jmortensen

The area is not the same. Simple proof: draw a 2" diameter circle. then draw two 1" diameter circles inside the 2" circle. See all that extra space? That's the area that you're losing running 2 smaller pipes. My autoshop teacher drove this lesson home for me. He was telling us why the drain at the school was always backed up. They had 2 options when building the drain. One 24" pipe or three 8" pipes. Even after drawing the aforementioned picture on a chalkboard he was overruled and the end result is that the smaller pipes can't flow enough and it causes flooding just about every year.

If all you need are the rings that adjust the headlights, PM Mat M. He has a couple.

Regrinding the cam is a good idea, there are lots of companies that will do it for you, including Delta Cams which is here in WA state. I think they charge $65. I'd go large on the cam, as stated before my .490/280 worked well with the SU's. I think Delta has something right in that range. Delta will also resurface your rockers for $3 each if you want. For lifts over .460 you'll need different valve springs, I'm using Schneider springs, and you'll be REALLY close to having the retainers hit the valve stem seals. You can use a Ford 2.8L V6 valve stem seal to allow for a lot more clearance, they're made from a better material (Viton), and they're readily available for $20 at any parts store. Despite the need for different springs and seals, the extra extra power from the increased lift is well worth it IMO.

What kind of crack are you smoking? Area = pi x radius squared.

Reading plugs is good if you're good at reading plugs. You have to look around before you can find someone who actually knows how to do it. It is not a common skill. A far more accurate method is to install an O2 sensor bung in the exhaust and hook it to a gauge or better yet a voltmeter. I tuned my Mikunis in with a narrowband O2. If you have money to spend a wideband O2 is more accurate than the narrowband I used. I never did this when I was running the SU's. Kinda wish that I had now... I was teasing you beandip. Seems no matter what the issue, ignition, carbs, cams, whatever, I've had the exact opposite experience. I don't know what to attribute that to, but I think it's kind of funny... :-)

I ran the 47's when I was running SU's with a .490/280 cam with my 8.3:1 compression L28 dished/E31 combo. I also ran Marvel Mystery oil in the carbs with 280ZX EI and no vacuum advance. I had 2.5" mandrel exhaust with a Super Turbo muffler. I think this is the official beandip recipe for failure, but it was really quick and I loved the way it ran. A little more compression probably would have been a good thing, but once it got up into the rpms it hauled arse. Got good gas mileage too with a ZX 5 speed and 3:70 rear gears.

Mark's street car is amazingly clean. His race car I haven't seen yet... Nice to see you here Mark.

Once again I have to disagree with you beandip. My experience contradicts your recommendations. The original Mikuni advertisement suggests a 25% gain in power from adding Mikunis. The first engine I put Mikunis on had a VERY mild port job and was an L28 with dished pistons and an E31 head with 280Z valves, at roughly 8.3:1 (stock for L28E) compression. It had a medium sized cam about the equivalent to the Schneider/MSA Stage IV. It had 2.5" mandrel bent exhaust and a header, and 280ZX EI with no vacuum advance, but that was about it for all intensive purposes. When I put the 44 Mikunis on my wife went from getting a little sideways getting on the freeway to being absolutely terrified of the car. I suspect that just by adding the carbs I gained 40 whp. While I never tested the carbs with the SU's, I did test hp once with the triples and according to the drag race trap speed/mph calculators the car was putting down about 240 whp, so the 40 hp estimate that I made beforehand still sounds reasonable to me. This got even more credibility when Dan Baldwin posted about his experience when he went from his Jag SU's to Mikunis. I think he did something else other than just adding the carbs, but IIRC he put down another 50 something whp after the swap. The couple suggestions I have are that the cam will help (if you've got high rpm induction a high rpm camshaft helps), get a big enough cam, and get big enough carbs. 44's or better on the cam, and MSA Stage IV or better on the cam. Also a reground cam will cost about $65 from one of the cam grinders, vs $180 from MSA. Why pay more?

Seems fairly obvious to me that if you put a stiffer spring in that is the same length that the ride height you get will be higher than the original spring. Also, with respect to the Tokico springs, Arne is correct that the free length is shorter. I don't think they're preloaded at all. In fact I think they're a bit shorter necessary to hit both spring perches, which is why you occasionally see posts asking if the springs are going to fall out. I believe the Eibachs are the same way, as are the Suspension Techniques springs. This is absolutely the case.

