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Subject a night at nixit's
     
Posted by maglito on January 02, 2005 at 8:48 PM
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Message Cliffs notes:
Nixit helped me install some suspension parts. See pics below.

Long version:
Yesterday I went over to Nixit’s place on the IL-side (STL speak for eastern suburbs). I have the 300 degree camber plates, and the energy suspension bushing tension rods. Since the High Performance Driving events have pretty well owned the outside of my tires, and SpecialtyZ has warned about the ES t-rods I figured it was about time to upgrade to adjustables. T-rods mostly for the pivoting action (probably wont be adjusting them too much at this stage in the game), and upper arms to dial in additional negitive camber at the road course. Who better to lend a hand with such an endeavor, but the man himself, nixit. First, I got a tour of his place. I got to see his nice hard wood floors, tile in the basement and other improvements he’s made to his place. Then back in the garage I got to see his storage bins. But, what you didn’t see in his original storage bin post were the storage bins on the other side of his garage.


Suffice to say, I felt a bit awkard when I saw that stuff. WTF is in that one the bottom left anyway?

To make matters worse nixit has a carpeted garage. Actually, its quite nice to work on cars and stuff as its not hard and cold, makes a huge difference. But the problem was nixit kept laying down on it to show me different suspension parts and kept patting the ground next to him, as if beckoning me to get comfortable on the carpet next to him. I kept saying, “Um, I think you’re are really great guy and all but I like you as a friend.” Either way, after we got past that initial awkwardness the carpeted garage floor and tons of lighting he has in the garage made the job a breeze. Here are some pictures of the new upper arms and t-rods installed.


The adjustable upper arm. nixit actually did all the math on the thread pitch and everything to come up with each full turn = .4 degrees of camber. Cool!


The adjustable tension rod, and you can spot my nice stainless brake line guard and nixit’s comfortable carpeted garage floor below.


The final installed product. Yes, its grimy and nasty welcome to the Midwest roads in January.

After that bit of fun we ordered pizza and watched pimp my ride on MTV. I kept telling nixit there was this cool show called Sports Car Revolution on speed channel, but he would have none of it. Pimp my ride was featuring putting LCD screens into the back of seats where no one can see them. Nixit was taking careful notes and told me that would be the next mod for his Z. I asked what about all that mod for a purpose stuff you talk about on tt.net? He just switched his Tivo over to some southpark episodes he had recorded and acted like he couldn’t hear the question.

Anyway, after that I told him that I think my car has boost leaks, exhaust leaks, and even minor fuel leaks(‘tis the season). So after the pizza was gone, he whipped out his boost leak tester. It’s a home made job, so no props to boost pro this time. It’s a simple yet very effective setup. First he had to move my doolz v1 out of the way.

The above photo is not modified in any way.


Here it is. He said this boost leak tester is very custom and he had to have the molds destroyed, so the only way to get a boost leak tester of this caliber now is through Chris @ boostpro.net. Plastic bag crap was removed shortly after this picture was taken.

And yes, my car was leaking boost like a siv. It was coming out around the AIV by driver’s side fender. My car should be getting its engine pulled out for the build up here in the near future. At that point the AIV system will be removed so no point in digging into that now. It was nice to confirm my suspicions though. We were also able to locate and fix a small leak around the balance tube on the plenum as well. Next nixit said who cares if your pulling your motor soon lets fix all this other stuff just for fun. I said, sure! So, then he went through and tightened all the fuel line clamps. He made it look very easy since he knows where they all are. My advice, if you smell fuel, don’t look for the leak at first. Just tighten all your fuel line clamps first and if you still smell fuel then go looking for the leak. Chances are high its just a loose clamp.

Then, we started my car and waited for it to get warmed up so we could run some diagnostics with n-probe. Found out my # 4 cylinder is a little on the weak side. It’s a very good thing I have been budgeting for the rebuild for a while now. Then, for our most intelligent part of the evening - after starting the car and letting it warm up we decided to fix the exhaust leaks. Turns out the nut on the stud on the top of the passenger side turbo had worked its way off. Nixit tried to tighten it by hand repeatedly. He said it was actually fun. I still don’t understand - I said, “Come on man, its going to all be taken apart soon anyway.” He just kept burning himself and saying, “Ouch, no we WILL beat this thing.” Eventually, he got the tools and rubber gloves out and the exhaust leak was quite a bit better. At that point it was approching midnight on New Years Day and nixit was getting tired having slept very little the night before. I thanked him repeatedly for all his help and wished him the best of luck treating his burns on his hand and drove home. A good night to be sure. I plan to head back sometime in the spring so we can conquer my rear wheel bearings and install new e-brake shoes. Thanks again nixit for all your help!

     
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