Z-TARD

Depends on where you get them. I'd start by looking around at swap meets if you can. Refinished heads can be found reasonably cheap if you look around long enough. You could also search the local junkyards for factory high performance heads. Most high performance heads can be identified by a casting mark on the front and rear of the head that looks like two humps, like on the lower right side of the head below: Once you have the head removed, be sure to check that it is a large valve head (2.02" intake, 1.6" exhaust) Small valve heads will have 1.94" or 1.7"intake and 1.5" exhaust valves. The valves will almost appear to be touching each other on the large valve variants: Once the valve covers are off you will be able to read the casting number on the head. There are several different castings that came with the large valves, including:3990462, 3917291, 3927186 (shown in above pic), and 3991492. There are other castings that came with large valves as well. The best way to research this would be to find a small block chevy interchange manual, either at a bookstore or at http://www.motorbooks.com. I hope this helps you out. Mike

I've seen a guy at the Pamona auto swap who was selling aluminum brazing rod. He did some demonstrations with it that were pretty impressive, even brazing aluminum to steel using nothing more than a butane torch. No s##t. I havent tried it myself though, to stuborn and set in my ways.

Actually I welded the fuel cell holder at work with a large Miller machine. You need a machine that will TIG on A/C to do aluminum, most of them are really expensive. I wish I had that one in my garage. I'd have some serious structural mods done to my car by now if I had that. My little Wal Mart machine will only do steel, and only a little at a time, or it shuts down from overheating. Its pretty messy, but should be ok for doing sheetmetal work like framerails and floorboards. I plan on using it to do my driprails sometime in the near future. Mike

Sweet! Always thought gunmetal was a cool color for wheels. What kind of rotor/caliper combo are you running in the back? Looks great man. Mike

I'm already in the process of installing a Summitt 16 gal circle track cell in my car, I've got the aluminum box welded up, I just have to start cutting out my spare tire well next. I'll have to get some flat steel sheetmetal to fill in the areas that the fuel cell box doesnt cover as well, The only machine I have at home is a Wal Mart bought, Hausfield Campbell 110 volt wire feed flux core unit. I dont expect that my fuel cell install will look as pretty as the mufflers.....Oh well, I guess thats what rhino lining is for. Heres a pic of my fuel cell box, it fits around the fuel cell like a glove, it actually takes quite a bit of force to get it all the way in. i guess I dont have to worry about shimming it to prevent movement... Mike

How close is your car to running? My engine at this point is just a bare 4 bolt block sitting in the corner of my garage. I'm looking at at least a year before I can hook these mufflers up to anything that has some cajones. What kind of engine are you dropping into your car? If you give me some dimensions to work with (outside diameter of tailpipe, length from tailpipe to point of exit underbody) I can make one (or two depending on application) for you for free. I just want to hear how they sound attached to a real car so I can make modifications to the design if neccesary. Send me an email and we'll figure something out. Mike

I dont have a scale handy, but they seem to be in about the 7 to 8 pound range, each. The shell casings are kinda thick, about 3/32". The stainless plate that I used for end caps is 1/8", and the 4" nickel copper tubing on the end probably doesnt help lighten it up at all either. But they seem like they should be pretty quiet, and flow really well. My ultra scientific testing method consisted of stuffing a 110 psi air hose with some rags packed around it into the inlet side and blowing large blasts of air through it. it didnt seem to reduce the amount of flow very much, and was as quiet as a whisper too.

Well, I completed the mufflers last night. They came out better than I expected them too, considering I had to roll the internal perforated cylinder by hand. The packing is fiberglass, as its all I had available to me at the time. I used one wrap of glass cloth around the cylinder, followed by a roll of 2" thick fiberglass insulation mat (Hope its heat resistant. Smelled funny when welding....) There is also a strip of perforated metal running the length of the pipe, as per John's description of the Borla racing muffler. If all goes well, it should sound pretty good, either that or It will end up creating a smoke screen of burnt fiberglass dust Dot, thanks for the compliments on my previous mufflers. I love your car, those headers you made are a work of art, its unfortunate that you cant see them from outside the car. I had considered putting a Jag V-12 in my car for a while, even went out and pulled an engine for the project. But after taking many measurements and pricing parts for rebuilding the Jag, quickly decided to go with the Chevy.I still have the engine sitting in my freinds garage actually. Probably end up using it in some other project later on... Anyway, here are the pics of my latest mufflers. I only had time to polish one of them, the shell casings have an aluminized finish that shines up pretty well with a little elbow grease.

OK, I'm making the new mufflers in the configuration that John described. I'm taking my time on these, so they should be pretty kick ass when I'm done. I may end up having to use fiberglass rather than steel wool for packing though. Should have pics up in 2 or 3 days. Thanks for the idea John. Mike

you might want to invest $20 first in a book by David Vizzard, about modifying small block chevys on a budget. might save you a lot of money down the road..... Mike

Sounds pretty good. It should be a large journal diameter too since its out of a 69. I've been looking for one of those out here for a while, to remove the crank and put it in my 4 bolt 010 block. So far all I can find is the pre 69 engines with small journal cranks. For what its worth, I think the 327 is probably one of the best bore/stroke combinations for a light car like the Z. Good luck with your swap. Mike

I'd be interested in those pics too. I'd love to swap the carrier into an older R-200, would save me a lot of fabricating and headaches. I think the ratio on this one is about 3.90 (estimating), I'd like to use the 3.54 out of the older cars if possible so I can get better fuel mileage.

