blueovalz

SCCA kind'a hit it where I was thinking. Unless you have larger pistons on the calipers (or greater total piston area for multi-piston calipers) you will reduce the amount of leverage (master cylinder piston area:caliper piston area being increased)you have for brake pressure. Sure, the pedal will feel firmer, put that is because you will have the reduced leverage ( increased the resistance). The reverse is true for those that put larger piston calipers on, without increasing the master cylinder piston area. The leverage increases and they will get excellent pressure to the calipers, but the pedal will feel a bit mushy. The key is to balance out the system. The OEM system is pretty good, so if you can keep the ratio of master:caliper close to OEM, you will keep the OEM "feel". And as my wife would say..blaa blaa blaa blaa blaa. Terry

I feel the main focus on this is the torque and rpm relationship. Read the following site www.vettenet.org/torquehp.html and you may find your answer. I will only take a few minutes and is well worth the read (then you can impress your significant other with more gearhead talk). Terry

I never payed any attention to rear caster specs because it really does not matter (IMHO). The front is a different story though. I believe the front should be 3 degrees. Arm (axle) forward will make it more positive (and I might add, will give interesting results as far as wheel turn angle vs negative camber). Terry Oxandale

I don't believe this will be anything to be concerned about. In fact my understanding of the axle assembly is that because you have a spacer between the two bearing inner races (rear bearings only), no matter how much torque you put on the nut, this will not affect the preload. Also, I think that the spacer/housing has to be a matched set (matching letters), but this shouldn't be an issue here either if you're not swapping pieces around (anybody else know if I remember this correctly?). Terry

I don't usually visit this side of the neighborhood, but saw a question I could help on. I weighed the L24 when I swapped it out for the V8. The L24 wieghed 425lbs. This was with alternator and manifolds (basically the whole engine dry with no A/C). I was surprised, but now understand better why these engines last sooooo long on the road. My guess with the L28 is it weighs an additional 20lbs due to the additional intake manifold mass. Terry

I think there are too many R200... or is it RB200,....no wait, 200RB??? RB or not RB? is this the question? I'm so confused (LOL, and I'm at work on a Saturday). Terry

I happen to own a 240SX also, soooo....the only ones with the VLSD are the ones equiped with the HICAS (I believe it is a quasie rear steering set-up) package. These are rare and I have not yet found one to put under my SX in 3 years of looking in the local yards. The rear disc brakes MAY work though, and the reason I say this is because I put the 4 lug 300ZX rear rotors on my SX with some modifications to the OEM SX caliper (spacers and a maxima pad frame). I believe then that the SX rotors (and caliper with some modifying) may work on the Z's stubs. (Did I mention I like Datsun/Nissan cars) My 3rd vehicle is a Pathfinder. Terry Oxandale

I used the OEM Z cable on mine also. I had to fabricate a tiny clip out of sheetmetal (about 18-20 gage) to make sure the cable housing stayed on the lever. Terry

Is this "odd" differential truly an R180 or just an R200 in a different case? Terry

I (as it seems the world has) have cursed my stubs for the same reason too. I bought a couple of good quality (all metric nuts and bolts are better quality than the SAE stuff it seems) nuts for the stub threads. Then using a cutoff wheel I cut the nuts in half (half moons), clamped them around the good stub treads in a vise, and unscrewed the bolt out of the nut halfs to restore the bad treads. A high grade nut (grade 8 for example)is required, and don't get it too hot while cutting it in half. I went through 3 nuts before the treads where clean enough to use again, and this time I used the ZX nuts for assembly (they are a typical locking nut and can be removed again without damaging the threads). Terry

One last note. The Girling unit (as may be true with other brands) had the same bolt pattern as the OEM Z cylinder. It only needed slight modifications to the pushrod bracket to mate up to the Z pedal assembly. With my Mcleod hydraulic T/O bearing, the 3/4" bore works good With a moderate rating (2500 lb)on the pressure plate springs, the feel and strength required by the left leg was almost stock. But I think most folks are using a diaphram type of PP now, which should be easier on the leg. Terry

I thought I would expound a bit here. I would find out what the C4 MC size is first, and also get the stroke too. Then match this up as well as possible. If you find that the OEM Z MC is too small (7/8"), then the next OEM size would be 15/16" (OEM ZX) for a bolt on application. Even though this is only 1/16" larger, it will be pushing about 15% more fluid for the same stroke. What kind of slave cylinder/hydraulic TO bearing will you be using? The diameter of the bore (and stroke length) compared to the OEM one is important too. On my particular application with a Mcloed (spelling?) hydraulic T/O bearing, I am using a Girling 3/4" MC to great success. Terry Terry

