SpeedRacer

Remember when almost all the race cars (except maybe dragsters, GTP, etc. with big air scoops) ducted air to the carb from one or more of the front headlight openings. NASCAR, IMSA, Bush, SCCA et. al. but now almost all of them duct to the air cleaner from the cowl - so why is that?

The pressure is usually greater at the base of the windshield so if you duct it from the cowl to the air cleaner you will probably get even more HP. Also, there should be no problem with water if you add a simple baffle.

BTW, if you use a 1994 or later Corvette bellhousing the trans will not be tilted over 15 degrees. Also, the slave cylinder for the Corvette is of a a higher quality but smaller overall than the Camaro type. It does not require any modifications to the tunnel and the speedo will still fit. There are, however, two things you will have to do. First you have to remove and heat up the stick so you can take the 15 degree bend out of it or buy a new one that does not have the 15 degree angle in it. Second, you will have to build a wedge or modify the trans mount to accommodate the 15 degree angle. Both will work but, in my opinion, the Corvette bellhousing makes for a more elegant solution.

KraZ4spd - check out the interior shot of my car in the "Featured Cars" section (it's the different looking red one). I have a 327 SBC and T-5 trans. in a 1971 240Z chassis. Per the JTR manual I used the later 260Z console and the shift lever came right up through the center. As you can see from the photo, it looks like the factory designed it that way.

Hi Jeff and welcome to our little corner of the Z car universe. Nice to have the manufacturer of the famous Isabella replica car pay us a visit. I don't think I have ever seen a SBC mainfold with six Webers down the middle but the last time I talked to Mickey at Inglese http://www.Inglese.com he had 24 unmachined intake manifolds left that have four Webers running straight down the middle. It uses dual choke IDF type Webers exactly like the early Ferrari's. However, there isn't any room for the distributor so you have to run a special angle drive or front drive type. Mickey had this setup on his T-Bucket and offered to sell the whole thing to me for $3,000. It looks awesome with eight chrome stacks sticking straight. The whole top of the engine is carburetor. How about helping with our Ferrari 250 GTO kit questions once in awhile?

I tried the Holley but it was really noisy. Switched to a standard Carter (CRT P4070 from Summit $54) and it's much better. Comes with rubber insulators for the mount. I mounted it on the outside of the spare tire well. I also put a good size piece of 1/8" rubber self-adhesive insulating material on the inside and outside of the well before I installed it. Then I also put a peice of dynamat on the bottom of the spare tire cover. You can still hear it but only if you are looking for the sound. The good news is that the sound from the exhaust and carbs drowns it out !!!

I agree on the 3/4" cylinder but I don't think Tilton (Wilwood) makes the 13/16" cylinder any more. I used the 7/8" and removed the stop that was down on the floor pan. That seemed to give it just enough travel that I have no problems.

Hi Ron - Yeah $250 sounds like a good deal if it's in great shape. The T-5 trans in that year Camaro is canted over to the right 14 degrees for tunnel clearance. You can run it straight up though without any problems (I do in my GTO). I used the '84 and up Corvette bellhousing for two reasons - the hyd. slave cylinder is a lot better that the Camaro one and the trans. bolts on straight. Take the shifter out, heat it up at the base and bend it straight. When you make the JTR transmission cross member just bend the center between the exhaust pipe clearance bumps at a 14 degree angle.

Ron Jones (see members rides) He has to have one of the fastest Z cars in the world !!! Awesome machine!!! 8.56@160,1.25 60ft

Hi Robert - I use Eibach http://www.eibach.com progressive rate springs on my GTO. Great ride but doesn't lean on the coners due to progressive rate. Also lowers the car ~1 inch. I also bought Tokico struts but just the high performance version because I didn't think I would need the adjustability of the "Illumina" versions. I picked them up from MSA http://www.zcarparts.com/ Part number for 70-74 Z springs is 23-4041 and 23-3981 for the struts.

Hi Scott - The clearance issues aren't to bad and you will most likely want to make the JTR type hood latch bracket anyway. The HEI would, however, have a hard time keeping up with the Pertronix/MSD setup. Then you could slot the motor mount holes (per JTR again) and move the engine a little farther aft as well.

I don't think he has a web site but Alan Grove says he has 27 different brackets for a small block Chevy. Look for his ad in a Hot Rod mag.

Check around because my local Guardian glass shop come out to my house and installed a brand new tinted windshield for $108.46 (yes I said installed for $108.46!). I did, however, supply a new rubber gasket. They used a butyel (sp) sealer on it. I used the complete Precision kit on the whole car and it worked very well except for the doors. The Precision door weather is not metric and a little to hard so you end up slamming the doors all the time. I switch to the factory door seals and everything was OK. Many people have reported the proble with the door seals to Precision but they have never fixed it.

