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San Antonio, TX
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Nissan 300ZX
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Running Nismo Fiesta and being a freelance journalist for all things Datsun and Nissan.
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Milo (Nismo Fiesta)'s Achievements
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Nismo Fiesta is coming. Are you ready? NF2016 will be hosted in San Antonio, TX this year. Nismo Fiesta is the largest all Datsun, Nissan and Infiniti event in the country. Over a 3 day span the event offers up everything from an opening banquet with Nissan legend Mad Mike Taylor, a car cruise through the famous Twisters Sisters, a garage night party, a mobile dyno, a full RC drift course and a huge car show event. NF is always a great event and we can ensure a good time every year. Come out and experience what everyone is already talking about. You will be among fellow fanatics just like yourself. We hope to see you all again this year and thank you for your continued support of this charity based event. For more details check out NISMOFIESTA.COM or check out our Nismo Fiesta Facebook page for constant updated. See you all soon!!!!!
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Here is the layout for the days of Nismo Fiesta (April 25-27th) Day 1 - April 25th - Host hotel early check-in opens at 3pm - Mad Mike Dinner starts at 8pm - Nismo Fiesta Mixer starts at 10pm Day 2 - April 26th - Track day at Harris Hill begins at 8am - Drivers meeting at 9am - Dyno to begin at 10am - San Marcos Hill Country Cruise begins at 10am - Lunch at 12pm at Harris Hill presented by 3 food trucks - Lunch for the Hill Country Cruise will be around 12-1pm depending travel time. - Hill Country Cruise to finish at Harris Hill at 3pm to start parade laps. - At 4pm the Harris Hill Track day ends. - At 8pm, the Official Nismo Fiesta Party Night will start. Day 3 - April 27th - Car Show doors open at 9am. - Nismo Fiesta Store opens at 10am. - Car Show judging from 10am to 12pm. - Dyno and other events run throughout the day, ending at 3pm. - Nismo Fiesta Store closes at 3pm. - Award ceremonies begin at 3pm and end at 4pm.
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So, got a few things back from powdercoat last weekend. Things like the modified J30 plenum, modified valve covers, etc. Here are just a few basic pics and updates on the plenum mostly. So got the modified J30 plenum back that I altered to become a 95 Z32 plenum basically, while also allowing me to run the J30 balance tube to allow for simply spark plug removal without having to pull the balance tube every time. Opted for a stealthy wrinkle finish. *shrug* Took a set of stock TB's and punched them out 58mm. Purchased a new drill press and a made a holding plate for the sole purpose of punching these out. This was a huge PITA, but well worth it. After rebuilding the springs and everything with a kit I picked up from Courtesy, I installed the butterflys. After that, I had a local shop drop a weld on the vacuum line tips at the bottom of each TB, as I wasn't going to need them anymore and wanted to eliminate any weak links. After that, I polished them out. Took me a weekend but saved a butt load of cash and I think they came out okay. Here are a few pics. New modified stock TB (notice inner diameter) Versus a stock one that I bellhoused out the lip with a cone buff to gain a few extra horses and then chromed it. This was what I was going to use originally. The new plenum with a chromed linkage and the new punched out TB's. To make things even quicker if I have to pull the balance tube, I installed studs on the plenum versus the original half stud/half bolt. A little detail that I was wanting to do for a while. Here is a top shot of the new plenum with the J30 balance tube installed. Note how accessable the coilpacks are now. Also, note how much has been removed on the plenum to simplify the overall plenum look. I haven't figured out which mounts to utilize. The mount on the far left is the shortest and allows the engine to sit relatively low. The one in the middle is a powdercoated solid aluminum SGP mount from back in the day. The one on the right, is the newest Z1 mount. I currently do not have a preference, just thought I would throw this pic up. Anyways, That is it for now.
