jmortensen

That would have the same problems as a triple SU setup, but it would have the added issue of the question mark manifold shape which is really not good. I don't know that anyone has ever done it, but it would be a big waste of time, $$$, and effort IMO.

Think you got enough structure there? How much weight did you add with all those bars?

When I ran SU's I cut the stock housing up and put the stock air horns inside K&N filters. When I switched to Mikunis I had stacks made very similarly to the 2nd pic from the left. I got a 3/4" aluminum plate, had 6 holes drilled in it, and used a carbide router bit with a 3/8" radius to cut the radius in the aluminum. Actually I had a machinist do it for me. It was fairly inexpensive, and I just didn't have the money or room for a full radius stack.

Nissan uses both Koyo and NSK, so they are the same thing you'd likely get from the dealer. I assume that wasn't supposed to be NGK but NSK.

Except straight up would be both valves open. Really you want the cam lobes pointing down. There is a timing mark for the camshaft that will take all the guesswork out of this. If you don't already have one, go get a Haynes or Chilton and they'll have the mark in their instructions on timing.

Hold the bottom of the shaft. Grab the top of the shaft. Twist. Then you will know how it works.

The distributor shaft is two pieces, the top that holds the reluctor can rotate up to 8.5 degrees independently from the bottom. The mechanical advance weights and springs are what controls the rotation. So the breaker plate has nothing to do with the mechanical advance. It is just a place to mount the stator to (if you've disabled the vacuum advance).

That's a tough one to find, surprisingly. Might try a driveline shop. They come in every CV boot kit out there, so it's not like they're uncommon, but I tried everyone and the only one who had them was Nissan and they wanted, and this is not a joke, $80 for all the clamps. Uh... no thanks. I found a stainless strap from Harbor Freight when I repacked my CV's. Here's what I used: http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92515 They are not ideal and on the big end you have to hook two together, but I was able to get them pretty damn tight and I figure once they're on there they don't really have to handle too much stress. I haven't tried them yet and probably won't for another year or so, so you could be the guinea pig...

Not from the factory. The only factory adjustment is front toe. You can shim caster in the front too, but toe is the only real adjustment. If the rear is really out camber bushings from G Machine are the cheapest easiest fix. Motorsport Auto has them.

Manual 280s came with R200s, Automatics came with R180s. Unless you converted your car or that's just a funny gearshift on your car domain page, you should have an R200.

There's been a lot of talk recently about this issue. Do a search and you should find threads on the 280z distributor and the zx distributor.

Smells like oranges, but kinda sickly sweet oranges. At first you think it's going to be a good smell, but after a while, not so much. It's not chemically and won't get you high like Varsol fumes though. With the lid closed you don't really smell it at all. Disposal is a big question mark. You can take the solvent and pour it straight on the ground, but once you've got grease, oil, paint and whatnot in the solvent I don't think dumping it is a good idea. I just figured when I moved I'd take the used stuff to the hazardous waste place nearby and let them decide what to do with it...

I have the HF parts washer that you're looking at and I used Oil Eater in mine. I put my diff housing in there (bought one used it had been sitting for maybe 5-10 years) and it took the paint off the outside, and took every last bit of baked on oily crud out of the inside. Got the Oil Eater at Costco for ~$7/gal. I ran it straight, you're actually supposed to dilute it quite a bit. The only problem with it is that it eats aluminum, so you can clean aluminum in the solvent tank, but you need to rinse it afterwards. Can't just leave a head sitting in the tank for a month... I think diluting it is the way to go, because after a while it started growing this hard white crystalline type crap on the pump filter and some parts that I left in there for a month or so. Now it is to the point where the pump will barely flow at all. I know I could get a new pump for it for $10 or so, but all of my really grimy cleaning jobs are done, so I haven't bothered yet. I was able to clean that stuff off of the parts with no problems. One thing that I looked into but never bothered getting that I think really would have helped was a brush that attaches to the hose so that it pumps solvent thru as you're cleaning the parts. Never got one. Found one online somewhere for less than $20. They definitely help, I can tell you that from previous experience.

I once pulled up to the line at an autox with a passenger I'd never met before. It was his first autox and I'd been talking to him for about 10 minutes telling him about my car and prepared cars in general. Got up to stage and forgot it was in gear, let out the clutch and stalled it! Luckily my foot was on the brake. There was a whole bunch of people standing around the start line, and they were all laughing. All I could do was look out and give them a big thumbs up like, SURE I meant to do that!!! I think the run redeemed me to some extent, but it was pretty embarassing...

The R200 came standard in the 280 with a manul transmission, so if that's what you have, then you already have an R200. It is worth it to get another one, because if you went to an R180 you'd need the smaller mustache bar to go with it, where the R200 would bolt in. 3.90s will definitely make a big improvement in how it accelerates. A good condition R200 with 3.90s should run you ~$100. $200 is overpriced IMO. Any 280ZX that's NA and has t-tops has the 3.90 gears, if you want to try some junkyard shopping.

Sounds like another shop to me. Turbo, Zcar, SF Valley means one shop to me. Is he on Varna? Carl is giving you some very good advice as to what to do.

When I worked at Randy's Ring and Pinion we had Dana Tru-Trac diffs. They're the largest ring and pinion reseller in the country and I think in the top 3 for LSDs and lockers. The Tru-Trac for a Chevy 8.5 runs about $350. But we didn't sell them. We sold 10x as many Eatons, which are a clutch style LSD, for ~$550. The gear driven units tend to have problems spinning the inside tire at autoxes, and they also tend to spin the inside tire on long sweepers on road courses. But hey, they're $1000 more expensive, so they have to be better, right???

Good job Bill! Thanks for proving my point too!

