heavy85

OK this is an exercise in extreme frustration!!! Could not find the mark on the upright. Took it apart and the spacer is a 'B'. My thinking is the spacer is too long. If is't way too long it would still tighten up but then you could risk the outer race walking out - not good because then it would loosen up over time. If it's a little long which is what I have then the bearings will not get preloaded and it will be sloppy. Anyway so I ground a bit off the end and it tightened up a little. So I'm thinking I'm getting somewhere so I ground a little bit more off and then it's WAYY tight. Dammit. I cannot believe how sensitive it is. I'm taking it real easy with a 12" disk sander so I didn't take much off at all. So I added a shim but it's too thick. Now I'm working on grinding the spacer down some more to make the shim work. This is just temporary to hopefully get me through an autox tomorrow. I really need the next shorter spacer from a "B". Anyone have one I can buy or know where I can get one? Thanks Cameron

hint - engine sits offset to the passenger side

Bonus points for any cone that make it through the finish line .... Cameron

Standard small block Chevy I believe. Can you use the LS1 to SBC adapter plates on the left side? These are sold through a bunch of places even E-bay. That's what I did and they basically consist of a flat 4-6 mm plate with the four LS1 mounting holes, then it centers the SBC mount over one of the front holes. They are intended to allow a LS to be mounted into traditional SBC frame mounts. Cameron

If you read the description and the labels he's added to the questions you'll see he is obviously not taken this too serious. Made me laugh out loud. Cameron

Anyone say period correct ... at least for the '80s. Yeah that's a Momo. It was there when I bought and it's too ugly to get rid of. I actually have the black dye I just cant do it. Was trying to explain Benetton & F1 to a kid at the autocross ... he didn't get it. Cameron

I thought about it when I made mine but without any dimensions I didn't want to waste the $$ to buy them just to find they couldn't be made to fit. They may well work just couldn't tell from a single pic. I kind of liked the round donut mounts though. Cameron

What kind of jack slides into the holes as I've never seen one of those? Cameron

So you 'just' need about 3" flares per side ... and completely hack-up the inner fenders and framerails but at least the strut towers are close enough. Seems doable but are S300 known for stellar handling? Cameron

If you open the bleeder and get a burst of fluid that sounds to me like you are trapping pressure in the line which would not allow the clutch to engage. I would take the line off and make sure it's clear. Sounds like a fluid blockage issue to me ... maybe master. 'Drives like a torque converter' - you could patten that sell it to the ricers and make pennies ..... call it a feature!! Even with 9.5 slicks at the autox I still leave at idle and get no traction so yeah def dont need clutch to burn rubber. Cameron

Looks like I will be getting the new (actually will get them used w/ 100% tread) Hoosier radials 23x9.5x15 in the R25 compound. Any recommendations on setting changes to work with the radials vs the bias plies? Also unanswered is question which end should have higher springrates - the front or the rear if anyone wants to bite. Cameron

Where is the letter stamped on the hub? Thanks Cameron

Already tried adding a shim in there. The right (good) side already had a copper looking shim and after the left would not preload I had a shim sitting around so tried it. The shim made no difference. Maybe two shims? Cameron

As the title says I just replaced by wheel bearings because the left sides felt a little loose. Even with new bearings the left rear stub shaft would not build proper preload to ever achieve the spec force to spin it. The right worked fine and was good at about 200 ft-lb. Spec says start at 180 ft-lb and go up to as high as 250 or until you get a certain pull force to spin the shaft. On the left I went to 250 ft-lb and the force never changed and there is still excessive play similar to the old bearings. Spec says 0.0057" end play and I'm between 0.008 and 0.009" and you can feel it when you try to rock the wheel back and forth. So any ideas what could be wrong? I used good quality Timkin (spel?) bearings. Thanks Cameron

Heavy85 is actually leftover from gokart days when I ran the heavy class due to my personal trim 220 lb curb weight (cough cough). Car is a '72 240 with a LS1, T56, R200, stock brakes, SFC, no rollbar (yet), stripped interior (dash, one seat, door panels and that's about it), no wipers or heater. It's pretty basic to say the least and right now I dont even have a passenger seat because then I couldn't fit the race tires inside. I'm guessing somewhere between 2300 and 2400 lb but that's just speculation based on what other cars have weighed. I would like for whatever I get to last the rest of this season which is maybe 8 or 9 autocrosses and hopefully one track day. Would the A6 do this? Also like the cost of the used slicks like I got before but that's just because I'm cheap. I could be swayed to spend more. My current hoosiers were like $75 per with only one heat cycle on them and literally 100% tread. I'm also tossing around the thought that I add a passenger seat back in so I can give rides and just get some ultra high performance (or whatever they are called these days) street tires. Not sure I could stand losing a second or two over the race tires though ... Cameron

