Oiluj

It was $695 at a well respected local transmission shop. He completed the job in less than 2 weeks! I got 3 estimates. The low estimate was $495, but I found out the shop had a bad reputation for quality of work. The high estimate was $825.

Picked-up my rebuilt 77' 5-speed transmission from the shop today. Looks like they did a nice job. They replaced the seals, bearings & syncros. The gears all looked good, and spacing of components between gears, etc, was all within spec. I put together a rpm vs. gearing comparison spreadsheet. (attached). I'll install the 5-speed after the rainy season starts and see how it drives. I don't think I'll need to change-out the rear end, but can do that later, if required. RPM Chart.xls

Maybe next month, if it's not raining... Same day I've got a car run with a bunch of guys at work. So far we have caymen, 933 and 911 porches, a 350z, a jag xj12 convertible, a couple of older vettes, a mustang, a honda 2000, a hot rod & my 240Z. Should be fun!

James, Wish I could be there. Have Fun!

Mitchell, I can't claim any expert knowledge when it comes to breaking-in engines, but here's what has worked for me. Change oil at 100 and 500 miles. Used the oil Dave put in it for the 1st 100 miles. Probably the blend he recommended to you. Then went with Castrol 10-30 for the remainder of the break-in. Initial start-up break-in was done on Dave's dyno. I done the brake loading thing he described in the past. After that, I just tried to keep the engine from remaining at a constant load or rmp for an extended period of time. That's why my initial drives were up & down hills and on curvy roads with plenty of speed changes. Also, I endevored to keep the rpms below 5800 for the first 100 miles. Seemed to work well for me. Had a few puffs of smoke in the first 20 miles, then nothing. Engine uses no oil and oil is still looking clean. Now that I have over 500 miles on the engine, I have to decide if I'm going with a synthetic oil or sticking with Castrol 10-30.

What Carl said. I went with 15" and wish I'd gone to 16". The 16" wheels still don't look too big (modern), but performance tires are readily available. Harder to find performance tires for 15" rims.

My car still had the original u-joints with about 75,000 miles on them, but I tossed them and they are gone. If I had kept them I could have given you some info on the Nissan parts. I have driven the car and there is no unusual noise or vibration. My understanding is that Spicer u-joints are the best aftermarket product and are used by guys who race their Z's. If you are concerned about quality, I'd consider using Spicer.

I know this is not answering you question, but given the choice, I prefer no undercoating. Allows you to see corrosion problems before they get bad. Undercoating can hide rust till it becomes a big problem. My car has undercoating and I wish it didn't.

I went with "Precision" brand u-joints from Napa Auto Parts. They have std and heavy duty versions. Spicer u-joints would have been better, but were substantially more expensive and would have had to be mail-ordered. The Precision joints have a grease hole in the "cross", but come with a plug as well as the grease nipple. I hand-loaded the bearings and body w/ high-temp grease before installation as opposed to using the grease nipple. That way I "know" they are fully lubricated. Precision u-joints have a lifetime warrantee from Napa, so it's convient if I have any issues down-the-road. Warranty covers replacement of the part. Probably a mute point though. I kept the reciept, but it's unlikely they will fail anytime soon. Quality of the new u-joints looks pretty good, (machining & surface finish). We will see how long they last. My existing u-joints were just starting to go, (making a small amount of noise), but no play could be detected "by-hand". Now instead of three distinct "thunks" when the clutch is engaged, all I get is what is probably the play in the differential.

What brand bump stops did you get? Mine just slipped over the shock rods and fit up into the upper spring seat.

I looked at your pics. Very nice! That's a clean body shop.

If it were an early, unmolested 240Z, I might suggest that you make everything "bolt-on reversible. But as there are still plenty of 280's out there, go for it, do what makes you happy! Also, I agree with espark, if you aren't keeping it "stock", don't think of it as a monetary investment. Have fun!

