thehelix112

Monzter, Was the idea behind the custom upper thermostat housing to let you fill water at the highest point in the system to avoid air pockets, or something else? Great numbers btw. Amazing. What rpm did it make max power at? Dave

Nice work! Can't wait to see what it'll do on a sticky track. Dave

The reason the justice system exists is to handle these things. If you go taking it into your own hands, you're no better than him IMHO. You just chose a different set of civilization's laws and procedures to ignore. Not to mention that if the system works, you could find yourself more familiar with bubba than you want to be. IIRC the US incarcerates more people per capita than any other place on the planet. Dave

Whittie, Sounds great. If you get a chance it'd be great to see the difference a gurney would make at the leading edge of the vent. Maybe this could be evaluated by the length of the piece of wool that a constant speed will make stand totally upright? Dave

Richard, I believe this is a very common application of a gurney flap. Alan Thomas has a pic floating around somewhere of a 70s race S30 with gurneys preceeding the bonnet vents. Their job I believe is to angle the flow upwards in order to assist in sucking the air out of the vents? Or sometimes perhaps (as in following pic) they're using tumble to their benefit or something? (http://www.mulsannescorner.com/rey02s.html) Note this is even in addition to the outwards exposed saw-tooth vents, and is labelled as the ``high downforce configuration''. Dave

I keep singing in my head: You've gotta pay the troll-toll to get into the little boy's soul. You've gotta pay the troll-toll to get in! Dave

http://www.blaastperformance.com/ Cheapest I could find. They rebuilt the T3 for my wife's Saab. Dave

I used a poly rear bushing, but I drilled 8 holes through it to loosen it up for moving the TC rod as jmortensen hinted at in some thread or other. Haven't driven it yet so I hope it works. Dave

hehehe

drmiller100, Can you draw some pics, I'm having trouble following anything that you're saying. Look at the upper centre of this pic: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f127/bjhines/V8%20240Z%20project/bodywork/paint/interiorpaint1.jpg Note the bar running from the outer edge of the flat surface the strut mounts to (which isn't really flat, but rather has embossed lips for strength I guess) into the upper outside corner of the main loop. I assume this is what you're talking about? That combined with this: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f127/bjhines/V8%20240Z%20project/roll%20cage/Towerbraceboxinstalled.jpg Would seem to provide pretty good vertical support of the rear strut towers to me. Unless you are talking about the small section of embossed flat the strut tops actually mount to flexing? As for the front, its a similar story as shown in this: http://i46.photobucket.com/albums/f127/bjhines/V8%20240Z%20project/suspension%20mods/steeringintermediateshaft.jpg Note the two triangle-shaped braces tying the extra strut tower sheet directly to the frame rail, in addition to the large tube tying it at the sway bar mount. Again, the only place I could see any substantial flex occurring is on the embossed flat the strut towers actually mount to. And thats only because I have no idea how strong an embossed steel plate like that is? As for your other points: Show us how, as clearly noone here has any idea? Doesn't the crossmember mount solidly to the frame rails, and then the afore-mentioned triangle braces and sway-bar-mount-brace tie the frame rails to the strut tower (at both the bottom and the top)? Or are you saying that whatever gauge steel in the main wheel well + whatever gauge in the overlaid strut tower is not strong enough in tension to support the required vertical loads? Dave

I think it depends on the kit how much preload you want. Is it the gmachine one? If so, and noone beats me to it, I'll measure it when I'm near the car again. Dave

Cool. Dave

Depending on where you mounted the caliper, you could always order some of the lines that the outlaw bloke (scca) sells? Dave

I've read that as well. I don't recall it mentioning front diffusers in any decent depth, but its been longer since I read that one. Will re-read as well. Dave

I have read RCA indeed, but it was a year or so ago, and my memory was that Katz did not explicitly say what you said above. Maybe it did and I'm mis-remembering, but I recall it took me a while to come to that conclusion. I'll go back and re-read it as soon as I can I reckon. Thanks for the input. Dave

Yep. I interpret all the pics you linked (which were awesome btw) as trying to reduce the buildup of high pressure area in a normal wheel well by venting the rear, as per my initial: `...try to keep the area behind the wheels as open as possible...'. I'm a bit fixated on front diffusers, mainly because nothing I've ever read has satisfactorily explained how they work, hence my theory on getting them to act much like a wing. I would also guess that none of the cars you link to have front diffusers? I completely agree with picking where you take your influences from, but I think there is potentially things to be learnt from all classes of racing. And there is nothing to say that techniques used on more exotic cars couldn't be used on a zed, given enough development time/$. I dunno, I guess when you start talking about full tube-frame cars and chopping out inner guards, I think you're into the realm of at least considering these things. Dave

