wheel spacers
 

I am about to complete a 5 lug conversion on my 240z with toyota calipers, 300zxt hubs, rear disc. With this I will put on very large spacers - about 1 1/2". also my ride has 18" rims. How much stress is on my wheel bearings and studs - any thing to worry about.

Re: wheel spacers
 

Some of the guys/gals here run spacer's to mount up honda bolt paterns. They say no problems Godzilla runs them on his Z. I have talked to autocrossers and they are against them and some are not. I'd say its your choice, but what do I know I run stockies and had some Centerlines custom built for my Z8, that cost me an arm and a leg

What turns? There all straight to my Z

Re: wheel spacers
 

There is no more stress on on anything -- IF the CENTER of the wheel/tire is not moved outboard, I run 1.25" spacers so I can use a wheel/rim with the web on the outside of the rim.

The most important thing to watch out for is the UNSPRUNG weight. I spend a good deal of time trying to select a wheel that was LIGHT.

On a car as light as a Z almost any increase in unspring weight will significantly deteriorate the ride. Some brand of wheels are pretty porky - so INSIST the salesman tells you how much the weigh - most don't want to cause theirs are HEAVY.

I run 17" with 215/45/17 TOYO tires- rims weigh 16# ea, I selected TOYO Proxie tires cause they were 2# ea lighter than anything else I could find

Re: wheel spacers
 

Tires were 2lbs lighter than others I will keep that in mind when I go home and put new tires on my Z8 to drive it to WA. I am a weight freak and if it doesn't make the car look like crap I will take it out. I overlooked alot of weight on my Z8 except for in the front end. The torque of the motor doesn't even notice weight, on suck a light car to begin with.

What turns? There all straight to my Z

Re: wheel spacers
 

dfhdfh

What turns? There all straight to my Z

Re: wheel spacers
 

gerryG, why did you buy 17" wheels if you wanted them to be light? If you wanted to get the lightest possible, wouldn you go with a smaller diameter?

Re: wheel spacers
 

I struggled long and hard about the wheel dia. to use. I finally set down and did a spread sheet - using all the choices I could find. I wanted a larger wheel diameter if I didn't have to pay a penality in weight. I wasn't having much luck until I found Tenzo-R racing wheels - then I could use a larger dia. AND keep the weight down. The Tenzo's adv. weight is 16#, I measured closer to 15. The TOYO Proxes tires I picked were 2# lighter than any others I looked at.

I feel I WAS successful, but choices were restricted somewhat.

Having had wire wheels and others with doo-dads on the outside to clean around, I knew I wanted a simple layout, smooth outside, and with as few spokes as possible - partly to keep the weight down partly to make cleaning easier

Re: wheel spacers
 

One more thing - as the wheel dia goes up, the tire weight goes down. On a larger dia wheel - the spokes don't add much, just the base rim circumference which is Pi x Dia (approx 3.1) which works out to +21% going from 14 to 17" dia. IF the wheels are made roughly the same - Look for open airy wheels, AND higher quality ,more expensive ones. I took my cue from studying Formula 1 wheels. They use larger dia no reason to -- UNLESS there was an advantage. Much to my susprise - my car handles MUCH more precisely. I can put my tires almost exactly where I want them

Ride is actually improved - ride harshness is usually a fairly accurate gauge of gain or loss in unsprung weight. I also anticipated some loss in ride quality from the low sidewall height. On my way to work - I have a series of bumps to go over. My car now takes these bumps much better. My only explanation is the reduction in unsprung weight