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It was a good idea not to wait on rebuilding the 3.54 diff. The new LSD arrived weeks after I expected it and there's no shot I would have been able to swap it into the spare R200 before my trip. I'm excited to get this together in the winter though!

Some of their stuff is good and some is hot garbage. Max the owner doesn't stand behind his product and has a tendency to try and blame "modifications" to your car as the reason. I have a lengthly (4 page) post on classic z car about my problems with his door assemblies. Resurrected Classics door problems I have their door weather strips and their fuel filler neck and the are excellent. My advice is no matter what you buy test fit as soon as it arrives and go from there. The doors were so bad that I ended up not using them. Max refuses to refund my money so I make sure to take the time to tell people about my experience. Do not trust what he says as he says whatever he needs to to get out of doing the right thing. Caveat Emptor with this guy for sure.

The hairlines weren't that bad, it was the handful that were going through the edge of the rotor that I was worried about. Friday marked my first return to the track in almost 2 years. Knocked off a bunch of rust, the car worked the whole time, and I made a couple changes that were impactful and improved the car. I went pretty slow, so y'all could enjoy some v8 sounds for longer than normal

And finally the new cold air intake I 3d printed in nylon/cf

People's Choice at a small cars and coffee in town this weekend. Brakes feel really good. It's weird feeling how firm the pedal is compared to the originals now that it's all stainless hoses and the rear has been upgraded. Even the parking brake is better than I expected! Getting wheels balanced today - I know for a fact one had a couple weights knocked off, I can see where the adhesive was, and I'm still upset about how many weights they used to balance one corner. Someone wasn't doing their job right when they mounted the tires I think, because there's no way you need two long strips on opposite sides to get a wheel balanced.

Those hairline rotor cracks are common when running giant rotors. Even though you are getting very little rotor wear due to the size of the brakes, the heat cycling eventually forms the cracks. I've ran them on track probably about twice as bad as your pictures.

Heat wave going on here +27 in the shade, had to test how hot this can go on normal driving. that small 10" fan goes on 87celsius and it can keep it cool in the city, second large CFM fan goes 92celsius. oil coolant pump goes on 85celsius and highest i saw was 92celsius, 96celsius goes coolant fan

Yes I have both. And bleeding the clutch is as simple as opening the bleed screw, let a few drips out, and tighten. The thing that takes longest now is removing that giant shifter and the 3 shift rods. And adjusting shift throws when reinstalling. 3 bolts hold shifter and 2 rod ends per shift rod. I can't find a better way to speed it up. AND I cranked the car Saturday and the clutch is close but still not fully released. So another round is coming.

Found this on Grassroots Motorsport web page. Seems Legit Garage is adapting some interesting modern trannys to other platforms. Think $2k for a fully sequential used 8sp box, any HP needs you have. The ZF-8HP from BMWs, Dodge and others can be fully reprogrammed for sequential operation and even add a dbw pedal to simulate a clutch launch. Might be a good project for someone that could adapt this to an L6 easily....Derek? Transmission Solutions | "Seems Legit" Garage https://share.google/HyOxohcae82yQu0Th

The turbo lamik stuff is very trick, and it has a lot of potential. The weight is a downside, but it's low and centered. I have a buddy who just put one in his 2JZ swapped FC RX-7, and he didn't have to touch the tunnel. There are a couple guys on IG as well who have swapped these in with good success. I think compared to the T56's they are only slightly heavier, but much stronger and have nicer ratios.

Looking good. Seems like that's always some of the most rewarding parts of any resto....getting all those hard-to-access areas cleaned up, rust repaired, straightened/strengthened/reinforced, and freshly painted. 👍

All painted. Going to do another coat of semigloss for the engine bay, but frame/fenders are ready for suspension 😁 I’m hoping to start next weekend

I think the only downside, other than size, is the 180 pounds these weigh, from my research. DCGs are very heavy and have a deep oil pan that limits ground clearance. For a high HP car where the weight isn't a problem, I think that they could be a good solution. The MaxxECU is a nice bit of kit. I got to see one being put on a friend's car and it had tons of IO for the cost.

