Michael

For the folks running lower-rpm, higher displacement naturally aspirated engines (say, 400 cubic inch and above), what have been your strategy to get reasonably quiet exhaust that isn't too restrictive? I stumbled across Flowmaster's purportedly quietest series of mufflers: https://www.flowmastermufflers.com/products/exhaust/mufflers/street_chambered_mufflers/50_series_big_block/ . These would, coincidently, go behind a big block (Chevy). Muffler size isn't an issue, since my fuel tank is removed (S30) and there's a fuel cell in the hatchback area. My question is about simultaneously quieting the exhaust and keeping backpressure to a minimum. This would be dual exhaust, of course, with a conventional crossover pipe, and headers (for the moment, block huggers).

8th build? Wow! I'm still nursing my first (and only). Car has been on the road, and off. Registered, and not. The current iteration is "not". I need help - local help - with the care and feeding of the engine. The real problem isn't with the Datsun parts, but the Chevy parts... namely getting that darned engine to work properly. Seems like a simple problem, no? But nothing is simple these days! Also, the exhaust is too loud, and the transmission is geared wrongly. I need a custom re-welding for the former, and to write a check for the latter. I also need an engine hoist and a place to work on the car. Success with hobby-cars, begins with success in real estate!

HybridZ is now 26! It's too old to remain on its parents' health insurance plan, and now needs a real-job, with benefits and maybe even a 401K plan. Anyone left here, who started working on their V8 Z project back in the 20th century, and is still wrenching on it? Anyone?

OK, here's a question on carb tuning. This past summer I visited a local tuning-shop, with open ended question about whether to rebuild my poorly-running carb (a Holley vacuum-secondary 750 cfm, basic model) or to buy something else. The technician recommended something with annular discharge boosters.... wouldn't even talk about anything else. Those are nice pieces... but also expensive. Asking AI, for annular vs. downleg, I get the standard AI answer: part obvious, part irrelevant, part condescending, part generic. How about human intelligence? So... who's running an annular discharge carb, such as this one: https://www.holley.com/products/fuel_systems/carburetors/street_strip/parts/Q-750-AN?utm_term=&utm_campaign=Holley+-+Non-Brand+All+SKUs+Performance+Max&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&hsa_acc=7848552874&hsa_cam=22795333857&hsa_grp=&hsa_ad=&hsa_src=x&hsa_tgt=&hsa_kw=&hsa_mt=&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22795335240&gbraid=0AAAAAD1FzSrgg0ZyXizSf4N8XZyF0lFbQ&gclid=Cj0KCQiArOvIBhDLARIsAPwJXOaTarreYIfCzmnZukhFJ0DfE902wysmGZtkPzPe60nCkk0bztd8cPkaAlw2EALw_wcB ? Oh, and good luck asking such questions in our "fuel delivery" subforum!

Also not a facebook user here, but speaking in generalities: 1. In 2025, I would think seriously about the value proposition of buying a Z. Some of us have been dabbling in this hobby/affliction for nearly 30 years, starting back when these cars were cheap, plentiful in junkyards, and blank-canvases for modification. And today? Completely different game. Hard to tinker with a 50 year old car, just as a tinkering-car. Even harder to get the performance out of it, that was the stuff of our dreams in the 1990s. 2. These cars are becoming expensive. Even woebegone projects are becoming expensive. For the less-familiar, it's a costly trap!

And there we have it! A full quarter century old! Old enough, to run for the US House of Representatives!

For people who still run old-school large-displacement V8s (we still exist, right?)... any thoughts on the somewhat-new (been around for 5-6 years) Edelbrock AVS2 carb? This has annular boosters on the primary-side, as opposed to dog-leg. Some articles here: https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/1908-inside-look-new-edelbrock-avs2-carburetor/ and here: https://www.hotrod.com/how-to/tuning-edelbrock-avs2-carb/ . The objective is throttle response, part-throttle drivability, and overall good manners with minimal fussing/tuning. Application is my perpetually-under-repair 454. I'd be looking at the 800 cfm version with manual choke. BTW, there are a few mentions of the AVS carb on HybridZ, but they're from 2014 and earlier.. for the old-style AVS (dog leg boosters on the primaries), for example here: https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/42427-edelbrock-issues/#comment-352025.

Ben, long-term projects take... a long term. So, here's another long-term voice of support! We're almost a quarter of the way done with the 21st century. Some folks started their Z projects back in the 20th century; should hopefully be done, in one capacity or another, before the 22nd! Question: what was wrong with the megasquirt, in terms of successfully operating your LS engine? And what does the Haltech do, that renders the improvement?

Not a participant myself, but I remember announcements for such events... and the era when "hybrid" meant engine from Brand A, into body of Brand B... having nothing to do with electric and internal combustion motors together in one vehicle. The competitive events, together with forums, seem to have been sadly vitiated. Most postings on this forum are now the occasional pop-up of elementary questions, that had been rigorously answered 20 years ago... or idle reminiscences, such as my own. And so many of the most senior/venerable/knowledgeable members have left, outright died, or just gone silent. What happened over the past 23 years? Well, some of us are still working on the same car that we had back in the 20th century... slowly. May one day even race it!

One of the perennial debates is (or rather was, when this Forum was more active!) about front-rear weight distribution vs reducing polar moment of inertia. If the really heavy components, namely engine and transmission, move aft, then presumably the polar moment of inertia is reduced, even if the weight distribution becomes aft-biased. So, suppose that the car comes out to 47/53. Is that necessarily a disadvantage by itself? If so, is it a disadvantage if in combination with lower polar moment of inertia? Many people prefer the aesthetics of wider tires in the rear. Doesn't that actually lend itself to good remedy for being tail-heavy? I mean, it's just an aesthetic thing... but for a tail-heavy car, it might also turn out to be of practical value.

Lifeproject, given that you have a sturdy chassis/frame under the car already, would it perhaps be reasonable to cut/notch the firewall, for additional engine setback? That gives you better weight distribution, and more room under the hood... not just for the harmonic-damper issue, but cooling-room in front of the engine.

At the risk of being a crusty curmudgeon, what's the advantage of going all of the way to a 15x9 wheel, while limiting the tire series to 205 or 215? Currently I run 15x7 wheels, with 225-series tires... looks to be a decent match, both geometrically and aesthetically. With a 15x9 wheel, wouldn't it make more sense, to install something like a 275/50 tire? Like Hoosier R7, which is one of the few tires available in that size?

Not to be obtuse, but what's the benefit to "big tech"? Are they selling a product? If so, this seems like kludged and ineffective advertising. Are they trawling for data? Maybe, but then where's the harmful link that I'm supposed to click. Are they soliciting subscription to some service, or at least, traffic to a site? Again, no link. It just seems to be garbage for garbage's sake.

23 years!

Plugs did get fouled, before I figured out an enormous error in the ignition timing (off by something like 50 degrees, but that's a story for another thread). They no longer do. Oddly, the atrocious gas mileage is utterly the same, from before recognizing the timing problem, to after it was corrected. And the 2-3 mpg is from babying the car, never exceeding maybe 2500 rpm, never spinning the tires... start off at a traffic light in 3rd gear, then at 25 mph or so, shift to 5th (which is 1:1... it's a Doug Nash 5-speed). Also, there's no gasoline-smell when pulling the dipstick, either before running the engine, or after.