RebekahsZ

Ok guys, thanks for giving such good insight and advice. I hope to get out there and start grinding the washers off the crossmember tonight-wife has a party, so it's a garage party for me!

How do you plan to deal with the external linkage? I mean-is there room in the tunnel?

That's a great price-many of those slip yokes are in the $200 range by themselves.

For straight line, why do I desire downforce? Isn't the absence of lift adequate? If I can just create zero lift, isn't that good enough?

Second photo shows rake that I arrived at track with. Second photo shows take after raising front 1" and lowering rear 1". Car drove exactly the same in each configuration. Next photos show bumpstops and packers.

Sorry, double post due to slow connection.

Spend extra money for good slip yokes. I've twisted off two. Go billet, heat treated, or chrome moly. If not, that's where you will break it.

Have you read the recent Hot Rod magazine article that compared intake manifolds? It was for n/a motors, but in that article the taller manifolds didn't really make any more power over the FAST 102. Curious to see what you find in your research.

I dunno. I enjoy driving my truck. I've auto crossed it and drag raced it. I tow my race car with it. It's not a bag of trash. It's fine. Folks complain about this tranny is notch or this tranny is sloppy. Until I have a full-throttle clutchless or sequential vertical gate shifter, I'm not gonna be happy. So everything is less than I want. I'm waiting on S1 Sequential to finish their shifter and I will probably blow $2-3,000 to try their shifter and probably having my spare tranny converted to a dog-box. I'm also hoping to have my .56 6th gear converted to something more like .75 if possible. So, while I dream of having the perfect gearbox, I'm obviously willing to settle for less in the meantime. Figure out what you want the car to do. Look up you're anticipated tire diameter, and look at available diff gear ratios: 3.90, 3.70, 3.54 and learn about the different ratios available in the trannies you would consider. For crying out loud, until the 80s, a hot car had an external-linkage 4-speed, and folks beat the snot out of them. Don't discount a Muncie or a Richmond or a Saginaw. With the right rear tires I can go 150mph with a 4-speed and 3.54 gears.

All of today's input reviewed-thanks guys. The thickest insertable packers I have found are 1/8" at Spoedwaymotors.com. Anybody have a source for thicker insertable packers? Oh yeah, for what it's worth, I think I ran with the Koni's set full soft rebound. I figured with a track that was kinda like a washboard I should try to keep the tires on the ground.

I don't have a clue as to whether the airdam hit due to downforce or from a bump. I really wish I had put some kind of tell-tale on the strut rods like a sliding o-ring. I also guess I need to mount a camera on a long pole or something to be able to video the ride height changes. My attempt to mount a GoPro by the rear tire with the flare removed was an epic fail-the wind just pushed it out of align. The track, being concrete is pretty rough, but everybody says: "Maxton was worse!" However, by my analysis, the bumps are fairly small amplitude, high frequency, with a couple of fairly big bumps along the way. No real rises to make the car light-the car never felt "light." No long, smooth dips that would make the suspension feel "mushy." Kinda like that hammer feeling like hitting a bridge abutment. But no suspension bottoming-I never coil bound or hit metal on metal. I've done some searching for packers and will continue. I need to find some that are pretty thick-lots of the observable type seem to be thin for super fine-tuning. I will try to add YouTube links later tonight. There's not a lot out there for Landspeed suspension. There's some folklore for Bonneville but nothing really for Wilmington. Some discussion of toe-in and some about bump steer. Most guys run solid rears and a lot run solid front axles to avoid camber changes. "Stability" is an ill-defined, unit-less property that I don't yet understand. They do have spins and crashes. It's so much more fun that one would think! I'm thinking that I will put bumpstops on and use packers to ensure that I'm ON the 200# bumpstops at static ride height. But do I add the bumpstops to 200# springs or 400# springs?

Just watched a really nice YouTube video from FCM (Fat Cat Motorsports) that explained bumpstops and packers simply enough for me to understand. They showed some 200# per inch bumpstops. I wonder if I could just install something like those and adjust them (with packers-thanks Cary) to have zero clearance off the bumpstops, such that I am running essentially ON the bumpstops?

Johnc- I can do just about anything to the car forward of the cowl. I can run a full belly pan. I can run a spoiler on front and back, but no wings. The car currently has just a vertical airdam, the equivalent of blocking airflow thru the grill. No rear spoiler(but I have one like Mikelly's for next year). On pass 1, I had a 3" splitter on the airdam and the airdam contacted the ground. I blamed the splitter for pushing the front down. So, I cut the splitter off flush and repaired the gouges. On pass 2, the airdam hit the ground again even without the splitter. Question: does the stock body produce enough downforce to push the car down? I tried to look at the wind tunnel data and I saw lift, not downforce...am I looking at that wrong? After we discuss the aero stuff some, I will come back to the springs/struts. Thanks so much for helping.

