tube80z

This may seem counter to what we're discussing but be careful getting lower control arms that are too strong. A lot of these are over built and that leads to problems if you ever take a hit. You don't want to have the crossmember and frame rail ripped up from hitting a pothole/curb. On the GT2X arms I'd look at using aluminum rod ends on the crossmember side. I'd do that for the TC rod too. If you're going to modify any of these items then you're not that far from making what you want from scratch. When it comes to rod ends/sphericals remember to burnish/bed them (see page 22 of http://flipbooksbyadventure.com/RodEndsCatalog/files/assets/common/downloads/publication.pdf). You need to turn the ball (100 RPM or slightly less) to polish the liner (probably wrong terminology) but it helps remove high/low spots and distributes teflon across all surfaces. When you do this you'll feel the rod end suddenly lose torque and you want to remove from the drill or lathe and dunk in ice water. Done right the bearing will also be very easy to move and that reduces friction in the suspension. Very few people do this. Once you get beyond getting the basic setup right almost all of the rest of the small gains come from working on deflection and friction removal. Suspension friction (stiction) reduces mechanical grip. The more of it you get rid of the better. With regards to bearings I'm not sure of your question. Larger diameter or distance between bearings will make decrease load from cornering/brake forces. I think a good compromise that could be used on the Z would be based on the NASCAR 5x5 hub setup. The bearings for these look almost twice the size as a Datsun bearing. You can get alloy or steel hubs, brake hats, spindles and bearing spacers for these fairly cheap. Download the Howe Racing catalog and see all the options. REM finished or ceramic bearings will help with friction and the ceramics can withstand huge loads and roll with minimal friction. They would be a last step just the same as replacing all the turning/moving parts with Ti fasteners to save weight. I've attached an example upright from a 2001 BTCC Peugeot 406. Notice the large bearings and how everything is mounted in double shear. If you fab a new upright this is a good example to follow. Just a bit of racing trivia, I asked a mechanic working on a historic BTCC BMW at a historic event where the large bearings came from. He told me they used helicopter main rotor bearings for most of the uprights. Now these are available from race bearing suppliers. The BMW must have had 6 inch diameter bearings. Pretty cool stuff.

Ben, you probably won't get much help as I don't think anyone is using these parts in anger as you are. The GT2X arms T3 has look to be similar to AE's arms. To be truthful you'd be better off with a spherical bearing than a ball joint. This is because you use spacers are much easier to put back in the same position than a tapered shank. The stock style arms they sell are probably stiffer in bending under breaking then either the GT2X or AE arms. The other reason I'd say this is because you're at the point where to get to the next step you need to start thinking beyond what's considered normal Z suspension. My personal preference would be to build a lighter set of arms than what's needed for street. This will all be custom fabrication to fit your car and wheel/tire requirements. Search for BTCC or V8 Supercar strut setups for inspiration. In the meantime if you have gusseted the strut tube and you're running a bearing spacer and the disc is hitting the arm you have too much bending. That means a thicker spindle and larger bearings are needed. And if you're going to any custom stuff like this then you need to think strongly about NASCAR parts as they are cheap and plentiful. A custom strut tube built around the 5x5 hub and bearings for instance. You can source cheap alloy hubs, brake hats, REM or ceramic bearings, etc. There's a reason all the higher end touring car racers use big bearings spaced farther apart to resist bending loads. Hope that helps, Cary

This is a really good video on how to lock wire. The cheater cable stay is cool but the tools aren't cheap.

Change the mount on the bar to use a rod end. Then a flat piece can be welded to a tube that crosses that area. The flat piece will have to extend top and bottom if it will be universal like the stock arms. This design isn't as good as the toe-link option. For the amount of work I'd opt for the latter. Cary

Another option that would most likely be all you need is a vacuum reservoir. I'm sure those are available in Oz as a lot of the cammer V8 engines use them to have power brakes when idling on a low vacuum cam.

Just as an FYI, Woodward shafts have a groove on the splines this grub screw locks into. Their u-joint design has enough clearance so that if you have two of their joints you can remove the shaft without having to remove the joint. You can see on the following post. Cary

