BRAAP

That's what I like to see, members helping one another... Good one Robert!

How about an appropriate title for this thread? Any good ideas? Anyone? This link might help... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=130441 I'll change it if you come up with one...

uh.. welll... I'm taking the 5th on that...

Met RTz at the theatre to see the show, of course intently looking for Z cars. Near the beginning, appears to be Aziza’s car gassing up? Shot came and went so quick… Not giving away any spoilers, but a question. When Vin Diesel walks into that garage looking for someone and yanks that old chum from under the car, as he is walking in, the camera behind him sort of panning around, I thought I caught a glimpse of 510 taillights in the back of the garage?... Anyone else catch that?

If only if you spoke GM LSx...

Mocked up the new fuel rails on the LS1 intake. By itself, a bit blingy for my taste. I might try some satin/textured black paint in the machined valleys on the fuel rails to help dissipate the bling factor a tad. We’ll see. I built an O-ring plug for the EGR stove pipe. I used a PVC plumbing fitting, chucked up in the lathe, turned it down to just fit, then machined a groove for the O-ring. The EGR hole in the intake also has vertical ribs that the plugs sits on, as well as the step I machined on the top of the plug, i.e. it can’t get sucked in. I will then machine a piece of aluminum that will fill the void between the TB and runners and get bolted down over the top of the plug using the treaded insert beside the EGR hole, that will keep the plug from being pushed out, (you know, just incase of unnatural aspirations…) Might have something catchy etched/engraved into the aluminum cover.

As mentioned previously, nothing real big to update. Had a few nibbles on the VG30DE power train, nothing serious, yet. I “think” I have it priced to sell, i.e. low for what is being offered, maybe just the wrong time in the market? After a short bit of research on exhaust manifolds, I decided to get a pair of Vette LS6 crate motor take off exhaust manifolds. Never ran, price was very right! Will they fit my LSx Z-32 conversion? Dunno, but I hope they do. If they don’t I’m sure I’ll have no problem selling them for what I paid. If they do fit, I will finesse the exterior of them removing the casting flash and the heat shield mounting bosses, casting marks, etc and have them Ceramic coated, probably in Turbo Black. The reason I am so tickled over these manifolds is one, they are cast iron, less prone to manifold gasket leaks, two, from a flow standpoint, these are as or at least almost as good as a tri-Y shorty header. The interior surface is rough, not smooth like a header, but the primary diameters appear to be approx 1 5/8”- to possibly 1 ¾”? not quite round shaped, more oval shaped. All the merges are smooth fluid, no steps inside. They are very close to equal length and in a true tri-Y design. Not sure the "Tri-Y" design in of itself has much benefit, but if GM deemed it adequate for 405 OE HP in the LS6, then they should be more than adequate for my pesky little 5.3 sporting a Vette LS1 cam and LS1 intake, right? Fingers crossed they actually fit. Weight wise, for cast iron they feel pretty light, though not doubt they are heavier than headers of this same length, just not enough heavier that I am bothered by it. This pic of the back side shows where the primaries and secondaries pair up in the casting. This pic is looking up the collector. VERY difficult to make out in the picture, but you can just see the primary merge for the forward pair and the merge for the secondaries. The merges look nice and clean. VERY nice casting…

Recently built an uber cheesy 17mm core plug/block drain tool for a quick and dirty plug removal a few weeks ago; building a little nicer version, again on the cheap. Cutting down this 17mm allen wrench and tacking it in a ½” drive 17mm socket. Chucked a used damper bolt in the lathe and turned down the head so the damper can slide off past it when using the 3 jaw puller. Even gave it pilot of the pullers centering cone. In deciding whether or not I should get serious about building a front and rear cover alignment tool, more to the point, would such a tool be worth the hassle of building it, I went ahead and modified a stock damper. I’ve Seen pics of the GM version that captures the front cover and works in conjunction with the plate that bolts to the pan rail, looks like the E-ticket for proper front and rear cover alignment. This DIY tool I’m hoping will offer some benefit over nothing at all. I took my old truck damper, and removed .002”-.003” from the hub by honing it. Then cut off the inertia ring, chucked it up in the lathe and turned down the spokes and filed/deburred them for “finger friendly” finish. Maybe this will suffice as it “just” slips over the cranks snout? Guess we’ll see when it comes time to use it.

