Thanks! Heat bad!

I'll definitely post up my observations after I've put them through their paces.

With those coil-overs. Can you adjust compression and rebound damping independent of each other? And where is the adjustments made at?

I like your car a lot. Nice work, Sh0velMan. Which track do you go to in DFW? The only one I know of is near Grandbury (great track); I went there with my GSXR a few years ago.

They're one way adjustable, unfortunately. It's at the top of the dampener.

I've been to Texas World Speedway and Eagle's Canyon. Hoping to do an MSR event (Cresson/Grandbury) soon.

Thanks for the kind words :tiphat:

Got the brakes and clutch bled and took her around the block. At the current settings, I can't tell a whole lot of difference just yet. More testing to be done.

I do need to level out the car a bit. Slight ride height differences on a couple corners. Lots to do before the Autocross next Saturday...!

Jacked the car up to level out the ride heights.

Twice.


So the front ride height adjustment isn't quite 1:1. This is, I think, a function of the motion ratio not being as close to 1.0 as it could be.

So I lowered the total coilover length by 3cm, but it lowered the car by around 5cm. Meaning the top of the tire was almost touching the inside of the wheel well.

Soooooo, yeah. That will never do.

Jacked it back up, raised the coilover back up 2cm, which raised the car, you guessed it, 3.5cm.

... so not only is the adjustment not 1:1, its not even very linear.

Anyway, by happy coincidence, it got me exactly where I need to be, so I didn't have to do it a third time.

I'm now running the following heights, measured from the reference plane (the ground) to the center point (the high point) of the wheel arch.

Front: 68.5cm
Rear: 69.5cm

Had my first Autocross since starting the transformation.

Wasn't bad, still need better tires and I really need to get a good alignment.

Even so, the car is way, way more responsive and controllable than it was before all of this, and being strapped into a racing seat is worth every penny.

The BAD news is that I've apparently gotten myself my very own electrical gremlin. Twice today the car popped the O2 sensor fuse.

So this week I have to inspect all of the wiring for those. I already suspect the cause (splicing of the main sensor harnesses executed by the clown that originally installed my headers)...

Attached some photos. Check'em out.

A guy actually autocrossed that beast... and it wasn't as slow as you might imagine.

Figured out the electrical issue (I am pretty sure, anyway).

One of the extended O2 harnesses was laying against the driver's side header in two places. Not sure how it came loose from the tie down, but it had melted through the insulation (electrical insulation via heat shrink) just enough to fuse the heater wire to the ground (common) wire just enough to create a soft short that would eventually pop the fuse. The only reason this wire had not become carbon and blown away was because the headers are wrapped. The fact that it was still intact at all is a testament to the quality of the wrap that I used.

I replaced the wiring with a longer extension that could be routed well away from the header and secured it up and out of the way.

Cleared the codes and restarted the engine, seemed to idle somewhat normally (for being cold) and I was able to confirm the O2 voltages were cycling normally as expected.

That said, they seemed a little out of whack and I am concerned that I may have made the driver's side wire too long (I had to tie back a good bit of slack) and am causing an imbalance or something between the two banks.

I need to take her out for a spin this weekend and put a few miles/heat onto the system and see if it is actually acting funky or if it's all in my head, since I've never actually data-logged the car just idling on a cold start...

Also didn't have any proper heat shielding for the wires, so I wrapped in aluminum tape for some radiant protection and have it secured fast against the tranny tunnel and firewall so there's a good 4-6 inches of air between the headers/transmission/engine. (And yes, I left slack at both ends for engine mount movement.)

Did you go with the 13k, 6k springs? Did they give you the option to go higher?

I went with the default spring rates, which seem to be fine.

No sense in getting custom rates until the car has been corner weighted with the final wheel, tire and component composition that is going to be on the car for a while.

They're standard sized coilover springs, so I can get swift replacements at any time from any retailer that sells Swift coilover springs, so there was no impetus to buy them from Stance direct.

Can't be cheap though. To save some coin I might just go with 14k, 8k off the bat and they keep their defaults.

I think it's ~250 a set for swift coilover springs.

Could be wrong tho.

Drove it to work, popped a 20A fuse on the O2 circuit, so I've definitely got something wrong.. sigh.

Guess I'll start by unplugging the secondary sensors and see if that makes any change.

If it doesn't, I guess one of the main sensors has been damaged and will have to be replaced.. yippie..

Blah blah blah...lame car/race car. :p

Have you tried cutting out random harnesses? I hear it's great.

Could be a damaged wire run to one of those sensors, too. Could check that with a meter on the connectors and the wiring diagrams for the sensors in the EC section of the manual. But yeah, if that doesn't work, just cut more wires till the car stops bitching :)

It's possible, but those harnesses ride inside the one that runs down the side of the tranny, so I don't have any reason to think they'd be damaged like the main O2 sensor (drivers side) was from the heat.

Still kicking myself for letting that happen, but I repaired the harness... I just hope it didn't do something to that sensor that's making it blow the fuses.

As a diagnostic step I'm going to disconnect the secondary sensors and do a drive cycle, see if it pops the fuse. If it does not, I will do a few more cycles until I am satisfied and then figure out where to get some O2 bung plugs.

If that does not make any difference, I'll have to sit down with my multimeter and the main sensors and see if I can find a high impedance conductor or something. Sigh.

