Like stories like this? You’ll see every article as soon as it's published by reading the print edition of Grassroots Motorsports. Subscribe now.
MEET OUR EXPERT:
Mike Mahaffey
President, main tuner, AAM Competition
aamcompetition.com
(301) 497-9212
The GT-R is an impressive car. It can run a high-10-second quarter-mile with just a midpipe, downpipe and some tuning. However, to reliably …
Weird that the bellhousing is a maintenance item. Anyone want to tell me why?
In reply to thatsnowinnebago :
Absolutely no idea here. Ideally, a bellhousing shouldn't be moving much at all, assuming engine and transmission mounts are all in good shape. It's a big metal coupler that attaches two parts of the drivetrain... also very curious if anyone has any insight.
I wish these would depreciate. As well as the late ISF's lol
In reply to yupididit :
I wouldn't mind one for a winter daily, seem like they would be fun. What's the market like in your area? I see earlier cars going for around 50-60k fairly frequently around the Wyoming / Colorado area.
OK, hoping I won the lottery so that I can use this article as a guideline for my next project.
te72 said:In reply to thatsnowinnebago :
Absolutely no idea here. Ideally, a bellhousing shouldn't be moving much at all, assuming engine and transmission mounts are all in good shape. It's a big metal coupler that attaches two parts of the drivetrain... also very curious if anyone has any insight.
TIL.
It is easy to forget that the R35 is built like a backwards Ford RS200. The RS200 had a front mounted transaxle and a mid mounted engine. Conversely the R35 has a front mounted engine and a rear mounted transaxle. The bellhousing in the R35 just connects the engine to the driveshaft, and as such has internal bearings.
From what I have been able to gather - and if I am mistaken then please correct me - the support bearings actually get loose inside the housing, causing a rattle as they knock around, sympathetic vibration as the driveshaft can gyrate, and in more extreme cases the rattling and knocking can cause the knock sensors to read false knock so the computer pulls a bunch of timing.
Pete - correct.
Slop can develop at the bearings in the pre-2017 bellhousings. It develops play in the driveshaft and can chatter a lot when not under load. I had the bellhousing on my 2009 swapped to a 2017+ revised unit. Some people rebuild the pre-2017 housings with revised bearings too.
On your reverse RS200 note, another crazy bit is the GT-R then has an additional driveshaft ran parallel to the main driveshaft from the rear transaxle back to the front differential. All power biasing to the front is handled at the transaxle and sent back to the front.
In reply to RobertElder :
That is how the RS200 worked, too 
Since Ford didn't quite know what to make of this AWD business, there was also a shift lever to make the car two wheel drive if the driver desired.
Huh, I wouldn't have guessed any of that.
TIL R35s and RS200s are weird underneath
Had no idea, that's pretty weird!
RobertElder said:Pete - correct.
Slop can develop at the bearings in the pre-2017 bellhousings. It develops play in the driveshaft and can chatter a lot when not under load. I had the bellhousing on my 2009 swapped to a 2017+ revised unit. Some people rebuild the pre-2017 housings with revised bearings too.
On your reverse RS200 note, another crazy bit is the GT-R then has an additional driveshaft ran parallel to the main driveshaft from the rear transaxle back to the front differential. All power biasing to the front is handled at the transaxle and sent back to the front.
All I see are mechanical and underbody bits that aren't rusted and I start tearing up a little
All I can think is buying a used GT-R is riskier than buying a used "5.0" Mustang. Chances of the car being absolutely hammered have to be pretty high.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
Thankfully, if you're worried, you can still buy a brand new version of the SAME car, 15 years later :p.
Flynlow said:In reply to OHSCrifle :
Thankfully, if you're worried, you can still buy a brand new version of the SAME car, 15 years later :p.
Well that's a relief. 
OHSCrifle said:Flynlow said:In reply to OHSCrifle :
Thankfully, if you're worried, you can still buy a brand new version of the SAME car, 15 years later :p.
Well that's a relief.
All for the low low price of 125K, or if you want the racey version with carbon fiber as much as 225K.
In reply to wearymicrobe :
I'd rather pay the exorbitant prices asked for an R34 instead.
Appleseed said:In reply to wearymicrobe :
I'd rather pay the exorbitant prices asked for an R34 instead.
Been around and in both. I think a lot of us here would find the R35 cars not to our liking. The electronic interventions are amazingly good but they kick in at what I think is a lower then required speed or input. I have not owned one yet and I want to but I have trashed on a few.
Also I find the suspension completely unacceptable for the street at least in the early cars. Its a weird mix of too stiff and NVH stopping the feel cominginto the car. Again IMO everybody is going to feel different.
You'll need to log in to post.
