Z-TARD

Now for the true test, let some thugs smash up your car with some hammers. If you car is truly possesed it will: A) Repair itself, to include minor bodywork and buffing of paint, etc. Drive off under it's own control and hunt down and kill/maim/destroy the above mentioned thugs. C) Return to its assigned parking space as though nothing had happened.

Bitchin! Looks awesome man. I've been thinking about picking one of those up in the near future, probably a 91/30 with the stoooooopid long barrel (It's like 35" ) Now the only problem is finding a place in California where you can shoot it Mike

Just picked this jewel up from ebay. A little rough, but for $260 I'm not complaining. Maybe we should start a contest to see who can collect the most Z's before the end of the year. Who's in? Mike

I know, you're going to run it as a conjoined twin with your other LT1, making either a V16 or a W16 I guess I don't really need it now. I accomplished my mission of rescueing it from the junkyard, where it surely would have found it's way into a less worthy donor vehicle than a Z. Email or PM me if you wanna work out a deal for it. Mike

Too bad there's no emoticon of a guy ingesting his own foot After several more test fittings and inspections, I noticed that the reverse flow coolant port overlaps the oil drain hole on the head by a fair margin. Welding and machining would be required after all I have the capability to perform these oporations, but I'm not 100% sure I could pull it off without destroying my cylinder heads. I dont really feel like munching my quadrillion dollar heads for use on a $140 junkyard block. Better to just get a pair of LT1 heads off ebay for $300. I'll probably save the LT1 for some later project, maybe something force fed Mike

Lockheed P-38 Lightning would be my guess. Crikey that thing is huge

I didn't notice that you filled in the side clearance lights and the vents behind the quarter windows before, looks very clean. I like the look of a car with minimal surface detail, like a giant Hot Wheels car kind of. Makes you notice the car, rather than all the shiney Bling! Bling! attached to it. Again, awsome work Mike

I just re read it again, don't want to go buck wild on my $1000 heads with a dremel until I'm sure . None of the posts said anything about welding at all, although if welding is involved I can do that too. Aluminum isn't hard if you have a good TIG machine. I only read references about the guy named Walden programing his CNC mill to convert the heads to LT1 reverse flow. I've spent the last hour or so with all my lights turned off, shining a flashlight inside my Topline heads so I can get a better idea of exactly how much room is available in the coolant passage at either end of the head. There IS enough room to make a decent sized opening there, although I wont start cutting on them until I have a gasket to index from. Don't want to shoot all the coolant into the oil pan and have Yoo-Hoo come jetting out of my valve covers . The oil drain passage will have to be re-routed either diagonally so it dumps directly onto the lifters of the end cylinders, or straight inwards into the lifter vally, with a corrosponding passage ground into the block directly above the main coolant port that feeds into the head. A CNC mill isn't required for this kind of work at all, they probably use that just for the sake of making all their heads look uniform. A dremel should be sufficient for enlarging the coolant passages, as long as I take care not to let it jitter around and scratch up the deck surface. A pnuematic grinder with a rotary file will work for the block, while I'm at it I'll enlarge and smooth out the oil drainback holes in the lifter vally as well. I'm going to have the block hot tanked and honed, and put in new cam, rod, and main bearings, add a set of new rings and it should be ready to run. Anyone know of a timing chain cover that doesnt have the hole for the optispark in it? thanks again for the link CableSrv. Mike

Looks awsome! I have to admit, I had my doubts when I saw the cardboard mock-up, but the finished product looks totally bitchin . The Vette tail lights are gonna look right at home in there. I posted a few weeks ago about the possibilities of using a dull black/gray coating like non stick cookware for a finish. One of the guys that replied had painted his car satin black with a roller. Yeah, roller. It looked really good too . I guess the general opinion is that rattle can paint jobs come out looking patchy and mottled, no matter how much time you put into it. I suppose if you painted with Rustoleum satin black, and then wet sanded the entire car down to around 1000 grit, it would make a fairly uniform satin finish. Hoprfully one of the paint gods will chime in with some more expertise. Again, awsome work on that roll pan. Mike

Ok, after another look, it appears that this is very doable. It will require the enlargement of the coolant passage holes on either end of the head, along with milling a channel for the oil drain hole to rout it to the lifter valley. Maybe some mild grinding on the block near the front coolant passage to aid oil drainback as well. I'm sure someone will tell me why this can't be done, but I'm just retarded enough that it would be like adding fuel to the fire Mike

Very cool. If it works with the Canfields, it would probably work on my Topline 220's as well. There is a small hole on these heads where the extra coolant passage is on the LT1 block, I think this hole could be enlarged enough to provide sufficient coolant flow. The only problem I see is that it is ver close to the oil drain hole at either end of the cylinder head, the corrosponding area of the LT1 block might be too built up for the coolant passage to allow oil to drain into the lifter valley through these holes. I'll have to take a closer look at that. Thanks for the link, the gears in my head are turing again Mike

