Yes, I'm smilling from ear to ear.
I finally found a 9/87 Turbo Z at the local junkyard today, and I got the entire front and rear suspensions for next to nothing, including the LDS of course.
My 86 Turbo's heater core died last summer and since I love the car but I didn't feel like properly fixing the damm thing, I decided to turn the car into a track car, just for fun club and solo II events.
It's already gutted inside and now that I found those key parts, the car should be ready for some shake-down runs at Lime Rock by May.
Can some of you guys that have done this conversion before tell me if there's something I should look out for? I already received a complete bushings kit last Friday, but any other piece of advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Diego.

 

I would also like any information on a a conversion for an 86 Turbo from the original R200 differential to clutch type R200 LSD (besides the driveshaft flange is there anything else?). Also how hard is it on the Z31 to change out the bushings I just received a Polyurethane complete bushing kit and I want to know how hard it really is to install it on an 86 Turbo.

And how in the hell do you get the spark plug out on the number 6 cylinder I can't even reach the damn thing?

 

Just did my bushings... It was a tough, dirty, deal. The mechanical aspect is a 4 (scale of 10), but, the really hard and nasty part was getting the old bushings out. I used fire.

I'm not well versed on the R200, but drive shaft flange and half shaft connections are the only critical areas. I suppose you've read this?

#6 plug? Ha! That's the one you have to do by feel. Become one with your Z and you can do it. I think a couple of extensions, finishing with a "wobble" did it for me.

 

I can't even reach it . I managed to get the wire off but the spark plug is another story I used several extensions but I cant get to it. Its because of the angle its at and the lack of room.

 

well the easist is to remome the plenum.but thats not fun ethier.but if you think geting it out is hared wait till you have to put it back in.you better becom more then just one with your z more like become a zen master intune with the cozmoz.its a paine in the ars.it took me 31/2 hours to do mine.good luck

 

Yeah it looks like I am just going to remove the plenum.

 

You don't need to take off the plenum. That's really making a mountain out of mole-hill. All you need is a swivel socket and a 6" extension. Once you've gotten the plug loose, take a medium sized screw driver and slide a 10" piece of fuel line over the end of the screwdriver. Use this unscrew the plug the rest of the way and then pull the plug out. The fuel line diameter is almost the same as the top of the plug. Magic!

 

I have pretty much tried everything trying to get the damn thing off its the angle that it sits at and the small amount of space to get to it. The only way I can even reach to it is to go under the throttle body in that space there.

John when you say its a four out of ten what would a ten be on the Z31 (just trying to gauge).

 

Trust me, it can be done. I changed the plugs in my Z31 once/year for 4 years and I never removed the plenum. As John mentioned you need to finish with a wobble. Just wiggle the socket and eventually it will fall onto the plug. Attach a 6" extension to a swivel socket, then attach that to the plug socket. The rubber fuel hose on the screwdriver works wonders taking it out and putting it back in. You can do it. Just be the spark plug.

 

I got the biggest plug puller I have ever seen it should work ill be happy when I finally get my NGK iridiums and Magnecor Competition Cable Set on the car tonight besides a custom braket being made for my new electric fan I should have my Z back on the road first of next week and then to the paint shop the last week of march.

 

Guys, GUYS, we're here to help each other, but what do spark plugs and intake plenums have to do with an LSD convertion?
Has anyone done this job already? I wanna hear from you.

P.S. Removing the intake plenum to remove the #6 plug is like pulling the engine out every time you wanna change your oil filter.

 

You should only have to change out the driveshaft flange and the pinion flange to bolt on the R200 LSD I am about to do it on my Z I picked up the LSD last weekend and I hope to put it on soon (I hope) Ill tell you what happens when I do it.

 

Thanks for your reply James . How difficult is it to swap those flanges?
I'm thinking that maybe I should have told the guys at the junkyard to remove the driveshaft also, and give me that too. I failed to mention before that I bought the entire rear subframe assembly with both suspension arms, the halfshafts and the vented brakes.
Do you mind if I ask you how much you paid for this part?
I paid $300+ tax for everything.

