Ironhead

The reason radically modified cars usually don't bring much money though, is because they only appeal to a very narrow spectrum of buyers, people like you and me. Even in my case, absent a very thorough inspection, I am quite wary of the quality of work done by people who modified a car. Usually I would prefer to modify it myself. I guess my point is, you might whip out your checkbook if you saw a big-block powered Datsun for $70K. I'm saying that if you waited a few weeks there's a good chance you could get the same car for $30-40K.

I got the sizing on my master cylinders directly from Tilton. Their tech support is great...they offer assistance without talking down to you or trying to sell you big $$$$$ items you don't need. Anyway, they took weight (anticipated at the time) of my car, weight distribution, front/rear rotor sizes, caliper piston areas, and other variables to recommend master cylinder size. I told them I wanted to lean toward relatively light pedal pressure, and I followed the sizing they recommended. Once it was all working though, because of my pedal position I found I was getting just a bit more pedal travel than I was comfortable with, hence the switch in the pedal pivot/leverage. As I see it, the only thing I can do now to lower pedal effort would be to try a grippier pad compound, which I am doing. Other than that, I imagine it is just a matter of getting used to the increased pedal pressure. My other track car has power brakes, which I suspect is why I was a bit surprised at the effort required in the Datsun. The effort required by track pads always decreases as they heat up...so there's that to keep in mind.

One of the trade-offs, is to design in lower effort by using smaller master cylinders, you kind of have to accept longer pedal travel, because the system still needs to move a certain amount of fluid to operate. I'm fairly tall, so I positioned the pedals close to the firewall, which limits the amount of pedal travel I can have. My pedals have an adjustable pivot point on the balance bar, which I moved from low effort/high travel to medium effort/medium travel for this reason. I wanted full braking well before the pedal was bottoming on the firewall, for obvious reasons.... There's really no free lunch....

Fair price perhaps, but modified cars very, very rarely bring in fair prices. If you ever watch the various televised auto auctions, you will see countless resto-mods...most of them done to a very high standard and having had at least $125-150K put into them. Typically they only bring $35-50K at auction. This Z is definitely a rare exception....and I do agree that the "all Nissan" element of it was probably a factor. It wouldn't mean anything to me, but I know it does to some people.

Thanks dude...LOL. I took the car out today just on the road right near my shop...sans front fenders, hood, and many other parts...just to get a feel for it. I honestly got the feeling that I am in a bit over my head. The car is so damn powerful and fast...even not exceeding 50% throttle or 3500 RPM(breaking in engine), it's like nothing I have driven before. I have another track car I have been tracking for years, and it is reasonably fast. But, it is more of a flawless handling momentum type car. The Z is a completely different animal. Just driving it on the street seemed....inappropriate/illegal....and I subconsciously kept expecting the cops to show up. Also a bit of an eye opener was the pedal effort required by the brakes. I know that is part of the deal with racing brake setups...but it definitely takes some getting used to. I am using Ferodo 2500 pads, which I have always used on my other track car, but I think compounds have improved a lot since they came out and I might order something with a bit more friction/bite to lower pedal pressure slightly....probably DS3.12 compound...which from what I have read sounds too good to be true. Supposedly good cold bite, consistent friction throughout the temp range, and zero fade. Driving the car also highlighted the amount of work I still have to do. Something in the drivetrain was rubbing...electric power steering was giving inconsistent boost for some reason...and I will never again drive the car without fenders as the sticky tires pelt the freshly painted bodywork with gravel. That was pretty stupid, really. The fronts of the rear over-fenders in particular are so vulnerable, I think I am going to give them a coat of Raptor liner.

Thanks much Gents!

The problem also, is that there is a lot of overlap. TE37s are well made, lightweight, strong, and very expensive. BBS wheels are very similar....perhaps even more pricey. So, while spending $700 or $800 per wheel is a pretty good indication you will get a quality wheel, that doesn't mean necessarily that a $300 wheel will not be equally lightweight and strong. Anyone who believes you are not paying a great deal for name recognition with many high-end wheels is kidding themselves. The reasoning doesn't hold up. You can spend $3K or so for a set of BBS wheels, and yes they will be forged and lightweight and strong. So what then are you getting when you pay $10K-12K for a set of HRE wheels? The key is trying to figure out when diminishing returns set in when buying wheels. IMHO it happens somewhere around the $250-$350 per wheel range. I personally have always been a fan of the lower end OZ Racing wheels. They are reasonably priced, lightweight, and I have tracked many sets of them over the years without a single problem.

Nice car, but I have to admit I am blown away that it brought $70K. I would have guessed maybe $30k or thereabouts.... I guess I am behind on "Z" values.

Chinese stuff is really a mixed bag. Some is decently made and a great bargain. Other stuff from there is so bad that it won't perform it's design function at all and is really nothing more than a scam. I used to never buy any of it if I could avoid it. But the "Icon" line of tools from Harbor Freight has opened my mind a bit. Snap On (or better) quality (IMHO), for 1/4 the price.

