ZROSSA

Smaller chamber will be beter for more power, compression, squish and should be less likely to detonate at a set compression ratio. I had a look in Vizards chevy bookd earlyer and this head number wasnt one of the ones he sugested to use. There is a lot of good info on the web, and on your side of the world good after market used iron heads can be picked up for very little. I wouldnt bother with early factory heads in your situation. Douglas

Owen, Strictly speeking the diffuser should work on a totally sealed under pan so that no air can get above it. Look at a 360 ferrari or any high power single seater from the eighties onward. I have podered the diffuser issiue for a long time now for my corrola race car. My rules say that I cant have a diffuser as such and we have a ride height restriction of 3 inchs. I have come to the conclusion that the best I can do is clean up the flow in the area and make sure there are no restrictions to the air flow coming out of the back of the car. If you dont have end plate the the low pressure developed by the upturn will suck in air from the sides making the diffuser redundant. I have used a similar aproach on my Z. I was not wiling to try to smooth out the chassis so I have just made my rear bumper tuck under the rear and will attach it to the fuel tank with some super strong tape or something like that. I had to cut away some of the rear valeance (sp?) to make this work. Kind of looks like a diffuser but will never really function like one. Douglas

That will work zero. Seeing that you are handy with welders and such you could make the end of the bar adjustable that way you would have more tuning options. The easiest way I have seen is to weld a strip steel on the bottom of the sway bar mount that has holes drilled along it for different pick up points. Pretty easy to do. Your end links would then ned to be adjustable to work, but thats not to hard to figure out. Douglas

Seeing what you have there I wouldnt be surprised if your car handeled better with out a bar at all. Without end links the suspension is really binding. Do you have sudden oversteer problems? The other thing to consider is the actual mounts of the bar on the chassis are thin and flexable. They will break! Throw the bar away. You will have a better ride. Douglas

It will be a gts4 if its all wheel drive. Search the adds in Aussie and New zealand. Shiping may cost a bit but they are almost giving away the auto trans' here. Douglas

New zealand is a pretty diverse counrty. There its a lot to see. Imagine All the sights of the US compacted into a place the size of California. So much is going to depend on the time and resources avalable. It doesnt really take that long to get to places but there's a lot to see. Most people arive in Auckland. Its a pretty city and worth spending a couple of days in. Even if you just climb the local volcanos or head out to the west coast beaches. Seeing you are from Tenn, I would head north from there and hit some warm beachs. You can find wicked places here and you will be the only one there. Go up highway one and then come back the other side. I would go down one side of the north island to Wellington cross the ferry and then do a loop around the south island. Most people like to spend a little more time in the south Island. Its a amazing place. Then when you are done with that cross on the ferry again and do the other side of the north island. I think Jan and Feb are the best times to come. So does most of the other travellers however and things can cost a little more. Spring and fall can be a little windy and wet. Give me a idea of some of the things you are interested in and I will try to point you in the right direction. I used to run a rental car firm in Auckland before I decided to grow olives and make wine, so I have done a few itinerarys in the past. Cheers Douglas

I am a old school toyota fan as well. Had a ae86, ae85, supercharged mr2 and have been playing with a 76 ke35 for over 15 years now. Its set up for circut racing and runs a 2tg. Its in it 4th or 5th transformation now. About 10 inchs wider then stock, front mid engined , not much of the corolla left really. I think you should be able to almost swap the 2t, 3t straight in. It depends on what engine came in the starlets in the states. The a series engine will nedd a little work on the mounts. I saw one once that had a kind of set back plate that seemed to work. If i were doing it again i would grab a engine from an altessa. It might be a import on your side of the world. 3sg 210bhp and a six speed box straight from the factory. Douglas

Howdy all, My Z is still in body work jail so I dont have it here to do a measurement. Does anyone know the angle that the header flange is at when bolted on. Seeing that its a 90 degree v8 i would guess that is 45 degrees but some how i think its a a different angle. I just picked up a set of used "pacemaker headers" that are made in aussie. 1 3/4 inch with equal length 29 inch primarys. They are out of a jet boat but with a few mods they should bve wicked. Doouglas

I would go to the junk yards and pick up a rb30 turbo from a c/dore. So you dont get the 4v head. You would still get 100 hp per lt. easy. and it should have gear box and every thing atached. A;so the locals should be able to service it. Douglas

