Required Reading
 

Awesome journal! I finally got it read in its entirety. Does anyone have any coupon codes for Visine?

Travis - I was curious if the throttle body spacer was of any use for a NA car versus FI?

Hope everything turns out well!

Thanks Kevin... I really should put a note at the beginning about getting an "auto page loader" like "autopager"... it ques all the pages so you don't have to keep hitting the next page button

Re throttle body spacer, putting one on the Tundra soon... none for the Z... heard good things about it for the Tundra - using the AFE product... others say it's a waste of money... we'll see

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Anyone find an engine for me? could be from a G37 of course...

Wonder if they have one for the FJ?

Quick google search on FJ Cruiser...

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...w=1109&bih=575

Also CAIs for your 4.0L...

Cold Air Intake System Stage 2 Si <P>aFe Power Magnum FORCE Stage 2 Si Air Intake System; Pro 5R; Toyota FJ/4Runner 10-12 V6-4.0L</P> 54-81932 - aFe Power

For the CAI, most of the gains come from switching to a K&N filter ;)

Thanks. I was jsut asking for general conversation. I just signed up on there forums. All sorts of goodies for the FJ.

Crossbrace
 

Travis/Spohn/RCZ ... What about this crossbrace that lies beneath the mid portion of the exhaust? I bent mine then took it off and re-bent it back. It's not very strong. Is this something I can leave off? I have FI exhaust so if my universal joint breaks the drive shaft will not be able to reach the ground (I think). Can this be left off or replaced with a stronger type of brace?

I'd leave on. This is a sub frame brace. Mine just recently got bent from a construction site in front of my dads house. They replaced it for me. That part cost $239. I could of got it for $180 but they decided to pick the part up for me than write me a check.

Agree, leave as is

I pulled Travises but only after I caged his car...

If we ever get this car back on the track, going to look into more upgrades for the braking system...

Possible stepper motor actuated front/rear bias controller

Balance Bar Cable Adjuster - Electronic Type CP5500-14 Stepper Motor Kit

Wait so whats the situation with your motor?

Hey Shaun. The situation is I hope to get it resolved... right now it's a paper weight

Hope so too. Been following your journal since you started it. Definately one of the most inspiring builds on this forum :tup:

Going through TravisJB Journal Withdrawl ... whats the latest?

+1 on impatiently awaiting updates on your engine going poof. I know it's a tough situation to be in and that commenting publicly too early isn't a good strategy, though :)

That seems to be a common thing here. Especially in the exterior section. Cough.. UAM.. Cough

But I'd like to know what happened. It had to be somewhat expected.

Thanks for your thoughts and notes, all! Going through a bit of withdrawal myself... have a backup plan for March track days, but it's just not the same.

Wstar, you nailed it my friend. Hope to have something GOOD to say soon.

Car is back with me. Tomorrow, I will take it to a shop in Tampa to finish things up. I am considering both S&R and ZFever.

Jason (Jnaut) did some good work on the car. The plumbing on the new water-oil heat exchanger is precise and race spec so far as I can tell. There was some trick work he did to fit the GTM kit to my car and he managed to cut off a few more pounds from the nose of the car. He also diagnosed a problem with the fuel pump.

Re the engine, there will be no discussion of "whose to blame" here or anywhere. In racing, these things happen. I will, however, be posting some detailed pictures of the engine internals for learning / discussion, once we have it torn down.

So what weight was cut from the front?

Remnants of Nissan brackets and various plastic bits like a relay housing that only had a horn relay - of course I have no horn...

Also, I was previously running a dual core air-oil cooling system... the new water-oil setup is much lighter and closer in. Not sure on exact weights there but I'd guess ~10 lbs

Anxious to see the results. Will be interesting to see how the water-oil cooler is plumbed in.

Who sells the water-oil cooler? Is that the same as a heat exchanger that GTM sells or is it custom?

Great news Travis, glad you're getting the car back in action.

Laminova... I'm using model E54 which is v high throughput... plan on $200-300 of additional parts for plumbing. BAT distribution out of Sarasota FL is the primary NA distributor for Mocal.

