BRAAP

Firion, Keep up the good work and we all are looking forward to your next update. Definitely a unique conversion retaining the OE Auto trans etc.

CobraZ, Sorry but please go back and read the very first post in this thread. Aside from your opinion on the VG30DETT, this gentleman is documenting his non standard SBC Z-32 V-8 conversion here on HybridZ for other reasons than power. As he stated, the SBC will be a much easier engine to work on and maintain, now, and as the engine ages, parts are EVERYWHERE for pretty cheap, etc. etc. etc. Who is to say he is going to leave the engine in that configuration? He did stay he has been around some stock car racing, my bet is the engine will not remain stock. He may have plans to EFI, and turbo charge the V8 in the future, and the stock SBC compared to a stock VG30DETT, the SBC can EASILY produce 300 crankshaft HP with VERY little effort. 400 HP is also easy to achieve, VG30DETT just crank up the boost to get to the 400 HP level, but the SBC still isn’t using Turbos yet! Add Turbos to the SBC and …. .. well, you get the point.

Happy 60th birthday to SHO-Z. Did you get any super cool Z car related stuff for your Birthday?

" I don’t care wahtchya all say, that’s funny right there. " Oh, and don't forget http://www.classiczcars.com As for being in a hurry, please be a little more patient. Sometimes it may take a few days or more before a response. Bumping it every few minutes, every few hours will get that thread tossed in the shed for sure. As for your gasket leaking, I’m assuming you are seeing coolant weeping and stains down the passenger side of your block? If the block surface was not thoroughly cleaned “immediately” prior to installing the gasket or if the block deck surface sat exposed to any moisture, (high humidity counts), for any period of time prior to installing the head gasket, the slight corrosion that starts to form on the deck surface will compromise the seal of the head gasket just enough to allow the coolant to weep out externally on the L-series. As for your bump in comp ratio. You said you have an L-28, but which one, early dished pistons with N-42/47 head, late flat top pistons and P-79/P-90 head, is it N/A, OE turbocharged? At any rate, it doesn’t matter which L-28 you have right now as the compression ratio topic in regards to building high performance L-28’s has been beat to death and then some on this forum. Do a search for custom cylinder heads, big and nasty head work, and other cylinder head searches and you will find LOTS of info regarding what works and does not work with specific build combinations. Not all combinations are compatible. Good luck, Paul

Hmm.. For some reason, how you described this deal and the discrepancy in the listing, a little red flag is waving, "possibly HOT”. If it is an ’04 Z manual trans, yes it should be a 6 speed. As for the Z-32 trans being bolted up to the L-series? Please read the HybridZ rules and guidelines linked below, in particular, #2. The Z-32 trans to the L-series engine even has its own dedicated sticky thread in the L-6 section of this forum. Click me and read please...

Ron, You still have the SBC 400 itch? I’m sure Doc’s 406 would scratch that itch and help you deplete the worlds supply of tires. Doc, Is the 406 up for grabs? Maybe time to build a 427 SBC or add some form of unnatural aspiration? Grumpys 620 CID idea sounds fun..

First off, welcome to HybridZ. I’ll be straight up with you here. This forum is dedicated to the Datsun/Nissan 240-Z, 260-Z, 280-Z, 280-ZX, 300-ZX, and 350-Z cars, in particular Z cars with some form of extreme modification to the power train and/or suspension. Some times, (and this is rare), the discussion of another vehicle other than the Z will come up, which is ok. But diagnosing, troubleshooting, and maintenance issues regarding other cars really isn't what HybridZ is about, even those same questions pertaining to the Datsun/Nissan Z car. Questions pertaining particularly to the engine and its wiring, you’ll have more luck finding answers to, not so much with the Firebirds body wiring. You might try one of the F-body forums as they should have that Firebird body wiring harness answer. I’ll leave this thread open just in case we have a die hard F-body guru on this forum that can help out. Good luck and again, welcome to HybridZ, Paul

