jt1

Heh heh.... I heard the part about sticking to the Z, heh heh. I got to ride with Bob a couple of weeks ago at CMP, he was my instructor, and was pretty impressed with the m coupe, it's a neat ride. Bob, are you coming to Lowe's with NASA? If so, I'll come help out. Did you get my email? John

Old age & too much alcohol are taking their toll. My previous post about the track width being different is WRONG, I just measured my car. Don't know where I pulled that up from.

I don't know the exact dimensions, but a Z is significantly wider across the front tires than the rear, maybe 3 or 4 inches. Visually, that makes the rear look toed in. Best bet is a 4 wheel alignment at a shop that likes to work on hot rods.

the R200 doesn't use a crush sleeve, it has a big spacer and shims. You've either toasted a bearing or the R & P is just wore out. Not suprising running those kind of times, that's fast. Find another R200 (the lsd will be the hard part) or rebuild that one. Changing the diff out isn't a big deal.

That combo should be an absolute screamer in a Z, or any car. I'd like to see a little more compression with that cam, intake and heads, but you have a far greater issue than that. First, check the compression. I would guess you should have about 160 psi with no more than 10 psi variation between cylinders. If that's not ok, you have internal issues like bent valves, broken rings, or piston probs. If the comp's good, find TDC and make sure the mark on the damper is right and it's getting the timing it should. Maybe a keyway got cut wrong, or maybe the key is sheared. Maybe the pointer on your timing cover is wrong. If ok, check your cam centerline. It may be off a tooth, or just installed wrong. Pull a plug and watch it fire while turning the motor over. A msd should give a strong blue-white spark. A weak, red, or orange spark means ignition trouble. Check the fuel pressure, should be 5-6 psi while wide open. check for full throttle and the secondaries opening all the way. This bit me hard once. You've got the makings of a super engine there. I wouldn't ditch it, just try to find what's wrong. My bet is some bent valves from really buzzing it some time, cam timing off, or the dampers moved. Don't give up. John

That's a super nice Barracuda and obviously pretty quick, but it's not a six pak. six pak's used a long oval air cleaner, that one's got a round K&N and what looks like a dominator on it. Mopars are pretty awesome. Even without all the aftermarket support the chevs and fords have, mopars are very strong running cars.

Thanks tdab and Ron. It looks a lot better on your cars then in MSA's catalog. I'm gonna get one. John

I use one of the generic plastic catch cans from Doug Herbert performance. It has rubber-grommented inlets on the top and bottom, and comes with a small valve. To use it as a catch can, you run the overflow into the top and dump it with the valve. I run the overflow into the bottom, put the valve on top and leave it open. When the radiator pushes fluid into the can, it sucks it back when it cools. Works great. www.herbertperformance.com, or I think Summit sells a similar one.

Been thinking about this. Does anyone think putting the larger radiator in the car, while reducing the water temps, caused the temp of the underhood air to go up enough to cause the engine to detonate? This was the highest ambient temp I've ever run the car in at a track event, and the water temps were noticably cooler than before. The extra heat being removed from the engine has to go somewhere, into the air passing through the radiator. Maybe the combo of the higher ambient temp and the heat from the radiator was enough to cause the detonation. If so, i guess the answer may be less timing/more fuel/better gas to deal with the increased temp of the air. Or even better, a cowl inducton/air box setup to get cooler air to the carb. This may eliminate the detonation and provide some power increase too. Any thoughts? Scottie, I appreciate your concerns about gas. Pump gas was one of my goals when I built this engine. I want to have a car that I can drive anywhere and be able to take to a road course and flog when I want to, without the hassle of mixing gas. Better gas would almost certainly solve the problem, but my preference would be to find another answer. Thanks for your help. John

What really throws me is that about a month ago I went to another HPDE at the same track, with temps about 93 deg. I had no problems that time, timing at 36 deg,which is what I normally run. The only change I have made to the car is to install a griffin 24 x 19 alum radiator. the car ran a little hot, maybe 230, in the 93 deg heat. With the griffin, temps never exceeded 210 deg. No other changes. Scotty, this makes me think the gas isn't the problem, UNLESS I got a bad batch of gas at the station. I will try some different gas next time, but I really can't test that till I go back to the track (4000 rpm is about 90 mph). Mike, the vac advance is not hooked up. I have messed with the springs in the HEI so I get all the advance at about 25-2600 rpm. No detonation below 4000. I pulled the plugs out this afternoon, looking for a lean condition, but the plugs (Autolite 3924's) are dark tan, looking a little rich if anything. No bluing on the ground strap. Of course, I came off the track and into the pits, not a clean cut off. Maybe I'll try some diff gas and risk the NCHP to test her out. Thanks John

