S130 Fairlady 280ZX 2 seater

[luvemfast]

Cheers Matt.
I'm having trouble remembering what I have done and when I did it….
One addition that I should have had in the last post was in regards to the car farting and carrying on up the straight at Calder. It was the simplest problem to fix, but an easy oversight.
Clean the filter in the fuel pump. Duh.

[luvemfast]

The next event was one of my favorites for the year.
Haunted Hills…..wooooooo.(that’s supposed to be a scary sound)
For anyone who hasn’t been to this new hill climb track, you’re missing out. My first run was tentative at 1:11.49, more like having a feel for the traps of the layout. And it does have its traps. Once you finish you are wondering why your face hurts, only to realize that it’s from smiling soo much. My second run felt better at 1:08.47, 3 seconds off wasn’t bad. But I felt that I could go much faster on my next run. Once again I was sharing the car with my dad, as we are co-owners. He went out for his 3rd run for the day. After the infamous dip and hairpin, there is a hill going up with a few corners. This is where the Z stopped.
Another of my oversights in this journal is the diff. As mentioned earlier, we have an R200 4.3 LSD in the rear from a Z31, which runs CV joints. I made up some adaptor plates out of M200 tool steel that I had laying on my bench at work. I thought that it would be ok to use, was I wrong.
The reason the Z stopped was due to the passenger side CV adaptor shearing the bolts. End of the day for yet another mechanical failure, only this time I had to take responsibility. Luckily for us, we took the car down on a trailer.
So it was now time for CV adaptor mkII. My best mate works at Hollinger and turned me up a couple of blanks out of EN36A. I then milled them to make the strongest CV plates in the world. Now its not relying on the bolts for clamping pressure, they just hold it on. The hub is now fully recessed into the adaptor. If this breaks I will eat my hat!

Overall, pretty happy with the cars performance and improvements made. I’m starting to pull away from the bottom in class. Coming 6th out of 14 with only 2 runs compared to 4. Beating more powerful cars, which was a thorn in my side at the last event. This project is starting to come along…..
link to review page-
http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,2897.0.html

[Zedback]

Great write up, keep it coming.  I'll be copying your double sway bar setup for sure, much appreciated!

[luvemfast]

As I'm low on cash atm, I've been working on cheap upgrades.
But how can I improve handling for little $$$$$ ?
Easy, make stuff from scrap steel from work, YAY.
Strut bars
Front
Stainless mounts folded with a solid steel bar.
Took a few hours after work, probably more time to design it than to actual make it. I tend to go overboard with 3D models and doing cosmos analysis on it to get better results before I actually make it. I also left a bigger inside dia so I can fit adjustable camber plates in the future.
Used a wire cutter (EDM) to cut the mounts out.
Used an oxy-acetelyne to heat up and bend the bar, then weld it to the end bushes that I turned on the lathe.
Also the plates were a bastard to bend as they interfere with each other on the bender...... ended up using a vice and a hammer.

Rear
I used dia 34mm mild steel tube with 3mm wall thickness. Welded to 3mm mount plates and harness mounts either side and camera mount in the middle. Note that the harness mounts wrap around the bar, I thought that this would make it much safer as it will be holding my life on the track.
The plates were wirecut, then turned for clearance.
I found a pipe bender at work, so that was used to bend the bar.
Put it in the car and tacked it together. Took it out to finish welds. Lined up the harness mounts by eye, and weld.

Test
WOO HOO, this has made it stiffer than a teenager with a playboy. Can really feel the difference. If only it had more power, anyone say drift?

[luvemfast]

Ok, time to reserect an old thread.
Wow, so much more has been done to the car since last updated on this journal.
Heres the quick version, there are threads on the forum in mod specific areas.
Race seat, smoothed rear end, front spoiler, paint, mechanised dizzy, triple mikuni carbies, oil catch can and Watanabe's.
Now we're up to date, I'll try not to get so far behind.

[luvemfast]

Last night I spent some time out in the garage changing the choke size on the Mikuni's, going from Φ32 to Φ36.
Its not as simple as boring out your current chokes. Apparentley there is some science to this car tech stuff. There is a radius, land and multi step taper to copy, exact.
To do this, I went over to see Lou Mondello who loaned me a smashed up Φ36 choke for me to copy (without the smashe up part  ). I then modelled it up on Solidworks (PM me if you want the file) and machined the internal details on the CNC mill using high speed machining principals, small cuts, high speed. Then cut the external diameter on the wire cutter.
Fitting proved to be not as simple as I had hoped. One would say that there more than one type of PHH Mikuni design. The one supplied was slightly different, being that the slot to go around the accelerator pump was different and not directly opposite the location spot.
Meaning to fit them I had to mark the screwjack/retaining screw point and drill a point by hand with a pistol drill. Hairy, going slightly too deep would see the choke being binned. Once this was done, it was a matter of putting it all back together.
The best part was that it started and ran at the end.
Will test drive it tomorrow, hopefully.
Pics show a diect comparison of Φ32 and C36 chokes fitted.

