bjhines

The blue 280Z is not mine...... that belongs to a fella in the Triad z club who runs with us at the THSCC/Triangle Z Club track events series... His name is Roddy... There are 3 guys in that Triad Z Club group who have a variety of fabrication skillz... Roddy(owns the blue 280Z) welding and machine specialist Mark(owns a BEAUTIFUL flared Yellow 240Z) Paint and finish Tom( owns a 90's 300ZX Maroon) Tom has a MONSTER 240Z in progress.. I mean this car is going to be a MONSTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No expense spared... and I hear it is close to completion... My car is the Black 240Z in the first pics with the upper plate... I also have a MONSTER $20K+ 240Z V8 project in the works.... ready by next season... I used ??? cant remember exactly... 0.090 plate... not quite 1/8" thick... The trick to doing this is to make the plate fit the car... I did not find templates useful.. this is the second plate I have made to fit 240Zs... the first one...welll... may it RIP.. along with the car... I tried to salvage the first plate and the airdam.. but they fit differently on each car.. the urethane is just too flimsy and stretchy to fab it up off the car... The first step is to cut your plate to fit inside the front clip.... get it to fit (includes 2 bends for 1/2" step up) and bolt that sucker to the lower radiator support... make your siffening ribs/braces and install them too... leaving the front lip rough cut longer than it needs to be... Then get your flexible airdam in the right shape and in the right position.. level it across the bottom and get a good look to make sure it is in the right position... tack a few wood screws through the plate and into the airdam to hold it correctly in postion under the plate.... then trace the front lip of the plate to match the V profile of the upper part of the airdam.... Remove the plate and cut the front edge to shape... use a long file to straighten the edges and clean it up... layout your holes for the front edge fasteners and predrill them all (get them as close to the edge as you can.. but look at the inside of the urethane... if you get them too close to the edge you will come out in the thicker fillet of extra urethane in the front edge of the airdam).... For the brake ducts I cut small plates of aluminum that would bolt to the bottom edge of the brake duct openings... I used wire to hold a 3" duct hose to that plate... then I used expanding foam sealant to fill the gaps... let the foam puff out... then when it skims over but is still flexible collapse the foam back into shape with your fingers.... it will make a nice HARD fillet...

I have aluminum extrusions that brace my (black 240Z) airdam from the bottom in 3 places... I had to slot the mounting points and preload them because any curbing pressure on the dam would break them loose... The blue 280Z lower mounted splitter is braced in several places as well... it also has stiffening ribs riveted to it... they are just not visible in the pictures.... I hit 120MPH regularly...(~70-100 times a month) The car is planted... I have no rear lip spoiler... and I have driven 240Zs over 100MPH without any airdam or rear lip spoiler without problems... I have never pushed one that fast with worn out dampers and stilt high springs.. with wagon wheel S rated tires.. and worn out rubber bushings... The cars are stable at speed if they are well maintained.... the airdam helps me on windy days.. where gusts used to push the car around.. it is more stable on WINDY DAYS.... I would guess that if YOUR car has stability problems above 80MPH.. you have a worn out, used up, unsafe car... get to work on that suspension man... and just lower it a little.. that is what makes a difference.... also try reducing TOE IN.. or even go with a little TOE OUT... the little pissant Xenon airdams are nothing magical... you CAN make them effective.... but they dont do a damn thing but flap in the wind without serious MODS.... The G-nose will help with both drag reduction AND front end lift, AND it reduces the amount of air coursing through the engine compartment... but it makes the Zcar look like a droopy guppy... those things are GAWD AWFUL.... I just traded a Gnose that came on one of my cars.. I traded it and the hinges for a box of old weber parts... LOL... I gave it a good look many times.. there is no way I would drive a car with that weird looking front fascia....

