EvilC

HRE 540R

Where in the Bronx are you? I live there Gunhill Rd area. Like Rags said - go with the 78 and check EVERYWHERE for rust.

Mike many of us may not have data loggers and such. Hell I am nowhere near a good driver or what I consider to be a good driver but yes we all love our Z cars and some of us build to use them. With that said, I question some of your post for several reasons and mainly is to see you get this car finally on the track and some REAL data, your OWN data. The project has been the biggest scope creep and at the end of the day the Datsun isn't the 996TT. To be honest your car isn't Matt's car. That isn't said to be disrespectful but to put it as simple as possible because of the changes that are planned and taking place before this thing ever see REAL track time - AN ENTIRE EVENT. You said it yourself in many of post on this blog that this car has not run well at all. Now if you have your data that you are comparing to Matts then who are we to question or ask about your build. I started off asking about your plans to gain some insight of what you guys were seeing. I never will see 160 mph at WGI on street tires and thought with my 3.54 I had nice gearing for most tracks I run. I am swapping to a 3.7 this summer which is why I asked what tracks you were running and rpm vs mph. Glad MTI is helping you out with data and hell they put in the time so hats off to them for having it. I am just a practice mechanic who likes to do a few track events a year. I could never compare my Z data to Matt's car because it isn't on the same caliber of build......so my setup is good for me. (for now) Sorry I will cont to read only.

I see you posted he HAD, so I am guessing all the changes he is doing is alil hush hush which I get since he is racing the car. Curious what ratio diff he has gone to now since I ditched the 3.54 for the new build. VIR does have a long straight which I have never been to so excuse my questions of gearing issues. I have only been in one Z doing 165mph and she cut off because it was on the limiter and not out of gears. All good......get it done Mike!

I saw the Facebook post that said looking asap. Now I am really curious to know what MPH and RPM you were seeing that you feel that the car was running out of "gearing". Were you hitting the rev limiter? Was this with your old 383 setup vs your new setup? Same power band? Same redline? You didn't comment on my statement of changing out the diff ratio to gain more top speed keeping the 5 speed.

That is correct, you are gaining an overdrive gear. How about changing out from the 3.54 gearing to something lower? You will sacrifice acceleration but gain top end. Also is this only at VIR? Don't take this the wrong way but run the car as is with what you got before you switch things out. Who is to say you will be as "fast" as Matt and run out of gearing? Did you have gearing issues with the last setup? All you did was change the power plant this time. Too many changes at one time cause too many problems. Get her running and put some hours in on the track. Just my humble opinion.

t56?

Moving along Mike! I got mine fired up 2 days ago, still have lots to do but was a good feeling to hear it run! Get r done!

Correct, I am running coilovers all around. I know the widest I have gotten with stock suspension is 245 all around.

Does that sizing hold true for 17 inch wheels for the stock fender car? I was thinking 17x9 -12 offset running 255 tires for the rear

Because Race Car - rags Mike, how far away are you from a fire up?

Nigel that is nuts! Brake lines failing due to the fact they are too short. You make a great point though, the parts designed and sold need to be fully tested and not bench raced. I am lucky enough as I go through learning because I am still a practice mechanic that Rags and 1 Tuff Z are very meticulous in their builds and that has rub off on me. As soon as I would have put the car on the ground and rolled it back into the corner I would have lost both front rotors. Glad to hear TTT will mod the control arm before they send them out, wish mine was done so I didn't have to grind new powdered parts. Hopefully they will begin to ask if people are running big brake kits. I just realize they now sell a Wilwood setup of their own. Hmmm - I wish they would have pictures of the products installed on a car or at least complete struts assemblies.

I hear you Nigel!!!! I guess what got under my skin is that TTT knows of the issue and even has a recommended fix - grind away. That is fine really just that there wasn't a warning or conversation when placing the order "Hey what setup of brakes do you have on your car?" O well, next need to tackle the dust boot to make sure it doesn't catch fire >=} And for anyone wondering TTT was very prompt to answer my phone call and concerns with the LCA and brake setup. Gabe does provide good customer service.

I get what you are saying about the AZC rotor to stock LCA. I have never seen them installed together, didn't think that was an issue until I read the link you posted. I am guessing my mind works a little different. If it is know the aftermarket LCAs will not work with bigger brake kits that have the rotor moved inboard, why not have that area already cut out. It would ideal and it would work with stock brakes and any big brake kit. As for as OEM LCA then the warning on the website is good but also throw it in the box. If you buy them second hand then you leave it to chance. Even if not much load in the vertical plane, I would feel better if the load is spread along that flange. Either way for my application, putting the ball joint to the top of the LCA put the front end all on the same correct angle to get rid of the bump steer.

Nigel, never saw that thread and didn't know you missed some events because of it. I see where the info is on AZC site but the problem is I bought my brake kit 8 years ago from Dave and just purchased the LCA few weeks ago. If my car was running I could have ruined a set of rotors like others have. Guess we all live and learn BUT there should be a note on the TTT site or something in the package when you get the parts in the mail. If someone isn't looking for the rotors to be close and the car is in the air installed then we know what the outcome is. Hopefully this thread and the one you posted here will help the next person.

