JMortensen

Well, I went ahead and found out exactly where the lead stops... Got tired of pussyfooting around with the body work stuff. Just started melting it out wholesale. Glad I did too. Check these pics out: Apparently when I stopped melting the lead the first time I was like 1/2" from the end of the lead at the bottom of the A pillar. In the back I found rust on both sides. I tried to take pics as best I could to show the problem, but they aren't too clear without an explanation I'm afraid. The drip rail appears to be a piece of sheet about 3" wide that is welded to the body to create the top rail for the weatherstripping, then it does a 90 degree angle and goes straight out past the top of the door and past the body line, and about 1/2" beyond the main body line does another 90 to create the drip rail. It is spot welded all the way along where the roof ends - the main curve of the roof stops, and it still has a little flange that sticks out that is spot welded to the drip rail. In the B pillar where the lead is the drip rail contines PAST the flange on the roof. And its where it passes the flange on the roof that my car has rust on both sides. I knew there was rust because that flat area in the back wasn't flat, you can kinda see it pooched out on the last two pictures. Also there was a little rust on the flange where the quarter windows get screwed in. So the plan now is to cut the drip rails off and weld them up. Then when I get back to the rusty area in the back I'm going to cut the whole thing off all the way and replace that part that attaches to the bottom of the roof where the quarter window screws in on both sides. Glad I have a CA car... I don't know how you Northeast guys do it...

Just make sure you weld that wheel well back up. That is a major structural support for the strut tower. Without it your car is going to be flexy as hell back there...

I believe it has fittings in it for oil return. Not sure. I bought the AZC pan instead.

If the engine sits behind the front axle line, then it's mid engine. The V8's are pretty close, but I don't think they quite make it. Still get the advantages over the I6 though, weight further back, lower PMOI, etc.

The AZC pan is a pretty darn good deal for the money IMO. Look at what Nissan charges for their pan!!! You might want to call Classic Datsun. I never checked myself but I hear he has the Comp pan for a little cheaper.

The part with the 6 holes is a stub shaft. That stub shaft fits into the side of the diff, and then there is a stub AXLE on the wheel end which you are probably thinking of as a spindle. The stub axle is the side with the lug studs on it, then on the inside there is a small separate piece called a companion flange. The companion flange has 4 holes in it. Then there is a halfshaft which connects the diff's stub shaft to the stub axle. Yours has 4 studs on the stub shaft end and 4 holes on the companion flange end because your diff uses the U-jointed halfshafts. The newer diffs use CV jointed halfshafts instead. The CV's are stronger. If you have the VLSD you HAVE to convert to the special stubs and CV's that fit the VLSD. As explained before this is expensive as you need shorter custom shafts, and you end up needing 4 CV shafts to get all of the proper CV joints to make the new shafts work. PITA and expensive. With an open diff or a CLSD you can use the original stub shaft and the U-jointed halfshaft. Just slide the stub shafts into the diff and bolt up your U-jointed halfshafts. If you want something stronger that will handle more torque you can convert to CV shafts from a 280ZX Turbo or a 300ZX turbo with adapters made by Modern Motorsports - http://www.modern-motorsports.com. I think they make the necessary pieces to use the VLSD CV shafts as well.

OK I finally got sick of being sick and went out to the garage. I melted the lead out of the A pillar area where the rust was. Very easy to get out with a MAP gas torch. Pics: Apparently the lead wasn't sealed to the sheet metal and water had gotten in between, and that's how the rust started. The rust didn't look as bad as I feared when I got the lead off. With the lead in there you could just see one very corroded end of the metal. I thought there would be a big hole under there. I'm thinking I can just treat this and cover it back up. My question is with the lead. Look at the last pic. The lead sticks up at least 1/8" above the sheet metal. That's a lot of lead! Does anyone know how far up the A pillar it goes? It doesn't look like I was about to hit the end of the lead, and I went up maybe 4" from the corner. I was thinking about cutting off the drip rails (depends on how rusty the B pillar is on the other side), but I'm worried about how to blend it in or replace the lead. Can I just use plastic filler in this spot and run it right up into the lead? Should I melt it ALL off and skim the A pillar with filler instead? Thanks all.

You need VLSD CV axles to run the VLSD. They have a different spline count than the open diffs or the CLSD's. Mark mentioned Leith280zlt1, he was putting NEW clutch LSD's into a diff with the ratio of your choice and selling the assembled unit for a very reasonable price. If you go that way you can use your existing halfshafts and it will just plug right in with 280 mustache bar. The only other thing that might need some attention is the yoke. The 300ZX R200's came with a different yoke. The 280Z or 280ZX yokes bolt right up to your existing driveshaft.

