Tim's White 71' 240Z aka 570Z

[RB30X]

The cell and surge tank were already on it when I bought it. I plan on making a whole new fuel cell and incorporate a surge tank into that with internal walbro's. It would also be nice to have a fuel level gauge as well.

[RB30X]

My strut inserts arrived through Supercheap, thanks to Kobes getting me the info. They ended up being the cheapest anywhere, and most importantly they were the right ones.

 

 

I removed my old inserts and installed the new ones. I think I might post some more info in a separate thread to help out others going down the coil-over road.

 

 

 

 

 

I decided to fit the 6kg springs from the Otomoto sleeve kit I had. The old springs were only 4.5kgs. You can see the difference in the thickness of the springs straight away, and the fact that the old king springs compress a lot more before taking the weight of the car.

 

 

 

I used to run approx one inch between the tyre and the guard with the old springs, and the spring perch sat just above halfway down the threaded sleeve. To achieve the same height with the thicker shorter springs (with follower spring) I had to adjust the spring perch 'up' to approx 10mm from the top of the sleeve, leaving a lot more room for lowering.

 

 

 

Somehow I popped one of the half shafts out of the diff center when fitting the new strut. I eventually noticed, and got it back in.

 

 

Here is the finished product. I know its dirty, it nearly gets bogged driving across my back yard these days.

 

 

 

The ride now is much more rigid. The springs and shocks have definetly firmed up the whole rear end. I was driving along at 60km/h swerving heavily from side to side and she sat glued to the road without any body roll at all. A little bumpy over rough road but nothing I can't get used to (I usually drive around in an unloaded workmate, so my back is used to it).

 

Oh and I installed some insulation into the foot well and trans tunnel area, under the carpet underlay for the purpose of reducing the amount of radiant heat coming through from the exhaust etc. It is like Dynamat but a million times cheaper. It is designed to go inside walls and ceilings to keep the heat out (or in). Lined with aluminum on both sides with a layer of plastic in between of the consistency of a real estate for sale sign. Wasn’t as flash as dynamat to install but this afternoon when I took the car for a long strap to test out the suspension I never even noticed it warming up inside.

 

[RB30X]

Well I haven't had much time for the Zed lately due to our recent cyclone. Putting the house back together and pulling it apart again to rip up carpet, painting walls etc. The circus was in bed the other night so I thought I'd rip out to the shed to sort out my front struts.

The front coil over sleeves that came with my car were welded on right at the top of the stut tube and as a result they could not be lowered enough for my liking. The back has been dropped enough but with the front as low as they could go you could still easily fit your whole hand under the guard on top of the tyre. Luckily I had a spare set of front strut tubes from my old Zed that I had welded coil over sleeves onto. These ones were possibly welded on a little lower than they should have been but they would help me get the front lower anyway. At this stage I am not sectioning any strut tubes as that would require new strut inserts so I might look at that when these inserts require replacement.

 

Original set up

 

 

Comparing the two

 

Insert swapped into the spare tube and new ride height set

 

 

I may go a bit lower but my exhaust hangs down a bit so I want to put some miles on the car as is and see how it goes.

 

Here is a pick of my how my Z31 calipers fit. I initially was told they were Z32 but I think those are twin pots and these are only a big single. The only requirement to make them fit S30 is a small washer/spacer.

 

 

 

And here is a few pics of a future project. Motor bike throttle bodies to be used to make a V8 ITB set up. I like them because they look a bit like old school down draft carbies.

 

 

 

 

[RB30X]

Tidied up the engine bay a bit today.

Relocated the battery and pcm.

One day soon I should be able to relocate the coil packs so it looks a bit more like a V8.

 

 

 

 

[Riceburner]

Looking good, smart place for the isolating switch. How are the stiffer springs going, what rates did you put in the front?

 

What are the bike ITB's off and what size? They would look awesome and the induction noise will be superb. Go for it I say 

[Zedman240®]

+1 with the ITB's on the V8.. Once saw an ex-V8 supercar ITB manifold at GMP Products for sale...only a measly $2500; the cross over rectangular shaped one's..very nice!

[RB30X]

Looking good, smart place for the isolating switch. How are the stiffer springs going, what rates did you put in the front?

 

What are the bike ITB's off and what size? They would look awesome and the induction noise will be superb. Go for it I say 

 

The springs that went on the front are 6kgs. I should have mentioned that. Can honestly say I haven't noticed a big difference between them and the 4kg's I removed.

