JMortensen

They do swap, but they aren't the same internally. When I worked for Randy's Ring and Pinion we used to sell a kit to convert your 8.2 BOP housing to accept 8.2 GM ring and pinions and carriers. Even that isn't the best deal, as GM parts are only easier to find, not easy to find, and IIRC available gear ratios for the GM diff were limited. I'd suggest a swap to a commonly available rear end. Don't know what that would be in France. Maybe 8.5 GM 10 bolt? 12 bolt would be stronger, but I'd imagine that the 10 bolt 8.5 is more common. MikeC is right BTW, the Eaton LSD would be a good upgrade if you decide to run the stock axle.

One more for the alone column, at least nowadays. Used to be that I lived with a guy who worked at a Z junkyard for years. The guy knows EVERYTHING Z. I mean everything. Later I lived with a Nissan master tech who had worked at a Z shop for years and raced 510s. A couple of very close friends also race 510s. I used to have 2 friends with modded Z's as well. When this was the situation I found that I "couldn't" do the mods I wanted to do to my own car. I would wait for them to help me, basically I was helpless. They were a great resource for sure, but sometimes it's better to be self reliant. For the last 4 years I've been working with only hybridz to assist me, and I've come SO far it's really pretty remarkable. I was working as a mechanic back then, but I wouldn't ever have torn into the diff, I couldn't weld, I wouldn't have ever considered fabbing anything myself. Granted the situation changed a lot, and I have a whole bunch of tools that I didn't have back in the day, but not having someone else to do the job for me really brought out the best in me I think, made me learn a hell of a lot more too. And as a few others have mentioned, working on the car is now a great form of stress relief for me. Last thing is I would like to point out about my own situation is that when you rely on someone else you are subject to THEIR limitations. The Nissan master tech couldn't stand the idea of putting a V8 in a Z, because it "ruins the handling". If I knew then what I know now, I'd have a V8 in the car. There are a lot more limitations stories, but I don't want to sound bitter, because at the time reliance on them was the path that I chose. And to those friends' credit there were times when I'm sure I was just the jackass who couldn't do anything on his own car without their help.

I had to try about 8 different insurance companies before I found that State Farm would insure for agreed value. Then I had the car appraised and wrote them a letter detailing ALL of the mods. Brake mods, camber plates, heims jointed LCAs and TC rods, the whole bit. They agreed to insure it for $15K. Later on I changed to "classic car" insurance, I think I'm paying $120/year for full coverage 100/300 liability on the classic car plan. Hagerty seems like the most understanding insurance company when it comes to this stuff, but I was pleased with my State Farm experience. To put $60K in any car and not have any agreed value with the insurance company is just not a good idea IMO.

Read the rules.

Too much car, not enough driver.

The pin height is different. L28 pistons would stick up 3mm over the deck on 240 rods.

Eventually, I'll take that challenge. My car before I stripped it was 2350 with the 5 speed, R200, Autopower bar and full interior with extra sound deadening. I'm stripping it down as part of the current rebuild, then when this motor dies I'm going LS. At the rate I work that will be around 2016, so if you're still around we'll figure this out for sure!!!

John B got his L6 engined autox car down to 1900. I see no reason why a LS 240 shouldn't be able to hit a lower number than Amir.

When was the last time you worked in a dealership John? Sounds like the passage of time has dulled the pain... in your passage.

Man I just don't buy into that "pay your dues" crap. You guys might be able to accept getting F'ed in the A for a few years, but my A is too sensitive for that!!! That's a BIG part of why I don't work on cars for a living anymore, guess I'm just too proud. My suggestion to you Guy is DO NOT let them F you in the A.

