Ben280

Small pre-black friday update. My buddy Mark came to help me out with a lot of the chassis wiring. We got a huge amount done, but there is always more to do it seems. He's gonna come back and do all the pinning for the AS connectors, since they require special tooling that I don't have. Mark shrinking the T on the PDM run Bulkheads for the wires, pretty excited about this. Biggest will be the engine harness, 66 pins, and we are using 62 of them! I also got the frame plated and the engine mocked. Using a reverse mount starter, so I'll need to cut some clearance for that thing, and I MAY need to re-make the Apex Engineered motor mount for the passenger side, depending on the dry sump setup, and how the pump wants to integrate. Really it's time to buy some parts and get this short block put together. Really happy with the motor placement so far. Nice and low and plenty far back. I picked up some CX Racing headers, which I expect to need to modify before final purpose. Ohm said they work well with their kit, but I'm thinking they will hang too low. Ohm also send over some small fabrication parts so I can convert my sub frame from a long nose diff mount to a short nose diff mount! Still on the fence about using the Q45 diff I have or using a 350z/G35 center. I need to do some more gear math, but I'm thinking this will be a bit down the road once everything else is working.

@jhmThe basic tools you mentioned are often more than most bring with them to the track, and they can be super illuminating for issues. I think the iphone vs android debate boils down to which you have. If we are trying to bring folks into the data-sphere, lowering barriers to entry is huge. Having ANYTHING for timing etc, is going to be helpful. If, like Jon is, looking for a new device, I think Android is the better choice, since the two more involved apps I am aware of for this, on will only work in an Android environment. Solostorm is not an inexpensive situation ($220: https://www.petreldata.com/product/solostorm-autocross-data-logger-for-android/) but it is very powerful. Other tools like Harrys Lap Time or Track Addict Pro are good, but do rely on the inherent tools built into the phones. If you have a bluetooth OBD-II scanner and a bluetooth GPS, that will get you much further than most. Since most Z cars don't have OBD-II however... For my rebuild, I looked heavily into a AIM system. The Solo-2 DL is a really good option that doesn't require a lot of adding in, and the AIM telemetry software is really well supported. Ended up going with MOTEC since their system is also really well supported, and a few folks I race with quite a lot also run them so it will be easy to get support and compare notes.

I think you would be really happy with a solostorm setup. My racecapture setup was great for a car running stand alone, you can capture CAN signals with it and pull the data you want out of it. The app itself is fairly friendly too!

Small update. Been traveling a ton for work, so progress is limited to getting parts in the shop. Heads have been dropped at the machine shop, decking them by 0.025", cleaning them up and an inspection, along with fresh springs and Ti retainers. Gotta have a chat with them about which camshaft to use, but I'm leaning towards a BTR stage 3. My Apex Engineered subframe for the swap came in on Monday, and I set about installing it. Prior to my ownership of this car, somebody had crashed it. Drivers side wheel did something wild, and the tension rod went on a skyward adventure. It put a pretty reasonable dent in the frame rail, and pushed the whole thing in about 3/4". nice little dent... With adjustable suspension, it all aligned out, and apart from being a bit unsightly, never posed a problem. Installing the Apex piece tho, it was sitting fairly crooked, and I knew it was time to adjust the frame more or less back to where it came. this is fine, what are you worried about!? I also noticed a small crack on a ripple, inboard of the sub frame mount. It's a fairly old crack, got a little corrosion on the face, so it's not from this bottle jack adventure, but that will require drilling, welding and plating. A good weekend project I think. uhhhhhhhhhh Got the Apex Engineered swap subframe in, and it's within 1/16" square measuring from the firewall, itself a bit sketchy, but it was 1/2" before! Also got the dry sump tank in, and started mocking that into position. I have a buddy with a 4 stage Aviaid dry sump kit he's willing to part with, so I'm picking that up. yay more holes to cut. Getting excited to mock up the motor position, and get some more weight on the front of the car. I'm struggling to get the rear jacks far back enough, the nose is easily lifted by hand at this point!

