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Everything posted by Ben280
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I have a full KA/SR trans swap that I'd sell. Trans + shifter, crossmember for the 280z, and driveshaft.
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280z 15x10 wheel question, zg flares
Ben280 replied to plural's topic in S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z
You'll be fine on the frame. There's a lot of suspension arms and sway bar to run into before you hit the body of the car, and even those are tricky to hit. I had wheels in almost the exact same spec (mine were 15x10 4.5"BS and 15x11 5"BS). Only reason it works was I used a quick steer knuckle, bringing the tie-rod closer to the hub and more inboard. -
280z 15x10 wheel question, zg flares
Ben280 replied to plural's topic in S30 Series - 240z, 260z, 280z
A 15x10 -25 in the front will hit the steering knuckle ball joint. Even a -38 comes close. -
Are these wheels Watanabe? or..
Ben280 replied to unterbergamotten3's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
Those are Atara racing wheels. Not sure what sizes they make, but you can always send them a message on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AtaraRacing/ Watanabe wheels do get into the 17's but not the width you are hoping for. You might be better off looking for or building a set of Panasport C8's. -
Thanks man! We can only get about 1g of acceleration, (22mph per second), some of our competitors can get close to 1.8!! Could do with a slightly more torquey gear to pull out of corners, but that really hurts top speed. Dang tradeoffs!
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Little bit of video from the last event of the season.
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Another season done and dusted. Huge improvements in the car, just really figuring out how to wheel this machine! The car ran 10 events with the OR-SCCA and scored in the top 5 (overall) 5 times, and got 3 fast time of the day! Pretty excited to be getting to this level, there's still some optimizing on the car, but a lot of it is just going to be improving the driver! Hoping this off season to complete the switch to e85 and put in a new steering rack. I've already got quick knuckles and the 240z rack, but it's still not quick enough, I'd really like to be at 1.5 turns lock to lock. Steering is pretty limited by tire clearance, so the middle shouldn't be too twitchy. Will be doing some measurements and then calling Woodward.
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How have I never seen this build before!! Good lord this is gorgeous. Excited to see what livery design you decide to go with.
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Underwhelming Lap Times
Ben280 replied to Twisted46's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
https://www.silverminemotors.com/240z-260z-280z-camber-plates-bolt-in-lowering-kit These might do the trick for you, would be easy to make a spacer if you wanted some height back in the nose of the car. -
Underwhelming Lap Times
Ben280 replied to Twisted46's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
I am running Koni 8611 inserts. Don't remember the specific lengths, but they come in a variety of sizes. I've had several conversations with Lee Grimes at Koni NA and he has said that the spring rate/weight of the car are well within the capabilities of these shocks. They are also rebuildable and have custom valving options if you need to get wild. The front bar isn't adjustable, but I'm planning to switch to a speedway style 3 piece bar this winter. I'll be making that somewhat adjustable, but more importantly, getting rid of the damn rubber endlink! You might be able to re-drill the upper mounts to get some more camber, but without switching away from the OEM rubber pile, I don't think you have enough range of motion. I can't remember how much room is in there with the factory suspension, but I suspect it's not much. I would guess tho that you could use some combo of the T3 upper spring seats along with their bolt in camber plates, and not lower the car toooo much. Would be a small investment and parts you could easily sell or put on a shelf for when you do get coilovers. -
I'd look for a tube nut that corresponded with that tube size, then use a male/male adapter to get to -6AN. I'm guessing that the tube you referenced in the other thread is a -5 AN size (most of the hard lines on these cars are) but I'd measure it with a vernier caliper before buying tube nuts! Parts list if this is the correct solution: Tube Nuts - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-581805erl/overview/ Tube Sleeve - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/aer-fbm3679 Adapter - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ear-991907erl/overview/ Again, this assumes the tube on the tank is a -5AN size. Otherwise, just buy the appropriate pieces! Another note, -3AN will be 3/16", -4AN will be 1/4" and -5AN will be 5/16". Get the tube clean and measure the OD!
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Underwhelming Lap Times
Ben280 replied to Twisted46's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
Cars always develop slowly, but it looks like you're heading in a solid direction. Lap data is the best! Nice work analyzing. I've used RaceRender for lining up video for comparison, and had pretty good luck. Although with an 11 second gap it might become not super useful quickly. For reference on getting rid of body roll etc, I am a big fan on these cars of controlling the roll with springs. My car might not be the best example since it's auto-x focus and the setup is fairly aggressive, but I'm running 500lbs front springs, 400lbs rear, the 1" MSA front bar and no rear bar. The rear end has a very aggressive 1 way KAAZ diff and 3.90 gears. It's also very low, and I've got roll center adjusters in the front along with quick knuckles and have re-drilled the front subframe to further correct the roll centers. The end result is a car with a super responsive front end, but it's not a struggle to keep the rear end under control. Post up some video links if you get a chance! -
Underwhelming Lap Times
Ben280 replied to Twisted46's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
First, a dumb question. I know Mid-Ohio has two configurations, were these laps done on the same track layout? Second, an essentially OEM strut and spring, refreshed balljoints and poly bushings do not a race car make, even with a sticky tire. All that with a stock front bar make me think that if the car felt great and you were getting loose on corner exit, you probably aren't anywhere near the performance envelope of the tire. If this is going to be a track car I'd look into a good alignment, making sure you have good brakes, verify power levels/healthy motor, then start ticking off bigger projects like a good coilover setup (Koni or MCS), lowering the car and putting heavier springs/sway bar on it. -
Looking good!
