2ManyZs

Car looks good now, and you want to tear into it?? Man, I wish I hadn't torn mine down, cause now I can't drive it!! I say, drive that sweet car, and just "tinker" with it now and then!! Don't know how it would go but since the roof is only a sheet of steel a good welder should be able to put a patch panel in its place. Sorry, bpilati, Mike is keeping all the stars. He won't even pass out a real gold star to any of his gold star members!! Just kidding, Mike.

I had one of the twice pipes kits with a header on my first Z. Truthfully, I hated it. It was too loud with the glasspacks in the kit after they burned out. The only thing wrong with running two pipes is the lack of space for the pipes when clearing the rear suspension and the lack of room for two mufflers. It's your choice, but personally I think you would end up spending more money that was necessary to fit true duals. Does your header have the two into one collector that slips on to connect to the exhaust? If it does you might want to consider a 2 1/2 inch single pipe with a good quality muffler. It will probably end up being less restrictive in the long run, since if you run two pipes you will probably need to keep the size down to 1 3/4 or so to make it fit. You might even be able to fit a larger single under there such as 2 3/4 or 3 inch. I haven't tried one yet but it should fit unless you have your car lowered quite a bit. The only places you might run into trouble is where the pipe turns out of the tunnel under the diff. mount and around the suspension. Just my thoughts if you want to consider an alternative.

MSA doesn't sell it in a kit form, you have to order it piece by piece. Of course with the right salesperson you could probably tell them what you need and they could do it for you instead of rattling off about 40 part numbers.

Is the sealer/primer you have sandable? It should be, so just lay on a good coat of primer and let it dry thoroughly, then scuff it up with 220 or possibly a little finer. You don't want the bondo on bare metal, but you should sand the primer to give it a good "bite" to the primer. I wouldn't wet sand it though, you don't want any moisture at all under the bondo, or it will crack and all sorts of ugly stuff. I have seen metal with surface rust under the bondo because the bondo was put on bare metal. Make sure you use the metal prep and a tack cloth after you do anything. That is one thing you can't do enough of, clean, clean, clean. I don't know how I'll ever get my shop clean enough to spray the underside of mine. And it doesn't take much to make a good job look not so good. BTW, take your time, do it right! I always got in a hurry and it showed! You still have time between now and June, if you get in a bind bring it by here and I'll give you a hand. Sorry, just trying to brighten your day!

Well, as far as the 280 kit being better than the 240, I don't know. I can't think of too much that would be different except for the rear hatch seals. I think the early cars like ours had the "seals of many pieces" and then later in the 240 line they went to a one piece hatch surround. I had never heard of the 280 being used because it was better. But then again, I haven't gotten my car to that point yet so will cross that bridge when I get there. There are other kits out there for about 225. I think Z Therapy has them and so does strictly Z. However, they are not exact duplicates of the originals. Something about the welting is different. So yes you can save a pile of money but if you want the original look you are stuck. Like I told you in a PM, I've got a list made up for the weatherstripping and rubber pieces that are available for MSA. Let me know if you want the bottom line. :eek:

MSA has a carpet dash cover, ABS dash cover, lock sets, consoles possibly everything you need. Take a look at www.zcarparts.com and get their catalog.

Jennifer's looks fine, this one doesn't. No character!! Front is the same, no lines to break up the monotony of the un-ending curves. Side view looks better. Of course that's just my opinion.

Royce, I took the information out of an old copy of the Z-Car magazine (Winter 96 issue). It was written by Steve Christianson of SMC Prducts ( formerly with Nissan Motorsports). It was a discussion of the factory limited slip units. In his chart he gives the ratios and which rear came in which vehicles. Of course we already know no early z's came with LSD's but they are listed in the chart with all the rest. The SX cars all had R-200's but it doesn't say specifically if they are LSD's or not. It does give the ratio's as follows. R-200 3.90 280ZX Non-turbo 80-83 200sx Turbo 84, 200sx V6 R-200 4.11 200sx Turbo 85-86 The non turbo 200sx 84-88 had an R-180 4.11 as well as the 720 4x4 truck 6/83-12/85 (front diff) The 720 4x4 6/79-12/82 had an R-180 4.375 and the 720 4x4 Longbed 6/79-6/80 had the 4.625 ratio. I doubt all these came with LSD's from the factory, I believe what he was trying to do was give the rear-end ratios and which cars they came in. I screwed up by saying they came with LSD's. What I should have said was LSD's are available for them, since I re-read the whole article it does state that Nissan didn't put an LSD in a passenger car until 87. I apologize for my stupidity and lack of proof reading my post, at 3 am I probably am better off by keeping my big keyboard shut! However I will say this, if this helps. If you can find the rear with the right ratio that you want, the price for assembling a LSD (or Quaiffe) is cut almost in half, by not having to buy the ring and pinion. The ring and pinion sets are almost as expensive and are getting harder to find in ratio's lower than 4.11.

Darn, never thought of that 240z. Maybe I should order a great big box!!

There are far too many old car enthusiasts of all makes to let this ever happen. They have been trying for years, there is too much money being made in the old car market, parts sales, reproduction parts, restoration shops etc. The government would lose far more money in tax revenue than they could ever hope to save.The oil companies started this crap over pollution so they could keep on pumping out their sludge, by laying the blame on old cars. They can have my old cars when they pry my cold dead hands off the gun I'm protecting them with!

