RPMS

Gentlemen, I've got two carbs sitting here in front of me: A Holley 4165 and a Quadrajet Both are older units with automatic chokes, and both need to be rebuilt. The Holley came off the 1971 Chevelle that's disassembled in my sister's barn, and the Quadrajet is a non-electronic one off a late 1970's Chevy truck. Other than the need to be rebuilt, they're in fairly good condition and appear serviceable. I've got a mild Chevy 350 engine with an Edelbrock Performer intake driving a 700R4 tranny with a stock torque converter. Driveability is preferable to ultimate HP, but I'm not willing to lose too many horses in the process. So. With all that information, which carb should I spend my time/money rebuilding? Which one will give better performance/driveability/economy? Thanks,

Doug, When JR sends you those pictures, could you please scale them down to an appropriate size and post them here as well? That's the sort of information I'm sure many people could benefit from. If you have no place to host the pictures, you can send them to me and I'll put them on our server. Thanks to both of you!

Mike, Thanks for the tip. I'll give them a call and see what they can do for me.

The engine and tranny are in, and now I need to get the driveshaft made. Does anyone have a recommendation for a decent fabricator anywhere within 100 miles of Dallas? Economy is a big concern - it doesn't have to be pretty, it just has to work. The shops I've nosed around in want to charge me 200-300 bucks for the honor of taking my two pieces and merging them. Frankly, I'm having a tough time coming up with that sort of money. I planned on something in the $100-150 range. Any suggestions?

Damn - a position paper on the BEST swap? You ain't very ambitious, are you? Opinions on this board are like buttholes - everyone's got one, and most of them stink. I think there's at least a half dozen "right" answers, depending on what you want to do with the car. For me, the best solution was the Chevy 350. Relatively inexpensive, relatively powerful, and it is by far the best documented swap. If you want to road race the car, the turbo 280 setup is tough to beat. Plenty of grunt up high, and a redline that you can scream out of corners without having to shift so soon as you might with a low revving 8 in the same price range. And the sound? Oooh, la la! Hit 7k rpm with an inline six, and your ears will spontaneously orgasm. If you're looking for the best of both worlds and you don't mind fabricating your own conversion stuff, you might try the lighter-weight Ford V8 setup. For drag racing, there ain't no substitute for cubes (apologies to Scotty and our other 1/4 mile runners!) and you might as well go with a big block Mopar. I guess what the best thing to do in your circumstance would be to pick the best documented three swaps of widely differing types so the "compare and contrast" would be easy, and you'd have plenty of backup for any of the three positions. I'd suggest the Chevy 350 representing the V8 crowd, the Turbo L28 for the inline 6, and an RB for the hot turbo 4. That way you'll be right no matter what direction you swing, and your teacher will love your paper.

ROFLOL! #18 was completely new to me! It and #1 echo my feelings PRECISELY.

Heya, BP! Ya know, I've long been curious about what 300ZX taillights would look like back there, and like many others I'm drooling over your side gas flap door. You're definitely going in a direction that I LIKE! I notice that in your most current picture, it looks like you now have a gas flap in the middle of the taillights replacing the 300ZX backup lights. Have you abandoned the side filler so you can have a fuel cell in the hatch, or what? I've been pretty much off the board for a couple of months, so if you've already explained this a dozen times I apologize. Anyway, kudos to you for your work, and I've got to say that it takes huge, swinging brass cojones for someone to dive in and modify a car that looks as nice as yours did to begin with. My hat's off to you for being a true hot-rodder!

I think the only reason anyone on that board would express a desire for a Neon over a Corvette is that they can't begin to comfortably afford a 'vette, and they're trying like crazy to justify their decision. "No, really! I don't drive a Neon because it's all I can afford - it really IS the best car in the world!" I think that, should the opportunity ever arise for these die-hard Neon fans to choose between a free Corvette and a free Neon, 99.99% of them would be jumping off Daimler/Chrysler's bandwagon faster than you can say "rice". Justification is such an ugly thing...

Great story! Pizza and coke almost shot out my nose when he described the reaction of his teenage passengers to 26psi of boost.

You know, that's intriguing. When you can, will you please put up more pictures from different angles? It looks like you did a pretty fair job! What's that material they're covered in? Scott

It isn't leaking, Joe. It's drooling while it's laughing at you. Just thought you'd like to know.

