congrats!! new wheels paid off haha. very inpressive Z

Thanks much, was your roadster present at the show? You guys had a pretty good turn out this year, was happy to see all the variations.



Thanks! I definitely don't go to these things for the awards, I can't comprehend reading about some of the owners complaining about the judging and expecting / feeling entitled to the trophies... ironic that a garage rigged car like mine actually placed at a show of this caliber. I was just happy to make the 200 mile trip without a catastrophe

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Finally have some detailed shots since acquiring the wheels, pics taken on top of a Japanese toge mountaintop in Osaka........ I wish, it's just some hill top park near San Marcos, CA

Photo credits to photographer Tim Wong, he's in the southern california region and has a genuine passion for all automobiles. I've known him for a while and would recommend his service to anyone, very flexible scheduling, and reasonable pricing. His blog: timscribbles.com

My s30 is full of cosmetic flaws here and there, relatively dirty engine bay, but it gets driven hard at times and I enjoy it this way.

Few of my favorite shots:

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Looks absolutely stunning.

I'm impressed

Well done on an awesome car.

Simon

Thanks bud!

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I know how you feel, having just won a similar award, right down to the avoidance of catastrophe.

Your S30 is a beaut.

lovely car, the "DevilZ" caught my attention and I had to take a look at your thread since the posting of that movie last week, lol



I can say the same about my cars, "all go and a bit of paint"....

that being said, get some swirl mark remover for the paint that's left!

^Thanks guys.

First track day in 2 months since the new wheels/fuel pump, fun times, lot of s turns and technical hairpins. The 340 tread wear is sort of like running around full speed wearing sandals on a kitchen tile/wooden floor, next mod is definitely hankook RS-3 tires and front bracing.

Also, I found out that running on 2 out of 3 carbs / 4 out of 6 cylinders is lot like being in permanent 4th gear, with throttle that sounds like a dying v8 hahaha. First timed lap, one of the carb linkage came undone at launch, I drove the whole lap confused and was expecting the worst. Fortunately was an easy fix... any recommendations for a good place to get some aluminum socket arms/linkages for the mikunis? The plastic socket arm had half the threads worn out.

Fingerless leather gloves: Not for everyone but they definitely made gripping the wheel more comfortable on the track, I have a grant racing wheel with plastic like grip that ripped my dehydrated skin off few events ago, spent 20 bucks at leatherglovesonline and couldn't be happier.

On board video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTE0MLYxbVo&hd=1
*Sorry for the shaky cam, I can't afford a gopro

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Loud autocross vid from today, enjoy. http://youtu.be/6VRsmCkJkt4?hd=1

Sunny weather in December you say? San Diego

*Did an ignition tune up and got me some of taylor-pro wires.. thicker gauge, looks nice, lot less resistance in them from what I've read (something like almost 800ohms less). My only complaint about them is the boot side connectors are poorly designed and get sunken in. The car did seem lot happier with new distributor caps/rotor/wires though.




Still trying to source some decent linkages for the triple carbs.

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i have those wires as well. i feel the same way about the connectors haha. they seem to work great though

New year's update, installed the Cusco bracing I got for Christmas, fits like a condom. On the driver's side, one of the strut bolt/nut was rusted on and I think I may have 'broken' something inside when I over torqued it loose... eventually I got it off but the stud seems to spin a bit with the nut on.. Hopefully it won't affect the shock operations.

Polished the air horns too a bit, to match the shiny new part.




I originally wanted the triangular, one piece brace from Top End Performance, since I already have their rear brace and liked the design of it. However reading reviews from other buyers, it fits like complete shit which I totally believe, since the rear brace I got from them had horrible measurements. I wish they had better quality control, but from what I hear they just blame on your car 'being out of alignment.'

I call bullshit, the Cusco piece went on just fine with a slight lift for the preload, and it looks pretty sturdy. It'll be interesting to gauge it's effectiveness at the next autoX.




I've also been thinking about ways to support the urethane air dam better, the sag in the middle is more prominent now and I need it to be straight again, for better air dispersion and also aesthetics. After looking at varieties of bracing and bracket ideas online, I came to a conclusion that reinforcing it with a bottom splitter, and bracing the splitter to the body will work the best.








