I run the 70s on the Z and they are very noisy and dusty and bite hard, I would not recommend them for the street. 60s are probably a better option for dual purpose pads. Im lookin forward to getting them on the cayman to test myself.

 

mine still had the factory drilled rotors (37k miles) & the pads were pretty scary actually, so I bought four Sebro rotors from fcpeuro before my first track event and my usual HP+ pads. I did this because I wanted a baseline comparison between the two cars with street pads and summer tires. I was actually going to do this with the Z3 also but I couldn't get that car on the track due to the roll hoops. (and now I'm trying to decide whether to keep that car and put in a hard dog or just sell it... which is hard because the car is adorable and fun... and I already installed Fortune Auto coilovers on it prematurely...).

anyway, I think I'm going to stick with these for street and take track pads with me to swap when I get there. eventually, in a couple years probably, I will have a trailer solution and be able to take sticky tires and tools, etc. really looking forward to that.... All of these track discussions and upgrading these cars has been therapeutic for me. I was coming out of a devastating horrible RL situation and these cars saved my life. If I hadn't taken up this hobby and gone out beyond my comfort zone and scared the **** out of myself a little bit, I would have spiraled.... these cars are the women in my life now, and real women can go to hell. I'll never put up with that again. spending my money on cars and myself now.

 

Out of the hard tasks and on to more pleasant weekend jobs like wiring up gauges and cameras... and I'm still thinking about relocating battery to the trunk. because my battery area is also acid splashed. I could Mount the battery in the back in a sealed container. and the thing is, even if I go to a lithium battery, for weight, it wouldn't hurt having that in the trunk.

The temp gauge sender is wired into the heater hose on the right. I know it's not as accurate as the large radiator inlet hose. I have a sender for that also, but I figured I would give this one a try since I had already installed it. I'll change it later if needed.

 

Sorry to hear about your previous situation, sounds like you got rid of that and are focused on some good stuff now. cars are a great hobby to occupy the mind. Its therapeutic at times for me to just work on the Z and not think about other stuff. If you do relocate the battery lmk how difficult it is, I wouldnt mind doing that and running a bigger catch can in that area. For some reason mine is filling up pretty fast and spraying oil on my windshield

 

that comment was triggered by a Twitter post I just read about a dude who had to sell his Z in order to buy a new one because of his wife... and that infuriated me.. at the end of the day, FKG women will take half your **** and a monthly salary so who the hell are they to tell us what we can and can't do for fun? I am 100% relieved to be divorced today and no longer putting up with that ****. I've got five FKG cars right now and loving that they're just taking up space and serving no purpose....

wow, I don't even have a catch can. I don't think it's as big of a issue for NA, more of a FI thing. it's one of those things that's on my to do list.

yeah, RL is tough. it's helpful to have a distraction. I used to spend all my time with movies and video games and that's totally non-productive. I guess you could say a track car is not producing anything either but idk... there's camaraderie and friendship and fun. I love getting out in the sun. I always walk around the paddock talking to everyone. in all the various groups. when I'm at Sonoma (infinion raceway ) I always walk over the footbridge to turn 6/7 where I always struggle and watch what everyone does through there. and I meet all kinds of cool people at events. occasionally I see the same person again but not often.

so the gauge is installed and it never broke 130° so I don't think the heater hose is helpful here unless the heater is running. and mine is offline right now.

I pulled both of the blue switches behind the driver side fuse box and tested them and they are both working fine. so my heater fan is probably dead. I can see it from under the hood after removing the cowl. I probably fried it by screwing with the console without disconnecting the battery a few months ago.

okay I will share whatever I come up with for the battery relocation. I think I'm going to run a thick cable through the same wire harness grommet behind the battery down along the door still to the back. and ground straight to the body. I'm going to isolate the battery in a container.

on June 10th is my last track day for this season in the Z and then I will have to work on the Cayman because until I replace those shift cables it's likely to strand me somewhere. so I need to get that done.
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I am posting non-build related here too often, sorry about that. I think out loud. so what I'm pondering this weekend is whether I want to spend another $10,000 on this car or quit at this point and just drive it as is. it's a corner carving beast but I'm not quite satisfied with the performance yet.

