David, unfortunately I am out in the western suburbs of Melbourne but would take the trip out as for a few hours drive it could save me a lot of head aches with the build. I would especially like to see how you have gone about the trans tunnel modification.
I am speaking with Talk Torque for the engineering. The only problem that I can see is that he hasn't done this conversion before. A few guys on this forum have mentioned someone in Dandenong that has done a few ca18det 1200s I might even trynto get onto him?
Where is the datto day in December? I would love to come along.

I think you would be wise to visit one of us that have either finished or are a long way down the track. That would give you an idea of the complexity and cost that you'll face. I found with mine that it became a lot like the children's song "there's a hole in my bucket dear Liza" --- one decision led to another and then another, which is ok for me given the result; I have a daily drive that's my own creation and I like driving it. If I had it to do again I would do it differently (but 20:20 hindsight is a wonderful thing).

I am happy to offer you to see my car if you're near the Mornington Peninsula - I don't think i will get to the Datsun day on December 1st.


David

the main thing with the wheel bearings/strut swap is getting an engineer to sign off the use of larger wheels or increased track

if your using struts from a car that had those wheel diameters or a wider track then the engineer can be confident that this is ok on your car without needing to do calcs or in-depth analysis

which engineer are you using?

Quote:

Yes, 240Z rear springs fit, but are fairly soft.

One note on the 1200 struts, the 240Z springs will fit on the 1200 strut so that's an easy way to get stiffer springs. For the street I would also be OK with the 1200 wheel bearings.

Tom

Before having a detailed discussion about the struts have you had a detailed discussion about the turbo?

As for the Struts, I used Stanza struts for the bigger brakes (I also put rear disc brakes on from a Bluebird TRX - Model 910)

Good luck with the build... there's plenty of good info on this site

The stock wheel bearings are overly strong for the weight of a 1200. They hold up fine with larger tires and engine. Just lube per schedule and adjust per specification.

Thanks for your responses. John, one thing I didn't take into consideration was wheel bearings. I'm not sure what the standard bearing is in the stock struts but it will have it's limitations with load. As for the brakes I have some ca18 S13 calipers, rotors and whole knuckle assembly that I took from the engine donor car. I also bought the adaptor plates to suit the 1200 strut. The brake conversion is quite simple but I was concerned about the capability of the strut assembly with the extra weight and power.

The originals have smaller wheel bearings than the various options yes? This would be a factor (opinion) in wheel bearing life esp with more serious rubber than the stock wheel/tyre setups.

The strut inserts being smaller would mean that they'd tend to run hotter, and perhaps not perform as consistently, if driven on the edge in a highly developed car, but I don't know that that would be such a big deal on almost any streeter (the selection of strut inserts available in the larger size, and potentially adjustable ones too would also be a factor).

One of the advantages of teh early struts is the early steering knuckle gives more steering angle (less play - or at least it will feel like it has less) and more responsive steering. Of course, you can always get the early steering knuckles and machine the 2 bolt holes to suit the wider bolt spacing of the later bigger struts, and ream out the tapered hole (where the ball joint fits in the centre) since the ball joint pin is larger on later model control arm/ball joints, that usually go hand in hand with later struts, swapped in as a set.