[luvemfast]

Also worked on air flow through the radiator last night.
$12 worth of Aluminium, a jigsaw, pop rivets and self tapping screws.
Mind you this was done until 1am, apparentley noise travels further at night and I was in the dog house for being noisy. But thats the way it goes, when you want the car to be cooler!
Test tomorrow 

[luvemfast]

Here's some random shots of work missed from the forum.
Seat, harness and oil catch can.
The seat needed to be on rails so that my wife could drive it, if she wanted. I'm 6'5, shes 5'1. So I got a spare set of rails from the wreckes and modified them so that I could sit low enough while wearing a helmet and put it as far back on the rails as I could. And guess what, even then my wife can't reach the pedals when all the way forwards, classic.

The oil catch can is just a copy of something I saw on the internet, coz I don't have much of an imagination. Its 3mm aluminium that sits behind the passenger front wheel on the footwell/firewall. It was needed after taking the factory EFI off and fitting triples. I cut and folded it up, then gave it to my mate who said he'd love to learn how to use the tig welder at his work. Once I finished teasing his crappy welds, I tested how much it would hold. Do you think that 4L will be enough? Looks and works good enough to me.

[Zedman240]

Four liters is more than enough...I just go by sump capacity to be safe. L series is only 4.2 but who's counting?

[bluerat]

Great read Simon, keep it coming! Your right about the chokes, they can be tricky to get to the right shape, a mate spent ages working out how to do mine and making up a tool for the lathe. I thought your old 535is might of been the car my wife has now, It came from Melbourne, but we dont have a sun roof. Was it a manual?

[luvemfast]

thanks bluerat
Chokes would have been fine if I had a correct sample to copy.

I thought your old 535is might of been the car my wife has now, It came from Melbourne, but we dont have a sun roof. Was it a manual?

Yes, mine was a manual. But thats not it, unless previous owner the took sunroof out

[Lynton]

Interesting read Simon I actually remember back in 1968/69 I joined the NDSOC I think back then it was the DSOC the days when Dennis McNally was there, Rex Broadbent, Gordon Dobie etc; all fades away a bit now but I Had a Datsun 1600 sports Fairlady, and then a Datsun 2000 Sports and I always remember Gordon Dobie saying I should never sell the Fairlady's because of their rarity and 240z/260z's were a dime a dozen and they would never have any value in comparison....now look!! Anyway motorkanas were at shopping centre car parks or Casey Airfield, and Calder race track that was about the extent of it. You were right about the club culture change from rag tops to tin tops it was difficult as I recall but also ended up being a fairly rapid change and still to this day the cars have a different personal support base of individuality from the Zeds but they were awesome cars and they certainly kicked butt back then but they were no less respected than the Zeds are today I recall they were referred to as Jap crap even during their winning streak and its still pretty much the same to day only the enthusiast support base has increased and the restorations are putting them back into a 60/70's focus of something the motor industry can be proud of.. ...keep it coming it is great to see the new generation of Zed owners and their developments.
Lynton

[luvemfast]

Lynton, Denis is my godfather (haven't seen him in a while though) and mum and dad still catch up with the Dobies every now and then.
Any old car that is loved and has been restored deserves respect........ Except Lada's!

[hunterzed]

Hey Lada's need luvin too. lol

[luvemfast]

Thank goodness my Z spends most of its life up on stands the height of a four wheel drive. With all this rain and flooding we've had here in Melbourne.
Thought that some prepwork for an upcoming sprint meet at Calder park should be done.
Getting the Carbies tuned was high up the list, but haven't gotten there yet.
While changing the gearbox oil, it is expected to find some teenie tiny bits of steel filings on the magnet on the sump plug. We found large chunks!
So gearbox out and off to Hollinger to be rebuilt. My best buddy works there and I have been waiting for years to take my box there. So no time like the present.
After pulling it aprt , we found that the main bearing was rooted. Maybe you've seen the pic that Fev took of it when it wasn't looking. Aprt from that, it looked really good inside and the experts were happy to reuse all the gears and synchro's. Sandblasting and hot washing of parts that can be to make it look pretty and new bearings have been ordered. I'm looking forwards to get it back together.
Will post some pics when I get some.