peej410

Quick update. Sub-frame mounts are fully welded in. I purchased some used front bilstein struts from a friend and made some new LCAS for the front. I will update with some actual tech soon regarding camber track width etc. Untitled by peej410, on Flickr Untitled by peej410, on Flickr Already it is apparent that this was a good decision. There is so little bearing drag from the BMW parts that when I first lowered the car down off the stands and with no front tie rods yet, it rolled away from me... in the garage! Luckily i stopped it before it took out the compressor and other things. So, this is the best time to ask... ZG or steel custom flares?!

Thank you John! On my E36 M3 I run 600f/800r on Bilstein Gruppe N coilovers. It is VERY firm. But its a total blast so I dont complain much!

I weighed all the components of both suspension setups in their entirety they are within 12lbs! In the front i am building custom control arms so i can manipulate the roll center back to factory bmw specs in a different chassis. I may someday swap the whole front sub in but for now i am not cutting off my pretty TC mounts. I am still waiting on quotes for the rear shocks. Looking at Bilstein ASN and Penske 7500 with a 300lb spring to start. Opinions? I spoke with JohnC yesterday and he is getting me some final data on the Rtab relationship to the body. The Rear trailing arm front bushings (rtabs) could not go any higher in the body... That decided where the subframe would go.. I put the CVs and diff in and found that the CV angles arent great at ride height. Ill be raising everything into the body over the weekend

The advantage of the M3 rear suspensions start with its camber management characteristics and its toe management under compression. In my case i was more interested in the fact that it is fully adjustable for camber and toe. It has 12in brakes. It converts to five lug BMW which opens up a world of options. Also, hollow robust CV shafts and serviceable clutchpack LSD gigantic 85 mm wheel bearings and plentiful aftermarket support helps too

Hey all, After about ten years I am finally wrapping up a 240z project (the running bits anyways) and thought I would share the latest mind numbing edition. A disproportionate ratio of income/free-time/boredom has led me to scratch my head a bit. Then finally my lovely GF asked me one day, If you're M3 handles so nice, why don't you make your Z like it... The fact that I have spare bits from my M3 18x10 track wheels and rubber, spare brakes hubs wheel bearings and even a back half tub kind of pushed the suggestion over the edge. It is still in progress but the car rolls around on its new parts! Onto the stupidity. zm3 by peej410, on Flickr m3rsubmockup by peej410, on Flickr M3 floor minus subframe and rtab by peej410, on Flickr Untitled by peej410, on Flickr Untitled by peej410, on Flickr 421863_10150686697471350_711386349_11646393_688963704_n by peej410, on Flickr 395947_10150686700206350_1964044165_n by peej410, on Flickr photo 1 by peej410, on Flickr photo 3 by peej410, on Flickr photo 4 by peej410, on Flickr Zoey_Tire_Right by peej410, on Flickr Zoey_Tires_Rear by peej410, on Flickr Zoey_Side_Driver by peej410, on Flickr Sorry for the Photo heavy post. Front suspension bits will be fabricated soon. Still have to do some cutting here and there but it rolls. Now time for flares plumbing reinforcing a new dshaft and some fancy shocks. Let me know what you guys think.

I have a beautiful tach. Let me know if youre interested

I have both full setups front and rear PM me if you like.

I dont know that I ever posted pictures of it on here before and its probably not the lightest choice... but here is what I did. In the second photo is my SPA kitdash. When I added up all the cost of individual gauges wiring and messing with fuel senders the cost of the dash made a lot of sense. I made an account with SPA they gave me a deal. It is a SWEET setup. SPA Kitdash

Sorry to hear of your loss Mike. I lost my father a few years ago as well. In the years to come you will find all sorts of things about yourself that you got from him. Be strong and remember, hes always with you.

I can't find any around here. I found one 010 .040 already. The rest seem to be junk. I guess I have no choice but to go with SHP or GM OE at this point.

Update: In talking to a few local guys they have reinforced the whole 010 block thought process. So I had a question... The main caps are the supposed weak link in a 4 bolt block. This is "usually" in a drag car or circle track car. Most of which are abused a whole lot more and "usually" a whole lot heavier. Is one to assume that, like a transmission or rear end, that the light weight of the car and the different loads associated with street and road racing use would stress the main caps less? If I went this route is there an inexpensive way to strengthen the caps besides going billet? are there any chevy blocks that came with Nodular caps?

Thank you guys for all of the responses. I have decided to stick with the SBC. In order to get what I want out of the LS motor for the car I would end up settling/waiting now or tearing into whatever I buy to put into it. Which pretty much defeats the purpose. I also finally used my copy of PipeMax and plugged in all my numbers and now am sure that the sleeve moved due to detonation. Dynamic CR is 9.26 calculated. I need to get the heads CCed for accurate numbers but a small error In the tune on my part likely yielded the pop. Dart SHP will be on the way soon... according to PipeMax we are looking at 550+ at 7200 If it launches, Ill grab a 5.3(4.8) and turbos.

Everyone has made good points Geezer you pretty much hit the nail on the head. swapping the LS in (by buying a ls6 t56 pair) gets my car close enough to running that I can muddle through the rest and have it running this month. Id have to liquidate what I own to do it but being paranoid about my SBC and the fact that ill be changing valve springs and lash and constantly worried about it vs giving up some power and all the hi-po parts for some peace of mind... I end up with a 6 year old motor with 50k vs a 55 year old design thats been reworked so much that nothing in the motor was even designed by the same people! in ten years I have put 1808 miles on my car. When it ran i drove it EVERY DAY. (even in the snow) because it was too much fun. losing money is not my concern. losing more time in life not driving something i built with my own two hands does. If I put another short block together and swap all my parts in, whats next? bad lifter? broken valve spring? bad tune? I dont know if I have the energy to obsess over every detail again. With the exception of the bad cylinder my motor had 2% leakdown and ran perfect. I was just messing with it to try to get it closer to "ideal" when things went wrong. Any other opinions given the fact that I am not concerned about losing money so much as I am worried about having an ancient design fail, leak, annoy me.

