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New addition to the shop! Almost destroyed my first tire, but didn't scratch the rim!

I welded 4x 1.75" wide 0.06" thick strips from the roll hoop to the body, two on the sides right below the window frame and two to the roof support .75" outboard of the dimple die holes. I cannot believe how much quieter the car is and how much better it handles bumps, hard accelerations, sharp turns, etc. Its really incredible, wish I'd done this a year ago.

Reapairing Right Side Dashboard Ac Vent Hose- The Right AC Vent 2"Hose was broken off from the Duct Vent. So a method to reconnect that hose would have to be found. I diecided to use a 3' piece of 2" radiator to"splint' the Vent Hose to the plastic Vent Housing. Used the Hot Glue Gun to adhere the Spint to the Vent Housing. Inside View of the Splint The Finished Repair if the AC Vent Hose and Duct I had to fabricate a Micro Phillips Screwdriver to remove the Three Phillips Heas Screws to Chrome Duct Vent. This Micro Phillips Screwdriver also was used in other 'tight spaces" where normal phillips screwdrivers would not fit. Modifying the Dashboard Center Vent- The Original Center Console Vent only had a small piece of foam around the vent tube leading to the Blower Box. I decided to construct a sheet metal Tube that provide a tighter seal to Outlet Vent. Making Template for the Vent Connector Bending the sheet metal with a 5/8" deep socket to match the template shape. Finished AC Vent Connector Next-Heater Blower Fan Replacement

Hey all. I've lurked for a while and have had a few other Z's. My last was an LT1/T56 setup. This time I am going a little weird for the swap. I bought the shell with no motor and in quasi rough shape, but was relatively rust free so I jumped on it. I initially started going with an LS, and had it installed when I thought what would make ME happy. I am a big VW guy and had a Corrado SLC before this project. I have a lot of fond memories in my Corrado so I decided to mix the best of both worlds in the S30. It will be getting a 12V AAA VR6 motor with gt35 turbo. For the transmission I am using a B5 Audi S4 01E 6 speed converted to rwd. BBS RS 16" wheels are at each corner from a Porsche 968 with wider lips in the rear. Behind the front wheels are Toyota brake caliper upgrades. The rear fenders are being widened with Ztrix fiberglass subtle setup. The interior is getting Sparco R100 seats and a Corrado dashboard with Speedhut gauges with gps speedo. This is all a work in progress, but I will be posting to my instagram account as I make any progress. I wanted to introduce myself and share what I am very glad to be building https://instagram.com/240z_idiot

We did an e85 tune, same boost level of 14psi but with more timing. We end up with 450whp.

Starting a new topic based on hijack of Ben's FP 280 thread. There are a couple people, including me, building competition cars or running them at this time. Scope of this thread should define minimum requirements of an autox, time trial, or race prepared Nissan Z car along with advanced path for future upgrades. But mostly minimum requirements suggested for competion based applications. Hence the post under the Motorsports heading. First observation, amazing how long it's been for activity on this topic.

I think he's referring to the arch over the leading edge of the wing, most of them are just flush with the upper surface.

Hi all! For those of you who have not heard, our friend Greg Ira will be returning to the SCCA Run-Off's this year. In a wild twist, he will be driving Jesse Prather's own personal title-winning BMW Z3! Greg has been my mentor on my EP car restoration for the past two years, one of the best amateur drivers in the country. If you are near VIR on April 7th, come check out the race! @jhm This one's for you! I hope to make-it if I can arrange work and kids, and it would be great to see ya'll out there!

Missed this. -I have a spare JDM K24A3, I put a JDM drivetrain in my mid engine fiat. I don't want a 4-banger in the Datsun though I'm also doing an LS drivetrain conversion on my Volvo Wagon I turned into a pickup last year ,so I don't want to do that to the Datsun

Looks like it may have had one of those horrible vinyl tops with additional trim.

They sell all sorts of lengths stalks. The spring is the park that is harder to cut. The stalks are easy.

1-28-2023 UPDATE: Crank is done. cut .010 under on all journals and no has ZERO runout. Block was tanked and magnafluxed, came out great. Is awaiting boring now.

I can second that! I’ve had a couple sets of 13” wheels and really liked them for auto-x. In addition to the weight advantage, the smaller wheels can lower the CG without compromising suspension geometry.

Seems like HybridZ has had the bare minimum to run for a while now. The healthiest forums I'm on all have active admins that are proactive in keeping the forum running and improving, and on top of any issues. That is not the case for this forum, and one other I'm on, and both have been suffering. I would definitely like to see more active admin on here.

