itzgoten

Mark, Kind of late but it's nice to find your build on here. I've been checking in on your blog for years but the updates are somewhat random (time wise) where this is very frequent. Wish I had found this sooner. Love the new build!

If look back maybe to the last page you can see the holes I drilled out. This all started when I was looking for options on how to release heat from the engine bay. I contacted BJ Hines and he said that vented the hood doesn't do much (since it's a low pressure are). His tests found that the sides are high pressure areas so putting holes there help vent more than cutting the roof. He cut his outer fenders and used the Camaro (or some other domestic car) hood vents as his fender vents. I looked at it and if air escapes my engine bay and moves under the car i'm fine with that. I didn't want to cut my outer fenders. I don't have oil temp yet and that is on my list of things to get. But the water temp on the car was very high. almost 220F if I remember correctly. This time around I got a colder thermostat and oil cooler. Things seems pretty good right now. It was in the 60's this morning and during my drive to work the car's water temp never went over 155-160. I'm trying to get more solid info on what is good operating water temp and oil temp for the SR. Also what acceptable oil pressure is. As of right now I think my oil pressure is kind of high. It gets up to 95psi under load. I don't remember it being that high before? Kind of puzzled and after searching the web I got mixed answers. Also I'm not sure I'm pulling EGT numbers. I was only concerned with intake air temp. haha. Maybe that's something I should look into as well. As it does serve as good info.

The car was dyno'd today! Things went pretty well and I'm very pleased. The brand new clutch ended up slipping so I'll have to find something else. Apparently a stage 3 6-puck unsprung wasn't enough. My brother hates ACT and didn't recommend it but it came with a lot of stuff I got when I started the build. I still have my Clutch Masters stage 3 that I can put back in later. 413 rwhp // 287 rwtq @20 PSI 344 rwhp // 236 rwtq @15 PSI on pump gas. AFR was at 11.5. We had it a little richer than usual because it'll be hot when I track it at the end of the month and my tuner would rather be a little safer. Last time I tuned I only made 432rwhp at 25 PSI.. I'm very close at only 20 psi. I'll get the clutch issues resolved and run more boost after the motor breaks in.

Haven't had time to post so I'll make this quick and dirty. I got the oil cooler in and we didn't really have a place to mount it. I tried to fit it between my FMIC and rad but that just didn't work. I wasn't going to move the FMIC forward more because we just did the IC piping not too long ago. It was cheaper to just weld a bar across the top of the front subframe behind the rad. Not the best, I know but what's done is done. I didn't NEED it but since it was "free" I might as well add an oil cooler in there. The lines that came with the oil cooler sucked. They were crimped on braided lines. We decided to get our own lines and use AN fittings instead. Notice the one red AN fitting? I thought I ordered everything I needed but a straight 90 deg bend wasn't good enough so I had to use an off colored one for now. I'll replace it later but I wanted this car running already. The oil filter looks like its close to the sway bar but it's just a bad camera angle. It's a few inches behind it. I got a sweet gift from a buddy. Not sure if any of you are familiar with the Greddy GREX shift knob but I love it. Couldn't buy it brand new today even if you tried. Every page online that lists it would only email me back in a few days saying they couldn't get it. We'll lucky me my buddy had one brand new in box. Finish touches to the car! I put everything else back on the motor and it was a wrap for the day! Today the shop was open for us only. My brother worked on his track DC2, Boss on his Civic, one of the workers on his S13 and I worked on the Z. Street tires were put on, alignment, timing checked, checked for leaks, short drive on the road (YES! FINALLY!!) and a car wash to finish the day! Not fond of instagram (more like instacrap) but my buddy sent me this and I thought it looked pretty cool. Last few things to do.. finish the hatch for the GT wing, brake ducts, front splitter, shroud/box the front to pass air through the FMIC and rad, mount up my wideband and oil temp gauge. Also, very very sad news. The rear ZG flares.. total fail. That was the first thing done to the car 5 years ago when I knew nothing. I had them done and never really looked at it. But they ARE backwards. It's gnawing at me. I'm going to drill out the nutserts, weld the holes shut and make new ones in the future. The price if ignorance is always steep. The work was done in a small one bay shop years ago and it looked spot-on back then. Looking at it now I just feel silly. It's purely aesthetics so it's not going to hurt the functionality of the car. I'm going to TRY and not let it bother me too much.

This is just pure awesomeness. I'm so glad I stumbled on to this. It would be great to have a full CF car. It's OK to daydream once in awhile right?

Agreed. I don't feel the holes I made were too big and I made holes on the side to vent. But what you are saying makes sense. I don't plan on having a huge hole up front. Just playing with some ideas right now and we'll see how it goes.