I have Mikunis, but I don't think it should really be any different. I definitely didn't follow the same procedure you did. What you're really trying to do is get the butterflies open an equal amount so that all 6 cylinders draw in the same amount of air. Whenever you get stuck, remember that you just want the carbs to draw the same amount of air. The first thing I noticed when I originally installed my carbs was that one of the linkage pieces was too long (I pieced together my linkage from several different setups). This caused the other carbs to be stuck a little open all the time, and the one with the linkage that was too long was completely shut. So first thing I had to do was shorten the longest link so that all of the carbs would sit on the stops, with the butterflies closed all the way. In your case this probably isn't an issue, but what you can do is set all the idle speed screws fairly evenly (just eyeball it and make sure you have available adjustment in both directions). Then loosen the linkage bars that connect the carb to the long rail, and let them move around until the idle speed screws touch the stops, and there is no pressure on the linkage bars. That should be the last time you have to adjust the long bars. Everything else should be done on the idle adjust screws on each carb or the idle speed adjust on the main linkage bar. Start the car. You'll probably have to open the idle speed adjuster up a bit to get the car to a comfortable idle speed. Once you have it idling at a normalish speed, you can start using the synch tool. Unless your throttle shafts are bent, each barrel of the same carb should flow the same amount of air, so what you're doing is adjusting the front, middle, and rear carb. You might want to check the throttle shafts by checking one barrel of each carb quickly against the other just to rule it out as a problem. When that is done, pick one carb and check it, then jump to the next and compare. If one is much higher than the other, you can either turn down the one the idle adjust screw on the carb that is higher, or open up the one that is low. Once you have them relatively even, then move to the last one. Do the same thing until the last is relatively equal to the other two. Once you have them roughed in then you can go back and really dial them in so that they're all even. I only ever adjusted them at idle, but you can also open the throttle a bit and do the same at 2000 rpm if you want. What I would really stay away from is playing with the idle mixture screws. You do NOT want to play with them in order to get the carbs synched, and you always want the idle mixture screws to be in exactly the same position. On Mikunis, that position is 1.5 turns out. That's all there is to it on Mikunis. I haven't synched my carbs in about 2 years because the car has been torn apart, but I don't think I'm forgetting anything there. If I am I'm sure someone else will post. After writing all of that I checked the How to Modify book and it has only a very brief description of synchronizing that basically says "adjust the throttle plates and/or linkage stop screws". It goes on to say that the mixture screws should be one half to one turn out. If you need to turn them out farther, your idle jets are too small. The idle mixture screws should be adjusted until you get a smooth idle (should be all set the same). Check synchronization again after setting the mixture. Then raise the idle about 3 to 400 rpm and if you have the idle mixture correct, turning the idle mixture screws either in OR out should lower the engine speed.

Another one, $160 again: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270016479886

I just recalled that a friend of mine made a nice shield with aluminum. He used 2 sheets of aluminum and sandwiched a header blanket in between.

I'm not a heat shield engineer, but I've always thought that stainless is the way to go. If the stainless doesn't get as hot in the first place because of its weak conductivity, then it won't matter if it retains that lesser amount of heat for a longer period of time. In the How to Modify book there is a picture of a heat shield on a set of Mikunis and it has two pieces (p110, top left). The piece between the header and the bottom of the intake and carbs is stainless. Another piece that connects to the carbs behind the air horns which doesn't get direct heat from the manifold is aluminum. If you look at racing brakes the caliper housings are aluminum to dissipate heat and the pistons are stainless to block heat from transferring into the caliper. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm not convinced that there is enough heat coming off the manifold to get the stainless that hot in the first place.

If you don't have the carbs synched that will cause idle problems. Get yourself a synchronizer tool and learn how to use it. It's pretty damn easy on triples, you basically just adjust the linkage on each carb to open or close the butterflies until they're pulling the same amount of air. Stainless steel would be a better choice for a heat shield. Aluminum dissipates heat faster because it conducts heat better. The idea of a sheild is to block something, not to dissipate it. Aluminum makes a good heat exchanger (radiator) but not the best heat shield.

Yep. Balls with springs on top. What I failed to mention is that on mine after that happened I pulled the trans and put a couple washers on top of the spring, basically to shim up the spring pressure on the detent ball. Made a noticeable difference in the shifter, and never had that problem again, although the problem is so rare I don't know that the shims really are helping. Do you have the 280Z or 280ZX manual? Someone posted a link to www.carfiche.com where you can download them. They're something like 70 megs each, but convenient to have when you start messing around with this stuff.

