300zx's ELX work log

[atomicEGT]

I wonder if one of those torque damper jams would work in place of a front mount?

[KAinjection]

That might not be a bad idea as long as they dont add any vibration in the cabin. The one rear ES mount is the extent of where I am willing to go with stiff engine mounts.

[crazycanadian]

After measuring both engines I was kinda wondering about that in the back of my head.....

I was under my car last night measuring things up to build a front splitter. Looking at oil pan heights you are about an 1" lower, so its really not that bad..

[atomicEGT]

I have a hard time believing the MZR runs any more roughly than a Zetec, haha.

I have ES front and rears in my ZX2 and it's not that bad, adding one of Jon Rood's side mounts made it the worst thing ever though

[KAinjection]

Even with the A/C on?

[atomicEGT]

Yeah. The A/C probably helps at idle simply because it brings the RPM up a bit.

Should point out that I have an UDP/ODP combo on the car though- helps keep it from doing that annoying shudder at constant speed when the compressor kicks on.

[KAinjection]

So to change gears a little bit here and talk about suspension, specifically K-sports.

My K-sports after many years of street driving have blown shocks, not leaking at all just the damping is totally gone in them which i discovered last year when I pulled them to install the new camber plates. K-sport upgraded to a larger shock body and discontinued my size which leaves me to buy upgrade kits or a whole new set at around $800+

Considering the price and I have nothing to lose here really by this experiment and many comparisons I have found on the internet of Koni vs K-sport dampers I am going to attempt to retrofit some Koni race inserts into the K-sport housings.

I noticed with my wagon that has GC sleeves and GR-2's that it feels firm and does not bounce at all, but doesnt take road seams or man hole covers well if they are a little below the road surface and sounds like a blown strut would sometimes when hitting this stuff vs the K-sports that bounced pretty bad since new and the adjustment knob didnt help that much with it and doesnt seem to absorb road seams well. Some reviews I read said that just by changing to Koni inserts the bounce was totally gone and the rode far better with stiff springs.

[Kitty]

That's actually the best course of action. The Ksport hardware itself is fine, the dampers although better on the current model are still a little underwhelming.

[KAinjection]

I honestly wish that there was a coilover hardware kit that included everything but the damper and came with threaded bodies made to accept Koni race inserts. Exactly like K-sports but the threaded body is empty and it could come with springs or without if you wanted to pick your own rates.

[crazycanadian]

What about trying the GT pro version if you are stuck with having to get a new set?

[KAinjection]

I feel that this will get me a better damper and be cheaper than a new set, and the only difference between the GT pro and Kontrol pro is the inverted damper which is not something I need since this is not a track car.

[KAinjection]

Sacrificing my K-sports for science:

[KAinjection]

Well not much of an update but I got my custom made spacer back from Ferdi. Its hard to see since its sitting under the engine mount but he did a good job and now I just need to go get the correct bolts to secure it in place. I took my gas pedal off to figure out how to mount the DBW throttle/gas pedal and start running the wiring for it and some of the other items including the OBD 2 port inside the car. After looking at the throttle pedal I may just end up cutting off most of the metal and just use it as a base to add a sheet metal plate on it and bolt the DBW pedal assembly to it.

[FE3-323]

anymore angles of that spacer plate?? are you using the spacer into the current frame rail? & then bolting the mount to the spacer??

[KAinjection]

Yes the spacer will bolt to the frame rail using one of the existing bolt holes and then the mount bolts to the spacer. One side of the mount will use a bolt threaded into the spacer and the other side will be a hole through the spacer and a longer bolt will be used to secure the mount and spacer together to the frame rail using the second existing bolt hole. I hope that all makes sense, lol. I will get another picture when I pull it back out to measure bolt length.