Miles

Mike With the MSA mounts there is no room to mount a stock mechanical fuel pump. I bought a Holly from Tognotti's. I haven't got around to installing a oil pressure cut switch. There is not much room between the distributor and the fire wall so I have been investigateing using a hole that is plugged off next to where the oil filter screws to the 74 SBC block. I heard somewhere that you can install a pressure tranducer in that unused plugged hole. If anyone knows what that plugged hole is for let me know. It is right next to the oil filter on my 74 SBC. Let me know how your project is going. Miles

Email, including phone number, me today and I'll take for a ride here in Sacramento. Or post your phone number here. Note car may be sold Saturday. snafu23@prodigy.net Miles

Just put a rebuilt starter on a 350 sbc three weeks ago. Worked great until tonight when hitting the starter button resulted in nothing happening. Hit the button two more times and the main fuse blew. Replaced the fuse after letting the car sit awhile and it started. There is a dead short somewhere. Could it be the rebuilt starter soliniod? Thanks Miles

I think it is time to replace the Sus on my stock 72 240Z. Engine idle is very ragged and the engine surges at low speed. The problem has been getting worse over the last month or so. No amount of mixture adjustment improves the problem. I can turn the mixture knob all of the way to max lean and the engine rpm doesn't change and there is no off throttle backfire. The engine bay and exhaust smell like raw gas. I am going to spring for the $600.00 and buy a pair SUs from Ztherapy. Hope this cures the problem. Miles

What can I do if fuel is boiling in the bowels? Thanks Miles

Jaime I went to my local off road vehicle shop (Teegarden Motorsports Specialties) here in Sacramento and bought some stainless steel flex lines and -3 male to 10 mm x 1 to adaptor fittings and then mounted the Wilwood proportioning valve in the passenger side tool box. I then drilled two holes in the back of the tool box near the stock proportioning valve to route the flex lines to the where the stock PV is located. After removing the stock proportioning valve I connected the stainless flex lines to the brake lines where they connected to the stock valve using the metric to standard adaptors I bought at the off road shop. The PV keeps the stock rear brakes from locking up due to the lack of weight in the back end of my son's 240z. My plan was to eventually put toyota calipers and 300zx rotors on the front, but my son is now thinking about selling the car. For now we are just using stock front rotors with KVR pads. The brakes IMO are just average and would benefit more from the toyota/300zx upgrade. The PV does not allow you to completely turn off the rear brakes. Someone else in the forum did the same mount as I did except he used hard lines instead of flex lines. Miles

I am going with the ZT carbs. MSA is a PITA too often. Thanks Miles

Z Therapy and MSA both sell rebuilt SU carbs for my 72 Z for about the same price. Has anyone bought SU carbs from either company and were there any problems? Thanks Miles

I have three problems with an Edelbrock performer 1406 carb that have me strumped. 1. Throttle response off-idle is good until the engine gets good and hot. Once running for about 20 minutes the off-idle response becomes sluggish (not a bog). Advancing the timing helps a little, but I don't think that is the problem. 2. Engine quits sometimes after about five miles. Let it sit a few minutes and then it starts up, goes about a mile and then quits. I took the top off of the carb and found the float bowels about half full when it quit last time. 3. Engine quits after hitting a bump, on hard turns and hard stops. One Hybrid member suggested that I install an Edelbrock spring loaded needle valve kit which worked for him. I am going to do this next week. I have rebuilt the carb once and cleaned it three times. On the first cleaning I did find small bits of rubber in the needle valve screens. Thanks Miles

74 SBC with T5 trans: The starter motor cast iron casing that bolts to the engine and fits inside of the bell housing cracked and split causing the drive gear to bind. It was a used starter. What would cause the casing to receive that much stress? Could too much advanced timing or backfiring while the starter is engaged cause the casing to fail. I was playing with the timing a while back and had a lot of advance cranked causing the engine to be hard starting. I am installing a new starter and don't want to waste $$$ if it might break again Thanks

I checked with a speed shop last year here in Sacramento. The guy told me he could make a -3 line with roll pin connectors. I can recheck this and provide a contact if you are interested. Miles

Hickl Here are my part numbers. Verify these p/n 's with Lee/parts strore: F150 Clutch MC - NAPA p/n 39560 (don't recall which year F150) Camaro Clutch Slave - NAPA p/n 37821 ( mine was for an 89 Camaro BH) Hydrualic Hose - Ford Dealer p/n E3TZ - 7A512 - A Tube Assembly Kit The only problem I had with this set up was where the MC push rod connectes to the clutch pedal. The Ford MC has an "eye" at the end of the push rod instead of a fork as on the Datsun. I had to use a clevis pin through the "eye" to connect the push rod to the clutch pedal. After about a year the "eye" in the push rod wore and started binding so I had to install a bushing in the "eye . This may not be a problem for you as the previous owner of my son's Z had butchered the clutch pedal MC attachment point when he fabbed up an old GM brake MC for use as a clutch MC. The geometry of the push rod and clutch pedal was not right so I replaced the clutch pedal with good one from a wrecking yard. It works fine now. I think a 7/8 in. bore Tilton MC and a custom -3 stainless hose with roll pin connectors would also work with the Camaro clutch slave unit. Have fun! Miles