Instead of sheet metal, I'm going to go check out a ABS plastic sheet at a local shop this week, and judge how rigid it is at 1/8" or 3/16". Also, I've been reading on how restrictive those flat weber air horn screens are.... never really liked the way they looked either, so I'll be either sourcing or making dome shaped screen filter.

Hopefully I'll have another update coming soon with the splitter/air screen completed, will update on the results and the drive experience!

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One of the cleanest S30 I've seen recently.

I'm assuming you bought this in Cali? I may take a trip out there when its time to start another build.

Yup, Cali owned as far as I know. I think I may be the 3rd of 4th owner but not 100% sure, the dry climate here makes a good hunting ground for projects as you said.


This lip/splash guard project took way longer than I thought it would... almost a whole month since I could only find few hours during weekends to move forward. I've changed the design on bracing several times, and finally came up with something that I liked.

I documented pictures of the progress over the weeks, hopefully this could spark some new ideas to you other s30 guys. Most examples of s30/xenon air dam bracing I've found online seemed to only reinforce the top portion to the nose bracket. What I tried to do was find out why/where the flex was happening, and counter it using minimal hardware mess.

The materials I used are: ABS plastic sheet 3/16", 1/8" aluminum panel, 1/4" aluminum rod, rubber stripping, lots of bolts, and two pairs of steel brackets.

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At first I thought the sag on the air dam was mainly vertical/gravity induced, due to the flex in the urethane and going through heat cycles from the hot weather. But looking at it closely, evidenced by the stress cracks on the corners, and design of the aero, it actually seems to be more to do with wind resistance pushing down the air dam at a 45 degree angle.

When I held it up vertically it did help with the sag, but not completely until I also pulled it forward to the front of the car at an angle. The top portion where others have fabbed sheet metal or aluminum into - is actually pretty sturdy and has nice thick urethane going all the way across, definitely not the root of the problem.




The thought behind my bracing was to counter where the stress was coming from, to have a forward pushing brace at an angle to offset the wind resistance that's stressing the part.

I outlined the outer edge of the air dam on cardboard, made the template, and cut out roughly similar size plastic. I then positioned it inch higher so it'll give a 1" lip at the arc, and naturally decreasing radius along the edges.

Test fitting:








Drilled holes along the little fold of the air dam:








Rubber stripping applied to the outer edge for a smooth look:












Reinforcing the rear of the splash shield to reduce flex, and also to use as a mounting point for bracing:








At this point, I think it was into the second week, and trying to find different ideas on bracing.

My initial thought was just attaching a L shaped bracket where the horns are mounted, straight down. It's simple and would've worked, but it would also look ugly having two brackets coming down that's visible through the opening.

The second idea, was a picture I came across on a BMW forum, where this guy 'sandwiched' two brackets to slip in the rear of the splitter into the slot. I liked the horizontal reinforcement part of it, but couldn't really find a suitable mounting position without making a too big of a L bracket.

So I decided to go with a supporting rod design, which I haven't seen around, and instead of spending a fortune of $80 on APR support rods that are just millimeters, I made my own out of aluminum rods


Cut and drilled, polished little bit to give it some shine:








By having hinges where I can adjust the angle, I was able to preload it a bit and lift/position the splash guard into where I wanted. Results in almost an inch in difference from positioning to test fit. (the brackets along with the stabilizer bolts were eventually spray painted black as seen below)



View from the top, the receiving end of the rod/brace was attached to one of the swaybar bracket bolts.




Crummy over exposed pictures, but this is the end result, very minimal sag, completely rigid when pushed from the front (vs. before with having nothing underneath, it would flex a good inch).








One last engine bay shot before sunset

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updates from last weekend/this weekend:

Rejetted the carbs with slightly bigger jets, as per Todd@Wolfcreek's rec, it helped with the rich condition close to redline and gave it a bit more pep at the top end. He's definitely the go-to guy for random mikuni parts as well as advice.

Current set up notes: Bone stock L28 on Mikuni 44's, had few lean spots in mid range and being too rich after 5000 rpm, went from:

200 air
145 main
52.5 pilot
45 pump
34 venturi

to

220 air
150 main
55 pilot
45 pump
34 venturi

That seemed to get me what the stock motor can all the way to 5500, after that, it just runs out of cam (as it's supposed to)




Deleted pedal to main rod linkages (total of 4), and replaced with a Lokar throttle cable I had laying around. End result is reducing the inevitable few millimeters of slack from linkage rod sockets, and improved throttle response from 'super awesome' to 'totally awesome.'

