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I'd think the bigger benefit to the 5-lug is your wheel choices, but it will be torque that determines whether you overload the 4-lug, not just horsepower I made the rotors for my bbk dual drilled 4 & 5-lug for that reason, I didn't feel forcing people to upgrade to 5 just because of some notional improvement made sense; I have heard more people snapping axle stubs than wheel studs. The downside I see with the toyota caliper upgrade is that it's a heavy option, and still not the "heavy duty" 32mm rotor thickness like you'd want for racing, but again, it all depends on how serious you are...

Depending how serious you are about the road racing, I produced a bbk for the z31 specifically with the z31 non-turbo hubs in mind (the cheap, easy ones to get) which could in theory work on the earlier Z if the hubs do... the only custom part would be the bracket, but the calipers are radial mount which makes that easy Now I have bored out a couple of the hats to 73.1mm to try on the earlier hubs, but I haven't yet had a chance to mock them up on an actual car to know if there's enough clearance, the hat offset is more than average... see more: http://www.ontariozcar.com/forum/showthread.php?2444-Response-Type-13-quot-front-BBK-for-300ZX-Z31 You'd push the wheel out 7mm relative to your bolt-on hubs using a setup like mine on your hubs (more if using z31 hubs), because the rotor now slips on, however the high hat offset will keep the caliper more inboard, you should have very good spoke clearance compared to other bbk's...

That's absolutely correct, you do not want to isolate some mounts, and solid mount others, that's a recipe for fatigue failures and unintended movement...

If you don't mind doing some investigative work ahead of time, I have a possible solution I will PM

Looks like a standard inverted flare, the only exception being to your typical hardline is the fitting can't spin... BSPT is like NPT in that it's a tapered thread, but a tiny bit finer, tapered threads also act as a seal themselves, hence the need for teflon; the metric threads generally rely on a bubble/inverted flare to seal, with the thread only providing mechanical force

Koni yellows are adjustable rebound, they should be available?

There could be yes, I just expect the rear is a bigger priority, the gains are greater...

Assuming the body isn't bent, the strut top and lca bushing are in the same place on both sides, so hanging freely would make them equidistant... the problem has to be the compression rod, either the bushings aren't torqued down, some washers are on the wrong spots, something.

Haha... I'm gonna see about dropping by whitehead today, see if they have any leftovers to play with

You're right, this is one of those mods where the results would be a complicated mix of side effects, the key will be to mitigate any of the unwanted ones, while gaining other beneficial ones... and as proven by the z31 community, tough to visualize for many

Put the spacers between the bracket and the spindle's ears?

Does anyone have any spare s30 front and rear struts to hack up? I could use some measurements about inner diameters, depths, wall thickness etc..

The curve to that 90 degree mark is different on an offset strut though, which is what I'm working on... Good link ! Just to give you an idea what the adapters could be capable of, though the final version may vary, camber adjusted at the wheel only:

Ok, so I've been reviewing parts and angles, and it looks like there's a really good way to approach this... If you see in the photos I posted, the front z31 kit contains negative camber rollcenter adjusters, this pushes the hub and strut out, which besides the obvious, helps minimize the strut offset from the steering axis. The side effect of which is that you can run higher offset wheels (should be more readily available right?) or perhaps avoid the use of spacers, because you gain extra backspacing, and I expect using a longer arm in the rear would accomplish much the same thing. It appears the dynamic camber curve can be kept in a good range, and any movement towards positive can be mitigated, while allowing the use of wider (and higher offset) wheels to fit PS. It also looks like my z31 bbk should be possible to adapt with a new caliper bracket and changing the center bore on the hats

Wow so much to reply to... johnc: 1. yea I meant the 240z rear in my example, not the 280zx one 2. the camber loss/gain has a dividing line, on one side you start more negative and go more positive, on the other side you start more positive and go more negative; in a case the control arm and spindle top move outwards similarly, camber is maintained rather than lost, and since there are adjustable control arms that allow moving the inner pivot up or out, I'm sure there's a compromise that will work well... seattlejester: exactly tube80z: 1. are you talking about inherent flex in the system? 2. regarding sai for the front, a lot of drifters set their camber plate full positive, and the adapter negative enough to keep the leading wheel flat I spoke to dave @ tougefactory who suggested an offset strut would make it more progressive damping, but without hard numbers and lots of complex math to be sure, his tentative opinion is that it shouldn't be significant if the side loads aren't too high -- I don't believe it is...

Link? All I've found is their weld-on sleeve and camber plates?

Doh yea same as z31 rear ... how's the height? Is it like the s12's where it's too short for a full coilover in the rear?

While in the strictest sense that's true, it doesn't have to, it only has to operate at a specific range of travel... AND you have to keep in mind how it acts in relation to how everything else acts... When you squat the semi-trailing arm, you gain too much camber, you could negate this by having the coilover go more positive under squat conditions, thereby giving you the best grip for launching at drag racing. You could also have it set to maintain a specific negative camber in hard cornering on a car that doesn't normally squat (ie. stiff); if you had 3" of travel where there is next to no change, that would work well for road racing. And like helghast says, you can swap coilovers in and out as needed, the adapters even have a set screw boss on the top, so prior to disassembly, you can mark the camber, then reassemble at the exact same position.

Yea it would depend on your wheel as a starting point, but because the strut would be offset like in the case of the s13 front, you'd get extra clearance at the top. Now if you had the adjustable lower arm pushed further out at the same time, you could have wider wheels with bigger backspacing? To give you an idea, the range for the z31 setup you see there is +2 to -9 or thereabouts on factory parts, so it can compensate for some really wild setups like extended flcas, or massive camber for the inside wheel for drifting. Obviously the goal is different but the device itself can do a lot.

I guess my question is, who wants to be the lucky bunny? Who wants to help me develop the idea?

I designed an interesting kit for the z31 front suspension that I'm convinced would do wonders for the rear of the early datsuns... I've seen how seriously involved installing rear coilovers are, cutting out the strut tower top to weld in a new camber plate; what if you didn't have to do that? What if you could adjust camber at the spindle, and what if you could maintain that camber under compression (like a hard launch)? What if this would allow you to interchange/upgrade your coilover later, say to Fortuneauto 510's, Apexi N1 Revolution, Tein SuperDrift, or other premium brands? To quote Scotty: Would that be worth something to ya laddy?

Old thread I know, but this is relevant for the future!