Scottie-GNZ

One of these days I will break down and get it. BUTKIKR

Does not matter what anyone thinks a L28 can be revved up to. Bottom line is a L28T with the stock cam does not need to go pass 6500 and is probably already losing power at that point.

Sorry, got sidetracked. I picked up a set of late Z-28 wheels and was "pre-occupied". Like watching your baby stand up for the first time, the GNZ is off the jack stands and on the ground! Still has no springs/shocks so the parent still has a supporting hand out (jack under the diff). At least now I see what it looks like on the ground with the wheels and tires. I know no one else is interested, but these Z-28 wheels are 16x8 and weigh in at 17lbs each. Fantastic for a big OEM wheel and compares well to a 15x8 Weld Draglite which weighs 12lbs. I will get the details and pics on the I/Cs maybe tomorrow.

I am doing some research in hopes of finding a muffler that provides the most clearance in the driveshaft tunnel area. I believe this limits me to a bullet shaped muffler. What experiences do we have out there with mufflers like the Race Magnum Bullet? I am paticularly interested in hearing from anyone with a turbo as the "noise" factor is certainly different as opposed to a NA. I am just tosing around some ideas of redoing my exhaust and having it exit on the pass side in front of the wheel. Thinking of running bullet muffler(s) in the driveshaft tunnel then oval tube under the floorpan exiting out the side. I love the look of an oval tune exiting out the side. I know they come in 12" and 16" and wondered what a single 16" sounded like with a turbo or maybe I could even put 2 12" in series. Just thinking out loud now but looking for input.

Great find. I see Ron is also on it. I suggest anyone who has an SDS jump on that and support it. I intend to start dropping in every so often.

That would be 280ZX 2+2 springs. That mod is detailed in the JTR manual or at least in the ancient version I have.

Don, your pic has to be on a computer that is accessible on the Internet. If it is, then the URL is "address" for anyone on the Internet to get to it. If it is not on a computer on the Internet, maybe someone here will volunteer to load it up for you. One week, 75 responses and a lot of enthusiasm and fun. Certainly exceeded my expectations but some surprises were expected and I imagine, for some, mine was . I hope my initial post did not hurt anyone feelings. First thing that comes to mind when they say a man is crowned, is that he is bald. Kevin, when I see your posts full of statistics and formulas, I immediately think about that commercial with the guys that invented the Internet. Come to think of it, which one in that commercial was Gore?

A turbo 2.4L would be nice but the potential of the SR20 is awesome. Just to give you some idea. One of my buddie's here in Orlando (and also a friend of Stony) has a RHD 1.8L Silvia. It has a T04, cam upgrade and SDS and it ran 12.0 @ 119 with a lot of wheelspin. We estimate about 345RWHP and is driven daily. As was previously stated, the SR20 will make 350RWHP very easily, BUT, remember you will always need parts.

Someone has a tweaked TTA motor for sale and you could probably get it for $2500. Based on the car's performance, the HP is about 547RWHP which would put a 2600# Z at about 9.90 @ 137. If you seriously thinking about this kind of performance, there is no way you could match the cost with any alternative. http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=11307&referrerid=0

Tom, dance a jig . You are ready to start enjoying the wonders of higher boost. With an I/C like that, the difference between 9# and 15# is staggering. If you are hitting the 2nd to last rich bar you should be just fine. I believe you are using maps I sent you and if you are, it should have increase fuel for higher boost, but when you start turning it up, do it in small increments, like 2# at a time. Keep an eye on the duty cycle and enjoy.

Aldan has a very good reputation in the drag racing and custom rods world. Yes, I did the research and what I found was that most of the well known manufacturers had a limited selection of custom shocks and in too many cases, you were limited to a single shock or a single shock for 2 or maybe 3 lengths. Not only does Aldan carry probably the widest variety of coilover shocks but they will custom make them. Another major factor is their value. What drove me to calling Aldan was when a buddy who is into Jags sent me this after we spoke on the subject. http://www.classicjaguar.com/cjshocks.html