Either that or he got paid to sit around and eat Twinkies all damn day for a couple months, take a before picture, then hit the gym and lose it all. I knew a guy in high school who was the before and after for a couple weight loss products. That's exactly what he did, and he was roiding as well. Kinda like DeNiro in Raging Bull, in a sick, deceptive sort of way.

Should fit right in. 240SX has two units. The regular, and the VLSD. As long as this one doesn't replace the VLSD (which I believe has a higher spline count on the CV) it should work.

Yep. That's exactly what I meant Bartman. I think the general routing that he has would work, he just needs the exhaust to go around the diff like yours does. Whether or not there is room is another story...

The VLSD works like a fluid coupling. Kinda like a torque converter. I don't think the fluid expands. It's the vanes attached to the side gears moving through the viscous fluid that makes it resistant to spinning. CLSD= clutch LSD. More info here: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm including a description of clutch, viscous, and kind of a crappy writeup on Torsens.

I think Bartman is right. Nice looking exhaust, but it does look low to me. Mine hangs about 1/4" away from the bottom of the cap over the LCA inner bushing, and it's tucked right into that little spot between the control arm and the cap. Yours looks like its maybe 1.5 or 2" from that cap, and they're more in the middle where they're forced to be down lower because of the shape of the diff cover. The closer you get the exhaust to the suspension the more of a chance that it's going to rub on something, unfortunately, so you have to get it far enough away so that it doesn't hit and close enough so that it doesn't drag.

There are heat exchanger type oil coolers where the coolant and oil run in tubes next to each other to transfer the heat from one to the other. I think that's a great idea if you have enough capacity in the cooling system and enough capacity in the heat exchanger to flow and cool the oil sufficiently.

Did I ever tell you about the time I almost got hit head on by a jackass customer driving his Countach? He also had a Ferrari 288GTO, couple of Testarossas, and a couple other 6 digit cars. Just because you can afford it doesn't mean you can drive it... Build the CP Z, invite him to the track and LAP HIS ***! That'll make you feel better. If that's not good enough get him to let you drive then make him crap all over his leather interior!

Stiffer springs, sectioning the struts, combination of both.

Did they ever figure out the Z33 3rd gear synchro issue? Remember there were a couple guys here who had acquired a few of those transmissions free or very low $$$ because that 3rd gear synchro was dead already. Sounded like a flaw in the transmission design...

Actually that's about what they SHOULD cost IMO. Used to sell Dana Trac-Loks for about that price, and I always felt the Quaife was priced about 300% high, and along with being hyper-overpriced it gained this mystique of the magical clutchless LSD. People seemed to assume that because it was so overpriced that it had to be in all ways superior to the clutch LSD. Kind of a pet peeve actually, especially since I could sell the American version for a Dana 80 (gigantic truck diff) for less than 1/2 the cost of the R200 unit. Here's a thread from another forum (thank god we are here and not there): http://www.zilvia.net/f/archive/index.php?t-96477.html If you can get past all the bickering it looks as though they are an exact copy of the Quaife. Some might have issues with that, as it's pretty underhanded to copy someone else's product exactly and sell it as your own. Then again "exact copy" comes from a forum for 240SX's, not from the manufacturer directly. It would be nice to know the torque bias ratio on that diff. Looks like the Honda guys haven't been breaking them, but they have some issues with fitment on the axles that has caused some serious problems (don't think that would be a problem for us based on the pics I looked at). Someone should try it. The price is right...

Check the FAQ for sectioning struts.

Nope. You'd need a second cable modem, and when I called about the same thing they wouldn't issue a second modem.

Remember that Tony didn't just run a Holley 390 and call it good. I think he had a 650 on there or something like that. I'm sure he was making a hell of a lot more than the guy who just slaps a 390 on and calls it a day. But I'm sure he'll speak to that. So is it the dyno that's 40% off on the JNJ example? I agree with you that hp is a measure of work over time. But how else do you explain the 300 hp discrepancy? One or the other has to be wrong, don't you think? Not dishonest. But maybe not accurate. So you could say that Brian has 278 whp or that I have 240whp, but what good is that if it doesn't relate well to reality?

Manual I have says .005 to .007. Again, measure it on the 4.11 diff. Did you run that diff? If so, then you know that it isn't noisy already, right? As long as it doesn't change more than .001 by installation of the LSD I'd say you're good to go.

Or get a shift knob from a 6 speed and put that on...

That's almost as good as that Shining preview someone posted a while back...

Measure the backlash on the 4.11 diff. Swap the ring gear over, reinstall, and measure the backlash again. If it doesn't change more than .001 or so you're good to go. I just swapped an LSD from a 3.70 to a 4.11 diff, b/l went from .005 to .0055.