Hickl I also did the Ford F150 set up for my 89 Camaro T5 trans and BH. I'll go check my part numbers and repost here later today. Note that the MC does not just pop into the fire wall. You may have to grind the hole in the firewall a little larger and the bolt holes on mine did not mach the studs on Ford MC so I had to redrill the bottom hole as I recall. Once it was in and bled it works very smooth. On my next project I am going to use a Tilton MC and have a -3 stainless hose made up with the roll pin connectors instead of modifying the Camaro slave cylinder per JTR. You can see the Ford set on my son's web site below. Miles

Things just got worse. Went to start the engine and two puffs of smoke shot out of the carb followed by the starter grinding and struggling to turn the engine over. Now the engine won't turn over and the starter just makes a grinding noise. Could this be a slipped or broken timing chain or loose cam drive gear? This all came on a week or so ago and has slowly gotten worse to the point of engine lockup. Should I pull the timing chain cover or just junk the engine? Thanks Miles

Here is some additional info: engine has no smog equipment, gas tank was recently removed and cleaned (no rust), engine now runs rough at all speeds, when I rebuilt the carb there were bits of rubber hose in the needle valve strainers and fuel bowels. Anyone familiar with Edelbrock 1406 performer carb fuel bowels? I ran the car until it got real rough and then removed the top of the carb to check the fuel bowels. Both had a little over 1/2 in. of fuel. Anyone have a 74 350 sbc engine in good shape for sale in Sacto area? I think I may just replace the existing engine. Thanks Miles

74 350 SBC ran fine until two weeks ago. It started running rough and would die going over bumps. Condition got progressively worse where the engine would run ok for 10-20 miles and then start surging like it was out of gas and would die at idle. Let the car sit and it would run for a mile or two. Next. I rebuilt the Edelbrock 1406 carb to factory specs replacing all gaskets and adjusted floats etc. Car ran a little better for awhile, but then deteriated back to running rough and surging at all speeds once it heated up. Checked timing. The timing mark jumps around. Engine runs very rough and there is a clacking noise inside the engine. Car has power and is smooth at WOT. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Miles

Has anyone had problems with the Edelbrock 1406 Performer carb? Mine chokes up and starves for fuel after hitting bumps or breaking hard. I have had it apart three times for cleaning and float adjustment. Recently I replaced the needle valves and seats and rechecked the float adjustments. Car ran well until my son went airborn over a hump. Following the landing the engine was gasping for fuel and would quit and run in fits and spurts. I am thinking that this on-going problem is unique to Edelbrock Performer carbs.. True?? Thanks for your help Miles

I put the SBC and T5 in IanZ 240Z. You don't have to remove the trans mounts as there is ample room. But DO remember to dimple the floor board for the throw out arm clearance. Miles

Replaced rotor, points, condenser and cap. Dwel is set to factory specs. But when I checked the timing the timing mark is jumping back and forth. I noted that there is some slop in the mechanical advance and a vacume test on the vacume advance shows that it does not move the plate when a vacume is applied. I don't think the vacume advance has ever worked. Up until yesterday the engine ran real strong. Engine runs real rough at idle but revs up ok. Any clues what may be wrong? Thanks Miles

If I switch to an HEI distributor will I have to change the plug wires? Thanks Miles

My 74 350 sbc was running strong when suddenly it started missing like a couple of plug wires got switched or a plug wire came off. There is a deep clacking noise coming from the stock points type distributor. Inspection of the distributor shows no damaged or loose parts under the cap. All the wires are in place. Adjusting the points has no affect on the missing and clacking noise. Also, the engine keeps dying at idle. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks Miles

Terry Without the drive shaft installed the trans will spin and you will grind gears when you try to shift. Once you get the driveline in and the car on the gound it should shift normally. I had this same experience last year and thought for sure I had either installed the clutch disk backwards or had a problem with the master cylinder. Miles

Terry Re: pilot bearing Be sure to buy a pilot bearing that has the correct inside diameter to fit your T5 input shaft. I am not sure, but the Saginaw and T5 may have different hole diameters. Check with your local dealer or someone on the forum. Miles

Terry Did you get the dust plate that bolts to the bottom of the bell housing between the engine and bellhousing? The dust plate keeps dirt and road debris from collecting in the bellhousing and clutch parts. I bought the dust plate and bolts from a local Chevy dealership. Miles

Terry Do replace the pilot bearing or you can have problems later and have to pull it all apart again. It is cheap insurance. You can use a pilot bearing puller to remove the old bearing. Mine was stuck and three different pullers would not work. I carefully drilled the top and bottom of the old bearing and then hit the old bearing with a small chisle causing it to break in half and fall out of the crankshaftl. The new bearing just gets tapped back into the hole until it reaches the bottom of the hole. Also, if you are using a used T5 trans replace the oil seal in the tailstock before installing the trans in the car. Very cheap insurance against leaks later on. Miles