Mike C

A good import autoparts store should have all of the parts you need, but I would seriously consider the GM upgrade. A powermaster 100 amp 1 wire alternator can be had for $100 from Summit or Scoggin Dickey.

Hey Tim, shoulda run the factory style wires on your truck! The Taylors I have using a socket cap and straight cap boots route down the back of the block, underneath the manifolds along the pan rails and up to the plugs. Awesome setup from rams horns or headers, but not good with later model log manifolds. Be careful on the valve covers, at tleast on the 86 TPI motor I had, the covers were not interchangeableend to end because of a taper. (don't put hte right cover on the right side upside down. Boy, is that a confusing sentence...) When reversed, the rockers contacted the valve covers.

I would take it somewhere that boils out gas tanks. Their chemicals have rust removers as well. This might or might not get rid of the zinc plating...

We have a 95 325is E36. It has been phenomenally reliable, and parts are no more than most late model cars. One of the selling points was a chain instead of a timing belt, but that older one is a belt cam drive. Stay away from the V8s, first class POS. Look at the classifieds and see the % with new motors and you'll see what I mean. I looked at buying a 98-2000 528i 5 speed, but decided the 95 Impala SS Ibought was a better choice for me for parts and maintenance as well as being half the price... BMW is a great car, but for a driver try to avoid the pitfall that gets me. I buy something that is "cool" (at least to me...) and then I want to work on it also! So instead of 1 project I get 2, then 3, and so on until everyone looks at you kind of crooked.

The throwout bearings should be the same, but you need to use the collar that was specified for the pressure plate you have. If you are using your same pressure plate, use the same collar.

Hamburgers has a 7" deep road race/oval pan for $199. Should be in the SUmmit catalog.

If the header flange is larger than the port, this can provide some anti-reversion characteristics, which is good.

A complete low mileage Vortec from a dismantler should be had for about $750 depending on the area. Wiring, computer, everything. You get the excellent cylinder heads, a roller cam, in addition to fuel injection. They are factory rated at 255 hp, same as the 91 Corvette L-98 TPI (Camaro was 245). If you haven't driven a Vortec 5.7 truck, you will be impressed. The 2000# lighter Datsun should scream as well as being economical (20-25 mpg depending on trans), My Caprice LT1 was $800 from the junkyard, but was from a high mileage cop car.

The Vortec 5.7 makes as much power as the TPI 350 and can be had for significantly less money. Look for 96-98 trucks or 97-2000 vans. Bolt it to your existing tranny for now and convert to a manual when $ is more available.

The non-roller L-98 cam will work in a non-roller block, but the GM cam and lifters require a special walk plate and chain so will not retrofit. It is not a good cam anyhow. I'm pretty sure the aluminum L-98 heads don't use the '87 and up intake pattern that the iron heads used but kept the conventional pattern, correct me if I am wrong.

The L-98 heads work just fine but require center bolt valve covers. The AL ones use a standard small block intake pattern. There are both aluminum and iron heads depending if it is on a Corvette or Camaro. And the 85 'vette and early '86 cars have iron heads. The later iron heads use the late model intake pattern (pre-vortec). The 85 and 86 Camaro motors have flat tappet cams which will work in an older block. The 86 and up 'vetter motors and the '87 and up Camaro motors have hydraulic rollers. The GM roller cam needs to be used with a factory roller cam block.

Running rich is cooler in a gasoline engine. Running lean makes more heat. Diesels run cooler the more air you feed them, however. More power=more heat. THat's why you get hot under load. Sounds like your cooling system is working the way it should. For long term high load operating you should increase your cooling capacity with a larger radiator and possibly an engine driven fan depending on what your car has in it.

I just bought a Precision Gear LSD for an R200 from Reider Racing. It was $550 for a 12mm R200. I will install it in the '85 300ZX turbo 12mm r200 I have. It took from September of last year for them to get it... Maybe they have more, or maybe your luck is better than mine! The Nissan, NISMO, and Precision, as well as Cal-Mini diffs are all made by Tokigi-Fuji. The advantage to NISMO is they have them in stock AND they have them for 10mm or 12mm bolts, so no bushings required.

Depending on the design of the diff, the reason you leave one tire on the ground and spin it twice is because of the spider and side gears. Holding one in place causes the spiders to rotate which effectively changes the number of times the driveshaft rotates. BUT this is only accurate if you have a true 2:1 spider to side gear ratio, and I hondestly have no idea what the Nissan spider to side ratio is. Get someone with an accurate speedo to drive by you on the highway at 60, and mark your rpm. If your tranny was setup for 3.54 and you have 3.90, your speedo will be off 10% which would skew your assumptions significantly. Other than that, suck it up and pull the cover!

I bought an axle threader die kit from Harbor Freight for my 280 stubs. They have a kit with SAE and Metric and one of those is correct. If you are going to buy that kit you don't need to know the size. If not, let me know and I'll fish out the die I've used.

In the "New Products" section of my current Summit catalog they have Holley billet fuel rail. $47 for the 36" piece for those looking for a source to make custom rail for L series motors.