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Drill and tap the intake runners!!! I'm assuming the intakes you are all using don't have bosses already, but that's where you should be drawing vac from if you don't have dedicated ports. The kit for the Jenvey ITB's from Datsun Spirit have these ports built into the manifold. Boogering up the ITB bodies are not the way to do this, the OER piece tioga mentioned is a nice way to add the port as well if you don't want to mess with drilling and tapping the intake.
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Fair! My motor rarely lives in a high vacuum area of the VE table, I guess I am/was assuming OP's motor will be in a similar state, which isn't a good position. In my initial post I think I was hung up on the idea of a rising rate FPR in terms of boost, and was confused why OP would want that on a NA car. (I also mis-read IAC as IAT, soooo maybe I should have my reading comprehension skills checked lol!) Thanks for clarifying and adding some facts!
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Jump on it, say thanks and don't look back! A quick craigslist search on the left coast shows precious little for under $5000, and nothing with even a third the parts you have in that car. Grab it, fix the rust and enjoy having your car back, it's a feeling I know numerous members of the car community wish they could have.
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Aftermarket Front Control Arms
Ben280 replied to Ben280's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
Which one are you running on your spindles? Was tough to tell how they sized them from the website and I'm not THAT ready to take my hubs apart. I see they have a Datsun roadster one on the shelf? I do really like the advantage it provides when tightening the hub! It's been a real adventure seeing what will break on this car with the different loads that I'm subjecting it too. So far nothing critical, but I need to go through it again this winter! -
On a street driven car traditional plenum style intake sure! Referencing engine vacuum is useful while the car is at idle to improve fuel economy and maybe a LITTLE drivability, and in a boosted configuration it's essential to a safe motor. In my particular case, (NA, spends a lot of time at WOT) I would rather provide the ECU with a good MAP signal, and use the VE tables in the computer to control fueling. I think particularly with ITB's they develop such poor vacuum at really anything above 30% throttle, having the FPR reference anything is diminishing returns. For me, it's one more thing that can break, so I ignore it. I'm not a tuning wizard, but I've been running my fuel setup like this for 6+ years and have made pretty good power so far!
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Those look great! For getting good MAP signal, be sure to run all the lines together into some sort of manifold. ITB's are annoying to tune already, having weak MAP signal will make it 10x worse, particularly at low end where presumable the ECU is going to actually attempt to reference MAP. Not sure that you need vac signal to your FPR, most EFI installs want constant pressure. Personally, I would put the IAC sensor on a bracket near the intake horns. Something about trying to get a temp signal from vacuum seems off to me.
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Aftermarket Front Control Arms
Ben280 replied to Ben280's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
Sorry, I was confused about the bearing spacer that you and Jon had mentioned. That part seems very trick, but I'll likely move towards a custom upright like you've pictured, so I'm not sure how much more optimization I care to give to these old parts. I think I'll take up up on that. PM sent. -
Aftermarket Front Control Arms
Ben280 replied to Ben280's topic in Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis
Thanks @tube80z! I was hoping you'd reply. Good tips on what to look for. I was thinking that the GTX2/AE arms are close enough to what I'd build that it might be worth it to just get them, and then modify as needed. The T3 stock style arms are a good option, and could likely be beefed up to suit my needs with some more structure and weld in sleeves for sphericals. No gussets on my struts yet, or bearing spacers yet, care to enlighten me on the bearings?! Sounds like a good mod for the off season! I need to do some testing and see where my bending is coming from. I'm using an aluminum hub and custom 2 piece rotors with aluminum hats. These issues became apparent after the most recent event in Canada with a couple almost full lock turns, so I suspect the "bending" is largely steering lock and some goofy interference. Car is in the air at the moment, I need to pull a spring and run the suspension through its range. @JMortensen I don't have issues with pad knockback, although with the scalloped rotors there is a LOT of feedback through the pedal. I'll keep y'all posted. -
It's time for a new set of front control arms on the Z. My rotors are flexing enough under load that they are grinding away the corners of the Arizona Z arms, so I need to change to different style. Looking between the Apex Engineered and the Techno Toy Tuning arms, but I'm torn on both so I'm reaching out to y'all! Initial thoughts are that the -Techno arms look to come with better heim joints (3 piece teflon lined) compared to the AE arms -AE ball joint is a circle track style (re-packable/greasable), Techno arms look to be a spherical bearing? Tough to tell from photos -AE arms look to be more rigid because of the way the tension rod mount connects to much more of the arm compared to the techno arms. Can anyone with experience with either of these share some thoughts on their likes/dislikes of these designs? Specifically curious about the heims/balljoints. THANKS!
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What ECU are you using? To me, splitting the engine harness to exit through two holes and then rejoin at different connectors sounds like an easily avoided nightmare. I'd suggest running everything out of the tunnel, unless you wanted to install some kind of bulkhead connector in the choke hole.
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Sorry, mis-spoke! I was using the LS1 coil packs, and upgraded to the Pertronix Flame-Thrower version (more voltage and better performance at high RPM), which outperforms the factory LS2 and is on par with the spiffy aftermarket LS2 replacements.