SUNNY Z Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 Alright, I'm going to be doing some small suspension / brake stuff when winter rolls around, and I was just curious what would be the most bang / buck mods. The car is a 78 280z, with a Chevrolet 5.3 (mostly Stock) and a t-56 trans. (Car will probably be getting a turbo in the future, starting ~500rwhp.) The car will see 96% street duty, 3% Drag duty, 1% auto-x I've looked around at the brake options, but I'm at a bit of a loss on opinions. Also, what would be a good coil over - shock setup for this kind of driving? Thanks for the help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted October 3, 2011 Share Posted October 3, 2011 This may help, for the suspension portion. This sticky, for the brakes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted October 4, 2011 Author Share Posted October 4, 2011 I was hoping for some more real-world reviews from people with high HP street cars, but that is GREAT info as well. Good to brush up again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnc Posted October 4, 2011 Share Posted October 4, 2011 Uuuuhhh, the links above are real world reviews. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted October 5, 2011 Author Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) ...from people with high HP street cars... I understand they're real reviews. I was just wondering if anyone had tips for my particular situation. Edited October 5, 2011 by SUNNY Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) I understand they're real reviews. I was just wondering if anyone had tips for my particular situation. What's your budget? For a car that sees the majority of street duty most will be happy with stock brakes up front and maxima discs in the rear with pads of your choice. For suspension, tokico lowering springs and illuminas with a CLSD and CV axles. Fresh bushings and suspension consumables are always a good idea too as a general suspension refresh if your car needs it. I was brutally honest with myself when I did my suspension, and made sure to keep it in line with my goals for the car, 90% street, 10% non-competitive autoX. I personally have poly bushings and new oem ball joints/tie rods since all of my stock ones were trash. I have a z31 LSD to compliment tokico 280z lowering springs that I modified (as per FAQ guidelines) with illuminas up front and koni reds in the rear. Brakes left me with vented toyota 4 pistons up front, but only because I got a great deal (ie. cheaper than reman stock calipers+rotors+pads) on them with a 15/16 MC. They are more brake than my car will ever need! Rear brakes will be maxima discs. I considered going with camber plates and coilovers, and probably will some day, but my current setup will keep me happy for awhile to come, and was fairly inexpensive in comparison. Edited October 5, 2011 by cockerstar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) My thoughts on a car that is street driven mostly, dragged and autoxed occoasionally: the sticky referred to is well researched, based on the experienced racing and absolutely spot on, but I think it is ok to do less work and get a pretty good result for those of us who are more just having fun. SUSPENSION: The single best mod I every did to my car's driveablity was to install poly steering rack bushings and a ABS platic steering coupler. These are cheap (like $40-ish) from MSA and Long Motor Co and really improve steering, changing a soupy car to a slot car. I just bought a set for my buddy as a gift and he installed them over the weekend and his otherwise totally worn out car felt much safer than it did on Friday-very noticeable improvement. Replace worn out ball joints and tie-rod ends, inner and outer, although tie rod ends are getting very tough to fine-inspect them and if they don't have play, leave them alone. Next I would go to lowering springs and new shocks-don't go very low or you will regret it-floor pans and exhaust scarping all over town and struts bottoming out on every concrete seam is no fun. I cut my springs when I first got my car and that made it drive like total garbage-it looked great, but bottomed out even on little dip and bridge crossing-I quickly developed cracks in my a-pillar and b-pillar-don't let your car bottom out. Lowering springs are less than $200 and you could probably get away with parts store strut inserts since these springs aren't really that stiff. Having replaced my own bushings, I would not rush to replace any bushing because of the huge time and labor requirement-it is way harder than it sounds, and do not try to pull your rear spindle pins unless you ablsolutely have to-that job is a totaly nighmare and you will want to shoot yourself before you finish. My rubber bushings looked terrible where they were exposed to air and light, but inside the parts (which is the part of the bushing that counts) they were like new. Z-car bushings have metal sleeves and there really isn't that much rubber content in them to get squishy. You will