I used the 18 circuit Painless (don't believe it!) harness along with the Painless dash harness on my car. Overall I was very pleased but keep in mine I have some variations. First, mine is a kit car and so the lights are different. Also, I have a custom dash so I mounted the fusebox above and behind the dead pedal instead of in the center. It was really quite straight forward to install with the only thing driving me nuts was the wiper motor. Nissan uses a relay in a weird way so I ended up not using the relay and I only have two speeds (low & high). The Painless manual is pretty good too but you will need the factory wiring schematic. I like the fact that the Painless harness is already wired to the fuseblock and all the wires are color coded and labeled with plastic tags. Although Ron Frances wiring is not already connected to the fuse block it is color coded and labeled right on each wire.

Sorry, forgot to tell you that I bought the Painless wiring kits from Summit Racing http://www.summitracing.com/ And here is a link to Painless http://www.painlesswiring.com/ and Ron Frances http://www.wire-works.com/default.asp

Sorry studocthomp but Mike kZ has tried. I wish I had a couple of dozen of them, or the molds, because I'd have a lot of money by now! FYI, the covers where developed by an ex GM engineer that designed and built a Ferrari 250 Tesstarossa called a VIP. He had Kurtco Mfg. Co. (who called them Kutco Rocker Boxes) make them up. I bought those from: Kurt's Hot Rod Shop 105 S. 36th St. Phoenix, AZ 85034 (602) 224-1459 I just checked the Yahoo yellow pages and found: Kurt's Hot Rod Shop 3011 E. Baseline Road Gilbert, AZ (480) 545-5009 Don't know if it's related but you can try. The molds must hanging around somewhere. The only other covers I have seen that are somewhat close are from Mickey over at Inglese http://www.inglese.com/chevroletv8.htm While you are there check out the induction systems! Good luck

It's really pretty easy. I started out with the Hooker (Scarab) conversion on mine and switched. You will need both JTR type front motor mount and the trans most likely the mount (but you would need a new one anyway). The driveshaft you have to do anyway. The full length headers won't fit so pick up a set of block huggers (Hookers will work) but there are better ones. Of course you will have to add the necessary exhaust pipe to get to the new headers. If you use the engine driven fan it will be to far back to be effective so you will have to shroud it or install an electric. It's really quite easy and you don't even have to remove the engine from the car. I just suspended it with the cherry picker, pushed it back and switched the mounts.

Welcome Roamer - I've got to agree with Ross C, Pauli and Lonehdrider on the SBC. If you build a Chevy 302 it has a 3" stroke with a 4" bore and it will easily rev above 8,000 RPM all day long. If you build it light it will not weigh any more than the old L6 you replaced. Now, add to this the fact that it is a very low (V type vs. tall inline SOHC) short engine that fits completely behind the front axle and you will actually improve the handling of the car. You will have better weight distribution (usually close to 50-50) and a lower center of gravity. All in all a pretty impressive package.

Yup, Datsun's Mr. Yoshida admittedly tried to copy much of the European GT shape of Jaguar, Maserati and Ferrari BUT the father of the Z car Mr. K (Yutaka Katayama) wanted a V6 in it. Since they lost out on the Yamaha 2.0 litre twin cam to Toyota (for the 2000 GT) Datsun was not about to expend the money on a whole new engine design. So they simply added two more cylinders onto their beefy little (1.6 litre) but excellently designed four cylinder motor from the 510. The 510's motor was already being raced and had proven to be very robust and quick. So the V6 wasn't to come out till many years later but in the end Mr. K was right.

Remove the wiper arms and the four sheet metal screws from the front. Pull toward the front of the car to release it from the five or six tabs located under the windshield and lift off.

You can find it here http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=525843083

Summit Racing sells the JTR manual so they might have one http://www.summitracing.com/

I think you will find that the web site for VR Engineering is http://www.reactionresearch.com/automotive.html zfan is right on. If John Washington (the owner of VR Engineering) does't have one, he might be able to refer you to someone who does. He is a great guy and always helpful. I hope my the punctuation is OK. p.s. It's JCWhitney p.s.s. Does your girlfriend like your Z?

Yup, I agree with lonerider that a lot depends on your mechanical abilities. If you are interested in Chevy crate motore (with a factory warranty BTW) here some info http://www.bgcperformanceparts.com/default2.cfm I would recommend that you keep it light and use the JTR method to install it. Good luck - you are gonna' love it!

Sorry I don't know what happened to the Cobra Coupe that was mounted on a Z car but Factory Five http://www.factoryfive.com is coming out with a new one based on a custom frame. I think both R&D Design Concepts and a place called Upstate Super Replicars have versions as well. I'll see what I can dig up in the archives. Ready for the Ferrari/Cobra Wars - Round II?