Z32 project, "six month build"

[C2_mad]

any updates on this thing?

[DUTCHswift]

photobucket hates you.

fuck photobucket

^ This. #FlickrOrDie

[anti.engineered]

fuck photobucket

[saturnstance]

photobucket hates you.

[anti.engineered]

Where to start. It has been ages since I put together some real content... here's the last 6 months in a snap shot.

Last year semester ended just as house renovations began. My old man got himself a massive Harley and with it needed somewhere to park the thing. We have long had a grotty storage area accessible from the garage that we decided to open up the doorway to and partially concrete. This meant clearing out the dirt floored space and storing all our junk either in the garage or in land fill. As such the car was temporarily buried in said junk unfortunately, as well as my work space. When I got all the shit out of the area it dawned on me how big it was - previous piles of stuff went floor to ceiling with a single pathway through, hiding how big the area really was. I decided to build a proper workshop under there which took up more or less my whole summer. I previously had a workbench at the back of the single garage approximately a foot from the Z which was less than ideal to say the least. Over the course of 2-3 months I built loads of shelving, flattened out and covered the floor, wall mounted loads of cabinets and hooks to open up floor space and knocked up an epic wrap-around workbench that is finished with a stainless top and likely stronger than the whole house. A few more lights got put in as well as power points and extractor fans and a fridge for good measure.

Along with the space upgrade I have also picked up some heaps better tooling - I freighted in a 20 CFM air compressor, picked up a linisher, gathered a whole array of air tools (oh my god yes) and most recently a big fuck off 1.5 HP band saw to run sheet metal through. Can get some pics of the set up if anyone is interested. At the same time as this I also got a new part time job at Hypertune, which I am stoked on. The production standards on the after market parts there are second to none and the array of CNC machines is epic, and they're good people to work with.

So this all meant I had SFA time to actually work on the car, not that I would change any of it. Here's what I have managed to piece together over fist semester this year (and a bit of late last year).

The last thing I was working on before the renovations was the front tubs. They are more or less polished off now, at long last... lots of things I would have done differently now that they're done.

The tubs started life as an after market rear fender for a chopper before getting bisected.



As much as possible material was welded on to them before they were tacked into the car (first mistake; your car is a jig, use it)



It wasn't until the job was well underway that I realised it was entirely possible the radius of the fender curve could have been entirely different to the radius of the OEM inner fender. Luckily this was not an issue.



Unfortunately all that bench welding did put a bow in one of the fenders, which was awkwardly straightened out in-situ:



The rest of the spaces were then patched with as few patch panels as possible, with the exception of this little piece that was back welded, ground down topside and used to mate the very top corner of the strut tower to the tubs:



Then, through the magic of the internet (and fucking weeks of grinding, drilling spot welds, welding, grinding and grinding):



They still need a good going over and a final prime, but the bulk of the work is done on the tubs. Next up for the bay is fixing the front upper control arm mounts; a job I am well into as I write this.

It was about this time that I got my new part time job decided to play with some manifolds since that is a lot of what we do. I have had my custom set of single turbo manifolds for some time now and they have always needed some work. This started with someone local putting up for sale a Tial 44mm gate including both v-bands and weld-on flanges for just 50 bucks with a known/unknown problem. Aware that Tial components are available separately I picked it up and exploded it;



Found a leaky diaphragm (common problem from internal screws coming loose),



and voila, gun 'gate for less than $150.



Then I got the exhaust manifolds back from ceramic coating and everything looked beautiful.



This lasted up until I realised the manifolds didn't have the right flange.



Twice.



I'm going to stick a Borg Warner on this thing, and that means a T4 rather than the lame T3 flange. I sorted out a billet replacement through work, milled it down some (15mm is way too thick/heavy) then took it home and put a nice edge on the divider. Even though my manifolds aren't divided, I'm fitting up a quick spool valve to a twin scroll exhaust housing so a knife-edged divided flange was still the way to go.

This took a little more adjustment than the wastegate flange which did wonders for the condition of the coating.





Then some more zip-zap-zoopity-zop from my colleague;





Beautiful. Not so much so for the ceramic coating now, but after a quick rattle can touch up that didn't really matter (runners are all still well coated and that's where it counts).





