Yeah $660 is definitely excessive. My car has limited rust underneath and is just about to pass 100k, but the roads here tend to be salty in winter, as can be seen in the pictures.

It is likely not going to be a fun job, but if you take your time with it, it should be fine. I would personally plan to be without a car for several days and make arrangements before starting the job, if it is your second car or transport is not an issue then its no problem. The job itself isn't difficult but it is tedious and not one that should be rushed.


On the topic of the bushings, I've gone for a couple of quick test drives on some well known roads and I have to say...wow.

I had a suspicion that this would be the case when I had the compression arms off, the front suspension assembly literally just floats without the compression arm holding it, thus the compression arm is crucial to the cars dynamic geometry, more crucial than I had thought.

If, your car has torn compression bushings, replace them before doing anything else, front end grip is noticeably improved, particularly noticeable on off camber downhill corners, really, if I had not worked on it myself, I would swear someone had installed camber arms on the car and dialed in some extra static camber.

I have a feeling that in addition to playing havoc on dynamic caster, the considerable movement within the compression arm bushing negatively impacts dynamic camber, as load on the front tire wiggles the torn compression bushing, causing all sorts of movements for the steering knuckle. My Z was always lazy in turn-in and under-steered terribly on the limit, on recent testing on a very large abandoned round-about it has shown a much more balanced dynamic on the limit, with much better throttle steering response also brake feel has improved.

All that said, my bushing were in absolutely terrible shape and I knew it, the only reason I was holding back on the job was because I imagined it would be a major PIA (which turned out to be on the money).

Basically, what I am trying to say is that, given the Z's front suspension setup, if your compression bushings are shot, stop throwing money away on mods (coilovers, camber arms, sway's) to create a more neutral car until you get those fixed, as their solidity is critical to front end grip and dynamic geometry.

 

The Z is one of the few cars I've owned, where I would recommend a catch can even for a stock/street driven car. Everyone that I've seen creates a couple drops of oil every couple hundred miles.

I have not opened up a manifold that did not have oil in it, oil in the intake is never a positive and catch can's are cheap.

My personal opinion, .00002c, is that the Z's computer is also a sensitive bugger, and I could've sworn that it began applying slightly more aggressive ignition timing (based on logs, but far from scientific)/was more responsive after I completely cleaned the plenum and installed a catch can.

 

Thanks for the tips and the review I have noticed that with torn compression arm bushes my car drives very differently, the steering is looser and the braking like you said isn't as good, but at least its once my new bushings go in it will fix alot of those handling problems. I cant really picture what my car is gonna drive like once everything goes on.

 

Just as a heads up i was running this kind of setup on my Subaru and the plastic tanks on the husky cracked. U can get baffled metal cans on eBay for around $30 which should last alot longer.

 

Thanks for the heads up.. How close to your engine did you have it mounted?

I'm curious too.. I figured I'd try one on the Z after seeing how much oil residue was on the inside of my upper/lower plenum and intake manifold.. And I just have it in-line on the passenger side. Drivers side is untouched for now; just waiting for the breather filter I ordered to arrive to do that side.

 

[QUOTE=Atreyu'z 350;10946771]Thanks for the heads up.. How close to your engine did you have it mounted?


I had it mounted up on the firewall by my break booster so it wasnt heat related i think engine oil does something to the plastic.

 

ordered some stuffs from Z1. now the wait begins.
Also ordered my Bilstein B14 kit from RCA!
Found a DIY type shop about an hour from me.
5 bays with lift and air tools along with other tools for use!
2 more weeks...warmer weather and it will be a great weekend.

 

About 3 hours to get these out:



The skeleton on the left is made of tin or something and can be kind of a pain to cut through with a sawzall because its so soft - Once you get it out you can go to work on the sleeve which sits on the right.

If anybody can recommend a cheap bushing installer I'd appreciate it.

 

 

When I had my SIKKY aluminum ones installed they suggested placing them in the freezer over night as well.

 

not sure about the effectiveness of the poly bushings in the freezer but the same process should apply. When you make things, manily metal, very cold, they shrink a tiny bit. enough to matter, , and make them easier to install because clearances are a little wider

 

I've never thought about freezing poly stuff before but this is a great tip to try - Thanks brother!

 

I used a small amount of 3M silicone grease and rubber mallet on my Z1 Motorsports subframe diff bushing. It only took a few minutes to get it right where it needed to be.

 

Worked really well on supercharger pulley bearing (sealed) on my other car combined with a heating of the pulley itself in the oven. Probably a beyotch to get that subframe in the oven but maybe some gentle heating with a torch before hand. Hot receptacle, cold part...

Not sure if this would work with poly bushings but probably couldn't hurt to try.

 

I froze mine, worked out fine.

 

fixed my broken door handles, repainted them and a few other things, and went hunting for an ac leak.
Also someone keyed my car

 

This didn't start out well.

 

All better, and only took 7 hours.

 

All done, rest of the days picture dump.

 

Wow! That came out nice! Did you use POR-15 or something else?