gaijin

To continue from the brake spreadsheet guesstimation; - brake pedal ratio changed to 6:1, see the old small hole, and the new large cylinder welded in higher up, which will house the brake balance bar. - twin masters (these are wilwoods, not the trusty trojans as first purchased). New plate brazed to the front of the exisitng firewall plate and an additional plate welded to the inside of the firewall for more rigidity. If this is insufficient, a brace can be added to the front of the masters later. - wilwood superlight 4 pot front callipers. 18" wheels make the discs look small. From the spreadsheet (mostly car mass as dominant factor), they are overkill. The track will tell. Have braided front hoses and rears ready. Hard piping of brake lines as we speak, 'P' clipped to chassis. Transmission tunnel Braided lines are for the fuel back and forth

To gauge the clearance between ground/lowest parts, exhaust back up. its a 3" SS mandrel tack TIGed into posi for now. Centre muffler lowest part but will sit about 30mm higher than as unsupported here mind Rear Sus arms are shooting for the stars, thats enough bump Cut away the lovely quarter I welded in a few years back, and some cables. oops wheel in at max squish (smaller temporary) cap screw the gaurds into place, and hey presto, Full bump including er, bump stop and at about ride height and same Can move this around a bit with coilover heights, but looks about right. Comments please oh yeah, 125mm wheel travel total

More engine bay stuff; Got a GREX/Greddy oil filter re-locator from JP off Import Monster (which does cars, motorbikes, 2nd hand, vintage stuff etc, just recently, got a Z432 for sale with 85km, going for $135kAu - yeehaa, and a nice,clean ZG a snip at circa $80k au. The market sure lives on strong in JP. NISMO clucth also a jp 2nd hand item made in cro-mo, about half the weight of stock flyw. Ill kill the water pump and blank this part off, pull the thermo out and run elec pump & controller. Biff on a cam gear for the exh.? Hello, f.glass 1" wider front zg flare, sitting rough. This gaurds ok, but the other will be the bog sculpture. Rickys f.glass gaurds sure look tidy, especially that the arch is 75mm forward, great for big castor angles.... and for the rear this what we got Better get back in and finish this flare install , get mr suspension in to measure up.

Getting back onto the engine bay completion, plenty of the fiddly bits to go. Firstly, its biffed back in, the cam covers have been given a rub'n'polish and the coil cover some nasty never dry gloss black. Perfect then. The new wastegate position (Tial 38mm - hopefully its big enough), which was changed from an underneath pick up on the ex manifold to a top position for flow reasons. Had heard that boost creep would be gauranteed from some dyno tuners, on the same engine and similar turbo. Moving it up means gas flow doesnt need to do a 180 to get to the gate, just an easy? 90 deg change. Bottom hole TIG'd up. 90 deg elbow welded to the comp housing outlet, clearance ok to ex man, but will require some heat sheilding to help intercooler do its job. Comp housing clearance to bonnet? Dunno yet, have tried and seemed ok, but once gaskets etc are all on it may start a rubbin'. Oil catch can arrived after waiting a few MONTHS for it to turn up from kazakstan...hmmmm Quality looks good though, solid, 2l capacity (right for track racing then according to Motorsport NZ). This will also get hot, being on the , er, hot side. More heat reflection required then. Squirter bottle pinched from a mates car, and chucked into the corner. Whats up with the rotor on the top of the gate. S30 with 20B heart? There is no going back now.... Well hello, the flares have just turned up, surely not from Kazakstan as well? Better get over and do some trial fitments....finally! Yeah Defi gaugi is a 115mm boost, and rpm's. No speed meter tho, a legal requirement in NZ. Keep looking.

Your set up looks mint. What size are the main gauges? I presume 60mm for the 3 centres, but what for the rpm and , speedo? thanks

Firstly, with the plans for a daily driver, think about things I like in a car. - Clean windscreen! The squirters are from unknown jap donor car. 4 sprays. Looking at gauge options, they are suprisingly few. Autometer, usual fare, but are rather typical? Autogauge, but unsure of longevity of them Looked at plenty of American units, but they are oldschool, check out the Cyberdynes, WTF! Would love some DEFI, but yikes, rather not sell the real daily driver to get 'em. Need 2 5/8" for centre console, and 5" for dash. Dash installed and cut outs made for the roll cage around the pillars. Will look around some more before purchasing. Hmmm whats going on here. Decided to ditch a mechanical driven water pump and go electric. ECU will run this. Will gain hp's, more so when its not running at full effort. Davies Craig 110lt/min arriving soon. So will have 2 water pumps for sale, one being underdriven (new 'N1 type' one), using a larger pulley. Takers?

