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No harm, no foul. I know it was friendly...I could tell by your smiley face. This isn't the first time I've jumped before thinking things through. My girlfriend reminds me often enough. LOL

Okay, I'll take your lashing, John. Maybe I should have chosen my words more carefully. Yes, more u-joints are more in service than CV's in the earlier cars. Yes, the u-joints do appear to hold up better than CV's in hard launch applications. The CV's do provide better augularity which increases their life span not necessarily their strength though. The OEM CV's are not the strongest design out there. I chose to convert after losing two u-joints in normal use. I don't drag race my vehicle but do drive it hard at times. I followed in BlueOval's basic design with my own 930 conversion. For me it was about building a better halfshaft which will provide for long life with minimal service required even if abused. When laying a stock u-joint, OEM tripod CV, and 930 CV side by side it is easy to see the difference in girth, engineering, and strength. I don't think a CV conversion is a bad choice for most people in here. The end result desired should dictate what direction to go, u-joint or CV. Lastly, I run spicer u-joints in the front axles and driveshafts of my hybrid Land Rover. With final gearing in the 60:1 range these u-joints take a heck of a lot of abuse while off-roading. I've only lost these (three in 5 years) due to excessive angles/torque, or contamination. That is testimony to a u-joint's durability.

It is a known fact that u-joints seem to fail more often than the CV's in general use. This is primarily due to the small size of the stock u-joint and operating angles. This is escalated as hp/torque goes up in a hybrid vehicle. The early factory CV's are an improvement in angularity operation but I doubt they are any stronger than the u-joint design. The later factory CV's (300ZXT) seem to be stronger as indicated by those users having lower failure rates. All of this is speculative as quality, maintenance, etc. also play a role. The cost of conversion is not $$ friendly but everyone is happy with the results. I chose to do a custom CV conversion using my own adapters and 930 CV joints. There CV's are normally found in the Porsche 930 turbo coupes and are rated around 600hp. My conversion ran about $1000 total for all parts (CV's, boots & flanges, axles, billet material, machine work) and machine work. While that is ridiculously $$ the end results is a near bulletproof halfshaft. The weak link now is the 280Z stub axle. You can look at my setup in the gallery.

Here's a quick scenerio that has happened. The lineman is busy working the main lines after having checked for live wires. He knows the grid is off and can proceed safely. The homeowner is doing his handiwork in the main breaker box and for reasons unknown accidentally throws the main breaker with the generator running. Ouch or worse up on the pole. Don't forget the other scenario where the owner throws the main breaker because power is restored but forgets the gen is connected and running. Ouch again. This is real life and these mistakes do happen. It only takes one brief moment to screw up really bad. I'm done.........

DO what you want. I've read all of these posts and I know for a fact that my advice is the only proper way to do this. All of the gibberish about 'Don't forget to throw the main breaker, etc.' is the very reason that homes burn down and people get killed. I've spent 30 years working in a naval shipyard, most of that was related to weapon systems (name it and I've probably worked on it). During that time I've seen many men permanently injured and killed (no bullshit there!) because someone decided it was okay to circumvent procedure (read that as shortcut). I've trained many apprentices and my biggest emphasis was always doing it right...never shortcut. None of these men were ever injured on my jobs because safety was always the MOST IMPORTANT criteria. Most likely nothing will go wrong IF you remember all of 'gotta do's' BUT if you f**k up only one time what might the consequences be??? Okay, I'm done with my rant.

You mic the journals and buy the appropriate bearing shells. If you're really picky you may have to buy two or three sets of shells to get ideal clearances across every journal. Once the crank is in the block you have to plastigage each journal to ensure proper clearances. Are you using any kind of machine shop or hoping to piece this together without any machine work?

I have a set of early 240Z rods that are fitted with 3/8" Chevy big block rod bolts in my L24. While I haven't tried to destroy this engine I have driven it upwards of 7k many times without any mayhem. It is easier to mod the stock rods than find the 9mm bolted rods or so it seems. I happen to have a set of these 9mm connecting rods boxed on the shelf too. Maybe one day I'll decide to part with them.

Many of these suggestions should work for you. The problem is if any one of them fails you're usually hosed to try anything else. Here's how I typically deal with a broken bolt when material is still exposed above the surface. I take a piece of round stock (1" long is good) and drill a partial hole to just fit over the remaining stud. I then drill a smaller pilot hole all the way through the round stock. That hole is often the same diameter as the bolt at the valley of the threads. The idea is to make a guide which allows you to accurately drill all of the material out except the threaded portion. Once done, a tap is used to clean the hole up. I keep the guides for future use. A machinist could make up several of these with some standard partial holes (8mm, 10mm, 12mm, 1/4", 3/8", etc.)rather quickly with 1/8" and 1/4" pilot holes. Once the pilot hole is drilled in the broken stud you can progressively step up the drill size to remove material until the threads are just reached.

Points to ponder. If you do this half-arse hook-up YOU are FULLY reliable for ALL damage, injury and death which may ensue. Your insurance company will drop you like a hot potato. How would you feel if you burnt your home to the ground? How would you feel if a lineman got shocked to death by backfeed to a circuit he expected to be dead? I could go on and on with this rant. The answer is to pony up the $$$ for a manual or automatic transfer switch and have it installed by a qualified electrician unless you are fully capable of doing this. Anything worth doing is worth doing right....period.

