NS F355 Project (Page 59/73)
85-308 DEC 09, 09:50 AM
Loving this thread; thanks for posting! Great ideas and discussion.
Questions for you - and if this info is already in the thread I missed it, my bad - have you considered inboard shocks at all?
What items are' carved in stone' for you, with respect to suspension, engine and transmission; ie already bought and you will not budge on those items, or similar fixed approach.. anything?
From what I can tell you have your final ride height and widths sorted out and now are trying to come up with something that works in that space - would that be fairly accurate? So right now anything flies?
Again, thanks for sharing!
GP
Yarmouth Fiero DEC 09, 11:01 AM
Thanks 85-308. With regard to the rear suspension and brakes, I have purchased QA1 coilovers and Wilwood 13" rotors and hats. I have not selected calipers yet as I am still researching piston area suitable for this car. I have purchased 18" Drag wheels for the rear with Dunlop rubber. With regard to the engine and gearbox, I am really leaning toward a longitudinal setup and as such, have dropped the 350 SBC for an LS1 mainly because the intake is easily reversible and thus I can tuck the engine in close behind the firewall. I am also looking seriously at the Audi 01E gearbox as it has been mated to an LS1 in the past by other builders. Also, by going longitudinal, I should be able to install 180 degree headers a little more easily. I am pretty confident the belt drive is going to work which will solve many of the drive shaft alignment issues. As well, as I have mentioned, I will do a custom rear subframe and once this design is further developed, I'll finalize the rear control arms. I decided a while back to stick with traditional coilovers rather than inboard suspension simply because I do not feel comfortable with suspension design and felt the coilovers with a lowered and widened track would meet my performance needs.

Thanks for your questions. I'll try to get some updates on the project shortly. I have a lot of the material cut, fitted and tacked. I'm just backlogged on my final welding as I have that done by a certified welder.
85-308 DEC 09, 12:18 PM

quote
Originally posted by Yarmouth Fiero:

Thanks 85-308. With regard to the rear suspension and brakes, I have purchased QA1 coilovers and Wilwood 13" rotors and hats. I have not selected calipers yet as I am still researching piston area suitable for this car. I have purchased 18" Drag wheels for the rear with Dunlop rubber. With regard to the engine and gearbox, I am really leaning toward a longitudinal setup and as such, have dropped the 350 SBC for an LS1 mainly because the intake is easily reversible and thus I can tuck the engine in close behind the firewall. I am also looking seriously at the Audi 01E gearbox as it has been mated to an LS1 in the past by other builders. Also, by going longitudinal, I should be able to install 180 degree headers a little more easily. I am pretty confident the belt drive is going to work which will solve many of the drive shaft alignment issues. As well, as I have mentioned, I will do a custom rear subframe and once this design is further developed, I'll finalize the rear control arms. I decided a while back to stick with traditional coilovers rather than inboard suspension simply because I do not feel comfortable with suspension design and felt the coilovers with a lowered and widened track would meet my performance needs.

Thanks for your questions. I'll try to get some updates on the project shortly. I have a lot of the material cut, fitted and tacked. I'm just backlogged on my final welding as I have that done by a certified welder.



Looking forward to it! Your LSx and 01E choices are exactly the same as where I am at for my next project. Right now they look great. For what it is worth, the LS4 is a bit shorter due to the crank and front end accessories, but it has the metric bell housing bolt pattern, so I don't know how hard it might be to bolt/adapt to the 01E. Also it has the starter mounted on the (auto) trans so that has to be accomplished. It might save a bit of longitudinal overall length is all. Do you have a transaxle source yet? I have had great response to my questions from Scott at Advanced Automotion in Texas; they sell FWD version 01E transaxles, rebuilt for heavy duty (or heavier duty, anyway) and 'off the record' - I guess, without specific testing(?) - they suggest these should be capable of holding up to 600 ft lbs under street (intermittent abuse) and about 450-ish ft lbs under racing/constant abuse. Prices seemed very reasonable to me for this kind of capability!

