Mike C

Found this and thought it might apply... twin turbo nissan v8

I feel your pain! Nothing is worse than having to fix some other morons mistakes. When I go to buy a vehicle and I am informed by current owner "did all the work m'self" I'm inclined to offer 25% less than I would have! (Note, I also seldomly buy anything running so I seem to run into these fellows quite often ) Good luck with your drum.

To some degree, Americans have been slow to warm to newer turbo cars for the same reason that diesels have taken forever to gain favor. Crappy products in the 70's and 80's. Electronic controls are no comparison to the blow through carb turbos and mechanical injector diesels. As far as superchargers vs. turbo, superchargers are cheaper and easier to install with only intake plumbing and not complicated left to right exhaust plumbing. I myself prefer turbos as they make TONS of power without the associated parasitic loss and they are quiet. As I get older, I REALLY like the idea of fast and quiet. My Z/28 is fast, but it's loud and raucous, which has its place, but not for a daily driver which my Z is. I told a friend of mine 2 years ago that his nitrous injected 468 was a dinosaur in the fastest street car racing and that in 2001 all of the fast guys would be running turbo small blocks. Which has turned out to be spot on. After the "crash" (trying to back up an 8.63@160 ) he is now building a turbo LT1 for a '94 S10. I couldn't sway him into the Z car fold. [ August 27, 2001: Message edited by: Mike C ]

I have a lift if one of the V8 guys in Austin wants some shots of the bottom of his car they could send you.

If you have another car other than your Z/28, great. If not, look at how long and how much more involved these projects have been for some of the other guys. You definitely need something else to drive while you are working on this.

Do you means bogs and not stalls? Usually when a carb bogs it's because of too much air. The accelerator pump shot needs to have its volume or rate changed. I ASSume you have a Holley? Vac secondary? Double pump? Either way, larger squirters (or shooters) are available in addition to more capacity accelerator pumps and different cams.

I bought my current 204z (a red one and 99.9% rust free) from its owner in San Diego. ebay. I paid $1700 plus $500 shipping about 18 mo ago. Definitely spend more money on a better car in the beginning. You will come out WAY ahead in the long run. $5000 should get you into the LS1, but for $6500 you could buy a complete 94-95 Lt1 T56 car. Which would mean EXACTLY like your current car and give you a ton of spares for your driver as well as any of the odds and ends for the conversion and you could sell the rest to someone looking to build a drag car or who wrecked their own 4th gen.

The GMC platform is much larger than a Datsun. Also as noted in the other post, under chassis clearance for driveshafts and t-case is an issue. I have a friend with two Typhoons, a daily driver and a wreck. I am really after him to put the motor from the wreck in a Z car, although he wants to keep the AWD. We have looked at the truck setup and my Z and the truck is just too big, check out the TH700 and t-case in the JTR TPI/TBI book. The rear driveshaft would have to be about 6" long!

With the header off, you can probably see the exhaust valve and tell if it is open or not. I would think you could make it work. Boy, you really don't want to pull that valve cover, huh?

I don't know for sure Dan, but it seems reasonable as long as your hose sealed tight to the spark plug hole...and you have good lungs and hearing I have always done it the way I described, by pulling a valve cover. One thing about all of these methods is we are assuming the TDC mark on the balancer is correct and that is not always so. Proform makes a cover for the stock balancer that is degreed and bolts to the damper between the pulley which should guarantee location of TDC mark.

AS far as shifting, when the car is not running, their is no dynamic action in the trans and it can go into gear, but when running it's like trying to shift without a clutch if the hydraulics are gone. Check for a leak as well as proximity to the exhaust of the slave cylinder.

Hi Bill, The motor came from a friends 90 RS camaro that he turned into a drag car. It ran fine but had lots of miles ~180k or so? I don't remember exactly. I bought it for the accessory drive and accessories and the World Class T-5. Shoot me an email and I'll give you my phone number. mike@iresourcesinc.com

Correct. If the piston is at TDC on the compression stroke, whatever terminal on the distributor the rotor is pointed at can be #1. Then in order 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 for the rest. On the exhaust stroke with the spark plug out, air will go out both the open valve and the spark plug hole, but pressure will be less on your finger because it is split between the two. The intake stroke and the power stroke will pull your finger in, but how could that happen as the piston is going up on the compression or exhaust stroke? I stand by my original post.

Try and mount it where you don't have to lengthen the wires. And like said above, away from heat. I can't say enough about making sure you have a good ground. That is probably the #1 killer of MSD boxes. Try and ground straight to engine block if at all possible.

