Michael

It's the elementary steps that are the hardest and most disconcerting!... It has been nearly two years since I last started my engine. It had a problem with its adjustable timing chain - the rosette of bolts securing the cam sprocket periphery to the portion bolted to the cam somehow cam loose, and the bolt heads ate their way into the aluminum timing chain cover. In an effort to clean the aluminum shavings, I removed the heads, the timing cover and the oil pan (but did not disassemble the rotating assembly), cleaned what I could, convinced myself (perhaps naively) that no aluminum flakes were present in the oil passages (I did pull one of the rod caps, and it looked more or less OK),... and reassembled the engine. Now, in one of the last steps before firing it up, I'm trying to prime the oiling system. I am using a 14.4V cordless drill and an old distributer shaft. The engine is a 1978 Mark IV BBC, with basically stock rotating assembly, and the following relevant parts (PNs are from Summit): Summit oil filter mount SMU-2015 Moroso high-volume oil pump MOR-22160 Hamburger 8-quart oil pan HAM-1488 Fram generic oil filter 10W-40 oil (8 quarts) mechanical oil pressure gage plumbed at just above the oil filter boss (stock location) 3/8" pushrods (can't recall manufacturer) Cam Motion "low lash" (0.007" cold) mechanical roller cam Comp steel roller rockers Isky Red-zone roller lifters When I run the drill, oil pressure rapidly rises to around 60 psi - but does NOT rise any further! Max rpm of the drill is around 1200. This is on a 45-degree day. And, there is no oil whatsoever coming out of the lifter oiling holes!!! I spun the crankshaft by hand multiple times (turns over with maybe 30 ft-lbs torque with the spark plugs removed), maybe a half revolution at a time, before resuming running the drill. Before valvetrian assembly I checked that all pushrods were clean. Quesions: 1. Why would oil pressure peg at 60 psi, regardless of drill rpm? 2. Why would there be no oil coming out of the pushrods? 3. Would I be a fool to try starting the engine without first doing a complete priming, where oil flows out of every rocker?

Yup, that first drive is a great feeling!... unless the engine eats itself and you’re looking at a $7000 investment (in the engine) going out the proverbial tailpipe. If you went from despondency prompting desire to sell your car, to successful and reliable driving - all in 6 months - then you certainly deserve commendation! I’m hoping for a “second time around†first-drive this summer… after being down for about 2 years since the first drive of my rebuilt engine… after being down for 6 years since the first-drive of the original engine!

Saw one at the Los Angeles auto show back around 1998 or 1999. It was restored by a shop called Pierre’s. The sticker, if I recall correctly, was $29,900. The car was locked, on a platform and cordoned-off, like a concept car. It was not possible to see the interior, and the hood was closed. But the paint job was as good as a new car's. There was also a Nissan dealership somewhere along the I-210 corridor in Pasadena or just east of Pasadena, that called itself a “Z storeâ€. Evidently there were only a handful of official “Z stores†around the country. They were taking orders for restored Z’s.

It's important to note the difference between large accumulations of obstructions (mud, ice) and just dust-type covering on painted surfaces. For airplanes wings relying on natural laminar flow for drag reduction, even small surface contamination such as dust and dead insects can make a significant different in performance. This also happens in wind tunnel test, for example when grime dislodges from the screens in the settling chamber and makes its way onto the test article; one observes higher drag on the test article than predicted in "clean" flow. But I would be highly surprised if a similar thing happens to any but the most exotic and highly-optimized cars.

Courses such as diff eqns are often “weeder courses†which are not inherently difficult, but are made difficult to winnow the field. Surviving the course means that you have the tenacity and dedication. This, some say, is useful later on in life, as a practicing engineer. The senior undergraduate courses are specializations of the freshman-sophomore core. In some regards they are actually easier. They repeat some of the freshman-sophomore material and do it in a more applied way. That makes them both more enjoyable and less frustrating. That said, as an engineer I very often use concepts from calc, diff eqns and other core courses. I rarely actually use variation of parameters or calculate Wronskians, but concepts such as linear independence, resonance and damping, linear superposition, truncation error and the like are so ingrained in my intuition that they’re almost done without thinking, like the proverbial riding a bicycle. If I need to have something drawn in Solidworks, or stress in a part calculated using finite elements, or code slammed out in Java, well, I can delegate that to some one else. But the conceptualization of an engineering system from scratch is really something that requires a mental training only possible from rigorous study. That study could perhaps be on-the-job; you don’t need a piece of paper to be a good engineer. But I’d argue that it is far easier in the long run to step over the high hurdles while a college student. Study hard when you’re 19, so that when you’re 39 you are an established expert.

