bjhines

I have a BMW M3 and it is the only 3 series with vented rears BMW made up to Y2K. That is their top of the line sports car. You simply will not find vented rear rotors on anything but the most expensive cars in the world. What makes you think you need vented rears in the first place? The VENTED FRONTS are the first to fade on track every time! I have a 3/4 ton Van with vented rears, but that is their heaviest brake upgrade package from the ONE TON series. Many sports cars built after y2k have been fitted with vented rears. This is not somehting you can compare with your NON ABS, NON ASC, NON Traction control, NON stability control, antique S30. These modern stability enhancement systems use the rear brakes to control the car without any brake input from the driver. This can QUICKLY overheat the rear brakes and is the primary reason they use VENTED REARS on these modern computer driven cars. You DO NOT NEED vented rear brakes on your NON computer driven cars.

The typical(Modern motorsports) vented front and 240sx rears system has larger rear rotors than the front, It also has vented front and NON vented rears. I and many others have said a thousand times, The system is absolutely fantastic. The people who say, They can't get them biased right, or the system is mismatched, are not working in reality. I am willing to bet that I could fix their problems and send them merrily on their way in 30 minutes. Most of the problems people have with these systems are because they are amatures and have no idea what they are doing in the first place.

Hell no! Do NOT use them unless they are hot, hot, hot. They ruin wheels, they ruin paint, they ruin rotors fast when cold, They don't stop very well when cold, They squeal and grind when cold. Those are track pads and NOT something you want for a street car. You want regular old organics for street. There is no such thing as a dual duty brake pad. I use stock type pads on the street and full race pads on the track. There is no reason to buy blingy pads for typical street driving, even mountain roads have absolutely NO parallel with track use. There is nothing you could do on a street that even comes close to the abuse you can put on a brake system on track. Even the Hawk blue pads fade in certain braking zones, But they are still well within their abilities. The pedal effort grows towards the end of a high speed braking zone, but I have good modulation and I am not standing on the pedal with my butt hovering above the seat.

I also track an E36 M3 and the Datsun's braking is right in line with the newer BMWs effort. I use Hawk Blues on all 4 corners on the M3. I liked the pedal effort with the stock MC, The pedal effort was exactly what it should be. I do not like inline proportioning valves. They can behave differently for long braking zones than they do on short braking zones. I didn't change a thing but the calipers and rotors. I had good pedal height for throttle blips on downshifts, but my gas pedal was connected to triple Webers and may not be the same height as stock.

I ran Hawk blues up front, Hawk Blacks in rear, stock 72 MC, and stock bias valve. I had great balance, with an occasional tendancy to drag an inside rear wheel.

Well...For track and auto-X, I tried making the stock rebuilt system work, then I swapped the non-vented Toy caliper, then I moved to the vented Toyota with the large pads, then I finally went to 240SX/84ZX rears. The rear brakes made a bigger difference on track than any of the front mods. That is a damn well sorted out system. I opted for the full Willwood AZC set up for my next track car comming soon. That is one hell of a nice system for full-race, non-street-legal use. The cost is not that much higher than doing the full Toyo vented front, 240SX rear set up with all the bells and whistles.

IMO the Amsoil bypass filter systems are for use on large stationary engines, or large engines that rack up long duration, constant duty cycles on highway. These engines operate under entirely different conditions, they suffer from soot buildup in the oil long before the oil it'self becomes unfit for use. Most of the small automobile engines wear out the oil long before it becomes fouled with soot.

