jmortensen

Nissan didn't install the R180 upside down in the trucks. They just turned it around so that the cover faced the front of the truck and made the diff drive on the "coast" side of the gears as John Coffey said earlier. It's weaker that way, but it is in the front end, so it doesn't take as much punishment. Flipping it upside down would leave the pinion several inches above the oil, which wouldn't last very long at all. Reasons to stay with the R180: 1. Lighter 2. Fits with no mods 3. Can be found in lower ratios from the 200SX, but needs a slight mod described in the hybrid z FAQ post Reasons to go with R200: 1. Stronger 2. Can handle V8 power 3. 87-89 300ZXT came with LSD 4. Very easy to find 3.90 gears from 280ZX The "what parts do I need" question is answered in that FAQ that Mat linked to as well.

Adding the big tank should help because the motor won't be on as much if you're not running an air sander or something that you can run for an hour at a time. So if you're using say, an impact gun to break loose your lug nuts, with the small 15 gal or whatever size tank, the pressure in the tank might go down enough just while you're breaking them loose to cycle the compressor on. With the 120 gallon tank hooked up, no way. I have basically been trying to break my 20 gallon, 5hp compressor. It is an oilless and it is so freakin loud I can't stand it. In an attempt to justify a nice 80 gallon oiled 220V compressor I've been not waiting for the compressor to catch up. I swear I've had that motor running for 2 hours with about 5 minutes of rest quite a few times now. It's gotten noticably looser sounding, especially when the air tank is empty, but it keeps going. But yeah, the bigger is better idea is really the way to go when it comes to compressors.

^^^Good deal.

The A arm from the 240 is lighter because it uses a thinner walled tube on the inboard end and less gusseting elsewhere. They bolt up the same though. The 240 strut tube is an inch shorter, and it is a thinner wall thickness and smaller OD than the 280 tube. The rubber insulator that goes on top of the spring is also shorter. The brakes are different also. Not too familiar with stock drums, but I think the 280 uses dual piston wheel cylinders. Also the stub axles will be 25 spline on the 240 vs 27 spline on the 280. That's all I can come up with off the top of my head, but there may be other differences...

My understanding is that the R160 from the subarus bolts into a 510 or a Z. Once you have the side flanges from another R160 the stock halfshafts from the Z just bolt right up. The new STi with the R180 is not the same as the R180 in the Datsuns. The spline count on the side gears is different from the normal R180. There was some speculation that the side flanges from the R200 might work because they have the same spline count, but I don't think this has been confirmed yet. If it didn't work, then the next thing to try would be modding the WRX CV shafts to fit in the Z.

You might be better off going to the local equipment supply house and renting an electric impact wrench than having a shop do the job for you. I don't know what the labor rate is in the Bay area, probably $75/hour. If they charge you a couple hours it will get pretty expensive pretty quickly.

I think the official measurement is "not enough"...

Short answer = yes, with LOTS of modifications. Info here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116207

You would definitely notice the change from 3.36 to 3.54s and that would be a step in the right direction from stock in my opinion, but to really get the full benefit the 5 speed is a good idea, and you can run deeper gears. More torque multiplication and closer gear ratios (for NA L engines) = more acceleration. I'm using a 280ZX NA 5 speed with 4.11 gears, 3.90s would work well too. So here is the halfshaft. The bottom part is the inner, and what stops the compression of the shaft is when the inner part bottoms inside the outer part. By hacking off 1" off the end of the shaft you can get it to compress farther. The ball bearings and plastic spacers ride in 4 grooves on the shaft, and then the thing on the left is the ball bearing stop. I was going to cut the shaft with a band saw and then just weld the bearing stop onto the end of the shaft around the ID of it's center hole. Assemble the shaft in the normal way and that's it.

