JKDGabe

I'm speechless.

Work up your budget and what the planned use of the car is. Sounds like daily driver... for me I'm going EFI for that use. If it was strictly a strip car carb is cheaper but I want good fuel economy as much as the power. Aquire your parts slowly otherwise you can simply double that cost estimate you just made.

This is not my story but as far as I can tell, it's true. Let my misfortune be a lesson for you. This is a long story, but a must read. This really happened to me on 12/10/03. Yesterday, I was driving into town along the Southwest Freeway around 12:30 PM. I was in the far left lane doing the posted speed limit of 65 and going with the flow of traffic. When I got over the Bissonnett/Braeswood overpass, there was an HPD squad car parked on the left shoulder with the officer standing out in front of his vehicle pointing his radar gun at oncoming cars. Your inclination automatically tells you to slow down, whether you were speeding or not. Not a 1/2 mile down the freeway, there was another HPD officer that had someone pulled over on the left shoulder giving the person a ticket. I thought, man this was an obvious speed trap and kept on going. I had slowed down to around 60 at that point as now the posted speed limit was 60. About a mile up the road, around Gessner, another HPD officer had someone else pulled over to give them a ticket and literally in front of that traffic stop was another HPD officer (yes we are up to 4 cop cars now in just over a mile) walking around to the front of his car. Just as I was approaching him, he pointed his radar gun at me and signaled for me to pull over. I was shocked, because I know that I was going the posted speed limit (60) as I immediately looked at my speedometer. The officer came to my window and said "do you know how fast you were going?" I said yes, I was going 60. He said "you were doing 58" and he showed me his radar gun, which read 58. I said okay. He said "you failed to slow your speed down by 20 MPH or move over to the adjacent lane when an emergency vehicle was stopped in the flow of traffic." I said, I did not know that was a law (of course that is never a defense) and he said it was and asked for my license. I offered that and my concealed handgun license to him (as I am required by law, being a CHL carrier), as well as the knowledge that I was carrying my pistol under the rear passenger seat. The officer wrote me a ticket that carries a $200 maximum fine for this infraction. Come to find out, this is a new state law as of September 1, 2003. From the TX DPS website http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/director_staff/public_information/pr081903b.htm , the law reads: SB 193 requires drivers nearing a stopped emergency vehicle that has lights activated, unless otherwise directed by a law enforcement officer, to: Vacate the lane closest to the emergency vehicle, if the highway has two or more lanes traveling the direction of the emergency vehicle; or Slow to a speed not more than 20 miles per hour (mph) less than the posted speed limit when the posted speed limit is 25 mph or more; or Slow to a speed not more than five mph when the posted speed limit is less than 25 mph. A violation is a punishable by a maximum fine of $200. If the violation results in property damage, the maximum fine increases to $500. If the violation results in bodily injury, the offense is enhanced to a Class B misdemeanor. Yes, I got a ticket for going less than the posted speed limit, but not 20 miles per hour below the posted speed limit. My perception is that the local law enforcement folks have found a new revenue source and are aching to get your $200!! [/url]http://www.txdps.state.tx.us/director_staff/public_information/pr081903b.htm

That's a good looking car! I'd go with a manual though... and I wouldn't change the body style much, not big on the extremes.

Y'all are correct in that the saying is "the love of..." but I'd have to disagree with that statement. The love of money is NOT the root of ALL evil. Just alot of it.

In that case almost any swap will work for you. Make up your mind as to carb or fi, auto or stick and start looking! With patience you can find them cheaper then you can build them. Beyond the obvious stuff like leaks and poorly done electrical it's pretty much like buying any other car. Make sure you can test drive it first... I didn't and when I finally did I found alot of little stuff that needed fixing. Welcome to HybridZ!

The swap part is perfectly believable... but this part made me say "huh?"

First thing to ask is "what do YOU want in a V8Z?". I guess you know there are several types of conversions the most popular of them is the JTR style. Tell us what you want and we'll go from there. Are you familiar with Chevy V8's? Or do you want a different brand?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2452653219&category=33615 That one's not a T56 but it's cheap enough to make up for it. Hmmm, I just can't quite understand why so much.

Let's assume that I actually have the money... Complete motor with all accessories/wiring/computer back to the driveshaft. 100,000 miles or less. Just curious really, it's a slow sunday and I'm daydreaming. On a slightly different topic why would anyone pick an LS1 over the LT1?