Contact t'RACY and Baz at http://www.datsport.com. They sell some pistons made from a T6 alloy cheaply. Datsport is located in Australia too.

I've been following the related posts and have a few questions. Is there an open gap at the bottom of the bellhousing to engine block because of the adapter (no picture shows this area)? Why wasn't it made full round? Couldn't the shifter link and bracket be shortened about 1.5" to 2" to allow the shifter to sit closer to the stock location? Why not cut the rear crossmember on either side close to the bushing and offset these to match the chassis mounts? This could be done using a couple of pieces 1/4" flat stock.

C & H Soda Blasting 6230 Greyhound Ln Las Vegas, NV 89122 702-798-7208

I seen both. Either one is viable. The media blast can harm metal if done incorrectly, cannot get to every nook and leaves a lot of debris. The acid bath does a great job but needs to be fully neutralized to prevent bleeding and paint damage later. Now, my preference is soda blasting. It does an excellent job, is easily cleaned up and the cost should be comparable. I would think you could find any of those services in your area. Worst case might be towing the chassis to another location. I travel 6 hours one way for galvanizing services and that requires two trips for each occasion.

Wow, 22 views and not one opinion or flame? Surely, someone has an opinion.

I picked up a 95 J30 VLSD R200 for $26 at the local P-N-P. My intentions are to put it into a 280Z longnose R200. This will replace my Nismo 4.11:1 R180 CLSD. Before anyone jumps in on the issues let me set things straight. - I have the R200 mustache bar. - I had 10 each 12mm OD x 10mm ID monel bushings made for adapting the early 10mm ring gear bolts to the later 12mm bolt carrier. - I have custom adapters that will allow me to use the 6-bolt pattern of the J30 differential output axle shafts with my Porsche 930 CV joints. I only need to shorten the empi halfshaft axles and regroove for circlips. - The engine will be a 2.9 stroker boosted with an Eaton M62 supercharger. - The tranny will be either a later 5 speed. The question I have is whether to use the existing 3.54 r&p or try to locate a 3.7 longnose r&p set. My thoughts tell me that the 3.54 would be better suited to the stroker. This is a street driven 1971 240Z that will likely see little or no track time. Opinions?

Go to http://www.piercemanifolds.com. They sell a high quality all-metal link in several adjustable lengths. It is reasonably priced for what you get. They are also vastly superior to the factory link. I use these at the pedal and carbs. A lokar cable operates between the two.

If a gasket is leaking you'll probably never get it to seal again without replacement. When installing the intake/exhaust I run all the fasteners up snug. Then I always torque the exhaust bolts/nuts down first. The upper intake nuts are done last. My experience has been that this greatly reduces potential leaks especially with a header (not applicable here though).

About the R200 output shafts, It is my understanding that the LSD diff's will fit the early R200 casings. The diff and axles should be swapped as a set. As seen in the photos the S13 and S14 diffs did use the 3x2 bolt pattern I want to retain. Over to the pick-n-pull Friday morning to look for a donor 240SX.

Look at my gallery and posts regarding CV axles. I used EMPI axles. The adapters were not a major problem but were not cheap. I spent roughly $325 on the adapters and drilled/tapped all of the holes myself. If I were to have these copied the cost would reasonable. The 930 CV's were around $55 each. The big cost would have been the 4 boot flanges but I lucked out on these at about $30. Porsche wants $129 a piece!

Back again. I've been over at http://www.driftworks.com perusing through the forums. There are a variety of 6 bolt output shafts (side flange) for different applications (manual, automatic, HLSD, VLSD, etc.). Before I look further can someone tell me if the open diff and CLSD output shafts are the same pline count and length or do I need to find a long and short pair? It would be so much easier with a bunch of parts lined to test fit....sigh.....

Will these fit the long nose R200? They are for the S15 HLSD diff but are purported to fit the S13, S14, and 240SX. The parts numbers follow. 38220-4P061 38220-4P060

How about this JDM diff shown below? This the very pattern I'm looking for. Will these flanges snap right into a long nose R200? Will the flanges of this Q45 diff snap into a long nose R200? If so, I could machine new adapters to use these.

I'd be interested in this. Besides the cool look it is a remedy for the fume ingestion we suffer from.

Me either. I was hoping someone could come up with another application that might use something like this. My axles are lockwired and I don't feel like pulling them just yet. I'm building a LD28/P90A 2.9 stroker to replace the L24. When I'm ready to swap engines then I'll pull the axles to have another custom set of adapters made to fit the later 6-bolt patterned R200 flanges. It's only time and money.....I wish I had plenty of either!

There's a chrome plating shop near me that will repair, fill and rechrome these bumpers. It isn't cheap but the finish is better than OEM. They just did some work on a set of early Talbot racing mirrors for me (aprx $300). Pricey, but professional. A pair of bumpers would run around $1000. Sounds really high until you remember that these pieces are no longer available.