chev z

I must admit I am feeling guilty while writing about liesure activities when so many are enduring so much pain and trauma with the fires. GIVE GENEROUSLY 'Z' enthusiasts A fair assessment of the front suspension changes weren't accurately available due to the change of rear tyres.I should have left the 225 x 60 x 15 on the rear , they are definately the best way to go.They allow amuch better transfer of power to the tar and keep the rear end in a tidy line. Although my fellow competitors said it was great watching the rear end action of my car.It was a full time job to keep it on the black stuff. What was that Neil Simon song about nearing your destination and ..." slip sliding away" The set up for the Z was 2.5 degrees pos. castor and 3.5 degrees neg. camber. I ddn't have time to change rear camber ,but will look into it in the future. I suppose there was only one real positve that I could take away from the day, I decided to alter the konis one full turn on the front [ harder ]before my final run , this did enable me to beat my best run on the short Winton track by approx. 1/3 a sec. Yes I realise that it is not that significant a drop, but looking on the positive side the car and driver were definately not "AS ONE " YOURS STEVE

My apologies to everyone for going of the initial thread. Bloody hell Lurch, your the moderator keep me in line, hang on a minute ....after back tracking thru the posts, I realised your mainly to blame for my errant meanderings. Xa73 has brought up another discussion point, that being the use of neg. camber on the rear wheels.On Friday I will set up front caster between 3 to 4 degrees positive.[ depends on available guard space ] Also increase the front camber to 3.5 degrees negative. The proposal of Xa73 to go with 2.5 dgrees of negative camber on the rear has merits ,in that it will increase the amount of tyre contact with the track when cornering, but will this setup negate the turn in that we have successfully achieved and actually reverse our progress in counteracting the devil UNDERSTEER. Ideas welcome especially before Friday

Going to Shepparton Tues. , I will try to procure brake master cyl. A change of plans as of this morn. , the Peugot slotted rotors have been revalued at $260 a pair as opposed to S13 slotted at $210 Apparently forgot to add slotting cost. Oh well it has been extremely hot up this way ,so brain malfunction malfunction malfunction[lol] can be forgiven. I am thinking of using Lucas brake pads,apparently work well,cheap but dirty...two out of three ain't bad. Any other pad ideas worth considering?

I have taken Lurches advice and procured HTX115 brake fluid. It is rated 5.1, this should help with any boiling .Plus have bought some flexiable tubing so I can duct air to the front disc brakes. If I get time next week,I intend to upgrade the front brakes using the tutorial by Lurch as a guide. After comparing the pros and cons between S13 or Peugot rotors I have decided on the Peugot .Less fabrication and they are already slotted. The difference in cost being only approx. $20 Found some S12W Hilux calipers for $80 each at a FWD wreckers. My big stumbling block is trying to find a 280zx brake master cylinder ...CAN ANYONE HELP

Just a very quick update. A successful first up trial,in extremely hot conditions that tested both car and driver, we achieved a reduction of 2.7 sec per lap on my previous times. Consistently lapped in the 1min 47's of the Winton long track. The larger diameter tyres were a handicap ,just lost to much acceleration,they also altered the gearing thru corners.Will try set up with 50's, this will give a more accurate evaluation of where I'm at . Front tyre wear was good and the car definately turned in easier Of course one thing leads to another . I have discovered that in these conditions my brake fluid boils or rotors/ brake pads decide to stop working which leads to interesting exits here and there.Definitely makes driving more exciting, no interesting, no less predictable ....no make that NERVE racking. But the best result of all, is that the re-engineered parts held together

Well considering I am flying pretty much blind when trying to set up the camber and castor , with the guys at Goodyears help [who generously give me a loan of a hoist] the re-engineered lower control arms and adjustable castor rods went in place without to much of a hassle. The only real problem being an excess of degrees attained ,4.75neg. camber,So a 12mm slice off the welded in boss brought the degrees back to 2.8. Hopefully this will be a good starting point. The ford castor bars fitted really well and we attained 2 degrees of + castor,didn't go for 3 degrees due to the fitting of 225 60 15 tyres allround ,guard space was very limited on the front . After a brief test drive , I decided to replace front tyres with the original 205 50 15 as I "Sliced 20cm of outer tyre edge when coming back thru gutter ".No futher adjustments were made due to time factor. In the future ,a set of 225 50 15 or 225 55 15 will be tried with more + castor degrees . Plenty of discussion about toe-in opposed to toe-out .In the end procrastination won.We decided on going nuetral [O ] The most pleasing aspect of this set up was the tie rods DID NOT have to be altered. At this stage I am pretty happy with the setup BUT as they say ' proof is in the eating of the pudding' so MONDAYs testing will be interesting.

