jmortensen

Wasn't trying to offend, ZIII. I can't believe that this is your take on the bar though. When I made mine I was autoxing every month at the time (this is close to 10 years ago), and the sign to me of a ricer was these three things: Farty exhaust, strut tower bar, $300 Nology spark plug wires. If you had those things, I could pretty much tell that you were an idiot before you ever opened your mouth. I had such a distaste for strut tower bars that I didn't use one, even though I was autoxing every month. Finally I was convinced to try it, and I made my own bars and stuck them on. Both bars made a HUGE difference. I drove it with one, then the other, then both. It wasn't as though the rear bar didn't do much. They both made a very big difference. My experience was much more like Jayru's, the one that started this thread: As you can see, he only added the rear, not the front, and he seems pretty convinced of its usefulness.

I made mine. I used heims joints on it, and later realized that this isn't the best way to do it. The joints allow the strut towers to move up and down independently, so now I've redone it again. The old one was a couple brackets welded to the strut towers. The bar itself was a piece of "tap tube" from a circle track supplier, and I used 5/8" rod ends. It was really simple to make, and the tubing was really light. Just didn't take into account the movement that was allowed by the joints on the ends. The new one is a simple 1.5 x .095 DOM tube welded between the towers, in conjunction with a roll cage that is attached to the rockers and the strut towers. I'm also planning an X between the strut towers and the base of the hoop on the opposite sides. The main hoop will tie into the roof as well. Here's a picture of what I've done so far...

Wow. I disagree. Yes, the rear is probably the strongest part of the Z unibody. It's still an EXTREMELY flexible unibody structure. Just listen to all the panels creak going in and out of driveways!!! Mine creaked a lot less after installing a rear bar. A friend of mine completely eliminated all the creaking and groaning by welding in a roll bar and attaching it to the roof and rear strut towers. If you didn't notice a difference in the handling after installing the rear bar, my guess is you aren't that into generating lots of lateral g's. It made a huge difference on my car.

I've only ever seen one E12-80 distributor that still had the plastic cage that holds the balls intact. They're almost always broken, at least the ones I come across.

If you're willing to do a little futzing, the VW Rabbit Bilstein inserts will work in a Z. More than you ever wanted to know about racing struts for Z's here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106354

[rant]The thing that had me utterly astounded when I moved to Seattle is the intersection with a left arrow that goes away. I cannot tell you how many times I've had some idiot in front of me who won't turn without the green arrow. I'm not talking about intersections with a green, yellow, and red arrow, I'm talking about the ones where the green arrow just turns off, then you're SUPPOSED to treat it like a regular intersection. I was laughing while telling my wife the first time that happened to me, and it had just happened to her the day before. Other than that people don't know how to keep traffic moving out here. You could have the same number of cars on the road in CA and be doing 70 mph, here its 30 or less. The traffic is way more annoying here because if you've lived somewhere else you look at it and you KNOW the cars should be moving faster. They just aren't.[/rant]

Don't start with the L24. Start with the 16% larger L28 and build that up. Should see 16% more hp than a comparably built L24. Then throw out the rule book since you're not limited by it and get a larger cam (that EP cam would be a nice one for a hipo street engine), up the compression, port the head, and get a good induction and exhaust system. That's what I did, and my L28 makes ~240whp. Oh, and for the record, the triple 44's made a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE difference on my car. If I were to guess I'd say 40 whp. So that would put it right around 200 whp before the triples. That is just a guess though...

If you're going any lower than the aftermarket springs go, you'll probably want to section the struts to retain some bump travel.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=115904 Many people have gotten 300whp out of a bone stock longblock. The stroker adds displacement so it will add in a fairly proportional manner more hp based on the increase in displacement. So a 2.8 that makes 300 whp will make ~330 whp built the same way, but as a 3.1. There are dyno sheets over at hybridz.org for guys pushing over 500 whp out of L series engines. Takes a lot of money though, and if you're really looking for that kind of power I'd suggest a V8 swap. With the NA engine running on street gas it seems the limit is about 85hp/liter or so, but the effort and $$$ involved in building that engine is a lot more than would be needed for a comparably powerful V8 swap.

