strotter

I love, in the third video when the camera pans back to view the Corvette through the rear window, all the "I never stop working on the car" crap in the back. Excellent, very familiar.

Yeah, getting the woman to travel in the "toy" is a challenge. Mine won't; she's convinced we'll be stranded somewhere inhabited by murderers and mutants. She doesn't differentiate "car won't run 'cause it's broke" (which is actually rare) and "car won't run 'cause I took it apart for fun" (which is actually common). Also, as you implied, women in general are not impressed by the "spirited" exhaust note, or the idiosyncratic exhaust smell. She isn't insisting on a luxo-boat (she loves her Civic), but she expects a certain "professionalism" in the details. To tell you the truth, so do I; living with my toy is sometimes demanding. Make no mistake, I enjoy my car with fervor, relish schooling some fool on the advantages of skills with hand tools over skills with a checkbook, but the every day comforts are, well, comforting.

I posted some pictures in this thread yesterday. Mounting the compressor was the easiest part of the operation - from the point of view of an old, fat guy with a sore back who'd rather remove the dash than crawl under it.

I got tired of dealing with old R4's (I've been fighting them for years), so decided to mount the new Sanden (for a Vintage Air install) on the existing aluminum (late 80's early 90's) serpentine brackets. Turned out to be fairly simple, though I *did* end up doing a tiny bit of welding. Turned out pretty good. From the front: From the side: The way it worked, was, I got some steel tubing (3/8"?) from Lowes, and welded the little tabs that go from the long "inboard" bolt to the compressor. Literally took 10 seconds, it'd probably cost $5.00 for a shop to do it for you. The tubing takes the compression from snugging the nut onto the inboard bolt. The lower bolt is just snugged down with a pair of interference nuts, no support sleeve. Rock solid and quite easy. Plenty of hood clearance, but I had to get a little longer belt. Any questions email me.

'72 240, 350/T56, StealthRam, vortec l31 heads ported/polished, CompCams 283, non-adjustable Tokikos, real stiff springs of unremembered rate, 4 x 205-55-15's on 7" wheels, so on. This is one of those things that depends on suspension, tires/wheels, ride height, so on and so on and so on. I'd bet money that driving any 10 V8 Z's would seem like driving 10 entirely different cars. I would *guess*, based on my short experience with the car post-V8 / pre-suspension mods that the mild low speed understeer (push) would be *slightly* reduced; though with the radically higher power levels, oversteer (rear-end coming around) is instantly available at any time. At higher speeds, the rear end is much more willing to come around. I have little experience with the '72 with regards to roll reduction, as I installed a 7/8" anti-sway bar the same time as the motor; though with the front bar and no rear, as well as a 2" reduction in ride height, I experience virtually no body roll. Extremely stable and well mannered at any "normal" speeds. Kamanari air dam and lowered ride height mean I have experienced none of the dreaded "front-end-float" at higher speeds, but I haven't really pushed the envelope. The steering is heavy - you've always got to be moving a bit when you're parallel parking. Parking lots are a problem, both because of the heavy steering thing, and the speed bumps thing. For other impressions, see "transmission" notes, below. Also, you *must* replace the factory seats. They will cause scoliosis if used too long. It's a noisy machine - it's 35 years old, and it's got a monster in its' pants. *And* it was never a tightly buttoned ultra exotic in the first place. That said, I'm installing a whole bunch of sound-deadening material (in conjunction with an a/c install). I'm also considering a more rational muffler setup. What can I say, I'm old. Reliability is a relative thing: the car is down a lot, but that's mostly because I'm always "puttering" on it. Right now, the dash is out for my a/c and sound-deadening install. At times when I needed it to work, it has, but that's me. The thing about the T56 is, there's a lot of rowing going on. It's not a "problem", really, it's the nature of the beast. Sports cars have clutches, after all, and that's great; but a 400 hp engine in a 2500 pound car doesn't *need* all those speeds. Under normal driving conditions, I generally shift 1-3-5, and sometimes 6, which puts me 'way under 2k RPM at any near legal speed. I haven't done the R-200 install yet (it's on the list), so the cruising RPM will change upwards a bit, but the gist of it is that there's a lot of gear shift interaction. Pretty good, considering. I generally get 19-21, combined city/country, rational though not "being followed by a black-and-white" driving. Upper 20's on the highway, again, pretty rational but not entirely legal style. Put the foot down and those numbers go straight to, well, heck. On balance: If I were considering doing it again, and especially if I was thinking about building a daily driver, I would change my priorities a bit. First, I wouldn't put so much effort into power. I went overboard, and have gotten a scary-fast machine, and not always scary in a good way. There's nothing like unexpectedly swinging the rear end out at triple-digit speeds. I'd find a fairly high powered motor *in its stock form*, and leave it unmolested. I would seriously consider one of the newer automatics, cause the romance starts to go away when your old left knee starts barking at you every time you take off from a stop. I probably wouldn't lower it as much, nor would I have put such a complex air dam (I've cracked it twice, now). These are all "livability" things that don't seem important in the heat of designing a world-killer, but make the difference between owning a "impressive toy" and owning a "real car". But it's up to you; I've done it already, been there done that, reached the top of the mountain, seen the promised land. It would be my *second* Z project, not my first. And as we all know, you always remember your first the best.