Here's a brochure and some other links:
http://208.109.215.220/files/laminova.pdf
Laminova heat exchangers - Laminova
British American Transfer
Laminova Heat Exchanger - Modified Magazine

http://honda-tech.com/attachment.php...1&d=1284252044

Often used on motorcycles
http://honda-tech.com/attachment.php...1&d=1284252044

Very interesting. You wouldn't have any pics on your car would yea? How much capacity is that?

actually, one of those might be perfect to install in a 2012. The actual heat exchanger is way too small in the stock 20120 cooler

Will upload those w/in the next week. Jason installed it just aft of the radiator and at the lowest possible safe point. Capacity for the unit I got is said to be consistent with a 25+ row air-oil cooler. The pdf file linked above probably has throughput ratings on it - we used fairly large opening sizes. Capacity is sufficient such that there is a claimed ~zero pressure drop across the unit.

Wiring gurus (do we have any?)-

I'm putting an LED lighting system on my truck bed and running power through a relay and switch mounted in the cab... I noticed that when I turn power on to the lights I get a voltage spike on the low current 12v that includes a toggle switch. This is the same 12v that sends a remote on signal to my stereo amp (the blue wire)... it causes a loud crackle over the speakers, which I'm guessing is a voltage spike to the amp. In any event, I read that you can fix this by wiring in a diode across the relay control (85/86 terminals)... I bought a bunch of 1amp and 3amp diodes. How do I install those? There is a red end and a white end on the diodes, which goes to which terminal on the relay? Help a brother out! thanks

Look I'm helping!

Terrific, Bobo! White it shall be. I knew I could count on you. :rolleyes:

Let me guess, you googled "red wire or white wire" after drinking a 6 pack??? :p

So your using the low current 12V signal to energize the relay via the switch? If that is the case then yes, the diode might help, but if the diode is just electrically noisy then it may not be a cure all. You could use unregulated battery voltage to feed the relay instead.

The white stripe on the diode indicates the cathode end (negative), I've never heard of a red stripe but they just might be trying to be helpful to mark the other end as positive. Wire the diode following the existing polarity.

The diode idea might work. Depending on the nature of the little spike, a small capacitor across the switch pins might help as well (e.g. a small <1uF non-dielectric). I'd be willing to bet it's the toggle switch rather than relay that's causing the noise, but you could try doing the capacitor thing across one or both.

The Laminova unit sounds like a really interesting alternative to an air cooler, if it performs as described. Better warmup, shorter hoses, less excess oil weight. Is the unit itself lighter than a 25-row air cooler? Regardless, as you've said you can mount the weight centered lower.

So water-routing-wise you just put it inline with the lower radiator hose between the radiator's output and the thermostat/pump inlet on the engine? And then a non-thermostatic sandwich plate for the oil?

I'm wondering whether the stock radiator can handle this all by itself though, or if an upgraded radiator is needed to go Laminova and ditch the air cooler.

Yes and yes. Laminova recommends routing 100% of the water flow through the unit, although their documentation says if necessary you can also run a branch... the pressure drop is supposed to be negligible, so guessing a branch would be fine. In my case, it is 100%.

I've heard people speculate that the OEM unit is not sufficient... but I think that's based upon general car knowledge, not actual data on the 370z radiator/condenser. We would need to get the thermal specs on this radiator to know for sure... or just test it.

Thanks guys! I'll give this a shot today and report back. Will try diode's first since I have those on hand. Does it matter 1amp or 3amp diodes? Guessing 1amp is sufficient for a simple control switch.

If you're using it as a blocking diode so there will be little current flow (on the switch side of the relay), the 1A should be fine.

I would be wiring it in series with the positive terminal, but from the description it sounds like you plan on using it as a shunt? I'm not sure if that would work, would probably blow a fuse ...

Not even, as soon as I saw, "red or white" - I immediately thought of that scene from Ace Ventura haha.

Stuff online said to wire it across the positive negative, in much the same way that a relay with built in diode would do... but I'll try wiring to just the positive side as cut in first - makes sense that would work.

Thanks! You know your ****

Okay I get it now, it is being used as a snub. In that case wire the diode across the positive/negative terminals of the relay with "reverse" polarity. This will allow the induced current to dissipate more quickly and should eliminate the voltage spike when turning off the lights "off". But you said the problem was when you were turning the lights "on" not "off"?

Going off memory here - was only when I turned them on... this little project just pushed to tomorrow... more later