Jon, My second point was that in prototypes at least the front diffuser has next to nothing to do with the wheel well. I agree with your argument that a diffuser exitting into high static pressure would kill its flow, however I don't believe this is the case with prototypes. As I said the channel exits well to the rear of the wheel well on the side of the car, at which point the air flow is fast and hence low static pressure. Good point re the application of louvres and vents. It sounds like we agree their purpose is to reduce the statis pressure in the wheel well. Be this to take it from high to reasonable, or from low to lower; I have no idea. Dave

Where did the theory that wheel wells are low pressure areas come from may I ask? That sounds like an extremely broad statement concerning something very complicated. It also sounds very wrong. Look at every prototype car, they all try to keep the area behind the wheels as open as possible, as when its closed, it tends to act as a scoop and is a build-up of high pressure air. When you start talking about prototypes that run the underside of the front diffuser to exit behind the front wheels, you need to realize that its somewhat more complicated than that and the entire front section of the car is designed to support this. The channel between the wheel guards and the nose section will slope upwards and then exit well behind the front wheels as the air getting pushed around the front of the car and running down the side will be moving quickly (low static pressure). They then run the underside of the front diffusers upwards and exit in these channels, so that the entire front diffuser is actually a wing, with endplates (the sides of the channel) to boot. E.g first picture here: http://www.mulsannescorner.com/bentleylmgtp03-2.html Also on the page, note all the lourves and an additonal dedicated wheel well vent for the purpose of ``enhancing downforce''. Unless I'm missing something, I'm pretty sure the wheel wells are very much high pressure areas. If you cut out the inner guards in a zed, I think you'd need to know what you're doing and test quite a bit to avoid making things worse aerodynamically. If it was me, I'd be venting the wheel wells as much as possible, trying to work in a very small front diffuser/wing, and ensuring all the air flowing into the engine bay is ducted for entry and exit, and that the exits are placed appropriately. Aerodynamics makes my head hurt, does any of that make any sense? Dave

I think John's point might have been that its not the same as changing the rate of the bar. Lets say the reaction force for can be defined by: F = bx Where x is the vertical movement, and b is the rate of the bar. What I think loosening the end links does is effectively provide reduced reaction for small values of x, which is effectively the same as: F = b(x-y) Where y is the distance the endlinks can move before the bar itself is made to deflect. Somewhat of a gross oversimplification, if its even moderately accurate that is? Regardless, changing b, and changing x, you'd think would do quite different things to the way the car behaves, and something to be aware of. Dave

Sorry, that link is pretty crap.. Meant to do this one: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?p=977473&postcount=8 The rod ends are: DNTF-6 and DNTM-6 Metric 6mm, teflon race, narrow housing, USD3.48 from mid west control. I've tried to check for binding as much as I can. There is no bind at full droop, but it about maxes out the misalignment in the rod ends. At static its much better. If the 6mm rod ends + bolts don't hold up I'll just drill the holes out and use 8mm ones I guess. I probably shouldn't've drilled so many holes so close together if I was going to make them bigger, but oh well, live and learn. Haven't driven it yet, waiting on control arms for the rear. Dave

Wow. Most detailed transplant thread ever. Nice work! Dave

I went the DIY-adjustable route (with a lot of help from EMWHYR0HEN) http://forums.hybridz.org/showpost.php?p=977473&postcount=8 Yet to drive it and see if the plate/rod ends will hold up. Dave

Hehe.. true. Dave

Brad, I thought the windtunnel tests indicated that the wheel wells are one of the main sources of drag in the front of an S30. If thats the case then the wheel well is already a pretty high pressure area, and thats unlikely to be very beneficial. Bonnet vents definitely work. Dave

The high pressure is caused by the resistance of the windscreen. As to how far forward this high pressure extends would only be answered by testing. Put some tufts of string on it and go for a drive. (And stop using MPH, you're an aussie ). IMHO, I'd investigate putting the vents a few inches behind the raditor on the bonnet. The reason being at this point the air is still curving upwards and around the lip of the bonnet, ie. its flowing in essentially the right direction to pull air upwards and out of the engine bay after the radiator. Some small upwards ducting running from the bottom/rear side of the radiator upwards would also encourage this. Do you have radiator inlet ducting? Dave