I should acknowledge that someone else tried to help me, I think it was tube80z, but the conversation got too complex for me. That was in another thread and I will try to edit those suggestions into this thread. Please keep the comments coming, I will digest them as I read them over and over. Please use simple, short words-I'm a simple, short man. Ok-I found Cary's comments in my build thread in the Build Thread forum he suggested that perhaps I could use bump stops and "packers" in an effort to increase spring rate while retaining the soft springs I currently have. I couldn't really understand how the thin packers retain once slid around the strut rod. I will do more investigating in that.

2016 is going to be all Standing Mile (straight line acceleration/chute/braking) suspension prep for me in order to try to take the car to 200mph by the year 2020. We do not do burnouts and we try to leave the line gently enough to avoid spinning the tires (big, sticky drag radials). Next test and tune session will be the Sept 2016, 3-day event at Wilmington, OH. My goal by the end of the2016 session is to run up to the 175mph range again, but with a rock-solid steering wheel and dry panties thru all phases of the event. Car is a 2500 pound 240z with 225F/250R springs, single adjustable Koni's and coilovers with the typical adjustable components to the stock strut suspension design. There were three handling problems I faced at 174 mph. Increasing toe-in and tire air pressure did not help. 1) Wandering above about 165mph, 2) steering to one side or the other upon braking at 174mph, and 3) scraping of the rigid airdam somewhere along the course when static ground clearance of the airdam is 3" (I would like to lower the car further but the staging lanes are too uneven due to in-ground runway lights and a rough transition from tarmac to concrete). Rather than trying to tackle everything at once, I hope to tackle one issue at a time. I've given all this background to make it easier for the smart guys to offer brief suggestions. Since ride-height affects alignment, I think I want to start be establishing my ride height first so, let's start with issue #3: reducing the amount of suspension compression. So, here's my first question: Should I: Increase spring rate, install bump stops, or both? Consider this a fairly bumpy 1-mile drag race in a car that will need enough traction to put down 600-800 hp.

Or, you might be adding un-needed complexity based on a few reports. Im sure it depends on the intensity of the racing, but several of us have had good success at the hobby level by just popping the engine in and running it as it came. I guess if you like talking about racing and working on a car as much as you do driving it.... With my limited experience, I would recommend a low mileage salvage yard engine for cheap and run it till it dies, then replace it with another salvage motor. Would do that several times before getting bogged down in an oily mess. Let us know how it works out

Do you have enough gear left to go do 1/4-mile? If you ever do pop that chute, please post your impression either here or in a PM to me.

HS30-H- While I have to admit that I sometimes get tired of your fender flare critiques, you incredible contribution toward this OP and your in-depth knowledge and wisdom regarding the history of the marque truly make you an invaluable asset to our internet group. Thank you so much for your contributions and for putting up with redneck hacks like me. Please have patience with us and stick around-we really appreciate you. I read every post that you contribute and consider myself more informed for it.

I have JTR headers, which I chose ignorantly only because they came ceramic coated. Then I had to modify and have them re-coated. So that was kind of a bust. If I were to do it again, I think I would do the JCI header just as you have. I would have them coated after all the mods that I would do, like the ball-flange and test ports. It looks like maybe the JCI flange may be thinner, but I don't know if that would matter. The only reason I would go with a long-tube like the Hawks header is if I was trying to do an all-out high-rpm cammed-out n/a power plant as limited by a racing class (which I may do someday). Component clearance, ground clearance, under hood heat and ease of installation are real-life issues that really favor the JCI header. I'm considering a novel (dry weather race setup only) turbo placement in the rear of the fender well at some point, and the JCI header may be the style I use.

Bro, it looks like you have an IV in your main vein. That's gotta hurt! Hope you feel better quick. Sorry you are down for a bit.

Wouldn't it be fun to have that bunch in membership here on hybridZ? Can we please stop dogging the build? It's nicer than most of the cars we have. And faster than most of our POS cars too.

Did you pop the chute any? If so, what was that like? I'm planning a chute before this summer and I want to find out how the car behaves with the tether located at the level of he rear deck/trunk floor level.

My car was 1200 F/ 1220 R with the LS2/T56 last time I weighed.

And the winner of the worlds most bad-ass S30 goes to: you! Holy smokes I LOVE it! Great work. I can't imagine what 5s feels like&$@?$&@. #rocketship. Did you use NO2 on those?

How much hp you making? Looks like a lot of dough and trouble for (?). An Autozone clutch kit for a 280z 2+2 will likely be fine for most L6s.