Dragonfly
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Posts posted by Dragonfly
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I can't give any kind of 'real' answer about the aero advantages or disadvantages of the louvers but I can give my opinion... so I will. Any air that is traveling over the car is going to be seperated from the car when it reaches the louvers since the air is going to see a bunch of steps and it won't be able to stay on all of them, so my thoughts are that they have a negative effect on aerodynamics (personal opinion).
As far as I know the louvers were created to provide protection from the sun and some security, the only reason they are stepped is so the occupants can see out the back. I do not think any aerodynamic effects were taken into consideration when these things were dreamed up and hit the market. BTW zwilliams thats a nice looking Z.
Dragonfly
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Is anyone using the inner fender guards? The plastic pieces inside the fender?
I am not... only because I don't have any and have not been able to find any at the local wrecking yards. IMHO they are a good thing.
Dragonfly
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Here are a couple of pics of mine.
Dragonfly
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The diff came from a truck recycle yard and was labeled as 4.63:1, when I pulled it apart and looked at the ring it is stamped 37:8 (or 8:37 don't remember now).
I will be taking the car to racelegal on Friday night for some drag racing and I am expecting a friend of mine to be there with a video camera so I should be able to get some decent vids. I test drove the car to work today then went out at lunch and did a few 'romps', first gear will red line in less than one second, I can launch in second and lay down about 40' of rubber and bark third. Freeway driving is a joke with this diff, it really is for racing only.
Dragonfly
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you went from a 3.54:1 rear diff ratio to a 3.9:1 ratio? Well take that feeling and multiply it by 10 and thats the feeling I got when I pulled out my 3.9:1 and installed a 4.63:1.
Dragonfly
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umm the pic isnt coming up for me but these guys allready make a kit for the s30
I could not see the pic either... but the ebay seller linked above is my friend Jerry of ZRaceProducts, he makes a very high quality product and not only does he stand behind his products I also stand behind his products as I have several of them on my car (and have known Jerry for years). Jerry doesn't spend much time on the forums but I spend a reasonable amount of time here so if anyone has any questions etc. just let me know (or go to http://www.zraceproducts.com).
I have also stated in the past and will say again, if anyone is in the San Diego area (living or visiting) and would like to visit ZRaceProducts in person let me know and I will get you a personal tour.
Dragonfly
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The front end of the Z is not appropriate for the crossmember supported A-arm designs. How many of you have cut open your crossmembers. It is going to require a cage and specific reinforcement to the front end to support the crossmember mounted A-arms. The stock Z car has a highly reinforced TOP side to take the struts loads. The frame rail also spreads out these loads by keeping over a foot between the X-member and the TC buckets. If you guys try to bolt on one of those fancy crossmembers it will buckle your frame rails.
Thats a good piece of information to know. I can tell you I would have certainly found out the hard way. I have been designing in my head for a while a crossmember mounted A-arm front suspension very much like the one shown in the article I posted above, looks like I may have to change it up a bit.
Dragonfly
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It took me awhile to find this link http://www.britishv8.org/Articles/MGB-Front-Suspension-Upgrade.htm but I had read about this in a magazine and thought that something like this could be made for a Z car and bolted into the stock cross member location. By scratch building something like this someone could put the steering rack in front of or behind the cross member.
Dragonfly
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My daily driver is sitting beside the Z...
The Z is a weekend warior and a "cruising with the Z club" car now. I used the Z for a primary car for years and I think it has earned the right to rest in a comfortable garage and only be brought out for special occasions (which could be nearly anything).
Dragonfly
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Here are some other pictures I have, I do not remember where I got them from but I think they came from Hybridz but I am not sure.
Personaly I realy like the potential with this idea although I have a slightly different aproach in my mind for solidly holding everything in place.
Dragonfly
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There will be another round of testing, and hopefully Mayolives RedBird will be in the tunnel. His car does have a rear difuser and will be able to answer some of the speculation.
Mike
That would be great, Red Bird is one of my insperations.
Here is the diffuser on Red Bird.
This pic came from Hybridz.
Dragonfly
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I was fortunate enough to be able to det a close look at a GT40 up close and personal so I took a few pictures. I know there have been a lot of discussions on diffusers and since none were tested in the wind tunnel on a Z I thought maybe we could learn a little from the design that I am sure Ford tested in a wind tunnel before releasing this car to the general public. Any way here are the pics.
I would think that it would not be to hard to adapt something like that to the Z, what do you guys think?
Dragonfly
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I was at the vintage races recently and I took a few pictures of things that you normally do not get to see... I felt this one would be good in this thread.
I realize this is a rear engined car with a transaxle but the suspension setup should get some brains going on here. This is the car that this suspension shot came from.
As a side note... take a look at the angle of that radiator.
Dragonfly
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Does anyone know how they started? It was fine yesterday morning and they just exploded all over...
I have heard (but it is not confirmed) that at least one of the fires started from a power line that was blown down by the santa ana winds. The fire that is burning in San Ysidro was started by some students at the local high school, no one has said why they started it but the police have them in custody. I do not know about the others.
Dragonfly
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Hey, know how you feel about the fire we got some up here in LA/OC too. Hopefully no lives or houses are lost down there (I am not sure what damage is done since I just hear fire fire fire on the radio and can't really distinguish the locations)
There has been at least one fatality directly related to the fire and there have been numerous homes burned. At this point they do not have any sort of count of the number of homes lost but it is believed to be pretty high. As of right now there have been 250,000 people who have been manditorily evacuated.
