Forces

Looks cool, sounds like a good idea in theory. I wouldn't consider putting that on my car without seeing some dyno comparisons to standard Demons, Holleys, Edlebrocks and Rochesters.

I too had a similar problem with my 383. It's not totally up to par yet, but when I added an MSD 6AL, new wires/ plugs, and an in-cap MSD HEI coil it seemed to run much better, but like I said, not 100% quite yet. I know that edlebrock carbs' secondaries only open up when under a load, your Holley MIGHT be the same. I am not certain. Also, I know this sounds stupid, but double check your plug gaps and vlave adjustment.

Whatmounting kit did you use? From the blurry picture, it looks like the engine really sits down low. Nice work by the way, very clean.

Well, after screwing around chekcing some things I found the the Black/White ignition wire, that origonaly went to the HEI "BAT" terminal is power in key only and Power while cranking. I have run into another issue though. I was cranking it over to see if I had spark, and through the windshield I saw a bit of smoke coming from the rear of the engine bay.....Just fried a $70 coil. What gives? I hooked all the wiring up exactly the way the instructions say to.

MSD 6AL with an HEI dist, MSD in cap coil. I've got everything wired up correctly except the 16 gauge red wire. It is supposed tie into two sources: key only (ignition) and it needs power while cranking. The KOEO part is taken care of. How to I wire it into 'power while cranking'? I have a ford starter relay, but I am worried that if I tie it into the "S" or "P" terminal on the relay that when the engine is running, not cranking, the starter will keep trying to crank the engine.

here are a few thing to consider. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=119221 http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=117893&highlight=280zx http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116902&highlight=280zx http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=116877&highlight=280zx

It looks like scroth makes a 3 point that has is slightly retractable, thus making it very easy to move around in, but the retractor locks when there is forceable movement. Kinda spendy, but very cool. Thanks.

That post oughta be smeared all over every automotive forum on the net. What a bunch of b/s.

Yes, this is a stupid question, and yes, I have searched. The only place I can see that you could mount a main hoop in a 280Z is right where it should be, but the problem is that in order to use a 6"x6" mounting plate, I would have to cover up the hole in the body for the seat belt mechanism. I have seen a lot of people mount cages to the rear wheel well, but those people seem to be more interested in SCCA and roll bars. I am interested in NHRA. Is that a legal point to mount a cage? I would like to mount it to the floor, but If I were going to do that I would need to figure something out for a seat belt. I could go with a harness, but those are illegal to drive on the road with in Oregon. They say it's becasue you can't lean forward to look around turns. Are there alternitaves to the stock seat belt other than a harness? I don't really like the way the seat belts are set up on the 280Z anyway.

Thanks for the info. I am planning on making some trips to the track this summer, but MY car is gonna be 75% street and 25% 1/4 mile, so I would rather aim towards a street build. My engine is made to perform best at ~1000 rpm - 5000 rpm, got 3.90s in the back and a TH 350 stock lock up for now. I am going to use an over drive as soon as I get some of the other issues out of the way that take priority over the trans right now.

this is a side question to this link http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/sh...hp?tid/131229/ which was recently posted in a 383 thread. 1. How do you 'match' your cam, stall speed, and rear gears? What calculations do you use? 2. What does your rear end gear ratio have to do with cam selection? Is it related to the amount of time you will spend in your ideal RPM range? 3. Case study: Lets say you have an engine built primarily to obtain a maximum 'peak hp' vs. a 'street' engine built to perform over 1,500 - 6,500. How would that effect what stall and rear gears would be the best fit?

How is the visibility from the rear view mirror, and blind spots with the X to the strut towers? My Z is gonna be about a 75% street and 25% 1/4 mile, so I don't want to get any trouble from our money-hungery law enforcement here in the North west. We'll get ticketed for just about anything:icon56:. also, NHRA calls for 6"x6"x.125" plates at the base of the hoop. This I know. But what about the rest of the supports? Tie-ins to tranny tunnel, strut towers, floor pans for front "door bars"? AND is it legal to bend an "L" in the plates, rather than having it flat, or slightly concave? Does that rule change depending on if you weld or bolt it the cage?

Yes, I know reinforcement has been covered a million times. I am fabbing up some frame rail reinforcements for a 280z. I am thinking of doing a make-shift Bad Dog rail. They extend from the rear most edge of the rail to the front, near the engine bay. They are 2â€x1†rectangular .125 steel. I was thinking that if they tied into the floor boards, they would be much more effective in protecting the chassis from distortion. Right?? Is it worth the extra weight to use angled steel and extend from the frame reinforcements up to the bottom/ outside of the floor boards, or just a waste of time, money and argon?

