rossman

The engine is coming together slowly. Here are a few pictures. The Lonewolf intake and stock exhaust manifolds are torqued down. As you can see I installed a thermal blanket over the exhaust manifold. Hopefully it will significantly reduce radiant heat and keep under hood temps down. I drilled out the Lonewolf fuel rail from 5/16 to 3/8 NPT for a 3/8 to -6 AN fittings. 75 lbs fuel injectors are installed. I got the Bosch connectors off an older BMW I found in the local bone yard. Ron Tyler LS1 coil bracket and coils are temporarily installed. I've had a change in plans with regards to my transmission. I decided to go ahead and install a Z32 5 speed. I got the gearbox off an Ebay JDM inporter. It has <50K on it. The gears and synchros look pretty good. The bell housing is at a friend's house...yes he has a Bridgeport milling machine in his garage! He paid $700 for it at government auction. Cool stuff! The bell housing should be done this week. I got the transmission cross member and shifter adapter from McKinney Motorsports. It looks like high quality stuff. (No pics yet, sorry!) Oh yeah, I got some used 15 x 7 Panasports off a HZ member. Thanks glogan!

I know the oil pans are different. 280zx oil pan sumps are positioned towards the rear where 280z oil pans are more in the middle. I'm not sure about 260/240z pans. I assume the pickup tubes are different for each configuration so I want to get both pan and pickup.

My gut feel is it's complete BS. Maybe I missed it but where is the actual test data backing up his claims? "In god we trust, all others bring data"

How about a 90's Subaru 2.5 RS?

WTB 280zx (non-turbo) rear sump oil pan and matching oil pickup tube. Ugly is OK but the flanges must be straight.

Cool. Who did you interview with? It was pretty hectic "in the beginning." It has calmed down a bit. OTOH PDR is coming up so it's starting to get busy again.

I'm an ME working for Lockheed Martin on NASA's Orion project. I design, test and certify structures and mechanisms. I've been doing it for 17 years now...

I switched to my metric hammer. It helps when you use the right tools

A couple of good wacks with the hammer this morning and it came right off. Cheers, Ross

Cool. You don't have to break out a book to convince me that heat transfer is about differences in temperature . I am sure that in practice you and Mr. Bell are correct that shorter/more tubes produce a more efficient intercooler. I'm not going to argue with experience. As far as ducting goes, I'm not done yet. I think that in a global sense, including the hood and spoiler, if you block air from going around the intercooler as much as possible then you are producing the "better" or "best" scenario in Bell's diagrams that Nigel posted. I think of the hood as the upper boundary and the block-off panel I installed as the lower boundary. I need to seal the hood to the upper radiator support and the block-off panel is already sealed to the lower radiator support. I'm going to add an oil cooler below the intercooler and then seal around both so that air cannot go around. Cheers, Ross

Yep.

I read thru that whole tread. Nothing about disassembly. I must be doing something wrong.

So what is the trick to getting the bell housing off the gearbox? I removed the tail shaft half now I cannot get the bell housing side off of the main gear set. I removed 3 snap/lock rings underneath the front cover. I've been wacking the joint at the center plate but it wont come apart more than a mm or so. I'm afraid to hit it too hard for fear of breaking something. Do I need a bigger hammer? BTW I found this nice guide: http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread/226812

I have already fabbed a piece of sheet metal to block off the area under the radiator/intercooler to prevent spillage under the car. I'm also going to seal between the radiator and intercooler to prevent air from going around.

I haven't ditched my current plan yet, I'm just reconsidering it. Up until this thread I was convinced I had a really good setup. 240hoke's comments and Maximum Boost just got me thinking about it again, that's all. I think the more short tubes vs. fewer longer tubes argument is mostly about pressure drop. More short tubes will have less resistance to flow, assuming the end tanks are designed right. If it was purely a heat exchange issue then you cold say that hot air will simply travel a couple of inches farther down the tube where it is cooler and exchange the heat.

That's interesting. I thought they were all the same ('cept the turbo of course). The one on there now came off my 240 engine but I guess the PO could have switched it. I got a AN bulkhead fitting for the return. It's really easy to drill a new hole in a new pan.

Yeah that's what I thought but it sounds like he is using a different oil pan. The stock oil pan is already rear sump. I re-read Maximum Boost's intercooling section last night. 240Hoke has a good point. I'm going to reconsider my intercooler.

I like this solution. Where can I get a rear sump oil pan?

No bling factor here. I like to think of myself as a minimalist. My idea above was just me trying to solve a percieved problem, not some attempt to display intercooler piping. I didn't mean to imply that my intercooler core was huge. It's just quite a bit longer than it is wide. The core is 21x8x3 and the overall length is 28". I think the vent hole spacing is something like 30.5" edge-to-edge so the piping needs to make a pretty sharp turn to make it thru the holes. I think I got a good deal on the intercooler so I thought I would try it. It was designed by AVO. They seem to have a good reputation in the Subie world. I hadn't actually thought about going under the radiator support. Hmm interesting.

Yeah I know I should be doing this in the car. I'm just thinking ahead and of what my options might be. Ive already purchased a cross-flow intercooler and I don't want to cut anything, even on the radiator support. So no worries about cutting the hood . My intercooler is as wide as one can be and still fit between the two vent holes on the radiator support. In fact I had to get tight radius 90's to make it thru. This is a compromise I know but I think it's worth it to get the longest straight path thru the intercooler. This route does increase the number of bends but it also replaces one 90 Ive seen on other setups with 2 - 45's. Wouldn't this be slightly better? I'm planning to run the throttle cable down, underneath the manifold on the engine side of the manifold collector. I'm not sure how that's going to workout though. I want to keep the mechanical fan because I think it is more effective than electric fans. Also, I forgot to mention, I want to keep the A/C compressor. I live near Houston. A/C is a must KTM - I like your setup but it looks like the compressor would have to exit at just the right spot for the piping to make it around the steering shaft without too much complication. I'll check it out when I actually get the engine in the car.

Nah, I want the outside of the car to look relatively stock.

Oh and I won't be running a distributor cap/wires so that won't be a problem.

I am considering a different intercooler pipe route that will allow me to keep the mechanical fan and shroud. This route looks interesting but I wonder if it will hit the hood. I need another 45 to run it up tight against the front of the valve cover. Thoughts?

I received the parts today. VERY nice! Thank you!

$75 is a good deal. I paid $23 each for my '00 - 06 GMC Yukon D581 UF-271 C120 coils from this ebay seller: http://stores.ebay.com/alanisdeals06. They look slightly different though. Mine work with Ron's bracket.