANY generic parts dealer that is going to have a direct replacement part for a 35 year old Japanese car. It just won't happen. So if you want an exact replacement part you're going to have to go to the dealer. If they don't have the belts anymore then you're going to have to get an old seatbelt rewebbed, or use a generic one.

Good advice gogriz91. Autocrossing is relatively cheap, allows you to get your feet wet, more of a run whatcha brung deal (although there are still rules and occasionally you still run across a hall monitor who wants nothing more that to declare your car illegal for the class you're running).

If you really want to make power from your FI L engine, you'll need some sort of aftermarket ECU, whether that be Megasquirt or something else is up to you. Once you have that programmable FI, that cam you chose is going to be too small to make serious power. I'd suggest you stick with the stock cam and spend the money on the FI, then get a bigger cam.

Usually this happens in conjunction with the woodruff key in the crank breaking out of the groove. It's also pretty commonly accompanied by a loose front crank bolt as well as a spun harmonic balancer. It's one of those chicken and the egg things, does the balancer go bad and cause the crank bolt to loosen, or does the crank bolt loosen and cause the balancer to go bad. I see the woodruff key in one of the pictures, but is the keyway OK? If not, you may want to replace the crank. If the keyway isn't busted out I'd take the advice above and file the crank and install a new balancer. Don't forget to loctite the bolt.

I'm on a mailing list for club racers, most of them race some form of CP, either CP3 or CP3M. I'll stick by my previous statement about the stock cam. Don't know any club racer aside from an ITS car that uses a stock cam. A GT2 engine would be about right for the CP class. You might try to find a complete used engine. I know www.wolfcreekracing.com was selling a couple different engines for about $5k each, which is quite a bit cheaper than you can build them. They'll probably require 105 octane fuel, but they will make enough power so that you can be reasonably competitive, probably keep up with the red car...

Josh, it sounds like you're all fired up to build a motor and that's a good thing. Before you start though, I suggest you buy the How to Modify Your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine book by Honsowetz and read it. You should also do some reading here, at hybridz.org and anywhere else you can find good reliable info. Some things you should note: 1. As stated, the stock FI can't deal with big cams. If you're running stock FI, don't bother with a cam swap. 2. If you get lift over about .490, you run into several problems. Coil bind in the valve springs is one, the other is the valve spring retainer will hit the valve stem seal. You can't just bolt it on and go. 3. There are fairly easy fixes to #2. Search here or hybridz.org and you'll find different valve stem seals that fit right in, and aftermarket valve springs will cure the coil bind issues. 4. A stage 6 cam will cause valvetrain wear very quickly. An engine built with a cam that big has a lifetime measured in hours, but this is also partly because you'd need forged pistons and a MUCH higher compression ratio to take advantage of that cam. 5. The first 3 stages of the MSA cams are meant to work with the FI. They're all very small. The 4th one is what I would call a medium cam. I used something very similar on my street/track car. It worked well, but I would have gone with something more in the .500/300 range in retrospect. 6. There is some question as to the quality of the metallurgy in the MSA cams. Basically what I'm saying is don't run out and get the biggest cam you can find and throw it in your otherwise stock engine and expect miraculously improved performance. The induction, head, cam, and compression ratio all have to work together to make power. Improving any one of those components without paying attention to the rest MAY make a power improvement, but it certainly wouldn't come anywhere close to building something with all of those parameters combined. The CP class eventually turned into GT2. The early Z roadracing championships came in CP and those cars are pretty developed. To say that the CP car that you took pictures of was running a stock cam serious strains credibility. If the guy told you that it was a stock cam he was either messing with you, had just swapped in a stock engine after blowing up his real motor, or he was very stupid for giving up the potential hp he could have had.

My suggestion is to find an old racecar, make sure it is still legal for the class you want to run in, and buy it. ITS would be the most "entry level" class for a Z car to roadrace in. Buying one of the cars you mentioned and then adding roll cage, fire system, fuel cell, and all of the other required safety equipment would cost 2-3 times the cost of the car alone, and then you'd still have to sort it for whatever class you want to be in. Used racecars, if they're done right, don't need all the extra work and will end up being a LOT cheaper in the long run. Plus you just buy and drive and don't have to build and fabricate every freakin piece of the car before you get to drive it. That gets old, I speak from experience.