HS30H..... If you only knew how much time I spent looking for a picture like that.... The funny thing is... I have a schematic/diagram of the system written in Japanese... It seems to show the return in a similar location.. but dumping oil onto the ring gear and pinion... I brought this up with a highly respected BMW team Mechanic in Florida... He told me NOT to return oil directly onto the gears... He said that it would foam the gear oil and cause a great deal of expansion, parasitic drag, and could cause more localized heat due to shearing the excess oil out of the gears... so I did my own research using an junker R-200... I managed to find a location that would get most of the flow down the upper channel... with a small amount of over flow going down to the rear pinion bearing... It stays off the gears... and the force of the oil being slung off the ring gear is likely to force all of the returned oil down the top channel.... It is funny to me that NOW THAT I SEE A PICTURE... that is EXACTLY what Nismo did in their race cars... At least it confirms my solution is correct... I wonder what they did for the oil pickup.. and if they added any slingers or traps inside.... Where did the works cars mount the heat exchanger... how big was it... and what was their flow rate.... did they use an external resivior... and where did they vent the system...?????? I have my own ideas... but it would be nice to see what they had done...

The heater is so very neccesary in winter.... I have looked into a few options for the heater box... I think I will suffer with the original design... I have a goal... that is to keep the character of the interior in my hybrid Z car... even though it will have a full cage... The primary purpose of the cage is to stiffen the chassis... I do not intend for this to pass SCCA tech... this is not a race car.. It is a track toy.. and a fun driver... I have several other 240Z shells that are rusty and would make great race cars when I get the time/money/desire to race wheel to wheel.... The hoop is the only part of the vehicle that is required.. and as far as roolover protection.. it is FAR SUPERIOR to the full cage AUTOPOWER JUNK I have installed in another car... I just laugh everytime I look at that piece of crap... I can't believe that the wheelwell bolt in cages pass SCCA tech.. I think someone at Autopower buttered SCCAs palms to get that crap passed... It does NOTHING to stiffen the car.. and it would simply collapse the wheel wells if you ever rolled over.

With a midly modified L24... I am getting my open R180s soo hot that they sizzle when you spit on them.... I had to add a catch tank to the vent so that it would not dribble gear oil out and onto the exhaust.... I have been told by several people who race S30s in various classes that they hold up fine to this kind of heat.... but I am putting a 350HP V-8 in this car... and this is a Nismo CLSD unit.... I am very concerned about heat damage over time.... I do not expect to work on this rear end every season.. I would like it to last at least 8-10 seasons of abuse.... that is roughly 80-100 events...

There is a double bend in the shelf near the back... it rises up about a half an inch... this allows it to bolt to the lower radiator support... also notice that there are dual air ducts per side... the larger openings in the actual air dam feed air to the back of the rotors.... the smaller duct inside the radiator openings are there from the factory... I ran a 2" hose from them to the point where the calipers are bolted to the strut ears... this blows air into the calipers themselves...

Ed.... I dont think you are grasping the purpose of the lower splitter.... It forces the air that piles up in front of the air dam to GO AROUND left or right... instead of under.... that is why the lower splitter sticks out several inches in front of the lower lip of the air dam...It provides the same effect as dropping the airdam lower to the ground... but you can still pull your car on the trailer without removing the front facia... And... if you close off the entire engine compartment all the way back to the tranny tunnel... your engine will overheat... unless you provide a large exit through the hood or out the sides through the fenders. And.. for our resident aero heads.... your wind tunnel results are just as good as your models.... the last thing you should trust is your "feelings"... the Force Is Not With You... but facts and good modeling are...

Here are a few pics of the cooled oil return I have drilled into the top of the differential housing.... It will allow oil to run forward around the pinion shaft through the top channel and out to the sump along the bottom channel... some of the oil will be dumped over the inner ledge and onto the rear pinion bearing... not the gear itself... I mocked this up on a broken R200 housing and tested 2 GPM flow in several locations.... this location will dump 75% of the oil down the top channel... and about 25% of the oil will run down the inner face of the housing around the pinion rear bearing... there is significant clearance between the inside of the housing and the back side of the pinion gear... this should not pour a lot of oil onto the fast spinning gear... therefore minimizing oil foaming, expansion, and cavitation of the pump... this flow pattern also works well with the normal flow pattern from the ring gear slinging oil onto this ledge... the top and bottom channels will freely allow quite a bit of gear oil to flow through them... I am trying to draw heat from the entire housing... by drawing it out of the drain bung on the rear cover.. and returning oil back to the top/front of the main housing... the cooled oil will pick up heat form the entire length of the differential housing... as well as providing extra lubrication to both the front and rear pinion bearings... The hole is tapped for 3/8-18 NPT... my cooler lines are AN-8, I have a setrab 9 row half width oil cooler with ducting....

here are some more ideas for a lower mounted splitter with side wings... this one goes all the way to the front crossmember...