Been 'servicing' all the parts, so should go well once started. Rear discs new, standard items. Drum handbrake cleaned up, shoes look fine. The laptop does the service manuals for rb25, and plays thru to music too loud on fridays. Now everything is covered in the engineers/fabricators enemy, the tar underseal, and 'never dry' gloss black paint. It does look kinda stock. Once a little dirt is thrown in. Underneath shot with everything removed, hard to tell whats been played with, or as some perhaps older types would say, BUTCHERING Lots of new grade 8 bolts, high tensile. Using te old stuff is silly, most threads are stripped, damaged, rusted, even with plating them, hydrogen embrittlement could be an issue with stressed fasteners.

Its been a little slow, and I have no excuses. Front spoiler from Japan, fibreglass, and of poor quality and finish. Leave this one to the panelbeater. Standard grill in, and attempting to figure out what the best setup and positions for the heat exchanger for the water/air cooler, and the radiator, thermo fans, powersteer cooling, and even the aircon heat exchanger. Not much then! Originally had a HUGE filthy air-air, 600mm x 400mm x 125mm thick peice of drag racing ridiculous-ness, but wanted throttle response and quick spool up, and stealth looks as priorities, not drag. sell it Considering the intercooler sits behind the radiator (where the stock one lives), with around 40mm gap to allow some airflow through, the will be a redution in efficiency of the radiator. The heat exchanger for the cooler should sit in front of the radiator (similar to air-air). To compensate, Ill get some fans on the front of the radiator. The problems with cooling will eventuate when; - Im stuck in auckland traffic, no airflow, fans going hard. But, there will be little or no heat generated by the engine (above that of a standard Rb25). Probably will be fine. - Going around a racetrack with lots of WOT, heat generated galore (circa proportional to power output), fans going, etc. This is where the problem will arise, if it does. Anyway, enough pissing around, lets bolt the things in. Clutch lines in, working. Nismo light flywheel and supercopper mix non sprung clutch plate, with HD pressure plate ready. Unsprung? should be sweet, better for dorifto May even slip under the final grunt value. We will see. Front arms xrayd OK, they are painted and to go back in. Rear subframe out for once over before final install. Spreadsheeting the brake setup to ensure the system will work well. Measure everything, chuck into spread, check outputs. Make changes. I will detail this further once completed. SARD fuel rail supplied for er34, has different diameter injector holes than standard, so will require drilling out. Headlight buckets, right one used in 10/10 nick from Japan, left one NEW from japan. They cost around $80 each. Import Monster. Exchange rate a little sore now, not as effective as it was. Cool parts available if you can decipher the 'engrish' as the Monster calls it.

The beast is out in the light, ready for the next round. Mock build before the panelworks. All wheels/tires stick outta gaurds. Nice n low Happy with that. Tires are the same size as Porsche GT3 cup cars, great 2nd hand deals. They are hard as rock, but for a 6 pack each, who cares. More grip than any semi slick new.

Finally getting closer to obtaining some JDM wide spec zg flares. This guy is doing moulds, producing in f.glass and carbon fibre. Rears are 1.5" wider, front 1" wider. This should easily take care of wrapping up my wheels, and possibly leave some room for a spacer, increasing the track more. Surely going more square on the wheelbase/track ratio wont help doing 720's on the motorway? Go-kart handling for sure. On a random point, ZGs were designed for an arcing movement of a Mcpherson strut, hence the angular shape. The rears flares may need the extra width to take into account a relatively more up/down suspension movement (or certainley less camber change on bump) We will see soon. As Justin makes these flares, there have been holds ups to say the least. Doing it from home to start with, but they are getting out to customers, slowly but surely. Good on you Justin, famous for fat flares.

Look forward to the next phase of works, whenever they start. The mock build up, before the panel beaters. Overall, I have been happy with Herberts with the work they have done. Quick and good quality. A great fabricator they employ, ROB DOWE, aka ROTORSPORT. Id recommend him, but not until Ive finished with him, ok?