So this is what I did: Front left camber 2.75 deg, front right camber 2 deg (needs more work) Rear camber 1.5 deg, Front toe 1/4" out, rear toe 1/8" in. Front height 5 3/4" just in front of the fender bolts (w/ 24" street tires ... race tires are 22.5"), rear height 6 1/8" at the rear quarter to rocker seam. Added back rear bar. Lowered air pressure a couple pounds. Concentrated on throttle modulation. Learned that camber is very sensitive to ride height. Also set everything with me in the car thinking since it's stiffer it'll be more sensitive to cross weight. And the results ......... I froze my a$$ off today but was within 0.1 sec of FTD ... and I corded a tire (the inside edge which the only thing that wears on them). So now I am much happier and need new tires. Part of this was the super fast guy was not there and the track layout was very well suited to my driving style but all things considered I've gained seconds over last race. It now feels like I remember it running before just with more power. So now I have two questions: 1) What tires should I get for 15x10 rims? I'm using 35 compound hoosier 22.5x9.5x15 slicks and they seem a little hard. Good on HOT days but otherwise dont really heat-up. Lasted maybe 13 races. 2) Should the front springs be stiffer or softer than the rear? I'm currently running 225F/250R but am considering maybe going up a little. I think I need some way to adjust caster (I have EMI plates but that doesn't seem to get you much) and maybe add wheel spacers on the front. Cameron

Decatur ... 'original home of the Chicago Bears" ... or at least that's what the sign says. Cameron

I cant imagine 4" all the way back and having any resemblance of ground clearance. I have dual 2.5" and it's very low despite being tucked up as high as possible. Cameron

With the 24" diameter street tires the front is 5 7/8" to the flat edge of the bottom of the rocker (not the bottom of the flange) and the rear is 6". I also run 1" 'bumpsteer' spacers in the front as well as moved the inner pivot up ~3/4" to attempt to keep favorable camber with the low ride. The LCA point down a few degrees at static ride height. Race tires are 22.5" diameter. Thing I keep scratching my head about is I used to be fast with this basic set-up other than the increased chassis stiffness and gobs more power. Seems doom and gloom from everyones comments but I used to be fast (did I already say that???). Would a stiffer chassis and more power alone throw everything so far off to where I can't recover without taking it off the street ... thats hard to swallow. To answer Cary the rear tires look fine - same as the fronts. Calibrated? Right is GO right .... seriously I need to work on this. My thoughts based on everyones posts which I really appreciate: - Add more front camber maybe up to 2 3/4 deg if I can - Fix rear toe (was shooting for 1/8" in anyway just missed it) - Take LR camber down to match RR ... maybe even less - Add back rear bar - Learn how to drive it ... dammit I used to be fast Other thoughts under consideration: - Try a stock front bar since I have one - How much spring would I have to add to make a difference and which way would I bias them - more front or more rear? The Koni's being the newer style SA are suppose to support 300 lb if I remember correctly. Not sure how much that would affect the kidneys though. - Put the 3.5 rear in it since I have one That about summarize it or did I miss something? Cameron

Bias ply. No corner weights but I'm trying to hunt down some scales. Pyrometer is a Longacre probe. Just standard low end one. Probe is about 3/16" long and I stick it all the way in. It blips high then within a few seconds settles down about 10 deg lower than the instantaneous peak. Only used it twice and I can't really figure out the tricks so any help would be appreciated. No idea if I have enough travel but I've not done anything to my knowledge to affect that from before. Dances like anytime I hit the throttle the rear end steps out and the whole car just gets badly unsettled. Really hard to go through a couple of offsets in a row without it wanting to pendulum back and forth eventually trying to rip the wheel out of my hand. No chattering. Maybe I just need a throttle stop No smoking gun yet. Camber LF 2.25 deg, LR 2.125 deg, RF 2.125 deg, RR 1.75 deg. Front 1/8" toe out, rear 3/16" toe in. Toe was checked quickly with two boards and a tape measure so they are approximate but directionally correct. Since it's a compromised street/track car I know it'll never really be competitive in EM (or before in FP for that matter). Before I was usually in the top 10 out of 80 in indexed time but never even close to a threat for index fast time. I'm an above average driver but nothing special really just trying to keep up with the SS cars with the good drivers (almost always fastest on index and raw). Agree it's mostly driver but right now it's all I can do to hold on. Will keep digging and look closer at the coilover heights tomorrow. Thanks Cameron

