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I guess I'm lucky, my school doesnt start classes until the 28th.. though working a summer job 100 miles away from where my car is sure doesnt help with wrenching on it. I dont know about that... I think that all depends on your school and how one approaches their education. What I will agree with you about though is that most of the engineers seem the same. Its always funny to see that more than half of the guys doing mechanical engineer are car guys wanting to go into the automotive industry or work for race teams. I've actually had another ME student say to me "oh so youre another car guy " when I was talking with her. I definitely think its important to distinguish yourself if youre going to be an engineer so youre not so "cookie cutter," which is something I definitely planning on working on over the next year. Anyway... this term I'm taking Applied Stress Analysis (aka advanced stress analysis/FEA), a measurement and instrumentation lab (doing stress testing, screwing around with LabView and stuff) and my senior design project class. Its going to be a fun term!

Dang, I was hoping I was the only one with such issues. Oh well, at least that means I'm not doing anything wrong. However, my car doesnt really ever stall out under regular street braking conditions. There could be a second issue at work here. For me, it really only happens in panic brake type situations (clutch in, slam brakes hard). I did some searching a few months ago on off road forums and found this page: http://www.ih8mud.com/tech/carter.php Off that page I have done the first two things (off road needle seats, lowering float bowls to between 5/16" and 3/8"), though it seemed to help a little, the problem still persists. I havent tried the third trick yet (squishing a rubber hose in the balance tube thing). If you like, give it a whirl and let me know how it goes.

Good to hear. I know very little about these carbs but I think what the spring loaded seats do for off roading is act as a shock absorber to keep the movements of the floats to a minimum and prevent carb flooding/starving in the rough bumps on the trails. The g forces in cornering in our application probably have a similar effect to those bumps. Does your carb happent to stall/stumble during extremely heavy braking? I'm encountering this problem at the end of an autocross run where I have to brake hard to slow down the car and enter the pits. The fuel will slosh side to side in the carb during this heavy braking flood/starve it. Its not a big deal, since it only takes a quick rev to get it back to normal. Once I get this worked out Id say my car setup will be fairly bulletproof.

I have a similar setup on my car: edelbock 500 cfm carb (same design as the carter AFB), same manifold. I havent had any such issues with my setup but I know that due to the design of the 4 bbl manifold there may be inherent issues with mixtures going rich/lean due to g forces in cornering. This may be partly causing the problem, however, I've been autocrossing my car all summer and cant really report seeing any real problems attributed to this. If this really is the case, I dont think there is a way to deal with this problem without throwing out the manifold. Also you may be just having issues due to the design of your carb. Ive done a little research on Carter AFB style carbs, and found that the carbs can flood/starve when subjected to angles or g forces due to fuel sloshing inside the fuel bowl. What you can try is getting "off road" spring-loaded needle seats like these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00062Z2KK These are for off roading where the car is at all kinds of wierd angles, I've read these help quite a bit in their applications. I've been running these on my car, as I mentioned, dont really have issues of stumbling around corners.

I dont know whether this applies to the s130, but for the s30s that is generally the case. Using urethane bushings on both sides of the tension rod has caused some snapping failures, though I ran mine this way for an autocross or two and had no problems. Eventually I bought a set of new rubber bushings for them and use 1 urethane and 1 rubber bushing per tension rod just to be on the safe side.

Definitely. My car used to sound and feel like it was going to rattle itself apart even on relatively flat roads. I made the upgrade and it feels very smooth almost like a "new" car. I dont know how it would difficult it would be on an s130 but I had a machine shop press out my old bushings after I gave them all my suspension bits and pieces to save time. Then I just popped the new ones in myself.

Fair enough, I'll just try that

Thats the exact one! I did not realize it was a whole muffler setup though... I think what I may do is buy some pipe that will fit over my exhaust tip and weld a sheet metal cover on the end with some holes drilled in it, flare the end and clamp it over my exhaust tip. Seems like that should do the trick and I ought to be able to get it finished in an hour or so.. plenty of time...

Thanks John. I will try to rig up something, if anything it will be useful for driving down my street at 6 am for the race and not piss off all my neighbors. The 12a rotary swapped datsun 1200 that runs here uses what looks like a cover over its exhaust with six small holes along the perimeter... This may be a fairly dumb question but would something like that work even better?

Looks like someone stole St. Louis's arch... I think it is, and count me in for $20!

It will be in a fairgrounds parking lot. I guess theres houses across the street or so which have complained in the past. As I mentioned I dont know to what extent they will actually enforce the 92 db since they've never enforced it at any previous locations. However, I would like to know for myself as well in case it ever becomes an issue for me. I might just buy one of the radio shack units, do the test a few times and then return it for a refund...

Well the wierd part is that the limit is always set at 92 db and everyone has been racing all summer with no troubles. I guess its this particular event location that causes problems for them. The extent they will actually enforce the 92 db is questionable at best. Just the fact that the really loud cars (formula Vee, race prepped mazda rotary, some other race prepped straight piped cars) are worried that makes me question myself. I did do some searching and found this table: http://www.gcaudio.com/resources/howtos/loudness.html I dont think my car is louder than a truck... and definitely quiter than a subway or power mower... but then again I dont really rev it up unless I'm autocrossing and my helmet kind of muffles the sounds. I know it will be close to the limit, I would like to find some way of quieting my exhaust down real quick in case someone starts complaining. Either way, I wish I found this out before this weekend. I work out of town all week so I dont have any opportunity to do any testing basically until race day next weekend.