Thank you guys for the support regarding the “definitive weights” thread. Firstly, the “Definitive weights” thread “is” a compromise. No argument about that. For the amount of our own money, effort, and time, we are willing to put forth into that endeavor purely for the sole purpose of sharing our findings with the HybridZ members, this is as detailed as we are currently willing to make it. We encourage all members who have access to accurate scales to contribute to that thread, all we ask is that you follow the guidelines as posted in the first post in that thread. If anyone is interested in building and maintaining a detailed spread sheet of sorts for that thread, we would be glad to have you on board. If someone is wiling to sponsor our time and supplies, then we would be glad to take this to a whole new level and establish SAE style standards for weighing engines and power train combinations. The reason behind the “definitive engine weights” thread? In our searches for engine and power train weights in the past, we have not been able to find a standard for which engines are weighed “to” and what engine/power train weights we did find contradicted others findings, so who were we to believe? In my not so humble opinion, all of those weights we found posted on the internet, including those found in other threads here on HybridZ are worthless. This new thread is an attempt to present a more accurate representation of what specific power trains do weigh with and without certain accessories and options. The definitive weights thread isn’t going to satisfy just one particular engine or project, i.e. SBC, LSx, V-8 Automatic powered Z cars, etc, nor are we going to go through the trouble of equipping each and every engine we weigh with exactly what it takes for it run because who is to say what “should” and “should not” be included during the weigh in, i.e. how much of the EFI harness, vacuum hoses to the canister, the canister itself, fuel pump, etc, for the varying power trains, "Carbed" vs "Fuel injected", "custom engine conversions" vs "as installed OE", hence the compromises we made for that thread. For the SBC alone, there are SOOO many different configurations when you take into account induction, exhaust, heads, ancillaries, etc, there is NO way we could possibly cover all bases. The list created here isn’t ideal nor will it encompass every possible engine trans configuration that could be stuffed under the hood of a Z car. What that thread will offer is a definitive guide more accurately portraying a specific power train combinations weight with a short list of what "is" and "is not" included. As for the 2 LSx/Auto power trains currenlty posted, purely coincidence that I had access to two LSx power trains last Thursday, both just happened to have 4L60E transmissions mated to them. We will be weighing more than a few traditional SBC combos including iron heads, aluminum heads, w/T-56, etc. (I am currently building a traditional SBC 350 with aluminum heads, aluminum water pump, T-56 etc). We will also be weighing other power plants as time goes on, including my VH45DE, Dave Lums VQ35DE, a 2JZ, a few SBF’s, etc. Again, thank you guys for your support and stay tuned for more weigh-ins…

WOO HOO!!!! Congratulations.. We just did the happy dance as well...

Air flow “to” and “through” the radiator seems to suspect in our S-30 Z cars. The results of the recent wind tunnel tests show the Z car definitely shows signs of having issues in that area. As you, I chased my tail trying to get my V-8 Z to run cooler as it wanted to run warm on warm days, even down the freeway under light to no load where air "should" be flowing through the radiator. In an effort to keep it cool I employed the following mods, and alterations. 1) Blocked off the internal block coolant bypass and redrilled the plug with a smaller hole. 2) Reduced the water pump impeller to housing clearance. 3) Ported the water pump itself, thermostat housing outlet and intake manifold coolant ports. 4) Added a backing plate to the water pump impeller. 5) Port matched the water pump to the block. 6) Over drive pulleys in two steps. 7) Colder thermostats. 8) Special high flow thermostats 9) Higher pressure rad caps. 10) Burping the cooling system using a few different methods. 11) Stock car racing radiator. 12) GM Radiator from JTR. 13) Higher flow cooling fan, (I should’ve went to a REAL fan as I was still using inadequate cheesy cheap-o fans). 14) Removed the license plate from in front of the grill. 15) Removed the grill. 16) Sealed off the holes in the radiator core support . Now the only mods that made ANY noticeable improvements whatsoever in the engine running cooler were the mods that improved air flow “to” and “through” the radiator. All other mods to improve coolant flow made no difference. With what I learned from the wind tunnel testing recently, I feel quite confident that if I would’ve employed some of the principles learned from the wind tunnel testing, the overheating issue in my car would’ve been 100% solved, at the time, I just had no idea what else would or would not improve air flow “to” and “through” the radiator in an S-30 Z car. That’s my $.02

Friday morning, before sunrise while driving the Z-32 at 60 MPH down a 5 lane freeway, a raccoon made an attempt to cross the freeway. He didn’t make it. I barely saw him as he disappeared in front of the car with an immediate very loud BANG, not a thud, but bang! That bang was his head denting/bending the lower radiator core support upon contact. The rest of his body tore the Urethane front fascia, busted up the A/C fan, bent the passenger side horn up to a horizontal position, teeth/splintered bone knicks in the A/C refrigerant line crossing the lower core support, completely busted out the entire lower splash pan, slightly dented the AC/ dryer. Depending on how insurance will handle this, I’d like to get the ’99 Z-32 front fascia. A standard US market TT front fascia would be just fine if I can find one reasonable in near new condition.

Happy Birthday Mark.

