Right, thought I'd start this. As some of you may know my cars a bit broken at present and I have a pile of parts ready to fit that gets bigger without it making its way to the car.

 

So lets start with what's up with the engine. Myself and gaz pulled the engine about two winters ago now, as one of the turbo's had failed. Compression was tested at this time with a very even 170psi across the board. Pulling it all apart we found a multitude of issues, egr hanging off causing an exhaust leak old sockets rolling about etc etc. We took that time to replace every damn crusty water and vac pipe and delete just about anything I considered a waste of space.

Water plenum bypass,

EGR,

AIV,

PRV,

Cruise control,

Aircon,

Think that's all. The turbos were rebuild by myself and for the first 50-100 miles things were bob on and I didn't give it too much stick. The first couple of pulls it detonated, new plugs, reduced the issue but it still did it a bit. Changed to a smaller gap and great the det was gone. The car was pulling very well at this point with virtually no lag and was dyno'd at 289hp bone stock, no extra boost no chip. Not bad for an old auto engine. Sadly it had started to smoke on over run, I assumed id cocked up one of the turbos during the rebuild. So I had been putting it off for months, well actually years now to pay out for brand new turbos. Anyways as the tax ran out I thought id do some more inspecting as the symptoms just didn't fit the pattern of failed turbos. The first thing I found was that lovely even compression was no more, cyl had a rather lame 115psi. Cue further inspection to work out exactly what block I had, manual/auto etc I assumed it was auto. That's when I found this...

That head casting reads R-10Y, wtf is that I thought. It's supposed to read 40P this was one of those penny drop moments. The piston crown sealed that moment of realisation and many dots connected.

That's right its an NA, 30p pistons are NA and 30p1 are TT defiantly no 1 on that code. Turns out r-10y is the later spec NA head aswell, so yeas 100% an NA block. Now this engine was fitted by a garage 4 years ago a few months into my ownership and we wont go into that too much but it wasn't a great experience and it transpires it was worse than I first thought. Anyway whilst they refused to reimburse me for that error, a good will gesture was sent out to me in the post of a few quid.

So a replacement engine is going to be sourced and fitted this winter. More of that and what's happening to the current late spec NA block.

 

So now more about that shelf of parts. I purchased last winter a full rear subframe assembly off Jaffa, the one off his time attack car. Loads of goodies already polybushed to death etc. So I stripped it down to bare metal and started painting it all with a few coats of lovely hammerite. This is how it stands at present;

So this winters aims are.

Remove front and rear bumpers, re underseal all of that and rip out and guff.

Delete HICAS system

Reloacte PS reservoir and fusebox

Switch over all suspension to new units from the shelf

Fit 354mm diameter brembos

Change engine out and preform various mods

It sounds like a lot, but hey winter is along time. Don't expect it to be coming through thick and fast. Im lazy haha

Cheers for the feed back guys, their older units not Meister, with no adjustment on damper. I've got the Stillen ARB which are set soft F medium R at present. But as you say Pete I can feel the spring rate being too high is making the car slower in real life situations, I'm sure on a smooth as glass track it would be fine and tbh once I'm out of the little roads it's ok. The little cracked, potholed, repaired and lorry tutted etc roads it skips like well skippy.

The current rate is unknown, but looking at the thickness of the spring and its length and the feel of the ride I'd say high. I did find some math to calculate it but haven't got round to it, gonna take me a few minutes to do these sums. :whack:

Spring Rate = GD^4/8ND^3

 

G=Torsional Modulus for Steel = 11.25x10^6

 

D=Wire Diameter in Inches

 

N=Number of Active Coils

 

D=Mean Coil Diameter in Inches

 

8=A Constant for all Coil Springs

 

Also not to be forgotten was my upper arm faux par, how much of the big bumps were actually contact on that arm and mount...hard to say, but there was a definite clunk at times.

 

Dont bother with calculation. The springs you have dont work. Just throw them away. The fact you already have the Stillen Sway bars is great. They are one of the best suspension mods you can do. IMO

Now just get a pair of 4kg springs and get the 6/4 set up fitted. Your car will be great. Trust me!! and trust Joel!.

Fully adjustable damping is useful but something you can do without ATM

Regarding the setup of the Stillen ARB's these pictures from the installation guide explain the settings

and their effect on the car's handling.

 

Front:

 

Rear:

Regarding the setup of the Stillen ARB's these pictures from the installation guide explain the settings

and their effect on the car's handling.

 

Front:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]106189[/ATTACH]

 

Rear:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]106190[/ATTACH]

 

The effect is also relative to the rest of the suspension setup, with the springs rated at 5tonne/mm(!) you will likely feel no difference between the positions. The softer the springs, the harder they work.

 

Stating the obvious I guess but I've been in cars with uprated ARBs and ridiculously stiff suspension, in those cases you may aswell remove the ARBs and bin them as they're doing nothing!!

The softer the springs, the harder they work.

