Mike C

I assume you just mean the air cleaner setup? I just bought a 5" by 9" filter from summit, a K&N for $33. I orderd a 3" mandrel bend 90 from stainless and will adapt the two to my (soon to be made) aluminum airbox for my triple Del'Lortos. Now making a sheet metal intake MANIFOLD is a bit more tricky...

I have a Centerforce II pressure plate with a Mcleod Street/strip disc. I have been very pleased with both. The Mcleod diaphragm pressure plate and their disc is an excellent setup as well. This should be nice for a street car. I ran a Mcleod Borg & Beck/Long pressure plate and fiberglass competition disc for awhile, but not the way to go on the street! Man, it did hook though, and was a sprung hub with marcel so actually drove fairly well except for the oversize left leg!

Pete, I'd try to turn your idle down to where it will just barely run, then take the carb off. Underneath on the secondaries is a screw to increase the amount of air flow through their blades. Open it just a tick, then put the carb back on. May have to do this a couple of times to get it right. Sounds like you have partially uncovered the transfer slots in trying to get enough air into the primary side for idle with your big cam. This is the reason you see drilled throttle blades in cars with mega cams sometimes. A switch to a carb with 4 corner idle circuits helps as well. The 1850 is just WAY too small IMO. If not, check out (I think) the new Pop Hot Rodding, where they used a piece of wire to reduce the effective area of the idle circuit in the metering block. My brother's STOCK '76 Camaro 350 in his '68 Camaro idles just fine with a 3310.

It should be an 8.5" 10 bolt. Probably 2.56 or 2.73 but I'd just pull the cover off and look at the numbers on the ring gear. I don't put any stock into the decoders for the stamped numbers. (found on passenger side tube on top of the housing about 6" or so from the "pumpkin" FYI)

I would be hesitant to use motorcyle slicks as my guess is they wouldn't have the weight capacity for a car. When I've raced my bike, I haven't seen any bikes with slicks that look like that, and typically pro stock style drag bikes used car slicks. I don't know if that is still the case. That brown car is cool. I remember seeing it at some other sites on the 'net several years ago.

Excellent bang for the buck! Actually, the resistor is not for the coil but for points. Notice the coils always have 12v stamped on them? The resistor keeps the current down so the points don't get cooked. A set of points running at 12v will nuke in a day or so vs. several years with the ballast.

FWIW, I wouldn't even THINK about using those large chamber "smog" heads. Save the $300 it will cost to R&R them and at minimum get a set of World Products SR torquers if you already have an intake you plan to use. If you are going to buy an intake, get the Vortec conversion package or some Iron Eagle heads or SOMETHING. I know it will add to your budget, but will be MORE than worth it long term. Otherwise, I'd just put a $50 PAW cam and lifters in it and call it good with a new timing chain.

"locking" means it is a posi. In my experience, the numbers are not really accurate. Actually I am sure they are perfectly accurate, but the "decoding" is questionable. Only one way to know for sure, pull the cover. Ring gear will have number of teeth on it and pinion stamped on side. Look for numbers like 40 13 or 39 14 or similar in addition to part #. If it is locking it will have an "S" shaped spring between the side gears. On second though, if it is a posi, jack it up and rotate one of the tires forward, if the other tire also goes forward, it is a posi. If the other one goes backwars, it is a single track. Also if it is a posi, very easy to rotate the tires one revolution and count the number of times the driveshaft turns which will give you gear ratio.

Sounds great Mike! I built my own shop starting in '97 and it's the greatest thing I've ever had! If you want any input on features or design let me know. I've had a couple of compliments from people and would be happy to offer assistance.

The rear strut tubes are larger diameter on the 280. I think the springs will work (no guarantee) but they are designed for the lighter weight of the 240. Hopefully somebody can confirm.

I'm at least half way to my early 'vette swap. I have the 'vette at least. I also have an extra LT1 intake that I plan on modifying ala lt1intake.com with my 355 LT-1. Winning the lotto sure would help

Sounds like the lock up converter did. I'm not sure how to troubleshoot exactly, but that's where I would start. Usually they fail to lockup at all, but I guess it could happen the other way as well.

YOu also need to check your total advance and at which RPM it comes in. Different distributors have different amounts of vac advance added in. You can get a dial back light at Sears for $69.

The Grand National was the first successful, i.e. fast, production turbo car for the mainstream. And not the first couple of years. Why? SFI and intercooler. While you can make the carb work, you'll have more problems than solutions. Turbos are very much reliant on correct AF mixture and EFI is much better suited to changing environmental concerns. That and the dry-flow manifold allows you to still make good low speed power withoug sacrificing top end charge. Turbos rock on darn near anything but "Turbo" and "low buck" are mutually exclusive IMO. Do it, but inject it!

