thedarkie

Did you check the driveshaft bolts? It might not look loose, and it could only be one bolt contributing to the clunk, especially if they're undersized. Put the car in gear and get the rear wheels off the ground, have a friend rotate one of the rear wheels and watch the driveshaft and nose of the diff. Also double check the mustache bar mounts etc. You sure its not the suspension clunking? Loose gland nuts could be another one. Do a search for clunk, a million and one suggestions come back.. good luck.

I wrapped most of the exhaust under the car, to try to limit the heat being passed into the passenger compartment through the floor and transmission tunnel. Wrap + adhesive heat shield film = pretty good.

Thanks, I appreciate the photo. They look pretty good, I wonder how much they'll tuck back inside when going from +.5 to something like -1.5 camber. Not sure how many mm those 2 degrees will translate to. I'm still tossed up on whether it will give a much beefier look or if I should be looking at new wheels with 235-245mm rear tires.

Learn something new every day In that case, secret option #3: switch to EFI

That's disconcerting.. which ones rubbed, front or rear? And where? If its just the rears rubbing on the fender then as you said, camber will probably fix that readily... but if the fronts are rubbing when turning, its a different ballgame. I'd prefer not to roll fenders or modify the bodywork in any circumstance. Thanks for the input, can you update us as you go along? I'd hate to spend a G on new tires only to find them rubbing when mounted on my current Panasports

You can find a decent machine shop to re-drill (and reinforce if necessary) the hubs.. Or search the forum and find Silver Mine Motors offering for the rear axles, redrilled and cleaned up, for $180 with your core exchange. You certainly don't have to spend $700 on a conversion.

Doesn't look like a huge difference but it illustrates the point regardless... different tires with same section widths can be different dimensions. Those 225s look alright! Maybe I'll go that route. My car is about the same height +/- as the green car in your photo... those 225s don't stick out beyond the fender? Looks close. Probably because of the 0 camber... I know Im asking too much now, but do you have a shot from low behind the whole car? I hate how skinny my 205s look from the rear of the car... Im wondering if the 225s will satisfy my aesthetic need. thanks Also, no rubbing up front with the Panasports and 225s?

Im fairly sure the lowest intake height you'll get is with something like an Edelbrock Performer intake, the carb pad height is only 4.07" and a carb is typically about 4" talle. Conversly, the overall height of Edelbrock 302 EFI intake (similar size and shape to stock Ford unit) is almost 12", and I believe the throttle body adds a bit of height on one end too. With all that said, EFI is just better. If you have the money, look into FAST EZ-EFI or MSD Atomic, or Holley or the 10 other types available. Not as good as true multi-point injection, but way better than a carb.. and it bolts up to a standard carb flange.

Are your wheels Panasports by any chance? I have 16x7 Pannys with (I think) 0 offset running 205mm tires and I desperately want more rubber on the back. Can you snap some photos of how your 225s look on a 7" wheel?

Thanks for the input. I also found that the bottom of the inner side bolster (my first photo) basically rests snug against the trans tunnel. If I wanna move the seat further inside, I'd also have to raise it further than the sliders do. I thought they would fit with more room to spare honestly, but they're pretty tight at least for my liking. The head bolsters are somewhat small compared to other similar seats, but they still protrude much much further than the stock seats end.

Bumping this thread up, I just bought a pair of R100 mostly because of this thread and the awesome price of these seats. They're comfy and they look great. Now onto the 'issues' I drilled new holes into the stock sliders and mounted them to the seats and back into stock location. Here are two photos: As you can see, there's ample space to move the seat further towards the center console. The upper bolsters of the seat basically make reclining (and sliding, to a degree) impossible. I can either shove the seat behind the B pillar, or in front of it. Either seating position is mostly comfortable, but it defeats the purpose of the stock sliders and recline-ability of the seats. Those of you who have installed them in a similar manner, can you show how close the upper bolster is to your B pillar? Do you have the seat in front of the pillar or reclined behind it? To the OP, you said you also drilled the stock mounting holes, did you move them towards the inside of the car? Thanks guys.

Just pump the throttle once or twice before cranking on a cold start...

A good start would be to measure your current wheels so you know which direction to go in. Here's a guide: https://www.rsracing.com/tech-wheel.html From there I'd get the car up on dollies or a platform lift, and measure inside clearances to suspension bits so you know how much room you have to push your wheel and tire combination inwards. Its simple math from there. Also be advised that not all tires of a given section width are actually the same physical width, especially when mounted on different size wheels. Manufacturers will have physical dimensions on their sites for the most part.

Looks pretty clean, nice! I like those valve covers... might switch my shiny bling ones to something like that. As for your #3 problem, check the driveshaft bolts. Mine were slightly undersized and working themselves loose. At first it was a very occasional clunk, and then became every shift. I got some proper size and length 10.9 bolts and it cured it.

Those are nice, I really like them. Since you already ordered, this calculator won't do anything for you but I'll leave it for future reference. http://www.rimsntires.com/specspro.jsp

What ballpark $$$ was the car? Also, can you re-post the engine bay shots, I can only see one and its small. I have a similar swap and always like to see engine bay photos for how others look..

Unless the V8 is gonna have a decently sophisticated multi-port EFI system with control over timing, it's no contest. RB all the way.

Man if my car wasn't as clean and tidy as it is, I'd totally gut the fenders and go wild like your build.. its awesome. Sell it to me

Holy Carp that's totally bad-ass. I love that spoiler, suits the car really well.

If you're chopping the fenders and running flares, why would you only go with a 225 tire? You can fit that under stock fenders.

Personally I'd look for an engine that can bolt right into place of that 304. I'm not at all familiar with that particular motor though. If it comes to it, rebuild and mod the V8, and swap to a 5/6 speed manual transmission.

Does anyone have data or knowledge about the effects of changing the size of exhaust tubing towards the back of the car? My 302 V8 currently has dual 2.5" tubing merging into a single 2.5" to the muffler. This merge is located roughly by the nose of the diff. I'm wondering if this is a choke-point, or if by then the exhaust has slowed and cooled enough that the loss in cross-sectional area isn't something terribly important. (is this even correct?) Would $1200 on fabbing up a true dual 2.5" exhaust with an x-pipe net me any appreciable gains? I estimate the engine is putting out about 300hp. 9:1 comp, aluminum heads, 262/270 cam, edelbrock alu. intake. Thanks

imgur.com tinypic.com

I'm fairly sure to do the swap yourself, you'd be looking at about $5000 at the minimum, and that's assuming you're mechanically inclined enough to do the work yourself. If you drop another 3-4k on the body and paint you would [supposedly] have a well sorted and clean 2JZ-powered S30 for under $13k. Can you buy such a car outright for 13k? I haven't seen any listed. I'd certainly pay that much for one.

Worth noting also that since your engine is out, even with the wheels on the ground the rod may still be at an angle and difficult to put back into position. If thats the case you should just wait and do those bushings last. I've been doing reading on the subject also and the consensus is to use rubber bushings, or if you must use the poly ones, you can drill holes in them to provide more flex.