 

The throttle bodies are off a CBR 929, basically any Honda sports bike above 600cc should have these exact throttles until 07-08 where they incorporated electronic warm up/idle control. They are 40mm. 

 

I think a lot of problems people face with tuning itb's is the increased size of the throttle surface area vs factory. For example my factory LS1 throttle body is 75mm across and big aftermarket ones are up to 100mm.

 

The first thing you notice with a bigger throttle body is the increased airflow at smaller throttle movements as you would expect. With itb's the size or throttle plate surface area has a huge impact as follows:

 

1 x 75mm = 4416mm2

 

1 x 1000mm = 7850mm2

 

8 x 40mm = 10048mm2 (which is equal to one 113mm throttle body)

 

8 x 45mm = 12717mm2

 

8 x 50mm 15700mm2

 

As you can see by installing 55mm itb's on an LS1 you are increasing throttle surface area almost 4 times as much or at least twice the size of the biggest throttle body you can buy for existing custom single throttle body manifolds.

 

Thats my theory anyway. I also understand that each cylinder requires air at different times in a single throttle body manifold so technically they all aren't fighting over the air coming through one throttle body at the same time. Where as with ITB's is one for one.

 

Anyway I went for the smallest I could find and hopefully be able to pick up another 4 from somewhere else.

 

cheers

 

[RB30X]

I took my car out to compete in the first round of Bitumen Sprints here in Townsville today. In preparation for the event I swapped my sticky Formula R's from the rear (where I run them on the street) to the front as the track is basically a big tight go-kart track that they let cars race on sometimes. So you basically get around in 2nd gear most of the track with a brief flick into third at the end of the straight. I think putting the stickier tyres on the front caused me to split the steering rack bushes or at least make them worse enough to go looking for something wrong. I have had a small amount of play in the steering which I thought might be the rack needing a rebuild, but now I hope it was the bushes all along. Better off breaking something on the track then on the highway I keep telling my missus.

 

Anyway so I had a lot of fun but it was also a pain trying to turn a corner while trying to battle over steer when my steering wheel does nothing between 10 and 2 oclock  ;D My plans are to fix the bushes obvioulsy and get some more Formula R's for the rear so I can really give it some.

 

My brother recorded my second round so should have a youtube vid up soon.

 

Here is a pic of the track

 

 

And look what they matched me up against.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[KatoKid]

Looks the part Tim. Geeeze, could they have matched you up with a tougher opponent? Clubman is practically an oversized go kart anyway!

[RB30X]

Looks the part Tim. Geeeze, could they have matched you up with a tougher opponent? Clubman is practically an oversized go kart anyway!

 

Well after 4 laps that oversized go kart had almost caught me when I had half a track headstart :'(

[RB30X]

Here is the vid taken on Saturday. Four laps of the first round are 'in car', and the second round is from outside.

I have a moment at 1.27 changing into third and and an offroad moment at 5.22.

I keep a loose hatch strut in the back to hold my hatch up (long story), and you can hear it come loose and it actually ends up near the clutch pedal. That got removed for the next round.

 

 

[RB30X]

I noticed something scary after viewing the footage about how much my passenger seat was flexing around during acceleration. Watch the video below and look at how the passenger moves against the LH quarter glass.

 

 

I spoke to Peter Mac about it on the phone and after he stopped laughing histerically at my dire situation, he told me they referred to it as 'oil caning' where the floor is flexing around where the gearbox is mounted due to the torque that these brilliant engine put out. The solution is to add cross bracing to the floor and modify the gearbox cross member so it distributes the load over a larger area.

 

Here is the cross member currently

 

 

 

 

 

Also in the mail today arrived some Nolethane steering rack bushes from a "Lurchos the Great". I dont care what you guys say about him, he is a very generous man. Thanks Locky, I owe you a few beers mate.

As Peter Allen mentions on page two of this thread http://www.viczcar.com/forum/index.php/topic,1058.0.html the bushes seem to be a lot thicker than the 240Z racks and require trimming approx half the wall thickness off each side before they go in.

 

As promised, here is a photo of my old bushes compared to the new ones.

 

 

[garvice]

So how do you plan on fixing it? I.E how do you intend on spreading the load? Large floor plates under the bolting points?

[peter mc]

Hi Tim,

I was just looking at the x member & it needs to run up into the tunnel.

The hump in the tunnel is wear the strength is, mounting to the floor is no good by itself.

