BlackBeaut

Hmm, crank offset ground to give an 85mm stroke and 138mm rods to give a rod/stroke of 1.62, slightly better than standard 3.1 stroker build 133/83 ~1.6

I've got the DP version of that (can use flux-cored and gas). It's OK but the power switches are a PITA, there's no info in the leaflet as to what wattage they actually equate to, so anything between all off and all on is a bit of a guess. Also - I don't know if this is the case with all welders - but as you up the power it automatically increases the wire speed, even though it has a nice fully adjustable wire speed dial. Possibly just my inexperience but it seemed to me that the wire was too fast for some power settings, even when turning the speed dial right down. In use it seemed OK once I'd got the settings roughly right, I've only welded 3mm steel and it didn't have any overheating problems. So pretty good but would be better with a power dial. Glad I got mine new on Ebay cheap!! Cheers, Rob

The extra splitter section is interesting though, I've not seen one like that before. Cheers, Rob

Ah well, erm, well I'm getting more and more fecked off with machine shops that just aren't doing their jobs, looks like I need to can at least one of them soon if I ever expect to get anymore done here. Cheers, Rob

Quick and easy answer. No. Cheers, Rob

The caliper ended up on the other side due to it's mounting bolt distance (around 5" IIRC). I couldn't find anyway of mounting it on the rear side of the hub without having a to go with a 2 piece disc with either a really shallow hat or a really deep one' date=' which then caused interference with the caliper and either the back of the wheel or the strut. As it is I was able to use the stock disc (re-drilled mounting holes and increased center bore) and a 260Z hub which all lined up nicely. Caliper and disc are from a Fiat Coupe 20V Turbo, they're also used on the Alfa Romeo GTV 3.0V6 although that is a 5 stud fitting. I have considered swapping the struts over to their opposite sides which would be a cheaty way of getting the caliper on the backside of the hub again, but there's not really much point in doing that. Told you it was daft [center'] [/center] Cheers, Rob

Well that's not strictly speaking true, but my setup is just a daft custom job with mere 305x28mm discs. I haven't even pumped flud in to the calipers yet. Hmmm, I wonder when I'll actually get the bugger on the road again?!! Anyway, back to your big Cobra brakes Cheers, Rob

The tranny in question is the FS5W71C that was used on a few different Nissans worldwide over the years with some slight variation in ratios. Commonest 1st gear seems to be 3.321, in the UK however the S13 200SX (fitted with the CA18DET) has a 3.592 1st which is a bit mad. You can also get aftermarket gear sets such as OS Giken which have closer ratios i.e. 1st is available as 2.717 or even 2.596. There's quite a bit of useful info on this box here: http://www.phattransmissions.com/transmissionParts.html Cheers, Rob

Perfect timing, nice write up! I pulled the bellhousing of an S14 box just the other day. I'm thinking about machining the countershaft bearing hole larger on the L-bellhousing rather than swap in the smaller L box bearing. Any other known issues? Does the reverse light sensor still work OK? Look forward to the pics. Cheers, Rob

I keep having thoughts of a paintball gun or two cunningly mounted up front. Should be powerful enough to overcome the 'blown back in your own face' syndrome. Most of the time I'm driving and get attacked by numpties, I just wish I had an RPG to hand though Cheers, Rob

Thanks for the pic Mack, that's spot on. Anyone got any idea what the typical cc is for valve relief pockets on the top of a piston? I've just been messing around with lengine.exe for an engine based on a 3l stroker (88mm) bore, flat top piston +0.030" deck height, HKS 1mm gasket, that comes to 12.14:1 CR, based on a 39cc chamber. If there's a 5cc dish on the pistons the CR drops to 11.03:1. Would valve relief pockets be around 5cc or less? For sake of discussion this is for a NA engine, 300deg cam, ITB setup with programmable ECU controlling fuel and spark. For the sake of my bank account, it's not going to happen for a while Cheers, Rob

Put of interest for us people of Non-US origin, has anyone got any pics of the MN47 chambers, maybe some comparison with the other common heads, E88s, N42s, P90s etc. I know in the UK we did get a Maxima with an L24 engine, but I've no idea what the head is on that. I've also got an L28 that came out of an '87 Patrol which is an N42/F54 combo, that head has FI cutouts on the inlet, so is this head of better design than the '70s N42, or what? Cheers, Rob

