Interestingly enough Nissan themselves has presented the S-chassis and Skyline communities with a few options of their own over the years. They’ve created a 6×1 pattern inner CV with ball/cage outters for many chassis that are very strong and can stand up to big horsepower numbers (such examples include GTRs, Q45s, Z33s and Z32 TTs). I’ve done my research, I’ve explored many options and I’ve played with many combinations to figure out what works best for my program. I wanted my solution to be economical in a sense that it came out of another OEM car and could be had relatively easy in case of problems. I wanted my solution to retain my current ring and pinion sizing (while physically upping the size and strength of both the ring gear and the pinion themselves). Most importantly I wanted a strong CV with the option of purchasing an abundant amount of axles without breaking the bank. I purchased everything from Q45 axles to an entire R33 GTR subframe assembly before I found what worked best for my combination.

(as you can tell, there’s no combination I haven’t tried or thought of)

My final effort was a 350z differential setup. They came with the offering of a 3.3, a 3.5, a 3.7, a 3.9, 4.1, 4.3, 4.6 and even a 4.9 ring and pinion offering. The LSD units are as stout as the GTR units and their output shafts are the beefed up Nissan OEM 6×1 pattern and design. The pinion size alone puts the 240sx R200 to shame and comes from another Nissan so it all stays within the family (a 2005 Nissan Frontier 2wd unit). The axles are just long enough to be in a good operating range on my car and will solve my overextending issues as well. For a car that doesn’t have a wide rear end setup like mine you can also you (1) Z32 TT axle and (1) Q45 axle to get an oem width combination to receive all of the exact same benefits, but you will have to swap to a 31 spline outer hub.

As you can tell, I’m very proud to display my choice of LSD manufacturer, and here’s why. OS Giken offers quite a few benefits that you won’t find with other LSD manufacturers. For starters there is no initial break-in required on an OS Giken LSD. The machine tolerances and finish quality is set to a very high standard and therefore no wearing of the plates is needed before the differential is ready and operational. OS Giken utilizes more plates than most, if not all, LSD manufacturers per application. This results in less wear and a longer lifespan from your differential. Upon ordering you do not simply offer them a part number and receive a product. OS Giken can tune each differential to your individual application should you wish to utilize this option and can increase the ramp-up or reaction time inside the diff. Preload adjustments can be made and internal cones can be swapped to adjust aggressiveness of the unit itself. I found this to work very well for me as I’m a firm believer in 3 things being custom suited to each car:

-shocks and springs
-differential
-suspension and alignment

Each should suit the driver and the application at hand, and OS Giken offers you that adjustability. I can’t even express how proud I am to be working with such a prestigious company and I look forward to a great year with them! Additionally, I knew that the installation was going to require a professional approach as pinion heights had to be reset and measured to make sure everything meshed well inside the differential. When you’re in there its a good idea to go ahead and order all fresh parts so you don’t find yourself having to dig into the differential later down the road. For the installation I looked no further than Jason at Texas Drivetrain Performance. Jason researched the specific application I’m going for and made sure everything was going to be suited for my particular car and work out well. There’s a lot of myths floating around about Z33 output shafts and Jason knew just the answers we were looking for. His knowledge and professional installation has been above and beyond each and every time I needed his help and I just can’t thank him enough for wanting to be a part of this car.

So now we approach the installation. The Z33 differential doesn’t just bolt into my subframe, I had to modify the front upper bolt holes to set the differential height similar to that of the 350z and keep my pinion angle in check. The rear cover however, does line up with (1) existing bolt hole in the s14 rear subframe. Here’s sort of a quick glance at some of the work required.

Nobody knows these products better than the OEM manufacturer, they built them. So when Nissan chose to leave the upper diff nuts as a “caged nut” setup I knew it’d be in my best interest to take the extra time and retain it.