Spent some time on the phone this morning with the Aldan Shock Absorber Company going over my setup. Nothing listed in the catalog satisfied my needs but they agreed to make a set specific to that, at no extra charge . The shocks will have an extended length, eyelet to eyelet, of 15.5", 4.5" travel, extra threads on the body for a 12" 160# spring and external adjustment for rebound. They said based on my intended use, it was not worth the extra expense of getting external adjustment for compression. $380/pr, shipped from CA. Man, it is great to pick up the phone and work with the experts who design and build a component and who takes an interest in what you are doing. And, get this. If the spring rate is not correct for my application, they will swap them out at no charge. http://www.aldanshocks.com/

Couple of questions. What metal is it made out of? Any potential for overheating in hot climes? Ever use a floor jack and if yes, where do you place it? The rear belly pan has always intrigued me but I shied away. Ever notice the really quick Honda drag cars have holes or some mesh in their rear valance? That is because, at speed, air gets trapped in the valance and acts like a parachute and the holes relive that pressure. After installing the fuel cell I noticed lots of room on either side of the cell for the same thing to happen and that is why you see 3 holes in my rear valance. A rear belly pan would have solved that and maybe improve aerodynamics, but my concern was that the muffler was right next to the fuel cell and that muffler gets mighty toasty when the big hairdryer is at full blast.

Spoke to Carlos last night and he informed that he has some I/Cs (NPRs and HKS) for sale. I will go take pics this weekend and let everyone know what he has and how much.

Very Nice! Everything about the car. Very Nice!

Jens, excellent suggestion. The Buick Stage II engine as used in Indy Lights makes about 465hp. Since it is (was) a spec series, all the engines were made by one shop. The Indy Lights series is dead after this season so there should be a good source of engines available. They will be pricey but I wonder how it would compare to building up a standard block to make 450hp. Of course, most of those engines will be gobbled up by the Buick drag racers. A change of pistons and cam, add turbo setup and pull 1000hp.

I have made some posts in the past on this subject so I will not go into deep detail here. I use a modified wastegate rod, an in-cockpit bleed-off valve AND a relief valve. I use the relief valve to stop the signal to the wastegate cannister to keep the puck closed and allow quick spoolup to a specified boost level. DO NOT use this with a stock L28T turbo or a turbo with a small turbine wheel. The reason I use both a modified wastegate rod and a bleed-off valve is because taking the boost from 12# to 24# would make the rod so short that it probably would not function correctly and I prefer not to use the bleed-off valve to add that much boost. Another reason is that on the street I use just the rod and at the track I add the bleed-off valve to get to race boost. I accomplish this by using a special hard, but flexible plastic line that uses a quick disconnect to connect the bleed-off valve. On the street I quick disconnect the bleed-off and replace it with a quick disconnect cap and vice-versa at the track. One of the problems with bleed-off valves, especially the industrial type, is that they were designed with an adjustment range up 100 and even 150#. Now folks are trying to use it to change their boost by 1 or 2# and the granularity is just not there. The way to fix that is to replace the spring with a much softer one. I obviously cannot recommend a spring as they will vary with the valve. You need to take the valve apart and go to a shop that has a good selection of springs and find the appropriate one. Despite running up to 24# boost, I have no spikes or oddities with the boost. Here you see the in-cockpit bleeder-valve which was a $2.50 item from a surplus store, the blue plastic line and the brass quick-disconnect. I tried explaining this once before and I am not sure if it made any sense, so I drew up a crude diagram that I hope will better help understanding it. Hope I am not throwing too many pics out there, but as they say, a pic is worth....

Does that include turbo 4s and 6s?

Thought I had posted this before, but here it is in case I did not. Guy seems ready to deal. http://www.turbobuick.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=16252&referrerid=0

Danno, thanks for the pics from your manual. It appears the location differs with the model. My 70-78 Clymer (not Haynes) shows a diagram of the Brake System with the prop valve in the rear like my car. Hopefully someone can clear this up for all. maybe we can start a new thread for the prop valve topic so it does not get buried here. OK, more pictures of my progress and I will eventually get around to updating the How-To doc. Here is the mount I built for the links. I still want to do some more bracing. I plan to race the car and check for signs of stress before I cover everything up. Here is the diff mount using the original crossmember. I will probably rip off the frame rail before that puppy breaks And...TA-DA, a pic that shows I am close. The black rods at the bottom are the special shortened, camber arm. [ October 23, 2001: Message edited by: Scottie-GNZ ]