$550 tentatively. Why not get the 300 LSD if you can find one and put it with the gears you want or have? The hard part is setting pinion depth, but if you use the housing with gears you already have, just swap ring gears on to the LSD and set backlash by buying a universal shim set. Just check it before disassembling your diff and make it the same after installing the LSD unit. Assuming you were setting up a new gear set, if you can get the #'s for pinion depth, Proform has a universal depth checker available from Jegs for $99. Aftermarket gear sets have the # inscribed on the pinion head usually, I don't know about Nissan gear sets. I have the T&D machine tool, but it indexes differently and only works for diffs that it has aluminum locators for. Get a set of the weld on adapters from Ross C (http://www.modernmotorsports.com) and some used 280ZXT CV joint half shafts and upgrade to the 280 flanges and stub axles. Tested in the 10's on Scottie GNZ's car before the Corvette IRS swap.

The Nordskog AF ratio gauge from Summit is only $29. Seems indispensible for tuning a carb. Add the weld in bung and a parts store O2 sensor and you can do it right!

My recommendation is to buy a running/driving car and learn about fixing it and keeping it running. As your skills improve, do mods like suspension, exhuast, stereo, interior, wheels etc. If the V8 thing is for you, you'll be on the right track. I planned on doing a V8 swap in mine, but I am enamored with the idiotic little 6 now!

The Z wheel is 4 on 4.5 which is the same as a 60's 4 lug Mustang. None of the new "cool" big wheels come in that offset. Some, but small in comparison to the 5 lug patterns. Technically, the Nissan stock suspension is coil over meaning that the shock body is an active component of the suspension and is inside the spring. But here it means smaller diameter springs on a threaded collar to be able to change spring rate easily by swapping springs, or ride height with the collar. The smaller springs will let you use more negative offset wheels and give more clearance for larger tires.

If you've got a Harbor Freight in town, don't take any chances. You can get the compressor for less than $20. Mine paid for itself years ago. Option #2 is that Autozone will rent them free. Just leave a credit card # for deposit take the tool back when you are done.

I thought the dots were heavy and light spots? Any reasonable tire will be mostly round. Try greasing your steering rack and see if it gets better packed full of grease. I would check inner tie rods. I would say wrong offset wheel, but the Nissan ones should be OK. I've seen lots of shimmy problems on my own cars with positive offset wheels.

They say they should have them by the end of May, but would not commint to pricing as the dollar/yen ratio changes. He said figure about $550. I should have bought one 2 years ago when I thought they were too expensive at $425 After reading more about the Phantom grip and knowing the troubles that high power users of the inserts for domestics have had, (the gearless locker, lock-rite, Power Trax, etc.) I would prefer replacing the ENTIRE case not just the guts with a clutch type setup. When I first investigated circa 1995, no one could tell me why the listing in the catalog was '82 only. That was when they switched to the 12mm ring gear bolts. I have no problems if I need to score a diff from an 82 or 83 as I want to get 3.90's anyhow. The 3.70 turbo rear is obviously the first choice as I like buying at used prices, but I have been looking on and off for 3 years with no luck. If they do get them, I'm pretty sure I'll bite the bullet. BUT...If some of the V8 guys have good luck with the Phantom Grip, SCCA's deal is smokin' compared to the stack of $ for anything else.

I'm not aware of one that has both patterns, but some (including the CVR) have two sets of holes so that they work with either the small (153 tooth) or large (168 tooth) flywheels. My Jimmy has an SM 465 4 speed which uses a bellhousing mount starter. The nose of a block mount won't go into the bellhousing, but the CVR without the nose bolted right up and works AWESOME. No more wondering if its going to start after putting the boat in the water

In Dyno tests, the glasspacks have done horribly. While the straight through design looks like it would flow well, the perforations actually inhibit flow. If it were my money (and it was..) I'd run 2 1/2" aluminized pipe and the Walker Dynomax super turbo. Get the center in offset out. Your muffler shop should be able to rotate the case where virtually none if it hangs below the fender. Just remember, "Friends don't let friends run a tailpipe larger in diameter than the exhaust pipe..."

What's wrong with the JEs in the motor now? I know aftermarket forged pistons are expensive, but pay the man now or pay the man later... I'd hate to scrimp on pistons now and have to pull the motor out and apart again.

I don't know that I completely understood the wording in your initial post... 265, 283, and 327 through '67 all are small journal motors. 68 and later 327, 307, all 350, 267, and 305 are all large journal motors. 2.45 main journals and 2.1 rod journals vs. 2.3 and 2.0. The small bore of the 265, 283, 307, and 305 (we'll avoid the 267 at all costs...)cannot use the large valve heads, 2.02/1.6. Any headers that fit one head should fit all. '68 and earlier heads don't have the accessory bolt holes for use with the long water pump accessory drive systems. Like mentioned above, the 302 is the best choice for a 3" stroke crank since the 4" bore enhances breathing significantly. Just the cost of pistons is horrendous.