Phantom

Put the car up on ramps this afternoon. So much for my ears being able to tell what is going on. The two bolts holding the exhaust to the header on the drivers side were snug. I gave them a few good pulls to tighten them more and then went to the passenger side. I really wish the problem had been the drivers side - much easier to access. The passenger side has three nut/bolt combinations holding the exhaust to the exhaust. Two of the nuts were completely gone and the third one was starting to loosen. That would explaint the rattling sound I've been hearing for a while - loose bolts. Was able to get a nut on one of the bolts and get it good and tight as well as the one nut that was still there. Unfortunately the third one will require two masters of contortion - one from the top and the other from the bottom to get them in. Guess I'll be driving on two nuts for a while. (Leave that one alone guys!) While I was under the car I also notice that the 02 sensor on the passenger side was loose. That might explain the dark tailpipe color and the slight reduction in fuel economy as it was loose enough to allow leakage..

Well, I've wondered what the first thing would be and it apparently is the drivers side exhaust. Car suddenly got a lot more gutteral today. Well, with the new 500 watt stereo today was the first time I heard it. Left it running when I got back to work and it sounds very much like the header and exhaust are starting to part company. Hopefully will be an easy fix but it will be a trip to the ramps tomorrow after it's well cooled down. Hopefully it's nothing more serious.

Or should I call it a howl? I'm assuming that it is the differential becasue it it's pitch is directly proportional to speed, not engine rpm. Also becasue adding oil affected it some. 1993 300ZX. Stock drivetrain, automatic transmission which was factory rebuilt about 30,000 miles ago. 105,000 miles total on the car. Differential has started to whine - louder & louder - VERY apparent from 40-65 mph. Backed the car up on ramps and pulled the plug. Fluid felt like it was about 1" below the plug so "filled it up". I was pretty focused on the oil thing so didn't try to check driveshaft input or half-shaft outputs for any kind of movement. There were no obvious indications of fluid leakage. Whine is still there but not as loud now. Goes away at above 90 mph but that's not too practical for school zones, etc. Sounds like I may be in the market for a new diferential? Any suggestions?

Cyrus, Lone Star 1 hasn't posted here in some time but he is running a magnacharged LS1 backed by a 4L60E. Last I heard he had dyno'd at 420 / 420.

Sorry - had an engagement at another time.

David, Chris and I are continuing to pray for you and Lisa. God bless you. Bill

This is the one Z31 R200 you DON'T want. You want the 87-89 NON-anniversary edition LSD. This one is a viscous fluid unit - the others use clutch packs - much better.

Bastaad525, Dude - I hate to burst your bubble but none of those cars were muscle cars. The era was gone and those cars were overweight and underpowered by earlier standards unless, of course, they had some serious aftermarket modifications.

With stock diameter tires with the 3.70:1 you'll be at 1,500 rpm at 60 mph. With the 3.54:1 you'll be at be at 1,435 rpm. This is not a problem for the LS1. You actually could cruise on the level at 45 MPH in 6th with the 3.54:1 diff with no problems. I've taken mine all the way down to 40 mph and been able to motor along comfortably. It's amazing how quiet it is at idle and how the whole world wakes up when you downshift to second at that speed and nail it.

Since this is really a straight line performance discussion - Go to the local GM dealer and buy the 3yr/36,000 mile warranteed supercharger option they offer for the LS1 that bumps it another 100-140 HP, throw a built 4L60E or 4L80E in behind it and watch the I6 get left in the dust - with all factory parts that are factory warranteed. If it's about what you can get out of a motor I am absolutely amazed at the guys that get these unreal HP & torque numbers out of 6's. Major Kudo's. But, if it's day-to-day driveability with a lot of punch and "reasonable" fuel economy then I'll opt for the V8 - which is exacly what I did after agaonizing over the decision for 5 years.

Back to your original questions. Can only answer a few but here goes. 1) Brakes should be completely independent of the LS1 except for hoking up the vacuum source. That is what was done with my installation and it works fine. 2) The only thing not original on my AC system is the compressor. The rest is all old Nissan - including running R-12 refrigerant. 3) Can't help you with the cruise control. Don't have that funciton on mine. 4) Ran all the LS1 pick-ups back to the LS1 ECM. Found spots for and installed the sensors for the Nissan gauges in the LS1 and maintained all the original gauges. You'll have to electrically modify the tach to take the 8 cylinder input vs the 6 but it can be done. The engine temperature and oil pressure is just a function of finding the spot to put the Nissan sender. The fuel gauge should be totally unaffected as long as you use the original tank. I'm not sure about the speedometer. You have an electrically driven one in the Z32 but I don't know if it speaks the same language as the T56 output. I imagine a god sparky can figure it out. This is all based on a conversion in a '77 280Z but it should translate to the Z32 pretty well.

I've actually been looking for some tasteful "LS1" insignia that I could put on either side of the hood bulge but no luck so far.

