Oil Catch Can

I don’t want anyone thinking that this is a Z blog, so I’ll include something else. Here’s an Oil Catch Tank we made a little while back. There’s baffling and a lot of mesh to separate the oil and gasses. Making the breather hole on top was pretty fun.

Project Z Goes Belly Up

According to Mr. Wakita, "we're not doing a full restoration project, so don't really need to buy/build a rotisserie." Which is true. In our day-to-day operation, we don’t really need something like that. But it’s almost necessary to flip the car to install the rear subframe. So we flipped the car, and put it on the lift.

In hind sight, it would’ve been great to hold off mounting the front subframe until now. But then again, we weren’t planning on flipping it until Friday.

Got Camber?

We're almost done with the front. Well, actually, we're done with everything but the front shocks. As can be seen in the picture, the lower shock mount needs to be extended "a little" to add ride height and fix the camber issue.

Here's the completed view of the passenger side suspension. For now, we've installed stock shocks w/ no springs until we decide on a set of coilovers to use. Tomorrow we'll be starting on the rear subframe. That ought to be easy...

Even with a KA...

Nissan really should've brought these over... even if it had a KA, QR, whatever. They're great cars. The Spec.R Aero package makes it even more desirable.

and no, we are NOT putting a KA24 in this car.

Front Suspension Finally Completed...

Almost... I guess. As seen in the pic, we've completed all of the control arms, and their mounting points. Turned out pretty good. We still have to mount the coilovers to complete the front suspension, but I can't think of a single company that make coilovers for a 280Z with a 240SX subframe. I guess that means we have to make more stuff. Here's what we did...

Here's the shock mount we made to fit the Z. To get this finished product in this picture, we had to make several alignment tools and a punch.

Here's the pic of the upper shock mount and the punch we made. It's an interesting exercise in manufacturing.

More on the VK56

This is the VK56 we'll be putting in the Rolls. Internally, it's been modified in three ways: Forged Pistons, Rods, and it's been Ported and Polished. Externally, though, there's a whole lot of work that went into it. All of the accesories are from the Rolls/BMW V12; AC compressor for the climate control to work properly, PS pump 'cause it also controls the ride control, and the Alternator just for fun.


The VK56, like the VQ35, has a cam angle sensor and a crank angle sensor. We didn't really like that look, so we plugged it up.


And we put a custom Cam Angle Sensor sourced from various Nissan parts. Without giving too much away, here's what we did.

1.6L Turbo

Yes, it's a Miata motor. But what's that hanging off the side of the motor? That would be a Mitsubishi Evo turbo (that's a TD05H). Internally, the motor is stock, but it's a low mileage AT motor (9:1 compresion).

We'll see how much abuse it can take with nothing but a good tune.

Blue R34

Here's another R34 we're working on. This one isn't quite stock at all... See below.

Yea, definately not stock

Black R34

I think this is the first time I've seen a R34 in the States that was stock ride height. It's been lowered since the picture.

Do Luck Cage for the S13 Hatch

We're doing a Do Luck cage install on a 240SX (as you can tell by the title). I've seen this cage installed on several cars before. I guess I've never paid attention to the fact that they were all RHD cars.

To most, incluiding myself, this does not seem like a big deal. The RHD and LHD cars are essentially the same car (minus the engine and the fact that the steering wheel's on the opposite side). There's one VERY critical difference that I had overlooked--seatbelts.

In the late 80's the US government mandated cars to be equipped with SRS (Supplemental Restraint Systems). Airbags were a luxurious item to have on a car back in the day, so some manufacturers decided it would be cool to have automatically retracting seatbelts. The 240SX was a victim of that era. That's enough of a history lesson for today.

The question is, what does this mean to anyone trying to install this cage? See below picture:

That gaping hole is where the lap belt sits in. Not that difficult, but annoying.

In addition, I had one more concern. Notice the footprint of the cage in the trunk. There are no preexisting mounting holes (RHD or LHD). Upon careful translation of the manual (it looks like a 3rd grader drawing), I’ve found Do Luck has designed this cage to be bolted in with 8mm tapping screws! Weak… I’ll be addressing that issue I’d like to call a design flaw.

Best of Both Worlds

There are so many different manufacturers of control arms available today. Aside from the questionable made in China parts, I think these parts offer a great advantage in both adjustability and handling on a RACECAR.

The problem doesn’t surface until several months after the installation—some don't even notice it at all. It all depends on how often you drive the car, but in my experience, 6-8 months is the lifespan expected out of the rod end—this is true regardless of origin or material. I’ve tried just about everything from metal on metal to metal on teflon, Chinese to Aurora, and everything in between. The more you pay, the better they last, but only by a month or two.

What happens, no matter what the bearing/liner is made out of, it's a simple fact of wear and tear. It's metal on metal contact. It has to wear out sometime. But what about the Teflon lined rod ends? They are probably great in theory, but fact is, the lining is not as strong as steel, and they wear out eventually.

I'll try to post some pics of various rod ends I've cut open.

Here’s my solution to get the best of both worlds. A firm, but not jarring, ride with the adjustability of the aftermarket pieces. I guess the downside would be cost. They are a pain to make.

I used the bushing sleeve from a S14 (I think... the wall was thicker than the S13, anyway.) Then I cut the rod end and ground it down to fit flush with the sleeve, and welded it together.

These will get assembled to make a slightly custom tension rod for an S13.

From L to R: A slightly customized Shutoko Engineering Tension rod, Cusco Tension rod, and a stock S13 tension rod.

