Typo....blew the flywheel free. Shop said this was the second failure they'd seen of this kind. It showed symptoms of a blown pressure plate. The flywheel surface was able to shift forward so the clutch wasn't getting clamped.

I know it was due to incredibly severe launches so I'm just forwarning others....

It led to a LTW flywheel and new clutch. The flywheel makes quite a difference.

 

Well I didn't get any runs in last night! I drove the 45 mins to get to the track, paid my $4 toll there and back, paid for myself and my brother to get in AND not soon after it started to RAIN. No runs for me and no refunds. I was quite pissed off.

 

Wow Cecil doesn't give rainchecks?

 

Oh ok gotcha. Yeah I think you were saying your launch technique was around 5k and slipping the clutch to get traction? I haven't really launched that hard with it after the slave cylinder failure and even after borrowing Gooey's DRs I still took it easy off the line for fear of breaking something. This car doubles as my daily driver so I cant really yet go ***** out with it.

 

My car's my daily driver and I'm a student (a poor one at that as seen by what little mods I have), but when I'm at the track I beat the **** out of it. I go there and make sure the car's giving its best (and me too). If something breaks, then well.. it breaks.

 

So what would you do in the chance that something does break? How would you get back and forth to work and school?

 

Rode the bus and took the gf's car when she didn't need it. I don't have to have a car, its just a pain not to.

I've got a truck that I could drive if I broke something bad enough on my car, but I don't have insurance registration or tires on it right now.

Same situation for me, student for another 3 weeks - Z is my daily...then its reality.

Once I'm working full time the Z will be weekend duty only.

 

MTA doesn't even run near my house/job, no secondary cars to mess around with, and no rich family members to help out so If I mess up my car I am SOL till its fixed. I have a career to be concerned with so until I have another car or back up transportation I will continue to take it easy at the track. Its the responsible thing to do in my position. I will have plenty of time later on to go ***** out. There's really no need at this point.

 

Not to flame...but do any of you guys work on your car? I've done clutch,trans and diff swaps in the pits. Of course they were not on a 350 but still. Granted most people don't bring those parts though but we are serious about racing.
Most people wonder how I afford all the mods I have done on previous cars and its because I do my own work. You really can't push any car to its potential if your worried about breaking it. I should have times this week if the weather is good. At cecil the best time to go is a wed night. Not as many people show up...

Runs for cover...

 

I've worked on my own car plenty....at my parents house where I have a garage and air tools.

At my townhouse I have:
No jack (stands though )
No air compressor
Association that says working on cars will receive a $50 fine per hour ....
No transmission jack
Limited number of extensions and pry bars.

I could (and would have) done this at home given more time and resources, but I needed it done right and without towing the car somewhere, so I was willing to spend $400 on labor. It requires removing the hydraulics, removing the starter, dropping the motor some, etc. I needed at least 2 jacks to properly do everything, along with an assortment of pry bars I didn't have.

All that said - the Z install is MUCH harder than other cars I've seen/worked on.

Sways, coilovers, etc. I wouldn't hesitate to do myself. I can jack the car up and work on that stuff comfortably without a lift. Diff even...its pretty straightforward.

Edit - and before this goes more into flaming me....I'm trying to buy a house right now, graduate within a month, have a full time job starting immediately after graduating, and received no help from my parents on anything involved with this repair. If they would have paid it would have been done with more stuff.

And rkemp1...I have a career to think of too. I can street race and lose my job with the department of transportation. Or I can race on a track and just risk my car. Not having a car for a week won't kill me (I walked a lot to get to buses - none near work).

 

If it breaks, then I'd just tow it either to my parents' house or to a shop (although I probably wouldn't have much money to fix anything expensive, which is why I try to do most of the work myself). I live in the school dorms/apartments, so I don't need to drive to get to and from school.

It may sound stupid, short-sighted, and even naive, but that's just how I race at the track when I go.

 

Like I said I'm not trying to flame... Seems like a lot of people on here take their car to the dealer OUCH! I am a mechanic by trade (industrial equip) and have worked on all sorts of cars. Nothing on the 350 really scares me from what I've seen but I do this kind of stuff all the time. And if anyone has a 350 in my area I'd be glad to help out also. The only thing I prob won't do is tune the car. Not because I can't (tune many high hp na and turbo cars) I just don't want the headache when I go FI

 

I go to the dealer for some stuff.

They charge me $10-15 for labor on an oil change and the same cost I can get for amsoil and a filter, so its like $50 for an amsoil oil change with tax (not bad IMO). Warranty work and minor stuff I'll let them do because the master tech is pretty cool and won't let the SA rip people (at my dealer). That said...I had a performance shop do this. He was installing a wet sump oiling system in a built block 300zx TT while working on my car, and has a 240z he races in SCCA events. So I'm not exactly getting ripped by the dealer, rather someone with a bit more experience breaking stuff on the track (hence going there after breaking down on the track).

 

Peak350 and 3hree5ive0ero, I hope that u didnt take what I was saying as a flame I am just curious to know the mindsets of other racers who daily drive their Z. Most who do race have other cars or resources, so they normally cant give a response I would relate to. As far as the career thing, I meant problems from missing work. In my area without a car, thats pretty much what a breakdown would equate to. For my area living without a car isa beeeeyotch. I catch shyt from my family all the time for racing my car, and work on it for simple things like oil changes and minor bolt-on work. But anything with the drivetrain or motor I wouldn't mess with. I am a bit knowledgeable about how the car works but doing repairs hands on is a different story.

Towards Screamin350Z04 I dont have the background in mechanics/industry or the time to work on my car too much. I have a freind who owns a shop who works on my car and teaches me alot along the way. The dealer is usually my last resort. If I can get off and make it to a weds test n tune at Cecil in the near future I will shoot you a PM maybe we can line up or something. But as far as extracting the most from my car by really pushing it to the limit, at this point the extra .2-.3 of a second aren't really worth the risk for me. The #2 spot is good enough for me

 

Christ, that is a fassst 07 HR! I sure hope mine is as fast....(or faster with my 19lb ltw wheels haha).
I have to say, the base is the way to go for its uber lightness, just add a LSD later.

 

Does that include changing the cam, porting/milling the heads, changing the engine, transmission, rearend, etc?? If No then...then dealer does everything for me.

 

You realize the enthusiast weighs all of 10 lbs more right....?

 

I mean more towards the touring in my comment. But I'll take ya with that 10lbs less...err wait, I prob weigh more than you....I take that back.

 

I wanted cruise control and an OEM LSD (can always buy a pumpkin and upgrade later if I want) for the time being, and the 1k price difference was worth it to me.

That 10 lbs is the equivalent of 1.25 gallons of gas. My spare tire removal + amp and wiring puts me right back where a base would be. The sub and box put me well over .

 

Did you go on a Wednesday? I went on the 16th for test and tune and, like 90% of the time, I only got 3 passes in in 5 hours. On my second run a 5.0 almost swerved into me befrore crashing into the wall. Plus the water box was unavoidable for me and my AWD. Ran a 12.0@119 spinning like crazy even into 2nd.