Today I installed my RT diff mount. I went the bump-stop and lower cross-member route. Cut-off 3/4" from the bump-stop worked great. No iterative cutting & fitting required. Did have some initial difficulty getting the RT mount in-place, but a little "persuasion" with a small jack got it moved into position. Found that I had to install the bump-stop after getting the mount partially in-place, but not moved-up into the final position. Also found that lowering my exhaust a about 1-1/2 inches to get it past the exhaust pipe. Replaced the u-joints in my driver's side half-shaft while the car was on jack stands. (Did the other side last weekend, but didn't have time to do both). Used my vise to drive the bearing caps 90% into the castings. Then used a socket and hammer to gently tap tem into final position before installing the retaining clips.

Les Cannady sells the mounts and speakers for the stock locations behind both left & right panels. I fabricated a mirror-image speaker mount for my car, but it would have been much eaiser to buy Les's product.

Was curious, so today I did a 50 mile freeway drive. Stayed between 65 and 75 mph and she got 25.6 mpg! Now I'm wondering what she'll do with the 5-speed!

Yes. He did what they call a "touring" head with a stage 3 cam. The combustion chambers are reworked and on my e-88 head the valves were enlarged to fit the 280 valves. If I recall, the cam is .480 / .280. Idle is a bit rough, but it really revs fast! I'm very satisfied with Dave's work. He's an expert on tweaking the L-series engines.

Will the stock knob fit the MSA shifter?

Just finished a 290 mile drive in my 240Z to finish breaking-in the engine today. Travelled from the San Francisco peninsula and picked-up a buddy in the east bay, about 70 miles away. The second stop was at Rebello Racing in Antioch where my engine was rebuilt. Showed the completed car to Dave Rebello, so he could see his 2.7 upgrade installed. Dave complimented me on the car and pointed out that my harmonic balancer has the beginning of a wobble. Nothing to be concerned about, but he suggested it be replaced down the road. He also suggested that rebuilding the distributor could improve how the engine runs on pump gas. We filled the tank and crossed the San Joaquin river over Antioch bridge into the delta proper. The SF delta is full of winding levee roads with a 10 to 20 foot drop on either side. On one side is water, the other drops down to farm fields or orchards. Safe speeds on these roads ranged from 25 to 70 mph with all kinds of road conditions. We passed through several small delta towns, Isleton, Locke and Courtland, making a few stops at delta resorts for refreshments and lunch. We made it almost all the way to Sacramento, traveling the back roads. After dropping-off my buddy, I got caught in rush hour traffic for about 90 minutes on the way home. I travelled a total of about 20 miles in stop & go / very slow& go traffic. Even with the heavy stop & go traffic, the car still got 23.4 mpg. Better than I expected! Without all the stop & go traffic, I’m sure it would have easily exceeded 24 mpg. I still have a squeak under the floor in the differential area. As I have changed the u-joints in the half-shafts, I’m thinking it may be the diff mount, a loose exhaust hanger or the exhaust pipe rubbing somewhere. I’ll take a closer look next weekend. Now that the engine has over 500 miles on it, this weekend I’ll change the oil, re-torque the head and manifold bolts. Sorry, no pics. I forgot to charge my camera battery...

I had a baby poop yellow pinto in college. Was always reilaible, cheap transportation. I had no complaints, but was never rear-ended...

Dang! My bride already has plans for me that weekend.

Was in a coffee shop in San Francisco this weekend and picked-up a copy of Classic Motorsports magazine. Classic Z's are in two articles. One is "35 Cars You Must Drive". The 240Z is included in the list with some pretty nice cars, along with some comments by Pete Brock. From memory it's something like: "The datsun pulls like a Triumph, revs like a Jag and has the looks of a Ferrari." The second short article is "The Mitty salutes BRE". Kinda cool our old cars are getting some press!

All three of these are on my first-pick "favorites" list. Especially "Brandy" by The Looking Glass.

You can rebuild the fan clutch, it's not hard.

Like anything else, some stripes work, some don't. I agree it needs the thin side stripes.

I'm just starting to put together a list of my favorite songs from 1970 to 1974 that I plan to burn onto a CD for when I drive the Z. Moody Blues, Santana, Led Zepplin, Steppinwolf, Elton John. Youngbloods, Guess Who, Shocking Blue, etc. About 100 songs in all.