strotter

Interesting idea. I installed a Vintage Air unit, and have been pleased with it, but I would have swapped in something else given the chance - something with a fresh-air inlet. I would strongly recommend that you find something with an entirely electronic control head - running cables or vacuum lines is problematic in a dash not designed for it. Also, electronic controls can be repositioned easily, allowing easier integration into the existing space. (I managed to adapt my Vintage Air unit into the stock controls, with just a bit of tweaking.)

My father used to have a parking garage, and occasionally somebody would park a car and disappear. He would apply a "lien" on it after 200 days; there was a minor fee, and it was necessary to document a "reasonable attempt to contact the party". I would imagine the same situation applies to you; basically, he's storing his motor in your garage and is in arrears. Most states have legal aid organization that can probably give you a definitive answer over the 'phone. It would be a damn shame to do that if something unforeseen has happened to him, though.

Actually, I recently found out the logic behind "driver on the right, drive on the left", and it's a good reason: you want your strong arm on the wheel. That's pretty much it. If you want your strong (generally right) arm on the wheel, your weak arm will do the shifting. At the same time, you want the clutch next to the tranny (at least you did at one time) and the shifter directly attached to the tranny for mechanical simplicity. So the driver sits on the right, shifter and clutch where they belong. As a side-effect, you want the driver to be positioned toward the center of the road, thus you drive on the left. If you reverse this (driver on left), you screw the whole thing up, weak arm on wheel, strong arm shifting, more complicated clutch mechanism, and drive on the right. So, though I hate to admit it, the Brits had it right.

There are certain steps you must take before you can fully embrace Twitter. The first thing, of course, is that you must make sure that you have no life. Secondly, you must have an interest in others who similarly have no life. And third you must, despite your lack of life, have sufficient self-importance to believe that the meaningless moments of your life is of interest to others. Only when you have taken these steps can you be considered ready to tweet.

I'm not seeing a lot of "hybird" dd's here. Lots of modified 6's, plenty of turbos, but not a lot of v8's. My 350/T-56 '72 sees almost weekly duty, and is the full time dd when my little Civic needs some love. With the addition of a Vintage Air a/c, it has become a wonderful driver's car. Not very impressive mileage (around 20 mixed city/country), but it manages to raise the spirits, blood pressure, and testosterone level nicely. Coilovers, a little higher ride height, and some softer springs will soon improve her personality - maybe I'll be able to get my girl into it once in a while.

JTR has an excellent book on the subject, "V-8 Conversion Manual for Chevrolet TPI & TBI Engine Swap". Answers all your questions (and more), a must-read.

Your info here is very timely for me - thanks for posting a followup! My Z, a '72, is very difficult to manhandle around at low speeds. I've been looking at ways to "gentrify" the thing - make it more user friendly - and this may be an easy improvement.

You guys know you can use the Weir adapter with a 1st gen flywheel/clutch etc? Not even horribly expensive if you've got an existing setup. Check here.

Check the "fuel" section (HybridZ>Technical>Engine Components).

He's not. From Wikipedia,

This is a brilliant idea. Seriously. I wouldn't mind having something like that in my car. You'd have to beef up the seat back quite a bit. Huh....

I used a Taurus 2-speed fan on my swap. If I were doing it again, and I had a nice shroud like yours, I'd seriously consider a motor-driven fan. There are a number of advantages. An engine-driven fan will move more air than any three Taurus fans. It's reliable as hell. There's no wiring, noting here that the wiring for the Taurus has to be 10 gauge or so, as there's some serious startup amperage. No fuses to silently blow at the wrong time, no fuse mounting, no concerns about big enough alternators, or big enough relays (which are expensive if you get the good ones), and no concerns about how to control the thing reliably. With a proper clutch, you don't have to worry about its' working when you don't need it to. Also, you won't have to worry about mounting the thing, as you've got everything there already. Buying a performance fan and clutch, plus a spacer, will be considerably cheaper. Also, any Taurus setup will involve an old fan/motor assembly out of an old car. Downsides? Yeah, a couple. Engine-driven fans are noisy, and a little scary to work around. They use some power, but so do electrics, though I'll bet you can argue that they don't pull any more than an electric (via the load on the alternator). Mounting options are a bit more limited, but not radically so. Something to think about.

I'm up in Lodi; you probably passed within a few miles of my house on your way to Yosemite! There are thousands of miles or pretty empty roads, once you get off the main path. From San Francisco, anything northbound on the coast is awesome. Hwy 1 continues north (after a break) all the way up to Oregon. One of the most beautiful roads - and challenging for "spirited" driving! BTW, cutting lanes in California is legal - we're one of the few states that allow it - with some limitations.

First, welcome to the US! From the thoughtfulness of your writing - and the fact that you are doing your homework - we'll be glad to have you! The 2 week thing is straight out. There are a lot of details you'll need to work out, more than you'd expect. The JTR manual will be helpful there. Even without the "while I'm here I may as well..." syndrome, collecting the parts will take that long. You might be able to pull it off in a month of steady daily work. A Camaro is a good candidate as donor. There are many variations on drivetrains, some of them fairly high output. Note though that most were sold with 6 cylinder motors, the V8's are not universal. Also, most will have automatic transmissions - OK by me, but a lot of people want manuals. In the US, you don't need a certificate to modify the car. You don't even need common sense. However, I believe CO has periodic inspections - perhaps someone that knows can chime in. I live in California, and the smog "thing" is a little complex; though all cars are supposed to have smog gear installed and functioning, there's no requirement for inspection. So, unless you're pulled over for a road inspection, nobody will know. Sort of a wink wink nod nod kind of thing. I can't believe CO is tougher than California. With regard to motors, my car currently has a "crate" 350, modified.