Here are pics of my airdam support/upper splitter this is a lower angle to show ducts... Here is a closeup of my ducts....

god... that is impressive.... Im working on my V8 project 240Z... and I have.. literally a rust free 240z.. complete($1200)... I am just scraping off enough paint to seam weld and reinforce mine... there is literally ZERO RUST in the common structural areas... there was a small patch of bubbling(completely covered by the gasket) on the drivers side lower corner of the windshield lip... and I found some in the passenger side toolbox lower corner... something caustic had spilled in there... other than that... ZERO.. just like new.. even inside the rockers... you poor poor soul.. to have been screwed like that... I would have crushed that sucker and started with another... I got one that had not seen the light of day since 1986 or so... and it was driven in Southern California and Arizona for it's first 14 years... maybe it got rained on a dozen times...most of the Zinc plating on interior relays and stuff looks brand new... it never had AC...

The halfshaft stubs have a loose fit into the differential side gears... and the gears move around/ have clearance when they are not under pressure... this causes some.. if not all of your clunk.. assuming you already know that the rest of the mounts and bolts are tight. check the condition of the splines on the stubs and in the side gears... if your clunk is worse than normal.. this could be an often overlooked source of noise.

Mark Cooper of hubcap Heaven and Wheels says... 90ftlbs... unless the manufacturer say less for the stock wheels... then use stock specs...this covers a lot of bases... so use common sense and the experience of others...there are special wheels with special considerations out there. Most people use grease... or thin film "anti sieze" on their track hubs... this just makes everything easier... including self loosening... so the RULE IS... check your lugs after periods of spirited driving...of course jt1 knows this... he runs a monster/streetable track car. I think anti sieze has it's best use on bolts that do not get loosened for years at a time... or get wet regularly... I have seen thin films of dry anti sieze used/sprayed on some high dollar lug studs.... but most laypeople end up slopping it in clumps... Stock steel wheels had some "spring" in the lug holes... it acted like a super-duper lockwasher... when manufacturers started using aluminum wheels they had to raise the torque specs to get some spring/locking action on the studs... If you overtighten a lug stud... you remove most of it's springyness...you get loose lugs on yielded studs

He didn't say he changed the diff... and I assume the tranny probably came from a car with the same rear end ratio... If not....I hope he has his old speedo gear... I was under the impression that there were only 2..or 3 different speedo gear housings.. and that they were different offsets to account for different speedo gear diameters...but that each housing was appropriate for several closely spaced gear sizes... in other words they took care of many gear sizes using only a few different housings...soo... it is best to keep the housings mated with the gears that originally came with them...but you can use one housing for several different plastic gears... as long as you know which gears are appropriate for which housings... swapping only the plastic gear is great if you need to $$buy$$ one new(instead of hunting in junk yards) and you only want a slight change to account for different tires sizes... it is a safe bet you can swap gears only 1 or 2 teeth different onto the same speedo drive housing.. other than that... I guess we are saying the same thing...My train of thought was on the idea that most of the Z cars had the same rear end ratio...so it is usually a no brainer....plug it in a go on your way... if there is a problem... pull the old speedo housing and gear and slap it in the new tranny... you don't need to know anything about gear ratios to do it correctly...

AK-Z..... Whaaaa?????..... like I said... if all he changed was the tranny... then he did not change the speedo calibration... It makes no difference what the tranny gear ratios are... at all....the differential and the tire/wheel sizes are all that matter... Plug the cable back in(to the new tranny) and it will read exactly the same as it did before... this assumes that the tranny was speedo geared for the same 3.54 rear end that 90% of hte Z cars came with... If he got a tranny out of a car that had a different rear end ratio then all he would have to do is swap the speedo gear housings from the original tranny to the new one.... PS dont swap the colored gear on the end.. swap the entire speedo gear housing... the offsets for the gears vary by ratio... so swap the whole speedo gear housing and it will fit properly.