I pulled it from a 92 Infiniti J-30, for a whopping $54.00. I've noticed also that many 240SX's have the same rear end as well. Could it be a lighter duty version of the R-230 from the Q-45? Or maybe just an updated version of the R-200..... It caught my eye initially due to the pretty little orange sticker on the side that says "VLSD". I pulled the CV halfshafts as well, and intend to cut and weld them in half and section them into some 280 Z halfshafts to run with either 300ZX (5 lug), or 280Z stubs drilled for 5 lugs.

Thanks for the tip about the porta jack. I hadnt thought of that one yet. My next thought was to use some sort of low yield nuclear device in a shaped charge configuration to "blow" the rear axle out..... I think Pick-A-Part Salvage Yard would be really grateful if I try the porta jack method instead.

you're right, it is machinist blue. My friend that did the machining on the toyota rotors put it on there as a rust preventative until I get the car running. So far so good. I wish it was permanent, it matches the coils so well.....Maybe I could just use the brakes repeatedly until they get hot enough to turn blue on thier own? Heh Heh Heh.

Can anyone tell me what kind of rear end this is? I think its an R-230, but I've read that the car I pulled it from (infiniti J-30) came with R-200's. I've noticed that it looks identicle to TIM240Z's R-230 with the exception of the output flanges having 5 bolts instead of 6.

It was a 13 lb hammer, almost felt like there was still a nut on the backside of the axle though, didnt budge at all. I might try hitting the backside of the axle with a hammer next, I'll just put the nut back on by a few threads so I dont damage the axle.

Just wondering if anyone has tried this yet. Heres a pic of the plates I made for my Z, pretty much right out of the JTR manual except for the spacers. This was more from a lack of thick enough aluminum than anything else.

I'm just pulling ideas out of my @#$@! actually.... Thats why I'm making several different versions, hoping that at least one will work pretty good. I am kind of an engineer, but not in the way youd think, I work in the engineering department on a Spruance class destroyer. My specialty is welding and fabricating, I started out in the Navy as a nuclear component welder. Lots of TIG welding on reactor valves that cost more than I will make in a lifetime..... But mostly now I just unclog toilets, It's the kind of thing recruiting posters are made of

This is the only picture I have for now showing the internals. There are two circular stainless plates spot welded to the inside about 6" away from eachother, each one has four 1.25" holes in it, they are offset by 45 degrees in an attempt to minimize the noise from the exhaust pulses. Looking at it now, I'm kinda doubtful that it will work as intended, and will probably be loud as hell. I've made another set of mufflers that have four plates each. the plates cover about 3/4 the diameter of the case and are arranged in an alternating pattern that forces the exhaust to go up and over one, and then down and uder the next, and so on. I'm hoping that this arrangement will make it quiet enough to drive on the street, and still have low enough backpressure to let it flow really well. I'm also working on a new set, but have not yet thought of any good ideas for internals, pehaps a perforated tube surrounded by fiberglass packing, ala Cherrybomb. If any of you guys have some good ideas, let me know and I'll try them out. Might be a while before I can do any testing though, as my engine is still just a bare block on a stand

Here are some more pics of the fast and furious coilover conversion. The kit was originally intended for a Honda Civic I guess, but with a little modification works fairly well on a 240 Z. The threaded aluminum tubes that came in the kit needed to be bored out about .040" to fit over the Z's strut tubes. For this reason, I dont think this would work on a 280 Z because of the larger diameter strut tubes they have. I had to make some .75" spacers to raise the aluminum tubes to the top of the strut tube, probably not neccesary, but I'm kind of a perfectionist :?The spacers set right on top of the old weld that held on the stock lower spring perch. The upper spring perches that come in the kit seem ultra cheesy, made out of flexible blue plastic. They seem to work pretty well though once in place. I had to bore out the center hole on them to 1" diameter to fit the strut shaft through. I removed .75" from the lower half of the Datsun strut mount insulator with a sawzall to make clearance for the coilover upper spring perch. It required two .125" thick washers under the bearing to completely clear. The springs that come in the kit are fairly short at 9", and extremely stiff. I may end up getting new springs further down the road, depending on how it drives with these.

heres a set of Fiero seats I pulled from the yard for $42.00. I havent completed the install yet, but they seem to fit really well and are very comfortable.

17" eagle alloy's, 300ZX front hubs with Toyota supra 12" rotors, Pep Boys "Fast and Furious Section" $149.00 coilover kit (modified) Soon to have Mazda RX-7 4 piston calipers.

Here is a picture of some mufflers I made out of stainless scrap, 3" copper nickel pipe, and shell casings from a naval 5" gun. Pretty ghetto, but cheaper than shelling out $100+ for performance mufflers through summit. I've made a few different sets with varying internal baffle arrangements so I can experiment with sound-vs-power, etc. One mans garbage......

Sorry about the picture quality, I had to take it from a distance and zoom in to get the proper perspective, so you cant see the new wheels in the rear just sitting next to the car, not actually attached. I'll try to attach another picture, maybe a little better this time [/img]