Questions of this type (and consequent answers) all seem to miss the two most critical problems in doing ANY type of swap: 1. Is there something fundamentally wrong with the recipient chassis? I mean, does your [presently] stock Z run well? What about rust? What about the condition of the suspension? Many swaps fail not because of the swap itself, but because the project morphs into a restoration along with the swap. 2. Is the donor engine itself in good shape? I don’t mean how to splice wiring harnesses or how to get the Z tachometer to work with the Chevy distributor. I mean things such as why are the cam lobes wiped, what’s that knocking sound coming from the oil sump, why is the oil pressure fluctuating, why are the carb fuel-bowl floats stuck, and so forth. The basic mechanics of my swap were done by professional; he did the roll cage, the sheet metal work, the exhaust, and so forth. But I was unlucky and ambitious with my engine - and have spent the past 8 years trying to “fix†the engine! So my point is: good donor engine + good host chassis = successful swap, even if you are unfamiliar with the LT1. But questionable engine and/or questionable chassis = nightmare, even if you’re skilled and well-funded.

I would instead recommend the UC system. In your general area probably the best would be Berkeley. The word "technology" appended to any designation of engineering in my opinion means fluff and flotsam. "Mechanical engineering technology" is bending sheet metal to make HVAC ducts. Real mechanical engineering is modeling the gas flow properties to improve ducting design for minimizing pumping losses.

Mikelly nailed it when he noted “the sharp and abrupt edges on the S30†as being the culprit for its poor drag and lift characteristics. The “swoopiness†of the car is of course aesthetically pleasing (one of the main reasons that we like Z’s, right?) but “swoopy†to the eye is not equivalent to swoopy to the airflow. The hood front lip needs to be lowered and rounded, the airdam needs to be lowered, the grill opening reduced and the headlight buckets smoothed over (not just covered, but completely smoothed to remove creases). It really is a good question regarding what Nissan engineers were thinking regarding aerodynamics when they penned the S30 outer mold lines. I have several “historical†books with photographs of the S30 in wind tunnels, mounted to what look like force balance plates underneath the tires. Surely those engineers were not fools. But one can't help wondering where they placed their priorities. In the past 40 years, automotive aerodynamics has advanced far more than aircraft aerodynamics. That's not just a glib opinion; I mean, I do have something of an insider's perspective on this....

This has been discussed early and often! But to summarize, there really are no good options for manual transmissions with enough torque capacity - at least not in stock form. The T5 is considered to be too weak, unless fortified by with aftermarket parts (such as by G-Force). The T56 is heavy and its 6th gear is too high for most applications. The Doug Nash/Richmond 5-speed (what I have) handles the torque but is very unpleasant to shift and lacks overdrive. The Richmond 6-speed has overdrive and good torque capacity, but it’s heavy and expensive. You may wish to just get a T5, install it, debug the car, and drive it until it grenades. Then ponder an upgrade.

No real Z stories to report, but episodes of driving rental cars on Autobahns in Germany: 180 km/h (about 110 mph) in an Opel Meriva (hey, this is a micro-minivan with around 105 hp!) This was at max throttle in top gear for about an uninterrupted 20-minute stretch between Bremen and Hannover. 205 km/h (about 125 mph) in a diesel Golf, on the famous high-speed stretch between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. That was also absolute max throttle, but only for about 5 minutes. 220 km/h (about 135 mph) in an Opel Vectra GTS, between Kassel and Frankfurt. Again full throttle, but only for about a minute - the car probably had another 10-20 km/h if I were truly fearless. But my excuse is that lanes are fairly narrow, traffic is heavy and it’s rather difficult to maintain these speeds consistently, even if it’s perfectly legal and one has no cause to fear the police. In the Z (1978 280) the speedometer is about 15% optimistic. Indicated 70 mph is closer to 60 mph.

Measure the piston installed-height once the rotating assembly is together. In my engine I specified +0.001" installed height (piston above deck by 0.001") but in reality the flat part of the piston is at -0.004". These are mid-grade hypereutectic pistons, with significant graininess and unevenness on the flats. When I applied clay to the piston to check quench gap and piston-cylinder gap, well, upon unbolting the heads the depth of the clay was 0.015" more than I expected from my calculations. Part of that may be elastic spring-back of the clay after the head bolts were untorqued. Bottom line: small tolerances do matter when the gaps get close, but even a moderately large tolerance stackup should (I hope!) be OK when gaps are relatively large. My quench gap came out to 0.055" - while I was shooting for 0.040". The price, I suppose, is a slight decrease in combustion efficiency and concommittant increase in required timing advance.