I had to move my front arm support outboard about 1/8" (way too much toe-in). Being I took the Delrin offset bushings out (started to wear and rattle real bad), I did the offset with the OEM bushings by first grinding off about 1/8" of rubber from the bushing's outboard side only, being very careful to keep it round to perfectly match the metal clamps shape. Then I used schedule 40 pvc pipe cut in half (crescent shaped pieces) that had the edges carefully tapered to again make the piece snugly fit between the rubber bushing and the clamps on the inboard side only of the bushing (had to grind off the little tit on this side). Thus the pvc piece forced the centerline of the bushing outboard where the 1/8" removal of the rubber allowed it to be moved. It took about an hour's worth of time (and a lot of black rubber powder on my shirt) to do this. On the original piece I did years back, I used aluminum, but have found the pvc works just as well (is also as durable)and is much easier to work. I think I used 2" pipe. Anyway, this greatly helped stability on uneven pavement with my wide tires and I no longer have all that rattling in back. Terry Oxandale

B&A Ford in Fort Smith AR sells (or sold) the manifold. I think it was called a "Steet Boss" intake. It's ports matched the 2bbl heads. The BOSS manifolds ports were much too big for the 2bbl heads and the missmatch may have been detrimental to optimum performance. It was a great combo if anybody comes across one. In regards to the 351, it has the huge ports, but not well designed on the exhaust side. In fact, the big thing to do on them was to put plates in the exhaust to "straighten" the exhaust flow (they had a BAD hump on the floor of the exhaust port), or mill the exhaust side of the head off (up to about half way up the port), and then bolt on an aluminum block with ports machined in it to straighten out the OEM port. The exhaust plate that straightened out the exhaust worked good, but effectively cut the port volume down by about 35%. Terry

Pardon me for a rather silly response, but what ever happened to the $70 braided brake lines from the popular Z aftermarket suppliers. These are the ones I used (made for the OEM front calipers, but work on the ZX stuff (or am I stuck in a time warp?) Terry

A small rust spot as the you discribed would not be a problem to fix. Other rust at seam welds or at structural points (T/C rod sockets, frame rails, etc, would be more of a concern. Depending on the amount and depth of this latter rust would be what I would base a decision on. Terry

I beleive I used the OEM ZX hose. Anyway, I do know that no special hose was needed. Terry

I dealt with this subject matter many years ago. And my recollection of these parts (and with many conversations with Jim was that the ONLY difference between the two stubs (240Z and 280Z) was the spline count and OD of the splines. The diameter of the stubs between the bearing journals was the same (as is every other dimension except the splined area. Can someone verify or deny this???..Please!. With this in mind I would like to know what the torque rating difference is between the two. My guess is that even with the CV jointed shafts in place, that the weak link is still going to be somewhere other than the stubs. Terry Oxandale

I did the SuperTraps thing too. But now that I want to drive this thing on the street, I went with some turbo mufflers. Don't look as "trick" but work just as well and are a bunch quieter. Terry

I felt confident in the WC T-5, but at one time thought about using the old (and heavy) "top loader" in it (read "bulletproof"). But I knew my suspension set-up allowed little to no hook-up, the light weight of the car, the modest output of my 302, and of course skilled shifting, would most likely allow a long and fruitfull life for the T-5. Terry

If memory serves me correctly, I believe the stage 3 Monster Miata used this as the rear end (stage two used the RX7) rear end??? Terry

There were a lot of WC T-5's used on sub 10 sec mustangs that would hold up all season. The unbelieveable stress on these hole shots, and having them survive was what convinced me to use one in my Z. I only road raced it, but it has caused no trouble. Terry Oxandale

Only the the 240SX with the HICA (rear steer mechanism ) will have the viscous LSD. All others are single track diffs. Terry Oxandale

Well, you've come most of the way if you have read the postings and replies. Feel free to ask more specific questions because this is the best bunch of gearheads you will ever communicate with. In the meantime drop me a line at toxandale@spp.org. Being I live in LR, I'd like to take a gander at the prancing horse some time. Terry Oxandale

I've had a lot of experience in modifing sway bars. Currently I use an RX7 front bar on the rear of my Z and a Suburban front bar on the front of my Z. On all the bars I've modified (about 5), I only had to change the angle of the arms no more than about 15 degrees, and re-do the ends (shortend the arms). I did the bending with a good press and a custom set of arbors to hold the bar in position. The spring steel that the bars are made out of will bend, but only a small amount before the bar breaks (and I'm tell'in ya now, you don't want to be around when it does). Do not heat the bar to bend it because this will take the temper out of the bar, making it useless. If you do heat it, you will need to get it tempered again, which is as expensive as buying a new bar. In my case, no one made a bar like I needed. To re-do the ends, I lopped off the ends, and then ground the new ends flat. Then I drilled new holes in the flatten ends (it took several bits to accomplish this on this spring steel). On smaller bars a slight amount of material was added to the edges of the flats to make them wider. The heat did not travel up the arm (cooled with damp cloth and short welding times) thus keeping the arms tempered. I've had great success with this method of modifing existing bars, but extreme care MUST be taken in bending the bars. To build and temper one bar would have been over $300 to build, thus was my incentive to modify an existing bar. Terry