Door skins.... Here is a picture of a "skinnned" 240Z door... notice there is/was no side impact bar in it... the only meat in the door is in the hinge areas... Here is a picture of a "skinned" 280Z door.... notice the BEEFY double webbed 3 layer monster of a side impact protection bar.... If you are using your cage-door-bars for side impact protection.. then get rid of that MONSTER BAR in your 280Z doors... I kid you not.. that sucker weighs 20lbs.... A 280Z door can be taken down in weight from 60lbs stock to less than 15lbs stripped... possibly less than that if you actually get it down to a bare skin... what the hell... loose the hinges as well... just pin on the skin... The rear hatch can be entirely removed and replaced with a simple sheet of plexiglass..... there goes 60 more pounds... just be sure to seal the edges well... you will get fumed out of the car...

The dashboard and factory wiring weigh 50lbs combined... There are literally DOZENS of wires that do silly things in the stock harness.... There are over a dozen EXTRA wires to get intermittant wipers, to make them wipe when the washer button is pressed, and the slow speed delay. You can GREATLY SIMPLIFY the electrical harness....The wiper motor has 2 speeds built into the unit.. get rid of all the gack and you still have high and low speed wipers. The dome lamps, door pin switches, safety interlock system, seat belt interlocks, neutral safety switch, air conditioning wires, air con relays, EGR relays+wires, Fuel pump cut relays are all useless for a project car.. all of the stereo wiring can go... the thing is you can still use all of these factory systems even though you can rip out MOST of the wiring associated with them.. for example... There are several pounds in relays and wiring installed in my 1972 240Z JUST TO CUT THE FUEL PUMP when the engine is running... BUMPERS..... the chassis mounting areas for the later model bumpers are heavily reinforced... these areas do not contribute to overall chassis stiffness.... you could peel away several layers of steel in the front clip and in the rear floor frame areas to shed more weight... spare tire wells are not as big a deal in the later models... but the rear floor frame IS WAY OVERBUILT in later models.... You do not need reinforcement past the strut towers front and rear.... those areas can be hacked and lightened... your cage will add about 1.2-1.6lbs per foot of tubing.. depending on what you use(1.5 or 1.75 0.095 DOM)... most full cages involve about 40-60 feet of tubing... there is no need to reinforce anything past the strut towers... anything added or left past the towers is just for crash protection... build the cage right and reinforce the fuel cell area and you are ok...

That is a very good point Clint... I have a great deal of experience with low voltage electrical systems... I build TV studios for a living... Often clamp type connections are better than solder in situations where things need to be flexible or removable... but the connections I am soldering are going to be permanently mounted and will not suffer from flexing very much...

Here are closer shots...

Here is a comparison of early VS late 240Z front crossmembers... actually I am not sure of the beefier crossmember's year... but they both bolt up to 240Z chassis and racks... another view.... side view... Mounting holes are race relocated too...

yep... exactly... the same thing was getting ready to happen on this one.. This pic is right before I soldered it.. I have cleaned it with brake cleaner before this shot was taken....That sucker had gotten HOT!.. the tape was fried.. and it was melting the power wire beside it.... The black wires themselves are not seriously damaged.. the heat was intense but contained within the small area of the crimp connector itself... the top portion where the 2 small wires come out of the crimp is where the tape was burned the worst... this car is virtually corrosion free. It has not been on the road for a LONG TIME! I have stored it for 12 years myself... it was stored at least 10 years before that.

Hoop dreams... this is roughly what it will have... I am adding a bolt in rear tower brace... as well as a bolt in front tower brace.

Here is a front view of the hoop.... It looks like there is plenty of side protection to me... It will be tied into the floor/differential frame member... Granted the SCCA say they don't want more than 180* in the main hoop... they do make exceptions for cars that need that to fit the cage...my cage will be welded into the wheel wells AND the rear crossemmber frame rail.

It is just a track days car.... and the person who bent the tubes said it would pass tech for what I am doing with it.... and for weight less than 2500lbs. Chris knows what he is doing... CC is not a fly by night/spring chicken operation.

Here is an idea of what will happen in the door areas