Tony D

It's already been said, you missed it. But nobody deleted anything. Start over, read without the attitude, absorb. Learning comes from within, to learn from others you must know yourself.

Hell, you want the ultimate NVH Experience, take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Hiroshima! I looked down at my GPS and went HOLY SH*T! 268kph? I was walking around. You want to talk about velocitized---hell they are going 100mph till right up to the station. And some express trains on the 'middle track' come running through the stations full out, you feel the compression wave off the front of the train, and then the push at your back by the vacuum as it exits---it's the reason for the 'yellow line' on the floor---so an unsuspecting person isn't knocked off balance and allowed to fall on the tracks. You don't really get ANY sensation of speed AT ALL on that thing. Until you look at your GPS and go HOLY SH*T! Or stand ready in a station because you feel the rumble. If the camera isn't already on and focused---the most you can hope for is to catch the last 8 cars of a 16 car train when it comes through. By the time you hear it coming, it's already going!

"If I had a choice I'd move to Massachusetts or Rhode Island." You are not helping your case. Your last reply of "-How exactly do you think I can shut up and listen, to dudes in Japan? I don't go to Japan, I don't speak Japanese. How does this work? I'm not being sarcastic either. I think it would be fantastic to watch how its done." Shows just how much you have to learn---if it's not right in front of your face, you can't see it, and even then you will need it pointed out to you. And even after that has happened, you will argue ad naseaum about it. Nobody is as blind as those who WON'T see. It's been all said before: "Sigh" & "You don't get it." You win, you're in a dearth, deserted and alone. There you go, you have crowned yourself Lone Wolf. I'm sure in 20 years you will be someone who will expound on all the things 'you' discovered simply because from your viewpoint that is what happened. The arrogance of making a statement like that will never occur to a person such as yourself. YOU discovered it. NOBODY else ever knew it before. It's like guys making those statements about a Flat-Head Ford. All you can do is laugh. Good luck, you will need it!

This is why I say not to 'rebuild engines' because with someone saying this engine was 'rebuilt' 5000 miles ago...well it is a prime example of being worse off than what they started with! The loctite is not a 'temporary fix' or a 'rigging' it's recommended from the get-go when rebuilding. Cylindrical locking compounds help retain the mating surface, and when installed correctly do not cause an issue upon removal, given proper procedures. Nobody here has mentioned the KA24 Crank Snout Bolt and Washer Upgrade---if you use the same bolt and washer over, this WILL happen again, especially if you rev the longer-stroke of an L28. The torque pulsations from each cylinder hitting are big, and will loosen or work that crank snout hard. Longer Bolt + 1/2" Thick Hardened Washer = Pulley properly clamped to the crank snout to prevent fretting in the future. There is no reason to pull the engine, crank service can be done in-frame. If it bothers you that much, with nothing more than a floor jack and some 2X4 blocks you can get the clearance to pull the crank out from the bottom. Yeah, it sucks doing it on your back, and in some cases laying in dirt and mud...but you can do it. If money is as tight as you say, then save the money on the lift rental, do the job in-frame (Norm the 12SU Dude described the process elsewhere...as well as how to PULL the engine out the bottom without and engine hoist!), and save that money for the Magnaflux Crank Inspection Braap discussed. This is not the end of the world, just a shuffling of time from one priority to another. If you don't have the little bit of money now for an inspection....will you have the massive money later for the possible wreck that may occur? Last point to ponder----if this guy says he rebuilt the engine and you found THIS....WHAT ELSE LAYS INSIDE UNOTICED??? Sounds like the biggest reason of all to pull the engine down and MAKE SURE what you have, judging by these photos, you never know what you will find inside when you open it up! Am I the only one with this concern?

