alainburon

You are welcome sir. I choose that set up because it gives you longer, more usable lower gears 1-4 which in reality is what you will use the most on a car like that on the street. Because lets be honest not too many of us can hit 150mph on a regular basis on the streets. But it's all about personal preference when it comes to choosing gears. I also wanted to be cruzing at a little higher RPM's because with a wild cam you may have some surging in 6th gear. Look forward to seeying your build come together. I too had my S30 for many years.

I will tell you one thing, 3.73 is too much gear for that set up, especially for a street car. If you do that 1st gear will be useless. My LS7 Z06 had a fairly balanced set up from the factory and if you are getting on it you have to be on your A game or 1st hits the rev limiter really fast. Not to mentioned I think I only used 6th gear a couple of times because it’s too tall. Only good for fuel mileage purposes or if your are intending 200 mph passes. Even then I made my 180mph run in that car in 5th gear. That car had 3.42 rear end with your option 3 transmission gearing. That car had 345/30/20 rear tires on it and I could light them up in second gear to the point the car would get sideways. I was putting down almost 500hp to the wheels on a 3180lbs car. Now we switch to the S30, a car that has no traction control or any features to help you keep it going straight besides driver skills, it will be a handful to say the least unless you are running slicks which is not practical for street driving or almost impossible to fit in that car if you are running 18” wheels. I decided to go with your option one built TR6060 with a T56 tail housing so the shifter sits in the proper location for the S30. I went with a 3.36 OSGiken R200. The purpose for that was to have 1st gear a little more usable on the street as well as 6th gear being more usable as well. My motor did 621hp on the dyno N/A and 821hp on the Nitrous. On a light car like the S30 it will require some careful driving on street tires or going off the road into a tree could be a very real scenario.

Are you getting your car back before Christmas?

Got my seats back today and thank god the stitching looks great. These guys will do all my Upholstery from now on.

Thanks Keith, I can’t wait to get my car done too and you are right the main thing is that you build your car how you like it and the hell with what anyone thinks. I know car shows can be frustrating and in some cases is who you know that gets your 1st place. I was at a Corvette show where best wheels trophy was given to a Vette with stock wheels. I had custom HRE wheels on mine and others had some really mice wheels too and we did not even place. I guess it helped that the lady who won was related to the president of the Corvette club doing the show. J The thing about the shows that I miss is just hanging out with my friends, having a few beers and talking about cars. To me that’s what it is all about, if I win great if not then oh well. In fact I don’t have much room for trophies, I would have to start getting rid of some before I can add anymore. I heard you got your truck back, congratulations and I hope they got it sorted this time. Nothing more frustrating that spending money on something that’s not right.

The pricing you paid is about right. I paid $1,000 to have the first guy do mine similar to yours except I did not go with diamond tuck in the centers, just lines across. I went with leather and suede as well. I also had Richey Collision blast and paint all of the metal. The problem I had with the seats is that the suede inserts has wrinkles and he mentioned they would go away once exposed to heat which was not the case. This guy used to do work for Corvettes of Houston so he came highly recommended. Since he started to travel a lot for business and could not get to the seats to fix them I decided to take it to a place that Richey uses to see about fixing this and they told me they had to re-do the entire seats for another $1,000. So they did and the suede was wrinkle free however the double stitching came out all crooked like drunk did it. It really stands out because the stitching is blue like my car and the leather is black so any imperfections show up a mile away. I refused to take the seats and the owner gave me this song and dance that his wife has cancer and he has been struggling financially due to the medical bills. He said he did not mind re-doing the seats but asked if I could pay for the leather. Since I have a soft spot for cancer due to some family members passing from it I agreed to buy the leather which was $500. When I went to pick up the seats the stitching was better but not good enough for what I want as I intend to show my car as well as drive it, which was made very clear to both of these guys before they worked on the seats. He then mentioned that’s the best he could do with the equipment he has and that’s when I lost my mind and was asked to leave before he called the cops. J Why take on a project that you are not equipped to do? So there I was $2,500 in seat work and still was not happy with the results. That’s when I decided to take them to Westside and be done with it. I should have taken it there from the beginning since that’s who all my friends that have custom interiors recommended but that’s what I get trying to save a few bucks. Never again I tell you that, from now on its first class no matter how much it cost or I’m not doing it. Like they say you get what you pay for. The short of it, I will have $4,500 on a set of front seats which it totally ridiculous, just thinking about it gets me hot man. If Westside does what I expect them to do which is perfection I will have them do the rest of my interior. If the seats do not come out as I expect you may see me in the 6:00 news. J