Just got out to the garage for the first time in a few weeks yesterday. Did some more work with the subframe connectors, and more today. Ended up drilling 1/4" holes every 3" or so down the sides of the rails, then pulling the floor up with a self tapping sheet metal screw. Drilling in the middle wouldn't have worked due to the floorboards being pretty messed up. Driver's side is ready to weld on, passengers is in much worse shape, so I figured I'd leave that one for last. Hopefully lessons learned on the easy side will translate to the hard side. Here's a pic of the floor pulled up reasonably well under the rail. Also got new front sections for the rails from John @ BD. They look like they're going to work. Basically they're just like the rail on the bottom, but without the flange on one side so that they can be welded to the rail in front. After I get the connectors connected to the floor, then I'm going to mock up the TC area and then I'll try to do the connectors to the TC square tube, and those pieces to the frame rails all at once. Also notice how flat floor sits against the rail here.

With a comp pump I could peg my Autometer pressure gauge when cold. I took out the outer comp spring and now it's not so bad when cold. It won't peg the gauge anymore like it used to. Generally speaking the rule of thumb is 10psi per 1000 rpm. With the one comp spring that's about what I get, but it gets to max pressure by about 3500 rpm IIRC. Scary. It's been so long since I've driven my Z I can't remember...

Like there should be chickens in there! Sorry, couldn't resist. I'm not a fan of the mesh look. I'd close the opening up a bit, then maybe look at wirecloth to protect from rocks...

Get the bigger one, and buy your lash pads from Nissan. $3 each from Nissan Motorsports or Courtesy Nissan, so that will save you $24.

If you go for a lift above .460 then the springs will coil bind, so if you're not wanting to completely redo the head then go with the smaller lift. However, if you just wanted to get the best cam for your triples, the bigger cam would be the right choice. There has been a lot of discussion recently about Schneider cams being soft. I haven't heard that about any other cam manufacturer. Regrinding a cam is a cheap and good option, and keeps the original Nissan metallurgy, which is supposed to be very good.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=101501 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=100237 Those are a couple good threads on the subject. AK-Z, I think you were correct, I just misunderstood what you meant. The basic jist is that if the control arm points down then there won't be as much body roll. If the control arm points up, side loads on the suspension will compress it.

Pop-That part of the bump steer spacer just centers the strut. The ring on there should be plenty strong. Look at any Z bumpsteer spacer and you'll find the same hole in the center. AK-Z-you're wrong. The spacers change the angle of the lower control arm, and don't do anything to the ride height or the extension or compression of the strut. Search, it's been over with a fine tooth comb.

Search for "roll center" and you should find your answer quickly enough.

When Matman and I were moving all of those Z parts we had a gigantic metal rack for holding Z doors fail in the back of the truck. Luckily, it decided to fail when there were no doors on it. The guy we bought the parts from had a welder and let me use it to weld it back together. He also had some scrap metal under his welding table. I just grabbed a couple pieces to make diagonal braces, and I guess a couple that I grabbed were stainless. Welded right onto the mild steel with his 220V Miller welder. I didn't think you could do that, but it worked fine and the rack held up through the second trip, despite being loaded with parts again. I honestly couldn't tell the difference between welding the mild steel to the mild steel vs the stainless to mild steel. Of course I wasn't going for finesse either. Just slapped them on, didn't even take the paint off of the rack. Anyway, not telling you HOW to do it, just that I was surprised that it could be done.

You can get Illuminas on ebay for $90 each. Look around, find somebody who deals with them, and tell them what you want. They can order them from Tokico if they don't already have them, and it cuts your $600 estimate by 40%.

FWIW I have the Miller cart, and I think it's designed for the 175. My 135 is loose on the cart. I've seen some in the Harbor Freight catalogs that look like they would fit my welder better. It's a mild annoyance, but the Miller cart was 2 to 3 times the cost of the Harbor Freight cart IIRC. Then again, maybe I should just weld one up!

Look up brake ducts on google or something. Quite a few rectangular openings that funnel into a round tube, specifically made for this purpose. Here's a link showing one setup: http://home.comcast.net/~biodan/cooling.html

Out of curiosity Pete, do you happen to know how much mechanical advance the turbo distributor has?

So is it official? Is now the time to Paypal $7 to you?