 

I paid 350 bucks for the LSD. It is in extremely good condition and I got it off a guy who was parting out his 87 Turbo. The flanges should be easy to remove just go by the book (unbolt everything and slide everything off, the driveshaft will be easy to get off). You also have the entire assembly so you could possibly even use it for the install (I am not too sure but it should be possible). The Flanges are bolt on replacements so installing the flanges out of your old diff shouldn't cause any problems (I hope; I am just getting ready to install the sucker and I think the major pain is just getting the old one off and the new one on). The constant velocity shafts should be good check your originals to make sure there is no bad wear on them and they should bolt into the new LSD (the only time you have to replace the halfshafts is when you get a Viscous Coupling LSD). I hope it goes well for you; I am going to clean the little bit of dirt that is caked on my new LSD off today and clean it up (NO RUST AT ALL ON IT NOT EVEN SURFACE RUST then again there is absolutely no rust on my Z heh) then I am going to replace all of the seals and get ready to install it.

 

Thanks for your new reply James, again.
I was looking at the rear assembly today, and it doesn't seem like it will be that big of a challenge to swap. Now I have to wait for a set of solid alum. bushings to arrive.
Today I started to work on my front suspension, again.
In the car I have a ground control coil-over/90TT calipers conversion already in place, but now I'm going to add 87Turbo hubs, so I can use bigger and thicker rotors that I could also change in five minutes at the track. Those hubs are a direct replacement to what's in the car.
I'll let you know what happens when I do the rear end. Good luck with your car, Diego.

 

ahhh TT calipers were the only mod I didn't do to my brakes. I kind of wish I had of done the TT calipers but I think right now I can't reach my brakes full potential because of the limits of my tires and I am running Potenza RE-910s (soon S03s). Would I have to change out my rotors when I put on 88 hubs and TT calipers (I just got brand new cross drilled brembo rotors and I really don't want to change them out after the amount of money I spent on them and my brake system).
Also where did you get the solid aluminum bushings? I just ordered the all out urethane kit but even it doesn't have every bushing and I was going to see if I could get the rest in aluminum.
I hope it goes well for you I am going to try to do the LSD in a few weeks whenever I get the chance. I am just trying to get the car back together from my latest enhancing and tune-up. But it is going in the paint shop in a week so that will slow me down too.

Hope everything goes well on your car to it sounds like it is really nice.

 

Hey James, here's that link:
www.thespecshop.com
The price, for a set "bushings" that will totally trasnform the car and will never have to be changed again, is excellent IMO. Try to get them asap, so you don't have to do this job of droping that subframe twice.
The TT calipers I went for are there simply because I had them laying around, since my TT has a 13.5" Brembo conversion, and because this will be a track car. These calipers are a direct replacement to what we have stock, but they offer all the obvious benefits of 4 pistons, alum. monoblock construction, THEY DO clear the stock wheels if you still have those, AND there's a huge variety of brake pads for them. That's another big plus for a track car, and that's why I did the job.
You can't just use those calipers with you current rotors because they're meant to accept thicker rotors. What you could do, is get the thinner "early 90 N/A" calipers that used thinner rotors.
If you change the hubs, you HAVE to change the rotors, because what you have right now is meant to be bolted to the back of the hub. Also, keep in mind that 86Ts and later turbos have a wheel offset difference that complicates things even further. Since those rotors are brand new, and you have the 88 hubs, I would try to return/exchange them. Otherwise, if they've already seen some action, just keep everything as is for now. If you're not going to take your car to the track, those brakes are more than adequate for your the grip of your tires, it seems.

 

Yeah I was pretty sure it wouldn't work. Right now I am just going to leave it the way it is I don't ahve the time to mod the brakes again plus I would have to get custom brake lines and I just installed goodridge stainless steel brake lines so for now I am going to keep this set up it is plenty strong. Yeah I kept the stock wheels I like people thinking my car is totally stock and I like how the 86 Turbo rims look.
I am going to seriously look into that kit I need to see what all came in my new kit plus some other stuff I ordered.
I put 300 miles on the rotors (all break in time) before I took the car off the road for some more work. It should be back on the road this week then to the paint shop so I am going to try to fully enjoy it this weekend (hopefully the autocross course is open in town so I can really see there full potential).

 

Lucky you
The last time I drove one of my cars was at Loudon N.H., at the track day they had for the national Z-car convention, 4 months ago. After that day, I put that car in the trailer, came back to Jersey and I haven't touched any of them since.
I went to my insurer agent 2 hours ago, to put one of the cars back on the family policy, and now I see we're going to get 4 to 8 inches of snow tomorrow , right in the middle of my spring break too.