Don't get me wrong, the car did not fall short of my expectations. but having reached them, I'm wondering if it's a good idea to take it to the next level or to stop here and put those funds toward a different car.

this is Z is running well, with a few bolt-ons it's doing at least 300 hp. The less restrictive cats, bigger exhaust, plenum spacer, CAI, altogether is probably worth 10%. maybe? 320 hp. That's fine. If it was using the power properly that would be enough for me. but what I don't like about it is the power is mid-range. it has very poor low range torque and way up there by Red line doesn't seem to make much difference. so I spend most time at 4-5k.

The $10,000 number includes the vortech + rear diff. If I go just the diff, I feel that the 4.1 LSD will help with crucial low rpm torque. The car is weak coming out of tight corners. (it is what it is, I'm not complaining about the car, just pointing out room for improvement). but that alone won't be enough. The vortech is necessary if I'm going to enjoy this car fully.

as I start upgrading the Cayman, it will close the gap quickly and pass the Z with just a few improvements. The main reason for that is a close ratio transmission. when you shift up to third and fourth, the car launches like a banshee. The Z only gets there between 4th and 5th. it's a long wind up and I'm rarely able to hit fifth on straights. That's what I don't like. it feels like the car is a runner who is out of breath. it has power but it's not as usable as it should be. The Z actually has a better factory diff with the VLSD, whereas the Cayman is just open. I'm looking at a Wavetrak for it...

so if I were to invest these funds, instead of the vortech I could focus on the transmission and the LSD. in the following year, if I still feel that extra power would be nice, then okay but shorter term it's getting the power to the wheels.

this was a lot of thinking out loud. I would welcome any corrections or ideas.

 

Wow, i only managed a pb today of 1:39. that's more in line with the avg time in the Cayman so maybe that 1:34 was bad data. I'm consistently hitting 1:39, 1:40, over 2hrs & 50 laps.

then the Z hiccuped so i exited the track, and it threw a camshaft sensor error. almost wouldn't start back up. had to call it quits early again. but those 50 were fun.

 

I have to say having the Quick Jack has made me way more confident in doing things underneath the car. Personally I never would have tackled anything exhaust related without it, though the condition of our exhausts here in New England is completely different than CA cars. Sometimes I feel like no taking them off the wall and dragging them to the side of the car, but after I get past that man is it convenient. You can also use the SUV adapters in conjunction with standard wheel ramps to really lift the car pretty damn high if you need to.

Also I wanted to add the Durametric enthusiast unit has been a huge life saver for my Cayenne, being able to read and clear. Fortunately for the cayenne we get a little coding to and turned my car into a European version with no seatbelt alarm, even though I wear it on the road anyway.

 

50 laps is great, thats a solid day on track. If it were me id have 1 dedicated track car and just have fun with the other cars. Just seems like a ton of work and money to take a bunch of cars to the track. I think the Z with a SC and diff would really be a fun track car you would enjoy. That car with a good driver and sticky tires will be extremely competitive. My Z with 100 TW tires and me as a noob can easily hold its own with almost everyone in my class. I very rarely have to give point by to anyone unless im cooling the car. Keep the cayman a reliable weekend car. A Z chassis is so cheap these days it just seems like the perfect car for a track to beat on and not care. Just my opinion

 

That's cool hearing a firsthand account, thanks. I think that it'd be brilliant with the wheel cribs If you want to get the QuickJack out of the way afterward. lift it up, drop in the wheel cribs, then get the quick jack out of the way, then plant 12 ton jack stands at the jacking points. (I use those for their height, not just strength). If you don't need to get the QJ out of the way, then the wheel cribs are a backup. either way I never rely on just one source of failure. I'm planning on installing a front and rear bash bar with jack points. it's possible that that might be quicker than the QuickJack to get the car up on the cribs. I have a low profile high lift jack that could get under the front bumper.

 

That's good advice. maybe I should just leave the Cayman alone but I find it irresistible to upgrade things. the Z handling was insane today. but something was holding it back. it is so tight now that I didn't hear the wheels chirp even once. The track addict app totally failed, crashed twice, had to reinstall it, so I'm not even sure if these lap times are accurate. and I was driving harder than I ever have before. but something was off...

