Zetsaz

Stock diameter I think is alright with wider wheels. 245/50/16 looks good honestly, but 225/60/15 has only a few options, and they're all basic all seasons As much as I want Watanabes in maybe a 16x8 0 offset I may just end up with the Panasports that Z Car Garage offers in a 16x7 with a slight positive offset. I'm not completely sold on the +11(?) offset of those. They're on a ton of Z's, and I think they would look a bit better as a 16x8, but short of something custom and over double the price I just don't think I'm going to get exactly what I want

Feels like the options for smaller wheels are just becoming impossible to find, at least in the US. Europe and Japan still have lots of small new cars, so I think they have a couple more options. Even the more popular size Miatas use in 225/45/15 I can only find in 200tw, but they're so much shorter than stock, I think they always look terrible and out of proportion on the Z Potenza sport looks okay. I think the 052 is out of the question as a 200tw, but moreso because of the cost. I'm trying to keep it under $200 per tire so I can spare some change for the wheels. Right now I'm thinking of the Continental Extreme Contact Sport 02. They're 340tw, but supposedly slightly better on the comfort than most other options, which I have started to care more about now that the car is much nicer haha. Know the Toyo Proxes R1R are popular for some guys running 16s, but they're only in a 225/45 profile. I appreciate the support! I know many posts have nothing people can really respond to, so sometimes it feels like you're just typing into the wind, so I appreciate that people have been enjoying the build all these years.

Update - The Kumho tires I was using as a street option are no longer available. It looks like the only tire options in 225/50 are all 200 treadwear or under, so basically track only. I'd be interested in a couple of the 200tw options, but it seems like a lot of wear and expensive for a cruiser, so it looks like moving up to 16" wheels is the only option now

Not much to update on the car. Slowly thinking of the next batch of improvements. The struggle now is it's mostly in a really good place, so short of spending huge money on something like a change over to a Haltech R3 to control everything there's not too much. Current "smaller" considerations are the following: -Cam swap to a "small" Steve Bonk turbo cam - the lobe center/lobe separation on mine is just too wide for what I want. Bonk cam would get me more responsive in the low to mid range, with probably only a small sacrifice at higher rpm where I spend almost no time anyway. -Swap to my 3.57 r200 and rebuild with the OEM kit and OS Giken LSD I have waiting. Should give me better cruising rpm and supposedly better loading on the turbo for improved boost -New tires (and new wheels?) My tire options are just so limited for tires or something a bit more street friendly than 200tw that moving to 16" wheels might be the best solution. I'm now thinking that most of my road noise complaints are actually the current tires being near the end of their life. They've been on for years now and I think it's time to finally switch them out no matter what. -Switching back to the OEM style front diff mount with a Kameari piece, and possibly even the OEM mustache bar. There's a small chance the T3 bar is fouling against the spare tire compartment and adding to drivetrain noise, but it also just feels like unnecessary bling. Looks great from underneath, but might be wasted money.

Was looking for an old post from you because of the Panasport wheels you had and remembered this great thread. Any good progress since last year?

There's a reason I defer to "experts" for most things. You can be relatively knowledgeable about a lot of things, but no one can have truly extensive knowledge of more than just a few things. True expertise and experience just requires so much time and commitment. What engine is that?? Very exciting! After many roadtrips in my car and realizing it is fully a street car, I've been brainstorming going fully the opposite direction as you and focusing on making it more comfortable, even if it means moderate sacrifices to handling.

After a 2000+mile trip this summer in the Z I'm inclined to agree with this. Part if me is tempted to go back to stock arms on rubber, are at least all poly instead of some of the heim joints on my T3 parts. The performance benefit of some aftermarket arms is marginal at best. That said, the tension rods might be one place where solid almost makes some sense even on a street car because changes will be more noticeable there under braking.

By "tightened up" do you mean you just cranked down on the nut? If your front bearings need to be replaced that's one thing, but you should definitely not just tighten them down. Did you follow the FSM procedures for proper torque on the front hubs? It's way less than you would expect. The nut gets torqued to 20ft lbs then *backed off by 60 degrees. I had a front wheel bearing fail pretty catastrophically last summer and the race bored out the hub. Most likely cause was that it was just too tight. initially and failed prematurely then seized suddenly and basically friction welded itself.

About 800 miles later. Running smooth. Temps with the new e fans were steady all the way. Only time they climbed a *little* was on very long uphill stretches. But it's to be expected when the turbo is getting loaded more and the return coolant line from the turbo goes straight to the thermostat. Overall very smooth, and as usual the long trip gave me a variety of small things to start looking at. Definitely want to update the mounting on the exhaust, just a bit too much movement and occasionally tapping the back and making some noise. New mounting method and the bigger muffler will make it downright comfortable on long drives.

Final update before road tripping tomorrow. I was so bothered by the vibrations last night come back home from my niece's birthday that I decided to pull off the front diff mount and inspect. It looks like the bolt through the bushing was either loose or the upper piece of the mount was warped and didn't let the side squeeze right on the bushing. Bottom was rattling back and forth when I moved it after taking off the cross member. 3 hours worth of work later and putting the RT top mount on instead I tested and the vibrations are gone! I had to grind part of the bolt going through the bushing to pull it out because I couldn't get any leverage on the bolts going through the diff and they block each other. For a moment I thought it was placebo, so I kept finding multiple loads and speeds that it would vibrate the most at last night and got nothing. The biggest difference is the lock mechanism on the seatbelts is never rattling anymore which was a huge annoyance. TL;DR - the T3 diff mount (not the cross member itself) is probably needlessly complicated and is just too many parts stuffed into a tiny space.

It's going to be good! I had to wait months for it, but it once it was ready to go shopping was very fast. Even with tariffs on entry it cost me much less than it would have from a vendor here in the US

Actually now that you mention it, I'm 99% certain the tires were not mounted correctly initially. The marks are long gone though, so my friend did the best he could. But This is the last trip on these tires and maybe these wheels so I'm not too stressed about it. More annoyed by the vibration under light load right now. That said, at around 70mph there's enough load in most situations that it's almost nonexistent and any slight noise it was making from 45-60ish is completely covered up by the wind and even other cars' tire noise while driving. I think I'm gonna switch back to the RT top mount tomorrow morning before the trip and if it's not better I'll just deal with it. The T3 mount they switched to on their front diff cross member is just so tightly packaged that I feel like it might be amplifying some of the noise or actually causing it. Part of me wants to just go to stock or a Kameari mount and the RT snubber on top

It was a good idea not to wait on rebuilding the 3.54 diff. The new LSD arrived weeks after I expected it and there's no shot I would have been able to swap it into the spare R200 before my trip. I'm excited to get this together in the winter though!

Got the front speakers in today! Considering none of the speakers are big it's not particularly impressive, but it sounds alright for a 50 year old car. More incentive for me to go to a quieter muffler next year which I didn't get to do this time around. Got the tires balanced and was surprised just how poorly balanced these things are. My new Panasport spare only need 1/2oz, these needed... So much more I won't bother counting each. The vibrating I was tracking down is 90% gone and now I can't tell what's left of it. With the wheels and driveshaft balanced it's almost entirely gone but over 50mph I'm still getting some vibrations on very low load - so cruising speed. The moment push the pedal a bit for even slow acceleration it's gone and when I'm off the throttle it's also gone.

My new speaker pods arrived, and I wired up my Spal fans and shroud from Galgo today! Need some more speaker wire that I'll pick up tomorrow. Fans work really well. Have them set to turn on at 185 and off at 175 in megasquirt.