Drag R32 AWD to 4WD

How to turn a perfectly good all-wheel drive system into a primitive, but effective, 4-wheel drive system. We don’t really recommend this mod for your average street car, but for a purpose-built drag car, it’s pretty effective.

Flat Tire

So, as I was leaving work, I got a flat. Big deal. A bunch of people get flat tires everyday. I’m just in disbelief that a bolt this big could puncture a tire. Made a whole lot of racket, too. Almost sounded like a broken axle as it banged against the inside of my wheel.

I figured it was going to be a big bolt, but wow...

Another Odd Couple

A twin turbo R33 and a twin turbo Bently. I know, the wheels on the R33 are really bad. They are temporary.

The old-school way to fill holes

We've drilled out several brackets to clean up the engine bay (MAF, Battery, etc.) Unfortunately, the removal involved drilling the welds. Here, you see Mr. Wakita is hard at work to fill those unsightly holes.


The almost completed picture. We've drilled a couple dozen holes in the engine bay, so we'll be doing this for a while. Once we get done filling them and finish the spot welding, we'll smooth out the surface.

The Donor Car is Here!

The long awaited Donor 240SX is finally here. We'll be completely stripping out in the coming days.

VK56 Port

A picture of a "slightly" ported VK56 Head. The whole head looks just about identical to the VQ35--just a couple extra cylinders at the end

Odd Couple

It's not everyday you see a Phantom and a G35 side by side on a lift.

Another thing you don't see eveyday: The underside of a RollsRoyce Phantom.

G35 Intercooler

Here's a couple more pics of the G.

Out with the old, in with Reinforcements

Since we're going with the 240SX front suspension and pointing the tension rods forward, we're not going to need these. . .

Besides, there's always a possibility that the old brackets might get in the way when we put the motor in. So we seized the opportunity to make it just a little better: Gussets.

The thought about tying the subframe in with these reinforcements crossed my mind, but unlike Z, the steering rack sits behind the subframe, we don’t have the rack yet, and this car is a street car.

Front Subframe

So. . . we were planning on waiting to install the front subframe into the Z until we had the donor S13, but as you can see, impatience got the best of us. Besides, we have a 240SX w/ no motor out back to take engine bay measurements, and my 240SX we put on the lift to take measurements from underneath.

I was a little unsure about this method of attachment, when you compare it to more modern cars. I guess this is way more that enough once you factor in how the original one bolts up. You can kinda see one of the original mounting hole to the left of the left gusset. (It's a slightly darket shade of gray.) In this set-up, we're using much thicker metal, much more gussets, and much bigger bolts. I think we're ok.

We got done mounting the front subframe today, and tomorrow we're planning on mounting the tension rod brackets. We might cut out the old tension rod brackets that are behind the subframe. We'll see.

G35TT Exhaust

The Exhaust System:

This thing is a street car (AC, Navi, and a lot of power), so we needed to keep the exhast reasonablly quiet. Thus the 2 into 1 back to 2 with the silencer at the collector. This quietened it down a decibel or two, but it's a big exhaust, and there's nothing quiet about this car.

G35TT

Now this is one crazy G35. It's got two HKS 3037S turbos. TWO!!! To put that into perspective, here's the clearance looks like with something like that.

The only way to make this set-up work is to run solid engine mounts. I can't remember where we got the mounts for this car, but it's essentially an aluminum cylinder with a stud sticking out of each side.

And yes, the turbo manifold and downpipe are custom. In fact just about EVERYTHING on this car is custom.

R32-42R

The Weldon Pump in the previous post is for this silver R32 that resides at our shop. It's a pretty serious car: HKS 2.8L, Garrett GT42R, Tomcraft Intake Manifold, Motec Exhaust system... I mean a M800. I'll be here all night if I listed everything that's done to this car.

I began working on this car back in the day when I used to work at RB Motoring (http://rbmotoring.com/). It followed me here for further mods and maintenance.

We dyno'd it a while back... it made 967hp, but it lifted the head a little. Right now we're running it at the wastegate spring pressure, so it's only making a hair over 700hp. (spring pressure happens to be 1.7 bar.) We'll be going with some L19 head studs later. The work never ends.

Weldon Pump is Back!!!

The Weldon fuel pump is back from it's rebuild. Finally!

A couple weeks ago, we were at the Thursday Night Drags @ Irwindale. It was pretty fun 'til the last run, when we had some fuel pump issues.

I'll be on that today, and hopefully, it'll be ready for Irwindale tomorrow.

Project Z

In order to address the issue with the front suspension geometry on the Z, we decided to ditch the whole thing and transplant something a little new that was relatively easily do-able. The idea of a double wishbone setup came to mind, but once we considered the added weight of the engine, we opted for a light and simple strut design from a 240SX (S13.)

Actually, We'll be getting a sacrificial S13 for the build that we'll "borrow" parts from. The actual fabrication process will begin once we get the donor. For now, just a whole lot of measuring, measuring, and some more measuring...

One Very Custom Rolls

Here's another car that we're working on. It's a Rolls Royce with a Phantom head lights etc. Oh, and of course, a nissan motor. We took a motor out of a Nissan Titan (VK56) and built it up for what is to come... 800hp+ of turbocharged abuse.

New shop project

Here'a our new shop project. It's a '75 280z... Doesn't look like much right now, but should be pretty nice when it's done--whenever that may be. Supprisingly, not a whole lot of rust for being what it is. Cosmetically, it looked really bad (doors rusting off with some banged up fenders), but once we started taking everything apart, it's just about immaculate with some minor surface rust and of course, the obligatory hole in the floorboard (not big, though).

The pic is after we stripped 99% of stuff off the car. I wish I had a picture from before the tear-down, but I wasn't thinking.