Mikelly

Mega, The problem is this: Metal does strange things when run through heat cycles. I stretched some bolts on an L series High compression motor, not knowing they had been over torqued... Then I broke a brand new ARP Rod Bolt on another brand new motor running it hard at the track... Metal stretches over time and gets fatigued and then breaks, and sometimes it just lets go for reasons we don't know...maybe flaws in machining, over torquing with a wrench that needs to be recalibrated... Trust us when we say "It won't last many runs" because those types of failures are VERY real. Just ask some of the Mitsu and Hondu guys breaking the bottoms of their little sprayed 4 bangers... People tell you all the time "This part is much stronger than it is rated at" but what they don't tell you is the fact that the extra strength built into a part isn't intended to be infringed upon daily... As for passes on a 383 stroker, Traction is key. The posted link Scottie Refers to is a good indicator of what your 383 should run. Mine ran low 11's/ high 10s the ONLY time I took it to the 1/4 mile. You should easily run much quicker, unless you have crappy tires... My gearing is 3:7 and I was running (I think) a 26 inch tall tire, BFG Drag Radial. The car ISN'T setup for drag, but I did have a 6 point cage and sub-frames in it at the time, and I run an LSD. Mike

Yup, Not everyone is as lucky as those of us who have found the rare LSD units... I'm upgrading mine to CV's although I had ZERO failures with my regular half shafts pushing 500+HP all last summer and I hammered that car hard... But piece of mind is worth something...I hear those Q45s are bomb proof. What I really need is shorter gearing to boost my RPMS to a usable range with my trans/cam shaft combo... 6th gear is useless for me below 2000RPMs... Oh well, back to work... Mike

That is interesting because I had two dealerships tell me that the fiberglass units were always used as replacements only, and Nissan didn't have a stock number on them until mid 1981. Prior to that it was all sheetmetal.... Who knows.. I was told this back in 1994 when I was looking for the fiberglass units and wanted the Nissan units, assuiming that they would be better quality... Anyone else care to shed some light on this one??? Mike

Mark asked me to post this info: The R230 is from the Q45 ro the tt300Z. I'm think there are some some differences in the cases but they are pretty similar. I used and R-200 mustache bar. The original holes were welded up and new ones drilles for the new bolt pattern on the R230 cover. You will need one of those aluminum braces Dave sells to use this cover. It is a very nice piece and Dave will take care of you. He seems to be an honest guy trying to make a nice part. The new holes were drilled about a quarter inch higher than the original holes to allow room for the out put flanges to clear the rear control arms. To mount the front of the diff, I removed the safty strap and the brackets it mounted to. A mount was welded up from scrap I had laying around that bolts in the holes that the safty strap bracket bolted to. This bracket runs under the front of the R230 and uses the stock mounting holes in the R230. I used some half inch (diameter not length) bolts to bolt the front of the R230 to my bracket. This basically repalces the safty strap and the stock Z differential mount. Mike Kelly For a drive shaft, I used the Q45 shaft and had it shortend and the front converted to mate with GM stuff. This shaft has a much larger diameter than the stock Z shaft or the new Fbody drive shaft I had. Now for the fun part. The CV's from the Q45 and tt300z are the same part. The shafts are the same only the Q's are longer. I used two outer CV's on the shortened shaft and an adaptor plate to mount the CV bolt pattern to the flange on the stub axel. The adaptor plates are a doughnut with two bolt patterns, one for the cv and one for the stub axel flange. I had the shafts shortened and resplined by moser engineering. www.moserengineering.com I think. The costs are not cheap to do this. Diff is at least 400, shafts are around 100 each used, need four of these. Need to have the adaptors made, mine about 200. Shafts shortened and resplined were less than 100 for the pair I think. R200 mustache bar, cheap, new bushing, cheap. Lots of time! Some other details, the height of the fabricated mount, the part that goes under the front of the R230 is about the same level as the bolt holes. The drive shaft angle can be adjusted by shimming between the front mount and the diff.

Nope, top to bottom run out...I mounted the dial on the top of the round adapter flange... It rode on the circle as it spun... this showed a run-out of .030! To better visualize it, it would be like looking at a wheel on a bicycle and seeing it jump up at the high spot... Mike

Well guys, I have two orders to fill under the current price structure, but after those two orders, the price will have to be adjusted to cover the expenses of having the turnbuckles and blocks machined. The units will still be MUCH Cheaper than the Arizona Zcar units and should do away with the need for Camber plates on all street cars. Stay tuned as I will provide a complete pricing guide for units, replacement parts and the rear control arm status. Mike

The original headlight buckets were all metal. If you have a rpelacement bucket made of glass, then it replaced the metal factory unit and says something about the life the car has had... If you have glass buckets on your car, it has most likely been hit in the nose at on time or another... Mike Kelly

No heim joints is the plan... Mine will be VERY close to what Simon made. I'm shooting for having something done up by end of May. Mike

Definitley need to be a bellybutton car for sure... those wheels got "Chick" written all over them... Saw them on a'benze in DC once.. they have been around for a while. Mike

They have changed this since I was building my ITS car back in the mid 90s... Used to be a degree of acceptability below the horizontal plain. Interesting that they site compressing the spine... there must have been some data to provide enough feedback.. Good to know... Pete, scratch what I told you off line. Mike