The new GT-R picks up where Japanese "sports" cars of the early 1990's (Supra, 300ZX, Mitsubishi 3000GT) left off: 3500-lb GT-type cars marketed toward yuppies and middle-aged types with far more interest in appearances than "performance". With 15 years more increase in government-mandated safety features, in creature-comforts and electronics, the 3500 lbs has swelled to 3900 lbs. If it is any consolation, the new V8 RWD offerings from Pontiac and Cadillac will be 4000+ lbs. Personally I can't justify $80K for any mass-market car, because of the depreciation. I would however be interested in a $30K-40K used car - a 5-year old car that sold for $80K used. A good example, though slightly downmarket from this level, would be a $25K 2003 C32 AMG Benz ($50K new). So I would consider a GT-R in the future, if the depreciation works out favorably. Even so, I would rather swallow another 200 lbs of weight and get a sedan. For a sports coupe I draw the line (admittedly arbitrarily) at 3400 lbs.

I drove a 1978 280Z from Los Angeles to Dayton, Ohio in the spring of 2000 (and then continued to Washington, DC); the LA to Dayton leg took days. On I-70 in Colorado there were some snow issues, but the bigger problem was the car gasping for air at altitude. Since it was early spring, there was not much need for heat or air conditioning (fortunately!), and cabin noise wasn't too bad since I drove with the windows up. Mileage was rather poor (20 mpg at best). The lack of cruise control really didn't bother me. The first few hundred miles were scary, as I was worried about breakdown. But soon monotony took over as my main concern. Of course, that was 8 years ago - these cars were younger then, with less wear.

For a number of years my DD was a 1991 Toyota Corolla. Good gas mileage, reasonable acceleration relative to what one would expect for such a car, and good A/C. But I hated to work on it, and eventually minor issues such as exhaust leaks and a bad starter caused me to park the thing. (228K miles). Mileage was in the low 30’s. The next one was a 1990 Nissan Sentra. Low on power (much slower than the Corolla!) but comparable mileage. Ran fine through >200K miles, until I slammed into a deer at 60+ mph. Then I ended up with a 1990 Honda Accord. Another decent car, but not as reliable as advertised (alternator, radiator, exhaust manifold, window crank mechanism, heater core, etc.). The power steering failed at ~180K miles. When the odometer rolled over 200,000 miles I parked it. On and off my “nice†car was a 1992 BMW 325is. Now it’s my daily. Mileage is putrid (22 mpg in mixed city/highway, on premium gas) and off-the-line acceleration is no better than the 4-cyl Honda, but at least it is RWD! So far reliability has been OK (an ignition coil, ball joint, thermostat, dead trip computer, erratic window regulator) – knock on wood! Planning ahead for when the BMW fails, my backup car is a 1995 Toyota Camry V6. That 3.0L is a sweet engine – the Camry is noticeably faster than the BMW, although the steering is not as precise and the automatic transmission ruins the feel of driver involvement. The late 1990’s Japanese V6 family sedan is probably the best all-around reliability/performance/comfort deal on the market, if you don’t mind FWD and automatic. But if you do insist on RWD and stickshift, the options are poor. Personally I plan on avoiding German cars, not because they’re necessarily high maintenance (though some certainly are) but because I am not impressed with their torque delivery. As an alternative daily driver I’m on the lookout for a pre-SN95 V8 Mustang LX (hard to find, and command a high premium!) or a Gen-IV V8 Camaro/Firebird.

It would be interesting to see a side-by-side comparison of itemized costs based on (1) a donor vehicle and (2) purchasing the engine from GMPP and the transmission etc. from a transmission vendor. As a wild guess, the engine will be $5500, the transmission $2000 and the “stuff inside the bellhousing†another $1000.

I have the same question! It appears that the Summit coil and ignition box are rebadged Mallory – which from anecdotal evidence is bad news. Their distributor however appears to be rebadged MSD – which also from anecdotal evidence is good news. What happened to your Crane Hi-6? I was going to buy the Crane Hi-6 and LX-92 coil, but your post is giving me second thoughts….

Rumor is that to most track safety inspectors, all IRS systems are the same. They do not distinguish between C4/Jag setup, Chapman struts (S30Z) or double-wishbone. Some may require safety loops around the halfshafts. The fuel cell issue is another one for the rumor mill. Some inspectors may require building a firewall separating the hatch area from the cabin. In my car the fuel cell is bolted to tabs welded to the spare tire recess; it is literally sitting in the hatch area, with the stock floor untouched. That takes care of the underbody debris problem and isolation from the exhaust. Between the rear strut towers there’s a sheet metal firewall, against which the fuel cell is pushed. But I still need to build a wall going all the way up to the hatch lid hinge area - and if nitpicky, to also build partitions outboard of the strut towers, going to the quarter panels. But that is bordering on silly. If I do build the aforementioned wall, I will remove the hatch itself, and will try to build a cover for the fuel cell - a sort of Pantera hatch.

