Tim240z

quote Zeezee, No problem....you'll have to get your car down to my place though! It took me 2 days to finish mine. I can send pictures of what it looks like if you want. Tim

Nice design, but I'm not partial to the polished 'Chrome' look. I prefer painted or unpolished Al. Tim

My Bad How about cage pics... Tim

Zeezee, As U can see from the pictures, the car is completely stripped, so it weighs almost nothing. I can pick up either end with little effort (and 1 hand), so with the car on the rotisserie, I very much doubt that there would be any flex. The only way, at this point, to be sure would be to put it on a frame jig at a bodyshop. If your car isn't completely empty, do one side at a time and support it well. I can't imagine doing all that welding under the car....it was bad enough with the car on it's side. I overlapped the sheet metal and welded inside and under the car. Sould be plenty strong! Tim

Here's a link...hope it works!!! Tim240Z's undercarriage pictures

Jumbo, I just did my floors and frames too . WOW 16 gauge sheet metal, that is plenty thick, I used 18 gauge and thought I was going overboard. I used 1 x 3 rectangular tubing (.085 wall) and I can now balance the car with the jack (and a piece of 2x4) supporting just under the seat area with zero chassis droop Boy wait until the cage is in...this thing is going to be rigid Would have had the cage in by now 'cept the dang IC board on the welder blew, so no wire feed . Fixed now so this weekend in goes the 8 point. BTW... For U guys who have installed the S&W cage, where did you mount the main hoop? Looks like it will fit nicely in the hollow where the stock belt retractors used to be? Figured I would weld the 6x6 plate over that hollow, with the roll tube going through it, so the hoop will be welded in two places on each side, once in the hollow (at the end of the hoop) and once to the 6x6 plate (which will have a hole cut into it where the hoop will go through into the hollow). Tim

I've used fine tooth hacksaw, the ol' fashioned way. But I use making tape, and have never had a problem, if you take your time and be gentle, it works like a dream. Also, pull the tape off very gently..... Tim

Owen, My Dad has been using a 'plastic' cell on his racing car for years without any problems. I don't know what brand it is, and I know that it's foam filled without a sender. I spoke to him before I bought mine to make sure that I wouldn't have any problems, and he has never, in his 35 years of racing, seen anyone have a problem. Obviously, seeing those pictures myself, problems exist, but I think that they are uncommon. The temp fluctuations are quite wide back in South Africa...in the spring/autumn/winter it goes from around freezing in the morning to 70s-80s in the afternoon, and in the summer it gets above 100. With these environmental factors, if something was prone to go wrong, I'm sure it would have. Tim

Slip the tester an extra $50..

Do a search on 'transmissions' on ebay. There's a company advertising/selling there that seems to have a pretty good deal (I have no experience with them, so I am not endorsing), or check out BowtieOverdrives.com. I have dealt w/ them, and have a good feeling (warm & fuzzy type ). Tim

That is quite a chunk of cash, although all of the internals are basically new now What are the pros and cons between the viscous type LSD (ie R230) and the friction type? From what I can gather, the viscous type doesn't have any wearable 'friction' parts? If that is true, what would the advantages be with the clutch type? I also heard somewhere that by changing the viscosity of the oil, the lockup characteristics of the LSD can be changed (with the viscous type). Do any of you guys have any details or opinions on this? Tim

Seems like a fair price, but if you offer on it, you will have shipping costs and cosmetic costs, so you're probably looking at close to $9 - $10,000 ready to go. Probably still not too bad, but depends on your budget. Tim Here's the link: 71 V8

I've found that it's not the big items that hit you in the pocket, it's the little things that add up, $50 here, $90 there....the small things add up quickly and you're budget's shot before you know it. Plan carefully! Tim

A great book is 'Modifying small block chevys' by John Lingenfelter. It may be a bit advanced, but once you get to grips with the basics, this book is definitely worth a look. Tim

Takman, I have mounted my cell (16 gal), but I off set it to the driver's side (long story), but if you centered there would be plenty of room. Let me know if you want pictures. Tim

