CU Zcar

Holy crap, I just read through a 5-page flame war about camber plates on itforums. On the one hand, I think I'm fine with the ones in the car...on the other hand, I'm scared of SCCA rules now!

Yea I remember reading some of his posts. I'm signed up already for itforums but haven't spent much time over there yet. Thanks!

SCCA says for IT: "If slotted plates are used, they shall be located on existing chassis structure and may not serve as a reinforcement for that structure. Material may be added or removed from the top of the strut tower to facilitate installation of adjuster plate." It doesn't say anything about the method of attachment (i.e. doesn't require bolt-in or prohibit welding). I don't know whether I consider the weld-in plate a reinforcement. I guess it's thicker and probably stiffer, but it's not improving the ability of the strut tower to hold its position (as a triangulating strut tower/firewall brace might). I'd better do some reading, quick. Bill already installed the front plates, and is going to weld in the rears for me before delivery. If I need to ditch the weld-in plates I'll have to cut-and-paste with my other 240-turned-parts car...

A-yup. Going to pick up the stuff when he gets all of it out of California. Which other board? I remember one of the boards had a good spring rate discussion among people running Z's in ITS, I'm thinking 240z.org but it's down at the moment. He's got this one sprung pretty soft, I'm going to see how the soft spring/big bar thing works and go from there. [edit] The stickied "Strut Thread" on this page might be the post I was just talking about. I need to keep up with these places a little better.

What I'm getting is exactly what is pictured on the page I linked in my first post. I've seen them, the threaded tubes are already welded to the spindle assemblies. What I'm after are things like are they mono or twintube, are they rebuildable/revalveable and by whom, does the adjustment change rebound separately or rebound/compression at once, etc. Dave did respond promptly to my Email, but linked me to the same page I just mentioned and said he provides no other literature. I'm going to ask a few more detailed questions, but if that's all he's got I'm surprised anyone puts forward the money for these things new. He's either holding back or he's buying them from someone else. When I get the car together I'll see how they feel, my seller was building this car as a more tame "toy" than his GT2-prepped 240Z so he could race with one or another of the vintage groups that didn't like his big brakes or built motor or 45DCOEs. Instead he ran across a Datsun 710 raced by Bob Bondurant in the 70's and is working on that now. Anyway, he seemed to know his stuff so I'm supposing he chose these shocks because he researched and thought they would do OK under racing conditions, but I'm probably holding onto a set of stock strut tubes in case I decide Konis (etc) would be the way to go if/when I want to get into ITS At that point I'll have to be careful not to badmouth them 'cause I'd probably try to sell shortly thereafter!

Well, I sent off an email to AZC at the same time I started this thread, I just wanted to get some feedback from users. I'd also searched on "arizona coilovers" and didn't see anything other than passing mention of these, plus one person who simply said they felt good. I'm unaware of any Konis that have 'click' adjustment, those I've come across were always a continuous-sweep adjustment. I'm sure I'll hear from Dave at AZC soon enough though.

I'm buying a 240z project that comes with some shiny stuff from Arizona Z car...namely their coilover set and rear control arms. Anyone use these or know where I can read up on the shocks? The seller suggests they're based on Tein components. Hoping this will someday be an ITS car. Might have to dump the RCAs?

Sorry to revive this old thread, but it's the most recent I saw directly pertaining to the OBX diff. I was just clicking around for information on them, and found a thread on a Honda forum about a teardown: http://www.turbod16.com/viewtopic.php?t=18501 Someone in there I think mentions that the metal in the splined parts might be softer than in some of the more expensive diffs, which is why some users have had problems with axles getting stuck in. I somehow doubt OBX offers the lifetime guarantee that Quaife does

I am using a set of those I got from Nissan, though the ones I have are only a half-sheet with a circular cutout ... a picture would help me describe, suffice it to say I am using one. The titanium shim sounds like a good idea, I may have to look into that. So this is common practice in racing circles? If I find I burn up another set of dust seals, I may switch to this method. Thanks for the replies so far!

Anyone else have input? Anyone else do trackdays/race on stock calipers? Maybe others don't have this issue? Should I maybe take this to improvedtouring.com or a similar race-based forum?

~2740lb exclusive of driver 1978 280Z, this was several years ago (not current setup in my sig). If memory serves: 14" steelies, stock L28, stock exhaust manifold, 5spd and R200, A/C, spare and bumpers installed, most of a stock interior (?), roughly 3/4 tank of gas.

I bought a set on eBay several weeks ago. They look pretty spiffy, though I haven't mounted tires on them yet. I expect some slight rubbing issues on the fender edge. My scale (weighed myself with and without wheel) says they're more like 15lb ea, but for the price I'm not too concerned with the weight. I believe they're much lighter than stock Turbo snowflakes. I saw a picture of an S30 with these mounted with tires somewhere, if I run across it again I'll try to post (if I don't get some tires on mine first). If memory serves, they clearly stuck out from the stock fenders a tad. Perhaps a good candidate for ZG's or some "light hammer work"

Hrm. A caliper teardown to clean the pistons at every pad change. Sounds like fun! Surely there's a better way. Thank you for the response though, you did confirm my suspicions.

