260DET

Thanks all, very useful info. In the Jim Cook Racing site its said that with a lowered Z the front roll center can end up below ground level, not a good thing. What I might do is try to locate the relevant suspension points on a sheet of paper and work out from that where the present roll center is.

Ones for the front, they fit between the suspension ball joint/control arm and the strut bottom, sometimes called bump steer spacers. Anyway, my question is - are they a good thing for a much lowered road/circuit car? If so, what effect on the handling do they have? My car has had the inner control arm pivot points moved up ~30mm, at static ride height the control arms are very slightly lower at the outside. If the adjusters are a good thing, how thick should they be? Basically I'd like to reduce body roll without going to heavier anti-sway bars, springs, etc.

Spinning em around to polish is a good idea. If you used a bunched up cloth with cutting compound on it you could do the centers that way too. After mine were polished they were hit with a couple of coats of POR Glisten clear coat. It takes away a bit of the shine but saves having to do them again. Just don't try to brush it on.

Polish, polish, polish!!! Meh, what a look

Money fixes everything eh, well at least on the Z car

Any tank from a fuel injected car will be better. Of course you may have to instal a separate surge tank and pickup pump, depending on use, but start with the injected tank and you can't go wrong .

What I'm going to do is have a sump extension welded to the diffs aluminium cover. To give greater oil capacity.

Hardened steel washers are better than the mild steel ones sold in hardware stores for what you are doing. If welding them on try to keep the temperature down. Oh and good luck with the job, take it steady no problem

Is'nt the R32 diff a short nose? That is short from front to back compared with the original Z long nose. Different mounts, at the front anyway, not a bolt in job.

Those so called bump steer adjusters really only change the roll center, which incidentially may affect bump steer. There are specific/preferable ways to combat bump steer as others have mentioned. Incidentially, steering kickback is also more likely to occur with wider wheels, particularly those with increased positive offset.

The RB20DET gearbox is a good unit, particularly the shifter compared with the earlier type. For a boot I'd check out Silvias, 200SX, etc, they all have a similar box and shifter. VL Commodore (na) too.

Check the BMW M3 ones here http://e30m3performance.com/installs/installs-3/control_arms/index.htm A lot of bending load on the center of that control arm from the tension rod, looks like there is a bolt instead of a clevis pin at that simple flanged joint. Wonder if there is a bush in there?

So you had the (outer) flanges of the Subaru stub axles cut off and replaced with the Datsun four bolt flanges? What sort of LSD is the Subaru, clutch type? Wouldn't CV half shaft have been better? They are available complete with stub axles and will slip right in a Nissan R180. The problems then could be length of the CV half shaft and adapting it to the outer Datsun axle flange.

The mount should be available from Nissan. Pics of the shocks would be good.

Change the grille shape a bit on that car and you have the perfect '350Z'. As for customising the 240Z, well do what you want of course, its your car. But really if a later look is required why not get a later model, can't see the sense or point in trying to update the look of an early model which has so much going for it as is But if its just the grille then other than the shape it would look good.

Yours would be fairly far back from the front wouldn't it? The carb/filter that is. If so it may well be in the low pressure are over the bonnet, where air will go out rather than in. Of course you could fit a really high profile bonnet scoop that would bring air in. Up to you how you want to style your car.

Get a front cut, this advice is worth bigtime, forget about trying to get an engine that is probably incomplete anyway, whatever you do, get-a-front-cut. And tell those dickheads at Demon Tweeks to get their act together. Think about it

Run a length of RHS right along under the sill/rocker, parallel with and welded to the lip that protudes along the bottom. Of course it should be attached additionally to just welding it to the lip but basically thats it. Can be bent and extended forward to the tension rod pickup points as well, ideally it would be just part of other complimentary body stiffening work. I used approx 50x25mm RHS ( Rectangular Hollow Section) and jack under it anywhere. Very handy when changing to the race wheels, find the right point and both wheels on one side come up

I've been told by an auto elec that the smaller and lighter 280ZX one bolts in. That's all I know

That V8 would have originally been set up to run a heater wouldn't it? If the bits are no longer there go to a wrecker and look at a similar engine . You can buy the bits off it then. The heater hoses are the small ones somewhere around 30mm in diameter. Or one inch for you imperialists

Sounds like the Datsun mechanic was telling porky pies, or else had bumped his head once too often

An alternative which I'm going to try is to see if a sheet metal place will cut and fold some up. Chose your own specs that way eg use zinc plated sheet around 1.5mm thick, x long............

That would be the late R180 which has a large 'K' marked on the top of the case? Pics of the conversion would be good so we can see the type of axles/half shafts used and how they are adapted to fit to the wheel hubs. Their length is OK? Once a Quaife is within reach that conversion will be my next job.

I thought that US 280ZX's had a five speed. If so should be no problem, or not much.

No, its not allowed