New idea: The 5 bolt R-200 shafts have enough material in the shaft to cut down to correct length and re-spline. Machining on hardened shafts will require low feed rates and lots of coolant, but can be done without too much difficulty. Now I just have to find an indexing head for my milling machine at work, and the correct cutter for cutting splines Mike

Ooops. I never thought to count the water holes on this thing before purchase. What does Chevy think they are doing by re-inventing the wheel (or reverse flow cylinder head) like this! Looks like I'll be shopping for some LT1 heads on Ebay, along with the timing cover, intake manifold, water pump, and all the other stuff that doesnt interchange. I wonder what would happen if you tried to block the reverse flow passages on the block to make it run like a normal SBC cooling system (Not totally block, but divert into the block instead of the cylinder heads) Probably more trouble than its worth, and I suppose I could use the benefit of cooler cylinder heads for running higher compression too. Mike

One of the more recent acceptable photos of my car. Kinda looks like poop right now, expect major changes to the exterior in the next few months Mike

You guys should make aluminum bodied Daytona Coupe replicas, everybody else is using the fiberglass bodies. Something like this: http://members.aol.com/coupechuck/ Chuck is the man Mike

Found this while browsing the euro-trash section of the Ecology Auto yard. Came off a mid 80's Volvo wagon with turbo. Paint can in photo for size comparison, the core is about 16X17 inches, side tanks are made of high temp plastic. They thought it was a radiator when they sold it to me, so I saved about $50 on it Mike

I really like that ebay one. Makes my Audi look like the euro-trash it is Mike

Just picked up an LT1 out of a 93 Z28 today. One of those "Target of opportunity" purchases, more to keep someone else from getting it rather than out of actual need. Total price was $141.58, so I HAD to grab it. It's a short block, and looks to be a fairly recent rebuild as the cross hatch pattern from the cylinder hone can still be seen in the cylinders. There is no ridge at the top of the cylinder either, and strangely they measure out at exactly 4" across the bore, like a brand new engine almost. The front passenger side cylinder has some light surface rust, perhaps from a blown head gasket. The engine turns over by hand with little resistance, and no clunkity-clunk noises from broken hardware. Hopefully all I will have to do is clean up the one cylinder with a light hone, maybe re-ring the pistons and I should be able to run the engine. Not being too familiar with LT1's, I have a few questions to ask you guys (Yes, I used the search function, try typing in LT1 and see how many pages of info come up, it's in the billions): 1) Will my aftermarket aluminum heads, purchased for a pre 1987 block, work on the LT1? 2) I know that it has a provision for a front mounted distribution system, but will I be able to use a standard rear mount distributor on it instead? It appears that the distributor drive gear is still there, but driving only the oil pump on the LT1. 3)Does anyone manufacture a front mount, HEI type distributor for the LT1, so it can be run without the ECU? 4) will a cam designed to retro fit roller rockers into a pre 1987 block work in the LT1? I'm sure I will have more questions as I progress on this project. For the time being I have put my pre 87, 383 stroker motor on hold, as I may be able to use this motor to get on the road much more quickly, and without the pain of trying to adapt an older engine to the T-56 tranny. Thanks in advance for the help, Mike

Hmmmmm. Pehaps some kind of Geo metro powerplant conversion, that would allow you to utilize the majority of the engine bay for cargo space....

I know what you mean. I worked as a chassis fabricator at Shelby American in Las Vegas a few years ago. Coolest job ever, infact, the only job I've ever had that I looked forward to going to every day. Lots of history in those cars, even the brand new replicas they are making. Too bad the Series 1 cars are almost bankrupting the company Mike

Is there a secret handshake we'll have to learn? I really suck at those.... Mike

The late 80's style Supra's are pretty cheap, and pretty reliable if you don't mess with the turbo setup. Better yet, get the NA version. The engine and drivetrain in those cars is as close to bomb proof as you can get, and the suspension is pretty stout as well. Personally I'd still stick with the Z though Mike

Sweet tapdancing Jesus........

I just picked up a carb hat today from a 1984 Audi 5000. Looks close to the one in the pictures linked above, although it has a slightly larger opening for the cold air pipe. The opening in the end is strangely exactly the right size to fit around the base of an american 4 bbl carb. Unfortunately, it won't clear the choke assembly and linkage on my 770 street avenger because it is to low profile. I'm thinking of constructing a 2" riser for it out of aluminum, just high enough to clear the linkage, and still low enough to close the hood. Maybe..... Will post pics if anyone is interested. Mike

I actually did find a Q-45 in my local Pick and Pull today, first one I've ever seen in there. Unfortunately it was already gutted of its precious R-230V rear end I know it was one of you guys.....C'mon, fess up! Mike