Responding to @clarkspeed initial question, "what data is needed starting out" I have thoughts. In addition to @jhmcomments about tracking suspension and temps which are fantastic for a consistent car platform, TIMING AND VIDEO! If you don't have reliable timing you have nothing. Particularly for a competitive or track environment, and are seeking improvement, reliable timers will tell you if you did something correct or incorrect on that lap. Devices like the AIM Solo2 solve that problem quickly and easily. This also allows you to compare your times with others, and get a sense for how fast you should be able to go vs how fast you are going. Video is crucial as a learning tool, (and to show your friends), so you can remember back and see where things went wrong. Our brains don't do well recalling fast paced events, and often times that lap where you thought you were fully on the apex of every corner and pushing as hard as possible, will look tame, and have obvious mistakes you can improve upon. Video also allows you to share something with a coach, buddy or new track friend to help improve. Moving on from the basics, I want to start capturing granular data about the car's driver influenced performance. Things like cornering G, braking and accel G, TPS position, brake pressures (and by extent how much brake we used) and steering angle. Those are in order of complexity to add. G force will be easy, and generally handled by the timing device, assuming you got a good one. You did get a good one right? Harry's Lap Timer isn't viable in a data discussion. TPS will be tracked by most ECU's, assuming you are running any kind of stand alone. Brake Pressure is "easy" to add with a little plumbing and some new wires to the data logger/timer. Steering angle is tough, but I have faith in you. With these, we can see how hard we are accelerating, when we are accelerating and for how long, where we brake and how much, and where we turn. We can use all this to start tuning consistency and identifying more granular trends. Did the video show snap oversteer out of a corner and a slow time? Our data trace shows that on one lap we were longer at a high throttle percentage but speed doesn't pick up accordingly. We can go back, and see that we applied less brake pressure on entry, our corner exit speed was 5mph higher than other laps, but we didn't change our throttle behavior on exit. Easy time pickup with some very simple tools. You can do most of that with GPS and accelerometers alone, but more sensors allow additional granularity. Moving on from there we start spending the big bucks, and really, it's not appropriate unless we are racing for some real stakes. Things like linear shock pots, radar ride height sensors, IR/temp sensors for tires and brakes, engine health monitoring etc. We can go as wild as we want, but unless we are 100% fully optimizing a chassis, it's fully overkill. One thing to think about with Z's or any other car, as we add components, can we get those components to talk via CAN or other protocols to each other, and get important data out of them. New cars have more data than we know what to do with, old cars we can spec up to get what we need!

@JMortensen For phone based DA, Android is still the best bet. Solostorm, which is the defacto standard for autox, and has a very good time trial/hill climb mode is only available for android. Similarly, RaceCapture is only available on android mobile devices, although possible to run in a mac desktop environment. In general, I think a dedicated hardware device is going to be more accurate and give you real feedback vs a phone. Devices like the RaceCapture Pro series, which is essentially the megasquirt of data loggers is the easiest way to get a high quality accelerometer and GPS into a car I think. Look for stuff like CANBUS, wifi networks or bluetooth to connect to things, but I (and others) have found that phones just don't have accurate enough accelerometers or gyros, and too low of a GPS refresh rate to be useful for positional information. I ran Solostorm and a RaceCapture Pro2 for years in my car, and am finally moving away from it to a dedicated logging dash. Good stuff IMO.

I've got the CHE kit waiting on my desk! I tried to buy the BTS 1.7 ratio rockers, but CHE specs that they slide into OEM ONLY! So, getting my return shipping pants on and ordered some factory style cores from Michigan Motorsport, along with a host of other parts. No big updates yet, just amassing parts and talking with folks. Got my Tilton bellhousing from Ebay, this one came with a reverse starter and is designed for a 110 tooth flywheel, rather than a cover mounted piece. I might need to machine the starter mount to clock the solenoid correctly, but it's a pretty simple 3 bolt pattern. The tilton bellhousing is really small, and way lighter than the old one I was using for the L. Gets me about 2" additional clearance, and seems like it should keep things nice and high behind the motor. the belly of the transmission is sitting on some lumber at a height where the old bellhousing JUST cleared the bench top. New guy is way up there. Also looking at dry sump parts. Thanks @tube80z for lighting that particular fire haha.