 

Agreed, for road cars with sensible spring rates the ARBs will do more work. With my Eibach/KYBs I've got mine set to soft front

and mid-point rear. I never tried them on the other settings to see how that would effect the Z32's handling. Have you?

Stephen, can I ping you a message about your rear brake setup? You on FB?

 

I'm not no but yes I can provide you with the info. Its best to text me but it's getting my number to you without putting it up in public.

 

Howard sorted this.

Edited May 11, 20178 yr by Stephen

This is why I'm comfortable to go with a softer spring, the rest of the set up is there to allow the springs to not have to be so stiff. I hear if you combine a high rate with strong ARB it can make the car hard to control on the limit and snappy. Not desirable for a normal human.

 

Advice taken

6kg/mm going on the front, 8k to be sold on and some 4s to be be purchased.

Agreed, for road cars with sensible spring rates the ARBs will do more work. With my Eibach/KYBs I've got mine set to soft front

and mid-point rear. I never tried them on the other settings to see how that would effect the Z32's handling. Have you?

 

Yes, before I fitted my meisters I had it on the same settings. With the meisters set to max soft the car rolled round corners like a wet blancmange! I switched them over to the hardest positions and it now feels a lot more planted on the twisties.

Springs installed

Starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere now.

Uncovered a small issue though, in that the intercooler is sitting a few mm too far forward to allow the indication housing to fit them back on. Anyone encountered this? Hopefully I can tweak something without removing the front bumper again. :taz:

 

The newly assembled front struts are in and nipped up just need torquing up as I ran out of time.

Uncovered a small issue though, in that the intercooler is sitting a few mm too far forward to allow the indication housing to fit them back on. Anyone encountered this? Hopefully I can tweak something without removing the front bumper again. :taz:

 

The newly assembled front struts are in and nipped up just need torquing up as I ran out of time.

 

Have you fitted the large aluminium intercoolers?

 

In which case the indicator housing needs modification O.o

I have indeed.

This is the solution I was advised to do and works faultlessly.

Plastic weld would be better than glue but it hold fine and I dont have water in it

Makes perfect sense I spose. Seems a bit brutal to gain a few mm I may pop the arch lining out and see if I can "encourage" a rake on the intercooler, as I say I only need a few mm.

Makes perfect sense I spose. Seems a bit brutal to gain a few mm I may pop the arch lining out and see if I can "encourage" a rake on the intercooler, as I say I only need a few mm.

True, my intercoolers were as far as i could force back and still in the way. Probably got a little more room after a CC delete

Alteratively you can modify a rear lights bulb holder (black type) to replace the standard one and gain some clearance.

This worked when I fitted HKS SMICs.

 

Alteratively you can modify a rear lights bulb holder (black type) to replace the standard one and gain some clearance.

This worked when I fitted HKS SMICs.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]106259[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks Andrew. Yes! Like it. Got a few kicking about. That looks like the precious few mm I need.

Probably the most important part turned up today after weeks of waiting, 4" square but worth about 1000 retro points.

Erm, Stephen... what are you doing with that young man?...

Erm, Stephen... what are you doing with that young man?...

 

It has a special place on the bottom left of my rear window. Got to have some fun.

Following Andrews advice I went for a dig in the shed and found an old rear light harness. Just one sadly, cut the indicatior off as a pig tail and test fitted. Ok it wasn't a perfect fit on the plug but it worked and more importantly the indicator now fits.

You only gain a few MM but it's enough, as you can see it's a shallower fitting.

To get round the lack of indicator lamp holders I disassembled a brake/tail light one and switched the original single pole internals. So all that was left to do was solder the bulb holder to the plugs. I opted to solder as apposed to crimp to allow some flexibility to be retained. Some heat shrink to insulate and black tape for belt and braces later were done.

Fitted in the indicators this morning, however the side lights are damaged by the fitting and I need some need bulb holders. 501s I think it is I need. I also cut out my arch liner mounts as they were running on big bumps anyway, this means I've got more importance on those little arch liner plugs, eBay I assume? Got the rear bumper tabs to er, massage :lol: That pesky bolt on the ARB is now hopefully rectified.

Stickers on, sorry Joel:

Rear shocks are now out ready for the 4kg springs.

I fired the engine up today for first time in months, it caught straight away and burst into life on all six, which I was happy about. I did notice some horrible sound but knew where to look. The Power Steering pump was empty of fluid, seems there's a leak on the banjo fitting which needs some attention.

We're getting there, slowly. Can't wait to drive it again for a bit.

I really want to like the previous post for the great progress you've made with the car... but I can't bring myself to do it for reasons of aesthetic sensibility judgment matrix!!

I really want to like the previous post for the great progress you've made with the car... but I can't bring myself to do it for reasons of aesthetic sensibility judgment matrix!!

 

:lol: in that case you will love this;

Some bits turned up today. The new rear springs and some arch clips. Just got to find time to install now.

Nice Stephen, .......... do you have a sweet tooth?