Additionally the pinion flange had to be drilled out to accept the bolt pattern of the 240sx driveshaft. So that takes care of the drivetrain. The transmission is built strong and sturdy thanks to Texas Drivetrain Performance, my 1 piece steel driveshaft is still holding up great, and now I have a fully built and 100% brand new z33 rear differential and OS Giken 1.5 LSD with newer/longer/stronger rear axles. The motors fully built, what could be left? Well, Powerfab Automotive has a little something up their sleeves. Keep checking in, we’ll be waking up the motor rather soon with quite a large power upgrade for the 2012 season!

The other thing I noticed in practice, was the transmission. This thing is no longer a T56. I didn’t have to think about a single shift, it felt like an SR transmission in healthy condition. Just enough give so the gates weren’t narrowed out, with the smoothest shifting I’ve ever felt. Not once did the transmission grind and not once did I miss a single gear. In one run in particular during the first turn I was able to do 3/2, nope feels dumb, 2/3, maybe there’s more, 3/4, nope, 4/3. The car never left drift, never grinded, never hesitated. If you’re a T56 owner, you’re very aware that during this acrobatic act your transmissions gonna tell you NOPE. I’m happy Jason talked me out of the T101a setup, this T56 suites me more. If any of you guys feel your T56 is a lost cause feel free to hit me up, I can get you in touch with Jason and you can talk to him about transmissions and what your options are. These things really CAN feel great believe it or not.

So I got some good practice in, fun tandem with good friends. A lot of these people I haven’t driven with in forever so it was a pretty epic time for me. It was also very exciting to have Chelsea back out and driving at another Texas event. I pulled up for my qualifying run and blew my cv housing into oblivion doing tire warmup, hauled ass back to the pit and swapped it out in a hair under 5 minutes with Powerfab’s help and got back to the line just as Aaron called out the end of qualifying. The new axle held up and we had acquired 1st place in qualifying.

In competition I started off with a cool s14 that had a lot of circle track’esque parts on it that I wasn’t familiar with/hadn’t seen before. I took the win and moved on to top 8 against Robert Turnbow and ended up moving on again. In final 4 I ended up going against Chelsea in Josh Steele’s 350z. It was a very fun battle which I think gave us more seat time than we had anticipated haha. It went through 2 1 more times and a couple light hits before I moved on in the 3rd round. The last person to go against was Will Parsons for 1-2. All I have to say is I shouldn’t have ever given him that dream catcher. Will was a maniac all weekend and was hungrier than anybody for that win and it showed! We had 1 OMT and on the 2nd pair of runs I knew I had to try something crazy so I threw my car in harder than I had all weekend and thankfully it caught. I got the advantage on my lead run and had an advantage on my follow until the axle snapped before the last turn. I think this axle took out more than just itself though as my wheel now was rotating like 10° when the car rolled forward and there’s a lot of clicking and popping back there (moreso than just CV machine gun). So the weekend ended with 1st place qualifier, 2nd place finish! I’m so proud of my car and how its performing right now and so thankful for all the people that helped get it to where its at. Thanks Powerfab Automotive, WFSU, Texas Drivetrain Performance, Kenda Tires (such an awesome grassroots driver support program!), NST and Fabricated Motorsports for making local stuff cool again! Anyways enough rambling here’s some pics

And now the car goes into hibernation until 2012. There are many changes and many obstacles ahead. None of this driving or work would’ve been possible without help from Powerfab Automotive, Texas Drivetrain Performance, Chargespeed, DMax USA and Tein USA. I look forward to continuing to work with the existing partners I’ve made and the new companies I’ll be working with in 2012.

http://wfsu.net/blog/auto/zeus-molecules-pt-2/

I don’t want to sound like some sort of gimmicky sales ad, but I had been searching long and hard for a good place to have my T56 rebuilt. I’ve heard bad things about a lot of different companies and, since transmission breaks can no longer be what prevent me from driving, I had to make sure it was done right. Oddly enough I was talking to a buddy of mine from up north and he referred me to Jason from Texas Drivetrain Performance. I spoke with Jason about some of my options for this particular application, T101a, glorified and beefed up grandpa T10, magnum 6060, facing the gears in my box, etc. We both agreed that the T56 had another shot left in it so we did a full stage 2 along with triple cone synchros and replacing all the gears I banged up (since 1-4 looked like a crime scene). Anyways, got it back with a very quick turn around time (the only delay was him finding a C5 core for the triple cones) and its ready to rock!

