johnc

Per the SCCA T2 racers the 2006 tranny is improved over the previous trannies on the 350Z. I've run my 2006 350Z at two autocross championships, three autocross practice days, and one track day at Streets. Clutch and the rest of the car is just fine with 2,500 miles on the odometer.

In July 2005 the top F1 engine development guy at Cosworth (Nick Hayes) left and joined Richard Childress Racing and is charge of the engine R&D program. One of the problems RCR was facing was broken valves. Their original solution was to make the heavier and stronger. They still broke. Nich Hayes made them lighter and more flexible. No more breakage and a little more power. Lighter engine components often contribute to increases in reliability and power. On the 3L L6 engine that Sunbelt built for me they took 15 lbs out of the crank alone and the engine worked very well.

Less Mass * Same Force = Higher Rate of Acceleration Pretty simple if you ask me.

If you can find new at the dealer, that's probably your only option. You can call MSA and Black Dragon but they would most likely source any new rear upper isolators from Nissan. A good, undamaged used part is fine.

Look for an old ITS 240Z too. They are going for around $5,000 but may be going up in price now that ITR has been created and the E36 BMW is moving out of ITS.

Z Fiberglass is Tom Crise and yes he mistakenly put a picture of a BetaMotorsports hood on his web site but removed it and apologized once I pointed it out to him. Tom did buy the Arizona Z Car molds and is ramping up to produce parts. Tom seems like an up front guy from my conversations with him. He's another resource for the Z community and additional resources is something we all need.

I can't take credit for the design, Erik Messley of EMI Racing came up with it way back in 1990. I just sell them for him. And yes, if the upper spring perch pivoted with the monoball the spring would distort less and impart less side load on the strut. It was a compromise built into the design to comply with SCCA Solo2 Street Prepared rules at the time.

A lot like Burbon Street in NO during Mardis Gras. I was walking down the street with a few friends to get another Huge Ass Beer when we saw this guy just pounding on a woman's head next to a wall. We start to run over to break it up but this NO cop on a horse rides between the man and the woman, spins the horse and the man around, and then side passes the horse HARD into the wall with the man as the meat in the horse/brick wall sandwich. We heard this LOUD exhale and the guy collapses on the ground in a pile, then the woman starts pounding on the horse and screaming at the cop. The horse turns its head around and bites her hard on the arm and rips off her blouse. She screams and starts running down the street with boobs a flopping and two other cops on foot in pursuit. This all happened in about 15 seconds. We look at each other and one friend says, "It doesn't get any better then this!"

I'm probably the source for this information. Its not totally true. After talking with Hyperco and the guy who supposedly invented these things, the hydraulic spring perches will reduce side loads on the strut from spring tension only if the upper and lower spring perches are the hydraulic type. Just a lower hydraulic perch won't work. My research was part of a build of a Solo2 SM2 240Z and both I and the customer thought spending $700+ on upper and lower spring perches for the rear only was excessive for something that may not help at all. There was also some additional cost machining the camber plates to accept the Hyperco hydraulic spring perches.

http://www.taylor-race.com That helped but the main solution is to soften the rear suspension enough so that you don't lift an inside rear wheel. Smaller rear ARB, bigger front ARB. And keep the curb hopping to a minimum unless your shock valving has blow offs. Suspension setup with a Quaife is different and is more like what the east coast guys run on their 240Zs, move the roll stiffness forward. Funny how this came up, I'm ordering a Quaife for my 350Z today and I'm thinking about how I want to do the spring rates so I can put power down.

Penske 8760 triples and yes I can build a set for your 240Z! Price to be determined... The upper bearing is pretty special on this shocks. Its about two inches long and is made out of some unobtanium stuff that always stays slick.

A technicality here... The LCA is designed to take fore aft and lateral loads and actually does it quite well within the parameters of the original design. What causes stiction problems are: 1. Torque loads (acceleration and decelleration) which imparts a twisting load to the LCA/Strut combination with the hub as the center of rotation. 2. Spring deflection caused by vertical load path misalignment between the strut, the coil springs, and the spring perches. With a stock LCA properly modified and located with monoballs stiction from that part is basically eliminated until we exceed the capacity of the stock LCA's design and materials and its inner mounting structure. And with it properly located, torque loads can be reduced (but never eliminated) on the strut. EDIT: I wasn't clear - the main stiction component in the 240Z suspension is the shock shaft at the upper seal and the shock piston. Its fairly easy to practically eliminate stiction in LCA, very difficult and expensive to reduce stiction in the shock shaft. It took me $8,000 to come to a satisfactory solution to that problem. EDIT2: BTW... I'm aware that in an ideal situation the suspension shouldn't see any torque loads at all (the equal and opposite reaction thing between the ground the tire and diff) but halfshafts are never straight, wheels and tires are never perpendicular to the road and parallel to the chassis, etc.

The geometry is basically the same as stock except for a toe link at the rear. Make sure the toe link is strong and well mounted. Things get pretty hairy when one breaks. Make sure there are no toe changes in roll, acceleration, or braking.

You might try adding a 1mm thick stainless steel shim that's the same same diameter (ID and OD) as the spacer (distance piece). http://www.mcmaster.com has shims on pages 3070 through 3072 with the metric sizes on page 3072.

There's a tendency with some engine builders who are on a budget to scrimp a bit on engine assembly when a "good" part is purchased. Let's say engine builder 1 can't afford any aftermarket rods so he spends a lot of time making sure the OEM rods are prepared perfectly. Conversly, engine builder 2 can afford the best aftermarket rods so he just bolts them in after shaking the styrofoam packing off. Later, engine builder 2 breaks a rod and now claims that "aftermarket rods from x" are crap. Meanwhile, engine builder 1 is racing away on his stock rods without any problems.

Media blasting is what's typically used to get parts back to an original condition. I have a tank of minerals spirits (Paint Thinner) that I use to soak greasy parts before I take them to the blast cabinet. Brake Clean is about the best for quiclly removing grease and grime. Acetone works to remove grease and paint. Simple Green also works but you have to scrub a bit. MEK will basically remove everything but since its a Ketone I try to avoid using it.

And, as BRE did, it makes a good place to put a vertical brace from the harness bar/main hoop diagonal through the tunnel to the mount.

Congratulations!

Looks like a feed tube to the EGR has cracked.

I ran a 10lb. Tilton flywheel (which I just sold) and it was fine on the street with 3.54 rear gears. I'm not explaining myself. Either you believe me or you don't. A light flywheel has no affect on horsepower or torque. It does reduce overall weight and reduces MOI so you should see an improvement in acceleration, deceleration, cornering, and its easier on the transmission synchros.

BTW... the reason we really try to enforce the search rule and are aggressive with tool shedding is to reduce the clutter in the search results.

The TB is cooled because blipping the throttle can overheat the throttle plate...

Bob's weight numbers are pretty much spot on with the numbers I got weighing an RB26.

Common problem. Start cutting the sheet metal.

Here's my opinion on this, and I get a few private e-mails each week from people wanting me to tell them exactly how to build their car: YOU HAVE TO PAY SOME DUES! You, as the car owner, have to take the time and spend a lot of effort educating yourself. If it takes hours to read through posts to come up with the information you need to make the right decision, so what? You're going to spend hundreds of hours building the car, what's three more hours of your time? This is a very, very small price to pay. I've learned the car people who want an instant, immediate answer are not car people for very long.