I am posting this to celebrate my triumph! After full assembly of engine and tranny I could not get the clutch to release. Quartermaster 7.25 v-drive attached to L6 flywheel from TTV Racing. Quatermaster 710 series TO bearing. Chevy clutch disks to mate with 4sp Jericho. QM Button clutches require precise gap from fingers to TO bearing of .120-.150 so I removed tranny multiple times and reset the gap with shims. Everytime I measured gap I got a different measurement. The clutch slipped a little with pedal in but required a breaker bar to rotate driveshaft. Remove tranny, reset gap, reinstall, bleed clutch, check release. After maybe 8 times I stopped and thought about it. Then read directions for the 10th time. Suddenly it stuck out, make sure clutch disk does not interfere with flywheel bolts. I've seen this before. Years ago I ran a similar set up with the head ground down on OEM flywheel bolts. This time I am using ARP flywheel bolts for a RB26. They are 12pt bolt heads already kind of thin, so I didnt consider they could interfere. Well I was wrong. So I ground maybe 0.020" off the head and reinstalled. In the pic you can see marks where the clutch rivet went across the bolts and 3 bolts I have already ground down. On the positive side, I am very efficient R&R the tranny now. Maybe 90min total. And it pops into the pilot bearing like a glove.

08-07-2025. DYNO morning. Found out a couple of things. 7 psi in 3rd gear WOT at 5500 RPM, 9 psi in 4th gear WOT 5500 RPM. She is RICH....rich to the point of fuel popping, 10.0 to 1, A/F rich, and didn't want to go past 5500 RPM (strange since on the road she will but nevermind). So, there is probably 40 horsepower left in her in the DYNO guys mind. We made 4 runs, and in 4th gear without using any Water/Methanol injection, it pulled 196.8 hp at the rear wheel, at 5500 RPM and at 18% drive train loss that is 232 hp at the crank@5500 RPM. Torque was 268.3 at the rear wheel, 316.59 at the crank@ 5500 RPM. Boost was 9 psi at 5500 when he had to let out because it was so rich. We did a run in 3rd gear WITH water/Methanol and it pulled 226.7 hp at 5500 RPM at the rear wheel, so 267 HP at the crank@5500 RPM and 260 torque, which is 306.8 TQ@5500 RPM, boost was 7 psi. So, as I thought when building it, the stroker and the stock cam made it into a torque monster. well over 300 ft lbs. torque, 232-267 horsepower.....but it is PIG RICH. So, power is limited by being rich. I have dyno charts, but the RPM range at the bottom is all wrong. we weren't able to get to 6000 RPM because of the rich condition. He said it was basically 10 to 1 A/F on the runs, which is WOT, so the main jet is just too big. I can step it down one. As expected, the carb is the limiting factor. I will post the dyno sheets, but as I said the RPM range at the bottom is wrong. he let off at 5500, I wanted 6000 RPM but he said it just wouldn't do it., when he let off the throttle the unburned fuel was popping and banging. Pics follow (video at the end). V1.MOV

Got on the wire wheel and went to town on the engine bay and front fender wells, prepping for paint. Need to wash it down and go over it one more time. Test painted a few spots. Also got the fender braces on, but not fully welded. Started getting a hole in the body panel, so decided to tac it and fully welded it later after some more practice, probably start practicing tig, need some gas first.

I found this You Tube Video that shows the use of Laser Technology to strip down a Fairlady in Japan. Although the video doe not have English Subtitles, the Laser Machines utilized provided a different method of removing paint, rust, corrosion,etc. The major drawback is it is too labor intensive. Using Total Chemical Vehicle Dip (previously shown) would be much faster and still be able to remove internal corrosion (in boxed areas). But in certain case such as surface corrosion, this method would work well. I found the video interesting as it provide a new option in corrosion and paint removal in the restoration process.

