[Do my exhaust plans sound street-able?]

I like some rasp, but it's definitely pretty raspy! It's hard to say what would get it out as there are so many combinations of pipe sizes, resonator locations and types, etc. You could go with a proven combo that you like and if you know the specs.

 

thats true. I'm finding it hard to find info on the ones I like haha. I guess I just need to do some more research. Or just bite the bullet. It's not like mufflers or resonators are that expensive. I was just trying to see what others who have more experience had to say about what I was thinking.

[Do my exhaust plans sound street-able?]

Yours sounds cool! maybe 2 glasspacks and a resonator? I like the sound of your exhaust but the raspy note isn't what I'm looking for. A resonator would do the trick to get that out, right?

[Do my exhaust plans sound street-able?]

I had just the DynoMax bullet on mine, with 6-1 headers from MSA. It was extremely loud. Sounded great at idle--and that's it. Otherwise it sounded like 1.5 civics. I added a 24" long resonator. It was supposed to be "straight-through" but when it arrived it was a chambered one. It put it down to a reasonable level, I don't think I have any videos. But it was the sound I was wanting--something I could make a 5 hour trip in and not be deaf or have a headache.

 

However, I plan on getting a couple 18" straight through vibrant resonators, and replacing the above with those. It should be louder, but I really want a straight-through system.

 

As I said, I don't want something too loud, I like a quiet-ish exhaust. It's starting to sound like I should look into other mufflers. I was also thinking of using a hooker aerochamber muffler which seems like a cool idea. Any ideas on how loud just having 2 glasspacks would be?

 

 

Define "exotic sounding" by giving us an example.

 

If you want to kill drone (and some of the raspy note) place a resonator as close to the merge collector as possible.

 

I want something not drony, not raspy, and just smooth sounding. Something similar to this:

or this :

 

I guess exotic isn't quite the right word. Second video says twice pipes with glasspacks. Would it sound similar if I had a single 2.5" with one glass pack in the tranny tube near the header, then one next to the fuel tank?

[Do my exhaust plans sound street-able?]

Let me start off by saying that I have never made a custom exhaust before. But I decided I want to on my s30. I plan to get an MSA 6-1 TBC coated header, then into summit 2.5" aluminized piping, then into a 12" cherry bomb glass pack, then to a 12" dynomax race bullet muffler, and out of a 4" tip. I don't like a really loud exhaust, but prefer something a little more "exotic" sounding, as cliche as that is. I really don't want drone. Does anyone have any experience with either of these? What muffler/resonator combo should I use to get an exotic sound? I haven't heard anything that screams at me that it's what I want... Sorry if this post is kind of annoying. But I'm just trying to figure out what I should go with. Also what bends do I need in my exhaust pipe? a 45* to go up over the mustache bar, then two 90* to position it out to the tail pipe, right?

[Austin's Z car]

Well one bad thing happened today. Got the brake calipers from ebay. they are junk! pistons are frozen and the whole thing is riddled with rust. Asking half my money back. Then I'll use them as cores to get some A1 cardone semi-loaded calipers. They're about $50 each so it's not horrible. Plus then I know I have good brakes, $100 isn't much to pay for my life! I'm going to need to run new brake hardlines as well (I'm putting a proportioning valve and hydro e-brake on the tranny tube inside ). From what I can tell, I need 10mm lines? Is that correct? I've seen people talk of 1/4" and 10mm. I think metric would be correct. I'm going to be using s13 rear calipers and a wilwood MC for both brakes and clutch. I refuse to skimp time or money on brakes.

 

Edit: another mishap. Just searched my vin and license plate # online for fees due, etc. Looks like I have to pay about $675.00 when I register the car. GREAT. That is really annoying. Oh well it could be worse.

[Austin's Z car]

got the strut out! acctually wasn't that hard, took like 10 minutes. I just drilled a hole through the bottom big enough for one of my nail punches, hit that with a sledge a couple times and out came an oem strut! Must have been the original. Felt kinda wierd taking it out of it's 40 year resting place. There was no oil, just some rust dust. the strut was beyond blown, the shaft sat at about half way and took almost no force to push in, then rebounded very very slowly. When I accidentaly drilled through it, only a small amount of oil slowly dripped out haha. And there I was worrying about the strut blowing up! haha. Well anyways did some measuring and looks like I'll need to chop off 4 cm from the strut tube. It's about 1.5 inches which is what I have read all over the internet. Anyways I will start doing that pretty soon. Im going to get some mig wire and gas, I don't trust the flux-cored set up with something this critical. Also I finally got the headgasket inbetween the timing cover and head, because it slipped into the place where the chain goes when I put the timing cover on. I didn't notice till about a week ago. But I just had to loosen the head bolts and pry the head up from both sides and try and get the gasket in there. took about an hour of cursing haha. But my engine is basically done... Only missing some bolt on stuff and some torquing. Pretty happy with that. Today was a productive day and got me back in the right mindset to get the car going. And If I'm lucky, I'll have a set of triple weber 40 dcoe's under my christmas tree in a few weeks . One can only dream

