johnc

And how much are you paying for shocks, springs, bushings, etc?

Gigantic stress riser at the end of the round tube that's welded to the flat plate. That's the narrowest part of the plate, the welds look like they have some undercut, and I'm betting the end of the tube was left open. The plate just worked like a hinge right at that junction with cracks starting from the center and working out.

Yup. I blew up the dark pic and you guys are right. So I guess the TC rod kept everything somewhat in place?

. Exactly! Most street performance shocks have too much compresison damping. Shock manufacturers up the compression damping to make up for soft springs and give street drivers that "...hard ride..." that people confuse with good handling. I had a passenger describe the ride in my racing 240Z with 375 lb in. springs and Penske 8760 shocks as "...flying around the race track on little car feet..."

EDIT: Actually, the main reason for the emphasis on Tokico, Koni, and Bilstein is those are the shocks we've been using for 40+ year racing the S30. They work, they work well, are available for reasonable prices, and, in the case of Bilstien and Koni, are rebuildable and revalvable for around $100 a shock. The second main reason is: Compression damping rates and shock-to-shock quailty. In general (and I know that's a pretty broad statement) the aftermarket coil over JDM setups have too much compression damping (same with the Tokico Illumina) for good handling. There is also large variations from shock to shock in damping. You buy a $1,200 coil over kit for your S12 and the damping variation is such that shock 1 on setting 5 is the same as shock 2 on setting 8. Now, 99% of the drivers out there won't notice that difference except that the car might feel better on left turns then on rights.

I think, from a post on another forum, it was a tie rod failure. http://zccne.org/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1319228533/s-new/ ...which is almost as scary as a control arm failure.

Please remember that this is HybridZ. We are all about heavily modifying the S30 so swapping in a suspension from a different car is fine as far as we are concerned. There may be some discussion about whether the swap is an improvement or not, but the swap itself is cool.

Shocks are by far the most important thing in your suspension. You should spend 50% of you suspension budget on shocks along (not springs, not struts, not coil over kits, not camber plates - shocks). You will get more improvement for the suspension dollar spent from shocks then anything else you plan on doing. Tokico HTS/D-Spec or Bilstein P030 are probably the best for a street driven S30. Take the time and read the strut thread.

I never ran a surge tank - I spend my money on the fuel cell so I don't have to add another point of failure in the fuel system.

That little sign on the side of the truck doesn't work anymore. It used to let the cops know not to waste their time, but cops have figured out, via the DOT rules, that if there's anything that indicates a for profit effort, they can make some money off you. Sponser names (even your own company) on the truck, trailer, race car, or toolbox are evidence enough.

FYI... You don't want to recirculate the return fuel to the surge tank. Could cause pressure problems with the FPR if the surge tank pressurizes and it will heat up the fuel over time. Send it back to the fuel tank. The surge tank overflow should go back to the tank and it should be downhill if possible.

States sometimes step up enforcement FMCSA regulations which apply to all commercial vehicles, even your pickup truck with commercial plates. As long as you are engaged in a private transportation of personal property and not as part of a commercial enterprise, you should be fine. Make sure there are no sponsor stickers on the truck, trailer, or car. Print out the page below and highlight section 390.3.f.3. That will stop most cops from issuing the ticket. http://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/rules-regulations/administration/fmcsr/fmcsrruletext.aspx?reg=390.3&keyword=390.3

In full composite construction, yes but its not the foam we're talking about here. On production steel chassis vehicles, no.

Before I opened my shop I did a lot of research into building a mobile automotive fab truck. Most of the "tuner" shops here in SoCal can't weld. They are basically bolt-on bling bling shops. After some effort I did determine that there was a market for someone with a truck equipped to do basic fab work to gross about $145K a year. The margin for that was about 10% the first year and got better as the years went on. Then I called a couple collection agencies to get an idea of the payment profiles of that "tuner" industry here in SoCal. That ended the idea.

The additive is called Friction Modifier and is sold in 4oz bottles. As Jon said any GL5 gear oil will be fine for a street driven car. If it gets really hot where you live (like Texas, Arizona, etc.) or you drive at sustained speeds over 80mph then a 85W/-140 weight GL5 oil might be a better choice. FYI... AGMA 5EP/ISO VG 220 industrial gear oils are the same as automotive 90W GL5. You can generally get those industrial gears oils at half the price of Redline or other aftermarket gear oils.

OK. A vent to the filler tube and a vent to atmosphere is a good way to do it.

Be aware that your ticket was probably written under CVC 27156: http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d12/vc27156.htm You can sometimes fight this by claiming the exemption under 4000.1: http://dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/d03/vc4000_1.htm

At the next event try temporarily eliminating the the thermostatic oil temp switch. Also, maybe get rid of the fan behind the oil cooler.

Steel is ideally a uniform crystalline structure at room temps. Through controlled heat treatment (and quench is one form of heat treatment) that crystalline structure can be modified to impart different attributes (strength, hardness, ductility, etc.) Fast quench (immediate and complete submerging in temperature controlled oil or water/salt bath) is used to freeze a uniformly heated and cooled part at whatever crystallization point is desired. Through uncontrolled heat treatment (pouring water on just welded parts) you end up with a haphazard crystalline structure that is much more prone to fracture along the differing grain boundaries. You end up with a part that is not homogenous and will react poorly to load.

Little bit of Nissan trivia... see those four square nuts welded on the inner panel? That was done for homologation reasons to allow installation of a Nissan factory roll bar. You only see these on early cars.

So, you're only tank breather goes to the filler tube that's sealed tight when the gas cap is installed? Think there might be a problem with that setup? FYI... Keep the vapor can the associated vent hoses. It works very well as long as the vent hoses are in good shape and the connections are tight.

First off, you want to measure oil temps after the cooler. Right now you're seeing worst case temps as the oil drains off the engine into the pan. 270 worst case isn't bad at all. Regarding oil pressure, again, were are you measuring it? Right after the pump is best but I'm SBC ignorant so I don't know where the factory sender is. A flicker on an Accusump under braking isn't a big deal. Almost normal.

Geez dude! Don't ever do this! You have no frickin' idea what you're doing. Read up: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quenching.

Ultimately its what the tire feels and the tire doesn't car if there's a sleeve or not. What's far more important is the shock. I have yet to see any of these low buck S13 setup have shocks that are any better then the OEM shocks that came on the 240Z. Most are just crap.

KA24DE. SR20DE can be done too but not a SR20DET. Must be a US market engine.