wstar's Journal

wstar · 05-17-2013, 12:37 AM

Operation: Denny's Run was a success. Trans is back to flawless now with the correct fill level (thanks guys!). Cooling data still looks awesome. I had to stay down a gear and keep the revs up around 4K cruising just to keep my oil at 170 now that we're in the cool night air. A few light moments harder on the car brought it to 180 but never past. If I had thought ahead / known, I would've blocked half the front grill with duct tape for the drive.

AP/Stillen BBK + CL RC6E is still feeling awesome. I don't think I've yet hit a street-test scenario that will really tell me whether I'm gonna hit any minor ice-mode-like issues with this setup or not. I'm sure I'll find out this weekend at TWS.

The trans mount made the drivetrain feel a little more connected to the body again, like the engine mounts. It might make a larger difference throttling on track-out at the limit, but on the street I'd say the change was "noticeable, but minimal". The engine mount change was more noticeable than the trans. This is the opposite of Spohn's impression of the two, but the difference is likely his 6MT setup versus my 7AT.

wstar · 05-20-2013, 10:45 AM

So I had a fun weekend at TWS. There were a number of minor issues with me and the car, and it certainly wasn't my best/fastest weekend, but I learned a lot. This weekend was the rare Clockwise direction there, totally new to me. The CCW direction I ran last time out there was much more of a "feeling" track where you could just traction-sense your way through it and rock around there in no time. This CW direction it seems a bit more technical and unforgiving, but it's still really fun to learn.

I left my USB stick at home and didn't realize it until I was ready to hit the Record button for the first session of the weekend. I picked one up Sat night locally and only got session data for Sunday. Had one true spin Saturday and an off-track excursion Sunday. Neither were particularly brutal, but I had to hop some tall kerbing getting back on the track from my Saturday spin, and I managed to bang up my FI mufflers a bit on the way over.

Tires / Camber

My tires are really hating my lack of camber still. They were already fairly worn down at the outsides when I started this weekend, and I finished them off this weekend. They could limp through another weak session or two, but no way I'm starting another whole weekend on them. It made the weekend interesting, because while I was learning the track better with every session, my front tire grip was also getting worse with each session. In the net, I think I peaked on the second session of the weekend and my times just went downhill from there.

On that second session I was probably running in the top 10% of the pack, and by the end of Sunday at least half the group was outpacing me while I adjusted down to the tires. About halfway through the weekend, I adjusted my rear sway and all 4 dampers to intentionally make the rear end slipperier (+1 stiff on rear sway, +1 stiff on rear damper, -2 stiff on front dampers), which helped balance the car back out to the front tires' pace somewhat. I didn't really like the very-understeery feel I was getting before that.

Really need adjustable front camber. I'd hate to tear up yet another set of fronts this way.

Transmission

No trans issues all weekend. Apparently the Motul Multi-ATF fluid works fine. If it didn't I'm sure the stress of the weekend would've made it apparent. The upsized cooler kept fluid temps in check and I never got into any hot/laggy shifts.

Brakes

Overall I was really impressed with the new brake setup (recap: CL RC6E front and rear, APRacing/Stillen BBK). I was peaking around 0.9g in the hardest braking zones without hitting any hint of ice-mode or engaging ABS. Zero issues with deposits/judder/etc. Modulation was even easier than the previous setup (CL pads + Stock calipers), which was already nice due to those CL pads.

My only minor complaint here is the design of the pad pins on those front calipers (CP7040 I think they are?). They only lock in via some dinky little snap rings. They're a pain in the *** to drive the lock ring into place (tapping in from the inside of the car), and they just don't hold very well even when they're pushed in correctly. I had both pins on the right front back out of the caliper on-track for me. They only backed out about half an inch, the outside pad moved a little out of position, and then everything kinda seized up in that configuration so the pin couldn't fall all the way out. I didn't even notice a feel change on track, but DR_ spotted it in the paddock afterwards.

