wheelman

I have the chance to buy an 89 300ZX 2+2 from a family friend for $500.00. I don't know much about the history of this car except that both his teenaged sons have driven it and it now has an electrical issue that drains the battery over time. Before buying it are there any specific things I should look for? Here is what I do know about it. Non-Turbo 5-Speed T-Tops Wheelman

So are you saying I should increase the spring rates and the rear tire width or just run a wider rear tire? Given the choice I'd rather not go to stiffer springs (it's already pretty stiff for street driving) but I had already planned to move to wider, stickier tires as soon as the Falkens are worn out. Figured I look for 8" rims for the front and 9" for the rear and then get appropriately sized tires. Wheelman

The rear end is the chapman strut independant the 240Z came with but I have an R200 diff with a PowerBrute clutch type LSD. The gear ratio is 3.54:1. I thought I'd listed that but I guess not. I guess I should mention the car also has an LT1 V8 and 5 speed transmission so I have lots of torque to play with. I've found the oversteer to be fairly abrupt. The car will be mostly neutral until I pass the limit and then lets go. It's a little hard for me to explain it all as I'm a bit inexperienced at auto-x and thats what I primarily use the car for. If I'm smooth with things (mostly the throttle) there isn't much oversteer but if I get to agressive with the control inputs it unsettles the car (DUH) and then the rear gets light. On the whole though the car has very good turn in (as opposed to pushing) and the rear will swing out a bit on tight manuevers taken at speed. Does that help at all? Wheelman

I've got a pretty stiff setup on my 240 and it tends toward oversteer, which is the way I like it. Heres the setup. Ground control coilovers, 225 front, 250 rear Camber/Caster plates. -3 degrees front, -1 degree rear 1" front bar, 7/8" rear bar (MSA kit) Energy suspension urethane bushings throughout Tokico Blue non-adjustable strut inserts Sub-Frame connectors that tie the frame rails into the rear subframe. Falken RT-615 Azenis, 225/50-16 I've experienced the snap oversteer mentioned above and I think it's mostly due to the large rear sway bar but it's been a rare occurance. Just about everytime it's happened I was hard on the throttle in a corner and crossed a surface feature or transition. I might try swapping the stiffer springs to the front but I really prefer a car thats a little tail happy to one that pushes. Wheelman

Grab everything you can. Later you'll have time to sort though it and either toss or sell the parts you don't use. Keep all of it until the swap is in and running. BTW: Where in Washington do you live? Wheelman

I'm using a set on my car that are 1.5" thick. I didn't get mine from Ross but I'm using his CV adapters and they are top quality so I assume his adapters are as well. I've taken my adapters off for inpsection a couple times now and found no cracks or other indications of trouble. Wheelman

Piston, The opti should only align with the cam in one orientation and assuming the cam timing is correct the ignition timing will be also. What makes you think the timing is bad on your engine? You could use a timing light on it but without accurate timing marks what are you going to be looking at? As for a person adjusting the base timing on an LT1, it can't be done with a stock opti-spark. MSD made a "cap" that is supposed to be adjustable but I don't see the point, it's to easy to make changes in the timing map of the PCM and there are no "standard" timing marks on the engine. Getting at the opti with everything in place is also a major pain. As for the haynes manual, don't place to much emphasis on it being accurate. Speeder, I thought I remembered there being 2 sets of key ways cut into the crank and 1 was exposed to a point it could be used with the hub, guess I was wrong, it's been a while since I had mine apart. Using a pin seems like a good idea, it would prevent slippage and make re-alignment after assembly much more acurrate. Wheelman

Looks like BMW hired a bunch of Subaru designers. I don't like it at all. Wheelman

The LT1 harmonic balancer has no timing marks, at least none that are meaningful and is simply press fit on the snout of the crank. There are no timing marks because there is no way to adjust the timing by moving the distributor, it's totally controlled by the PCM. Speeder, The crank does have key ways cut into it so if you want to index the balancer hub you could machine a groove into it and then align the trigger wheel based on that, otherwise it'll be difficult to get an accurate timing setup. Any reason you couldn't use the optical section from the opti-spark and decode the signals from it? The high-res signal provides 1 degree accurate timing and the low-res can tell you which cylinder is at TDC. Wheelman