If you want to add an accusump then you must consider that this is not really adding capacity to the parts of the system that are carriying the heat. The accusump is a dead end in the system and only purges and refills when there is an extreme pressure drop. The larger accusump canisters are difficult to mount in an out-of-the-way location. Using a canister that is larger than you need is wasting space and adding useless weight. How big do you need???... You can get vastly different results from different versions of the accumulator systems. Proper installation and precharging of the system is critical to getting the most oil capacity out of the smallest canister possible. 1. simple system with hand operated valve. This is the cheapest and simplest system. The valve is opened just prior to starting the engine. This precharges the system. The canister refills as the oil pressure rises after startup. Oil pressure will vary in use and the amount of oil available in the canister will vary with pressure. This system has proven to work well in race use. Typically, downshifting into a corner will blip the oil pressure to it's maximum and any sudden loss of pressure while exiting the corner will have full canister capacity to supplement the pressure drop. The actual capacity of oil in the canister will vary with pressure though, so you need to use a slightly larger canister to ensure worst case conditions are accounted for. 2. Canton Accusump EPC control valve. This uses an electric valve and a pressure switch to control flow out of the accusump canister. The valve will always allow flow into the accusump canister. It will only release the oil when presure drops below the switch set limit. This ensures that the maximum/peak oil pressure is contained in the accusump canister until the system pressure drops significantly. Typically the maximum oil pressure is consistent in a properly cooled oil system. You can reliably determine the oil capacity contained in the canister at any time and you can use the smallest canister possible in the system.

There are an endless number of mods various people have used to ensure proper flow under extreme conditions. BMW inline 6 engines have used an aircraft style pressure bypass valve to keep oil pressure more stable under a wide range of conditions. Basically the pressure-bypass valve does not return the oil inside the pump housing. They have the return port in the engine block at the farthest end of the valvetrain feed gallery. This ensures that the farthest point in the system gets the set pressure at all times under nearly all conditions. There is a penaly to pay for this unique pressure-return system. The passages from the pump, through the filter housing, and back into the main gallery can exceed 200psi under certain conditions. This means you cannot use a spin-on-filter(it would blow its can off). The gallery drill-plugs must be threaded into the block and head(press-in plugs would blow out). BMW does not use oil coolers on the M-50 and later engines because pressures can easily exceed typical oil cooler ratings. Hoses and coolers must be carefully chosen for use on these engines. A quick blip of the throttle when the engine is cold could easily blow the hoses and cooler to kingdom come.

ok.. I try. I am using a 327 SBC, so there may be different details... The Amsoil filtration system basically puts another set of filters in parallel with the stock filter. Some of your oil flow from the pump is going through the Amsoil filters and dumping back into your pan. This means there is slightly less oil flow available to the engine. I do not like these types of filters for sports/race use on small engines. Many engines suffer from oil problems in areas most distant from the main gallery. This issue is exacerbated by using the wrong viscosity, or the wrong oil temperature. Overall oil pressure is set by the pressure bypass valve(in the pump). The filter bypass valves(in filter and in the engine block) will bypass oil when the filter is clogged. All the valves will bypass some oil under extreme conditions. You need to run the proper viscosity oil, do not assume that sports/race use will require heavier oil. If you experience pressure drop when hot then you need to start tracking oil and water temps. If your water temp is stable and acceptable then you are likely overheating your oil. This is where the oil cooler comes into play. Oil coolers can easily over-cool the oil and cause problems with oil viscosity being too high and limiting oil available to valvetrain parts. Oil coolers should always be installed with an oil thermostatic bypass valve. This will control flow through the oil cooler the same way the water thermostat controls water through the radiator. This will ensure proper oil viscosity under all conditions. The various cooler parts and hoses will increase your oil capacity. You can also add a remote filter with much more capacity than the little stock filter. You can easily add 2-3 quarts capacity to the system which will also reduce the heat buildup in the oil system. There are a lot of dos and dont's in hooking this system up. You need to think carefully about hose assembly and routing to ensure you don't end up with a complete system failure and a huge fire under the entire car. Remember, the factory system had all it's routing inside the engine with the exception of the spin-on filter, you are adding a lot of external components and a whole lot more failure points in the system.