The next autocross event has me worried. Apparently noise is going to be an issue, some people with really loud cars are choosing not to go due to this fact. The limit is 92 db at 50 ft. My car has an MSA 6:1 header, 2.25 exhaust with a turbo muffler. Its pretty loud inside but I have no reference of how loud is too loud (92 db). Also, anything I can do real quick to muffle it in the even it ends up being too loud? I've seen the exhaust silencers but dont know how/if those will work out with the muffler/exhaust tip. Can anyone help me out here? This is supposed to be a really good event, I dont want to miss it!

Still looking for one...

I started working with Solidworks 2007 it was really powerful, easy to use, and organized. Then my school "upgraded" its license to the 2008 version, with the all new UI, and I still havent recovered from the change. For me, its a struggle to do anything in that mess. In contrast I've used Pro-E during my internships at two different engineering companies and after the initial "shock" have grown to prefer it by far. I will agree that its not as initially user-friendly to a completely new user but my experience with Solidworks 2008 left me a bit disappointed.

I'm not expert, so someone correct me if I'm wrong but I think at least some of your problem is due to the 7/8 master cylinder. Big brakes displace a lot more fluid and therefore lengthen pedal travel so most big brake kits recommend you upgrade to the 15/16ths MC. The bigger MC will reduce pedal travel a bit, maybe fixing your problem. Also if youre running the stock proportioning valve, that may be messing up your front/rear brake bias. Putting in an adjustable one will let you adjust pressure so rear brakes are doing more braking.. although you still want fronts to lock up first. I just swapped my 7/8ths MC for the 15/16ths one and did not see any wetness when I removed it from the booster. The pushrod nut was real tight, but I eventually got it off. The reaction disc is on the end of the rod, but I believe there is a clip or something else on the booster that prevents it from coming out all the way. Remove that and you should be able to pull it out I believe.

I'm not sure about pro-e but I think solidworks can be bought through the software's publisher. Either way I would contact them first go from there... and yeah it wont be cheap I just stay after work and use our network license... or use my school's license since I'm still a student there... not for long though

If youre in an engineering program at a university theres a good chance they have solidworks, pro-e, or catia in the labs on campus. Also, if youre school is anything like mine they will let you use a student copy on your home computer as long as you stay connected to the internet to refresh the license every 30 minutes or so. Google sketch up works fine, but might as well use (learn) the real thing if you have access... Interesting idea though

Quick update: quote has come back. For a single order of 1 "side" set (2 strut mount brackets and 4 upright brackets 10ga steel, laser cut) price is $75 as they are now. You need 2 "sides" for the whole car. For a larger order (order of 10+ "sides") they will reduce cost by over 50% on each individual part. So were talking possibly as low as $30 per "side" depending on the order quantity. Build time will be approximately 1 week or less from time of order. I will make a couple changes to the strut mount plates as noted previously, these should not change the price very much. The upright plates will likely end up much different then they are now so I imagine the price might change by a bit. However, expect a price in the same ballpark. To me, this seems like an excellent price, I think we got something pretty neat going here so I'm fairly excited about getting an order placed. For those of you interested, PM me with exactly how many "sides" you want so I can get a more exact quote after I finalize the design. Given how relatively cheap these are I might just order a "pilot" set , install it in my car and post pics here of fitment. We'll see what happens.

Ron, Id been ignoring the actual height of the cross bar until I had a chance to actually mock up the design on my car... but that is a lot higher than I had originally thought. Yes, I agree. Unless I'm missing something the main difference between something like that and what I have is that the bar in your picture permanentely fixed to the bracket holding it on the strut tower. I think using my bracket, someone could still set them up to accomodate a fixed connection like that rather than use a rod end. And youre right, I dont need 6 holes anymore. I needed them before to keep fabrication uniform and hadnt changed it, thats what I get for being slammed with work. There is about enough room for two welds about .5" long on both sides of both of the upright plates. I could make the strut tower bracket wider on the inside end this would allow for a longer weld, but I didnt really feel it was necessary.

Just sent out the RFQ, should be getting numbers back monday or tuesday. Just FYI, the rod ends, pin and threaded tube will not be included in this kit. If/when we end up getting something going all I would provide is the bracket that mounts onto the strut and the two vertical plates. I will likely order the bracket this week since it pretty much set in stone. The vertical plates will be ordered next week after I had a chance to make my own mock up over next weekend. You'll have to weld the vertical plate(s) on in the position of your choosing and figure out how you want to do any of the linkages yourself. I will provide general support and advice on how to mount everything up including part numbers and vendors used after I've successfully completed my install. But the beauty of this design is you are essentially free to pursue whatever meets your needs/budget once you have the bracket. You could bolt a wooden dowel in there if you really wanted to...

I've been a little busy with various projects on my car and at work so am a little behind where I'd like to be on this project. I made some changes to the design, take a look below. Things will be tight on assembly but if you're careful with your welds everything should come together fine I think. I have not gotten a chance to make a mock up but I am hoping to take care of that soon as well. I am sending out a request for quote, if you are actually interested let me know so I can take that into account.

I used the 5/8"X10" long bolt and a nylock nut. For better or for worse I didnt use the lock pin to lock it in place. I havent noticed any loosening of the bolt so I dont think theres any problems with the setup.

I finally got around to installing my new wheels! They look great! (thanks ron!) Before: Early NA Z31 wheels (15x6.5 +30 offset), 1/2" spacers, 205/50/15 tires, tokico springs, illumina shocks After: 15x7 Panasports, no spacers, 205/50/15 tire, custom strut upper isolators, tokico springs, illumina shocks some more pics:

I second the option for just buying the Arizona Z Car aluminum unit. Its like 200 bucks and comes with urethane bushings and everything else you need. It wouldnt be hard to make your own if youre up for the challenge, the ACZ unit is basically an aluminum flat plate with drilled mounting holes and two aluminum blocks with holes for urethane bushings. Shouldnt be hard to copy it if thats what youre aiming to do... Just make sure you get the dimensions right...