Has anyone updated their S30 sun visors and if so what did you use? Just wondering if there are visors that fit closely to the OEM and that are more updated, maybe with a light on the mirror.

Thanks for the info, I wish I would have known that. I just dropped off my seats yesterday at Westside Upholstery. They have been recommended by several guys I used to show cars with as being one of the top places in Houston for custom Upholstery. They are not cheap that’s for sure as it is costing me 2K to redo both seats but they claim they can get the double stitching perfect and I sure hope they are right. Everyone claims that doing double stitching right especially when the stitching is a different color than the leather takes very good equipment as well as talent. I would have gladly drove to Kingwood in fact that is closer to my work than Westside is. I guess we will see how the seats turn out this time.

Keith I could not agree with you more sir. To be honest there has been times during this build that I have lost interest due to how long it has been taking, if was not because all the money I have tied up in it or that the car means so much to me I would said the hell with it and bought something else. A restoration project should be a fun thing for someone that enjoys cars but it has been a real pain for me. It has been driving me crazy not having a toy in the garage. It’s a miracle I have not turned into an alcoholic. If I would have known this was going to happen I would have kept my Z06 until I got the 280 done. If it’s not someone taking for ever to complete a job is someone else doing a crappy job. I just dropped off my seats to get re-upholstered for the 4th time now. Due to people incompetence that just can’t get it right. Why say your are a professional Upholsterer when you can’t do double stitching without it looking like I did it after drinking a bottle of Whiskey. The bad thing is that I still have to put my car together when it gets back here. All that is at the body shop is the shell. The drivetrain and the rest of the car is in my garage. The worse thing is dropping all this money and having nothing to look at but a box of parts and a vision of what it is all going to look like when it is done. The body shop told me 6 to 8 months and it will be 3 years in Feb. 2015 since I dropped my car off there. I feel your pain man, sucks about your truck but like you said at least you can drive the Z so look at the bright side.

not yet, I went by there last week and the car was wrapped in bubble wrap with a cover over it. It is good that they are protecting it from being scratched but it is not good that it appears it will not be worked on anytime soon. If they don't get it done in the next 2 weeks then it will be next year since I'm leaving the country for the holidays in 2 weeks. How is yours coming?

Too bad you feel my comments are pointless, opinions vary I guess. I was just trying to point out the obvious as some of these threads tend to go into the weeds. As for the solutions there are 2 subjects in this thread. One regarding oiling issues under hard acceleration and the other regarding PCV systems. Both solutions have been mentioned here but have been questioned. These are both proven solutions. PCV systems issue is very simple, properly install a good catch can or 2 depending your set up get on with it. You may not remove all mist but you will remove most of it. The oiling issues under hard acceleration is simple as well. Use an Accusump system or go dry sump. One thing that should be very clear to all thinking about addressing these issues is the purpose of your car and a lot of people forget that. If you have a street car with mild mods on your motor and hardly ever go to the track then there is no point in spending your hard earned money on this as there are many LS motors out there with over 100,000 miles and do not use any of these items. I would do a catch can anyways but that’s just my preference. If you go to the track regularly, have a high hp motor and/or are running hard then it may be a good idea to look into this as it will save you money and headaches in the long run.

I never said LS1tech guys are smarter than we are, smart and experience are 2 different things. Some of them do have more experience dealing with LS motors than we do. I was just mentioning that this subject has been beat to death and there are already solutions out there so why start from scratch when the answer already exists. I’m sure the solution did not come from LS1tech only the discussion came from there. As for the Professional term I would have to respectfully disagree. There are plenty of Professionals out there however there are also plenty of guys that claim to be Professionals because they have been working on cars for so long and are far from it. Like they say is not just practice that makes perfect it’s good practice that makes perfect. Sucks about your truck man, I would be pissed as I’m sure you are. Hope you get it back soon.

