Mudge

Wow, thats great MPG, heck thats awesome. I still miss FI, nice MPG, fast startups, doh Hopefully it wont be too long for me to learn the carb stuff.

I had a 69 Firebird that I blew up (lost 3 rods, doh), that car didn't steer as well as a dually pickup (no lie), but I loved those and have always loved first gen FBodies. Anyhow, along with those early Fbods the Z car is a new favorite, and I am in love, this car ROCKS, and was cheaper to obtain and will be cheaper to build than the previous mentioned car, which will probably come later in life... Also, easy to make a wicked scary road racer out of! Again, all on a budget

Yep, internals, oil pump etc, just basically heads/intake/carbs/flywheel removed, no fanbelt or alternator yada yada, but oil pump, fuel pump, balancer, in tact. All in all it almost sounds light!

Use standard rotors, if you use drilled, then have them cryoed ($$$ adds up fast, and they offer no benefit other than looks, and a minute amount of less weight). For racing, or street car durability use a solid rotor, or consider slotted if you need to heat the pads up quickly, however your also reducing brake bite surface area, so again, racers use solid face rotors.

LT1 is still very similar to SB first gen, although its internally balanced and has a 1 peice rear main seal. There isn't much work to do to make it editable, you could get a bench top programmer if you wanted, but to make power your going to need to log. If you have tens of thousands of bucks sitting around waiting though, then by all means go FAST or something else that fits the bill I'm not rich, put it all on paper, and reality sets in very fast!

These carbs may need a rebuild then, as well as some tuning issues. I may end up throwing an LT1 in it before I get started, but who knows what the future holds

I am an addict to such a degree it shocks myself, because it was not all that long ago that I thought not much of lightweight cars at all. I was into high weight, high horsepower machines, and through my beater car (88 Le Mans) the world opened up slowly.

This car has the GM HEI setup, probably needs to have the timing adjusted then!

For those of you interested in weight, I picked up an F54 over the weekend, no flywheel, no head, no intake/carbs, 228 pounds. It sure feels like about 300, when carrying it around, and it left some nice marks on the legs.

I'm floating around 15MPG so far, 2.4L P30 block with N42 heads, old 5 speed (15% OD), not sure what the rear ratio is yet. Dual weber downdrafts, dont know the jetting yet either.

YES YES YES The LT1 intake is a pretty good peice, and any aftermarket that existed was SHORT LIVED. The Hogan intakes go for $1500+ IIRC, you can hack up the LT1 intake by chopping the top if you want to work on it, but I made near about 480 HP just fine NA with the only work being 58mm TB opening, I didn't even raise the runner. I know someone who likewise made the same power with a 230/238 cam, 1 5/8" headers, and a full exaust system (no open headers), 411RWHP. For the SBC generation its a good overall setup, and for the performance/cost its an excellent value.

I agree with Mike. Unless you really want a carb setup, a car with an OEM computer that you can edit is going to be WAY cheaper than DFI or any other aftermarket setup, even if it means you buying a Typhoon ECM and getting it to work with a turbo/blown V8, it will be cheaper in the long run even if it means some work. The LT1 is a pretty easy to work with setup, so long as once again your staying under 7k RPM, for most any NA car with a moderate cam that is no problem. If your going to run a big arse solid roller, 250+ intake duration, then you may be forced to look elsewhere. If your going to run big low impedance injectors, there are injector boxes you can get for this. Buying a $2500 FI setup and a $1500 computer setup, plus engine though? EEEEEEEESH! Thats not even counting your engine/trans and misc parts yet! The LT1 is moderately cheap and is a pretty good performance solution IMO, I'd love an LS1 but the costs are prohibitive for me.

It can be made to fit, and so can the heads. I'll try digging for the info, but it may take me a day or two, or maybe it was www.lt1intake.com but those may be prefabbed (commercial) setups, you need an accurate drilling on the back for the distributor, and I forget what other work (probably cooling passage). I'll try to find info.

RR, drag is boring until you get into the low 11s IMO, but still not my style. Drag is for engine builders ($$$), RR is for drivers.

I bought an F54 block with internals, only the heads/intake and flywheel removed, and carried it up to my second floor apartment (4 flights of stairs). It was a royal beach to carry, but I got the job done, but boy was it sucky with no help. I'm going to try and weigh it in a day or two (I dont have a scale), but I assume it to be in the 300 range, the guy that pulled the block for me thought it was 150, I was stoked that it could be so light, but there is no way its 150! Basically I bear hugged the block, I rolled it on a chair for what distance I could (this helped greatly), and took a break with one set of stairs left to go.

I've heard good things about the M3 from a guy that raced a C4 Vette, and liked the M3 as an overall car, and said it made impressive grip for its 235 wide tires. The Z sticks like a mother IMO, I've got 195 tires (300 treadwear) and I've never been in a car that grips like this, its a 73 240Z so its going to be more than the 2340ish of the 70/71 240Z, its still lightweight though so a little wheel/tire goes a LONG way, and much cheaper than a 17x11" setup on a heavier car. So for the money, they have SUPERB potential IMO, and thats really why I am here, mod potential and for the dollar.

eh, dickshift...

LT1 will be cheaper, and unless your going to run above 7,000 RPM I think its the way to go, uhh should I say "way cheaper?". If your going to run a blower/turbo on it, there are ways of working around the MAP limitation, especially since WOT is open loop anyway.

I dont have a pyrometer (still concentrating on learning to drive, much less engineer), so basically I "set it and forget it". You've got considerably more power than I do, with that in mind should I keep the stock rear bar, or try removing it? I was going to upgrade the front bar and leave the rear stock, but am very new to these cars so I would appreciate further insight, and I GREATLY appreciate the experienced info! This will help get me going towards a good setup, so I can drive it without being aggrivated. Hoping to hit Sears this Jan. Oh, from what little I know I also agree on the ride height, and from what I've heard from experienced road racers, too low = bottoming out or overly stiff suspension setups on many courses. I would like to obstruct air in the front more at some point, but I think the car is already pretty darn low as it is now, supposedly about 1.5" lowered, my ground clearance seems about the same as the Camaro, which at its lowest point is under 3" (crossmember). I scrape a couple speed bumps ever so slightly, probably on the exaust.

Ordered a couple books to help get me going. Tim, whats your MPG look like? I think I'm getting about 15 MPG right now, makes me miss EFI!

Yep, I use Custom Alignment for my other car but I'm going to try and do it myself this time. The car is lowered, but the struts are not up to the task for sure. -2º camber in both front and rear?

2 gas measures CO and O2, I know a guy that delves more into this stuff than I do and he is turned on by them, so its a thought that may pan out. There are also up to 4 and 5 gas sensors, but usually far too much moola for me, and since I'm not doing home smog checks I can live with less

No, narrow band is narrow band, there is no added benefit to running 2-50 of them, unless you were running 1 per cylinder, but still they are accurate at stoich ONLY, they are not used for any WOT calculations in the ECU/PCM/ECM of any cars because they are not accurate. Closed loop fuel trims contribute to estimations used in the WOT calculation, but are usually overly rich as pointed out in the Supra example. Stock many cars will run in the 11.x-12.x:1 area at WOT, and can pickup 15HP or so by tuning, if not more.

What is a recommended alignment for a road raced car, that is still street driven. In other words I am not looking for -4º camber, but for someone to suggest less than -1º is ridiculous, unless for the rear. I ran -1.5º and wish I went for more, tire wear is not a problem and I dont expect it to be until I get beyond -2.0º Suggestions on what works well?

300ZX parts are 5x4.5"