Pop N Wood

For some reason the two threads above did not work for me. Yea, topic has been discussed before. If all above checks out then check the front brake rotor run out. The stock rotors tend to warp causing a shimmy that gets worse under braking.

Just an idea, but if you are going to section the struts anyway why not drill a hole through the strut to drain the oil? You could do it in the section of the strut that gets removed. You could then work the cartridge like a slide hammer (as before). Would sure as hell make heating the tube safer.

First, I am jealous because you have the engine/trans combo I want. Second, you have your work cut out for you. The LS1 swap is more difficult and not as well documented as the older SBC motors. First I would look at this excellent web site: http://240z.jeromio.com/ Then do a search on LS1 in the chevy forum. This should yield plenty of additional reading material. Have fun.

If you try lowering the input voltage be sure to keep a fire extiguisher handy. I would also make sure I know where the breaker to the welder is in case you need to get to it quickly. Reduced line voltages generally cause things to overheat. My solution would be to buy a better welder.

The JTR manual says you can disconnect the hinges at the front of the hood and get the latch open "with minimal body damage".... Not sure what that means. Good luck

I had the solid mount on my 70 with the original R180 rear, but I don't think it matters. When I put the R200 in my 70 I simply rotated the front diff mount 180 degrees. I'll check the MSA catalog on Monday (since it is at work).

Correction, PVC pipe is rated at 300 PSI, not 30.

Couple of things. 1) Having been born in Nebraska I have to say "What a hick" may or may not be a put down depending upon your state of mind. 2) I have also heard bad things about oilless compressors and won't own one either. 3) I have a 5 HP, 2 cylinder compressor (don't know whether it is single or 2 stage) that does everything I need. Most car magazines use to recommend this as the minimum HP level for a home shop, but recently they seem to be more in the 6 HP range. 4) Run away screaming if someone tells you they have a 120 volt, 5 HP motor. 220 is an unfortunate fact of life at such HP levels. 5) It is very easy to mount your compressor in the rafters/trusses of the garage with a switch/breaker at ground level and run air lines throughout the garage. PVC pipe is rated at 30 PSI. Just make sure you hook a section or air hose to the drain so you can drain the moisture from the tank while at ground level. 6) $1000 will buy you one hell of a compressor from Harbor Freight tools and at that price shipping is usually free. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=60913 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=33993 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=33748 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=35119 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=5730 http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44675

I'll dig it out this weekend and email you back from my work email on Monday.

Have to agree with all that was said above. Get a good MIG welder and just do it. All it really takes is practice. If you are only going to get one welder, a 120 amp or so MIG welder would be it. 220 volt if your shop can handle it. Make sure you get one with sheilding gas to begin with and ask around before you buy. Some of the cheaper welders (Craftsman comes to mind) have been blasted by guys on this site. Any thing by Lincoln-Miller-Hobart would be a safe bet. I have a Century that I am happy with, but some guys have blasted Century's cheaper models also. The other thing that is nice to have is a good oxy-acetelene torch. They come in really handy for heating things (such as bending metal or loosening bolts) and for cutting. Also it is sometimes quicker and easier to braze small parts. You can weld with a torch but not on car sheet metal. Torches produce excessive heat compared to a MIG and will warp or otherwise destroy stuff. Of course then you need a grinder, assorted C clamps and vise grips, a good file, some sheet metal tools, big F'ng hammers, band saw, chop saw and or course a fire friendly shop to work with all of the above. I am still working on this list but you know the saying, "He who dies with the most toys wins."

I have a solid MSA mount in my shed I could sell you. Had it on my 240 all of 10 minutes. I am one of the guys it didn't work for. The car was so loud it literally hurt my ears and made me feel physically ill. Maybe your luck will be better?

Zrossa I am experiencing the same problem you are. I don't know how to make flat MIG welds. I wonder if it is even possible. It seems like the only way to get a decent MIG weld ends up leaving a nice round bead. If you have DC welder you can try reversing the polarity. This helps some. But even with that, you still have to adjust the wire speed to make the buzz "sing". This seems to add more filler than I want. None of this is really a problem since the welds are plenty strong, but it would be nice to get prettier welds. When I was a kid I welded everything with a torch. I use to get nice flat welds with evenly sized puddles ("laying down quarters" as my brother use to say). This was possible because I could move and angle the torch to place the heat where I wanted it (actually move the puddle) and then dip the welding rod in and out to only add as much filler as I wanted. TIG is a lot like a torch in that you can back the rod out and really work the bead. MIG welders don't give you separate control of the heat and filler.

Pretty much anything you put in will smoke a stock Prelude. Take the JTR advice and start with a complete swap (including smog equipment) from a donor car. Just wanted to emphasis that one of your first prioirties to "do it right" will be improved brakes.