When I installed my T56, I got into the mechanism and gave the spring a good stretch. Now its' "firm", but not locked out. I probably should go into it and massage it some more, but it's OK for me and I'm the only driver.

Jon, there are as many routes to success as there are successes. That said, a low-mileage but terminally bent vehicle is probably your best bet. On the downside of that, "low mileage" likely means late model, meaning fuel injection. As I said earlier, and as you've probably gleaned from reading the forum, f.i. is more detail-ee than a carb. The JTR fuel-injection swap book points out some of the complexities, including speedo and tranny and Vehicle Speed Sensor and many other small but time consuming items. A pickup will provide the right layout (front engine, rear drive). You'll find pickups are built with torquey grunt in mind, which is fine in the real world, though not as appealing to many who will evoke high revs and peak horsepower. Pickups will (in general) have less of the extraneous "stuff" on it that you'll just be tossing anyway. You might do a little research on what you want to "have" when you're done - I'm thinking a/c bracketry if you want an a/c unit some time in the future, type and location of air-cleaner, so on. Totally secondary considerations, but something to keep in mind. Personally, I'm a GM-oriented guy, more out of familiarity than anything else, so I'd recommend a Chevy smallblock. 350's are a dime a dozen, parts are easy, working on them is easy, they're well documented (with the "documented" thing being the most important). Ford smallblocks sound mighty sweet, though, so you might think about that too. Lust orientation, very important to take into account. Perhaps it might be useful to go out to a junk yard with a notepad, just look at the junkers and get some kind of idea of what you want. Get an overview of what's out there, what vehicles have what on them, which vehicles are common and which are rare, how the brackets are laid out, what has the right starter already installed, what has the right tranny, so on. Become familiar with the "look" of things, get your bearings, understand the "terrain". It's like when you're house hunting; you look at lots of houses, those above your price range, those below your price range, too big, too small, everything; the idea is that you begin to understand the market, where you stand, how to "get there from here". Ultimately you zero in on what's right for you. Be patient. There are a lot of vehicles out there, if you don't get this one you'll get the next. Your way will be unique; that's why it'll be your swap.

Here here! Happy birthday Dan-o!

Not threadjacking, indeed, I'll just concisely say that a few seconds dry won't damage any decent-quality pump. Extended dry-time, yes, moments no.

Though this thread has been going for a while, I'd like to point out that there are a number of solutions that don't involve removing or modifying the stock tank at all, many of which are outlined in the Fuel Delivery forum. My personal favorite is a surge tank setup, which has some significant advantages including relatively low cost, ease of installation, and reversibility.

If anybody would care to argue the "V8 swap vs whatever" thing, I'd be up for it all day long. However, the OP suggested that he'd already decided on a V8 and was asking about details. Let's just answer his questions, not debate something he's already decided on.

JT1 is dead right - but I'd amend that the most cost-effective method is to find a damaged but running car. Something that has been bent up in some way that has not greatly affected the drivetrain. As a general rule, a good running, intact donor car will be much cheaper than the sum of its' parts. You'll need to park two cars in the yard for a while, but we're all rednecks at heart, aren't we? In my part of the world, you can find damaged cars by getting on the 'phone to tow-truck services. Find something fuel-injected if you'd like, but there'll be more wiring to worry about. Expect to run an automatic, which is OK with these swaps as you don't really need 6 speeds with a V8 in a 2500 pound car (despite what I did). Pickups will be more available in the correct configuration. You'll still need some other items, things like the JTR kit AND THE JTR BOOK, probably a radiator (though a junk yard piece would work just fine), and you'll need to have the driveshaft shortened ($150 or so?), possibly mufflers (unless you can use the donor unit) as well as having the exhaust assembled and welded up ($300, $400?). You'll need radiator hoses and wires and fixtures and a hundred other things. Try to find buyers for your left over Datsun (Classic! Rare! Hard-to-Find!) parts. Leave the rear end alone for now, leave the instrumentation alone for now, don't do a dual exhaust, and do not do not do not get caught up in the "while I'm doing this I might as well do that" syndrome, there's a slim chance you could bring it in that cheap. Finally: don't think of this as a car; instead, think of it as a project. Why? If you think of it as a car, you will have an expectation of its' moving over the ground, carrying you around in grand style. This will not happen for a long time, and only then after much sweat and labor and cursing and depression. Swapping a motor into a vehicle is a lousy way of getting a car, but it's a great project (that will ultimately end up as a car). Think of it as a "project", as your "car hobby", as the work itself being the goal - that way you don't get sad because the dead car is sitting there sucking up the days of your life, you get happy because there's a really cool project waiting for you whenever you walk out to the garage.

Here's my Sanden on the aluminum "factory" serpentine bracketry that originally held the Delco R4 unit.

Look carefully - it has grain. Do you think in runs on - biofuel? It's on Ebay