In the glory days of 240Z racing, all the IMSA GTU road racing cars all ran crazy wide rear tires....something like 345s on 12" wide rims. I know you are talking about street cars, but I have always wondered if such wide tires were needed even in a pure racing application. They were relatively low HP cars....probably 300-325 HP...and of course such wide tires are invariably heavier and potentially less aerodynamic.

They are decent looking IMHO. I'm not sure how a decent looking, lightweight wheel can be made for $148 though. Chinese? I did a quick internet search and could not find country of manufacture.

Got the project started up... I was anticipating any number of hurdles at this point...a wiring snafu I failed to catch....overheating....oiling problems with dry sump system....or simple failure to start for reasons unknown. But it fired right up, had good oil pressure, reached operating temperature (eventually) and stayed there. I did have a bit of trouble getting the thermostat to open for the first time, but from what I have read that is almost normal for LSX engines. The problem was that I plumbed the steam pipe from the top of the engine incorrectly (and stupidly) so that it was blocked by the radiator thermostat. This resulted in a big air pocket in the cooling system before I corrected it. But with that fixed, if fires up more quickly than my daily driver, and seems to hold operating temp, at least during idle with lots of throttle blips and sustained 2500 RPM running for break in.

Thanks. Wheels are indeed from Jongbloed.

I might be in denial, but I am hoping to be able to trim the fenders without completely re-painting them. I am planning to cut within .5" or so of the desired line, then gradually sand with a flap disc to finish the cut. If I go slow enough not to overheat things, it might work. Maybe. If not, I still have my paint booth and have paint/clear left over. The lowest part is the header collectors. The ground clearance issue is really my biggest concern with the build. Speed bumps are pretty much out of the question.

Last few weeks it seems like I have been going in a dozen directions at once trying to get this build running. I made sure the rear tires clear everything at full bump. I got the exhaust fitted with heat shield and installed. Most of the heat shield is to protect the CF driveshaft. It is only rated for 300 degrees sustained temp, and while it is a few inches from the exhaust, I didn't want to take any chances. This photo shows beyond doubt that ground clearance is an issue. I honestly don't have many choices, unless I want to raise the ride height or not use a dual 3" exhaust. It really is tucked up just about as tight as it possibly can be. I have a bit less than 3" ground clearance from the lowest points of the exhaust. Definitely not daily driver material. Even oval tubing, which I used under the rear suspension, wouldn't help further forward because it would make the exhaust too wide to fit in the trans tunnel. Most of the rest of the time I have been doing suspension adjustment/alignment. I figured that since I had invested in fully adjustable suspension, that part would be a breeze. Wrong again... In order to get 6-7 degrees of caster, recommended by most knowledgeable "Z" people for track oriented cars, I needed longer tension rods, to move the LCA pivot 1.5" forward, to move the sway bar mounts 1.5" forward, smaller washers for the upper strut mount (the spherical bearing was binding), to cut off a portion of the aluminum "chin" undertray, and most horrifyingly, I still need to cut up my already painted front fenders to clear the further-forward front wheels. Adjusting bump steer to zero required more spacing than I would have liked for the tie rods, but it clears the wheels and I am sure it will be OK....even though it looks at bit alarming. To cover all bases I used NAS 180K PSI "shear bolts" and lock nuts which cost stupid money but hopefully will be up to the task. Made front and rear brackets for toe strings. I know this can be done with jack-stands or other simpler methods, but I have tried that and the constant bumping and having to reset them was brain damage for me. These things bolt on in a couple of minutes any time I need to check or adjust toe. Final alignment settings, as of now: Camber: -2.5 front, -2.0 rear. Caster: 6.5 degrees. Toe: Zero front, 1/16" toe in rear. These settings were taken directly from JohnC's post from years ago, and are just a starting point while I am breaking in the engine and ironing out what I am sure will be a bunch of hiccups when I get the car running. Hybridz is such a great resource. I would have had no idea where to start without it. Thanks for looking.

Looks like a solid conversion... I see that pretty much all the V8 swapped Zs have the same issue mine has....ground clearance for the exhaust. Do you find it scraping a lot?

The "cup"...or bearing race...whatever you call it....has to be pressed in. That's what I was talking about. Your engineer friend sounds like a wise dude. Keep quoting him, I'm going to do what he says. If you're the least bit curious, check the brake disc runout with your aluminum hubs. I wager there's more than you want.

