Project Candy Begins (rb25det 240z)

[Wally]

Its not a as convenient to adjust as a top plate and not as easy to simply adjust toe between road and track settings (if you track it)

Its still shocks, bumps and vibrations transmitted through solid metal parts that are attached solidly to the car without any bushes between the frame and the chassis. While the effect mat not be massive, there will still be some, just personally for me given most are getting on for 50 years old I want to avoid additional stress on the chassis.

You do not have to fit budget shocks surely, you could fit top quality ones if you wanted, most people probably won't but thats a different matter. Only reason someone would spend 5k on it and do this is because they are stupid.

I also don't see a huge advantage from the pushrod setup, its not going to save a huge amount of unsprung weight and as you say its untested, the angles and forces may be less than Ideal.

Adjusting camber from the top makes sense in that situation.

The front is all solid mounted but the rear is mounted to the body with polybrushes so the rear shouldn't be too much of an issue. I will need to keep on top of the servicing the rose joints.

I totally agree with your comments on the pushrod setup. It's over kill and adds unnecessary extra weight for road use. I don't like the idea of having the shocks inside the vehicle either.

Only way I'm going find out if this will be suitable for me is to get it built up and start using it. I can then test and adjust from there. With it being so new there is little real world usage with this setup.

 

[jonbills]

From what I've been reading, there are well proven benefits of cantilever rear suspension. Have I read wrong or do you guys think apexengineered have put their track kit together wrong?

 

[Wally]

From what I've been reading, there are well proven benefits of cantilever rear suspension. Have I read wrong or do you guys think apexengineered have put their track kit together wrong?

I've chatted loads with Ohm and he seems to know his stuff and has the quals to back it up. I don't have any reservations in the quality or ability of the kits he's put together. I think for my situation the push rod suspension would be overkill on the road and I didn't want squeaking suspension inside the car. Perfectly acceptable for a track car though.

 

[Alphabettispaghetti]

From what I've been reading, there are well proven benefits of cantilever rear suspension. Have I read wrong or do you guys think apexengineered have put their track kit together wrong?

As in it only really works on super smooth tracks, then takes 1000's of hours of testing to hit a ball park, even simple things like tyres have a massive effect. Apex are great with CAD. its just not the same thing though. I did intend on buying some of their short steering arms, that conversation led me to mentioning a couple of points on one of their kits, that they changed because a bloke(me) on facebook pointed out a better way of doing it. Lots of weight and complexity for no reason.

If you want a really good setup, i'd just give the car to AD at VA-motorsport to tweak and setup, it'd cost less and work better.

 

[Ian]

The front is all solid mounted but the rear is mounted to the body with polybrushes so the rear shouldn't be too much of an issue. I will need to keep on top of the servicing the rose joints.

Its half and half because the front section of that setup is mounted solidly.

 

[Alphabettispaghetti]

Its half and half because the front section of that setup is mounted solidly.

With poly bush, it might as well be solid

 

[Wally]

LiamR has put me onto a good solution if I find the rose joints too harsh. Poly brushed rod ends. I think these might be worth experimenting with in the future if required.

 

[Ian]

Thats cool, didn't know you could get such things.

 

[Wally]

Thats cool, didn't know you could get such things.

I think this may be a good option.

 

[LiamR]

I have been in talks with Ohm who owns Apex, he is considering offering the poly rod ends as an option to his kits. I told him it may appeal a bit more to the UK market as our roads are so terrible and the weather would destroy the heim joints. He is going to trial fit them and get back to me. If all fits... I'd be happy to give it a punt.

 

[Ian]

Thats cool, hope the results are good.

They won't have the shock and noise reducing abilities of a stock bush setup, but it could be a big improvement over pure metal to metal. If they are good I might actually consider adjustable front arms.

 

[Wally]

I've had a busy few weeks at work so I've had no time to work on the car. I think this has pushed my schedule back until jan now. I was hoping to have her in the media blasters this week. Finally managed to spend some time on her today.

Got the last few bits of the interior out so that's all done and dusted now. Doors were striped down and I'm really not looking forward to rebuilding them. They weren't the easiest to pull apart without just unbolting everything and wiggling until the regulator came free.

Next on the to do list is strip all the interior sound deadening. I don't think this is going to be as bad as I feared as it's breaking off in large chunks so far. We'll see though. Then the glass needs to come out and build a dolly for the car to sit on whilst it goes to the blasters.