Blast, just read previous message. I will probably need to extend tie rod length. Perhaps I am being to optimistic about racing at Winton on Monday

Well I have just three days to fit and adjust camber and castor redesigned lower control arms and castor bar. I have rose jointed lower control arms .My description of this will probably be crap ,so at a latter date I hope to include some photos. I decided on filling in the LCA mounting bolt bush area . Manufactured a solid bush[?] and pressed it into the LCA transverse bushing space . Drilled and threaded this solid bushing to accomadate a 5/8'' rose joint .At this stage everything was looking OK. Someone had mentioned that approx. 10mm was needed for every 1 degree of camber adjustment. I discovered I already had 45mm, so V'd out bushing to remove 17mm, hoping to attain 3 degree neg. camber min.The solid bushing was then welded into place. The existing transverse link mounting bolt bushing was cut and used as spacers either side of the rose joint . When attempting to find a easy quick fix for my positive castor problem, i.e. lack of + castor, I discovered that a ford XB castor arm is very close in angle and has more length and diameter than the datto . Drilled two new mounting holes and then cut more thread [original datto diameter size] so as to have a fully adjustable castor arm using the existing tension rod bushings. Hopefully this has eliminated any weakness that might have occurred if I had cut and welded the castor tension rod. Finally take the Z to my Goodyear man to set up the desired degrees of camber and castor. Now only time will tell if this will firstly go together , and with a lot of luck help my Z corner at pace. Good luck deciphering this.

My apologies to everyone on taking so long to update the suspension situation. Work is interfering with recreation time. Note to self, try and erradicate work. Since my last post, I have bought and fitted 350LB front king springs and 300LB rear king springs. Readjusted the front sway bar to softest setting. Placed the rear medium compound Kumho tyres on the front and refitted old hard semi-slicks to the rear. With this setup I have completed approx 250km around Winton long and short tracks. The front tyres are wearing very well and the car is certainly more stable and faster around corners. There is definately less understeer. My intention is to take off lower control arms and rose-joint them. Hopefully be able to adjust camber out to 3 to 4 degrees. In conjunction with negative camber I intend to set castor 1 degree positive for every camber degree. I will leave the konis set at fully soft front and fully firm rear at this stage. Hopefully this setup will be tested in January sometime and I will forward results. Thanks again we are heading in the right direction even though only in small steps.

My kumho tyres are V70A, I think I would have to set them alight to get them to 96 degrees C.I am afraid I don't know my cars caster, what is usually recommended{ how long is a piece of string], approx. ball park starting point would help.

Well I have tallied the posts up and so far the good and relevant information concerning this topic come in at 21 , the old women bitching about non relevant stuff totals 15 . Perhaps the moderators should cull these and just let relevant ideas , good or bad, be listed.Thankyou to those that stuck to the topic. A...change tyre brand - go lower profile B....adjust front sway bar to softest position C....replace king springs with 300lbs alround D....toe out 2mm E....run neg. camber to 2.5 to 3 degrees F....start tyre pressure at 24 psi , work up 2 psi at a time G....remove rear sway bar Give me your positive opinions ,or constructive criticism with reasons, thanks again Steve

Zeddophile, I don't use the Z as a road car due to the 'neither your arse nor your elbow theory'. In answer to body roll , I bought a 26mm 3 way adjustable front sway bar [ set at med. ] made and installed front adjustable strut bar, hoping this would help.I think it did, but must admit when cornering I'm concentrating onbraking,correct line and timing exit acceleration, than noticing bodyroll.Hell I only picked it up at DECA due to photos posted.I will write alist of what I've learnt. People can agree or disagree on the order/priority/ or do the lot information

Gentlemens ,great response so far,hopefully by the time we collate ,decipher and eradicate we will have some concrete and accurate race suspension requirements for the beginner to motor sport.Now to answer some queeries.Tyre temp. after 5 laps of Winton long track , recording 1min 50 sec.laps,inside temp. 47 degrees ,outside 53 degrees. The wear pattern was pretty even across tyres slightly less inside, outside had scollaping and eventually chunked off pieces 1cm down side wall , only on left tyre.The tyres were completely stuffed after approx. 200kms of which 130 were track wear.My Z is running a 3.9 lsd diff. The springs are 160lbs front and 170lbs rear. The only time I could get any rear drift was steering around the long left hand sweeper with throttle, the set up then was fully hard front and half a turn less on rear konis,which seems to be a... about .I feel that the starting point should be 3 to 4.5 degrees neg. camber, lowest front sway bar setting.Does anyone know about toe out ?

