Light weight, Japan-style 240Z

[BenZed]

Yes, very interesting numbers.

If you use the 1/4 mile exit speed (104 MPH) and car weight (2300 lb) and plug them into the Moroso power speed calculator you get a power figure of 200HP.

Which I think is closer to the real value.   

 

The Moroso speed calculator is a useful thing, but it doesn't take into account four gear changes. I agree the top speed was a bit low on the night, the car did feel a bit flat at the top of the revs, which it doesn't normally. Possibly dud fuel, but anyway I'll take it out again soon with the better gearing to see what improvement there might be.

[BenZed]

Just to add to this, when I first fitted the RB26 it made 210 rwkW running 15 pound boost.

The car did a 11.8 second 1/4 mile at 118 MPH, and it weighed about 1200Kg with driver.

So I would expect Bens car to be a little quicker given the lower weight.

 

 

 

Turbo cars invariably run better mph than atmo cars thanks to the extra midrange torque. My 1JZ 240Z also ran 12.5 at 114mph with 200kW at the wheels.

Atmo Hondas in the States often run 11s at less than 110mph. They are more realistic cars to compare mine to than anything with a turbo.

 

If anyone else wants to post about this kindly put it in the drag racing thread and not on my build thread.

[nuclear_z]

Hi Ben!

 

By any chance would I be able to check out your develish vehicle when I pick my 240 up from your shop??? Also like to talk to you about bumpers...

 

Regards,

 

Thomas

[fufu]

Hey Ben,

 

I was wondering how the suspension mods were going? Are you planning on making it bolt-on? Are you planning on selling the end-product? Very interested.

 

 

 

[BenZed]

Hi Ben!

 

By any chance would I be able to check out your develish vehicle when I pick my 240 up from your shop??? Also like to talk to you about bumpers...

 

Regards,

 

Thomas

 

Sorry, it's in a different workshop right now

[carl2609]

Hi

Great looking 240Z, just got a white one myself and have started to do it up.

Lucky enough to travel to Tokyo often and was wondering if you know of parts suppliers up there?

Cheers Carl

[waxhead]

Where did you get your carbon bumbers from

 

[BenZed]

I got mine from the US, but now I can get them from Japan. See the Otomoto section.

As for Tokyo, sorry I don't have any suppliers there, but there is a cool shop called Star Road in Atsugi that specializes in Zeds and Hakosukas.

[BenZed]

Small update, the car now has an HSD coilover conversion front and rear, electric thermo fan and a bootload of brake hardware about to get fitted.

I bought the Wilwood brake kit from Arizona Z car for the front and Motorsport Auto's rear disc kit with Maxima calipers (so I can keep a real hand brake). Also picked up a 15/16 master cylinder from SWR. I will see how it behaves before I invest in a brake bias adjuster.

[BenZed]

Ok, brakes now on and working. Nice to have stopping power to match the acceleration 

At the front as mentioned I have the Arizona Z Car Wilwood four-piston brake conversion. They now make these to suit the early-model 240Z hubs so they were a proper bolt-on fitment, complete with braided lines. They fit very comfortably inside my Watanabes as the caliper sits well inboard. Should fit under most 15-inch wheels too.

[BenZed]

Rear brake kit came from Motorsport Auto. I really don't think you need multi-piston brakes on the back of a Zed and I like that this kit lets you keep the cable handbrake rather than the line-locker arrangement some kits use. There was a bit of work in modifying the bottom of the handbrake lever to get the right travel, but the end result is good. The calipers are off a Maxima apparently.

[BenZed]

finally is the master cylinder. I got a 15/16 master from SWR which apparently is off a Nissan van (Urvan?). It comes with tiny reservoirs for a remote set-up, but the 240Z ones can be clamped on instead. Surprisingly there is still a fair amount of pedal travel, but it can't be pushed to the floor even when very hot. So far I have not had the rear brakes lock up so I don't think I'll need a bias adjuster, but I've yet to take it to a race track so we'll see. Can't be any worse than the original drums, which put me into a spin at 130km/h going into turn 2 at Wakefield. On the road the new set up is very impressive. You can brake much harder and there is absolutely zero fade even after a long, winding hill descent at speed.

