260DET

One of the disadvantages of strut suspension, dynamic camber change is directly proportionate to roll, no getting around that one. If you own a S30. While on strut suspension, what never gets discussed is the tendancy of side thrust to inhibit strut movement. Seems really important yet..........

Nice work Tony, good to see someone in Oz doing the structural thing, well done A couple of things, one, consider running some square section along the pinch welds underneath the sills/rockers. This makes for good jacking points and, if tied into the body, increases body rigidity. Two, consider the transmission tunnel and how it creates a flex point side to side. Incorporating a removeable X brace into the gearbox rear mount is one way to help this situation. But as I said, impressive work.

Friend of mine has a single cam NA Falcon engine in his S30, does about 250 WHP with lots of torque. It does not seem to be much heavier than the original engine, he does very well racing it, circuit stuff, proper racing

Interesting idea, hope it works out. An alternative, which you probably considered but discarded due to the steering rack being behind its Xmember, is to use an entire S13/14/15 front end. The only major job with that would be to strengthen the front Xmember to mount the strut rods there. Beauty about later model gear is the bolt on aftermarket stuff available, five stud hubs and better geometry.

My plugs were gapped down to 30 thou which did move the missfire up the rev range, think ~45 is stock for the VG30DET. No error codes showed up on the ECU at any time. Anyway if the LS coils are not the problem this should show up once the CDI system is fitted, nothing else will be changed because the M600 fires the coils directly in sequence.

Its all good Brad, what are you going with?

This post may be a bit off topic but looking at the video again I was struck by: how fast you want steering response and turn in, how directional change is virtually constant, how smooth the pavement is and how power down is so crucial and how its all happening at a relatively low speed. So: heavy springs carefully matched with quality dampers; no rear ARB, front ARB only; wide, soft tyres on suitable rim width wheels; power steering; modest camber angles; Ackermann steering; ATB diff. For that sort of work you want a stiff car flat on the deck which will slide rather than roll. Flat on the deck to get instant steering response and full face tyre contact with the pavement. So it won't slide either.

Have to say after many years experience that this site is the most informed, open and helpful site of all I've experienced. Blokes here actually build and race Zeds and study all their facets, many in extraordinary and exhaustive detail. There, I've said it

To finish this thread up, there was a point raised concerning the use of a -ve or +ve signal from the CAS. The MoTec agent says either is OK which sounds a bit sus to me but I'll accept it and move on. Yeh M&W 6 channel (Pro 16b) with six Mercury coils. M&W say they make all the MoTec units bar one, which is not to say they are the same design eh.

Both those statements are true, in the context of the entire post. So where is the problem with what was said?

Anyone know of a lightweight cap for the S130? Those OE ones weigh a ton and my car needs to lose some weight, unlike its slim and handsome driver .

Its easier to swap a Nissan multilink rear cradle in because all the suspension arm points are located on the cradle. For alignment purposes all you have to do is ensure that the cradle is bolted square to the chassis, which is not hard, been there done that. With that RX7 front end the upper inner points will have to be located on the chassis. To do that accurately will require a made up jig at least, preferably it should be done on an alignment frame. That aspect is the difficult bit. Otherwise its potentially a worthwhile idea, go for it and report back

Yeh mounting the IC in front of the radiator is a compramise for sure which particularly has to affect airflow to the radiator. For that I'd leave as big a gap between the two items as possible and try to make sure that all the other aero detail is attended to. But there are other approaches for sure, depends to some degree on which of the two items needs the most favourable airflow.

Not trying to discourage anyone from doing a double A arm conversion, provided they aware of the challenges involved. Really to do it properly the car would need to be put on an alignment frame so the new mounting points can be located accurately so its not really your average DIY project. There have been previous discussions on this same topic with pics and measurements of various possible donor parts. It would also be possible to make up a front end from parts available from those stockcar race places. Anyway, here is a sketch of a double A arm conversion of a stock rear strut I took from this forum years ago. Sorry don't know who the original poster was, perhaps something similar could be done for the front. From memory someone actually did this conversion.

The problem when you post something like I did is often people don't bother to completely read, understand and consider what is being said, they want to jump in and have a go at you. For example, nowhere did I say LS coils are no good, what I said was in the specific case as set out they are apparently at fault. As we all know, there are plenty of examples where LS coils do the job and more. The request for no advice was simply because the people on it are experts in their field and I've already passed on lots of advice from others who are familiar with LS coil use to them. As an example of the work that has gone into this, the tuner sent a spare coil to MoTec to test for optimum dwell time. Comes the time though when its sensible to move to something else that I have been guaranteed will work, dyno and fault finding time chews up $..

Hah! I don't need more than four jack stands because my cars are happy to rest on their wheels. Plus working on one at a time is enough

Unless you are going to build the ultimate S30 then the cost/benefit return from changing to double A arms at the front is dubious. Strut design has progressed a long way since the S30's, you could do a lot worse than changing to a S13/14/15 setup, the latter two for a gratis five stud conversion. Plus you get a more Ackerman friendly rear mount steering rack and PS if you want that.

The IC on my 280ZX has a diffuser entry and exit which are sealed to it but there is a gap between the IC and radiator, I'll explain why. A clear exit path for air flowing through a IC or radiator is essential for good flow, its just as important as the entry. By sealing a IC to a radiator the IC air exit is being severely restricted by the radiator which in turn will drastically effect airflow through the IC. The ZX has a relatively small IC but so far (engine tuning is stalled due to a severe missfire) inlet air temperatures are satisfactory which of course indicates that the IC is working well.

VG30DET engine @ 5000+rpm and 15psi boost, big missfire. The coils were all wired up professionally and are direct driven by a MoTec M600 ECU. Of course there is always the possibility that its something other than the coils themselves that is failing but thats unlikely, given the effort that has gone in to tracking down a fault. I don't want any suggestions thanks as to what may be the problem, just a word that LS coils are not bullet proof. Am going CDI now, probably with a M&W system.

So whats the crash story? Snow + launch control = fail?

By 'check valve' I assume you are talking about the one way valve in the vacuum line. It can be checked by sucking/blowing, the end that you can not blow through goes to the manifold. The long pedal travel could be due to incorrect adjustment of the MC rods, the one to the pedal, the other to the MC. Brakes may also may need bleeding, thats the most likely.

You were talking before about reducing drag, a wing like you have illustrated will increase drag whereas the common bobtail rear spoiler will give very little drag but a significant increase in downforce. On the question of stability and the S30, with a decent front spoiler, an undertray and one of those bobtail rear spoilers you have the basis for a very stable car. The prime cause of instability with the S30 is air getting under the front of them and lifting the front up.

There may be interest in what size and hand the tie rod threads are, if that has not already been covered. I know that 280ZX tie rods are sometimes used with stock S30 racks where front track has been increased by pushing out the LCA pivot points. Apparently they are both RH threaded on the 280ZX but the bit out of the end of the ZX rack will swap into the S30 rack to replace the one which is left threaded.

Yeh well my project Z is long off its jackstands and out there performing like a good Z should. Which entitles me to talk ♥♥♥♥ about R35's and other irrelevants

Very interestring article and discussion. All I can say is that for an average amateur driver, me, on road courses (thats Murrican for circuit non oval tracks ) an ATB diff is the go. If that is not practical for some reason then lock it up, plenty of very good lap times have been done with a locked diff.