Drax240z

Well some of the performace numbers I've seen for these cars... 0-60mph under 4 seconds. Topspeed 125mph. Skidpad 1.1g. Generally you're looking at 60-70hp in a 500lb car. Some cars are as light as 380lbs! (all dry weights, no driver) Just imagine how fast these could (will.. hehe) be without the 20mm intake restrictor.

The SDS system really isn't that expensive either. Members of this board can get a discount if they go through Mike. The SBC setup would cost you somewhere around $1000, plus injectors, and a TPS. Not a lot more to it really. Its worth considering before you start dumping time and money in to the carb'd setup.

Yup, I'm a Planet of The Apes reject.

Pete I think the whole case is CF. They managed to get 90% of their peak torque available from 4000-16000rpm. WOW. Our car will be using a 4 cylinder, Suzuki GSXR 600cc. Nothing done on the engine yet, but I hope to get an SDS system for it. (I'd love to turbo it too, but I'm not sure I can convince everyone else)

Like Les, whenever I need quick holes drilled I've used a plasma cutter. We used to turn out 8"-12" flanges all the time where I worked, out of 1/2" mild steel. We didn't even bother drilling holes for bolts in them, took too long. 2 minutes with the plasma cutter (and a steady hand) and you'd have 12 very useable bolt holes. Compared to 30 minutes+ will a drill press to do the same thing, and you can start to see why our shift was so much more efficient than the rest. BTW, we had 100% sucess rate with this method, in the worst possible conditions. Never an incident where drilled holes would have prevented problems.

As some of you know, I am invovled with my universities Formula SAE program. This is the first time our university has been involved with the competition, so we have a pretty steep learning curve to overcome. (not to mention a huge need for sponsers, but thats another story) To give you guys some idea, and also just for LCF (looks cool factor) of what we are up against, check this out. The University of Western Washington decided that for the 2001 FSAE competition that they would make their own V8!! This was the first time this was attempted for this competition. Now the rules specify no greater than 610cc, and that all gasoline powered vehicles must breathe through a 20mm (about 3/4") intake restrictor. Here are the specifics: Fully Stressed Member Configuration: Longitudinally Mounted Displacement: 554cc Valves: 32 Camshafts: 4 Chain Driven Crank: 180 Degree Machined In-House Connecting Rods: 7150 Aluminum Bore & Stroke: Top Secret Oiling System: 3 Stage Dry Sump Engine Management: Haltech Horsepower: Approximately 80HP Redline: 16,000 RPM Aluminum / Carbon Fiber / Kevlar Transaxle Integral 6-speed Sequential Gearbox Composite Drive Shaft Integrated Suspension Mounts Integrated Brakes Weight: 131lbs And finally some pictures: My first thoughts: "We have to compete against THAT?" Yup, read it and weep. The good news (for the rest of us): These guys were so zealous in making this engine that they didn't read the rules clearly enough. Every car must be able to start on its own power. Theirs couldn't, and as a result they scored 0 points in the autocross, endurance race and skidpad tests. Big OOPS! Just goes to show you that not much can stop a bunch of engineers once they get an idea in their heads. Hope you enjoyed this. [ August 03, 2001: Message edited by: Drax240z ]

Nice idea fairlady. Hope it never happens to me, I'd never get the 28" pythons in there! (haha)

Evan is it possible to put those on a 240 strut without modification? [ August 03, 2001: Message edited by: Drax240z ]

Hey Tim, sounds like a sweet project. If you figure you can spare a little extra dough, I'd definately look at getting one of the programmable EFI systems on the market, and going that route instead of carbed. They really aren't that difficult to setup and learn. Can the chassis handle 650+hp? Nope, not stock. At the very minimum I would plan a 12 point cage install and other structural beef ups. (strut tower bars, sub frame connectors, etc) The R200 could likely hold up to that much power if you didn't lauch hard or use sticky tires. I would upgrade for peace of mind, personally. You may want to look at using a R230 out of a later Z, or possibly follow scottie in his quest to use a Corvette IRS rear. Hmm, just re-read your post and realize the 650hp figure was flywheel. At 500rwhp yes, the R200 can survive with a few mods. Sounds like a great project, keep us up to date!

Nope, I think you are finding that your intercooler isn't quite up to the task of your engine. What IC are you running? Sounds to me like your problems are temperature dependant as well. Might be time to think about turning the boost down a little, or finding a better IC.

It could be valve seals. A compression check should be able to tell you that. I used a fel-pro headgasket. It was about $30canadian. No idea about insurance in the US, have to talk to some of the other guys here.

Fraga my headgasket went on my 260z about 3 weeks ago. Do a compression check first, and see what your readings are. If you have one cylinder that is way lower than the rest, or 2 right next to each other that are way lower than the rest, you might as well pull the head. Its not too large a job to do the headgasket really. Took me 4 days to do mine, but the only tools I had were a swiss army knife and a leatherman. Seriously. You should be able to do a headgasket swap in a day without too much trouble. Probably best if thats the problem to get your head surface planed to true it up as well if thats the problem.

Pete, I'm impressed! We'll have you in a Turbo Z yet. We'll call it "Snowball II" Heh.

