Extremely informative.

Curb weight of the car (without driver and spare) was 3205 lbs with about 17 liters of fuel (approx 35 lbs). Hence, actual curb weight is around 3170 versus the stock 3257.

Cross balance started at 47.1% and finished at 49.3% with driver. It doesn't sounds like much of a change, but it took a fair amount of weight shifting to get it. Front left went from 812 lbs to 947.

Front/Rear balance went from 53.5/46.5 % to 54/46% (with driver and w/o spare).

My biggest issue is camber right now. For some unknow reason, the front left has -1.8 (26.25" ride height) while the front right has -.9 (25.5" ride height) I have no idea why there's such a difference and the fact that the 350z doesn' have any means to adjust it is even more frustrating. Short of camber arms (= preparation point), is there no less expensive means to fix it such as a cam bolt on the control arm or something?

 

We tried an offset bushing with cambolt...there wasnt enough adjustment.
BJ@350EVO.com

 

If you really car about camber, may be 350evo arms isn't such a bad option?

 

what coilovers are you running?

 

I know its a highly subjective topic, but figured lots of people could learn what setups are generally working well for these cars over time.

Currently, my front camber is at -1.8, zero toe, (I forget my castor readings), rear camber is -2.0, rear toe I have no idea as I have not yet put the arms in but that is coming this week. I'll take the rideheight measurements later and edit the post to reflect them. Sways are Cusco front and rear, coilovers are Cusco Zero2's. Tires are 245/40/18 front, 275/40/18 rear S03's.

The car is very stable and neutral handling - with traction control off, it is very easy to point and shoot with the gas, and responds very well to late braking, fast turn in, and my generally aggressive style (as much as I try to be smooth and steady, I find myself being anything but sometimes!). However, one thing I do notice is on initial turn in, the front gets a bit floaty - the grip is there, but a bit too much wobble for my tastes.

Any suggestions as to what settings you guys are using with a staggered setup that is working well for you. I am looking for a balanced setup - I don't want to be altering my settings too greatly as I do HPDE and SCCA driving events vs stock, so something that will maybe help get rid of the light front and not alter the overall balance.

Thanks in advance guys! This week we will be installing the rear toe arms and hopefully getting the car cornerweighted, which I am looking forward to alot!

adam

 

THE FRONT CAMBER IS ADJUSTIBLE! I had a guy do it all manually for me. not by much but you can get some out of it

 

This is my setup as of right now.

With all mods on 19" wheels, 14" BBK FR and Rear, Nitrous Kit, and Roll Bar.

3149 lbs w/o driver
54%/46% Weight distribution
Camber: -3 Front, -2.5 Rear

Basically, I am hauling *** around the track with this agressive stance.

 

Z1,
Are you still on stock front A-arm? I may have an aswnwer for the front-end compliance upon inital turn-in you described. It is a very unsettling feeling at the track especially coupled w. R-compound tires. The compliance is the doing of the oem rubber bushings.

I'm currently running the Performance Nissan (Unitech) Front Upper A-arm with the optional Delron bushings (in place of the oem rubbers). It greatly reduced the front track compliance. One should expect the same result w. the 350EVO arm using the optional spherical bearings too.

 

sorry for aking your thread over man..I thought I had posted a new one! Mods feel free to ove

to answer - I am on the Cusco A Arms. Unfortunately spherical bearings are not an option for me as the car is 90% street driven

 

No worries - anything that promotes knowledge transfer is good for me.

I'm running JIC FLT A-2 with 10 kg front and 9kg rear (as opposed to the original 12kg springs that came with the kit). I REALLY like the softer rear, I find it's much better at putting the power down.

As for the camber issue, I've ordered a new set of the Kinetix A arms and a set of the SPC rear cam bolts to get my alignment back into spec. Turns out it's not a preparation point if it's used to bring the alignment back to factory specs.

Once the parts arrive, I'll try and use the original 2003 Nissan specs because they allow more toe out up front than the new TSB spec. Anybody know what the old specs are for 2003 models? Unfortunately I lost my driver's manual.

 

Hows that?

 

I cannot see how the front is adjustable at all from the factory

 

FritzMan - to answer - I agree on the springs...my Cusco's also have stiffer in the front too and it is much easier to power out of a turn under control with the softer rears - must have something to do with the a arm geometry in the rear

 

Fritzman.......I don't know if this will help, but did you have the swaybars unhooked when you did the crossweights? 812 lbs on the left front, with or without driver, sounds very light to me. Here are the corner weights of my Z (LF,RF,LR,RR) sways hooked, no driver...849,884,695,688-----------sways unhooked, no driver...865,868,679,703---------sways unhooked, driver...926,887,749,731

I could be wrong, but it sounds to me like your swaybars are loading the RF and by the time you get enough load on the LF to even out the cross your ride heights are pretty far off. You have 3/4 inch of roll in the front which kinda explains your camber probs. My front heights (from rim to fender) are 24 3/8 and 24 7/16 with 80 psi in the shocks and my cambers are -3/4 and -1 1/8 with no driver. I have always set cars up with the bars unhooked. My last step is to set the bars neutral with the driver in the car.

hope this helps
hippie

BTW... The only factory camber adjustment I have found is the little bit of "slop" in the mounting holes... not much!

 

Great info.

No, despite the shop's request I didn't unbolt the sway bars because we were tight on time.

Also, I had just remounted the stock bars the day before. The stock front bar has integrated collars so there's little side-side shifting. Mounting the end links by hand was a breeze. Hence, I believed there was little preloading. I hope I hadn't assumed too much here...

My 812 lbs starting front left weight was with hand adjustments the week before to get the car to look level, not necessarily be balanced.

It looks like my numbers are close to yours. Final with sways attached, with driver and w/o spare was:

947 (LF) 889 (RF) 801 (LR) 764 (RR)

Variance in fuel load and driver weight (I'm 195 lbs) could likely account for the difference.

 

Fritzman...I should have mentioned that when I did the corner weights I had stock springs, no spare, less than 1/16 tank fuel (the Z will auto-x on fumes) ,and I weigh 175 lbs. All things considered our corner weights are very close.
If you bolted the end links in by hand then the bar isn't the problem. It's odd that your ride heights are so different left to right. You've got me stumped.

hippie