First tho I need to finish my LS4/F40 project! I don't want to restart again on it. That would be .... ummm... too many times to count?!?!?
Yarmouth Fiero DEC 09, 12:31 PM
I have been looking at the Advanced Automotion products as well, especially with the Wavetrac differential. I think that will be key to making my belt drive work. For the LSI I have been looking at Turn Key Powertrain for an LS1 crate engine with computer and harness.

I have not contacted either of them yet but I'll likely pull the trigger on the gearbox before the engine.
Yarmouth Fiero DEC 14, 05:07 PM
Well, today we finally got some welding done. My daughter's boyfriend is a very skilled welder and he has been completing all the critical welds for me.



The lower frame rails, strut towers and upper frame rail notch reinforcement are all welded final and ready for assembly on the chassis. Its takes a lot of effort to assemble everything and make sure along the way that everything remains true and straight. I don't want this project tracking towards the ditch or centerline unexpectantly.

Yarmouth Fiero DEC 26, 06:07 PM
Merry Christmas and wishes of health and happiness to all.

In an effort to ward off turkey brain, I spent the day completing the final fitting of the passenger side strut tower and engine bay side enclosure. The new structure ties the upper and lower frame rails together along their entire length creating one large longitudinal beam. Once the driver side structure is complete, together with the stock rear transverse frame of the upper frame rails and the additional rear transverse frame on the lower frames rails, as well as the firewall / rollover hoop transverse frame, the entire structure will form a complete boxed structure surrounding the entire engine bay. As well, the future custom designed and built engine cradle will add additional stiffness to the rear structure, all in an effort to handle the proposed 400 hp LS1 and Audi gearbox.

Before final welding, I'll sandblast and prime all the individual pieces. Here are a few images of the design and the actual parts.
fieroguru DEC 26, 06:23 PM
Those panels look really nice and smooth! Is that 16ga material?
Looks like they are thicker than they need to be and heavier than they could be. My only concern would be the added weight in the rear.
Yarmouth Fiero DEC 26, 07:27 PM
Hi Fieroguru

All the material for the strut tower and engine bay plating is 1/8" plate. While it does look heavy, the strut towers are actually about 4 lbs lighter that the stock pieces. With regard to the engine bay plating, I expect to still be under stock weight considering I have removed all the trunk material as well as the stock sheet metal from the engine bay side plating. Also, while the pieces look big and heavy, the actual parts are barely 3 sqft of plate per side. Now, my lower frame rails are a few pounds heavier per side than the stock pieces but I'm willing to gain a couple pounds in an effort to have a stiff structure that can take a full pen weld as apposed to spot welds.

I really should keep a better record of the weight changes I guess. It's all coming off for blasting and priming so I can still weigh everything before final assembly and I have most of the stock material in my scrap bucket for comparison.

I am still seriously considering a full carbon fiber body which is going to produce significant weight savings in the end, especially compared to a glass body with filler and foam. And of course I'm quadrupling the hp of the engine over stock You know all about those benefits I'm sure

Edit: for typo

[This message has been edited by Yarmouth Fiero (edited 12-26-2014).]

Yarmouth Fiero DEC 26, 07:36 PM
As a side note Fieroguru, I am toying with the idea of an aluminum engine cradle since I can isolate it from the steel chassis with poly bushings. I'm still designing this and calculating the possible weight savings here. But I think it will be significantly lighter compared to a stock engine cradle.

Does anyone know if this has been done yet?
fieroguru DEC 26, 08:30 PM

quote
Originally posted by Yarmouth Fiero:

As a side note Fieroguru, I am toying with the idea of an aluminum engine cradle since I can isolate it from the steel chassis with poly bushings. I'm still designing this and calculating the possible weight savings here. But I think it will be significantly lighter compared to a stock engine cradle.

Does anyone know if this has been done yet?



mwhite modified an aluminum grandprix cradle (stock LS4 cradle) for his LS4/F40 swap and ended up at 44 lbs, stock 88 cradle is 50 lbs.
http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/123953.html