How much further back is the radiator compared to stock? Are you going to run stock fan or electric fans?
I haven't measured exactly, but it's about 3-4 inches further forward than stock. I'm putting on a pair of 14" Derale pullers, 4200 CFM combined. They will only just fit between the frame rails.
How heavy is that radiator crossmember? Looks like it weighs a tonne, and it's so far forward on the chassis too.
It's 10kg. Heavier than the stock one (didn't weigh that unfortunately), and I knew it while I was carrying it out too. It came partly down to my lack of ability to source correct materials/know what wall thickness would be appropriate to fit. I was having trouble finding a local supplier that would sell short sections of the correct dimension rectangular box section so by the third shop I just wanted to pick something up and get started. It's compounded by the fact that the radiator (heavy when full of water!) is also further in front of the front axle as well. it's a hell of a lot stronger though, can definitely jack the car up from it. I thought about making a bolt in version from aluminium, if I'm ever looking for something to do well down the track I very well may cut this one out and do that. Not to mention the only reason it is being done is cosmetics, so none of this has been a practice in race car engineering I refer to it as my wheelie bar, haha
I wish. Well some, but not as much as I'd like. I just started a new degree, and to say the adjustment has been a challenge is an understatement. To such an extent that I haven't laid a finger on the Zed in three months... There is good news though. While I haven't had time to chuck spanners I have been keeping up with part time work (did not make things easier), and as such the parts flow has been keeping up. I'll put those up when I get a few minutes.
dam yeah i know how that feels man commitments must be met my zed has been off the road for like 3 years lol finally getting to start it monday
About that time here too. It'll be finished when it's finished, it only seems to bother people that aren't me.
Alright, so I just started my new degree. It's been character building to say the least, and between full time eng study, working part time and maintaining my relationship I have had literally no time to touch the car. It's simply going to have to be a between semesters type deal from now on. Fortunately in the mean time I've been keeping up the parts flow. I haven't had the same cash to burn obviously, but my constant Yahoo scouring as well as general priority from-the-top-of-the-list-down parts have been coming in as I can afford them. Let's start off with some most expensivist shit. New rods from Carillo. These are stupid dear even when the dollar is good, which it's not, as I'm sure you all know... I had a set of Eagles, but with what I'm putting together on the boost side of things we were really sitting on the edge of what they were up to. Took some convincing for me to cough up for these but it's better than rebuilding the motor. I got the CARR bolt upgrade too, no weak links here. Next up is something I've been waiting for for a god damn age and a half. Back at the beginning of the year I sold off my Tommy K Recaro SR2s (never even made it into the car) and at long last placed the order for my dream seats, a pair of VeilSide VSD-1Rs. Now when I say an age of a half I'm damn well not kidding; they quoted a two months made-to-order lead time and they took a whole ****ing 7 months to arrive. No shit. Back on black, reclineable, in full carbon fibre (not an overlay! very happy to discover that upon arrival) Thankfully they feel great (never sat in any before) with exception of the chequered backrest padding. I hated it when I was oggling them online, hated it when I ordered them, hated it while I was waiting for them to arrive and unsurprisingly hate them just as much in real life. However not only do they look bad, but they're so thick that they space the user literally completely in front of the side bolsters, defeating the whole damn idea of racing seats. Thankfully they're only held in with velcro, and much much better to sit in once removed. I'll knock up something simple and thin as a replacement. Next on the list of interior accoutrements I picked up a Tommy K shifter to match my steerer. Landed this off of my buddy who's parting his car, as well as a sweet amp and a few odds and ends. It's completely flawless like the wheel, super nice looking unit. Sorry about the selective focus, I bought a new to me Nikon D3100 and am trying to wrap my head around it. Next up more interior additions... got another unicorn part Took me 6 months to find an original GReddy 3 bar. These were made back in the 90s when not many cars ran that high a boost level, so they didn't sell many. They're the perfect match for the OEM cluster and in my mind the best pick for an as close to seamless install as possible. My centre bezel triple holder is full (water+oil temp, oil pressure) and I wasn't able to find a period correct high reading unit in 52mm anyway. A close runner was this unit from HKS, and although it has a matching needle and displays vacuum, it doesn't read high enough unfortunately. All stripped down, I've done this so many times I reckon I could get a stock cluster to this state in three minutes blindfolded Test fitting the GReddy unit in the useless OEM temperature gauge location, bezel