Brad-ManQ45

The welding process also makes the metal a bit more brittle. A lot of people thaink that a solid seam is better, but racers have found that a solid seam in a torsional area will crack on one side (or both sides) of the seam. By stitch welding, you leave some of the metal a little more flexible/tensile and get the benefit of having more area welded together as opposed to the standard spaced spot welding.

You want a bias toward less overlap and wider lobe separation angles. A slightly longer than usual exhaust duration can help in reducing backpressure and clearing the combustion chamber under boost. If I remember correctly, crane may have some decent grinds for turbo apps. It can't hurt to call them.

I personally will go with the MM kit for using stock Cobra brakes on my V8 Z project, along with their kit for 240SX rear calipers. I want to use street brakes for reliability/dust covers. With 400 lbs less to stop this should be a radical improvement over the stock setup. Of course this is for an autoX type of car. For drag racing, getting some good pads on it should be all you need - you aren't doing repeated stops/braking.

If all you are gonna do is drop in a carbeurated V8, you shouldn't have much problem, if you haven't had any problems removing the current engine and tranny. You haven't specified what year Z you were going to do this to - obviously a 240/260 would be the easiest, because the JTR manual spells everything out for you. You start having to know more in dealing with the wiring harness on the Fuel Injected cars. If you plan on doing a fuel injected V8, then it gets a bit more involved - but a lot of that goes away with money used to buy prefabricated wiring harness for the computer. If this is the scenario, and you wsill use the factory FI system, then it will be a matter of eliminating extraneous wires from the factory harness and knowing which wires to hook up to the bought harness. If you understand wiring diagrams, not too difficult, if you don't - go carb. I myself have jumped in headfirst with a '75 that needs new floor pans, fender patches and new rear quarter panel. I have bought a welder, taken lessons, built a rotisserie, in the process of building a 4' X 2' blast cabinet. All this before I stuff in a Twin Turbo Chevy LS1/2 w/automatic and a R230. I intend to do everything myself, but I have removed and rebuilt engines before, done brake jobs, done suspension work, wired car stereo's, etc. I don't care how long it takes - it is simply something to do in my spare time and have fun doing and learning along the way. If you need the car for transportation, then keep it simple and relatively low powered and don't go overboard with modifications

I believe one of the Cobra Kit car companies can supply either a MustangII front suspension or one of their own custom front ends - can't remember which one, but you might want to search and see if this might be a viable alternative...

I don't think I'll be able to make it - I hope to be opening our first Zero's Sub shop that weekend.

I will NEVER do business with that junkyard again...

I have workedc on my cars in the past, but with my acquisition of my '75 V* project car, I started accumulating air tools, a compressor, welder, took welding classes, bought tubing and made a rotisserie, bought tool carts, made shelving in garage and uin basement, run air piping from compressor in basement to woodworking workshop in same and garage upstairs, run wiring for welder and more electrical outlets in garage. This is before I've done much more than remove Engine, tranny, hood, valence windshield, hatch glass and gas tank. I am continually trying to find better ways of organizing the samll garage space to provide the maximum elbow room and have tools close at hand - did I mention multiple carts? I bought a couple of those wheeled 3 tray carts at HF for $30 apiece, 4 pieces of steel angle w/holes and added pegboard across the back of both of them to hang tools on, and have space to have air tools on without having to walk across the garage for a tool. The money I have soent on tools for this project is nothing comparted to what I have to spend on her every time the better half starts in on the mess I make. Most of this mess was in cutting and drilling metal and welding the rotisserie, but every time she she's me come in after taking off parts of the car all sweaty and dirty I go through a mini version of the taming of the shrew - as opposed to the full blown version that I still don'twant to repeat. (My wife is anal compulsive about a clean house - I try my best, use mats to wipe off feet, wear latex/nitryl gloves, blow dirt off clothes - but of course nothing is ever good enough). The nice part of it is that I have impressed the neighbors with the other projects I have done efficiently because I have these tools and know how to use them. I rarely have to buy drinks because I'm able to fix stuff for them with just a little time and energy and they never complain about the noise from the tools because thay have all benefited from my having them.

I have been to LS1.com and have perused LS1Tech.com, but am finding it a little daunting to find the exact differences in blocks and heads between the engines after the LT1. I am particularly interested in any differences between aluminum and cast iron blocks. If someone courld recommend a couple of good sites for me to learn more about these engines and blocks, I'd certainly appreciate it. TIA

Plus, don't forget that the stock ECU starts going leaner around 4000 rpm. Honestly, the first thing (aafter exhaust) would be to put an aftermarket ECU in there with bigger injectors to make sure you don't lean out. I have an '83 ZXT with T3/T4 S-Trim T04B w/clipped stock turbine (put on in '94 before all the new stuiff was available) and 3" mandrell exhaust w/stock downpipe. I haved been battleing the stock ECU shutting down when really getting on it, and the engine shutting off when underhood temps get hot at idle. I don't want to throw any money at stock stuff any longer - I'm waiting for UMS to come out, then I'll get bigger injectors and do a good downpipe and upgrade the turbo to a TO4E w/stage 3 or 5 turbine and external wastegate. I do have the advantage of not needing it or the '75 V8 project car for a daily driver though. You may want to consider simply going with the 300ZX computer and mass air stuff with stock injectors - you'll probably get better gas mileage too....

No pics of zxt until I get windshield removed and take care of rust in its' framework and then get it sanded and painted - the clearcoat is peeling off. I also need to recondition the ttops. I wish I had some old pics of it to post, but hard drive crash got'em. The rotisserie is for my '75 TT V8 project...

Get a 1600 short windshield roadster and have fun with it! My brother and I did a ground up on one w/200 crank and cpistons, 5 speed and 4.11 rear - it was great until a dumb biatch in a Nova hydroplaned into it and totaled it...

In '94 whenI had to replace my turbo, Turbonetics set me up with a To4B S3 Trim Compressor section, a watercooled center and clipped stock turbine. I have noticed no difference in WHEN it starts to build boost, but it does build faster and harder, with more power on top. When I go UMS and bigger injectors, I will get a To4E/T3 Stage 3 or 5 exhaust, since I will be putting in an external wastegate and 3" downpipe. I don't want to choke off the upper end.

There is a big difference in duty cycle between the Hobart and Miller 210's. You are much better off with a Miller. Check out http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/ There IS a difference between Hobart and Miller. Miller is more for constant use, Hobart for hobbyists. I have an MM175 and the extra $ spent was definitely worth it in materials for the drive and transformers. They are both built in the same facility, but on different lines, with upgraded parts for the Miller brand.

If yours is a manual ZX or automatic turbo, the stock R200 will work fine. You might want to add a Limited Slip...

Since I have the dreaded fenderwell rot there, I believe I'll go that route also and drop my battery down. Great idea, no matter WHERE it came from! I love this site...

If you PM me, I have the article I can email in 6 parts.