Cannonball89

Ok so I'm dropping a L28ET with a T5 into my 240z. I plan on using the R200 in the future but for now due to budget constraints I want to keep the R180 diff until I have enough money to install an LSD into the R200 then put it in the car. So, my problem is that the 240z driveshaft will bolt up to the companion flange on the R180 but the slip yoke won't fit the T5, and the driveshaft from my donor 280zx will fit the T5 but won't bolt up the R180. My question is, can I pull the companion flange off of the R200 and install it on the R180? This would allow me to get the 280zx driveshaft shortened and use it. I have been searching the archives and can't find a definitive answer. Maybe my brain is just fried. I guess my other option would be to have the flange from my 240z driveshaft installed onto the 280zx driveshaft when I get it shortened, but if anyone knows for sure if the companion flanges are interchangeable I'd appreciate it. Will this fit R180?

Thats some nice eye candy... Wish I could read Japanese lol.

Very nice!

Oh yeah, and because I hate fooling with drum brakes in general lol. Sticking a screwdriver through that tiny hole and working blind is such a PITA!!!

I think that would be the coolest thing ever actually. A positive displacement supercharger combined with a turbocharger would certainly set my car apart from the crowd and achieve my "dream" of a really flat power curve. I allready have some ideas in my head about how to make it all work. Unfortunately thats all that is at the moment, a dream. There is no way my current budget will allow me to do a project like that. Maybe in a couple years after college when I have a good paying job. But for now, I think I will be building a mild street turbo motor that pulls hard at the top end at the expense of low power. I mean it will probably still have more low end power than my L24 so it should still be a lot faster at any RPM than the motor I currently have.

I appreciate your advice. I think I am set on using the calipers off my parts car though because I know for a fact that they work and are not leaking. To get 240sx calipers from a junkyard would be a crapshoot as to whether or not they are working and not going to leak, and rebuilds from the various parts companies cost about $70 + a $20 core charge each. So that is $90 per side, a total of $180 I would rather not spend at the moment. The main reason I am looking at a disc conversion is because my wheel cylinders are shot. I have allready rebuilt them using the fresh gaskets and seals but there must be burrs inside the housing because they will intermittently stick out and cause the rear brakes to drag. New wheel cylinders cost over $100 dollars for the early Z cars, and the aluminum with steel insert drums cost about $100 dollars each too. So it just doesn't make sense to spend that money on drums when I can convert to more modern discs for about the same. Even if I go with a proportioning valve the cost of my disc conversion should still be in the ballpark of what getting new drum brake components would cost.

Thanks, thats all I need to know

I am looking at options for rear discs on my 71 240z and have decided the best and most cost-effective option is to use the Z race products brackets for 280zx calipers. I have a 1983 turbo parts car so that is the main reason why I chose this route over the 240sx or maxima disc swaps. My question is will these brackets work with the 1983 rear calipers? I have read in the sticky about brake options and in other threads that the 79-81 280zx's used different calipers than the 82-83 280zx's. I have emailed and called Z Race products with no response yet. I know some of you guys are using these brackets so if you could tell me what year calipers you are using it would be appreciated. Thanks. Here is a link to the brackets: http://store.zraceproducts.com/brakes.php

Good advice. I am definitely not afraid of revving a motor and using the shifter lol. Anyone with a stock 240z learns pretty quickly how to keep in the power band. I also have a Legends Car (It's a 5/8th's scale stock car looking thing with a 34 ford coupe body and a yamaha 1250cc XJ motor) that I race. The XJ Yamaha engine makes all its power between 6000 and 9800 so I'm not afraid to rev. I thought it would be nice to have a motor that makes power down low like a V8 but still screams at high RPM. But I'm cool with having a peaky motor. It's what I'm used to and what seperates us import guys from the masses of mustang/camaro/chevelle/charger enthusists lol.

I thought about doing that once. I even posted a thread about it: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/88518-solid-reaction-disk/page__p__840639__hl__%2Bsolid+%2Breaction+%2Bdisk__fromsearch__1#entry840639 I decided it would be a dumb idea... but experimenting with different stiffness's of rubber sounds interesting. But at the end of the day you are only changing the feel. If I can find three or four blocks of rubber of different hardness's I may try it... maybe lol.

Yea, there isn't one listed in their catalog for the 240z. Only '74 26oz. Also no rear bumper listed. I can't believe how good it looks for such a cheap price. Obviously made in china or some other cheap labor zone. I wouldn't be suprised if it starts rusting a lot sooner than a $1000 dollar bumper but I can buy a lot of these cheap bumpers for that kind of money.