[Austin's Z car]

Glad you were able to get it done...I was feeling your pain when I read your posts...the large part you gripped in the vise with yours actually sheared off of the threaded portion on both my front gland nuts so I cut the strut rod off (they were junk) and welded a 3 foot bar to mine to get 'em out. Hope your cartridges come out easy...I had no problems with mine...they actually came out semi-attached to the gland nut

Great project by the way...I've been watching since you started.

 

haha ya me too. I was starting to fear that the project was over if I wasn't able to get the nut off. I had already ruined the strut insert with heat and marring of the strut shaft. Well the insert is still stuck. I won't be able to try and take it out until tonight when I get off work, but hopefully it will budge. If not I will just drill a hole in the bottom as has seemed to work with everyone else. But the penetrating oil should help. Sounds like you had a tougher time than me!

Thanks! I haven't put up enough pictures and stuff, But I haven't really done anything that interesting yet. Hopefully I will be getting the front end done soon. That would be cool. I'm going to focus on sectioning this strut for now and putting the coilover kit on. Then the RCA's, adjustable LCA's, rebuilding of the steering rack, etc. will come.

 

Quick question: Does anyone know of any urethane strut mounts made to replace the stock ones? I don't like rubber strut mounts! Are there any ways to modify one from a different car? or are there any that fit?

[Leon's 260Z]

Apparently, the holes in the flywheel for the pressure plate are not tapped deep enough for the stock bolts. If this happens, you must use shorter bolts in order to make sure that the pressure plate is clamped down properly.

 

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/57299-ordered-a-105lb-fidanza-flywheel/

http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/100321-fidanza-flywheel-act-clutch-install-and-pedal-mods/

 

I was trying to find that first thread, that was the one I was referring to, but I for some reason couldn't find it.

[Austin's Z car]

FINALLY got that stupid thing out of there. My god that was insane. What finally did it was clamping the nut in a vise tightened down like f*cking crazy, a piece of wood bracing the strut tube, a 6 foot breaker bar over the hub spindle (hope to god that didn't bend), and lightly hitting the strut tube over the threaded portion with a brass mallet. Heat would have helped, but I forgot to bring the torch to my gf's and her dad couldn't find his so we did without it. For the next one we will do the same but with heat as well. What a huge pain. I wish they'd have put more thought into that when they designed the car. Well of course the strut is stuck inside the strut tube. I put a bunch of penetrating oil over the top of it to let it soak in between the insert and the tube, I'll see if I can work the insert out of the tube tomorrow, or if I have to drill a hole in the bottom and punch it out. Hopefully it won't be as hard as this stupid gland nut was! I still can't believe how crazy that was.

[Austin's Z car]

Well so far day 5 has been un-successful with getting that god forsaken gland nut off. Couldn't get a good enough hold on the nut in a vise. Got some PB blaster in there though so we'll try again. Tonight, I'll try my Gf's dad's trick of using a giant pair of channel locks. We'll see how that goes. The hexagonal part of the gland nut has started to come off from the threaded part. If it ends up totaly spinning off, what do I do then? Cut out the threaded piece? If it stays on and the channel locks don't work, the next thing I'll try is cutting a notch in the gland nut and hammer and chiseling it out. If that doesn't work, I'll be left with welding the strut shaft to the gland nut, and welding a nut onto the shaft. Then I'll have to use an air impact wrench or ratchet and just hope it will come off. Does anyone have any other tricks? This is really starting to suck haha. Are strut tubes available anywhere? I couldn't seem to find them.

[Leon's 260Z]

Ah, thanks for reminding me! I completely forgot about that!

 

haha you know that's got to be the main reason I've decided against getting an alu flywheel for my build, I would constantly worry about the flywheel, and I'd want to pull the engine every 5,000 miles to check the bolts haha. Plus it seems to me like people are always worried about the alu flys shearing. (why is everyone so afraid of this? I've never heard of anything like that before coming to this site.)

[Leon's 260Z]

Urethane engine mounts are available from Mckinney motorsport. I think they are listed in the vendors forum here.

