Michael

If you're an investor, then in a very literal sense THE economy is YOUR economy. I'm at a stage of life where gas prices don't really matter to me. And barring some calamity or gross stupidity, there will always be food on my table, even in a "depression". But how the dollar fares against the euro - I feel that. What happens to Lehman, to Wachovia., to GE - I feel that. If you invest, you feel the ills that threaten America's corporate giants. When they go down, you take it in the shorts. And that affects one's daily outlooks, which will psychologically constrain one's spending. When my investments falter, I feel like a fool - a greedy, short-sighted, gullible fool. After today's events especially, I am horrified at what’s going on in the markets, and feel trapped. I’m in early middle-age, and have been saving diligently for 15 years. I was looking forward to spending my 40’s as many professionals spend their 60’s: still working, but enjoying a materially successful lifestyle based on wise decisions made earlier in life. Now I see 15 years of work disappearing. I feel, perhaps, like the formerly proud parent of a model teenager, who got excellent grades and was admitted into a top college - and then got busted for drug abuse. The apple of my eye has been plucked out, leaving behind a nasty, oozing mess. And it is doubly embarrassing, because in my gut I knew that such a crisis was coming, but the stupor of smug optimism prevented me from acting to preserve my nest egg while there was still time. So what are the practical, day-to-day consequences? Well, day-to-day means that hobbies and frills are on-ice. I'm not buying parts for the Z - there's just too much guilt to be thinking about luxuries, even if "affording" them is utterly irrelevant. What happened today, what has been happening in September, what may yet unfold - that is not some mere setback along a shining path towards a prosperous future - it is a catastrophe. And I am baffled why people don't appreciate that it is such a catastrophe!

I don't know guys, if I could have averaged 6% interest over the past decade, I would have be really happy! But keep in mind... you're paying about 35% tax on that interest. Will your after-tax returns keep up with inflation? So, if you have $1M, and want to keep that $1M after taxes and inflation, with a 4% annual rate of return, your available annual income is probably negative. And if you earn 6%, you're just above breaking even. Nevertheless, that is much, much better than the market has been doing for the past decade.

OK, here's one: what causes BROWN smoke (I mean, like chocolate) from the exhaust? Happens at idle, but especially when blipping the throttle. Not blue, not white, not gray, but brown. This is on a very low-mileage motor that has been sitting for a long time (big block with a carb). Hint... animals may have been nesting in my exhaust system over the years.

One of these might be for sale in my neighborhood; a mid-70's model (don't have detailed info) that has been sitting in an acquaintance's garage for quite some time. What are these cars worth? I have found what appear to be restored creampuffs on E-bay for around $10K, and basketcases for $1K. Since the potential seller is not a stranger to me, I'd like to make him a reasonable offer.

Not sure if this is relevant, but on a BBC the Comp Magnum steel roller-rockers fit under a stock-style (short) stamped valve cover if you use thick (3/8") valve cover gaskets. It may be similar on a SBC. Of course, it also depends on the height of the heads' drip rails. I have Brodix Race-Rite heads, which are notorious for short drip rails.

One reason for building it yourself, which so far has gone unmentioned, is knowing what to do when your hobby-car breaks down. If I bought some one’s immaculate high-hp V8 conversion, at some point is would break – and then what? Would I be fully aware of the maintenance issues, the troubleshooting, the tuning, the personality of the car? My great Z frustration for many years has been the simple matter of troubleshooting and tuning my engine. It would have been no different and no easier had I bought a V8 Z, a classic Camaro/Impala/Mustang/Barracuda/AMC, or even a late-model tuner car. I like to tinker and to build, I take pride in my ideas and enjoy at least attempting to nurture their execution in practice, but I’m hopelessly careless. I’m a “vision†guy, not a “details†guy. I can’t tune an engine because I can’t pay attention to the little things that make or break it – nor have I mastered the mere “details†of the mechanic’s art. It takes a particular maturity to render due diligence to the seemingly mundane. So far I have not developed that maturity. The other problem is time! I’m not a rich man, but I definitely have more money than time, and I would gladly pay a shop $80/hour to get my car running reliably – if I could find a competent and trustworthy shop that wouldn’t soak me, wouldn’t goldplate the job, would stand behind their work and would look out for me on my next maintenance disaster.

2002-2004 C32 Amg

On the 1978 doors, removing (grinding/cutting) out the crash beams but leaving intact the window crank and lock/latch mechanism saves 8 lbs (4 lbs per side). I determined this by collecting the bits of metal removed from the operation and weighing them all in one bunch. It's a personal call as to whether the resulting weight savings is worthwhile.

Sounds like a systematic and well thought-through plan. It would be interesting to compare the “before†and “after†performance of the car – same track, same driver, same tires (as far as possible)

Where in Ohio are you? If in the southwest area, PM me and we'll discuss in more detail. In short, the main issues will be driver's side exhaust header vs. steering linkage, oil pan and possible harmonic damper vs. steering rack, and most likely custom mounts to the frame rails (as opposed to the steering cross-member). S30 are far more common and generally regarded as easier than S130 swaps, but there are plenty of interesting exceptions. One member here has fit a 454 BBC into a S130, and several (myself included) have done a BBC into the S30. B-O-P "big blocks" are a little different (do a search on "engine dimensions FAQ") but the problems are not insurmountable. Personally I think that upgrading and tuning an engine are harder than doing the swap itself, because doing the swap is largely a matter of crafting bits here and there, while building an engine requires detailed knowledge and angelic patience.

