KatoKid

Hahha....my wife has a long list....and it doesn't include cars!

Was a cracking early morning today so took a few shots.......

If its done properly, that's worth $40 easily.

Zorst matters....one of the most neglected and easiest ways to pick up HP...but it can be a black art.

That is very cool......sorta Chevy Nova II ......but needs more LS!

Geeze....you could make one for that much

Had the same thoughts George.....and have a mate who will probably take this on.

Hi Greg. Front flexible lines were braided steel but same as factory otherwise. Check my build thread for more details where I had to swap calipers from side to side. I've not had experience with proper bias adjustable twin master cylinder pedal box setups but everything I read says they are excellent for modulation but do require a lot more pedal pressure....which you get used to. Mine has a lot of power and is typical of what you would expect in a modern car where little old ladies need to be able to panic stop as well as anyone else and this is not always desirable in a high performance car.

So I've racked up (pun intended) 800 km on my car now with this setup and can say that it it is possibly nearly the best part of my car....it is such a pleasure to drive at any speed: At low speed as in parking situations it has plenty of assist even with a small diameter steering wheel. Driving around the burbs and on the open road it has absolutely no play, good feel on center and on turn in without feeling over assisted or nervous. Has a good turning circle and very quick ratio. Shortening the rack slightly means that there is no tyre rub on the front chassis rail on full lock with max size wheel/tyre combo's. The VASS engineer wanted full details of the mods done to the rack especially maintaining the overall rack width to ensure bump steer is no worse than original! Luckily I had full documentation and photos from this thread which he accepted as proof. The only caveat I would place on this is in regards to pumps: Craig used a Subaru pump, Jamo used an RB Nissan pump and of course mine was a BMW pump. Speaking with power steering specialist they don't believe that pumps will have much influence over performance as most operate in similar volume and pressure ranges. The rack is dumb.....all it needs is volume and pressure and you can buy valves to modulate these if you or the rack aren't happy. For conversions with an engine that doesn't come with an engine driven hydraulic pump then electric assist looks really good....or you could use a electric hydraulic pump over a normal hydraulic rack. Lots of ways to skin a cat !

Unfortunately Dmitri isn't active here anymore but I can confirm 100% that this booster/master combination works very well with upgraded calipers. Really powerful, optimum pedal stroke and easy to modulate. Big tick from me!

Now that my car is fully engineered, registered and legal thought I would update this thread. So do the brakes work....yup. How well....very bloody well! The engineer had no issues withe the mods or fabrication. The braking test required for VASS engineering certification is the same test as the ADR requirement which is 12 x consecutive max stops from 60 kmh followed immediately by 2 x max stops from 100 kmh with the requirement for no sign of fade and consistent stopping. The engineer was very happy with the performance of these brakes when combined with the matching R33 GTS-T master/booster and R31 rears. This is not a bolt on conversion but if you have a competent and reasonably priced machinest this is an excellent and affordable choice. I really wanted the Nissan branded calipers and on the road the feel and power is awesome. I suspect that they will be more than adequate for any track day shenanigans!

I've racked up nearly 800 km now in the car and I'm over the moon with how good this thing is. The only real bug I've had is a quite pronounced vibration that came in bang on 100 kmh. I spent some time on the road and hoist trying to diagnose the issue and was pretty confident it was the tail-shaft and specifically at the diff end not the transmission end. I double checked alignment with lasers both directions and all was good so I took it back to Jeff at Knox driveshafts to have him check the balance. It was out just a little but not enough he said to be causing any noticeable vibration, he did suggest checking the run-out on the shaft insitu as you can have a balanced shaft but excessive run-out will still cause vibrations. My shaft consists of the standard BMW guibo rubber donut at the transmission end and CV at the diff end with an adapter to the R200 pinion flange. At the same time I wanted to go from a 3.7 diff to a 3.54 as the 3.7 was just too frantic (1:1 5th gear). I measured run-out at the rear of the tail-shaft with the 3.7 still in place and found I had 15 thou. Everything on the interwebs said that 5-8 thou was max allowable but I wanted to try the 3.54 diff before worrying about the vibration so thew it in and then checked run-out again.....guess what run-out went to 7.5 thou and a test drive revealed the vibration was completely gone at speeds well over 100 kmh (closed course of course!). Only once I had this sorted did I really appreciate how smooth the car now was, before it had a very subtle vibration that you could barely feel until you hit 100 kmh when it became really pronounced. So why had the run-out halved and the vibration disappeared when I changed diff's? The pinion flange on the 3.7 diff had a 3 thou run-out and that when extrapolated forward the length of the adapter increased to 8 thou and then further forward on the actual tail-shaft resulted in a total of 15 thou....which was enough to cause the vibration. Im sure the 3 thou at the pinion flange on the 3.7 diff wouldn't be an issue in the standard Z set up but it certainly caused an issue for me! Anyway good to have the vibration fixed.....until I noticed a pool of oil under the car after a test drive and a closer inspection revealed the pinion seal was pissing out a quick trip to Bayswater Bearing secured a new seal. Undoing the pinion nut bent my breaker bar and once I managed to get the flange off I removed the seal....only to find a second seal in behind the first one. I've seen some bodgy shit in my life but seriously..... one seal rammed in on top of another? ? The 3.54 diff is certainly a more usable ratio then the 3.7 but I still might try a 3.36. Once I have ratios sorted I will invest in a suitable LSD as at the moment the lack of grip is ridiculous

The panel shop that I used spent countless hours trying to get the front end aligned and all gaps as good as possible. Its better than factory in the end but even they said it was the hardest car they have ever had to work on.

Yep, Speedhut here.

May get there for a look but no Z

Steering arms are marked L and R. Control arms are not, you place them so that the longer side of the pivot bush is to the rear....same as your photo which would then make this for RHS of the car.

Yep, pretty confident it will be a wash out.

Jesus....he's alive!

Sounds good. Marc, you're in the west?

Thanks guys, I'm happy with the look. Ended up with Bridgestone Potenza RE003. They are on special with a buy 4 get one free deal so was pretty attractive. I originally got 225/50/16's as all the research I did said that these would fit but no way.......my car sits very low with the MCA coil overs and the RE003's have very square shoulders so I had interference on the lip (rolled) of the rear guards and the back edge of the front valance panel so I had to go down in size which actually looks better as it looked over tyred with the 225's....looked like a Matchbox car!

Not as yet. Lets see who else is entered and fix a mutually agreeable spot a couple of days out.

Anyone going to this: http://www.classicjapan.org.au/ I've entered so would be cool to get a few Z's together David

So my motivation to complete the car was to have it ready for the Vic BBQ which was today. The car was ready but the weather wasn't and I've vowed that it will be a dry weather only car and not even washed with water....I've got too much tied up in this and want it to last for another 40+ years! I took some photos with my wheels of choice a few weeks ago, the day was pretty dull so they aren't great photos. The wheels are XXR 513 16 x 8 +0 and will probably polarize people....I like Wat's for sure but wanted something a bit different. Cheers

Only recommendation I have is in Ringwood which is more than 15km. http://quickdrive-automotive-repairs-pty-ltd.business.site/

Thanks Gordo for putting on a great day again.....shame about the weather as I didn't want to give the new baby a bath just yet. Great to catch up with old acquaintances and new.