Took the Z to a HDPE at CMP in Kershaw SC this past weekend, and had a problem I've never had before. On the straights I would start to hear some pinging starting at about 4k rpm. Backing off slightly from WOT would stop it. I checked the timing, apparently the distributor had moved a little, it was at 38 deg total. Backed it down to 35 deg. This helped but did not eliminate the problem. Combo is 355, 10:1, Trick flow heads, Comp solid roller 224/224 @ 50, 525/525, Ebrock air gap, 750 DP w/69/75 jets, GM HEI ignition, Amoco pump premium. It was very hot, high was 97 deg. There was no detonation at lower rpm. Too much timing for the temp? Too lean? Colder plugs? Any help would be great, this has me puzzled. Thanks.

Hey Tdab, what kind of air dam is that? Looks great! I want one. John

Very nice. Those Vic jr's look sweet, I haven't seen a set yet. Any porting, or did you run them like they came from BigE?

No difference at all except the casting date. Some of the accessories on the motorhome engines were a little odd, though.

The best: http://www.moparts.com Also moparstyle.com or scatpack.com Moparts is great. there's a guy there with a TT440 65 belvedere and also a TT340. I've got a 66 Sat and a 67 coronet R/T to go along with my Z. The old mopars are great.

A friend with a late model dirt car runs a 355 chev with the pontiac heads. How does 747 hp at the crank sound???? Those heads are pretty amazing.

Nice story, Mark. I went to a track day at kershaw a month or so ago and the NC BMW club was there. Several of them had M-3's and they were REALLY PISSED when my lowly 240Z would blow them off badly. I have a lot of respect for the M-3's though, they are really nice cars. Glad to hear you got your engine fixed. I bought David Spillman's car a while back and he has spoken highly of you several times. David and I are good friends, we racquetball and talk cars a lot. Let me know if you're going to kershaw some time, I'd like to meet up and check out your car. John

Yeah, I was a little disappointed in the 308 rwhp. Torque peaked at 352 @ 4k, Hp 308 @ 5600. I found out my throttle cable bracket had slipped and the secondaries were only about 75% open. The carb had 69/78 jets, I'm now down to 66/75 and still a little rich. The TW heads are a bear to get the rocker geometry right. Different lenght pushrods for the intake and ex, and the jig-type pushrod lenght checkers don't work on the TW's. Still a very docile, streetable combo that gets 20 mpg, and the 5.0 stangs never knew what hit 'em.

Fastzcars, I have a very similar combo- Trick Flow twisted wedge heads, unported, Ebrock air gap, 750 DP, 10:1, Comp 268AR solid roller, 224/224 @ 050, 525/525 lift, HEI ign., Hooker block huggers. I pulled 308 at the wheels in 92 deg weather with the carb too rich. I have since jetted down and the car is more responsive and pulls harder, but haven't been back to the dyno. This is a very mild setup, idles @ 900, pulls hard off idle and really goes from about 2K on up. It is a very streetable, my wife sometimes drives it to work.

Flash, I have a B&M 700R4 with a B&M 2500 converter that was bought new from Summit in my car I'm going to pull out shortly. I'm going to go with a manual. Let me know if you're interested. Western NC area.

Peternell is right about the DZ block being valuable to the camaro guys, and he's about right on the price. That is a major score. I'd find a good buyer for the DZ, then put that money on a early 4 bolt block and lots of other goodies.

If you really want some grunt go with a 360 block and MP's stroker crank for a 408. Crank is about 375 and pistons are available from mancini racing or several others. Check out the Q&A board on www.moparts.com. tons of good mopar info and some great guys hang out there.

Try putting one of the thin oil rings without the expander in the bore, then use a piston to square it up and see if the ends overlap. If so, that's your problem. Be sure to check your ring end gap at the tightest place in the bore, usually the bottom of the stroke. Sometimes if the bore has a little taper from wear, they can be ok at the top and too tight at the bottom.

The 400 and 350 are externally identical, so the mounts/setback plates wouldn't be a problem. If you wanted to use a 400 damper, I seem to recall they are 7.95" diameter. My 6 1/4" fluidamper is only about an inch away from the crossmember with a jtr kit, and the 400 damper is at least 1/2" thicker than the fluidamper. The 400 damper may be a very close fit. If anyone wants me to, I'll get some accurate measurements and post them. But if you're going to build a big hog, it needs a fluidamper anyway. That would require an internally balanced crank. I say go with the 400. I had a 406 in a late model dirt car and it would really suck your cheeks back.

Grump, you are the undisputed King of Links. I salute you. Wonder if Silicone Boy recognizes anyone?