Upon removal of my bellhousing and Exedy Hypersingle I noticed it was a little thin, then I got a good laugh

That thing was hammered and the disk was damn near dead (by no fault of its own, I had shown it 2 years of some serious abuse). I showed Jason the clutch and he hooked me up with his stage 3 which acquired almost 2″ larger diameter of actual clutch material and a 4130 chromoly flywheel right on the spot! Sweet! There probably wasn’t a good chance that Exedy would’ve continued on anyways.

If you guys have a T56 thats dead or dieing, I’d seriously give him a fighting chance at it. He can go as far or as little as you’d like, ships without problems, and can knock out about 6-7 T56 builds a day…and the shop was living proof. There is a floor covered in built ones and a 25ft. transmission table covered in “in progress” transmissions. Twas a true T56 heaven! www.texasdrivetrainperformance.com

Next up I started disassembling the car for my dual z32 caliper install and I found this

Turns out one of the axles that exploded at XDC took out my shock body pretty bad. I called Tein and as usual they were more than willing to help. In the upcoming offseason I’ll be sending my full set of coils in for a respring and revalve for something a bit more optimal and refreshed for my car, very excited!

So beyond the Tein shock being damaged everything went without a hitch, here is the progress on the dual brake install with my own custom made rear hardlines and softlines utilizing George Martsanovic’s dual e-brake caliper brackets (which can be found here Dual Caliper Bracket for sale thread).

Next up was the installation of the ASD Motorsports 16″ pull back hydraulic e-brake with the stand alone 3/4″ reservoir option. I came up with custom brackets that put it real close to my steering wheel and plumbed it with a short section of soft line inside the car in case I ever needed to move it around for any reason

We spent the night bleeding everything and making sure it was good to go because coming up soon was Fabricated Motorsports Pro-AM round 3 event at GGP!

Got it aligned on Thursday and these were the specs it laid down…

camber: -5.25 front, -1 rear
toe: 1/16 total in front/rear
caster: 8

since my FLCA are finally adjustable it was nice to not have to do those settings with my plates maxed in which i’m used to normally having to do.

We went to XDC for practice feeling real confident about the car and went straight out on to the. On the 2nd lap out I blew my last remaining Driveshaft Shop 600HP axle, whoops. It was a good thing we rebuilt 3 for spares that day, 5 minutes later itwas back out on track. We had been diagnosing some braking issues all weekend and here’s what we discovered: the BMC was leaking from reservoir to cylinder (front gasket) so we ziptied it down to the cylinder and brakes felt great, I had zero e-brake at a track that requires some e-brake out back for adjustments in the final horseshoe. I quickly decided I wasn’t going to waste all of practice trying to fix the e-brake so I opted to drive around it. We then ended up having a GREAT day of practice! Tandems with Aaron, Will, Robert, George, Rapper Dan, Angerman, etc. It was FUN to drive like this again with all those cool dudes. I think that was some of Aaron and I’s most exciting tandem possibly ever? The car was simply amazing. 15 hotlaps in a row got it up to…90C! My SR couldn’t even dream of temps that cold! The motor runs SO cold now! Round 1 of practice felt a little slow so we bumped tire pressures down, 32psi cold fronts and 20-22psi cold rears. At that point it literally came alive. So much more grip than its ever had, I couldn’t believe it was my own car. It could be placed wherever you wanted it, it was absolutely amazing. We called it a day after Friday practices and came back Saturday morning for what we anticipated to be a really really great day…until the car lost 3rd gear. I think I bent a shift fork following Nick (3-4 fork). So now, there was no e-brake for the horseshoe turn adjustment and no 3rd gear for the horseshoe downshift. I said sorry to my Exedy, this ones gonna hurt! In qualifying I gave that thing the kicking of its life and netted 13th spot, which I’m not ashamed of necessarily given all the problems the car had. I ended up going against Rapper dan and I think I beat myself because I transitioned into the horseshoe a tad early and, though I finished close, it was because I cut the turn off (couldn’t extend out really without an e-brake). Also I heard he had a great follow, you looked killer that weekend dude!