Needs a better retention solution. Just letting the pins stick out the other side to install cotter pins like the stock caliper would probably fix it...

Cooling Changes

The new cooling config (25/9 oil, 19/6 trans, CSF rad w/o condenser, heater bypassed w/ 3/4" silicone, 80/20 mix + MoCool) definitely works as a configuration. My worst-case peaks all weekend were 225 oil and 221 water. More typical for most of the session time was about 220 and 216.

However, I still have a leak in the coolant system somewhere

The behavior over the weekend was that coming into the paddock after a run the overflow bottle would be fairly full of hot coolant, but after the car cooled down hardly any of it went back into the system. Then I'd open the rad cap and find a fairly large pocket of air in the system. Refilling that manually from the excess in the overflow tank got things back to a sane starting point for the next session, so I did that all weekend.

We're talking somewhere between 1-2 quarts of fluid displaced out to the tank and not recovering per session. Given that my water temps were reasonable during the session, I don't think the air bubble appeared until the system cools down and de-pressurizes, but it's drawing air from some minor leak at that time instead of drawing back fluid from the overflow. Preliminary diagnosis at the track (trying cold starts with hand-guestimate pressure-checking, smell, etc), it seems unlikely to be a combustion->water head gasket leak. There's no contamination to indicate oil<->water leak from the head gasket or water pump. Most likely I either still have a pinhole leak in the external hose connections and piping somewhere (perhaps a hose clamp that doesn't leak outwards at pressure, but does draw air back in during de-pressure?), or I have a head gasket leak at the edge from coolant to the outside world. I'm going to play with a pressure-test rig tomorrow and diagnose it.

Power stuff

The car definitely felt snappier on the the throttle all around. Engine/trans mounts, lack of AC compressor, and lower operating temps all contributed to that I'm sure. Taking a little weight out of the engine bay couldn't have hurt either. Hopefully I get time to gut the interior ac/heat stuff soon as well, and then start in on the cage/harness stuff.

Youtube of my fastest recorded lap at 2:10, which wasn't all that fast compared to what I should've been able to work up to, IMHO. I probably had a better time earlier in the weekend while I lacked a USB stick:

ChrisSlicks · 05-20-2013, 11:02 AM

On the 09's the cap on the overflow doesn't seal properly. Not sure if that is 100% required in order to create the proper draw required (since the low pressure from the cooling system draws from the bottom of the container) but it made a mess. I used a little bit of RTV around the inside of the cap to create a better seal (let it dry on the cap before reinstalling).

I agree with you on the pins for the front calipers, they are a PITA. They should be like the rear caliper with the screw-in pin, one of the reasons that the CP5555 or similar caliper would have been better. I've never had the pin back out though, you can tell when it locks home since the sound and feel changes.

wstar · 05-20-2013, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisSlicks

On the 09's the cap on the overflow doesn't seal properly. Not sure if that is 100% required in order to create the proper draw required (since the low pressure from the cooling system draws from the bottom of the container) but it made a mess. I used a little bit of RTV around the inside of the cap to create a better seal (let it dry on the cap before reinstalling).

Yeah on this bit: I've seen the difference looking at a 12's engine bay in person before. They actually have what looks like a real pressure cap on the overflow bottle, and... something else where our pressure cap is. I think.

I wonder if our 09 system can be updated just by replacing the rad cap and the overflow bottle with the newer bits?

ChrisSlicks · 05-20-2013, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wstar

Yeah on this bit: I've seen the difference looking at a 12's engine bay in person before. They actually have what looks like a real pressure cap on the overflow bottle, and... something else where our pressure cap is. I think.

I wonder if our 09 system can be updated just by replacing the rad cap and the overflow bottle with the newer bits?

Yes I believe so if you get all the required pieces.

