KatoKid Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 (edited) So another shitty Melbourne day bought me some more shed time! Spent most of the morning giving the underneath of the car a full clean and going over, boring and not photo worthy but its worth it to maintain the finish. Also changed the engine oil for the first time since having it on the road. Done about 4,000km now and happy to report no shiny sparkles in the oil or filter. Did the main cabin when I first built the car but decided to sound deaden the spare wheel and hatch area.....and ran out of sheets....anyone got some Carbuilders left over from their build so I don't have to buy a whole box? Got around to tidying up the rubber grommet where the igniter wires come though at the rear of the rocker cover. ....and I painted the Allen bolts for the rocker cover! Edited March 31, 2019 by KatoKid George 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff43 Posted March 31, 2019 Share Posted March 31, 2019 Nice Dave, little things but as usual great attention to detail. I look forward to these sort of days in the future. It must feel good to fix some of those niggling little things that you just don't quite get to during the frenzy to get the car back on the road. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted March 31, 2019 Author Share Posted March 31, 2019 Haha....yes it is a good thing Jeff to be able to concentrate on just fine tuning little things rather than having to worry about bigger issues. Yours is coming along really well. As you've found, now is the time to have discipline and do everything right the first time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sirpent Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 I wish I was down 4,000 k’s and enjoying such mundane pleasures Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted June 5, 2019 Author Share Posted June 5, 2019 Been meaning to do this for a while and since I'm taking the car for a run at Sandown this weekend thought I had better pull my finger out. Pick a part is just up the road and 20 minutes of walking up and down the rows got me a suitable overflow bottle and mounting bracket from a mid 80's Magna. Made a plate to bolt to the radiator support using the original holes and welded the Magna clip on mount bracket to that. Nothing really else to do for Sandown, just a quick check underneath and time to let her rip. Gordo, Howdy, PeterAllen and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeff43 Posted June 8, 2019 Share Posted June 8, 2019 On 6/5/2019 at 2:19 PM, KatoKid said: Nothing really else to do for Sandown, just a quick check underneath and time to let her rip. In car camera mounted? No video, it didn't happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted June 8, 2019 Author Share Posted June 8, 2019 It did happen......great day out with all the guys. Car was fantastic! Temps and oil pressure were great, had to wind half a turn of bias out of the rear brakes and bumped up the damping on the rear, otherwise handling and car behavior under brakes was better than my driving skills! The top radiator hose partially came off in the third session but only lost half a liter of coolant, made a bit of a mess in the engine bay but easy enough to clean up. Awesome day but also relieved to get the car back home with no damage of any kind. C.A.R. and OdinZ 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) So everyone has a dirty little secret.....don't they? Well here is mine. When I first got the car on the road I swapped diffs a few times to decide on ratios and LSD's and for only some diff's I had a nasty driveline vibration above 100kmh. As a reminder my tailshaft uses the standard BMW "guibo" rubber doughnut at the front and a CV joint at the rear and the guibo joint cant tolerate any significant deflection meaning the output shaft of the gearbox needs to point straight at the nose of the diff pinion. Lasers make this an easy job and I was sure my angles (or lack there of) was good so it had me stumped why I had this vibration. I did a lot of research and had the shaft checked and re-balanced and also tried moving the gearbox and diff pinion to see if it changed anything, all to no avail. It felt more like a natural harmonic than anything else so I started looking at what could influence this and decided to redesign the front "RT" style diff mount. The original version used a captive Energy Suspension transmission mount as used and recommended by Ron Tyler who came up with the RT mount idea but this was in Z's with standard gearbox, tailshaft and diff combinations. A few guys on this forum have gone with SW Motorsport front diff mounts which is completely different to the RT design but works the same way. I cant use the SW design because of my exhaust and need for a modified crossmember so I spoke spoke with Stewart and he was good enough to tell me what rubber bush he used in his design so I used this to design a version of my own.(Bolt through the top and lower bush is missing in the photos). Cut a long story short, the change from the Energy Suspension mount to the bush recommended by SW seemed to have solved the vibration problem on the road but the excursion to Sandown yesterday was going to be the real acid test....and so it was. I managed to peg my Speed Hut speedo at 200+ kmh on the front and back straights and no sign of vibrations....so very fricken happy its finally sorted!!!! I cant explain why, but the change in bush stiffness has eliminated the harmonic. The SW bush is much more solid than the Energy Suspension design but doesn't transfer any more NVH . Edited June 9, 2019 by KatoKid Ponyo240z 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted June 9, 2019 Author Share Posted June 9, 2019 (edited) So speaking of dirty little secrets.... there are some on this forum who are also active on http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/ In regards to the above vibration issue I connected with a guy on PF who has an awesome FD RX7 with an LS swap and seemed to have exactly the same issue. We swapped PM's back and forth and while he is yet to solve his completely he is on the right track http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/showthread.php?67314910-Tailshaft-vibrations-VE-T56-in-FD-RX7&highlight= He has just moved down to Melbourne from Brissy for work and is in a rental for 6 months so has nowhere to work on his car. He is going to PI next weekend for a PIARC day so I offered for him to come to my place and use the hoist for prep work, which he did today. Sweet car Gav!!!! #norotors Awesome build thread here http://www.performanceforums.com/forums/showthread.php?67313686-Luke-s-FD-RX7-FDL98&highlight= very talented dude and nice guy. Edited June 9, 2019 by KatoKid OdinZ, ScottyD and C.A.R. 