So, in general, this sums up my mumbled posts and thoughts…

-My car does not overheat, George had a lot to do with this as he helped me set up my rad/cooling setup and I can’t thank you enough dude!
-My car finally has front brakes that do NOT overpower the car, the Sentra Brembos are amazing even on stock pads! Again, George, thanks buddy!
-My car finally has grip! As long as the front tires are good, it doesn’t sail anymore, it grabs. It doesn’t overshoot anymore, it bites in. It digs under throttle, it feels fantastic!
-My car has no wiring issues!
-It no longer spits up diff fluid, it no longer has oil leaks everywhere, it no longer leaks fuel out of the tank

I could not be more proud of the final product. And I’m not patting myself on the back either, a lot of people helped me setup the car and pick a correct slew of parts. Without those people I definitely could’ve ended up going the wrong direction with everything. Thanks George, Al, Jake, Drew, Lovis, Aubre, etc. You guys are rad for helping out so much!

http://wfsu.net/blog/auto/zeus-molecules-pt-1/

I decided to change the setup and capacity of the cooling system bleeder tank as well

Over the course of the last events my splitter had become weak in 2 areas and needed to be refinished so I redid the mounts and added 2 new rear bases as well as repainted/refinished the whole setup

I swapped brakes up front to a Sentra Brembo application which shares the same diameter rotor as the Z33 application, should be plenty for my needs and looks great to boot

Next it was time to move onto the trunk

And finally, the car was complete and everything was good to go on the very first start. Leak here or there, very small things which were fixed quickly and easily.

From here the car waits anxiously for its debut event since the build, XDC Dallas 2011

A very rough idea of the level of my links at static ride height, pretty close to optimal! Also a visual representation of where the static ride height was before adjusting the coilovers down

Now its time to get the front suspension together, I started with offset tie rod spacers from Era1, Tein s14 inner tie rods and got my new custom front lower control arms on with them. The front wheel wells were also coated because cleaner areas are always better.

And finally, the car back on the ground for the first time in looooong time!

So now that the cars on the ground its time to get it wired and ready to run. The old wiring had quite a few issues as well as a short in the sensor circuit in the engine harness. My new harness utilizes breakers only for the essential systems and 4 fuses total for the LS1 harness power distribution as well as a breaker off the main power. Its roughly 1/8 the size of the original harness, very basic, and very functional.

Next up I had to find rough locations for everything

Next up I setup underneath the dash, also a view of one of the main side to side runs to get an idea of just how minimal the harnesses are.

Diagnostic port and CEL are very important both for recognizing when my ECU has voltage and for tuning the ecu itself

I finished up checking through all the wiring and everything worked and checked out. Next up, paint and final assembly, the exciting part!

More fun with the bead roller!

Next up was the firewall. Not being a very big fan of bland items I decided the bead roller would play a big part in this project as well. One other complaint I have about firewalls is they strictly eliminate access to each side of the cabin. What I did to avoid this was I made the center panel removable and utilized very high temperature gasket backing behind it, it bolts on via nutserts.

The next big item I’d need is a rear crash bar. I decided to incorporate my rear jacking point into this bar as well as the oem rear crash bar holes so that it could be unbolted. One other unique feature it has is adjustable height elevator bolts to help properly and cleanly locate my rear bumper.

The rear of the car was also undercoated. The cleaner the area you’re working with the quicker you can diagnose problems/leaks/etc.

Often times during hot track days or track days with constant lapping my differential would cough up fluid. In an effort to respect the tracks we drive at and keep my subframe clean and free of oils/fluids I opted to build a catch tank for the differential overflow line.

And finally a mounting location was determined for the Bosch fuel pump. Its kept low to help prevent vapor locking commonly associated with external fuel pumps and fuel cells.

Now its time to get some suspension on!