FastFloridian Posted August 24 Author Share Posted August 24 Got the subframe braces on, seemed simple but ran into some issues. Bolt to the subframe is too long, bottoming out in the brace, I cut the bolt down and used a spacer to help with alignment. Then tightening up to where it connects to tension arm bracket and snapped those bolts. Alignment from where I drilled the holes was off a little and I was over tightening them, ugh. Luckily I had two more bolts. Had to take the tension arm off to get one of the carriage bolts on. But it’s complete now, nice and sturdy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted August 25 Author Share Posted August 25 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhm Posted August 25 Share Posted August 25 Apex's choice of carriage bolts is unusual....can't say I've ever seen really seen them used in custom suspension builds before. Do you think they were chosen for convenience, with the self-locking features in the mounting brackets? Great progress.....really enjoying your updates! Keep 'em coming!! 👍👍 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted August 25 Author Share Posted August 25 For the track attack upper control arm plate the carriage bolts are a must because of their plate design, it completely covers the bolts, so no way to tighten. But some of the others are iffy. The two I broke, didn’t need to be carriage bolts, but it would have tight if they weren’t, and the tension rod bracket was probably needed for clearance to the bushing. Their brackets could have been designed to use regular bolts if they made them a little bigger, but that’s what they went with. Over all I’m pretty happy with it and how’s it’s coming together, but there are still some improvements they could make for easier installation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhm Posted August 26 Share Posted August 26 23 hours ago, FastFloridian said: For the track attack upper control arm plate the carriage bolts are a must because of their plate design, it completely covers the bolts, so no way to tighten. Ah, that explains it. I was wondering if that was part of the reason....thanks for clarifying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted August 28 Author Share Posted August 28 I was over in Orlando today for work and found a Z shop and picked up a used rear diff and axel. Was supposed to be 2 axels, but they stripped one getting it off an old Z. I’ll probably get the other one off eBay. I’ll be sending the diff to Z1 and getting it rebuilt with a wavetrac lsd and some new gears. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted Sunday at 07:20 PM Author Share Posted Sunday at 07:20 PM Got rotors and calipers on. A few minor challenges making it fit for the 240Z, but very happy how it came out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted Sunday at 07:21 PM Author Share Posted Sunday at 07:21 PM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted Sunday at 07:21 PM Author Share Posted Sunday at 07:21 PM Also got the oil cooler bracket/brace installed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastFloridian Posted Tuesday at 10:16 PM Author Share Posted Tuesday at 10:16 PM Ordered the Apex track attack kit for the rear, and sent out my 370Z diff to be rebuilt with a wavetrac LSD. Going with the 3.3 gears. Did some more research and I was thinking about the gearing wrong. I’m sure it’s common sense to those with experience but I was including the overdrive gear in my analysis. For a track car, I learned you should gear it for redline in 4th on the longest straight, then you have overdrive if you need it. So going with the highlighted option below. Planning to work more on brakes this weekend, I unboxed my dual master cylinder set up, trying to understand how it all goes together and figure out plumbing. I have my new brake lines too, so hopefully replacing all the lines and get them plumbed to the master cylinders in the next few weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkspeed Posted 12 hours ago Share Posted 12 hours ago The tranny/rear is a trade off. You really dont want to shift to 5th at 120+mph. The wind resistance will drop you 10+ mph and if you are not in power band you will not accelerate much after that. Not good for Daytona. Rule of thumb is the more peaky your engine is, the closer tranny ratios you need to keep it in power band. The other rule is select gearing to be well into power band or just over in top gear, top speed. Depending on engine you may need a different rear/and or tire ratio to run Daytona, it is different than other tracks. Many club racers run the final 1000-2000 ft at redline, but that can be risky. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
74_5.0L_Z Posted 4 hours ago Share Posted 4 hours ago (edited) With a good 5th gear, overdrive is wonderful... I have the mythical R200 with 3.36 rear gear. The transmission is a T5 with the G-Force Shafts and gears 1 through 4. I run short tires Avon 23 /10.5-15 on all four corners. When I first installed the G-Force gears I was only auto crossing the car, and really only used 2nd gear. When I started doing track days (Daytona and Sebring), I quickly discovered that 5th gear was horrible. With the stock gears, 5th wasn't optimal but wasn't too terrible (3.35, 1.94, 1.44, 1.0, .67). When I changed to the G-Force Gears, 1st gear was improved but 5th gear sucked (2.95, 1.95, 1.33, 1.0, .58) First time at Daytona, I was redlining 4th gear by the time I came off the banking onto the front and rear straights, and the .58 5th gear would drop my rpms and torque too much to be useful. The .58 5th gear was horrible, so I pulled the transmission and took it to Astro Performance in Tavares, Fl and had them install the A5 5th gear (0.81). The difference was night and day. Overdrive went from a total buzz kill to being my Warp Drive... If you get a transmission with a good 5th gear (TKX with .81 5th), then you'll be fine. This is what the gear spread (speed versus rpm) looks like: Here is what a full acceleration run looks like if you assume 0.25 second shifts: The above uses numbers from my old dyno chart and the following inputs: Dyno graph from my old engine (my new engine makes more power and torque): Edited 3 hours ago by 74_5.0L_Z Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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