Ironhead

Just to add my $.02.... I installed a diff cooler with an electric pump and electric fans during the build of my car. I also have a diff temp sensor, and the pump/fans are set to go on when diff oil temp reaches 240 F, and goes off when it's down to 220 F. I am running an R200 short nose with Giken LSD with the Giken oil. In street driving, even in 100 F weather, it never goes on. Diff temp stabilizes at about 210 F. On track, with 20 minute run sessions, the diff just barely reaches 240 F at the end of the session. The system usually switches on just as I am entering the pits, cools the oil to 220 F in a minute or so, and switches off. This was the case even during a 93 F track day. So I am wondering, for my purposes, if diff cooling is even needed. The oil would cool anyway as the car sits between track sessions. On street it's a complete non-issue. The Giken people said their diff oil is fine up to about 270 F. Obviously it would be needed for endurance racing or long track sessions, but neither is me. So I read all the machinations here about diff coolers, and thought I should mention that I am considering removing mine, just in the interests of simplicity and lighter weight. The pump, cooler, mounts and plumbing probably weigh 5-10 lbs.

I've used floating rotors for years on a couple of different track cars. They are particularly important on applications that require a relatively flat mounting hat, because such hats have almost no radial flex and if the discs are not floating they can easily crack with temperature extremes. I've used a couple of different designs, and all of them were secured with bolts and "jet" nuts (all metal lock nuts that "lock" due to elliptically offset threads) and thus required no safety wiring. In fact, there really wouldn't be any logical way you could safety wire them. The so called "jet" nuts will never loosen anyway, no matter how many heat cycles and how much vibration they are subject to. Once you tighten one on a bolt, you will understand why.

I don't have any input beyond what the others said... I just wanted to say that picture you posted is pretty badass.

Bit late to the party, but this is how I did mine... I just welded two 1/8" thick plates to the bar so that they bolted to OEM holes in the stock roof reinforcement piece. This is probably no better or worse than just welding to it would have been, but for some reason this was my approach.

Naw. Not that kind of car. I'm fine with it as is.

Thanks much! It's all good. Far more reliable than I ever expected such a concoction to be. Thoroughly enjoying it. No complaints at all, except I don't drive it much in the summer here because the interior gets pretty warm.

I dunno, I personally am very, very careful about what I buy from RockAuto. Some of their parts are the same quality as you would get from the OEM dealership, others are so bad as to be utterly useless. You need to have a good idea what you are ordering and what it "should" cost from a reputable source. When I was putting together my car I bought a CV axle for a Q45 from them. The cost was $96. This really had me on guard, as at that time the OEM equivalent was $1200. I figured I had nothing to lose. Well, I did, I had $96 to lose. The part was such utter crap that I wouldn't have used it on anything. I dismantled the CV joints to see if any parts were usable, and I don't even have the words to describe how bad they were. I'm positive they would have knocked like crazy out of the box. As to Whitehead, the negative reports from customers have been going on for so long now that I'm surprised they are still in business. Really sad to hear people are still getting taken by them.

You can get a fiberglass cowl panel from Ztrix that has no holes for the wipers, but it also deletes the grills for the cabin air intake system and is a solid piece. I don't run wipers on mine currently, but I have the motor and hardware installed. I just haven't put on the wiper arms.

Welding VBands and keeping them from distorting is actually slightly tricky. I assemble them, with the two flanges clamped together, before final welding. If you don't do this, and weld with much heat, the flanges can distort like a potato chip.

When welding tubing...like an exhaust...you will find that nothing moves around much if your fitup is perfect or very good. I always face the ends of the tube on a disc sander, so that they fit together with no gap. If you do this you will get little or no movement when you final weld it. If your fitup is good you can "fusion" weld it together, with no filler, but I personally never do. I just feel better about the weld if I add some .035" or .045" filler when final welding. I realize a properly designed exhaust isn't under tremendous stress, and it's not like welding an airplane structure, but I always use a bit of filler regardless.

You can do a few experiments on scrap pieces and it becomes pretty apparent that back-purging on tacks isn't really necessary. As long as the fit is decent and thus the tack is pretty quick, you won't see any significant "sugaring" on the back of the tack. But when fully welding all the seams, I think back-purging is critical and I never fail to do it. Again, experiment on scrap. You will see the porous gonad-looking growths that appear on the back of a stainless weld if you don't. Not only are these likely places for cracks to start, but if every seam is welded in this matter, it would be hugely detrimental to exhaust flow as well. There are occasional welds wherein it is either impossible or impractical to back purge. In those places I either use Solar Flux, or clamp a piece of aluminum on the back of the joint to serve as a heat sink/argon trap. If none of this is possible....I just grind off the sugaring when I am done welding.

It is amazing, on track, how massive amounts of torque seem to minimize the effects of sloppy driving. I also have a BMW E30M3 track car, with an N/A four cylinder engine that has very little torque, and really only develops HP above 5000 RPM. It's a classic momentum car, in which you have to take turns at the absolute limit, keeping momentum up, particularly before the long straights. If you fail to do this your lap times plummet. The LS swapped Z is completely different. Any momentum lost is immediately regained with a stomp on the throttle, almost regardless of RPM. Obviously both cars take a great deal of concentration to drive at their individual limits, but just "going fast" is so much easier in the Z. I can just mosey through turns, nowhere near the limit, and still lap significantly faster than the BMW.

There's no doubt an engine swap completely changes the character of the car. Mine has a 525 HP LS3, and it is more like a lighter, less refined Corvette than a Z car, honestly. Some might say I should have just bought a Corvette, but I have a method to my plan and I am happy with the outcome.

I just wanted to say, this post made me LOL. I have wondered the same thing about the "hella flush" cars. I see so many on the 'net that cannot possible have any meaningful suspension travel. Not just Zs either, the RWB Porsches being the best example I can think of: https://fifteen52.com/blogs/52/27618305-rwb-x-fifteen52-porsche-911-993

Looks like great work on a very "needy" shell. I was just trying to imagine, think how different our "hobby" would be if cars didn't rust. By different, I mean better.