jmortensen

Here's a 1/2 assed preload removal procedure for normal endlinks. Been using it for years now... Driver sits in car on alignment rack or with car on 4 blocks so that the other person can get to the end links to adjust. Disconnect the driver's side of the sway bar, loosen the other side until there is no compression of the bushings. The bushings are just barely touching the control arm and the bar. Add washers to the drivers side in the middle of the end link until the bushings just touch on that side. Tighten bar evenly. I'd suggest that sopwith switch the front and rear springs, especially with a welded diff. If it's legal for your type of racing you could drill new holes in the front crossmember to get some neg camber up there. My experience is that a lowered Z will have too much neg camber in back and not enough in front.

I have the MSA 6-1 header (bought from AZC), and I can honestly say I hate it with a passion. My bitch may not even be an issue at all for round port headers, but the way they crimped the tubes on the square port is just horrible. The middle 2 runners are seriously blocked by the tubes where they are crimped. It was bad enough that I "ported" the header to fix some of it. Also I had to weld additional metal on the flange in order to get it to seal to the head because the flange didn't cover #6 exhaust port all the way. The original installation was when I learned that those white paper header gaskets SUCK. Use a Nissan manifold gasket. Even with all the time I spent trying fixing mine, I still have to run a bead of copper silicone on both sides of the gasket around the exhaust ports or it leaks. I haven't seen the 3-2-1 header up close in a long time, but it looked pretty crappy as well from what I remember. Next time I'm going Nissan Comp, or maybe some one off custom. I think Stahl does a header for Z's... Sorry to be so negative but I felt seriously burned when I bought that thing.

Doesn't the Jim Cook setup come with Holley Pro-jection? That would be easier to tune than a 4 barrel and a lot better than a pressurized SU or Mikuni setup IMO.

There is a Mazda stud that works and is long enough (wanna say it is 40 or 45mm) but it is 12 x 1.5 instead of the stock Nissan 12 x 1.25. I believe it is a 1st gen RX7. The knurl diameter is several thousandths smaller than the stock Z stud, but I've had them in my car for years, never had one spin, and I drive to autox and then change the tires, then change back and drive home, so they've been used A LOT. I picked them up at the local auto parts store. I am just now going to 3" studs, and I found there was a Camaro stud that Moroso and ARP make that had the correct knurl or was .001 or .002 bigger. I ended up with the RX7 stuff again because I got a better deal on it. I think the stock knurl is .507" but double check that, then you can get another stud with the proper knurl and hopefully keep a 12 x 1.25. Found this: wheel studs

Just a heads up: http://www.betamotorsports.com/benchracing/index.html Look at the R200 handling issues. I used to think the halfshafts were different on the R200s. Not so sure anymore after measuring mine. Also the 200 side input shafts are held in with a circlip, so you can pop them out of the side of the diff with a prybar. Not sure, but I thought it was the 180's that bolted in.

I should also say that wideband is undoubtedly more accurate, but I had to spend that $400 somewhere else. Jon

I used a single wire O2 plumbed into the collector with an O2 bung that I bought at the local muffler shop. Then I connected that to a $6 Harbor Freight volt meter and shot for as close as I could get to ~.75 to .8 volts.

Steve, I used the Mikuni manual and an O2 sensor. O2 sensor was added after about 3 months of screwing with them, and I had it fairly well dialed in a couple weeks after adding it. Definitely the BEST thing you can do to aid tuning triples IMO. Wideband O2 is the next thing everyone will say, but I did OK with just a standard O2 and a voltmeter. Our buddy Greg installed an Autometer (I think) fuel mixture gauge with a regular O2 sensor and the guy who dynoed his 510 laughed at him. Then it turned out that the gauge was dead accurate on EVERY pull, and the dyno guy stopped laughing. I do understand that for turbo apps the wideband O2 is a better idea. Can't remember exactly why. I think its because they run a little richer for a little extra ping resistance and the regular O2 doesn't read well there, but for an NA that should be running somewhere in the high 12's to 13:1 range I think the standard O2 is sufficient. Jon

The way I've seen it done is with a piece of 1" x 3" by 1/4" bar stock. The end of the bar is cut off and the bar stock is welded right to the cut end of the bar so that it is vertical. Terry Oxendale did his by welding a piece of angle iron right to the end of the cut, but that didn't leave any room for adjustment. http://www.fototime.com/ftweb/bin/ft.dll/detailfs?userid={7DC317B0-8EDB-4B2E-A837-F708D07C9769}&ndx=33&slideshow=0&AlbumId={17E71651-3EF8-4704-9954-22956DF10FCB}&GroupId={3B8751D4-D564-4405-8017-F14E1CDA9AF0}&screenheight=768 I've known of several bars modded the way I described, and no one has had a failure (yet). The end of the bar takes a pretty straight vertical load, it's the center section of the bar that does the twisting.

