kj280z

The VK56DE is 228kg which is about 501 pounds... not sure what an LS1 weighs

Here's a great technical paper written on the Titan / Armada 5.6L V8 Have fun... I enjoyed reading it! http://www.titantalk.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=9361 Ken

Thats a real bummer, but I'd bet you could get another piston from Ross fairly cheap... Garrett you had called me about the extra motor I have... Word travelled fast and the motor was sold to the first person I talked to! Ragno bought the entire setup. My new motor arrives on monday for my project 240Z... it's a surprize. Ken

Awesome Mike! Looks GREAT!!! Can't wait to see it in person!

I've always wondered about the front track on my car... When John C was here in Florida he mentioned that I needed to move my front wheels out... I just did some measuring, in stock form on my 75 280z the front track is almost 1 inch narrower than the rear (same tires/rims on front and rear). I guess it's time to get off my butt and get the right wheel adapters made. Ken

Hey guys... My cell phone takes lousy pictures, but here's Garrett cleaning out the tops of the head bolts in preparation for removing the head... On a funny note... Remember I had said the car was in 3 peices when they arrived? Notice the silver thing standing to the right of the car in the garage? That's the firewall! Talk about easy access!

Garrett, Glad to hear it all worked out! Amazing how those old Z motors hang in there when the bodies rust away around them (the donor car was the worst rusted Z I've ever seen). It was basically cut into 3 peices when Mike and Garrett arrived. I was "pretty sure" the motor was ok but ya never know. It gave me chills to hear it purred like a kitten. I love that kinda thing! Sure wish I could have come over to help ya re-assemble everything, but Katrina related work stuff has me real busy these days. Nice job "Z team" that was a real nice thing for you guys to do. It's great when Z people come together like that. I'm glad I was able to be involved. Now Mike... Get that Toyota powered beast running!!! Ken

Mike, Hey... I just left ya a voice message. I have a Z32 tranny ready to go... I am VERY interested... Give me a call! Ken

butlersZ... Did you ever decide to do anything with this swap? Updates? If you abandoned it, is the motor available? Ken

A little research provided me with some interesting results. I believe I found a company that has a similar product to the one described in the article about Mazda that I posted earlier... They state briefly on their website (much more detail in the PDF link below) that: Cymat Stabilized Aluminum Foam (SAF) is an innovative material with a combination of characteristics that can be engineered to provide solutions to the challenges facing automakers today. Particularly, we believe that Cymat SAF will be a cost effective solution to address automotive companies' competing needs to lighten vehicles, yet improve crashworthiness and occupant protection. Cymat SAF is a lightweight material whose cellular structure provides superior energy absorption capabilities. These characteristics are becoming increasingly important as consumer demand and legislation require safer, more efficient, and easier to repair vehicles I guess it's time for the engineers to chime in! Waddaya think? Check out these links: http://www.cymat.com/pdf/automotive%20applications.pdf http://www.cymat.com/CYI_auto8.htm http://www.cymat.com/CYI_auto10.htm

Hey all... Anyone have any experience with foam reinforcement in a Z's frame rails? I've read about it here and there, but never really gave it much thought... Then recently I heard Mazda introduced some new technology, so I did a search and came up with this: (from Dec 1999) http://autoweb.drive.com.au/cms/A_51894/newsarticle.html Anyone ever tried this? What products did you use? Did it work? Regards Ken

Congrats John!

Brian, Did you happen to put your car on the scales that day and get a race weight (with you in it)?...