Hi Erol, Yep the Power brute is a proper clutch pack LSD, completely replaces the centre section of the diff, it's not like the two bars of chocolate and curlywurly that make up the phoantom-grip. If you're going to get an entire LSD unit, then there's no need to limit yourself to a 87-89 300zxt diff at all, just get hold of any long nose R200 in as close a ratio to what you need and you'll be set. Has to be said the commonest ratios in the UK for R200s are 3.5 and 3.7. There are rumoured to be 4.11 available from S12 Silvias that have the FJ20 engine in but I've never been able to track one down. Just to re-iterate, no UK Nissan ever came equipped stock with an LSD long nose R200 which is a real pain! Cheers, Rob

Well that's no good!! I'd give Steve Burns a try. Failing that, Steve Kiddell or Rob Hughes should be able to push things along, all details are here: http://www.zclub.net/index.php?page=contacts Not seen Russ about for a while, he's either snowed under at his new job or slacking off on holidays post graduation, blummin students!! Cheers, Rob

Boy, I'd love to see the shipping costs on that baby to the UK Luckily 300ZXTT R230 are available in the UK, Like Phantom says it's not really worth the extra hassle if you're not push 450-500bhp, plus they weigh an bloody ton. R200s are heavy enough! Cheers, Rob

Plenty of UK specific advise is available at the UK club http://www.zclub.net/ To add to this thread though, LSDs in UK long nose R200s don't happen with out cost. The most straight forward LSD to use is the Quaife ATB as it allows you to use the existing output shafts (29spline) so you can keep either the U/J half shafts or go with the 280ZX CV shaft conversion. You could try to get hold of a Power Brute (I think that's right) clutch based LSD from the US that should work with 29 spline output shafts - definitely search on that one though as I'm not 100% sure. After that things get trickier. You can take the viscous centre from a 200SX or Skyline or Z32 NA R200 diff and plonk that in a long nose R200 but you have to then use the 200SX output shafts which pretty much means you're in to custom CV shaft land. Similarly you can get hold of Nissans Torsen LSD centre from the S15 Silvia but that uses 30 spline output shafts, so once again you're stuck with them and the custom CV route. Finally you can just go the whole hog and try to fit either the short nose R200 from 180/200SX, Skyline, Z32 NA, or the beefier R230 from the Z32TT. That involves a lot of fabrication work though and you still need custom CV shafts and a new prop-shaft - hurray Cheers, Rob

I've got a similar thing, does work well, but it does stretch my compressor (3hp/100ltr). I built a plywood cabinet to try and contain the sand, it sorta does but I still end up looking like I've spent a few days in the desert For sand, I just use patio sand, now what you guys over the pond would call that I don't know, but it's fairly fine, free flowing stuff, so none of your coarse stuff for mixing concrete with. I buy it in 20kg bags at the local DIY chain store. It has to be bone dry though otherwise it can block the various taps which is a PITA. I recycle probably more times than I should do, apparently once the sand gets broken down in to super fine particles it's quite a dangerous health hazard as when breathed in it won't come back out, worse than asbestos which is a nice thought. So get a very good filter mask! Cheers, Rob

Definitely not easy as the 3D shape of the spokes always gets mushed, and the lighting's never right. Here's my attempt though. Cheers, Rob

That's an R200, from a 300ZX NA, should actually be 4.08:1 but what's 2/10th eh?!! You can get the bigger R230 from a 300ZX TT which is a 3.69:1 ratio, but is definite overkill unless you're planning on pushing major power out the back. The R200 is good for upto 500bhp generally. You can also get a short nose R200 from a 240SX, although I won't make any guarantee to what ratio it would be other than likely to be somewhere between 3.69 and 4.08. Cheers, Rob

I wonder if they can be used in combination with those superb turbo whistler tail pipes? I'd imagine at least a 35% increase in overall engine power using those two in combination!!! Cheers, Rob

Any recommendations? I'm trying to see if I can find an input shaft that will fit a Z31 turbo T5 box, that's short enough to work with the 280ZXT bellhousing. Had no luck with Astro Performance (as in they couldn't help with the shaft, but were quick and polite on the reply). I'm waiting to hear back from 5speeds.com. Found an Ebay seller (mantrans) who claims to have a suitable 23T shaft from an early Ford box, but he's now disappeared of the email radar. So any other places any one can recommend trying before I drop this quite dumb T5 idea? Cheers, Rob

So that would be a no then, 4x4.25" is no good on a 4x4.5" Z hub. Also, am I wrong or what? Wouldn't a 4.95" back spacing on a 8j rim give a +24mm offset, and 5.95" backspacing on a 9j rim give near as +37mm offset, rather than the 12mm and 24mm listed there? Cheers, Rob