Scando

Well all in all I had a great weekend. You Victorians have no idea how lucky you are to have Phillip Island in your backyard! Results wise I didn't end up so good, I only finished one of the three races with my battery dying in the 2nd race and the teeth off my crown wheel disintegrating in the final but that's another story! Despite the couple of break downs I still got to do plenty of laps of what is a truely amazing circuit and ended up with a best time of 1:48. http://www.natsoft.com.au/cgi-bin/results.cgi?08/11/2009.PHIL.Q5 In the first practice session the track seemed very daunting. Lots of corners where the quick line isn't obvious and I think a track you could do 100's of laps around and still never get right. Also, I was hitting the limiter at about the start/finish line! I managed a best time of 1:50.8 which I was quite happy with for my first run on the track. In qualifying we took the Bridgestones off and went for the Dunlops which I was expecting to be about a second quicker. The car didn't actually feel as nice and while I did go 4 tenths quicker I think this was mainly due to me learning the track a bit better. I qualified 9th out of 24 cars which I was quite happy with considering it was a very strong field. For the first race we decided to go back to the Bridgestones. I don't use them in Tassie and since the times didn't seem to be much different I thought I might aswell wear them out! I had a great battle with Simon Gillett in a tarmac rally spec STI and just managed to hold him off. That was the end of saturday and we decided to put the old R180 3.54 weldy in for the next day. I didn't think this would make the car any quicker but I hated sitting the car on the limiter for about 300 metres of the straight! Sunday morning we had a re-qualifying and the car felt fantastic. It actually felt to handle better with the weldy than the LSD and it allowed me to punch out of honda corner and lukey heights in 2nd where with the 3.7 it was either a quick bit of wheelspin in 2nd then change to 3rd stick to 3rd and bog down. It was still just hitting the limiter before I'd back off at the end of the straight so the gearing was spot on. This is when I got my best time of 1:48.8 which put me on 5th which I was absolutely stoked about. When I do the calculation with a 3.54 diff, 0.759 5th, 255/40 17 wheels and 6,300rpm it comes out at 278km/h, but that doesn't seem right? The poor old thing would fall apart! Unfortunately that's when the weekend went down hill. When I went to start the car to go out on the track for the race it wouldn't wind over. I got a push start but as soon as I booted it at the start it was breaking down. I persisted with it for a few laps keeping the revs low and only loosing a few positions but then it completely cut out. A quick check and it still seemed to be charging so we put another battery in and went back out for the last race. Starting off the back I got a ripper of a launch and made up about 8-10 positions before the first corner. I was getting through the field but then a couple of laps in the poor old R180 started skipping teeth. I figured it was the last race so I might aswell drive it til it stopped and made it up as high as 6th before it completly lost drive. It was a bit disappointing not to finish the last couple of races but all in all I was wrapped with the way the car performed and left with a huge smile on my face. I was only running 15psi for the weekend and would have loved to jack it up to the 21psi which I know the engine can cop just to see what it was really capable of but since it was such a warm weekend the engine temp was already getting high and I knew it would be detrimental to the drivetrain. I have a bit of video I'll post up when I get a chance. Unfortunately the memory card was full before the final which would have been by far the best race to watch. The only bad part about all this is knowing that I'll most likely never get to race at that amazing track again!

Welcome mate, while you don't see too many Z's on the roads down here these days there are still some very good ones kicking about. Congratulations on the purchase, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Yeah, annoys me quite a bit. A well modified car should end up safer than the original anyway. I can understand some people do dodgey work but that's what the engineering process is for.

That sucks, sorry to hear it. 10 years is a pretty good effort from a race engine producing the power your is though!

Bugger! Looks like I crept in just in time then

PM sent, thanks Garvice I'm not expecting anything too spectacular results wise Scott. I'll only be running 15psi over there to look after the gearbox so it's probably back to around 220rwkw. I've been getting in a bit of practice on the V8 supercars game and it's good signs so far, I went 17 seconds under the lap record last night I got disqualified for shunting people though, better not do that when it comes to the real thing

Has Tassie adopted those standards yet? When I got mine engineered a bit over a year ago I don't think Tassie had adopted that standard.

Thanks for all the info guys. The Z32 box definately sounds like a good option. Especially while the Aussie dollar is so strong to buy the adapter plate from the US. What machining is involved Garvice? Got the VL box in the car and the electric pump fitted in the water feed line to the turbo. Also changed the head gasket because we've been running 15-21 psi with a standard head gasket and it hasn't been changed in a couple of years! Turned out we wasted our time cause the old one was still perfect when we removed it. Went and did a fairly long stint at Baskerville yesterday and the temp stayed fine and it didn't spit any water out into the overflow. The gearbox also felt good so hopefully we're all set for PI

That's very interesting. I didn't realise they were so cheap. How much do you reckon it has cost you to fit it?