Maybe I just wasn’t paying attention, but why has no one raised the subject of difficulty of living with a 5-point harness in a daily driver? I tried this in my Z on the street, and while it can be done, it’s unpleasant, inconvenient and ultimately will cause you to slack off (literally) and not engage all 5 points. Once you strap yourself in, you can not reach the handle of an open door, you’re helpless if you drop your keys, and while driving it is hard to turn around to check in your blind spots. Eventually I gave up and reinstalled the stock seat belts, in addition to the 5-point (Simpson rapid-release) harness. This is with a Kirkey “drag race†seat.

I’m dumb, lazy and risk-averse, and therefore only invest in non-penny stocks and in fact primarily in index funds. The objective is to hold real companies with real earnings, real earnings growth and a real track record. Over the past few weeks my losses are - unreal. Over many years the track record has been… OK. But it beats a money market account. MACD and all that are nice concepts, but if the underlying fundamentals are not sound, there is not even a pretense of it being an “investmentâ€; it is a pure gamble. And though it may be whimsical to regard the stock market as a gamble, it shouldn't be as such - I mean, all of life involves some risk taking, but there's prudent risk and then there's wild risk. My situation is a little different from most of the folks who have posted in this thread. At my phase of life “wealth†preservation is more important than trying to make something out of nothing. I’m quite happy with a 8% annual rate of return. But in any situation investment requires considerable study and patience. It also requires the right set of character traits - or as some people would opine, “the right attitudeâ€. If you are truly dispassionate - great, I applaud you! But that is very, very hard to achieve in practice.

Please consider: 1. She’s your girlfriend, not your wife. 2. You don’t have children (right?) 3. You’re not caretaker for a relative (elderly parent, ill younger sibling, etc.) That pretty much discharges your responsibilities to your family. Continuing… 1. Your car hobby doesn’t cause your performance at work to suffer. 2. It’s not adversely affecting your health (breathing paint fumes or skinning knuckles doesn’t count). 3. You seem to have plenty of money to spare. And that pretty much discharges your responsibilities to yourself. Now I agree that you should trade quality for quantity and reduce your stable of Z’s to something more manageable. Nor is it wise to harbor a dismissive attitude towards your friends or girlfriend. But in the end, you already have the basics covered. And therefore there is no reason to be kicking yourself.

This may not be the most convenient point to resurrect the subject, but... ...what is the latest in our collective wisdom on distributorless ignition systems for old-school (Gen I SBC or Mark IV BBC) V8 Chevy engines originally equipped with points or HEI? By that I mean: 1. What are the current best options for junkyard solutions (Ford EDIS?)? 2. Other than stand-alone complete engine management systems, what are the aftermarket ignition-only options? 3. Pros and cons of DIS vs. the more common distributor-based solution of ignition box + magnetic/optical distributor (MSD, Crane, Summit house-brand, etc.)? Cursory perusal of distributorless ignition threads reveals that the vast, vast majority of the content is for L6 or other Nissan engines, or TBI/TPI. Has anyone successfully done a carbureted SBC/BBC with DIS?

Looking good!!! Out of curiosity, what were the flairs, what size are the tires, and how did you fit the combo with [what appears to be] stock rear suspension and drivetrain?

Computer usage policy at work largely comes down to the nature of the business. If you run a catalog sales or tech support business, it probably makes sense to have computer usage nanny software. But what about a biotech startup or software development firm? Creative people don't take kindly to baby sitting. My employer has extensive monitoring of computer usage and just about everything else, but that comes with the territory. Employees don't resign over this or other invasions of their privacy because they have weighed the pros and cons, and decided that the job security, the high pay and generous benefits are worth the infantilization or monitoring or other trespasses on one's space. Then again, it takes a certain kind of personality to countenance employment where I work.

Same here! I only have a dialup connection, so I can't watch videos, participate in gaming or download much of anything. Nor am I a member of any forums other than this one. But I spend "who knows how many" hours a day reading posts on this forum, following current events in online newspapers, and "researching" finance/investment. Lately, with the stock markets worldwide in a horrendous crash, I'm morbidly paranoid about the economy - mostly because I compulsively follow it online. And because even the most basic page takes so long to load, I idle away the time by playing solitaire or tetris. At work it's a different but related problem: e-mail. Probably 3 hours a day is sunk into answering or "following up" on e-mail. People expect a carefully crafted response, so there is pressure to revise and polish one's writing, akin to essays in freshman English class. But most astonishing is that I don't mind this; quite the contrary, I enjoy writing long and flowery e-mails, and enjoy the "thank you" responses for thorough answers. Electronic communication is indeed a great thing - if only we could attain moderation.

I'm a few miles south of Xenia, in the boondocks - and have a S30 with big block Chevy engine, currently (again) non-running. Also hibernating on the premesis is a turbo L6 Z belonging to Garrett. There are 3-4 more HybridZ'ers in the Dayton-Cincinnati area, but to my knowledge we have never had a meet. Maybe it's time to change that? PM me for more specific contact info....