RebekahsZ

Great looking car. What year is it? Are you sure it doesn't already have an r200?

Oh, take an hour break at get some church on Easter-it only took JC three days to emerge from the tomb. Maybe some of that will rub off on your car! Kind of neat: the dragstrip where I'm gonna be running with wfritts911 on a couple of weeks has a church service at the track at nine, pits are open at ten, first car off at eleven! I wonder how many guys are praying for their axles!

You sure are doing a lot of "while you're at its"! When do you think you are gonna be Rollin?

Did he put any fiberglass cloth on the dash, or just resin straight on the old plastic? Wow!!

Umm....not enough information to help you. There are a gazillion different wheels that have been used on the z over the years and each wheel often has lug nuts made specifically for that wheel. Borrow a cell phone and post some pictures of your car, the wheels, and the lug nuts. The better the picture the better the advice.

See add on page 3 of WTB section. Nelsonian has one.

I guess I must have had a perverted moment late one night when I set up my profile (or perhaps i was frustrated, working on a differential), but I'd like to be known as something other than a Rear End Banger (just noticed this). How do I change that? I did look all over the profile editing tabs... thanks. If one of you is snickering from practical joke, fess up-I had a good laugh.

I have my first autocross (in years) in two weeks. I'm trying to duplicate johnc's recommended race settings as closely as possible. But, because my EMI camber plates have holes for adjustment instead of slots, I am unable to achieve johnc's alignment specs exactly. Here's where I am in front: Either -2.5 degrees negative or 3.5 degrees negative. The car is currently mocked up at -3.5. The back is more adjustable due to Modern Motorsport adjustable LCAs, which I currently have mocked up at -2.5. I don't really want to go more in back due to my drag racing setup (today's question is only about autocross). 1" bar in front with none in back due to exhaust/CV/driveshaft flange clearance PITA. Tires are 225/50/15 BFG R1 on 15X7 wheels. Springs are 225F and 250R coilover with hypercoils from betamotorsports, shocks are Illuminas set at 3F, 4R. Sorry to be so specific, but my questions are pretty simple.....I just want to get things as close as possible before taking it to the alignment shop-I know there is no "right" answer. I'm not looking to be national champion, just don't want to make a fool of myself in front of strangers. I'll try to keep the hood closed. 2 specific questions for the forum: 1) Do you think I should keep the -3.5 up front, or decrease back to -2.5? 2) To set tire pressure, do you measure tire temps across the tread: 1) after a run around the track, or 2) do I need a constant turn radius like a skid pad? I was thinking about starting at 26psi F/R and playing with my pyrometer. Moderators, if this should be in the general suspension forum, please move it.

I bet it isn't enough different to matter. Order same part number and see how it goes. The part number given is for one collar, so order two.

Many thanks to BrandenZ and Smyrna388Z ! I finally got around to this project and it was super easy. Bought two 1" steel shaft collars from mcmaster carr for like $18 shipped-arrived about 3 days after the internet order. Cut the plastic zip ties I had holding my steering rack billows on and pushed back the billows to expose the rack. Turned the steering wheel to the desired angle and installed the collars. Pushed the billows back over the collar and installed a new zip tie. 30 minute job once parts were on-hand. Pictures show tire rub, part numbers, step by step and final result (although picture is of opposite side). This mod is strongly advised for those running wider, larger tires than stock. Thanks, hybridz!

Do the Subi diff. Many failures occur due to loosened hardware, so check fastener torque on your axles regularly. I also use a product called Torque Seal by Organic Products. It is a brightly colored wax that allows you to "seal" your hardware in the same way that Thomas Jefferson used to seal his letters - with an impression (like a signet ring) that allows you to know if the bolt or nut has loosened. Drag racing with stock u-joint axles, my outer 4 axle bolts tended to loosen a lot during one day at the track, so I just carried wrenches with me and re-torqued everytime I changed tires going to or from the track. It was easy, but I'm glad I didn't make a habit of forgetting. wfritts911 has some pictures of what happens when your axle bolts loosen and it ain't pretty.

I recently got some hyper blacks. All four wheels are slightly different colors.

