flatout

what is the final use of the combo? I wouldn't use 1.5mm a header/manifold for anything other than a dedicated drag car. I'm not a full time fabricator, but I've made a hand full of turbo manifolds with pretty good success for street cars over the years and my experience is I choose sch 10 pipe. (.109 or 2.75mm wall),But I choose 321 not 304. I have used SCH40 304 (~.140" or 3.5mm wall) but I don't think that is necessary unless your looking for extreme structure and weight is no concern. 321 seems to hold up better over time than 304. I've also probably gotten better at welding over the years but I have had two 304 manifolds end up cracking at the wastegate/collector after about 10 years and two 321 manifolds still holding strong. But i also have a handful of 304 that didn't crack. (at least not yet) I recently just made one for my Z out of 321 based off that information as well. As far as back purging. Id say for a manifold its 100% necessary. Its always a pain in the butt and I'm not sure what the best technique is. I do use solar flux regularly on larger diameter pipe like downpipes, turbo backs, or turbo cross overs for V8's with good success too. I feel those structures don't see quite the extreme stresses that a manifold does so i don't know if its as good as back purging. I would say if you can't backpurge then solar flux is the next best thing. as far as flange warping. you need to bolt it down to some sort of flat fixture for all welding. i've had a few that still bow a little and need to be sanded/milled flat but usually if you have it bolted down it holds up fairly well. After the turbo I use .065 (1.65mm) 304ss for the first elbow of the downpipe and have never had an issue. street, drag, drifting or road racing. back when i drifted i would cook ceramic coating off at the collector. I do think some people have good success with it tho so maybe an installation concern. but other wise i header wrap everything. and use a quality turbo heat blanket and heat sleeving around anything important. A master cylinder requires a shield for more organizations.

I'll just add some things to consider. At the end of the day. if its what you really want and you have the facts and still follow thru then more power to you. A Porsche transaxle usually puts the axles 5-10" behind the bellhousing. so take that measurement into account and add any adapters needed to attach to the VR. Axles shouldn't really be more than 15º at the joints. so looking at the wheel centerline the trans outputs can be a max of ~3" forward the wheel centerline. Overall length of a VR is probably 30" (measure yours). My Z is about 32" from axle centerline to tail lights. So my math is showing the accessory drive/engine will be sticking out the back of the car by several inches to line the transmission up with the wheels with the MAX angle of the axles. Now to take that placement into consideration even if you build something around the back of the car to encapsulate the engine or extend the rear, the entire engine, accessories, bellhousing, flywheel, clutch, headers, exhaust, Turbos, intercoolers, etc will be BEHIND the rear axle. Google says a bar VR weighs 430 and almost 500 with turbos and intercoolers. so id estimate 600 behind the rear wheels that a normal Z doesn't have. Comparing to a front engine Z. The factory engine is mostly behind the front axle toward the center of the car. a 4 cyl or v6 would probably be completely behind the front axle. Porsche engine is probably 6-10 inches shorter than the VR. A well handing Porsche target 60% rear bias. stock z is around 50 to 52% on the nose Mid engine GT40 is 55-58% rear. C8 corvette is roughly 60% rear.

I am trying to get out one more time this year but the weather here in New England may say otherwise. Car has been good. a few minor tweaks here and there. I have about 650 street miles on it. Did get a tire puncture which is rough because the tire had 400 miles on it, I plugged it but I think I need to replace it if I'm going to race it because the internet says a plug wont hold with the heat of racing. I did get some photos sent to me from the event i did in September that i wanted to share.

A front engine Z is pretty easy to get 50/50. An aluminum 4 cylinder swap Z is very easy to produce a rear heavy bias. Id expect the VR to also be ale to be rear bias. I can't see without adding a bunch of weight to the front, a real rear engine Z car would be like 70% or more on the rear which would not perform well in any discipline. Mid Engine has a fighting chance of being decent balance if you can engineer it to be.