87-89 turbos had the LSD, not 86-87. 88 also had the VLSD SS edition, VLSD is not compatible with your halfshafts, so that makes it more expensive to install. Stay away from VLSD IMO. Precision Gear and Reider Racing sell the "Power Brute" which is the Nissan LSD. ~$550 Quaife- ~$1500gear driven, hyper overpriced OBX- ~$400 (this is what the Quaife should be priced at IMO)designed like the Quaife but made in China. Mixed reports from what little I've seen as to reliability. Apparently they made one for Hondas that wasn't machined right and lots of guys were bitching about it on a Honda forum I found. Other options are 240SX R200 LSDs from Kaaz, Cusco. ~$800 (I think?) These are better than the Nissan units, at least they appear to be. More clutches in the clutch packs, and larger. Also comes in 1.5 way or 2 way, where Nissan is only 2 way. Get the one for that replaces the open diff, not the factory VLSD. VLSD in the 240SX was like the VLSD in the 88 SS, and requires a different spline count on the halfshafts.

How do you quantify necessary? My Z had 40K street miles on it without vacuum advance, so I think we can say in strict terms that it is definitely not "necessary". Now if you want to get into the benefits of vacuum advance, I'd be happy to take a stab at that too. The stock ZX advance at idle is 10 degrees BTDC with the vacuum advance unhooked. That plus the 17 or 18 degrees of mechanical advance gives a total of 27 or 28 degrees. When you're WOT there is no vacuum (unless you're WOT for a LONG time) so you'll really be running a max of about 28 when WOT. THAT'S NOT ENOUGH. You're giving away hp by running total advance in the 20's. Should be somewhere in the 35 range + or - a few degrees for best power. I took mine off for three reasons; one it was broken like all the rest of them, two, I didn't feel like making less power at WOT, and three, an engine will produce some vacuum at WOT after you've been at WOT for a long time, as previously mentioned. The potentially dangerous disadvantage is that if you set the mechanical advance to where you want the advance to stop, the vacuum advance may kick in and add a couple degrees more timing, which could in the right circumstances lead to detonation. This really isn't a factor unless your engine is on the verge of pinging all the time, guys who are trying to run an F54 block with N42 head on 91 octane gas for instance. What vacuum advance does is it kicks in some more advance when the engine has a lot of vacuum idle, like at idle or throttle slightly open operation. This gives more mpg (when you're driving with the throttle barely cracked open). Slow accelerations will also feel more responsive, as long as you don't punch it to the point where vacuum goes down to the point that it isn't advancing anymore. If instead of using the vacuum advance you crank up the static advance by 8 or 10 degrees, you still get most of the benefits of the vacuum advance. It is true that the vacuum advance will advance the timing MORE at high vacuum than setting the timing 8-10 degrees higher and disabling the VA mechanism. But when you're WOT the engine will have enough total advance to really make some power. IMO what you're giving up by disabling the vacuum advance is cruise, and I mean CRUISE mpg. If you don't cruise at 1500 to 2000 rpm then the vacuum advance isn't doing much for your mileage. I don't know for certain, but I'd be willing to wager that at 3500 rpm cruising on the highway the total advance is about the same your way or my way. I might be missing out on a touch of light acceleration responsiveness. What I get in return is a big boost in top end hp. One more thing is when an engine is hot it will theoretically be harder to start with more static advance, especially high compression engines. Hasn't been a problem with mine so far, and I'm running 11:1 on my new motor.

They're always broken. I just JB Weld the two pieces together and run more static advance at idle. One of the nice things about that distributor is that it only advances 17 degrees so you can run 15-20 degrees at idle for a total advance in the mid 30s. And if you can do that, then the vacuum advance really isn't doing much for you anyway. Disabling the vacuum and cranking up the advance gives you the best of both worlds.

http://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/shopcart/CARE/POR_CARE_swepco_pg2.htm SWEPCO 201 is what I use. Very popular with the Porsche 911 crowd so if anyone has a steel synchro trans out of a roadster or a comp trans, they would do well to try it. I cut it 50/50 with ATF for the transmission, makes for a little quicker shift. According to my ex-boss that's what BMW uses in their transmissions from the factory. Use it full strength in the diff, and no LSD additive is needed.

My only comment is that it doesn't dam much air. Just shovels air into the tires and the rest goes straight under the car through the giant hole in the middle.

You'd have to be some kind of super-wussy to have trouble with the effort required to shift a Z with a cut down shifter. I've got mine shortened and I'm using the 4 speed shifter in a 5 speed, so the length between the pivot and the end is longer, meaning even less leverage. My wife shifted our Z while autoxing and she's a whopping ~140 lbs. I'd be much more concerned about getting power steering than getting a heavy shift knob if you're that weak anyway. Sorry if this came off too harsh, but shifting effort should be the least of anyone's worries, and if it's not that person shouldn't be driving an old Z car.

There used to be a site that had all the advance curves on it, but it's gone now. It did not show a different spec for manual and automatic, that I'm sure of. I do recall the spec listed on the site as 17 degrees advance all in by 2500 rpm for the ZX distributor, and that was for either of the housing numbers, the DK48 and the DK68. As Arne said you can pull the thing apart and look at the bottom of the mech advance and it shows distributor degrees advance. 8.5 is what mine was stamped, double that for crank degrees, there's your 17 degrees total. Mine definitely came from a manual transmission ZX. It would be fairly easy to check when it's all in, just have someone in the car rev it up until it stops advancing while you check with a timing light. As soon as it stops advancing, note the rpm, and adjust springs to get it in earlier or later as desired. Most of the other datsun distributors were all in by 3000 IIRC, so 2500 or 3000 isn't going to make a huge difference IMO, but it could be adjusted if desired.