RPMS

That does look nice. I was thinking of this same idea the other day, but I wonder whether water might get sucked into the intake if the inlet ever gets heavily splashed. Any thoughts? ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Dan, you are indeed gifted, and a true resource to this board. In the HybridZ spirit, you have taken the seed of an idea and run with it to great effect. By routing the tubing outside the car, you not only provide a means of protecting your expensive paint and bodywork, but if you make the framework semi-spherical, you could end up with a car that is virtually unstoppable. If you slide off the road, the car will eventually roll until the wheels are once again pointed downwards, then you proceed on and win the race! Great idea - keep that thinking cap on!

Hmmm... That didn't work very well, did it? Keep trying! ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Pete, Dave, I think I understand what you're saying, and I'm pretty sure I'm just not using the correct terminology. The clearances I'm talking about are to the side of the crank/con rod interface, and between the con rods themselves. The book, as Dave indicates, specs .015 between the rod ends (or that's how I'm understanding it - am I reading it wrong?) leaving no space at all between the crank and the rod ends. Here's where I'm measuring what I'm calling the rod side/crank clearance I gave this .005, then .005 between the rods, and .005 on the other side, adding up to .015 total. Oh, by the way - sorry about getting my decimal places mixed up. Too many zeros! I'm not used to having to be this precise!!! The motor will turn by hand now, although it won't just spin friction-free in the journals like I'd fantasized it might! ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Pete sagely says... >It looks to me like the collector and >flange would be inside the firewall/interior To which I boldly reply... So what's wrong with that? Just plumb the exhaust to run through your tubular roll cage! There would be many benefits to this technique: 1) You'd take out a good five feet of heavy steel piping by combining systems. 2) With your mufflers INSIDE the car, you can easily remove your street mufflers at the track without getting dirty grubbing around underneath the car. Great in the rain, too! 3) You could throw away your potentially leaky, old fashioned heater core. Water belongs OUTSIDE the car, not inside. Not even to visit! Reduced chance of floor rust and stuck heater core valves. 4) Best of all, NO MORE CLEARANCE PROBLEMS! You can once again go over speedbumps without dragging ass! Why hasn't someone thought of this sooner?!? Tongue firmly in cheek, Scott

Okay, here's the poop! Last night I sat down and carefully looked at the side clearance on the rod ends. The books (I'm looking at three different ones) all say to leave about .012 clearance between the rods. Well, when I add the rod/rod and both rod/crank clearances, I've got .015 clearance TOTAL. If I make the rod/rod clearance .012, that only leaves me .0015" of space between the rods and the crank! I made a command decision and made each clearance .005". Now the engine will turn when the caps are torqued, but I'm a little concerned about having only half the recommended clearance between rod ends. Do you think this will be a problem? Everything's steel, so I'd assume that heat expansion wouldn't be an issue, would it? Oh, David - Thanks for your response. I looked at the caps, but I couldn't see any numbers on them. I kept them in order when I disassembled them, so I'm pretty confident they went on correctly. At least, they did if the last guy who rebuilt it kept 'em in order! ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Owen, Do you have part numbers and prices on those LED strips? Hopefully it's better than the $15 each for the 50-light strips. On a side note, I saw some ideal candidates in a semi-truck parts store the other day, but they were $50 each. I did NOT want to spend $300 on brake lights, thank you very much!!! ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Owen sent us a link to http://www.radiantz.com/flexarrayspictures1.html Now that is KINKY fine! I can just imagine what we could do with such a thing, especially if it were in a flat form factor. Have you seen the organic LED's that Sony is experimenting with? They picture them used for flat computer displays, but I immediately thought of form-fitting, lens-less tail lights and cars that could change color at the touch of a button. VERY cool! Owen, did you use the LED replacement "bulbs" in your taillights? If you don't mind me asking, what did you give for them, and where did you source them? I've been playing with small LED clusters for a few weeks now, but that project took back seat to refurbing my V8. My goal is to increase the surface area that light shines from. The stock tail lenses seem to have a bright spot in the center of the lens, and it gets dimmer at the corners of the lens. I'd like to find a solution that stays bright from edge to edge. Oh, JC Whitney sells a 14 inch, 50-LED strip for $14.95. I'm sure they're not superbright lights, but I'm still intrigued. Four of them would make highly swank rear lights, I think. I'm also toying with fiber optics. Can you imagine how cool it would be to have a body-colored rear panel where the lights would be nearly invisible until you hit the brakes, then you'd see a thousand pinpoints of brilliant red. Talk about attention-getting! ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Pete, You're right - I didn't check the clearance between the rod ends. Silly of me not to think of this. It's possible that they're rubbing up against one another. I'll loosen them all, clean the bearing/journal surfaces again, and reassemble things using your feeler-gauge trick. Blueovalz, On my engine, there's one side of the cap that has 'stuck out', squared off tabs on it. I put these tabs facing the crank counterweights, with the non-tab sides facing each other. Does this sound right to you? I made sure they went on in the same order and direction they came off, but that's no guarantee that the person rebuilding it the first time put them on correctly. ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Well, crap. I ordered .001 tighter Clevite 77 bearings for my connecting rods and mains, and when I plastigauged them dry they spec'ed out at .0016, plus or minus .0002 across the board. Encouraged by my success so far, I scraped off the plastigauge, lubed them up and torqued them to 40 ft/lbs and found that I then couldn't turn the motor by hand. What gives? Why would they spec out correct when dry, but then not want to move when lubed? This can't be normal, can it? Scott