Guys, I'm looking at buying an HPLV Gun so I can start to prep the fiberglass front end for primer and paint... Anything I should be looking for in one of these guns... any brand specific I should stay away from? I'm buying a cheap regular gun to spray my POR15 with... Mike

Scottie, The unit was never on the car while it was running. I'm currently still in the middle of re-doing the car from last winter, and I'm just dropping everythingout from under it to have it powder coated. When I dropped the rear suspension, I stick my dial on the top outter cent of the (Picture the Top of a cirlce basically) unit and spun it and noticed that the run out was .030 off. I'll triple check it. The other issue though is those flages were tight fitting in there, and I expect that it woldn't be that far off based on how tight the box was for the flange... You guy following this?? Mike

Fastest Z car I have EVER seen was a white 75 280 with a big assed Mack Truck intercooler laying down in the nose, and a B20 in the engine bay... Car had Marsh Racing 3 piece Carbon/ aluminum wheels and nice suspension... It was another Z Dr. creation out of Roanoke, Va. and I wonder if that car is still around.... Fast Fast Car... Mike PS, I like her lobes, but I'd like to inspect her pop off valve.... Couldn't resist...

Mike, That is what I was thinking as well. .003 or less is what I would shoot for as acceptable for my 200mph project car. I'm hoping that when I go to re-assemble everything after the powder coating, I'll find that I was wrong... But do I go ahead and risk it and weld the other unit up and then just have them both checked, or let someone else do the complete assembly and welding.. I assume these units were zero'd in when they were machined but i need to double check that as well. What I don't want to do is have to CV adapters that won't be able to be used... Mike

Simon, I'm gonna start building the Jig for the rear control arms this weekend and the coming week...any tips would be appreciated.. Mike

...Last night I figured I'd put my dial on the stub axle conversion flange for the CV joints and spun the axle in the carrier before pull the stub axles out. I spun it a couple of times and it looks like I'm getting 30 thousandths run out... I need to double check it, but if it is that bad (Obviously something shifted while I was welding..) what are my options? Can I have the assembly as it is welded up now balanced??? Thank god I've only done one of these so far... Mike [ May 04, 2001: Message edited by: Mikelly ]

So Mike, you just re-die the thread to 5/8 18 Left thread??? Hell, that almost sounds too easy.... What length is the hexstock??? I'm laizy tonight or I would go measure the unit laying on the garage floor... Maybe I could start converting these for people???? Wouldn't cost me a lot to do that and matterials wouldn't be too expensive... Mike

Don't buy it without buying their "Prep-Wash" Solution($16.00 If memory serves me..). The stuff peals off if the surface isn't properly prepped. BTW, a quart of the stuff is more than sufficiant to do what you described. Mike Kelly

Yes Tim, I was kinda baiting you...In a good way. OK, So you use a rod end/ Heim Joint, spacers and a bolt through the steering knuckle??? I'll check my sources and see what I can come up with as far as tie rod ends... Mike

You might want to e-mail Mike/SCCA as he did a little junk yard scrounging and pulled several different model brackets... I don't know for sure, so I won't muddy the waters there, but You might also want to find out how much someone would charge to weld up a bracket for you! Mike

Some of us were discussing the Bump Steer issue at the show and the many ways people deal with bumpsteer in their Zs. Everyone is aware of stiffening suspension, blocks under the strut housing, and the JTR mod of re-drilling holes in the Xmember. But what if you could de-couple the tie rod end and make it height adjustable seperately from the rest of the control arm/ strut tube assembly? Another idea would be having the option to raise or lower the steering rack... Before you guys go crazy on me, I have nothing on paper for this, only ideas in my head... Feedback please! Mike

Ross, It was the triangular Shell unit, not the one with the mesh cover. They basically took that unit and re-did it with the sheet matterial and the ducts they bought from the hardware store, some rivets and the darned thing looked really good. Pete, The ramair box is made of fiberglass, and I'll admit, it isn't the most pretty piece of hardware. Your car is gonna be show quality, so you might consider getting one custom fab'ed up. All, the fresh air ducts on the ealr 70-78 Zs are plumbed from the two plastic ducts up front in the radiator core support (As Lone mentioned). The other port Pete mentioned does funnel air in around the wiper cowl, but is WAY in-efficiant as Donna and I found out last year. Mike

Frank, I'm not really sure about paint yet. I do plan to get an HPLV gun and play with it and if my luck holds, Shoot the car myself... We'll see. I like white, but I have a lot of people giving me crap about "How White Masks all the bad body work on a car", which makes me wonder if they think the body work is bad... My shell is straight as an arrow, so I'm tempted to paint it another color. I'm partial to Red or Blue... We'll see! Mike

Pics of the re-design are up on: http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z Please note that all aluminum parts will be swapped out for steel units. Also note, the price originally quoted to the 4 orders placed stands at $400 shipped. Future orders will depend on the cost of stronger matterials. Stay tuned. I hope to see you guys in LA! Mike (Wheels Up at 1230) Kelly [ April 27, 2001: Message edited by: Mikelly ]

Well I'll explain how I plan to combat this when I'm in Cali, but I already know that, based on conversations I had today with our local Race Fabricator, I'll be doing chromo tubing for the strut tube and the control arm tubing, and I'll be using Chromo threaded rod stock for the control arm. This will impact cost, but I was planning to lower the price by Approx. $50-75, but I suspect (Amd I need to get exact prices..) that the $400 price will not go up. Stay tuned.... Mike