Merges are hard:



Ran out of material about 6 times and had to import some decent cable ties (ridiculous) but got there in the end. Pre-turbo merge was the only real point I was more or less at a loss at how to cover, but close enough is good enough.

That's all for tonight, I've got loads more photos that I'll write up in the next couple of days. I'm currently in China on scholarship for a few weeks which gives me a bit of time to do this stuff (it's been pretty damn hectic on my end as of late). The best part of being sent to China is that I've booked a good 8 day layover at Japan on the way back and you can bet I've made mad plans for that.

- A

[anti.engineered]

No I can't say I do. It's a nice piece which is entirely why I bought it, but I am out of space in the cluster. If I have a change of plans it'll go in there.

[rice4life]

Love the afr gauge, do you happen to know how old that is? I've never seen a japanese afr with a needle like that before.

[Hayce]

Oh my lord that s13's engine bay

If you've not seen before: http://engineeredtoslide.com/blog/

[190Evan]

Oh my lord that s13's engine bay

[anti.engineered]

There is a reason those companies regularly worked together , excellent build by the way, and yes very 'midnight' in its technical execution. There is one company name you missed and that's Revolfe, who actually were partners with Abflug. I'm sure if you contacted the guys from Revolfe, Abflug, and Pentroof they would happily help you with info or parts you need.

The z32 holds a massive place in the hearts of these tuners ^^, there was a reason the midnight club developed their z32s so far and for so long, over the r32, the Porsches, the rx7, as they were so good at doing what was needed! There too speed potential proved itself over and over, and most of the midnight guys who had z32s still have their old race cars.

I think the guys would be pleased you are doing such a build

Hey, I'm sorry I missed your posts. I like the info on the old workshops. I'm familiar with Revolfe SA and have heaps of pictures of their old cars. Very cool projects, and a good reference point for styling ques with my rear bar too. If you're talking about the 2+2 with full Abflug wide body, I'd be very interested in more photos of that car.

Build wise, my semester has ended and with it another two months or so of not being able to touch the car. I'm heavily into the next chassis mod but it's not complete just yet - been doing some super fun construction at home and working a lot too. In absence of a real update though I do have some parts that anded recently.

The first was a real steal of a radiator. With all the fuckery that I did to move the rad forward, a custom unit is required. After much research the closest off the shelf component was going to come out of a DC5. I was digging about for a decent one of those until a friend of mine told me about a Z32 race radiator that he was looking to offload. It's a custom made PWR twin pass exactly the width of the Z32 frame rails and only an inch shorter than what I was looking for.



Brought this over from Japan because it is such a good match for the factory gauges, don't know if I'm going to use it yet..



Next up is something significant with a funky story. A few weeks ago here in Sydney was World Time Attack Challenge, an annual race event with competitors shipping in cars from all over the world. Here're some happy snaps with some cool stuff I got up close and personal with:







That last one is Nigel Petrie of Engineered to Slide's S13. Very neat chatting to him and having him talk through some of his projects.

At WTAC Link engine management were holding a booth. A booth with free sun screen and water. A buddy of mine wandered over for the freebies, found out they were running a discount on RB/VG (very similar) plug in ECU's and the long and short of it a massive group buy resulted with something like eight dudes getting hooked up. God bless pale people.

I was initially planning to pick up a wire in ECU since I wanted to knock up my own engine harness, but honestly being such an old engine there wasn't too much more on offer there that I'd actually use. With a plug in I have the advantage of being able to run a stripped down OEM harness from the ECU to the bulk head plug then a custom loom from there. Redesigned where I need it and less work where I don't.





These things install into your OEM ECU housing which in my case was a VeilSide chipped unit because I'm cool like that. The only telltale afterwards is the MAP hose and tuning port sticking out the side.



Last up is something I have actually put a bit of work into and am keen to jump into further over the summer. I mentioned a while back I was converting to a single inlet plenum. This started with mounting up the lower intake plenum from a Nissan Cima, also VG30DE powered but with a factory single turbo configuration. The heads and both upper/lower plenums are different. I'm using Z32 heads (already well into that port project) and am grafting the Cima lower plenum to them because rather than cross flow, the Cima runners are vertical. This means in a centrally mounted manifold there is no harsh transition from trumpet to intake runner.