Best thing to do would be to take them to a suspension shop and have them check them on a spring compression tester....then at least you would know for sure, and you would know if all four in the set still have the same spring rate. Tim

DPG, Best thing to start with is to use the search function on this site to find more info. I think that if you have a professional mechanic do it for you (unless he's a very good buddy) will make the conversion very expensive As for motors, that is completely a function of your wallet size. You can buy a crate motor from GM/Ford etc or Summit Racing and the like, or get a junkyard special and either rebuild/build it or just drop it in and go. The reliability question is a function of what you put into it. If everything is new or rebuilt, then the sky's the limit. If you get JY special and drop it in, it's kinda the luck of the draw. You'll find a ton of info on this site and help from the guys here Get the JTR manual, it is more than worth it, I promise. $35 odd bucks will pay for itself 100 times over. There's a link to the JTR site on the index page of this site in the left nav bar. Good luck, and try to do it yourself....As it's been said here a hundred times, this isn't rocket science, just takes a little research and planning. Tim

No, the four bolt has 4 bolts for the 3 middle caps. Tim

I made mine up in about 3 hours...attached to the round tubes on the bumper mounts at the front and the bumper mounts at the rear. Height is 38 inches from ground. Works well enough and cost about $15 dollars and some welding wire. Tim ....have pictures...

Ruben, I spent $280 for the diff and sideshafts. The driveshaft cost me $80.00. The driveshaft conversion (infinity to 700R4)was quoted at $55.00. The new sideshafts are going to cost me $200 or so, but that is new NASCAR quality stuff, you can have it done for less than half if you use the oe stuff. The inner CVs(to be used on the outer) will cost $75 each from the dealer, again could be done much cheaper, but I want NEW stuff. The flange adapters have been quoted at $45 each. Well with mostly NEW stuff the total is: $855.00 I still think that it could be done for $500, I am just being anal about getting new/good parts. I don't know what the conversion from R180 to R200 open would cost, but just subtract that from this conversion price and see if the difference is worth it Like I said, if you already have a LSD R200, then it might be worth paying for a new LSD and staying with the existing setup. Tim

From what I know, the only way to stablize the car at high speed is obviously to minimize the undercar turbulance. The belly of the Z is already pretty flat, so the only other things to do would be: 1. Make the spoiler/splitter on the front very low (unreasonable on a road car) to keep as much of the air flowing over the car instead of under it. 2. Duct the air flowing through the radiator up through the hood (ala GT40 style). Work well enough that my Dad uses this on his racing Camaro. 3. Rear diffuser. This creates a vacuum at the rear of the car, thus 'sucking' out the under car air cusion. This would also be unreasonable on a road car as you would have to run the fuel cell at floor level in the 'trunk' of the car to make room for the diffuser. Tim

You should be able to do the R230 conversion for less than, or about $500.00, and have strong CV shafts too, but if you already have a R200 with a 'good' ratio, then a new LSD unit might be a better alternative. The only thing which may be a factor is the R230s will generally have less mileage on them than a 15-20 year old R200 and have viscous LSD, so wear not so much of a problem. Tim

I welded in a box inplace of the spare wheel well. Made it out of 18 gauge sheet metal, so it's nice and strong. Any unibody car uses every part of the body for structural integrity, so I wasn't going to take the chance. The new box is quite a bit heavier than than the spare well, so that is a major drawback. Let m e know if you're interested in seeing pictures...I can email. Tim

I ended up just buying the setback plates. The radiator maount and the transmount were easy enough to make out of square/rectangular tubing so that was money saved. The radiator I picked up at JY for $30 and used a 86 Z28 electric fan and the top mount for the 86 Camaro radiator/ fan was made to fit with little effort (plastic). Tim

Eric, If it is the cool Le Mans/F1 style center knock off type wheels that you are looking for, check out Tiger Wheels' product called the pin wheel drive system.. It looks pretty cool, but you have to have a 5 lug hub to start with. Tim [ October 05, 2001: Message edited by: Tim240Z ]