JMortensen

You can buy a cheap ass welder for $300 and a really crappy one for $150 or so, but a good Miller or Lincoln 110V will probably run about $600. After the class you'll understand why you want a good one. The welder is not the place to save money in my opinion. A good welder helps a lot, especially when you're welding rusty Datsun sheet metal which is paper thin to start with. If you have to save money on the welder, I'd buy a used good quality Miller or Lincoln. If you have the option a 220V is better, but again, more $$$.

I think there's enough hours there that he'll be fine. I was actually going to suggest a class that has tig as well. My friends took a class that had arc, mig, and tig and having tig seems beneficial, even if only to get some experience before deciding to spend on $600 for a mig or a couple grand for a tig welder.

That is an awesome video. Thanks.

Correct. The BW has even wider ratios than the early 5 speed if I recall.

I don't like that combo. 1st gear would go to less than 40 mph and 2nd ends just before 60 mph. 1st is in my opinion unreasonably low, and even at an open autox you're hitting 3rd, which is not good. The earlier transmissions have a pretty big gap between 2nd and 3rd gear, so especially if you have a higher strung NA motor, that gap can be a real killer. It's not like it won't drive though, and you'd still have a top speed of 140 with the aforementioned 225/50/15. That's probably plenty of top speed for the street and if you have taller tires the effect might be quite a bit less severe, but I wouldn't run it on my track/autox car. I think the ZX 5 speed would make the 4.11 a lot more user friendly. Again, this would be especially true if you have a cammed or triple carbed NA motor.

Used to be Nissan Motorsports. I haven't called them since they were in SoCal. I think they sold off a bunch of stuff and moved to Tennessee. If you can't find a number for them directly, try Courtesy Nissan. They know their stuff and should be able to look and tell you if the synchro is still available.

It's a synchro ring. I don't know if it's 901 or 915, so like I said I'd take a good one down to the Porsche dealer and figure it out that way. The 5th gear is smaller than 1-4 as I recall so bring the right size. You might call Nissan Comp too. Sometimes things have been posted as NLA here and elsewhere on forums and they're still in stock. Doesn't hurt to check.

I see my memory is failing, I said 915 trans previously and 901 in this thread, so best to look at the servo in person (Porsche dealer parts dept?) before buying. The older 911's snap these things all the time just like yours did, so I would be surprised if they didn't have them in stock.

Aftermarket are cheap and readily available. Search for "comp box" "comp transmission" "roadster transmission", etc. Here's one thread: http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/showthread.php?t=18577&highlight=comp+transmission According to that thread, the Nissan synchro ring is cheap from Nissan too, if you can still get them...

That's nice, but some plots from a shock dyno from several different units, and seeing if the adjustments worked the same way on all of those units would be required to make a believer out of me. Given that info I'd be excited as hell about something like this. Unfortunately you can dig up posts from people talking up all kinds of crappy mods because the owners just put them on and are excited about the new part. Without some proof, I'll remain skeptical. Good, skeptical, critical thinking type shock info here: http://farnorthracing.com/autocross_secrets6.html

Comicartist, I suggest you disregard all the advice you've been given up to this point, and next time search before you post as I know this topic has been covered before. Let's disprove what has been said already. 4.11's are bad for anything but drifting? Think again. With a 225/50/15, a ZX 5 speed, and 4.11's the car tops out at 155 mph at 7000 rpm. With 3.90's that the ZX came with the theoretical top speed is 165 mph. 70 mph with the 3.90 is 3000 rpm, with the 4.11 is 3133 rpm. The difference in top speed or rpms on the highway is minimal. Consider that you'll need something close to 300 hp to hit 150 mph in a Z car and suddenly 4.11's with a ZX transmission looks like a pretty good choice for MOST Z cars on the road. Might not be the best for mileage, but if you want acceleration, they're certainly going to multiply the torque better than a 3.54. 16% more torque from the 4.11 is a good thing for most Z's out there. Similarly Mat, your 78 has a 5 speed geared for a 3.54. If you put a ZX 5 speed in it, you'd wonder why the car was so slow off the line. The trans and rear gears have to work together. When they do, the 4.11 is a great choice, and the 3.54 is a great choice. Mix a close ratio 5 speed with a tall rear gear and you'll be unhappy, mix a wide ratio trans with a short rear gear and you'll be unhappy too. Comicartist, here is a tool that will help you to figure out what gearing is best: http://webspace.webring.com/people/cz/z_design_studio/