Slowly making progress Fender revised and partially welded Turn signal mounted

By "tightened up" do you mean you just cranked down on the nut? If your front bearings need to be replaced that's one thing, but you should definitely not just tighten them down. Did you follow the FSM procedures for proper torque on the front hubs? It's way less than you would expect. The nut gets torqued to 20ft lbs then *backed off by 60 degrees. I had a front wheel bearing fail pretty catastrophically last summer and the race bored out the hub. Most likely cause was that it was just too tight. initially and failed prematurely then seized suddenly and basically friction welded itself.

The reason for replacing them is not for quality, its for fitment. I'm pretty sure Viking offers a coilover long enough to fit with my SLA design but I know the Penske one will work. I just need to check for interference in the UCA throughout travel. Lol well if you wanna save a few pennies on the front kit from AE let me know, I'm going to get rid of mine. That last part is probably true, but more tie rod ends means more maintenance and more failure modes. Dirt and debris entering the ball joint and load fatigue both contribute to this. I've spoke to Viking and they were very helpful. A little confused on the choice to use the C203 shock with the motion ratios given to me by Apex. From their reaction and the assessments from Rob Fuller and Mike Maier I'm standing by my opinion that 3.2" of shock travel is simply not enough.

I was asking because on the front of the Track Attack the Viking coil over set up needs to be ordered based on the wheel/tire height and how you want it to sit as the front setup due to the Viking design has limited travel for adjusting the height. The Viking is not like a standard coil over where you have all of the adjustability to change the perch height; it is a good design but you need to get the right option. Apex does not tell you that. The rear is fine as there is adjustability with the cantilever ability to have adjustment for height. Also be careful as that suspension has way too many unnecessary adjustments that would never be used so you can get into trouble easily on the setup...

These are pullers and I will have them set up to come on with AC . Megasquirt 3X just came out with firmware to control with PW . I think the only option is fans at full speed with AC . I have a buddy that said he can make a controller that will do a better job . I have no idea what CFM these fans are except they are 300 watts and they are SPAL fans OEM

About 800 miles later. Running smooth. Temps with the new e fans were steady all the way. Only time they climbed a *little* was on very long uphill stretches. But it's to be expected when the turbo is getting loaded more and the return coolant line from the turbo goes straight to the thermostat. Overall very smooth, and as usual the long trip gave me a variety of small things to start looking at. Definitely want to update the mounting on the exhaust, just a bit too much movement and occasionally tapping the back and making some noise. New mounting method and the bigger muffler will make it downright comfortable on long drives.

Started learning to weld, here’s my first tries last weekend and through today, about ready to weld on the car. Going to practice on some thinner stuff first to get more practice.

lol you are correct sir.... I checked the wheel bearing and there were alittle loose on the driver side [normalish] but the pass side didnt feel right [probly needs new bearing} but I got it tightened up and took it for a drive..... night and day diffence. Ive been working on everything else it didnt even occur to me to check. so thank you.

Sounds like front wheel bearings. Your tires will wear out faster also.

Someone got the canister off an old Nissan truck, I think a Frontier. It was newer and looked exactly the same. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1002271&cc=1211050&pt=5180&jsn=606 Maybe it was off an early 90s truck?

Wanted to give an update. she is fixed. It was the bosch 124 ignition module. The ground had corrosion under the connecter at the chassis ground and replaced the module. Also it now has a keyway in the ati underdrive pully and Im getting ready to install kameari twin idler and their perfromance oil pump.... I already installed the adjustable cam gear. she pulls really hard as its climing past 6k. I havent had the guts to keep my foot in it much past 6k but there really isnt any need to rev much higher anyway. mods list sense last post cylinder head.... I did more port matching and cc matched the combustion cambers had the head decked alittle more.... and I unshrouded the valves and polished the combution chambers.... also port matched the intake to the head/intake gasket hx35 now has a billet compressor wheel 2010 sti diff installed only problems Im having at the moment is when driving the car it wants to follow the grooves in the road but on flat road it drives perfect and the alternater doesnt charge under 2k rpm because of the ati underdrive pulley alignment settings are 2.5 camber 6 caster 1/8 toe in ride height 6in 17in rims 245 40 17 kumo v730 next im probly going to replace a the u joints but shes boosting and driving great.

