Mike C

The Mustang handle position may be great in a ZX, but it stinks in a 240. That's one reason I bought the Comp. Plus is it uses regular hurst handles of which there is an assortment. Although I ended up modding the one I bought by bending it to the drivers side about 1 1/2". One of the shifters with the bolt on black handle might be more conducive to modifying the bend, but they are aluminum which will complicate things.

Rock on! Makes the car much more fun to snick into each gear. Yea, It's absolutely unreal how crappy that Nissan spec T5 shifter is.

The Camaro shifter will NOT fit. The pattern is nearly square while the Ford's is rectangular. I have the Hurst Comp Plus shifter on my T5. It is in my 240. I bought a different handle since the Mustang one jammed my hand into the AC controls. Other than that, bolted right in. If I had it to do over again, I would get one of the billet ones, but whatever you do get one with a removeable handle so you can bend and shape it to fit.

Both Jeg's and SUmmit have similar seats. Prices start at $199 each and am not sure if they come with sliders or not.

Have you searched on Crane's web site? That's where I would start. My experience with the Pertronix was you could run it either way, but most effective eliminating the ballast.

THe T5 is great IMO. Just not a race car trans. See other thread, T56 vs. T5. $400 is a fair deal for a complete GM V8 T5, if it is an '89 or newer, it's a great deal.

Not to hijack the motor thread, but the TH350 has a 2.52 first gear. This is not unreasonable for a 3.54 rear gear in a V8 Z. Especially considering GM used the same with a 2.41 gear in mid-70's big cars. Actually our old '81 4x4 Jimmy had a 305 the TH350 and 2.41 gears with 31" tires. It was way undergeared, but just serves to illustrate what GM could get away with pre-OD. In a street/strip Z looking for 11's, the TH350 and a 3.70 rear are nearly ideal. Overdrive makes a huge difference if you are building a daily driver. I am not a big fan of the TH700R4 for a performance trans because of the huge drop between 1st and 2nd gear. I think the TH200 4R has a much more realistic gear spread and more OD. It is also shorter than the 700 making for a longer driveshaft which helps with angles and vibration. IMO, the best choice in auto trans.

My motor is very similar to Alf's. My car has run 12.67@110 with a best 2.0 short time. I figure 365 at the wheels, 430 at the flywheel. My car weighs 3550# with me in it. I have a set of 492 heads which are a little newer design, but still the same family as the 462. Mine are also ported and polished. They are loaded with Manley 2.02/1.60 undercut stem valves and have had 1.437 springs installed as well as screw in studs. I have a lot more cam, at least as far as lift. 236@.050 and .530 after the lash comes out. In either case, our heads are much better than your 305 smoggers, but I'll argue that they are holding our motors back as well. At minimum, get a set of GM Vortec iron heads. There are more aftermarket small block heads than you can shake a stick at. Best bang for the buck IMO, get a complete Vortec 5.7l motor and swap in a cam and aftermarket intake. Already has hydraulic roller so will save you a few bucks. But if you want FI, skip straight to an LT1. A complete iron head motor shouldn't set you back more than $750, and will run circles around your old school combo. In a drag simulator program, leaving everything the same but trimming 1000# off by putting motor in a 240, car runs 10.90's...

I ran Bosch platinums in my '84 Corvette. Car ran GREAT for about three weeks. Then I noticed a miss. And then it rally started running rough. It had a new coil, wires, and the plugs. WHen I pulled the plugs, one of the center electrodes had slipped out and shorted to the ground strap! If it had been a multi-electrode plug, I'd have had a very hard piece of platinum scoring the cylinder wall. Two of the other eight had slipped but had not grounded. I will NEVER buy Bosch plugs again. I have run other platinum plugs from NGK and Autolite with good success. But IMO, best bang for the buck are the Denso u-groove plugs. About $1.19 each at Autozone.

Everybody has good points. Problems with the 400 is core shift in some cause cooling problems, especially if overbored. The short rods are crappy, and the factory cylinder heads are pathetic. A 400 needs a larger intake port volume head than a 350, so if you already have a set of heads, take that in to consideration. Also as noted, pistons are more expensive. But your dad is nuts. He's pissed off a ton of money if he's scrapping 400 blocks. A good one is worth 50% to 100% more than a 350. And the old adage aalways holds: There's no replacement for displacement.

Never say Never Dan...

