83turbo280zx

Also interested in this swap. What did you do for the rear mounts? Did you just measure from both sides and weld in some plates and studs at the rear? Also what about the factory 280zx gas tank?

I still have a T5 bell housing in my garage, so when I drop the transmission on the 240z to install the crank spacer, i'll measure the clearance on the T5 bell housing

Or maybe the first castings of the FS571wB bell housing rubbed a 225mm and they went oh shit, moar clearance!!! lol

Like i said, just pure speculation, don't have the measurements to prove it. I can however prove that a 240mm clutch does in fact bolt to the RB flywheel, so if you just want a cheaper light flywheel and want to keep the stock or whatever performance turbo clutch you have, you can keep it. this also comes in handy if you don't want to potentially grind into your bell housing, for a true bolt in.

I'm speculating that the t5 bell housing is cast with a little more clearance considering it was built for the 240mm clutch while the FS571WB was built with a 225mm clutch in mind. Did you use anything as far as a spacer on the crankshaft? If not I would highly advise buying one of these spacers. $40 is cheap insurance considering you are gambling with your limbs, bell housing, crank, engine, etc. if you're only using the bolts to keep it centered.

Ok I finally have the first prototype of the spacer made, it fits fairly snug, you have to lightly tap it onto the back of the crank, it is slightly tapered so it bottoms out against the back of the crank on the chamfered area. I can have these made relatively cheap, so for anyone wanting to do this flywheel swap properly, I can ship this spacer to you anywhere in the continental US for $30. Right now I'm having a limited run made, so If I get more orders than I can fill, there will be a slight delay of 2 weeks. Here are the pics of the spacer.

I think it has to do with you using a name brand and us using an el cheapo for developmental purposes, I probably should've just bought a FX-Racing (Gripforce) Which is re-boxed exedy parts bought in bulk so they can sell them so cheap. We used the XTD RB26 chrome-moly flywheel and a XTD 350z clutch. I've read in a few different places the XTD clutch plates are thicker than some of the other brands, maybe they use a lesser quality steel, therefore reinforce it by giving it more mass? That's the only explanation I have. I will measure when we pull the transmission back out to put this spacer in, as well as provide some detailed pictures. Also you can use this RB25 flywheel with a stock 225mm or 240mm clutch if you prefer to not use a 350z clutch, the flywheel surface area is 250mm, so you can obviously step down and still get a lightweight flywheel much cheaper than a L series Fidanza.

Yea i'm guessing since I had to clearance the 71b bell housing I will have to clearance the T5 bell housing, but anyone who is willing to invest in a $25 electric grinding wheel and 30 minutes of time can do this in their garage. I thought about welding material to the flywheel and re-boring to 80mm, but for bolt on purposes, I feel people would be more inclined to do this swap if the only modification they had to do was removing 1mm of thickness from key points on the bell housing, and using a steel spacer to take up the slack on the crank

I will have a N42 head available in about a month as it is coming off my turbo car in favor of a P90, it will not come with a cam, but it had a valve job before I installed it 2 years ago, shoot me an e-mail @ sk84life1122@sbcglobal.net so I have your contact information for when I get the head off, or if you want to reserve it

Dropped everything off at the machine shop yesterday, hopefully in a week I will have the first working prototype, if anyone is interested in one of these spacers I will get some pricing per unit once we get a working prototype developed. Even with the spacer, flywheel, and clutch, it's still cheaper than a fidanza flywheel for the L series, and you get a really beefy clutch Also going to test fit on a T5 trans so we can see how it clears versus the FS571wb/c trannies

I have a 2+2 driveshaft from a 280zx, if you're interested shoot me an e-mail @ sk84life1122@sbcglobal.net Not sure where you're located, if you're international I'll have to get it boxed and weighed before I can quote you a price.

I measured the speedi-sleeve and it's 0.25mm thick. I ordered a flywheel for my personal vehicle, have a crankshaft that is already of the engine and in storage, so I will drop off the crank, flywheel, and measurements to the machine shop and have them come up with a sleeve that can be lightly tapped on with a rubber mallet and but up against the chamfered edge of the crank but not interfere with the flywheel spacing or the rear main.

