280z FP Build

[jhm]

Oh man….that’s a huge bummer, Ben.  Glad you’re ok, and the underlying structure’s ok — but it’s still a bummer to see.  How long are you expecting repairs to take?

 

Curious what kind of dyno was used?  Glad to hear you’re happy with the new motor.

 

Don’t hesitate to ask if you’re needing bits & pieces for the rework.

[Ben280]

PRE uses a Dynojet. Can't remember if those are supposed to read high or low, but it's a good metric if you always use the same one! I'd have liked a bit more power, but I think ~400hp is more than enough to get into trouble. (clearly!)

 

 

So far the repairs are minor, and the trick has been sourcing panels. A PNW local reached out and had a set of fenders and headlight buckets he sold me for a song, and I'm taking a trek up north on Saturday to pick up a new hood. I think the airdam is mostly savable, but the old headlight covers and flares are toast. Working to get a new set of flares from Japan, and another instagram follower was super kind and sent me some replacement headlight covers! 

 

Planning to have the car back out August 19/20 at ORP. We'll have some crazy mis-matched body work and a plywood splitter, but I think we should be in decent shape for continuing to shake the car down!

 

 

 

[Ben280]

As a side note, if anyone wants to support myself and the car, check out this sticker pack from my BFF Jake at Aerowolf

https://www.aerowolfusa.com/products/team-stickerpack

 

[Ben280]

Hi HybridZ universe!

 

Been taking a break from the car for a bit, but starting to get more motivated here. Let's do our quick catch up first. 

 

ORP was an interesting event. We had positives, but the issue that wrecked the car in July surfaced it's head again. Turns out the ABS was overpowering the master cylinder seals on the front circuit and causing massive pressure losses. I had more pronounced but less consequential failure out there, but had good data to show what was wrong. I got my hands on some Tilton Type 79 master cylinders, developed specifically for the Audi LeMans teams who were seeing a similar failure in their master cylinders. I also had to upgrade the pedal box as these are bearing mount master cylinders. 

 

The plan was to run the car again at PIR, but that event ended up getting canceled, and so the car has sat since September. Slowly getting poked at, and trying to figure out where I wanted things to go. 

 

I made some aero mods to the fenders, and have been slowly cleaning up the firewall and some other areas. 

 

The big change I'm in the middle of here is with my ECU. I'm ditching the megasquirt and going Haltech. The LS never really ran right on the megasquirt, and when I started seeing some odd stuff starting it up for the first time this year, that was all the impetus I needed to ditch that. It'll be for sale shortly, expect to see it soon. 

 

Hoping to get to an event this year with the car, but really not sure when or where. For now, here's where we sit. I put it down on the ground for the first time since August last year. 

 

 

[Ben280]

Howdy HybridZ! Seems like the trend, y'all get an update at the beginning of the year and at the end of the year! Might need to reframe my temporal perspective and do every 6 months. 

 

This was a slow year for the car and myself. First year since I've owned the car that it hasn't gone to any events! Wish I could say it was because I was doing a bunch of sweet mods and we're hitting the track hard next year, but that's not how it went. Overall, since 2020, the "smiles per $" has been way down, and I think I probably burnt myself out doing the V8 swap as quickly as I did it. Combined with the wreck, I felt like I really needed to step back, re-evaluate and take the year off to figure out how I want race cars to fit into my life! A big thing I've found is that since this just isn't a street car, and has no ability to be a street car, it's tough to get that "just gonna go drive the dang thing" and get excited about the project. Starting to find motivation again, which is nice, and I'm aiming for an event or two next year. 

 

That's not to say I didn't get ANY mods done this year! I got the Haltech 2500 into the car, and got it tuned. That was a fun small project, with a bigger price tag, but I'm hoping that it solves a lot of problems moving forward. It did reveal that some of the problems with this current engine are just that. The current motor is a L33 aluminum 5.3, but it's just not making great power. Compression and all that looks fine, but it's only putting down 330hp, when we'd expect closer to 400. Putting that out of my mind for now, and going to run it like this. A new engine is just not in the budget right now. 

 

I also did quite a bit of work on the front suspension. I've been running the Apex Engineered arms up front, and have been happy with them. Full disclosure, Ohm is a supporter of the build, you may have seen the car on his page! After running a handful of events, I felt like I had 2 problems to resolve. 1) I needed more track width. I have a 1" spacer in the front, and it's just another thing to check on the car, also while making scrub radius work. 2) I needed a beefier ball joint. The Apex arms use a factory sized ball joint, that is a better material, but after running a few track events, getting up on curbs and getting pretty spicy, they were just not up to the task. Bigger is better, so I went and upgraded to a Howe Racing TA2 front control arm, with their thread in ball joint. The arm is 2" longer than factory, and allows the use of an improved ball joint, the design of which is derived from a 3/4 ton truck. I feel pretty good about this mod!