07-25-2025. I had a couple hours today, so I decided to see if the radiator would bolt in. Since June of 2021 I have been building my Z car. This is FIRST aftermarket part EVER to bolt right in. I didn't have to mod it at all. I was speechless. Granted, swapping the fans out to the SPAL fans required drilling and playing with it to get it done. However, I was able to drop the radiator and the fan should assembly right in. It is still loose, but it is there, hoses on, loose, but the idea today was......with a little time to see how far I could get it together, it literally just fell together. So "cubauto" on Amazon, there radiator for our Z cars goes right in! Now, the overflow tube on the cap was put on crooked, so I have to live with that, that is the only negative in an overall very nice looking package. Because of the size of my remaining port on the thermostat housing, using a sensor to turn the fans on and off isn't going to work. Being that my Z is just an around town toy, I will be turning the fans on and off via toggle switch. The remaining switch is 20A rated, but I ordered a switch that externally looks the same but is 30A rated to swap in. I will be feeding both fans with 10 gauge wire which is 30A rated and will forgo using a relay. 30 fA use and it will be basic, clean, and work. I swapped out the 19 lb radiator cap for the facotry 13 lb one for now. Pics follow. Good few hours today! Cheers!

My first prototype of a printed taillight surround and final version. I printed in 3 pieces then laid fiberglass over the back to stiffen them and bond together in 1 piece.

Finally we took some POR15 chassis black and painted the exposed metal. Under the flares it looks almost invisible.

For the front's we bent a length of 3/16 rod and tack welded it in place. This stiffens the fender back to OEM or better. I have seen a cut fender wrinkle before when doing hot laps on a track. Weld and grind smooth.

Have you tried clocking it any? There is an area of the stroke that it won't work in.

Good evening gents I got my first inspection cleared with some minor things to fix so now i have five years to finish the build (he wanted to see me at the end of August ) . With that done i was able to pain all the weld, start interior work and mount the Datsun back up again, sooooo, it's done just waiting for my half shafts. The half shafts is actually the only thing that keeps me from a test run. Brakes, clutch are bled, emergency brake mounted, it's pretty much only interior work that has to be done Cheers Christian

The car I had planned to do this on was going to run very low, so all the suspension pick-up points were raised 2+ inches. The upper mount was a plate that bolted into the upper strut mount and used an 8-inch-long jack bolt with a clevis for the top of the shock to bolt to. The tube holding the jack bolt would have a sheet metal bracket supporting the end of the threaded section, or I'd extend the cage tubes directly into this to make the mount stiffer. That was work still left to do. I have some Penske 7350 Base valve shocks (eBay specials) that I planned to revalve. These have 7 inches of travel, but I didn't plan to use all that, and are very long. This has now been on the back burner while I try and deal with some back health issues. I also have a street car that I want to finish and I have been looking at doing a-arms but using a bolt-in solution to not destroy any value the car may have. So I have been thinking about this more lately, which is why your post has piqued my interest.

Well much rain is forecasted so I’m taking her off the road to attend to issues as in exhaust leak somewhere and # 3 port pulling more air than the others . Of course the only way to see the butterfly in the ITB is to remove it . I think the exhaust leak is at the header flange so that’s a remove project - ugh . I also think I might have pulled off my air box scheme . Taking me a while to get better at forming the plexiglass but the new buck is spot on for the most part . Hopefully I get all these issues resolved during the downtime . The engine is really running good but I’m hoping longer stacks will bring me into the sweet spot . A friend is printing out the 75mm stacks and I’ll probably also do a set of 90’mm . I think I have plenty of room to fit 90’s without impeding flow around them .