If its the secondaries causing the problem, and you're running UpRev you can disable them completely and keep them removed, as long as you don't need to pass inspection(it will show as "Not Supported" for heated catalyst).

Hans, yeah that would be the plan. Hopefully that's all I need to do, really don't want to pay for a new primary O2.

Where can I disable the sensors within the software?

I think you just remove the sensors (if you have something else to plug the holes with) and disable the CELs for the malfunctioning heaters + sensors in the long list of disable-able CELs. Never tried it myself, though.

So I put a 30a fuse in and it hasn't popped.

I'm bad, I know. I just hate trying to nail down electrical issues with no obvious cause.

Other than that, I am more or less hunkered down for the incoming baby, so I haven't been doing anything with the car. I have an annoying rattle just behind the drivers' side seat that I can't identify. Can only reproduce it while the car is in motion, seems to be caused by an up and down motion of the car itself... So if I have free time in the coming weeks, I'll probably be out in the garage with a mallet trying to isolate what is rattling.

Yippie!

you can actually hear a rattle? Mine is so loud without an interior and with the open exhaust that I'd never hear a rattle.

My gas tank covers rattle. I just reach back and punch them.

If you need a primary O2, PM me

How do you like the stance coilovers since they have been on your car for awhile now? Im about to get the stance pro comp 2's with the swift springs. How have they survived the spirited driving?

Don't think they make those for the Z34, but either way...

The coilovers are great for the money and have held up fine to the one autocross and ~200 street miles I've been able to put on them.

I can't really speak to their long term durability, however, Spohn has put hundreds of track miles on his set and swears by them.

Best true type rear coilover for the money by far, I think.

I called them up. They do make them but it's make to order and said it would take 4-6 weeks. I just am interested In Build quality and durability. But if there are a few people here with them and happy then I think I'm going to go for it. I guess they also have an option for swift springs as well so I might go that route. Thanks for the info though.

Spent 3 hours working on the dash wiring harness.

Not even close to half way done.

What a mess!

I feel your pain! Mine took forever.

That's three hours you could have spent making endlinks. Just sayin. I heard a clunk under the car today. That means you're on the clock. :rofl2:

I'm strapped on R&D funds until May. I'll put together a parts list, get a price, you paypal it to me and I'll buy the stuff and build them. ;)

You dodged a bullet. I threw it up on the lift and it was my imagination. That bought you time. Still, go ahead and get me that parts list and I'll take a look.

KK.


Since you have the same bars as me, it'll be easy to make the alignment perfect. I think you'll like what I come up with.

Not a lot of "progress" to show...

Working on trimming down the dash harness, gotta extend and adapt all the various switchgear connections to put them into my own enclosure with simple/compact switches and buttons rather than the bulky OEM stuff.

Also mulling over how to re-locate my chair a bit.

Oh, and I am thinking about a Stillen front lip to seal to a splitter. Dunno tho, still on the fence.

So I F-ed up and cut the harness for the multi-switch stalks out.

Whoops.


So Now I have to wire in replacement switchgear for the Headlights and Wipers. Because this car is so heavily CAN-bus-driven (compared to cars I've worked on in the past, though it holds not a candle to, say, a Benz) I was initially concerned that this would create a problem for me, but alas, it's super simple.

Attached below are sloppily annotated wiring diagrams.

Three position switches (I am thinking some boss looking rocker switches) will be used for both solutions.

For the wipers, it will be setup like this:
1) Off
2) Low Speed Circuit
3) High Speed Circuit

For the headlights, I want to try
1) Off
2) Low Beams (HID)
3) Low AND High Beams

I figure, if I am using the headlights at all, it's because I am on the track in the dark. If that's the case, and I feel the need for high beams, why not turn every stinkin light on that I can? It looks to me like they are individually fused, so I just need to be sure the supply to the battery (which is like 6 inches from the relays in question) is of sufficient gauge to handle the increased (almost doubled) current draw, and if not, replace it with heavier gauge.

Wipers:


Headlamps:

cool, can't wait to see how it works.

I am also working on a cheap/easy treatment for the steering column that eliminates ~10 lbs and cleans up/secures the steering linkages.

More info on that once I am further along.

^ Nice, in for details!

Here are various photos and info.

Full Assembly:

Snap rings on both ends. One bearing pressed into the steel housing closest to the steering wheel. The other pressed into the aluminum housing and secured with a snap ring.








Snap rings removed and shaft assembly removed from the two housings. A lot of pulling with the pullers and hammer-based encouragement needed to get this far. Puller is mounted up here as I am pulling the steering lock collar off.



And here is the removed shaft. Need to find heim joints that fit these diameters. I am fairly sure I'm going to need to get the fat end turned at a machine shop to bring it down to 1" (minus a few thousandths for clearance) as heim joints larger than 1" seem to be pretty damned rare.


You also need to remove a bracket from the top of the column assembly. This is the bracket that the instrument cluster attaches to. It's fixed to the steel half of the assembly, the part that is closest to the wheel.

More info on that in the next post...

It appears that the steering shaft telescopes in and out on splines. I believe this is how they accommodate the telescoping steering wheel adjustment. I plan to fix this in place using sway bar lock rings. Simple and effective. They'll be used to fix the shaft with the heim joints as well so that it cannot move in the Z axis at all.