find out just how durable they are when you try to get them out-that job sucks. BRAKES: I got great advice from John C about my brakes: leave them alone! He recommended Porterfield R4S pads, and they stop the car great, but are very dusty. Autozone ceramic pads noticeably helped my truck and are a lot less dusty. John also recommended drilling a couple of 3/4" holes in the aluminum brake drums to MANUALLY adjust the rear brakes 'till they rub a good bit-that mod cost nothing and made a noticeable improvement. Stainless lines didn't really change anything noticeable-I just went back to rubber because the metalic brake lines burn really well when a spark gets on them from welding nearby. TIRES (which are both brakes and suspension): Discount/on-sale 225/50/15 on a 6 or 7-inch rim - '81-'83 280zx turbo wheels are great and have perfect offset; clean shiny ones cost, but dirty, corroded ones are cheap and give the car kind of a combat-ready look. Make sure you get the lug nuts with them (they are special) and get the center caps if you are into that-they are expensive to replace. You car will likely understeer until you get camber plate, but that is another expensive and time-consuming mod. Understeer will only be a big issue if you do a lot of autocrossing, and on those days just enter turns slow and accellerate out of the turns. Wait to do camber plates until you go to a coil-over system (in which case I can later tell you what components to buy instead of buying a kit), but again, that is a really big job and will keep you from driving and enjoying your car for many weeks. Budget about a thousand bucks for all the mods I recommended plus a stock alignment and you'll have a great driving car. DRIVETRAIN: I love my LSD; if you don't have one, you will bless the day you got one-it is a major game changer on street and both strip and autox. DRIVER CONTROLS: Racing seat and seatbelts and smaller diameter steering wheel (even a cheap Grant from parts store). You can't drive well if you are falling out of your seat, but a racing seat is hard to get in and out of; you will love it when you are young, but kind of hate it when you hit your 40s and your high school athletic injuries start to nag you. Have fun. Edited October 5, 2011 by RebekahsZ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUNNY Z Posted October 5, 2011 Author Share Posted October 5, 2011 Excellent info, thanks a ton. I hope to have the car back soon, and as soon as i get it on the road, I'll be doing the above mentioned tid bits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h4nsm0l3m4n Posted October 5, 2011 Share Posted October 5, 2011 (edited) Generally I'd agree with pretty much everything RebekhasZ said. Unless youre very serious about suspension you can get a very nice ride and good handling without spending a huge amount of money on suspension. Some good lowering springs and shocks, a good alignment, and some decent tires will make the Z drive so much better. For brakes, again, some good pads and shoes will be a great improvement. With an LS motor youd probably want some kind of LSD too. With this kind of setup youll get a nice ride, handling and brakes to complement your power. This will also be a great baseline to gauge how the car drives and what you want to do to improve it. One thing I would argue for though is replacing all of the bushings with urethane. A good way to save yourself the headache though is taking the suspension to a good machine shop. They pressed out my spindle pin and all the old bearings for a great price, and I didnt have to think twice about it. The new ones slip right in, then just reassemble, easy. The bushings made my car feel like new. It eliminated I dont know many squeaks and rattles and gave the car smoother more controlled ride. Definitely worth it. Edited October 5, 2011 by h4nsm0l3m4n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RebekahsZ Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 Try to find out which machine shop he used, and use them. I tried that and the machine shop I took my control arms to bent my rear control arms and I had to find new (used) control arms and start over. I wound up having to burn out my bushings with a torch then very carefully cut the sleeves out with a hand-hacksaw. Then, i tried the same thing on my mustache bar only to find out that on the mustache bar you burn out the bushing, but leave the sleeve in-another job I had to do twice. As a compromise, get a buddy to help you who has done it before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cockerstar Posted October 7, 2011 Share Posted October 7, 2011 I did all of the urethane bushings on my car too, and I would say that they are on par with the spindle pins as far as PITA level goes. I took my control arms to two different machine shops, and neither one of them would touch the job. An oxy-acetylene torch and the blade of a hacksaw became my best friends that weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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