bjhines

My floor rails were really bent up. Otherwise they were not rusty. The floor needed serious reshaping to install the new floor rails. It is easier to go ahead and remove them. Drill out the spot welds from underneath the car. that will leave little or no hole filling later.

It would seem that the aftermarket and billet stub axles, alternate diff mounting, tunnel reinforcement, and the beefiest halfshafts are where you need to be looking. Many of those are offered in 5 lug configurations. It would seem prudent to go big all the way including lug count. Just saying, might as well.

how well does it work and how much does it cost?

The Arizona Z car stuff shortens the lower control arm significantly, if you lock the tubes in place; the heim joints are your pivot point. Dave's design would allow you to raise or lower the inner pivot point(to change ROLL CENTER, Camber gain, etc), except that the half-shaft will not allow much upward displacement of the inner pivots. A better design would use the original inner pivot points, but lower the OUTER pivot points with a cradle or some sort of offset bar across the outer pivots on the castings.

I agree you can do a lot to improve handling without converting to coilovers. The real problem the S-30s have is lack of adjustments. IMO the only way to add enough caster and various adjustments up front is with full aftermarket front end. That often includes coilovers in the kits. You could use the extra money saved on the Tokico HP kit and go with a lower control arm/TC rod combo that will allow a lot more caster up front.

My condolences. He had a great thing going for our Z community.

The Ford V6 turbo has me interested!!! I wonder what the costs would be?

I have pegged the 160mph speedo repeatedly. That just means I am WAYYY off on speedo gearing. I dunno what the Camaro had for a rear end?, but that and the tires sizes are way off.

I am using the same pump. I have a 3qt accusump and it works hard on the race track. I have starvation on hard braking and turn in. I am currently using a Hamburger pan with a squared sump with trap doors, windage tray, crank scraper, etc. I cannot imagine having problems driving on public roads. Race track is a different story. I would use an accusump on any car except my BMW M3. The M3 has great oil control.

I have a 1964 SBC 327 with a flat tappet cam. I run it at track events and time trials. On-Track temps are stable once they peak to 210 Water temp and 240 Oil temp in summer heat in NC. I have a 185 Water thermostat and 185 Oil thermostat, The Oil cooler fan kicks on at 165 so it runs pretty much all the time. If I drive it slowly during warm up in the paddock, or let it sit still and idle, it hits 185/185 and does not budge. high vol and high pressure pump, windage tray and crank scraper baffled pan oil cooler/w dedicated fan, oil thermostat Accusump with the EPC valve AN-10 hoses. I originally used Rotella 40W for the reasons mentioned. The Diesel oil tends to change viscosity more than synthetics under extremely high stress, like 30 minute track sessions at VIR. I would get very low oil pressure when it was HOT. I switched to full-synthetic and a break-in additive from GM and then from Lucas Oil that adds Zinc and Phosphorous ash to the synthetic oil. I have had great results from that combination. I have used various brands of oil with similar results. I even went 5W30 Synthetic and it holds the same pressure hot as the thicker viscosity, I have not tried lower than 5W30 though.

we will have to talk.

If you are going with the LSx then what do you want$$$$ for the old school 383.. I need to shed some weight... I was looking at replacing my all iron 327 this winter.

Ford and Chevy use different input shafts and bellhousings.

The car ran well this weekend at Virginia International Raceway. I managed to get it down to a comfortable 2:16 full course lap. I think I could get that time down to 2:14 just with driving improvements. I need to reduce weight this winter. That is a major project. There are a lot of other improvements I could make as well.

I set up the scales and weighed the car today. I thought it would be front heavy with the all-iron engine, but it seems pretty well balanced on track and on scales. It weighs 2809lbs with 180lbs in the front seat, and 8 gallons of gas, ready to run. LF = 715 LR= 702 RF= 688 RR= 705 Cross= 49.46% @1390lbs It is LEFT biased at 50.44% It is REAR heavy at 50.05% It is CROSS weighted at 49.48% ...

I think the BRZ/FRS is an amazing example of what I would expect in a ~"New"~ "Z". I don't care who badges it. All those makes share a lot in common. Comparing this new car to the 240Z is big publicity and a point many people want to make. It is a remarkable car in a lot of ways. There is a lot of room for improvement in this chassis as well. To be frank; No one ever cared about the Supra name like they did the "Z". Supra whoaaa??? People remember the 280Z.. or ZX as most people seem to remember them. The Scion line is known for young owners and many older sports car buyers do not want to buy a "kid's car". Subaru can get away with targeting the more mature crowd. I chose the Subaru because it is the most well appointed of the lineup. New features are becoming available every month. I figure by the time they ship "my" car, they will find something close enough for me to take home.

I am waiting on my BRZ.

I really think there is something not considered. You are talking about shimming the rotor straighter than I think is needed. There is always some run-out in the rotors. The brake calipers can accommodate this run-out fairly well. You may have a sticking caliper piston that causes a large amount of pressure on the rotor as it wobbles. You need to inspect the calipers and check that the pistons move without binding or sticking in their bores. The calipers can allow for some runout by allowing the pistons to move back and forth with the wobble. A sticking piston or blocked fluid passage would bind when the rotor wobbled. If you find that one or more pistons is sticky, then you need to fix the problem and replace the rotors. The dragging piston would wear the rotors to varying thickness. The sticking piston would wear the dragging area of the rotors thinner. This would cause the rotors to behave the same way, even when the calipers are renewed. If you have this problem you need to replace the rotors after you fix the calipers. Keep in mind the calipers can accommodate rotor run-out, but they cannot accommodate varying thickness. This is one of the reasons the wobbly brakes issue gets worse as wear progresses. You eventually end up with two problems. If the car pulls to one side then you have a bad caliper on the opposite side.

I dont know why some people have so much trouble with this. I really think something else is wrong. Are you sure the bearing races are seated correctly? You can dent the hubs where the bearing races seat in them if you are not careful removing the old races.

I have the ceramic coating on the headers, heat wrap, and the wrap silicone coating carefully applied to ONLY the wrap itself. It will still burn plug boots if they touch. Clearance is close with all the wrap. I cannot use the fat boots or they touch. I have managed to get small boots and with boot protectors to last. The engine compartment gets hot because there is very little airflow through the engine bay due to sealing the front clip and underpan. The aero research suggested this was highly beneficial.

Obviously you have too much horsepower. LOL! is it possible. I have been eyeing the GM LS3 CT525 circle track engine for weight savings, but it is blowing my budget at 10,000 prepped and ready to install. 525HP@ 6700RPM... what am I thinking?

I think weight is the biggest problem with modern cars. They are 2 ton behemoths these days. They have big everything but it is still just too much weight to be snappy and nimble.

A good friend owns a shop well known for track suspension work "Performance Chassis" in Cary. He thinks the combination of light springs, stiff chassis, and thick sway bars works great on my car. It seems to be OK with a front heavy, cast iron small block with 461 Iron heads, and a cast iron water pump.

20 seconds at least on a smaller course like Carolina Motorsports Park.