zguitar71

If racing did not get my heart rate up enough then loadin' up the car and drivin' it home sure would.

If you go to larger valves with your set up (L24 block) you will have to "eyebrow" the sides of the cylinders or the valves will hit the cylinder walls and be destroted. An overbore might solve the problem but I do not know how much. If you change the cam you shuold, IMO, go to larger valves and port and polish the head. The cam will not perform to its potential if you do not rework the entire head. A cam will move the power higher in the RPMs, the small valves would counter act what the cam is trying to do. Bigger valves will allow more air to come in and go out. You will need to change the needels in your SU's too, (SM or custome grind) to take full advantage of the increased air intake and ability to make power at higher revs or go to triples. The stock needels do not flow enough in the higher rpms. Talk to Rebello or other reputable Zcar builder, they should be able to explain everything better than I can. Your compression will change if you overbore the block, shave the head, change head gasket thickness, put in different shaped pistons, ect... Those are all things you should get with an engine builder and talk about. I would not go beyond 10.5:1 CR for pump gas or use a cam larger than the MSA stage 3. Most of the builders like rebello or Sunbelt will use a custome grind and make the cam to suit your needs (best way to go). I was quoted $1800-$2400 from Rebello to have my E31 head completely reworked to my specs. That is a lot of money but absolutly no corners would be cut (a lot of man hours). You could get by fine with out doing all that but the power gains from a changed cam with out the other work will probably not be worth while. I think you should be able to get 190 maby 200 HP (crank) from a 2.4 and still be streetable. The BRE team got over 240HP from their's but of course it had a huge cam and would suck as a daily driver.

In order to run wider wheels the offset of the rims should be 0. Many of the 14x7 slotted mags have a -12 offset like mine so like Bambikiller240 said 195 are as wide as you can go without interference (a problem I have with mine). The American Racing wheels have a 0 offset in both the 7 and 8 inch widths (creating a 4 and 4.5 inch back space) so they would allow you to run a 225/50/15 with out the need for fender flares or coilovers. I would stay way from large negative offset wheel. (hope I do not sound like an American Racer salesperson, I just think it is great they have slotted mags in bigger sizes with the correct offset). If you find a set of wheels you are interested in, lay a flat peice of anything across (like a long ruler) the rim and measure from the rim edge (bottem edge of the flat object) to the area the that touches the hub when the wheel is mounted (back side of the wheel). if the wheel has a 0 offset and is 6 inches wide the back space will be 3.5" if 7" wide the B.S. will be 4" and if 8" wide the B.S. would be 4.5". Make sure the bolt pattern is right too, mesure from the center of one hole to the next, if it is 4.5" from hole to hole and there is four holes then the wheel should fit.

Back when Zcars were young people used 13" wheels to obtain lower gearing. This is before low geared R 180 and 200 differentials were cheap and could be found in any local junk yard. The difference between those wheels and the ones Brandy is looking at is the offset and width. They had 10" or wider wheels with large negative offsets. The car could sit right on the ground with the small diameter wheels and still have a decent amount of suspension travel. The wheels she is looking into were probably used on a 510 or something like that.

http://www.americanracing.com/wheels/details.asp?wheelid=170&name=Ansen®%20Sprint&style=A69&desc=1-piece%20painted%20/%20machined%20alloy&section=N American Racing is reintroducing the sloted mag wheel. The sizes are 15" & 17" in 7" & 8" widths. The 15x7's would be a great choice for your car. The 15" size gives you much better choices for tires than the 14" and especially 13". I currently have 14"x7" slotted mags with a -12 offset so any tire wider than a 205 goes past my fenders (the 205's are almost too far) so I am thinking about the Am. R. mags for my ~71. With the stock valance on your car the 15x7 with 205/60's would look geat IMO. The 13x5.5 should fit fine but I think they would look small and you are limited to skinny tires because of the narrow rim size. The price of new wheels is probably more than used but the better size is worth it (unfortunatly they do not have pricing on there web site).

If you do change to an R200 you might need to find the curved aft suspension cross member that the lower suspension arms bolt to. The production date of your Z falls right around the time they changed to that type of cross member in order to shift the diff back for better geometry. I had to do this on my car (1-`71). I believe it was part of the difference between the series II and III 240's. The z barn sells a kit to change over to an R-200 for zcars produced before and after the the change. I really liked the setup you are looking into but nothings better than a 5 speed. If your gonna change all the bushings and stuff you have done 1/2 the work towards changing over. Changing to an R-200 is not hard, the 5 speed swap is the time consumer (especially if you have a series I or II). The only reason I changed to an R200 was for the lower cost of the LSD units. I rather use an R 180 from a 4x4 truck (4:38 gearing, the same I have now in the R200). The 240 is not set up for the wider body of the R200. Read this article http://www.betamotorsports.com/benchracing/index.html, it explaines what I am talking about very well. If you never race your car then the R200 is just fine though. Hope I didn't give you too much to think about.

