jt1

Earl, I consider myself a good stick and mig welder, and am pretty good at brasing with a torch. However, my efforts at gas welding have been pretty pathetic. It seems to be an order of magnitude harder for me than other welding types. Some guys are really good, but try to find somebody who's got a setup and will let you try it and maybe give some pointers. In order to get a good gas weld, you have to control the heat in the three pieces of metal, the two bases and the rod, at the same time and to the same temp, just short of white where it begans to burn. To get them all just right at the same time is almost magical, at least to me. jt

Gas shielded mig gets my vote too. Versatile, easy to learn to use, does a nice job if you do your part. jt

It will be fine. I'd rather have one of the older blocks at 40 than the newer ones at 30. If you have any doubts you can get a sonic check done to measure the thickness of the remaining cylinder walls. Since you broke stuff there is possibly a good bit of trash in the block. Make certain they pull all the oil passage plugs and clean the block completely. then a light hone and line hone/bore and you'll be good to go. john

Mark, does VIR allow elitist snob whining pigs that need therapy? You talking about the TriZ/THSCC full course event? Too cold in February for this little piggy. You going? jt

So, how much do you think it will cost?

McTom, I am totally amazed that you are a new member. Your join date of Dec 04 did nothing to tip me off. You have found the greatest resource in the world to someone interested in V8 Zcars. Now that you're here, try following the rules. From the sticky at the top of the page, titled "HybridZ Rules and Guidelines", Item #2: Maybe I need therapy. You need to learn to read. John

Ok Tony, from now on whenever somebody posts "How much to V8 a Z, and will it outrun my cousin's girlfriend's neighbor's drug dealer's Honda with NAWS, fart pipe, six ft rear wing, type R sticker, and purple lights dragging underneath it?", you need to take time to type out a detailed, thoughtful reply to the particular details of the question. Your response in this post will be lost forever, since no one will search for revelant info from the past. Each new post will start a complete new thought process with no regard for the time and effort of members who have previously contributed. You are responsible for spoonfeeding the poster info, since they have no inclination to put out any effort themselves. I hope it doesn't get old. If someone doesn't have the nuts to do some basic research, they're never going to make it thru a Z conversion anyway. And the answer to the question is: "As much, or as little, as someone wants to spend" John elitist snob

15 x 7 w/4" backspacing will work just fine. You may have to roll the fender lips a little with 225's, with 215's everything should bolt right on. John

Welcome to hybridZ. I wish I could run up on a V8 Z at an estate sale, nice find. This is the Chevy V8 forum, and your question would fit better in the Drivetrain forum, but: The first thing I would check would be the front diff mount, second the mustache bar mounts, third the half shaft ujoints. Do some reading in the drivetrain forum, there is ton ton of good info there. John

I've been doing open track events with my car for 3 years, R200 with the 280 u joint style halfshafts, 240 stubs with no problems yet. I'm going to upgrade to Ross's billet stubs in the next month or two if plans go well. I don't know how much horsepower I'm putting down, but probably a little more than you plan. As long as you stick to track events, no drag racing, and moderate size tires in the 225 - 245 range, I think you be OK without the CV joints. You will probably want to consider some type of LSD. The quaife's are the stuff, the clutch types work but not as well. John

I've seen some full race Z's with oil coolers on the diff. A small engine oil cooler can be used, the most problematic thing seems to be a small pump for circulation. I've given this some thought- my quaife generates a lot of heat, esp. with V8 power going thru it- but I haven't done anything serious about it. I wonder how hot is too much? Have you ever checked the temp of yours? I have no idea what temp mine gets, but hot enough you don't want to touch it. John

Having a nice paint/nice interior 240Z that you can drive and enjoy isn't a bad thing, it's good. A lot of the guys with their car torn apart in boxes, or trapped in paint hell, would love to be in your shape. Keep your car, drive it and enjoy it, and look forward to doing the conversion. Try and save a litle each month towards the conversion expenses, and maintain your Z in it's current shape. Nothing really good happens overnight anyway. Stay a member here and keep up with what's going on, we all need goals to look forward to. John

I suspect once they get the layout right, they could use any size tubes desired. Mainly, the 5205's need: # 3 tube needs moving in a little to get better steering shaft clearance. The location of the flanges on the collectors is pretty good, but they need angling down and in more. Biggie: Where the 4 tubes radius to the rear after they come together, the radius point needs moving up about an inch on the drivers side and about two inches on the pass side. The lowest point of the tubes shouldn't be any lower than the existing collector flanges. With 23.5 tires on my car, I only had about 1 1/2" ground clearance. After a few track days, I've got more now! I'm not using a kickout pan, but there's not much room for one. The tubes could be moved outward some, which would mean the collectors would need to angle in more to miss the footwells and run the pipes under the tunnel. The drivers side is close to the TC bracket, so that would have to be addressed. #2 tube is real close to the setback plate, if bigger tubes were used it might need moving to the rear some. Any more suggestions from current 5205 users? Maybe I'll go lay under my car a while and see what else I can come up with.... or, maybe I'll just have a couple of more beers...... John Edit: I've got to get to work building a bigger motor. If these other guys are needing bigger tubes, I obviously don't have enough cubic inches!!!!

OK Men, we've been whining for years that we don't have a really good full length 1 3/4" header for SBC Z's. This is a good opportunity to fix that situation. If several of us agree to buy a set, and someone is willing to take them a car, it would be a win for everybody. The S&S 5205 is workable, but it could use several improvements to be just right. I'm in. Who else??? John

Aahhhh, sweet heart deal, hell. Try getting thru the drive in window at the beer store with this little darling: Then you'll wish you had your open trailer again! John

Once you get the balancer on, you can use the regular bolt to hold it, it doesn't take much to hold it in place. Just get a long stud and nut to use for the installation.

Mike, since some of the threads are now MIA, it would be best to use a stud to screw into the crank to take advantage of all the remaining threads, then use a nut on the stud to pull the balancer on. This takes advantage of all the existing threads and spreads the load out over the threaded area still there. Use some anti-sieze on the snout, and hone the balancer so about 50 ft-# of torque will pull it on the snout. I'm not a big fan of heating the balancer because if you get halfway on and it cools enough to start tightening up you've got problems, and it can be a bear to get the balancer off in the future. John

Cool Deal!!!!! Let's take her a lap around the neighborhood! Open Headers of course! John

Mike, I usually take a brake cyl hone or a flap wheel and hit the ID of the damper a few licks. It doesn't take much honing to open it up so it goes on with a reasonable amount of force. I don't think it should take over 40 or so ft/# on the installation tool to put a damper on. Also take a small file or some emory cloth and make sure the crank snout doesn't have any burrs from previous attempts to put it on. On my last build I used a fluidamper and it was very tight, it wouldn't even start on the snout without a little honing. John

Mike, I'm using one of the Ram lightweight 10.5" road racing clutches in mine. Been in there two years now and the last time I looked at it it was still in excellent shape. John

The march's on my car have been on for 4 years now, probably 15K miles and 40 track days, and they still look like new. John

I've got an 01 Dodge/Cummins for my daily driver. 21-22mpg, no problems in 150K miles, and it pulls my car and enclosed trailer like a bandit. John

Mike, I'm using a McLeod hydraulic throwout bearing in mine. After some initial problems with a leaking o-ring, it's been doing a great job. John

John, can you give us any details on that? Thanks. John

When I had a 700R4 in my car, I cruised at 70, turning a little over 2000 rpm, with 3.54 gear and 225/60/15's, which were 24" tall. A very nice combo for the highway. Tirerack has a calculator on their site to determine your rpm with different tire & gear combos. John