Leon PMed me that too, forgot to thank you though! so thank you! I will be getting those for my car.

 

Finally!

 

 

sweet! looks like a nice piece. Are you going to get the special bolts from mcmaster carr?

[Austin's Z car]

gland nuts are such a ***** . I'm on the first one (driver's side front) and even after some liberal heat, penetrating oil, and a ton of swearing (I don't know whats wrong, it usually works!), I'm on day 4 of project get that f*cking gland nut out. Broke down today and borrowed my dad's 18" monkey wrench and 3 lb sledge. Won't freaking budge. The main problem I'm having is that the monkey wrench slips off the top of the gland nut onto the strut, so I can't get a good whack at it. I'm going to take the whole ass. with me to the bike shop tomorrow, and use some pb blaster + heat + a vise on the gland nut and a cheater pipe. Wish me luck! If that doesn't work... well then I'm going to weld the strut shaft to the gland nut, then a nut to the strut shaft, then I'll try an air rachet on it or some more serious muscle haha. I'm acctually looking forward to the spindle pins, there's only 2 of them! Plus the tool rental should make quick work of it. I think I'm going to non-op the car this week as it's currently not registered. and I'm going to get some mig wire and gas in hopes of having the strongest welds I can get for my coilover set up. I was really hoping to have my front coilovers done by now . Oh well. It gives me some down time to do other front suspension mods. Christmas is coming up soon. I'm hoping I can get some cool parts from my parents.

[What brakes suspension?]

What do you plan to use the car for? This is the answer to your "best set up" there is a FAQ about this... it's under FAQ's: brakes/wheels/suspension, and "what suspension modifications should I do to my Z" It has a handy little guideline of what is recommended by most people as far as what needs to be done. IMO the wilwood kit is overkill and more flash than is needed. People road-race Z's with stock brakes. I am going with the non vented toyota front brakes and some s13 rear disks. Not the most powerful by any means, but my car is just going to be a fun car for the street and it will maybe get some auto-X and track days, but not too many. If you just want a car for the street, you're acctually totaly fine with leaving everything stock. But you are on HBZ, and our M-O is to modify, fabricate, and upgrade. Sorta like that stupid show we have over here called chop cut rebuild, except instead of being a lame TV show, you get to do it yourself . As far as coilovers go... Well when I got my Z (3 months ago), I was sold on getting some s13 coilovers and welding them on. Well... Good thing I researched. Turns out you're much better off with a GC(ground control) kit. I ordered mine through TTT (techno toy tuning) and 2 days later the best showing of machined aluminum and eibach race springs showed up at my door. I recently got some tokico illumina struts which are shorter than stock. Read more about all this in the FAQ's. Search around, get familiar with stuff around here. Google works great for figuring stuff out, there's a surprising amount of Z info on this site and others on the internet. I'm sure you'll love your Z!

[Leon's 260Z]

It's always one or the other, with $ and time! If you have both, you are a lucky man. Lightweight flywheels are a fantastic upgrade, I may have to devote a weekend to get this done. I'll be ordering a new transmission mount (hopefully ridding myself of some high-speed drivetrain vibration), clutch and clutch master (just in case) tonight. I should also take a look at the shifter bushings while in there.

 

If you want the 280Z 5-speed I can sell it to you cheap, I don't feel like storing it once I swap over to my ZX unit.

 

Yes, yes it is! But there is always work that needs to be done that doesn't cost anything in parts, so I find myself doing that kind of thing a lot haha. Yes from what I understand they are. It's funny seeing the difference with modding Z's vs. modding mini's, with the mini people always say to not get too light of a flywheel because then the car isn't street-able. With Z's, everyone seems to just get the lightest they can. I haven't decided if I'll go with the AZC one or a lighter one... Still unsure. Are there any stiffer trans/engine mounts that are made for the Z's? I've heard them mentioned, but I've searched google and here and still haven't come up with any that are made... I love the urethane ones I put into my mini.

 

I might take you up on that! I'll get more details in PM.

[Leon's 260Z]

It should definitely be noticeable. I plan to put in a new clutch and transmission mount in the process. I will also be swapping out my 280Z 5-speed in favor of a 280ZX close-ratio unit I have sitting around. Time to find a chunk of time to do this, I think that is more difficult then actually doing the rest of the work!

 

I hear great things about light flywheels and always wanted one in my mini so it will happen with the z for sure. haha its the opposite for me. I have too much time, money is what I lack haha. but if I sell the mini then that will change. I want a zx 5 speed!