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So, pardon my pics but had to take them with my Ipad as my 18-55 Nikon lens broke on me and I have nothing that will capture close up images. Ordered one, so next update should have better pics. As for the project, I continue to shave off an ounce here and an ounce there. The goal of this vehicle is to shave off as much as I possibly can while still making the car legally streetable. Apparently, I keep pushing the limits of what is "legal" in Texas. Originally this bumper was intended not to run an absorber, but I still wanted to utilize it but customization would be needed. Essentially we installed it under the bumper and had to cut away the section exposing the reinforcement bar underneath to allow air to travel up and out. Although we cannot get the full effect of a stock absorber, still using the absorber allowed for a better bumper fit and a hit of stock like safety. Our rebar originally was dented so we swapped it out for another one to be able to be road worth. I had time, so I actually buffed out the rebar as well, since it is now able to be see visually. You can see it if you look closely. Next on the list was the new Greddy differential cover that I finally got around to installing after EP Racing had it heat coated. You can easily see the difference in this unit versus the stock one. Another shot. And after bench pressing this into place, along with a few four letter words bellowing out of my garage and through my neighborhood, I got it in. The SPL solid differential bushings made for a very tight Fit. Big thanks to Sean Farrah over at SPL for sending those over. Since I had a little free time in between things I decided to cover the door pillar, honestly I was just tired of looking at it in black and wanted something different. Using a typical real CF lay over, this is what I can out with. Finally ordered a seat cover for the Kirkey Intermediate Road Race seat. Kirkey supplies this tweed in a red, gray or black. We opted for the black. With this cover in, this seat rivals high dollar popular seats in the market at a fraction of the cost and a portion of the weight. Also, if you look closely I added elastic paracord, that will be hooked to the seat harness. This will allow the harness to be tensioned back towards the seat when exiting the vehicle. A little trick I picked up after sitting in the a true time attack car recently. Cheap, smart and easy. This is a shot of a set of Enkei RPF1's on my other slicktop. Enkei is apparently going to release a black chrome in the RPF1 soon, and I think this will be what we will utilize for LOWFATZ as well. They are ridiculously light, fairly inexpensive and well made. I absolutely love mine on the daily. These should be a great addition to the project. Previously I was looking for more ways to cut weight in the hood area. Originally we removed the hood latch, hood latch cable, hardware and the heavy steel reinforcement in the stock aluminum hood. We opted to utilize aerocatch hood pins to allow us to do this. While on that note, I figured why stop there. What you are looking at below is the inner skeleton of the stock aluminum hood, removed from the outer skin. With the shell removed, the outer skin weighs in at a feather light 2lbs and 6 ounces. We do loose some rigidity in the hood obviously, but considering the car is primarily a track car, this would be standard. Now that the inner reinforcement is now removed from the hood, we no longer will have the use of the stock hood hinge. This is another saving that we hoped to get rid of, to offset this area, we simply add in another set of aerocatch hood pins for the rear portion of the hood. For the record, removing the skin is a huge PITA. But it was worth it to shave some extra poundage. As far as updates, that is it for now. I will be receiving the engine parts back from powdercoat soon and should have brakes for the track car next update. Thanks for looking and all the support from everyone out there.
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Sorry, it's been a while. With me and my local team hosting another Nismo Fiesta, time is usually turned towards that. Now that I have some time, I am turning my time back to the project. ********************************************************* With any large project comes some bad news. My bad news was in the form of the rear subframe. The rear subframe that we purchased from a local club member turned out to be bent. Being bent, it would have thrown off all of the precise suspension angles we were hoping for. This was the powdercoated gold subframe, by the way. I had done up another subframe for another project car, but in red. So we ended up having to swap all the subframe bushings into the red subframe assembly, which was a pain. Our new subframe. Some SPL Version 1's that we had laying around. Later on, we will upgrade this and everything else to the V2's (aka, Version 2's from SPL Parts. I opted to have SPL Parts install their Monoball Bushings into our rear spindles. These bushings are the premier bushings available to the Z32 market. Although these can be on the pricey side, I feel as I always have, that you cannot beat quality and reliability like this. Note that these can translate a little more road noise to the vehicle, as well as vibration. But, for our purposes of an all out track car, this was the best option for us over any other aftermarket bushing. The stock spindle with the bushings installed. A closer look at the SPL bushings. So moving on to a little more weight savings..... Although the stock hood is made of aluminum for weight savings from the factory, some portion of the stock hood were obsolete thanks to the addition of the Aerocatch hood pins. Previously, we deleted the hood latch, cables and hardware. We recently also, opted to remove a few more pounds from the stock aluminum hood as well. Started with removing a few sections of the hood catch. The stock hood has a steel catch inside of it, sandwiched between the underside skeleton and the outer aluminum skin. My plan was to cut away as much as possible while still keeping a little strength left in the panel. We have to do this process on two different hood. We have a vented hood and a stock hood for the car, usage depends on weather conditions, of course. You can see the hood catch section we are opting to remove. A closer look. Notice the rivets. This made it "interesting" of a removal process. Another