To sum up, the Z rear suspension swap is NOT pointless, but it is complicated, expensive and labor-intensive. When contemplating any such swap, one ought to balance the benefits vs. the costs/efforts. The consensus seems to be that for a surprisingly broad range of applications and power levels, the stock Z rear suspension and drivetrain are good enough – perhaps with minor upgrades such as CV halfshafts. At some point I would like to design and build my own unequal-length double A-arm suspension, with a Ford 9†center-section IRS and inboard disk brakes. But at this point that would be silly, considering that I have many yeoman-grade upgrades and maintenance items to address. Changing the topic… the look of the C6 Corvette coupe is really starting to grow on me. As the typical new performance car’s weight is staring to exceed 4000 lbs, the Corvette’s 3200 is starting to sound lithe and trim. If could only justify as slightly accelerated midlife crisis!

The 454 in my Z (1978 Mark IV block, Brodix Race-Rite aluminum heads) briefly hit 235-240 degrees water temperature when the water pump threw its drive belt, and there was no possibility of pulling over. There were no discernable cracks in block or head, or cylinder bore wear, though possibly the rod bearings received some ill treatment. But my impression is that even occasional spikes of such high water temperature are very very bad!!! When my 454 was stock (pulled from a Suburban), it made around 150 psi of cranking pressure in most cylinders. This was with a static compression ratio of around 7.8:1 and peanut-port heads. Your best option is probably to pull the heads. If the bores are OK, consider having the heads rebuilt.

Happy birthday, Pete!! Just think - in a few more years we'll start the jokes about getting that AARP card in the mail!

Deja is right. 300hp in a reliable, fully streetable package is nothing to sneeze at! Too often there’s the temptation to go for 500, 600hp – only to end up with a garage queen. If the engine does not start, the car is only making about 1/3hp – when I push it! As I keep saying, often the hardest part of the swap isn’t the swap itself, but getting the engine to work! If you have a complete donor car in reasonable running condition, not only will the “odds and ends†(sensors, wiring, accessories) be complete and cost-effective to acquire, but the engine itself will be a low-risk proposition. The problem is finding a good candidate. Locally there’s a ’98 Pontiac Trans Am for sale – LS1, 6-speed, with around 100K miles. Price: $9000 or so. The car looks to be in good shape – no rust, no cracks, no obvious sign of abuse. Not a bad candidate for a dail driver in its own right, but it’s a hideous body style (the red paint makes it even more gaudy and ostentatious), and I could not bring myself to spend $9000 on a donor just for the drivetrain. Nor is there much prospect for selling a “roller†once I’ve stripped it of the useful parts. Nevertheless, $9K on a crate engine, transmission, clutch/flywheel, accessories and so forth, seems to be the going retail rate for the individual parts. We readily spend $9K on an incomplete and untested collection of parts, but not $9K on a used albeit complete and proven set of parts (with the rest of the car for free). So perhaps the greatest obstacle is defeating the conundrums of one’s own psychology?

The trouble with hobby cars is that the budget has so many uncertainties! When you buy a new performance car, you take the huge hit in depreciation up front, but thereafter the costs level off, unless it is a lemon. With hobby cars, you pay for performance parts – but then the parts break, or don’t fit, or are installed incorrectly, or do not perform synergistically together. So you end up paying for the same thing over and over again. I mean, why should I spend $50 on yet another set of gaskets, when for all that I know, replacing the gaskets will only reveal another $300 problem, followed by a $800 problem, and so forth? It’s dumb to throw good money after bad, even if the amount involved is small! What keeps me glued to my Z, and avoiding purchases like a Z06 or GTR or whatnot, is the large weight and overbearing complexity of modern cars. I don’t care if the thing has 600 hp off the showroom floor; if it weighs 3800 lbs, I don’t want it! A performance car should weigh well under 3000 lbs and should have an electrical system with no more than a dozen fuses. Probably the best way to go is to buy other people’s completed projects at a discount. Right now the “fastest street car in America†(7-second Camaro) is for sale for $90K on racingjunk.com. Now that’s a deal! If I weren’t smarting from all those stock market losses in the past 6 months, I’d seriously consider spending the cash.

The 572 need not necessarily be high-compression or unsuitable for the street, but it will be expensive! At a minimum you're looking at a $2500 aftermarket block (tall deck - 10.2"), $1500 crank, $1000 rods, $500 pistons, $2500 heads, $400 cam, $500 lifters, $200 oil pan, $200 pushrods, $600 carb, and so forth. Big blocks are expensive, and all-aftermarket big blocks are even more expensive. Also, note that the 572 will be considerably harder to fit in the Z's engine bay than would the LSx, which after all is a small block (at least in terms of exterior dimensions). And to answer your original question, the 572 will weigh on the order of 200 lbs more than the LSx - unless you get an aluminum big block... for which, add another $2000 premium.