New engine arrived for the car. It's an RB25DET NEO. Engine looks to be in good condition but the wiring loom is toast from where they have cut it out of the car. Looks like I'll be looking into the wiring specialties harness and haltech ecu earlier than planned.

 

[Robbie J]

I've had a busy few weeks at work so I've had no time to work on the car. I think this has pushed my schedule back until jan now. I was hoping to have her in the media blasters this week. Finally managed to spend some time on her today.

Got the last few bits of the interior out so that's all done and dusted now. Doors were striped down and I'm really not looking forward to rebuilding them. They weren't the easiest to pull apart without just unbolting everything and wiggling until the regulator came free.

Next on the to do list is strip all the interior sound deadening. I don't think this is going to be as bad as I feared as it's breaking off in large chunks so far. We'll see though. Then the glass needs to come out and build a dolly for the car to sit on whilst it goes to the blasters.

New engine arrived for the car. It's an RB25DET NEO. Engine looks to be in good condition but the wiring loom is toast from where they have cut it out of the car. Looks like I'll be looking into the wiring specialties harness and haltech ecu earlier than planned.

Keeping the turbo stock? They have a ceramic impeller, changing to steel slower to boost but you can go more without breaking?

 

[Wally]

Keeping the turbo stock? They have a ceramic impeller, changing to steel slower to boost but you can go more without breaking?

I think initially I'm going to leave the engine completely stock, bar the ecu, intake, exhaust and intercooler. Engine is around 280 in stand form and with the stuff I'll need to put it in, should be good for around 300ish. I'll get it mapped initially but that will be for driveability rather than all out power. I think that will probably be all I need. I may change out the turbo elbow to the tomei one as I only want to do the exhaust done once.

Who knows in the future. It's a light car so doesn't need crazy amounts of hp but I'm leaving myself with options. I know after I clean the engine up the exhaust manifold will bug me but then that means changing the turbo, then the injectors, headgasket etc. I think if I ever decided to go that route I'd pull it and forge the engine for reliability. Most reliable is always going to be close to stock.

 

[Robbie J]

if you are getting it mapped with different ECU you might as well pay the £800 to rebuild the turbo? checked for any play in it?

changing to R35 coilpacks is good as well as the stock ones are old hat and not the most reliable (speak from experience)

 

[Wally]

if you are getting it mapped with different ECU you might as well pay the £800 to rebuild the turbo? checked for any play in it?

changing to R35 coilpacks is good as well as the stock ones are old hat and not the most reliable (speak from experience)

I've give the turbo a going over and if there is any play I'll get it rebuilt. I think spending £700 on r35 coil packs would be overkill atm for me. Definitely something I will do some research into though.

 

[Robbie J]

I've give the turbo a going over and if there is any play I'll get it rebuilt. I think spending £700 on r35 coil packs would be overkill atm for me. Definitely something I will do some research into though.

you can get good used ones of the gtr forum for a lot less, likewise, the injectors are good value as well as both are changed often for upgrades in the 35

 

[Wally]

Well today's endeavours on Candy haven't especially gone well and resulted in a cracked windscreen from an overzealous friend.

Today I wanted to get a few snapped bolts removed, the windscreen and rear hatch glass out and remove the slam panel ready for sandblasting.

The california sun may be good for rust prevention but it's completely dried out all the seals. The windscreen rubber is absolutely solid and almost plastic like making what should have been an "easy" job a nightmare. It took 2-3hours to cut through the rubber, and many blades, to expose the glass. The windscreen still wouldn't come out. I ended up using a trim removal tool on the inner lip to break away the rubber from the inside. Still no joy. We finally managed to get one side going when my friend applied a bit too much pressure and cracked the screen. Damn.

The rear screen came out relatively easy and the rubber was slightly softer and was easier to cut through.

I've started on removing the rear slam panel as it's badly rusted. A spot weld removal bit made spot work of them and was definitely work the tenner I spent on it.

Hopefully tomorrow goes better.

 

[Rushingphil]

Hope you have a better day tomorrow! My youngest is over from the States for Xmas and he took the the cover off his mx5 project at the back of my garage - to find the windscreen cracked as well

 

[richiep]

Be prepared for some reconstructive surgery under the slam panel. Have a look at my Project Dixie thread for what I fabricated to deal with that issue. You’ll likely need the same (and the slam panel on my car was not as badly rusted as what you’ve pictured).