BrandenZ

Any idea how well they would / would not fit with a roll cage / a bar running between the door frame and the seat? Also, where'd you get the matching 4-pt harness? Care to share total out the door cost of that setup? Feel free to PM if you'd like.

Mine's also an 04, black-on-black! Picked it up in '06 and have done virtually nothing but oil changes, despite multiple track and autox events. Swap out to dot4 fluid, rewire the top to go up and down any time, and enjoy!

Corrected for truth! Any car that only comes in a manual transmission and does not have a mirror on the driver's side sun shade simply cannot be a chick car. I think you're thinking of a Miata...

AlleyCow -- If you happen to find yourself near the Atlanta area over an autox weekend, PM me. You can hop in for a few ride-alongs in my BSP Z, then jump in a B stock or STR S2K and see what you think. My build has similar goals as what you mentioned, with the exception that I knew from the get-go I'd be building something more for autox/track purposes but still wanted it to be street legal. I've been working over the last 2 autox seasons to really dial in the suspension, brakes, and alignment and learning to really drive the chassis. Currently it still has an N/A L-series motor in it, probably putting down a whooping 120 HP to the rear wheels (if I'm being generous). After another season of tweaks, she'll probably end up with an LS1 tossed in over the off-season. In terms of cost / performance, now after many many years of investment and tuning, I'm extremely happy. For me it's a bit about the love of the original Z and building something exceptionally unique essentially from the ground-up. Of course, the fact that I was starting from a 2300/2400lb, RWD car with an engine bay big enough to fit virtually anything certainly didn't hurt. All that said, I've still got a friend with a nearly stock Lotus Elise that will show up at events and run similar times as me, so take that for what it's worth! Donovan -- Very well said! I agree with every one of your comments but the last! Aside from the S2K, I think the C5 is one of the absolute best bang-for-the-buck cars out there.

To the OP: Don't do it. Just buy an S2K. It's a terrific daily driver, great on gas when you don't abuse it, and is just a dot 4 fluid swap and set of brake pads away from being excellent on a track. Heck, if you just want to autox it, you can don't need to change anything. You also get A/C right out of the box, and as beautiful as I think a tastefully done Z is, the S2K is also a better "date" car. I daily drive an S2000, and my project / track car is a 240z. After _years_ of investing time and money (more than your current budget) into my Z, I'm just now getting to a point at the regional autox level where I'm _close_ to putting down the times that the lightly-modded S2Ks are running. Getting it there has also cost a lot in the street-ability department as well. Don't get me wrong -- I love my Z, but it has never and will never be as good of a DD as my S2000. Even after years of project work, and replacing virtually everything mechanical on the car, I'm still running into gremlins. Just this past weekend I had an old rubber exhaust hanger break, blowing the last half of my race day and forcing a late-night welding repair just to make the next-day autox event. A few events prior to that, a rubber fuel hose gave on me. A few prior to that, one of the only fasteners I didn't replace on the car gave. As one of the other posters mentioned, it's a brilliant car to buy for a hobby or as a project, but not to satisfy your list, particularly not given your implied budget and available toolset/skillset.

For those interested in the installation aspect of the plates -- it was straight-forward...ish. No cutting was required. The plates just "bolt up". Additionally, oriented as intended and set at the maximum, I did not need to open up the upper strut tower hole any wider. I was able to both lock the plates in place and adjust my Tokico Illuminas all from the factory hole [see attached picture #1]. However... the upper strut nut included with the kit was _not_ designed for the MR2 struts that I have installed (with my sectioned strut tubes). They thread perfectly to the Z struts, which of course did not help me. The included nut was just wide enough (Z compared to MR2) to be tapped to fit using an M14 x 1.5 tap. I would suggest anyone looking to order these ask KMAC if it's possible for them to include the upper strut nut already tapped to these specifications. I'm sure they'll be happy to supply one, I just did not personally feel like waiting for them to come from Australia! Also, the cone-shaped adapter that's meant to ride on the strut shaft and the monoball of the plate was partially recessed. It's a perfect fit, but prevented me from accessing the tiny little (IMO poorly designed) notch on the MR2 struts that allow the top nut to be torqued down. I suppose if I pulled the entire assembly out on a bench, this wouldn't be an issue, but attempting to install it on the car, and keeping serviceability in mind, it was. So, I had a friend of mine lathe an aluminum copy without the recess [see attached picture #2 and 3]. Even despite these minor out-of-the-box required customizations, my first impression is very positive. The kit seems to be very well made and provide an extremely large degree of adjustability, particularly considering that no cutting is required. We'll see how that impression holds after autox this weekend. Please Resize Images http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/98611-posting-pictures-please-read/