I did something similar to a classic car 25 years ago. There can be a lot of issues with an install like that. Your number one problem is moisture entrapment. The original factory sound insulation is a large part of why these cars rusted out in the first place. The extra mat is only making things worse. The other issue is weight. That is a HUGE!!! penalty to pay in a sports car who's number one advantage is light weight.

I measured 44 feet of wire from the ignition switch to the coil+ for a 240Z with ballast connected. It uses half that wire and no resistor in the start position.

If you look carefully at the diagrams... The left and right headlights are fed fused power from individual fuses(top 2 fuses on the right side for 240Zs). The power to the left light is RY(red with yellow stripe). The power to the right light is R(red only). There are 2 wire colors(RW red/white stripe) and(RB red/black stripe) that are common to both headlights. They lead back to the comb switch which first switches high or low beams and then goes through the on off portion of the switch. To sum up; power is fed individually to the left and right lights, but the headlight switch grounds highbeams or lowbeams from a pair of Y-harnesses in the front clip. The problem here is that the switch contacts are dealing with the load from BOTH HEADLIGHTS through a SINGLE contact. You have 2x 10 amp fuses(20amps) running through either the high or low switch contact. You need to rethink the wiring for this to work well. power distro and relays come to mind.

I remember the research, IIRC the 5 speed only came with the 305 engines. The 350 engines were all mated to automatics. The decision by GM was that the 350 produced too much torque for the lightweight WCT5. All of the t5s mated to 305 v8s were WCT5s. Does that mean you have a WCT5? No but there are plenty of easy to find online resources to determine which one you have. I would not trust tags, Do not trust fluid type, The only way to tell for sure is by looking at the bearing caps between the bellhousing and the tranny front plate. The likelyhood of finding a good condition WCT5 is low. If the PO has used the wrong tranny fluid then the synchro cones will have deteriorated, the needle bearings may be scored, and other damage can ensue.

A lot of this is counter-intuitive. There are a lot of considerations that are missed by many folks. I won't get into the specifics with this response, but I think I can shed some light on why things seem so weird when trying to get your head around fluid dynamics in general. Gasses, liquids, solids, and concretions can all be parted by objects moving through them. They all behave very differently from each other and under different conditions. When considering aerodynamics, you have to keep in mind the fact that air is highly compressable, The paths the particles follow are not what you might expect when considering a non-compressable fluid or something like a knife through a solid or powder. When considering air; The acceleration of the air around the object is key to determining what it will do. The air has mass, it also acts like a spring, energy can be locally stored in the air in a dramatic way because of it's springiness. This energy dissapates in all directions at the speed of sound. The faster you accelerate the air around the oject, the more energy builds up/is stored in the local area. I know you are thinking about supersonic aircraft being torn to ribbons by shockwaves and what does this have to do with cars.... but this is key to understanding even low speed aerodynamics becasue the same effect accounts for all sorts of weird non-intuitive aerodynamic principles. Under certain conditions liquids and gasses can mirror each other's performance, The Bernoulli principle is one effect that comes to mind. In it's most basic form it is simply conservation of energy. Though the air does have it's differences in the details. If you look closely, the air will have a much more complicated interation with the test device than water. As for the blunt nosed shape, In layman's terms, it is easier to part the air smoothly than it is to recombine the paths. The blunt nose reduces the surface area of the airfoil and therefore reduces friction. A long thin leading edge would work fine to part and recombine the air as long as the transition from leading to trailing was curved and smooth. Sharp angled transitions cause boundry separation and lead to turbulence. In reality, the compressability of air leads to a nuance called stagnation zones at the leading edge of the airfoil. The stagnation zone actually makes the leading edge seem pointier than it actually is. The stagnation zone is one of the most interesting realizations we had about the S30 cars in the tunnel tests. We found that increasing/fostering the stagnation zone lead to lower drag and less lift. Simply sealing the internal passages in the front clip made as dramatic an effect as changing the entire external nose of the car(G-nose).