2.73 are easy to get for the C4 diff as well, Scottie.

Wow, that is by far the best price I have seen for L series forged pistons. Only $85 apiece not including the pins and coating. Nice to know that option is out there!

Once you get it apart, make sure that the bearing races are fully seated. If all you did was replace bearings, NOTHING else should be out of whack. Before modifying, I would try to find exactly where the error occurred.

I have a 331 in my Jimmy. It is a 4 bolt main high nickel 72 truck block and large journal cast crank. It has 1.94/1.50 camel humps on it. It ran 14.10 @99 in my Camaro with 4.10 gears and a 2800 rpm converter. Figure 275 hp at the wheels. It now has more than 120k miles on it. 80 in the Camaro including at least 100# of nitrous run through it, and another 80k in my 4200# Jimmy, lots of that pulling a 3000# boat. I did swap cams and intakes to make more low speed torque. You can reach your goals, but it will cost more than the 350. I also have a 355, now in the Camaro. It too has camel humps. These are fully ported 2.02/1.6. It runs 12.7s at 110. Figure 360 hp at the wheels. The Camel humps can be made to flow 260 cfm. It is NOT cheap. And you are limited to 1.45 valve spring diameter as any larger seats get into water. As noted, more cost effective would be the aftermarket heads. If the 2.02 heads you can get are factory big valve heads, meaning there is a machined cut around the shrouded side of the chamber, they will make 350 hp if they are in good shape and matched to the combo. A 383 WILL cost more than the others, usually by $500 minimum. But it will make more torque as well. What it won't do is use the existing flywheel, flexplate, or damper that you have. My point? The 327, the 350, or the 383 would all get you what you want. If you ONLY want 300 hp, why pay more? The 350 is the cheapest way to go. For 350 hp, very reliably, the Vortec junkyard motor with 4 barrel intake, shorty headers, and a cam should easily make 350 hp, 300 or so at the wheels. It should also be reasonably inexpensive and very reliable. The bottom line is ALWAYS the bottom dollar, and the tone of your post implies that cost IS an issue. My scenario you can have a complete motor in your car for just about the price of aftermarket heads.

If I had to guess, Venolia? And as far as price, something like $150 apiece would be a reasonable guess. How close am I Rick? Those sure are pretty...

Are you sure you didn't get your carrier shims swapped left to right? If all you changed was bearings, the setup should not have changed. If you failed to get all of the shims back in the right place, that is where your troubles came from. Since the Xterra has an R200 in the front, it may be possible to find some 4x4 shops that are familiar with its setup and have shims and etc. Most places want a minimum of $250 for diff setup. I do them on the side and get $150 for a housing out of the car and $200 in the car while a front diff on a 4x4 is $200 out and $250 in. And that is for diffs that I do a lot such as 10 and 12 bolt Chevy's. Diffs like the Dana 44 and 60 which require a case spreader are slightly higher as the tool has to be paid for somehow. It takes about 4 hours for me to do a 12 bolt. That includes disassembly, cleaning the housing and axle tubes, installing new bearing races, installing the ring gear (I put the gear in the oven at 150 degrees and the carrier in the fridge for 30 minutes-this allows them to slip together as they are a slight interference fit and you can warp the drive flange trying to pull them together with the bolts not to mention damaging bolt or gear threads), setting pinion depth, setting backlash, then installing a new pinion nut and seal after final setup. Axle bearings and seals are next, then axles. It is not really difficult work, but it is precision work and should not be rushed. The Nissan diff can prove to be problematic because of the thin shims that are needed are a dealer part. It may require multiple trips to the dealers parts counter or buying extra shims that will require the cost to be passed on to you. GM used thin shims in some of its mid 60's 12 bolts and an assortment of them might prove sufficient for r200 setup. Someday I'll be able to answer that question if I'll suck it up and buy the Preciscion Gear Nissan diff. If you are willing to spend a little money and some time, the Nissan shop manual will work you through the diff R&R. I would not be hesitant to do my own, but would be extra careful trying to bid the job. Proform makes a universal pinion depth checker that Jegs sells for $99. It mounts to the carrier bearing cap surface and indexes off of the carrier bearing bores and you do some math to extrapolate the axle centerline. A magnetic base can be paired with the Proform indicator to check backlash.

Even the guy who converts the LT1 intakes for use on older motors uses the TPI computer. I think you need a crank angle and cam sensor that are difficult to adapt to the older motors. Actually, the $1000 on a DFI computer and harness will be probably the best money you spent.

If those don't pan out, check out the Patriot block huggers from SUmmit. YOu can get D ports for the LT1 and they use cone joints instead of gaskets on the collectors.

From the research I had done in the past, ALL of the sequential FI setups revert to batch fire above 3000 rpm. Just like an MSD which IS multispark at idle-3000, but single spark after that. The time limit you are working at is too short for the multi-spark or the SFI to be functional. SMPFI is for best low speed drivability and throttle response but won't net you any more power above 3000 rpm.