How come there is not enough room? You can make it as short as a male and female rod end screwed together and held with a jam nut. Of course if you do it this way you have to disconnect them at the bar or the control arm to adjust, but that's not too horrible, just get someone else to adjust while you sit in the car up on blocks or ramps. You only need to adjust out preload once. The harder part is cutting the end of the bar off and welding a new end on with different holes for adjusting, and welding a piece of angle iron to the control arm, but I'm thinking you can handle that part in your sleep. Jon

Well I wish I had that grease on the valve trick when I was doing this. I just installed the inner valve spring only, and I was using one of those crappy auto parts store compressors. You could have saved me a bunch of time. Water under the bridge now...

Yeah, that's what I did. I got a graduated cylinder from an arts and crafts store, did the plexiglas thing but use Lexan or Lucite - easier to drill. I had to drill a bunch of tiny little air holes to get the air out, and I used a pin drill for that, and I smeared a very very thin surface of grease around the edge of the chamber to seal the lucite to the head. I also found that there was a 4 cc difference -- that's not a misprint 4 cc difference between my old valves which were cut till they had no margin at all and my new valves which had a mostly flat head (originals had a dished head). A lot of that had to do with REALLY BAD machine work from a previous build, but still it surprised me that there was such a huge difference just by changing the valves. Jon

Rob your head is definitely early E88. The mods look almost exactly like what I did to my E31, except I have the bigger 280 valves. It appears to me that on your head the valves are unshrouded too, so the headgasket may not seal on an L24 block. It's kind of hard to tell though, just by the pics. Best thing to do is to lay your new headgasket down on the head and see if the fire ring is exposed inside the chamber. The one thing that I think was missed by whoever worked on that head is the threads on the spark plug hole. When the heads are machined they tap the hole and don't stop once they get past the "used area of threads. So you have that triangular patch of threads leading into the chamber that are exposed and have sharp edges. The rest of the chamber's sharp edges are all taken care of. Not sure if that will matter to you or not, but that is a potential source of pinging when you bolt it onto a 280 block, especially with flat tops. If you are going to put that on an L28 I'm sure that the unshrouding won't matter. EDIT--just looked again, you can see in the pics where the headgasket sat. If that is really the inner edge of the fire ring on the headgasket, then it looks like you could take some more metal out of there, lower the compression a bit, and get a little more flow.

Rob I responded to your post about your head. It is an early E88.

Looking for one of these from a 200SXT. Anyone have one laying around? Willing to spend $200. I have an LSD carrier, looking to swap over. Ring gear bolt size is not an issue.

The head shims were available last time I checked. I think my machinist was going to order some through Isky or Comp Cams or Erson; one of the major cam manufacturers (pretty sure it was Isky) but as it turned out I didn't need them. They were something along the lines of $15 a set, and I think you could get them in .015 or .030 thicknesses. You just stack them when you need more than .030. I've also heard of people getting shim stock and cutting the pattern off of the bottom of the cam towers, but for the money I'd just buy them. It's been a few years, but that is what I seem to remember. Why are you wanting to run this E31? If you aren't racing, and there is nothing wrong with the E88, keep it. If you need to do work on the E88, then you could make a case for swapping. IMO it's just going to give you octane headaches on an L28 unless you go with dished pistons, but you'd be better off going with flat top pistons in an L28 with the E88 head. If you're keeping the L24 for the time being, you might notice the difference, but there are so many other things you can do to make an L24 better (cam, exhaust, electronic ignition, MSD, etc) that will have a much better ROI than swapping an E88 for an E31, ESPECIALLY if it is the early E88, which it should be if that is the original head. Plus you'd have to notch the block or the valves would hit, etc. It would be a hassle. Too much hassle if you're not really trying to squeeze every last drop out of your engine. You might want to give this a look too before you start spending $$$. I can't vouch for the accuracy of everything on the page, but I think he nailed my compression ratio; where other sources were saying 10.2:1, he shows 10.8:1. http://geocities.com/zgarage2001/heads.html Jon

Thanks for the compliment on the video.:classic: I'm sure that the lube you got will work fine for the diff (a bit on the thick side though). Get the Swepco for the tranny, though. Take my word on that one. The difference is amazing on the Porsche synchro'd transmissions. Or run what you've got, then swap for Swepco and see the difference (expensive experiment but worthwhile). I definitely envy your ratios regardless. That would be a very cool transmission to have on a big track. Jon