I've seen the differences but when I looked it up I wasn't seeing any new model parts, I know for a fact that the tank is different along with the 2 caps.
214 Radiator, Shroud & Fitting :: Exhaust & Cooling :: Genuine Nissan Parts :: 370Z Parts (Z34) 2009-2013 :: Nissan Parts, NISMO and Nissan Accessories - Courtesyparts.com

SPOHN · 05-20-2013, 11:01 AM

Yea those AP caliber pins suck. But I can live with it.

wstar · 05-20-2013, 11:20 AM

Yeah it's possible I didn't get them pushed in all the way, but it certainly seemed like I did at the time.

wstar · 06-28-2013, 07:47 AM

So I went by a dealership last week to order parts for that and see what happens. I have the caps and overflow tank now, and at least I mostly understand how the upgraded system works.

So in the new system, the plastic tank is actually part of the full-pressure system. The replacement cap (in our current cap location on the water outlet) is just a seal for the upper edge, it doesn't have a spring in it at all, meaning the little line to the "overflow" is full-time full-pressure. The bottle's obviously reinforced to handle it. It has a normal spring pressure cap and the outlet from there is what overflows to the little tube that runs down to ground. There's also a 3rd line on the bottle, coming off the bottom, that's meant to T into the heater line. The bottle still has min/max lines.

So I guess the basic idea here is: the whole system including the plastic bottle runs full pressure, but the bottle has a giant air bubble at the top of it (also at pressure!), and any air in the system ends up there because it's the highest point. When coolant needs to expand or contract, it does so through both the little line from the top of the water outlet to the top of the plastic tank, and the slightly larger line from the bottom of the plastic tank to the heater lines.

With the bottle itself and both new caps (the bottle doesn't come with the pressure cap btw, separate parts), the only thing that's really missing for doing the upgrade is that, on 2012+, there's an extra fork on that hard heater line coming out the side of the engine, specifically to go to the bottom of the plastic tank. It's where you see #22 in this pic (also note #21, which is for the factory oil cooler):

You'll notice that new stubby bit on the heater is facing a certain direction, seems like perhaps so the normal flow of the heater line tends to draw from the tank rather than push liquid into it? I could hook up the system using the (#27) straight bit that went to the throttle bodies before. It's slightly smaller diameter and not angled-out like the other, but it might work. Either that or upgrade that whole heater-pipe section as well, but then I have to deal with capping off the new outlet for the factory oil cooler.

wstar · 07-01-2013, 10:36 AM

Had a good weekend at MSR-H, learned a lot

They put me in Yellow Solo this time (so no assigned/required instructor), and it was nice to just be out there by myself and not feel like I have to explain things (you know like - hey I'm not being inconsistent here - I'm experimenting with different approaches to this corner on each lap!). No real mechanical issues or spins. Had one very minor off coming into S+S (started my braking a little too late for conditions, so I just continued off into the grass by a car-length or so and then rolled over into the hot-pit lane).

Apparently the USB stick for my RK data got corrupted somehow, which is annoying, so I only got data for the first two sessions of the weekend. I know I improved a lot from there, and my best time from the data I have (1:56.98) is on a lap where I can see tons of mistakes I wasn't making later in the weekend. Oh well

Aside from known front camber issues, known failing-VLSD issues, etc, the biggest weakness now is I waited a little too long to upgrade tire compounds. These Conti DW were great to learn on, but at this point (a) mastering traction on them while slipping through corners is just completely autopilot for me because it's easy and (b) they're way too slippery on hot days to keep up and I know they're holding me back at this point. All weekend I was holding back on straight speeds or braking more than I felt I should have needed to, all in the name of "let's stay down to corner speeds these tires can actually handle." The upside was I got a ton of car-control work in this weekend. Even if it's mostly on auto-pilot, driving through that excessive slip on just about every corner is still building up my brain's abilities.

So before the next event I'll probably bump up a notch to something like an NT-05 or RS3. At least for one tire change (2-3 events?) to ease my transition over to something like an NT-01 or straight up used slicks.