matches my CZP piano black gauge rings almost perfectly Trimming trimming trimming. One back light bulb (no longer necessary anyway) is removed, some useless screw bosses cut away and one wiring plug shrunk down to size. Still enough meat left to remain operational. Wiring run out the back, everything buttons up more or less as it was All in all this was a staggeringly straight forward job - not only does the GReddy unit look like it's meant to be there from the front, it's almost as though it was designed to be fit to a Z32 cluster. the back of the gauge lined up perfectly with the back panel of the cluster (just!), the relevant pins of the wiring plug on the cluster that I had to trim lead to nowhere anyway (cat warning light, etc) and even the OEM screws that held the temperature gauge in wound into the back of the GReddy unit, securing it to the cluster. My endlessly critical best friends were quick to point out that the needle doesn't match, and they're right, but I'm planning to swap in another GReddy unit to the OEM fuel gauge position on the other side so at least it'll not match symmetrically. Fuel gauge will be getting moved to the OEM oil pressure gauge similar to this. Next up are some cool hard to find engine parts! yay I sold my fake HKS BOV's ages ago, and will need to pick up something at some point... there're so many items on the market that all do the same thing. I'm just kind of meh about it all... 'til I came across these and thought "BEE*R BOV'S? THAT'S MAAAAAAD" followed by; "Hey dude wanna hear my Bee*R?" "**** yeah I've never heard one in real life, hit it!" Vrooooom psshh Spectator is disappoint I am lol SOLD It then took me 6 month of looking before one came up on the local Facebook drift group for next to nothing, and simultaneously an immaculate one on Yahoo. Awesome! Next up is something I don't even know if I'm going to use, but when this thing of mythical legend came up for sale on Yahoo I just had to have it. I've read about these things - fitted to RBs and 2Js back in the 90's. In all my years of regular searches of my favourite brand I've never seen one for sale before so it was just kind of a no brainer to grab it. It's 100mm, and seriously fisting jokes just don't cut it because this thing could make it all the way to anyone's shoulder without issue. It's ****ing massive. I'd love to rock it but it's going to come down to the best way to make up the plenum with flow coming first. Next up I picked up a GReddy thermostated sandwich plate and an NA oil filter tree. In researching how to plumb an oil thermostat best on a TT (after I already picked up a remote mount thermostat somewhat recently), I found out that the factory Nissan oil cooler port is only fed with excess oil pressure, as part of a bypass valve that flows directly into the sump. This obviously limits how much cooling can be carried out. With the NA oil filter tree (pictured, no oil cooler port), and the GReddy thermo'd sandwich plate, oil always flows when necessary to the cooler before being fed back to the filter - way more cooling potential. Thermostat port is tiny but these guys know what they're doing so I guess it's okay. Last up for today is a big one, a body mod... more old school jap cool IT'S SO HAPPY Those that know me are aware that I've had a long long long love for this bar but never really planned to pick one up as it's quite OTT... but when the Ab-Flug bumper, carbon fibre diffuser combo came up dirt cheap on Up Garage I just ab-solutely couldn't say no. here's a an idea of how it looks fitted up, and no I won't be using the outer winglets or a centre exhaust. The diffuser is "generic" in the sense that Ab-Flug fit it to a range of cars (most notably their FDs). as such it doesn't fit the car/bar what I'd call properly, so I am going to cut the absolute hell out of it to make it work on the car 100%. I thought about it for weeks and weeks and have a game plan that has more or less turned into a complete rear end overhaul project so it will be sweet to see how it carries out. That's it for tonight, I'm just about done with the first project since semester end and will post it up shortly. -A
Thanks Tim, plenty of that is thanks to you I should mention this gentleman received the rear bar and diffuser for me, then had it driven up my way on the house by a friend on the house (well, a bottle of wild turkey). I really appreciate it Tim. More content up very soon, with actual hard yards elbow grease in it!
I've always been a fan of the Abflug rear bumper too, nice pick-up. I also like the TK wheel and knob, shame the progress will be slow I want to see it all complete
BROOOOOO all those name brands and those seats...... so jealous right now well done to you mate, i cant help but think of the next owner of your car (one day)
Way cool. I understand the seat love, I dragged back a carbon Bride Brix on my last trip to J-land. 1.5 hours on the train from the wrecking yard to the hotel then another hour to Narita then hoped and prayed it didn't get destroyed in cargo. Still sits in my office just looking rad because I haven't been game to stick it in a car yet
cheers guys, appreciate it. the wait time alone didn't bother me so much as that they weren't up front about it; if they simply said "seven months eta" it'd be sweet but they said two - and didn't respond for months at a time. I'd prefer to have dragged them both around on a train