If you weld some mounting lugs inside the tunnel & extend your X member up to the lugs you will increase it's strength massively, then you will be able to look at putting some strength into the floor by welding some tube into the floor.

 

[RB30X]

Thanks Peter.

The Drivers side mount inside the tunnel was there but unused and the passenger side one got ground away a bit to fit the fatty boomba T56. My 'new and improved' cross member has spread the load over more of the floor and also uses the original drivers mount inside the tunnel. Plus I get more clearance for the exhaust.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[garvice]

What does that weigh Tim?

[peter mc]

hi Tim

you should put some bolts in the outer legs. through the floor with some plate on top i think this will help lots

[PZG302]

Tim, if you have the room a brace up into the passenger side tunnel will also really help stop any movement. Another option, if you have room inside the car would be to run a "strap" over the tunnel bolting it through the floor to the outer legs of the mount.

[RB30X]

hi Tim

you should put some bolts in the outer legs. through the floor with some plate on top i think this will help lots

 

Yeah I will get around to that Peter. The current bolts have a plate above them too, incase anyone thought it was just the floor supporting the weight. It would weight about 4-5kgs??

 

Tim, if you have the room a brace up into the passenger side tunnel will also really help stop any movement. Another option, if you have room inside the car would be to run a "strap" over the tunnel bolting it through the floor to the outer legs of the mount.

 

As mentioned above the passenger side mount has been somewhat removed, but I understand it would be great to secure it there as well. The tunnel strap idea would work too.

 

 

[RB30X]

Well I've put a few more miles on the 570Z and I'm pleased as punch. The new steering rack bushes have made the driving experience much more pleasurable. My fidgity steering at high speed has gone which was obviously 'in hindsight' signs that the rack bushes were already broken but it took the good tyres on the front to wreck them completely. Thanks again Lurch.

 

Well if you live on the eastern side of Aus the weather has been a bit brisk to say the least. I took the old girl out this morning to have a chew on some winter air. I havent driven it in cool weather as it was only registered in November. It didnt seem to make as big of a difference as driving a turbo in cold weather but it did feel good. Everytime I switch the battery isolator off the power control module (PCM) has to learn itself over again so this mornings run probably wasnt as good as it could have been as I only gave the engine (and tyres ) a couple of minutes to warm up before taking this:

 

 

I'd say that would be 0-200 in 12seconds?? Not sure how that would transfer as a quarter mile time as I've only ever run a 13 flat @ 106ish mph.

 

 

These arrived the other day. The thermostat is a 160'F one as apposed to the 190-195'F ones that are standard. That should help keep it cool at the track. Also some spare rocker covers that I might get some speedflow nipples welded onto for my breather set up and I might also paint them black?? I like the look of the one below.

 

 

I also got a 25% underdriven balancer because it was cheap. I had one like this on my old clubby.

 

[RB30X]

Just doing a few things to get the car ready for the next track day. Ive ordered some more semi slicks so I'll have good grip on all paws next time. The track day after next is on a section of track that the V8's use for the Townsville 400 so it'll be a lot faster than the go kart track.

 

I've been playing with the front suspension again and ended up cutting approx 20mm of the front strut top mounts or strut insulators to lose some ride height but not at the expense of strut travel. I also replaced the strut top bearings as it appeared that the strut was turning inside the strut insert housing instead of the bearing taking the load. This would have worn out my strut inserts quickly (thanks for the info Pete). I sourced new bearings and put them in and everything is much smoother. I also modified the old front strut brace I had as it was never installed after the LS1 went in due to it hitting on the inlet manifold. I heated it up with an oxy in two sections and put a small bend in it so sits over the top now.

 

 

 

 

Cleaning up the rocker covers.

 

 

My new helper in the shed. "Dad's Car" is one of his first words 

 

[PeterAllen]

Tim - Glad to see you're being a man and using a vernier caliper and not those sissy dial, or even worst, digital calipers.

[RB30X]

Thanks Peter.

The new strut top bearing number was T110 for those that get funny looks when they take this ancient looking bearing into an auto store.

[NZeder]

Tim another trick (well we are getting old school now) that was a common mod to get even more lower tops in the 80's was to hacksaw the outer metal shell down in a few places around the base - then remove more rubber then fold the metal down around the now even lower rubber......

 

I don't have one like that anymore but I have modified your pic so show what I mean.

[RB30X]

How does the bearing fit inside there after those mods?