This was my last event for a while. Taking a 3-month break from track events (hottest months anyways) to do some more major surgery on the car (finally gut *all* the forward interior and switch to cage + harnesses, etc).

Anyways, the fastest lap of my first session of the weekened, FWIW:

wstar · 07-12-2013, 09:53 AM

So I've taken the plunge now. I've had the dash out before and even pulled out the main steering member (horizontal beam underneath), when I removed the interior HVAC stuff. But that time around, I put the dash (etc) back in place afterwards to keep the airbag system functional, since I'm still on stock seatbelts, etc.

This time around, we're going all in. Airbag stuff and all interior plastic crap being removed permanently (as well as other useless ancillary things like TPMS and Keyfob sensors, etc). There should be no wiring left that isn't strictly necessary for a track car, basically. After I've gutted most of the useless wiring and tidied things up, I'll need to remount the factory 3-gauge cluster on top of the beam somehow for now, and attach a metal plate there in the center for a new custom "dash" to mount various gauges and switches to (including factory start/stop button, and a couple of pushbuttons tied to the cruise control for UpRev map switching). Also, I need to remember to get someone with a Pro license to NATS-disable my ROM before I remove all those keyfob sensors.

Then it's seats/mounts, steering wheel, harnesses. I'll do all that I can myself and then take the car somewhere local to have the actual cage and harness mounts welded in to match the seat arrangement. Hopefully I can squeeze all this in before the next upcoming local Driver's Edge event at the end of September, but I'm willing to skip an event if I have to just to get through this phase of work once and for all.

For now, the ugly ugly pic of the front area with most of the gutting done, but none of the wiring cleanup yet:

ChrisSlicks · 07-12-2013, 10:09 AM

Wow! Nice.

Why is the driver's carpet still in? Don't want to have to fill in the hole?

Boost_lee · 07-12-2013, 12:38 PM

very nice! Are you still keeping those Bride seats?

wstar · 07-17-2013, 07:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ChrisSlicks

Wow! Nice.

Why is the driver's carpet still in? Don't want to have to fill in the hole?

Yeah, the driver's carpet and the foam underneath seem to be sort of an integral part of the stock dead-pedal and maybe the accel pedal setup? It'll go eventually, but maybe not in this round of work. Depends how fast I get through all the other little fabrication jobs.

Thanks for all the advice, guys, it's appreciated. A lot of misc things won't be done at all on this round of work (like above), including stuff like the windshield and a final solution for the doors and door glass, etc. Mostly I'm just trying to get quickly done with the basics to gut the forward interior + airbags, put in the custom dash panel, and put in a cage + seats + harnesses and get back on-track. Then the other stuff can be done as smaller projects between events from there. The initial cage install could be rear-only as well, pending dealing with doors, doorglass, handles, etc...

Definitely with you on being afraid of the wiring and careful. The first plan is just to trim back to where all the excess harness is exclusively along the horizontal steering member and still attached to the major ECU/BCM/whatever modules (so killing all the small wiring going up the sides of the car and through the center console area, etc for simplification). I'll make the call on the final really tough bits at some later date.

travisjb · 07-13-2013, 09:10 PM

cool... you're doing well behind the wheel

not disabling the nats finally caught up with me so you're right to get that squared away now. also will want to remember my big mistake back in '09, label the hell out of your factory wiring harness before you cut any wires... there are so MANY wires to sort through... you probably thought of all this but ---- you'll want to decide early whether to cut the wires out right down into the clips (prob so just be careful not to damage clips). also there you'll want to do a visual of each wire on the main hardness when done to ensure you haven't cut any wires unecesarily... you'll of course want to go one step at a time as you de and re-construct your dash and test that everything is working after each step... you don't want to get to the end and have a brick and then have to trace back through all the changes... might think about replacing the steering column with something lighter. we ended up mounting the triple gauge on the bracket that holds my steering column and it lifts up/down along with the column which is nice... you also do have the option to keep the factory dash - nothing wrong with it once you get rid of all the crap behind you don't need... it's light weight and you can construct a new alum plate to go behind center piece

remember, label and tape all those wires (esp the ones you want to keep) before you cut! replacing my harness took me out of commission for nearly 3 months

last piece of advice... consider weighing the factory wiring harness... it's not much. think about whether it's worth saving 1-2 pounds for the risk of cutting into it

good luck!