Yeah that makes sense. I guess it is hard to get the best of both worlds, especially with small displacement motors. Honestly I'll probably favor more power on the top if I have to choose. I have a blast with the L24 in my car now. You have to rev it to make power. You guys think I would be further ahead to put the motor in my car entirely stock save for Megasquirt and modify it from there? I mean I'm not thinking about pulling the head off of the car yet... so any modifications I'm talking about at the moment would be just about as easy to do with the motor in the car as it would out of the car. Hell even pulling the head off to send it out for porting and such is pretty simple even in the car. Maybe I'll do things one at a time instead of all at once... I don't know I'm not planning on doing anything until the roads are covered in ice and salt lol. By the way, I plan on parting out all the non-drivetrain related parts on the ZX turbo, so if you need something give me a shout.

I made the '74 260z front bumper that Black Dragon sells for $129.95 fit on my '71. More importantly I made them fit like their are supposed to fit and look good lol. When I saw how cheap BD is selling these bumpers I couldn't resist getting one and trying to see if it will fit. Basically the only difference I found is the location of the mounting holes. The profile is the same as early cars. I simply welded up some brackets that were short enough to hold them tight to the body. I'm sure you could do something similar on your '73 if you know how to weld. Even if you don't any welder could fabricate simple brackets like I made in no time. Sorry I don't have pics of the brackets off the car (I never thought about pics until I installed it) but these will give you an idea. I guess basically I'm saying the easiest solution to make bumpers sit closer to the body is to custom make the brackets. Seriously it isn't hard with some welding/fabricating practice.

Hey guys, I haven't posted much on this site. I'm usually on Zcar.com but I'm noticing a lack of intelligence over there, so I think I might be on this site more and more. Basically I have 71 240z that is pretty much stock at the moment and I just bought a 280zx turbo with a T5 that I'm going to swap into it, probably over the winter. The motor is a recently rebuilt stock motor with supposedly +/-20,000 miles on it. The head is a P90A with hydraulic lifters. I got the motor running in the car before I pulled it, which wasn't easy because the previous owner went on a wire-hacking spree prior to selling it. I think he planned to heavily modify this car before he realized how rusted out the chassis was. So after about two weeks of pouring through wiring diagrams and doing FSM tests I got the car running on the stock ECU pretty well. A bit of a rolling idle due to some obvious vacuum leaks caused by dry-rotted vacuum lines but I'm going to be replacing all the soft lines anyway, so I went ahead and did a compression test once up to temp and was pleased to find all 6 cylinders at 140PSI except for #5 which is at 135PSI. I think this proves the bottom end to be in good enough shape for a mild street build without rebuilding it. I realize this is not groundbreaking stuff here, it's been done thousands of times. And I have spent many many hours reading old posts on this site trying to get as good an understanding of turbocharged motors as I can. The main purpose of this is just to run my goals by you guys and my plan to achieve them to make sure I'm on the right track. My goals for the car are to have about 300 Lb/Ft of torque at or slightly below 3000 RPM and still be making 300HP up to the 6000 or 7000 RPM (at the wheels). I really don't want to have a car that doesn't have any power until the top end of the band or a car that makes lots of power at low RPM and dies over 5500 RPM. I want a good flat power curve all the way through the usable power band. My plan for achieving this is to first off use Megasquirt. This will make tuning far easier than messing with the stock EFI. In order to make good torque at low RPM I don't want a huge turbo, I think a T04E or T3/T4 turbo is what I am looking for. Something that will spool up quickly to get that instant torque at low RPM and still be able to flow enough air to support the power at the top end. I'm not planning on doing any head porting at the moment, but that plan may change. From what I have seen the stock head is good for 300HP on moderate boost levels. I'm thinking 12-15 PSI should be plenty to achieve my goal and that should keep the turbos I'm looking at happily in their peak effeciency islands. I'll probably be running an intercooler too. I think the key to keeping things happening at high RPM will be a cam change. I think combining a smallish turbo that spools quickly with a slightly hotter cam than stock will give me the torque I want down low and also keep it pulling up to the redline. I think I will have to switch to solid lifters to make it rev happily beyond 6000. Thats not an issue as I have a spare set of solid lifters. I've heard from Tony D that a cam spray bar to replace the internal oiling in the cam will wake up the lazy revving of an L28ET also. That is something else I will look into. Oh yeah, my budget is about $3000. So basically I appreciate any of you that take the time to read this and give me feedback on my goals and my plan. Feel free to tell me if I'm being naive or ignorant. I feel that I have researched this enough to formulate reasonable goals and a feasable plan for within my budget. But I may be wrong. The main thing I'm not sure about is the cam. Is the cam really what I need to focus on to wake up the top end of the motor? Or should I be looking into head porting and keeping the stock cam? Also any recomendations on specific lift and durations? Finally I want to thank all of the members here on hybridz for all the contributions they have made to the knowledge base available for Z cars. I have learned sooo much! Also want to personally thank Tony D for taking the time to talk to me a while back through PM on Zcar.com when I was still deciding what direction I want to go with the car. He really helped me decide to go turbo based on my goals and budget.