I posted a write up on this almost a year ago for a 280zx, it's similar for the older chassis with the exception of the rear crossmember and the driveshaft lengths. I have a machine shop that is set up for boring the bell housings and drilling the shift rod hole, if you want to ship it to me to have it bored for you, or if you want to ship me the entire transmission and bell housing I can do it all for you. Here is my write up http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/122445-240sx-5-speed-swap-in-280zx/ The pictures don't pull up on the computer I'm on, let me know and I can re-up them. If it's for a 280zx, I have driveshaft specs as well and can have a driveshaft made for you as well.

Ok so I ordered a speedi-sleeve for some R&D. The machine shop that machines my L28 bell housings for the KA trans swap might be able to use that as a template to make one that is 1mm thick, but not as deep on the crank so we don't have to contact the rear main. Will keep the thread posted. Might be able to market some for people interested in the RB flywheel swap.

I did notice it was slightly off, but the flywheel bolts I had, had a raised section on the non-threaded portion that fit perfectly in the flywheel holes for the bolts and centered it up. The starter engages properly, no issues there. I saw this quoted on your thread "I ran an RB30 flywheel on an L28 for about 5 years with no problems, that was running it with no shim around the spigot either, just located on the bolts. That was using a late S130 reduction gear starter. Neither the starter or the ring gear showed any signs of damage" If you know a source for spacers that are for this flywheel swap I would greatly appreciate it if you could share. Worst case scenario I'll just have to pull the trans back out and shim it with one I can get made by a local machine shop. The engine is already assembled and running, so it's a little late to dowel the back of the crank. From my experience, I could not feel a flywheel imbalance when driving the vehicle, and thankfully it's a 240z so the bell housing sits a little forward of the firewall, limbs are not in the direct line of fire lol. I will definitely have to look more into this issue, at least its a 240z, we can pull the trans in about 5 minutes in the driveway, probably take longer to put it on stands with it being so low on BC coil overs lol.

Will report back in a month or so, gathering parts right now for my engine rebuild, going to exchange clutches at that point.

That's what I was thinking. I know its hardened steel, but maybe they used a lesser quality steel versus ACT or somebody with premium metal, so they made it thicker to strengthen it? That's really the only explanation I can think of. Or the offset of the RB25 flywheel is slightly deeper into the bell housing. When I order mine, I'll have to make some measurements of thickness and offset compared to the stock turbo flywheel. I also have a spare T5 bell housing I've been sitting on, so I may bolt it up and see if the T5 rubs, that would be some good information to have for the T5 guys who want a cheaper lightened flywheel and strong clutch

If you look at the picture where the clutch slave bolts are in the bell housing, you can use that for a reference, grind down 1/2" to 3/4" on each side of the bolt, and work around. Or just bolt the trans up with 2 bolts, bolt your starter up and crank the engine a couple of times, remove trans again and see where it hit. I'm running a FS571W-C with a "B" bell housing, so when I do this conversion with my motor build, i'll actually measure where to grind down. We are on a time crunch trying to get the car ready for Hot Import Nights, so we are moving as fast as we can.

Yea, it's not much material that has to come off, the best way to mark it would be bolt the transmission up and turn it over a couple of revolutions to "bed" the bell housing, then pull it back off and grind in the marked areas. I bought a $20 electric angle grinder from harbor freight, did the trick in about 5 minutes lol. The clutch is a stage 2 and it is definitely a stiffer pedal feel than a stage 2 280zx turbo clutch. But i'm hoping once it gets broken in and used a little bit it will lighten up. it's not unbearable by any means. It still has the damper springs in the clutch plate so it won't be on/off feel like a stage 4 solid clutch plate. I've driven cable clutches with a stage 4 and you wanna talk about a leg and ankle workout lol.

