JMortensen

I don't want to sidetrack the thread, but just as an example of possible problems, putting A arms on a Z is pretty low on my list of things to do. There are other ways to avoid dive that aren't anywhere near as expensive and don't require as much fabrication, like running really stiff springs for one. However, if Okimoto built a rocketship fast Z with double A arms and came and asked for sponsorship I'd look at it much differently. Instead of thinking "Wow that's gonna be a bitch to do, and the mounts will have to be really strong and it's going to require that the whole front end basically get chopped off and rebuilt" I'd be thinking "This guy ACTUALLY DID IT. Instead of just talking about it he actually did it" and that would score much higher with me. I've seen that idea thrown around since I found this place, and probably before that. As far as Hybrid Z members who actually run a double A arm, I don't know of any. I remember seeing pictures of a car that might have been a GT2 Z that had it, but I can't quite recall, and it might also have been a 510 or some other Datsun. There was a guy who actually had the A arms mounted in front, but never finished. It didn't appear to me that he had anything like the structure necessary to actually drive on that suspension though. It looked like it would have folded on the way out the driveway. One of the biggest problems is follow through. Once you had the A arms, then you'd actually have to beat a bunch of other cars that put all that time and effort into other parts of the car to prove you were actually quicker for it. Might not be quicker in the end. There are some INSANELY fast Z's with struts out there. I don't know exactly what kind of budget the Pinks guys had, but I saw a bit of the parts list that they had, and it made me want to puke that the car looked that bad on TV. I know they only had 45 days or whatever, but there has to be some follow through, and that doesn't mean that the Hybrid Z car is in the "permabuild" stage forever either. We all feel a need to build a badass Z, otherwise we wouldn't be here. There's all kinds of people here with all kinds of ideas as to what would make "the most badass" Z. That again is the problem. I think the question is "can we build one that satisfies enough people to make it a worthwhile group effort?", and I still think we'd all get more bang for our buck by sponsoring other cars. Sponsoring an existing car might mean buying a set of slicks. It might mean paying some entry fees. It could mean anything. But what it probably doesn't entail is building a crazy engineering project from the ground up. I'm going to try and take a step back and let some more comments get in before I jump in again. Regardless of your opinion, please share it.

The proportioning valve doesn't do anything that would make the pedal mushy. Sounds to me like you guys need a bigger master if Austin has the same problem... I don't know how to check the disk for sealing, I just figured that it might be a problem. If nothing is obviously wrong, then I don't know where to go from there.

Larger master gives a firmer pedal but requires more pedal effort. Smaller master give a longer softer pedal that doesn't require much effort.

Is the soft then hard feeling with the engine off or on? If it's off, then I don't know. If it's on, then it might be that the reaction disk isn't sealing properly. I have the ZX master that I took out of my car. It's listed in the classifieds, or at least it was. I bought it brand new from Nissan and it has 8 years on it, and it is known to be good. Make me an offer. I think I paid $200 for it...

Sorry, I didn't mean to pigeonhole you. What other types of racing do you do? What do you think about the sponsorship/house car issue?

Can't argue with that logic. I thought they were more expensive.

What's wrong with the Nissan plastic bushings? They're still available last I checked, they cost about $6, and they last for 20 years...

Can't find my catalog. Does it adjust, or is it just an extender? Here's one solution that sounds similar to what you're describing, except it is on a tie rod: I also have seen people run a die down the TC rod (it's almost perfectly 5/8") and use a short turnbuckle that's only about 4 or 5" long. I tried that myself but my TC rods were bent and I couldn't get the die to run straight. A friend of mine ran a setup like that for years on a 510 with no trouble. The idea is sound, but like you said yourself you have to watch that control arm bushing to make sure it doesn't get tweaked. I put on adjustable TC rods then when I adjusted them I immediately realized I needed the control arm upgrade.

Gotta wonder if maybe he tweaked the springs by running the longer collar. That's the only other thing I can come up with.

This has been dealt with a lot on this site, but you bring up a new issue I think. I haven't seen this motorsport caster kit. The only thing I've seen from them is the G Machine aluminum/delrin kit like the one here: http://www.thezstore.com/page/TZS/CTGY/PSDC10 I believe stock caster is about 2.5 to 3 degrees, so what you're describing isn't adding a whole bunch of caster. I'd like to see what it is that they're selling, if you have a picture or a link that'd be great. You're correct that increasing the caster does put some bind into the front suspension, best way around that is to use a heim's jointed front control arm. There are other options available too, techno toy tuning has heims jointed TC rods, as does arizona z car and there was a group buy on some about a year ago made by a guy in Oregon. Lots of guys have made their own too. I've gotten pretty in depth with the TC rod myself, and modified the pivot area on the frame quite a bit. You can see that here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106974 I also wrote a FAQ about modifying the TC rod here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=107794 If that doesn't give you enough info, search. It's one of the recurring issues that comes up with the front suspension on the Z, and it has been discussed a bunch, with different opinions and solutions offered.

See how much experience I have??? Tack welds is what I meant to say.

One last thing to add to your list. Check and make sure the gland nuts aren't bottoming out on the strut tubes. I had this problem with one Tokico strut only on one side where the nut bottomed before it tightened against the strut insert. Solution is to put a washer or shim underneath the strut so that when then nut is tightened there are still one or two threads showing.