That looks cool, but the looking at their website, I don't which product you would buy for automotive use. The small coupling weighs 10kg, and is only good for a maximum speed of 3000 RPM. It says it is safe for 500nm of torque or 1200nm for a short time. That just seems awfully heavy and that maximum speed is only good for 70MPH or so depending on your gearing. You should talk to them and see if they have anything designed for cars.

I used to have a 1996 S-10, and mine made a whine at low speeds too. I found out the front brake pads weren't installed right by the idiots at Midas and were sitting in the caliper at an angle. That had made them wear down to metal on one end in less than 5,000 miles. So check your pads to see if they are down to metal anywhere.

Ok, I got the rebuilt booster from advance auto, I installed it Sunday and drove the car to school today. Brakes work great! The reaction disk was definitely the problem. Just one thing though, I will have to take the booster back out and drill out the hole that the pin for the brake pedal goes through, it is too small on the rebuilt unit for the stock pin to go through. Seems like a stupid mistake for a major auto parts rebuilder to overlook, but other than that it is a quality unit. I probably won't be experimenting with any "solid" reaction disks, that was a dumb idea lol.

Just ordered a remanufactured booster today from advance auto. It is $92.96 after the core credit, which is a lot cheaper than MSA or any other place I've seen. They are made by Cardone. Supposed to be at the store friday, will update after the install.

And as far as experimenting with a solid reaction disk, that will have to wait. And I realize that modulation is a good thing, I am just curious what kind of modulation it would have if the reaction disk is solid instead of rubber. But first priority right now is getting the brakes to work as they should in stock form. Also, I have properly adjusted the rear shoes, I did bench bleed the master, I did check pedal travel under the dash, and I did read the sticky about the reaction disk, that's how I found out the reaction disk exists.

Well I pulled the master cylinder off, and there was no metal clip holding the pushrod assembly in place, so I figured the previous owner had taken it out and lost it, probably lost the reaction disk as well. The trouble is the pushrod assembly won't come out. I took the booster off the car, and pulled the rubber boot and metal washer away from the pushrod assembly, and the assembly appears to be rusted into the diaphram. The old master cylinder was leaking at the rear, and probably caused brake fluid to initiate the rust. So I have no way right now of telling if the reaction disk is in place or not, and I figure the booster is probably no good now from brake fluid getting into it, my question is, if I get a rebuilt booster, will it come with a new pushrod assembly? Or do I still have to figure out a way to get the old pushrod assembly out?

I've been running cambered tires on a Legends Car for years. We have to run a Spec, Radial, DOT approved tire. The main advantage on our cars for using cambered tires are less tread squirm on the outside edge of the tire under cornering, not so much for suspension geometry reasons. Keep in mind that this is on oval tracks, where the suspension experiences the same load for the most part through every corner. I would think that slicks would just wear out faster with the outside edge being thinner.

I'm having a problem with my 71 240z, the brakes have been really mushy to about 3/4 of the way down, then get solid, and hardly any modulation before lock up. The brakes still stop the car good enough to drive in traffic, but are really hurt ones confidence. I have gone through almost every part of the system, New calipers New pads New rotors New drums New Master Cylinder Rebuilt Wheel Cylinders New Shoes New Drums I have bled multiple times, including the "Fart" method, to no avail. I have also checked the pushrod depth. I will be looking at the booster next, and I hope that I find the reaction disk is missing, because if it is not, I don't know what else to check. Since this is a website devoted to modifying Z cars, I thought I would ask a question about modifying the reaction disk. The stock reaction disk is rubber, I would assume to increase the amount of modulation, but I am curious if anyone has tried using a block of aluminum or steel the same thickness as the stock rubber disk? Would this give a stiffer pedal? Or is the disk rubber for some reason that will get me killed if I use a metal one. I just might fabricate one out of aluminum while I am working on it to experiment on what the effects would be compared to a rubber one. Just wanted to see if you all had any thoughts on this.