240z SCCA vintage race car, restoration

[AydinZ71]

11 minutes ago, JMortensen said:

It's not multiple disk. Looks like your typical CF pressure plate with a standard disk rather than their dual friction disk which has pucks on one side. I remember you talking about double or triple disk button clutches, but FWIW, I've seen quite a few Center Force pressure plate failures online where the weights fail, and had a friend with the dual friction that chewed into the flywheel and tore up the thrust bearings in his CA18DET engine. Avoid.

ouch!! Yeah I had always been told to stay away from centerforce. Hmm… wonder if this thing would be of value to anyone. Yeah I have never run a multi-disk, so the various layers through me off. One of the last remaining “surprises” from the PO. 
 

I do still have the quartermaster button flywheel/clutch ready and waiting for me. I probably won’t put it in until I have worked out all the bugs and had a few test/tune days at the track. Almost everything is brand new and needs adjusting on the car, so one less variable of inconvenience. 
 

In the meantime, I have a 9lb Kameari flywheel and OEM Exedy disk/PP I can throw on. That should be a reasonable solution until the car is a smidge more competitive. 
 

Thanks Jon! 

[clarkspeed]

Sounds like you got the hang of dealing with polycarbonate sheet. (NOT PLEXIGLASS I HOPE). i follow pretty much the same process but use an old windshield for a template to cut. I apply tape, draw outline on tape and cut thru tape with a jigsaw. Ive never had a problem with shattering or chipping? Cut a little large and work ot down. Sander, saw, grinder, whatever. I use the cheapest sheet I can find. Not optical grade, no special coatings,  And i am not restricted to the thickness specified by SCCA. Stuff is pretty much indestructable. Fun to play around with cast off peices trying to break them. Tape it off, little sanding, and spray the border with rattle can flat black on inside. 

Trick is caring for it after install. Never let a drop of solvent touch it. I use Novus products to clean with paper towels. 

 

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by clarkspeed

[AydinZ71]

@clarkspeedhaha, yes definitely Polycarb. The Bosch blade says plexiglass, but it appears to work great on any kind of hard plastic. Does not gunk up or catch, and cuts pretty smooth. Yeah I did the trace too, but it appears I cut too much on my first pass. You warned me about leaving extra on, but its really difficult (as you know of course) to get the "bow" going around the sill when test fitting. The SCCA thickness spec. which matches a 1/4" equivalent thickness is naturally hard to bend. The 1/8" thick hatch class was much, much easier and I got a near perfect fit. 

 

Updates: I found a NLA set of TE37's at a reasonable price! $2250 including shipping from Japan. It has taken me three years searching ebay to find a pair. It is the lightest commercially available wheel for the 15"X7" spec. in the OEM bolt circle. 

 

Picked up another used 5hp 120v compressor for $60. Gearing up to paint the car, and needed more CFM to keep the gun moving. Also gathering the fans/filters/plastic to make the booth. All I have left is to block sand the high-build primer and its time to finally paint the SOB. 

Edited May 30, 2023 by AydinZ71

[manninen]

weight those te37´s please.

 

https://www.braid-wheels.com/img/product/512-512-ESCALA/forged_i.png

There is braid forged i which i think is same weight range and you can get them your own specs. 1000$ each

 

Edited May 30, 2023 by manninen

[AydinZ71]

@manninen never heard of them.

The TE37’s in my spec are 10.9lbs. 
I will stick with the Volks, but thanks. 

 

 

[tube80z]

20 hours ago, clarkspeed said:

Trick is caring for it after install. Never let a drop of solvent touch it. I use Novus products to clean with paper towels. 

 

Costco has a god cleaner with no ammonia called sprayaway.  I used to have to get it from an industrial cleaner company and it was expensive.  I also highly recommend the Novus products.  

[AydinZ71]

3 hours ago, tube80z said:

 

Costco has a god cleaner with no ammonia called sprayaway.  I used to have to get it from an industrial cleaner company and it was expensive.  I also highly recommend the Novus products.  

