PapaSmurf

I had my first Z up to 130 spedometer indicated too. It was bone stock, just without the bumpers. There is no way my current Z would do that though with the carbs in their current condition - That's why project megasquirt is currently in the planning phases. The only intake manifold I have to work with is from an 81, and it looks quite borg-ish. Anyways I'm also looking for a decent front airdam and also something to shove in those bare wheel wells so I can keep this thing on the ground! Oh yeah and for others reading this thread - keep it safe guys I would never take a Z up to those speeds on a public road, I do it on long straight empty stretches on private property. Even then it's dangerous, I'm always afraid a deer or Sasquatch will jump in front of me and ruin everything.

seems to me it should be controlled via a thermostat rather than a timer.. which is it? If it is controlled by a timer I would modify it to use a thermometer simply because it takes forever to warm up my car in the winter.

interested, but you're in al and I'm in wa. pm me?

I'll let nancy go for ---------------- ONE MILLION DOLLARS! da da du du du daaaa Make me an offer, I need a family car now that the freaking god darned arse licking mother farking taurus has died.

my 78 has some serious wiring issues as well. I finally got all the marker lights working the other day but my headlights would only work on bright for years until I went through my fuseable box, the fuseable links were replaced with some large fuses that I can't find any information about. It's in a clear open to air (and water) box that just sucks. I fiddled with it, cleaned up the wiring made sure everything was making good contact, then tested the headlights and now they only work on dim!? So I'm here to tell you I know how you feel, 30 year old electrical systems are a pain in the ass.

thanks snailed, I was thinking of going with a solder it yourself megasquirt kit, just wondering if there was a cheaper or better way to do it. I thought the ford ecu might work well because I'd been thinking about transplanting the wasted spark ignition setup in there as well.

Hey guys my 96 taurus 3.0l was brutally murdered by an elderly relative. I've been contemplating a move to fuel injection on my z for some time but I really don't want to use the stock setup eg ugly emissions intake manifold, flapper, 1970's computer technology. Since the taurus is likely to be towed away I was thinking of saving the fuel injection components. Would the ecu need to be reprogrammed? I'm almost certain it would, especially if I want to tune it well, but would it run better than a pair of carbs with bad needles? I don't actually have the ecu for my car any more I do have a fuel injection manifold from an 81 I was thinking of modifying and cleaning up. I could pair it with this ecu, possibly these injectors, the sensors, and maybe even the throttle body and if everything got along well I'd move to a more open platform ecu that could be easily tuned. obviously this entails a lot of work and a lot of wiring I'm just wondering if there's ever been an attempt at doing this or if I have the slightest chance of success...

I've been thinking of doing a very mean spirited thing to my Z. It all started this weekend, my 10 month old son was at the baby sitters. He ate a watch battery, it got stuck in his throat, the emergency room didn't see it and discharged us, I took him back demanded they do an xray and a helicopter ride later we were at oshu getting it removed surgically. My grandmother tried to be helpful and tried to drive my 96 taurus to the hospital. She took it on the freeway in first gear (automatic but in 1) and she had to be towed home. My son and I finally got home today, they had to install a feeding tube going to his stomach through his nose. I checked out the taurus and it is quite dead, no oil in the engine after putting oil in and cranking it for a few seconds transmission fluid started flowing in my carport and the engine never caught. I found the issue with the engine - a no spark condition probably a sensor is pissed off. I just put this transmission in and owe 600 bucks on it still. This car is dead, but the engine may not be. I've been looking around and the only rwd transmissions for the duratec 30 come on lincolns and jags, not the most common vehicles in the junk yard. I know it's a dirty ford engine but it's a smooth dohc v6 that gets great mileage, is silent, and can put out more power than an l28. I was imagining how nice it would be to have a more modern engine under the hood of my Z. Has anyone even thought of doing this? I need to pull it out and take some measurements, get a hold of another 5 speed and see how much machining would be needed and how difficult the adapter would be to make. It seems doable though! These 3rd gen tauri have famous transmission issues that put them in the junkyard all the time. The engines are very cheap and put out between 200-250hp depending on what dyno you ask and have been known to put out far more with a little tuning. I'm thinking it would be a nice alternative to the more expensive engine swaps out there, but some of the initial steps have probably not been made yet as far as mounts and transmission adapters. Is anyone else interested in this swap? Have any of you done any research on it? If it won't fit or the transmission adaptor isn't going to work I'll just gut the car and see whats there for the Z, I'm eying a/c, electric fan, seats, brakes, wiper motor etc there's lots of stuff to pull and measure. It'll all have to wait until my son gets better - for now I have to watch him around the clock because if he pulls this hose out of his nose we have to go back to that damn hospital. Just looking for feedback. I know some of you are going to vomit on me for suggesting the use of ford parts on a Z.