- cage fully welded up now, and completed. - car a roller, can push between the workshop and the bank manager. - Neil Fraser has viewed the car, and more than happy with the efforts, with regard to engineering certification. - Front end has steering arms attached, thanks to the donor skyline for compatibility (with steering arms) - Front anitroll bar mocked up, will be sent away for manufacturing, two settings, forged ends. - Camber plates re-made, to REDUCE the -ve camber from the lower arm lengthening (70mm+ each side) - Camber plates pushed out to the max, without chopping up to much of the outer strut tower. Requires a beating to stop springs rubbin' - Lower arms and steering arms are close to parallel, and are around horizontal at ride height. ie. -ve camber change on bump only. Can make up some of these 'bump steer' spacers, but these would change the bump/camber change characteristics (for the better), and make the bump/steer worse. Steering arm - knuckle would require lowering to improve. Something to look at later, once susprog3D is up and running. Or more like I can be bothered, lazy git. Car is being removed from Herberts Fabrication within a fortnight, for the next phase of works - or a break maybe. Have asked Roland Miester (Pi Research/Development Pectel Manager) for sponsorship for the SQ6M Pi ECU for the car. A very cool and beefy ECU, dual motorolla processors, data logging, internal memory, fly by wire, traction control, and run dual lambda sensors for quick learning....go the UK! Perhaps more plugs will see some results? Go Roly! Perhaps an opportunity for Pi to expand into the aftermarket ECU industry? Their usual fare is F1, V8 super's, WRC etc. Super BAMF ZG flares are manufactured and on their way from the States (+1" wider at the front, 1.5" wider rear, than the standard ZGs seen out there) - Better hurry up if Im going to make the Feb NZ Taupo track day eh? The sustanability complex left over. Avoid $1 reserve auctions for this stuff, what a waste of time packing it up for nothing...

rb26 water pump. Should have gone and bought a Davies electric pump instead. Focus.... I will end up changing my mind here.... Anyways, checking out the exisiting front brake options, it started with the stock er34 (same as s14/15 r32/33/34 sumitomo 4 piston) But Herberts had a neat looking disc and hat available cheap, which would mount to 4 stud s30 stock hub, using stock sumitomo's. Solid mounted hat to rotor. But Id wanted a bigger disc, with an ally 5 stud hub, which was not gonna work as a combo, without breaking out the mill again The disc was light for sure though. Club member may be keen? But the Arizona Z car stuff, was the ticket. Bolts together, US/NZ rate at $0.87US, it would be very hard to beat it for the $ outlay. Probably too easy now. Hat-rotor still solid mount, not floating. I Overspeced the rotor to HD, increasing the rotor thickness and number of internal cooling vanes. Increase heat soak potential.

Well, about time to tease those of you running carbs. (I will regret saying this) - Turbo, exhaust,gate,water intercooler,radiator into position. Pipework has more work to clear tight spots here and there. Modified TB location on intake manifold, to clear inner gaurd. TB running 80 degree to usual install method. Heat exchanger out front of radiator, pumped by bosch intercooler water pump (controlled by ECU) My deadline for road going widow maker is late Jan, for a family wedding, and of course in Feb, for a (NZ) Z club Taupo track day, to gently roll around the track whilst smoking a cigar (probably not legal now). Front end slowly coming together. Arizona z car struts, camber tops, 70mm longer bottoms arms, lengthened and adjustable tension rods, 5 stud ally hubs, ally disc hat, heavy duty rotors (more cooling vanes, thicker meat) of around 12.4" ish rotors, 4 pot wilwoods, ally mount. Roll bar and steering linkage needs sorting. Power steering now in and done, MR2 rack. This is a toyo-ta type. Found some ZG flares that will fit, extra wide front and rear. Thanks for the pics. Secret fuel system hidden in back, bosch 700hp efi pump, lift pump, filters, tank increased in size (modified original to increase fuel vol, and house a surge tank), and it all looks completly stock. Beauty.

Exhaust is prepped. I like the smooth 3" mandrel main. Wastegate is Tial 38mm (maybe big enough, if the boost is set nice'n'high) Position of wastegate pipe exiting manifold useless (lowest pipe in pic), with exhaust gas having to do a 180 deg. turn to exit. Hello boost creep. Will change this to improve flow to 'gate. One downfall of the 200 slide chinese unit. Arizona Z Car aluminium radiator, non cross flow, pipes not in the right place either, lucky the xchange rate is still OK then! Bolts up to stock mounts, but this is sans rubber mounts, which would ensure the ally welds would fail quickly. Time to apply mods to radiator then. People talk about the weight savings of ally radiators. Maths do not look good! ($/kg). Cheaper to ditch the passenger.

