JMortensen

I had cut springs and KYBs on my first Z. Worked fine.

That sounds like a reaction disk issue. Search here and classiczcars.com for "reaction disk" and see if that sounds familiar.

Ask cobramatt. He had his rack moved way forward. I had to move mine about 2" forward for clearance, expected it o screw up the Ackerman really badly. Graphed it out, and I basically have parallel steer now, where stock Z has something like 3 degrees of difference between the wheels at full lock.

Yep, that's Coffey's. The whaletail made a lot of downforce in the windtunnel and the drag was modest IIRC. That would probably be a good place to start to match up to the splitter. For the airdam alone, I'd look at John's spoiler.

If you read through some old posts, you'll find Coffey's spoiler which was built off of a Car and Driver magazine article. I can't remember the size, maybe 6" or 7" and the angle was 30 degrees IIRC, and this was supposed to REDUCE drag and I believe it eliminated lift but didn't provide any actual downforce. As John says, the windtunnel testing proved that the whale tail made a lot of downforce and it also didn't have a lot of drag. .

Spoiler reduces drag on a Z, unless it's huge. Competition Car Aerodynamics by McBeath and Race Car Aerodynamics by Katz will help. I know McBeath specifically shows why, and also is where I pulled the quote about splitter adding next to no drag. Good book, and he also does the wind tunnel testing that you see in Racecar Engineering magazine.

Guess my hunch on the balance wasn't too far off. A rear spoiler (unless you go stupid huge) will reduce drag so that's going to be a good thing.

I had a brand new brake system with new hard lines, masters, calipers, whole deal and had a hell of a time getting a pedal. What finally worked for me was using a syringe and pushing fluid from the bleeders back towards the masters. That finally got it. I guess motorcycle shops bleed this way all the time. I used a 60cc syringe and just put the bleeder tube right on the syringe. Looks like this one: http://www.calvetsupply.com/product/Syringe_60cc/Syringes_and_Hypodermic_Needles

Can you run for a mile at WOT with no cooling, or are you sucking from underneath like a Vette?

I think I've seen it on Facebook but can't recall your name there. Would like to see pics if I haven't already.

I don't think a yarn test will tell me much, since it will go into a sealed air box and I don't think the airflow into the engine will be enough to suck yarn in at 100 mph. I could test pressure in the scoop vs next to it to make sure that there is actually some pressure there and maybe see how much of a ram air effect I get. That will be way down the list though. I was going to use a front mounted scoop but had heard of some issues with those pressurizing the front of the carb more than the rear, figured this would allow it to equalize.

You can just get under and look up at the towers from the bottom. If I were to estimate, I'd say about .100" thick.

Another tip is to use both hands. One holds the gun, the other holds the first hand, and I use my pinky or the side of my hand to rest on the work. Smooths your movements and keeps the tip height consistent. When you weld to the strut towers, be aware that there is a layer of sheet metal on top and then a much thicker plate on the bottom. Don't weld to the sheet, gotta burn through it to the plate.

Have an old Beta Motorsports FG hood, needed clearance for a carbed V8, so here's what I'm doing. Bought a vette hood scoop from Speedway Motors. It's open in front and rear so should be a combo scoop/cowl kind of effect. It is too short to clear the air cleaner out of the box, so I'm going to have to cut and extend the sides. I think it's going to look pretty cool when it's done...

"Ideal" is a loaded term, but I notched or eyebrowed the block out to the headgasket (doesn't take much) and then put the same cut in the chamber so that there was a smooth transition from one to the other around the open valve. Don't take off enough metal to expose the top or bottom of the fire ring in the gasket. zredbaron's engine uses an E31 and he's documented quite a bit of it. Should be of some use. http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/24798-na-31lhead-camshaft-questions-no-shortcuts-max/

Legends car is a circle track car built with a motorcycle engine and a toyota celica suspension and rear axle. The bearing sizes for the front are the same as the Z - set 2 and set 6 (set includes the bearing and race and is the more common way they are listed), and the Z is within the spacer's adjustment range. I don't know about the grease seal, you'd have to cross check that. Can do that on the Timken site, probably a bunch of auto parts sites too. Didn't recognize your username before and your avatar doesn't show your huge flares. Obviously we're in the same huge wheel boat here. If you figure out anything on the rear I'd like to hear about it, but I think the only option there will be some high $$$ custom wheel bearings.

Not sure about the rears but I do have something for you on the fronts. The "Legends" bearing spacer fits a Z with no modifications. The benefit to the bearing spacer is less drag and both bearings share vertical loads better. DRP has REM'd bearings if you want (super polished for lower rolling resistance) and might have a low friction grease seal as well. I just put the bearing spacers on because I'm going to run 15x14 wheels in front and anticipating lots of replacements. http://store.drpperformance.com/bearing-spacers/

Could also get a truck shifter and bend/cut/thread it to what you want.

Like the front end a lot. Nice!

Torsens don't by there nature need a synthetic lube or friction modifiers. Run any good oil and you'll be fine.

I'd suggest a manual tensioner and a factory belt. The spring loaded tensioners can chuck the belt, I hear this is particularly common if you rev it really high and then let off the throttle quickly. FWIW, my 5.3L truck engine has a very squeaky belt. Changed it several times, then read online to use a factory belt. The factory belt was a lot quieter for sure, a year later squeak was back though. Will probably put a manual tensioner on it at some point, haven't gotten there yet.

You didn't bust out the jeweler's rouge and mirror polish the chambers? Clearly you don't want it to make power. Looks great!

This is your problem. On most diffs, the ring gear has to be hammered onto the carrier. On the Nissan carriers they fall right off, but maybe your aftermarket had a tighter fitting pilot. Something is DEFINITELY wrong if you have .003 difference in backlash around the ring gear. Good news is that you can probably swap that LSD into a new housing, just disassemble and clean it up. Might want to check that the surface the ring gear sits on is flat. Could have been dropped or something at one time. Could mill the flange flat again if needed and then adjust backlash.

Yes, it will cause lifting at the rear because you're levering in front, just as a wing creates lift in front by levering down on the back.

In Competition Car Aero by McBeath he talks about air dams vs air dams with splitters. He says there is virtually no difference in drag and a significant increase (10%) in downforce when tested in CFD on a NASCAR model. The hesitation I'd have about running a splitter is not balancing it out in the rear. It's really impossible to say how big an imbalance there will be if you ran it as pictured. What you're doing doesn't really correlate to the wind tunnel testing very well because all of those examples had the front end relatively open, and your speeds will be higher so the effects will be a lot greater. My gut tells me that I wouldn't run that air dam with a splitter without a spoiler on the back, and preferrably a wing. For a strictly one mile straight line, I'd run it without, then I'd put the splitter on as a separate piece and figure out the aero balance at a road course.