LS1 powered S14 with motorplates and modded GTO pan

[SicBastard]

My only complaint about the Performance Trends Engine Anaylyzer software would be it's exhaust system inputs. There's no way to compare try-y to 4-1 headers, which work on completely contradictory reflective wave ideas. The software will only let you input just primary diameter and primary length. I combined my primary and secondary lengths (tri-y) to get a primary diameter for performance trends. Fortunately I also have Larry Meraux's "Pipe Max" software, which goes into minute detail on the entire exhaust system.

[GSXRJJordan]

Yeah I'm definitely going to shoot you a PM (when I have two seconds to do something myself) about Pipemax, since I'm going to be making production FD (and possibly S-chassis) Tri-Y headers for LS6 intake manifold, 23x/23x high-energy cam setups.

[SicBastard]

I'm living in NYC now and to get to my garage in Long Island (only 17 miles away) takes walking a total of 3 miles, 18 stops on the F train, and 45 minutes on a bus. 2:15 each way...

Made the trek yesterday and got a little bit of ugly welding done on my subframe. It penetrated and will hold. That's all that matters right?

[smellslikecurry]

where in nyc dude? i HATE the f train.

[SicBastard]

I'm in Gramercy. Not too far from all the great Indian spice stores on Lexington, and the Tap Room! BTW I'll be at the New York City Homebrewers Giuld meeting this Tuesday at the Burp Castle in the East Village at 7pm if anyone wants to come drink some good beer and talk cars.

[SicBastard]

I bought a custom kit on NRR to make my own toe and traction rods. The kit only requires you to come up with threaded rod and heim joints. Here's one of the kits assembled, traction rods with steel hex.



I was going to go with threaded 7/8" aluminum hex (like the original battle versions), but then the other day I noticed that coleman racing has a new part:



Trailing Arm, Ez-Just - Racing Parts and Products
I like that you get an extra 1/2" of thread engagement per side (even if the tube is split) because you're not using jam nuts.

I was a little confused because the thread sizes are not listed at Coleman. FYI: The trailing arms are 3/4" L&R thread, the tie rod arms are 5/8" thread. At ~$20 ea they are almost twice the price of hex rod, but still not a bad deal. I asked for QA1 rod ends for Christmas, so I might have this rear subframe all together in a few months.

[SicBastard]

Is it just me or do these MAX tension rods have a striking similarity to the coleman pieces?



Now that I look at it the threads on the max part look like at least 0.75", and the clamp looks more beefy too. BTW, mad props to MAX for the most elegantly/functional/lightweight modified stock knuckles I've ever seen! I love it!

[SicBastard]

I've had a lot of trouble getting center of gravity heights. It seems that no one in the nissan world has ever gone through the bother of measuring. But I just heard the quoted CG height of the newish toyobaru GT86 wich has a "low center of gravity of 475mm".
FYI for those messing with their roll-couple calculations. But I think I can do better. We'll see.

That's 18.7"

[Johny5]

Where on NRR was that kit? I need to find myself over there more often it seems! Great reads man, love catching up on this thread. You've got me interested in yanking my FLCA's and RLCA's off and redoing the balljoints with heims since the cars down another couple months

[SicBastard]

Here's a pic of some of the sizes of Toyo RA1s I'm considering.



I originally went with the 275/40/17 (d=652mm) Azenis cuz they are about the shortest/widest/cheapest thing I could find. But lookin towards the future, check out those 315/30/18s (d=648mm)! They're even shorter than my 275s! And the 285/30/18s (d=631mm) are the shortest tires on the whole list, even shorter than the 255/40/17s (d=638mm)that I'm runnin on the front right now!

Now there is always a big (seriously, it's not cool) jump in tire cost going from 17s to 18s, so why is it worth it? A big double whammy of lower CG OR better roll centers (given the same ride height).

You have to devide the tires outer diameter by pi to get their height. And swapping my front 255/40/17 (d=652mm) for the wider/shorter 285/30/18s (d=631mm) would lower my tire height 652mm/pi-631mm/pi= 207.54mm-200.85mm = 6.68mm = 0.263"

The spindle is lowered by half the difference of the tire heights. So 0.263"/2 = 0.132". That's a bit more than an eighth of an inch of roll center correction or better CG, just for changing tires from a skinnier 255/17 to the lower profile 285/18!