Post some pics of your system. I DO tend to over-analyze and over-build. When I just secured the top to the sheetmetal, it instantly tweeked the sheetmetal, so I felt I needed some way to distribute the tension load. My system is done, at least until it fails, but perhaps you can make this easier for somebody else by putting your pics up. For static adjustment at this point, I just tightened enough to get the spring on the seat, then pre-loaded to the next tighter mounting hole. As always, for me, the perfect setting is probably IN-BETWEEN two adjustment holes. My first purpose in make droop limiters was to quiet the fear I have been carrying around for 15 years since I did my coilover conversion: I have always feared that I would go over an unexpected dip and drop, or cock, a spring off the seat. Second reason was that my car is low enough that I'm getting my arm pinched when using one hand to lower the jack and the other to straighten the spring when coming off jacks. Last priority is suspension tuning-which sounds like voodoo. I'm more active in drag racing, so if I EVER get the front tires up, I think we are just back to priority #1, and that is keeping the spring secure on both top and bottom seats. Thanks!

google search John's Cars + LS1. Look at his mounting kit. That is what most of us are running. A few sharp guys have fabbed their own. PM wfritts911 about the mounts he fabbed in his front yard. Ask the moderators to move this thread to the Gen III/IV forum so we all see it.

Matt-you said 9" rearend. Did you mean solid/live rear axle or just a 9" center section preserving independent rearend?

Matt-you said 9" rearend. Did you mean solid/live rear axle or just a 9" center section preserving independent rearend?

Yeah, these cheerios taste very salty-I was wondering why. Pass the Prozak and Viagra around! I think we are all suffering from "build fatigue." I've only had my car off the jackstands for 3 days since December (it is back up now until the headers come in), so I know the feeling. I have decided to hold off on any more upgrades until next winter, just so I can drive the pee out it (leave less for the cheerios). The goal this summer is a stack of timeslips-whatever they say, and a bunch of autocross "participatant" stickers, trophies or whatever. Only jackstand time should be for tire changes-lots of them! Let's drive!

Sorry, I started this thread as a celebration. It was meant to be a happy place....

Always! More to come. Actually, I need more money, the parts list has been made.

Sweetrid2go, I just changed from 3.90 to 3.54 because 3.90 put me between gears on the 1/8- mile with a 26" tire. I was in 6th all the time on the street around town. 3.90 was good for 1/4-mile at my hp level-redlining in fourth. But there is only one 1/4 mile track in state and 4 1/8 mile within an hour of my house. By my calculations, 3.7 will put me in between gears at both 1/4 and 1/8- mile.

Front droop limiters done. Steering angle limiter shaft collars arrived from mcmaster carr; may get those on Saturday. Picture of longer springs.

Finished my front droop limiter straps. The problem is finding a strong enough place to bolt the top of the strap to avoid bending sheetmetal. I bolted to my EMI camber plate above and the swaybar below. No driving impressions yet. I mostly built them to make it easier to jack up and lower the car without the coil springs falling off the perches. Just sharing.

Don't rain on my parade! I'm trying to stay motivated when my hands, back and legs hurt from working on this thing all weekend....

Mount axle firmly in vice. Have your best friend grab the stub of the inner cv and pull down hard while you hammer hard with a dead low hammer. Find a new best friend. Going back together is just as difficult. Best to have lots of friends and lots of beer.

As many of you know, I did an LS2 swap last year and have been trying to go fast in it (I am NOT the fastest car on this forum by any stretch of the mind). I bought this car for $900 in 1991 or 1992 and have reciepts for as much as $15,000 of work (some productive, some not so much) over the past 20 years. In the past 2 years, I've spent about $20,000 on it (again, some well spent and some wasteful). That adds up to about $36,000 over 20 years, or less than $2,000 a year. My mom bought me a subscription for a rag called Road and Track because some little Girl Scout came to her door selling magazines. I read it tonight and there were a bunch of articals about floor mats and electric cars, and some driver impressions about cars that are too expensive for me to ever own. But, in the back of the magazine is a Road Test Summary that reads similarly to this forum's "Timeslips" forum. I have made a short list of the cars on their long list that are faster in the 1/4-mile than my $36,000 LS2 equipped hybridz: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Super Sport, $2,765,840 Ferrari 458 Italia, $340,113 Lamborghini Aventador, $406,905 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera $282,180 McLaren MP4-12C, $267,545 Porsche 911 Turbo, $162,460 Saleen S7 Twin Turbo $602,442 I'm faster in the 1/4 than a 2013 Viper SVT ($113,490), McLaren F1 ( $1,131,120), Porsche Carrera GT ($460,400), all the Aston Martins (sorry Mr. Bond), all the Corvettes (too damn heavy), and even a Nissan GTR (11.2 at 125). I'm hoping to best everybody on their list, except perhaps the $2.7-million Bugatti, but there are several of you out there who have even bested that. Way-to-go hybridz! Out of some fairness, I doubt any of these cars were tested with slicks.