RPMS

We can't abandon the People's Republic of California. They have a near stranglehold on all the rust-free Z's.

Sorry, I'm calling bullsh;t. No matter how smart Ms VosSavant is, it doesn't change the fact that there is a donkey behind one door, and a car behind another. You have a 50/50 chance, regardless of whether you switch or not. The thing to remember about statistics is that NOTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST HAS ANY BEARING ON WHAT YOUR ODDS ARE. You and Ms. Savant are neglecting this in your calculations. Even if you flip a quarter ten times and get ten heads, the odds of getting a head on the next flip will be 50/50. Sorry to burst your bubble. You're overthinking it.

From what other people have said in the past, I don't think you'd be happy with the TH350 tranny because of the high final drive ratio. They make the engine spin too fast on the freeway for most people. The 700R4 has lower overdrive, and is much better for highway use. The first few years of 700R4 have a reputation as being weak, so get a later (I think 1986 or later?) one if possible. Do some research to find out what year they strengthened them. The R200 rear end will stand up to whatever you want to throw at it, as long as you don't try to slam 700 ft/lbs of torque throught it on a dragstrip. Just a thought on the engine itself - from what I can tell, the 289 has extremely limited performance potential, and I can't imagine that parts for it would be common. Is the fact that it's free your only reason for rebuilding it? I wonder how much it might cost to invest in a tired 350 instead. I'd think that parts for the 350 would be cheaper, but I might be wrong. In the long run, it might be just as cheap to sell/trade the engine you have, and install a 350 instead.

Sounds like you have several issues which might be caused by just a few problems. First off, I agree with Tomahawk, it sounds like your cam timing is way off. If the valves were open when the piston came up (hopefully only partially open, otherwise you'd possibly crunch them) you wouldn't get a good compression reading. I'd suggest taking the front cover off and re-timing the cam. Remember that TDC occurs TWICE, once on the intake stroke, and again on the exhaust stroke. It's easy to put your cam in 180 degrees off if you're not careful. Second, your oil pressure problem might be caused by anything from plugged galleys (not likely on both heads, I think) to a bad oil pump or the wrong head gasket. Are you sure the gear to the oil pump is engaging with the camshaft gear? Look to http://www.melling.com/support/bulletins/view.asp?id=10 for advice on this. I'm not a mechanic, and I'm learning as I go, same as you. Good luck, and let us know what the problems turned out to be!

It took you this long to figure it out? Yep, you can dump a BUNCH of money into a german car and get minor improvements. You'd have been much better off just putting an M5 engine in there, but hindsight's 20/20, isn't it! I've got a 1985 535i, and with the exception of a Jim Conforti engine chip, I've left it pretty much stock. Don't be so hard on yourself - it wasn't a waste. You drove one of the best sport sedans in the world for a while, you had fun with it, and even with the money you invested you still probably spent MUCH less than you would have by buying a new car and depreciating it. Buy a wrecked car that has the engine you want, rape it for parts, then sell the remains to the junkyard. This is the most cost effective way, but it will take a bit more time and effort than buying everything new or going about it piecemeal. Funny you should ask that. I owned three Z's before I bought my BMW, and out of all the sedans I drove, only the BMW had handling anywhere near that of the Z. Good coils/struts/bushings will make the car handle like it's on rails, although it will probably be a firmer ride than an e28 5-series. They both are stable up to the limit, then they tend to break the rear end loose first, rather than understeer and plow into things. You can steer with the rear wheels in either one, but in the BMW you are more isolated from the driveline so it's harder for me to get a 4-wheel drift going. The Z feels MUCH lighter, even though the 5 is pretty lightweight. Steering in a stock, manual steering Z is amazingly precise when in good condition. The emphasis on both cars is sport, not comfort. Almost certainly, unless you do LOTS of work yourself. I've done just about all the work on my Chevy-powered 260-Z myself, and I've got about $2,000 invested in it. I'm probably in the minority, though. Most guys on this list have more than that invested in their engines alone! When you buy a complete V8-Z you'll probably spend less money, but you don't know the history of the car, the quality of the components, and you're accepting someone else's compromises. Besides that, you'll never be able to pop the hood and say that you did it yourself. To me, that's huge. Anyway, welcome to the board, and I wish you the best of luck in finding the perfect car for your conversion! Look at LOTS of cars before you lay out cash, and if at all possible, get the advice of someone knowledgeable about Z's. Someone in your local club would probably be happy to evaluate a car with you.