Of course it would be even sweeter if they made 30 series 17" rubber, or better yet 15" rubber in something wider than a 225. But nobody does. So if you can afford it. Step up to 18s.

[SicBastard]

I scored $500 of dry sump tank for $135 shipped on ebay! And it even showed up undamaged!



I've been stalking these things forever, but the Nascar surpluss are always 9" or 13" in diameter and usually closer to 4 gallons. This tank is 6"dx21"h and 2.25 gallons. A full gallon bigger than the stock Zo6 tank. That extra 2 gallons in most of the Nascar tanks is 16 lbs and $80/oil change that I don't need. Now I just need to see if I can squeeze that tank in the trunk with my giant 22gallon fuel cell. Cross your fingers for me! The tank is really light at less than 7 lbs dry, but wet it'll be closer to 23lbs. I really don't want that weight in the front of the car. Nor do I want 2+ gallons of 220F oil in the driver compartment, but I may have no choice.

I also got the parts for some of my home-made rear control arms, I'll have a post on those next week.

And in other news, I got engaged, and my homees and I are trying to plan a road-trip/bachelor party from LA, through Vegas, and onto Bonneville for Speedweek! It's August 11-17th this year. I'm hoping the 240 will be done for speedweek 2013. But this year maybe I can make a few licensing runs in a rental!

[Johny5]

Ridiculously cool parts and stuff, keep it up! Congrats on engagement!

[gsracer]

congrats.... jealous on your trip to speed week.

[SicBastard]

Thanks guys! This is going to be a crazy inexpensive trip. And if you love Nissan's enough to follow this thread you're my kinda peeps. Flights to meet the Winnabago caravan should be WELL under $500 in the middle of August to either Vegas or LA from anywhere in the US, and I'm calculating less than $140 per person in gas at 8 mpg. So if you're interested there's a thread on the trip here. Bachelor PArty to End All!!

Consider yourself invited.

Presuming we can find a 5.0 Mustang Rental Car how fast do think we can go!?

[SicBastard]

I was worried that there wouldn't be room for the ATL 22b fuel cell AND the dry sump tank both in the trunk. There actually is room to have both the dry sump tank and my huge fuel cell in the trunk even with the fuel cell centered. For cross weight balance it might be beneficial to have the fuel cell offset a little but then my cross weights will change as fuel is used. I guess that's true even if it's centered! What do you guys think?

Lots of room. On both sides



My DIY toe and traction rods are complete too.





I've been rethinking a few things too. Originally I was going to raise the fuel cell a few inches so that I could start the diffuser at the rear center axle, but now I'm thinking that extra rear downforce is easy to get with a bit more wing, but a lower CG you have to really fight for. So the fuel cell is going to drop a bit, and the diffuser ramp will have to start a little later.

Here's the solution that the famous BRE came up with

that huge thing where the rear passenger side seat used to be is a box to hold the dry sump. Definitely a lower PMOI than my trunk solution, but with corner exit and balance in the sweepers a greater priority in my time attack (not autocross) car, I think the better weight distribution in the trunk is the way to go. Plus it's a little less butchering, and a little less weight.

[kingkilburn]

How about two smaller oil tanks on either side of the trunk? Or move the cell rearward and put the oil tank in front of it.

[GSXRJJordan]

The BRE car is famous? I like those guys, Tex helped Conrad a bunch last year on the East Coast, but I didn't even know that car had driven under it's own power.

Anyway, I'd put the dry sump tank on the side opposite your seat to balance the corner weights a bit. Keeping the fuel cell centered is the easiest.

[SicBastard]

Originally Posted by GSXRJJordan

...I'd put the dry sump tank on the side opposite your seat to balance the corner weights a bit. Keeping the fuel cell centered is the easiest.

This is what I'm leaning towards. I've got to double check the s-chassis corner weights that I've collected over the years and see how balanced/out-of-whack they are before I make up my mind. I presumed it was Brock Racing Enterprises of datsun fame? Is the light blue BRE car a different BRE?

[GSXRJJordan]

S-chassis corner weights vary greatly based on engine, suspension (drift cars with weird ride heights/reverse rake can be rear-biased), cage structure up front and out back, etc. Best to put your car on scales if you can before you make the lines, in case you want to move it. Matt Powers ran his in the BRE location, back passenger seat, but then had to make a firewall/box... I don't know how serious you want to get with all that.

