thehelix112

Hey guys, So I just blew up the L28E in my 280Z and the timing is about perfect as I have around 3.5-4K set aside to try and get the VK56DE I already have installed. I will be doing as much of the fabrication myself as possible, getting a TiG for my birthday so I'm sure I'll be able to make a good ole mess of things. The engine itself needs some work to be able to be dropped in, but I think I more or less have a handle on that. Keeping in mind this car is a car ideally I'd like to be able to drive to the track and back again, but that is of secondary concern to me next to not having to do this again and having a reasonable setup for the track. I expect a good 80% of it's use will be track oriented. The rear is already Z31 CV axles and a R200 locker, so hopefully that'll be strong enough to last a while. My main question at the moment is what transmission should I go after? A race-oriented transmission like a second hand Jerico or something, implying maybe a custom bell housing and a custom baby flywheel, but would I guess open up the door to cheaper clutches? Or an OEM-based transmission like a Z32? I believe there is a company on the central west coast that makes that adapter.. http://www.wilcap.com/webdoc2.html I am contemplating a very small diameter multi-plate clutch, which would necessitate a custom flywheel, but I guess it that may well not be within my budget.. What I want out of the car is something that I can further develop without having to have as big a one-time outlay in funds, and something that is very quick at the track. I do not care about streetability. I would love to one day run the car in some time attack events, but I know nothing about them and at this point, the focus is on HPDE events. I realize I sound like a dreamer so if that's the case, please let me know and set me straight. Many thanks, Dave

Shameless self-plug: http://www.ozdat.com/ozdatonline/enginedesign/ Only really gives you the basics, nothing like checking the valve clearances like Jon is talking about. Good luck, Dave

Nice Mike. Track vids better be in your next post dammit! Dave

Poor L28. Drove it to the valley and on the way back lost power and now a horrible clanking sound coming from the engine. Guess it dropped a piston or two along the way. Hmm.. PITA to rebuild and get it running again, or motivation to start on the vk56de conversion properly? Dave

Got the rear flares on this weekend with EMWHYR0HEN's much appreciated help. The parts From Classic Datsun Motorsport http://www.classicdatsun.com/ - One set of ZG bolt-on flares: USD210 The tools tool-kit and: - Rivet gun - 3/16" OD aluminium blind rivets with a a short backside (designed for 1/16"-1/8" is what I used) - Angle grinder with 4" cut off disc - Drill and 1/32", 5/32" and 3/16" drill bits - Hammer - Safety goggles! - Flat file - Welder The procedure Preparation: Step 1. Repeat Steps 1-10 from the Front Flare Tutorial above except on the back. The point I measured from as the crease on the `shouler' of the rear quarter to the top of the flare. This was 108mm. Cutting: Step 2. Some S30 models have wires for the rear tail lights and/or aerial tucked into the rear quarter panels, so you wanna very carefully grind along your cut mark being as careful as possible to not cut deeply. There are also two layers of sheet metal under there, and you only want to cut the first one. Step 3. Cut a small notch out of the very top of the outer skin and use this to pry or cut the outer skin away from the inner skin. This should also let you see the aforementioned wires and tuck them up and out of the way. Step 5. Cut slots in inner skin and hammer them upwards towards the outer skin. We did this iteratively so the slots were no bigger than necessary. Another alternative I guess would be to heat it up so the metal will stretch but that seems scary. https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-sKQBjMWsqgY/Tkgn01DHTPI/AAAAAAAAArQ/LPGMVw7xm20/s1280/IMAG0321.jpg' alt='IMAG0321.jpg'> Step 6. Hold the tabs up to the outer skin and mark where they meet on the tabs. You can then trim away the excess material. In the following pic all the tabs are trimmed except the two lower ones on the trailing edge (right side of screen). Welding: Step 7. Hold the tabs up to the outer skin and tack weld them in place. Work your way slowly around the guard. Step 8. Wire wheel away the slots you cut in the inner guard, and cut some thin strips of metal wide enough and long enough to cover these slots. Step 9. Weld these tabs into the slots so as to ensure the cracks do not propagate. Step 10. Acetone the area around where the skins join and the slots and then use either seam-sealer or caulk to make it water proof. Installation: Step 11. Drill out the holes if you haven't already and pop rivet the flares in place. Step 12. Reinstall the wheel and check for clearance, trimming anything that looks like it will interfere with the tyres, though nothing really should on the rear. These two pics give an indication of how much metal EMWHYR0HEN and I cut out: Before: After: The (almost (haven't done step 10 myself yet) finished product: I'm getting a TIG shortly so will then be doing the weld-in camber tops and making some mods/fixes to the rear control arms. Dave

Director of development at a small computer security startup in Santa Monica. Much prefer LA to rural Australia where I grew up. Dave

