Pop N Wood

I think the octane ratings of gas took a plunge when lead was outlawed. I know it was being phased out about the time the catalytic converter was introduced (73?). So I would guess if your car came out anytime after 76 then it should run on the modern day definition of regular unleaded. The owners manual for my 1970 240 says to use (i think) 95 octane gas. Once I upgraded the leaky, worn out SU's to dual Webers it runs fine on modern day regular. Best way to find out is put in a tank of regular and see if it pings under hard acceleration on a hot day. If it doesn't, your fine. If it does, you need higher octane or a different engine tune.

Aren't the strut isolators on 240 and 280's different thickness? Maybe someone mixed them up.

From the Honda site's FAQ's about the Insight (http://automobiles.honda.com/models/faqs.asp?ModelName=Insight) On the Honda, the electric assist motor sits where the flywheel is. In fact it is used as the starter. That would tell me it is not possible to turn the electric motor without turning over the engine. Interesting comment about the Prius. I remember reading otherwise. checked the Toyota web site and notice that the current one is a "second generation" electric drive and has been changed significantly from the first gen. But even the 2nd gen has this in their FAQ

I would think putting chevy U joints into a stock half shaft would be worth doing, if it could be done cheaply. I know the CV swaps have been well established, but I don't like the idea of all the adapter plates. Maybe just because I have not done it. You might try pointing out this thread to JohnC or Mike Kelly (among others). I bet either one of those guys could answer this question off the top of their heads.

LOL I had a 350 lbs buddy who actually took his Fiat in under warranty and complained like hell that the shocks on the left side worn out too quickly.

Man, that thing is beautiful. Notice how clean he got the metal before he started to weld. Hard to get such pretty welds when paint, oil or rust gets in the weld pool. Everytime I see a cage like that it makes me wonder if it would pass the katman test. He is always so critical of cross bars placed up high. Those guys looked like they really know what they are doing though. One big thing though. How is he going to get the kids in the back seat?

When I was looking into the hybrids, the web sites warned that the cars absolutely could not be run on the electric motors alone. Would violate the warranty if you even tried. The gas motors are coupled directly to the wheels all the time. The engine is always running and putting power to the wheels. They are conventional gasoline power cars with an electric assist. All of the power to charge the batteries comes from the gas engine and regenerative braking (a small contributor depending how you drive). Thus powering the car with just the electric makes no sense because the gas engine will just have to work that much harder to put the energy back into the batteries. From what I have read, the cars drive around on the gas engine. The electric boost only kicks in if additional acceleration is needed. Maye a little more complicated than that but that is still the jist of it. And the electric boost won't happen if the batteries don't have sufficient charge. So the overall system has to be smart enough to manage the battery charge for when it is really needed. It simply cannot provide energy for a sustained period of time. The part about the environmentalist fighting the hybrids has been in the news for years. In case you hadn't noticed I am not a big fan of the current generation of hybrids. I want a full electric car that uses a gas generator to recharge the batteries, not drive the wheels. That way I could turn off the gas motor 20 miles from home and charge it up with house current at night. Simply cannot do that with anything currently being offered by Honda or Toyota.

Then why did California and other environmental groups try to block their creation? The environmental people want ZERO emission vehicles. They fought hybrids, but the manufactures persevered and made them anyway because they consider them a good compromise vehicle. The electric part is unnecessary to make a low emissions vehicle. The primary purpose is to make the vehicle more acceptable by giving it better acceleration. And like said above, regenerative braking buys nothing on the open highway. Pull the electric crap off the car and the emissions on the freeway will not go up.

Still need to get the swap certified. If you don't have the modified door plate you still run a risk. If you want to be 100% safe then go through the certification process. Once you get the basic swap certified by the state, then you can probably get away with modifications that aren't too blatant. But even the average cop can tell a Chevy engine from a Nissan one. You also run the risk of the exempt law being repealed.

Abbey Hoffman advocated taping army recruiting post cards to bricks. That was back in the Hippy days.

Diesels have excessive NOx emissions and I think particulate (soot) emissions too. Diesel manufactures are constantly battling the EPA to prevent them from regulating diesels into extinction.

Last weekend I notice the flange under one of my toilets was leaking raw sewage into the ceiling of the room below. So while I was fixing that I chipped a big chunk of porcelain off the bathtub and the furnace stopped working. And my refrigerator has leaked for months. Owning a house sucks at times too. I have no one to run to but the salesman at Home Depot.

Hate to burst your bubble, but you have the same smog restrictions that I do. Smog equipment is a federal requirement, not state. My 1970 is exempt from testing in Maryland. BUT I want to do a "legal" swap, at least initially. Think of it as just another technical hurdle to overcome. I grew up in Nebraska. When I graduated I moved to LA. Kinda sucked when I had to sell my car because it would have cost more than the car was worth to get it registered in California. On the up side when I sold my old car I bought my Z!!!

