rc's240z

Thanks Phil, I am building a Vintage Race Car and enjoyed looking at your photos. There are some definite similarities in our cage designs. I am not looking for setup specs, more of an open discussion of how's and why's. For instance I noticed your accusump is lying on the floor under/in front of the passenger seat. Could you flip me a few photos of that installation and are you running a 2 or 3-quart accusump?

Phil, I would like to compare notes with you on the set up of your car. enclosed is a link to the photos of my cage prior to going to the blast shop for that reference support to the strut tower. Link: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=7456&size=big&password=&sort=7&thecat=500 My photos are spread out all over my gallery in no particular order.

Anytime Mike, Happy holidays...

Mike, the price could go up. That would depend on what modifications need to be done. You should contact Mark at PDK directly for these matters as they can speak to your specific application. I would suggest that you look at my gallery that has several install photos with some measurements and forward some photos of your engine compartment to look for potential trouble spots. link to my gallery: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=932&cat=500 The photos are kind of scattered, but not hard to find. yYou can see two installs on a blue Z (with triple Mikunis and camber plates) and a White Z with no motor. Let me know if I can help you further.

on3go, Yes I believe that we have installed our solution on a S30 Chassis with L28ET. Since you are running a turbo there might be some consideration taken to where you run your tubing for an intercooler for the down tubes to the swaybar mounts. Since we are a small shop and we hand build each unit we can verify with you some of the clearance issues prior to your install or make some modifications should you run into trouble. I would suggest contacting Mark at PDK for more details.

Which is esentially what we did, our brace picks up four locations on the firewall where there are vertical braces behind the firewall. We worked with Karl Azevedo <sp> (of NPTI & fame) for our design, as well as Marc Sayer. Again, both designs work. For a weld-in application where the hood latch does not need to be present Johnc's solution is a good one. For minimal modification to your early Z our solution works very well.

FCZ, I would suggest that you focus on parts that are not currently manufactured or available for a Z. For instance a carbon fiber center console, or tail light trim plates. Something like that would be a good project as they are not currently available. If you elect to make a derivative of a part that is already on the market and try to sell it in quantitiy you risk the chance of a lawsuit from the manufacture of the current parts as they own the design for that part or are licenced to make that part. I apreciate your interest in making parts for 30 year old cars, but lets be original , copying parts that are already made will hurt all of us. The Classic Datsuns of the world rely on the revenue from these parts to keep their doors open. The services that they provide are much more than just a set of flares. Having too many people making or selling the same parts will make the business of restoring or modifying Datsuns unprofitable leading to the demise of the current vendor base. okay i will get off my soap box now...

I agree with you John, it would be necessary to remove the hood latch and weld on a brace to the firewall at the center section to support the firewall as it will flex quite a bit at the hood latch. Our solution is designed as a BOLT ON application that does not require excessive modification or welding. And is designed to be such.

thanks Moridin, for your kind comments. Please get your crossbar back to us as soon as you can. Zguy95135, our strut bar will make a huge difference in the handling of your car, and your chassis, specifically your frame rails will last longer. Jack 46, we can build a custom brace for your car, obviously we would need to see what limitations we would have to work around on your car to make this work. As far as how our bar works, there is some movement from the torque of the motor but that is applied directly to the crossmemember and disributed across the Z axis directly to the front suspension, our bar includes an adjustable cross bar to stop any kind of tilting of your strut towers. But that is only part of the equasion. Heavy cornering forces with larger than stock swaybars and tires apply huge amounts of stress to the front of early Z cars. These forces are what will damage the chassis of your Z faster than torque twist (unless you are talking about a car used for drag racing). Independent tests have shown under heavy cornering that the strut towers on early Z's twist (rotate) slightly when loaded changing the handling dynamics of the car. This twisting motion can not be solved with a single cross bar alone, it is necessary to triangulate the top of the strut towers. Also under hard cornering the swaybar mounts attempt to stop body sway or tilt. Larger than stock swaybars will damage the frame rails as the chassis of a Z car is not designed to handle such loads. By bracing the strut towers, front swaybar mounts and firewall these loads can work against our strutbar, which is designed to lower the stresses applied to your chassis. ACK!! i feel like I am repeating myself I hope this helps.

I would suggest that you contact Les Canaday at Classic Datsun. He manuafactures and sells the Z 432 flares (pictured above) to Motorsport Auto, and has done several group buys on this website. I am sure that he can have those flares made with carbon to suit your needs. http://www.classicdatsun.com; les@classicdatsun.com; 760-940-6365.

My single pass cross flow Ron Davis Radiator works great for cooling my high performance L6 2.8

The rear bar adds stregth to the base of the rear strut towers using a bolt and crush tube not unlike the Top End Performance solution.

