johnc

New Orleans will be rebuilt and its up to the residents to decide in what way. It our job to help them for compassionate reasons and as part of our "social contract" here in the US. BTW... almost impossible to permanently destroy a city. Nuclear weapons couldn't eliminate Hiroshima and Nagasaki, fire bombing didn't eliminate Dresden or London, eathquakes and fire didn't eliminate San Francisco.

Is the RF brake locking up easily or it just the brake that locks up just before all the others do?

Yup, I hosted a meeting here and talked about welding and let people try it temselves. Rick Johnson also talked about measuring and reducing NVH in our cars. Okimoto, let me know if you need help with this.

I can source the nuts, bolts, and washers for you. There's a military fastener supply house about 100 yards from my shop. I'll need the EXACT measurements of the hole diameter and the grip length (thickness of the mounting flanges all assembled). The measurements will need to be to the thousandths so you'll need a micrometer.

The plastic 280Z vent piece has a lip that will hide the cut edge. Also, I should have said "composite bit" for the Roto zip. That depends a whole lot on how the composite hood is made. I wouldn't cut a hole in a hodd that is a simple layup. If the hood has a core then it will retain plenty of strength. You might want to get some epoxy resin and seal the cut edges in the opening more as a waterproofing then anything else.

Getting proper strength nuts and bolts is not going to be easy. I suggest you find a military fastener supply house and source NAS1352 alloy steel socket head cap screws in the correct diameter and length. You'll also need hardened washers and metal self-locking nuts (Stover nuts). Call Ronal to get the torque specs, but its most likely something like 180 inch pounds. You're probably looking at a -4 size which has a minimum breaking strength of 5,400 lbs. The designation would be something like: NAS1352-04-8 for an alloy socket head cap screw black oxide coated 1/2" long.

Using a Unibit and a Roto Zip with a composite blade you should be able to cut the vent holes yourslef and buy the 280Z vents from MSA.

http://www.mcmaster.com Silicone Cylindrical Sandwich Mounts part # 4403K84

It all comes down to your goals for the car you're building. Regarding springs and anti-roll bars, they need to be tuned to work with the dampers, tires, etc. If off the shelf stuff allows enough tuning granularity then they can work just fine. For example: I ran a non adjustable ST 19mm rear anti-roll bar but the mounts and end links were modified to reduce bind. In the front I would switch between a 23mm OEM and a ST 25mm anti-roll bar in custom mounts depending what I wanted the car to do at the track. So, I used off the shelf and OEM parts but through a lot of testing and tuning I modified how they were installed on the car. BTW... you can get most of the benefits of the Penskes by installing Koni 8611 double adjsutables at about $1,200 for all 4. Getting to the compression adjustment is a bit difficult on the front but it can be done.

When you decide to go with very sophsticated dampers it affects a lot of other suspension decisions. For example: If your valving has separate low and high speed circuits for compression and rebound you can almost eliminate anti-roll bars. Also, tire sidewall height can be reduced if the damper and its valving are more responsive and subtle. With the damper bodies also acting as the strut tube you can go with smaller diameter springs (2.25" OD is typical and 2" is possible) saving weight and adding room for wheel backspace. Other decisions affected by damper choice: Limited slip type and/or preload. Gearing. Wheel and tire combination. Aero. Spring rate. Overall balance.

Nope. ShockTek is out of business and you need to contact me if you want to have a set of Penskes built. You have options with the Penskes regarding double or triple adjustable.

There are only two remote can setups for 240Zs that I'm aware of. The first was by now defunct ShockTek and it was installed on exactly two cars: Jim Thompson's ITS 240Z and Chet Whittle's ITS 240Z. I worked with EMI Racing and developed a Penske 8760 triple adjustable remote can setup for my 240Z which would cost about $9,500 to replicate. My setup is now part of yet another 240Z "science experiment" (not mine) where the goal is 400 naturally aspirated horsepower and 315/30-18 tires all around. I don't know what's in the picture above but there's obviously a third setup. Pretty much anything that exists is completely custom. EDIT: I forgot to answer the question of why... Remote reservoir dampers allow a larger pressurized oil volume which maintains consistent damping over a longer period. Pressurization allows another level of adjustability. An additional piston (compression piston) is installed in the reservior to allow more compresison valving options. By moving the compression pistong into the can more travel can be packaged into a shorter damper.

Typing 101 is more like it...

Solidly mounted radiators are torn apart because the core support on a 240/260/280Z flexes. Simple rubber isolator mounts work well.

Guys, unless your Z is a dedicated race car, spend your money elsewhere. Focus your bling bling radar on something else...

I wouldn't literally cut the car in half. You probably want to use the whole roof and rear half from one car and the front clip, cowl, floor pans and rockers from the other. It will take a lot of time and measuring to make sure everything is straight and lined up. . http://www.betamotorsports.com (tooting my own horn).

One thing to keep in mind with aluminum flywheels, they can't tolerate getting hot. Normally that's not an issue in regular street driving but if your clutch starts slipping you need to replace it right away. You can't just baby it while you save money to buy a new clutch becuase the heat generated will affect the aluminum flywheel. Remember, 400+ degrees puts aluminum through another aging cycle.

I've been doing a bunch of Hybrid swaps (20B into a 3rd gen RX7, SR20DET into a 510 and a 240Z, 13B single turbo into a RX8, etc.) so I got tired of hanging the engine from my forklift and trying to get everything aligned correctly. Today I made two adjustable engine supports that sit on the outer edge of the hood opening and hang the engine and trans in the engine compartment. This in conjunction with my lift should make things a lot easier.

Actually, it didn't! I discovered the missing bolts only after jacking the car up to check for loose nuts and bolts AFTER Bryan Lampe laid down some 1:55s at Buttonwillow: http://www.nsxfiles.com/otc_2004_day5.htm Welding the crossmember in place wouldn't be a bad idea, although it will make front suspension R&R a bit more difficult. And I would probably do bolts and stitch welds.

Yup, but its a RACE ONLY modification. Do not do it on a street car and don't do it to your race car unless you are willing to spend a lot of time checking nuts and bolts. If you don't, things like this can happen:

I think from this thread and the previous one you should be realizing that your budget is not compatible with your goals. Time to expand the budget or trim the goals.

It could. If you can't solidly mount the engine that kind of bracing will help strengthen the front.

A S13 showed up at our local autocross with that exact cage. Unfortunately I was in charge of tech and I had to fail the car specifically because of the cage. I felt bad but it is not safe and doesn't meet SCCA (or NASA, TCRA, OT, VARA, HSR, NHRA, etc.) safety standards. I wish people would research the US racing sanctioning body rules before going out and purchasing a lot of this JDM stuff. It might be OK for drift, but its not OK for most road racing and autocross events.

If you solidly mount the engine and transmission you effectively triangulate the crossmember back to the transmission mount and it helps a lot with stopping the forward part of the car from hinging up. You must make good mounts and reinforce the tunnel around the trans mount. Adding some triangulation from the strut towers to the center of the fire wall is the biggest strength improvement you can do for the front of the car. When we did some FEA on my 1970 we found that the TC rod mounts really only take fore/aft loadings. A cross brace in that area wouldn't hurt but it won't help much if the engine and trans are solidly mounted.

There's this pretty handy thing called Google...