Savage42

While having the motor all the way against the firewall may be good for better weight transfer for drag racing, it's not necessarily ideal for road racing. You need to have weight on the front tires and not have all the weight farther back if you want to maximize handling. My buddy has a 400 SBC in his car and is one of the fastest autocross and track cars around and it sits close to where your's sits. So, you'd have to spend a lot of time getting the car dialed in handling-wise before a few inches in motor placement will make a difference. I'd spend that time, effort, energy & money getting everything else good to go. Just my experience, as I'm an autocross, hillclimb, road racer, not a "straight-liner" like many on here. Different strokes and it's all good. As a side note, my buddy listed above, originally planned to go drag racing, since he had lightning rods in the car for shifting his automatic, etc. Once he came to an autocross & track day and saw he could get so much more "seat time" than doing his 11-12 second stuff, he was hooked. It's always cool seeing a V8 Z as a front runner and often "Top Time of Day" winner at the autocrosses. Our club usually pulls 150-175 cars per event, too. Can't wait to get back out there myself! http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=552 Congrats on the new purchase!! Give 'em hell. BTW, got any pics?

I ran -2 degrees (F) and -1.25 degrees camber ® for my dual purpose car. I didn't have any irregular tire wear and it was a total multi-purpose car. The one thing I'd see is getting rid of all camber in the rear for drag racing. For street/autocross/track, you will be good with those settings. Just my experience.

Hey guys! It's been a while since I've had much progress on the Z, but I got a picture from the paint shop today and I'll be picking it up on Wednesday, Jan. 3rd. They still have to bolt on the California Wing, but other than a couple small things, it's just about done. The whole engine compartment was blasted and painted, along with a sunken battery box setup added. I've got nearly everything to put the car together, although the custom dash with Z06 gauge cluster that will curve down into the Corvette shifter will be done soon and that will take 2 weeks. Once back, I need to remove and paint the suspension and I'm waiting for every nut, bolt, bracket, etc to come back from getting plated in bright "clear" Zinc. (actually bright silver looking as opposed to gold that came on most OEM stuff) I'm excited to finally be putting it together!! I'll add more as it comes together!! Woo-hoo!! What do you guys think? (Wheels are just junk wheels to roll it around on) http://www.datsun510.com/photopost/data/3335/49Quicksilver1.jpg http://www.datsun510.com/photopost/data/3335/49GARY_SAVAGE_IMG_EST_001-med.jpg More pics of parts & stuff! http://album.hybridz.org/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=8934

Budget can dictate quite a bit when it comes to working on the Z. If you have a pile of cash and want to only put it into drivetrain, then the LS1 is an excellent choice. If you want 90% of the performance for half the money, then you can go with the tried and true LT1, still getting EFI, good power, etc and money left over to make stuff pretty, put it towards other areas of the car (ie. limited slip), etc. Focus on your goals, what kind of money you'll have toward the project and then the most logical choices to get the most toward those goals with the given amount of money you have. Just my 2 cents. ;^)

Is it just me, but if it had a red light that moved back & forth in the grille area, it might be a Japanese Knight Rider-mobile? ;^)

I just had a flat spot taken out of my BMW M5 wheel at a cost of $100. You won't be able to get it fixed for less than $50, so it's your call. Definitely an option when you have rare or expensive wheels, though!

I've had the best luck with Porterfields, as they are a carbon kevlar pad, which works well when cold and don't eat your rotors like carbon metallic pads. I've run Porterfields and Performance Friction and the Porterfields were much better...hands down! The PF pads were OK, but needed more heat to work, which wasn't always the best on a street car. I run my car on street, autcross, hillclimbs & track days.

On another note, I see you used an early LSD setup with a later diff. I knew there was an ID difference with the ring gears, but it's obvious that the holes still line up, so that's cool. Good to know.

The PowerBrute LSDs are not like a Detroit Locker, where it's either locked or not. They have the clutches that breakaway with a preloaded amount of pressure. As for turn in properties, if you went from an open diff to a LSD, it will feel like and probably won't turn in quite as well. If you are letting off and it turns in better, that's just a weight transfer thing and is natural. You need to run the car on the track and play with the balance of the car. If you want a little better turn in, go with a rubber endlink bushing set on the front bar to get a little more front grip, if you are running a larger bar with poly bushings. Hope that helps.