 

WOW snow whats that lol. We had snow that accumulated once here this year a whole 6 inches of the stuff lol. Its great watching Southerners drive on snow.
Lucky you atleast you have driven your Z for fun in the last 4 months lol. Since the summer I have maybe put 500 miles maybe alittle more on my Z. I have been doing lots of work on it so I never get to drive it but hopefully that will change coming up in the next few days but then it goes to the paint shop.

 

"Its great watching Southerners drive on snow."
It's pathetic to watch Northeners drive at 20mph on the highway too. Believe me, James, 4 stupid inches of this crap and it was like chaos yesterday. Some people were telling me their normal 20-minute commute took them more than an hour. Simply ridiculous...
What kind of paint job is your Z getting?
Mine will get a cheap Maaco 2 or 300-dollar job, once I finished the interior of the car. Inside it's completely empty, and I already did all my windows in Lexan. Outside, I went for the slightly cleaner lines of an 87-89 front end and hood, and I'm making my own alum. front air damn, to keep as little air under the car as possible.
I agree with you on the stock wheels, they're perfect for the car, looks-wise. Unfortunately, the wheel-tire combination weights almost 50lbs. each , and they don't help cool the brakes at all. At first I'm going to use 2 sets of 90+ wheels that I still have from the other cars. They're not lighter, or bigger, but they help with the brakes and they're free.

 

Yeah I know that up north there are troubles with snow driving to but here its crazy.
My Z is getting a professional (show quality) job. Besides driving it for fun I really want it to look nice for shows. Its going to keep stock apperance outside it is a midnight blue on top and a silver on the bottom with pin stripping to cover the paint lines (pin striping is 304 dollars yikes) And I am going to have my wheels polished even though I have friends in my Z club and around town that can't believe the condition of my wheels.
Yeah I have to agree with the weight on the wheels lol they are extremely heavy. I think I am actually going to get a good set of lightweight wheels with probably Potenza S-03 Pole Positions on them for the track, but around town and at shows I am going to keep my stock wheels and I might attempt to grab some deep dish wheels through a friend in Japan. And the brake efficiency because of the wheels is limited the reason I went to cross drilled was due to massive heat problems with the brakes but now they seem to be fine. But I still want that extra cooling on the track. On the track rims I am not worried about the rim size other then that they are fairly wide and I want them light with good tires on top.
My urethane bushing kit came in yesterday and i am going to get those aluminum bushings. Hopefully it will be completely ready for the track by the middle of may but I need it ready for the show by April 16 so paint comes first then comes the fun of bushing replacment and changing out the diff but once that is done I will be happy. My only problem is finding a good polyurethane foam distributor in the area because I am going to foam the entire chasis .

 

Sounds like the car is going to look awesome when it's done, man . You'll be spending on pinstriping what I'll be spending on the whole paint job .
I admire your courage, I don't know if I could risk a show car by taking it to the track.
Good luck getting those Japanese wheels. They have some great stuff for our Z31s out there.
Now, I remember reading somewhere that foaming the car isn't a good idea after all, because it adds weight to the car, and it can trap moisture in places that will later turn into rust. Have you heard about that?

 

Yeah I have been assesing the risks but if its done right I shouldn't have a problem. I plan on doing some weight reduction before hand. The deep dishes are a hope I have to find them first lol. I just have to get the car ready for a show April 16th and 17th the car is in exellent condition and its been in my family since it was brand new and garaged everyday of its life. The problem is the pin stripping is coming off with age and the bumpers decided to fade but oh well its getting fixed. hope your car comes out nice how do you like the Z31 on the track?

 

So you have less than a month to get the car ready for that show, you'll get it done. Lucky, you can work on it anytime you want to.
We're expanding the garage at my house, which means that none of them can be used, and I can't do any work on my car now.
This week I was on spring break and I thought I'd be able to work on it in my driveway, but I get not one, but two snow storms. More of that **** coming tonight
Z31s were very crapy on the track, straight out of the box, and they still are. Luckily, now we have the ability to do coilover conversions and everything else I'm doing to end up with a pretty decent track car. I'm estimating that I took about 600 pounds off my car already, and there's still room for more. The most important thing, of course, is the LSD, which the 86Turbo didn't have, and would cost me A LOT of time on the track. On the other hand, three years ago, I actually did the regional SCCA Solo II championship here in Jersey, and I finished second overall.
The biggest problem we have is that shitty semi-trailing arm rear suspension, that gives us huge camber changes as the loads on the car change.
The car has too much understeer going into turns and snap oversteer from just after turn-in, past the apex to your exit point. This can make the car fun on a regular track day, but frustating and slow on a real race day.