 

I got some work done on managing airflow on the front of the car. With the freshly chopped fenders, I needed a way to get air out of the wheel well, and made up some Kevlar pieces to help with that. I also made a plug for a radiator extractor vent that will help direct air out the hood, rather than spilling around inside the engine bay. 

 

I'll need to snag one more fitting for the dry sump, but otherwise, things are looking in good shape. I'm excited to let the car be "done" for a little bit this year. 

[Zetsaz]

Good update!
 

2 hours ago, Ben280 said:

 A big thing I've found is that since this just isn't a street car, and has no ability to be a street car, it's tough to get that "just gonna go drive the dang thing" and get excited about the project. Starting to find motivation again, which is nice, and I'm aiming for an event or two next year.

 

This right here ^ is why I committed to keeping mine fully a street car and I'm glad I did, but part of me also wishes I could go race occasionally without being scared I'll ruin it haha

[Jboogsthethug]

Hey dude right there with you! I've been working on my z since June 2015. Kids, houses and responsibilities have all pushed it farther and farther back. But I feel like this is the year and I'm hoping you get back in the game too!

also, are the Howe Racing TA2 front control arms made for the 240z or do you have a different cross-member up front? They sound enticing for sure!

 

[Ben280]

14 hours ago, Zetsaz said:

part of me also wishes I could go race occasionally without being scared I'll ruin it haha

 

If you are near a SCCA/NASA group that runs the "Track Night in America" or whatever the NASA equivalent is, I HIGHLY recommend it! Much more laid back, and geared towards beginners. If you apply mechanical sympathy to your car you'll be in great shape. Big braking zones are the hardest thing with these cars initially, so just go out, take it slow, and enjoy hearing that straight 6 roar!

 

12 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Hey dude right there with you! I've been working on my z since June 2015. Kids, houses and responsibilities have all pushed it farther and farther back. But I feel like this is the year and I'm hoping you get back in the game too!

also, are the Howe Racing TA2 front control arms made for the 240z or do you have a different cross-member up front? They sound enticing for sure!

 

Thanks man! There are a handful of builds on here that have been going on long before I started and are still far from done. I have a newfound respect for the patience those folks have. 

 

For the Howe Racing arms, they are extremely not for the Z platform. haha. They are for the Trans Am cars (tube chassis) but they manage to utilize a similar lower arm configuration. I had to add some additional brackets to mount the tension rod in the right spot, remove some "stock" brackets, and design a sway bar attachment point (still not 100% happy with that one). Was hoping I had a photo, but no such luck! I'll do a photo dump here shortly!

[Jboogsthethug]

Yes please share how you made that! Very interested in that setup! I initially planned on swapping my front crossmember/setup to an r32 gtr cross-member so I can give it AWD (I've swapped an RB25 in) but if your setup gives me more travel/width (need to research bit to confirm either way) then it would make sense to go that route and do a custom setup for the AWD. 

[tube80z]

8 hours ago, Jboogsthethug said:

Yes please share how you made that! Very interested in that setup! I initially planned on swapping my front crossmember/setup to an r32 gtr cross-member so I can give it AWD (I've swapped an RB25 in) but if your setup gives me more travel/width (need to research bit to confirm either way) then it would make sense to go that route and do a custom setup for the AWD. 

You can find cheap options on eBay by searching for "used IMCA lower control arm."  These straight arms can take various balljoint combos and use a rod-end mounting or a bushing.  That will get you options like this https://www.ebay.com/itm/156253492635?_skw=used+imca+front+lower+contrl+arm&itmmeta=01JFH1PRRQS4VARS84HE8VBR09&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAABAHoV3kP08IDx%2BKZ9MfhVJKmlnKptmEq49QXHuYUVK0t%2FVqtBOgHRzDCm%2BhuINAAj7rXduUHGplWvDm0w32o9rUYodX6FM68bik%2FtkVdR1OEgMQ4I6PEadB120ZYc9zeSyv94OLc3GuJyjb6aYDdKVZxcAMN9rjS5T4ibk%2FjJBDnCv3n%2FZTMwwRG4otjIm1OadN3F8Hka5QshaeMFiCF5qnoASz4Twy1WWKQTodhNhuPEYc28a4ZzlZ8AqqHhHRyyLV34MiKRX9jF82K8A48bmtIK3tFolRCJaAaOOv6BNOSwfDE8qOE5oa9QaEviKS4QtPVw4DgxBXjo4Dm4bOU3SGk%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR7aM26H8ZA.

 

Two types of TC links are used. One has a stud and uses a solid rod end for connection. The other uses a clevis that connects the TC link. For research, you can get a few used examples off eBay for $20 to $30 or get the manufacturer's catalog for options. 

 

Sorry for the hijack.

 

Cary

[Ben280]

Hijack away Cary! 

 

I like the Howe Racing as i knew it would work with the balljoint I wanted to use, and it had the correct thread for an inboard heim joint. I had to modify it enough at this point, I think next time I'll have some fully custom ones bent up, and use a spherical bearing on the inboard side.