The car might have been pulling timing because of the camshaft sensor. now I remember two years ago that came up once when I was in HPDE1. I remember my instructor said those are easy to fix. but I haven't seen that error come up since then. so I had forgotten about it until today. definitely going to fix it. I feel like the car was holding back. like it was making more noise than it should for the amount of power at the rear wheels.

so I was debating with myself about whether to invest any more $ into this car. but I think it's not performing where it should be so that's affecting my opinion. I think it should have done better. I was driving at 1:30 but the car wasn't. something is off. so I've just got more work to do.
​​​​a new diff with the engine running correctly, I think I will hit that goal.

 

What tires were you running? A Cayman S will be a tad faster in the straights than a stock engine Z, but a properly setup the Z should be able to outcorner a Cayman, especially with 275 all around the Z will have a lot more front end grip.

 

I was hitting all of the turns at 5-10 mph faster in the Z. both have comparable summer tires. Yoko Advan Apex 280tw on the Cayman, and Conti extreme contact sport 340tw on the Z. but the conti's perform at higher than 340. almost like that's a bad rating. they are very sticky for summer tires when they warm up.

The Z just could not get up to speed quick enough. Everything else felt pretty good though. cooling was excellent. Even after 2 hours with only a short break of open track, it didn't heat up at all. The brakes were hotter than the engine.

I'll replace that cam sensor first thing.

 

 

I read this on a Miata forum that was interesting:

Most torsens I've driven have behaved mostly the same. Predictable.
Clutch LSDs vary quite a lot. Some are pretty tame. Others are very harsh in their engagement.
For a street car, torsen is almost always my favorite. Viscous diffs do alright for mud and snow. A properly tuned clutch diff is probably best for the track.

and other posts. based on some of the descriptions, I believe my 04 OEM VLSD might be dying, and that could account for the torque problem I encountered at the track. not discounting that the cam position sensor is not contributing but the rear diff directly affects torque to the ground which is what I felt was lacking. a 20-year-old VLSD probably wears out even without track time. a worn out VLSD performs WORSE than an open diff (Cayman S).

I was just going to send the Nismo GT rear diff to Z1 for a completely new one, because it's probably worn out and a rebuild would be questionable as well as pricey. I don't want to spend all the money on rebuilding the discs, etc if the LSD is at the end of its life too.

I'm leaning toward a torque sensing (torsen) LSD instead of a clutch type. I want to minimize maintenance costs on this car for a while anyway. with my driving skill being at 7/10 at best, I'm not likely to go up on two wheels around turns so I'm not too worried about a torsen opening one axle as a major factor for the choice of LSD. every other aspect of the LSD, it performs well and it is street friendly.

The Porsche forums praise the wavetrak LSD, which is torsen. anything beyond the open diff will be an improvement but this one has a good rep. it would be convenient to have the same style LSD in both cars for consistency.

 

Torsen diff sounds good, I'd give it a try and let us know. Ive got a feeling mine will need a upgrade soon

 

spent a couple hours looking at sensors and a lot of the parts have a rated lifetime of 100k miles and my car is 90K now. it's time to replace sensors and other serviceable items, and the car basically smacked me for neglecting these items.... rightfully so.... (sorry, Z baby, you deserve better...)
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camshaft position sensors (x2 for DE)
crankshaft position sensor
O2 sensors x4
speed sensors x4
MAF sensor
coil packs x8

short-term, I'll replace the cam, crank, maf, and this summer I'll do coil packs, speed sensors, O2 sensors. that should take care of several p codes. I'm hoping to get these installed by the next track day, June 10.

you know, that's really the whole reason why I wanted a second track car was for breakdowns. I think I won't be able to resist upgrading the Cayman. it is such a FKG amazing car. I can't leave it alone. it's like taking your girl out to shop for lingerie... how can you not?

 

Haha, Im right there with you, im dying to upgrade the cayman but resisting the urge so far. I did get a cobb tuner for it to unlock a few more horses. I know they are pricey but the plazma direct coils are pretty gangster. https://plasmaprojects.com/plasma-direct/
I just swapped in a set and some new plugs.

 

those look similar to the hot plugs offered by Z1. and CZP has an adapter kit with GT-R coils that might be the same product. I put new plugs in the Z but haven't replaced coils or injectors. yeah, I'm eager to get these improvements done to see how the car responds. it would be nice if it was just some worn electronics to get it to wake back up.

 

yea those are both good options too, good coil packs are essential.