It's not highly debatable, just wrong. You won't concede that, because you have an inability to see it from the other side. That is the basic problem with your attitude. You can lone-wolf this shite all you want. You will have a LONG AND HARD road, and in 20 years you will have probably 1/2 the knowledge of someone like me, who instead of holding to my Texas guns and standing firm, took a stance that perhaps I DON'T know it all about business, L-engines, or the way the world works. I gained the knowledge I did not through some superior mental capacity or inherent ability. I gained it the Japanese way: I shut my mouth, spent a LOT of time quietly observing, and showing reverence to the people who were MAKING THE POWER. When I deigned to ask, due to my humility, they answered. You will gain a LOT more knowledge shutting your mouth, supressing your Texas Ego, and simply LISTENING to what is being said by people instead of going off half cocked and pissed off that you think you have been wronged. The way to gain knowledge is to be around people who have it, and get it from them. If you think you will learn this on the outside....good luck! "Its not because of money, its not because of the lack of skill (well for my case that may be true but for a lot of people here in the states), its because you can't get a hold of it, if you go through certain distributors. " And making excuses like that is part of your problem. Alan isn't holding a flag for me, he's parallell to me making similar comments. As the Japanese say: "The Same, But Different" If you fail to grasp that concept, you will never understand Japanese thought, nor will you understand how they work their system. I just spend $200+ getting my distributors puking drunk here in Hiroshima, and at the end of the night we all understand each other much better. Thought they still distrust me because they think I speak far more Japanese than I really do... But because I ACT more like they do than I 'should' as a Gaijin, it fuels that paranoia that I know more than I'm letting on to knowing. A very uncomfortable position to be in as an asian dealing with a westerner. I'm not supposed to be like that. They are. How did I get this way. I can tell you this much: It wasn't from getting P.O. because my ego couldn't handle the fact that someone picked me up as a wannabe at this point in my endeavors and ignored me. Perhaps listening and observing is more in order than demanding service and attention... I feel this is all falling on deaf ears, like Woldson is alluding to... but I have to try.

I'll add another subjective butt dyno anecdote so you can see just how ill it really is: I had changed from the large HKS style plenum to the small box Corky Bell style plenum like everybody else here in the USA seemed to be using. I immediately did not like the response I was getting. At 110 (indicated) the car no longer planted me in the seat like it did with the larger plenum with a built-in diffuser. After getting a fix-it ticket, I found I had an ATROCIOUS speedo error. Long story short: What I thought was poor performance at 110mph, was actually complaining that the car no longer 'planted me' at 137mph when I tromped on it. Speed, Torque, and it's feeling is something you get "used to"---some call it 'velocitization'---the phenomenon of thinking hyperperformance is actually mundane and in some form or way middling in performance. When I took the turbo off, I almost committed suicide the car was so gutless! I went from 350 to 140 in 1/2 hour. No torque compared to what I was used to having. No more romping it in 5th to pass people at 80+ effortlessly. Now I had to downshift to 3rd to get decent passing, and then only to around 90mph. No more merging on a short ramp at 120+... This was a striking revelation for me. I seriously was complaining that the car didn't plant me at 110 (which in fact was 137mph due to speedo error).... I didn't know how good I had it! Beware the butt-dyno. It lies to us all!