Also, everything I have is for two piece seal. Scat crank billet flywheel etc

Around here a used GM block machined and ready to go is about $1400. Even the little guys who are really good charge big coin for there work. I have contact a few people farther away.

I found a LS6 with trans clutch etc somewhat locally. How close are the SBC engine mounts to LS mounts? If they are close I can make new brackets for mine very easily. How much difference is there fore and aft?

By the time a new block is prepped it will be roughly $1400 in machine work. And my pistons at .020 over. Meaning I would need new forged pistons...

Background: I bought my Z in 01. I crashed it in 01. (eight days later) I tubed the front end and swapped in a V8. With a college kids budget this took two years. I finally got the car running drove about 1500 miles and the motor grenaded. (recon rebuild) I shelved the project and began assembling parts. In 2010 I came into some cash (aside from the mortgage and the bills) and decided to build her a motor she deserved. Story: I have posted in this section because I have a SBC swapped into my Z the car has run with two different iterations of this motor. due mostly to my own naive nature when it comes to trusting "experts" I built a kick ace motor on a block that wasnt so Ace Kickin. Issue: The motor is a 355 2bolt. 48lb Forged Scat crank, Featherweight eagle 6in rods, light weight SRP Forged pistons. Afr 195 Eliminators. Solid roller conversion .610 gross lift at valve. Jesel Sportsman rockers etc. etc. Somewhere along the way I never really thought about the fact that the block I had had sleeves in it. I made an error on the tune. (likely cause but not sure) and the sleeve on #4 dropped. This diluted the oil with coolant. The main bearings have some scuffs and need to be replaced. The crank needs to be polished the rod bearings are ok but I may replace them anyways. The Morel lifters are scuffed, I havent seen the cam yet. Pistons have a few marks but everything else looks minty mint. Solutions: A dart block ready to go is at least $1750 from CNC blocks. My local guy wants $2400 (local guy is very good and has helped me in the past)at this point I have almost $9000 into this motor and I just cant justify spending even more money on it. I saved up the money to repair it and now just cant part with it to have a $11k motor in a $2k car. Even from CNC it would cost at LEAST $2500 after the crank is polished, new bearings are installed and I install the new rings. I am at a loss and dont know what to do. Alternate solution: Part out motor. Find a decent LS6 or LS2 retool all the engine mounts, trans x member exhaust, fuel system ETC. Source a better tranny (currently t-5) and move on with my life. What to do, what to do?

Just got mine together after 6 years of messing around. quick stats. 3.48 scat forged 4.020 SRP forged afr 195 eliminators Custom solid roller by Chris Straub. Morel pressure fed lifters Holley Keith Dorton Manifold and other fun stuff

Sounds good to me! I would have much rather bought a ready and balanced assembly but this engine build didn't end up playing out that way. It would have been cheaper and easier. You're right. Compression Ratio according to an online calculator I found is 10.24:1 based on a zero deck height. Thanks Grumpy!

This is the pan I was looking at, since I intend to turn both ways. http://www.hrpworld.com/index.cfm?tpc=Canton_Chevy_Small_Block_Pro_Road_Race_Pan&form_prod_id=1053,1052,51,363_5602&action=product I will be running a BW T5 and the only ratios i have for the rear are 3.5 with a 24in tire. I looked at the Ohio Crankshaft link in one of your earlier posts. Am I better off getting one of their 4340 cranks or the Scat? Also why the 6700 RPM limit? Valvetrain? Lastly, that manifold seems a lot larger than I anticipated... Whats your reasoning for such a large manifold?

Hey Grumpy! I have bothered you many times before but finally ideas are becoming reality. Here is what I have so far AFR 195 Eliminators. 65cc A 350 block machined 4.020 SRP pistons with a 1.260 compression height Eagle 6in Featherweight rods. Weiand Xcelerator. (not commited to it at all) Here are my goals. ~450 hp. 7500rpm A motor that will survive track days and autocross for at least a few seasons before freshening. Parts I am looking to use. 66900X980-16 Crower Cool face lifter CS XS282S-10 Comp Cam With Nitriding. Scat 4340 crank. What do you think of what I have so far and what I am planning to purchase? Also what is a good road course carb ? something that can handle a lot of G loading.

ive been browsing around a little bit and i have what could be a simple question... how does caster differ from suspension rake? caster defined as "Caster is the angle to which the steering pivot axis is tilted forward or rearward from vertical, as viewed from the side." rake defined as the angle at which the suspension pickup points mount to the chassis. the front pickup point being slightly higher than the rear angling the suspension up. how does increased caster effect high speed bump absorption? how does increased rake effect high speed bump absorption? i know in offroad vehicles a certain amount of rake is used in order to make the suspension a bit more compliant to bumps at high speed. anyone have input on this stuff?

well i just started working on my Z again but heres some of my unique stuff i did a few years ago...

so after a weekend at road atlanta playing with data aquisition in all the race cars im leading more towards the aim. im still not 100 percent sure what to do the SPA is definitely more street. the AIM is just all sorts of sick and playful...