blueovalz

Saw the latest MB commercial on Speedvision's F1 practice today. It was for the E55 AMG. Not your typical MB commercial in that the "monster" under the hood escapes and wrecks havoc on the owner's house whilst the little woman is beating it back into the garage and back under the hood from where is came from. Very amusing.

I haven't checked in a couple of months, but Ebay had new OEM and EURO tail lights (pricy) for sale for months on end.

Hi Chuck, I can't remember who on this forum is starting this same swap into a ZX, but perhaps he will see this post and speak up. In the mean time, good luck and let us know how your project is progressing. The ZX swap, especially with a Ford, is pretty rare so document as much of the process as is possible. Weight distribution figures for this swap may be a bit different than with the Z, but because of the larger rear overhang on the ZX (increased safety mandate for gas tank protection), and the shorter hood, my guess is that 50/50 is possible, if not a little lighter than that on the front. The SBF is very comparable in weight to the L6.

It is a typical setting up of the differential gears for proper a proper tooth pattern. The factory manual provides all proper information on how to do this. It is not hard, but may require some side shims that you may not have. Unless there is a cheaper source for these shims, I found Nissan to be quite high priced for them.

Man that looks good. I'm planning on using a color similar to this which is called BMW Lemans Blue. Thanks for the pics! Beautiful car! Now some pics with some wide wheels and tires for our next "fix"?

Those pictures are indeed two halves welded together for the "double hump" so that my dual exhaust pipes would be of even height, and up as high as possible. This mounting though is a solid type of mounting (as is the rear of the differential), so it does not allow the advantages of Jeromio's mounting of compactness, and it's insulation of some of the drivetrain noise (which is music to my ears anyway). I have since modified it to include an overhead band that can hold the front of the differential in place should my lower crossmember ever decide to break.

Great idea in providing a means to positively control both up and down movement . Have you done any "strength" tests comparing it to an unmodified member? With the vertical portions of the member removed for the bushings, I'm curious about its long term durability in regards to high torque applications. The four bolts holding the member to the unibody should help in preventing any weakening in the middle. Just brainstorming here.

Go for it! Document the swap along the way (photos wll help a lot here) with what needed to be done, and why you chose the approaches at solving any problems that arise from this swap. Motor weight will be important as well. We ALL will be interested in this swap. Keep us informed along the way as well. Good luck.

Nice work. Are you going to be able to sit down and document what you did to make this swap work and the reasoning behind each of the modifications to the Z unibody? This could be an excellent future reference.

Or the regulating spring inside is broken. I'd attempt to disassemble it if it's it's still not under a warranty. You should be able to feel some resistance when you turn the knob, and also feel a slight increase in that resistance as you turn in clockwise as the spring is being compressed throughout the entire range.

When I did my ram-air for my 240sx, the gain I got from it when I needed to pass on the highway was ALMOST as good downshifting from 5th gear to 4th gear for the pass, prior to the install. Now this was including the new K&N filter (which replace the OEM filter) with the install, so I'm sure this helped too. In this photo the filter is inside the canister with the AFM attached to the other side of the canister. As was previously stated, the ram effect is not noticable unless you are at highway speeds, but when I was doing a lot of traveling on 2 lane highways, this set-up made passing the long trucks much easier.

Backspacing is how far inboard the inner rim is positioned when the wheel is attached to the hub. This is measured from the wheel mounting surface (where it touches, or is attached to the hub) backward to the edge of the rim. A straightedge placed across the backside rim edge will allow you to measure this distance from the wheel's mounting surface, out to the edge of the rim. The more backspacing (the larger this measurement), the deeper the wheel is placed inboard toward the strut. If two wheels, of same width but different backspacing are compared, then the wheel with more back spacing (hence, more offset) will stick out less on the "lip" side, and will be closer to the suspension.

Clockwise increases spring pressure, which increases the cut-off pressure to the rear brakes. Did this problem exist before the install? Any history and brake equipment information might help.

