JMortensen

The right direction is the search button. There is a lot of info on subframes, connectors, roll cages, chassis stiffening. All you have to do is look for it.

I will admit that it has been at least 2 years since I had the blocks out of mine, but I thought that OA was the common one, OB I thought fit the 50mm carbs but maybe not the 40s and 44's (not sure because I don't think I've ever seen an OB) in person, and the 8 is supposedly a more street friendly block, which I have seen in person, but never seen anyone run in their race car or autoxer.

I see, so you're more interested in trying to connect to the fore/aft frame rail that the suspension connects to. Just seems like an indirect load path. I haven't looked, but it makes me wonder if it wouldn't be possible to put a corner gusset in between the cross bar and the frame rail. EDIT. Wait a minute... The front of the rear control arm bolts into that same cross bar, and the rear hangs off of another crossbar... So why the emphasis on getting the SFC to connect to the fore/aft frame rail? Should be that getting it to the crossbar is the important part? Crap. I can't remember how that all attaches. Might have to go out and look at the car...

.010/.012 hot IIRC.

I've been out of the scene for a while, but the treadwear on those Nittos is 100 and that's looking kinda high for a DOT race tire, so it looks a little hard comparatively. Even if you're driving there and home, next time you need tires you might try something stickier with a treadwear around 40 or 50 so that it doesn't wear out in a day and you can drive to and from the track, like a Kuhmo Victoracer or Ecsta V700, or a Toyo Proxes RA-1. The stickier your tires the faster you'll go, the more fun you'll have, etc. Then you'll start thinking about stiffer springs and struts, better swaybars, etc. It is an entirely different sickness that can be just as expensive to get into, although I'd have to say that if you don't beat the car up on the track you'll need to replace less stuff road racing than you would drag racing. I agree with the advice to get an instructor to ride with you, better yet take a driving school if you can. If you're not really familiar with this type of driving you'll learn a lot. Track days/time trialing is a ton of fun, glad you found it. It's more expensive, but not nearly as bad when you figure dollars at the track divided by seat time.

If you turn the fan on at freeway speeds then you have the fan moving whatever it can move, let's just say 1800 cfm. With the fan OFF, then the hood is moving whatever amount of air it can move INTO the engine compartment. Let's say that that is 1500 cfm (pulling that # straight out of my ass BTW I have no idea what the right number is). So apparently with the fan on the amount of pressure from the fan is greater than the amount of pressure from the cowl hood, so the air still comes out the hole. Don't kid yourself and think that the cowl hood is now helping to cool the car off. It is still providing lots of resistance to the air coming out of the hood, and that pressure keeps that air coming out from moving as fast as it otherwise would. So the fan is fighting the cowl all the time, and with the fan off the airflow through the radiator alone is not enough to let air pass out of the hood. If you had vents in a low pressure area of the hood the air wouldn't just be able to come out of the hood, it would be SUCKED out of the hood. When you turn the fan on with a low pressure vent, it would make the vent less efficient at removing all the pressure under the hood, like draining the sink with the water on higher, in a sense. Whether or not the hood vents could drain that additional pressure is a tough question. But without any vent in the hood at all, the air goes to the back of the engine compartment and then gets forced into the tranny tunnel and/or underneath the car, so presumably, you'd still have this happening with low pressure vents if they just couldn't evacuate all the air. I am guessing, but I think that your cowl hood/fan combo has still slowed the airflow underneath the car (which is why you are having cooling issues) when compared to a good vent design, and has probably increased the amount of pressure under the hood itself at speed when compared to a good vent design.

I don't think silicone is the answer. My friend who built my first motor and probaby 10-15 other L's always uses Ultra Grey silicone. Mine never blew a freeze plug, neither did any of his. I hit 7500+ rpm on the motor he built me, he has done 8K+. The test Pop mentions is a good idea. Just open the radiator cap and put either a smog machine tip in the opening ( don't dunk it in the coolant) or just a sniffer for A/C leaks. If there is gas in the coolant you'll know what your problem is.