One other advantage of EFI over carbs I don't think was mentioned is the mid range drivability. Throttle response in an EFI car is almost always better than a carbed engine making the same level of WOT power. I know for most of us in this thread the cold morning start is not much of a concern but an EFI engine will generally crank right up where a carb motor will be more hesitant. I think part of the reason the carb motors are making more power is the wealth the experience in the manifold designs vs the EFI manifolds. Wheelman

I have a 73 240 with a completed LT1/5-Speed swap. Needs body work but heres the list of mods/replacements: 95 LT1, LT4 Hot cam, high rev springs, custom tune 89 WC T5, stock R200, 3.54:1, Power Brute LSD 300 ZX Turbo CV axles Toyota 4x4 front calipers, stock rotors Stock rear drums, all new hardware and shoes Steel Braided flex lines Fuel tank From 2001 Camaro All bushings replaced with urethane Energy Suspension parts Ground Control Coil overs, 225 lbs/in front, 250 lbs/in rear MSA Swaybar set DP biscuit type camber/castor plates Tokico Blue struts Taurus 2-speed fan JTR radiator and mounts Custom frame rails and sub-frame connectors Lots of other things to support the V8 swap. Dyno readings: 274 RWHP @ 5800 RPM, 307 Ft/Lbs @ 3800 rpm Wheelman

Badjuju, If you're installing BadDog rails the most suspension stuff you'll have to remove is the rear swaybar, assuming you have one installed. You'll want to remove as much of the undercoating as you possibly can and all the sound deadening inside the car. To do this you will need to remove the seats, carpeting and the jute mat that might still be in there. I did mine with the complete drivetrain installed and on jackstands. Made for some interesting welding positions but I was able to get it all welded in. Pop, I think it took me about 12 hours including the prep time. Wheelman

RsxTypeSlow, Really consider what lbhsbZ said. Your project is definitely doable, even with an LT1, but it will take large amounts of time on your part to pull it off with your budget. Can or will you put in the required time and effort to complete it? Are you driven and ambitious enough? As for all you guys recommending a carb motor, shame on you!!! The wiring for the LT1 is actually very simple, it just takes a little time studying wiring diagrams to realize that. Combine that with the general lack of knowledge regarding carb tuning and an EFI motor is really the way to go. Wheelman

Bart, My rims are 7" wide, the 225s were a tight fit. I also had to roll the fender lips in the rear. I wanted to get 40 or 45 profile tires but they don't come in that size for 16" rims. The Falkens are very good tires if you don't get them to hot, when hot they get a bit greasy. Most of us use water sprayers to cool them between runs. If you can find a set of Falken RT-215s get them. Falken doesn't make them anymore but they handle hot temps better. The hard part will be finding a new set that has been stored correctly. The 73 240 does have the later sway bar mounts in the rear but you have to check that the bar will not bind on the frame rails at full compression. I shortened my end links by 1/2" to prevent it. The other thing you'll want to check is clearance between the CV joints and the end of the bar. I assume you're running Q45 axles which have CV jouints instead of U-Joints. If you have the CV joint axles you can't use the rear mount ST bar Jon reccommended, it won't clear the axles. One 240 that showed up at a local event placed the rear bar beneath the control arms. It looked a little goofy but didn't bind or drag the ground. My car may actually be lower than 4" at the crossmember but it's close to that. I have a cheap 2 ton floor jack that just fits under it if the rear is not jacked up. Edit: I forgot to mention I've replaced all the bushings with urethane. Have you replaced any of yours? You don't need to spend $800.00 for tires. I got my Falkens from Edge Racing for ~$500.00 shipped to my door. Right now the RT-615s are listed on their site in 225/45-17 for $110.00 each, same price I paid for mine. The site says their sold out but you could call and ask. Wheelman