The synchros in the Comp transmissions are Porsche synchros which are the same as the synchros in the "915" box from 911's. I would use what they use. Overwhelmingly people who race 911's with the steel synchros use SWEPCO 201, which is an 80W-90 weight gear lube designed for heavy tractors and machinery. I gave a buddy a close ratio comp box with the .8 overdrive, and he tried a couple different lubes in it, and was about to take it out when I gave him some SWEPCO. He is a believer now. It works well in clutch style LSD diffs too, and in brass synchro transmissions as well, especially when mixed 50/50 with ATF. It is a GL5 rated lube. Swepco used to have a website but I have been unable to find it recently, but you should be able to find a bunch of suppliers online. If not pick up a European Car magazine and look for a vendor who sells Porsche parts. They will have it. It is expensive but definitely worth the $$$. Jon

I got mine thru the junkyard network, had it shipped from the east coast to the west coast and ended up paying $325. I was told to ask for 87-89 300ZX Turbo 5-speed. Since then I've heard lots of people talk about this, no one else has ever made the manual or automatic distinction. I can say that a manal will be an LSD, just not sure about the auto. Jon

I've seen some BSP cars that would TEAR ME A NEW ONE!!! Vic Sias comes to mind, but I think he's sold his old car. That pic is definitely me. If you've got any others, Steve, I'd appreciate an email with some attachments. Steve's been for a ride with me at the autox before, but I think I was a little out of control that day, Steve, so be nice...:cheeky: It was fun but not fast that day... Jon

It looks to me like your E31 has been shaved at some point. Not too much room between the "E31" casting number and the bottom of the head. I know, it's not the most scientific way to tell but it has worked for me in the past. If it has been shaved, your compression will be higher than you expect. IMO putting the bigger valves in is a must, if not you might as well go with a shaved P90 or just an N42, since they already have the bigger valves and compression you're after. I expected my car to run on pump gas with a stock bore L28 with flat tops and E31 mildly cut, about the same as yours from the looks of it, with unshrouded valves (read bigger chambers) and it doesn't. I need about 95 octane. According to the engine calc I was supposed to come out at 10.2:1 compression. I think I have something more like 11:1. My chambers are polished, there are no sharp edges and I still can't run pump gas, even with the timing backed WAY off. I can't prove my compression ratio, but everyone else's stories makes me think my compression is high. A BIG cam would help on the compression and octane too. More overlap allows more compression with less octane, but you'll lose some low end. On the other hand, mine hauls butt, and it's not a daily driver anymore. So this was a good way to go for me, but certainly wouldn't be a good thing for everyone. Jon

Alfadog, I'd like to see your picture. I lost EVERYTHING with regards to the buildup. Had to format the harddrive and thought I had all my old pics backed up. Jon

A brief rundown: GC coilovers and "roadrace" camber plates 200 in/lb springs front, 250 rear Tokico Illuminas MSA swaybars Heims jointed TC rods Heims jointed front control arms Slotted front crossmember for bumpsteer G Machine bushings in rear Everything else poly Homemade strut tower bars front and rear 300ZX R200 LSD ZX 5 speed L28/E31 (dished pistons at that time, about 8.5:1 compression :disappoin) now with flat tops :devious: 490/280 cam Triple 44 Mikunis w/ITG Cannon manifold 2 1/2 exhaust ZX elec ign MSD Yokohama A005 slicks 250/45/15 or thereabouts the metric is 250/590/15 Custom 8" circle track steel wheels (heavy wheels)

Thanks! It's my first attempt at editing video. Took me a while to figure it out, but every time I made progress I wanted to do more. Jon

What do you think? This video was taken 4 years ago when I had just installed my Mikunis. My brother in law and my wife and I all drove the Z that day. I was at the end of a run group and didn't get a chance to drop my rear tire pressure between runs. Having the rears about 3 psi too high made for a fun ride! There are 2 autox runs, the first one shown from inside the car and outside. The run with my bro in law was made right after he had driven his last run. The video with music has some swearing in it, so if you've got kids get the other one and listen to the Mikunis singing all by themselves. Here's the URL: http://hybridz.jimzdat.com/zpics.htm Here are direct links to the vids: http://hybridz.jimzdat.com/pics/jmortensenwithmusic.wmv http://hybridz.jimzdat.com/pics/jmortensenautocross.wmv I don't usually spend a lot of time on this board, but I thought these might get someone's blood pumping (works for me!), so here they are: Enjoy!!! Jon