That didn't look like very useful info to me. 1st it wasn't an actual car, it had no firewall and looked like basically a cutaway of the external shape of the car. 2nd it looked like whatever fluid it was in was moving very slowly. Maybe it's different when you use a fluid instead of air, but that stuff looked like it was flowing past at ~5mph. Something tells me the results might be a little different with air at 100 mph with a firewall and a drivetrain, etc.

Oh Jesus, get me outta here... :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061021/ap_on_re_us/seattle_slogan The first thing I think of is a bunch of guys who get their eyelashes tinted, and their girlfriends with the long flowing armpit hair...

Same thought occured to me. The weatherstrip has a big bump in it for the chrome strip too, so that's an extra lip right before the roofline. Might makes sense to hold the windshield in with tabs like on a real racecar and try to get the glass as flush as possible to the body line, although I don't think you can use those things with glass (or can you???).

That would be cool, but I think you read it wrong:

to that!

The AZC kit is not a bad deal. There are other ways to get a brake upgrade that aren't as expensive, like a vented Toyota upgrade in the front and Modern Motorsport's 240SX/300ZX rear upgrade in the rear. That would be more than enough brakes for your stated purpose and probably less than 1/3 the cost, but not nearly as blingy if that's what you're after.

True enough Mike, I just wanted to clarify that moving the weight back DOES do something. But you're absolutely right, full length headers ALSO does something. Depends on what you want as to which is the bigger advantage.

There were a couple threads a while back where guys were ordering Ross pistons from Summit racing with pins rings and clips for $463 I think it was. They just ordered custom pistons and provided all the specs.

Dont' feel too bad. It sounds like the track you were at wasn't very hard on brakes. Buttonwillow Raceway where I used to go most of the time is famously hard on brakes. Those R4S pads probably would have done pretty well at Willow Springs which is famously easy on brakes. If you're just getting into big track stuff the other thing that you most likely aren't doing that really puts heat into the brakes is staying on the gas until you step on the brake. Coasting into the braking zone really makes a difference, and I haven't seen anyone that didn't coast into the braking zone at first. It takes supreme confidence in your equipment to stay in the gas until the last second and then stand on the brakes while leaving yourself little or no margin for error.

What does your rear control arm look like? I have the Bad Dog SFCs installed and I had full range of motion on the control arm. In fact I even notched the frame rail on one side to get full articulation out of the control arm with sectioned struts and camber plates. I just can't imagine for the life of me how the control arm could hit the SFC. I agree you would need a bigger tube across the rocker to stiffen it significantly, and I also have to question its attachment to the bar in front as well. I don't know, it just doesn't seem like the attachment point in the front is going to be very strong compared to having a full cage and having it attach to an A pillar bar, the rocker, and the main hoop. I could be wrong on that, but that's my gut feeling. If you don't want to do a full cage, then I would suggest a larger, heavier walled tube mounted inside the existing rocker panel like the car that Cary has posted pictures of in the past.

I think "made up" might be butchering it a bit. I don't think weight distribution was a goal at first, but it isn't a "made up" benefit either. Look at a GT2 Z. One of the things they do, and they ALL do it is to move the engine back 2". John Coffey's Z has the engine moved back, as does tube80z's autoxer. It's not a theoretical benefit, and it isn't made up. If it was unintentional on Mike's part when he designed the kit, then he got lucky. But moving the engine back (what is it 4" vs the Scarab?) is a DEFINITE advantage for those interested in autox or road course racing.

Why do the SFCs bend out past the floorpan. Seems like they'd be stronger if they just went straight back to the rear frame. What is the line that looks like a door bar, and how is that going to connect to the bar that goes from the rocker to the upper frame rail?

I still think it shouldn't be too difficult to get an early Z, stripped, down to ~2000 or 2100 with an LS/T56 swap... How about 400 hp with 2000 lbs...

This is true. I'm sure I could burn them off a lot faster now...

That wouldn't suck...

Hehe, you weren't driving fast enough... This happened after 3 20 minute track sessions with slicks. Pads were at least 85% at the beginning of the day.

I thought the modular motors didn't fit within the Z strut towers. Do a search on modular and you should find more info.

You can order Ross forged pistons from Summit Racing for $463 or something like that with rings, clips, and pins. Search and you should find the thread on it.