travisjb · 07-13-2013, 09:12 PM

one more thought... now'd be the time to consider a polycarb windshield... get it thick enough so you don't need bracing (check latest scca/nasa safety rules)

05-17-2013, 12:37 AM	#1 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Operation: Denny's Run was a success. Trans is back to flawless now with the correct fill level (thanks guys!). Cooling data still looks awesome. I had to stay down a gear and keep the revs up around 4K cruising just to keep my oil at 170 now that we're in the cool night air. A few light moments harder on the car brought it to 180 but never past. If I had thought ahead / known, I would've blocked half the front grill with duct tape for the drive. AP/Stillen BBK + CL RC6E is still feeling awesome. I don't think I've yet hit a street-test scenario that will really tell me whether I'm gonna hit any minor ice-mode-like issues with this setup or not. I'm sure I'll find out this weekend at TWS. The trans mount made the drivetrain feel a little more connected to the body again, like the engine mounts. It might make a larger difference throttling on track-out at the limit, but on the street I'd say the change was "noticeable, but minimal". The engine mount change was more noticeable than the trans. This is the opposite of Spohn's impression of the two, but the difference is likely his 6MT setup versus my 7AT. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

05-20-2013, 10:45 AM	#2 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	So I had a fun weekend at TWS. There were a number of minor issues with me and the car, and it certainly wasn't my best/fastest weekend, but I learned a lot. This weekend was the rare Clockwise direction there, totally new to me. The CCW direction I ran last time out there was much more of a "feeling" track where you could just traction-sense your way through it and rock around there in no time. This CW direction it seems a bit more technical and unforgiving, but it's still really fun to learn. I left my USB stick at home and didn't realize it until I was ready to hit the Record button for the first session of the weekend. I picked one up Sat night locally and only got session data for Sunday. Had one true spin Saturday and an off-track excursion Sunday. Neither were particularly brutal, but I had to hop some tall kerbing getting back on the track from my Saturday spin, and I managed to bang up my FI mufflers a bit on the way over. Tires / Camber My tires are really hating my lack of camber still. They were already fairly worn down at the outsides when I started this weekend, and I finished them off this weekend. They could limp through another weak session or two, but no way I'm starting another whole weekend on them. It made the weekend interesting, because while I was learning the track better with every session, my front tire grip was also getting worse with each session. In the net, I think I peaked on the second session of the weekend and my times just went downhill from there. On that second session I was probably running in the top 10% of the pack, and by the end of Sunday at least half the group was outpacing me while I adjusted down to the tires. About halfway through the weekend, I adjusted my rear sway and all 4 dampers to intentionally make the rear end slipperier (+1 stiff on rear sway, +1 stiff on rear damper, -2 stiff on front dampers), which helped balance the car back out to the front tires' pace somewhat. I didn't really like the very-understeery feel I was getting before that. Really need adjustable front camber. I'd hate to tear up yet another set of fronts this way. Transmission No trans issues all weekend. Apparently the Motul Multi-ATF fluid works fine. If it didn't I'm sure the stress of the weekend would've made it apparent. The upsized cooler kept fluid temps in check and I never got into any hot/laggy shifts. Brakes Overall I was really impressed with the new brake setup (recap: CL RC6E front and rear, APRacing/Stillen BBK). I was peaking around 0.9g in the hardest braking zones without hitting any hint of ice-mode or engaging ABS. Zero issues with deposits/judder/etc. Modulation was even easier than the previous setup (CL pads + Stock calipers), which was already nice due to those CL pads. My only minor complaint here is the design of the pad pins on those front calipers (CP7040 I think they are?). They only lock in via some