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280z FP Build


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7 hours ago, Ben280 said:

 

Would love to get down to Thunderhill! Didn't realize Sonoma was relatively close, any others worth visiting in the Bay area?

 

It's not the Bay, but Laguna Seca is not much further south. 

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Laguna Seca has nasty noise restrictions and walls just about all the way around the track. If you look up "muffler Laguna Seca" you'll find a bunch of weird shit like this, which I've heard people refer to as "donkey dicks." Apparently the idea is to get more muffler on the car, and then point the exhaust away from the sound meter. The corkscrew looks fun, but after doing it a ton on sims I don't think I'd bother with the hassles to get out there, YMMV.

Way further south (just north of LA), but your car would KICK ASS at Streets of Willow, which is a very tight road course. I think top speed I ever saw there going down the hill was 105 mph or so. It is so twisty you wouldn't feel like the lack of power was that big a hindrance. Would also be interesting to see how a well set up Prepared autoxer would relate to Coffey's ROD with sequential gearbox and all of that. IIRC he ran a 1:28 at Willow Springs. Big Willow and Streets are two tracks at the same site. The big track is much faster.

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Big Willow/Streets of Willow would be a blast, but 15+ hours towing. Laguna has a lot of cool points, but yes, the sound restrictions do seem goofy. Probably better to do it now before this motor gets swapped out for something louder!

 

Maybe late this year I'll make the trip to Willow, there were a couple friends who made that trip already this year. It would be interesting to see how it stacks up against the late great John Coffey. 

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Gosh I feel so lucky. I’m 1.2 hours from Willow Springs. If I can ever get this thing out of the garage... 

 

gotta budget for the SCCA novice license course too. At least I save $500 for bringing my own car 

 

Car is registered and EP still looks pretty stock so I’m thinking of driving there. I plan on running a straight muffler + resonator until I do anything competitive in the meantime. Save my nerves while tuning. 

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Big Willow is a ton of fun. Going through 8 without lifting is a good test of how much you trust your car and how brave you are. I've never run Streets, but heard good things. 

 

We were fine at Laguna on a stock V6 with a single turbo muffler and a tip that pointed up and left. The sound measuring station is on track right between 5 and 6, which is why everyone points their exhaust up and left. The limit was 92db then, but I think they lowered it to 90db now for all but special events. Thanks, NIMBYs who moved in 50 years after the track was built.

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3 hours ago, AydinZ71 said:

Gosh I feel so lucky. I’m 1.2 hours from Willow Springs. If I can ever get this thing out of the garage... 

 

Are you North or South? If North.... Well, you got room for a truck and trailer? Hehe. 

 

2 hours ago, calZ said:

Big Willow is a ton of fun. Going through 8 without lifting is a good test of how much you trust your car and how brave you are. I've never run Streets, but heard good things. 

 

We were fine at Laguna on a stock V6 with a single turbo muffler and a tip that pointed up and left. The sound measuring station is on track right between 5 and 6, which is why everyone points their exhaust up and left. The limit was 92db then, but I think they lowered it to 90db now for all but special events. Thanks, NIMBYs who moved in 50 years after the track was built.

 

I know a bunch of the endurance racing guys go down there in march for the season kick off event, and most of the time don't have issues. NIMBY's are clearly the worst, and I think the track has had it's own management issues over the years. Certainly something to look into tho, would be a lot of fun to do a few California trips!

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@Ben280 We are the family that hasn’t figured out whether to stab the environment in the heart, or save it. 😂 a hybrid, a fuel cell car, the turbo Z that spits puffs of sweet black hydrocarbon, and my neighbors Tesla. Alas, no room for a trailer :( The race car is in my 1926 1.5 car garage...ahem... “root cellar” to the left. 
 

I live in the la crescenta area. North of LA, but south of Willow. I’m about a click from JPL and Adam Corolla. Wish he would let me see his garage, but I hear he is a dick. 

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Edited by AydinZ71
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Quite the fleet! We've got a 1987 BMW 325e (AKA Garbage heap), my 1997 12v Ram 2500, a 20' enclosed and my wife's tesla out front. So a similar hodgepodge of junk. The Z lives in a 1946 2 car garage, so a root cellar with a wine nook haha. 

 

I'll be sure to post up when I make it down to the Willow area, see if some of you Cali folks want to come make a day of it!

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On 5/26/2021 at 11:07 PM, Ben280 said:

 

Would love to get down to Thunderhill! Didn't realize Sonoma was relatively close, any others worth visiting in the Bay area?

 

You will not be disappointed with Thunderhill nor Sonoma. Laguna is fourth on my list of local tracks, with Sonoma the top dog, then Buttonwillow and Thunderhill ("local" meaning within 4 hours). Laguna is the famous one with the corkscrew and all but it's by far the least technical track of the four. With that said, they're all great to drive and if you have the option to hit any one of them, you should do it.

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Personally, of the Nor Cal tracks, I consider Laguna the most potentially fun to drive....but the sound limits have become laughable.  Some new stock cars off the showroom floor won't pass unless the driver coasts past the sound booth. I find the politics that led to this situation so infuriating that I have vowed never to return there.

 

Sonoma, to me, is the most challenging...by far.

