sweetride2go

Here is what I did for mine, on page 3, last post (#60). I threw in an extra u-joint in the steering shaft, but keep in mind that I am using my own motor mounts, not the JTR ones. Also, I needed some extra clearance for my 1-3/4" headers. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/46504-lt1-and-subaru-rack/page__st__40'>http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/46504-lt1-and-subaru-rack/page__st__40 Starting on page 1, post #2, you can see how you will have to notch the cross member and motor mount support for the steering shaft pinion if using stock mounts or the JTR setup. As far as I know people are using the OE steering shaft with vary little modification with this current setup(cut and weld?). http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/46504-lt1-and-subaru-rack/ Cheers Ryan~

I used the JTR mounts, on my first v8 Z. They aren't hard to fab, or you can buy them, and they work well. The second V8 Z I made my own mounts... But I still vouch for the JTR mounts in an unmolested Z. Cheers Ryan~

I didn't have to notch mine, but I also didn't run that steel spacer they give you with the poly mount, and I ground some poly off to get the mount to sit nice on the nose of the diff. Polyurethane grinds much better than I thought it would, haha.... Cheers Ryan

Awesome! I am looking forward to it. I have only seen two other people do this successfully, neither which I could see how they did the hinges well... Ryan~

I have been digging, but without much success(I find I am less successful with Google than I used to be...). Finding spline counts on carriers seems to have become a PIMA. Most of my success has been on 4x4 forums, but I find their "actual data" is conflicting and wrong in some cases. The H233B above has 33 spline stubs, which is great for strength, but unfortunately leaves slim pickings in my being able to find anything else that uses 33 spline stubby axles. JMortensen brought to my attention the possibility of using other carriers, which I am also in the search of. Right now I'm looking for late model Mustangs, which use a 28 spline axle I believe...

Well, the H233B side bearings are to wide/small for the R200 housing. Oddly enough, the 200 side bearings have a smaller ID (.010)and a larger OD than the 233's. So I removed the 233 side bearings and off I go to the machine shop. There we shaved down sides where the 200 bearings will be pressed on. Only other problem is that I only have one R200 bearing... Here is the pictorial progress; This is half of the 233 with a 200 bearing partially pressed on. The bearing on the top left is what came off the 233... Some of the prior machine work, relocating ring gear bolt holes for the 200 ring gear. Also notice that we had to shave off a lot of the old carrier, hence the half-round holes on the outside of where the ring gear mounts. We also had to shave down the outside of the carrier, 'under' where the ring gear goes as to allow it to slide on, and you can see that here. This has all been done on a mill, but could have been easily done on a lathe... I am now in search of a R200 carrier and one side bearing, somehow the old one got lost and I need it to make measurements from. Also if anyone has a set of 3.9 gears, haha. That is the latest as of now... Cheers Ryan

There is always, "ShinyImpairedBlack" But that probably wouldn't fit...

I would love to do a fuel cell, except they are so darn expensive! I modified my stock fuel tank, but I can tell you that if I were to do it all over again I would do a fuel cell. Looks good John! PS: Did you find a way to seal out your strut towers with your new rear suspension yet?

I'm not sure yet. I'm hoping to get the carrier in the housing this weekend if I have time.

It is out of a live axle, so there is no stub axles, just really long ones, haha. I am going to design the new stub axles to accept the old school 4 bolt half shafts, and the newer 300zx CV shafts that people are running with. But I'm still in the process of drawing these up. Actually I'm still making sure I can get the side bearing situation figured out before I start on the stubs, which is the more expensive part of the project. Free play issues? I'm not familiar with the term... The 233 housing sits almost exactly where the 200 one does, its just off center by .120"

A buddy and I have been working on making a hybrid R200 with H233B guts as a cheaper alternative to currently available LSD's in the Z. This hasn't made a lot of progress lately, mainly due to time and financial obstacles. However, the H233B LSD carrier is available in a lot of WD21 Pathfinders and can be found at most junkyards. This diff is a clutch type LSD and are equipped with 4 pinion spiders. It has proven itself well in the 4x4/off road crowd. Stock gearing is quite low, being: 4.88 4.62 4.37 4.11 The Pathy gear ratio's don't affect us much since we are trying to put this in an R200 housing and will be using available R200 ring and pinion gear ratio's. The first noticeable difference is the larger diameter of the ring gears and mounting surfaces. We machined the housing down and drilled new ring gear bolt holes. The R200 ring gear now slides on nice and snug. Our current problems are that the axles are 33 spline, this will most likely require custom stub axles. The other is that since this diff came out of a fat and heavy Pathfinder the breakaway torque(the amount of torque required to spin wheel independently from the other) is quite high for putting into car(or an S30 in this case). This may require shimming or changing out of certin clutch plates(see below). Picture of the H233B guts, more or less. This is the clutch pack for one side. No friction material on these, just grooved discs that are certin thicknesses. The clutch pack laid out. The two non-flat, non-splined spring plates are on the right. The radially-splined pieces w/ the tabs are the friction plates. The spiral-splined pieces w/ the “teeth†in the center are the friction discs. Notice the small retainers that sit on the outer tabs of the plates. One clutch pack/side gear assembly. So far we have acquired an R200 for free(used for measuring, parts, and final housing), and a junkyard special H233B, with a grand total $75 invested, not counting donated machine time. Of course we still need stub axles, which will be more $$$, and side bearings. To be continued: Cheers Ryan~