Hey, guys! I'm about to replace the intake manifold gaskets on an EFI chevy 350 block. The gaskets have metal knockout plates in two places, and I'm wondering whether I should remove them out or not? The aluminum 305 intake I looked at had a blank space in this area, the 350 intake seems to have a coolant passage there. Is there any reason I'd want to leave this in place? Of course, there are no instructions given with the gasket, and the repair manuals are silent as well. Thanks, I appreciate any help.

Don't listen to him! Buy the car! Buy the car! The paint ALONE is worth that much money! Well, maybe not, but if the body is as good as it looks, you've got a winner there! Beyooooteful!

Wow, what a conflicting bucket of... Well, you know. I think he's being wildly optomistic with the $8k "buy it now" price, especially in light of the roof, the Webers, the interior damage, the repaint and the automatic. As a side note, I saw a green car like this in a junkyard once, but the roof was PURPLE!!!

Looks SHARP! If my bodywork weren't already finished I'd do that myself. Kudos!

That's okay, John, I'll do it. Buddy, I'm afraid you're confusing a cosmetic fix with a structural repair. What you did in your car will get it back on the road for a short period of time, but it's not a good long-term fix. It WILL rust again, the only question is, how long will it take. Your fix bought you some time, and it would be wise to spend that time learning how to WELD. Alex, from what I see, it looks like all the things that are keeping the car from selling would be easily fixed with a modest investment of time on your part, and not a lot of money. I can't see the condition of the underside of your car from the pictures, but from what I can see, I don't think it looks in that bad shape. The rust around the hatch is easily fixed. Buy a junkyard hatch (should be pretty cheap), paint it, and bolt it on. The peeling vinyl can be removed, and you can either recover it with vinyl yourself, or you can texture and repaint the parts with SEM trim paint. Same thing goes for the inside window trim where the paint has rubbed off, or the plastic has faded. For the radio surround, you might think about buying an inexpensive aftermarket head unit from Crutchfield and getting a new surround for free, or just painting the old one. Dash caps to hide the unsightly cracks are around $100. Buy a roll of red auto carpet at your local auto parts store, trim it to fit, and swap it for nasty interior carpeting. You can also buy replacement center armrest pad from Victoria British, or even upgrade it to one which has cupholders in it for a little more money. A "lil" rust can be fixed with a wire brush and some rust-neutralizing paint. As Zpa said, if it's perforating rust (it goes all the way through the metal) you're going to have to weld new patches in. Not a difficult job, but if you have someone else do it, it can be expensive. If it were ME and if the car is in decent mechanical shape, I'd keep it. For some time and very little money invested, you can have a nice daily driver.

Re-reading my post, I can't find in there where I say that 17" wheels are rice. I believe you have missed my point, so I'll restate it here to clarify. Rice occurs when you modify your car to LOOK like something it's not. And regarding whether I'd know your wheels were 17's? Yes. Yes, I would. But then, I measure things for a living, so I might not be the right person to ask. To my eyes your wheels look out of proportion with the rest of the car. That's not to say they're WRONG, they just look larger than I'm used to seeing on an S30 Z car, so they jar MY eyes. I love the styling of them, but if I were to buy for MY car, I'd put less metal and more rubber in the wheelwells. JUST MY OPINION. The bottom line is, Tom asked for an opinion, and I gave it. I think 99.9% of 18" wheels on a Z don't look good. As Dennis Miller says, "I could be wrong."