All, there are tons of threads on LS1 Tech as well as Corvette and Camaro forums about the PCV LS engine subject. Also there have been multiple write ups about it as well. I see no point in redesigning the wheel when other professionals have already addressed this issue and came up with solutions to the problem. Granted some threads are full of useless nonsense or retarted opinions some do have good information. For what it is worth, all the research I have done and after speaking with Professional Race and Street engine builders they all say the same thing which is to install a good catch can on an LS motor and move on. They main thing about a catch can it’s how it is constructed and how it is connected. There are some companies out there making good ones as well as other companies making junk, basically a can with an inlet and an outlet which is worthless. Like the old saying goes “you get what you pay for”. The next thing is to have the catch can connected properly as some obviously do not know what they are doing and connecting the catch can improperly can make it useless. All applications are different and you should connect you catch can according to the set up you are running as a Turbo car will be different than a N/A car when it comes to the PCV set up. There are a lot of opinions flying around as to what works better but when in doubt I would consult the professionals, not weekend racers. I would not take any advice on hooking up anything to my motor from guys that have blown theirs. It’s like taking financial advice from the homeless.

Thanks, I can't wait to get it home. I have so much I have to do to that car.

Here is a diagram of how it is supposed to be hooked up.

NICE, I wish mine could do that. They only way mine can do that is if I jack up the front end with a floor jack and airbrush the jack out of the picture.

I have heard aftermarket fenders do not fit well. The body lines are crap not to mention they are like coke cans, really cheap metal. I was able to locate 2 Nissan fenders for my 280Z just by calling around dealer to dealer. Not cheap by any means but cheaper than spending a bunch of money at the body shop. I would buy used before I bought aftermarket, just my opinion.

I was not able to ask Chris since he was busy when I went by yesterday but before he painted it we discussed having 3 to 4 coats of clear put on then wetsand/block the pannels then put another 3 to 4 coats of clear and then wetsand/block the pannels and buff it out. So I can only assume something like that was done. I know they wetsanded the car and re-cleared it but if not sure of the exact amount of coats of clear. I wanted a little more depth than a regular paint job and that was the way to get the extra depth without having 10 coats of clear on the car.

Thanks, the pictures do not do it justice at all not to mention the bad lighting where the car is now. The color is called Ultrasonic Blue Mica. That color is used on the Lexus ISF.

Paint job is done, just needs wet sanding and buffing. Pictures don't look too good since the car is covered with dust but it looks great in person.

And it looks like we are moving right along.

Went by the body shop yesterday. We are moving slow but we are moving.

That is cool looking, fake or not I bet it will fool some people.

Well sir, I would have to disagree. Not taking anything away from your road racer friend but that’s not a fair assessment between independent and solid axle rear ends. It would almost be like putting him in a group of C6 Z06’s, 911 Turbo’s and M3’s on a road course and see how that turns out. It would greatly depend on who is driving what car and how far they are willing to push them not to mention their experience level as well. For starters I would not consider a Camaro a great handling car as I owned a couple, they are fun to drive but far from handling great. Of course with the right suspension guy and countless hours of tweaking I’m sure any straight axle car can be made to handle much better than when it rolled of the assembly line but the same can be said about independent suspension. From my experience when it comes to any racing the only fair comparison is same driver, same track, same weather conditions time results. This way the only thing that changes is the car as different drivers can have different reaction times and experience level. I ran my Camaro (stock suspension) on a road course then that same day I drove a 300ZX (stock suspension) on the same track and shaved 2.5 seconds off my time. I have other friends of mine do the same thing with a 5.0 Mustang (stock suspension) vs a C5 Corvette (stock suspension) with similar results. All cars had similar horsepower numbers. Independent suspension is hard to beat around a road course, granted there is always that one guy that can drive circles around the rest no matter what he is driving but in general independent suspension cars handle much better that straight axle cars.

As soon as you do that you can throw handling out the window. Cool for a straight line but turns is a differnt ball game.