Alf

A 750 cfm carburetor should not be too big, I've ran 750s on 305s for a short while with no problems. Remember, the cfm rating is cubic feet per minute, so a bigger rated carb will not necessarilly give you more fuel. Usually the throttle bores are bigger to allow for more air to enter the engine. If you're running a Holley I would check the power valve, it may be blown and would cause the engine to run rich at all times except when under full throttle. You said you set the timing to 14 degrees which should be alright. What is your total timing? Are you running vacuum advance? When do you get full mechanical advance? What kind of vacuum is the engine pulling? The popping may either be too much advance, or just a leak in your exhaust at some point.

WhiteHorizonZX, the SBC Z31 swap is totally do-able by the novice builder, sure you can't just order a kit out of a catalog and bolt it together, but with some ingenuity and patience it can be done. This being said, you need to either have the skills to do fabrication work or find someone who can perform these tasks for you. Even at that, there is only minimal fab needed, of which engine mounts and the transmision crossmember are the big ones. Depending on what transmision you go with the difficulty may vary. Personaly, I would use the BW T-5, which may even line up with the shifter hole. I used a Saginaw three speed in my car for the sole reason that it was free, because I already had one. Some heavy shifter modifications where needed to make it poke through the floor in the original location, and any older non overdrive manual will be the same: Muncie M20, M21, M22, T-10, Super T-10, Saginaw 4 speed. Another problem with the older three and fouur speeds is the lack of factory hydraulic clutch set-ups. After about a week of mimmicking Dr. Sues in an attempt to adapt the Nissan slave to the SBC with an over elaborate bracket, I bought a hydraulic throw out bearing. Hydraulic throw out bearings aren't cheap, they also aren't very much fun to adjust either. If I had a steel bell housing I could have welded a bracket right to the bellhousing and bolted the slave cylinder to it, maybe I'll mess with that more in the future. You will also need to have a driveshaft made, which is one of the more expensive aspects of the swap. Instrumentation is another obstacle, the only guages that work in my car are the volt meter and oil pressure. The factory tach and temperature guages run through the computer, so once it's gone, so are the guages. The speedo does run off a cable, so it could most likely be adapted. Because the Z31 chassis was originally home to a V6 rather than an I6, the engine bay is a little tight. The main problems come from the exhaust, especially on the drivers side, and hood clearance. I used Chevy "rams-horn" manifolds, which fit fairly well, Chapparell has block huggers on his. The odd setup of the factory radiator is another problem. I purchased a new turbo radiator for my car and I ran a 16" electric fan (you must run an electric fan due to space restrictions). My car always seemed to run hot, but it never did overheat. Here's a rough price breakdown on my car: 85' 300ZX: free due to fire damage 305 SBC and Saginaw 3 spd.: free, mainly because the engine was worn out and the transmision is just not very desireable radiator: $130 Driveshaft: $211 Hydraulic throwout bearing: $180 misc. parts: $500 I'm sure there's more, I just can't remember, it's been a while. Basically I have about $1,500 total into my car at the moment. Another important thing to note is that I have proven that this is a reliable swap. In the period of one year I drove my car about 6,000 miles, which includes three trips from New Jersey to Kansas, and I never had any serious problems, it never left me anywhere. Here's a few links to some other threads: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=108065 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=104866 Wingman, do you have any pictures of you project you could post?

ditto

Update #6 1/31/07 How's it going everyone, Well I was able to get out into the garage last night and tonight, and besides the fact that I didn't have an engine hoist, the engine is in the chassis. Check out the pics below... This is my mount template. Once I was sure the engine was aligned in the frame I made some measurements and then started cutting up snack boxes. It was a little tricky because the engine mounts stick out past the frame rails and the frame is on an incline, but about an hour later this is what I ended up with. Too bad cardboard isn't strong enough to support an engine, I would have been done long ago. The template in action. After what seemed like hours of cutting and grinding, I ended up with eight peices, and three lop-sided bats. I set the engine in the rails and started tacking peices together, after a zillion measurements and many burnt fingertips later this is how it looked. All welded up. Oooooohhhhh aaaaahhhhhhhh... It's in!!! The engine is actually about an inch higher than the body, it's still only about half way up my thigh though. It has about 4.5" of ground clearance, but a "bash-pan" is going to be fabbed. Front shot. They even look symmetrical, sweet. Next project to tackle is the front suspension, unfortunelly I need to rebuild the axle and decide on my wheel and tire package first so I can set the ride height. There is a chassis rebuilding class here at my college so I was thinking about just giving it to them for a project, but I kinda want to keep everything "in house". Either way I need different spindles and brakes because the thing is so old it has mechanical brakes. Thanks for checking in. Untill we meet again. Alf

I agree. I've always thought that the joints defeated the purpose of the bar, which is to ridgidly tie the car together. If the towers are "laying over" a bar with joints is going to still allow them to "lay over". Or am I missing something? I made a bolt in rear strut bar for my Z31. It's solid mounted, and I could feel a noticable difference, it may be because the chassis is rusty and the suspension is worn out, but I don't know. Here's a pic...

Update #5 1/28/07 Greetings, Well, my week long of thrashing is winding down, it's a good thing too because I'm getting burnt out. I've been working untill the wee hours of the morning, though productive, it has atracted some unwanted attention. Last night I was pulled over after leaving my garage in the early morning because I showed "suspicious activity", and tonight two cops knocked on my door. The cop says "what are you doing in here?", I said "I'm building a hot rod." He then says, "Why?", some people just don't get it. I guess they think I'm running a meth lab, or maybe they just don't like kids from Jersey, who knows. Anyway, back to the update. The rear suspension is done. I picked up an 11 lb spool of wire so that should last the duration of the project. After I finished up the back end I moved to the front, and realized I needed to raise the front of the frame so I didn't end up with a mile high front sring perch. So needless to say I cut the frame in half, but don't worry, it's all back together now. I guess I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves, enjoy. There's the finished rear suspension. The shocks are Ford Ranger, springs are trailer springs, and the axle is '87 Pathfinder, LSD 4.63.1 6 lug. I finally found a decent grinding wheel and cutting disc. These are SAIT brand. I picked them up at a welding shop, they're good quality and weren't any more expensive than junk discs. The cutting disc is super thin and lasts forever, I've been cutting everything with them. Try a pair of these bad boys out If you get the chance or do alot of cutting and grinding. CHOP!!! CHOP!!! The front end now shoots up at an 11 degree angle. I did it this way because I could get the distant front higher with this method, any other way the starter and alternator were touching the frame. They say WD-40 has 1001 uses, well I just found # 1002, an engine hoist. I went real ghetto and used some plate doused in WD to slide my engine in the rails, do what ya gotta do. Finally cut my tranny hole in the firewall. This thing is tiny, it's times like these I wish I wasn't 6'2". The body will sit about an inch and a half lower once the frame is off the ground. After I decided that my new frame design was going to work I welded her up, being carefull to keep everything in line, then ground it smooth. Then, I cut out some gussets for the top side and welded them in slowly. Then, I made these plates out of 3/16 sheet. Finally, I welded them up on the inner side of the rail where I welded the tubes back together. 3/16" is the max thickness my welder can weld, I think it did a pretty darn good job, I'm impressed. Things are going to start slowing down now, spring semester starts monday so I'll be busy with school, but hopefully I can have a rolling chassis within a month or so. Thanks for checking in, the next update should include a mounted engine, so keep your eyes open. Later... Alf