you win.

Great choice going with AP. They look amazing!

Thanks, Namir...

quick note from Redline...
"Rears where the easiest to install...virtually bolt on. Fronts required major trimming of OEM backing plate to allow rotor fitment. Instructions where very good. Bleed system with Motul racing brake fluid...bleeding was extremely easy, rare in big brake conversions. I am very impressed with the overall kit."

... will cover all this in detail in a couple weeks after next track day

I absolutely love big brake kits.

UPDATE: good progress today at Redline Motorsports... I will pick the car up tomorrow. Things are looking good. Dual oil cooler kit is in and was tested and WORKING GREAT! I predict this will be the most robust oil cooling solution, period. Full details and pictures by end of week. BBK ready to go. We are planning brake ducting that will work with either the AP Racing BBK or the OEM Sport brakes. My shop plans to make this a kit available to you all as well. Diff cooler will have to wait until after my trip to MMS on 7/11, but I think the only guy waiting on that is DDM. More tomorrow!

Also, I think I just found my NEXT race car for 2012... 2,200 pound, 160 hp, Furai-inspired Mazda MX-2... Going to go out on a limb... this will be a huge success! Imagine tuning the turbo model to 200whp and ~1,800 pounds! wow

http://www.themotorreport.com.au/wp-...oncept_021.jpg
Mazda MX-2 Roadster To Arrive in 2012 | The Motor Report: Auto News And Reviews

Good Stuff. That MX-2 looks crazy :)

Keep us posted on this. Right now the only solution is roll-your-own with lots of fabrication. I'd really like to see a good kit with prefabbed parts for front brake cooling.

I'm starting to really like Mazdas. That thing looks awesome.

So how about the dual oil cooler? Is your shop going to make that available? and how hard would it be to install ourselves or at a local shop?

The dual oil cooler kit will be available in about a month. We needed more time for testing and to prepare the kit for sale. We also need to become a sponsor before we can market or sell anything on this site. Travis is racing at Miller Motorsports Park this weekend with this new setup.

The kit is designed to be easily installed by anyone with minor mechanical skills or any local tuning shop of choice.

Cheers,
Robert

Ready for race tomorrow! Miller Motorsports Park, starting at 8am... sorry, no twitter but I will update here next couple days... have a long drive back to Arizona first!

AP Racing brakes performed very well on the street... full write up later

Random bits... A couple little things I noticed about the car during my drive to Utah... you guys may already know these, but I just figured them out so thought I'd share

1) can only set cruise control at 90mph or less
2) when you press IN on either the cruise control selector or the steering wheel mounted stereo controller, the horn goes off !

Have fun on the track sir! Jealous for sure! Can't wait to hear your results...

Quick update from the track.. Apr brakes work great, can't wait to provide more details. Dual oil cooler setup is keeping temps well below 250 despite my best efforts. Ran a 1:50 in last session. Still on street tires. Will try to grab a couple more seconds this afternoon.

Big problem. Despite low oil temps, I am still hitting limp mode !!!!! 6,500rpm limit in third gear only with 240f oil temp showing. Just did a battery disconnect to reset computer. We'll see if it happens again. If it does, we have a deeper issue to resolve with this computer.

Wow, thats kinda odd - is anyone else seeing limp mode starting with temps that low?

Just read 17 pages. Thread of the year PERIOD. The limp mode is weird...hope it's just a one time glitch and goes away for good after resetting.

So you are still hitting 240F with two oil coolers? Maybe its not so bad given the track and ambient temps, but I was expecting significantly lower.

That is definitely odd that you still went into limp mode even though you were below the limit.

Yeah something is up with that limp mode thing. I have hit 270 before without going into limp mode.

Thanks! Doing my best to share what I learn... really appreciate everyone's terrific input!