Joe, John can correct me if I've mis-stated anything. Measurements were at the front and rear of the rocker panel where it turns in and is horizontal to the ground. It is slightly high, thus John's recommendation to put the rear camber plates in... they will allow me to eliminate the large strut insulators (remember this is a 280z so the rear strut insulators are very tall) and lower the car a little more while keeping the LCA's at the correct angle. Once I get that in place, the next steps will be to lower the car slightly (front and rear) and dial in a little more rear camber. After that, I have a spare front cross member that I'm going to modify by relocating the front LCA pivots up 3/4"... I also need a front strut brace... Most likely I'll have to make my own since I have to clear the supercharger for it to fit. I'm using the rear strut brace from TEP, which is "OK"... I just wish it would have fit better without modification needed. Turn in at the track was "ok", but obviously would be improved and hopefully a little more crisp with a front brace installed. Someday to make my life easier, it would be nice to get/make a set of adjustable front LCAs similar to my rears (Modern Motorsports a real nice setup!). The greatest part about all of this is I feel like we're making the right changes a little at a time to dial the car in. I'm getting closer to the point where I am begining to be able to realize the changes on the track because I'm improving my driving skills (finally!) (I still need a lot of work though!). This is certainly the fun part! Tweaking and driving rather than all the development work that it took to get to this point WOW! I had forgotten how much fun it was to drive a properly prepared Z on the road coarse... It's good to be back out there with a fun car to drive!

Hey Bob, I sent you an email... Also, we're planning on going back to Sebring (Long Coarse) on 7/30... It would be great if you and anyone else who is interested could make it!

John, Hey.... The instructor had to hold on because I still haven't put the 4 point harnesses in... those stock belts don't do too much on the track! I didn't want to touch a thing from where you had it setup when you were here until I had a chance to take it out once. Now that I've been out I have a good idea on the next steps as per your recommendations it looks to be the following... Install the rear camber plates that you sent me. Lower the car... do you remember how much? I think it needs to come down 3/4" in the rear and 1/2" in the front? Relocate the pivot point on the front LCA I think our final settings on camber were 2.8 in the front and 1.8 in the rear... Could you check your notes for me on that? Let me know what your recommendations are and we'll dial it in. You had also recommended that the front wheels needed to be spaced out wider in the front. I also need to bring the rears in slightly (around 1/4")... I'm going to have Ross make me some custom adapters that move the fronts out another 1/4" and move the rears in around 1/4" (I have a minor rub in the rear and plenty of room to move the wheel inbound with my coilovers)... Do you see any problems in doing any of that? Thanks for all your help! You Da Man!

So how can we track it down? Anyone know who owns it now? Ken

Hey all, I had to take a moment to say thank you to John and Ross. Both John and Ross came in for Z Fest back in April. I've installed a number of suspension and Brake parts from Ross and John came down to evaluate the supercharged motor and drive in the Z Fest autoX... Well it got rained out and we were forced to do some testing on a circle track... anyway... I just had the car out on the road coarse this Saturday (Sebring Long coarse) for the first time since John performed his "magic" on the suspension. Just so everyone is aware of the attention to detail and the time required to do it right, John spent a full day and a half setting it up. He was meticulous about his work and I learned a ton. The car handled AMAZING! My instructor couldn't believe how well the car performed. We logged over 150 miles on the track for the day! I can't say enough... so I'll just say THANK YOU! I would highly recommend these guys... they are experts at what they do... http://www.betamotorsports.com http://www.modern-motorsports.com The supercharged motor did great too! It was rock solid all day and was a total rip to drive on the track. Thanks again!

bobby hanvey?

We recently raced with Chin Motorsports at Sebring... Was looking through some links from Roebling Road and stumbled upon this: http://www.nsxflorida.com/roeblingroadJan2002.htm Who's turbo Z is this?

I'd like to see more pics of the dash install and understand how much fab work it took to make it fit!

I thought you guys would be interested... I just weighed the stock nissan t-5 (280zxt) and the z32 tranny (out of a 91 NA) The Z32 tranny weighs 118 pounds The Nissan T5 weighs 107.5 pounds I'll gladly add 10.5 pounds to the car to gain the nice gear ratios and added dependability and strength the Z32 tranny will provide!

Look at this... They posted it officially on their website http://www.5speeds.com/t5/gforce.html Looks like we've lost that option! Ken