Noah, as with most things, I've got a few opinions on this subject. Unless you're going to make new boxes that contour to the wheelwell on the OUTSIDE of the plastic panels, I don't think you'll get good sound. I've heard dozens of installations where someone mounted 6" or 6 x 9" speakers in the plastic panels behind the wheel tubs, and without exception they've all sounded like crap. The owners will proudly crank up the volume to show how "good" their system is, and it will get painfully loud, then distort as the poor woofers flap back and forth, shaking themselves into an early grave. The problem is manifold: First, there is no seal behind the speakers to make for any sort of controllable resonance chamber. Second, the panels are flimsy, and without solid support the speaker baskets will move just about as much as the cone does, watering down your sound and resonating in the worst way. Third, the speakers are pointing directly at each other, and 80 degrees off axis for your ears. What high frequencies finally make it to your ears after bouncing around the cabin will be muddy and unfocused. Whatever you choose to do, make certain that your speakers are mounted solidly into something rigid and relatively airtight. Good luck, and let us know what you decide!

Davy, there's something else that needs to be said here, something that deals with common courtesy. If someone takes the effort to post something to the forum for public observation, they don't deserve to be slammed. Nothing squashes creativity like having the finger of God brought down on you because somebody doesn't agree with your idea. This forum is a lot like a brainstorming session, and one of the basic rules of brainstorming is that NOTHING gets slammed. Throw your ideas against the wall and see if anything sticks. In short, if you don't like someone else's taste, hit the backspace key and go to another topic. That said, this is not a love fest, either! If someone asks our opinion on something, by all means give it! But if they are just tossing out thoughts (like Brian did) and you don't like them, then feel free to shut your pie hole and move on. Or at least do them the courtesy of actually READING the contents of the website someone links to and learning about what you're about to criticize. And speaking of criticism, dk, your brother probably has the white/green el faces on his Honda, the ones from APC that illuminate like the face of a Timex. The gauge faces Brian is advocating can also be ordered so they backlight the numbers against a dark background, much in the same way as Cadillac, Lexus, Infinity, BMW, and yes, Nissan have chosen to do. It can be done with good taste. Don't throw out an entire concept just because someone before you did it poorly!

Um... Y'all might want to take a second look at what this company offers. These aren't paper gauge overlays, they're backlit EL replacement faces. Y'all know I have very conservative tastes, and I think they look pretty cool, especially when they're done in the backlit red style with white lettering on a black background. The only problem I see is that the pointers in the Z aren't backlit. How would you see where the needle is pointing, unless they supplied illuminated needles, as well? If they did that, I'd jump on them in a heartbeat. They'd make a great subtle update to the stock gauges.

Al, I'm sorry to hear about your son, and the fact that the insurance companies are being such dickweeds about the whole thing. Do whatever it takes to get your boy back online, and worry about the car thing later. There's a bunch of old Z's out there, and your son can't be replaced at any cost. Good luck, and keep in mind that you and your son are n a bunch of people's prayers.

Are we there yet?

You sound like a Tuning Zubehor man! Take a look at their website, and sign up for their free catalog. http://www.tuningzubehor.com Not specifically Japanese, but it will give you plenty of different ways to cook your rice. Hope you find what you're looking for!

How 'bout I write you on a daily basis so you can't forget? "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" ..... That's the sort of information I'd just about pay money to get, and deserves a prominent place in the Hybrid FAQ.

Welcome! I think $1,500 is certainly do-able, especially if you take the preferred route and buy a wrecked Camaro, parting out the pieces you're not going to use. Heck, if you do that, you might actually end up coming close to breaking even! Good luck, and enjoy your Z. They're great cars!

I want to let you all in on the celebration! I'm proud to announce that my car and I have been together for four years, as of today! Read about our first date here. Does anyone know how to decode VIN's to tell what day my car was produced on, so I can celebrate his birthday, too? Thanks for sharing the occasion with us, and have a great holiday weekend!!

Absolutely beautiful cars, but they've got two of the most tangled-up engine bays I've ever seen!

Odd that he doesn't want to separate the pair. He could probably get 20% more if he sold them independently.

Okay, what would happen if you bought ten of the ugliest styling accessories Pep Boys has to offer and put them on a 300ZX? Oh, wait - someone's already done it...

Nice car! I sometimes forget how good these cars look in silver when it's in good shape. I had a friend once who redid his 280 in base/clearcoat silver, and it seemed to glow when the setting sun hit it. Absolutely magnificent! Were the door panels like that when you bought the car, or did you redo them? Overall, it looks like a nice clean ride!