I ran a 3:5454 in my 71 with a 4 speed for a long time and loved the ratio around town but on the highway it was a little high revved. The 3:5454 with the 4 speed is a 12.76 overall ratio, nearly equil to the 12.57 overall ratio of the 81-83 5 speed with a 4:11. If your not driving the free ways all the time it is a great ratio to have.

I have a love hate relationship with mine. They look very good on the car and I like them in the brite sun but at night I cannot see at all. I removed a large tinted area on the top of the windshield. It was very easy, just used a razor blade and scraped, then used a light solvent to remove some of the glue residue. I will be removing my tint this spring when I get my car out of winter storage (the only draw back to living in Montana, deicer desolves Z cars). Then I will not have to be fearful of hiting a pedestrain crossing the street when I make left turns late at night. I have been driving with the windows down but in spring and fall the temp drop pretty fast around here so I would keep the heat cranked.

I bet his z weighs more than 1900 LBS. There is no way he saved 400bls with those parts. He is only out to rip off the "bling bling" kids that do not know any better. I have seen the front strut brace he is using before. Does anyone know if it is strong enough for repeated autoxing or would the bolted areas on either side of the main cross bar begin loose there shape from flexing and loosen after a while?

The `87 300 turbo has a 3.7 R200 LSD in it. They are old now so you will probably hve to rebuild it. By the time you buy and rebuild it you could buy a new LSD from Precision Gear. Their's go for around $650. There is no way to get a good properly working LSD from the junk yard anymore. Well I guess there is a chance but it is very slim. The skyline LSD's go for $650 or more. I paid $650 an R200 from a late model skyline, it has a 4.38 ratio which is pretty low for street driving. The 300 turbos go for around the same price (in good condition) but the ratio is better for the street. If you buy a new one you have the choice of any of the R200 ratios you want. If I was in the market for a lsd again I would not mess with anything but a new one.

I am not an engineer either but I will give my 2 cents anyway. The large spacers seem as though they could be dangerous. The ones that bolt onto the hub and then the wheel is bolted to the spacer seem like an accident waiting to happen. They appear to be a weak link. Even if they are properly torqued down the wheel is not attached to the hub. on cars with good suspensions and sticky tires there is a lot of tourque put on the spacer. I personnaly would not trust them. I would never race on them. The small spacers (1/4 inch or so) do not bother me but I have seen spacers as thick as 2 inches. If the hub was meant to have a configuration like that it would have been engineered that way. I would not run any wheel that was not the right offset.

Thanks tom, I still drive my car on the street and do not have a tow vehicle or trailer so I have to be able to get the wheels and tires into my car to go to the races. I can barley fit the cantilevers now, I don't think I could fit the larger wheels and tires in there. Eventually (years from now) I will get a truck and trialer and a dedicated race car, at that point I will definatly go to 16x10's and stiffer springs and shocks and all the other chasis reinforcements. A couple of years ago I stumbled into your web site. I think it is great you put all the info about your car on the site. I know other people that try and keep everything a secret. Those are usually the people that do not drive well anyway. Congratulations on your nationals finish, looks like your suspension changes are working out for you, plus your obviously a good driver.

I have been autoxing in FP with 23x9x15 goodyear cantilevers on 15x7's for the last year. I have heavy steel wheels and would like to change to a lighter wheel. Would I be better off going to a 15x8 or should I stay with the 15x7 size? Thanks

Thanks for the information Marty.

It is nice to see more companies making wheels that fit the Z and look "old school" without costing a fortune. I like the Silverstone wheel in the 15x8 size. A set of 225/50's would be perfect for them. I have a set of slotted mags in (U.S. Indy) but I would like a change in style, I have always prefered the panasport style but not the price (assuming they are less pricey, I did not see any prices).

Where are you getting the Illumina's for $365? I have not found them under $425.

They look like Centerline "Convo Pro" wheels. Go to there website and look at the pictures.

Try Diamond racing wheels or Circle racing wheels. They can make any back space and bolt pattern you need for aroung $65. I have a set of 15x7 with a 2.5" back space. $50 + shipping. The only problem could be the back space, they will stick out past the fender so you would need fender flares to use them.