Technically unequal lengths will cause the pressure on the calipers to be different for a short period of time. The amount of fluid that moves is very small. What mostly happens is a pressure wave that travels along the fluid. If you want to get all geeky it can be calculated but you need to know details of the fluid and temperature, etc. Think of it similar to how a sonic boom happens. I've had lines that started out not equal and it worked fine. I only ended up changing this so to equal length when I did work to make changing the engine/tranny easier. From previous posts it looks like you were asking about 50/50 on braking. If the question is how much braking should be on the front versus rear this needs to be more like 70% front and 30 percent rear. 50F/50R will cause premature rear lockup. Perhaps I'm not following along. One of the best ways to test I've found in Neil Robert's book Think Fast. He recommends finding a medium speed corner and setting the brake balance so that when you brake hard you stay on line. Too much front will cause you to understeer (car moves away from corner) and too much rear will cause you to oversteer (car tightens corner). You don't need to come to a stop when doing this and you only need medium effort on the pedal. A cloverleaf highway ramp would work if you can find one without a lot of traffic. I was fortunate in having a track with the perfect corner to do this. Keep in mind pedal feel is subjective. This can lead to liking smaller master cylinders if you prefer more travel or larger masters if you like a pedal that doesn't move as much. I'm in the latter camp and a number of people that drove my car said it was like standing on a 2x4 to make it stop. There's also a lot to keep in mind if you change the mounting of the calipers. They need to be parallel to the disk and you need to make sure the brake disks have minimal run out. I've seen some that have mounts flex and engage one side a fraction before the other. You really need to have someone stand on the pedal and inspect all four corners as well as the masters to make sure flex is minimal. If you can see movement it's probably too much. I'll try and find the pictures of my pedal box setup. It appears google deleted the images I had posted at the beginning of this thread. Hope that helps, Cary

Not sure if you ever found it but you can buy them from here https://midwestcontrol.com/shop/index.php?route=product/search&search=banl They are called a barrel adjuster nut or sometimes a barrel bung nut. I use the 3/4 outside thread and 5/8 inner. If you need fine control I'd recommend not a left/right setup but using two different thread pitches. Hope this helps, Cary

I just wanted to say nice work. I totally understand how long this takes and how easy a few pics on the forum make it look. This is a metric shit ton of work. Hat tip, Cary

There's another really good reason to get the car ready for the upgrade first. And that's by the time you get done with all that work and expense new engines or engine combos may have come onto the market and tempt you. I don't know how many times I have done this backwards only to find by the time I finally can get the engine in there are far better options, which are often cheaper and more powerful. Even if you don't change your mind as the LS platform ages better and better versions will be available. Just something to think about, Cary

I really don't think it would be too hard to create a new rear strut housing using newer car bearings and stub axles. Perhaps something along these lines https://afloresengineering.files.wordpress.com/2014/06/2010-rear-upright-design-report-1-2.pdf. Cary

That just robs Peter to pay Paul. Reduce scrub and you add steering axis inclination (SIA). It depends a lot on what tires you want to run and how you plan to use the car. With power steering you can increase caster to help cover some of this but you can't go too far. And I suck and have only made it about half the way into trying to make a dual-balljoint front end layout in the suspension software I'm using (Susprog3D). I can move points around but need to have a basic CAD model to make sure they'd actually be doable. For my small 13-inch diameter wheels I think it won't work unless steering lock were severely limited.

And don't forget the trick of taking the isolators apart so you can remove the gap in the rubber to make the top solid rubber. This will reduce the amount of camber loss from the rubber deflecting under cornering and can save you dollars that can be spent elsewhere.

There used to be a Z that autoxed with us in central Oregon (Eugene/Bend) that used a circle track system pointing forwards. He had to cut a clearance hole in the strut towers for the primaries to work. He was using a 400 small block versus an LS. We also used to have a Ford GT40 replica that ran a set so I know what you mean about cool sounds. You definitely will want to have good hood ventilation to get both header and radiator heat out of the engine compartment. The video headers are going to have some problems when it comes to removing or putting them on. There needs to be a sip fit or flange (like your second image) between sides or getting them on and off will involve a lot of effort. If you have studs (a good idea) I'd bet they may not work at all. If you have access to a 3D printer head to Thingiverse as they have header modelling blocks and LS headpipe (https://www.thingiverse.com/XeonDesigns/designs, https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2800881). Hope that helps, Cary

I'm probably just piling on info you already looked at but did you see these, (https://www.hotrod.com/articles/venting-to-cure-crankshaft-pressure/, https://www.yellowbullet.com/forum/showthread.php?t=609182&page=5)? Is that how you plumbed things? I saw a number of people claiming on road race LS motors you need half inch (-8 AN) or larger lines to deal with the problem. Before I did any of this I'd make sure you don't have excessive blowby/leakdown from a broken ring. I should add that all this disappeared when we dry sumped Kipperman's engine. His locost that had a wet sump LS2 had some vented breathers that ran to a catch can and it was always having some oil mist come out. If you do want to think more about the dry sump I did my complete system using NASCAR take off parts for around $1300. Cary