A musician's therapist (The $300 Z)

[Zetsaz]

17 hours ago, DuffyMahoney said:

Coil bracket is looking mint! 

 

It's cleaned things up considerably! Extra nice now that I got a little bracket for the Deutsch connector. It's not just dangling around behind the head.

 

Here's a handful of pictures after cleaning up the ride for this weekend's show.

 

[Zetsaz]

Car show and parade was a blast. Went really well! 

 

Drove to Washington to visit old friends - trip went really well. Engine is working great, I'm really happy with how things are running other than some oil leaks that gunk up the underside of the car on long drives like that. When it comes time to rebuild with flat tops I want to really clean up and degrease everthing and do my best to avoid future leaks for a long time to come. 

 

End of the trip and the way back were slightly less successful. Looks like the bolts on my right CV axle backed out and last one stripped while on a drive with a friend. Fortunately he has a 912 and a well equipped garage. He let me use his space and stay at his house until my friend in Bellingham with a Z got back from Vancouver the next day who was nice enough to let me borrow his CV to get on the road while he waited for the new one I bought him.

 

Unfortunately... the kindness didn't stop more things from slowing down the trip home. Almost exactly halfway near La Grande OR my front right wheel bearing seems to have seized up and started cooking things. Seemed okay at first thought something from the road made a belt squeak at first or something, then things got progressively worse until eventually my brake rotor was rubbing against the caliper. Tried hard to somehow get it fixed, but no one would touch it and I didn't have everything I needed to get it back on the road, so I rented a UHAUL to finish the trip instead of paying for hotels and rush shipping

 

 

New parts are on the way. I suspect the wheel bearing was overtightened or the hub was already not quite in good shape when I first replaced the bearings and eventually those small changes in acceptable tolerances from all the miles I've driven caught up with it. The outer bearing race had partially friction welded itself to the spindle. This would have been my third round trip to washington, plus the pacific coast trip, plus any other miles you want to add from cruising around as often as I can when the weather is nice.

 

Here's to 50 more years out of the new hubs and spindles. 

Edited July 23 by Zetsaz

[Zetsaz]

Car is still at home just hanging out until next time I visit. Spindles and new hubs arrived the day after I started driving to Mexico with my dad.

 

Heavily considering buying Z Car Garage brakes to install over Christmas break.

 

Only new things on the way are door seals from S30 world. Finally someone created a door seal that is (supposedly) an exact reproduction of the originals. Will report back on how well doors close once I get them installed!

[Jboogsthethug]

Have you considered the Toyota 4x4 conversion? I imagine you have, but from what I hear those are a great upgrade and way cheaper than the Z Car Garage kit. Though that kit looks so dang nice

 

 

[jpndave]

10 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Have you considered the Toyota 4x4 conversion? I imagine you have, but from what I hear those are a great upgrade and way cheaper than the Z Car Garage kit. Though that kit looks so dang nice

 

 

If you are talking about the front calipers/pads. I have those on my car. It did make a HUGE difference in braking. I likely will launch those at some point. I was a major upgrade and brake fade with spirited driving was much better, especially in the rear as the fronts did a much better job. I remember sourcing some performance pads with better bite. Seems like there was some modifications to the backing plates too. That's my memory from a long time ago though.

[Zetsaz]

23 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Have you considered the Toyota 4x4 conversion? I imagine you have, but from what I hear those are a great upgrade and way cheaper than the Z Car Garage kit. Though that kit looks so dang nice

 

 

 

I've considered them but the reality is that at this point they're getting harder to find and they seem to be just okay. I don't want to buy refurbished ones of questionable quality or go digging.

 

5-6 years ago they would have been my first choice, but considering I have fully refreshed brakes already and only drive the car when I'm in the US it doesn't make sense to buy an "upgrade" that I'll barely use and discard in a few years when I want to upgrade properly.

 

The other reason is the T3 micro big brake kit that'll fit under my wheels is apparently good but not great and only about $200 cheaper than the ZCG kit which is supposed to be substantially better.

[Zetsaz]

Looks like Z Car Garage brakes are nearly at an end. Tried to submit my order through Rob at ZCG, he told me they're still on backorder (have been since I first asked waaaaay back in Feb/March. I asked if his message about them being on backorder meant I couldn't put in an order, or if it just meant I might be waiting a while, and this is the response I got.

 

Might have to ask my friend to try his T3 Wilwoods and see if I like them. That or I'll keep waiting to see future options.

 

[Sean 83ZXT]

Ugh, I've been over a year and a half now. Stoptech as a whole is not looking good. As an alternative you might lookup ZSM Custom on IG. I believe they were working on a kit with AP Racing calipers.

[Zetsaz]

18 hours ago, Sean 83ZXT said:

Ugh, I've been over a year and a half now. Stoptech as a whole is not looking good. As an alternative you might lookup ZSM Custom on IG. I believe they were working on a kit with AP Racing calipers.

 

That long?? Always surprises me when I see their recent posts with people getting brakes installed. Must have been waiting forever.