How about the rear suspension uprights? I still shudder when I think of the uprights hanging down around the diff trying to cope with the side loading force from the control arms in a tight turn. Or how about the front differential mount? Who thought that putting a rubber mount in there that could be pulled apart by the lifting force on the front of the diff was a good idea? And then to back it up you use a strap??? Horrible design. It should be designed with a mount that is used in compression, so that when the diff comes up it compresses the mount. If not, then it should be made to control the amount of lift, like a newer American style engine mount that interlocks so that if the rubber does fail the nose of the diff can't come up, but instead you just get vibrations. I've seen too many lift up and beat the hell out of the tranny tunnel.

I would pull the sealer out of the seam and see if there is any rust in there. In my car the seam was pretty rusty. I used a pick and a wire wheel to remove the sealer from inside the fenderwell and inside the cabin (inside the cabin is a real PITA by the way) then sprayed a rust neutralizer, PickleX 20 in the seam. Then I stitch welded the two together. Next for me is going to be several coats of very thinned Zero Rust, and then I haven't decided whether I want to do seam sealer again or not. Seems like everywhere the sealer was rust wasn't too far behind...

A lot of engines use a single row chain, 22RE, most V8s, I think even the KA24. They tend to stretch quickly and break prematurely, so a dual row chain is a big upgrade. All L's use a dual row chain. Arizona Z Car has an adjustable gear, Nissan Comp does too. Do a search and I'm sure you'll find info.

When I had a clutch slave go out the symptoms were similar. Started grinding on upshifts, then started having trouble putting it into reverse at all. It was driveable at first and I was thinking about synchros, then on the 3rd day it just blew out entirely and wasn't driveable anymore. You might just check the master and slave by pulling the boots off and see if there is any fluid under the boot. If so, that's your problem. Easy to check, and could be related to the symptoms you're experiencing. You don't want the clutch adjusted out so that the throwout bearing is always in contact with the pp, as this will wear the throwout bearing out rather quickly.

I've got a hookup. Above and beyond that... none of your business

$80: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270053359082&rd=1&rd=1 $240: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=017&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=270053358301&rd=1&rd=1

They're both going to need holes drilled at the firewall, and the PDK also needs holes drilled in the frame rail. It's worth it. Drill the holes.

The opening on a 44mm Mikuni is 48mm I seem to recall. The opening on the manifold side is 44mm. If someone were to measure the air horn side it would be pretty easy to mistake 44s for 50s According to a recent post on Hybrid Z, you should be able to look at the butterflies and tell what it is. 40's will have 165 stamped on them, 44's will say 175. No idea what 50's would say...

Webers have about 5 times the adjustability of Mikunis. When properly tuned they should make more power than Mikunis. The problem is finding anyone who can get them into and keep them in tune. Mikunis are simpler and make tons of power up top where it counts for me, so I went that way. The problem with the 50's is supposedly they don't run well at street friendly rpms. So you have to find someone building a 9000 rpm race motor and doesn't care about idling under 2000 and has to have a ton of money and not think that triple ITB injection is a better deal to buy these.

I'm looking for a thread about a guy who destroyed his R200. He was drag racing and the cross pin shaft had come part way out and smacked around the inside of the case. He had pics, and I'm after the pics, but I can't find the thread to ask the guy if he would mind me using them. Anyone remember this? Can someone find it for me? I searched and can't seem to locate it.

I think the issue there is whether you have single sided keys or not. Mine, #4396, had a single sided igntion key. I'm not sure exactly how that works though as far as transferring the cylinder to another switch assy. When I bought my car it took 3 different keys, so I put a complete new lockset in it a few years back.

If you are going to make a roll bar, then definitely run the hoop support bars to the strut towers. You can run them to the front of the tower, or to the trapezoidal area outside of the struts. Even with that done, a strut tower is STILL a good idea. The TEP bar is good, PDK is also good (PDK's front bar looks a lot better than TEP's) and the other option is to take another piece of your roll bar tube and weld it between the strut towers. This is the best way to go in my opinion, no heims joints or bolts to allow movement...

Why not just get a later ignition switch? Should be easy enough to find locally, and if you can't I can probably find one for you.

Sorry to hear it. Follow the directions I gave you and you'll save a lot of time vs pulling the struts all the way off. You don't need a spring compressor this time either. It won't be that bad. Just take your time and do it right.

I'm going to disagree with Carl. If you're not going to put significantly stiffer than stock springs on, then the swaybars can really help to control body roll which is extremely excessive in my opinion on the stock Z. Putting a stiffer bar up front and nothing in the back would make the car tend even more towards understeer than they do in stock form. I don't think you need to be Mario Andretti to control a Z with a rear bar either. That's been my experience anyway.