You have to understand, I push the car really really hard. With my original Stillen setup, I would have seen 280f in these conditions I am 100% sure... Also, remember that Nissan has said that 240 is within the sweet spot of engine oil operating temperatures for this car. Most of my time on the track was 180-220f... 240f was peak. I am going to give this kit my strongest endorsement. This is the kit to get! Robert will soon be providing details. He sent me pics but asked me to hold off until we tested it at the track.... hang tight just a bit

SO, HERE'S THE UPDATE... My post yesterday was after my second track session... During third session, I had an epic battle with a Lotus, then the engine completely shut down on me after going into what I thought was limp mode. I had to coast off the track.... It was not limp mode. One of the O2 sensors on headers had become disconnected and very likely caused the engine shut down. I drove the car to my in-laws after the event. Looked all around the car and when I looked underneath I saw that my O2 sensors that attach to headers had been nearly sheared off the location they mount to on transmission. The bolt had either rattled loose or was sheared when the car bottomed out on my 9 hour drive to Utah from AZ. I'm not surprised, I did some very serious canyon driving. I reattached the sensors with some make-shift parts and drove home from UT to AZ last night. Got a ticket on 93, but that's another story...

Lesson learned... All of us that lower the car need to consider relocating the o2 sensor bracket from the bottom of transmission to sides.

Unfortunately, I had to cut my day short and missed the last 2 runs and the time trials at day's end.... But I should be able to post the video from session 3... Stand by

PS Mike, your buddy Jimbo (with MR2) says 'hi'

limp mode on tranny or diff fluid temps?

This is really starting to piss me off.

Trust me, I was irate yesterday at the track... but it turns out this one is my fault, not Nissan's... read my post above, hope it was clear... The O2 sensors simply came undone... wouldn't have happened if the bracket hadn't scrapped against the road or track or dead animal on the road or whatever

Ah I thought both things happened, both limp and then turned off. Got it.

I should have been more clear... it felt like limp mode... you'll see when I post the video that I lost power several times.... engine finally just shut off... No check engine light for whatever reason... at first I thought it was fuel starvation

Just updated video journal with my third session.... as well as a video of engine cutting out

http://www.the370z.com/track-autocro...tml#post112816

Great video :)

So back on the oil temps thing: I'm still driving on the street mostly (for now anyways, although hopefully I can hit some track stuff later), so obviously I'm not heating up the engine as much as you do on the track. I'm running Stillen's cooler plus a 1-qt spacer on the oil pan from AAM for the moment (which also spaces down the oil pickup, so in theory it's going to help prevent loss of oil pickup on a hard corner too).

Anyways, you have any thoughts on what's "too cold" for hard driving? I'm mostly staying in the 190-220 range now even in aggressive street conditions, but on highway night drives at high speed, my oil temps are sucking down to 175-180 when cruising due to the lower ambient temps and high airflow to the cooler. I'm starting to wonder if that's too cold and the oil would be better off a little hotter in that scenario (not that it matters when I'm actually just cruising, but it might matter when I get back on the gas/revs hard at those temps). Keep in mind we're nearing the peak of TX summer heat, so these temps will probably drop substantially in the winter.

I'm planning to put a thermo plate in on my next oil change anyways, which should at least keep the floor at 180. I'm not even really sure how these plates are specified anyways. Is 180 when the valve starts opening, or when it becomes fully open?

Hey WSTAR... I read about your spacer, nice job. There are plenty of engineers and chemists better qualified to answer your question but my quick input is that yes, especially with thicker oils it is better to have a thermostat and avoid running hard at low temps... and there is probably a reason that most thermostats open at 180f... other than that, not sure exactly what the right number is for our cars and your particular oil... Given that I'm using a lot of cooling and a thicker oil, I'm planning to use a thermostatic switch. Re how they work, my understanding is that they are binary - either open or closed - at a given temp... some may open or close partially

Or if you go with a kit like GTM's (which is what I am using) they provide a thermostatic sandwhich plate which lets the engine take care of anything under 180 then it auto starts circulating after that...

I think its a win win...expecially here on the Northern East Coast when temps get real cold, I dont want to be blowing fittings. But then again I let the car warm up...

I would've expected a mechanical thermostat to not be binary, because it's simpler to build them that way (basically a spring that slowly changes shape with temperature), but I guess they could also use some kind of bent bi-metal strip that would snap one way or the other at a given temp. Oh and I'm running 5W-30 Motul 300V too, so mine isn't quite as thick as yours to begin with.

I believe they use a spring design just like the thermostat for your radiator. It should begin opening at 180 and should be fully open by 195 or so.

(btw, sorry travis for the temporary side-issue technical hijack here) I went ahead and called BAT, who are the US distributors for the Mocal plates, and asked them so I could sort this out for sure. What they told me on the phone was this (for the Mocal thermostatic sandwich plates, who knows about other types/brands):

The passageways that flow to the cooler are always open and unregulated. Separately, there is a bypass passageway that goes straight through to the oil filter. The thermostat slowly closes off the bypass passageway as the temps rise. The temp range for the closing-off action is roughly around 5-10 degrees F, roughly centered on 180. Once the bypass is fully closed off (so roughly around 182-185-ish), all oil flows through the cooler.

