Hi guys, I've been stalking the forum since April and just wanted to introduce myself and my project that was made possible thanks to all the super helpful info and DIY's I found here. Blurvision, JasonZ-YA, mhoward1, scotts300, terrasmak, and everyone else who took the time to share their projects, experience, and knowledge- cheers to you. Thank you.

I drove 240sx's for some time. Traveled US and Canada competing in drifting series with an awesome group of guys. Did this from 2004 through 2011. It was a great run while it lasted, but other priorities kicked in, got married, bought a house, have 2 dogs, etc and lost some interest there too.

Some pics from my drifting days:









Those days were long gone and I was having a hard time dealing with not having a sports car anymore. My Ford Expedition was gradually becoming a race truck and my driving started becoming very aggressive, so it was time to get a car to wrenching and drive again. I came across a great deal on a 2008 San Marino Blue Z in April of this year (2015) and with the wife's approval, bit the bullet.

Bringing here home:


After a good wash:


With 130K miles, check engine light, and a coolant leak, I took a chance at a project that would get me back into wrenching. Fast forward 7 months and with the help from all you guys here and all the great info, this is what I've done so far:

Tune-up: Spark Plugs, New Serpentine Belt, fluid change throughout (engine, trans, diff, brakes)
Koyo Radiator with new hoses, clamps, thermostat
Berk High Flow cats and new OEM O2 sensors
Fast Intentions cat-back exhaust
Tein Flex coilovers
SPL FUCA's
SPL solid bushings in the front: compression and lower arm inner
Tein inner tie-rods, SPL outer
SPL rear camber arm and toe arms
SPC rear camber bolts
Hotchkins swaybars and SPL end links
Aekebono brake pads
New OEM transmission mount
Bride Seat (transferred from my 240sx)
Vordoven wheels (for the price, I'm giving it a shot) F:18x9.5+12 R:18x10.5+22
Kenda Tires, 265/35/18 (a friend had these lying around brand new)
Aggressive street alignment by R/T Tunning

After all the fixes/updates, I felt a bit more confident and comfortable with the car and signed up to the Nasa Northeast chapter and my first HPDE event this past Sunday, 11/08 at New Jersey Motorsports Park. I had an unbelievably awesome time running the Lightning course. Bittersweet since it was the last one of the season. I'm hooked, March 2016 can't come fast enough.

Took this pic on the track, it's the only one I have after all the fixes and upgrades:


What an awesome day. It was my first time out on track after 4 years, and first time driving a full circuit, so I signed up for HPDE 1 and was given an amazing instructor. After the first morning session, I was bumped to HPDE 3 - putting me with great drivers running porsche's, M3's, camaro's, and corvette's. There were even some cup series cars in there too! I was a bit intimidated with the group, but put my head down and got to work. Kept getting faster and faster throughout the day, with my personal best of 1:20:32. Here's a clip of my fastest lap:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7JBeMRPolpQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

All those years drifting paid off- close call at the end of the straight =) (around 1:42)

Still lots to do on the car. In preparation for the 2016 season, here are my winter plans:
Better brake pads, rotors, and stainless steal lines
Wheel bearings, maybe some brake cooling
Some track worthy tires- these Kendas should not be on the track
New clutch/flywheel/CMC/CSC
New fuel pump
Safety equipment: harness bar, harnesses, new helmet (mine expires this year)

Updates to come. Any suggestions and recommendations would be awesome, especially with brake pads..

Cheers,

 

Welcome. I'm new as well and also came from the 240sx world. I still track my 240sx but we will see for how long.

As far as brake pads, for track only I'd recommend Hawk DTC 60s for the front and DTC 30s for the rear. For street/autocross I like the stoptech street pads, good bang for the buck.

The new hot street tires are really amazing these days. Bridgestone RE71rs are fast. For a couple of laps they are just as fast as NT01s. If you are only concerned with lapping the Hankook RS3s are great, not as fast as the RE71Rs but seem to handle more heat and cost less.