The wastegate is too small for this setup so it's been overboosting to 21psi with the wastegate wide open. This should be 15 or 18psi depending which spring I run in the wastegate. If you disconnect the line from the BOV to the manifold the BOV opens as soon as it starts creating boost and bleeds off enough so that the wastegate can contol it to whatever spring I have in it. The boost doesn't build quite as sharp this way either which will be easier on the gearbox. This is not ideal but will do until I get a bigger wastegate. I've done some research and the gears in the VL box are the same strength as the R32 gts-t box. Only difference is ratios (closer in the VL box) and the 32 box has better synchros. There's some very quick 32's in my class (250rwkw+) and when I did the ring around on monday searching for a box they all said the same thing "I don't bother carrying a spare cause I've never busted one". The gears are much bigger than the FJ Turbo box I busted and that was fine with 220rwkw so I'll give it a go and see what happens. The other thing to remember is a Z is a couple of hundred kg's lighter than R32's, VL's, etc so it's not going to put as much load on the box with the same power/torque. I know the RB25 box is much stronger but by the time you pay $1500 for a box and then buy the fitting kit to fit it to an L28 it turns into an expensive exercise! The old turbo wasn't water cooled so it didn't have the water feeds. Good point about the discharge point being higher than the turbo but there's not many options other than to go higher than the turbo. The return line goes straight to the top tank of the radiator. I think this is sending boiling water into the top tank and the heat is opening the pressure release on the radiator cap and therefore sending water into the overflow. The other option was to go back into a fitting in the thermostat housing but I was worried this would effect the water temp sensor for the computer which also goes into the same spot and send the computer dodgey readings. It still does circulate the way i have it setup cause the feed line is from the block where the water is under pressure from the water pump but it's obviously not circulating quick enough. Anyway, hopefully this pump I've bought will circulate the water a lot quicker and stop it boiling. I'm all over it I tried something different with the camera on the weekend but have been too busy to have a look at the footage and see how it turned out!

mmmmm.......flares....... It's coming along well Mick. Keep it up!

So is the Z going to receive a Hodgo's Race Engines Pty Ltd build after the awesome results with the engine in the Rat?

Sorry, didn't say this meeting was at Baskerville. My best time at Symmons so far is a 1:00.1. Hopefully should go under the minute there too with the new setup. 1:06 in a TT Supra road car is actually bloody quick if it was on street tyres! I'm trying to avoid the weight of a RB25/Z32 box. The VL box is a nice easy conversion too. Slip on the L-Series bell housing with a couple of minor modifications. Bolted it in tonight and the tail shaft fits perfect plus the gear lever is in the right spot. Just need to fabricate a new mount. And they're a bit closer ratio than the Nissan turbo boxes.

Ah, ok. The offset on the 9's isn't quite as nice as the 8.5's for the front which makes things a bit harder. I wanted to put 9's on the front of mine too but it wasn't going to work without doing some serious hacking! Managed to get 245's on the 8.5's with heaps of clearance. What are the rears rubbing on? The flare or the guard inside?

Had my first race meeting with the new setup on the weekend. The car was incredible to drive. It comes on so much harder and earlier than it used to and the torque is unbelievable. The downside of this is the gearbox wasn't up to the job and I destroyed 3rd gear in qualifying. My previous best time was a 59.5 and I did a 59.1 on the 2nd lap of qualifying but then I busted the box. Considering I completely stuffed the first corner on that lap and I was using the Bridgestones which are generally half a second slower than the Dunlops, I'd say the car would be good for low to mid 58's which is a huge gain. Since it was a 2 day meet we took the car back and fitted the spare box (standard 280ZX), went back to the 15psi spring in the wastegate and disconnected the Blow off valve to get the boost back down. Unfortunately the spare box was jumping out of 3rd and I could feel a tail shaft uni on the way out so I packed it away for the day. I still have a lead in the series but I'll just have to wait and see if it's enough to hold on to at the last round. In the meantime there's more important things to worry about. We're on the boat to Phillip Island in 8 days! I'm going for a VL/R31 box with the L-series bell housing. It has bigger gears than the FJ Turbo box I busted so hopefully it will be up to the job. The other problem is that with the boost backed of the engine temp was fine but it spat water out of the overflow like it was overheating. I think this may be because we have fed the water return from the turbo straight into the top tank. I have ordered a little electric pump to put in the line which will hopefully circulate the water quicker and stop it boiling. I'll still run it with the BOV disconnected for PI for reliabilitys sake which is a bit of a shame cause it would have been great to run it with the full power but there's a few things to sort out before I can do that. Set this at 25 thou and it got rid of the hesitation

That looks awesome, nice work! Are the front wheels 8.5 inch? If they are then I reckon you might get away without cutting the guards with the 225's depending on how much camber you run.

Yeah, love the intercooler. Recently there was an article in Auto Action a guy that ran Celicas at Bathurst through the late 70's, early 80's. He painted the rising sun flag on the roof cause he though it was the Japanese national flag and apparently the big wigs at Toyota Japan were quite upset about it!

More

More

More

More

Sorry it's taken me so long to post these. After looking at these I definately won't be taking up a career in photography but I managed to find a few where I got the whole car in the shot

At the moment we're just running them with the standard gap but with the little bit of extra boost it's just starting to hesitate where it's making maximum power. Have bought another set cause that set has been in the car for ages and will set them with a smaller gap.

Unfortunatly since I can't run my car on 98 it destorys the idea of going for a cruise. I'll be keen to catch up with eveybody for drinks one night when you're in Hobart though. With the track day, we intend to put new chassis rails under the car over the summer and do some seem welding and tidy up so I'll just have to see if it's all back together at the time I'll keep an eye on this thread, sing out if you need a hand organising anything from this end.

I can't view that at the moment cause I'm at work but I'll have a look another time. Got myself one of these: http://www.goprocamera.com/index.php?area=2&productid=30 Got this footage from the last round but I still need to get the sound working properly: Thanks for all the info here guys. From what you guys have said in this thread I've decided to put the 3.5 in before I leave and take the 3.7 as a spare. The 3.5 is a weldy but it only makes it understeer through very tight corners, since PI is mainly sweepers it should be fine.