jmortensen

You make a good point here Carl, and this is why the 77-79 5 speed works with the 3.54 that it came with originally. The ratios for 1-4 are basically the same as the 4 speed, and the 5th is not as tall as the ZX transmission. The advantage to the ZX or Euro 5 speed is that you can get the same type of gear reduction for 1-4, but you have an extra overdrive gear. You can take full advantage of that with a lower rear end ratio. With a stock rear end you get none of the advantages, and a gear spread that is pretty much unusable. I think Alan is right too that the numbers don't make it apparent that there is a huge difference, but to a driver there really is, especially when considering the 2-3 shift in these two transmissions. The all of the 4 speeds and the 77-79 5 speed has a large rpm drop on the 2-3 shift that the ZX and Euro 5 speed do not have. Sure, more noticeable to a racer, but still, a really noticeable difference to anyone who drives the two transmissions back to back. Putting a 3.36 or a 3.54 behind a ZX 5 speed is not a good idea because 1st is much taller. With the 3.36 1st gear goes 47 mph, 2nd 77mph, and 5th has a completely unrealistic 192mph with a stock 7000 rpm redline. Better to get the numbers down to a more realistic top speed, something the engine is actually capable of pushing the car near to, and then use the gear reduction from the ring and pinion to make the car quicker, at least that's my opinion. But I come from the viewpoint of a guy who liked to drive his Z fast on the street and also autoxes and did the occasional track day, I'm not somebody who drives cross country with a Z regularly.

The shifter I made looks a lot like this one. I took a truck shifter, cut it right above the pivot and welded it back together at a 90 degree angle. Then heated it with a torch and bent the stick up so that it comes out right in the middle of the hole in the floor. I had to cut it to length and ground down the tip so that I could run an 8x1.25 die down it to attach the shift knob. In retrospect what I should have also done is drill the pivot hole on the trans up about 1/4 inch, but it worked this way despite the fact that the shifter hit the inside of the socket in the top of the trans, and the longer length does reduce the throw.

You can figure out what diff fits your purposes best with a calculator like this one: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/ Your average NA L engine isn't going to have the gonads to push a Z up a hill in 5th gear with 3.36's in my experience. A friend of mine has a 70 with an L28 and ZX 5 speed and had a 3.90 diff with SUs, then broke her LSD and swapped in a 3.36 and was very upset about it. She wouldn't use 5th unless the road was FLAT, and the car was a slug off the line. She's not a racer, just likes to accelerate onto the freeway and in general likes to drive a fast car. FWIW, the difference between the 3.36 and the 3.90 is about 500 rpm at 70 mph, so the rpm jump is not huge. However, the torque multiplication is 16% greater with the 3.90. That IS huge, and will make a VERY LARGE difference to the driver.

FWIW I think this is pretty good advice. An aftermarket FI that uses a stock FI intake and eliminates the restrictive stock AFM would be a good upgrade. I don't think that there is as much ultimate power capability out of the stock manifold as in a triple manifold, so for ultimate NA power a individual throttle body setup on a triple manifold with aftermarket FI is the probably the ticket, but they cost a LOT of money, probably 3x what the triples will run. On the upside you can run a 50mm throttle body and still have more bottom end than a triple carb setup with 44s. Then there's custom manifold stuff like John Coffey, which again is even more expensive. For those who want the triples, the Mikunis are a lot easier to tune than Webers. There are less parameters to mess with, so they'll be less dialed in, but they hold their tune for a long time and with just occassional synching they'll continue to run right. sblake01 - I think the original poster was talking about 0-60 in 6 seconds.

A bone stock L24 would benefit from triples. It would benefit even more from triples and a camshaft. The rest of it, the headers and the mild port work is not necessary to get the benefit of the triples. If I were putting triples on an L24, I would go with 44s and forego the 40s. This advice comes from my experience with a friend's L16 who ran 40s then 44s. 44s made a lot more power. Again, I drove my 8.3:1 compression L28 with no vacuum advance, a medium cam, a 12 lb flywheel and an ACT clutch in stop and go traffic every day for years. Never had a problem, although I will say that I wish I had lower rear gears. I was running 3.70's, but would have been much happier with 4.11s.

It's really simple. What you need is the ZX trans, ZX pressure plate, and the throwout bearing collar to go with it. That's it. As long as you stay away from the turbo 5 speed, the NA 5 speed flywheel interchanges, the clutch disk interchanges, and the driveshaft interchanges. The only other potential hiccup is the slave cylinder. If you have an early Z you have the adjustable slave cylinder, and so you have the throwout fork with the hole in it to accept the slave cylinder. Your choices here are to swap out the forks (not the throwout bearing collars, just the forks) so that you can continue to use the adjustable slave cylinder, or you can swap out the slave cylinder so that it works with the later fork. I like to have the ability to adjust the clutch at the slave, some prefer to not have to worry about it.

Holy CRAAP that's a fast B/SP Z car! The Bimmer is AMAZING too. http://www.siastuning.com/Video's.htm Tom Holt's website, including runs from 2000 and 2003 nationals: http://sth2.com/Z-car/video.htm Me looking way slower by comparison: http://videos.streetfire.net/search/autox/0/3B512F0F-8AD1-4DAB-BD8E-0AE1768FB642.htm

This is what Tom is talking about: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=108276 In addition to that lots of guys are reporting that the noise is so obnoxious it makes them physically ill. This thread has some alternative mount ideas at the end: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116207

You got it...