I just thought I'd share my findings with the community post-alignment. This is on a 73 240z with 16x8 wheels, 245/40s, sectioned strut tubes, using MR2 Tokico Illuminas, 10" Hypercoil springs, and a ground control coilover kit. Prior to the KMAC plates, using Mikelly's adjustable T/C rod and front control arms, the best I could get before rubbing against the front wheel/fenderwell was: Caster: +1.75 degrees Camber: -2 degrees After installing the KMAC plates: Caster: +4 degrees Camber: -2.88 degrees This is using the "maximum" setting of the plates installed oriented the way KMAC intended, and re-adjusting the front control arms back to stock length. The plates could alternatively be re-mounted at a different orientation to theoretically increase the positive caster beyond 4 degrees, but I believe in doing so I'd lose the majority of the negative camber gains and would have to re-dial it in with the front control arms, which I'm trying to avoid (to prevent potential binding). My local autox region has a test and tune event this coming weekend, so I'll re-post my impressions of the new setup. Overall, I'm very happy with the "gains" considering I'm still able to retain my stock fenders. The alignment shop said I could dial in "a ton" more caster if I decide to flare the fenders in the future.

Maybe I should just run a 50-shot of nitrous... Thanks all -- I'll look into a heat shield / try to figure out a way to fab one up. Wrapping the headers is also a great idea, as they're right beside the intake manifold (and fuel lines too by proxy). Don't think I have the heart to replace or chop up the current hood, though! First time this ever started happening, water temp actually was up above normal. However, once I installed the additional fans, that resolved the issue. I assume that fixed the vaporlock problems as well, but I was wrong. Water temperature holds fine now, even when I have issues. I'm thinking about installing a 160 deg thermostat instead of the 180 that's in there now in an effort to bring radiant temps down (especially since the mechanical pump is bolted to the head), but will try some of the other suggestions first.

I've got an interesting and very intermittent issue that only seemingly happens during 1) racing / autox and 2) during hot days and 3) extremely long staging or hotlapping of the car Long story short, I get major hesitation and stumbling for a seemingly random period of time. If I get out of the throttle and let it idle for a bit, or in some cases let it coast for a long period of time (assume airflow helps), it clears right up and behaves perfectly. 1973 240z E88 / F54 Dual Webers Mechanical fuel pump JCI radiator So far have tried: Adding 2 more small fans, for a total of 3 fans covering almost the entire space of the JCI radiator, run off of a temperature switch that while racing is placed on the lowest setting (basically running constantly) Replacing the mechanical fuel pump Replacing the insulator between the pump and block Adding heat wrap around the lines running to the carbs Replacing the fuel filter Draining the entire tank (completely clean, both on the drain and at the filter afterwards) Checking fuel pressure (dead on at 4psi) Verifying returnline Running on 1/4 tank, 1/2 tank, full tank... Removing inspection covers while racing to increase airflow Leaning towards vaporlock as it seems to completely solve the problem if in-between runs I pop the hood and spray the fuel lines, radiator, pump, etc. down with water. Also find if I shut the car down on a hot day after a hard run and let it sit for a while, it takes _forever_ to get it started again. Open to any suggestions at this point. Not sure what else to do other than try to fab up a heat shield and reroute all of the fuel lines. Very frustrating because it happens exactly when I least want it to, and has basically managed to ruin probably 20% or more of my possible seattime over the past year. :-/

Closer to the driver -- and from my research, by a pretty darn large margin from stock. 2" hub adapter + 1-2" quick release adapter, so 3-4" total closer than stock.

