randy 77zt

Why? A t-5 has crappy gear ratio spread and doesnt shift that smooth.I had a 83 na trans behind my turbo l28.I had a bellhousing laying around for a world class mustang t-5 conversion but i never got around to it.

Does it have a cali ohv green sticker?Needs some sand paddles and the spiders in the diff welded up.

A 2" cat is a waste of time and be a restriction.If you are serious about having a known good cat for smog test day I would get a cali legal cat and only install it for test day.Gut the old 1 and reinstall.I would guess that the oem cat id is bigger than 2".I had a 77 280 for years that i played with.I installed new( not cheesy reman) injectors,injector connector plugs,and built a new distributor from 2 with a custom advance curve.Then gutted the cat and put on a custom 2.5' exhaust.Remember back in the day the gasoline didnt have injector cleaner in it.If you have 1 or 2 injectors flowing max 70% the engine will run ok but not make max designed hp.If you put a 2.5 exhaust system behind a 2" cat is that 2.5 exhaust doing any good?You could change exhaust systems and rerun on a dyno all day and never see a single hp gain.What size pipe is before the cat?That should be the minimum size pipe for the whole system including the cat.Making hp isnt about buying shiny stuff.About a wide band-the innoavte unit has 2 outputs-1 for the gauge and 1 for the ecm.the ecm output can be reprogrammed to output voltage of an old narrowband.

Cat convertors in those days were meant to be a mop-up device incase the engine wasnt tuned correctly( ex-bad plug wire-engine miss).I have seen cars with hollowed out cats pass a smog inspection.The engine was in a very good state of tune but the readings were a little high on CO and unburnt HC.Ideally all fuel is burned before it hits the cat-if not you are not getting your money's worth on the gasoline you paid for.If a car is run too long in a missfire condition the cat overheats and melts internally.All of the smog control systems were basically a band-aid added to an existing design of engine.A modern dohc engine can run on a much leaner mix .If you found any old zx's in other states they probably have a piece of pipe welded in place of a cat.As long as the engine is operating as it was when it was new you probably wont make anymore power out of it.Its is operating on a fixed program loaded into the ecm.If you wired up something like an innovate wide band o2 sensor you could see the actual running a/f ratio to see if the efi was programmed correctly.Or put the car on a chassis dyno.I am guessing about 150 rwhp.

I wouldnt gut the stock cat.If the cat manufactures quit listing an app for your car and you need i you will be out of luck .If you replace the cat with a 49 state cat it will not have the bar exemption# on it.If the inspector catches it its auto-fail.Just build a test pipe.If you want to get mid-evil on your cat just get a heavy hammmer and a pointy piece of rebar.I am lucky I havent died from exposure to good stuff like cat convertor guts.But that was before I had a smog license.

http://www.magnaflow.com/02catalytic_converters/04basics/04california.asp From how I interpret the law you have to replace with a part # that the cat manufacture says fits your car.you cant weld in a bigger diameter cat.I would just have some flanges welded to a piece of pipe and put the stock cat back in at smog time.If a smog inspector sees a new cat he is supposed to check to see if its correct for the car.I have a neighbor with a 2004 Mini and the cali legal cat is like $1100 .Bar is sending inspectors to muffler shops to make sure the laws are enforced.

I checked the link you posted for the application chart for the cat you listed and the app shows that it fits a bunch of 4 cylinder cars.You would need to do some research on that cat to see what the id of the pipe is on that cat.Its probably 2" or 2.25".If you put a cat that is too large for the engine the cat wont hold enough heat to function-or too small and you get flow restriction.The stock datsun cat is a honeycomb -I have have gutted them before.I would have a muffler shop build a cat test pipe and just bolt the stock cat back in for smog test day.

Because of california law changes the cat has to be the correct part # for the car per the cat manufacture's specs.California legal cats have numbers stamped into them for id.That cat you have a link to would pass inspection but I would doubt its flow capabilities.If your current cat is working I would leave it alone.I used to have 2 exhaust systems that bolted onto the flange of the turbo downpipe on my 77 .1 was a 2.5" system with a cat and no muffler.The other was a 3" mandrel bend system with no cat and a 3" magnaflow where the cat was mounted.