For the most part I've just been driving the car on the track, working out the kinks, and getting used to the car's particular dynamics. The bosch ABS is a game-changer in terms of keeping up with modern cars. It's easy to make any car fast but it's a real art-form to get it to stop. I did finally get around to working on the new splitter. And I started on a new project to create some "race-fenders"- essentially some fenders to pop-on for track events that relieve a lot of front-end air pressure. Since the body is CF over a tube frame it's easy to swap these particular panels out.

Japan S30 FairLady Restoration Video- Part 21-Repairing Engine Compartment Panels Part 22-Applying body Filler and Sanding Engine Compartment. Part 23-Repairing Core Support and Head Light Doors Part 24-Repairing Upper Engine Compartment ----------------------------------- ENGLISH SUBTITLES NEXT PART------------------------------- Part 26--Connecting Rocker Panel and Floor Pans Part 27-Repairing Right Side Rocket Panel Part 28-Rear Quarter Panel Patch Part29-Tail Light Housing Repair Part 30-Rear Panel Repair- Part 31-Changing Right Door Panel Part32-Repairing Rear Inner Wheel Housing Part33-Repairing Right Floor Pan Part 34-left Rear Floor Pan Repair Part 35-Rear Deck Repair Part 36-Body working the Rear Deck Lid Part 37-Repairing the Car Roof Part 38-More Repairing to Roof and Rear Deck Part 39-Body Filling Interior Floor Panels Part 40-Installing Seat Mounting Brackets Part 41-Rust Patching through out the car Part 42-,Seam Sealing, Priming the Chassis and Undercoating the Bottom of Car I thought there might be additional videos on replacing the doors,hood,and hatch but it seems that the shop is finished with their portion of the job. So this is the Final Video of this 240Z restortation. 2-17-2023 Good News, I was wrong about the previous video being the last one in this series. This video #43 covers more Rust Repair around the Front Windshield. So it seems that there should be maybe one or more videos on this 240z Fairlady Restoration. Video #44 Assemble and Alignment of Right Side Quarter Panel and Door. Also. the video describes in detail how to create Body Lines and repairing Door Gaps. Part #45 Body Working Rear Body Panel, Correctly Right Fender Gap and Right Body Lines #46 Repairing Front Radiator Support #47 Finish interior bodywork #48 Exterior Bo

I don't know how much I'll need to shorten the arms by, but I was thinking exactly the same thing this morning while at my kid's dentist appt. My rear struts are nearly topped out. I could make a spacer that bolts to the existing camber plate and lowers the top of the strut to clear the bottom of the plate, then just slide the top of the strut farther than it is now and maybe get the pos camber I need that way. I do have Ground Control plates, so they're not like the shitty ones that have 3/4" of adjustment that you get with BC coilovers or something like that. I don't have any of the axles that I was having made back in the day, so I'd need to figure out the CVs. If I did something on the top end I wouldn't have to mess with that. Might have to cut back the plate on top that the roll cage is welded to.

How much are you looking to shorten the control arms by, Jon? Even though flipping your existing camber plates didn't yield enough camber change, would switching to a different camber plate (and/or camber plate mounting inside the strut tower) be an option? That might be cheaper/easier than redesigning the control arms? Looking at your pictures from Nov 8, 2012...it doesn't appear that reverting back to OEM LCAs is a reasonable option, is it? As another option for consideration, what about altering the inner mounting points for the LCA? (i.e. relocating them further inboard?)

As time goes on, more and more of the kits get installed on various project cars, mild to wild, including my own rusty widebody car.

Small pre-black friday update. My buddy Mark came to help me out with a lot of the chassis wiring. We got a huge amount done, but there is always more to do it seems. He's gonna come back and do all the pinning for the AS connectors, since they require special tooling that I don't have. Mark shrinking the T on the PDM run Bulkheads for the wires, pretty excited about this. Biggest will be the engine harness, 66 pins, and we are using 62 of them! I also got the frame plated and the engine mocked. Using a reverse mount starter, so I'll need to cut some clearance for that thing, and I MAY need to re-make the Apex Engineered motor mount for the passenger side, depending on the dry sump setup, and how the pump wants to integrate. Really it's time to buy some parts and get this short block put together. Really happy with the motor placement so far. Nice and low and plenty far back. I picked up some CX Racing headers, which I expect to need to modify before final purpose. Ohm said they work well with their kit, but I'm thinking they will hang too low. Ohm also send over some small fabrication parts so I can convert my sub frame from a long nose diff mount to a short nose diff mount! Still on the fence about using the Q45 diff I have or using a 350z/G35 center. I need to do some more gear math, but I'm thinking this will be a bit down the road once everything else is working.