LSx specific tooling, DIY style! Recently built an uber cheesy 17mm core plug/block drain tool for a quick and dirty plug removal. Building a little nicer version, again on the cheap. Cutting down this 17mm allen wrench and tacking it in a ½” drive 17mm socket. Chucked a used damper bolt in the lathe and turned down the head so the damper can slide off past it when using the 3 jaw puller. Even gave it pilot of the pullers centering cone. In deciding whether or not I should get serious about building a front and rear cover alignment tool, more to the point, would such a tool be worth the hassle of building it, I took my old truck damper, and removed .002”-.003” from the hub by honing it. The cut off the inertia ring, chucked it up in the lathe and turned down the spokes and filed/deburred them for “finger friendly” finish. Maybe this will suffice as it “just” slips over the cranks snout? Guess we’ll see when it comes time to use it.

Happy Birthday Shaggster. Please forgive me, my inescapable wit escapes me in this most opportune thread... Have a wonderful Birthday.

COOL! Hmmm.... very nice. Overall, this pan looks like the closest/best fitting, "off the shelf" pan yet! Thanks for the heads up, very much appreciated.

Brings back memories. One in particular stands out crystal clear, I'll never forget... I was 12-13 years old, (41 now), my dad and my Grandpa sitting in the house, they must been bored that day knowing that I had a technical interest in cars, sent me out to our Baja Bug to check the coolant level... I searched and searched. I'd go back inside, tell them I found the radiator, but could't find that darn cap?! They said, "Just keep looking Paul, You'll find it!" So I did. I kept looking and looking, under, in over, I was all over that darn beetle. I was certain I found the radiator, but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find that darn radiator cap! This went on a few more times back and forth into the house when Grandpa couldn't take it anymore, busting out in laughter, broke the news to me. Mixed emotions that day. I still felt pretty good that what I found was the fan shroud, directly related to engine cooling... Yeup, we all start out somewhere...

Your post was just fine. I was writing mine and posted it before refreshing. Mine is redundant, sorry about that. Mileage is not an accurate indication of a possibly low oil level! The ONLY way you know for sure your ACTUAL engine oil level is to actually go outside, pop the hood, and CHECK IT! My wife uses this one on me all the time. You only have to be 2% smarter than the object you are attempting to use, Paul! in this case, it's a dipstick! Go out and verify your engine oil level! The "Check Engine" light, although pretty to look when illuminated, can at an inopportune time such as in the middle of an intersection, instantly become the “Chuck Engine" light...

John, Resisting the WOLF pack is futile... The more you look, the clearer the words are between the lines... /w/o/l/f/

Wait a tic. The more I look at that fascia, the more it looks photoshopped on the cars… Looks like the same exact fascia, one was flipped mirror image left-right from the other. Note the shadowing, intercooler plumbing etc. Homey in front of the Mus-t-urd is covering up the misalignment… If it is photo shopped, that is taking RICE to whole new level, when you go through the trouble of faking being fake in a picture... Algebraically that would be deemed, Rice squared… 's

Well?...... Nothing is wrong if the oil level is is not too low or too high when checked using the above method.

DOH!!! Automatic transmission level is checked with the engine running, NOT engine oil! Only check your "engine oil" after the engine has been shut off and sitting for approx 2-5 minutes to allow the residual oil that is pooled up high in the engine to drain/flow back into the pan. Then remove the dipstick, don't even look at the level, just wipe it off clean with a clean rag/power towel, reinsert dipstick all the way, promptly remove the dipstick again and note the level. THAT will be your engine oil level, with the car on level ground of course.