Oh, we got sooooo close, I think Braap got the closest saying 'lower gears in the butt'---what we are talking about here is a butt-dyno feeling. Everyone worked around it, but in the end it's subjective and most of the time dreadfully wrong. My classic example was a Fairlady Z I picked up which had 40mm DCOE Webers, a Header, loud exhaust, worn shocks out back with stock springs. Car felt fast as heck! I mean, back end squatting (who said soft springs?), real 'snap your head back launches'. Made all the right sensory stimulations to feel quicker than quick. When dynoed it had (gasp) 86 RWHP. It's 1/4 mile time was in the high 16, low 17 second range. Sounded great, everybody who was in it thought it was pretty snappy. Pulled all the go-fast goodies off it, replaced the stock EFI, did basic cleanup and the car felt slower. It was now dynoing at 147HP, wasn't running pig rich, wasn't loud with the extra muffler installed in the tranny tunnel, but dropped it's 1/4 mile times to consistent 15.50's---a solid second + faster in the 1/4 mile. But with the new Tokikos in the back, it didn't feel faster than it did before! I think the best answer was to put a G-Tech or some such device in it, and actually see what your car is doing as opposed to [/i]feeling[/i] it. In the world of performance, the highly subjective butt-dyno is very misleading. Having a turbo car that starts slipping the wheels when you romp on it at 65mph in 3rd gear actually feels like it's falling on it's face...until you see the haze in the rearview mirror. When it catches...lookout! Low gears, soft suspension settings, and a bump in torque somewhat will give the impression of speed without actually going fast. For everyone who rode in the car and drove it, to a man every single one thought I had 'tamed it down' after the EFI and mods to the springs/shocks out back. The dyno (and actual dyno, not the Butt Dyno) and track times said otherwise! Beware the Butt Dyno, the correction factor is never what you think it is!

With a proper induction setup, 400HP will be available at 15 psi, no need for 'high boost', especially if you plan on camming and porting it to get it to run into the 7500 rpm range. I would concentrate on making the engine like an N/A port wise, with a cam to match your rpm requirements, then select a turbo with flow capabilities for the HP, and run as little boost as you need to get the power you want. JeffP is running 380HP at 8.39psi. That was before Methanol Injection. Power gobs to 7500rpms. This is a FAR better solution for a track car than the 'Corky Bell Boost it till it blows' paradigm. Coatings are insurance, but so is extra fuel. Tuning will be critical as with any boosted motor, loose fuel partially under boost and it doesn't matter what you have in there, it's going to blow. IMHO, I'd run a stock Nissan Head Gasket and let it be the safety valve. Blowing a head gasket sucks, but 2 hours and a new gasket same day (between sessions trackside) sure as hell beats saying you got the whiz-bang special gasket and five pistons with sunken rings and watching the rest of the weekend go by... Then again, a stock L28ET bottom end would make 400HP at only slightly more boost (say 18-20 instead of 13-15) if you swapped the head trackside and did a shortblock exchange to keep it going during the track weekend.... I digress...

I just installed these seats in a 71 240Z using the stock Miata Brackets on the Z's floor directly (seat rails were removed to get the seats lower by PO.) Basically, the Miata Seatback is 500mm wide, so using a centerline of 250 as a starting point, you can 'center' and 'get them straight' with a line. Using the stock Miata Brackets the REAR holes need to be 160mm forward of where the 240 Floor makes it's little 45 degree upward bend. This will allow the Miata Seats to fully go back as far as possible. Since the rails are pretty long, getting 'close enough' to the wheel is not an issue, even with the seats all the way back like this. I made a template of the Miata Seat Bracket Holes (Had to pound the front of the bracket flat-they were about 15 degree angled) before making the template. Got centerline between the holes, lined up that centerline mark with the one I put on the Z's floor, and centered seat, and one that doesn't angle off in some ***** direction. The brackets on the miata ARE DIFFERENT LEFT AND RIGHT! You need to make a template for EACH seat, you can not simply 'flop' the template for a mirror image hole setup. They fit fine on the floor like that, and if you are like me with a helmet on the roof is a tad scratchy... so dropping the seats so you have a full hand's width between the roof and your head (in a helmet) is nice. I used the Miata Brackets as that's what I had to work with. If the PO of the car hadn't tossed the original Z Brackets I probably would have set them on the stock sliders. But then I wouldn't have found the solution to my headroom with a helmet problem! Nice PDF, I'm sending that to people who ask now...

Kinda like having a 'proven track record'.... Don't be bitter you haven't done anything they feel is noteworthy, it's just the way it is. I think Alan is making some good points as well. There are a lot of things you simply misunderstand, and therefore place blame wrongly. That is what I meant by you needing to grow up. Blaming someone without all the information is foolish. Usually that passes with experience and time. Mostly time.