11-17-2022 UPDATE: I found myself in the Bay Area for a few days, so I took some time and drove out to Antioch to meet Dave Rebello and his crew. Very nice guys, and the tips for building my engine were extraordinary. 50 years of doing this means a lot of good knowledge to gain. While there I picked up the Harmonic Balancer I need for the stroker crank and checked up on the pistons. Guys were so nice they took the balancer into the back and honed it.....for street applications, Dave said it needs to be honed.....when I told him I would hone it with my drill on my leg he handed it to one of his guys and they went and did it proper! Pistons almost ready. Amazing that the quality control is so good nowadays. The chief engine builder, Mark, was telling me the last 20 SETS of pistons from TRAUM, all rings were to spec, and DIDN'T even need to be filed to fit. INCRDIBLE! Also saw out front awaiting shipment a 2.5 stroker heading to europe, 13.0 to 1 compression race engine, Dave told me numbers and I don't remember but it was WAY more than 300.....almost 400. Mark said from idle to 8000 it is a beast! I also snapped a pic for a dyno chart from a 2.7 street build he did that showed torque way above 200 all the way across.....I hope, I hope!

@jhmThe basic tools you mentioned are often more than most bring with them to the track, and they can be super illuminating for issues. I think the iphone vs android debate boils down to which you have. If we are trying to bring folks into the data-sphere, lowering barriers to entry is huge. Having ANYTHING for timing etc, is going to be helpful. If, like Jon is, looking for a new device, I think Android is the better choice, since the two more involved apps I am aware of for this, on will only work in an Android environment. Solostorm is not an inexpensive situation ($220: https://www.petreldata.com/product/solostorm-autocross-data-logger-for-android/) but it is very powerful. Other tools like Harrys Lap Time or Track Addict Pro are good, but do rely on the inherent tools built into the phones. If you have a bluetooth OBD-II scanner and a bluetooth GPS, that will get you much further than most. Since most Z cars don't have OBD-II however... For my rebuild, I looked heavily into a AIM system. The Solo-2 DL is a really good option that doesn't require a lot of adding in, and the AIM telemetry software is really well supported. Ended up going with MOTEC since their system is also really well supported, and a few folks I race with quite a lot also run them so it will be easy to get support and compare notes.

Jon, FYI, I usually do things the hard way 🤯 I welded up one end of both spacers, took them to my friend's shop, turned excess off ID and OD, faced to +.005. Surface ground to length. Came home and re-assembled both assemblies. Problem solved. Chris

Just a heads up for people reading this; there have been scams on classiczcars where a newly joined member messages someone looking to buy something. They say shit like, “go email my buddy at something@foo.com”. There have been accounts messaging me on here as well, with the same message format. So be careful!

Thanks Jon, no, the torque drag thing makes no sense to me either. Endplay spec. is 0 to .0059! I made a tool to use a beam style torque wrench to measure rotational torque. Spec. is 3.9 in-lb. I was getting 25+ before torquing. My spacers are short by .003-.004. I think that is my problem. Guess I'll have to make some. Thanks! Chris

Sorry for not posting in a while but I was rushing to get my 240Z finished enough to put it in a local car show. There were some more things to do in a short amount of time. Anyway, back to posting- Door Panel Repairs- Both Door Panels needed to refinish the original Horizontal Chrome Trim on the upper side of the panel. See pic below. To repair this, I purchased 1/4" Chrome Pinstriping Tape from Amazon( for $6). First, I used a small paint brush to apply a layer of Contact Cement on the Trim Piece. Allow the Contact Cement to dry to the touch before applying the Chrome Tape. Apply the Tape lightly first then checking it for straightness before pressing it down with your index finger. Trim ends with a Single Edge Razor or Razor Knife. Closeup view of the Repaired Chrome Trim Moulding. This repair method can also be used on Door Arm Rests. Using Velco Heat Sleeves- Velco Heat Sleeves were used to protect electrical wires near the exhaust from burning, Cutting the Sleeves will allow the Velco pieces to unravel as they are only sewn on. so I use a Hot Glue to fasten the Velco Tape on. Heat Velco Sleeve put on Starter Wiring near the Exhaust. Velco Heat Sleeve on Oil Pressure Sensor Wiring. Holley 3.5" LED DISPLAY SCREEN-one of three possible screen layouts available. ELECTRIC POWER STEERING in OPERATION- Note - Easy turning of Steering Wheel with 11" wheels and 285/17 tires. LS3 First START UP-Sounded Great! Next-CAR SHOW APPEARANCE

I've seen them on ZCD and ebay. Didn't realize this type of failure was so common.