Fitting up the Cima lower plenum to the Z32 heads is a mixed bag. The bolts line up, but the ports are out of whack. Both motors initially have the same runner diameter, but as the Z32 runs 50cm long ports it transitions down in diameter at a more gradual rate; meaning the Cima runners are wider when lined up up against the Z32 heads.

How to fix this has been a drawn out process. My friends and I concluded with deciding to mill a Z32 lower plenum down to its flanges, cut down the Cima lower the same height and weld the two together. Once that's done I can get inside the flanges and smooth out the internal transition and fit the Cima lower plenum without having to modify my Z32 heads.



Here are the flanges of the Z32 lower plenum that my buddy milled for me. One of them snapped during the process, but they're going to get welded in place anyway so no harm done.



I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to get the Cima plenum machined down. Next up, top side I've gutted the crap out of an ugly Cima upper plenum to extract a base flange.



This created a lot of mess, lol. From here I'm going to 3D model the plenum and call on some hook ups from Uni to CFD test the design so I know it actually works. This shit's pretty much why I'm doing my degree so confirming that I'm not just funneling all the flow into the last two cylinders is important to me.

Here is the base flange sitting on the Cima runners:



A lot of junk to keep working on this summer. Keen to learn how to start modelling. I need a TIG welder.

-A

[E3APC]

The JUN z32 was shipped back to Japan and reconditioned for street use(stripped the stickers off and repainted red). It showed up a few years back and was in driving condition last I heard of it. After it was reconditioned it was allowed to become a full fledged member of the club in under a year, which was almost unheard of. Check out some Yatabe circuit videos, some midnight club cars show up from time to time in those old videos.

Check this video out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVeA5DxhTQo

You can see it being tested at Yatabe, which was a popular proving ground for the Midnight Club guys.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but where did you come by the club membership information on the street legal bonneville engined car?

[E3APC]

schooled! I like it. Thanks for the information. I've seen a bunch of the old option videos and followed a few of the cars too. The Jun Z32 is something I'd be really keen for more info on if you have it. The yellow Pentroof Z32 now resides here in Brisbane, though I haven't heard anything about it in a few years. Not sure where I got that they're a part of Ab-Flug, my mistake. ^^ seems that their stuff is still being appreciated though! thanks loekaaz, just wait 'til I hack the diffuser up...

here's a shot of a car with a variant of my rear bar and a midnight decal

I'm friends with the owner of this car, there is another abflug widebody red midnight z32 that doesn't have the vents in the back, IMO this is a cleaner look. But it's a great kit

[E3APC]

Glad to see someone else who is a Midnight Club enthusiast.

IIRC Abflug still has all of the molds for their older body kits(like the pink Z32 widebody.) Have you seen this one? Always thought it was the most modern looking z32 front fascia while still being older than the Greddy Gracer and other kits.

http://at.abflug.jp/catalog/index_page.php?pkey=item_info&i_code=ABF20321110003

ReAmemiya, Abflug, and Pentroof(who regularly worked with Abflug) still offer a lot of the same parts they did 20+ years ago.

There is a reason those companies regularly worked together , excellent build by the way, and yes very 'midnight' in its technical execution. There is one company name you missed and that's Revolfe, who actually were partners with Abflug. I'm sure if you contacted the guys from Revolfe, Abflug, and Pentroof they would happily help you with info or parts you need.

The z32 holds a massive place in the hearts of these tuners ^^, there was a reason the midnight club developed their z32s so far and for so long, over the r32, the Porsches, the rx7, as they were so good at doing what was needed! There too speed potential proved itself over and over, and most of the midnight guys who had z32s still have their old race cars.

I think the guys would be pleased you are doing such a build

[Pauluzz]

sorry for the of topic but that swift is awsome...anymore pics or thread?

Yes here: http://www.stanceworks.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=64993 but as mentioned, it's my previous build, I've crashed it.

Back on topic, I think it looks ugly through the vents...

[C2_mad]

Why not the "normal" way? In the diffuser? Like I had on my previous build:

sorry for the of topic but that swift is awsome...anymore pics or thread?