johnc

They make a good SCCA B-Spec car. Here's James Bestwick's car in my shop. I did the exhaust, some suspension, some fab, and other race prep on this car last year.

Just create a thread. If there's only a few existing threads already there's no reason to create a new forum.

It was pretty tight with the Scarab positioned engine. My guess is you'll need at least 2.5" between the back of the engine (cylinder head) and the fire wall. Then you have the whole heat management thing to worry about.

The one setup I saw in person ran the corssover pipes between the engine and firewall. Its was a drag racing application and the V8 was installed in the Scarab position.

The R200 KAZZ will work in an earlier long nose R200 except you will need bushings to take up the space between the 12 to 13mm holes in the KAZZ ring gear flange and the 10mm bolts that are used in your early ring gear.

The C cam is OEM Nissan. Came stock in the US 260Z engines.

I don't understand the infatuation with the "C" cam. If you are not building an engine to a set of rules, pretty much any aftermarket cam is a lot better then the "C" cam. Back in the day SCCA ITS racers would cheat a bit and install the "C" cam to try and eek out another couple horsepower. But everyone caught on to that very quickly and it became protest bait in a 240Z engine. Even the basic Schneider 260 grind is better then the "C" cam.

Generally yes. A lot of folks will put larger front calipers and rotors on their S30 with no change to the back. That immediately increases front bias by a lot. The car feels like its stopping better at the 7/10s that most people drive these cars but at 10/10ths the actual braking distances are longer due to the heavy front bias.

A more fundamental issue is that you're getting scared when the car steps out or spins. That causes a lot of behavior that creates a spin in the first place. Jerky steering, tensing up, abrupt throttle, etc. At an autocross you are in no danger from a spin. The car won't flip over and explode. Relax. When the car starts to oversteer DO NOT lift off the throttle. Stay in the gas and use very quick hands to catch the oversteer and drive through the corner with the back end out a bit. Toe change is really not the issue. The problem is weight transfer. By lifting off the throttle you're moving weight forward, off the rear wheels, which reduces rear grip. You're car is behaving exactly as it should and is doing what you're telling it to do. By lifting off the throttle when the car is oversteering it you're telling the car to spin. If the back end starts to step out, stay in the throttle and drive through the corner with the back end out a bit.

iRacing has some good braking videos: Also, check out the technique. Hard on the brakes when you first apply them and then back off. Also note the confidence pump at the end of the long straights and how the gas pedal is squeezed:

To emphasize... it is far, far more important to have good brake balance/bias then to have ultimate braking power. This is made very clear when you're actually racing wheel to wheel or it starts to rain.

The fluid gets hot enough to outgas. Some of that gas does not condense back into fluid and must be bled off. The outgassing is inside the brake caliper and usually doesn't take a lot of pumping to bleed out.

Either brake fluid is fine. What's important is bleeding the brakes (all four wheels) at the very first sign of a soft pedal. Its almost standard practice to bleed the brakes and adjust the rear drums between qualifying and the race in an ITS 240Z with the stock brakes.

Its worth probably $300 as scrap aluminum.

This thread is not a procedure, just a general description. The "step by step coil over conversion" thread is the correct procedure regardless of whether you race or drive on the street.

How many threads are out there discussing the factory EMS?

Begin here. The S30 is very sensitive to alignment. The whole point of all the adjustable stuff we put on these cars is to get the alignment right. Check the alignment sticky I have in the Suspension FAQ. A LSD will help but looking at the videos your car has the classic Z handling problem: Understeer and then lift throttle oversteer when the driver gets out of the throttle as the car pushes wide. Its exacerbated by the slow steering of a typical S30 which means you have to have very quick hands to catch the back end. Enter the corner slower and squeeze the throttle.

There is no best.

Pretty anti-climactic. I was hoping to see flying body parts, smoke, flames, people running and screaming...

I can't imagine a 4,000 rpm drop between gears from any of the transmissions we're talking about.

Just start stripping the intake manifold from above and remove parts to give yourself more space/access.

FYI... http://www.gracieland.org/cars/techtalk/gearing2.html

You problem is engine tune/driving style, not gearing. With a 6,500rpm shift point the worst gap in the transmissions mentioned drop the rpm to 3,965 in the next gear and that's the first to second shift. The worst second to third shift will get you 4,225 in third. If you're not making boost at 4,200 rpm then you need to work on your tune.

Don't do a "Y" pipe. Do an real merge collector like this:

The car has been on jackstands 3 years... what's another couple weeks to pull the pistons and fix the rings?