portion of the skeleton that we cut. And another. Our little pile of hood removal debris accumulated to another 3.1 lbs of saved weight per hood. We are still wondering if it was worth the extra 4 hours of cutting to get to this savings. :) And now, just doing a few more little trick things to make life easier on us when we are stuck out at those hot Texas track days. The stock Z32 for the US market is great for what it is. But one thing that I always hated about it was that if you were going to be constantly pulling plugs to swap them for any of a dozen good reasons, you had to pull the balance tube which just seemed.....well poorly thought out. Good but could have been a little better. The stock Z32 plenum. The J30 plenum was essentially our same plenum but evolved. It allowed for a balance tube that moved back the tube for a cleaner and easier access to the coilpacks. I always liked this idea, but one thing that sucks about the J30 is that it is riddled with brackets. From my experience with plenum polishing/porting/chroming, I had a lot of experience chopping off brackets and smoothing out plenums. So we applied that. Basically, our goal was to take the J30 plenum and use it on our project. Sadly we cannot just bolt up the balance tube, we have to use the plenum and hack away all the additional brackets and threaded bungs. A shot of the J30 plenum. A comparison shot. Notice the balance tube and then all the "extras" on the J30 plenum. The J30 balance tube by itself. The X's account for everything that I have to remove. The stock J30 plenum. Notice all the items that will need removal. The stock J30 plenum after a quick bracket removal section. We still have much more to go on the plenum. We have to smooth all both the plenum and balance tubes out. Send the plenum out to Extrude Hone for it to get honed. After that we will have EP Racing put a thermal coating on both item to help battle heat soak in aluminum/silica cast plenum. More to come on this part as we continue to move on. And on to the fun stuff. Mitch over at EP Racing has a full plate on some amazing builds right now but still managed to get a little work done for Project LOWFATZ. Our pistons were a set of custom one offs to generate the power we were looking for in an naturally aspirated VG30DE format. Something that has never been done to our knowledge. So, in a sense, we are writing the playbook. Compression is squishing at 12.5 to 1. A few comparision shots of another AM TT pistion vs our custom NA pistons. A new EP Racing twin piston squirter design that is finalized as of recent. Expect production soon. The design is set to allow maximum lubricity for both low and high points, hitting the underside of the piston as well. Previously the only cure for high hp TT motors looking for lubricity at the critical piston to rod point, was to utilize an NA squirter. Now with the new design, it improves upon this concern with one squirter aimed at this point and the other in the traditional TT positon. I recently picked up a set of new tranny gears to have both coated by EP Racing and installed. The coating will promote lubricity and anti-friction. These are our gears after a few sandblast sessions awaiting the coating. Now with the coating applied and freshly run through a few heat bonding cycle, the gears are cool to the touch and ready to go. Recently we picked up a few different clutches, trying to find the right combination for the anticipated power. We were donated a few different clutch setups by sponsors. A vendor was nice enough to donate us an OS Giken clutch assemby. We are still unsure if this will make it into our project or not as may be overkill, but none the less it is an impressive assembly and we appreciate all donations. Thanks to all for the patience. More updates coming soon.
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So, I got around to getting a little more done on the project. Finally had an opportunity to get the new subframe complete with the SPL subframe spacers installed. This was a huge fuss. My recommendations for anyone doing this is take the time to grind out the powdercoat inside the hole or have them pressed in with a huge press. It will make your life a little easier. But otherwise this came out great. While I was at it, I had another subframe recently finished for the daily. Came out good. We opted for longer 60mm Nismo studs a while back and got around to installing them along with whatever else we could loose to further cut weight. Note the difference in lengths. Huge difference. I also went through the process of removing the rear rotor dust shields as well. I did not just choose to cut these off, but instead went for the opportunity to fully remove them to get every little ounce I could of weight savings. The original shield in place. The now assembly with the removed dust shields. Took the opportunity to also get a little more clearance for the new rims we plan on stuffing under the quarters, with a fender roll. By fender rolling, we can allow ourselves to get more clearance as well as remove the possibility of sheet metal rubbing our precious new rubber. Since are getting ever so close to paint, we thought we would finalize the instillation of the glass. After everything, we opted to go with the stock quarter glass windows and rear back glass to not allow the possibility of water leaks. The weight was negligable on the quarters but sadly added a few pounds back to the car. But, it was over the rear where we were going to need a little anyways. Hopefully this balances out as we still begin to plan out corner balancing out the vehicle. Anyways, since we were installing the glass my good friend, Anthony from Glass Tint by Anthony, helped out the project by volunteering to tint the windows on the project for us. Here is Anthony prepping the tint for install on the quarter glass windows. Another picture of the man doing what he does. Here he is prepping the glass for install with a strong bead of adhesive/sealant. Notice how thick it needs to be to prep for install. We took great precaution to make sure we had no leaks in case we end up at a rainy track day. And here I am assisting in heating and getting the glass just right where I want it. We will have a few other updates here shortly. We will soon be prepping for final paint as we have already picked up our paint. Also, we have some new parts on order for the build at EP Racing so we will update shortly with that.