Manifold choices are OK on the market, with short list including; - standard across the top (works fine) - chinese greddy copy ($, casting issues, % of rejects high) - Greddy ($$ , no bellmouths, hard to source 2nd hand or killer deal) - Aussie fabricated stuff ($$$, too many $ for the gain) - JP and Thai ($$, bellmouths, quality looks OK, deals available) Decided then! 80mm TB (attempt to keep intake velocity up, better response) SARD fuel rail (has 11mm injector holes, while manifold has 13mm. May need to open up rail diameter) General clearance OK, TB tightish to inner wheel arch. Anodizing is garish. Note engine position against firewall, nice'n'tight. 15mm odd clearance there. Also the height of engine relative to bonnet catch, with the oil pan off the JDM 200zr making life easy to drop it low. Compressor housing getting jiggy with the cam cover, will scallop out cam cover then

In these times of recesion, there is no better pick me up than painting everything in gold. er, maybe not. Drivetrain stripped of all ancillaries ready to slot into place. Cross member has the pretty average camber adjustment from old, inner wishbone adjustable point. Note engine mounts completed, using stock rubber. Will give movement, but will also be good for NVH reduction. Too many fillings in the mouth to rattle out. Wish they were gold...

Spec is for a basic cage suitable for light track use, kept tight to lining, mild steel. Will tie into front strut towers once car is further setup, and sitting on a flat table to check chassis is 'straight', which will be pretty unlikely. Rear bar across luggage dept. ties the rear subframe mounts together with something more than panel steel. Pickups behind the seat area ties the front mounts for the subframe. Looks like just a few fires have started with the welding. Keep the heart racin'

Hi, got a cheap chinese tig welded SS top mount holding a tial 38mm gate and GT3040R, only mods are to scallop out rbcamcover, as comp housing hits it. thread is on Hybridz, 'rb zed aka Gaijin'

Go Neo! For a light weight daily driver, a turbo with response is desirable. GT3082R 0.82 AR exhaust housing, gt exit, external gate, dual cartridge ball bearing. Cant say too much about the ex manifold, apart from it costing a few hundred slides. It might even fit into the engine bay... Intake manifold will have to go nice Fan cough cough

Using the z31 turbo 5 stud front hub in steel, 8.5" wide wheel stock er34 disc and calliper - Fitment looks ok, clearance all good - Very heavy! Reducing unsprung and rotating weight should be my target. Going light with disc and hat, aftermarket calliper and alloy hub will make a great improvement for the money Lets start looking...

Strut assembly not where it should be, Original strut way too long to fit, requires an off the shelf Koni/Bilstien unit or something cheaper. Camber link also not in Diff centre is the stock helical LSD. A half decent factory LSD

Big nose checking out the extra track. Sure makes the diff seem small. Most of the rear end stays standard for now. Changes planned include; -Hicas lock - installed in blue. -Camber links - require-rewelding due to poor welding from China? Taiwan? Dunno. Xray man said go away, even before getting the test equipment out. Grind back and TIG again. This should be part of a purchase agreement - a healthy xray report. -Freshen standard brakes Tires are Trademe/ebay specials 265/35/18 Hard as nails, perfect dyno treads.

So, Gaijin, how on earth are those 265's going to turn in anger with a little smokey bakerlite/ceramic hairdrier with dissapointingly frugal injectors? Let me see..we need response to keep up with these youngsters in Evo's & rex's, yet have top end to satisfy....surely turbos dont do both? Enter 3082R, aka GT3040R. Perhaps a little small on the turbine wheel/housing for drag, but should be spot on for club racing. This can be updated easily to a 3582R aka GT3540R, which would turn the stock internally RB25 into bent rods and the rest. Best stay small to start, go bigger later, if its too slow. 0.82 ar exhaust, standard front.

Lets get into it. Breif to Mark Herbert: - Get the rear subframe into the S30 chassis. - Keep it low profile - Not worried about cutting up gaurds - Is it finished already? haha - To fit in 18 x 9.5" wheels, standard er34 offset for size, 265/35/18. Once the rear is in, we agreed to discuss progress, make sure client/fabricator get on OK, and see if we continue working. Fair to me. - Sans tire, looks OK. Subframe located, but no welding just yet. Clearance checks seem OK. - Mark holding wheel at the approximate ride height, ie. includes sag. We will look at gaurd mods later, ignore the lack of room. Will be around 120mm clearnace from chassis underside to road. PLENTY (100mm is minimum legal clearance in NZ) - Rear profile. Subframe not modified, ie. standard width. Circa +160mm total. I like the new width/track, lets forget about shortening this beast, would be a crying shame, just think of the lat. acceleration capacity...feeeeel the 'gs. HICAS gone using peice of ebay 'crap welded' steel bar.