Two words for you: "real estate". The only reason I'm not into it is I like to stay small and hate paperwork... otherwise I'd be "leasing to own". You can buy a house (you don't need to be a realtor) by making a deal like this: nothing down, make the monthly payments with the promise that if it's not sold you'll pay them $1,000 at the end of 1 year. Then they've got 1 years rent + 1k. Looks good to them! You turn around and lease to own with you financing it. They put down a cash downpayment, pay it out for 5 years at the end of which they have a one month window with the option to purchase. They don't have to have it all payed off, but they don't get that option 'til then. Of course alot happens in five years... most people don't follow through. All that time they've been paying the maintenance (because it's their house!) rent to the owners plus some to you + the cash downpayment. Word to the wise: the market is gonna crash... I'm not a prophet and don't know exactly when but all signs point to it. Gold and silver are on the upswing but they're not nearly as high as they're gonna go. Silver's a better buy right now. Get out of most stocks while you can. JMHO of course.

No man, you're thinking too small. Hire a mexican or two to do it and oversee/help.

Well, let's see if I can remember "rich dads" lesson. Four ways to make money: 1. employee - that's what you are now 2. employer - own and run a business like Phil suggested 3. businessman - own a business that runs itself (you could go away for 6 months without it faltering) 4. investor - stocks/bonds business financier etc. My personal suggestion is #3. My dad just bought a driving range where I'll be working (looks like I'll take over ownership some day 8) ) and things like washateria's and car washes are relatively low maintenance and have alot of cash coming through.

Last night, I went with some friends out to a new restaurant, and noticed that the waiter who took our order carried a spoon in his shirt pocket. It seemed a little strange. When the busboy brought our water and utensils, I noticed he also had a spoon in his shirt pocket. Then I looked around I saw that all the staff had spoons in their pockets. When the waiter came back to serve our soup I asked, "Why the spoon?" "Well," he explained, "the restaurant's owners hired a consulting firm (obviously an accounting/auditing consulting firm) to revamp all our processes. After several months of analysis, they concluded that the spoon was the most frequently dropped utensil. It represents a drop frequency of approximately 3 spoons per table per hour. If our personnel are better prepared, we can reduce the number of trips back to the kitchen and save 15 man-hours per shift." As luck would have it, I dropped my spoon and he was able to replace it with his spare. "I'll get another spoon next time I go to the kitchen instead of making an extra trip to get it right now." I was impressed! I also noticed that there was a string hanging out of the waiter's fly. Looking around, I noticed that all the waiters had the same string hanging from their flies. So before he walked off, I asked the waiter, "Excuse me, but can you tell me why you have that string right there?" "Oh, certainly!" Then he lowered his voice. "Not everyone is so observant...That consulting firm I mentioned also found out that we can save time in the restroom. By tying this string to the end of our "you know what", we can pull it out without touching it and eliminate the need to wash our hands, shortening the time spent in the restroom by 76.39 percent." " Hhmmm...After you get it out, how do you put it back?" I asked. "Well," he whispered, "I don't know about the others... but I use the spoon."

I'd buy it... and I don't know how to use it! It should pay for itself pretty quickly.

Here's one for bastaad525

I know this site's been around for a long time (my dad even bought me a t-shirt several years back) but it's "new and unimproved"! http://despair.com/ A few of my favorites...

I've always liked Rick Bowers car.

It's clearly a sign that you should use a t-56! At least you've got a motor... I don't even have that.

Why are you going with the th350? Cost?

Thicker will give more resistance to flow thus creating pressure. But resistance means less flow thus less lubrication. On one of my old cars I had to use 2 q's of 10w-30 and 2 of 30w. That way it didn't use it as fast but still didn't clank/rattle when I started it on a cold morning.

Go to "Memberlist" and then at the very right hand side is "www" beside some of the members' names. Might take awhile to browse though...

That's a hard q' to answer without knowing you. Are you going to be doing it yourself or paying a shop? Which one do you have more experience with? Is it going to be a commuter for long distances? I think 250 is easily obtainable out of either one really and at that level reliability is similar. (Despite Bastaad525's experience ) Fuel economy - better with the turbo unless you go fuel injected and low ratio rear and the fi will cost.