Another point about the 5/8" bolt vs tapered stud: If you buy a quality bolt from a reputable manufacturer, you have a very reliable idea of the heat treating and strength vs brittleness of the bolt. With a tapered stud, I would probably trust one from Nissan, but do any come from Nissan anymore? Aluminum has its place for sure...however... I bought a set of 5-lug aluminum front hubs from one of the....uh....two places that sell them. They came with no-name (probably Chinese) bearings, and I had quality SKF bearings on hand, so I figured I would swap them before install. When I installed the hubs, they had so much run-out as to be completely unusable. Something like .015" on the hub face and .040" on an installed brake disc. Now, I realize it is highly unlikely that they came out of CNC that way. It would be like turning something on a lathe and having it come out not-round. Almost impossible... I can only conclude that the hubs were so soft that just the process of pressing out the bearings and pressing in new ones permanently distorted the bore of the hubs. I will accept blame I guess for changing the bearings...but...damn. Who's to say they weren't already destroyed when the Chineseium bearings were pressed in at the manufacturer? Maybe 7075 hubs would be more long-term usable, I dunno. But since this is mostly about making cool looking parts at the lowest possible cost, I know that will never happen. I'm pretty sure that no OEM manufacturer has ever sold a car with aluminum hubs...in fact I have seen plenty of high-end racing cars...with magnesium uprights and all that....but they still used steel hubs. Since these sorts of manufacturers hate weight as much as anyone, I figure there has to be a reason. After talking all this shit....I looked at some F1 hubs before posting. They are either steel alloy or ti, but definitely not aluminum. I know you weren't arguing with me. I'm just venting.

I'm using the Apex ones and selected the straight 5/8" holes. Just gives me way more options for spacing than the tapered design. It is often said that the tapered design is "safer".....but I dunno. The straight 5/8" bolt, with a proper first-time-used locknut, is not coming apart. MS365 locknuts are reasonably priced, and when installed the first time are hard to turn with a wrench. So many of these aftermarket parts are made of aluminum not to save weight or even because aluminum is appropriate, but rather simply because aluminum is VASTLY cheaper to CNC machine. IMHO aluminum hubs are in the same category.

I have been trying to get all the suspension adjustments dialed in for the past couple of weeks. Kind of frustrating in front, as I'm sure you all know. Making one change affects everything else. Once I made all the changes necessary to get 6 degrees of caster, I found that all the angles changed sufficiently that it appeared to change the relative angles between the LCAs and the tie rods. So I had to quit dicking around and finally actually measure bump-steer. I found that my eye-balling of the relative angles of the LCAs and tie rods had been pretty close. To achieve "zero" (or close to it) bump steer required 1.83" of spacers between the bottom of the knuckle and the Heim joint. More than I would have preferred, but it is what it is. So, when accounting for the thickness of the Heim joint, steering knuckle, a couple of washers, and lock nut, I ordered 4.77" UHL AN10 (5/8") bolts. McMaster-Carr had an assortment of 5/8" ID/1" OD stainless steel spacers. I will probably do as tube80z suggested and weld a long one to the knuckle, then just fine tune with smaller spacers to get the 1.83" needed. I had looked at the Arizona Z car knuckle with integral bump steer spacer, and at first thought it would be an ideal solution. But, I too was bothered by it being aluminum, and it comes with the OEM style tapered holes when I needed straight 5/8" holes. I spent the money on the AN bolts just because they are critical parts, and the AN bolts are fairly high strength while being designed to not be too brittle. So if they are overstressed some bending should be visible before they fail. Probably overkill, as I cannot imagine even in the long-spaced single-shear application I have conjured that a 5/8" bolt is going to bend/break steering a Datsun around. Thanks for all the input.

I don't have a dipstick, I just take the cap off and shine in a light. I can still see oil at the bottom of the tank, but it is very difficult to tell how much there is. I know the scavenge pumps move several times the volume that the pressure pump does, but it concerns me that there is a gallon or so of oil sitting in the pan on startup when the pan has no real volume capacity. On cars with really large 3+ gallon tanks, it would seem like enough oil would seep into the pan to hydro-lock the engine and blow it on startup. I mean, I know it is possible to blow an engine if it is way overfilled after an oil change.

No, it drains from the supply line at the bottom of the tank....the line that goes directly to the oil pump. As I understand it, since the tank is slightly higher than the pump/pan in virtually every dry sump setup I have seen, the tank keeps a constant slightly pressurized (from gravity) supply of oil at the pump when things are sitting. Since oil pumps have tolerances and such, gradually the oil seeps through the pump and finds its way to the pan. When the car is running or just shut off...the scavenge hose attachment to the tank is above the oil level, since it is at the very top of the tank, and it is designed to maintain air space at the top.

I have a scavenge only dry sump system, still uses the stock pump for pressure. I did that because I would have to completely redesign my engine mount setup to use a three or four stage pump, and also because I didn't want to spend $5K on an oiling system. I already primed the system. Took out the plugs, filled the tank, the oil cooler and oil filter, attached a charger to the battery, and cranked it. It was quickly developing 35 PSI just from cranking RPMs (which seemed like almost too much....but anyway). One thing that is disconcerting...when the car sits for a couple of days....the oil tank almost completely drains into the pan. I guess that is inevitable with a dry sump system, and the scavenge pump will quickly refill the tank on cranking....but I wish it didn't do that. I thought about installing a ball valve on the oil supply line from the bottom of the tank, but that brings with it the (very real in my case) risk of forgetting to open it when I go to start the car.

Not much, honestly. Old Recaros come on the market all the time, sometimes in new/newish condition, and I never see them bring much.

The seats look like old school Recaros (two different models). As to the upholstery, unfortunately there are thousands of places that can recover a seat. I have no idea the significance of the "atom" symbol. Assuming the seats were...newish...when they were upholstered, it well could have been done decades ago.