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If you have new springs then you should install them. You may also want to install smaller valve stem seals, as the Stage II is right at about the limit for room between the Schneider valve spring retainers and the stock valve seals. You can use seals from a Ford 2.9L V6 and they're a better material plus they're $20 at any corner auto parts store. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=90825 I don't want to sound like a jerk so please don't take this the wrong way, but I'd get a stock cam reground from Delta before I installed that Schneider you have. It's too small for triples in my opinion and my opinion is reasonably well versed, being that I have a LARGER cam which I also feel is too small for triples, mine is about the size of the Stage IV. I'd look for something in the .500/300 range. Delta will regrind you a cam for $65. If you're going to have to do the lash pad thing, might as well do it with a cam that's the right size for your application.

Arne's right. Aftermarket replacements are cheap and easy to come by. If you need actual Nissan glass then maybe get one out of a JY and try and polish some of the pitting out.

If you're not reusing the ball joint just get a pickle fork. That tool shown above is great and won't tear up the boots, but if you're replacing them anyway the pickle fork usually costs about $3 at your local auto parts store and does the job just fine.

Tom Holt has done a few interesting things with bullets. Mounted them on the fenders and such. I'd like to put one in the airdam, maybe in the rad opening. Nice and low to accentuate the speeds. Or maybe right at the top of the windshield, to get a better view of the apexes. So many places to mount the camera, so little track time. The one thing I'll say is that if you're going to mount it inside the cabin, mount it as high as you possibly can. Seen several where the mount was too low and you can't see enough of the road. Also clean the windshield if it is inside, and try not to run the sun visors down.

I'm a bit confused. What is your point? Is it that you can register for a class where you can get your arse handed to you? I was running my Z in FP and I had a full interior and wasn't built anywhere near the limit of the rules. I did it basically because I had a hook up for the slicks and slicks aren't allowed in Street Prepared, but I wasn't competitive at all when a "real" FP car showed up. So yes, it is true that they won't prevent you from running an underprepared car in a given class. You originally called FP a "production" class. FP is a Prepared class, Production is a road racing class. The stock class in autox is nothing like either the Prepared or Production classes for racing. That is MY point.

The Production class in road racing is not even close to stock, ITS is a lot closer, and even it isn't very stock. The stock class in autox is pretty damn close to bone stock. Comparing E Production to ES is pretty useless. Download the rulebook and read it and you'll see what I mean.

It's probably got the float levels too high, so that when you go around a right hander it floods temporarily. That's a pretty common problem with Mikunis. Floods out, nearly dies, then kinda catches itself and keeps on going. I doubt it's going lean, but if it was, I'd say float level for that too... Truth be told you should probably just ditch those carbs and try to find a set of round top SUs. DGVs are fine by themselves, I think its that funky manifold adapter that makes that setup suck for a Z.

It could be the filler, any of the vents, or the sender. It shouldn't be hard to chase down a leak in a Z tank, but I fought with one for a couple years off and on. Now I'm convinced that tank was leaking from the seam between top and bottom, no matter anymore, going fuel cell now...

It is tough to say for sure, and it may just be the angle that the photo was taken at, but it looks like the thigh bolsters are too high. I used Recaro brackets on my Z, and I had a friend use them in his Toyota truck, and we both had the same problem. The thigh part is so high that in my case it started to cut off circulation to my calves and feet and after about 20 minutes of driving they'd start to go numb. My friend leaned his seat back to compensate, and that wasn't comfortable either for me. He did OK with it, but I like a relatively upright driving position. The solution I found was to cut the bracket and weld it back together at an angle, and run the rear mount as high as possible (mine had 3 adjustment holes). Here is a picture of how mine ended up. This was a big improvement and didn't take too much doing. http://album.hybridz.org/data/500/seat2.jpg http://album.hybridz.org/data/500/seat3.jpg

No thanks! They're already bid up to $165 and there are 10 watchers on each auction... ;-)

I agree with Carl. If it's almost there but you just can't quite get the damn gear onto the end of the cam, it's probably not a lost tensioner. You can also use a long 10mm wrench to loosen the top bolt of the curved chain guide, then a prybar to slide it as far back away from the chain as possible. That will give you a little bit more length on the chain. Then when you get the gear on the cam, pry the guide back up against the chain and tighten the bolt. You need a LONG 10mm wrench, and it doesn't give you a whole lot of extra slack, but I've had instances where I absolutely positively could not get the cam gear on without moving the guide.

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As an alternative, you could go this route: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=113615 Or you could disassemble the LSD and install the threaded buttons and use your stock stub shafts as discussed in this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=114798. My understanding is that you can swap the buttons into the LSD the same way you would in an open carrier.

Forums are just plain better than mailing lists. This coming from an admin of both a forum and a mailing list. I can tell you that there is probably 100x the traffic on the forum if not more. I think the ability to look for what you're interested in and not have 15,000 emails in your inbox makes the forum format more appealing. That said I don't know that an IZCC forum would be much different than the classiczcars.com forum. I just don't see a lot of distinction between the two user groups.

If you use the EMI plates, you might still be able to bolt the strut bar on, because you don't have to cut the strut tops to install that particular plate. The other option is to make end plates that weld to the strut towers that allow the strut tower bar to bolt on. Then you can use any strut bar you like. Camber plates will transmit more road noise into the cabin. But as you said, they also lower the car, and more importantly allow adjustment of camber and caster in the case of the EMI plate where the stock suspension has no adjustment at all.