 

Thanks, eye-5, saw your S14 in the other thread, looks awesome. I have to say, after driving the Z this weekend, I don't think I can go back to the 240's- it's a whole different world of driving, loving this car. The car is more stable, predictable, and with minimal work.

Thank you for the rec's on the pads and tires. I've been poking around the forums and the consensus on tires seams to be the RS3's or NT01's. I'll look into the RE71R's. Also came across good feedback on the Raybestos ST43/42 combo, something to look into.

Congrats on the new Z, looks great!

 

Dude! 1.20s are frekin FAST are you sure it was your first time???
Lets coordinate in the spring, see if we can get a bunch of the NE Z's out for an HPDE.

 

Let's definitely plan for the Spring, will be great to get a group of guys together and catch up. Much of my speed was thanks to my instructor- his driving line was beautiful!

 

Welcome camposrod. I can't say enough good about the NASA HPDE program. I just started this past summer and am seriously hooked. I'm planning on going Spec Z someday.

 

Thank you, and agreed. Words can't describe how much fun the HPDE events are. I'm hooked too! Spec Z sounds like an awesome goal. Is it a divisional series? How popular is it out by you?

Not sure how popular it is here on the east coast. I remember coming across another post here in the forum that there were only 2 Spec Z drivers signed up for an event this summer

 

There are three guys running it now. But on our local forum, it looks like two other guys have recently bought Z's with the intention of having them running in Spec Z this coming summer. Hopefully I'll have mine set up for the following year. So that would be six (I think) in our region. The UTAH region has blown up with Spec Z. I saw somewhere that they are going to have 20 Spec Z cars for 2016.

They guys I've met here in the Rocky Mountain region have been awesome (as has everyone in NASA). They seem more than willing to help and get more Z's out there. After I bought my car, I thought the class might be dying, but it appears to be just the opposite here in the Rocky Mountain Region. I'm hoping it'll take off even more as additional cars start showing up for the wheel to wheel stuff.

 

I was about to sign up the 11/8 event, but ended up attending TT4C thunderbolt last weekend. Haven’t seen many Z dedicates to track days in NJ, hopefully next year who can propose an event that we can all join.

 

Going to try to keep this thread alive. Most of the parts I plan to change over the winter are in, I'll share those in the coming posts.

Swung by Raceway Park (NJ) before the end of the year with the Clubloose guys to help out with the last 2 events and help out the new group of drivers. I ended up doing the one thing to the Z that I had promised myself never to do- drifted her for a few laps...







Stock vlsd, stock clutch, surprisingly she slides really well for a few laps at a time. I have to restrain myself moving forward, it's not why I bought the Z.. Next time I'll bring my truck

Hi Swat518, April will be here before we know it, we should get an event scheduled where we all can attend. nasane released the 2016 schedule and they have a preseason sale until the end of January. April 16 & 17 will be the first NJMP event, would that work for everyone?

 

Pca has some good njmp events in April. Usually my season opeaner. Are you in the track prepared z Facebook group? Maybe a separate north east events thread here?

 

PCA in April sounds good too, I'll poke around the website for more info.

I wasn't part of the facebook group- but found it and sent a request to join. It's a closed group and I had to do some digging to find it. If anyone is interested, here it is: https://www.facebook.com/groups/666020476765537/

Would be great to get a north east group of guys together

 

Looks like a nice build happening , eager to see more updates

 

Finally got around to working on the Z a bit. With a baby on the way, it's been next to impossible to spend time in the garage. I already registered for NJMP on 04/17 and Poconos on May 14/15, with an alignment appointment with R/T Tuning on 04/04- so it's time to get cracking.

There's tons of DYI's on the forum for everything I'm about to do, so I'll just use this as a part number depository for anyone who may want to replicate the things I'm doing. Although, if one was to search, one could also find these part numbers

IMG_6816 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

I removed the brake calipers for a rebuild. I purchased the Nissan rebuild kit from www.nissanpartsdeal.com- cheapest place I've been able to find for OEM pars and fast shipping.