Yo.. yo....yo...yo... homey.. Yella douwgzz in da hooooood... Love the painted yellow inter-coolers. My guess is not real, probably molded as part of the fascia for that "authentic-faux" F&F look..

Is the oil still black/translucent or look just like a Star-bucks Mocha/opaque milky tannish white after the engine has ran?

Mobius5, Here is an intake swap with a 60mm TB conversion I just completed yesterday for a local customer. Some of the details may be of help in your project. Local customer located a non-EGR N-42 intake, 60mm TB, Pallnet fuel rail and TB spacer kit then dropped the car off and wanted it installed and tidied up similar to what we have done for many others, including rerouting the EFI harness along the firewall and under the fuel rail instead of over the middle of the plenum. Fired the car up yesterday, runs great, just as it did when it came in, other than the deleted air flow regulator as described below, other than that, no differnet! This is a bone stock L-28 EFI. Items deleted; 1) EGR, (This is a ’75 car registered outside of CA) 2) Air Flow Regulator (for a cold idle speed that the engine will idle on its own without holding the gas pedal, a "warm" idle speed has to be approx 1000-1200 RPM on a properly tuned L-28. If a warm idle speed of 650-800 is desired, then you’ll have to hold the gas pedal to keep the car running when cold till the car warms up, or reinstall the Air Flow Regulator.) 3) Coolant by pass that ran under the Air Flow Regulator. 4) Cold start injector and Thermo time switch. Tapped the cold start injector hole for 1/8" NPT, brass pipe plug installed. (left the Thermo-time switch in the thermostat housing, just deleted the wiring.) 5) A/C equipment in the engine bay. Items rearranged; but still functioning as OE! 1) Carbon Canister vacuum line has new port drilled and tapped into the back of the plenum and vacuum line rerouted along passenger frame rail and across the lower firewall. 2) Fuel Pressure regulator relocated to the firewall, fuel rail plumbed in a pseudo dead head style arrangement, (before anyone jumps on the “dead end EFI fuel systems cant be done” bandwagon, SEARCH! It can, has, and is still being successfully done, by the OE and tuners such as myself with NO ill effects NO vapor lock etc). Vacuum port of the FPR also has its own new dedicated vacuum port added to the back of the plenum next to the canister port. 3) PCV is now drawing fresh air, K&N filter on valve cover. (This caused the engine to ingest "false air" as the air being drawn in through the PCV system is no longer being measured by the AFM, yet the engine is breathing that air, i.e. “false air”), as such I will be fine tuning the part throttle tune with a combination of the water temp resistance and AFM adjustments, todays project. For those new to the stock EFI or EFI in general, just leave the valve cover breather plumbed to any port between the Throttle body-butterfly and the AFM and you’ll be just fine! 4) Removed the EFI harness and removed the outer sheathing from the harness that resides in the engine bay. Deleted the Thermo-time switching wiring back to the splice, also deleted the cold start injector wiring. (Just leave the wires cut, but protected from grounding/shorting. The computer doesn’t know the difference nor does the engine.) Separated the injector wires and the water temp sensor wires of the AFM and TPS wires into two separate runs. Retaped those as 2 runs. Reinstalled harness, routed the injector and water temp wires along firewall and then under the fuel rail, (can’t even really see them in this photo below, but they are there) and routed the AFM and TPS wires back in the stock location. Customer wasn’t ready to for a shaved intake, so this one was just painted and installed. Original fuel pressure regulator port plugged as well as a couple other deleted vacuum ports. Here is the picture, below that is a diagram of the dead-head fuel rail system. Boot between TB and AFM is not secured in picture, it needs to be secured! Hope this helps, Paul

I read on one of those crazy performance forums about a mass produced inline 6 cylinder similar the Datsun L-6, even designed and manufactured by the same parent company, NISSAN! Comes in various displacements, N/A, Turbo and twin turbo charged, with lots of over the counter cams etc. Rumor also has it these engines are finding their way here to the states!... You may have heard of it. The RBxxDE series? You left the door wide open for that one, I couldn't resist.