EMWHYR0HEN

If your chassis is still in good shape then your not going to have to do much cutting. I would get started by removing everything that is attached to the front end. If you plan to weld on a lot of places then I would get the entire front end bead/sand blasted or youl have to just go at it with a wire wheel.

Still waiting on parts for the steering and exhaust so I spent the day tightening up the rack & pinion and re-doing my strut tower brace. I was forced to place the STB forward from center and at an angle with the RB setup but, since the VQ sits pretty low and level I lowered, leveled, and boxed the clevices per Coffey's advise.

I welded some 16 gauge steel onto the crossmember. There was about a 16th of an inch gap on both sides of the bushing when it was on the crossmember. I laid the metal down to the top and bent down the overlapping edge and welded it to the sides. The rack now sits really tight on the X-member.

Wow that's a sweet boom boom room.

Don't forget the 4 of the oxygen sensor bungs on the exhaust!

Thanks for the link Jon. More of a sword fight towards the end but, very informative to say the least. Another reason why we should all check out other subforums even if we don't need to be there.

I found out it's called the heater hose. It just may be a coolant passage the enables the heater core to warm much sooner. No heater for me so it's on it's way out.

It might be best if you take this discussion elsewhere as it has nothing to do with the topic of this thread.

That's what i'm thinking. Guess I'll go observe with a 350Z. I know this hose is here for a reason, but I just need this engine to be as simple as possible with less parts and room for error.

The easiest way to adjust camber is with camber plates.

I looked at the cooling schematic again and yes the hose that goes across the front does bypass the thermostat along with the radiator. I don't see how the engine would have trouble staying warm.... Any idea's?

John, your car's coming together nicely, great progress! I don't know how tall you are, but maybe you can lower your seats mounts?

Thanks again everyone for the comments. I modded the fuel rails to run a fuel return and an external FPR. The stock dampers were removed and both ends of the rails were drilled open large enough to accept some steel -6AN weld on fittings. As of right now i'm working on the coolant tubes and hoses. I've decided to bypass the coolant passage that goes through the intake manifold. All it does is warm the throttle body on cold days below 50F (not a problem in So.Cal.) At the same time warming the manifold and intake air temp so no real benifit for me. I'm also going to weld the heater inlets and outlets shut. Then there's this coolant hose that runs on the front of the engine. It's connected on the coolant tube outlet (hot), runs accross the front of the engine,then feeds back into the engine's inlet (cool) bypassing the radiator. Never seen this before. This would tend to make engine/coolant temps a bit warmer. Anyone see any good reasons why not to bypass it?