Funny! Look at my recent Amazon purchases 😂 like minds I suppose. Brian from Paint Society recommended it for the water-based wipe-down before solvent wipe down (urethane primer prep, NO solvent on polycarb).
 

I have a feeling there is some solvent out there that won’t cloud the plastic but not worth the risk unless the water based doesn’t cut it.
 

Any water based cleaner is usually some form of evaporating surfactant. A type of alchohol usually, since it’s soluble in water. Man… I spent way too much researching this damn paint job. 

[clarkspeed]

As far as a visqueen paint booth, i did that once many years ago. Had some fairly heavy translucent stuff and wrapped it over a pvc frame. Overhead lighting was ok but i also used some quartz shop lights on the sides. Plenty of advice out there on web.

 

I was real scared of using fans in an explosive atmosphere. I ended up buying 3 cheap box fans and let them blow into the tent. Put some cheap ac filters on back of fans and put another set on the floor with the garage door open about 1.5ft for air exit and not upset my neighbors.  Worked very well and air changed over quickly without creating a tornado. Could not smell it outside. 

 

My only advice is:

1.Auto paint is made to lay wet and flow. Slow to dry. Overspray will cover EVERYTHING. So make sure your booth is solid and expect anything inside the booth to match your car after.

2. Make sure you have good lighting. Some of the plastic will take a little of the overspray.

3.dont forget the floor. I usually throw down another piece of plastic or a clean tarp. I tried a wet floor 1 time and the water dries out too fast.

 

[AydinZ71]

@clarkspeed indeed! Plan is to have plastic on all four sides. Using a thicker gage for the floor, possibly even a cheap HF plastic tarp. Plastic is pretty cheap and I intend to toss it when I am done. 

 

Reconsidering building the tent in my driveway again. Mostly because it would be easier and (as you mentioned) easy access to ambient light. I was worried the 10' standard easy-up width wouldn't be enough, but then remembered I could just flare-out the plastic on each side. HF sells a cheap one that's 10'X20'. 

 

I thought about the explosion risk as well, but I ran the calcs. Even at a conservative 4% lower explosive limit, the 2500cfm fan I bought makes it rather implausible that an explosive mixture would be likely. Especially with an HVLP gun. I am going to add one small box fan w/filter as a "pusher", but the main fan will be used as a fume extractor. I have 50X25" of make-up-air filtration which should be enough to keep-up. 

 

We will see! If I'm on the news, we know something went wrong. 

Edited May 31, 2023 by AydinZ71

[AydinZ71]

Got the door jams, hatch jams, cowl sill etc. painted to the car’s final colors. Now I can start block sanding the whole car now that body work and primer is done, and we can get some damn paint on this sucker. Weather still isn’t cooperating in Southern California. Too humid/wet as every day is overcast and we have rain scheduled for tomorrow. Very unusual.

 

 

[AydinZ71]

Special thanks to @clarkspeed with his help offline with wiring. You’re go-by’s were very helpful, thank you! 
 

Have a question for you and the broader group. Does anyone have experience splicing sensor signal wiring for electronic sensors? 
 

I am planning my wiring since body/paint in nearly complete. I would like the chassis to be as plug-and-play as possible for the two engines I have:

 

1) L24 EP spec motor, SU carbs, crank fire ignition

2) (under development) 3.1L L28 running Motec EFI

 

Although I plan on completing the EFI wiring harness at a later date, I believe there are some steps I can incorporate into the existing wiring I am developing for the L24. 
 

For example, I have electronic autometer gauges that I should be able to use the signal from as some of the necessary I/O for the MOTEC ECU. 
 

Does anyone know the appropriate way of splicing analog signal wire? Let’s say, a voltage sweep from an engine water temp gauge. Reviewing the wiring details of the gauges, it seem most have a signal output for a data logger, but was curious if I could just splice the analog signal directly. 

