zxgtr

Damn boosted the topic Failed to realize this is from 2002 when I posted hehe. I vote remove cruse control, I did on both my zx's and just did on my friends 300zxt - we never used em, I dont use it on my caprice (wish it worked sometimes).. None of them EVER worked on 4 cars! How about a after market cruse control, an electronic unit that doesnt need vac or a big clunky looking thing, something I can hide inside under the dash How did you shave the bumper frank280zx? My last one was taken off (it was rusted on) to put the msa aero 1 kit on, thats why the cars totaled (rear ended by a mini van).. There are a ton of things you can remove, basically anything that doesnt make the car run or drive All that other stuff is just for looks or luxury hehe.

One day that engine is going to need to be pushed fwd so I figured while I'm at it might as well clear the room for it.. Now the hard spot is how to mount the radiator, dont feel like cutting more and its still a little to close at the bottom (2-3"). Extra room is good, specially if its not really any diffrent then stock (location wize), I've freed up a ton of space, now I gotta come up with something to do with it Thanks frank, I needed a little laugh in the morning

Saves 80-100lbs as my guess, I've taken it all off on 2 zx's (heater core, a/c compressor and internals). Rip it all out, buy a little fan for the summer Youll see under the dash is HUGE! .

Got the core stuff welded up today, cant seem to get anything to turn out semi decent with flux core, have to turn up the heat to get a solid weld and it just burns the sh** out of it Ive been testing it by pushing on the sides and wiggling ontop of the bumper, feels a ton stiffer, when I stick the 1" cross member (not shown) in it is super stiff. frank280zx nothing is any further fwd then the stock setup (with a i/c added), it all fits in the same location but with the oem core support gone you can tilt the i/c and rad. at a good degree to free up space and (id think) give it a better chance to catch some air.. I setup a gallery for the new stuff, http://gamecp.com/photos/zxgtr

Just seems to help keep it from twisting, not required in many opinions (as I've seen) but seems to me to make sence, instead of holding 1 side secure to prevent twisting your holding 2 sides. I didnt like the idea of welding the round tube to the car, the comments above said to make plates so I did.. After searching the archive I found a post talking about impact damange and those bars will drive right threw anything causing more damange. Any comments on mine Gotta come up with a strut mounting plate today. Planed to use a 6 or 6.25" circle and cut a 4-5" hole for the middle then just weld the cross bar to it, I know its not adjustable or easily removable but its a mockup, sadly I spent $40 for 2x5.25" steel circles yesterday

Heres an update, got most the mockup pipes bent to shape, just working on building the mounting brackets (really sucks). I purchased a small selection of pipes, diffrent sizes and walls and decided to use 3/4" round 16 gauge steel pipe, a 3' section weighs 1lbs (14G is 2lbs). This is still a mockup, I will build the plates and stick this all together and see how/what it does, from there I plan to make it all in aluminum. Im not sure if I will attach the front 3/4" bar to the strut tower bar, the front one will connect to the lower (square) bar (will be replaced with 1.25" 14G pipe). We have a great place in town to pickup pipe, the stuff I used cost me $20. I have so much extra steel I think I will build a 4cyl go-cart

Hey sparks not sure if you still need one but I have my factory turbo sitting around, the wastegate hole is cracked but the fins are good (from what I can see), would be good to put yours back together, let me know if you still need it, i'm not looking for much $ at all.

Does your knob have a twist lock on it? Did you try pusing on the brakes then pushing the knob (like it would matter).

Thanks for pointing that out ZROSSA! I majorly overlooked that part of what was being said. Ive looked at a few space frames I found on google to see what your talking about and have a better idea now to what everyone is saying.. "I would drop them down to the front suspension mounts" On the inside of the framerail? I'll be (hopefully) picking up a lot of extra steel this week and will mock something up soon, new pics will follow.