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Sorry for the lax demeanor in the build but unfortunately the personal life took over for a bit but now I have a lot more time and funds to throw towards the build. Actually we are moving very close to being complete. Our main concern as of late is finalizing panel fitment, paint and starting to dive into the engine. The paint and panel fitment is being handled by yours truly. But for the engine duties we are relying on one of the best engine builders in the business in my opinion. There are very few things that Mitch @ EP Racing does not know about a VG. He has already began paving the way for the VG30DE, VG30DETT, as well VQ series motors into a place of unimaginable and previously unattempted HP ranges. Many of the top minds around the country trust in Mitch's engine building abilities. So we jumped on the bandwagon and headed up to meet Mitch at his secret shop location to go over the details for the powerplant behind Project LOWFATZ. Vice President, Mike Delashmutt accompanied me on the run up to EP Racing just south of Fort Worth, Texas. Mike had a build of his own going on, so we drug up his motor as well as few other bits for LOWFATZ. We arrived at the shop to find Mitch in his usual form... Mike and myself quickly went to town to begin breaking down Mike's VG for Mitch to inspect. Here I am tearing into Mike's motor. Mike looking on and imagining his block to become on of the many completed engine that are the artwork surrounding the shop. Some of said artwork. Anyone need a crank shaft? These are little different though. :) A work of art. Complete motors ready for customers. A set of race heads being ported for a Z31. A little shout out. A full Ferrea setup complete with titanium retainers ready for install. The man himself going to town on a fresh assembly. Assembled and ready for the head assembly in the "Clean Room". Entire head assembled in 10 minutes. Amazing. Me and mike shut our mouths for a few moments to go back to work on dis-assembly of Mike's engine. Watching Mitch work is like watching an artist paint, it's that level of concentration and assertion. My hat goes off to him as a true engine builder. Here is doing one of many assemblies he did that day. Note that this is the closest Mitch would let us get in the "clean room" (aka, assembly room), which is like a surgeons table might I add. As well as doing assemblies, EP Racing supplies their own custom line of heat treatments typical to that of Swain Coating. The only difference is, EP Racing does them at a substantially cheaper cost. Something we liked for Project LOWFATZ. Some examples of coatings that were going into customers other builds at this time. Coating for the piston skirts as well as the dome. A set of rods done up. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0988.jpg http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0991.jpg http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0992.jpg http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0868.jpg Okay, okay....enough about EP Racing....what about LOWFATZ? Where is the update....well. We got around to dropping off our block sometime back and had an opportunity to check up on it. This is our block. Mitch took the opportunity to clean it up and prep it for us.This block will the basis for our build. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0869.jpg Another shot of the block cleaned up. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0870.jpg Also, we added a suprise to the build with addition of a EP Racing first. Mitch worked with Moroso to engineer the first 9 quart capacity oil pan. Which will also find it's way into our build. We will be adding on an external oil cooler which we estimate will kick us up over 10 quarts as a whole. Here are a few pics of that beast. The execution of the piece is awesome. Great job my Moroso as they truly earn their name on this one. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0873.jpg http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0872.jpg http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0874.jpg While Mitch worked I tinkered a bit more with Greddy High Quart Diff Cover for LOWFATZ. Dis-assembling the cover. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0950.jpg Deburring it inside and out. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0959.jpg Ran it through a few runs of the blasting cabinet. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0962.jpg http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0969.jpg Finished and ready for a EP Racing Specialty Heat Extractor Coating. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0976.jpg First round of coating the inside and then off to have it set by a nice bake with a specialty oven. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0980.jpg For right now, that is the first of many updates soon to come. Me and Mike would like to thank Mitch for allowing to come up and learn more about his process. We now have every confidence in him for his abilities to make our goal with our project. For now, we will leave the man to run his business. Thanks again, Mitch. Now get back to work. http://i950.photobucket.com/albums/ad342/saplating/LOWFATZ%20300ZX%20Pics/DSC_0885.jpg