The car came with braided steel brake lines. Call me paranoid, but I don't like taking chances on essential parts. I feel more comfortable with parts I install, so I picked up some StopTech lines for the front and rear:

IMG_6830 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

Next I decided to work my way from the rear towards the front. I'm just about ready to drop the subframe for new solid SPL subframe bushings and differential bushings
IMG_6834 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

I picked up the new Z1 vented diff cover, it's a great looking piece:
IMG_6839 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

I'm replacing all the wheel bearings and adding new ARP wheel-studs all around. Here's the part number for the rear:
IMG_6826 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

and the ARP extended wheel studs
IMG_6828 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

That will wrap-up the rear. Moving to the front, I'm replacing the wheel hub/bearing assembly:
IMG_6824 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

Adding the AAM Oil Pan spacer. The extra quart of oil can't hurt for track duties and a really nice/quality item. Not pictured are all the screws, caps for the ports, and extension for the oil pick up
IMG_6836 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

I have an oil cooler setup in the works. I've had these 2 oil cooler cores in the garage for years- never had a chance to install them on the 240sx. The Earls cooler is a 34-row and the Mocal is a 25-row. Thoughts on which one I should go with? Should I go with the bigger guy?
IMG_6698 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr
IMG_6697 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr
IMG_6696 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr
IMG_6695 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

I spent a significant amount of time looking for brake cooling ideas. Since we don't have an off-the-shelf kit in the market, I'm taking a stab at fabbin up my own. It's a tight area down there, so I decided to give these Corvette C6 Z06 brake cooling ducts a try. I'm hoping these can become an effective way to route the airflow as opposed to bending and kinking the 3" hose. At first glance, there will definitely be some cutting and hacking, we'll see:

IMG_6842 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

For the spindle side, I picked up these universal spindle ducts and sheets of 0.063" aluminum sheets to sort out a solution.
IMG_6849 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

Since I'm replacing the wheel bearing/hub, I'm going to start have a go at something like this from the RX7 forums:
http://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generatio...brakes-958757/
If you guys have any ideas, suggestions, recommendations they will be greatly appreciated!

Moving to the inside of the car, I'll be replacing the fuel pump with the Deatschwerks unit- part number: #9-301s-1005. These are supposed to be straight drop-ins, just have to drill the fuel pressure thingy majiggy for the increased flow. I can't remember the actual name that piece, but have the DYI saved somewhere:
IMG_6833 by Rodrigo Campos, on Flickr

Lastly will be a set of Hankook RS3's. Tire Rack is out of stock until late March. Any recommendations on where to buy RS3's?

Hopefully I can get this all done in the next 5 weeks! We shall see

 

Wow nice update of parts camposrod.... sorry had to get a cloth to wipe off the drool. lol

 

Where have I been that I didn't see this thread until now!? Awesome stuff, Rod! Def sub'd fpr more!

And belated welcome!!

Mic

 

Looking good!

Oil cooler details
https://my350z.com/forum/engine-driv...s-hp-cars.html

 

Wish my car was track worthy. I'd love to get back to hpde's Have you done NHMS yet? Pretty technical track with pavement undulations.

 

Thank you RustysChopShop and MicVelo!

Blurvision- thanks for the link, I'm going to mirror what you did, 34-row cooler it is. My window to complete all this has now been cut in half, thx =). See you on March, 19/20 @NJMP.

Rich2342- never been to NHMS, I'll have to add that to the list. It doesn't take much to be track ready for HPDE's depending on your experience and driving style. HPDE 1 is easy breezy, if your brakes and tires are in good shape, you can have some lots of fun.

 

My engine is burning oil, so probably don't want to chance it until I fix that. I am redoing the suspension currently. I did a few HPDE's at NH about 6 years ago in pretty much stock form. It was a blast. Never got back after that, but I have aims on doing so. Kids change things a bit!