I can speak from limited experience. He might be trying to cool down the area to minimize the warpage so that he can move along faster. I have stitch welded my entire chassis and also done a few body repairs and started to shaved the marker lights and the gas door. When I stitch welded the chassis, I had a long seam to work on, so I'd just start at one end, then jump to the other, then back, etc and nothing got overly hot. When I did my dogleg repair I didn't stitch weld. I did 1000 little spot welds right next to each other until the whole seam was covered. When I did my marker lights I got impatient and tried to stitch them. This was a bad idea. I did the marker in maybe 15 welds. Warped the crap out of the 1/4 panel. If it's bodywork do the 1000 spotwelds. If its stitching a large area where you can spread the heat around, go for it. If you're trying to stitch in a very small area, don't stitch. Spot weld, and just bring a beer or a coke or something and try to relax and let it cool down so that you don't warp it like I did.

I don't think that anyone can have too much to say if a group of guys wants to band together to build a car. If you decide to do that it's not my problem. My problem is with Hybrid Z ownership, because I think there will be trouble and I'd rather that trouble not reflect the site itself. I don't feel membership or loyalty to the original Pinks build. I do feel membership and loyalty to this site though. I was thinking about this a bit last night, and as many have already stated there are already cars out there which are very capable of flying the Hybrid Z banner. What if the site or members actually did a typical sponsorship of those cars and gave the owners parts or $$$ to go race. Make up some gigantic Hybrid Z window vinyls or something and let them continue racing and just help them out. I think I'd be more willing to throw some money at someone like Hans or the jnj guys or Stony then to put money into another Pinks-ish build. With this type of strategy we might be able to help MORE guys kick MORE ass and send a bigger message about who we are and what we do. And instead of having one build that is good at one thing, we can all pitch in to have a different car that is good at each type of event. Just an idea.

Search, read the FAQ on bumpsteer.

Might try craig's list for the big pieces. Big time envious over here...

Well that's pretty weird. Don't know what to say other than you got it working and that's the important thing.

Just thinking could also have a flex line that is balooning instead of putting all of the pressure to the slave...

If we were bringing people to the site to sell them something then that would be a reason to do this. As it is, if people want to get together and build a car for Pinks then great, but I don't think it should be owned by HybridZ or any of that. I'm probably in the minority on this one, but there are too many different builds, too many different types of racing, too many different priorities for the people who build the cars, etc. Put another way, I wouldn't even have a communally owned race car with the friends that I race with, and I've been friends with some of these guys for 15 years. I have and will continue to let them drive my car and to drive theirs on occasion, but the idea of group ownership brings with it too many hassles, too many disagreements, too many opportunities for people to screw up IMO. The idea of the first Pinks car left me yawning. I never got into the Pinks forums. I did watch the show and I was pretty disappointed. I knew I hated the show, but I was surprised at how slow "our" car looked. So it was doubly bad for me to watch. Then there was all the BS after the show. I still don't know what went on, only that it was bad, and there was lots of it. Likewise, if we built an autoxer that probably wouldn't make Hans or Dr Hunt or Scottie terribly happy either. And if we did and took it to nationals and it royally sucked, doubly so. There isn't a really good class for a hybrid road racer, unless someone is doing the OTC type challenge like John Coffey was doing, but again, how much exposure is that going to get, and is it worth building? About the only thing that I can see is doing one of the Power Tours cars (would they even allow a Z?), which would give some good exposure, but even then, who would build it, who owns it, who drives it, and bottom line WHY ARE WE DOING IT? If there isn't a strong reason, I'll be in my garage rubbing my pennies together wishing I could afford nickels and working on my autox car that you guys will probably only ever know by the pictures/videos I post here.

I bought a crankcase evacuation setup from Jeg's. Maybe someday I'll get to install it. Hooks the PCV up to the exhaust and uses Bernoulli's Principle to create vacuum in the crankcase. Apparently you can create a hell of a lot of vacuum this way, so you have to be a bit careful of sucking the front crank and rear main seal lips in, creating a big leak. I haven't fully figured it out, but I'm thinking a restricted orifice on the valve cover breather with the PCV hooked to the exhaust, or plug the one in the crankcase and run the valve cover to the exhaust, although I think the former would be better than the latter. http://www.jegs.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?lang=-1&catalogId=10002&storeId=10001&categoryId=14807

I believe most oil thermostats open at 180. I think 240 is pretty hot.

Reminds me of when I was a kid racing my 79 Mustang (Pinto) vs my friend's VW Diesel Rabbit. We thought we were racing, all the people behind us were probably screaming "Get the hell out of my way!!!" 0-60 in mid 20's. Oh yeah!!!

You've pretty much got me stumped. I don't know that the filter would or wouldn't change the volume of pinging, never tried it out. I think it's hard to mistake an exhaust leak for pinging IME. I know Webers pop out of the carbs when they're cold (at least downdraft Porsche Webers do), but that doesn't seem to be your problem. I don't think you'll find any evidence of detonation unless there has actually been some damage, like a piston that looks like its pitted or melting or something. Assuming no obvious damage, it will be interesting to see what happens with the bigger cam.

Yeah, where is the wastegate going to go on that sucker anyway John?