BTW, BRE = BREMotorsports.com - Home

[SicBastard]

Anybody going to the NYC auto show this week?

I've spent another 2 days or so working on the rear subframe... Feels like it's never going to end.

In other news I may be replacing my custom/OMP extended shifter with this:

My Uncle goes into surgery later this month for a replacement, and I have first dibs on the old one!

[Om1kron]

um wow......

[Johny5]

Based off every schassis corner weight I've seen, the cell can actually benefit from favoring pass side for weight reasons and exhaust path restrictions. And your dry sump container would be well of in the passenger side IMO. But Jeffs right, it's all speculation until she's on the scales, I'd but it on before I kept building.

[SicBastard]

Thanks for the input guys. I've recorded every corner weight for an s-chassis that's ever been put on the internet, and nobody seems to have any trouble getting their cross weights where they want them. Because the fuel cell is going to be so low now, I don't think I'll be able to do the blown diffuser any more. I just don't think there's going to be room to have any exhaust behind the rear axle. If I keep the fuel cell centered and the oil tank to the passenger side than my cross weights will stay more stable as I burn fuel, the car will just get more nose heavy. This way I still get a little help on the passenger side but don't have constantly changing cross weights.

I've read that a side exhaust can be extremely functional as well, becuase it energizes the air on the side of the car, helping to prevent the air from getting pulled under the sides and diluting any low pressure there. I'm looking into this since I've decided to drop the fuel cell so low.

[kingkilburn]

Short X pipe to cherry bombs then dump behind front wheel. At the least it will look and sound mean as hell.

[SicBastard]

Instead of an x-pipe and cherry bombs I'm planning a single large expansion chamber running most of the length of the drive shaft that will have some sound absorption properties. Then coming back forward through where the split s14 fuel tank used to sit below the bottom of the back seats, maybe boom tube style exits as far forward of the rear wheels as I can pull off without loosing ground clearance.

[SicBastard]

HELP! IS MY STEERING SHAFT/COLUMN TOO SHORT?

I'm trying to get my steering hooked up so I can get the car on the trailer. The universal joint had a notchy feel to it so at $80 I bought a new OEM Nissan universal joint, only to find that it too is notchy . I've had everything apart multiple times. But now I can't get the steering shaft to slide far enough into the universal joint. I've triple checked everything I can think of. This car/chassis has never been raced or crashed.

1. The steering shaft is solidly bolted to the firewall
2. The steering rack bushings are in and look good.
3. The front crossmember is not spaced and bolted in solidly


It looks like I need the shaft/column to come another full inch towards the rack!



The only thing I can think of is that perhaps I inadvertantly collapsed the steering shaft; I had it standing on end while it was out of the car. But I pulled on it as hard as I could (no jokes plz) and it doesn't move. I pulled down that white rubber looking boot and it looks like there are some splines there. Is that where the column collapses? Any other ideas?


Just a side note. I weighed the steering shaft while it was out of the car and it is surprisingly heavy at 24 lbs. I'd love to replace it with an aluminum racing shaft, but that isn't in the budget right now.

[GSXRJJordan]

It's collapsed. Steel shaft wouldn't be too pricey (most of the cost is in the quick-release on the other end), just the shaft, a universal for the bottom, and the heim joint at the top.

[SicBastard]

I'm moving in a few weeks so I just need to get it hooked up for now to get it on the trailer. Do you think if I put some vice-grips on there and go to town with a hammer on the vice-grips that I can get it to come out? Maybe a little penetrating oil and heat? Did I ruin it?

After I weighed that bitch there is no way it's staying permenantly.

You're right that a steel shaft isn't too pricey, but the collapsable aftermarket ones are $$$. Do you think that the collapsable ones are necessary for safety? Having a big solid spear pointed at my chest wigs me out.

[Walperstyle]

I've been building my KA-T project for just as long, yet have so much less to show for. ...and I've probably spent the same, lol.

If I had to do it again, V8 for sure. I'm 'pot commited' to my KA-T right now.

[GSXRJJordan]

If you're harnessed, a non-collapsible one is fine, your chest should never come that close to the shaft. If you need something that quick, just go get another stocker from a junkyard or whatever.

That being said, penetrating oil and some heat and it should come right out.