The big question is, is this finally going to be the V8 Z that beats Johnc in roadracing???

Congratulations! 10 years is a long time, but then again, that depends on one's perspective. The key thing is to not give up on what seems like a perpetual work-in-progress. My one data point (1978 S30) suggests that the speedometer is optimistic by about 10-12%. So, indicated 85 mph is closer to 75.

Wow, this thread certainly brings back the memories! 8 years ago I was less humble, though on balance at present I have far more cause for humility. For what it’s worth, I too have a Flex-a-lite “Black Magicâ€, model 150. By now this has become a standard solution. It works tolerably well, even in hot weather, provided that the water pump is spinning (which it occasionally fails to do, for example upon throwing the fan belt; once in a rather awkward heavy-traffic scenario such an incident caused a temperature spike to 240 degrees). By now the front end of my Z is considerably revised from stock; the stock hood-lip problem has been solved – functionally, if not cosmetically. What has not been solved is the thorny problem of lack of basic mechanic’s acumen for engine maintenance and tuning. A fellow on this board, whose car budget is less than the roundoff error of my budget, and whose Z now accompanies mine in the garage, went from headless shortblock to fully-running car in a matter of a few wrenching sessions over two weeks, and then proceeded to drive 1200 miles round trip to a drag race without major qualm or incident. 8 years ago I would have thought that I could have accomplished a similar thing. Today I know better than to even attempt it! Sorry to hijack this thread (my own thread???) with sappy reminiscences, but it truly is disconcerting how little actual progress has been made in 8 years!

My 1990 Corolla made it to 228,000 miles before I killed it. It got stuck in my driveway during a snowstorm, and I literally beat it to death (with a sledgehammer). En route to 228K, the only repair was replacing the starter. Oh, and cheap tires would blow out regularly. Its last oil change was at around 190,000 miles. The point, I think, is that a light car with a lazy engine (even if revved to red line) will live an unstressed life, despite flogging and abuse. This makes it more reliable. A “high performance†engine is a lot more finicky, and is liable to fail much more readily, even if it’s built with better components. It is remarkable how much worse was the reliability on my 1987 Toyota Supra turbo! On the other hand, my other Toyotas – 1983 Celica, and before that, 1977 Corona – were very solid, and weren’t retired until collision damage or excessive rust.

Improper vacuum advance on my stock HEI caused many tuning problems and poor-startability on my 454. With the vacuum advance disconnected and plugged, the engine ran fine, but that was high torque and low weight possibly masking improper tuning. For what are hopefully the final touches of my build, I am leaning towards the Crane HI-6 ignition box (capacitive), Crane LX92 coil, and either Summit “Billet†distributor or the Crane electronic unit. Crane’s electronic distributor has the advantage of foregoing weights and springs in favor of switch-selectable ignition curves, but the selection of ignition curves is rather limited, and the cost is pretty steep. It would be nice to find a truly programmable distributor, with a plug into a laptop for tuning, but without the all-out complexity if a stand alone spark control system. Unfortunately in the world of the traditional V8, the options tend to be either modest improvements on a standard distributor + timing box, or a complete engine management system. BTW it wouldn’t be a bad idea to restart this thread. Ignitions for traditional V8s are underrepresented in this subforum, as most threads here discuss either LSx or the L6 applications.

I just used a hack saw with 18 teeth/inch to cut off 1 coil from each spring(1978 S30). Made no discernable difference to handling or ride quality, but the ride height decreased by approximately 3/4".

This one: http://www.izhmash.ru/rus/product/nikon.shtml ... seems especially interesting. But I'm not expecting to find one at the local gun store!

The big question is, how much is it going to weigh? The convertible Solstice, if I'm not mistaken, is at around 3000 lbs. Fortunately interior space is the least of my concerns; in most cars I need to have the seat almost all the way forward, and even then fully depressing the clutch can be a stretch.

Thanks for the pointers - definitely something for me to think about! This engine has a stock block, crank, rods and damper. Everything else is aftermarket. I'm surprised that Moroso would put a relief valve set at 60-65 psi on what's ostensibly a racing oil pump, but oh well.... And unless memory is playing tricks with me, I recall getting 80 psi or more when revving the engine, back in 2006. Earlier in the assembly process I did the clay-check and found around 0.400" between the pickup screen and the floor of the oil sump. On the Moroso pump, the pickup tube comes pre-welded to the pump casing. Also, I'm using the original distributor's housing to locate the priming shaft, and am using the original distributor driveshaft as the priming tool. I varied how the distributor seats by stacking different numbers of gaskets on the distributor shaft. In desperation I removed several pushrods and found that in every case the pushrod end that mates with the lifter is soaked in oil, but the rocker-end is completely dry. I then methodically blew threw each pushrod with compressed air, reassembled the valvetrain and resumed priming... with the exact same result! There just isn't enough oil pressure to get flow through the pushrods. Follow-up questions: 1. Is it worth pulling the pan, disassembling the oil pump, and defeating the relief-valve mechanism? 2. Why would 60 psi not be enough to push oil through the pushrods?