My hoses are all gone, One hose was still there when I got the car but it was basically disintegrated. I suppose I'll have to just measure the i/d and rummage around in the junk yard. I was hoping for a source for new replacements is all.

It was asked earlier in this thread but since it wasn't answered and this thread is stickied I thought I'd ask it again so everyone can get the info they need: What about the vent hoses? Anyone know of a good replacement?

I'm trying to tidy up some of the loose connections, On the alternator one of the sense connections goes to the positive and the other is just hanging, near it the only wire in the harness that is homeless is a blue one and when I connect it to sense all of a sudden my charge light comes on with power on (It didn't before) and the fuel pump turns on only for a second and then off again until cranking which is what it's supposed to do - I wasn't sure if it would behave this way because I have a push button set up. So it seems that wire is where it goes however I'm getting 15-16v with it plugged in and 13-14 with it not plugged in. Seems like it's not doing a good job of sensing... Oh well that's what fuses are for - I'm excited the pump is now behaving properly priming and shutting off with power on. *edit now it's not priming and shutting off properly. It runs constant with the power on. I need a new wiring harness. I got my headlights to work on dim for the first time ever, then they stopped working too. Ghosts in the machine...

Not bad for $66.99 Figuring the cost of the pump around $50 and the cost of the regulator at $31 I'm in this $81. So next time I get some pocket money I'll pick one up. For now I can take her down the freeway (after I get some tabs) and blow the spiders off. Thanks zmanco! One last question: I have an 85 rx-7 is it the same pump? I'm thinking of taking it from that. Then I can just stick the mr.gasket mess on the rx-7 and let it deal with the pain. I don't care if THAT car catches fire!

I realize this thread's about a week old but I thought I'd chime in anyways. I just finally got my new f54 block installed. It came out of an '81 zx non turbo and had the hair drier fan installed to blow cold air over the top of the intake manifold. Unfortunately for me the jerkface at the junkyard I got it from dropped it as he was loading it into the truck, busted the hairdrier. Since this is the first of these I've actually seen in the wild I'm wondering how rare they are these days. That would probably yield a better temperature decrease than coating the manifolds, and it looks pretty neat mounted to the engine. I'm thinking of getting some black gorilla tape and patching mine and using it too thanks to the three belt pully that I can NOT remove (I broke 2 pullers and my rubber mallet trying to remove it) I had to trim the clutch fan for clearance. I'll probably also have to add a push fan in front of the radiator.

I had another thought that might allow the continued use of this mr.gasket regulator. What about a blow off valve in front of the regulator that dumps into the return line when pressure exceeds a certain level? I've never seen such a thing but I'm sure one exists, somewhere.

Interesting, my local radioshack took out their components section. It used to be radioshack carried every tidbit in their catalog, then a few years ago they just switched to having a few drawers full of stuff, now they have nothing. I purchased the made in china Mr.gasket 1-5psi cheapo regulator for 30 freakin bucks because there are no other options in town. I still want to find a decent regulator though because I don't like the idea of leaving this thing installed more than a few months. If it goes out it will leak fuel all over my alternator and probably kill my fuel pump. Since I don't like the idea of an engine fire I would still love some recommendations for a decent fuel pressure regulator. On the mr.gasket regulator: The car is running great now! It idles at 700rpms with no issues, no fuel leaking out the float chambers anymore. Now I can get the carbs tuned and hit it with the timing light. I also have to give the valve clearance one more pass and maybe add a push fan to keep her from getting too warm. I had to shave a little bit off my clutch fan for it to clear the 3 belt crank pulley that came on this f54 block. I tried getting the pulley off and replacing it with my 2 belt pulley but I broke two pullers trying to get it off! The fan is not vibrating, I actually think I did a rather good job evenly trimming the blades, but I know it's not pulling as much air now so I have to watch the temps. I'm still looking for recommendations on a permanent fix to the fuel pressure regulation. The Mr.Gasket regulator was an expensive bandaid that will allow me to do some tuning and wheel it around a few miles. I just don't trust it.