I wouldn't pay more than $400 for a 305, even running unless it's a TPI motor. You can't seem to give them away down here. I would think that $500 would get you a decent running 350. Hell, for $1500 you can buy a complete car with 305 TPI power. Last week there was a 350 TPI car in the paper here in Austin for $1700. I don't know where you are at, but I've got a running 305 minus accessory drive I'll let go for the $250. It is a roller cam motor from a '90 RS Camaro. For another $150 I'll throw in the wiring harness and computer for the TBI setup.

Take off the drivers side valve cover. Rotate the engine either by hand or with starter. When the intake valve closes, it is on the compression stroke. Rotate the engine around until the mark on the balancer aligns with the TDC mark on the cover. Install distributor. Wherever the rotor is pointed can be #1 or you can rotate the oil pump driveshaft with a big screw driver and continue stabbing the distributor until #1 is where you want it. Whether on compression stroke or exhaust stroke, their will be air pressure against your finger, just using the "finger in dike" method is no guarantee you are on compression stroke, you have to make sure of what stroke you are on, thus removing valve cover.

I borrowed an old Marvin Miller 75 horse system for my car about 10 years ago. Dropped it from 14 teens into the 13.40 range. Oh you could definitely tell, especially down low. My buddies car which had crappy heads went from 13.3's to 12.4's and from 99 to 108 mph with the same system. Obviosuly a 50 wouldn't do quite that much, but it is noticeable, especially when all 50 come at 1000 rpm!

As far as throttle body size, the RamJet 502 from GM, fuel injected 502ci 510 hp has an L98 throttle body on it. Same as the 245hp Corvette TPI which should show you how much power the (I think) dual 48mm throttle body can support.

JTR manual "Swapping Chevy TPI/TBI motors" has information on the vats including the 10 different resistor combinations if you want to try and jury rig. This is a nice book in the same vein as the Z conversion manual. I have a buddy who just ordered the S10 conversion manual from them so I'll see in a week or so how that one is.

There are two road courses in NASCAR, Watkins Glen and Sears Point. I watch two NASCAR Races every year. Watkins Glen and Sears Point. Admittedly old tech in some ways, the mechanicals of the cars and their abilitly to extract 650+ hp from a production based 358 cu in motor that is nearly 50 years old and that can turn 8000 rpm for hours at a time is most impressive. I am not a NASCAR fan, but the cars are Kick butt even if they are "old tech" One of the car magazines tested one and it ran like 11 teen quarter miles at over 130 mph with 2.73 gears, top speed of over 200 mph and pulled nearly 1.3 g on the skid pad. Not pad for an antique... And the trucks only run 9.5:1 compression which means pump gas. Would make a heck of a commuter with big block power and a VTEC power band! This could actually be justification for a 6 speed behind 600 lb ft of torque. GM will have the pushrod motors around at leas for a little while. They don't tool up for trucks and then stop 2 years after production. Figure at least a 10 year run on the Vorterc 4.6/5.4/6.0 even if the Camaro and 'vette wind up with something different.

I have two of them , one on each of my trucks. I shimmed one but not the other. It was a pain to tighten the cap screw on the little wire, but I had no interference problems but I have 168 tooth flywheels on both. I replaced because of hot start problems and have none now. Glad you got it on and hope it works well for you. It is also much lighter than the older Delco starters it replaced.

Thanks. I got a copy of the turbo map (The turbo is from a Dodge stratus in mexico/south america 2.4l, 220hp @ 5600 rpm)My friend I got them from works at GM now and says this will be an excellent turbo for the l28. I'll order the book now, I saw it last week at Classic Motorbooks for $39, but Amazon has it for $24.95 if anyone else is interested.

I have the suspension techniques sway bars and springs on my 240. I had just the springs on my last one. They rock like you say! Car turns like it's on rails (moving to 205 55 16's from my 205 60 14's helped also) By the way, Summit racing carries suspension techniques parts. You'll have to special order for the Z, but I saved more than $100 getting the parts from them. I have the MSA urethane bushings on my car, it's nice to know their is another option. How does your MSA rear bar mount? Mine came with new vertical braces for the rear of the control arms and the sway bar braackets bolt to that unlike the Nissan sway bar that goes underneath the front diff mount.

I have a 2 1/2" aluminized system on my 240 with a single DynoMax Super Turbo. It has a fantastic sound and very reasonable noise level. ESPECIALLY compared to the Flowmaster. Most Dyno tests have the Walker coming out ahead as well. That and they are only $35 from Summit. More and more states are starting visual inspections of emissions controls, so you may want to consider a high flow aftermarket cat and stay legal.

With only a 2.66 first gear, 3.90 and a 25" tire seem ideal. I have a 2.64 first in the camaro with 4.10 gears and 26" tires. This combo sucks on the highway, but I don't have a .50 top gear Admittedly you need a little room to rev. If your motor will turn 6000-6200 you'll be happy. Otherwise, 3.70 would be good.