Bought my old zed back, because race car

oo embedded, i like it thanks rob

this is the one without the music you can see what i mean with the wind

[yt]j-X4LMvGndQ[/yt]​

 

looks like my zed is getting a new look

just bought twinZ front and rear fascias thanks to Rob Sidaway for bringing these in!

 

Got bored on the weekend and stripped the zed

rainy weekends and a carton of Bulmers never end well for my cars

stripped the front end ready to install my new SMICS i got from tektraders old race car, and top mount fuel rails for E85 setup

while i was at it i went hunting for weight as after my last strip i pulled 150kg out of the girl, problem being 100kg of that was from the rear wheels making my current split
800kg front, 668kg rear (was 853kg from 795kg rear) (these measurements are with full tank of gas and me sitting in the drivers seat

so now i somehow need to find an extra 100kg only from the front axle

i ended up ganking the motor out while i was at it as a life of high boost and stock (modified but still there anyway) PCV system has causes the majority of my seals to start leaking
plus i want to make a custom inlet to turbo pipe which i cant unbolt as clearance issues means the engine mount has to come off BEFORE the inlet pipe can come off

few more weight saving ideas rolling around in my head at the moment which involves the angle grinder.. but ill wait to see how it plays out before talking more

next track day is mid november.. so two months to get it all back together

pics (not sure id label them progress pics)






and as a bonus weight saving i found that i never removed the AIV completely! this bucnch of junk is actually quite heavy

 

Nice work.

How heavy are our fenders? I have never lifter one before.

 

Really light.

Good work so far man. Let's see that weight saving - cut the fronts of the chassis rails off!

That big ugly front bar should good for air flow to the SMIC's.

 

I've got a nice set of JUN exhaust cam gears you should buy

 

I see you've still got power steering....

 

haha, I have a nice set of BDE bullseye exhaust pulleys sorry

 

Since my return to Zeddom i have noticed some interesting new products that were developed while i was away

we were toying with electric water pumps way back in 05 with the davies craig ones when Tom did a GB http://www.aus300zx.com/forum/showthread.php?t=243383&highlight=electric+water+pump

my room mate at the time mattz built a plate that bolts where the waterpump goes and welded a hose inlet and outlet to keep the factory coolant circulation correct (all the pics seem to be missing from the post, typical)

i nearly wet myself when i came across the BDE electric water pump setup a couple of months ago, would have killed for that back in the day.. very awesome, but also awesomely expensive

I'im sure we can come to some sort of arrangement rob.. PM sent

 

bored waiting for parts to arrive for my 100kk service and E85 upgrades I decided to look for some more weight savings as well as making room for custom plumbing and making the whole intercooler pipework alot shorter (faster spool and lighter to boot)

Engine Before


Engine at the moment


this is what happens when i have nothing to do and an angle grinder in my hand


outcome

 

Long term side project of mine i thought id have a play with while i had nothing in the bay

ive actually got a whole other chassis to design and engineer this in before it goes into the race car

dont get too excited, the VG will be in the bay for quite some time yet

everyone that has done this conversion in the past has tried to keep the rear sump layout of the VG, the reason this conversion works so well in a S chassis or skyline is because of its native front sump layout

the 350z actually centers the engine over the front axle as opposed to the 300zx that sits about 100mm futher back.. when i aquired the 350z 6 speed i found it was 100mm longer which got me thinking

the VQ itself is lighter so the forward movement shouldnt effect weight distribution too much so long as heavy stuff like turbo manifold and dirty great turbo sits behind the engine not forward of

how much it exactly weighs is unknown as the only comparos ive seen are full loaded twin turbo zed motors and a bare vq.. so i will be weighing a bare VG and the bare VQ so all other things remain equal


front sump means engine and box can go in together







can see engine centreline with relation to front axle here


bonnet closes once excess bosses ground off front timing cover

custom inlet manifold will be made, itll be a squeeze but theres a fair bit of room to play with

will probably need to make custom rad support to shift the radiator about 2" further forward

thats all that will be done with this for the short term, back to work on rewiring the car and top feed fuel rail for the VG

 

fitted up the new bodykit on the weekend.. fits like a charm.. rear bar is a little short overall (6mm, meaning it needs to be filled about 3mm on either side where it meets the rear fender prior to painting)

pics

this is just sitting there being held by two paint cans, fits the lines perfectly


detail on flanges of rear bar



looking hot



tow hook happened to fit perfectly.. lucky
straight shot to intercoolers

 

mocked up the new intercoolers from tektrader
going to run the pipework a bit differently to the way PWR originally set these up



so i started practicing aluminium welding (done all my previous intercooler work in stainless steel, but in the essence of weight saving I'm now learning how to weld aluminium) and let me say.. oh my god.. NOT THE SAME haha
when the TIG is in AC there are 10 knobs to play with instead of 2
first attempts



so i have a heap of 5mm plate ally that im going to practice on before getting back to this

 

sick dude, going to be an awesome car.

 

Agreed! Looking forward to the VQ!

 

you and me both.. but i need to get the VG in and running again with the new fuel system and front end
so i can go racing then i can crack into the project on the other shell