dinky little snap rings. They're a pain in the * to drive the lock ring into place (tapping in from the inside of the car), and they just don't hold very well even when they're pushed in correctly. I had both pins on the right front back out of the caliper on-track for me. They only backed out about half an inch, the outside pad moved a little out of position, and then everything kinda seized up in that configuration so the pin couldn't fall all the way out. I didn't even notice a feel change on track, but DR_ spotted it in the paddock afterwards. Needs a better retention solution. Just letting the pins stick out the other side to install cotter pins like the stock caliper would probably fix it... Cooling Changes The new cooling config (25/9 oil, 19/6 trans, CSF rad w/o condenser, heater bypassed w/ 3/4" silicone, 80/20 mix + MoCool) definitely works as a configuration. My worst-case peaks all weekend were 225 oil and 221 water. More typical for most of the session time was about 220 and 216. However, I still have a leak in the coolant system somewhere The behavior over the weekend was that coming into the paddock after a run the overflow bottle would be fairly full of hot coolant, but after the car cooled down hardly any of it went back into the system. Then I'd open the rad cap and find a fairly large pocket of air in the system. Refilling that manually from the excess in the overflow tank got things back to a sane starting point for the next session, so I did that all weekend. We're talking somewhere between 1-2 quarts of fluid displaced out to the tank and not recovering per session. Given that my water temps were reasonable during the session, I don't think the air bubble appeared until the system cools down and de-pressurizes, but it's drawing air from some minor leak at that time instead of drawing back fluid from the overflow. Preliminary diagnosis at the track (trying cold starts with hand-guestimate pressure-checking, smell, etc), it seems unlikely to be a combustion->water head gasket leak. There's no contamination to indicate oil<->water leak from the head gasket or water pump. Most likely I either still have a pinhole leak in the external hose connections and piping somewhere (perhaps a hose clamp that doesn't leak outwards at pressure, but does draw air back in during de-pressure?), or I have a head gasket leak at the edge from coolant to the outside world. I'm going to play with a pressure-test rig tomorrow and diagnose it. Power stuff** The car definitely felt snappier on the the throttle all around. Engine/trans mounts, lack of AC compressor, and lower operating temps all contributed to that I'm sure. Taking a little weight out of the engine bay couldn't have hurt either. Hopefully I get time to gut the interior ac/heat stuff soon as well, and then start in on the cage/harness stuff. Youtube of my fastest recorded lap at 2:10, which wasn't all that fast compared to what I should've been able to work up to, IMHO. I probably had a better time earlier in the weekend while I lacked a USB stick: __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 05-20-2013 at 11:04 AM.

05-20-2013, 11:02 AM	#3 (permalink)
ChrisSlicks A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: North East Posts: 6,203 Drives: 09 370Z Sport M6 Rep Power: 653	On the 09's the cap on the overflow doesn't seal properly. Not sure if that is 100% required in order to create the proper draw required (since the low pressure from the cooling system draws from the bottom of the container) but it made a mess. I used a little bit of RTV around the inside of the cap to create a better seal (let it dry on the cap before reinstalling). I agree with you on the pins for the front calipers, they are a PITA. They should be like the rear caliper with the screw-in pin, one of the reasons that the CP5555 or similar caliper would have been better. I've never had the pin back out though, you can tell when it locks home since the sound and feel changes. __________________ Hotchkis ARB \| Stillen CAI \| Art Pipes \| Berk CBE \| Stillen AP Racing Brakes \| AE Performance Oil Cooler \| BC Racing ER Coilovers \| Doran Control Arms

05-20-2013, 11:01 AM	#6 (permalink)
SPOHN A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Covington, GA Age: 45 Posts: 14,844 Drives: Waiting on next Z Rep Power: 221	Yea those AP caliber pins suck. But I can live with it. __________________

