86T : Drift car bishez!

[z31na2t]

So...before I start at the beginning of this car, I'll say I've owned more Z31s than I can remember...easily 20+...over a period of many years (9? 10? Got my first one at the age of 13 as a project - bought it myself lol)

So after searching for the perfect *rust free* chassis, one faithful day in April 2011, still living in Upstate New York, I came upon this 86 300ZX Turbo. The hood was trashed, the rear hatch glass was broken out, it had porno red interior with torn seats to boot...bad MAF and an automatic transmission (supposedly freshly rebuilt). Sounds horrible, right? But it was a factory turbo car with no rust in even the most common rust spots. And best of all, it was only $1000...and it ran, albeit poorly with the bad MAF. This was a no brainer for me..I'd owned dozens of these cars, so none of this was an issue and I had spare parts out the a**. So I immediately bought it. No second thoughts, no regrets. Cash up front, done.

So I trailed the car home then started cleaning some stuff up.







Immediately threw a mass air flow sensor on it and it ran perfectly. So I took it out for a drive. Of all the Zs I've owned, this was my first automatic...but it shifted quick and firm unlike any other automatic Z I had driven (friends cars). Still, I didn't much like automatic transmissions - especially in my toy. None-the-less it was a car to drive and I still enjoyed it.

I quickly went ahead and swapped the hatch over with one that wasn't smashed as well as put a Kouki (87-89) rear spoiler on it.



I always liked Starion wheels, so I picked up a set stupid cheap and threw them on there. Then I was prepared to go offroading...seemingly!



The next project was tackling what I thought was a mildly cracked manifold or a leaky gasket...turned out my car had invented a 2-piece passenger side exhaust manifold..







So I got that all fixed up...few weeks later on the way to a friends house...100 miles away...I start smelling a weird burning smell...ATF...torque converter is slipping. Suddenly RPMs skyrocket to about 3500rpm while cruising. So much for that rebuilt trans, someone didn't change the torque converter! Oh well, get to do the planned manual swap sooner than later. Saturday around 10AM I drove it in the shop...around 2PM the same day I drove it out as a manual.



Then I threw in the CLSD, cleaned up the stock diff case and such. Finned diff cover... Multi-clutch, old-school NISMO 2-way. stock z31 LSD diff cover, etc.



Grabbed a hood and had it (poorly) painted.





I skipped some of the less important parts of this story. Around 2012, after a few different engine setups including a T3/T4 with bigger injectors and such - I ended up back at a stock T3 and crap...



I didn't like the 16x7 starquest fronts. So I called a Starquest friend and asked if he had any more 16x8 rears...I was in luck. He sold me a pair for $25!



I temporarily threw a set of ST (Suspension Techniques) springs in the car (pulled from the 87NA2T) as the Z3Rs were simply too high of a ride height. I had preordered Powertrix coilovers but they weren't going to be here for a few months.





My Z31 and my old Z32:



After waiting a few months - FINALLY, at last! From the original group buy!



Welded the front lower sleeves up to the stock Z31 spindles (weld-on sleeves, much like many other old cars)









1" solid sway bars



Billet Steel drift knuckles we make:







Then some driftage:







Road trip:



Threw ASCO block-off plates on to replace my janky sheet metal ones



Then this happened:



So the car got solid motor mounts, poly trans mount and poly tension rod bushings from Acadiana Sports Car Orphanage






Then after another drift event I decided my Maxima electric fans sucked. I didn't like them, the car would start running warm after about 10 minutes straight of drifting due to lack of airflow through the radiator. (Lot of opportunities at the NY track I went to to run for a long time). The decision was to swap to the commonly used Taurus e-fan.





Couple days later, went drifting.









Outer bank, 3rd gear...FTW:





It still starts to run a bit warm after extended periods at this point. Decided I'd deal with letting it cool down occasionally until later when I'll upgrade the radiator.

At one of the events my right side cam seal started leaking...so I decided to change out all of the front seals. Both cams and the crank.







Within an hour, reassembly time:







Back running again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ1usXXsKLA

And more drifting...







On 9/22/13 my friend decided to buy another Z31. We both went in on a 86T parts car as well. So, road trip to PA!











Then more drifting







Believe it or not, this wasn't a spinout:









Then coming into late October, my final event. I was moving to Illinois...quite literally the next day. Me and friends decided it needed to be a good one.



The Z31-Gathering commenced:





























Then I woke up around 8AM the next day and headed for Illinois....

Random video from a drift day I am in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D65l4X-PLRk

Recently I picked up TF tension rods:

[Jbaker1121]

Mike, amazing build. Can't wait to have my z31 at this level of performance. Sub'd

[evildky]

Excellent first post!

The z31 IRS sucks for everything else, I guess the toe and camber gain makes it a lot easier to brake traction, so maybe it's useful for something.

[z31na2t]

Excellent first post!

The z31 IRS sucks for everything else, I guess the toe and camber gain makes it a lot easier to brake traction, so maybe it's useful for something.

I find the Z31 IRS is capable of making traction where you wouldn't expect it to....it hooks pretty good when I want it to. Makes it great for drifting, as drifting is actually more about GRIP than loss of traction.

0 rear toe-in generally slides easier, btw....

[evildky]

I would think that zero rear camber would make for a more stable, easier to control drift but how many drift cars you see with zero camber?

I gained a lot of respect for drift working around the midwest drift union guys at LS Fest.

We autocrossers like a little rear toe in, gets the rear turning in. The stock suspension has a crazy amount of rear travel, I guess they did this to help maintain some traction since the majority of these cars were open diff. When you add a decent CLSD you don't want or need all that droop, and when you lower the ride height you get instant toe in and camber. When you make lots of power and your contact patch is tiny due to the rear camber you can't get any straight line traction, the traction that you do get causes the rear to squat and the traction to disappear. Of course your coilovers increase the spring rate, lower the ride height, and all but eliminating rear droop, keeping your toe and caster within a much, much smaller, range, which should drastically improve your traction retention.

[z31na2t]

The car makes 370wtq, and has no issues getting traction even when it had -4.8degrees of camber. I have toe corrected to a tiny bit of toe in.

Less camber does make for a more stable drift, as its all about traction despite popular belief. A ton of camber is only really beneficial with lower-powered cars.

[Turbo.Trouble]

Haha this is an old post and don't mean to be a grave digger but dude excellent build and tbh this is how Ive always want my z31 to be! You encouraged me to build this build for drifting but I don't have money for track sooooo hooning it is