Another VH Z32 Crossmember Done

[SuperHatch]

Well, this one was actually done some time ago, but I figured I'd post pictures so people know the level of modification/fabrication required.

This crossmember works with the stock VH manifolds, stock VH mounts, but requires a modified sump exactly as Nick's was modified, since this is Nick's new crossmember.





















Enjoy!

[Aus450zx]

does the crossmember need to be spaced down?

[SuperHatch]

does the crossmember need to be spaced down?

No. It requires a modified front sump oil pan, and the plenum will not clear the hood.

This is a topic that comes up over and over. If you want proper girdle to pan and pan to steering rack clearance, and you don't want to change your front suspension geometry, than you need to cut a hole in the hood, there are no two ways about it.

If you spaced down this crossmember 3/8", the hood would clear if the supports are removed. I DO NOT recommend this on a street car, or any car that you want to handle properly. You could purchase a bump steer correction kit and SPL front lower control arms with roll center adjusters, but then you're spending over 1K to keep the stock hood, and you remove the chance to use the bump steer kit and front LCAs to correct geometry on heavily lowered cars.

[Aus450zx]

No. It requires a modified front sump oil pan, and the plenum will not clear the hood.

This is a topic that comes up over and over. If you want proper girdle to pan and pan to steering rack clearance, and you don't want to change your front suspension geometry, than you need to cut a hole in the hood, there are no two ways about it.

yep, I'm not worried about cutting up the bonnet, I've already glassed a bulge into the "hood"Do you modify the sump to a rear pickup or just change the shape as a front sump? Does the PS pump and swaybar clear?

I've got a spare front crossmember and this looks like a good way to go compared to the semi-solid mounts I was planning on

[SuperHatch]

yep, I'm not worried about cutting up the bonnet, I've already glassed a bulge into the "hood"Do you modify the sump to a rear pickup or just change the shape as a front sump? Does the PS pump and swaybar clear?

I've got a spare front crossmember and this looks like a good way to go compared to the semi-solid mounts I was planning on

Yes, this uses a modified front sump, and requires use of the Q swaybar with custom mounting brackets. The OEM VH PS pump works fine with this setup.

[Protune Racing]

Anton you might want to double check with an engineer ( i assume your getting it engineered) before you go about modding the Crossmember. Im not sure what its like over in WA but here in NSW our rules didnt permit modification of the crossmember.

Ive also been following your thread on aus300zx for a while now. ive been a member there for a long time. Big thumbs up for doing the conversion with the available space that you have

BTW great fab work superhatch

James

[Aus450zx]

cheers nismov, though I hav been pretty lazy with the updates and my slicktop and other daily have been taking up more time than I'd like. I have the tech guys at the DPI going over my mod application at the moment so I'll wait to hear back from them about what hoops I have to jump through. I have applied for a few unusual mods so I'll see what happens and post up in my progress thread

[T45]

On my 2nd time around I went front sump. We hacked the xmember (a lot more than you did Steve) and massaged the bulge in the pan to fit. Anyways instead of making major pan mods we made major xmember mods and I was still able to run the Z swaybar by just lowering it and clocking the ps pump with a little clearancing on the block to get it higher. It is possible to keep the stock Z sway bar and it sits about 1/2" lower than the pan. It's pretty low but it's high enough for normal driving and speed bumps.

[SuperHatch]

On my 2nd time around I went front sump. We hacked the xmember (a lot more than you did Steve) and massaged the bulge in the pan to fit. Anyways instead of making major pan mods we made major xmember mods and I was still able to run the Z swaybar by just lowering it and clocking the ps pump with a little clearancing on the block to get it higher. It is possible to keep the stock Z sway bar and it sits about 1/2" lower than the pan. It's pretty low but it's high enough for normal driving and speed bumps.

This crossmember is Nick's (npez) and I didn't hack the crossmember much because he already had a pan modified to work with a crossmember that was modified in this way.

The crossmember in my car is modified significantly more than this, and my pan is barely modified at all. The only modification to my pan was to clear the steering rack, there is no change to the sump portion of the pan.

I did exactly what you describe with the swaybar at first. I had the pump flipped upside down and the swaybar spaced down about an inch. Everything looked great up on jackstands and I was happy with the work.

Little did I know (or consider, lesson learned) that the swaybar rotated back and up as the suspension compresses. So even though there was sufficient clearance when in the air, while on the ground there was less than 1/8" at stock ride height, and the pan was showing damage from going over bumps. Also, the lever arm portion of the swaybar was getting dangerously close to the tension rods.

I had plans to heavily lower the car and I didn't want to run into binding issues. That is why I converted to a rear swaybar setup with a stock G50 Q45 bar. It was fairly simply to fabricate the brackets and the clearances are substantially better than stock. It also allowed my to properly mount the PS pump and gives me the option to put the AC in if I ever decided to.

Do yourself a favor and put the car on jackstands, remove both front shock/spring assemblies and swing the suspension through its full travel. Once you've confirmed clearances that way you should be confident you have no issues.

I'm not knocking your setup at all, I ran it for a while, I just don't want to see you run into problems down the road if there was something you missed.

[T45]

Ah, I do remember now that I have the adjustable SPL end links, which allowed me to "swing" the sway bar forward a lot by extending the links. I also have Suspension Techniques sway bars which may have a different bend than stock. Another thing about the ST bars is the adjustable mounts, basically I had to lower mounts about 1.25", extend the end links to max, and move the "ovalized hole" bar mounts fwd max. This gave me enough clearance.

Here is a pic of old setup. I kept the lowering spacer, installed Stillen tension rods and removed the washers in the pic so it allowed me to slide the mount towards the front of the car as much as possible. The ends of the bar sit lower now as I extended the adj links to the max, moving the portion of the bar that runs in front of the engine towards the front of the car. Confused yet?