I wouldn't go back to the EFI setup, I'd just convert what I had to use EFI, remove the chokes, and go. Everything exists to do that you just need injector bungs someplace, and a fuel rail...

Oh, I just wanted to make sure I read it right, so then, with your latest quote you REITERATED that you said the following: "I would only sell to well known and successful people to protect my work." Who was it mentioning hipocrasy in this thread again? "You have to be big enough to be published in some of their magazines"---you mean like feature articles, or simply one of the many recurrent faces in feature articles? I guess I'm famous there then. I didn't realize it was so hard. Josh, you really need to grow up.

If you are running carbs, you don't need a working starter. No manual car needs a working starter! I worked repo for a time when in my late teens and early 20's. I didn't have a flatbed to tow them away and when the bank gives you the keys it makes it pretty quick work. This was all pre-alarm prevalence. But on older cars we would have to do it 'the old fashioned way' and jack the column to unlock the wheel to be able to drive it away. The thing that would stop me was when it cranked but didn't start. The LAST thing you want to do is sit outside someones house GRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRING! GRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRING! GRrrrRRRrrrRRRrrrRRRING! People wake up. And in Michigan, those people have shotguns. It is not a good thing to have a car that cranks but doesn't fire. They tend to wake up the deadbeats from their acohol-induced slumber (got money for the beer, but not the car payment...or dental care from what I remember, but I digress...) People get p.o. when you take their car, even if they are deadbeats and not paying for it. I thank my lucky stars most of the work I did was on GM cars and I had the key provided from the service desk. To this day I don't think most of the people in the little town I lived in knew I was the guy that 'took back' their car! All this blather is just revolving around my 'take the rotor out' ---- the one time I got shot at was by a car that didn't start, and for the life of me the ONLY thing I can figure is he pulled a wire to the HEI Dizzy, because it cranked, the coil is integral, but it just wouldn't fire off. It was like a blues song: Boom Boom Boom Boom! So from a semi-retired reposessor, taking that rotor out is quick and clean and leaves nothing seen! The removable steering wheel is a nice touch, I was considering getting one for my Shark-Car because of cage access issues, I never thought of taking the wheel inside the house with me at night. Put it at full lock and then take the wheel---sweet! Had two punks break the window on my 260 some years back---the door was unlocked. These people aren't mental giants. Just throw up a shadow and most of them will jump it. The determined guys will roll it some place on a flatbed. Determined amatuers will roll it to the end of the block to work on it if they really want it. But when you can't park in a secure garage there's really little you can do. How many of you arm the car alarm when it's parked in the garage? There were guys out here in LA taking cars (BMW's mostly, because they were giving a 3-Series or a Boat with the purchase of a new home there for a while...) by using one of those UHF frequency grabbers, and then opening the garage doors at night. Guys would go up to an unalarmed car, have plenty of time to start it, and just roll away into the night. The deterrent you don't use....isn't a deterrent!

If we are talking about a stock head, it's a no brainer: get another one. If we are talking about a $3000 custom head, I'd still run the hell away from the guy as he's likely to kill the head as fix it... No reputable shop with L-Head Experience would say they can only straighten it to 0.007"! That is 0.001" inside MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE TOLERANCE! That means your block has to be DEAD FLAT NO DEVIATION WHATSOEVER. Get what I'm saying about this guy? He's missing the big picture here, in an attempt to get the business. You will have to live with his shortcuts. I'd not go there, I'd go someplace else (if you want THIS head). If you can get another head, that may be easier.

