MOWOG 5 and The Road Leading up to Nats

I apologize for the delay in this posting.. The last few weeks have been absolutely insane after I made the fun little discovery on my way back from Milwaukee.

Shortly after the last post I made, I had a change of heart. I've gotta get this damn clutch done sometime, might as well be now. I ordered a new flywheel from Nissan and an OEM clutch from a rebuilder. Those were both about a week out, so in the mean time I kept that appointment with Jeff to reconfigure the suspension.

Upon rolling it onto the rack, and taking a few measurements I decided to take a half inch of ride height out of the front, 1.25 inches out of the rear (going for a level setup) Take a scoche of camber out of the front, and set the rear to the point where I know can get to zero toe.

This landed me -3.3 camber in the front, -2.8 camber in the rear. Definitely more camber than I want in the back, but unfortunately it's the best I can do until I can get some offset bushings made for the rear lower control arms that will give me more toe.

[caption id="attachment_196" align="aligncenter" width="225"] Jeff, once again elbow deep in Nissan.[/caption]

The car now officially looks 10x more bad ass, and just driving it a bit on the street feels more planted.. But, you never know until you get on course.

Now, the question comes down to do I go in cold to nats, or head down to MOWOG 5 and try to test the car at this great new site but risk needing to be trailered back should my clutch fail?

Fuck it. A few of the MNAutox family offered to tow my gimped ass home should it come down to it, so I packed up and headed down.

I hit the road early Sunday morning, dismissing my earlier plans to head down the night before. I figured should I wind up gimped on the side of the road, I wouldn't mind knowing some fellow autoxers would be driving by shortly behind me.

I made it to Winnebago fine, and started the event. Big sweepers and a giant slalom greeted me, and I thought I had hit the jackpot for testing. The only unknown variable to me at that point was the surface, but one run in I'd probably know enough.

Wow. Talk about a surprise. The surface was ROUGH. What seems flat enough to the naked eye can be a hell of a disruptive force when you're traveling at 50mph. The surface hasn't been tended too in a fairly long period of time that there's a unique situation. The oil leaking from the workers cars, always in the same spot created little bulges in the pavement. Pair that with the fact these bulges are always right between two heavy points that created divots and you've got for a hell of a washboard effect.

Some drivers weren't as disrupted by this as I was, and for that I blame my stock bushings and terrible shocks that did absolutely NOTHING to try and control the wheels.

And these washboards were everywhere. Absolutely impossible to avoid, and they ran the big slalom right down the middle of two of them.

Data Invalidated, and not a good day.

Now Monday, I have a 5 Days until I head out for nats on Saturday. This was also the day I had scheduled to drop the 350 off for it's clutch job. But guess what hasn't shown up? The damn flywheel. I had called Nissan 2-3 times the week before having ordered the flywheel on Monday I was expecting it Friday. I didn't get a shipping notification until about 4pm on Friday, with tracking numbers saying it would show up wed.

I called the shop, and lined up my appointment for Wed morning to drop the car off, figuring they can at least yank the transmission and get the old flywheel and clutch off, and as soon as I got the notification the flywheel had been delivered, tear ass out and pick it up. The shop was a-ok with this arrangement, as it was planned to be a multi day task anyway.

Right around noon, the shop called me while I was eating, and asked if I had forgotten to drop off the slave cylinder. The Wha..?

Unfortunately, I got some bad info from a forum that the slave did not need to be replaced. This is accurate to the OLDER 350z, pre HR engine. The HR cars the slave is actually inside the bell housing, wrapped around the output shaft.. and to top it off is integrated with the throwout bearing. Crap. No way I can get one from Nissan in time, I immediately start checking auto parts stores to see if anyone carries one. NAPA lists it on their website, but it's a "Call for Availability" part. Shit.

I called the Napa in St. Louis Park (which is the area warehouse) and they confirmed, no, it was not in stock.. But I was informed I could get one in 3 days. So, it's in stock somewhere else, and it's a matter of shipping. "What will it take to get me that slave cylinder tomorrow morning?". I think he heard the desperation in my voice. "let me make a few calls, and call you back"

I practically stared at my phone with baited breath. I still may be able to get this done in time. It's not going to get alot of break in miles on that new clutch before heading out of town, but it'll be a new clutch.

about 30 min later, I got the call from Napa. Overnight shipping is a very real possibility, but it may be kinda expensive. short of yelling "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY." I told him that's fine, and to call me the moment it gets in tomorrow.

When the flywheel finally showed up, and I dropped it off at the shop the mechanic pointed out the slave cylinder. Yeah, that bearing is a bit on the noisy side, and would probably destroy the new clutch.

Skip ahead to Thursday afternoon, and I get the call that the slave cylinder has arrived around 2pm. Flying out of work almost as fast as I can drive, I pick up the slave and drop it off at the shop. I was hoping to have seen a bit more progress than I did when I was there, but I'm assured that it would all be put together and ready to rock tomorrow afternoon.

The next afternoon, I get the call I'd so desperately been waiting for: "The car is done. Come pick it up." Sadly, my schedule for that day was quite full, being that i'm leaving for a week. I paid the shop over the phone and told them to lock the keys in it, as I'd have to pick it up after they closed at 5pm.

The time rolled around, and I got a lift to the car from my dad. Fired it up, and.. wow.. it's heavy and grabby as hell. But it's fresh, so I've got to throw some break in miles on it. I fill up the tank, and head out. I drove about 50 miles, from Hopkins to Minneapolis to St. Paul and back to Minneapolis, never touching a freeway. They recommended stop and go driving for fastest break in and that's what it would get. About 2-3 hours later, it felt much better, and I can pretty easily modulate it off the line. It's not a full break in, but it's got some miles and actuations on it before I head out for Lincoln in it not 12 hours from then.

It was now Saturday morning and getting to be time to leave. I'd spent so much time trying to break the clutch in the night before, I wound up not getting the laundry done I'd needed to pack for the week. Oh well. I'll get a little later start, and it gave me more of a chance to be detailed in packing the car.

Finally about 1pm I topped off the gas and hit the road for Lincoln. The drive was thankfully fairly uneventful. After the long haul to Milwaukee a few weeks prior, I decided to try my Bose noise canceling headphones. HOLY CRAP. I know it's not quite legal to wear headphones while driving but, damn. These practically annihilated the drone from the exhaust. Flip on a podcast, and I was in a pretty nice place. To the point that when I took them off about 3 hours later to get food and gas, I thought something was broken. Everything was just so much louder it blew my mind.

After a little more than 6hrs behind the wheel, I landed in Lincoln and actually saw the end of the first day's ProSolo runs. Little MN was almost entirely vacant, with only the handful of ProSolo guys around the site. It's amazing to see a site this large, this empty. I had arrived, and all the work of the prior week feels like it's paid off.