05-20-2013, 11:20 AM	#7 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Yeah it's possible I didn't get them pushed in all the way, but it certainly seemed like I did at the time. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

06-28-2013, 07:47 AM	#8 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	So I went by a dealership last week to order parts for that and see what happens. I have the caps and overflow tank now, and at least I mostly understand how the upgraded system works. So in the new system, the plastic tank is actually part of the full-pressure system. The replacement cap (in our current cap location on the water outlet) is just a seal for the upper edge, it doesn't have a spring in it at all, meaning the little line to the "overflow" is full-time full-pressure. The bottle's obviously reinforced to handle it. It has a normal spring pressure cap and the outlet from there is what overflows to the little tube that runs down to ground. There's also a 3rd line on the bottle, coming off the bottom, that's meant to T into the heater line. The bottle still has min/max lines. So I guess the basic idea here is: the whole system including the plastic bottle runs full pressure, but the bottle has a giant air bubble at the top of it (also at pressure!), and any air in the system ends up there because it's the highest point. When coolant needs to expand or contract, it does so through both the little line from the top of the water outlet to the top of the plastic tank, and the slightly larger line from the bottom of the plastic tank to the heater lines. With the bottle itself and both new caps (the bottle doesn't come with the pressure cap btw, separate parts), the only thing that's really missing for doing the upgrade is that, on 2012+, there's an extra fork on that hard heater line coming out the side of the engine, specifically to go to the bottom of the plastic tank. It's where you see #22 in this pic (also note #21, which is for the factory oil cooler): You'll notice that new stubby bit on the heater is facing a certain direction, seems like perhaps so the normal flow of the heater line tends to draw from the tank rather than push liquid into it? I could hook up the system using the (#27) straight bit that went to the throttle bodies before. It's slightly smaller diameter and not angled-out like the other, but it might work. Either that or upgrade that whole heater-pipe section as well, but then I have to deal with capping off the new outlet for the factory oil cooler. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-01-2013, 10:36 AM	#9 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	Had a good weekend at MSR-H, learned a lot They put me in Yellow Solo this time (so no assigned/required instructor), and it was nice to just be out there by myself and not feel like I have to explain things (you know like - hey I'm not being inconsistent here - I'm experimenting with different approaches to this corner on each lap!). No real mechanical issues or spins. Had one very minor off coming into S+S (started my braking a little too late for conditions, so I just continued off into the grass by a car-length or so and then rolled over into the hot-pit lane). Apparently the USB stick for my RK data got corrupted somehow, which is annoying, so I only got data for the first two sessions of the weekend. I know I improved a lot from there, and my best time from the data I have (1:56.98) is on a lap where I can see tons of mistakes I wasn't making later in the weekend. Oh well Aside from known front camber issues, known failing-VLSD issues, etc, the biggest weakness now is I waited a little too long to upgrade tire compounds. These Conti DW were great to learn on, but at this point (a) mastering traction on them while slipping through corners is just completely autopilot for me because it's easy and (b) they're way too slippery on hot days to keep up and I know they're holding me back at this point. All weekend I was holding back on straight speeds or braking more than I felt I should have needed to, all in the name of "let's stay down to corner speeds these tires can actually handle." The upside was I got a ton of car-control work in this weekend. Even if it's mostly on auto-pilot, driving through that excessive slip on just about every corner is still building up my brain's abilities. So before the next event I'll probably bump up a notch to something like an NT-05 or RS3. At least for one tire change (2-3 events?) to ease my transition over to something like an NT-01 or straight up used slicks. This was my last event for a while. Taking a 3-month break from track events (hottest months anyways) to do some more major surgery on the car (finally gut all the forward interior and switch to cage + harnesses, etc). Anyways, the fastest lap of my first session of the weekened, FWIW: guru likes this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details Last edited by wstar; 07-01-2013 at 10:39 AM.