Haha! I'm all for a discussion about important race related matters such as oil pressure. I might be unhappy to be the catalyst for such discussions, but not disappointed to host them in my build thread. I've started working on the wiring harness. I have a friend who builds some really spectacular stuff for prototype cars, and offered to help me get a new engine and chassis harness sorted out for this car. We are trying to do it right, and he's managed to score some pretty serious hardware for me. We are using a Motec PDM32 which is all autosport connectors. One thing has lead to another, and he might be going a bit wild on the construction with the twisting and sheathing. This is all going to look hilarious next to my Megasquirt ECU (rebranded as a Notec from here on out!)

One thing I'd advise is if you decide to use alarms in your data system/dash to auto shutdown that you create a dual-channel alarm strategy where you have two sensors or another way to back into the data for a sanity check. Over the years I've seen far too many races lost when a team stops the car and finds out either the sensor failed or a wire fell off or was destroyed with heat. Fire suppression is another area where this strategy is handy. It's great to have an onboard system but also have access to a handheld one can often put out the fire. The onboard systems generally don't do this as they are mostly intended to buy the driver time to bail out.

My buddy who runs Aerowolf made a pretty sick youtube video as well of the mods I made to the car over winter. I'll try and do a photo dump shortly, but this is a pretty overview of what happened, along with a medium speed lap at PIR to close out.

Definitely weld the bar to the chassis. A buddy of mine ripped the A pillar off of his car at an autox in the 90s. A fabricator friend fixed the A pillar and added a 4 point, then welded one single probably 3" x 6" plate from the bar to the roof right in the middle where the map light is. He said it made a huge difference, and all of the interior panels stopped squeaking when he went in and out of driveways, etc. People do this all the time now with shear panels that usually have dimple die holes on the A pillar of cages, but you can do it anywhere the cage and chassis get close. I have smaller panels on the roof, the door bars to the sills, the main hoop to the inner wall just inside the doors, and around the A pillar. I don't have pics of the top, but here is one of the hoop to inside of the door. FWIW, after I did this I learned about shear panels, and they really should be longer for better strength. Also doesn't have to be 1/8" thick. Thin metal does fine for this. .0625" is fine, .040 or .050 probably sufficient. Do some googling on roll cage shear panels and I'm sure you'll find more detailed info.

Here is a shot of the front brakes (For Aydin). Custom hat from Coleman, wide 5 floating adapter, floating T-nuts, and 11.75x0.810 rotor. This will be combined with raidial mount 6 piston Wilwood SL calipers.

Nothing quite feels like saying "Project Complete". When the car goes from being a Project to a Driver/Tinkerer car. 13.5 months, 413 days to make her a clean driver again. From being a 50 year old, dog eared "potential", to back in the game.......LONG journey. Blessed beyond measure and to have a 240Z now....is incredible. Thank you Lord Jesus. (build is chronicled under 240Z projects, "joe's 240Z adventure, if interested.)

I bent the 240 pedal a bit so my throttle cable went through the firewall opening correctly. Your's looks like a 280 pedal, much thicker metal. I wouldn't be afraid to bend it. If the stop and cable are adjusted, it should only ever be fighting the spring tension on the throttle body.

In your videos the starter and battery sound fine. If you watch the tachometer needle it gives a pretty good clue that you're either losing power to the coil and distributor or the ignition module is going bad. The needle does not budge when the engine is not starting, it should be showing the engine's RPM while trying to start. You can test the first possibility, loss of power to the ignition system, by watching a meter attached to the positive lead of the coil with the key on and when you try to start. Voltage should be maintained above about 10 volts. If you don't have power there then focus on that. It would be worthwhile to clean the connections to the coil and ignition module and see if things improve. The old E12-80 and E12-92 modules are known to go bad eventually though. Wouldn't be a surprise if that was the problem, although they usually fail when they get hot. p.s. the magnet under the stator ring is known to break on those distributors also. That might cause a low trigger pulse to the module at starting RPM. That kind of fits your symptoms. It's not obvious, you have to remove the breaker plate and lift the stator ring to see it. Also, one reason the magnet breaks is because the shaft bushings on those distributors wear out allowing the 6 pointed reluctor wheel to contact the stator ring. Here is a good resource showing some of those things. The result of a worn out bushing is shown way down at the bottom. http://www.atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/distributorrebuild/index.html

I found I needed to change the rear toe-link design from left-right threads to using different thread pitches as it was super sensitive when adjusting. I planned for but never made it far enough to change this all over to shims. I wanted a faster at the track way to make changes that didn't involve needing a lot of precision and had to be repeatable. I noticed most of the pro teams and car designs from 2000 on starting using that method instead of left-right threads. Your 3D printed tool reminds me of the flag alignment system I've seen some of the formula car guys use. It mounts over the top of the chassis and uses that to establish center. Measure camber, caster, track this way. Flip 90 degrees and measure toe. Much quicker than strings to setup and make adjustments.