Thanks, BLKMGK, I'll write down those numbers so I don't lose them!

Get your manual directly from Jags That Run. My cousin ordered one for my birthday (less than a month ago) and got it in the mail in two days! Incredible service. ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

There's also the issue of where to put the two temperature switches. My 1985 BMW 535i has holes for two switches in the radiator tank, and I'm sure that SOMEWHERE out there, there's another radiator with a similar configuration in a size that would fit between the frame rails of the Z. I just don't know which radiator that would be! Until I find that special radiator, the high-temp switch will be located in a fitting that goes in the upper radiator hose, similar to the way an inline filler neck works. I pulled mine off a mid-eighties Saab 900 sedan. I'm not sure whose website I saw this solution on. I tried to find it the other day, but failed. Without them, I wouldn't know that such a gizmo existed! One other bonus of such a device is that it makes it possible to rotate each half of the radiator hose for a better fit. I've also seen that on Black Magic (I think) fans, there's a thermocouple built into the frame that holds the fan in place. I wonder if we couldn't find a source for something like that, which would take the temperature signal from the radiator shell, rather than have to poke another sensor into the cooling system. It would certainly be one less possible source for leaks. ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

In the latest Jeg's catalog, they show some block-hugger headers for $99 painted, or $199 coated. If you're not going show quality, is there that much of a difference between their $199 jobs and $600 or so for Sandersons? I realize you get what you pay for, but where does the difference in quality come in? I'd think that, being coated inside and out, they'd be pretty much bulletproof, wouldn't they? ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

Thanks for the info on the gasket, Pete. I'm painting pieces tonight, and I'll assemble my baby tomorrow night. Wish me luck! ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

I'm having difficulty getting the Autometer illumination to dim with the rest of the dashboard. Is anyone else having problems, or did I just miss the obvious again? ------------------ Scott Ferguson 1976 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-growing cloud of V8 parts...

I have a question: The dimmer switch works fine on the rest of my dash, but it doesn't seem to work on the light bulbs in my AutoMeters. Am I doing something wrong? At full-bore, they're a bit bright... Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z, surrounded by an ever-expanding cloud of V8 parts...

Y'all are a hoot! Trust me, this won't be one of those marathon projects. The rest of the car might be, but if the engine takes more than a month to get into the car, I'll be surprised. When I get on a project like this, it's pretty much no-holds-barred. Last night I plastigauged the bearings and found this: Mains (old, GM standard bearings) = .004 Con rods (old, .0005 oversized bearings) = .0015 Con rods (new, standard bearing) = .0025 I ordered .001 oversized bearings on both parts, and I'm not planning on turning the crank. Does this sound right? Never having done this before, I'm pulling a lot of information from magazine articles on Junkyard rebuilds, and I'm uncertain on many things. I know this isn't sanitary procedure, but I want to see what I can get away with in the real world. Part of the incentive in all this is to build a daily-driver engine that is leak-free and solid for as little money as possible. I've paid for the bearings, so assuming the compression is good, what else will I need besides the timing set and a full set of gaskets to button up this engine? Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z w/ many V8 pieces in an ever-growing cloud surrounding it... [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 23, 2001).]

Thanks for the advice, Pete. Last night I read something in an old Hot Rod magazine that advised, in the case of a beer-budget rebuild, to test the compression before removing the pistons from the bores. They said that if compression was good, I should not disturb the piston/ring/bore relationship. What do you think? You're right about the cost of rebuild kits being dirt cheap these days. I was looking through a PAW ad, and they had 350 rebuild kits with forged pistons going for well under $400. I just can't believe how cheap and available all this stuff is. Scott

Thanks for the eval, guys. I'm relieved that the funky smell doesn't spell certain death for the motor! Scott

Yes, plans would be VERY nice! If you need webspace to make them publicly available, shoot them to me, and as long as there's no copyright infringement, I can host them for all the world to see. Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z - Awaiting paint and heart transplant

Hey, guys! Take a look, if you would. I know this isn't good, but I don't know how bad it is, either. My experience with block internals is shaky at best, and I'd appreciate some feedback. Here's the bearing surface... And the surface of the crank... And for the fun of it, the plugs that came out of the block. Not greasy or watery, just well used. When I cracked the caps, the oil inside smelled really funky, reminiscent of burned coffee, of all things. The oil up top looked much, much cleaner. Any evaluation would be helpful. I'm still learning about such exotic American iron (lol!), so please bear with me while I ask a lot of stupid questions for the next week or so! With any luck, I'll be re-assembling this thing this weekend, then we'll see how it runs! Scott [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 21, 2001).] [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 21, 2001).]

I'm sure he means that it's an L28 turbo *block*, but those delicious triple Webs make up for any lack of turbocity, IMHO. HL, I'd think you could rebuild and sell the other two motors for a good head start on financing your conversion, assuming they're not damaged internally. You scored BIG time! Congratulations - you should feel like a king right now. Say, looking at the pic of your disgustingly clean interior, is that a 1970 console? What are those two long rectangular things in front of the soft, cushy-looking, uncracked (can you feel my envy?) armrest? It's not in the right place for the choke - hand throttle, maybe? Enjoy! Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z w/ lots of V8 pieces floating around the garage... [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 21, 2001).]

Hey, Richard! You don't want to use a BMW's fuse box - trust me. I've owned five, and they're a pain in the ass. When those nifty ceramic German fuses get their exposed contacts dirty/corroded (and they will) you'll be cursing the day you thought this was a good idea. Use plug-in, blade-type fuses and an old GM junkyard fuseblock. I think I noticed that the Peugeot 504 had a good, useable looking fuseblock with room for about a dozen relays. I'll look again when I'm BACK out at the junkyard this weekend pulling stuff I didn't have the time/tools to get last weekend. I ain't staying with the stock block, that's for sure. best, Scott Ferguson 1974 260 - Gettin' ready to open wide for the V8!

Kevin writes: >Good luck & have fun. Fun? FUN? Man, that doesn't even BEGIN to describe it! I haven't had this much fun since I learned how to... Well...nevermind. Suffice it to say that if I'd realized that it was this much fun rebuilding an engine, I'd have done it years ago, and I wouldn't be quite so nearsighted. I spent three hours this evening de-greasing and sandblasting various parts The intake manifold is going to be knockout-gorgeous when I clearcoat it after sandblasting. Yeah, I know, it's only a temporary engine, but I still want to be proud to pop the hood and show folks what I got! "pride in your ride", and all that. I think the sandblasted and black color scheme with chrome accents here and there will look quite nice and be very economical, too! On the business side, after reading y'alls advice, I went out and pulled off the main bearing caps. Yuck. The crank looks great, but some of the bearing surfaces have deep gouges in them. I guess the sacrificial layer on the bearings did its job, huh? There isn't a mark on the crank, that I could see. I didn't pull the con rod caps yet, but I'd bet dollars to donuts that they look the same way. When I put everything back together again (this weekend, maybe?) new bearings will definitely be in order. Scott Ferguson This is TOO much fun!