Project Meat-flange - an Australian story that doesn't involve Nicole Fucking Kidman

[e30guydownunder]

You will have to report back on how hard it is to fit this mystical R200. Many ratios, combined with cheap LSD's has me interested. Even though I already bout a boat load of diffs in from the states!

1. Buy Diffs
2. Sell Diffs
3. Swap in R200
.
.
.
7. Profitz!

[Iain]

Lies. You know you want that T56 double overdrive for track use.

A theoretical top-end of 490km/h could be very useful for running away from drop bears and out-running Mad "Road Warrior" Max.

You will have to report back on how hard it is to fit this mystical R200. Many ratios, combined with cheap LSD's has me interested. Even though I already bout a boat load of diffs in from the states!

1. Buy Diffs
2. Sell Diffs
3. Swap in R200
.
.
.
7. Profitz!

Shouldn't be too difficult for you considering your/your dad's fab skills, Chris. For me, it's going to be a bit of a mission, but I'm a sucker for punishment (which I why I time how long I can stay in a room where someone is playing Celine Dion. Feel the burn - it's a deep burn!).

I'm going to get a mate to help me cut it all up, brace the carrier and get it all tacked together, then will give it to a pro to weld so I know I can trust it. Then, I'm going to get the Nissan CVs mated to BMW outer splines (where it attaches to the hub) by a local driveshaft shop who say they've done similar things for V8s before. I'm about 3/4 of the way through wire-wheeling the diff cradle now and will start posting photos of how I cut it up to suit soon. I figure this might be of some use to people on here with track or big horsepower goals.

In a very light, turbo 4cyl car you might find a Subaru R160 with an STi RA plated centre would do you and save a bit of weight. The plated STi RA R160s aren't too hard to find (I can put you in touch with people with plated R160s and 180s through my Subaru contacts) and the 160s don't cost too much. The 180s are fucking expensive, though. Personally, for the money people want for them I reckon converting your car to run on happy clouds, content rainbows and sparkles would be easier and cheaper.

This is a good link for anyone wanting more info about the R200 diff conversion, what R diffs are what, shafts and more.

http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=114798

So, now that its finally hit 9am, I'm off for a beer... hoo roo!

[Iain]

This will help give people a better idea of the Nissan/Subaru R diffs in long & short-nose...

R32 GT-R is much like the diff on the far left, apparently.

[e30guydownunder]

That subaru diff just looks weak! Haha

I thought about it a bit and all this will require driveshaft mods and shit as well :S Might be a project for later me thinks. Something perhaps of interest to you. E28 rear ends use bolt on joints at both ends of the half shafts. Plus the the CV's are mahoooosive compared to E30. The only thing is converting the rear end to coilovers or putting spring pads on the E28 control arms.

And apparently the subframe hits shit so you need to do some BFH work. But it is five lug, big axles and big brakes.

[Iain]

The R160 is easy to break. The R180 is nigh on impossible, even when doing 8000rpm 4wd launches on sticky semi-slicks, with coilovers, and +220kW @ wheels. Getting the BMW hub-end spline grafted onto a Nissan R200 shaft isn't hard at all or expensive.

Got any pics of the E28 rear-end, Chris? I'd considered welding strengthening plates into the strut towers and get it running a MacPherson rear-end, but I'm not really sold on that. Apparently it severely limits the size of the rear tyre you can run, too? What diffs can you use? I want a good plated diff - something that doesn't seem to be around for BMW diffs.

Another option I was thinking about (after seeing Mike Akard's cars on here) was fitting the Z-link E36 rear-end, but with a tougher diff. I've seen what one bloke with an LS1 E36 did to an M3 diff and driveshafts here in Sydney and it wasn't pretty (or cheap). I'm no fan of the archaic E30/Z3/ti rear-end.

PS: I have added up that this project has cost me in the order of 15 cases of beer this summer. I don't know why, but drinking beer until you're completely spastic drunk and THEN doing work on a car seems to work better on an E30 than on a Subaru. Possibly because you don't need hands the size of a crippled midget to work on the BMW. Possibly because things are (largely) logically laid-out in the BMW. Possibly because the Germans seem to know what the fuck they're doing when they build a car and have some care and consideration for the people who will no doubt have to work on it at some time, unlike those bastards at Fuji Heavy Industries who seem to delight in building completely retarded "solutions" for apparent packaging issues. Maybe if they spent less time sniffing schoolgirl panties or down at the kareoke bar they'd realise that you need the bleed nipple for the clutch slave at the highest point on the fucking thing to make sure the waffleswaffleswaffleswafflesing air is all out of the goddamn system. They might also wake up and realise their engine bay plumbing/wiring is as neat and tidy as a bomb blast in a building filled with spaghetti and placenta.

[GANSTA]

I had a crippled midget on retainer when I had my RS, but I had to let him go when I sold it for a Benz.

You can fucking dive in there and rape the starter motor on those things, it's so roomy.

[Iain]

Subaru engine bays are just as bad as French cars.

Will actually have to get out this weekend and take some half decent pics of the car and parts I'm collecting...

[e30guydownunder]

holy shit i just actually lol'd

I can take pictures but you will be less impressed than Chris Hansen after finding out a bunch of FED's are looking up child porn on the FBI's interwebs. It features the same archaic suspension design found in E30's and the like that you have mentioned hating :D

It does have a few tweaks to correct some of the problems with E30's but non the less is still a semi trailing arm design. It does however bolt in with the appropriate offset subframe bushes (10mm) which are available, unlike the E36 rear end which requires enough fabrication work to make even me scared of attempting it. Once I reach that point I will be chopping the E30 roof and pillars off and sticking them on a space-framed, fibre-glass bodied E30 silouette and going Sports Sedan....so basically never as the chances of me winning the lotto or finding someone stupid enough to give me the neccessary money is equal to that of the Virgin Mary having copulated in order to conceive the man himself, JC.