07-12-2013, 09:53 AM	#10 (permalink)
wstar A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Houston, TX Posts: 4,024 Drives: too slow Rep Power: 3594	So I've taken the plunge now. I've had the dash out before and even pulled out the main steering member (horizontal beam underneath), when I removed the interior HVAC stuff. But that time around, I put the dash (etc) back in place afterwards to keep the airbag system functional, since I'm still on stock seatbelts, etc. This time around, we're going all in. Airbag stuff and all interior plastic crap being removed permanently (as well as other useless ancillary things like TPMS and Keyfob sensors, etc). There should be no wiring left that isn't strictly necessary for a track car, basically. After I've gutted most of the useless wiring and tidied things up, I'll need to remount the factory 3-gauge cluster on top of the beam somehow for now, and attach a metal plate there in the center for a new custom "dash" to mount various gauges and switches to (including factory start/stop button, and a couple of pushbuttons tied to the cruise control for UpRev map switching). Also, I need to remember to get someone with a Pro license to NATS-disable my ROM before I remove all those keyfob sensors. Then it's seats/mounts, steering wheel, harnesses. I'll do all that I can myself and then take the car somewhere local to have the actual cage and harness mounts welded in to match the seat arrangement. Hopefully I can squeeze all this in before the next upcoming local Driver's Edge event at the end of September, but I'm willing to skip an event if I have to just to get through this phase of work once and for all. For now, the ugly ugly pic of the front area with most of the gutting done, but none of the wiring cleanup yet: Megan370z and Shadezz like this. __________________ 7AT Track Car! Journal thread / Car setup details

07-12-2013, 10:09 AM	#11 (permalink)
ChrisSlicks A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: North East Posts: 6,203 Drives: 09 370Z Sport M6 Rep Power: 653	Wow! Nice. Why is the driver's carpet still in? Don't want to have to fill in the hole? __________________ Hotchkis ARB \| Stillen CAI \| Art Pipes \| Berk CBE \| Stillen AP Racing Brakes \| AE Performance Oil Cooler \| BC Racing ER Coilovers \| Doran Control Arms

07-12-2013, 12:38 PM	#12 (permalink)
Boost_lee A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Feb 2009 Location: SATX Posts: 2,813 Drives: 09 370Z TT 6MT Rep Power: 29	very nice! Are you still keeping those Bride seats? __________________ My TT Z

07-13-2013, 09:10 PM	#14 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 188	cool... you're doing well behind the wheel not disabling the nats finally caught up with me so you're right to get that squared away now. also will want to remember my big mistake back in '09, label the hell out of your factory wiring harness before you cut any wires... there are so MANY wires to sort through... you probably thought of all this but ---- you'll want to decide early whether to cut the wires out right down into the clips (prob so just be careful not to damage clips). also there you'll want to do a visual of each wire on the main hardness when done to ensure you haven't cut any wires unecesarily... you'll of course want to go one step at a time as you de and re-construct your dash and test that everything is working after each step... you don't want to get to the end and have a brick and then have to trace back through all the changes... might think about replacing the steering column with something lighter. we ended up mounting the triple gauge on the bracket that holds my steering column and it lifts up/down along with the column which is nice... you also do have the option to keep the factory dash - nothing wrong with it once you get rid of all the crap behind you don't need... it's light weight and you can construct a new alum plate to go behind center piece remember, label and tape all those wires (esp the ones you want to keep) before you cut! replacing my harness took me out of commission for nearly 3 months last piece of advice... consider weighing the factory wiring harness... it's not much. think about whether it's worth saving 1-2 pounds for the risk of cutting into it good luck! __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

07-13-2013, 09:12 PM	#15 (permalink)
travisjb A True Z Fanatic Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: GSO Posts: 2,803 Drives: VIR Rep Power: 188	one more thought... now'd be the time to consider a polycarb windshield... get it thick enough so you don't need bracing (check latest scca/nasa safety rules) __________________ 2009 370Z #104 For Sale

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