I did that very thing and put it into my 510 about a decade ago. It works just fine. Of course, the 4.11 worked well with a high revving small motor, where the 3.70 was much better for the 2.2 and the VG30 turbo when I had those in the 510. http://kmhafer.datsun510.com/Subaru.htm

Absolutely right! I live in Eugene and no emissions here. We do all the mods we can think of. As far as DEQ up in Portland, do they even do a visual inspection or is it just a sniffer test? If so, I'm sure any EFI V8 would probably burn cleaner than the stock motor. My buddy's VG30DETT in his 510 is way cleaner than the stock L16 and it has 4 times the horsepower and about the same mileage. Go figure! ;^)

Once you get it on the road, tell me how the brake pedal feels and what master cylinder did you go with? Curious. Thanks.

That's how the list them as either non-locking (open) and locking (limited slip).

I basically cut off the "cone" part and left the flat part that is about 1/2" thick. It lookks more like a thick washer out of poly. Make sense?

I cut down a set of Energy Suspension poly bumpstops, so I get a little more travel, but you'll want them so the car doesn't "slam" if you do bottom out. As for the rubber boots, most of the shocks have a scraper built into the seal, so dirt can't get in there. So, it probably won't make any difference whether you run them or not. I haven't run them on my cars for over a decade.

Oh, that is just so WRONG!

I'm planning on running the same setup as Phantom on my car, duals with an "X" pipe to a dual in/single out muffler in the stock location. He seems to like it. I want a nice rumble and sound when cruising, but some good noise when I mash the "loud pedal".

First, search the site. As for putting it in, it's a different mounting setup (requires a different kit, headers, etc), requires EFI fuel pump & tank, many wires, computer with editing or modified to take care of 02 sensors, etc. Not the same as hooking up a fuel line, couple wires and go....not even close. If you want simple, stick with "old school" stuff. As far as tuning, it's not just playing with jets and ignition curves, it takes a $500 computer edit program and dyno time. Definitely more "hi tech" and requires more fine tuning, but will get you more power & better mileage. (most of the time) Hope that helps.

Yep, looking good! The only rust I had on my car was under the battery tray. A friend of mine builds a small frame out of 1" square tubing and sinks that area. This is a shot of my battery box before final prep, where an Optima will sit down in there with a custom battery box cover to hide it all. Just another option. http://album.hybridz.org/data/549/8934BatteryBox-before-prep1.jpg

Yep, stock sucks for any real road racing. With a 4 piston caliper and vented rotor, odds are good that they'd work. The only time that I see that there might be a problem is at a track where there is a long *** straight to a hairpin, combined with acceleration & top speed of a V8 Z, this would be pushing it. On most road courses, they should work. The ZX stuff on my 510 gave me awesome brakes.....larger vented rotor, big piston with lots of pad surface area and only a 2200 lbs car! That car stopped like nobody's business! BTW, that is one fugly backing plate!

I've never had a problem running the Porterfield R4-S pads on the street and for track days, but I guess they work for both on my cars because they had enough brakes to start with. If stock is kinda marginal, then they still won't do dual duty. On my 510 with '82 ZX brakes, 510 with RX-7 brakes, my '97 Maxima and my newly acquired BMW 540i 6 speed car, they have very good brakes. I would think that with an upgrade of some sort, you can most likely get to run them for both. I ran Thunderhill Raceway in mid July with R4-S pads on my BMW that I put on a few days before and it was 105 degrees outside, 117 degrees on the track and didn't have any probs with brakes while pushing that 4000 lbs V8 tank around the track! The only car to pass me with 40 cars on track was a 300ZX twin turbo on race tires, I was on street rubber. So, that's my experience and they are the only pads I'll ever run. The Metal Masters where "the stuff" over a decade ago, but not so much anymore.

I've always had great luck with Amzoil synthetic grease in all my joints, bushings, etc. You want to find a good synthetic, high pressure grease. Hope that helps.