Hi Carlton, A lot of this has been hashed out over the years. There are some helpful stickies available in the FAQs for selecting damper and spring rates that you may want to refer to. Before you get too far into recommendations about springs, etc., would you tell us what you intend to use this car for (track only, dual purpose, autox, street, etc.) as this will help give you better recommendations. It would also be helpful to know what you intend to use for tires, as this is one of the most important factors to know. Low-profile radials will require softer springs than a higher sidewall racing tire (such as a slick, R-compound, or HP 200 TW). The more grip the tires can generate, the higher the spring rate needed to be able to deal with the forces that take up suspension travel. I'd agree with Mike Maier's criticisms of the Apex upper A-arm on the front suspension. It is going to always limit the amount of available suspension travel that can be used. With regards to how much travel you need, that will depend a lot on tires and the use of the car. On my autoX/hillclimb 240 that weighed 1850 or 2050, depending on class, I ran Hoosier bias-ply racing slicks and some of their radial slicks. The spring rates I typically used were 400 to 600 lbs/in on the front and 400 to 550 lbs/in on the rear. This car was droop limited, and front suspension travel on the roughest hill was typically less than 2.75 inches in the front and 3.5 inches in the rear. I experimented with softer and stiffer rates but found this range worked best. A friend's street legal dual-purpose car running on 200 TW or R comp low-profile tires weighed 2400+ (LS and T-56). This car was happier with 375 on 450 spring rates. It was also droop limited and I found out how horrible this made the car ride on normal street drives. So if you go down this path I'd recommend a quick disconnect when not needing the limited travel. My personal feelings on the Apex upper a-arm are that it should be about 7 inches long to get adequate travel. On my a-arm mock ups, the only reliable way I could see doing this was to use holes or pockets on the inner fender that allowed moving the inner pickup to the center of the frame rail. Then it looks more like a '90s to 2000s Mustang strut to a-arm conversion. The parts to do this are that bad if you use circle track components, and you can source used parts from eBay for trying out different ideas. This requires you to have access to fab equipment, so if you don't, this isn't a road to go down. Cary

A simple solution for door slamming problem? I finally finished my 8.8 Super Duty 8.8 Differential Conversion so I had time to handle all those small detail work. During my restoration work, I used Precision Weather Stripping to my worn OEM ones. But the Precision Weather Stripping always seemed too stiff for its job. So anyway, I gave them about 4 months but still had to slam the door to seat the weather stripping. It never got better so I know some members used late model KIA weather stripping from Amazon and good results. So I tried the Kia weather stripping. It was a lot softer but still had to slam the door. I decided to remove the Door Latch and study its operation. After removing it, I cleaned it and lubricated it with White Grease. Everthing seemed tested fine when it was out of the car. But after installation, the problem was still there. The Door Latch seemed like it still needed a little more inward movement to function properly. So with the Door Latch installed, I watched the Locking Mechanism operation. As the Door Glass was not installed yet, you have a good view of the Locking operation. this is when I noticed that one of the Latch Mounting Phillips Screws( 6mm x 1.0) was hitting the Linkage. This Screw is 4MM too long. The Easy Solution was to cut off about 4MM of the threaded end of the screw. Pic of the Long Phillips Screw-Inner Bottom Mounting Latch one. ". , Pic of "Corrected Phillips Screw" I really don't know when the Phillips Screw was mistakenly replaced with a Longer One. Owning the 240Z for 54 years, I am sure I removed the Door Latch at least 4 times. Anyway, if you are having Door Slamming Problems, check the LATCH MOUNTING SCREWS. It was a Simple Solution for me, maybe for you, too.

I'm back! Sorry for the long delay on posts, family, work, and travel have sucked up time along with losing a laptop that had a large number of photos. I have restored most of the photos now and will try to catch back up. Polycarbonate windshield ready to mount, firewall extensions, and rear fender liner.