In Japan those places are simply names in the telephone book. Okamura tells me I was VERY close to Kameari's office when I was in my exclusion-hell of the Kawagoe Dai-Ichi Hotel over last Thanksgiving. They are advertizing in the USA due to migrant population and demand. They have their price, and they don't make bones about it. That's the way it is in Japan. If you want to deal with the Japanese, you have to start acting like them. They don't know me from Adam, but I know how to properly introduce myself in a respectful and culturally proper way when there. It's like anything else: Deal with an Intermediary (Distributor) and you will get a bad taste in your mouth. That is what my JOB entails, going all over Asia putting out reputational fires caused by Distributors who handle our product. It's what I've done since 1994 as a matter of fact. Unless you are dealing with them DIRECTLY you takes your chances. And you never answered the question asked: if you were in their shoes, knowing your reputation in a new emerging market could be totally TRASHED by ONE young guy who's quick to fly to the internet and blab how terribly this or that product performed....would YOU sell to him? Or would you sell to someone you have a relationship with, who knows to come to you directly for support and assistance/guidance. You are doing this crap all 'lone wolf' and they know it. You have no credibility with them, you are, frankly a BIG risk to sell to, and by not selling to you the payoff likely will be less damage than if they DID sell to you and something went wrong that you blamed on them. Trust me, I SEE THIS EVERY DAY WHERE I WORK! Someone blames our product for being crap. Then I get there, and write up a 23 page report on items that are contained and spelled out in OUR INSTALLATION MANUAL which were NOT FOLLOWED. So then who's fault is it? Our 'piece of crap product' or the idiot who installed it wrong? End result is the same, a lot of people saying our stuff doesn't work---but it's not our fault we have idiots for customers sometimes (or that our customers hire idiot engineering companies to incompetently handle our installations!) You are not entitled to buy something if you have the money. It is the sellers perogative to not sell to you, not answer your questions, and to generally be an ass if he so chooses. But you haven't talked to the horses' mouth....have you? But a piece of advice here: Build up a reputation built on SUCCESS first. Till you have a proven track record, there is more potential downside to dealing with you than upside! Remember the guys who ran early Competition Datsuns with the most success weren't guys with teenagers running the show, they were established racing teams with proven track records! Hell, I've talked with people on the phone who wouldn't give me the time of day. I gave them a list of things to go check out....and next thing you know I'm having hour long telephone conversations with people I've only read about in magazines. If you think getting the cold shoulder is a big deal, it has to be because your young. I'm 45 and people still give me the cold shoulder...but I can back up what I'm proposing to do with a proven track record. You don't command respect simply by existing. Nobody does. You EARN respect by your actions and track record. If you have none, don't be surprised when nobody takes you seriously, or gives you any second look. It's the way it is. Better learn to deal with it. Another bit of advice: whining about how terrible they are for not giving you the time of day doesn't glean any alms from them later on, either!

" I get 12.9 afr at idle and cruze and pretty much every where." 11.1---omy GAWD! Talk about RICH! No wonder you don't have an coughs, you are WAY down on power running that fat. Matter of fact, you are bordering on blowing sooty black smoke out the tailpipe. Terribly inefficient. Like I said, run it rich and you will never see anything. At idle with EFI I am running 13.2, at 1500 I'm running closed-loop maximum of 14.7, if not closer to 15.3:1. By 2000 in and up to around 3000 if in negative territory below 75kpa, I'm running closer to 17:1 AFR. Not a hiccup, sneeze, or cough. No surging. Hammerdown and the thing transitions to boost and my AFR goes to 12.2 instantly, up to around 4300 rpms where the fueling pulls back to around 13.8. The difference between my carbs at 5000 rpms and 12.3 AFR, and my EFI at 13.8 AFR is around 28HP, with a corresponding lengthening of the torque curve further up the RPM range. Try to do THAT with a Carb. I tried for two years solid and countless dyno hours. Won't happen. Talked with the best in the business and even they said "Go to EFI". When the transient popping at light cruise between 75 kpa and roughly 2psi of positive plenum pressure would NOT desist that was it, I took Corky's "Better" box off, realized I was better off with my home-made HKS replica, and decided to start buying parts for proper period correct EFI for my car. It took a decade before I found all the correct parts. While Ben may have a close approximation of the original Devil Z in his car, I have the engine parts to make the last Akio Build from the first movie... HKS Plenum, HKS ITB's... Oh, and some other goodies. In the interim I spent my time learning EFI by building my own megasquirt and going that route. Once you do it and drive it, you quickly ask yourself why you tolerated the irksome habits of the Carbs for as long as you did!