I guess there really is no firm answer. I logged a couple hours at Texas Motor Speedway and have plenty of photos and video of the car in corners indicating the body was about 1"- 1 1/2" higher on the inside than the outside. It didn't make me uncomfortable but it was definitely more than I thought it should have been. I was running 225/50 series street tires so the lean was probably less severe than if I'd had a good set of track tires. The video did garner a comment about the car needing bigger sway bars. The suspension was in dead stock settings. I know what to do if I were going to build a pure track car but this one is 99% daily driver and just periodically forays onto a track. I do feel good about pushin a Lotus Esprit really hard one session. would have taken the RX8 in the next session but brakes were completely toasted and I was low enough on fuel that I was losing motivation coming out of tight corners.

With a T56 you will find first gear almost unuseable with 3.90:1 gearing. I'm marginal with 3.70:1. If you're planning to end up north of 450rwhp I would strongly recommend looking for some 3.36:1 gears. They are available. While we're on that, though, you may be reaching the limit of the R200. You might want to get a rating off Nismo. You may also want to consider a 5-spd rather than the T56. It will be lighter and you can get them stronger. You probably wont need the 6th gear unless you're planning on speeds in excess of 250 kph. which is pretty close to the aerodynamic limit of an S30.

Cold air intake will help on those hot days if you're going for all the gusto the engine can deliver. Trust me - you'll definitely get all the engine sounds you'll want. These cars aren't aht well insulated. You won't hear the suck of the intake, though, if it's in front of the radiator. The LS6 is an excellent choice for combination of power, reliability, and balance. I would suggest getting the 3.70:1 R200 LSD out of an 87-89 Z31 turbo car. It will definitely improve power transfer. My 365 HP LS1 pretty well overwhelms my 215/55-16 Kumho Supra 712 street tires in first gear but they stay pretty stuck from then on. Get some sticky tires and you should be fine with the LS6. The biggest problem you'll have is rear wheel hop and keeping the half-shaft universals from detonating if you drag race a high torque / high hp car a lot. It'll do fine for autoX or road courses. You definitely will want frame rail reinforcement on a 240Z along with front and rear strut tower braces and, at a minimum, a four point roll bar.

So if I were generally set up for track courses but decided to go autoX for a day I could "adjust" for it somewhat with adjustable struts? I assume Asb's would be the better route but, in lieu of that, the struts would help some?

Ok - so I'm currently running the European spec Nissan springs that are about 15% stiffer than the original stock springs - essentially same ride height - along with some cheap KYB gas struts and the stock front & rear sway bars with urethane bushings. Any reason to change if I'm not going to be competing a lot?

So with V8 power and an exactly 50/50 weight distribution what would be nominally good sizes front and rear? Mostly road courses and daily driving.

Got a "vanity" tag today. Car is now less stealthy.

Hans - my wife has had no trouble keeping up. David - yeah - I know that in spades So far I've bought her a Z32 convertible and then put a new top and new interior in it - zcar.com zcar of the month for march 2005 - plus two diamond rings, a pair of diamond errings, and a diamond tennis bracelet. I think the jewelry has a total weight of around 19 carats of diamonds. The Z32 was cheap in comparison as it was half the cost of one ring.

I did a three month fuel economy study with an '83Zx one time. I went from driving "normally" to shifting at no more than 2,500 RPM and accellerating gently. That resulted in a 17% increase in fuel economy. As I once said "Fuel economy is directly related to the gas pedal - as one goes down - so does the other".

I have 13 years of weekly documented fuel economy data on my '77 Z. I have it with the original 4-spd and 3.54:1 R200, later with an '83ZX 5-spd and 3.90:1 R200, and finally with the LS1, T56, and 3.70:1 LSD R200. Again - I'm talking about recording the mileage traveled on each tank, the tank filled to visual sighting each time in the fill neck and a calculation rounded to the nearest tenth of an MPG. Yes, I also use a calculator to do the computation each week. Did I mention that I have been doing it for 13 years? Bottom line is that they all get about the same combined city/highway mpg which is in the 18-21 mpg range depending on time of year, and the exact mix of city and highway. Straight highway the best I ever got out of the L6 was 24.5 with the 5-spd and with the LS1 24.3. Biggest difference is that the L6 ran on 87 octane while the LS1 runs on 93.

Whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it the cost is nearly the same - unless your own personal time is worthless. I always figure it will take me about 2 1/2 times as long to do something as it will a professional. They have the proper tools, the properly set up shop and a LOT more experience than I have. They also can generally devote a lot more time each week to it so it will get done sooner and I'll be doing what I truly enjoy which is driving the car - not wrenching it. Since my earning ability is north of $40/hour and a professional isn't going to cost me $100/hour - I generally opt to have the difficult things done by a competent - please note I said competent - pro. The simpler stuff I learned to do when I had no disposable income I still do myself. If everyone would add up the total number of hours they devoted to a project and figure out what they would have earned at overtime rates if they had been working instead the true cost of these projects would increase exponentially. Oh yeah - and add to that list the things you have to buy your significant other to keep them supporting your hobby instead of fighting it - nearly priceless.!

Interesting numbers on the photos most looked at in my album. It appears that there is a significant interest in subwoofers, ECM location, and seats. I wonder what the relationship is?