New member questions/comments

[Guest Anonymous]

Hi all,

 

I'm new to this site, and man, I'm glad I found it. I have a '71 240 with a 350/350 combo, and a thoroughly thrashed r200 3.90 lsd. It's about to fall out of the car. This car had a much more serious 350 in it for a while when the previous owner had it, and he sprayed 300 hp of nitrous on it. Yes, you read that right-300 hp. At the track (dragstrip), he'd roll out to about the tree or a little later and hit it. The car saw a number of 9.60 passes, and one 9.52. I know a bunch of folks probably think I'm lying, and frankly, I don't blame you. Let me explain a little more-he wrapped the motor to around 8600. That's how he managed to run the mph required for these times with no overdrive and a 3.90 gear. It was no stocker, that's for sure. It had a good size roller cam, brodix track 1 heads, 13:1 compression, etc etc. I traded my '87 buick t-type for it with that engine still in it. I eventually sold the engine to an idiot who destroyed it by trying to drive it on pump gas all the time. Anyway, the car now has a much milder 9.5:1 roller cammed 350 that runs just fine on pump gas. The rearend is currently making all kinds of noise. There's a helluva lot of slack in the pinion shaft-if you're under the car with the trans in neutral, you can turn the pinion shaft almost 1/4 turn without the wheels turning at all. You can imagine the noise going down the road. I haven't had one of these rearends apart, but I suspect that if they use a crush sleeve to set pinion depth, it has probably been crushed excessively by the torque, thus screwing the lash/depth settings up. (doesn't the pinion try to walk forward in the case under acceleration? I may be all wrong here, I don't know.) Anyway, changing the rearend oil results in 1/4 handful of steel filings with the old oil. Needless to say, that rearend is about gone. I have recently bought a couple of r200 3.54 non-lsd differentials pretty cheap. One of these will soon go in the car. I'll probably pull the cover off the 3.90 unit that's in the car now and take pictures-it should be interesting. Anyway, I'm sure I'll be asking a lot of questions in the future, especially about how to get my car to handle and ride better. (you don't want to know about how rigged the suspension is) Please don't flame me about the times this car posted before I got it-I'm not making the stuff up, and I have no reason to come to a forum and lie. As unlikely as it sounds, it's true.

[Mike kZ]

Welcome V8440! We all believe those numbers 'cause we have seen them before. A few guys here have done that. definitely change out that rear it sounds like it's toast! Where in AL are you? We are having a Z car shootout in Montgomery AL on Sept 13, and would love to see you there with your Z. Check out "Anouncements" for Southeast Shootout.

[Guest Anonymous]

What a coincidence, I'm in Montgomery. Barring some unforeseen problem with the car, I'll be there.

[Mike kZ]

Cool!, go to this site to register :

http://z31.com/sezs/

then go to this tread:

http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=001077;p=1

and read what's goin on, and we'll see you there! Maybe you can help us find hotels near the track.

[jt1]

the R200 doesn't use a crush sleeve, it has a big spacer and shims. You've either toasted a bearing or the R & P is just wore out. Not suprising running those kind of times, that's fast. Find another R200 (the lsd will be the hard part) or rebuild that one. Changing the diff out isn't a big deal.