Regarding diffs. The E28 subframe can however fit the fabled 210mm BMW diff (the real large case) from my understanding. But the 210 has also been recently adapted to an E36 subframe, so I can't imagine it being too hard to do a similar thing for the E30 subframe. Saving a bunch of work for yourself.

And fitting coilovers? Without major rework to the boot floor and chassis rails you will for sure lose wheel/tyre clearence. Mahoosive flares please. I have seen one person run upside down shocks and springs, this might be beneficial in that respect.

Lol at consumption of beirs. I second your motion that working on anything other than German engineered cars seems to be a pain in the ass (fuck land rover! Those pommy bastards must be consuming a rather high quality grade of crack. I think we should import it, then and maybe only then will the true bogans that be, would realise how far behind the real world this whole "SIDI" technolgy is).

I think I have rambled enough. Cliffs:

E28 looks like E30 but bigger
210mm diff would be fucking sweet as brew
fuck land rover

OMFG finding this picture took way too much effort, and even then it is shite:

[e30guydownunder]

wooo got a R3v'd the server warnign and a double post....

p.s. whats happening on sunday arv? ill be coming back from sydo and prolly thirsty

[dirtysix]

Shes a laugh a minute round these parts.

I shoved an E46 rear end into an E30, the E36 should be easier as its round a hundy smaller.

Wish I had something to contribute to the lols but I'm all out at present.

[Iain]

It does have a few tweaks to correct some of the problems with E30's but non the less is still a semi trailing arm design. It does however bolt in with the appropriate offset subframe bushes (10mm) which are available, unlike the E36 rear end which requires enough fabrication work to make even me scared of attempting it. Once I reach that point I will be chopping the E30 roof and pillars off and sticking them on a space-framed, fibre-glass bodied E30 silouette and going Sports Sedan....so basically never as the chances of me winning the lotto or finding someone stupid enough to give me the neccessary money is equal to that of the Virgin Mary having copulated in order to conceive the man himself, JC.

Regarding diffs. The E28 subframe can however fit the fabled 210mm BMW diff (the real large case) from my understanding. But the 210 has also been recently adapted to an E36 subframe, so I can't imagine it being too hard to do a similar thing for the E30 subframe. Saving a bunch of work for yourself.

And fitting coilovers? Without major rework to the boot floor and chassis rails you will for sure lose wheel/tyre clearence. Mahoosive flares please. I have seen one person run upside down shocks and springs, this might be beneficial in that respect.

I think I have rambled enough. Cliffs:

E28 looks like E30 but bigger
210mm diff would be fucking sweet as brew

PMSL. Thanks for that pic. I had a look on Real OEM but it has the same shitful diagram. If you can fit an E28 diff to an E36 cradle I don't see why you couldn't fit it into an E30 cradle with a bit of cutting, slicing and welding. The E36 Z-link rear-end idea would definitely be a FUCKLOAD of work, but I'm not sure its legal and then there's the cost of it...

WIth the E28 centre, what LSD options are there for them? And how much? I take it they're mostly viscous LSDs? Any clutch pack ones I could tighten up with shims? I'd even consider welding up a stocker if they're cheap enough?

The engineering challenge behind it has me moist. I was even thinking at one point of trying to make a whole new (stronger) E30-type cradle with adjustable trailing arms that mated to Ti hubs, ran an R200 diff and shafts. But then I realised I'm good (good enough to finish a yard glass in record time), but I'm not that good (good enough to finish a yard glass in record time while fighting a tiger single-handedly and finger-banging a chick with the other hand).

As for flares - Meat Flange will definitely be running flares. Was all set to get some IE plastic ones, but am waiting to see what the DTM FIBURGER WERKZENHAUZEN ones look like. I will probably be forced to go IE to keep it legal as they're ABS plastic and not naughty naughty illegal fibreglass which kills puppies and sodomises the endangered red panda (OMG NOT THE RED PANDA!!!)

p.s. whats happening on sunday arv? ill be coming back from sydo and prolly thirsty

Beer? :) I'll be home, mate. Hit me up with a message and you are more than welcome to come throw spanners at Meat Flange and drink beer...

I shoved an E46 rear end into an E30, the E36 should be easier as its round a hundy smaller.

Arms and all? Pics?

[dirtysix]

This is how the E46 looks in an e30, the E36 is a lot narrower.



Installed using a floor & arch cut from the E46.

[Iain]

AhHA! So this is you!

http://www.bimmersport.co.nz/forums/index.php?showtopic=23929

???

Loved that thread - it gave me a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately, I don't think what you did is legal for road use in NSW (without crash-testing)

[dirtysix]

Yeah guilty.

If you're after a large case LSD something like this might interest ya.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...-270880390.htm

The E36 evo M3 ran a large case, but you prolly already know this.

[Iain]

Yeah guilty.

If you're after a large case LSD something like this might interest ya.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Mo...-270880390.htm

The E36 evo M3 ran a large case, but you prolly already know this.

Fark! They are expensive diffs!

I'm thinking that the Nissan diff is still the goer. For the price ($300-$700, depending how much of the cradle/brakes/hubs you want), availability of upgradable centres and strength I don't think the R200 can be beaten.

You got The Bastard Child running yet? I'm keen to see how she ends up!