This has happened to my car at the race track and a friend's Z right in front of my house, then again about a week later the same thing happened to her. What happened in our case was pretty weird, and I can only really guess at the cause. I think the shift rails hit some perfect amount of vibration that allowed the 5th/rev rail to move on it's own right past the detent balls. On the race track I had a friend driving and he went to downshift into 2nd and the rear wheels just locked. He slid past a brick cornerworker's stand at speed, missed it by ~3 feet. During the slide the stick was in 2nd, but then after he stopped he was able to put it in neutral and when he did the car was in reverse. We believe the car spun because the transmission hit reverse and neutral at the same time, locking the rear solid. He then moved the stick around trying to put it into every gear and suddenly it freed itself, we kept driving it for the rest of the day and never had any problems. On my friend's Z she came to my house, pulled off in the dirt on the side of the road, and did a U-turn to park directly in front. She peeled out a little bit when she was in the dirt, then hit the asphalt, and this jolt apparently was what did it. She stopped, got out, and we hung out until about 12AM, then when she went to leave she couldn't move the car. It was the same basic story the second time it happened to her. Car went just fine, she parked and when she went to leave it was stuck in reverse. On hers we couldn't just play with the stick and get it to release. We had to drop the transmission right where it was, pull out the detent balls from the side of the case, and manually move the shifter rails back into the neutral position. Once that was done it worked fine, both times.

The rear fenderwell is a big part of the structure that supports the strut towers. If you cut the rear fenderwells then you need to weld them back for support. No point in putting on flares unless you're going to cut the fenderwells IMHO. The point of the flare is to put a wider tire on. If you hang the flare on the back and don't cut the fenders, then you either cut up your wide tires on the fender lips, or you end up with a car that looks like it needs more tire in the back. In the front the structure is the upper and lower frame rails, and the fender is hung onto that structure just to cover the wheels. The front fender is not structural, so you can trim it without any structural consequence.

93 Toyota P/U, 5 speed, 22RE, header, cam, K&N, traction bars, circle track leaf spring suspension with weight jacks in back, LSD, sway bars, tweaked AFM (it was my first autoxer believe it or not) 2006 GMC Sierra 1500 Z71 - bone stock with about 1500 miles

I thought the 6-2 MSA header was the pacesetter header. If that's correct then you've already seen the fitment issues firsthand. I wouldn't install a header that had a visible warp on the flange. That's just crappy production IMO. I have the 6-1 header from MSA (bought from AZC, but the same thing) and it isn't great either. I had to weld on it before installing because the flange didn't entirely cover the #6 exhaust port. It had a built in leak! Basically I have come to the conclusion that all of the cheap headers for Z's are crap, and that you need to step up to Nissan Comp's header before they really start to be worth the hassle. I have 2.5" exhaust with mandrel bends and a Super Turbo, no resonator. It wasn't too loud for me, and mine had a specific rpm range where it really got boomy, I'd say from 1500 to 2000 rpm. I don't normally drive the Z in that rpm range though, so it didn't really bother me. Drove it daily that way for 5 or 6 years, never did have a stereo either...

If you haven't done it before, pulling the window is very easy to do, so start with that. It's been years for me, but IIRC the basic jist is pull the door panel, pull the stainless trim (the window track), then my memory gets a little fuzzy. I seem to remember that you tilt the window forward and then lift it out. Anyway, it's literally a 5 minute thing. Very easy once you're in there. Once the window is out you will see that there are maybe 8 or so nuts that hold the window to the frame at the bottom. Tightening these nuts is easy enough, but I'd follow Carl's advice from 1998 or whenever he gave it to me and put some Loctite on the threads, then tighten them down. I don't have the specs, but obviously you don't want to overtighten and crack the glass. Reinstall the window. If you close the door and you hear that rattle it's the window flopping back and forth both at the top AND at the bottom causing the noise and a roller isn't enough to stop it. I wish I could get more detailed than that but like I said it's been a long time. You might find another post on window removal if you search for it.

Sure. PM me your email address and I'll send a picture of what I've got to you. I don't expect that a spare tire well is a hot seller, so I imagine it will be around when you need it. My name is Jon, BTW. I know it looks like Jim but it's JMortensen. I guess I should have capitalized my screen name.

I don't know if this will help, but I recently cut the spare tire well out of my car to fit a fuel cell. I have the section of the floor with the cell, if you're looking to buy it I'd sell it for... I don't know... $50 + shipping. I could cut the extra floor area off too to save on shipping. Doesn't weigh much at all so shouldn't be very expensive.

Congratulations on the successful outing Kyle. Sounds like you did great, and the brakes did too! As to your question about the rears, one thing you can do to make them more even is have both drums turned to the same ID. If they're different sizes that will cause different braking on each side. Also making sure they're adjusted properly in between sessions will keep everything working properly. 5 20 minute sessions is a lot. Did you bleed in between sessions at all? You might bring your bottle and your can of SuperBlue with you next time, I wouldn't be surprised if you end up needing it at some point, especially if you switch to stickier tires (which you'll be wanting to do soon if you don't already).

How about just putting a dent in the header? I'd sooner do that then start hacking on the motor mounts.

The other thread where we answered and said it was the module wasn't good enough for you? Fine. I think it's the module. Now you don't have to refer to the other thread.