I installed a Jacobs ignition in my 70 240. To make the tach work with the Jacobs box I had to install two black boxes, I think they went around the coil (can't remember). Anyway Jacobs electronics had some devices that would make the stock 240 tach work with the CD ignition. I have always wondered whether these boxes would make the tach work with other ignitions.

All good points. If something is broken in the cooling system than you can't expect a bigger fan to make it right. I guess all I was trying to say is you need to make sure the electric fan you want to install will get the job done. I'll go further to say that when the set up allows it, a mechanical fan with a shroud has the potential to move a lot more air and should be less prone to overheating than an electric set up.

I don't mean to step on anyone’s toes here, just trying to exchange info and get feed back. But I still have to agree with JTR when they say how much more air can be moved by a mechanical vs. electric fan. 35 amps is a hell of a draw, especially if you only have a 90 amp alternator. But 35 amps at 12 volts has the same power as 3.5 amps at 120 volts. And when have you ever impressed someone with your "three and a half amp" electric drill or circle saw? This works out to only 420 watts which is just a little over half a horsepower. I don't have any numbers on mechanical fans but it seems like they have a lot more HP to draw on. And keep in mind that running an electric motor puts a load on the alternator (hence engine) just the same as the mechanical fan. The only power advantage an electric has is when it is not running. Electric fans can obviously get the job done. There are too many guys who make them work. However, if you look back through the postings on this site most of the people with cooling problems are running electric fans. Coincidence?

Man, I love the web. Found the link: http://www.zparts.com/sidebars/sb_mo_v8/bo_v8_blue_l.htm Looks like a ton of other very intersting stuff on the root link www.zparts.com

Man, have to agree with biohzd! That is my Z (wannabe anyway). I have a red 240 with those same hood vents and MSA air dam. I never really cared for fender flares but those really work! Definitely see what I want to do with the bumpers! Looks like a BRE rear spoiler (similar to Pete Paraska's)

Hard to imagine a diff letting power flow in the forward direction but not the reverse. There is no ratcheting assembly in a diff that I know of. Could be the yoke slipping out of contact, although I would think once this happens the odds of it going back in again are small. Another guess is you have a transmission problem. Get the problem to occur again and look to see if the driveshaft is turning or not (a mirror? Might want to get the wife to look underneath just in case to problem suddenly fixes itself ) Guess this won't rule out the yoke coming unglued, but it will eliminate the diff.

Didn't Mitsubishi produce a car with an all electronic, active cancellation muffler? Put a speaker in the muffler, a microphone some where near the cat and an amplifier/brain inbetween the two. The microphone senses the sound "beat", then the amp/brain, accounting for the time it takes for the sound to travel the length of the exhaust, pumps an amplified signal into the muff that is 180 degrees out of phase with the exhaust note. I have read write ups that says this works, with NO backpressure. Probably a bit much for the average garage mechanic.

Couple of suggestions: 1) get rid of the electric fan and go to a mechanical with a shroud. 2) Install a hood from a 77-78 Z that has the hood vents. 3) Add an "undercarriage splash pan". I know everyone likes the electric fans and sometimes they are your only option, but I have to agree with JTR on this one. Electric motors simply do not have the horsepower and cannot move as much air. I have the hood vents on my 70. They release an impressive amount of heat when stopped on a hot day. The cooling link posted above suggests idling the car with the hood released. Looks like a good way to determine if a vented hood will help. The undercarriage splash pans are available from MSA. Apparently there is a lot of turbulence under the car. This pan helps smooth out the flow of air through the radiator at speed. Obviously if you are overheating at idle, the pan won't help. My 2 cents.

The MSA catalog lists this book! www.zcarparts.com, Part number 70-1056. Only $16.95

People have posted comments stating the emission standards for cars. They typically aren't that restrictive (really only designed to capture the gross polluters). Depending upon your year of car and engine condition you might be able to pass the tail pipe sniffer test. What will kill you is the visual inspection. Even a smog check station flunky will be able to tell you have carbs on what should be a FI car. BTW, it has been my unfortunate experience that tuning stock 240 carbs to make the engine run the best also gives the lowest emissions. Trying to lean out the mixture reduces some numbers but causes others to go through the roof.

Here is one old posting: But I assume he cut out the spare tire well to do it.

Only way to tell is to start tracing along the wires with a volt meter to see where the juice stops flowing. Odd that something like the wipers wouldn't work. If they were turned off, then there should not have been any voltage on them in the first place. Plus hard to imagine anything short of an arc welder buring out a wiper motor. My guess is first check the fuseable links. Second you might have had an arc occur in the switches. This could have fried the contacts causing an open circuit, or even welded the switches in the off postion making them inoperable. All I can say is get a wiring diagram. Start at the battery and see if you have voltage. Then start working your way toward say the wiper motor checking every accessable contact for volts to ground. When you find a point with no voltage, then one of the problems is between that point and the last good point.