Check into the Porsche synchro thing. I know I've posted about it here probably 7 or 8 times, some on classiczcars.com as well. 901 transmission has a servo synchro that is so close my boss when I worked for a Porsche shop was convinced it would work when we looked at them side by side on the bench. I ended up giving the trans to a friend who flipped the rings (they wear more on one side) because he didn't want to take a risk on using the Porsche parts. Do some searching you'll find more info on that. I want to say that somewhere along the line someone did use them and posted that they worked fine, but it doesn't come up that often.

Or the 911 Turbo.

Oops. Forgot it won't work with a stock tank.

I think the 3" for 400 hp rule of thumb sounds a bit arbitrary. I know John Coffey had one of his customers put down 315 whp on a "basically stock LS1" according to this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/31968-dual-exhaust/page__p__250833__hl__ls1%20exhaust__fromsearch__1entry250833 I was thinking single 3" or 3.5" depending mostly on whether I could fit the larger tube. I like single because it keeps the weight down, and I am going to try and run mine to the passenger side to offset some left hand weight. Not sure where the weight is, but even completely stripped down my car was heavy on the drivers side, and when you start adding in seat, steering, brake pedals and masters, gauges, etc it's pretty easy to see that offsetting some of that weight (even if it's just exhaust pipes and muffler) might be a good idea.

Start with a search. There have been many threads about fiberglass, lexan windows, etc. One suggestion is to keep the stock tank. Fuel cell is pretty heavy compared to the tank. I think my stock 240 tank weighed about 8 lbs, my 12 gallon Fuel Safe cell weighs 30+. It's much heavier than the alternative of a stock tank and a surge tank.

Not the same. If you have a 240, get 240 parts, 280 get 280 parts. 260 is split, so be careful. 280ZX has a totally different suspension system.

If I had one, that is NOT what I would do with it.

I couldn't find the appropriate section of the FSM. Used to have it, but I had a hard drive failure a while back and lost a lot of stuff. I did download a 240SX FSM from www.carfiche.com and it shows a shortnose, so I wouldn't use that spec. I want to say it was from .005" to .0075" or something like that, but I'm sure someone has the manual and can get you the correct number. Carfiche.com rotates which FSM's are available at any given point, so you can always check back later and get the 280Z or 280ZX manual and get the correct spec that way.

Didn't Richard (260DET) have some Nissan literature that said it was basically right at the shifter hole in the transmission height wise and fore/aft on the 280ZX? I think that would be a lot lower than 24".

Agreed. Just buy a diff in good shape and swap the open carrier out for the Quaife. Much easier.

The stock 5.3 cam runs out of poop at 5500 rpm, and I do think I need more rpm range than that. I probably would not need more power, but I can't see more top end hurting any either. If I'm going to get a cam though, might as well get a good one. The car will eventually be road raced (probably just time trials and track days), I just don't want to jump straight into that after years of not racing at all. That would be jumping straight into the deep end for sure. I'll take a look at the ASA cam, but I've been hearing warnings not to rev the LS over 6250 in road racing type usage, so if it is designed for really high rpms, then it might not be a good fit for me.

I have tried to help. Diagnosing a noise over the internet is pretty tough, but I've suggested that they examine each part individually, given ideas of where the clunks may be coming from, advised them to disassemble the diff to check for spider gear wear and described how to measure backlash correctly, told Matt how to check if the halfshafts have popped out of the diff, and told them when what they were doing didn't make any sense. I think that's all very helpful. If someone is trying to diagnose a clunk with a divining rod or a Ouija board, the most helpful thing I think you can do is to tell them that their test isn't going to help. Standing there watching and patting them on the back and saying "Good job" when you know better is not helpful.

I guess I should have said "fast Mopar". Don't know my A bodies from my E bodies.

The R200 stub shafts that plug into the diff are retained with a circlip. You could just pry the driver's side out with a prybar, if it snaps out, then it wasn't pulled out. That would be a test to see if it had pulled out. Jiggling the wheel around trying to feel play isn't finding the problem though. It's wasted motion.