Just to give you an idea, when they had them, MSA priced them at $156 EACH. Front clear turn signal lenses are about 35 to 40 dollars each, plus the price of an amber bulb. Just wanted to let you know so you don't faint when you here the price.

MSA has them in most colors, old catalog says $6.50 bag of ten. Most Z parts suppliers have them, they are not hard to find(wish some other things weren't).

I believe the 200sx 83-88 had a 4:11 LSD R-180. If you want a 3.90 I think if you can find a 83(early) 4x4 pickup they had a LSD R-180 in the front. I believe the later 200sx all came with the R-200. I can't seem to find the lists I had except for the LSD rears. The 810 sedan had a 3.70 R-180 in it if you could ever find one.

By the way, try some of the places in the web-links here. I believe there are a couple that deal in used parts, Arizona Z car comes to mind, as does zparts.com. Hope it helps.

Personally I would stick with what you have. Why not try a set of the quick steering knuckles? They don't "lighten" the steering but they sure do make it responsive! I have used 225's and 205's on a couple of cars, there isn't much difference in "tramming" or such as long as the front end is aligned correctly, and all the parts are good. Perhaps when you wear out the 205's try a set of 225's in a one profile lower than what you have now. You will have a little more tread width but lower sidewalls for less flex. In terms of the best handling you want the lower sidewalls for less sidewall deflection. Horsepower isn't really a concern, But by lowering the sidewall height you effectively lower the overall gearing and will actually increase your performance. BTW, I never was a fan of green on a Z-car, but darned if that color doesn't look great. Course it helps that it's on a cherry car too! Ps. by going from 205/70's to 195/60's you are probably at the very same tread width you had before, just a little less sidewall height.

I think you may be SOL on that panel, I'm not be a smart a-- but I believe that has been NLA for quite a few years. I know I tried to get one from MSA about 6 or 7 years ago and it wasn't available then. You might as well start combing the parts cars for a decent replacement. There is one place in the links section in the UK that has some body parts ( namely the rad. core support) that we can't seem to get here, it's just a thought. Unless someone else has a hidden source somewhere I think you are stuck with used.

I guess it should be said that if you are going have problems pulling the plugs on the exhaust manifold you will probably end up pulling the carbs and intake to get to those stubborn plugs. As long as you go that far it probably be better to go ahead and get a header without the smog fittings. If you take it apart that far why not get rid of a bunch of "dead weight". Between pulling the air pump and stock exhaust manifold you will probably get rid of about 10 pounds or so, maybe a bit more. There are headers that you can use to connect to the stock exhaust if you choose to leave that as it is for now.

I looked up the timing chain kit in Motorsports old catalog, before you get one check to see what their price is now, the old catalog said 97.00 and change for the gears chain and tensioner with gaskets. Quite a bit less than Courtesy's price. Shop around a little, you may find a big difference in prices.

The only reason I can think of that the bolt is so long is that it probably passes thru the water passage inside the block. Would it be difficult to remove, darn right, if it broke of that deep it will be. Should you remove it? It's possible at some time it will deteriorate to the point it could pose a problem. As far as drilling and tapping the outer section I suppose you could just to make sure you are applying some pressure to the pump. I think I would just use some good sealant for now, if it gives you problems then try something else. Somewhere in the future you may need to do some block work so then you might be able to have a machine shop drill out the broken bolt. I don't think I would try this myself, no sense in doing it without the right tools. And no the block is cast iron, so it wouldn't be as easy to mess up as an aluminum block, so for now I think I would leave it as it is. Just my suggestion.

About the only place I can think of for a rebuild kit would be Courtesy Nissan or try your local Nissan dealer. I don't think any of the aftermarket parts suppliers have kits, individual parts maybe, but most times they sell rebuilt transmissions. Although I think most have discontinued that. Or you could try your local or closest Z car club. Someone there may know of a place, or someone here may know.

Let's see, I believe the center bearing section is steel. Any time steel and aluminum are in contact the aluminum will corrode. I have seen wheels on tractor trailers become almost welded together because they had an aluminum wheel against a steel wheel. But that doesn't explain why the bellhousing would be so hard to separate does it, hmm, perhaps they used JB Weld as a gasket sealant?? I have gone through 3 or 4 stiff putty knives, but they always have done the trick, but it is hard on the knuckles if you have bad aim!!

I don't know what your laws are concerning removing smog equipment on older model cars, but if you can do it by all means start taking it off. That is usually one of the first things that gets done to a Z, just take it off and take out the nipples for the hoses and get an assortment of NPT pipe plugs and plug them up. Not only will this gain you an easy 5hp or maybe a slight bit more, it will make your car a whole lot easier to tune correctly. There should be more than one thread under engine systems that will tell you anything you need to know about de-smogging your Z. Have fun!

I do hope his will come apart a little easier. I know they can be stubborn but I don't think I've seen one that stubborn!!:eek:

I saw a 2000 roadster on ebay last week under Datsun other models, somebody was trying to stuff an LS1 with a six speed in it. He was doing a really nasty hack job on the car trying to make it fit. That would fit in a Z-car quite easily if ya'll are interested. It might be worth the price of the roadster to get the running gear.

Actually, I think I'm just going to get Z Therapy's carbs and maybe a polished intake for my 71, that way I know they are done right. Besides, I have a couple sets here I can trade in or practice on later. After looking at the pics of Marty Rogan's car I doubt if my work would look as good as theirs.:mad: