RPMS

If you try to get a junkyard radiator, be sure to take your tape measure with you. I pulled one out of the same 1984 V8 Camaro that the JTR book recommended, and it was over 30" wide and won't fit between the frame rails. I also pulled one out of a 4-cyl Camaro, and it was just as wide but not as thick. This convinced me I had the right one (but I was, of course, wrong). Anyway, be careful. On my lunch hour the other day, I stopped by Autozone. They sell the aluminum Camaro radiator for less than $140. Check their website for a store near you. That particular part number is in their computer as being both a 2-row and a 3-row, but it is indeed a 2-row. Featherweight, and a good price. Looks like lots of free-flowing surface area to dissipate heat, too. I can see that being the perfect match to an electric fan. Scott Ferguson 19756 260-Z w/ an ever growing circle of engine parts around it... [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 20, 2001).]

Hey, Kevin, Do you think I should go ahead and replace the bearings, too, as long as I'm staring at them anyway? I want to be cheap, but not stupid-cheap. And can I reuse rod bolts, or are they one-shot, like head bolts? I kinda want to pull at least the mains to look for excessive bearing wear. I know it's just a temp engine, but still, as long as I'm there... Scott

Pete, Last night I pulled the oilpan and took a peek at the bottom end. As it turns out, you were right on the money regarding the plastic camshaft being chewed up. That's exactly what happened. Who's bright idea was it to make something like that, anyway? I guess it's to cut down noise? Then it fragments and sends hard plastic pieces throughout the engine. Nice. I also found pieces of a hard plastic tube, maybe 3/4 inch tall and 1/2 inch in diameter. The walls were about 1/16 thick, and it had a ridge running around the middle on the inside. I forgot to bring the pieces with me to work, so no picture, unfortunately. Any ideas as to what this might be out of? Time to go over to the Jeg's website and buy a gasket/timing set... Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z

Pete, Davy, thanks for the advice. I think that there's a very good chance that it might be part of the timing gear. When I grab hold of the front pulley and rotate it back and forth, there's about a degree of free play that might indicate a worn/loose timing chain. I had forgotten that the timing gear was plastic coated until you mentioned it. The pieces are about the same shade of dark tan as a piece of cardboard. If the timing gear looks in good shape, I'll take a picture of the shards and post them. Anyone have any ideas about the "warranty void if removed" seal?

Howdy, Guys! I was a junkyard dog this entire weekend, and I loved it! The local self-serve yard was having a 1/2 off sale, and I went crazy. Now that all this crap is in my garage, I need to tap the collective wisdom of the group... I couldn't find a 350 that was in decent shape, so I pulled a 305 out of a 1984 Camaro. This motor is my test mule, and I need it to function for about six months, during which time I'll be building up my 350. In other words, I want it to run, but not invest a bunch of money into it that I'd be happier putting into the 350. Once home, I pulled the valve covers off and discovered a valvetrain that seemed fine, except for one small addition - a 22 caliber cartridge just sitting in there. I wonder how THAT got in there??? The heads are stamped 14014416. Mortec lists that as having intake/exhaust valves that are 1.84"/1.5" in diameter, with 58cc combustion chambers. I didn't know they MADE a 58cc combustion chamber. Isn't that awfully small? On the side of the left head, there's a seal that says "Warranty void if removed". Is that telling me that these are rebuilt heads, do you think? I didn't think anything came like that from the factory... The radiator I pulled out of the same car is waaay too wide to fit between the frame rails. Can I set it on top of the rails and angle it back 30 degrees or so to take advantage of the larger surface area? God knows, there's going to be plenty of space to play with in front of the engine, especially since I'll be using the electric fan out of a Taurus instead of an engine driven fan. Do you think this will adequately cool? The plugs look like the mixture was a bit rich, but otherwise good. No coolant, rust, or oil on them. When I pulled the intake, I found about two dozen oddly shaped broken plastic pieces in the valley, and the bottom of the intake was deeply scored in a couple of places. The marks were fresh - no old oil baked onto them. Should I just run a couple of batches of oil through the engine, then fill it with good stuff and run it, letting the oil filters catch any crap? Or do y'all think I should pull the pan and examine the bearings before trying to start it again? The assembly turns quite smoothly by hand, if that means anything. I've gotta tell you - I'm stoked about this. I feel like I'm several big steps closer to getting my project car on the road! I'm also a bit nervous, since this IS the first American engine I've ever worked on. Any advice y'all could give me will be greatly appreciated. It'll be an emotional setback if this thing blows up the first time I try to start it! Scott Ferguson 1974 500-Z - look at it as one BIG puzzle with very heavy pieces...

Ummm... I have a question. Why can't you have both? A 383 with a roller cam? If you're willing to shell out the time/effort/money to build a 383 stroker, what's an additional $50-100 to install rollers rather than flat? Best of both worlds. Scott

Great idea, Ray! I found an excellent site at http://www.enteract.com/~holeshot/transid.html that details the pan shape of each of the common GM transmissions. Thanks again, Scott [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 15, 2001).]

Howdy, Folks! Can someone tell me if there's a quick and easy way to tell a 200R4 from a 700R4 when I'm laying on my back in the weeds underneath the car? I'm going junk-yarding this weekend, and some help would be much appreciated. Thanks! Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z - soon to be a 570-Z!

I've been asking all my friends if they knew of any 350 engine/trans combos (or complete cars, for that matter) for sale. One guy I work with said, "No, I don't...well, as a matter of fact, I do! It's ME!" He's got an old truck (1979 vintage) that has been sitting behind a friend's auto body shop for three or four years now. He says the suspension needs a complete rebuild, and he wasn't interested in investing the time/money in a truck that wasn't worth that much to him anyway. I went and looked at it yesterday, and it does have a 350 in it, equipped with a Holley 4160 carb and intake. It looks like it's been retrofitted with a HEI system, and the original distributor is sitting on the seat. My question is this: I understand that there are clearance issues between the HEI distributor and the hood latch bracket. Would there be any benefit in upgrading the old points distributor with a Pertronix Ignitor and using that with an MSD-6A unit I already have, or should I stick with the GM HEI distributor? I pose this mostly as an issue of clearance rather than performance, so that's why I post in this section rather than the "ignition" forum. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated! Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z (fixin' to be a 570-Z... WHOOPEE!)

Thanks for all the help, guys! I found an old pickup truck (per Kevin) that seems to have everything I want in it, and on that note, I'm starting a new thread. Look for "Found an engine! Need distributor advice" in this section for more. Again, thanks!! Scott [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited March 11, 2001).]

Howdy, Folks! It's time. With my JTR book under my arm, and not too much cash burning a hole in my pocket, I'm headed for the junkyards to pick up the engine/trans for my 1974 260-Z. My plan, for the curious, is to install in a junkyard engine to start with, then build up a nice, new engine later, after I've got the rest of the driveline installed and running. The problem is, I'm pitifully ignorant of American iron. I want the 4-barrel 350 cid engine and preferably a non-computer 200R4 trans (second choice is a 700R4), but I don't know what cars would make good donors. I would like to avoid the mix-and-match game if at all possible (1974 headers, 1984 intake, 1992 blinker fluid resevoir, etc.) but I realize that some parts swapping is inevitable. So what's the poop? What's the best donor car for an engine? What cars came with a 200R4? Thanks for your help - I appreciate the heck out of it. Scott Ferguson (So close, I can smell the fumes!)

Kevin says: >They definately would solve the Directional >problem...Hey, speaking of directional-didnt >Madonna wear those things on stage during >her concerts? You're a riot, Kevin! I think, maybe if we had them lined up in a row, they'd give kind of a "Mad Max" look to the car, like they were spikes, or something. Mike K wrote: >I would try the truck stops along a major >freeway especially a " Pilot " truck stop as >they seem to carry a lot of truck >accesories...only prob though would be what >kind of volts do trucks put out??? Truckstops vary greatly in what they carry in the way of LED lights. Many only carry the incandescent bulb assemblies, but more and more are selling LED's too. And don't worry about voltage - Big rigs run 12V negative ground the same cars. The connectors are different, but it's no big deal to wire in a new set of plugs to fit. Scott

Interesting job, Jeromio! I like it better than I thought I would. You're right about the beehives. They stick about 2" up off the surface, and it'd just look like you did a cheap-assed conversion. I think folks would laugh their asses off if they saw that. Although it's not as modern looking as clear lenses, I actually was thinking of putting two 4" lights on each side, kinda frenched in like Corvettes have. It's a classic look, with a modern twist. Fairly easy to fabricate, too. Just a flat (okay, it's a little bit curved) sheet to replace the tail lens/license plate panel. Smooooooth. Scott Ferguson

Last night I fiddled more with some of the 1" clusters from BG Micro. I drilled 5 holes in an aluminum bar, attached them 1 1/8 " apart, and wedged them inside the housing. I found that they're really sensitive to direction, and if they're not pointing straight out, light output is markedly reduced. I also determined that, at operational voltage, my 30 superbright LED's were as bright as the incandescent bulb, but the spot of light inside the lens was smaller. I think if I hogged out the backside of the reflector (it makes me sick to do that...) I can fit four more clusters in the row, and it will look good. I want BIG light and BIG coverage! Not blinding, just impossible to miss. It REALLY worked when the lens wasn't on the reflector, though. Tiny, intensely red star-shaped points of light really work to grab your attention like nothing else. Too bad I need the red outer lens to make it waterproof. My fabrication skills aren't mature enough to create a clear lens by myself. Too bad the Z market is too small to support the kind of clear marker lenses that Hondas and Acuras are running around with! That would solve all our problems, wouldn't it! Oh, Pilot and Petro are truckstops, and aren't likely to have anything interesting for you to look at over the net. But Iowa 80 (a trucker supply catalog) has a site that shows a 4" LED replacement lamp ($35.00 ea) that is too big to fit in the stock housing, but you could possibly use in a custom configuration. It looks like it has a BUNCH of LED's in it. http://www.iowa80catalog.com/iowa80/servlet/productdisplay?catid=FLAT-4 The thumbnail picture is broken, but if you click on it, you can see a larger picture of what I'm talking about. Iowa 80 carries much more than this single product. Order their catalog if you want to see more of this type of stuff. They also have those hard to find chrome nekked ladies for your mudflaps, too! Scott Ferguson

Wow! I didn't think there was this much interest in LED lighting. Well, here's what else I can contribute. As several people have mentioned, white LED's are about 30 times the cost of red ones, so that avenue is out for most folks. Radio Shack has 6" x 10" perforated board for around three bucks, and each tail lens measures about 2" x 10" inside. That means that two sheets of perf board is plenty to do the rear taillights. For the cornering lights, you're on your own. I have no clue how to make perf board bend the correct amount. It's an epoxy formulation, so I don't believe you could heat and bend it. Anyone have any suggestions? Where voltage is concerned, my experiments showed that if you wire 5 lights in series, it comes out pretty well. More, and they get dimmer. Less, and they blow out. Problem is, if you use regular LED's, even the "xtra bright" ones that Morgan mentions, they're not bright enough. 100 mcd is truly weenie. The DOT ones that the truckers use are somewhere on the order of 1,500 mcd each. Even when I crammed as many LED's as possible onto the board, regular ones just didn't cut the mustard. The LED side was noticeably dimmer than the incandescent side at night. During the day, I'm sure they wouldn't be visible enough. For the turn signals, the bright yellow/orange LED's would be ideal. As long as the color of the LED is roughly the same as the color of the lens, you'll be okay. It's when you try to pass green light through a red lens that nothing comes through. Or vice versa. There are indeed LED retrofits already available - if you drive a Freightliner. A 4" pre-made cluster runs anywhere from $30 to $40 at Flying J or Petro. They ain't cheap. Now, if you could find a way to step up the power to 24 volts, I'm sure that the large clusters that BG Micro sells would provide ample light. Five 2" disks per side would be quite striking, I think. Anyone here have the electrical know-how to do this? Scott

Howdy, Gents. I see by some of the replies to my "turn signal indicator" post below that others have interest in doing an LED conversion for the taillights. At first I thought I'd be real sneaky and not tell anyone about my conversion plans until it was finished, but now I see that I'm probably not all that much ahead of the pack, so why not write about it? I have wanted to use LED's for my indicator lamps for quite a while now, even preceeding the appearance of them on the Cadillac DeVille (or whatever GM boat they're on). I've tried quite a few things, but the limiting factors are brightness and cost. You can buy pre-made 1" LED clusters that plug into the stock taillight sockets, but that doesn't really get you anything. You're still using the stock socket (which corrodes in time), you've got basically stock looking light pattern when you're done, and there aren't enough LED's in a 1" cluster to be bright enough. Frankly, if I'm going to spend $120 converting just the taillights, I sure don't want to end up with something that is ineffective and doesn't look any different! That gains me nothing. I don't want it to be gaudy, just different. So I disassembled the tail light, and made a PC board that fit inside the (approximately) 2" x 10" lens. With standard (read, "inexpensive") red LED's installed, it became immediately obvious that they wouldn't be bright enough. And with LED's, if you crank up the voltage you don't get a brighter light, you just get a bunch of dead LEDs. Okay, so the obvious answer is to use superbright, DOT-rated LED's. But at .33 each x 100 per lens x 4 lenses, that adds up to some serious money. BG Micro offers a cluster of 51 LED's (27 red, 24 green) in a two inch circle for about four bucks. Problem is, it's rated at 24 volts, and it's sealed in epoxy. Never one to be put off, I bought one and used an industrial-strength bandsaw to cut through the epoxy, exposing the circuit board. I re-wired the connections so the LED's were 5 or 6 to a string, hooked it up to 12 volts up that way, and was rewarded with brilliant red light for about a femtosecond, until the string burned out because I didn't use a current-limiting resistor like I was told to. Anyway, the problems with this method are twofold. Putting a 2" disk of LED's in place requires total disassembly of the taillight housing (difficult at best with 26 year old sealant), and sawing/re-wiring each cluster is a pain in the butt. The 1" cluster they offer is wired for 12-volts right out of the box, but it uses only six red LEDs. If i go that route, I'll need seven or eight per lens to do the job right. Also, I thought I could wire it so the green LED's would blink with the turn signals. That's possible, but very little (as in, "almost no") green light makes it through the red lens. You can see them flickering, but they're not bright enough to be effective as turn signals. A pity. SO... Has anyone else done any research on this stuff? I'd love to hear about it, if you have. It's such a sexy option. Done right, it's brighter than stock, it does away with the troublesome bulb sockets, the *blink* of turn signals and brake lights is very eye-catching, and they "never" burn out. As an added bonus, they give off the most incredibly striking blood red color behind stock lenses! If you're looking for a performance-enhancing aspect to this idea, the lower current draw of the LEDs allows more amperage to flow to your electronic ignition. How 'bout that? Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z (awaiting V8 conversion)

Hey, Owen. Yeah, the IR illuminator is an interesting item, and one wonders if it would interfere with lasers. Only thing that would worry me is, do laser guns have a video screen on them? If so, putting IR devices on the front would be a BAD idea, since CCD elements pick up IR radiation really well. If the guns are aimed optically, then you've got no worries. Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z (Awaiting V8 conversion)

Could you possibly share a website that I could look up some of these lights? I used to have a source for Autopals, but I'm not sure they're still in business. For the record, I've got a set of large Autopals on my BMW, and they performed very well for what I paid for them. The light distribution is excellent, with a very sharp low beam cutoff line that makes them very easy to aim. The high beam performance is excellent. When I hit the high beams, it's like a pair of aircraft landing lights have ignited. And that's without 100 watt bulbs, either! On the negative side, there are a few tiny bubbles in the lens that might make them more fragile than Hellas. One of them did get hit with a rock and shatter, so I know that the glass they're made of is no thicker than a standard halogen headlight. Perhaps Hellas are thicker, I don't know. Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z (awaiting V8 conversion...)

Thanks for the info, y'all. Right now the most interesting solution is a string of six rectangular green LED's on either side of the tach, between the tach's trim ring and the instrument binnacle. This way they'll be nearly invisible until they are activated, then they should show a bright green arc on either side of the tach. The "gee whiz" factor should be quite high! I was also intrigued by BLKMGK's idea of using blue LED's for the high beam indicator. I'd forgotten about that need, but now that you mention it, I'm having a Homer Simpson "d'oh!" moment. The only issue with blue LED's is, they're screamingly !!BRIGHT!! If anyone is looking for a source of LED's that's MUCH cheaper than Rat Shack, go to www.bgmicro.com. Many of the more common sizes are 10 to 15 for a dollar. Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z - Awaiting a massive dose of Vitamin V8!

Does Neolight have any information via the web? Doing a couple of basic searches (neolight+auto, neolight+headlight, etc.) yielded nothing productive. Are they replacement headlamps, or what? Scott Ferguson 1974 240-Z - Awaiting V8 conversion

Thanks, Pete. I spent about thirty minutes in the car yesterday evening just looking at the dash, wondering what solution would present itself. At the top of the center console, there are two cutouts - one for the seatbelt warning light, and another blank one. I may wire them for the blinker lights. I've also thought of putting two strings of LED's a the base of the windshield, one above the tach binnacle, one above the speedo. I have also toyed with the idea of putting fiber optic filaments into the "eyebrows" of the binnacles, so they would be invisible unless the markers were blinking. But that would be serious work, snaking the cable through the dash plastic. [This message has been edited by RPMS (edited January 06, 2001).]

Okay, for Christmas my mommy got me a new AutoMeter tach and speedo to complement my soon-to-be V-8'ed 260Z. I've noticed that a lot of y'all swap out the tach for aftermarket units. What do you do about turn signal indicators? I've been toying with the idea of using a strip of LED's set into each binnacle, but I'm not sure that's the best solution. Since I hate to re-invent the wheel, I thought I'd ask whether someone on this forum might have a better solution. Thanks, Scott Ferguson 1974 260-Z - still wimpy.