Hey, you're welcome, glad you're putting that info to good use! The thing about the 280Z halfshafts being shorter is bogus. I was convinced that the 280 shafts were shorter until John Coffey challenged me on it. I checked it out, and all of the Nissan halfshafts that I found were the same length. That includes 240, 280, 280ZX, and 510 halfshafts. Yep, even the 510 has the same halfshafts as a 280Z. There are probably some other cars running around with the same shafts too, 200SX, etc. The shafts work in the 280 because the 280 sits a lot higher in the rear than the 240. The struts are an inch taller and the insulators are also an inch taller, both of these change the angle that the halfshaft sits at. They basically end up pointing the halfshaft down from the inside to the outside, and this means you need a longer halfshaft. There is a way to shorten the shaft. I thinkTom (240ZX) has done this, and I had it all figured out before I said screw it and bought CV's instead. Basically it requires disassembling the halfshaft and cutting the inner part of the shaft down 1". There is an outside snapring that holds the "ball bearing stop" on the end of the shaft. I think Tom had the groove for that stop machined on the end of the shaft. I was going to tack weld the stop onto the end of the shaft. The shaft is hardened so I think it would be a bitch to machine. I'm convinced that a little tack weld that would be sufficient to hold the end on would not mess with the temper of the shaft. I know I had a thread about that procedure on Hybrid Z about 3 or 4 years ago. You might find it or a later one where I rehashed the procedure for someone else. I know it has come up a couple times and I think I gave my procedure and Tom gave his on a couple of those threads. If you want more help on that, PM me. It's not too difficult and I may have some old pics of the halfshaft disassembled somewhere... EDIT--The 300ZXT has 3.70 gears, and they will be a bit on the revvy side with a 4 speed, and to truly appreciate the benefit I think you need a 5 speed. A ZX 5 speed with a 3.90 or 4.11 would be the ticket I think. I think you have everything else covered.

What size tires?

Pretty common for the throttle shafts on Mikunis to be slightly bent, making one hole in the carb read different from the other on the synch tool. I've read here or at hybridz.org about bending the throttle shafts to fix this problem. I seem to recall that it's fairly easy to fix, but I'm with geezer. If it's running well there isn't much point in spending the time to fix it.

Rubbing the front valence? That sounds like a lot of caster. Lots of caster and negative camber is good for handling. So I guess you have to decide what's more important, handling or rubbing the valance...

Is that the same Bruce Palmer that is part of ZTherapy?

SU's are great on the street. The triples would be a compromise on the street but will ultimately make more hp.

Go ahead and try it. Again, it's so diluted it isn't going to hurt anything. As to Tom's point about cleaning the fuel system, I really don't think you're going to get any benefit with the tiny amount suggested. Gasoline already has solvents and cleaning additives in it, so adding this small amount isn't going to tip the scales. And one more time for the record, Xylene and Tolulene are also strong solvents. Using a 5:1 ratio, I saw no difference in mileage, so I'm just not buying that a 1024:1 ratio will make any difference whatsoever. As to the conspiracy theorists, I just find it sad how many people are going down that road. Why people seem so unwilling to believe the blatant truth and feel a need to substitute some wild alternate theory to explain how they've been wronged by some evil entity is just beyond me. In this case we don't have to prove there was no gunman on the grassy knoll or discuss the likelihood of being burnt up by the Van Allen belt, we're talking about something you can get at just about any market in the country. Even if you don't have a hardware store nearby, you can get some nail polish remover from any grocery store and it's usually 100% acetone. Try it and see. Just don't come back with some BS about how the acetone manufacturers must be in on it with the oil producers and they've now changed the structure of acetone so that it doesn't increase mileage anymore...

If you guys read that thread that I linked to it relates to the way toecutter installed the flares. Judging by my own experience cutting my fenders as well as the info in that thread, I think that toecutter has them too low and I think that he did not cut enough metal off of the lip of the fender. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, just trying to warn anyone else that decides to cut to be careful of the placement and where they cut...

I would guess that if someone changed the towers they did that when installing an aftermarket or regrind cam. You can look and see what the "A" cam is if Nissan made one, but I think it's likely not a stock cam. A lot of cam grinders will put a stripe on the cam or some other color mark like that. If you have a dial indicator you can measure the lift and multiply by 1.5 to find the lift at the valve.

It is possible they are from a newer head. You can switch them out and get a spray bar if you prefer (I would). I'd be careful running an old spray bar though, as the solder joints tend to loosen up and the end of the bar falls off, so then the cam doesn't get any lubrication at all. When functioning properly the spray bar is the better of the two systems.

You can run flares with wheels tires that don't need flares and then you don't have to cut the fenders. You're missing out on the benefit of the flares if you do this in my opinion, since the big benefit to adding flares is that it allows you to run wider tires. Here's a thread on hybrid z that might help: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=113064

Good info there. Thanks a bunch. Pics look great by the way!

So how are you liking the new shocks, and what spring rates are you running now?

There isn't a part missing, if that's what you mean. I have seen people add a brace from the bottom bolt on the front and rear carbs down to the block. With the weight of the carbs and the exhaust hanging off one side of the head that's a lot of stress on the headgasket. Personally I ran mine with no brace for years and never had anything more than the usual headgasket seepage.

I'll third that. Excellent parts and many that nobody else brings to the market. I've got his subframe connectors installed and he even made some changes to the design for me to suit my project. I don't know if he's going to have Ron Tyler's diff mount as a new product or not, but they did a short run of those and it too is a very nice piece and it eliminates the strap entirely.