[PZG302]

Ben, you shouldn't need to worry about a bias adjuster.

 

My 240 runs Wilwood 4 spots on the front, the early dynalite types, with a Volvo/Saab 2 pot caliper on the rear. With a 15/16 M/C and no booster I locked up all four wheels at once on the track. The only problem I had was that the pedal always felt low, but stopped brillaintly, took some getting used to.

 

I now have a 1" m/c on the Z as I felt that the volume of fluid available was marginal for the set up. The brake pedal now has less travel, but it does take a bit more effort to push as I don't run a booster, and don't relly see the need for one even now.

 

You have to play around with pads to get the best setup for you. I used to use Hawk carbon ceramic pads, but with the new rotors I use can't get them thin enough and can't get them milled to the right thickness anymore. I am still finding the best pad to replace them with, though I definately wouldn't recommend them for the road as they don't work cold, absolutely hopeless on the Mt Cotton hill climb, but on the track there weren't too many who could out brake me.

[zzzzed]

good to know guys. I have the same set up going on my 240z i was hoping to get away with out bias control 

[BenZed]

You have to play around with pads to get the best setup for you. I used to use Hawk carbon ceramic pads, but with the new rotors I use can't get them thin enough and can't get them milled to the right thickness anymore. I am still finding the best pad to replace them with, though I definately wouldn't recommend them for the road as they don't work cold, absolutely hopeless on the Mt Cotton hill climb, but on the track there weren't too many who could out brake me.

 

Thanks for the tip. At this stage I'm just using whatever they came with. I prefer to keep a relatively low-temp pad in the car, as with my last Zed the high temp pads never really got hot enough to work well (it had huge discs) and when cold they were useless.

[Ben]

Whether you need adj. bias in your car will depend on your setup.

 

My setup with Hilux fronts and drum rear was fine, but as soon as I fitted the R31 rears, they would lock first.

 

I ditched the factory prop valve (but retained the differential-pressure warning switch), and fitted a Willwood prop instead.

 

It was dialled in on the brake testing machine at the inspection station and was a much better car to drive.

 

Now I've fitted vented fronts, I expect that we may need to dial in a little more rear, but time will tell.

 

Only testing will tell if you need to make adjustments.

[NZeder]

Whether you need adj. bias in your car will depend on your setup.

 

My setup with Hilux fronts and drum rear was fine, but as soon as I fitted the R31 rears, they would lock first.

 

I ditched the factory prop valve (but retained the differential-pressure warning switch), and fitted a Willwood prop instead.

 

It was dialled in on the brake testing machine at the inspection station and was a much better car to drive.

 

Now I've fitted vented fronts, I expect that we may need to dial in a little more rear, but time will tell.

 

Only testing will tell if you need to make adjustments.

You have a 240z right - so did you remove the line pressure think from the back T-bar from under the car? I know a mates 1970/71 (under chassis 1000) had a little cap and spring in there to keep 10lb of line pressure which is required for the drums. On his car he just removed these from the T-Bar/splitter and all was good.

[Ben]

Mine only had a plain 'Tee' there - no integrated residual-pressure valve.

(which had me stumped when I first worked on the brakes, because I was expecting one!)

[BenZed]

Couple of pics with the wheels back on...

[BenZed]

Had a problem with my L28 distributor getting all loose and dodgy, so I'm fitting a Kameari item which runs a proper internal crank angle sensor and twin ball-bearings, plus a lot bigger cap with better quality bits. I'm also getting that re-tune I've been planning on since day one, to coax a bit more anger out of the L32.

[RB30X]

Where did you get your efi set up from Ben?

cheers

[BenZed]

It's an OER kit, which I can supply new for $2300, see this thread:

http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,4073.0.html

The kit on my car I actually bought second-hand on Yahoo Japan, but you don't see them often

[BenZed]

Just had the Kameari distributor fitted, along with an LS1 ignition coil. Now I've discovered an issue with the alternator dropping voltage, so I can't tune it properly yet. 

[Zedman240®]

That distributor looks identical to a L28 Turbo distributor..  What's inside? just a CAS sensor?

[hunterzed]

That distributor looks identical to a L28 Turbo distributor..  What's inside? just a CAS sensor?

 

Are you talking about the Crank Angle Sensor sensor?