 

Thunderhill is nice because it is wide open.  You could have a major "off" there and you are unlikely to hit anything or significantly damage your car.  There are almost no walls or other obstacles.

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  • 1 year later...

Man, I'm bad at updating this thread. Maybe since I hate facebook and instagram is losing its charm, I'll start posting here more. 

 

Long story short, we went road racing, and my Rebello is no more. Oil pump gear failure roasted the camshaft. While I think the L series is an excellent motor, and I've enjoyed the past 6 years with it in the car, the need for more power and not an unlimited budget/timeline to get this thing back up and running means we are going V8 in the full spirit of HybridZ. 

 

An Apex Engineered LS subframe and a junkyard L33 are on the way. I've got a few things to get for connecting the trans to the motor, but luckily, having a Jerico makes this much easier! To button clutch, or not, that is the question. 

 

Also investigating headers. Ohm says the CX Racing long tubes work nicely, I haven't been able to find any photos of how they sit. The car isn't as low as it once was, but I don't like when headers are the lowest part of the car. 

Edited by Ben280
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Here's a video of the car from the session before the oil pump gave up. 

 

 

I would have really liked to take the car sub 50 before more power, but alas, not to be. Aiming for .45's with more power and better (fresh) tires. 

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My buddy who runs Aerowolf made a pretty sick youtube video as well of the mods I made to the car over winter. I'll try and do a photo dump shortly, but this is a pretty overview of what happened, along with a medium speed lap at PIR to close out. 

 

 

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Unsurprisingly, I like the direction the front end is going in with the fenderwell removal, and the L33 idea as well.

Button clutch is neat, most people say the T56 shifts pretty slow but mine changes gears fast and I attribute it to the low flexplate/clutch weight. If you don't have a winch to get it into your trailer, will need one if you go button. You can burn them up real quick trying to slip the clutch.

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I figure with the dogbox, a button clutch should make for an excellent experience. I do need to upgrade my winch with this plan, but I think the performance might be worth it. Looking at the quartermaster 7.5" for now, but also considering a 10" for more "drivability". 

 

 

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Have you considered the LV3?  It's 3/4 of an LT5 DI motor and 100 pounds lighter than the LS.  Scoggin-Dickey has a cam that gives 360 HP and 365 ft-lbs. of torque.  BTR are supposedly working on a cam package that will go over 400 HP.  

 

Cary

 

 

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@clarkspeedAsk and you shall receive!

 

I'm still not very good at taking photos as I go. Dirty hands and not wanting to touch the phone I suppose. We're going back to June 2021 here. 

 

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Pic of the car after it chucked a rocker at ORP.

 

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Where'd the rocker go?

 

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Not that much carnage all things considered.

 

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Just a little peck on the cheek

 

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Back together, placed 3rd in Unlimited at GTA at the Ridge. (1:52.8)

 

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2022 season prep starts with needing to get engine temps under control. Howe racing radiator and Setrab oil cooler should do something cool. 

 

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Apex Engineered sent me a strut bar to chop up, since theirs didn't work with camber plates. 

 

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New radiator means I can get rid of the inner fender wells and lean the radiator down at a pretty good angle. Helps with airflow, and eventually I'll duct it out the hood. 

 

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Starting to plan for mounting a fairly massive splitter on the front of the car

 

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Big rear wing to match. Zebulon MSC design 14" chord. 

 

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Splitter mounted, need to duct air into the radiator somehow. 

 

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After watching a few cars burn down at events in early '22, I decided to invest in a suppression system This is a 2.25kg Novec system. 

 

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GTA 2022 went well until it didn't. Coasted in on a cooldown lap after seeing a goose egg for oil PSI. Got home and parts were still hot after sitting for 6 hours... That Cam looks pretty dry.

 

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I think that piece should still be attached!

 

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The culprit!

 

 

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I don't really know what caused the oil pump gear to fail here. I was using the correct crank snout gear, or so I thought, but clearly that still failed. My one thought is that because I'm using a Hoke crank trigger kit, that somehow the shaft was able to shift laterally on the snout gear? There is a bit of movement there, but I assume the distributor would hold it more or less in place. 

 

Clearly with a distributor, once this drive gear failed, the motor would shut off on account of erratic spark. With the crank trigger kit, it was all too happy to keep running. Shame on me for not wiring the pressure switch into the ECU with a safety strategy. 

 

@tube80z, Didn't really look into the v6 stuff. My goal was to keep it straightforward and easy, so the LS family ticks that box for sure. The L33 is all aluminum, so it should serve to keep the weight down a bit. Drop in ready for a lot of my existing parts, or easy to get parts as well. 

 

Now to decide what to do with all my L series parts. Sit on 'em or sell? 

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@Ben280 Hey Ben! So I'm working with Robello's head guru and I asked him about the stripped worm gear & sprocket phenomenon. Only time I have seen the oil pumps fail is what you experienced. He mentioned the critical consideration is sufficient lash. He has only seen it happen when the interface is too tight and there isn't enough shaft play. I don't remember the number he gave me, but I remember being surprised how much play he recommended (big number). Il probably ask him again before my motor goes in, and Il put it up here. He doubted the dizzy removal was the cause. 

 

Your post just reminded me to get back to you on it. 

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