Hey Keith -- it really may be as simple as dialing in a bit more positive caster. Given that you haven't had your car aligned to any particular spec, it's really hard to say. Even if that does not do the trick, I can assure you that my steering rack stop solution will. Please report back your findings when you have the opportunity and we'll take it from there. Basically if caster doesn't cut the mustard, I can have my friend lathe out the same length extender, then you're two inner rack joints away from swapping them out and limiting your overall lock-to-lock travel. Given the scope of what you've accomplished on your project thusfar, solo, I'd call it pretty easy by proxy. =)

This may be why I see the same thing on my setup as 1 tuff z. I currently have Mikelly adjustable front control arms, lengthened a bit from stock to dial in negative camber as well. If not for the longer custom rack spacer, I'd have clearance issues to the framerail and/or swaybar, but have at least 1/4" to the T/C rod. I'm now interested in this as well, as I'm looking to install camber plates in the future, and dial the LCA back to stock length. Keith -- You may also want to toy with actually adjusting your T/C rods and see if that helps. It occurs to me that I also have a fair amount of positive caster dialed in, and if I'm picturing the effect this has on the placement of the hub, it would seem to me that the more positive caster, the further the wheel would "push" away at full lock from the T/C rod. You should try lengthening them way out and see if that helps your situation. Of course, this might then push you into the front fender, which is the problem I currently have (can't dial in as much positive caster as I'd like).

Out of curiosity -- are you not using it because of how forward I hear it forcibly locates the steering wheel? I've been attempting to research good solutions for this as well, but it seems to be tricky to achieve both quick release and ability to comfortably steer the vehicle.

Unfortunately I wasn't able to turn up any pictures of the work. However, I checked with my friend and he believes that he managed to take a few good shots. He also said he'd be willing to turn a set for you if you have any interest. I still have the old stock piece we can use for the inner and outer diameter, so you'd just need to determine the additional width that you'd want over stock in order to best limit travel for your situation. Feel free to shoot me a PM if you'd like to discuss in more detail

In the case of my 73 240z, there are metal spacers with rubber inner "bushings" attached to the steering rack. Based on what I mocked up on the car with 245/45/16s, I was actually concerned about rubbing the swaybar and/or making contact with the framerail. Oddly enough, I was much closer to both of these than the T/C rod, but maybe yours is aftermarket and quite a bit thicker than the Mikelly ones I'm running. Anyway, I had a buddy of mine turn a slightly wider delrin copy on a lathe. Installed them at both sides of the rack, calculated roughly a 8% loss at full lock. I never notice the loss at autox, only in tight parking lot maneuvers. Even still, to me it's totally worth the added peace-of-mind. I'll see if I can dig up pictures of what I'm referring to, sounds like it may do the trick for you as well.

You can hone it yourself with a power drill and a $30 kit. I'd go for it, if it comes out rust free with nice crosshatching, run it. Also save yourself the trouble I experienced and go ahead and replace the rings. Although I didn't have rust in the combustion chambers, the F54 I used sat for an unknown period of time, and I found out the hard way that the oil rings in 2 / 6 cylinders were rusted and stuck in place. Perfect compression, perfect leakdown, total neighborhood fumigation -- had to pull it, tear it all back down and rering it. Last thing -- your head bolts are probably fine to reuse, but do not reuse the rod bolts (thanks John for passing that knowledge along!) as they're a torque-to-yield design. I picked up a set of ARP rod bolts on eBay for half of what MSA sells them for, cheaper than I could've gotten replacement stock ones for.