Thanks Nismo280zEd. I wanted to weld the cross bars to the strut tower bar, not on the bar itself but on the flange that it attaches to, that bolts to the struts themselfs, so it wouldnt flex the strut tower bar itself. If I welded them in the middle they would have to go to the front inside of the strut tower, maybe not a bad location but havent given it much thought yet, I dont think they are required just wanted some extra support on that axis? if it matters at all.. I think building new corner pieces is the best option, would give me what I want from attaching it to the strut tower. I had a idea last night (based on the input here), basically make the ends of the new cross members attach to decent sized steel plates that would simply bolt to the car, one bolt could go through the top frame rail into the pipe itself then 2 bolts on the inside holding the plate to the car (excessive?), that way nothing is really welded to the car, 1 bolt on the outside 2 on the inside insure the bar and plate would be held very securly, I like how open the whole front end is now, makes removing the engine or anything at that very very easy, if its a bolt up type system then removing everything could take 5-10mins instead of (with oem) a hour or so. The way its looking now allows plenty of room to remove anything and taking out the engine (will find that out shortly).. The radiator sits on the bumpers side of the cross member at an angle so it slides right out the front nice and easily, along with the i/c . So many options Thanks again everyone for your input, trying to do something a bit diffrent here, hopefully it will pay off in the long run making my life easier Its sort of nice not needing the oem items (headlights included), just get to start fresh with a nice base to go from. I love these cars

http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=66 Email them for about the fronts.

Heres what we came up with, doesnt come across well in the image but I will try to explain. Basically there will be 2 front cross members, one where the hole is, sorta middle out, the other will be at the very top where the top frame rails end, about 3-4" before the lower cross member. Those 2 bars will go left-right across the car, they will be welded together with cross members inside those, the number of cross members there will depend on the final outcome, for now lets just say it will be 4. From there the top bar will attach to the strut tower or the strut tower brace. I will work on trying to duplicate the factory corner brace that I removed, the idea with that is to have the top cross member welded to the sides of the car the mimic the factory brace design where the cross member will be welded to the brace that will be welded along the top rails. Seems looking at the car that this is about the best way I can do it, with the proper mounting design It looks like it would be very strong, never really know till you go out and thrash on it I guess. Thanks for your insight Nismo280zEd, the top bar will be tied into the frame rails and everything basically going from there, luckly with the way its setup there are no clearance issues at all, all the i/c pipe can be bent around any support and both the radiator and i/c are angled with the top out, adding a ton more clearance then factory. Thanks guys, let me know if the above pic is more on track, seems like it to me, lmk what you think

The side bars would have clearance being set about 1 foot in from either side, leaving about a 1' space in-between the bars (in the middle).

As long as the new cross member is up at the top I dont think it will cause any clearance issues, ill look at putting the 'side bars' in the middle going out when I get the new bar welded in place. Ive just cleaned up the driveside, filled the holes ground it down and put some primer on it, looks pretty good and I am ready to move to the other side to take it apart I was looking at the stock L bracket (that connects the side to the radiator cross member) and it looks like I can re-use it with some minor modifications, would it be better to weld that to the top and the side of the car then weld the cross member to that and the side of the car? Would give the cross member more 'contact surface'? keeping in with the way nissan did it in 83. Do you recommend sticking with the 1.25" square tubing? Its perfect size for me, your using 3/4" and 240hoke says go bigger, based on what you seem to be saying 1.25" is a little overkill as you seem to say 3/4" is plenty. Thanks again blueovalz, youve been a lot of help.. Wonder how many people have done something like this, doesnt seem very many, if any at all with 280zx's.

Going over what you said again (and again).. Seems to be a good option, reinforcing the 2 new cross members with a x piece then attaching it all to the strut tower seems to be like it would be really really strong.

Thank you blueovalz! Youve cleard up some of my thoughts. Here is a sad attempt and photoshoping wht im after. I would put 2 cross members in the front, about 4" before the stock radiator support, the top cross member will be attached (at some point) to the strut tower bar, idealy not on the bar but on the plate itself (that bolts to the strut). I dont really think adding the 2 extra cross member to strut tower bar will add a ton of extra support but its gotta be atleast somewhat stronger, help prevent some flex as well. Looks like I am hopefully on the right track, I want to free up the room I need and at the same time make it stronger then factory, with the strut bar and the new cross members do you think its as strong as it was before? I can mount the top cross member closer to the ends of the top 'frame' (more like the hidden box for wires), I have room to clear the engine but doing that wont let me move the engine fwd more, so id rather not. Thanks! Any other tips or suggestions? I will start to look at a better way to mount it and see where that goes

Thanks 240hoke. I was looking more last night and if I stick a cross member on the very top (out a little more) then on the very bottom (below where it is now a little) then I think it will be super stiff in that area. I think ill up it to a 2" square tube. This whole area is already pretty strong (afaik) adding a strut tower bar on the front will make it even more stiff. I want to go a little overboard, make it really strong.