Did a track day in my 280Z, noticed that the heat has scorched/cracked the bellows seals around the caliper pistons. What do ITS cars (and others forced to race with stock-type calipers) do about this? Just frequent replacement, omission of the bellows seal (and frequent clean/rebuild), or is there a scraper-type seal available? If I understand correctly, the bellows really just keep dust out of the caliper and another seal takes care of keeping brake fluid in...yes?

Nothing competes with Azenis for the price Kumho Ecsta MX's are about as close as you'll get, and most people I know are of the opinion that they're overall a better tire...that's why they cost a little more. The other Falken tire you are probably thinking of is the Ziex 512. They're also very cheap, I have the H-rated 205/60/15's on my car and they're decent, kinda floppy sidewalls though compared to Azenis. I'd imagine the V or Z-rated sidewall models are better in this respect. The compound also isn't as sticky as the Azenis, etc. but it also has a treadwear over 400, vs. 200 for the Azenis. I think the 512's are a great street tire and I've been autocrossing on them too cause I can't afford race tires for a while. They're supposed to be good drift tires too, but I can't afford to use them for that...killed my old Falken 502's that way though, and they worked well a lot better than "Temperature: B" used tires anyway. [edit] Oh, forgot some other tires....Kumho MX's are probably the closest, then Yokohama AVS ES-100's are available in a lot of sizes for reasonable prices; they are probably even with, or better than, the Ziex 512's. The Ziex would be a cheap place to start though, with plenty of sizes available. If you don't like 'em, burn them off if you can afford to. Don't forget the Kumho Ecsta 711's and 712's (even 732's, I think, are better than normal passenger tires), they're also decent tires for the price. TireRack carries the Kumho's and Yoko's but not Falken. You can find them at http://www.vulcantire.com or http://www.onlinetires.com or discount tire's website.

I'm sure an aftermarket shifter could improve the feel, though I was led to believe the actual mechanism actuating the sliders and such was better in the Z tranny than in the KA model. Never opened the KA tranny though so can't say from personal experience. I'm really more interested in the strength of the gearset more than anything else.

Alex posted something to the effect that the Silvia tranny, modified to bolt to an L engine, would be a good upgrade to the stock Nissan Z gearbox --FS5W71B/FS5C71B/etc-- in passing over in the Turbo/Supercharger forum, and that brought a few questions to mind. Is that transmission of the same family as the Z tranny? Is it stronger? Or were you just referring to having better ratios? I remember looking into 240SX boxes and found they were designated FS5W71C. My thoughts were perhaps the 240SX gearset would work in the Z transmission case (since the bellhousing pattern and tailshaft housings I believe are different) and the swap might be worthwhile if the gears were any stronger, but I stopped looking when one of my friends with a 240SX told me that the more common swap was to use Z tranny parts in the SX box, particularly the shifter mechanism. After shifting a few SX's I have a better idea why Anyway, I was just curious what any of you, particularly Alex, already knew on the matter of Silvia equipment

Interesting, I'm going to ask a few questions on this in the Drivetrain forum if you don't mind.

I was probably that guy with the Beck Arnley rings, I remember posting about it. I used them anyway with whatever gap it was I said I had, and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I haven't ever checked my compression though. The engine doesn't seem to be hurting for power or burning (much) oil.

Nitpicking here, but to compare the throw of the smaller slave cylinder you'd want to use the areas of the bores rather than just the diameter. Just to show how little it matters, my math says that the new one should provide 19% more throw Guess that just makes it better for you huh?

Most mechanical problems in Zcars aren't a big deal to the average mechanically-inclined person, and if you have the time and money to play with it then a 280 isn't a bad car to learn to work on. Electrical problems would probably not be fun, but that goes for any car. To me the factor that matters most is how much rust the car has, and where it's rusted. Check the bottom of the fenders and doors, the rocker panels, the back of the car around the hatch and under the taillights, and especially underneath the car--look at the floor pans under the driver/passenger and also the frame rails. If these last areas are rusted out the car wouldn't be worth much IMO except as a donor to another car with a better chassis, and if you have an inspection in your area you might not be able to pass. In fact if you have inspection, I'd find out what the criteria are and make sure you think the car would pass without having to spend too much money on it...unless you want to spend money You can probably find a lot more "what to look for" stuff on a more general Zcar forum like zcar.com...use the SEARCH feature, questions like that have been asked several times over. Try searching here too if not already.

I've tapped mine before, didn't seem too violent to me...but then again mine comes in more like 6400 or 6500 and I am usually ready for it and shift before the car bucks much. Does yours just spin that high before hitting? Hope the sudden drag at the rear didn't upset your turn

Oh, I was under the impression 240's had an electric pump in the back to help the mechanical pump on the engine. Oh well. And I meant at least 12V i.e. check that the wires in use aren't shorting somewhere and that they can handle the current. If you ran your own wires I'd imagine you are fine, though the relay would be a good idea for when you do your pump swap.

Oh and another thing I thought about...you might want to check that your fuel pump is getting 12V all the time. Being that you have a 240 I'm betting you had to run new wires for it so you're probably good, but if you're using stock wiring (maybe for the 240's electric near-tank pump?) I'd check it out to make sure it's handling the load and has good connections.

I'll go ahead and answer most of my own questions http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/AandBtranny.htm http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/GearRatios.html