What happened with this issue? I am VERY WARY of the rebuilt 240sx calipers I have seen. Those calipers are not completely rebuildable without a few highly specialized tools. There are seals behind the pistons(inside the helical pin area) that are next to impossible to replace. I am willing to bet that they were improperly rebuilt and that is the source of your leaks. You cannot completely disassemble those calipers without VERY, VERY, VERY, custom, specific, super, ultra, wicked, inside, snapring, thingamabobbies. I GUARANTEE that the rebuilders don't do SQUAT!!! to address those inside seals, You are just lucky if you happen to get good NON-ocmpletely rebuilt ones.

I chose to do mine in several stages. I stripped only the paint that was required to repair rust and install the cage. Then I blasted the entire car and followed up with primer and paint the same day. Keep in mind that removing the paint means that it will flash rust. It really needs to be painted within a few days of blasting. I have also noticed that the various rust proofing compounds do not like welding heat. They can emit corrosive gases that will cause instant flash rust.

Man... I have 90% of this thing complete and assembled. My progress on this project ceased the day the stock market crashed. I am getting along fine, but the funds for completion of the V8Z are not gonna happen right now. I have been playing with my BMW M3 as a daily driver and track car. I have not even tracked that car very much this year. I just don't have the money to go burning through tires and brakes right now. I have been looking longingly at the V8Z nearly daily. It may get the Arizona big brake kit before X-mas.. Then next year we'll see if I can get the rest together and find funds for consumables. I have been lucky enough to make a few $$$ by building several other track cars for other people. A friend and I have also put a lot of money into some fab tools I wish I had when I was working on the Z car. In the past year we have purchased a Tubing bender, Plasma cutter, and a TIG welder. Man those are nice to have. I just fabbed a roll bar for a 300ZX on Saturday.

I have been up to my elbows in BMWs the past year... So why not try a BMW S85-V8 swap. They look like they might fit in the S30 bay... http://forum.e46fanatics.com/showthread.php?t=605194&page=5 from the E46 fanatics forum http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee186/lukask2005/?action=view&current=m3teststart.flv

Pulleys; I found a cheap "billet" aluminum set from Summit. There are some set ups that use a double belt, or a Gilmer belt, that use brackets attached to the water pump. Balancer; You can buy many different small diameter balancers. I am using an odd sized 6.75" that is a little too big for my liking. I would get an even smaller balancer next time around. Bracket; You can do what Pete Paraska has done by bolting a custom bracket to the fuel pump mounting holes. On my block there are 2 small and 2 big bolt holes. I used the bigguns. You can also find a set of brackets that use the water pump, or exhaust studs for support. There are many choices in various catalogs, especially Hot Rod and Circle Track suppliers. Location; I perfer the passenger(left side) mounting. The "mid-mount" brackets get the alternator low without interfering with the inner-fender area.

More More!!!! That is some cool stuff you found.

I would love to test this design. I didn't see any initial alignment settings or ride height suggestions. Having the pivots out and the arms level means you are going to get Camber loss under compression. I would like to see how far up you can go before you run into clearance issues. The camber gain the way Dave sets cars up might be ideal with the shorter LCAs as long as he indeed raises the inner pivots. Who knows? Anyone have any more info from Dave? It would be nice to raise the inner pivots. The problem has always been driveshaft/CV clearance. Maybe the dogleg could be "crow's-footed", err make a bend in the middle to clear the driveshaft. If you go that far then it might just be better to build a subframe for everything. Then you could raise the diff as well(then you have to modify the chassis to clear the differential).

EDIT I failed to read the answers. That is obviously to hold the pivots tightly where you set them for alignment. Dave is well known for his big-brake kits, I trust his judgement on this. I see a few possible issues with that design. 1. The limited adjustment of the rod ends and the huge changes made by the "dogleg". 2. If you do run it in the position shown, you will have shortened the control arms by at least 1". 3. You would ideally want to run the inner pivots straight up to raise them, but can you do that?, and still clear the driveshaft.

Fire fire fire!!!!