I wouldn't say your assumptions are necessarily wrong. A friend of mine could take mustang GT's all day long in his L28 260z. No mods other than a 75 engine with early SU's. Now its my car, but I haven't been pushing it since its my only means of transport at the moment. No not corvette territory, but it doesn't take a huge amount of power to compete with such a light car. Your 250hp figure is probably a good one for an estimate to compete with those cars in a 240z. A few things to budget for and consider are chassis stiffening, brakes and suspension. You don't want to go too wild with the engine without upgrading those as well. Don't be fooled by thinking an L28 turbo will be a lot easier than swapping in a V8. It really isn't. True you don't have to make motor or tranny mounts, but you still need to do things like swap on a bigger clutch/flywheel, put up some heat shielding, and definately figuring out all that wiring could be a pain! The V8 being carb'ed and well documented (better than the L28Turbo most likely) is really a lot simpler to do a basic install. Plus you can buy nearly everything made for you allready. (motor mounts, headers, etc) And on a final note, I don't see how anyone could break a R200 with 250hp. (unless it was with about 500ft-lbs of torque too) U-joints MAY go, but there are pretty easily available CV joint swaps available. Guys here have put upwards of 500ft-lbs of torque through a R200 with CV joints, and they've raced them... with slicks. Its a damn good rear end. Scottie had other reasons to change to a vette rear than strength. (he was one of the ones with 500ft-lbs, slicks, racing his R200) Gear ratios, weight, traction, limited slip, big rear brakes should all be considered when looking at the reasons for swapping to the vette. [ August 02, 2001: Message edited by: Drax240z ]

Jim, as far as I know you can get both conductive and non-conductive anti-sleaze. The conductive stuff is generally used on electrical connections to keep them from corroding. I believe it uses more copper/aluminum and graphite than the non-conductive stuff. Next time I am home I'll do a little resistance test between the two.

Actually the milage with any turbo motor COULD be good if you can keep your foot out of it. An L28 turbo engine out of boost should use around as much fuel as a NA L28 would. (a bit more due to lower compression ratio) Even the compression ratio on most stock L series was pretty low, so were you to run 8.0:1 you'd be right in the ballpark. (unfortuantely the L28T is a ghastly 7.3:1) I really don't think supercharging an L28 is your best option from a hp per $$ standpoint, likely your worst. Turbo L28 is probably next, then GN, then V8. If you just want lots of GO with relatively little dough, the V8 is the choice for you.

Hmm, the USSR must have had a lot of Ti available to them, seems everything they made was Ti. (a buddy of mine has a Ti watch made from a decomissioned USSR nuclear missle, how cool is that?) I had the (un?)fortunate experience of assembling, troubleshooting, and operating the worlds largest Titanium autoclave for quite some time. Its neat stuff!

I still think anti-seize (or anti-sneeze, or anti-sleaze if you prefer) would be protection enough.

Well start by checking your oil level and pressure. Bad gas wouldn't cause 'billowing'... Things to check for: -overly rich fuel mixture -timing retarded too much -fouled spark plugs -loss of coolant due to headgasket leak Any of these things will cause the car to smoke a lot... If you are sure its oily smoke (blueish) then chances are you've got some bigger internal problems, and its time to think about a rebuild or swap.

Dunno Stony, I've been looking at injectors the last couple of days for my first upgrade as well. (I really should get the car going before I plan on upgrading more) I figure I'll be looking for something in the 420cc-440cc range. Have you found any good sources for low or high impedence injectors with that flow rate?

OK, now for the other side. A high compression naturally aspirated L28 can get you to your goals. 220ish flywheel horsepower, and 20+mpg in town, 25+ on the highway. A little harder to do using stock EFI, but it can still be done. However, if you are like most people, even 250flywheel hp will feel slow eventually, and you'll want more. As far as I am concerned you aren't going to get a lot more hp out of a N/A L6 withou putting in a TON of money. Thats when you should start considering a V8, L6Turbo, etc swap. Can you be sure that 250 is going to be enough? If you are sure, then go for the NA L6. If you aren't sure, then every other concievable option has been discussed on this board at one time or another. Start reading!

Well Ti wouldn't necessarily make a good strut tower bar. Grade 9 Ti is quite stiff, but anything else flexes a fair bit. Not to mention that its a pain in the ass to work with. If you ever have to tap threads in Ti, plan on replacing your tap every hole or two. There are very few automotive applications I can think of where Ti would be superior than something like aluminum. The exceptions may be super high-stress parts in the engine, and anywhere you want the superior corrosion resistance combined with light weight and poor thermal conductivity that Ti offers. Now that I say that, Ti headers would be awesome! No ceramic coating necessary. I wonder how well Ti valves work with No2. Ti can combust in the same way magnesium does if in the right temperature range and a rich oxygen environment.

What do you mean a CD isn't 10" across?

Hmm, we've got quite the Z community out here on the west coast it seems.

Yeah what Davy said... I didn't think it looked like 5" at all! Well I guess I have just been brainwashed by all the 7-10" ones around. Owen I really like those wheels (the 5 spoke ones) what are the specs on those?