You bet!! Cant wait to get started. I think I'm going to hit Advance Auto to rent their press to do the studs right and hopefully make it a little easier too. I could use the BFH method along with nuts and washer to sink them in, but i figure the press is the way to go. With luck I'll be able to have this part of the project complete this evening, bled and be able to go for a cruise later.

 

I snapped a few pix of the progress of the spacers and brake install...

Here is a pic of the stud difference for the spacers. I rented the press to do these with and soon after discovered what a pain in the a$$ it was using the dang thing. My friend Gary offered up his impact gun and other air tools and made short work of this aspect of the install


Here is the grimmy old 240sx brake master cylinder that I'm replacing with...


This shiney new 300zx MC...I pressed in the darker flare fitting you see in the center from the old MC...


I know this is a big jump so the build doesnt flow that well but I didnt take the shots I should have, sorry. Here is the finished product of the spacers and brakes installed.


Those are stainless lines you see in the photo. The Rotors themselves were very rusty when I got them...I cleaned them up the best I could with a pad sander (because you cant turn crossed drilled rotors). I'll shot some shots of the rotors are they break in again.

Here is the finished install...



Not too terrible.

And for all you flushness freaks...hey are pretty close. Oddly enough I rub over bumps only in the rear. Might need a little roll just to save some tread. I'll see how obnoxious is gets.



another step done...

-Royce

 

Driving impressions...

Night and Day. Its almost like I didnt have brakes before. Although I'm just bedding the brakes in right now they feel amazing. The pedal is firm which I like. Depending on how it feels on a long trip I may opt to get a different booster to help lessen the firm feel of the pedal, but for right now I really enjoy the incredible stopping power these brakes have.

The car seems lower even though I didnt do anything but make the tires sit a tiny bit wider. Supposedly that lowers the center of gavity. I do know you can "feel" that affect. Who knew??

All did not go smoothly though...As I arrived @ work today my brake light in my guage cluster had come on...indicating low brake fluid levels. Sure enough I checked it out and I'm @ the minimum. And it looks like I have a leak where the MC meets the Booster. I've read up a little bit on this and I could have a bad seal in the MC. I'll have to check this out later an report back to you on that. I have just started the trouble shoot the issue...(sigh)

-Royce

 

looks good man, you did a great job of building this so far. Not too many well done 240's out there these days in my opinion. Keep up the good work.

 

Thanks for the kudos S&R!!

 

After installing the z32 Master Cylinder it seemed to have a bad seal. Looking @ it from all angles it appeared to be leaking from the mounting point of the brake booster, but upon further inspection and the suggestion of my favorite co-pilot (thanks hun!!) it turned out that the flare fitting that I needed to install to work in the s13 wasnt pressed in completely. This caused brake fluid to leak down the MC to the base of the brake booster.

Once I discovered this I removed the connection for the brake line...tapped the flare in snug with a small hammer and 1/4" drill bit then fashion a connector and small flared piece of brakeline to seat the fitting into the MC using a socket wrench, Like I should have in the first place.

Since then, no leak at all. Piece of mind restored.

 

very nice.
that's one of the things I miss about 240's... there are all kinds of upgrades that you can do for pretty cheap using parts from other cars.
Don't really have that with z's.

 

They [Z-cars] are built to perform at higher levels right out of the box though...I guess that is the trade off. Did you sort out your pump issue Empire?

 

yeah, not 100% on the cause, but I have found that lots of cars do exactly what mine has started doing with the whole kicking up to high even thought it isn't really needed.
To me, it seems like the pump starts to die off so it doesn't flow as much as it should at the lower voltage levels, so the fuel controller kicks it up to high to compensate for it. When it does that, it doesn't regulate the voltage so the pump can draw whatever it can/needs to, through the circuit allowing it to maintain the higher flow levels that are needed.
From what I've been able to research, this could quite possibly be the source of a lot of people's "hard to drive in traffic" complaints. A lot of people will bitch that the car just doesn't have enough low end torque to make it an easy drive. The thing doesn't really wake up until you get over 3.5K rpms and at that point, you're out accelerating traffic. Most people just write it off as the car weighing a lot. (3,600 plus pounds) But in its original function, the fuel pump wouldn't kick over to high until about 3.5k rpms anyway. So if the pump just wasn't flowing enough, that would limit the response and power in the lower RPMs. Combine that with everything else that wears out over 20 years and that's more than likely the reason why.
I had a friend who's turbo car made that same noise and he was making 385 to the wheels on his pretty much stock everything motor. With no limit on the voltage the pump could draw, it was able to keep up. He could have made the same power, but probably got a little bit better response and maybe better MPG if the pump was swapped out for a fresh one.

I'm fairly certain that we are going to be ordering parts tonight.
So when I get things in, I'll be doing little write ups about each one. Hopefully it will be able to expose some of the little truths in all of this speculation

I appreciate you asking man.

How's your's treating you?

 

The car's running fairly well. Thanks for asking sir!

Here is a picture update.

{Galaxy P you are the man. Thanks for an excellent deal.}

The pix are of a good running 1995 KA...with the complete harness and ecu. Its out of an auto. This is the motor I will do the inital testing of my supercharger set up on.

My current engine is a little tired and will be replace with the new motor once the adapter plate and fuel system have been updated and tuned. I will document the progress as much as I can. I hope to get in touch with Martin (everyone I talk to is saying he is the man to do it) and see if he would work his tuning magic when the time comes.

Once the current engine is pulled my intentions is to pull it apart and have it rebuilt as a truly bullet-proof (relative to my driving style anyway) set up and use the one pictured as a mule to get things off the ground.








Currently, I'm pulling the intake and have submitted info to my CNC guru Jeff regarding the adapter plate. More to come soon...

-Royce