I have a louvered hood and still get a lot of heat transferred through the firewall and floor. I'm currently in the process of insulating the firewall and floor. I'll give y'all an update in June as it isn't a problem in the winter months, haha. Cheers Ryan~

Oil Pan update #3: The Z31 pan wont work either, it is deeper in the front than the truck pan. So this leaves me cutting the truck pan, and adding metal to fill in the gap. The engine is pretty much buttoned up, other than the pan, and I am waiting on the turbos to come back. Then it will be a matter of weather, and finances. I was going to do the swap over 'Xmas break', but I realized that I could not afford certin things that still need to be paid for, like exhaust, oil cooler, intercooler piping, gauges, engine mounts, etc. Now I am waiting for the threat of snow to leave, and hopefully by then I will have the finances and final parts set aside I can start the actual swapping, which will probably be around 'spring break' time...

Stock tranny should be fine if you don't abuse it. Especially in the 400hp range. The later Z32's had different syncro's. Use a good quality, thin GL-4 gear oil. GL-5 or "GL5 compatible" gear oils will kill the transmission, to put it plainly... Cheers Ryan~

That tail looks just like mine! I think I like it mounted higher where you put it then where mine sits. I wonder if it functions better there? Cheers Ryan~

Latest pan issue... So after installing the filter tree I realized that the pan bulges right over the top of where the filter goes. Great... So I grabbed my pan, and purchased a filter, and put the two on and look at what happened! Ya, more pan modification to come... This angle shows everything the best. Here you can see the filter is actually holding up the pan from sitting on the block. Also you might notice that I made some changes to the filter tree, by moving the sending unit. The brass plug is where the sending unit used to be, and it would be pointing out straight into a frame rail or inner fender, so I needed to move it. Lucky I found another spot on the filter tree, which was 3/8npt, so I threw a 3/8x1/8npt bushing in there and relocated the sending unit and put a 1/8"npt plug in the other hole. I also cleaned out some sort of pressure regulator that controls oil flow to the oil cooler. Lots of junk in there. It is behind the large hexagon nut on the left of the tree and was really in there, I thought I might break it taking it out... Here shows the actual filter/pan interference... But luckily it doesn't look like I will have to take much off the pan to make this work. So off to fabrication land! That and I am installing injectors today... Cheers

Oil Pan update: I took some new photos of the my main concern in the oilpans. After taking some measurements the truck pan will have to be "stretched" 3/16-1/4". This is due to the oil TT oil pump being .180" thicker than its predecessor(the single cam vg30). My best idea to date is to cut two pans in the front, one a lil short and one a lil long, then take the difference from both and weld them together. I only have one truck pan, but I have a buddy that has several Z31 pans that I could use for the other 'half'. I will not be cutting up the Z32 pan since I found that it has some value in it, if left in good condition. This is a poor image showing the two pans side by side again. Z32 pan on left, D21 pan on right. Here is a better picture showing roughly the difference in the length of the two pans. And this is where I am considering cutting the pan, then taking the other pans section which would be about 1/4" longer and adding it to the front. Of course if I do this I am going to have to consider the possibility of warping the pan with the heat of welding. Lucky me, eh? haha.

New update, now with pictures! yay Ok, so I found that the truck oil pan and the car pan are NOT direct fits. Neither are the pickup tubes. The car pan is about 3/16" longer in the front. I tried to fit the truck pan on with the oil pump in place and it wasnt going. The truck pan fits perfect till it gets to the oil pump area, where I discovered the TT oil pump is roughly 3/16" thicker front-to-back. This put the TT pump right against the truck pan, not allowing it to fit all the way down onto the block, that and making the bolt holes off by the same amount just at the pump. Best thing I have figured so far is to cut the front off of my truck pan, and "stretching" it the given length. I thought I had pictures of this but apparently I was wrong. So hopefully you can see the difference in this old side-by-side pic. You can see the difference right in the front of the pan... The TT oil pump also sits about 1/4" deeper (top-to-bottom) into the pan, and this makes it so the truck pickup tube mounting tabs (the tabs that bolt to the crank girdle) are off the same amount. This doesn't take into consideration the difference in diameters between the two pickup tubes. So I may just be fabricating one of these as well... In the meantime I have been working on various parts of the engine. I checked all the injectors for resistance, 10-14 Ohms, and to make sure they clicked. Two were outside of specs. The block has been painted and the rotating assembly has been installed. And my machinist buddy even made me a nice tool for installing the think input shaft support bearing that goes into the crank.