I had to buy them. If I had more time I would have gone an alternate route. Visibly they are heat treated differently and the spline cuts are cleaner. so I would suspect they had an issue with a supplier along the way and changed them. but I couldn't get any information from the guy on the phone. to put it nicely, the guy I dealt with was a "challenge" to deal with. took 5 phone calls and 4 emails to even get him to send an invoice.

Got the axle situation sorted with some new upgraded shafts. i replaced both sides just incase. and for your viewing pleasure some new england fall foliage shots.

not a great photo but i have an array of turn buckets hanging from the front tubular support I built. I do think it may get a little bit of a revision at some point as it comes off easy but its tricky to get back on.

I'm on day 4 of trying to deal with T3. The guy i keep getting of the phone rushes me off the phone and says hes gonna send me a quote via email but this has still yet to happen. Not sure why. I just want this fixed so i can enjoy the car the limited amount of New England season left.

well...first failure happens to be an axle shaft. kind of surprised by this. I ran lots of bottom 10 second passes in my 240sx with stock axles and this technotoys kit is supposed to be a "upgraded" and shortened shaft and stock 240sx joints. well it broke on the street. it was under power but in 3rd gear without any wheel hop or tire slip. luckily didn't do any other damage. just the shaft and the boot. I have sent them an email as its the weekend to see if I can get another and if they have anything to say about that.

I don't have any photos at the moment but i got some 1/16 ABS plastic sheet and trimmed it to fit. used an existing 6mm hole and 1 extra sheet metal screw in the top.

having just completed my first HPDE track day in my Z a couple weeks ago. I 10000% recommend at least trying one. Local clubs vary but cost to seat time to fun ratio is quite high. you dont need to have a track weapon. you don't need to be a professional driver. you just need to have fun.

I did full length frame rails, stitched the front towers, and a pretty involved cage in my 280. I know the 240s are a bit more known for issues but i think similar would be sufficient. Some guys add the inner fender braces, I didn't but they seem popular. Is your front strut tower brace triangulated or just straight across? Triangulated off the firewall would add a bit more structure. What is the design of your cage?

couple videos the wife had taken. looking over some datalogs this morning. Car never got over 201ºF in any log that I could see. I can't find a spot in a log where the oil temp even got over 200ºF. oil pressure never dipped on any turns or hard braking. Really impressed the car didn't skip a beat. For a shakedown i was pleasantly surprised. New track for me so i worked on me as a driver rather than swings at setup changes to bandaid a driver problem but my lap times where improving fairly significantly every session and was having so much fun doing it. 20260905_111217.mp4 20260905_173624.mp4

Last weekend i got the offer to run a single day of a multi day event if I wanted to shake down the car. So i scrambled all week getting a bunch of things checked off the list. a couple days getting up at 5am and working for a couple hours before work and then to 10-11pm after work but got it so i could run it. Added a front splitter. strut bar, seat belts. fuel cell bulkhead, fire extinguisher, coolant overflow, battery tie down and kill switch, tow hook, brake bias controller, some tuning changes and im sure a few more things. But i made it. My uncle and I loaded up friday evening and saturday morning drove an hour and a half to the track. Had a great time. car was an absolute trooper and didnt skip a beat. New track for me so had some getting used to the track and the car. but i did 4 sessions problem free, I didn't change a single thing all day. found one loose bolt after session 3 that i caught before it was a problem. Car performed well. Had a fairly competitive pace by the end. Anyway. huge photo dump

There is a point of diminishing returns on tire width. It varies greatly with many factors tho so no one size fits all. Its a balance of contact patch, corner weight and suspension geometry. The double a arm front will allow for a good amount of adjustment with caster, and KPI that we can't get easily with struts.

