Calvin Grannis' 1974 TR6 with LS1 (project diary)

[74ls1tr6]

I know bringing up and old thread for you to read!

Lately our MGB GT has been at the blasters getting all cleaned up. It had some more perforated holes show up on the floor boards looking like Swiss cheese. There were some other areas too. So I had the shop spray some miracle metalized material over all those areas.

That being said, I had some time to work on the TR6. I took the R200 408 geared diff apart (I purchased at U-pull-it for a whopping $75, normally they run $275 on up), cleaned out, checked bearings and the such. All looked good to go. Put some paint on the case, and cleaned up the diff cover some. I may polish it out some, wipe some Sharks hide on there. While I have the 354 diff out, I'm going to beef up Richard Goods diff bracket on the front mount. May even do the back mount some. I'm also going to try and lengthen the rear sway bar + move up the center part of the bar. This will take care of 2 issues I have. It will give adjustment for the sway bar and give me more clearance for the mufflers. I will be able to hide the mufflers more closer to the trunk area. This will make it look better from behind.

These are some TO Do's I want to get done before this years BV8 meet. I need to install a catch can so it won't smoke anymore. I experienced that on Mid America Motorplex Speedway last year.




I'm going to cut those ears off on both sides of the diff cover. Those are for the ABS sensors that the Nissan 300zx used. This is a 96 diff with a smooth cover. The 354 diff has a fined cover. Both are VLSD R200 diffs.  7 7/8" ring gear I believe.


Brenda's GT teaser.....I know I need to update the build thread so it can feed the illness! I had them blast all the undercoating off the wheel wells and underside. There are a lot of mods you can't see here but some are visible. They will be shown in the build thread. This blasting will cut down my build time, money well spent.


Gt was getting some primer sprayed on at the time I stopped by. I will pick it back up this Saturday. Then stuff is going to be mocked up. Suspension is going in, engine mock up etc. I'm looking forward to it. I have a ton of parts ready so it should move right along.


So this was a Calvinator labs update haha!

[IaTR6]

Calvin, I have a '94 Q45 R200 diff., and would like to know if you are sourcing a flange yoke in 1310 series u-joint to adapt your driveshaft to the diff.? I have found a PTI 3102-69 to be the one listed for Nissan, but cannot find a listing for Dana/Spicer. Of course, I haven't been to the driveshaft shop yet!
Thanks,
Dennis

[88v8]

You probably know, but if you bought Richard's mounts for a while you may have had them before he amended his instructions.... there's a specified tightening torque now for those countersunk setscrews that hold the rear mount to the diff cover.
Having said that I forget what it is, you might check with him.
Didn't torque mine enough to begin with and one came loose.

Ivor

[Phil Crawford]

Calvin,
Sorry for the delay in my reply.  I did install the 3/4" heim joints in place of the over size ones and replaced the steering column bushing and this took about 99% of the slack in the steering.  Have you thought about installing power steering? I have been looking and thinking about the electric type which I have no room under the dash and the traditional style of belt driven pump. I really dont have room for the pump unless I  run it off of the crank like a boat water pump. Like to hear any ideas you have.
Phil

[74ls1tr6]

Dennis, I just let the driveline shop install the best and strongest u-joints + flanges on the driveline.

Ivor, Yes those counter sunk screw bolts need to be torqued big time. Mine were starting to loosen up when I took out the 3.54 diff out. A little lock tight went in this last time for sure installing the 4.08 diff back in.

Philip, I really haven't thought to much about power steering on the TR6. My car turns pretty well without it. Just the first few feet of rolling maybe.

I like the 4.08 diff better with this cam I'm running. The cam would surge in higher gears if I didn't down shift into a lower gear in time. the 4.08 seams to be a smoother ride.

So to do the swap I needed Richard Good to make 1" adapters(in between the stub axle and the CV axle), and make another driveline that was 1/2" longer because of the pinion area being shorter (different placed sensor, Q45 has one sensor in the pinion area where the Z300ZX has two on the half shaft stub axles. The flange on the Z300ZX R200 has a smaller diameter flange than the Q45 R200).


Has anyone had their car called a Restomod?

Went to the Western Festival since Brenda was entering our business booth at the show. So this has been the third time I have enter our TR6 at the Classic car show that same weekend.

Our car won the best Restomod award of about 175 hotrods or so.

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm new to the forum, and found your Tr6 in the photo gallery and then followed the link on one of the captions in the gallery to this thread.  I see no one answer your question about a "resto-mod."  Basically a resto-mod is a car that looks stock on the outside, but has been hot rodded under the skin.

I was curious about how your weight distribution is.  I read through this thread, but did not find any mention of having the car weighed.  Since the engine is aluminum, and the t-56 is close to the center of the car with the battery moved to the trunk, I would expect a big improvement compared with the original Tr6 specs.  Have you weighed it yet?

[74ls1tr6]

I believe with a full tank of fuel at 19 gallons it was 2656 lbs with a 49/51 weight front to back.

[MGBV8]

That 49/51 sounds perfect to me, Calvin!