On the other side of the temp range (when you're down at anything under 175-178-ish) essentially both paths are wide open, it's just that the bypass is the path of least resistance, so "most" of the oil will take the bypass route. But by leaving the cooler path open with a little flow going through it as well, it helps get the cooler system warmed up too, so it's not a sudden temp-shock transition when you get warmed up and close off the bypass.

He said they sell a model that's set for 200F as well, but that they don't recommend it for car applications, and it's mainly marketed at marine/aviation needs.

good info... the 200f could be used to activate a second cooler in a dual core setup

Actually yeah that's an interesting idea. You could do the sandwich-plate-style 180F adapter at the oil filter, and then an inline-style 200F thermo between cooler #1 and cooler #2 (like this one: BAT, Inc. - MOCAL Oil Coolers )

^ Thats what I'm going to be doing... although there's no need to run the high temp one. I have noticed the engine management loves 180 degrees the most. Not really necessary to run the second cooler only at a higher than 180 temp. That way it will try to constantly stay at 180 all the time.

180 all the time would concern me a little, but I don't know if I'm right to be concerned. I would think getting it up around 200-220 regularly is good for the oil/engine (in the sense of helping to keep it acid/sludge-free).

Maybe I'm thinking 200...that general vicinity is fine.

UPDATE:

I've decided to take the plunge and turn this into a real race car. It has always been inevitable, but I figured I could hold off at least a year! Perhaps I was inspired by Sharif and the Forged Performance crew!

So, started the process this afternoon of gutting the car. I'm doing a lot of it myself, and considering this is my first dedicated race car, it's going to take a bit of time. I managed to pull nearly all of the interior plastic except for the parts with functions I will need. Also pulled carpets today. All of the parts have been carefully removed and are AVAILABLE FOR SALE.

No pics tonight - not enough time. Will update again next weekend with pics and after I've removed a few more items.

Could use some advice or good weblink how-to's on using dry ice to remove sound deadeding materials. Also, any thoughts on what I should target for weight reduction?

:bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown::bowdown:

+rep. I love that idea and gets me excited. Not in that way btw. :happydance:
I think you should aim for 2800. Not too far fetched but enough of a challenge to keep you busy for a while. From the thread by forged, i remember he got it down to 3009lbs by taking out the interior parts. I would love to see 2800lbs and 330 whp on dynojet (which is what semtex is making)....a formula FULL of win. Just to put that into perspective, that would be same power to weight ratio of a boosted s2000 which is PLENTY fast - i mention this because i rode in a 330 whp s2k weighing at 2800 lbs. That sucker was a monster. It spanked lots and lots of mucho expensive cars. Good stuff!!!!

Thanks. I think the goals you mention are completely achievable... In fact, I'm going to shoot for 2700 lbs... Forged goal of 2600 is a bit aggressive for me - I don't have the time or money to fabricate new parts... Also I think 330 whp is achievable... I'm switching to GTM straight pipes and will have a custom Cobb tune done next few weeks. Over time, I'd like to see 340 whp.

I'd welcome ideas on:

- parts I should remove
- additional chassis stiffening upgrades I should consider
- reliability and safety upgrades I haven't already done

Travis,

The slope just did a 90 degree vertical fall. Hang on and enjoy the ride.

I now have an 09 Cayman S with PDK/PASM/Sport Chrono. It is an interesting car.

I went to Putnam Park a week ago with my local PCA Club. For 3 days I left the car in Sport Plus and just drove it never shifting. A couple of times the PDK would pick a lower gear mid corner, 3rd at 6000 as opposed to 4th at 4500, than I would have selected. However, it never unsettled the car. The shifts were amazingly fast.

A total of 12 runs for the weekend with no limp modes, box stock.

Hopefully someone will show up at an event in my area with a well modded 370. I'd like to see the true potential of the car.

No regrets alan?

Also Travis, keep us updated. I really wish I could do what you are doing..I will have to live vicariously through your thread :)

+1 it is killing me to see all of these full track builds. Damn I miss having money to buy a different car for a daily driver. :(