Here's a pic of how the hatch is pulling on the seal no matter how well I try to tuck it in right. It pulled the center off the adhesive. I should be able to redo it and try to turn it farther to the front after I try the shims, but it's frustrating to say the least. That said, this is a huge step above how the previous one sat. In mostly happier news the spare tire fits incredibly well. Very happy with it and it all comes clean under the T3 cover. I bought the cover ages ago just to have even carpet in the back, but honestly could never put much weight in the back for fear that it would bend with nothing underneath. Only downside is the 280z tie down hardware doesn't seem to fit well with it. The way the lower piece is shaped raises the screw handle enough that it won't thread in. For now I flipped it and put the freebie shop rag I got at the car show between the wheel and hardware while I find an earlier style tie down that has covers the full hub opening.

10 bucks this guy is selling because his wife gave him an ultimatum. There is absolutely no reason to sell one having done this much work.

I've been doing the best I can on FB to try and encourage people the return to the forums to no avail. The general attitude is, and I quote, "too cumbersome". People would rather have the wrong answer in a hurry than the right answer that takes a little work. There are so many FB groups for the S30 that there is no way to get any kind of quality answers. I don't know how many times I could of contributed to someones question but didn't because I knew the answer was easily found on one of the three forums. You are starting to see that AI is burrowing its way into the FB groups as well. Sad times these are.

I have two heads in stock as I type this so the head can actually be purchased. I can't help that you can't afford it. That's a feature not a bug. For the very beginning my goal was to provide the components so that talented engine builders could make the decisions on the types of components they wanted to use. Based on what I've seen and taking the pricing of the relatively simple L6 head as the baseline I highly doubt it. I'm not really sure what I did to put a burr under your saddle but you remind me of the guy that starts a fight in the line to get into the club because he can't afford the cover charge. Just get out of line and go somewhere else.

And on to steering. All of my OEM rack and pinions on the shelf had a dead spot and I thought this would be a good area to upgrade. I chose a Coleman Racing square rack in a ratio just slightly quicker than stock. But to use a circle track rack, I would need to widen the tie rod mounts to get the correct length, which should be equal to the control arm mounts. I search around the internet and found an adapter bracket design that I decided to copy. I designed a welded assembly made from waterjet cut mild steel that had the correct length and the slotted adjustment. Most rack manufacturers will tell you not to do this, but they like to make custom length racks also. I like the design because it will make eliminating bump steer very easy. As you can see, I had to do some surgery on the cross member to get access to the rack spline.

Here is the schematic, if anyone wants it....illustrates functionality in each of the key's positions:

I see, it seems AE just sent me 4 identical C203 shocks from Viking and said have at it. I won't be using them anyway, the entire front suspension kit is pretty much a wash for me at this point. Going to just resell it for cheap once I finish my own design. I'll be either using JRi modular shocks that are 21.7" extended or Penske 24.7" extended. I agree, there's too much usage of many tie rod ends, from an engineering perspective it just adds more and more failure modes, more and more maintenance. I'll edit this post and link my front SLA thread.

Spoke to Mike Maier today seeing as the front suspension is most similar to that of an old Mustang. I wish I could write notes faster because holy hell that man is a wealth of knowledge. Suggested the reason for high spring rates is to prevent the upper control arm from camming over (poor arm design) and that the 3.5" of travel is definitely not enough for a road racing/track car (burms). Looks like my next steps are installing an adjustable upper ball joint that can move up/down to change the coilover angle and shock pot it at ride height looking for the lowest load value. If no substantial gains can be made there it's either back to the drawing board to make a push/pull rod cantilever or cut out the shock towers entirely and try to copy MMI's own Mod 2 strut tower modifications as well as new control arm(s) to gain the ability to mount a full length shock to the lower wishbone. This is becoming more and more of a fully custom project by the day.