Slow progress. Close to finishing up the rear suspension. I keep finding things I need to clean and paint. But it is getting there. I suppose its time for the big reveal. Based on Cary's sugggestion, I am going with an external shock. Not sure I can get away with it, but its easily reversable. It was surprisingly easy to do. I used adjustable shock brackets from AA Manufacturing with a some angle iron for strength. Even easier in the front to connect to tubing. I used 1/2 threaded rod with rod ends to mock it up. I 3d printed a shock body to make sure there was clearance. I took a set of cheap Toyota MR2 struts and drilled a little hole in the bottom to drain out the oil. They are loaded in the strut tubes just for keeping geometry, no friction. The only tricky part is the motion ratio is different than the strut. Right now I am thinking Penske 7500's for the shock. They are reasonably priced, come custom valved to my parameters, have multiple lengths, and are double adjustable.

After 4,500 miles in two weeks, and a dozen low 10 and high 9 second passes, Jason is back home from Rocky Mountain race week, having driven the ENTIRE way and placing 3rd place in the 10.00 true street class.

So I had a driver controlled braking issue. I didn’t stop in time. mechanically fine, my fibreglass is amazingly strong but needs repair. The car sat at about 110mm off the ground, without rubbing guards. I have now dropped it another 25mm and guards were engaging tyres. Rather than repeat some bodywork issues I decided to create a little more space. Category rules are must have front bumber but can extend 100mm forward for undertray and 100mm wider on guards. Gonna try my luck making a full front clip. Very time consuming, but oddly satisfying. Fellow competitors pay upwards of $10k for a front clip (mold and one panel set). Mine will be stronger with lots of Kevlar and prob $2k with replacement panels at half that price. Aiming for less than 25kg for whole front (guards, bonnet and front spoiler).

With those giant rotors, you will not generate very much heat into the pad (relative of course). The Wilwood pads are surprisingly excellent for that application in street or track duty.

I try to keep up with damper technology as it has been developing rapidly over the last 10 years or so. Basically what was F1 technology 10 years ago is now available to the public. Most high end dampers still rely on some way of controlling a fluid with valves, orifices, tubes or sleeves with special features to control extreme forces. The highest end are infinitely adjustable, consistent, and repeatable over long distances. Active and semi-active systems are often banned in motorsports and are just now becoming more popular. Most modern sports cars have semi-active dampers that can be programmed for various effects and conditions. Corvettes have a very highly developed version of this. A suspension "master" spends countless hours developing the few programs that end up in the production version, up to and including sending test teams with 100's of tires to the Nuremberg Ring each year. Now that technology is available to the aftermarket. There are a few providers out there but I was really intrigued with these guys in Netherlands. https://tractivesuspension.com/ They sell a fully programmable stand alone strut with g force sensors that can be adapted to many platforms. What really shocked me was the price. $6-7000 for a full package. I know that seems expensive, but compared to high end struts (check out Motion Control strut prices) this is a total bargain. They can be programmed to fully control stiffness, roll, dive, and squat so no roll bars needed. Imagine 30+ year old car that is fully comfortable on the street, yet capable of setting lap records with a program change. Pretty much like a new Porsche or Corvette.

Since I made this thread things have changed, I changed the order to Gold mesh 15X8's and 15X9's at 0 offset. I will be using 225/45ZR15 and 245/40ZR15 tires from Hankook. Spacers are going to give me the offset I want and the poke out I desire. Thanks for the replies.

SuperDan has now fixed this. It was a problem with an expired certificate. Nothing malicious. Cary

Thanks, and for some reason that's the filetype my iphone saves them as (I'd never heard of it either). Hopefully these will work...

I can't believe I wrote this nearly 5 years ago. There's a few things to update. AEM and Haltech both support this engine and have profiles for it. McKinney I believe still makes a decent mounting kit. and I'd highly recommend running an external fuel pump/filter. My car is still torn down for paint, and I hope to get that done this summer. Kidlet has taken most of my spare time, so I'm moving slowly. Feel free to ask me VQ questions. I still lurk around here often even if I don't get to post so often. If you find this thread helpful, please let me know. Thanks, Phar

I guess at $2500 a set I have good taste. Anyone know of any similar wheels for $1000 or less?