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Here is the newest update I got. Haven't been up to much as I am getting Nismo Fiesta 2011 out of the way and dealing with a mold issue in my house. But anyways, enough about my problems. Here is an small update on what's going on with the project. Mostly I've just gotten a lot of oddball parts in. ********************************************************* Got some packages in from Simtec Motorsports. Wonder what it could be. The new Simtec Motorsports IMSA front diffuser. This diffuser is pretty amazing. It uses half of the stock bumper and is a pretty darn good fit after a bit of trimming. This will offer good amounts of downforce and dramatically increase airflow to where I want. Craig over at Simtec spent a lot time working with me on this as we have made some customizations to the standard unit they offer for sale. Turnaround was very good considering it's all done by hand. Simtec was gracious enough to become one of my few sponsors that we are putting together to make the project come alive. The underbelly is seemless. Note the sheetmetal edges are seamless to slice through the air. Great craftsmanship. Now to mount up the stock bumper. Here we've cut off the lip of a stock bumper to begin to mount up the stock USDM to the Simtec lower diffuser. And yes, I will paint the cover obviously. This is just a test fit. Bye bye. Mounted. The backside. These bad little MOFO's are called Airtabs. These are little vortex creators that work amazingly. We are going to be adding them to LOWFATZ's roof line to break up the topside air turbulence. I am playing with where they will be as putting them too forward can have downsides for a rear mounted wing. These will mostly likely end up on the high part of the glass in the end. An image of these same tabs used on SCC's Subaru WRX some years back. This is a quick release for the steering wheel from 9K Racing. It's basically a copy of a Lifeline version. I picked it up off a GB from Zilvia.net. Not bad but it looks to be a Lifeline or ETB ripoff. But still, a good item either way. Very light weight as well. Picked this up from a TT.net member. It's a true Bomex nose that will be thrown on LOWFATZ later on. Very nice item. Well built. I have to give props to Bomex for making a solid piece. A lot better than those flimsy crappy ebay knockoffs that i've had before. This is a Broadway mirror. These have been around forever. For a while they were kind of expensive but have take a dive in price recently. These are amazing mirrors for the price and highly recommend them. I have one of these on every car I own. For $20 on eBay, it can't be beat. I picked mine up at a Autobacs years ago and forgot I had them. Love them and recommend them. This one will end up riding in the cockpit with me in LOWFATZ. And lastly, the best purchase I made all month. Bought this as it was recommended from a TT.net member...and....I love this freaking movie. Probably my favorite car film other than Dust to Glory or Gone in 60 Seconds. This actually made me want to start working on my project again. Thanks Eric Bana. That's it for now. More to soon come on the engine pics.
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A "sort of" update. Got a few things back from the powdercoaters. I was going for a matching gold color that is currently on my Gram Lights. I love the color and spent about a week finding the color for a near exact match. I'll have these SPL Solid bushings pushed into them soon. Had all the undercarriage bracing redone in red as well (ie, Dave G's undercarriage brace and UAS front brace). Below are some pics of the diff cover that I have had for a while now. Going to have whole thing coated in a heat extractor coating to pull as much heat of off the diff as I can. The original stock unit. Just got my new studs in. Will install these soon as well. Cut a few more things off the car as well. Brake shields
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New to site but been around for years.
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Had a bit of time between all the chaos of the Xmas holidays to put some time into the project. Needed to cut and bevel in a section for the back window support braces. Used a dremel and a variation of bits to get there. I needed to form the alumimum to the original contours of the glass. So I used the orig glass as a template and began forming. I initially heated the aluminum bar to spread out the molecules which makes for a smoother easier bend, a good trick, especially when working with aluminum. After a little bit of work. Came out pretty flush. I still will punch holes in the aluminum bar to shave off a few ounces before final install of course. I picked up a so-so condition stock aluminum hood to start the mock-up process for the hood vent. After a lot of measurment and eyeballing, cut the hole out. I remember Kuah stating how much of a pain this way, and now I know why. The flat vent does not fit well with the slope of the hood. Positioning is dead on. But I will have to head gun and cut stress sections into the fiberglass vent before reinforcing it. It's not bad but the goal is flush. ********************************************************** And I got started on painting the jams on the track car with the new color... Dupont Hothues Hot Rod Black. I ended up wanting to do the jams myself as shops never ever do it the way I want. So.....I did it myself. Here is a quick time lapse. Dis-assembly. Sanding, scoth padding and surface prep. Masking off. Jams shot. Removed masking. Here are a few random shots of how I masked the car off. And some shots of the color on the car. Again, it's a professional flat black from Dupont. A pint with a kit will get you around $175-$200. I still plan to shoot the whole car which will probably be another $700 in materials most likely. The color itself is a true flat black and looks good, rattle can doesn't even touch it. And with the jams painted up, I started install on a few things. Had a new front windshield installed into the Z to keep it street legal. New glass installed.