I guess, I will need to snap another picture that shows the ball joint dust boot almost touching the rotor. The picture I have up has two issues that hides the problem: The wheel is turned fully locked to the right and the boot you see isn't what came on the ball joints - I changed it. I believe I have less than 1/4" clearance between the rotor face and dust boot on the ball joint. The concern is it catching fire like the picture posted above. Some serious track time, I can see some heat transfer going on there from rotor to boot. Ball joint concern, is it being mounted on the bottom face of the arm rather than on the top face like oem ball joints are installed. Why not rely on the flange of the ball joint then relying on the bolts when it is mounted under the arm?

Greg I am sure here or Facebook through the NYZCC page you should be able to get him pretty quick. Very helpful member.

Well, I know for sure I have only seen the binding issue on 240z/260z car but not on a 280z using the 280zxt axle. Greg I would bolt up what you have when you get some adpaters and run the suspension through its full travel and see what you have. Also contact Cygnusx1 and see if he has any issues since his car is also a 280z. I believe the 240z and later 280z cars have differnet diff locations relative to the body of the car itself - not the MS bar.

Thanks for that info, I def need wider than 235. More searching.

Duragg - that is an awesome picture to show the conern I was speaking of. I will be wrapping mine with heat shielding also, thank you got posting. gnoesz - Has your car done any track days on the TTT LCA. I wasn't concered with hard street driving. The ball joint has the huge flange which should be where we rely on the strength rather than the 4 bolts. Hitting curbs on track days is the real test of the TTT setup. I for one won't take that chance. John, have any pics of the control/ball joint to rotor pic. RebekahsZ - the ball joint isn't the weak point. It is how it is mounted. Failure of the bolts not the ball joint itself. Also like I said, the ball joint boot def will see extreme heat due to the setup. TTT wasn't aware until I sent pictures. My issue really is parts being sold for a few years now with not many install pics, lack of awerness to the danger of mixing "aftermarket" parts and people including me not looking closely at parts we buy and question them. Duragg's picture is very key reason why we better do our homework.

So I ordered new front adj control arms from TTT for my rebuild of my front-end. Noticed the ball joint was mounted on the lower half of the control arm, thought about it and said hmmm haven't seen one fail. When installing them on the car - Rags mentioned to me hey those ball joints are on wrong. My passing reply - That is the way they have been installed via the pics and one install I found on the web. Understanding the load was being hung on 4 bolts instead of the flange should have been enough for me to swap it to the "correct oem: position but I didn't. Moved right along and installed them with TTTs bump spacer and it looked good, one side complete. I went to turn the rotor and grinding sound. The control arm leading edge was hitting the rotor face about 1/2" above the edge of the rotor. I am running the AZC brake setup. Stood back and you can see the angle of the tie rod and control arm were off. So apart it all came and moved the ball joint to the correct and I feel safer position. Put it all back together and now the rotor is resting on the edge of the control arm. So by moving the ball joint the control was put at the right angle with the tie rod. So I had to grind/cut the end of the control arm to clearance the rotor so it wouldn't hit lock to lock. The next issue I am seeing is how close the ball joint dust boots are to the rotors! I am thinking at a track event, the brakes will just cook that grease or even worst a melting of that boot and grease on the rotors. I am wondering how many are running the TTT arms with AZC setup or even AZC front brakes with AZC billet control arms? How does your angles look of your suspension and where is your dust boot located? This isn't a knock on the product just posting my experience. One thing I will say - I was surprised that TTT hadn't seen their products installed with AZC stuff. I couldn't find any pics on the net of the parts installed with a complete front strut setup. Lesson learned here is to use common sense and understand exactly what parts are doing what. Pics below show after the first trim where the rotor was hitting the LCA. As you can see, lock to lock it still hit and needed more trimming. TTT sent me an email of a drawing showing where the control had to be cut for clearance. I don't like cutting into brand new parts but sometimes it has to be done. Pic here shows the ball joints installed up top of the LCA right before the TC rod bolts were tighten down.

Hybrid - Since the links from Google linking back to the site isn't working yet I am posting a new topic for you wheels nuts. I am going to be ordering another set of CCWs to fit my stock body car. The old car had the wider ZG flares and with the cost of barrels - $225 each outer section and I think $300 inner it just makes sense to order new. My back spacing and inner barrels makes it not ideal to waste money swapping fronts and rears. So I would like to get 245-255 width in the front and 255-265 in the rear. The car does have 2.5 inch coil over springs. I am thinking I could get away with 17x8.5 front and 17x9 in the rear. I know I could get more if I went to a high + offset but looking for something with a "lip". I have wheels here that are 17x8 0 offset running 245/35 which barely rubs in the rear which isn't rolled. I know that 245/35 size is an odd size today so probably looking at 40 series. Also looking to run Toyo 888s for those who are familiar with them esp if they run a little wider than a similar tire in the same size. Thanks!

Xnke - nice catch. I was thinking lash pads and tower shims if the head was cut down. Kuro keep us updated with the change out.

Finally installed my LT headers. Driver side no issues, pasn side looks like it is hitting the starter so i will need to source a LS2 starter this week once that is done, I will have to take a closer look at the angle the outlet is pointing in for the pasn side.