ON3GO I'm sure will appreciate this one

Dang! You rubbed my nose in this last year, and now you're going again this year. This year's championship may be determined here in the U.S., so enjoy! Go Team Red!

I'll offer some other questions and observations here as well. You stated that: I gather from this that you cannot use the normal R200 "pop-in" axles? This would lead me to believe you have several R180 differentials instead? Did the R200 come with bolt-in flanges similar to the R180? . The 200SX has an R180 with CV jointed halfshafts that appear, when still under the car, identical to the R200 CV jointed halfshafts. So I wonder if perhaps the splines are different between the two set-ups, and if this were true, then you may have a combination of 200SX and 280ZX Turbo halfshafts, which may explain the spline differences. My understanding is that any 280ZXT CV jointed halfshaft should fit into any R200. The Quaiffe will muddy the waters somewhat in that I have read where the left and right side input stubs into the differential are reversed from the normal sides. I experienced this with a Torsen type of LSD that I just installed very recently, but I do not know for sure if it was a old Gleason-Torsen and a new Quaiffe. Either way, it was reversed on the input stubs and I had to may hybrid shafts by swapping the stubs, which required new boots being put on. Being the CV jointed shafts are 1/2" difference in length from side to side, this has the potential for one side being a bit too long at full droop (binding) if you do not swap the stubs from one axle to the other as I did. If your R200(?) does have bolt-in stubs, then my guess would be No, the ZXT shafts will not stay in being there is no cerclip to retain the stub in place. I've seen what appears to be R180 differentials under the 280ZX bodies, but I never knew for sure if they were R180s or simply a differently cased R200. Any answers?

One emphasis on these engines (and this is only an opinion) was for the experimental aircraft market, and in particular 3/4 scale WWII fighter aircraft replica kits that use the V12 (e.g. P-51 and the Spitfire to name a couple). This is the reason for the large and low rpm torque curve to allow max torque and keep tip speed on the large props down.

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a total mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. amzanig huh? Now, if only I could figure out which way this wheel goes on.

Place a straightedge across the back of the wheel rim, and then measure the distance, from the wheel mounting surface where it fits onto the hub, up to the straightedge. This measurement is your backspacing. Also, measure the entire width of the wheel. With these 2 numbers, the offset can be calculated.

Yes, red hot, slow cooled spring steel will no longer be spring steel. The significant "working" part of a swaybar is between the arms (this depends on the lenth and configuration of the arms). The steel in the arms beyond about 2" from the brackets never got hot enough to relieve it of the temper (I used a high heat, fast weld, on the angle brackets welded to the ends of the cut off arms). These last 2" will have little if any effect at all on the "spring" of the bar as a whole, and these last couple of inches will not bend (permanently) due to their thickness even with the loss of the temper.

My previous bar, at full droop, would pinch the cv boot to the point of cutting them. I found a JY bar what would work. It's an early model Prelude front bar that I modified slightly, used some '91 Stanza swaybar links, and now finally have a swaybar of sufficient size and shape to stay well away from the cv boots. It's a 13/16" bar.

An from the devil's advocate: the Ford can be a good bit lighter on the front end and a little more compact.

I second AUX, but would add that an increased size from the OEM sway bar will be just about all you'll want or need in addition to his input. I've used the 1-1/8" front and 7/8" rear, but I did develop cracks in the frame rail over the front sway bar mounts. I assume it was because of the very stiff bar. A 1" will work well, but then you'd need a smaller than 7/8" rear (or wider tires in back) My combo was a neutral as I've ever seen in a car.

IF the caliper slips onto the rotor fairly easily prior to actually sticking the mounting bolts through, then you can pretty much rule out a "wrong" caliper (or too narrow). All your pads should be the same thickness (good side to bad side comparison). If the outer pad will not come out, but the inner one will (again, while the caliper is tightly attached to the strut), then there needs to be some measurements taken to confirm rotor offset is identical on both sides of the car. This indicates to me that the caliper is too far inboard when bolted on, or the caliper offset is too little (rotor is too far outboard).

Beautiful! Keep the updates coming!