If you're not looking to make a high-output build, and are more in it for the experience, why not simply use the existing and assembled bottom-end? You can take some very simple measurements using the FSM John mentioned and plastigage to determine if the main and rod bearings are in spec. If so, focus on making any modifications to the head that you're interested in, bolt it together, and run it! Someone with more experience on the subject may have a differing opinion, but I'm not sure I see much value in completely disassembling and rebuilding an L28 bottom-end unless you're going the 3.1 stroker route or looking to add forged internals for a high-output turbo build. From the reading I've done, the bottom-ends, and combustion chambers tend to be extremely stout. Mine needed nothing aside from a good hone and rod bearings. If I were to do anything in your case, it may be to add flattop pistons to bump compression. In general, I agree with what John said. Additionally: search, search, search! There is an incredible wealth of knowledge to be found just on the L6 forums here. Aside from HybridZ, here's a couple of links I found that proved extremely useful to me when I was doing my rebuild: Amazing overview that covers most items end-to-end: http://datsunzgarage.com/rebuild/ Differences between heads / blocks of different years: http://www.zhome.com/ZCMnL/tech/128combo.html Another head overview, including compression ratios for various combos and flow charts: http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php?topic=6012.0 Differences between cams: http://xenons130.com/cams.html G'luck with the build!

I'm also running this swap using johnc's side axles and a 2005 STi 3.9 R180 diff. It's seen several autox events (granted just with an L28 setup right now), and it's wonderful for my purposes. FYI the input shafts are a direct swap. I was able to pull mine off of the my R180 240z diff, and press it back onto the subi diff, and directly bolt up my pre-existing driveshaft.

John -- I thought about shifting to third, but the section I was topping out second on didn't have an appreciable straight-away, it was more slalom cones and gates that were just wide enough for the small Z to be able to blast through wide-open with smooth steering inputs. I fear if I would've up-shifted, I would've upset the balance of the car and lost it. Also I traded my tach for a rev-limiter... need to figure out how to get it working again with the hi6 before I have any hope of shifting at 6500. Blu -- Cam is next on the list. I've got one from a P90 that I think I'm going to have sent off to Delta, figure it should help me dial in a bit more base timing as well. Forgot to mention that the E88 head is a fresh rebuild, but was not done by me, so it's a bit of a mystery. It was clearly hot-tanked and milled (shims in the cam towers), but not entirely sure how much... with a rough test it CC'd at 44, valves appear to have been unshrouded as well. Also the intake valves measured out to 280z spec, but exhaust are just the 240s. Cam has an A stamp on it, appears to be "stock", as do the valve springs and rockers.

Short of the long -- kicked off a rocker arm at the first event of the season, decided to put a rev-limiter in place before the 2nd. Added a HI-6 ignition (thanks, aplyedmind!), have it currently set to 6800. Banged off of the rev-limiter a ton on straights at the second event of the season, so I'm wondering exactly how much I can push it. E88 head F54 with flattops, est 10.1:1 compression HI-6 ignition + PS92 coil Dual weber DGV carbs 8 degrees base timing dialed in at the moment (concerned about ping on 93 octane) 3.9 WRX STi R180 rear differential with johnc's side axles (hence why I'm running out of gear so fast -- 6800 redline == 57 mph in 2nd) Very confident with the spark and timing advance curve, but very concerned that if I over-rev it, I'll kick retainers and rockers like I did after the first event (probably held it at 7200+ for a bit in the long slaloms). The power does _not_ die off at 6800, the car seems to beg to be pushed harder, I'm just not convinced I can safely do so for extended periods of autox and track. Any advice on the subject, particularly regarding the type of combo I'm running, would be greatly appreciated!

Pretty sure that's akin to asking a woman her age! I'm sure Keith knows, subconsciously, but does not want his conscious mind to actually calculate the numbers.