[Austin's Z car]

I think a flex-pipe is more necessary on a transverse mounted engine, where the exhaust tilts up and down with engine torque. I don't worry about it as much on a longitudinally mounted engine, since soft exhaust mounts should be able to accommodate the slight bit of twist (unless your engine mounts are screwed).

 

Nice job, seems like you're moving along nicely!

 

That makes sense... I was only basing it off the fact that it was completely necessary on the mini (fwd car...), or you'd bend, crack, or snap your header . I will not use a flex pipe on this car then! It makes sense now that its not needed on a traditional RWD set up.

 

thanks man! I can't wait to finish it. Im gonna start doing body work soon. I don't think i'll be very happy about doing that haha. does not look fun...

[Austin's Z car]

Just ordered rear mr2 aw11 illumina struts so I can start sectioning the front strut tubes on the Z. Then was looking on ebay and saw some toyota s12-8 calipers that had been on there for weeks for 80 obo. offered the guy 60, he accepted. So I can start setting up my front end with suspension and brakes. Haven't sold the mini yet... but once I do **** will happen! Also pretty much figured out my exhaust- MSA ceramic coated 6-1 wrapped with dei header wrap to a 2.5" custom with a 12" cherry bomb glasspack to a hooker aerochamber. I like a pretty quiet exhaust, hence why I chose to use 2 different mufflers. Are flex pipes required? my gut is to use one, but looking on youtube, it seems like a lot of people's exhausts were moving with revs, which I assume means no flex pipe? What should I do about that?

[Leon's 260Z]

I believe the Fidanza units are 10.8 pounds. This is compared to a stock flywheel which weighs in at something like 25lb!

 

Thats awesome! I bet it'll rev super quickly now. I'm planning on getting the azc 12lb forged one, but maybe I can find a lighter one for not too much money. haha ya it's gonna make a huge difference!

[Leon's 260Z]

Thats awesome! How much does it weigh?

[venturi tubes?]

I knew my snake oil sensors were working! Good thing I asked haha. Another one of those "peformance" products

[240sx rear brake help]

1.) S13; S14 may work as well, but S13 is the 'standard' one that people use with the MM kit.

 

2.) You have to switch out the arms (bracket that attaches to E-brake cable) out from the left to the right and visa versa, which allows the 'MM e-brake relocation bracket' to attach the factory cable to the 240sx caliper; Most people fabricate their own piece for this as it is fairly simple and cheap to do so. This allows the 240sx caliper to function as a parking brake.

 

Worth reading THIS as well if your doing this swap (particularly post #18)

 

Also, please use some spacing... Just having everything in one long paragraph makes it a little difficult to separate the different questions your asking.

 

Thank you for the reply! I will be on the lookout for s13 rear calipers then, thank you!

 

Ok I understand the e-brake thing now. I didn't realize what the relocation bracket acctually did, as I said I thought it was to re-locate that part of the drum on the stock system. Makes sense now, thank you!

 

I will read through that, thank you for the link, I think I totaly understand how this will work now, and I'm glad to know that it will. sorry about the spacing... I guess I hadn't thought to do that.

thanks for your reply!

[240sx rear brake help]

Ok so I'm gonna be doing brakes on the Z soon and I think I have decided to go with the non-vented front toyota's, and the rear 240sx discs with a MM bracket. I'm a little unclear of which brakes I can use for the rear, namely, s13 or s14? I've seen both mentioned. Also, if I'm not mistaken, the calipers have a built in e-brake? The rear brakes on my mini allow a parking brake with a cable that pushes the piston out. The 240sx calipers appear to have the same set up. But MM lists an e-brake relocation bracket, which I assume is to re-locate the stock part of the drum that is used as an e-brake. If I am correct about the e-brake on the caliper, how come no one uses it? Idk if the stock Z e brake had many problems, but seems to me like the sx e-brake set up would be a lot more solid... What're everyone's thoughts on this? I hope I'm not just totaly wrong here... but I most likely am

[z meets in san jose or bayarea?]

I'm in marin and in a few months, I should have my Z up and running... Count me in too.

[venturi tubes?]

Well I was just looking at the exhaust section on summit and found this: http://www.summitracing.com/parts/CCI-PSE250/. I've never heard of these before but I was looking at the venturi effect on wikipedia and it kinda makes sense. That said though, it smells of snake oil to me. Thoughts? I did see a thread somewhere on here (can't remember where) talking about how the japanese have gotten their L series engines to push 400 hp, and there was talk of something similar inside the muffler. So would this add any power? I highly doubt it... but not enough for me to not be curious about it. Who's got some real info on this?