The shakedown at T-hill will prove or disprove my theory. But i will close up any unused holes.

gearheadstik - Thanks. But I have no idea.. looks fine to me. But at this point I'm not making anymore holes. ::shrug:: What can we do now? Hah Gollum, I would disagree with you about the Rocky Auto car but to each their own. My style of building is like them and I concur with their build style. If it's wrong then so be it. I'm not trying to do 200mph. I'll probably hit 150mph at best. I did not do something irreversible so I will cover up what's left of the holes if I do not get the results I want. The front will seriously have a huge vent pushing air through the FMIC and to the rad. The small slits on the side will have air for my 19 row oil cooler (which will fill up the entire space if not more) and duct to the intake. If I seriously get lift that is THAT bad I can cover them. Which leads me to the next comment. For ME I'd take take -50deg over 20mph and I can care less.. I have the power and will make plenty more. But if heat is my concern I am going to attack that first and learn from there. I completely understand where everyone is coming from with buttoning up the front. But if this were a newer car I would have bought a headlight air duct. To the same affect I made some holes which I felt were needed. 10 more guys can jump on here and tell me I'm doing it wrong but hey, it's my build. I get your point but I don't think you are getting mine. So with that said I'll do it my way and thanks for the advice. And your last question. The exhaust area was hot enough to warp my V-Band for the exhaust. The screw became warped and I had to saw off the bolt and pry off the v-band. It was unusable just after 30 minutes of very hard driving. With that evidence I assumed I've reached some critical temps in my bay. I had a heat wrap over my BMC and I think that was able to save me from boiling fluids but I didn't have any temp readings at the track. The holes can be easily cover in seconds and I'm doing this to see if my next visit to T-Hill will sing a different tune.

So this goes back to the original issue. You are saying that with my intake behind the radiator as it is now. I can bring down the intake are temp but just ducting the radiator and not making a seperate duct for the intake itself. And I assume the build is not being followed because I already had the parts coated. If you go back and look. The exhaust side of the turbo, the turbo manifold, dump tubes and down pipe were all coated. I also have a turbo blanket for the turbo too and after T-Hill it was still too hot. There was also a guy who replied on here wth his oil cooler install and had his radiator support was modified and he only had a bar across the top for support. Either way I've said this like 3 times arleady. The front FMIC and RAD is being boxed to force air through it anyway. We're just going in circles.

Again, I am not worried about cooling down the rad because I am already cooling it down enough. I'm still going to box the intercooler and radiator. I already ceramic coated all of the exhaust parts with a turbo blanket. It frustrates me when people are going to join the conversation and tell me what they think when they have not see what I've done so far. It's nice of you to read the last page and chime in but if you were to cretique me, at least know what I've done and where I'm going with this. The finished product will have a duct on the passenger side to the intake, the right side will have my oil cooler and the middle will be blocked off so air is forced through the intercooler and radiator. Holes were drilled on the where the BMC was and the battery tray. BJHines did the same thing and told me with his windtunnel tests it showed that cutting the hood (low air pressure zone) is not as effective as cutting out the sides (high pressure zone). So I took his advice and that is what I did. But for everyone to say I'm doing it wrong. Show me you've done otherwise and I can see. This shows you're credible because you've applied it. But it easy for someone else (not you specifically) who, for example, owns a mildly stock car and only reads things online to come tell me I did it wrong. I'd rather trust sources who've been in the business and have done it a certain way than to trust someone who's only interested in proving a point when they have nothing to show for it. Again, I'm not referring to anyone here but in general that is how I feel. Like someone going up to a drag racer doing 9's and telling him his build is all wrong and they don't even have a car worthy of mentioning.

(I'm typing this on my iPhone so please bare with me) I see your point but if my turbo & manifold is creating a lot of heat in the engine bay how does this relate? Cutting those holes to cool my engine bay is the same affect (to me) like getting the turn signal intake ducts and pop up headlight ducts on my miata. My miata runs cooler and feels more responsive. It's valid because the spec miata guys do this too. They run no turn signals to get more air. So how is this any different? I know where you are coming from but I feel what I'm doing is similar to that effect.

And how would you cool down the engine bay then? I feel like you're generally saying headlight ducts would make the car worse because essentially that is what I am going after. What I'm getting at was the bay was very hot. I wanted to open up more. I am not concerned with cooling down my radiator because that is what the fans are for. They are high CFM fans and literally bring down 10 degrees in less than 30-45 seconds. The fan would turn on momentarily and turn off right away. As far as the intercooler. It sit in front of the radiator support. So I don't see how that would affect anything I'm doing. I ran fresh RBF600 fluid but the turbo and manifold are inches away from the BMC. I understand the general concept of forcing the air the pass through the FMIC and to the radiator and I do agree with you. But in my case I disagree. And from your comment I felt that you do not know what I did or where I was coming from. Hence disagreeing with you. My intake are temp is fair and the intercooler is going it's job. However I feel that getting air behind the radiator to the intake would benefit as well. Either way. I'm boxing the front and one side will have an oil cooler and the other side is going to have a duct pointing to the intake.

