I like what you've done so far.

So, if you're not in any real classes, as you say, then are you doing all this to your car just for fun (no real plans to race competitively)?

 

I am having a hard time understanding your strut bar/plenum solution. Must send some serious vibration through the car not mention the stresses that 06blueZ pointed out.

 

There's no difference between what he's done and what the other engine dampeners do (ex. Ingalls, Weapon-R, Stillen, etc). His just acts more like a bracket/mount.

 

well a strut bar main purpose is to connect the top of the two suspenion mounting areas in the the front of the chassis and prevent them from twisting during weight transfer that happen during turning.

not sure if the main intention was to use the engine as the third point an a strut bar design, since the engine moves alot during driving, and itself is on a non-rigid mount (unless he went to a solid mount) so i dont think it's meant to be a strut bar replacement, but rather an engine brace.. (i think?)

imho, i would still fab up a bar that goes above it to link the two strut towers for a legit brace..

 

There's a huge difference. The engine dampeners are like little struts not solid brackets.

 

The way that solid brace is tied into the plenum, any engine side to side torque will be focused on the junction of the lower plenum and the runners to the heads. Yes it is similar to other torque braces but most I have seen have highly dampened give in them... those small bolts between the plenum and lower collector are just into aluminum and not designed to brace the engine against those loads. then factor in the push/pull loads of any strut tower flex and who knows what will happen...

 

Bryan has solid engine and trans mounts installed. So the motor and trans doesn't move around like it does with the OEM mounts.

Since they're fairly still, the upper mounts keep it even more solid and add in more stability for the struts. While there was no R.D. in this design, we'll see how the car holds up in the long run.

As far as abuse from roughness of terrain, Bryan has already driven across rough sections of the tracks. Rough enough that his Nismo V3 bumper became a casualty, but the motor and plenum were just fine with no signs of damage. This was after the custom upper mounts that Bryan created himself, and before the recent clutch/cam upgrades. So the motor has been apart and reassembled since the track carnage.

 

Since his is an all out race car, I was assuming he went to solid mounts and was using those as a brace like you said.
That's why I said his is more like brackets since he doesn't have anything to lessen any vibration.

 

clean!

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

nice build

 

awesome build.. and looks nice and simple

 

Very nice. Was actually thinking about this a little while before I saw this thread earlier ha.

 

Unless you are completly relocation all those systems under the 2 compartments, I dont understand why you would remove them to make the engine bay uglier then it already is.

 

Rich,

I've only driven the car for about 20 miles and that was at ZdayZ. I was starting to get used to the HEAVY pedal feel, when I had to turn around and go get the titan and snag someone out of a ditch.

It is HEAVY but my ABS hasn't worked consistently in years and I often found that from corner to corner I would or would not have ABS, so I was wounding tires quiet often. If I can get used tot he pedal feel this weekend at CMP, then I will probably go forward on a duel circuit and wilwood push bar setup. if not then I will probably go back to the boosted setup and explore other ABS options.

But I really would like to stay away from boosted brakes if possible

 

I cannot be much warmer than it already way, My is the little debbie easy bake oven. It is alway hawt in there. but I'll be shakin it down at CMP this weekend

 

I have had telemetry on the car for awhile and honestly there was no time difference with or without the strut tower, even with stock motor mounts.

I am currently running slid motor and tranny mounts, this was just the next thing to go solid.

I've been running this "brace" for over a year now, and I've run the stickiest tires (Z214) and beat on every rumble strip I could find. no movement what so ever. didn't even scratch the paint. that said, I DO NOT recommend this for stock or even poly motor mounts, solid only.

Basically it is .125" 6061 Al. A sheet metal break, and sadly the day I made them the belt sander was dead, so the joints were WAY too wide when I welded them, I want to make another set, but time is never on my side.

I'll sanp some detail images this weekend of them

 

I did both, some wires had to get lengthened and some shortened. this is not the usual tuck that just hides the excess behind the false firewall, I didn't have any place to hide it, so I had to make exact.

So I de-pinned almost everything (to get the snake skin on) and then made the wires the perfect length.

I did not verify wire resistances. However, I am NOT using the knock sensor, and I did not de-pin or cut the Throttle body wires, I did hide those in the harness. I didn't want to open that can of worms.

She did fire up the first time (except for the clutch switches being backwards)

I still have some shortening on the cabin side of the firewall to do, but I first want to get switched over to the haltech and get it tuned before I do any more wiring.

 

me too, LOL. Heading to CIN now to load up and mount tires. See soon Mr. Anderson

 

correct, my personal goal is to make the lightest track worthy Z. Ideally I'd like to see 2650 with cage. and then 300 whp NA