gramercyjam

Drax, Great post. Do you have the anti-ackerman argument article?

Here's the plan. I have decided to apply a systematic approach and to deal with the things that should make the biggest differences. Step 1, acquire necessary tools to make the measurements. This includes good caster/camber guage, toe plates, and drive-on measurement platform that allows easily repeatable measurements in a 3-d coordinate system. It also allows chassis adjustments to be made without jacking the car up and unloading the suspension. Although hard to justify, owning a set of good corner weight scales would be nice, but not necessary. Right now I rent for $50/day when I need them. Step 1 is 90% complete. Step 2 - take measurements and baseline current setup. This is where I am at now. Initial measurements indicate things like caster and camber, rear toe and squareness are far enough off that corrective action is required. This is step 3. Step 3 - adjustable heim-jointed suspension end links and ball joints to correct baseline measurements and allow for setup experimentation. Front: Caster, camber, toe and bump steer, ride height, adjustable track width; Rear: camber, toe, ride height, adjustable track width. Heim jointed sway bar end links allowing for pre-load adjustment and stiffness adjustment. 30% done? Step 3a - Fabrication of new steering linkage and mounting providing for high quality steering U-joints, elimination of flexible steering coupler and better position for relocated driving position. Since this will require a dash bar for mounting, it will be done in conjunction with the removal of the stock pedal box and the addition of chassing stiffening (spars and ribs - something different - everybody has a cage). Relocate fuel cell. (BAH! - New SCCA rules outlaw my current install) Media blast and paint chassis. Step 5 - Depending on the results of the above, which should keep me busy for quite some time, evaluation of rack and pinion, aftermarket replacements, steering ratios, and power options. I've been itching to put in a fresh L24 motor too with a new racer brown cam and freshly modded E31 head that I have, so that will need to be done before next spring.

I've done a little research on Ackerman as related to improved steering performance in an FP autox car. What I have read is that professional chassis designers feel Ackerman is most effective when used on a car that makes mostly low speed, low G (tight) corners, because of the larger difference in the turn angles required by the tires to follow the radius of a tight turn compared to a wide turn and the lower tire slip angles. For cars that are setup for high speed, high G, low steer angle turns, some designers feel that the difference in the angle between the inside/outside tires is small enough as to be negligible and ackerman can even be detrimental to handling. Why? Partly because of the low loading/low slip angle of the inside tire. On the other hand, short track oval racers say ackerman is extremely important in minimizing tire wear. State of the art chassis design and suspension setup is really a black art that requires a lot of testing on the track to try and get it right. Suspension and steering and very complex issues because of the number of variables involved and the interactions between them. This stuff ain't easy. The top racing teams and tire manufacturers know the state of the art, but they aren't telling.

Oh crap. Now they are callin' my Vette gay too in that thread. Makes me wish I never sold my '71 440 'Cuda (20 years ago). Now that car was a chick magnet. Can't even touch one now. But I digress. Those Neon drivers would probably think that was gay too. I guess we just don't know what a real man's car is around here.

And I always thought the Z was just a drug dealers car.

I learned the hard way not to assume VB sent you the right nuts. Check em with a thread gauge before putting an impact wrench on them

Negative on Summit here. The 1 and only order I made with them was a set of $20 solid core plug wires - yes they advertised free shipping which was great, but they tacked on $15 handling charge to my CC which wasn't mentioned when I ordered. I call that dishonest. They will get no more of my business.

16X10 3 piece Real Racing wheels. 5 inch backspace, 1/2" spacers. Coilovers above the wheel, no clearance.

I bought a Lincoln 135 Plus a few months ago to replace a Century MIG welder that I was fed up with. The Lincoln is a very nice welder for 1/8" or less. Works well for the thin stuff, which is what I bought it for. I use it with Argon gas and it makes beautiful welds. The kind when engineers see them they say, hey, those are nice welds. If your going to be welding up I beams, probably not the best welder for that.

I have a B2200 and was thinking of making it into a tow vehicle for my trailer Z car. There appear to have been tons of V8 swaps done, but I haven't found any technical info on it out there. Not behind the cab but http://www.ultimatecustoms.ca/index2.htm seem to have V6/V8 engine mounts you can buy for the swap.

Better!

I agree with Steve regarding minimum weight of an Emod. An L24 240Z completely stripped out, steel doors, hatch, and hood lightened to the max, no glass, no cage, small aluminum fuel cell, etc, comes in at around 1800#. How much weight will some fiberglass save you? Add to that the weight of the full cage you are going need .... The cost of the exotic materials and parts needed to get to 1500# is scarey.

I rebuilt the BW T5 on my ZXT years back. Not much to it really. The only issue I recall was getting some bearing off was tough because I didn't have the right tools to press it off. As I recall there are ways to get some stuff back in wrong, but you will know right away because you won't be able to shift it.

I hadn't considered making any for the public. My first interest is to make some for myself, but I love fabricating and engineering (practically live in my shop, it's my happy place) so I would be open to making some for other people too.

Thanks for the info Steve! I will be making up some adjustable front and rear lower arms too.

That ball joint looks like a domestic tie rod end. Anybody know what it came off of?

What is E-mod minimum weight?

Now you tell me. I made mine out of electrical conduit. I thought it would be good 'cause it is easy to bend and comes pre-galvanized to prevent rust. Looks as good as chrome when you polish it up. I guess I'll have to rip it out and go down to pep boys and get some accordian style exhaust pipe now.

I have no doubt that there is some validity to cathodic rust protection using sacrificial anodes. It is common practice and in fact, specified by building codes when using buried steel gas pipes and it widely used in ships. However I would be leary of a any product that claims laboratory tests prove the product works, yet does not publish the actual test reports. I think I saw the words "rust protection is measurable" regard the test reports which does not actually mean it will stop your car from rusting. Their marketing smells of consumer oriented infomercial, snake oil and soap sales.

Texas motorsports event calendar here http://www.dlbracing.com Hope to see you come out when you get your Z to Texas. Several good autox clubs within a few hours drive of Houston and a huge SCCA chapter in Houston. There is a group from Houston who come to San Antonio for SASCA autox since our club is small and they get 6-10 runs in SA vs 3 in Houston.

Kickback is a problem, and power steering is definitely an option. This would look very cool http://www.woodwardsteering.com/hot.htm. My first thought was to just get everything up to par and making it as solid as possible by using 3/4" tubing and heim joints for a steering shaft, elminating the steering coupler and putting in some new high quality u-joints and a high quality steering rack to tighten everything up. That is still part of the plan. I am just digging into the why of things to trying to gain a full understanding. Maybe even find a competitive advantage there.

According to this site, http://www.auto-ware.com/shoptalk/0_scrub.htm scrub radius helps provide better feedback to the driver. I found a nice link that describes everything very nicely here http://www.rqriley.com/suspensn.html

No disagreement from me on that. Especially about the driver. A good driver makes all the difference.

Kind of like putting an SBC into a 240z, right? Not at all. The Z is a distinctive car with classic styling. For me, the Mazda has no appeal.

Waste of a good motor.