Just updated the “definitive” engine trans weight thread with the following engine trans weights… Weighed “Savage42”’s Corvette LS6 with 4L60E, headers, alternator, engine and trans wet; Suby EJ-22 engine only; Nissan VG30DETT engine only; ’03 GM Vortec 5.3 W/Magna-charger and 4L60E.

************************** VG30DETT; (90-96 300-ZX) WET, oil and coolant, W/Turbos, pwr/str bracket, engine mount bracket and fluid filled mounts. MINUS; Water pump, timing belt, timing belt covers, flywheel. One ign coil. 469.8 lbs. Same engine MINUS the turbos, 442.2 lbs[/b] ******************************** 2003 GM Vortec 5.3 w/4L60E; IRON block, WET, with alternator, headers, Magna-charger supercharger and manifold, coils, Camaro oil pan, starter, 2003 4L60E transmission, torque converter, flexplate. MINUS; Motor mounts, harness. 779.4 lbs. *************************** 2002 LS6 w/4L60E; owner is member "Savage42". WET, with Camaro oil pan, Headers, under drive crank pulley, alternator, starter, 4L60E trans, torque converter, flexplate. MINUS, motor mounts, harness. ** (the engine stand feet in the pics were removed prior to weighing). 609.0 lbs With JCI A/C compressor and bracket, 632.8 lbs *************************** Suby EJ22; WET, oil and coolant. MINUS Alternator, damper, flywheel, exhaust manifolds 214.8 lbs.

Way to go Brian. Nice work.

Hmmm… Maybe it’s a Maxima N-47 head, could even be the complete Maxima L-24E?.. Hmmm… You'll have to pull the head to know for sure as the MN-47 head is a peanut chamber with lots of squish If the head is the MN-47, you should be able to get at least $50, or up to $150 for it as a core MN-47 head. If the block is the 240-Z block, it should have the 9mm rods which will fetch around $100+. the 8mm rods out of the Maxima L-24-E are only good for paper weights/door stops. (I probably should shut my mouth now.. )

The wheels in the "before" pics reminds me of custom wheels that you would see installed on a clean 1989 Ford Taurus. The "after" pictures of those wheels brings the style much closer to a modern look, and as interim wheels, look pretty good. Just shows that with a little ingenuity, a dated wheel style can still look good today. Nice work.

Cygnus, Thank you for the follow up. I really like Ricks idea of no gasket for the "iron" exhaust manifolds and just the intake portions of the gasket held on with Gask-a-cinch and anti-seize on the other side for reusability, (Gask-a-cinch is great stuff for front cover and other thin paper gaskets). Using the intake portion of the gasket should help reduce heat transfer from the head to the intake manifold.

Oil pan, I’m not seeing an “upgrade” there. Air flow meter, Again, not seeing the “upgrade” there unless you are VERY savvy with tuning and manipulating the OE L-jet EFI to take full advantage of the larger AFM. Manifold, I’m assuming you are referring the intake manifold. Again, another item that isn’t a true performance "upgrade" for an N/A L-28. Dizzy, Is there something wrong with yours? The Turbo Dizzy offers no performance advantage over the N/A Dizzy in an N/A application, not too mention the triggers are way different so I’m not even sure it would even work. ECU, When playing the OE EFI systems you will gain nothing in using a Turbo ECU on an N/A engine. The Turbo EFI would only work if the Turbo was also used. If you want to use a Turbo L-6 parts on your N/A L-28 as performance upgrades, the cylinder head is about it, and at that, it would only show realistic gains when you get the pint of extension cylinder head modifications. Stock for stock, no gain to be had there either. In short, I honestly feel that if you are wanting to add realistic performance upgrades to your N/AL-28, start by searching the “L-6” forums, and the sub forums in the “Engine components” section, as competent powerful N/A L-28’ s have been documented thoroughly here.

Moved… Just curious about your list of parts you are considering an upgrade. What is it you are trying to upgrade and why? Also, what year is the car you are working with?

“Fish on… ". I saw the subject line and took the hook, line and sinker.. I just had to see .. Good one..

Sarah, On behalf of the HybridZ membership, welcome to HybridZ. If there is anything in particular you are looking for regarding custom high-performance Z cars, ideas, concepts, etc, feel free to ask within the various sections of the forum. Welcome to HybridZ, Paul Ruschman

When I read your subject line, the first thing that came to mind was… My mother in-law driving off a cliff,……. in “my” Z!

Don't forget the pilot bushing that goes in the back of the crank as it was omitted from the factory in the cars that received an Automatic trans.

You wouldn’t be trying cut in under someone else now would you? Of course you wouldn’t even think of such a dishonest act against anyone, especially a fellow HybridZ member….