Bought an ITA class 240SX. Now what do I do to it?

[Redshift]

Hello everybody. Sorry for my Newbie (I'm sure) questions, but well, I'm new.

I just purchased my first Nissan.It's a 1989 240SX that has been prepared for, and raced in, ITA class road-racing.

I've been doing HPDEs and lapping days for a few years now and decided to finally take the plunge. So here I am.

Now, I'll get straight to my point, then give you some more information.

My Point:Now that I have it, what (if anything) should I be doing to this car? Any reliability mods I should be aware of? Cheap/easy performance mods? Things specific to this car being used on a track that it just needs? You hopefully get the idea. I'm open to any/all suggestions.

Now, the background:Again, car is an 89. Was prepped for ITA 4 or 5 years ago. Raced a few partial seasons and 1 full season. Finished 2nd overall in-class in-region that season.Will only run (for now) on our local track, Atlantic Motorsport Park. 11-turn, 1.7 mile track. Narrow and technical.Car ran 1:20s laps 3 years ago.Top IT class runners now run in the mid 1:18 range on this track.

Stuff Already Done: Engine, transmission and Brakes:Has a KA24E. Head has been portmatched, polished etc. Header dumps into a straight pipe coming out behind the drivers door.Stock transmission and shifter but all of the bushing etc. in the linkage were recently replaced.Stock rear-diff but but has been welded. Stock-diamater rotors (as per the rules.) Currently has PBR pads on it as I understand.Has brake cooling ducts (i.e. dryer hose) through the front bumper and back to the front rotors.

Suspension and Chassis:Shock towers have been seam welded. (They were starting to break.)Strut-tower bar on the front.Sunroof removed and a piece of sheet metal welded in.All bushings have been replaced with Urethane.Koni coilovers with customer rate springs.

Safety:All of the race-prep stuff is a given (gutted, 6-point welded in cage, racing seat, removable steerting wheel, master power switch, belts, window net etc.)

Those are really all of the modifications that the car has that I can remember. I also got about 2 pickup truck loads of spare parts along with it.

So, that being said, back to my point. Anything else I should do to this car to address and weaknesses that life on-track will highlight? This year is all about learning and seat time, so reliablilty is my first concern.

Once that's done, what, if anything, can be done to make this car faster that is cheap (I'm racing now.. I don't have money anymore.) and would be legal within the confines of the Improved Touring class?

Any and all questions/comments/suggestions are welcome.

If my questions are just stupid and pointless, I'll apologise in advance.

Thanks!

[corn322]

I'd say get rid of the welded diff. Will the rules allow you to use the helical diff from an S15?

[Redshift]

Yeah, the Diff was the highest listed non-safety item on my budget.I honestly haven't gone through the whole rule-book yet to see how much latitude I'm allowed to update and stay in the class.I'm 99.9% sure I could put in an LSD from the same chassis. Newer S13 LSD might not be great, but with 140 raging horses under the hood, it might be just fine.

Honestly, as long as I'm only running in local club events, the chances of anybody protesting me are so low it might be worth it anyway.Like I said, this season is more about seat time than anything.

[nismofly]

you arent allowed to either post a link and/or send by any chance are you?

has pretty much everything been done engine wise already? i dont know if a new cam or anything like that is allowed, or if you just didnt mention it...

normally i wouldnt be a power first person but with competition as close as it is it might help, also what kind of tires are you allowed to run? not hoosiers i dont think in IT but im not sure, whatever is allowed that you can afford, run them

like i said though, if you could get the IT rules it would help

[Red coupe]

I dont even know what limits ITA has so like he said rules would really help us point you in the right direction...The silvia 2 generations after yours had a torsen diff that can be had on ebay for ~$600-$700 at pretty much anytime as a buy it now...If you need stock you pretty much are gonna have to go for a viscous limited slip Also the shifter mounts directly to the transmition, so the only bushings for it would be the 2 on the shifter for its pivot point and the end that engages the shift fork...

[Redshift]

Thanks for the input guys.

I did a little reading through the rule book last night and it states "Any limited slip of locked differential is permitted."So, looks like that is a go.

If anybody else wants to do some light reading:http://www.scca.org/_FileLibra...g.pdf

As for tires, they must by DOT approved for this class. The car was raced in the past, and currently sits on, Toyo RA-1s. I'll probably stick with those for the time being since A) they are Cheapish and B) The suspension has had a couple years of tweaking by the past owner on those tires.

For wheels, you have to run stock diameter, and in ITA are limited to 7" width. I've got 3 sets of wheels right now (2 stock 240SX sets, and 1 Altima set.)

Regarding the engine, it is mostly stock right now. It has had the head removed and polished, portmatched to the limits of the rules.I don't see anything on cams on way or the other.Interestingly, you can do whatever you want to the ECU as long as it is still in the stock housing.Also, you can change the intake, but the MAF must be functional and unmodified.

[91rs13]

Here is where you can find SCCA Ruleshttp://www.scca.com/Club/Index...0|057&~=

Do you run SCCA rules up north?If not see what your local club does.

Try this site http://www.improvedtouring.com/lots of IT racers there.

[Redshift]

Thanks for the link to improvedtouring.com ! I'll check them out.

Yes, in my region we run the SCCA rulebook. Reason being, there is only 1 track in Atlantic Canada. For those who want to run more races (and there are a few) the NE US SCCA Region was closer then going up to Ontario and Quebec, and has more races.So, we run SCCA rules. That way all of their cars are eligible to run the SCCA events.

[nismofly]

i see one thing that sticks out...you mentioned that you run on a tight course, and in there it says you can change the rear end ratio as well as the type of diff

nissan does have a 4.36 rear end that you can swap in, i forget what car it comes out of but im sure somebody could tell you, you could do that as well as your hlsd

other than that, i dont know about the prb pads, you can see how they work when you run it the first time, brake fluid obviously needs to be changed before every event, ate super blue and motul are both great for that

it looks like you have to run a stock cam if im not mistaken, the one thing i see there is you can have .040 over pistons but theres quite a number of limitations so you should watch what you do

id say the rear end should be the first major thing to look at though

[nismofly]

ok the 4.36 is out of an r32 gts-t

[nismornr]

quick question. sorry for the thread jacking but i just joined nasa and was wondering about the hpde's. how long do you get to run for, for the $150 fee? thank you.

[Redshift]

Nismofly: Thanks! Great information. I'll have to play with some math and figure out how that gear would work around our track.

You guys are all great.. very helpful.

[nismofly]

no problem, im actually looking to build an ITA car within the next couple years to run both ITA and NASA SE-R Cup, which allows cars that comply 100% with the rules to run against the se-r's

[emperor_lunchbox]

If you can use stock cams, why not switch to cams from a 1991 240. I think the exhaust cam has a higher lift and a longer duration. I am not exactly sure if it will work in the single cam, but it might be worth looking into.

[nismofly]

you cant run one of the cams from a dohc in the sohc

and you cant run ita with a dohc engine, youd be in its, which puts you against rx7s and bmw's, and totally uncompetetive