Marvel Mystery oil is a high detergent lubricant "top end oil" from back when engines needed significantly more user maintenance than they do now from a metallurgical, design, and oip standpoint. ATF can be used in a similar manner. Not snake oil, but if you have something really screwed up, obviously it won't fix that...

First classs job of entertainment Dan!

If I was going to build a motor, the 350 is where I would spend my money. THe higher initial cost would be offset by lower parts cost for pistons and rings. BUT, the 305 does catch a bad rap. TPI makes a big difference. Except for a Summit flat tappet TPI cam, intake work and exhaust, my buddies 74 'vette convertible ran 13.9's at 102 weighing in at 3700#. That was with the TH700 and 3.07 rear gears. A well built 305 should push a Z car into the 13's easily enough, and 12's depending on the wrench turner!

Yea, CLiffhanger. No fair!

I have several sets of those Autometer industrial gauges. They appear to be identical movements to the regular Autometers. I love Surplus center! I've gotten some great deals from them. The first Autometer I bought was the Fuel 15 PSI gauge WITH the isolator and a #4 braided hose for $39.95! Needless to say, those sold out FAST. I bought fuel psi, oil temp, water temp, volts, amps, trans temp, oil psi, and a tach for less than $125. Going to put them in a hybrid jeep...

The 4+3 will fit and their are pictures of it in the JTR book with a custom shifter since the Corvette shifter bolts to the body. The 6 speed will work for you as well. I would get the engine, trans, computer, wiring, radiator, cooling fan and shroud, driveshaft, rear differential and all of the associated air intake plumbing and air box.

Even if they DID calibrate the carb ahead of time, and assuming that whatever engines it was for were all the same displacement, how could it run the same on a 5000# pickup truck with a camshaft having 190 degress duration at .050, 2.73 gears and a 1200rpm converter as it would on a 2800# car with 3.73 gears and a 3500 rpm converter using a cam that's 242 degrees at .050? Radically different fuel delivery, accelerator pump shot, and pump delivery time exist in the above example alone not to mention displacement, compression ratio and altitude! Having run and/or rebuilt nearly 25 different Holleys, one constant is they all need tweaking out of the box.

As noted above, the "bog" is most likely too much air and not enough fuel. First thing to do is rotate the accelerator pump cam to the second hole. This speeds up the pump discharge. Next move up in size with the squirter. Depending on how this works, you may need to change to a different pump cam and yet another larger squirter.

TPI motor is worth about $700 these days. Tops. LT1's can be had for that price around here. What trans is in the car? TH700R4 worth about $500, BW 4+3 more like $750. At least values I consider reasonable. If you can get the whole car that's the best way to do a conversion, and a good deal at anything less than $2000. The suspension parts will sell EASY. Many aftermarket frames for early 'vettes, 55-57 chevys, and streetrods use the forged aluminum 'vette components and IRS stuff.

Amazing what trimming a little weight and adding some gear will do! Congrats on having your 12 sec slips. Oh, and it must be nice to be able to walk to the drag strip from home!

IR is great. My next compressor will be a two stage IR. Currently, I have a Campbell Hausfeld 6 hp 230v unti. It is the 60 gallon tank. Coincidentally, you can get a Husky at Home Depot for the same price as your IR. Actually cheaper I believe! My CH is 13 years old now. Whatever you decide, a minimum of 10cfm at 90 psi is what you are looking for.

There are quite a few different water pumps. Short pumps with 5/8" pilot for Corvettes through '81, short pumps with 9/16" pilot for pass cars through '68 and trucks through '72. As you have found out, early and late style long pumps. Aluminum pumps like the '84 Corvette that is a short pump but a different dimension block to pulley than the earlier short pumps. Then throw either standard rotation or reverse rotation into the mix if you have serpentine drive. As you can tell, whatever accessory drive you have dictates the pump you need.

Oh yeah. I forgot about the crappy plastic water pump impeller. I did one of those at 95k. IME, late model cars are expensive to fix period. I don't think the Beemer parts are much different than a couple of year old Camry or Accord.

My wife really likes hers. It is a '95 325is. The car has been the picture of reliability IMO. In the 8 years we have had it, one set of brake pads, one set of tires. 4 crappy plastic brake light switches, one right rear wheel bearing. And this weekend we put a new headliner in. We would have another one in a heartbeat.