Here is basically what I am after.. I want to locate the square tube at the best location, I saw your pics blueovalz using 3/4 stock, is that structural on your car? (looking at the radiator pics). I can move it up to the top more but it would require me leveling out the top area more, its at a big of an angle, could cut the bar to fit but making it flat sounds a little better to me. Theres now 4" of clearance from the fan and engine, before was less then 1" (even with overall width of 5.25" radiator + fan).

Remove the radiator cross member then stick the new cross member a little lower and to the right of it, its the only flat spot in that area and holds the pipe I cut just for pics very tight, no screws, weld or anything.. With the current configuartion there is no need to bend the pipe around the engine, my plan is to be able to do that in the future, need to relocate the radiator + fan and i/c before the new bar and I'm set, basically sticks the radiator where the old crossmember is. Drives side inside: Pass side inside: This location gives me exactly what I need, add another bar below it on the frame rail (top of it) and id belive it would be much stronger then factory, in a whole new location. Let me know if this makes sence

Yes, weld it back to the other location with 1.25" square tubing then another 1.25" square tubing going closer to the frame rails.

Working on a 83 zxt, there are holes on either side of the engine bay right before the headlights, the area is flat and is basically the end of the car (at that point). What I want to do is remove the radiators cross member, ive already cut out the spot welded trim around it and was going to weld a 1 1/4" square bar under the stock cross member, this works and looks ok but looks like the other location is much better. My main goal is to move the rad and ic up more, bend the cross member part out around the engine and then weld it in place with another cross member right below it on the frame. The hole is right in the middle, this is in the same location on the other side and is only 1" away from the end, before the headlight bracket. Seems to me this would be stronger, instead of going out even more then going across with sheet metal it would be going straight across with thick square tubing further in at a better point, making it stronger. Any thoughts on this?

It will be attached to the firewall as far as I can get it to go, dont want it near the engine at all, 6' gives you a lot of room, find the perfect position then cut

Overall pic:

Moved the center section out a little for better pics, shove it back a little and you dont even notice that the bottom is bulky, cant even see the blue earl fitting either (my goal), toss some high temp paint on it and it would be sick!

Finally broke down and started on the oil feed line to the turbo, following all the advice I found by searching I came up with a basic low mod steel braided oil feed line I used what slownrusty posted in 04 as a guideline. The only 'mod' that you need to really do is weld up one of the hose ends and drill a 0.080" hole to restrict the oil, you can also try to find all this in 3 an size (from what I've read). UPDATE The hose ends I purchased are for teflon hose only, not teflon lined (gg summit, didnt notice a diffrence), so they are to small for the teflon lined hosed I purchased, I found a local shop that sells all of Aeroquips line so I will be purchasing crimpable hose ends that fit the teflon lined hose. To fix this you need to order a standard hose end that can fit the teflon lined hose as opposed to teflon hose, not sure what part #'s these are but if someone who knows can post that would be great. The hose ends I purchased are reusable, ive switched to crimp ones that can be used once, these should also be cheaper (lighter too) but youll need a way to crimp them.. To me the crimp ones seem to be able to hold the pressure more, the lines are rated at 750psi but I dont think reusable fittings are rated that high. I will try to locate the correct parts online and update here so others can do this as well. 2x AER-FBM1121 - 4an 90 degree hose fitting - $17 2x AER-FBM2408 - 6an female to 4an male adapter - $12 2x EAR-991945ERL - 6 an to 12mm x 1.25 - $14 1x AER-FCA0406 - 4 an steal braided hose - $26 $69.00 total, cost me about $8 handling from summit. The earls fitting is perfect for the stock hookup on the turbo, for the fitting on the block its not a perfect fit, with a washer and some torque it will hold just fine, if someone knows a better fit let me know . Cost $40 less and is half the work from what slownrusty did, I think the end result is the same, this method is a little more bulky using adapters and such but I didn’t want blue and red fittings and didn’t feel like cutting and welding if it wasn’t required. Here’s a pic of the fittings all together: More pictures later if anyone’s interested.