spent the last few days focusing on fixing some steering geometry. If you guys remember this car came with the 240sx knuckles and if you've ever done any research on that swap, its hot garbage. I spent some time adusting ackerman right off the bat and made it so it was drivable and made a small adjustment last week. My plan has always been to modify them and get all the geometry dialed to how i like it and then scan it. and make a billet version that is modular and can be tweaked in from there. Anyway. This weekends goal was to dial in the mechanical trail and some roll center correction. The 240sx knuckle on the wrong side of the car made the mechanical trail very large so the car had very very heavy steering feel. I did some measuring and made a decision. Clipped off 8º of angle off the ball joint mount. and offset the mount to where i wanted it. Designed and machined an adapter block and welded it on. came up with a quick bumpsteer kit as the knuckle needs to have the tie rod mount lowered by a good bit. didn't take good photos but the car drives SO MUCH BETTER. steering feels great. "light" (for manual steering) but centers still centers well and has good feedback. Took the wife to get ice cream last night and what a great feeling that was after a year of work.

This is how I feel watching some youtube channels. popularity doesn't mean skill or quality.

Thank you for the kind words. Im proud of this one and cant wait to get it dialed in a bit and get to enjoy it a bit on the street and track.

Got the the hood and inspection covers on. Happy

car is officially registered and insured so i spent the weekend trying to button up a few things to make it a bit more "street friendly". did managed to put about 10 miles on it. I have a few things i need to address before racing it but it drove on the street decent. After the initial drive. did a nut and bolt check. then did like 4, did another check, and then another 6ish and everything is looking good. Got the driver mirror on. I wasn't 100% confident id like the round mirror so i designed and 3d printed an adapter to use the factory holes in the door rather than drill new holes i'd regret later. Its growing on me. I may buy a better quality mirror but the round is looking decent. Will still hook up electronic boost control but for now i just put 10psi springs in the wastegate and gave it a vacuum source. When I moved the strut towers back and inboard, i forgot to modify the hood to accept the new position of the strut tops so I designed and machined strut top spacers to push the adjuster down and hopefully clear the hood. I could make them a little thicker as i still have some ride height adjustment on the coilover but i think this will be enough. I'll go slow when closing the hood for the first time. I hooked up the hood release cable. decided to be a little fancier and routed it thru the wiper cowl instead of having the cable extend all the way across the engine bay. need to make a new handle for the cable pull as mine is MIA. Got the hood hinges cleaned up and painted black. fedex lost my order for replacement couplers to move my air filter to clear the hood tension bars so i didnt get the hood on this weekend.

how much of a "notch" would your cradle need to sit down? maybe notch it and attach it to the those apex supports aswell as the frame?

I drove the car about 3/4 of a mile around the block.... tune needs a lot of work (obviously), tires had a slight rub and it rattled a bit but was so exciting and such a relief after a year of hard work. Got the rest of the windows in as well. Wife offered to polish all the trim so I gave her some supplies and let her scrub away. also added a couple interior shots.

Big update on aesthetics. Got the whole front put together. Made a "crash" bar out of chromoly the support the front valance and fenders. It wraps around the front and the valance "rest" on it for support. Went a little extra because I know in the future im going to build a splitter and having a solid place for mounting will be needed. Front and rear glass is back in. will polish the quarter windows and put the side glass in this week. Fitted the fiberglass 240z bumper (had to do some trimming and fitting). need to make a more permanent center brackets. just wiped up some simple aluminum bars to hold it in place. Then i'll spray it a satin or semigloss black i think. I'll experiment. I don't think it would look good orange but maybe. Finished up the wiring to the back of the car. The PDM really simplifies the amount of wires. Added a few extras for future modifications/add ons. All the lights and electronics are working. Slowly working on the tune. it starts and free revs nicely. I plan on trying to get it registered and insured this week so i can start getting it finished up Then for the first time, under its own power. Drove it outside, took some photos and drove it back in. very exciting. Seeing it sitting in the sun, all the work I have into it and to be extremely happy with it. I'm proud of this one.

I think "exhausting month of hardwork" is an understatement. Great job. starting with a fresh slate is so nice but so much work.

I haven't noticed much difference but i generally refresh the page and then flip off it and do something else while it loads.