FWIW I wouldn't want to be your apartment supervisor....

Bummer. Looks like you need to change your signature line...

The EPA tests are not suppose to mimic "real world driving". They are meant to be a controlled test that allows you to compare MPG numbers on different vehicles in a fair manner. It almost doesn't matter what you do to test a car, as long as you test them all in exactly the same manner. Otherwise the results are hard to interpret. Honda did not make an Accord hybrid for economy reasons as much as performance reasons. Electric motors develop full torque off the line. Thus you can build a gas engine that is tuned for high revs and use the electric boost to still have a drivable car. Any increase in MPG is of secondary importance. A lot of people made very high MPG cars in the past. But it didin't take long for car manufactures to learn they didn't sell. Not many people are willing to give up AC or even an automatic transmission to grab a few MPG. Now days everything is about super sized vehicles. So I guess there is a different standard, gain mileage without sacrificing too much performance or comfort. And be careful about making the EPA tests too realistic. If Kerry had gotten in office we could have been looking at more strict gas mileage laws. Make those tests as optimistic as possilbe!!!

I hope that is it also. My Tacoma is doing the same thing on first and second gear. At 20 degrees I simply can't push it hard enough to get in 2nd gear without double clutching. Only have 80K miles on the truck. I tried switching to Mobil 1 gear oil and that seemed to help, but haven't seen the really cold temps to know for sure. My clutch pedal has squeaked for the last two years. Something to look at.

I know Smokey Yunick wrote in one of his books he often built his cars out of wrecks, that way he could modify the roof region above the rear glass to do just what this product claims to do. (The rules forbid such types of body modifications). I have often thought just some type of spoiler, like a flat piece of metal, would do the trick. Not sure what advantage the shape of this product would bring. Ahh. Just found this from this site http://www.shoclub.com/editorial/smokey.htm

I don't know. The Random Technology site says their 8100 bullet series are 8 inches long and 4 inches in diameter. Hard to imagine putting in a 4 inch tube anywhere near the engine without moving some sheet metal first. I will look into it. I plan on visiting a smog station soon so I can ask about how legal such a set up would be.

My wife warned me about that comment. Don't tell her she was right. We also loaded the free trial version of the Panda that awd92gsx recommended. Like Fredtam suggested it didn't help with the hijack problem (or whatever it is called). Trouble is the virus programs are so intrusive they are little better than viruses (IMO). The stinking MS AS program won't let different user accounts use different home pages. FWIW all I ever surf is Hybridz, tool catalogs and the occasional google search. No Porn or MP3's. Honest. With that the MS antispyware stuff is still trapping things daily. We are also going to upgrade our kid's computer from Window ME to XP home. Hate to tell you the type of crap that has spontaneously popped up on that one.

Z's use a rathar bizzare wiring scheme on their headlights. they are notorious for having corroded contacts in the headlight switch. This is due in part to the switch carrying the full current of the headlights. A MUCH better way is to get on Pete Paraska's sight and install the headlight relays. Pete lays out the details real good. Many have done it. Will most likely fix your problem in a way you will never have to deal with again. http://alteredz.com/Headlight_Relay_pg1.htm While you are at it, upgrade your turn signals http://alteredz.com/turnsgn1.htm

??? You never did get back with any info about whether it runs rough or not? Think you ought to take Drax up on his offer.

They are not all maroons. I can remember JohnC being impressed with Ron Tyler's published weights. Excellent info...

A bit of feedback on this topic. I just got some type of hijack/attack problem on my PC that was causing pop ups on this site. It was even inserting hyperlinks in Hybridz threads to display ad sights. I downloaded Ad-Aware SE and it didn't work. Removed a bunch of crap, but didn't fix the problem. Downloaded the free spyware stuff from Microsoft. Guess Microsoft is going to include this with future versions of windows. The Microsoft program found 6 different things the adware did not. This got rid of the problem. Gotta be careful with the free stuff. There is nothing to prevent the Ad-Aware SE stuff from putting it's own monitoring junk on your machine.

Well you definitely have more experience in this field than I so I trust what you say. But in a way you are comparing apples and oranges. $6200 for a brand new engine using known, top quality parts, or much less for a used engine of unkown condition using nothing but factory parts. Also you may find the occasional deal on such an ls1 combo, but current ebay prices are more into the $4k to $6K range depending on mileage, transmission and whether it is from a Vette or F body. Plus how much more will it cost to get 500 reliable HP out of a used $2k factory LS1 set up? On the up side the T56's for the LS1's are cheaper than the LT1 versions since that don't readily fit the old style SBC. My hesitation at using an LS1 is the OBDII requirements. The thought of fitting cats and dual O2 sensors to my 70 240 makes me lean toward an LT1. I know you have talked about aftermarket cats, but the ground clearance on that old car just doesn't seem to be there.