WOW, thanks for jumping to my defense folks. After looking at his sig and his plans, it is ironic that he cannot comprehend the complexity. On the other hand, since he has not responded, not sure I can take him seriously, so I will ignore his comments. As for the project, it is well underway again. The mount and bracing for the links are done and just need some aditional bracing. Total overkill in the way I did it but...... Next is to order the shocks/coilovers and come up with a way to mount them. The bottom of the shock will be an eyelet and will require a simple bracket to mount it on top of the hub. Have not decided if the top will be an eyelet or stud. I am waiting to get an OEM upper strut mount to see if I can use that, else I will have to fab up something to use the original upper strut mount point (3-bolts). Once I figure that out, then the entire unit comes out, the lower shock mount gets welded to the top of the hub, new brakes lines get bent to fit the Vette calipers, entire unit gets re-installed, adjustments made for driveshaft angle, driveshaft made and I am done. All fairly simple and my bad for not getting it done quicker I will post some pics tonight and yes, I am way behind on the web page. I am sure there is some interest in duplicating this swap, so I am going out on a limb now and make a few statements. I do not recommend anyone with a stock-fendered Z to consider this swap, the C4 IRS, i.e. The C3s have a narrower track and might work but I have no data on that. I recently responded to a personal email from someone who wants to do the swap and was inquiring if I would make mounts, etc. After studying what I have done to date, my response was no, I would not duplicate my mounts and do not recommend he try the swap on his stock-fendered 240Z. The rear track on a Z is 57" and the C4 is 70"!!!! To make matters worse, the C4 uses wheels with a deep 5.5" backspace. If the unit was narrowed down that much, the inside-top of the hub would be under the strut tower and under extreme squat, I believe you would have clearance problems. Sure you could do some cutting to make it fit, but I just would not want to recommend that and certainly would not attempt to makes mounts for it. As I stated before, I know of only 2 other Zs that have done this and only 1 used a C4. The C4 IRS in Cyind's Z is not narrowed and even with flares, the tires still extend a little past the fender lines. That should give some idea of the width we are dealing with. Since I decided to narrow the unit, I was left with having to develop everything from scratch. If anyone decides to follow in my steps, use my document as a guideline only. I will be more than willing to lend advice BUT I do not intend to duplicate my mounts. There are just too many minor variances to make that workable as it would only take a couple of millimeters off to totally destroy fitment and alignment and I just do not want to risk that. I already learned a lesson when I duplicated my NPR plumbing for folks and some had fitment problems and I felt bad about that. In the spirit of this great forum, we are all here to share and learn from others experiences. It is ironic that someone, a newbie at that, can be critical that we are not developing ideas and sharing them fast enough

The Haynes has a diagram showing the prop valve in the rear (all other diagrams I have seen are the same). I removed it and pitched it.

You mean the Haynes manual is incorrect?

Danno, the OEM prop valve on my 240Z was in the rear and it was removed. I would recommend anyone with a hybrid that has upgraded their brakes (everybody does, right? ) to replace the static OEM valve. Ray, I am sure what you are saying will work, I just took a different approach. Because of the tremendous force that link will put on the bracket (up and forward), I want to brace the entire area. You do not realize how how flimsy the metal is in this car until you start cutting into it. Then again, that is why they are so light.

Yes, it is my brake proportioning valve and the relay for the fuel pump. I put the prop-valve there because I wanted to have easy access to adjust it, maybe even while driving. Remember I originally started out setting the car up for doing drivers schools. To ensure that the fuel pump has max voltage at high boost, I run a 10-gauge wire from the alt to the pump through the relay and a 10-guage ground wire from the pump to the battery. The blue wire you see is the OEM pump lead that now just triggers the relay. I recommend any turbo car running high boost to do the same. No fun finding out that at 23# boost you have less than 11 volts at the pump from the OEM 16-gauge wire that is so hot it is about to melt the insulation [ October 19, 2001: Message edited by: Scottie-GNZ ]