Alas I'm not sure if I still have my caps, I took them off first thing and haven't seen them since. If I find em when I get home I'll measure, otherwise I'm sure someone else can do the same. Dave

With the right offset I think you could get close to running 10.5 with normal ZG flares. Definitely with the BAMF ZG flares from z force productions. If you want an actual wide-body I think you'll be looking in the 12"-14" width range? I personally really love the look of the 280YZ kit from reaction research, plus John is a super nice guy and a very courteous/reliable business owner. He personally delivered some doors to me all the way from Arizona one time. Can't beat that. Dave

Looking good Mike! Dave

Mike, Control arms look great. Dave

Got the front flares on this weekend. The parts From Classic Datsun Motorsport http://www.classicdatsun.com/ - One set of ZG bolt-on flares: USD210 The tools General tool-kit and: - Rivet gun - 3/16" OD aluminium blind rivets with a a short backside (designed for 1/16"-1/8" is what I used) - Angle grinder with 4" cut off disc - Drill and 1/32", 5/32" and 3/16" drill bits - Safety goggles! - Flat file The procedure Preparation: Step 1. Jack the car up and remove the front wheels. Step 2. Sort out which flare is which. You can tell the rears from the fronts as they are noticably wider, and you can tell each side from the other simply by trying to fit it to the shape of the body by hand. Note: You might like to put some tape on the flares to do this so you don't scratch your paint. My paint already sucked. Step 3. Put on your safety goggles and drill pilot holes using the 1/32" drill bit into the middle of each cut-out in the zg flare where the rivets will go. Using a small bit allows more precision as its less likely to wander. Step 4. Drill out the hole to 5/32". Then finally out to 3/16". The Reason for the multiple steps is to ensure the hole is the correct size and not over-sized. This is not super-important, as I later found out, as I needed to open up the holes a bit to get the rivets through cleanly, but it's easier to open a hole up later if necessary than to fill it back in. Step 5. Put some painters tape all around the wheel lips. Step 6. Mock up where you would like the flare to go by hand. I focussed on where I wanted the leading edge of the flare to blend in with the body work (about 6mm below where the front air-dam attaches), and where I wanted the top of the flare to be in the middle of the wheel for clearance. From these two points you can then bend the remaining section to get a feel for things. After you have the flare in place, get someone helping you to scribe a line on the tape. I'm not sure if they are designed this way, but to get the flares where I wanted required bending them. I think this is a good thing as it makes them a lot stiffer and less flimsy. Whether or not they'll last being installed bent I do not know, but will find out I guess. Step 5. Holding the flare in place, get someone to circle in the holes in the zg flares, these will be used as a rough guide to show you where to cut. Step 6. Using the outer line of where the flares meet the body, and the holes as a guide, scribe a line (I did this freehand) leaving approximately as much space on the inside of where holes are marked as on the outside. This translates to approximately 3/4" all up. On the leading edge you will likely want to taper this line until it's vertical so it blends in nicely with the air dam. On the trailing edge, I ended up having a hook-shaped line where it went vertically down until just before the end of the flare then curved forwards. Go over this line with pen and be sure it is clear, this is your first cut line. Step 7. Now comes the most annoying bit of the whole exercise (for me at least). You need to try and get the cut line, and hole guides as even on both sides as possible. Urgh. I tried a couple of different ways to get what I wanted. I initially tried triangulating the first leading-edge hole so it was in the same place on both sides, but this ended up putting the leading edge of the second flare a 1/2" further down than on the other side. What I ended up doing was using three main points: - the leading edge of the flare, and it's relative position to where the air dam joins the front guard - the top of the flare inline with the centre strut tower bolt - the trailing edge of the flare, and it's relative position to the crease at which guard curves inwards. Step 8. On the side already marked, measure from the top, inside of the guard in line with the centre of the strut tower, where it meets your scribed line of where you want the flare to sit (Note: NOT the first cut line). Take this measurement to the other side, and mark where is. My measurement was 175mm. <DA TODO: PIC> Step 9. By eye, adjust the leading edge of the flare to the same place it is on the other side. Then using this point as a given, move the trailing edge to approximately the correct position. From there, you can rotate and raise the flare while pressing it against the guard until it's top edge is on the mark from Step 8. When all three points are as close as you can get them to the first side, and the guard is still sitting flush against the body, scribe the second mark. Step 10. Repeat Steps 5 and 6 for the second side. Cutting: Step 11. Put on your safety goggles. The squint technique only gets you so far, then it gets you to the hospital. Step 12. Starting at the trailing edge of the wheel lip, run the cutting disc lightly along your marked line. You want to keep the disc barely protruding through the steel so you have flexibility to turn it and get a nice smooth arc. I tend to do one light pass to get the shape I want then go back over it again. Two light passes saw out the sheet metal for me. Step 13. If you are going to be installing larger wheels/tyres (which given what you are doing would seem plausible), now is as good a time as any to trip the rear-inside edge of any front air-dam you have installed to gain clearance for the wheel as it turns. Try and keep this neat with a single downwards cut using the cutting disc through the rubber. <DA TODO: PIC> Step 14. Repeat Steps 11-13 for the second side. Step 15. To avoid realizing you've just cut up part of a 30yo+ classic, stay calm, and file the cut area to remove any sharp bits. Installation: Step 16. Now the fun bit. Starting from the leading edge of the flare, hold the flare where you want it to be, put the smaller 5/32" drill bit through the hole in the flair and drill out the guard. Step 17. Then swap over to the 3/16" bit and drill it out to the desired size. Using the 5/32" bit gives you a bit of clearance so you're not touching the flare that much, but still lets you know when you're in the middle. If you used the smaller 1/32" bit you could easily drill the pilot off-centre and be unhappy. Step 18. Peel away the tape from where the hole is to right before the next hole. You can't peel away the tape once it's riveted on. Step 19. Insert the rivet through the hole and pop it in place. Step 20. Repeat this process for all the holes in the flare. Step 21. Repeat Steps 16-20 for the other side. Step 22. Put wheels back on. Profit. I'll update this post next weekend after I go back up and get pics to cover some more steps. Dave