Deleted linkages:


Drilled out the socket on pedal, the female end of Lokar cable kit slid in perfectly:



Attached left over L bracket I had laying around.. the concept was ok, and it worked, but the end result appearance had exceeded my threshold of what's considered ghetto... that's saying something considering how I usually do things. It also had a slight movement, can't have that.






So I turned to ebay, went on a blind browsing rampage by searching the word 'brackets', eventually came across a random bracket for a throttle lever for a boat (?), eye balled the picture and went "Hmm that could be made to fit." I only had the following picture on the auction site as reference:




The bracket arrives: Either my visualizing measurement skills on computer screens are at a mutant level, or I'm just lucky, maybe a bit of both I bent the longer part of the T with a hammer to achieve the correct angle for the cable, but the real magic is the mounting holes on the carb lining up with the bracket - what I had planned on doing anyways, but didn't expect it to align this well (also note the curvature to accomodate the fuel line)







Looks pretty OEM to me:



Also made a shorter front plate out of aluminum panels I had left from the splitter project, painted it with a black roll cage paint. Anime readers might get the reference on the license #




Next up is some air horn filter screens, and hopefully lots of driving for a while before I go with hotter cams / tires combo.

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Nice Job, loving the colour/stance too

I hope my Z looks that good when its done

First real world test of the splash guard, looks to be effective; you can easily see the front end holding up more uniformly across without the sag, even with wind resistance. Not to mention the extruding lip portion did a nice job of slashing cones out of the way


November 2012, BEFORE any bracing to the air dam:




March 2013, AFTER the splash guard mod:




More pics from this past weekend, shared the car with another Z club member. As you can see in the bottom pics, the gawd damn hood kept popping up during tight hairpin turns, I think mainly due to the hood weather strip I added on the firewall side.

Could also be that different parts of the chassis are flexing, altered by adding the front strut bar? Eitherway, I fixed it after I got home by adjusting the hood alignment itself along with the latch. It was annoying as shit though, while you're trying to race.

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That looks really good being driven hard!!!

That ride looks amazing and love the pics of it being driven

^Thanks guys, the Z took the beating well considering two of us were riding her, double the lap counts. Here's a vid of one of my 'cleaner' runs: http://youtu.be/fVtbfaikzi4

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More carb tuning today, got it pretty much dialed in but I'm definitely in need of a mild cam soon, runs out of breath around 5700 rpm. It pulls good but it need something 'extra', maybe even a 3.9 diff.

Jet log, specs for : L28 N42/N47 maxima head, estimated compression R: 8.7:1, running on Mikuni 44's.

Came with:

200 air
145 main
52.5 pilot
45 pump
34 venturi

Tried: (220 air made it run like crap, also tried 57.5 pilots and made no difference, still required 2+ turns on pilots)

220 air
150 main
55 pilot
45 pump
34 venturi

Now (going way bigger on the pilots definitely helped, I can maintain idle at 1.5 turns out now, as it should. Feels better off the line)

200 air
150 main
62.5 pilot
45 pump
34 venturi


I've been running around with open air horns ever since I realized how crap those flat screen filters were, finally pulled the trigger on these:



The idea is that the dome / spherical shape is ~2x surface area vs. a flat screen, which theoretically should provide same amount of air flow as open stacks, but with the added benefit of a screen. I figured it was just a matter of time before something got sucked through the ITB's, I can sleep little bit better now.


I ordered the correct sizing for 44/45 carbs, measured the air horns prior to confirm the 50mm diameter. Opened the package, of course it doesn't fit... go figure. It was too loose, even with the adjustable tabs I could never get it snug. The point of spending ridiculous ~80 bucks for these modified 2 dollar tea strainer was the plug and play incentive, but oh well.

I played with it little bit, applied some 3m double sided trim tape I had lying around after cutting it to shape, it fit in nice and snug with the adhesive securing them. It ended up working out better, as even if they were able to be snug on their own, I wouldn't trust metal tabs on them being held in at 6500 rpm taking a right hairpin turn.










FYI the next Autocross date got canceled this month, so I should be at the Motorsport Auto show in Orange. Let me know if anyone else from here makes it there, would love to see others' builds in person.

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