Does anybody know if there is a racing tranny available for 280zx non turbos? or what I can do to upgrade mine. I'm planning on getting a racing clutch.

 

upgrade to a T5. be all you need. What rear end you got? 3.54 or 3.90?

 

no idea what rear end and how to I check. I'm new to 280zx's.

 

what kind of 280 you got,

What Year?
What Sub Model? (non-turbo, turbo, 2+0- 2 seater, 2+2- With a back seat)
Auto, Or 5 Speed?

 

Racing clutch is usually a waste of money except for bragging rights.

Are you seriously going to have over 250hp or over 7K rpm on a regular basis?

A stock non-turbo 1981-83 tranny should be fine and get the stock 'turbo' clutch and flywheel if you want a little more grab.

 

Stock N/A tranny can handle 550WHP just dont grind gears and you'll be good

 

yeah for how many launches...

 

At least one!

Seriously, though, the 81-83 NA 5 speed is plenty strong for just about anything under 250 hp. Obviously, burnouts and drag launches will dramatically reduce the life expectancy of any tranny, but the stock tranny should be good to go.

The non-world class T5 that came in these cars is not all it's cracked up to be either. The shorter 1st gear with a 3.9 rear can definitely help acceleration, but the tranny itself is only rated for about 220 ft/lbs of torque anyway.

If you want to spend $2500+ on your tranny, you can get a T5 upgraded up to about 600/700 ft/lbs of torque.

 

i'm interested in changing the gearing in the rear end to aid highway cruiseing, does anyone make taller gears for our cars?

 

lower gear ratio (such as 3.5:1) are good for top end & good freeway rpms... taller gears (4.11:1+) are good for off the line times, but not freeway. Ya need to look @ your tranny gear ratios as well tho.

EDIT... sorry... I guess your question was "Who makes them?" I think there was a set of 411's on ebay for the R200 not more than a week or 2 ago.

 

i guess i had it backwards with the tall/short thing. i'll put it this way, what i'm looking to do is lower RPMs at highway speed

hmmm, maybe its just time for a 6spd swap

 

this was it:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/DATSU...spagenameZWDVW

man... if ya gunna go 6 speed... do a corvette LS1 swap!

I'm not sure if I said the "tall/short" gears right either.

 

What car do you have?

You want the 1981-83 non-turbo 5-speed matched with a 3.54 R200 rear diff.

That should be good enough. Don't run undersize tires. Stock size is 205/60/15 keep it the same outside diameter.

 

my car is a 1980 5spd coupe, and trust me the tires are not undersized

 

The Nismo catalog still lists all kinds of special tranny gears and racing set-ups for the 280ZX. If you have the money... GO NISMO!

Rod.

 

Unfortunatly you have the 3.7 rear and the 5-speed with the odd 5th gear. You need to swap both the tranny and rearend to get the best highway low rpms.

Either a turbo 280ZX or a 1975-78 280Z rearend will be an R200 3.54

 

1981 280zx, non turbo 2 seater, 5 speed

 

DOH! Close, but not quite. The '80 280ZX NA Coupe w/5 speed came with the 3.545:1 R180 unless it was a GL model which came with the 3.90:1 R200.

You were right about the tranny though. 0.773:1 5th gear vs. 0.745:1 that came in the 81-83 NA.

You can identify the diff (R180 vs. R200) by looking at the diff and seeing if the rear axels are different sizes. If you still have trouble, snap a digital pic and post it.

Since you already have an R180, you can just run out and find a diff from one of the following cars:

240Z 70-73 MT (3.364) (R180)
260Z 74 MT (3.364) (R180)
280ZX 79 MT,4 Spd,2 Seater (3.364) (R180)
280ZX 79 MT,5 Spd,2 Seater (3.364) (R180)

This would be a straight swap.

While you're in the junk yard looking for the rear end, you can pick up a 5 speed from an 81-83 280ZX non-turbo. This will give you the 0.745:1 5th gear which combined with the 3.364:1 diff, will give you the tallest final drive ratio

And tallest ratio = lowest # : 1 ie. 3:1 is taller than 4:1.

Cheers,
LWW

 

3.9:1 R200 rear-end with the 'good gas mileage' 5 speed. 0.745:1 5th gear.

 

Apparantly I have the 3.90. Thanks lww