Just to revisit this.. check out this picture of the Rocky Auto front end. And if you know Rocky Auto they are S30 geniuses. They have a wide open front end. Whole article: http://www.speedhunters.com/2012/05/old-meets-new-rocky-autos-rb30-powered-fairlady-z/

I wonder how much would a beautiful tank like that cost? I ended up customizing my original tank. I had it boiled out and cleaned. Bought a sump from SummitRacing.com and had someone fab a baffle inside with the sump. I took it back to get coated on the inside and had it pressure tested. Ugly picture but at least you get to see what I did. I only ran one line because it's all I need for my current setup. When I need more fuel I'll run two fuel pumps.

But if you dump all that money in the Z you'd drive her at T-Hill on June 30th!

SHE'S ALIVE!! Everything was put together and she is finally up and running. It's my birthday tomorrow and the shop surprised me with a gift as well. So I got an early birthday present and I was able to fire up my car. A guy couldn't ask for anything else! I got to the shop on Friday and this was on the table. I open it up to only find my OLD rear LCA's in there. So what does that mean? I ran to the lift and lifted up the car to see these beauties in the rear.. T3 rear LCA's! The footwork of my car is FINALLY completed! The fluids were topped off on the car and I got to fire up the car! Car idling I spent today putting on the fenders, buckets, cowl and hood.

I doubt I'll have issues. I'm running dual 2800 CFM fans on a bigger KOYO radiator and lift will definitely not be an issue. Both vents are going to lead to the intake acutally. I'm running a massive intake and want a lot of air there. If I could have the intake up front I would have done that. And I'm just putting this out there (not to offend you) but I get the feeling you haven't really went through my thread. I appreciate the feedback and will consider it if I run into issues. But last time I was out heat was a MAJOR problem. I need as much air passing through as possible.

Thanks for the concern and you are absolutely correct. I am going to box the front and channel all of the through the FMIC and radiator. My intake sits behind the radiator so I am going to fab something on the front passenger side to bring air to intake. Something like brake cooling ducts.. I did make holes near the BMC and battery tray to relieve the air if you scroll up a bit and look at the pictures. Also heat was a big issue with this setup so more air is good. Especially on the BMC side. I want to bring down the temp as much as possible so I don't boil my fluids. Hope what I explained makes sense to you. EDIT: I just saw your post and see that you know Glenn. I know him too and he's seen my car before this huge build. You should visit the shop some time.

Just some other small things finished up. I'm keeping my fingers crossed on getting the car fired up this Saturday before my birthday. But if not, no biggie. I don't want to rush anything and cause myself to take two steps back. I had the front cut for some more cooling. We also modified the breather box to accommodate more air flow.

I wish I got the BAMF flares in the beginning. But I'm stuck with what I have for now. The wats were a test fit and I only had 1 wheel and it wasn't mine.

Some updates. Just small things here and there. I drilled out some holes on the side where the BMC and battery tray was to help with cooling. More holes near the BMC because that is the hot side of the engine bay. Also spent some time drilling out holes in the spare hatch that I got. I'll sand it down later but I wanted to figure out the holes for the GT wing before I started. My brother finished up the motor and put it in the car. Jensen is his assistant. Since my car has been down for so long they wrote Z's all over it. I guess it makes sense.... haha 1 Dog Power! Motor in Tranny is in Turbo & intake manifolds are on Lastly, When I took the car out the the track last time I picked up about 4oz's of oil in my breather box. I decided to baffle the valve cover this time. Just a few more things! Yes!

OMG! Great build so far! I love it! I was randomly searching for someone who did the GC Z camber plates on their car and found this thread. You have my attention, I'm subscribed!

The wheel was just me dreaming big. Always wondered what a wheel like that would look like and it was obviously too much wheel for me. Hahaha. It's nice to dream though. I'm probably going to do a 15x8 or 15x9 all around. But wheels are the last thing on my list. Power, aero & functionality before aesthetics. I spent some time at my brothers shop and we got a few more things done. He mainly did all the work though. When I got there the cam gears, timing chain, modified s15 oil pump, crank pulley was already put on. I helped him with the upper oil pan, baffle and pick up tube. We also got some freeze plugs and had those put in. Not much longer before she finds her way on the city street again. I can't wait! I think I'm going to drill the holes on the side of the car tonight near the battery tray and BMC area. Help bring down the engine temp.

I had some time last night to go to my brothers shop. We torqued the head down and got the lifters, rockers, cams and water pump on. Things are looking good. I hope this means my motor will be dropped in and tuned very soon. Among other news. Glenn (spitz) brought over a Watanabe RS wheel so I could see how it'd look. 15x11 -38 offset. The thing was TOO MUCH. I'll probably go with a 15x8 or 15x9 with around -22ish offset

Please keep me posted and message me. I don't check the forums too often and tend to miss out on things. I'll try to make it to the historic race if my car is running. I'll let Toan know as well. I always give him crap about his car. I tell him he's only good parked. Haha. But please let me know and I'll tell Glenn (spitz) and Toan so we can all make it out.