Try autopartswarehouse.com or Rockauto.com.This is 1 of those times to buy new.If you buy something used how much time will you waste playing around with it?

On my z I found that the charge circuit had a voltage drop.I ran #10 wire from the alt+ to the battery wire on the starter.Try this and remeasure your alt output voltage.

I have a 240 and 280 rack used but tight-no slop.Pm if needed.

Its the tires that have a speed rating.Back in the late 80's ford used an aluminum wheel with the space saver spare tire.This was on mustang and tbird turbo coupes.The problem is ford used a 4x4.25 bolt pattern.Z's are 4x4.5.

I almost bought a fiat 850 awhile back.I was thinking about installing a suzuki hyabusa engine in it.

I have a ford explorer coil and wires+ pigtail for the coil + bracket $30 + shipping

I put a stage 3 turbine wheel and a 60-1 compressor on a stock turbine housing.The housing had to be machined for the turbine you are using.I enlarged the waste gate hole.If I did this again I would run e85 with no intercooler.

The best way do attack the electrical is with a ford manual called the evtm.You need the book for the car that the engine was pulled from. Google Helm Inc for this book.You will probably have to get some kind of software and a cable kit to reprogram the ecm to operate with some of the sensors missing-like the evap system on the fuel tank.It would be nice if somebody had a plug&play harness an ecm that came tune-able with a software kit.

Unless the car has some kind of sentimental value its probably better to sell a car than to store it.With all the ethanol in the komifornia gas + brake fliud and coolant breakdown from prolonged storage you can have a car that turns into a unreliable money pit.+ depreciation and storage fees.Its better to rent -let some body else take care of the problem.

You Can get a standalone computor to run that trans.The problem with modern automatics is how there were integrated to work with the ecm/engine to work as a package.The valve body on these trans is nothing but a bank of solonoids.Unlike the old 700r4 that had a electric lock-up on the torque converter that could be wired up to a switch.The trans cannot be controlled by any old gm computor.If the car is used daily on the freeway you might get a return on the investment of wiring it up.If its just a sunday car and it isnt used on long trips I would stay with a th350.The guys that run the 4l60e usually are running some kind of ls motor and its all wired to the gm ecm.

My neighbor( on disability) has a pick up truck on his driveway with expired tags.He told me he got a letter from the dmv stating he had to pay up the expired tags (4 years)or they were going to garnish his federal disability checks.Some how the California Dmv has assumed the power of the IRS.How did they get your bank account info?Did you use a atm card while you were there?Seems like maybe cash would leave less personal info?

I had 2 exhaust systems that would bolt to the flange on the stock 280zxt downpipe.1 with a cat and 1 with a muffler where the cat was.

Last sunday my ms security essentials picked up the Iframe.ref trojan as soon as I got on the site..I just got this computor back from the shop-it got a complete reload.

Nascar style cowl induction system?

An old ford escort gt?I remember working on those as a dealer tech.What class does it run?The motor can take some abuse but it should have a good timing belt-Like a gates,dayco,or oem ford.If you wad it up you can buy another for $200 or so and xfer parts over.Much better than wadding up a Porsche.Track days are like a drug habit-cost can get out of hand.If you use as a rally car I would build a very strong skid plate for the oil pan.My fav stuff for that is aluminum road signs.I am a poor redneck

I have a set of 6 bolt axles-pm if interested

I have never had to swap parts in the middle of a track day.I have had to bleed brakes to get rid of boiled fluid/long pedal condition.You can predict the wear rate by starting with new parts and checking them during the day.If I had to wrench at all during a track day I felt that my car was not prepared correctly before it was put on the trailer.I worked as an auto technician for a living-working on weekends and sweating making the next session was not part of the plan.Beermanpete sounds like he has a good low buck set up.