Doug71zt

I'm running a 38mm Tial right now, going to a 44mm on my next upgrade, mainly for the Vband clamps and the fact that I had ordered 5 of them for other projects, so I threw one in for myself... The 38mm is all you will need for a reasonable T3/T04 hybrid (.63 or .82 housing, any stage wheel). Or, a straight TO4 with .58 P or O trim wheel. Tial makes a great WG, and they are not much more expensive than the chiwan crap out there. Also - FYI, I've binned two Deltagates on customer cars, replacing them with Tial because they were sticking and not consistant. The used Deltagates are on Ebay for a reason.. Doug

Well, I finally broke down and bought a new TIG welder - a Miller Syncrowave 180SD. I was hoping for something larger, like a 275 or so, but my shop power service is only 100amp, and wouldn't cover that size of TIG at full power. So - I won't be able to do much intercooler work, but everything else will be covered. A question for the TIG gurus onsite - How much better are the inverter machines like the Dynasty series? I liked the much lower power consumption due to the power factor not being so far off like the transformer machines, and variable frequency, but they were too costly for me. Second question - Is the optional Pulsar unit worth the cost for my machine? I have read up on the theory behind the pulsar unit, and it seems that it would make it easier to weld difficult joints like headers without burning through. The Miller sure blows away my old unit, makes my welds look much better than I actually am. Practice,practice,practice. It seems to have more consistant penetration on the stainless, the inside of the pipe looks a lot better, with not a lot of salt. I'm contemplating a second argon bottle for back-shielding, or using Solarflux inside the pipe. Anyone tried that? Cheers Doug

I made my own in the machine shop from SS.I have seen some turbo shops make them up from an old exhaust valve. I don't think that there are commercial sources for one that big. Doug

If I am remembering correctly - It is BSP - British Standard Pipe thread. Not NPT. They are very close, and it could likely be tapped to 1/8 NPT to work. Doug

The 712's just liquify when the boost hits - I'm running 225/45/17's on the street right now. Jersey - Are you running slicks at the track now? BFG G-force DR's come in 225/50/15. My car's been known as the 'Killer Pumpkin' around town for years and years. HeHe. Doug

I'm contemplating using the Z32 master only on my 240, and eliminating the stock proportioning valve, as the Z32 has it in the master. I am looking for a reduction in hydraulic advantage, as I have larger rotors, with Z32 calipers all around. I'm having some modulation problems with the ZX master I have in there now. Although, that could just be the meathead driving..... Doug

Speaking of the shifter ears, between the early and late 5 spds, there is a change-up in the shifter. The spacing between the pivot and the striking lever changed, so if you have the wrong shifter for the tranny, you're going to have shifter problems. Doug

The small cover on the side of the tailhousing has a reverse lockout dealy in it. I suspect to prevent catching a piece of reverse on a 5-4 downshift. It is the later tranny if it has that. Not sure of the differences between the 80-83 units. Doug

Euro N/A pistons had a raised quench area on them, so technically they aren't flat-tops, they have raised domes, cutting the chamber area and raising compression. I think you are going to have problems keeping headgaskets in that thing, as it is probably knocking under boost. Your engine is trying to tell you something - the compression is way too high. If you manage to get a HG that stands up, the pistons will be next. Any L-series head isn't a good enough design to run boost at 11:1 static compression. I can't think of any engine that would do this, off the top of my head. I would get the compression down to around 8.0-8.5:1 with new pistons, unless you want to run alcohol... Doug

Chewievette - There have been a number of these done, some guys use the L28ET turbo manifold and turbo. I think that the LD28 makes about 150 hp turboed. A search will probably get you some results, I've seen a couple posted here. Doug

Yes - That's the one - get the tranny also, heavier countershaft brgs to withstand more torque. Doug

I had the earlier 11.5" AZ wilwood setup on my car with 15 inch Eagle/Prime rims. It was close with the smaller dia rotors, and those wheels had spun rims with cast centers. They had a lot of brake clearance for a 15 incher. I have 12.2" rotors now, on a 17" cast OEM Nissan rim. I really doubt that that size of rotor will fit any 15 inch rim, even some 16 inchers. My current brake setup will fit the Z32 16x7.5 wheel. Just my opinion Doug

How heavy is your slide hammer? I have a 10lb OTC which usually pulls them in about 3-5 swats. I assume you are using the axle flange puller attachment to pull on-center. I would second the recommendation to pull off in inner flanges first. If the splines are worn together, it may be locking the shaft in. Doug