"I don't have an egt or iat guage either." Read what I wrote, something about 'instrumenting that engine up and seeing what is really going on... Jetting fat will cover a bunch of maladies, it always has... It's not 'right' either. Put a WBO2 AFR gauge on there and start driving around to see where you're at and you will be amazed what you find. Having an EGT shot with a skin temperature gun during a dyno run and finding 850 on the turbine housing is not what I would call 'correct air-fuel management instrumentation'...most people agree that these days EGT is about the LEAST reliable 'quick check' of AFR or fueling. It gives you an 'idea' but really is not telling you much! EGT needs to be in the stream, near the valve to be useful. T I T and T O T are measures of work being done by the turbine, and not much else. They for sure aren't an "OK" of the car and it's AFR status. And like I said, a Dyno run is anomalous to running the car on the trailer for a drag strip weekend. If you aren't driving it daily, the 75% functional correctness may seem more like 100%! Run around at 12:1 all the time and you won't have 'sneezes'...and you will get 12-17mpg. Jet the carb properly for AFR's like it should have and you start realizing the limitations of the controlled vacuum leak! Try getting 25+mpg out of a carbed turbo on an L-6 and you start realizing the limitations of the fueling choice pretty quickly. If I can get 28mpg on my N/A motor, why can't I get close to that on the Turbo Motor? Because the carb is a comprimise, you have to jet up more than N/A optimal to keep it from self detonation and death under boost. It's a fact of life, no way around it (unless perhaps you have Dellorto DHLA 45M's....) But this is always the reply: "My carb runs fine"---and 40 years ago most people thought that as well. But as instrumentation makes it's way to home hobby-builders, eventually you will find how deluded you reall were! My Thermoquad ran great on the old turbo Corvair, so what if it puffed a little black smoke now and again... If you don't hear a problem, does one exist? Answer in some people's minds is "If they don't know about it, then no!" I do not ascribe to that theory. As much as you love your setups, don't delude yourself into buying your own lies to yourself. Instrumentation makes liars of us all eventually. But if you never set it up and check, you never find out what the REAL deal is inside the engine!

Lighter flywheel helps in drag racing style starts, but in drag racing you want the extra mass for inertia to keep from bogging. Catch-22 Yossarian. If you are road racing, light flywheel is better. Tomei makes a nice 9# unit which gives wicked-quick response compared to the similar weighted CrMoly HKS unit long since out of production. 9# is a misnomer, really, as that damn pressure plate will add another 24# on top of that!

I remember one of my mentors throwing spark plugs and the errant nut at your head when you did something stupid. With a thick German accent he would say "Vast is you, un idiot? Do you not tink? Vas ist in your head ven you tink to say such a sthupid ting?" Getting doinked in the head with a nut now and again got me THINKING a lot more, and talking a lot less. (It also got my peripheral vision acute, with a neck like a chicken to bob my head side to side or duck quickly to preserve my scalp's integrity--and saved me on more than one occasion from taking a shot to the head as someone nearby let fly of soemthing under spring tension or with pressure behind it..."to all good things there is a purpose" those old men, they knew what they were doing, even if you never realized it!) I guess Shedding is the P.C. quivalent of getting a spark plug thrown at you by your teacher from across the shop bay. There is a reason they gave the connotation they did to 'Stern Taskmaster'... Sometimes, I wish we could go back to the old ways... just for a little while. I got plenty of nuts and plugs and gawd knows I've wanted to use them now and again. When is it my turn? I say, when is it my turn???