[Zetsaz]

In other news. The bummer of hearing my brake option wasn't available made me want to see the other parts that showed up this summer the day after I left, so I asked my dad to open up the boxes and send some pics. 

 

Got new spindles and hubs from T3 in a scratch and dent sale. Literally days before I saw the Facebook post I had already messaged them about potentially needing parts while I was still stranded in Eastern Oregon when the bearing failure tore up the hub.

 

Dad said they looked damn near perfect, so either T3 is super generous about their discounted products, or the guys picking the parts were the ones emailing me and took pity and grabbed the best examples for me knowing the story already. 

 

Alvin from  Z Car Garage posted a reply to my Facebook post on dpan stating they're working with the same engineer from the previous brake kit for the next option, so I guess I'll just keep waiting in the meantime.

 

 

[Zetsaz]

Thinking of brakes once again. There are really only a few "big" things left for me to do and past that it just becomes upgrades or redoing old things to clean them up more.

 

-T3 micro big brake kit is 20% off, which is huge actually. Their micro kit is about the same size as the ZCG kit and has the rear parking brake retained. Tempted to get them. I don't think their normal bbk will fit under my 15" wheels and I don't want to upgrade to bigger wheels. Not sure if I want to get these or the Milkfab upgrade and take the savings towards the Nexus R3. Happy to have some feedback from @lowrider

 

-Need to upgrade to electric fans and reroute my intercooler piping. Looking into a custom shroud with Spal fans.

 

-Complete hoses for AC. Friend is working on 3D designing the bulkhead to match the existing holes from the factory AC.

 

-Install and wire the head unit so the console/dash area doesn't look like its missing something.

 

Beyond those things everything is "done." I want to eventually upgrade to the new Haltech Nexus R3 units. Having so many things built right in including power control to the fuel pump, fans, and built in wideband controller is a major upgrade from my MS3X, but again is one of those things that I technically don't need. We'll see what the future holds.

[Dat73z]

The regular t3 wilwood BBK is really nice, I ran it for many years and miles under a set of 15x8 Rota RKRs which were one of the only 15s I found that would fit that setup. The watanabe 15s don't fit due to the inner barrel design. The ebrake setup where the cable pinched the rear brake pads was not the best ime and I always kept the car in gear when parked as it would sometimes roll. 

 

I almost forgot about the t3 sale. Do the hubs you got have the same offset as the OE? 

 

Nice build progress 😁

[Zetsaz]

2 hours ago, Dat73z said:

The regular t3 wilwood BBK is really nice, I ran it for many years and miles under a set of 15x8 Rota RKRs which were one of the only 15s I found that would fit that setup. 

 

I almost forgot about the t3 sale. Do the hubs you got have the same offset as the OE? 

 

I'll measure the hubs with a caliper when I'm home in about a month and confirm! Should be identical though (but you never know with some stuff so I'll double check)

 

Does the regular kit really fit under the RKRs?? That's what I'm running now 15x8 -0 offset. If I ever changed wheels it would be to something bigger. I'll check those other options you messaged me about, but might be tempted to run their regular BBK if it for sure fits under the RKRs. 

How did you like the pedal feel? Did you upgrade the master cylinder? I'm already on the bigger booster since I'm in a 280z, but I have the stock master cylinder which is 7/8". I don't care too much about a super stiff pedal, I prefer a bit of control as long as it's not mushy. 

[Dat73z]

Yes the regular kit will fit under RKRs 15x8 +0. Here is a pic from like 10yrs ago when I was still daily driving my Z, you can see the T3 big wilwoods peeking out under the rkrs

 

I took a bunch of pictures and measurements with rkrs and watanabe/several other wheels a couple yrs back when I decided to go ZCG due to the limitations on the t3 kit. I also ran a 1" wilwood MC but would not recommend it today as the unit leaked internally and externally so I went new OEM. Will DM you those later when I get some time to dig them up. 

 

[Zetsaz]

I ended up going with the micro bbk. After reading through a lot of forums for what the Miata guys are doing I realized the micro kit is similar or slightly larger rotors than most of the upgrades those guys go with and the calipers will be better than what a lot of them run. Considering the ZCG kit was just miata calipers on custom brackets, I think doing something similar to what those guys are doing is fine. The 280 isn't quite as small and light as the NA miata, but I think for a street car it's the right choice, and the micro kit's dust booted pistons give me just slightly more peace of mind since I do longer trips in the car when I'm around.

 

Also had Galgo Performance start making me a custom shroud for the mishimoto radiator and some SPAL fans. Excited for the winter upgrades.

[Gollum]

If I was going to buy an off the shelf kit, that's what I'd get. And as most spec miata guys will tell you, compound matters far more than just about anything. And for autox (read: not long periods of repeating heat ups back to back), thermal mass is almost irrelevant.

Most people's perceived "weak braking" is lack of pressure at the pad and/or poor bad choice.

 

And in that regard, the Micro BBK gives you in practice more than double the usable thermal mass, and also much better pad options.

All in all I'll be waiting to hear your thoughts once some miles are put on them.