Yeah, I spotted that when I was researching surge tanks. It's a clever idea, but it's plastic, isn't it? I was concerned about failure in a collision, and the plastic becoming brittle over time. The new note about it having worked for three years may put my "brittleness" concern to rest, though.

I'd agree with Derek, the Vintage Air kit is good - I'm just finishing an installation. Note that, though not mandatory, it's just about necessary to remove the dash to do the install of the evaporator and route hoses. Installing the evaporator could be done in a long, dedicated weekend I suppose, if you didn't get stuck in the "while I'm at it" thing, but it would be a very busy weekend indeed. You'll also need to arrange for compressor mounts, condenser installation, and hose routing into and out of the engine compartment, but those can be done in stages.

Tercelerossa!

Don't do it man! It might lead to a career in politics!

Greeting from the new world! There's a book you need, no matter what kind of swap you're considering - the "JTR" book. It's actual title is "Datsun Z V8 Conversion Manual", here. Trust me, it will help you a lot. It covers all those little details you might not have thought of, the best $35.00 (25.1177 EUR) you'll spend.

The doctor is right. For me it's the journey, not the destination. I want a great high performance car, sure, but even more I want to satisfy this need I have to resurrect things that have been abused, abandoned, discarded - with my own hands make them strong again, beautiful again, better than ever. Any idiot can buy things, but precious few can create them. It brings me pride to be one of them. Would you rather meet the guy that built the car, or the one who bought it? Heck, people spontaneously smile when they see my car; they come over just to talk, just tell a story, share some memories and shake my hand. That's something fantastic. There's nothing else I do in my life that can make strangers happy at a glance.

Perhaps you should consider dual remote filters, such as the ones Summit and Jegs sells. That'd add a quart of capacity to the system, you'd be back up to 5 quarts (though not in the sump).

That's actually a fairly cool idea. I don't see why not off the top of my head, though it might be complex to "be sure of"; you have to guarantee is that the mechanical pump can push as much fuel at "0" head as the motor demands, for all loads and speeds. The difference between the mechanical and an electric pump of course is that the output of the mechanical will vary with RPM; that output will be small at low RPM. The situation you'll need to be careful of is at high load and low RPM, when the mechanical pump is moving relatively little fuel but there's a large demand. What will happen is that the fuel level in the sump will drop as the high pressure pump moves more fuel than the low pressure pump can supply. It doesn't really have to push enough all the time; really all you need to be sure of is that there's enough capacity in there as a reservoir for a long enough time for the mechanical pump to "catch up" with the demand. If you can find some information about the capacity of the mechanical pump at 0 back pressure at some known RPM (and I wouldn't even know where to look for it), you can assume the mass-flow ("m-dot") is linear (zero flow at zero RPM, twice the flow at twice the RPM, etc), and compare that flow rate to an estimate of WOT demand for your particular build at every RPM. It would suck to run out of fuel at high load, which would of course push the motor lean at the worst possible time. Personally, I'd stick with a pair of electrics just for the peace of mind, but making things work is part of the fun of this hobby.

With regards to the boot - invert the inside couple of bellows, so that they're facing downward. This moves the point of resistance closer to the leverage point, reducing the resistance to motion considerably. Sorry I didn't mention it earlier. This arrangement has worked with a few T-5's and a T56. Also note that newer ones are "flexier" than old ones.

Here's a guy who, despite the name of the blog, has thought about tuning his LS2 a great deal. Analytical details a'plenty.

To confirm dead injectors, find a "noid light". I don't know what they're called over there, but that's the official term in the States. It's a bulb that fits into the injector plug, and will blink with voltage. They are available for many different injectors, be sure to get the right style. They're an invaluable "go/no go" tool.

I can't believe I didn't see this when first posted.... This design takes care of the biggest problem I have with the original; from the rear, the curve of the roofline is not reflected in the curve of the rear panel/tail lights. Here it is - clearly a conscious decision on the designer's part. It strengthens the reference to the Cobra coupe, which was obviously a theme with the original, and provides a consistency the original design didn't have. Looking at the front of this wonderful design, though, I wonder if it would have the same airflow "compression" problems at the front end? The overhanging hoodline (as seen from the side) is a critical part of the "Z" motif, but I guess it's a problem aerodynamically. If I had to be critical, I'd have to point to the "head bubble" roofline. I can see the design logic, but it has the side effect of making the top of the windshield "bumpy" - it's in counterpoint (conflict?) to the hoodline/fenderline. Also, there's no doubt Americans will immediately think "Viper" on first sight. Well done. Quite a few interesting ideas here for customizing ideas.

Take Some Pictures Boys!

I was driving around my little neighborhood a couple of months ago, and for some reason had my little digital camera on the seat next to me. I got stopped behind a tractor-trailer pulling a u-turn in the middle of the street, coincidentally across from a grey Z (I believe it's a '70) I've admired many times on my way home, and on a whim took this picture of it. I had the passing thought at the time "This might be of interest to folks at Hybridz". But then I had another thought: "I know lots of interesting cars around here - I wonder if they're out?" So I pulled a u-ee myself, went down two blocks, and took this picture of a cool Corvair van I've seen many times. Another block over, this Dodge, which is a sight to behold rumbling down the street, And then a long way, over to my girl's father's neighbor's T-Bird. He has a couple of them, and drives this one every day, so far as I can tell. There were a couple other I knew of and wanted to get, but weren't out at the time. Anybody else have any cool cars in their neighborhood?