Are you sure that the 87 doesn't have an LSD? Check it out by looking for fins on the diff cover. If you PM me the VIN number, I can let you know for sure by checking in Nissan FAST. If you're looking for opinions - Here's one - Fix the headgasket and the carb(chances are the jet is sticking down IE Choke is stuck on/gummed up), spend to upgrade the brakes on your daily driver. L turbo ain't going to do you much good if you wreck because of bad brakes. If you are going L28ET for sure, save the Computer, AFM, EFI harness, dizzy, and sensors from the Z31. Part the rest out on Z31.com or the like. Join a Zcar club in Texas - That should help you source some parts without getting screwed. And also meet some people with similar interests that can help you out a bit. Just my $0.02 from a couple thousand miles away. Doug

I recommend that you buy new nuts from Nissan, for the 280zx. They are nylon self-lockers and won't destroy the end of your stub axles like the stock 240 staked ones. They are quite cheap. Over 200 ft/lbs is good. Doug

Ride the Tq curve. I hardly ever run mine past 6300. Stock bottom end with a stock cam. Doug

BTW Ken - I looked at the video of your car - very nice! Glad to see success for your project. Doug

Hi Ken - Sorry, no significant progress right now. I was talking to Jersey about this the other night, he is looking for options right now also. I know that the process is do-able, as I've done it with other trannies. It is also not too costly for me, with access to a full machine shop. Just the cost of the tranny, a custom D/S, an L-series bellhousing, and materials to build an alignment jig. It's just a matter of not having the time required right now to do it correctly. I'm back overseas, so nothing for the next 4 weeks at least. I had a crash-damaged aircraft that needed sheetmetal repair last time home, so nothing else got done. I really want to get this worked out, as I don't think that my current N/A tranny is going to last. Sorry - Doug

Measure the outside diameter of the disc or pressure plate. It should be very close to 240mm or 250mm. The outside of the pressure plate should have 9 bolt holes to bolt it to the flywheel and 3 small dowel holes, if it is a Z32 clutch. The bolt patterns which were mentioned earlier where the number of bolts that the flywheel bolts to the crankshaft with. VG30ET (Your engine)=6 bolts, VG30DE or VG30DETT(Z32)= 8 bolts. Therefore, the flywheels are not interchangable between the Z31 and Z32. The clutches are, depending on the diameter. Doug

Is your outer CV joint bottoming out due to shortening the LCA and adjusting the bushings? That would be my first guess. Second guess would be the spider gear cross-shaft in the diff. If it starts to slid out of the carrier, it can make some weird noises as it hits the end of the pinion, case, etc. Let us know what you find. Doug

Z32 - 90 and up are either twinturbo or non-turbo, no single turbo in Z32land. If your buddies' clutch is from a non-turbo - you're golden, it will be 240mm and bolt to your Z31 flywheel. If it is from a twinturbo, it will be 250mm, and you will need to go JY shopping for a late Z31(87-89 VG30ET engine) turbo flywheel (250mm) to use that clutch. While you are there, get the tranny, shifter and driveshaft from that car also (if you are planning big HP sooner or later). Finances permitting, of course. The Z32 flywheels (VG30DE / VG30DETT) will not fit your engine, just FYI. Hope this clears the waters a bit. Fire away with any other Q's Doug

There is a noticeable increase in noise as you go up (numerically) in gear ratio, or so that has been my experience with the R200. Personally, I would re-bearing the carrier and pinion, and get it professionally set up at a diff shop. Unless there is visible damage on the ring and pinion, (scoring or smearing on the faces of the teeth) they shouldn't need to be replaced. You most likely have a bad bearing somewhere that is allowing mis-alignment in the gear mesh.If you can find out what model of Skyline it came out of, I can give you the P/N breakdown. Doug

A single slip joint will work fine, but if you want no leakage, a double would be better. Especially if the joint is only going to be overlapped about an inch. http://www.burnsstainless.com/MergeCollectors/TurboCollectors/turbocollectors.html Have a look at how Burns does their slipjoints. That is what I did for my downpipe and it works well. I have about an inch of overlap in the slipjoint. The double pipe should be the inlet side, IE for your case, the outlet pipe from the WG. Doug

If you are going to be putting a clutch-killing amount of torque through that T5, you might as well change it to the late 87 and newer Z31 gearbox (FS5R30A) now, because the T5 isn't going to last. You could jack the late Z31 250mm flywheel and a Z32TT clutch in there at the same time. Nearly bulletproof to over 400+ Ft/Lbs of torque. Depends on what you want to put through the drivetrain. 240mm turbo clutch will take anything that the T5 will. Doug Doug

It's Nissan's CD-based parts lookup program. Replaces the fiches at the dealership. 4 CDs cover all models worldwide from late 70's through last month. Doug