im lazy and cant find a pic of a car with metallic white with a black pearl.... find it for me lol

ready GO!!!

 

Well got my timing chain kit today. MSA rushed that to me. Called them up Friday to tell them it was missing and they shipped it out on Friday. Also got my flywheel. Just waiting on my headgasket. Oh I went ahead and ordered a rear oil seal for good measure as well. Maybe this coming weekend. Things will get rolling.

By the way if anyone is looking for a timing kit. I never thought to check Rockauto.com but they have a listing for a Beck/Arnley timing kit and it was $10-$15 less than the MSA kit.

 

got ARP head studs? you can add them later, but you shouldnt re-use stock head bolts, so if you haven't gotten any replacements yet i'd suggest ordering the ARP's and just waiting for them. ARP's you can re-use but only if you don't over torque them like many people do and only a couple times. they are strong but they still stretch. since i didnt know the condition of my ARP head studs when i re-used them i over torqued them by 6 ft/lbs than what they suggest so if they ever come out again, they will be gone for ever.

 

Yeah, I got ARP head studs a while ago. I just haven't installed them yet. I haven't begun to take the motor apart yet. I was waiting til I have everything together so I can basically do the head, timing chain, etc all at once.

That's what I've been meaning to ask. What torque do you use for the studs? Do you use the factory head bolt torque from the Haynes/FSM, or should you use the recommended torque specs that they have listed on the ARP box?

As far as installing the studs themselves I was reading on the site that you're supposed to install the studs finger tight and leave them. They say to not snug them or anything. I kinda ruined the threads a bit on my P90A for the manifold. I put all the studs in there and tightened them in a good bit. I didn't know that studs were supposed to be installed finger tight then only slightly snugged should you desire.

 

Yep... install the studs finger tight AFTER you have cleaned and chased the block threads like 5 times. You torque them to what the instructions say & not to factory specs.

 

BIG BIG SECOND ^^^^^ they should say in the instructions. for the DSM factory is like 70 ft/lbs and ARP is like 85 mine are at 90. lol. over kill....

 

just remember if you over torque them the first time, dont re-use it, throw it out and replace it with a new one. just to go that extra mile in security.

 

i said that like 3 posts up hoov. torque em to spec re-use them over torque em, toss em out if ever removed again. this only goes for ARP anything else is one time use.

 

Ok parts ordering continues. Last night I ordered a full energy suspension bushing set. I still don't really know what the difference between polyurethane and urethane is. I was about to order the full urethane bushing kit from MSA. The bushings on my S30 are gone. Anyway then I checked ebay and found summit had the full energy kit in red for about $40 less than the MSA urethane kit. So I opted to go for that. Not to mention summit's shipping is usually cheaper.

Now I'm trying to decide suspension. I'm pretty sure I want to go with the Tokico Illuminas and the Springs as you can buy it as a set. I wanted to go with the Illuminas and Eibach Pro springs, but that's going to end up being about $60 more. I don't really know if one is better than the other. Then I was also thinking about the Tokico HP struts/shocks as those are a good bit cheaper and supposedly still pretty good. What do you guys think? Illuminas or HPs? Tokico Springs or Eibach?

 

tokico struts are great, but im not a fan of their springs, or any springs offered for the Z for that fact because i don't think they offer a stiff enough spring rate. that's why i like coilovers because you can choose what spring rate you want, and you can swap them out later if you want. but unless they are weld-on coilovers the cost is outrageous

 

I ended up going with the Tokico Illumina/Spring set. It was just about $609 with shipping included. Pretty much the same price I was able to find on ebay. MSA obviously more expensive. The difference between that and the HPs weren't much, and I like the adjustable strut/shocks so I figured it's good. I can see what you're saying about the springs not being stiff enough for our Zs, but at the same time it should be plenty good with new bushings and definitely give good smooth handling.

 

Just cut those springs and keep your old worn out struts... call it good

 

just for the mod's and admin's on this site.

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=20090503

http://www.xtranormal.com/watch?e=200905051

 

Does anyone know how the speed sensor operates in the 280ZX or Z31? This is something I've been trying to figure out so I can possibly hook something up so I can have the Z31 MAF burnoff mode run when I shut the car off.

As far as I can tell it works pretty similarly to the cog in the tranny. Only that as the teeth spin faster along or across a magnet it takes this and translates it into resistance or voltage to send back to the ECU so it knows how fast the car is going. So if I knew what range it operated on I may be able to just tap into another source and that would in a way simulate the speed sensor for the car. It wouldn't be correct, but would at least allow the car to then run the burnoff cycle. Either that or maybe I can someway hook it up into the S30? I did like the speed sensor as Nistune would log that so you could then see how fast you were going. It also had a feature so you could do 0-60 runs.

 

280zx is mechanical/cable driven z31 is mechanical, but electric driven.

 

Maybe I'll be getting to learn how to weld... I was cleaning up and removing that insulation crap from the driver's floor board. Well what do you know, right around where the seat brackets mount to the floor board are rusting away. I was able to punch a good portion of it out with little effort. Passenger side is solid, which is odd considering it's the side that looked worse. The rest of the pan is pretty much good, just this one area. Maybe we can just cut it out and weld in some new metal for that section...

 

Wha-bam! This L28ET magically appeared in my 280Z today...

 

yawn... lets see it run

 

That was fast. Mine is going to be a while. At this point the car is basically just turning into a giant project. Getting new floors, then the engine bay is going to be painted while the motor is out of the car so we have that done. I have the interior stripped out of the car, I'm using vinyl spray and plastic interior spray or whatever to make a black interior. The manifold and valve cover went off to be polished. Then once that's done and the motor goes in, I'll get it running then drive it over to the body shop to have the few dents fixed up, have the glass stripped, the paint stripped then have the rest of the car painted. At some point along the way either before or after paint I'm going to install my bushings along with my illuminas and springs.

 

^^^ Yowsa!

I'm just doing a budget build (basic swap) to sell.... too much time, so little desire.

 

My 280ZX is magically up on red jack stands just like yours, bro!

Someone really overtightened the brake caliper bolts on my 280ZX. Ouch! Had to go get the extra long breaker bar...

 

we should race some time......

 

lol, found this one for snw.

 

^^^ re-poast.

 

still funnier then hell.