Dragonfly
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As many of may have heard by now San Diego is on fire, for those who remember or are aware of the Cedar Fire in San Diego back in 2003 which was at that time the most devistating fire in SD history burned for several days. This fire has in less than 24 hours burned more acreage and more structures and it seems to be growing expodentialy. The did say on the radio that this fire is being called "the perfect storm" of fires due to sustaned 30mph winds with gust up to 80mph and humidity levels as low as 0%, they also said that there is speculation this fire will make it all the way to the ocean in places.
At this time I am not in any danger and have not been advised to prepare to evacuate, but I have friends who live in the manditory evacuation areas. I have only been able to talk to one of them and he is a member here as well, he is also the one I am most concerned about because he has refused to leave his home (at least when I talked to him he was at his house and refusing to leave).
As I learn more I will post it. Here is a link (if it works) that shows the smoke from the fires on the NOAA radar system. http://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?product=N0R&rid=NKX&loop=yes
Dragonfly
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I have an excel spreadsheet that I created a long time ago for transmission/rear diff ratio calculations but as a part of this spreadsheet I also have a place where you can enter a tire size (example 215/60/14) and it will tell you the width of the tire at the tread (this will vary by about 1/2" depending on manufacturer). As a general rule of thumb your tread width will be about 3/4" to 1" greater than your bead width and you can use a tire that is + or - 1" in bead width from the rims bead width. It is important to remember that this can and will change from one manufacturer to another, this is only a general rule of thumb.
If you would like a copy of this spreadsheet send me a PM with your email address and I will email it to you. There are instructions on the first page, read them before you start playing with the "calculator".
Dragonfly
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Some times when you find yourself in a situation like that you have to become quite inventive with what is around you. I had a similar situation where it was a 4 lug instead of a 5 lug and I found that a mustache bar fit over two of the lug bolts and I could turn the axle enough to bind the mustache bar against the bottom "edge" of the car which allowed me to break the nut loose. On the other side of the car it would not wedge so I found a tire iron in another car and put in through the bushing of the mustache bar until it held and then I broke that side loose as well.
Good luck and don't be afraid to use whatever may be laying around or hooked to another car to get the job done.
Dragonfly
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Remember this pic? Hybridz Hooters Bash 2003 (MSA Show weekend)
Hey I remember that... that picture must have been taken when I got up to use the bathroom.?. Actualy there are a few faces missing from that pic, but it was a good time and I still have the great memories.
Dragonfly
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I am not familiar with the MM setup but I do know that even though it may take a couple of days Ross is very good about helping people out with any questions they may have about his products. Try giving him a call, sending him an emial or PM him.
Dragonfly
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I was at Ecology (on Herritage road) today and there is a 71' 240Z there that was obviously someones project car. The car has been stripped pretty clean but the doors are both still on it and they are in pristine condition. I looked them over pretty good and could not find any rust or any bondo, they do not have windows in them or the window mechanism so I could see the condition quite well.
For anyone local who may be interested in it you should probably hurry because when the cars get stripped to the point this one is they remove them pretty quickly. The car is in the next to the last row about 4 cars from the end all the way back in the corner (for those who have been to this yard before you will know where I am talking about) of the section where the foriegn cars are.
These are the early doors with the very thin and light crash bar in them, they are primered and in over all very good shape. The rubber parts are pretty rough and the mirrors have been pulled off. I think Ecology charges around $40 for a single door but I am not positive so don't take that as fact.
Dragonfly
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Another Optima in a plastic box in the spare tire well. I also realized that of all the pictures I have of my car I do not have any of the battery/location.
Dragonfly
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Nissan took the very simple SU style carb and added a bunch of complexity to it in order to try to meet emissions requirements. All the extra stuff added to the carbs caused them to become extremely finicky, they also added a power valve and extra internal metered orafices none of which worked very well.
Dragonfly
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On the subject of weighing "one half" of the spring... couldnt you tie a string in the center (or the center of gravity, or the point beyond which the spring sees no motion, unsure which) and then fasten the other end of the string to a fixed arm, and weigh the moving end? If it's a matter of finding the center of gravity, I am sure you could get at LEAST a guesstimate based on the length of coil on moving end versus length of coil on stationary end..
I would think that it could be done the way you described but you would almost require labratory type conditions in order to have any real accuracy and repeatability. A lot of people would consider going as far as I described initally as going beyond the point of deminishing returns, I feel that the additional complexity of creating a biased weight for the springs (inner and outer) has truly gone beyond the point of deminishing returns. One of the things to keep in mind about this entire procedure is that it is not creating any power it is only assisting longevity of the parts. As stated in the other thread the time could be used better in other places (as far as creating additional power).
In a nut shell by doing this balancing work you are creating a more fluid interaction of parts which in general will cause the parts to last longer and handle greater extremes but will not create any power that is not already there.
Dragonfly
Fender Vents
in Fabrication / Welding
Posted
Thanks. I personaly used a 1" hole saw but what I wanted to use and would recomend is a hole punch (I think thats what it is called). A hole punch uses two pieces and a bolt, you drill a small hole that the bolt can fit through then you put the die piece on one side and the punch piece on the other side of the panel, put the bolt through the two pieces (and the hole you drilled for it in the panel) then tighten the bolt, it pulls the punch piece through the sheet metal and into the die piece cutting a perfect hole. The flaring of the hole is done in a similar process as above but the pieces create a flare rather than a hole, the flare increases the strength of the metal at the point were the hole is so that you have not degraded the strength of the part/panel.
I should have probably mentioned that my vents orriginated on an 81 Camaro.
Dragonfly