This might help you out. If anything it is a good read. Though I don't recall if this was for a 240 or a 280... http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/29786-painless-harness-to-z-column-harness-headlight-combo-switch/ Cheers Ryan~

PS: If you were to just cut out the spare tire well for clearance, etc., then that isn't such a big deal. Making the mounting points and such wasn't that bad. I just wanted to be clear, that modifying the tank ended up being a PITA.

I cut out mine as well, and immediately had to consider the OEM mounting points since I decided to use the original tank. I also modified my tank, adding 5" to it. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. I would have been spent way less time fitting in a fuel cell. This shows the metal I added. I MIG welded it, pressure tested it, and ended up with 31 leaks, haha. Eventually I took it to my brother who is a great TIG welder, and we fixed it all. Since I used the original straps, I need that hanging point from the peice mounted to the spare tire well. I took some measurements and ended up making this... I also modified the cross-member so I would have more clearance with dual exhaust. What I didn't show is the upper brace for the tank. Since the original tank was 'pulled up' against the spare tire well, and mine was no longer there, I took some 3/4" square tubing and mounted it horizontally front-to-rear, adhered some rubber, and everything cinched up great. I am still using this set up today. In hindsight though, I would never try this again. A fuel cell would have been easier, and more functional. Someday I will probably take this out and replace it with a cell... Cheers Ryan~

I don't know of anyone using them on a Z. Yet. JustinOlson was thinking about using them at one point, but I never heard if he decieded to go through with em. http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/69605-aluminum-front-struts-for-drag-car/page__p__657132__fromsearch__1#entry657132 I installed a set on a tube chassis set up for drag racing in a customers car. The craftsmanship and components seemed to be vary nice. I never got to find out how well it worked though. I have better pictures now, but this is a tube chassis drag car, not a Z. I think it is doable though. Cheers Ryan~

I redid mine with an AmericanAutowire harness, I don't care for the Painless kits. And I'll tell you that Hoov and Goth are right, and I wouldn't do it unless you really needed to. My OEM harness was chopped up from previous owners and had flaky connections, so my car needed it, and I am fairly comfortable with electrical. Even though there were areas where I needed help, like with the combination switches. I originally though this car was simple, and how many wires could there be, but after you get it all run there is a lot. This is a good thread to read just on the combination switch wiring: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/29786-painless-harness-to-z-column-harness-headlight-combo-switch/ Whichever way you decide to go, good luck. Cheers Ryan~

I decided to rebuild the whole engine. I was into it to the main bearings, but it was filthy inside, so I decided that, heck, might as well rebuild it, right? So as I speak the block is in the machine shop getting a light hone and a thorough cleaning, which it needed really bad. The heads are also off, getting resurfaced, the guides replaced, and the lifters cleaned. There is this horrible disease that I have where I can’t leave anything well enough alone, so I’m sending the ECU off to be flashed for more power and so I can run a single MAF. This means that I will be selling the Sillen unit, which uses two MAF’s. I still need to test the injectors and the ignition coils, replace the rubber fuel line, and then reassemble the engine. I should have the block and pistons back Friday, so as long as my rings come in then I can start assembling the short block until the heads are done, which are a week or so out. As soon as the engine is assembled, then I will be yarding out the KA and we will get a first look at how well this cube of an engine fits, and where/what I will have to modify on the truck. Since the last update I have also gotten the clutch, and all the PCV hoses. Damn this engine is expensive… Also, I will be looking into those Ford motor mounts, and also thanks for the tips and such guys. =)

Thanks guys. I put a cooler on, and checked my pulley ratio's. The pulley ratio I'm running now allows the pump to run slower than in it's predecessor GM setup. The cooler helped a lot. Now it runs barely luke warm to the touch. This could be partially due to the oversized cooler I am running, I had a trans cooler laying around... The power-steering is nice too! I think I could really get used to this, haha. It's responsive, but yet I can still feel the front end, descent feedback, and it doesn't steer too easily. Hopefully this is it, 'cause I'm sooo tired of making/modifying braided stainless AN lines. Thanks again Ryan~