My daily driver average was 17, with track usage around 5 mpg. With EFI, daily driving was closer to 27, with track usage around 5 mpg. Ben is already hitting on the technical items I got into with daily driving and 'livability'---the car runs great on carbs, and if you are in a temperate climate pretty darned well. But once you start instrumenting the thing and realize 'perfect' is not what you have and start going after it....then it becomes frustration X10! Don't get me wrong. I would say 75% of the time in daily driving, the Carb Blow Through Turbo (Triple Mikuinis was my preferance over the draw throughs I had previously done) worked great. But when you realized the 25% of the time it didn't was irksome on a long trip, or on a cold morning, or on a HOT day you start working at it. If I only drove the car on a weekend to a track event, or trailered it to a drag strip on the weekend, I would say it worked fine 99% of the time. But the realization is (like when you start tuning EFI) is that 85% of your time is spent NOT on boost and many times it's in a vague area around "0" manifold vacuum with very small throttle openings getting the AFR to run well at 2500 and 35% throttle, and have the same drivability at 3500 at similar transitional throttle plate movements gets a bit maddening. If the car is a weekend driver, blowthrough carb is quick and dirty and easily will net you HP if you have the turbo that will flow the air. You may never notice or get to the point of annoyance that daily driving at 60mph with a persistent 'cough' from the box when you are steady state going up a sliiiight grade on the way to work every day of the week. But do it every day, and you start to say "I got to fix this, it's bugging me for far too long"... While MPG is nice, not having that niggling "cough" anywhere really is nice!

OMFG did he ACTUALLY make that statement? What is he, like 16??? Someone wasn't reading closely. What was that one passage in the T&C? You want 'free speech' start your own forum. See how far it goes. That statement befits the screen name chosen at least.

Additionally it is IMPERATIVE to use the proper ground reference. Probe the headlights with the common wire to chassis ground and you will get an interesting result! And I don't know how many 'pros' I see do that and start wanting to rip out wires and run new ones! I will second what KTM said: connections and backshells in connections. Though the 260 and 280Z are known for poor butt-splices in the harness itself. This usually is manifested in a 'no crank' situation easily remedied by installation of a bypassing relay from an old 6V Ford Truck. Lets full battery voltage go from the B+ to the Solenoid "S" terminal directly. Functions down to a voltage of 3VDC before the Ford Relay has an issue pulling in! What speficifally is your issue? Poor Running can be many things. I've not found a harness yet that wasn't easier to rehabilitate with new connectors and spot repairs than a total rewire. That is a job and a half. You don't want to do that. Take it from me! If you do, color code it, and or wire mark the HELL out of it. And ANY modifications you make: WRITE IT DOWN!

Yes, and I appreciate that someone noticed my pains at time exposure with supplemental fill flash to get a semi-frozen fanblade on the alternator. It's an L-Engine on a Dyno, what's there to show? Muahahahaha! I have revealed FAR too much already.

Been there, done that, went EFI. EFI is not as hard a learning curve as you would think. No moreso than Carbs. Anybody saying 'carbs are easy' needs to talk with someone who really set up one of these to get good drivability and not just WOT performance. Jetting, tip-in of secondaries, metering rods, pressure seals, gas leaks under boost. It can be done, but when you realize the stock electronics can be replaced simply by a $400 box you buy off the internet and you basically have the ability to go from there to 350HP with little more than upgraded injectors, why re-engineer what is already working in the car? Skip the internal rebuild, there are at least three people on this thread making 300+HP on stock N/A internals. One of them for over 20 years now (and that number is closer to 350 in his case.) It's the EXTERNALS that will net you the power. THEN the head and cam. and if you decide you want to go over 400HP, THEN start thinking about internals. Up to that point, you're wasting your time and money on internal modifications. If you don't have a turbo to support 350HP, you won't make it, period. If you don't have fuel to make 350HP, you won't make it, you'll BREAK it! Regardless of the internals.

Yep, even borewater take a while to cook off the soda...