 

 

 

 

[clarkspeed]

I didn't know anything about this even though I have seen it done years ago.  I did some -esearch on the net and this is what I came up with. I make no claims that this is acceptable or best practice. For new sensors you are installing:

 

To describe what I did for analog sensors, first I will describe the cable.  It should have 3 small insulated wires, usually a plastic or foil (better) sheath around the 3. Then a braided wire shield around that and an outer jacket.  I got confused trying to order but ended up with something that worked off ebay.

 

One wire supply voltage, one ground, and one signal.  If splicing something with different colors, keep them straight.  I use a lineman splice on each wire with a touch of solder.  Then each gets a shrink wrap.  If you offset the splices you can keep the final diameter small.  See picture.  Then I lineman splice the shield and touch with solder.  Then a larger shrink wrap over the entire bundle.

 

For the "system" you need to ground the shield on the box end, not the sensor end.  You need to solder/shrink wrap a small "pigtail" to the shield.  I could only find this picture to show how that is done.  In the picture they are using a crimped collar to hold the pigtail.  I just twisted the 2 together and shrink wrapped.  I then ran the pigtail and the ground wire to the system ground, not a chassis ground.

 

On the sensor side I had 3 possibilities. 

1. For the motorsport sensors, I spliced into a connector with pigtails already pinned in the sealed connector. There are only 3 pins so I don't believe the shield continues across the connector.

2. For the 3 wire sensors I have, none of them have a shield.  So I ended the shield at the weatherpack connector I installed.

3. For the 1 and 2 wire connectors, I use a 1k dropping resistor to convert the resistance to a voltage signal.  I did this at the connector.

 

I think industry uses solder sleeves to do most of this and they even make sleeves with a pigtail built in.

 

I think that is more than what you are asking.  For my TPS and tachometer, I just splice into the EFI signal wire and run in a different direction to a data logger. Seems to work ok.   For temps I run duplicate sensors.

 

 

splicing_STP.pdf Shielding_Terminate.pdf

Edited June 23, 2023 by clarkspeed

[AydinZ71]

@clarkspeed thank you! 
 

updates. Starting to look like a real car. 

[Ben280]

Very nice!! Looking A+ flakey 

[clarkspeed]

Pretty awesome. I am going to download your pics and add to my collection!

[AydinZ71]

Thanks friends! I will post more this weekend when I eliminate all the runs and the clear has fully cured so I can start putting latches back on. This particular clear seems to stay soft longer than others, but it had a good long "wet" time to it. 

[AydinZ71]

Been a little bit…. 
The Swain lightening header coating is an 8-10 week lead time at this moment 🤦🏽‍♂️. So everything was prioritized to mock-up the exhaust and get the header shipped out. 2-1 collector is from Burns stainless. 3” 18-gauge 304SS from I’m the collector back. I bought some tri-gas for the mig and made a jig for back-purging. If anyone else’s is attempting this, keep this in mind: you will go through helium tri-gas FAST. Be stingy with the back-purge. 
 

the L24 is in now, but my N42 head just shipped from the venerable Mr. Yoes. So the 3.1L will also be ready in about a week, too. 
 

If I get the wiring and plumbing done within 8-weeks (not a big challenge), I’m going to be too tempted to drop in the 3.1 long block 😂
 

Only issue is I did not plan around the EFI for the Jenvey ITB’s just yet… 

 

Anyone have recommendations on an ECU that’s a good balance between cost and performance? 
 

Was looking at MoTec, but difficult to justify since I don’t need 1/2 of the features it comes with. Knock control would be the only dynamic “add-on” I would consider. 
 

The goal: this car will be running within a week of receiving the header back from Swain. Setting my calendar to it… car will be “done” (more or less) by mid October. 3 years, and 3 months after my initial purchase of a rusted-out POS. 
 

 

 

[calZ]

Haltech is a pretty good option with almost Motec features without the Motec price. 

[jonbill]

I'm very happy with my Speeduino. Hard to beat the price and it has all the features I need (and more).

[AydinZ71]

Thanks CalZ, Jon, 

Up on the list now is the Haltech 750 elite. Il do a little more comparing between the different versions, but I think I’m going to Haltech! Thanks!