9.5" FA Hoosier slicks R35 compound on 15x10 rims. Front camber little over 2 deg, rear camber a little less than 2 degrees but right before the race I discovered the left rear was a little over 2. Koni single adjustables (the new versions) which are only two years old with maybe 12 autocrosses and a couple thousand street miles. Front a bit of toe out the rear a bit of toe in - before the race I measured like a half inch toe in and set it back out but was not able to get a real good after measurement but still some toe in. Next thing I will do is obviously verify the exact settings including see if one of the coilovers moved. Oh also forgot I changed from high 2 to low 2 deg camber on the front because before I was wearing the inside of the tires. I now have a pyrometer and the temps are even with the low 2 setting but never measured temps before. Maybe I need to add the half degree of camber back in as this was my first race with the reduced front camber? So what's the best way to deal with the increased front roll stiffness ... I thought it would be good to stiffen the chassis now just need to figure out how to deal with it? About the wicked on throttle oversteer in mid to high speed slight curves - any idea on that one? I went from 3.9 to 3.7 gears (clutch type Nissan R200 LSD) which didn't really help. Anytime I'm just slightly turned and hit the throttle the back just snaps sideways in a very uncontrolled manner. Realize some of it is just the power but it feels really jacked as much and how quickly it goes. Also seems the rear always wants to go to the right. Due to this being a street/track car I didn't really want to go too crazy with springrates but maybe go a little higher if that would really help. I live in the midwest where the roads are really crappy. Jon - I've been running rear toe in for a long time which really helped the unstable braking where the rear used to dance around. I removed the rear bar to help soften it with the idea to get more traction - this seemed to have contributed to the low speed corner exit understeer. Thanks Cameron

Why not weld it between the towers? Autox doesn't really take much abuse on belts. Cameron

Here's the short version of my story ... recent history anyway. 240Z. Had an L6 with tripples, etc that ran well. Usually about a second shy of fasted time of the day and actually got FTD once. Running FP, slicks, etc. So then came the 1.5 year journey to LS land. During that time I also cut out the old, cracked subframe and installed full length subframe. Also welded in tubes from the rockers to the T/C bucket & the upper frame horn. Also welded tubes from the towers to the firewall. Also turned the crossmember into a k-member. The swaybar mounts were badly ripped out so they were also fixed and then some. So in other words the front end was stiffened up a LOT and the swaybar now actually mounts to something substantial. On the rear all I did was weld a rollbar tube between the towers. So now it is all but uncontrollable. Yeah part of that is the LS power and getting used to it (already switched back to the 3.7 from the 3.9 but didn't help much) but something else is just way out of balance. Running 225F/250R, big front bar, no rear bar (this is actually another change as of T&T a couple weeks ago to attempt to get the power down - was running medium size rear bar). This is a street/track car so I drive there and change tires so nothing crazy for spring rates. Today I was 4 ... count them FOUR ... seconds back on a 50 second track to the sames cars I was competing within a second of before on a typical 60 second track. I obviously need to double check the alignment to make sure somethings not jacked. Slow corner and any throttle the front end just washes out. Mid speed corners and any throttle the back end snaps around NOW. Fast corners it just dances like it's on ice. This sucks ... but at least the LS1 still puts a smile on my face every time it fires up and the power is just silly really. Cameron PS: Lost the fifth and best run at the end due to puff of oil smoke inside the car ... freaked me out ... turned out to be the stupid oil pressure idiot light sender which I had to then replace in the Autozone parking lot in lieu of trophies.

Keep it simple so you dont get frustrated looking at it on jackstands. My LS swap took ~1 1/2 years of downtime because I also replaced the subframe and added a bunch of chassis bracing & misc other stuff. Also if you get a late '80's 300 ZX R200 it will come with a 3.7. From the old L6 days I swapped this to 3.9 which worked good with the L6. I just switched back to the 3.7 since as said above the 3.9 was just silly with the LS and I want higher speed in second for autocross. Cameron

So I'm replacing my axle bearings and the first one went fine. Second one I couldn't get the bearing off the stub shaft. So I thought I would cut it off with a cut-off wheel. Well it didn't go so well and I dug into the shaft. Doh ... sunnova ... Trying to get it back together for a race next weekend so if anyone has a stub shaft in good shape they could ship I'll take it just let me know how much. It's a 240Z but I would rather switch to the 280's while I'm at it (I would need two if that's the case). Either way if you have one (one 240Z or two 280Z + companion flanges) to sell please let me know as soon as possible. Thanks Cameron