I woulnt have thought that those would look good on a z but that looked awsume! Maybe its the ride height. Douglas

We seem to think along similar lines ztard. I had beter go and take a new photo of the front end I have been building. Not quite as flashy as yours but similar. Douglas

We have talked abiut this before as well. Look up "backbone chassis". Maicors (sp?) looks cool. I had invisioned a more elaborate version kind of like a space frame that sits on the chassis tunnel that joins up to the fire wall and the all the way back to the rear strut towers. Weld it to the chassis so you use the existing floor as a stresed skin and then glue and rivit a outer skin on it kind of like you see in lotus 7's and ther replicas. I would also fabricate a strurt brace that picks up the front strut towers and braces the back to the fire wall to pick up the other side of the backbone chassis. Its a nice solution but it does have some downfalls. It doesnt give you any better side impact protection. If you are racing you need a roll cage which done right will achieve the same thing, probably better. The last thing that i can come up with at this hour of the morning is that to make it a really stiff structure every thing must be boxed and have diaginal bracing like a space frame. This includes the under side right wher you might like to have a drive shaft and the exhaust. Douglas

Hubba, I would hate to guess but they were imported used for years before the inport regs became tougher. People just drove them into the ground and they were not worth anything for a long time. I think now they are getting rarer and prices are begining to creep back up. I do see a couple come up for sale every year. I am not looking for them mind you so there must be more. A couple places to look would be "Trade me", "Trade and excange". They are online so easy for you to look at. There is probably "Autotrader" online as well but the cars in that are always over priced. The nissan club here never returend any of my e-mails so I dont think they will be much help. I will have a play tonight and see if I can come up with anything else. Douglas

Guys, The 2 seater are rare down under but dont forget to look at adds in N.Z. they do pop up every once ina while and a hell of a lot cheaper then you get them for in Aus. Douglas

Sounds like these beanie babys (I have no idea wtf they are) need to get off there lasy arses and come down under for some real work! Send them! Could be fun. Douglas

Jared, Just wanted to say I havent forgot about you. The work on the molds is very slow. The guy doing it works for beer so the window of progress is very small before every one is lagered and no work gets done. The front nose cone is done. Not mounted yet though. Douglas

You would be right there Marshall. But its not really a problem as we have the sterring gear on the "other side". Douglas

Thats actually a zx. The air dam is a local one. I think its made buy some guys in the south island called aerotech. They do have a web site but it only had modern stuff on it last time I looked. Douglas

Well Mike............You dont apear to have a rear strut bar on your list. You could however inncorperate that into your roll cage. I also think you should drive the thing first, then you can work on thing progresivly so that you will actually realise the diference the changes you make have on the handeling. So, in saying that, i think your next purchace should be "prepare to win" and "tune to win" buy Carol Smith. Douglas

We have been through the wrx thing in the past. I think i even supplyied mesurements at the time. I cant actually remember if it fitted though, but if it does then why not a svx turbo 6. Another couple of engines that could be mounted north south, Saab, and the Audi turbo five. Those sound really cool witha open exhuast. the volvo was a good idea as well, There has been huge power made out of those. Douglas

Actually Guys its a HOLDEN Torana. They are a little larger then a vega or pinto. Made in aussie only but were originally based on the european vauxhall viva. Came with frome the factory with any thing from a 1.9 four to a 3.3 six. Even made a racing version that had three webers from the factory. Sounds cool. Douglas

There is a bit of a issue with rather large kangaroos in rural aussie. Hence the roo bar. Douglas

If they are rubing on your shock and not the spring pearch then you need a spacer. If its hitting the spring purch you need coil overs. Douglas

I wouldnt bother witha 2.5 inch. go straight to the 3 inch. Douglas

Coming from a country boy in New Zealand..... I thought southern cal. was pretty cool. All those place you see in the movies and read about in mags. The traffic was an eye opener. I coudnt put up with it. Would have to get a gun and start shooting people. When you got out of the city a bit, the canyons and mountains were way cool. Good driving and not any interference from the law that I could see. Had to laugh a bit though. I rented a auto neon POS, and was blowning away big bikes in the twisties with my daughter in the back asleep. A few of these fellas need to learn a thing or two about corner speed. English did seem like a secound language at time but coming from Florida, I guess you might be used to that Mike. Cheers Douglas