Well, that's it. You've ruined him.

Buddy, they'd better finish that quick. If it takes much longer, you're gonna bust!

Don't let it get you down! There's not much that can't be improved by a drip razor (kinda like a wood plane, but much finer), wet sanding, and lots of gentle buffing. Just keep improving it one piece at a time, and it'll look much better before you know it.

Have you looked at SpinTech's website? They offer oval tubing and transitions. Perhaps they have stock pieces that you can adapt?

We've got a Chevy truck, and it's been more dependable that I'd feared it would be. The new Chevys seem to ride MUCH better than they used to, and I understand the Fords are pretty much the same way. Driving a new Chevy there were two things I didn't like: The steering weight felt funny, like it was too stiff. Not heavy, but stiff. The accelerator linkage, however, was feather light and difficult to modulate. The one I drove only had a few thousand miles on it, things might not have been broken in. Pushing my foot down an inch would bring 1/4 acceleration one time, and 1/2 speed the second. That was probably my unfamiliarity. The Fords, although they can be ordered with a really nice intereior, have that really, really high bed that I'm having a tough time getting used to seeing. The Chevys have those 'cateye' headlamps that don't do anything to improve their appearance, so between the two brands I think it's a draw on this one - they're both homely. Have you considered a Dodge Ram?

This is an interesting (and surprisingly civilized, given the topic) debate over what constitutes "Rice". IMHO, just because something is done for cosmetic purposes does NOT mean that it is rice. After all, we see cars painted all different colors and we don't call it 'rice', do we? We don't all drive around on stamped steel wheels, either. Style that doesn't kill practicality isn't rice. Are 18" wheels rice? Depends. If you're putting them on a trailer queen to take to car shows, no. Same thing applies if you track the car, and you NEED large wheels to wrap around a huge brake kit. If you're trying to use them as a daily driver on typical roads, they probably are rice, because they sacrifice the overall functionality of the car at the alter of style. Putting rubber bands on 22" rims isn't a smart thing to do any way you slice it, although it might be fashionable right now, just like other fashion faux pas like tongue studs, body piercings and tribal band tattoos. If looking trendy is paramount to making you happy, then feel free to go right ahead. But be prepared for people to snicker behind your back because the reality is, they will. I'm not meaning to cut you down, I just want you to understand the cause/effect relationship of your choices. Rice is as rice does.

You're going to have three issues: 1) Backspacing 2) lug pattern 3) Wide wheel clearance. Which year Firebird wheel are you talking about? Later Firebirds have a positive offset of about 50mm. The Z uses a zero offset rim, so in addition to swapping to the correct lug pattern, you'll also have to put a heck of a set of spacers on there. I don't think you could redrill the hubs to accomodate the Firebird wheel's 5 x 139.7mm bolt circle, so you'd probably need to buy custom made 5-lug hubs. I don't want to even think about how much that would cost you. With 8" wide wheels, I believe you'd need to either use coilovers or fender flares to keep them from rubbing against the strut housing or the body. Remember that your 240 originally came with a 4 1/4" wide rim. Cramming that much more wheel inside the well ain't gonna be a piece of cake. Generally, the best advice for a street car seems to be to use readily available Honda wheels with a set of Modern Motorsports spacers. If you're dead set on using Firebird wheels and you can't be talked out of it, you'll have to alter plenty of stuff to get them to work, for neglegible benefit. Good luck, and welcome to the board!

You probably want to take this to the "Fuel Delivery" forum. Oh, welcome to the boards!

Thanks for the tip! I just ordered a catalog from them.

The welding on those intercooler pipes is art. And those exhaust pipes? That's sex. The man's gonna be driving the automotive equivalent of porn.

Hell, get ME a job! Oh. Intelligence. Never mind - for a while there I thought I might be qualified.

CLASSIC!!!!

Dan, you're a saint! Thanks for your help.