I'm going to try the potentiometer today, the current demands are actually very low. According to the information that comes with it the mr.gasket pump only pulls 1 amp at load which means 12-14 watts depending on if the alternator is running or not. amps x voltage = wattage, that is a fairly low requirement I'm pretty sure I can find something to suit it. Just so long as my flow remains good enough this might work. *edit* Sorry a rheostat is what I'll be using. With the resistance I'm looking at and the wattage requirements it will be dissipating up to 1.5 watts as heat fully restricted which is more than most pots can handle. I don't want the device controlling my fuel pump melting and catching fire in the hatch.

I've been reading around the interwebs and I've come across many examples of these Holley regulators giving inconsistent pressure. So it would seem like it's not just you. I still wonder how they would behave with a lower pressure pump, Does anyone have any suggestions for an alternative fuel pressure regulator? Maybe I should just buy an inline fuel pressure gauge and solder up a potentiometer to the mr.gasket fuel pump and just dial down the voltage a bit until the pressure is where I want it. Any opinions there?

zmanco with that holley fuel regulator what pump were you using? Were you using the stock pump? I wonder if this pumps relatively lower pressure might negate the inconsistencies you were having.

Thanks zmanco, hopefully I can get a few more suggestions. I'd like to know all my options before I commit to anything in particular. I got my Z running well enough to take it around the block. It's amazing how much more juice this engine has over my previous one. I found myself accidentally peeling out between shifts! It's running very rich and still leaking fuel at low rpms but I solved some of the overheating issues. Amazingly no leaks of any kind are showing up. So now this fuel pressure issue is the only thing keeping me from driving it

aww, I just spent an hour under the car getting this mr.gasket pump installed, I don't have the packaging anymore and I doubt they would take it back anyways. It was sitting for a while so there are spiders and I am not good with spiders in tight quarters. So the holley regulator I was thinking about is not going to work well enough with this lower pressure pump? What would the symptoms be? I'd like to go megasquirt too one of these days but with a custom intake manifold - too much money and time for now though. I do have an early rx-7 sitting in the field so I could use it's pump. The problem is my wife would be mad at me because I'm supposed to be fixing that car up for her. I hate that thing, it needs new apex seals, the wiring has been eaten by mice I'm sure and the interior is red with leopard trim - seriously. I just don't want to battle the 8 legged menace when I already have a new fuel pump plumbed and wired in. I'd rather get a regulator, that way when I go to replace this pump eventually for more demanding mods I can just adjust the pressure.

Hey guys, I just got my f54 block installed in my 78. I discovered a show stopping issue with my e88 head so I had to refresh the p79 and use it. The problem is the p79 has no place for the mechanical fuel pump I've been using all these years with my SUs. So I purchased a cheapo Mr.Gasket 4-7psi fuel pump knowing that these carbs really don't need much pressure. The problem with the pump is that the left/front carb overflows out the float chamber outlet at less than 1100rpms. The right/rear carb does not exhibit this problem, my guess is that the front carb gets the fuel first or there is an imbalance somewhere to that effect. So my thoughts are there must be too much fuel pressure. I went down to shucks looking for an oem fuel pressure regulator and the only one they had regulated it down between 1-5psi and had no bypass, it was also plastic and drastically low quality. So I'm doing research and trying to find the fuel pressure regulator I need. I was thinking something like the holley 12-803bp Any suggestions? I want to know what you guys are using for this application. One further question, should the ports on top of the float chambers be connected to the vent line? It doesn't seem right to leave them open.

Finished the port work and matching, Got the head installed on the block, timing chain on, valves adjusted, etc. I pulled the old engine and transmission, after I swap clutches and mate the transmission to the new one I can put it in. Pics: My tiny mechanic It's out. Every good l28 goes to heaven.

beautiful thanks

Hey guys, I've been hunting around for some pictures of a proper valve unshrouding that actually makes more flow. I haven't been able to find any pics of z heads unshrouded. I have so many junk heads now I thought I would practice on them till I grow skillful enough to try it on one of my good heads. Anyways If anyone has any pics of this done I would love to see it- particularly on a p79

the p79 is nearly clean, started pulling the valves out and brushing them. It's so much easier than the older head that ran leaded fuel. I'll have this head finished this week. Then I gotta pull the e88 off the block, bolt this head on, get it all buttoned up, pull the old engine from the car, mate this one to the other clutch and tranny, replumb the fuel lines for the electric pump, rewire the ignition system, and put the hood back on. bah this is taking too long... I want to drive!