Bart, You saw how flat my car corners in the short video on youtube right? I'm running the MSA sway bar set, GC coilover set with 250 rear/225 front, Tokico HP blue strut inserts and have the car set where the front crossmember is about 4" off the ground with no rake front to rear. I've added camber/caster plates as well. Here is another link to the video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azjf_6PF2uo I'm running 225/50-16 Falken RT-615 Azenis on ROHS rims with 1.5" thick spacer/adapters. I agree with Jon, the first thing is lower the car and if you go with large sway bars make sure the mounts are solid. One thing I've found is I gained some negative camber in the rear when I lowered my car. When I added the camber plates I was going to try to add some more but my 300ZX rear axles are compressed as much as they can be. I retained all the camber I gained by lowering, but can't move the plates any further to gain more.

BlackBob, Welcome to real world man, "sports" cars have always been out of reach for the youngest generation they are introduced to. The newer cars perform better than the older ones and are more comfortable at the same time. I won't comment on the new design styles as I grew up in the 70s and 80s and prefer the cars from those years. Wheelman

There's always the possibility I'm wrong. I just have a very hard time visualizing a scenario where the ground path for that much current would pass through the diff bearings. If you can get some pictures I'd really like to see the damage. Wheelman

GnoseZ, Do you have any pictures of the damage? I can't think of any way a grounding issue could be causing it. Maybe grinding due to lack of lubrication, but the amount of current required to make tiny spot welds on the bearing surfaces through a film of oil is much more than the electrical system of your car can produce. Not to mention the fact that electricity follows the path of least resistance and that certainly wouldn't be through the diff and the bearings. I think someone is messin with you, maybe you're being punked!!! Wheelman

Thats a very well thoughtout install. I wonder if the alternator, PS bracket he cooked up would clear the JTR setback plate. Wheelman

Would a 700R4 work? It's basically the same as the 4L60E but no computer. Wheelman

How would an electrical grounding issue be related to differential carrier bearings? Wheelman

BayAreaZT, You should contact PDK with that question. The brackets look pretty beefy but without looking at them closer and the bolts connecting the bar it's impossible to say. Personally I'd shy way from using the strut bar as a harness bar unless it was a single welded piece, but thats just me. Bart, Yes my stock belts have retractors and I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work with non-restactors belts. Wheelman

Monzter, If the strut bar is really solid there should be no reason you couldn't use it, in fact the up angle would be better. As far as I know there are no commercial strut bars that would be strong enough though. You could fab one for yourself for about $25.00 max worth of materials. Jim73240Z, Yeah I know I need to install the "submarine" straps, I just haven't figured out how I want to attach them yet. I'm thinking I can attach them to the same crossmember the front of the seats bolt to but then I have to remove the seats. I've just been lazy about it. The instructions that came with the harnesses stated that a down angle no greater than 20 degrees from the seat back to the harness bar was acceptable. I just read the thread posted above and found some contradictory information from the instructions that were in my box. I set my bar up according to those instructions but the angle is only about 10 degrees down so I'm going to leave it where it is. Wheelman

I'm posting some pictures of how I installed my G-Force 5-point harness. There was interest expressed in another thread and rather than hide the photos there we decided it would be better to start a new thread. Purchased the harness from saferacer.com along with 4 1/2" eyebolts and 4 quick release hooks. I ordered the longer 50mm bolts but the 20mm would have worked. The eyebolts replaced the original bolts that held the stock seat belt mechanisms in place, that way I can unhook the harness lap belts and throw the shoulder belts behind the seat if I want to use the stock belts. I don't have a roll bar so I fabbed a harness bar and bolted it to the strut towers. Here are the pictures. When these photos were shot I hadn't installed the crotch strap yet and I'm not sure I will. Wheelman

I welded a sump on mine. Drained it, rinsed with water then ran exhaust from my pickup into it for about 10 minutes. I'm still here so no boom but I was pretty nervous the first time I struck an arc with my MIG. What John says is very important also, I fought pin hole leaks in mine until I finally threw it away. I gave up more because it was shedding lots of rust from the sump than because of the leaks though. Wheelman