Project S13 Nissan 240SX – Part 3 – Unsideways Track Suspension
By OR staff, Photography by Joey Leh
With Project 240SX’s stiffer chassis now highlighting the suspension’s movements, we became more and more dissatisfied with the car’s current “drift” setup. You see, our Nissan arrived at our doorstep equipped with generations old TEIN Type HE Drift Spec Winding Master coilovers (yup, that’s really the name – Ed.).
S13 TEIN Mono Flex
Although we want to be winding masters as much as anyone else, the suspension was built with drifting in mind. This meant that lots of compression valving was the name of the game, which is useful for quick weight transfer and Scandinavian Flick-type feint moves to initiate drifts.
But Project 240SX rockets over the undulating pavement and curbing of Buttonwillow Raceway, meaning that a damper resistant to compressing will shock the chassis over rough surfaces and cause the tires to lose contact with the ground.
After pulling the coilovers and making a trip over to TEIN USA for a damper rebuild and revalve, we were told that the Type HE’s twin-tube damper design was nearly a decade old. TEIN’s internal damper piston and shim designs have changed dramatically since and the Type HEs could be rebuilt, but not with the modern internals. We ended up leaving with a lighter wallet and a set of TEIN’s latest Mono Flex coilovers.
The MonoFlex system is based around TEIN’s newest 16-position adjustable monotube design. The monotube damper features a larger piston than TEIN’s twin-tube designs, displacing more shock oil per stroke and thus giving finer damping control as well as greater heat dissipation. TEIN also inverts the front strut monotube for a reduction in unsprung weight.
Stock (L) vs Aluminum Z32 rear spindles (R)
During installation, we maxed out the front upper spherical bearing camber plate by shoving the strut top all the way in. To our surprise, the front lower strut mounting bolts were 14mm in size, while the Mono Flex lower mounting bracket had 12mm holes. We guessed that Project 240SX was already equipped with S14 240SX front spindles but didn’t think much else of it and drilled out the brackets to fit the bolts.
After driving on the new Mono Flex suspension, we couldn’t believe that the Type HEs came from the same company, regardless of the difference in production date. The Mono Flex exhibited a much more smooth and controlled ride, even on full stiff, with more precision than the HEs and better traction due to the tires actually being able to stay in contact with the ground at all times.
Looking for a more precise alignment, we sourced a set of adjustable rear arms from SPC Performance. Manufactured out of steel tube with full adjustability, the SPC arms are vastly stronger and more flex-resistant when compared to the cheap stamped steel stock arms. The arms also come fit with new rubber bushings, which are a higher durometer than stock. SPC sells three links for the rear – camber, toe, and traction – of which the latter can be used to adjust for bumpsteer. To start, we set all the arms to stock length and then adjusted them for our alignment settings.
To go fast, and we’re talking Porsche ass kicking fast, Project 240SX would need a lot of camber. Strut-type front suspensions like to have large amounts of static camber on account of their horrible camber curves. Thanks to the SPC arms, Project 240SX wound up with nearly 3-degrees of negative camber and 1/16-inch total toe-in in the rear.
Machined camber plates for extra range
In the front, we got a measly 2-degrees of negative camber. Not good enough. With our non-refundable registration fees already on the line for a Buttonwillow test day, we headed over to M1 Fabrication & Development with just two days to spare.
When’s he not working on 250cc Superkarts from the likes of Wayne Rainey (three time 500cc World Championship motorcycle champ) and Eddie Lawson (four time 500cc World Championship champ), M1’s Mack Sunthonlap applies his sizeable fabrication knowledge to work on nine year-old derelict projects from the OR team. Yeah, we’re not sure how we pulled that one off either.
Project 240SX’s camber limitations were being caused by contact between the strut tower’s support ring and the heads of the camber plates’ inner bolts. Mack machined out the TEIN upper camber plates to allow more adjustment range and then drilled a set of holes in the top of each tower to provide clearance for the camber plates’ bolts.
A pair of chromoly rings were then cut and welded into each tower to provide structural support and our “Mickey Mouse” strut tower tops were done. 3.5-degrees negative camber each side without breaking a sweat.
With the car buttoned up, we headed out to Buttonwillow Raceway for Project 240SX’s first real shakedown test. We knew something was wrong the instant we got onto the highway. A massive dead center appeared in the steering response and the car felt unstable at highway speeds.
Once on track, Project 240SX violently and quickly snap oversteered the instant it touched its first bit of curbing. The car became nervous, wandering over any surface that wasn’t as smooth as glass and lacked any and all feedback during cornering.
When we returned, we discovered play between the front lower control arm and spindle. We had the wrong balljoints installed. Doh.
Removing 19yr old bushings for new Energy urethane
Project 240SX’s previous owner had told us that the five-lug swap was done using conversion hubs only. Wrong. We discovered earlier during the coilover install that we had S14 front spindles but neglected to follow up on it. We soon discovered that Project 240SX uses S14 front spindles, hubs, balljoints, and S13 lower control arms for the five-lug conversion. Stupid us.
We had earlier sourced an S13-application Megan Racing roll center kit, which has a different taper on the balljoint than the S14 kit and won’t seat correctly. We’ve since swapped the front for a Megan Racing S14 application roll center kit. If you’re carrying out a five-lug hub conversion, do not attempt to use S14 spindles and S13 balljoints. Learn from our mistakes. First lesson – keeping control arms attached to a car is a good thing.
<<< Continue to Project S13 Nissan 240SX – Part 2 – Chassis Stiffening For Cheap >>>
SOURCES
DRIVETRAIN
Nismo Super Coppermix clutch, pressure plate, flywheel, reinforced 6-speed transmission
JDM Power
(949) 855-9174
www.jdm-power.com
SUSPENSION
Mono Flex coilover suspension
TEIN
(562) 861-9161
www.tein.com
Adjustable rear camber, toe, traction links
SPC Performance
(303) 772-2103
www.spcperformance.com
Urethane control arm, rear spindle, swaybar, endlink bushings
Energy Suspension
(949) 361-3935
www.energysuspension.com
INSTALLATION
Clutch, pressure plate, flywheel
SR Motorcars
(310) 516-1003
www.srmotorcars.com
Urethane bushings, roll center kits
Tokyo Auto Repair
(714) 993-7300
[...] re-shim and dyno the shock. to at least square them off. Anyways more pictures of modifying. Project S13 Nissan 240SX ? Part 3 ? Unsideways Track Suspension – The Octane Report Why would I be considered a dumbass for asking for camber plates. If it's a macpherson strut [...]