johnc

I talked with John Baechtel, the person overseeing the restoration, about repairing the suspension upper and lower control arms and rebuilding the shifter. Nothing is definate yet. Right now, unfortunately, a static display restoration is planned. The original hemi engines were taken back by Chrysler at the end of 1965 and given to drag racers. The engine blocks in the photos are just that, blocks and heads only, no internals. John has approached Chrysler about supplying 4 crate hemi engines but Chrysler declined.

Way back, when I still drove my 240Z on the street in its BSP configuration I would only reduce the toe out. I drove with 6.5 degrees of postive caster, 3.2 degrees negative camber front and 2.8 degrees negative camber rear. It was "lively" and I prided myself on being able to bounce the passenger's head off the side window any time I wanted.

Here's an article in SI about the beginning of the resoration. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2005/racing/more/05/10/goldenrod/ When the car went over on display at the Goodwood festival a few years ago, the dock workers dropped it and the chassis cracked in several places. There is a LOT of work that needs to be done.

What I did on a Saturday in November. It also looks like I'm going to be doing some of the restoration work on this car. http://www.betamotorsports.com/benchracing/Goldenrod.html

Glad it got good carbs. Wouldn't want it to get any bad carbs. That would make it fat.

The GForce T5 I've installed in a customer car was provided by the customer. He says he paid $2,500 for it. The work I've had to do to install it is: 1. Build trans mount. The mount on the Datsun tailshaft sits back 1.5" farther then on the normal 240Z 4 and 5 speeds. 2. Source a Ford 28 spline yoke. 3. Have a custom driveshaft built that connects the Ford yoke to the Datsun rear flange (R180). 4. Install a new roller pilot bearing. 5. Install the clutch. 6. Source the Tilton 800 slave cylinder. 7. Machine a custom slave cylinder pedestal. 8. Machine the T5 snout to match the slave cylinder and pedestal length. 9. Plumb the slave cylinder. 10. Bolt everything up. 11. Build an adjustable clutch pedal stop. 12. Bleed the clutch system. 13. Install the driveshaft. Probably $5,500 total for the GForce T5, Quartermaster 7.25" Super Pro Clutch, Tilton 800 clutch release system, install, plumb, and test everything.

I don't know for sure, but the head I had a lot of smoothing and polishing done.

Uuuhhh, no. They are 10mm bolts. The bolt heads are 14mm but that's not how you refer to a bolt size. Bolt size is the diameter of the threaded shank. EDIT: Crap, the LCA mounting bolts might be what he was referring to and those are 14mm. Maybe I should read more before spouting off...

Yes, the R200 is asymetric.

OK, I wasn't trying to solve the problem, just providing information and I didn't confuse "heavy" with the pressure plate force. Its very difficult to solve clutch problems over the internet but here are a couple things to check: 1. Extra-stiff pressure plates often overpower the slave cylinder or even the master cylinder. When shifted rapidly, the fluid simply bypasses around the piston and insufficient fork movement is the result. In addition, at high speed, if there are add-on weights on the diaphragm fingers, they significantly increase the load on the hydraulic system. 2. In an effort to beef up the friction surface, manufacturers add extra material to the clutch disc. This can cause a problem because there's normally a slight air gap between the flywheel, clutch, and pressure plate. There's only so much room on that area. When the clutch disc is thickened, it can drag slightly even when the clutch is fully depressed. 3. A thicker clutch disk also might reduce the mechanical advantage of the clutch fork, making shifting more difficult.

I said "heavy clutch" not pressure plate. The clutch is splined to the input shaft so it adds to the MOI in the transmission during the shifts. That's one reason why small OD multi-disk clutchs are actually easier on a transmission then larger OD single disk clutches. No, its for a customer's car and yes, it runs CP3 Mod.

Don't listen to that someone. Looking at your sig its pretty obvious that your transmission is the next big weak link. Heavy clutches (large MOI) put a lot of strain on the synchros (the syncro has to slow down the transmission gears and the clutch) and they slow down the shifts. You're just going to have to be more careful shifting until you can afford a transmission and clutch that will handle 400hp.

As Drax said, there is no straight answer. There are any number of folks (some on this board) that can blow up a R200 with a stock, 150hp, L6. And there are others that have had 2 pinion R180s last for years behind a 300hp small block Chevy. IMHO, if not shock loaded, a R180 with a 4 pinion LSD installed can handle 250 ft. lbs. of torque. I ran around 275 ft. lbs. through my road racing R180s (with a Quaife diff installed) and never had a problem.

I called Reider Racing instead of Precision Gear and got the scoop on the PB: LOM55 - R180 4 pinion - $498.95 LOM103 - R190 2 pinion - $549.95 LOM59-12 - R200 (12mm ring gear bolts) 4 pinion - $609.95 LOM59-10 - R200 (10mm ring gear bolts ) NLA

All hub centric does is add a little more precision in matching the center of the wheel with the center of the hub. Its a way to reduce vibration. It does not add any strength to the wheel/hub/lug mounting system although from many thousands of Internet discussions, you face near certain death with lug centric wheels. EDIT: As Jon said above...

I didn't build the engine and I'm not an engine guy so its no hit on me. Rod and main bearings were inspected after 15 hours of racing and they were perfect. The planned refresh at 25 hours was pushed back to 50 due to the good condition of the bottom end. Remember, every engine is different and builders can tailor a lot of things to meet specific racing requirements.

Originally, they are not even hub centric in front. I have a set of stock steel 14" wheels and they do not center on the hub.

Nope, just called their tech line and talked with the rep. I suspect its the Nissan 2 pinion LSD and not the Nismo 4 pinion, but until I have a PB in my hands I won't know for sure.

OK, I talked with Precision Gear a while ago and the PB is fine for a street car. They do not recommend it for autocross or road racing.

SCCA EP 240Zs run SUs and they make 250hp all day long.

Where?

On the NA 3L I ran in the ROD, oil pressure at idle (~2,000 rpm) was 40 psi and at 7,500 rpm it was 100 psi. This is how the high pressure was explained to me:

Grassroots Motorsports recently had a good article on clutches and pressure plates. You might want to find it because it explains why you're new system is having trouble with high rpm shifts. Annular clutch release systems are very common on racing 240Zs and typically run from $400 to $800 depending on whether SAAB or Tilton cylinders are used. I just finished setting up this Tilton 800 clutch release on a GForce T5 that's being installed in a vintage racing 240Z:

Spacers are used all the time when road racing a 240Z. I used spacers varying in thickness from 1/8" to 1/2" to adjust the handling on the ROD for different tracks. Its a cheap and effective tuning tool. And, as stated above, the 240Z hubs are lug centric

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