That's a very good point. I think you're right. I'll have to have a think about that and hopefully remedy the situation when I go to TTT adjustable strut tops. Thanks for the input. Dave

Fair enough. I havenlt done enough driving on them to be able to comment very well, but they seem ok thus far. Why don't you like them? Dave

Richard, Is that a VR driving around the outside of a 240Z on a tight corner I see? This is unacceptable. Dave

I think the std bearing's ID was too big so the coil over top was actually sitting inside of it, putting all the weight on the corner of the bearing and a single point of soft alu in the coil over top. It's also very tall, and there is limited thread engagement of the shock insert into the strut top, and I wanted enough that the lock nut would at least hook a little bit. Dave

I'm sorry dude, I don't know off the top of my head. I didn't keep very good (any) records of what I did beyond what's in that article, but I think I was shooting for a 1.5-2" drop in static ride height. The static height controlled by the length of the shock insert (Bilstein) and the amount of pre-load applied to the spring. So even if you got it back up close to where it was you might need a fair bit of preload on the spring to do it. Least I think that's correct. Dave

Yeah it's pretty obvious once you see it. Good luck, and if you are following that FAQ/Guide thingo, please let me know what is confusing/annoying so we can make it better. Dave

I believe its the first one you describe. I put them together left-to-right as they are in this picture: So its drill bushing, then the coil over top slides over that, then thrust washer (is sitting on top of the coil over top in that picture), another washer, bearing, washer. I may have added more washers until the coil over top clears the strut top. Does that help or hinder? Dave

Urgh, hard questions. I used exactly whats in the pictures, which from reviewing them, I think is just 2 thrust washers. I'm not totally sure I understand your quesion though? Dave

letitsnow, Hopefully you'll be happy, I'm running 275f/250r and based on my very limited driving and even more limited driving skill, they run pretty nicely. Dave

I'd be: moving the bonnet vents a bit more forwards. I think you want them where the air is lowest pressure so they suck as much out from the engine bay as possible, and the closer they are to the windscreen the closer they are to that high pressure zone. experimenting with blocking up as much of the front intake until you notice engine temperatures start to rise. The additional advantage here is if you run canards this might force more air around the sides and over them. butchering those front and rear guards to vent above and behind the wheel as much as possible. These could act as a scoop and just add drag I think. flat underbody combined with a nice rear diffuser front splitter where you can adjust how much it sticks out rear wing with adjustable height and angle of attack vortex generators on the roof to try and keep the flow down the hatch attached extending the fronts of the flares to ensure they completely cover the wheel from on-coming air. side skirts as low to the ground as applicable for your tracks/suspension setup. open up the cowl into the interior and run pipes from this point and exit it either out the rear hatch or out where the license plates go. This could help reduce the windscreens high pressure zone which is both drag (bad) and negative lift (good) inducing for perhaps more efficiency on the rear spoilers and lower drag. recording everything so I don't actually have to do it to know what works. In approximately that order. However, this is not based on any actual experience, just complete guess work. Dave

VK50VE is a damn nice engine. I contemplated one before I picked up a VK56 cheap. I have made basically zero progress on my conversion, aside from sorting out the belts (woot :S). Good luck Clemo, Dave

Ok gunna repost in the Events subforum and see if I get any bites there. Dave