[Zetsaz]

2 hours ago, Gollum said:

If I was going to buy an off the shelf kit, that's what I'd get. And as most spec miata guys will tell you, compound matters far more than just about anything. And for autox (read: not long periods of repeating heat ups back to back), thermal mass is almost irrelevant.

Most people's perceived "weak braking" is lack of pressure at the pad and/or poor bad choice.

 

And in that regard, the Micro BBK gives you in practice more than double the usable thermal mass, and also much better pad options.

All in all I'll be waiting to hear your thoughts once some miles are put on them.

I think eventually I'll work with a friend to design a bracket for them that will also add a wilwood MC4 like the ZCG kit has, but for now the kit will be plenty good. 

 

As far as thermal mass/braking power - my biggest concerns are surprisingly not race or spirited driving. On my long drives in the summer like when I cruised up to Washington the high 90s to triple digit heat just added up after so long. When I was crossing the bridge into Washington I had to pump the brakes a couple times to get much stopping power.

 

When you're driving that far in hot weather the heat just starts to accumulate a lot since you're never stopping into shade, and the stock front rotors aren't even vented to help a bit. The brake heat shield from skillard with some gold tape and now the turbo blanket and downpipe wrap certainly help but at some point the old brakes just can't keep up. Stopping was there, it wasn't like brake fade when you're really pushing it, but you could tell my stopping distances were just much much longer than you'd expect from what's supposed to be a sports car (i'd compare them to the stopping distances with my dad's loaded long bed GMC on the way down to Mexico)

 

We'll see how much weight I lose/gain in each corner with these, especially coupled with the new T3 hubs up front. The back might gain a few pounds because the stock aluminum drums are just so light but we'll see when I'm done. 

[Zetsaz]

Working on a replacement bulkhead plate for the AC. I've been procrastinating the AC lines because I hate basically every solution most people have come up with for running the lines through the firewall. I didn't want to cut for a 4 way bulkhead, and some people just run the fully hoses through cheap gromets in the original holes on the 280z. Even the guide Godzilla raceworks has on youtube for their kit feels kind of hacked together when it comes to the hose routing. Earlier cars didn't have factory AC, so this would be exclusive to the 280z.

I took dimensions of the original plate and the original holes in the firewall where the rubber grommet goes through and started modeling a plate that would keep the dimensions of the original, but adapt some fittings I have from Vintage Air. The plate that came with the fittings is too narrow to use on its ownc as you can see from the image where I learned how to overlay and correctly calibrate an image in Fusion

 

Checked with a model of a random fitting with the correct thread from mcmaster carr to help visualize as well. (The hex piece on this fitting is not the same as the recessed section on the plate for the Vintage Air part that helps retain it and prevent it from spinning, disregard the fact that it doesn't seem to fit).

 

Not shown here is the back half which has larger indents, or whatever they're correctly called, that help align it with the firewall so it doesn't move. They're the same diameter and spacing as the original holes the rubber grommet aligned with. They go past the rear face about .040" or the ga of the firewall sheet metal. I'm debating doubling that, and making a shallow recess in the other plate that I also designed hat goes on the cabin side to retain this this one. The fittings and their jam nuts will hold the plates to sandwich the firewall just like they would on the Vintage Air piece. Actually, as I'm thinking about this I think I need to double it regardless to account for the thickness of the Lizard Skin ceramic coating that was sprayed on the interior.

 

Will for sure 3D print soon and see how well it will work

[jpndave]

Omar, when you get ready to do the hoses, charge, etc. I have all those tools here including crimpers for the A/C lines. My dies are specific to the smaller less bulky fitting style, forget the actual name for them off the top of my head. I have gauges and vacuum pump, freon recovery system, etc. 

The bulkhead idea sounds cleaner than the mess often used. I did that on my JK with a/c and heater separate. There are a couple of other sources for those bits. I'll try and get into my archives and see what I can find.

[Zetsaz]

1 hour ago, jpndave said:

Omar, when you get ready to do the hoses, charge, etc. I have all those tools here including crimpers for the A/C lines. My dies are specific to the smaller less bulky fitting style, forget the actual name for them off the top of my head. I have gauges and vacuum pump, freon recovery system, etc. 

The bulkhead idea sounds cleaner than the mess often used. I did that on my JK with a/c and heater separate. There are a couple of other sources for those bits. I'll try and get into my archives and see what I can find.

I appreciate it! Might take you up on it depending on how I do the lines. I have a crimper for the ends to the soft lines that I bought years ago but I'm debating how much of it I really want to do with hardlines. Vintage air has a kind of pricey kit that has lines you can cut and some fittings that don't need to be crimped, but there's also the option of the "u bend em" lines you can buy individually prebuilt. For about $100 I could probably have all the hardlines I need premade and just bend to shape. Just need to measure what sizes to buy when I'm home this weekend.

I'll probably route the lines identically to the factory ones I have. The original stuff probably could have been saved - occasionally I wish I'd just replaced the compressor and and hoses to connect to the rest of the system and just kept the original condenser, drier, and core, but this then I would have also had to keep most of the original vacuum stuff and actuators in the engine bay. This will be nicer long term, but definitely has been more of a headache. 

Edited Monday at 05:50 PM by Zetsaz