I checked the coil, its fine. Let me elaborate on the issue here. I have a 750 CFM manual choke carb, #1407. it is on..... SBC 383 stroker w/ forged flat top, dual valve relief pistons Airgap intake 66 cc RPM perfoormer heads w/ 1.5 rockers HEI vacuum advance distributor Here is the problem.... Very hard cold starts, will not start with choke shut. I should note, that it does start a little better, no much, but a little better with the choke 80% closed. Once running at operating temp (and it's a battle getting there, believe me), it spits and supters, and BACK FIRES like crazy. With the glass packs, it makes it pretty damn noticable. It is advanced to 14 degrees, vacuum off. No vacuum leaks. When I stab the throttle in nuetral, vroom vroom. at idle in nuetral 0% thorttle rrrrrrrr....pop pop..rrrrrrrrrrr. pop. When it's under a load, its a whole new ball game. Idle drops from 1000 to about 800, which I assume to be normal. A few things happen a part throttle that are not desireable. 1. AFR goes pig rich at 10:1 (set to 14.6 at idle) 2. More backfiring, not as bad, but still not acceptable 3. The thing is a DOG. If I stab it in gear, it backfires through the carb, or just bogs down and trys to die, unless I lay off the throttle. It's got no power. Now I have read that the secondaries only open up when under a load with edelbrock carbs. This leads me to believe that there is a problem with the secondaries. The fact that it has such a hard time starting leads me to believe that there is a problem with the choke...duh. I just don't know where to start looking in the carb to hunt these issues down. The only things I have adjusted are the AFR screws, the idle speed, and Choke Idle speed. *EDIT* I have done a good amount of reading about edelbrock carbs, and have not found ONE SINGLE SHREAD of positive feedback about the EDL 1407. Not user friendly, dyno tested to kill power, everyone who buys onbe has to re-jet it right opff the bat. Anyone want to buy a 750 cfm performer series edelbrock? Beat your head against the wall if your considering it.

I am using a TH350, and as soon as I blow it up (being that it is a used lock-up converter tranny I am sure I WILL grenade it), I am definetly going for a 700r4. I'm reving the piss out of my motor at 65 MPH. Given I have ~3.90's and short tires, for now anyway.

hmmm. I suppose that could be the issue...I AM running a summit brand HEI dist. Never have cared for summit brand stuff, one day I will learn my lesson on trying to save money on cheaper parts. This is a stupid question, but I have to ask...I am somewhat familiar with the HEI, and some ignitions. The coil, on a SBF is eay to point out, but as far as an HEI, There is the desi., the rotor, the plug wires, and vacuum advance. When you say 'coil', are you refering to the rotor??

I Set the A/F at 14.6:1, and advanced the timing to 14 degrees, vacuum off. There are no vacuum leaks. Idle is set at ~1000, and It is still backfiring like crazy when it's cold, and when it's under a load when I get on it a little. If I floor it, it sputters out and wants to die. Something isn't right, the car doesn't have near the power that it should have. The back firring is coming out of the exhaust, and it's LOUD, must sound like a drive by shooting when I'm cruising in my neighborhood......I'm thinking the edlebrock carb is junk (although it is BRAND NEW!). I have heard that the holley is a much more streetable carb, and easier to adjust.

It took about 2 weeks to get mine. That was about 6 months ago though. If you have any questions until then, (got my asbestos suit on), just post up.

Nice work. With the amount of fab it took to route both tail pipes in the stock location, why didnt you replace the fuel tank with a cell, or get a tank that would be centered so you could run a single tail pipe on each side?

I'm not running a Holley, it's a manual choke Edlebrock. The vacuum is about 18 inches/Hg if I remember right, and it doesn't fluctuate at all (no vacuum leak). And yes it is a vacuum advance dist. The AFR screws are almost bottomed out on the lean side (twisted about 1/2 turn out) , and that is to achieve 14.6 at idle, which is about 1000 rpm.

^^^Jesus. Planning on getting into a game of chicken with a freight train?^^^ - Is that all seemless? BINGO. I don't PLAN on ever needed all the saftey that the cage will provide, and my car won't ever see the SCCA inspection either. I just don't want to warp and distort the frame. That, and I don't want to make it to the track, make 1 run and have them tell me to go home and come back with a cage.

I hooked a wide-band up and adjusted my AFR to about 14.6 at idle, advanced the timing to 14 degrees, and under part throttle it ran way rich, about 11.1 If I stab the throttle, it gets as rich as 10.7. I'm running a 750 CFM carb, my acceerator pump is on the lowest setting. I am thinking that maybe it's too much carb for the engine (383 stroker.)???? When I get on it at higher RPMs, it runs okay for a while, and then the exhaust starts popping like crazy, but I think that is the glass packs.

My buddy ran side pipes w/ glass packs on his mustang, and it had very similar symptoms. I hate my glass packs. I wouldn't recomend glass packs to anyone unless they are going on an old 70 something step side truck.

DON,T be thinking that either is a mandatory huge improvement, it may or may not help the power, the degree of restriction, displacement, compression ratio, cam timing and the efficiency of the headers has a good deal to do with your results, and sticking restrictive mufflers on past the (X) or (H) can effectively kill most of the potential benefits My main concern is the ambiguos sound of my exhaust. The pulse/ slug of exhaust sounds very similar to a small back-fire through the tail pipes...which kinda cought me off gaurd until I realized that the problem was un-equal exhaust pulses. As for as restrictive mufflers go, how could you lose the benefits if the X is before the muffler? I don't think that my mufflers are particularly resptrictive, but I am probably going to change my existing glass packs to perforated magnaflow mufflers.

I'm not as worried about SCCA rules as much as NHRA. It would be nice to have a cage that won't let the body twist under sharp cornering though. Are you saying that a diagonal in the main hoop is as rigid as having ANY brace in the back? Or simply that the S&W cage with a diagonal in the hoop will provide the same strength as using an X brace?