M..S..Bluz, do you know Ash's username,I was told toe in on rear and toe out on front [my car is running 2 degrees toe in , front]

Stevo, tried your suggestion couldn't find much info on wheel camber, toe in or out, tyre pressure[i use cold 30 psi , hot 35psi approx.] ,spring poundage.....just remembered I have 4 degrees toe in on rear .I will keep searching using different phrases...thanks

Firstly my Z is a 260 2+2[v6 chev motor] with lowered king springs, koni adjustable shocks,1/2 roll cage, strut bar , rear 20 mm sway bar and 26mm front sway bar set in medium position.I am running 15 x 7 inch rims with soft kumho front and med. rear semi slicks.I tried soft front with stiff rear ,then stiff front and soft rear on konis with very little cornering difference.Hopefully someone with race setup experience can help me overcome extreme front tyre scrubbing, due to car wanting to plough straight ahead when cornering and advise me on front end wheel set up in conjunction with the suspension that I have or should have. Seeking your race setup knowledge, thanks to all that answer....Steve

Well ALTER ..err..zzz8 , I haven't seen any times as yet, but I'm sure they will be my PB[ sorry olympic overload] ,as for the number of dattos 5 pre '75 but a very good number of very enthusiastic 300 zx guys and girls .They had a ball, there were some handy steerers amongst them.I think my body roll has more to do with insufficient sway bar strenght [ ridgidity ] than spring poundage. Spings are working individually ,whereas a swaybar twists , so actually is helped by both actions .Somebody with more knowledge will hopefully confirm this or I have just wasted some money on a 26mm front bar.My car was running 20mm front and back.Do you know if there are any other days like DECA in Vic or other states,as I would love my kids to learn some car handling skills in what is a very safe environment.

Does a 240 front brace fit a 260, if so would you take $200

I am a new guy , if you call 52 yrs new,just starting to have fun racing[ at my pace], have only competed at winton in a fun day and the deca day.The bad thing is I am finding it highly addictive.I purchased my 260 2+2 from Q'ld and have since fitted 1/2 roll cage ,fully adjustable koni suspension[still getting a lot of roll front end ], hilux 4 spot on front disc,sports seats[mainly for comfort,OLD BACK],15 x 7superlites,kumho semi slicks and a bonnet with a scoop to accomadate a larger filter so the stock V6 chev can breathe , oh I nearly forgot the LSD diff that your members suggested[i just installed that last week]I hope this somewhat satisfies your curiosity LOL.If I could work a computer I would down load a pic,you will find one in the FPV xr8 club site under deca day....P.S...I have heaps to learn,hopefully they are wrong about OLD DOGS

Would highly recommend competing in a skid pan and 'go to whoa' day at deca in Shepparton.Last Sunday 17 Aug. there was action aplenty for all of the family to participate in and watch.I have not seen the final times as yet but am confident that the 'zeds' and dattos aquitted themselves extremely well,hopefully producing better times than the FORDS.The day was run jointly by THE FPV XR8 CLUB of Vic. and the NDSOC ,all events went smoothly and were tremendous fun.This was my first attempt at this event , IT WAS A BLAST.My only dissapointment was not entering the "VB" shoot out....yours chev z

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, I have purchased a r200 clutch pack LSD 3.9diff with dr30 drive shafts and tail shaft flange.The price [hopefully] is OK $ 850 + postage.You pointed me in the right direction, it was at OZDAT ......might see some of you at WINTON this weekend[26..27 july] , looking on only at this stage. thanks again STEVE

G'day guys , this is my first posting .I have a 260 2+2 that I raced[?] for the first time at the last Winton fun day, I am considering a LSD , mini spool or diff weld option for my car.The Z has a 4.3lt chev v6 motor, T5 trans and fully adjustable race suspension[ motor stock about 170rwhp] Your thoughts and ideas would be appreciated...chev z.......P.S very new to this sport