KatoKid

Here's the Kempower speed simulator. Cant beleive I paid so much for a little box with a few wires coming out of it! Still, much easier than frickin around with diffs n dash's.

Thanks Mossy, but need a refill which I will get tomorrow anyway. Cheers

John. I was actually looking forward to the challenge of using the BMW diff but in the end there were too many things that stacked up against the conversion: 1. Desireable ratios are very hard and expensive to come by for the BMW diffs. 2. Weight: The M3 Evo diff is the biggest diff BMW use in any model, its overkill for a light weight Z. 3. I don't need to make it any harder to get the engineers to sign off, it will be tough enough as is! 4. Cost of custom CV shafts etc 5. The Kempower simulator, while it took ages to find is an easy alternative. Just didn't make common sense.

Adam, Its a beautiful problem to have to choose which of the kids (and wife) to take for a spin. You are a very fortunate man. Time will happen if you make it. David

I'm using the BMW tailshaft that has the rubber guibo joint at the front and a CV joint at the rear so needed an adapter to bolt the CV to the pinion flange of the R200. Ron Tyler (RTz on Hybridz) came through again and sent me drawings of the adapter he made and I took this and the diffs and tailshaft to Rob C at Robco. Suffice to say Rob has done a great job again. Included a comparative photo of the BMW M3 Evo diff next to the R200...its a big bastard! Rob C called it an R300 after lifting it onto the work bench a few times. I was contemplating using the M3 diff as the ECU needs the road speed signal from the sensor on the rear diff cover which is sent to the dash (for the speedo signal) before it is modified from a simple square wave to a signal that the ECU can use. If the ECU doesn't see this signal it goes into a limp mode with reduced RPM's, the signal is also the 155mph speed limiter. In the end I found a company in Belgium that makes a box that produces a synthetic signal for the ECU that also removes the speed limiter http://www.kempower.be/Electronic%20devices/BMW%20M%20speed%20simulation.htm The speed simulator isn't cheap but without a donor car and an oscilloscope there was no way for me to reproduce the modified signal and while I could make the BMW diff fit the cost of custom CV shafts and the extra weight and attention this would attract at Rego engineering time just wasn't worth it.

Got the patch in the firewall mostly welded in and then promptly ran out of gas! Damn. Just need to do the plug welds to the apron and its done.

Congrats Adam.......you got a name yet? Something like Enzo, Ferdinand or Henry!

Hey Craig, great news very "pumped" for you! Pls post driving impressions ASAP, better still come to my place Saturday for the post cruise BBQ....even if you cant cruise.

I looked at Craig's photos and his lines from the power head to the rack are correct and then I started fairly shivering myself that the whole concept of turning the power head on the rack 180 degrees was an issue. Just spoke with Craig and it turns out he has his high pressure and low pressure lines from the pump the wrong way around. I took a shot of my rack when I first got it and you can see the high pressure is the smaller diameter line that goes in the lower port and the low pressure (no flare nut on the end that goes to the reservoir) is the larger line that goes in the top port. Phew!

Isn't Benny's car a 240 and you need a 260 for the test?

Ha, wont be able to call it a muscle car anymore Craig!

I will have BBQ, with bangers, burgers n bread ready to go for the hungry crew. Bring your own drinks and I will have some ice on hand. Weather forecast looks great!

+1 Roberto, nothing worse than seeing a great engine sitting in a tacky engine bay. You wont regret the extra effort one bit!

Thanks guys. As you know John, my daughter is quite demanding of my time so its hard to sneak out in to the shed undisturbed! This is a few days worth of update! Lurchos, those tin men are unbelievable....that HK 1/4 is amazing. I admire their skills very much, a true test of how good someone is at something is how easy they make it look and they do that in spades. I was going to make a puckering tool but ended up using a claw hammer initially but once you start working the metal it gets more maleable and I ended up getting better puckers using pointy nose vice grips. Jamo,thanks for the input on the tray and muffler hanging points....makes me feel much better!

More....

I had seen some of the tutorials by Peach and Tommasini on the Gasolene show on TV http://www.gasolene.tv/component/option,com_jvideodirect/Itemid,2/v,kUr5jJSAr7Gzr/ and they make it look so easy so I thought Id have a crack at fabricating the replacement section of the battery tray without just resorting to cutting sections out of the inside radius of the 90 degree lip which meets the firewall. This method entails putting a "pucker" in the radius section and then locking the pucker in with hammer strokes and then shrinking the metal which then pulls a curve into the lip. Hard to explain if you haven't seen it done and even harder to put into practice! In the end it took probably half to three quarters of an hour but the end result was pretty good. I then traced out the old section and spent ages getting the new piece to fit in place as there were compound curves which made it really interesting. Finally got it fitting well before tacking and final weld and finish.

Been dreading the next job which was the battery tray and firewall area. Its reasonably solid with some bigger holes were I had to drill out the spot welds were the tray was attached but had lots of pin holes and the spot welds that held the skirt to the firewall were completely gone. The firewall itself looked OK on the inside until you had a good close look and there was plenty of small pin holes only covered by the paint so it was time to cut out the rusted firewall and battery tray sections.

Next was the reinforcement bracket at the bottom of the radiator support panel where it meets the chassis rail. Just a bit of rust evident but wasn't happy to leave it, took some effort to get off due to its location and I will make a new one once its blasted and I get to see how much good metal Ive got to work with.

One more...

Aw shucks Mick, you're making me blush now! Thanks for the compliments. The shell is back on the rotisserie so I can finish the last few rust repairs that I'm happy to tackle before it goes to the media blasters. Don't know how the rear muffler is hung from the chassis rail at the factory but mine looks more like Swiss cheese due to self tappers pulling chunks from the rail. Cut out the dud bits and welded in some 1.6 plate with captive nuts....much gooder.

Im sure it will all be worth it!

Ooooooohh my precious shiny things! As they say...there ain't no replacement for displacement. Is there such a thing as too much horsepower?

Craig, rather than belt the chassis rails for clearance move the base of the column where it goes through the firewall. Old trick form the days of swapping SBC into LC/LJ Torana. Just have to redrill the holes in the plate at the base of the colmun where the bolts go through. Much easier and more "legal" than modifying the rail. DF.

Thanks Gareth, Im going to roll front and rear anyway

16 x 8 with 0 offset. Hope they fit.