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted June 28, 2019 Author Share Posted June 28, 2019 I've been looking at seat options for a while now and the Sandown track day really reinforced how inadequate the standard seats are and I saw exactly what I wanted on FB. They turned out to belong to Cracker (James) on this forum. Seats are Velo "Milano" model which they haven't made for a few years and are pretty popular with the Z crew due to they narrower dimensions so the wings don't interfere with the top of the door trim. They came with adapters for early 240 rails which is a huge bonus and they fit perfectly first time so good job done by James, thanks mate! Additional bonus was I also picked up some head height clearance which I never thought would be an issue until I drove with a helmet on. Went for a short squirt in the car and they feel tremendous, no more hanging off the steering wheel in the corners and they look terrific. OdinZ, theremm, George and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OdinZ Posted July 3, 2019 Share Posted July 3, 2019 They look great Dave! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted August 14, 2019 Author Share Posted August 14, 2019 MikeZ, OdinZ and George 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted August 31, 2019 Author Share Posted August 31, 2019 (edited) Crackin day in Melbournistan for the last day of winter so took the Z for a blat late in the afternoon. Chose my normal loop which heads out towards Yellingbow and came around a corner to find this on the road. Guy on the other side in a 4WD had also just pulled up so reckon the tree came down only a minute or so before us there was a bit of traffic. Snatch strap on the 4x had it sorted in no time. Pretty decent tree that has been dead for a very long time. Given the recent similar events where people have been killed or injured I was pretty relieved I didn't arrive a short time earlier! Edited August 31, 2019 by KatoKid Gordo, MaygZ and gav240z 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted October 5, 2019 Author Share Posted October 5, 2019 Some of you may know that I joined the BMW Car Club of Victoria as my chosen club for Historic or Club rego......for various reasons. Its a different kind of club with lots of late model BMW cars and I'm OK with that, however I was a little concerned they would shun some old modified Japanese sports car but seems they like it....... A couple of months ago they asked me to write an article for inclusion in the next issue of their club magazine. gav240z, Ponyo240z, JDM-TOY and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators gav240z Posted October 6, 2019 Administrators Share Posted October 6, 2019 I wonder how they would feel about a 2002 BMW Turbo with an RB26 swap though? OdinZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted October 6, 2019 Author Share Posted October 6, 2019 Probably like most purists they would be aghast. There was an E30 with an RB26 parked right across from me at the Black Label invitational ...I thought it was pretty cool. OdinZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted May 4, 2020 Author Share Posted May 4, 2020 Article just popped up on my old Cortina which I sold to Geoff Patton. He was good mates with Peter Ridgeway who built the engine you see in the article other than that it was run the way I sold it too him. https://www.whichcar.com.au/features/blast-from-the-past-animal-acts?fbclid=IwAR3lEoQD2KK1FYVcpG1lm178iuscsLOpXIJ06Fh6bvI1xLn2s9I2z2GPCf4 OdinZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PET240 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Just read this from start to finish, my 9 year old wants to start playing with the Zed under the house, I have barely looked at it for 15 years, long story that is not that interesting. Been given an RB30 block and RB25 head from different sources, with that and my boy asking constantly when are we going to work on the car, I have been ingesting the latest info on mods. Love your work here mate, very inspiring, for some reason your tag keeps reminding me of someone into audio around killerdacs. Brakes are already on the way to being sorted, when I get the car out from under it's current layer of sh1t, will take some photos, not the best conditions to work under, but it will do..... Thankyou gents for all your efforts to save these lil puppies.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PET240 Posted January 29, 2021 Share Posted January 29, 2021 Not sure I hit the subscribe button soon enough, so doing so again to be sure.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted March 9, 2022 Author Share Posted March 9, 2022 Took the Z out to the monthly Knox Rotary show on Tuesday and picked up a nice trophy! gav240z, OdinZ, GongZ and 2 others 3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted March 19, 2022 Author Share Posted March 19, 2022 Great evening drive ending up at Skyhigh with the BMW club #wolfinsheepsclothing OdinZ, cracker, JDM-TOY and 2 others 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted June 11, 2022 Author Share Posted June 11, 2022 (edited) A few shots from HIghball cars and coffee a couple of weeks ago https://www.facebook.com/Shutter-Speed-Photography-Melbourne-107904581770140/photos/pcb.157386740155257/157385976822000/ Edited June 11, 2022 by KatoKid JDM-TOY, OdinZ and hmd 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 Took the Datto out to White Street in Port Melb. Good venue and turnout and took out best on ground for the day. https://www.facebook.com/classiccarownersofvic JDM-TOY, OdinZ, C.A.R. and 4 others 6 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted January 11, 2023 Author Share Posted January 11, 2023 A few shots of myself and my brothers recently returned to the road Nc race car from Wandin a few of weeks ago. hmd, OdinZ, 240ZBUILTBYME and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KatoKid Posted May 3, 2023 Author Share Posted May 3, 2023 Crackin morning at Highball Cars and Coffee. Anyone in Melb should go to this. OdinZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.