I am looking into watercooled credit cards at the moment I scored one of the Tilton bellhousing/starter motors for a good price. It's designed to use the 110T 9" flywheel with a 7.25" clutch. Planning to get the flywheel and clutch new so I can spec the spring weights from Tilton, and not worry about the friction materials. Tore down the L33, nothing too surprising inside, so I'm calling the machine shop for some parts advice and then the rest. Also picked up a 3.54 R200 diff from @Willflow, need to do a bit of investigating but I'm planning to re-bearing it and then put my rebuilt ATS LSD and s13 stub axles inside. We'll see, could be interesting. Might need to press pause on the dry sump for now, (see water cooled credit card joke from earlier) but those links are super helpful!!! Side note, how to I get the little thumbs up button? I hear people talk about it but I don't see it.

@tube80z good intel! I'm not familiar with the Aussie CAT damper, (my google searches aren't turning much up), any more info on how that works? Looking at how much the good oil pans cost, I'm thinking dry sump might happen sooner rather than later. However, this is for sure a case of scope creep. I mentioned this a little bit, but my original off season plans included re-wiring most of the car, and I had already committed to a number of those purchases. At this point, not that i am trying to cheaply get the motor in the car, but a hundred bucks here or there is starting to look appealing for deals. I'll admit as well that I'm learning as I go, but trying to get a full picture of what's happening for the systems in the motor before I go too wild. NASCAR Ebay is for sure my favorite ebay, lots of good stuff to be had there! Planning on going with the quartermaster clutch kit, but I keep looking through Ebay and thinking I might try and piece something together. The price difference between Quartermaster and Tilton is eye opening, but I've had MUCH better luck with Tilton customer service thus far.

Thinking about the oiling system, not sure if I'll have the budget to go dry sump right away. Need to explore. 706 heads are a good tip, I think I'll wind up with a pretty agressive cam, and a fully redone valvetrain. Likely going to deck the 799 head to bump the compression. The 799 has better flow than the 706, but the lower factory compression combo is limiting! Fixing the trunnions is high on the to do list, but I think swapping in billet rockers might be the best route. Been enjoying Richard's videos, that's in part why I picked this motor!

I think annoying as it might be, the worm drive gear might be a wear item on the race engines, with hourly requirements on replacement. Certainly something to inspect with more frequency than I expected.

Now you're talkin'! New motor arrived home today. L33, but not the L33 you might be thinking! The truck oil pan and intake are HUGE, we will be replacing those, along with most of the other stuff. Nice to have a solid, running/driving baseline. The yard I got it from supplied hot compression numbers, (165psi) so the bottom end should be solid enough for now. I'll pop most of these accessories off, take a look at the heads, and probably send them out to be cleaned up. Still need to order the bellhousing kit, I'm getting a bit hung up on the reverse mount starter and getting enough trans tunnel clearance.

Haha! I'm all for a discussion about important race related matters such as oil pressure. I might be unhappy to be the catalyst for such discussions, but not disappointed to host them in my build thread. I've started working on the wiring harness. I have a friend who builds some really spectacular stuff for prototype cars, and offered to help me get a new engine and chassis harness sorted out for this car. We are trying to do it right, and he's managed to score some pretty serious hardware for me. We are using a Motec PDM32 which is all autosport connectors. One thing has lead to another, and he might be going a bit wild on the construction with the twisting and sheathing. This is all going to look hilarious next to my Megasquirt ECU (rebranded as a Notec from here on out!)

Latest and greatest update. Moving on from the Koni/GC combo finally. I worked with Jonathan at Shaftworks to build some custom dimensioned struts for the car. The fronts have S13 mounting dimensions (which I built my front uprights to accept) and the rear are 2002-2005 WRX. I'll probably have to put some serious work into the rear T3 knuckles to accept that fit, but we'll see.

The Z (with higher RPM) would just hit 130 on the front straight. The video I posted is WOT until the 2 cone marker, and just hitting that marker. With more power and less gear, I'd probably be pinging rev limiter until the brakezone. Most modern high performance cars cars are getting 140-150. The 800hp Viper that holds the production record there tagged 171 on the front straight, and camero ZL1-1LE's will get to about 150. No interest in Pacific, but the COTNW in Bremerton looks really interesting! I like the idea of running dual sensors @tube80z, you'll hear a lot of radio chatter about failing out sensors. It's also just good practice to get good sensors, and keep tabs on em! Intermittent electrical issues are the worst! With the swap, I'm going to be re-wiring the front half of the car. Prior to my motor exploding, I'd gotten my hands on a Motec C125 dash and a PDM30. Need some other accessories, but this seems like a real good time to get them installed!