UPDATED 07/29/17 ** RB26 flywheel to L-series Crank Adapter for sale - $40 shipped continental US. Information below** Ok, we finally got the flywheel adapter made from the machine shop. As discussed below thanks to Xkne, I had one made. The back of the crankshaft OD on the L series is 80mm, the OD on the back of a RB crank is 81mm, so there is ~1mm of difference. This spacer will take up the slack so you can do this job right and not shear flywheel bolts in the future. This spacer has a slight taper to allow it to bottom out against the back of the L crank against the chamfered edge, and then you bolt on your RB flywheel and tighten it down. The entire purpose of this is to get a significantly cheaper chrome-moly light flywheel (14lbs) to use on the L series rather than the more expensive Fidanza flywheel. On top of this, you also get a 250mm surface area vs. a 240mm surface area. You can either opt to use a 350z clutch, which has amazing clamping force Or if you want to stick with your turbo clutch, you can still use a turbo (240mm) clutch, the only difference obviously is the surface area used on the flywheel. But i did confirm a 240mm pressure plate WILL in fact slide on the dowel pins and bolt up to the RB flywheel. This is great if you just want a light weight flywheel but already have a performance turbo clutch, or want to keep the stock clutch, you can bolt it to the 250mm flywheel and only use 240mm of surface area. The fidanza flywheel for the L28 costs $330~ The XTD flywheel for the RB25/RB26 costs $162~ This spacer will cost $40 shipped if you're in the Continental US. WILL SHIP INTERNATIONAL, it will just cost a little more. For information and ordering for the spacer, e-mail me @ sk84life1122@sbcglobal.net Ok, working on a 240z with a L28ET swap. We did a XTD 15lb RB20/RB25 flywheel with a 250mm surface, we also sourced a XTD 350z clutch. We are also using a close ratio FS571W-B 5 speed from a 280z. I've read a few different threads where people have done this, but no definitive answers as to if it is direct bolt in, or any lingering modifications had to be done, but here is what our experience was. Not sure if name brands like Exedy or Clutch Masters would fit different, but I've been using Gripforce, F1 Racing, XTD clutches for years with ZERO issues, I think a lot of the negativity stems from improper installation. Anywho, we did have to grind away some material on the inside of the bell housing. The transmission bolts up, slides in and everything, you wouldn't think there would be any issues at all, it bottomed out against the dowel pins in the block. When we went to start it the first time, the non-gear reduction starter just clicked, like the motor was locked. It was faster for us to swap to a spare gear reduction starter, rather than remove the radiator and fans to get access to the crank bolt, It's a tight fit on this non-stock build lol. So with the gear reduction starter it cranked, but fairly slow. So we pulled the starter and saw some fresh metal shavings. Pictures will be as follows, nice clutch cover line around the majority of the perimeter of the bell housing. Not sure if because it's an earlier 5 speed that the bell housing casting was a little tighter than the later ZX trannies, or if the clutch cover was a little out of tolerance, but it rubbed enough to slow the cranking down. So we "clearanced" the bell housing to allow the clutch to move freely and now it cranks fine and works like a charm. I would definitely recommend this upgrade, because this flywheel is ALOT cheaper than the L28 fidanza flywheel, and you get an extra 10mm of surface area, PLUS you get the clamping force of the 350z clutch, this thing will hold more power than this engine will ever see. Definitely not for the feint of heart, but a 4" angle grinder did the trick in about 5 minutes to grind about 1-2mm of material out of the way to clear the clutch cover.

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Looking for a set of 9mm 240z rods for a stroker build. I reply faster to email - sk84life1122@sbcglobal.net Thanks -Chris

If anyone in here is looking to sell a water/meth kit, i'm looking to buy smile emoticon I'm in DFW for local pickup, but if you're not i'll pay shipping please e-mail me sk84life1122@sbcglobal.net thanks

Yea i may consider doing that. I already talked to a local speed shop who is familiar with megasquirt, they get $130/hr, i may just have them fine tune everything for me. Unfortunately I am down for an extra week though. Had to order an internal wastegate flange to bolt to the turbo. The nissan t3 and garrett t3 5 bolt flanges look identical at first glance until you go to bolt it together, nothing lines up lol. Perfect excuse for a custom v-band downpipe now. I did get all of my AN lines, my FPR and pallnet rail finished, very satisfied with those results.

Yea i think I'm seeing right about 35 degrees timing at cruising speeds, seems to do well, maybe I'll kick the timing up a little more and see how it does. Thanks for all the pointers, every bit of information helps. I also bought a couple of tuning books a while back that seemed to clarify a lot about the subject. I think it's time to refer back to those lol.