The connection at the swaybar mount: (1) Purpose: Protect the frame rails from damage due to repeated stress from oversized swaybars. Fact: The factory frame rails have two nut inserts in which the sway bar is mounted to. Over time, with excessive cornering stress (due to larger diameter swaybars and larger stickier tires) this will apply enough stress to destroy the frame rails. The frame rails will spider crack and pop spot-welds on both the inner and outer sides of the frame rail. Solution: Our strut bar incorporates a down tube that has a larger surface area to apply the stress of the swaybar across 2 plates (upper and lower) that are attached to the top and bottom of the frame rail. Between these two plates are two crush tubes that protect the frame rail from being damaged or distorted when these two plates are bolted together. Installation: drill out both nut inserts for the factory swaybar and drill straight through the top of the frame rail, drill these holes large enough so that the two crush tubes can be inserted through the bottom of the frame rail install bottom plate and swaybar mounting bracket. Place strutbar down-tube with top plate over the top of the bolts extending up through the frame rail and bolt in place. Goal: expand the stresses of the swaybar across a larger area of the frame rail as well as across the strut bar structure to protect the weak section of the frame rail and add structural rigidity to the front suspension. (2) Purpose: Prevent twisting of the top of the strut towers due to hard cornering force. Fact: John Coffey has done extensive testing on the front suspension of a Datsun 240Z his findings correlate with ours finding that the strut towers on a Datsun Z do not pitch back and forth but rather twist clockwise and counter clockwise. Solution: build a strut bar that ties into the swaybar mounts, strut towers as well as the re-enforced sections of the firewall and triangulate all the points that exert pressure to the suspension. Goal: The down tube to the front swaybar mount is attached to the frame rail add further lateral support that prevents a twisting motion of the strut towers. That in combination with the triangulation of strut tower to the firewall and cross bar to the opposite strut tower prevents any twisting motion of both strut towers.

PDK Fabrication: http://www.pdkfabrication.com there are a few popup adds, sorry...We fabricate a strut bar that ties into two locations on fire wall, to the top of the strut tower and to the swaybar mounts through the frame rails. This is a modular system that does not require that the whole unit be removed in order to adjust the valves or service your car. The pickup points on your firewall are at braced locations on the chassis. the brace to the swaybar includes a crush tube that will protect your frame rails from damage due to the install of oversized swaybars on your 240Z. Yes, it is an 8 point front strut bar for a Z car. http://www.pdkfabrication.bravepages.com/240%20front.htm Please feel free to look at gallery photos at the link below, there are several photos of multiple installations that we have done: http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=1184&password=&sort=7&thecat=500

Classic Datsun, Les Canaday 760-940-6365 http://www.classicdatsun.com great parts, great prices, good people. Motorsports buys some of their parts from Les, then marks them up. PDK Fabrication, http://www.pdkfabrication.com Suspension mods for Hybrid cars. Both of these companies will treat you well. I always call Les before I call motorsport...

No. I have not requested a quote from these guys. I am sure you can contact them for pricing. There are several different styles available, from several manufactures. Good luck. Awesome Racing at Willow Springs Yesterday!! Wahoo!! 5+ 240z's at least 8 510's and 4 Roadsters!! All fast cars!!- at the fastest 2.5 mile track in the west! And the home for the trackday for the National Z Convention next year!!! Oh Yeah, the CAN AM cars and TRANS AM cars were pretty cool too...

look on this page about 1/3's of the way down for a photos of a NACA duct. Beware of the angled duck on your hood... http://www.kenlowe.com.au/raceglass1.htm See ya! off to the races at Willow Springs Raceway!

I looked at the possibility of putting a NACA duct on the hood of my Z for a ram flow solution, but in order to put it somewhere, where it would be effective it would look really nasty. I agree the opening in the core support would work much better. Older racing Z's in Japan used the core support opening for that exact application.

TWM, did not do a bunch of testing on this airbox, I asked them about that some time ago. TWM is or was CANNON, the same company that manufactured the long runner manafold for Z cars some years back. They have been bought or sold a few times in between, but I understand that it is the same core group. So they have a clue when it comes to fabricating this type of solution. Nismo, good luck. I hope your solution works well. Would like to see the photos when your done.

Nismo, This is a spirited debate I believe in the Hybrid theory. I just cant help wondering sometimes why some people think they think it is necessary to re-invent the wheel I guess it gets down to what is your time worth? OR Do you think your design will work better than what was designed by TWM? My time, in my mind is quite valuable. If I spent 6 hours making this part I could buy one from TWM and save money. Lets use an example: If you look at PDK Fabrication they make custom strut bars for Datsun Z cars...Lot's of people make strutbars for Z's, ours are unique and were tested for a year prior to releasing them to the public. The time and engineering that went into making this part exceeds the $50.00 in materials it takes to make one and two hours it takes to fabricate one. In order to turn a profit we have to sell at least 10 units at $250. Another example, we make 240Z racing dashes. This fiberglass dash was splash moulded off of an original dash (that was destroyed in the process) to provide a unique racing part for vintage racers that want to maintain the look of the original dash with aftermarket gauges and a 40LB weight savings. We designed a unique product that no one else offers. Isn't this the meaning of Hybrid? I hear all the time, people saying I can do this for less, but really that is not the case. building a strut bar like ours or a fiberglass dash or an airbox really will take more time and money (time is money), than if you went out to buy the part. IF you are going to do something like this examine TWM's Design and MAKE A BETTER ONE. That is the meaning of Hybrid to me...Okay I will get off my soap box now... If you want I can forward any information you need about the TWM air box, let me know if can help you.

Nismo, the TWM will allow you to run air horns, you are limited to 50mm airhorns though. It is easy to say what you are going to do, the actual fabrication will take lots of time and possibly one to two attempts to get it right. As I said before unless this is a hobby I suggest that you purchase the well designed part. the TWM air box is a proven race part.

The TWM box is tapered and is not designed to be pressurized. I can't speak to the design or shape....John Coffey??

here you go: http://www.twminduction.com/airbox.htm See the six cylinder box at the bottom of this page. there is a decent amount of room around this box, but you cant run big air horns with this application.

Nismo, the question becomes, why would you want to fab a fiberlgass intake for tripple carbs? I have one manufactured by TWM. My suggestion would be to buy one from them. Trying to fab this part would take one 2 piece mould and one, 1 piece mould and a ton of time. If you like to make fiberglass parts as a hobby, have a great time. If your looking at trying to save money, buy the TWM part...