SHO-Z

24 old I must be missing things. I put almost 20 years in the pipe trades as a Pipefitter and welder. One back injury and it was either give out buggies at Wal-Mart or do something else. So in my 40s I went back to school a got a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology. I took my EIT and am now a Licensed Professional Engineer. You will probably do better that a lot of the kids out of High School, you have a work ethic and a lot of them don’t. Some will say that the MET degree is not a real engineering degree, but it has got me where I am today and most of them do not have a PE. Look at MET and other options. If you make up your mind and put the effort in this you will succeed.

One thing you need to look at is residency time in the intercooler. The air need time to do its heat transfer. If you look at most intercoolers they are a lot longer than they are tall, looking at the flow direction. The longer the air is in the intercooler the more time it has to cool. You might want to look at some way to cool the supercharger also and to have the intake for it with cool air set up. I am doing a supercharged L6 with SK carbs and a Subaru intercooler.

I am a Mechanical Field Engineer for a construction firm in Prudhoe Bay, AK. Work a 3 week on and off schedule. I really do not like sitting behind a desk all day, but it seems like I am in the office way to much lately, but it is -61°F outside. I work mostly structural and piping problems. Really use about ½ my prior 20 as a pipefitter/welder and ½ my ME learning to do my job. I have never used any math other than basic algebra since I graduated, but have used fluids, heat transfer, some thermo and calculating stress for pipe and steel.

From my experience with a Z convertible you are not going to have a good road race car. All of the torsional stability in the car is through the roof structure. I used 1x2x 1/8” tube stock tied into the frame rails for lateral stability. I have been thinking of adding an X brace to help torsional stability. The X brace would be required of a V8 Z convertible with the torque of a V8. I can feel the car flex when I put it hard in a corner. As far as widening the car I would do it all with fender flares and wider suspension. I sort of wish I would have included flares on my car.

OK Lets crawl before you can walk or run. I would get rid of the foot pedal at first. It is more that a hindrance learning to TIG. Set you heat around 90 amps. With 1/8" plate set you gap around 3/32" on your beveled plate and tack with at least 1/4" tacks. I use to use my index finger to pivot off of. Most old tig welder used this technique before learning to walk the cup. You will need to find something to insulate the end of you finger as it does get hot. Do not sharpen you tungsten to a needle point and I always had my grind marks parallel to the tungsten. Needle sharp tungstens tend to brake the tip off and end up in the weld, and will bust an xray. Work you heat from side to side consuming the 3/32” bare rod. If it is getting to hot shorten you arc length, too cold lengthen you arc length. If you are not using rod made for TIG you are wasting your time. TIG rod is double de-oxified. I welded pipe on Nuclear Power Plants and never had a foot pedal. You have not said anything about knowing how to stick weld, it really helps to know how to do that first and controlling your heat. Practice Practice Practice.

Get a set of TR7 top bows and a TR7 top and have it modified to fit. This is what Ztherapy had for thier conversions. They use to sell a video on how to do it if I remember right. If you want a hard top for it http://www.reactionresearch.com/zspydergallery.html

Being one of the Old Gray Haired ones that frequent Hybrid, I am glad there are admin to keep things clean and in order. Some of the younger member’s signature lines are almost border line in my eyes. If you would not want you son or daughter to see it, it should not be on the threads. But this in the opinion of an old guy. Admin Keep up the good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just pull your distributor and turn the rotor 180° and reinstall. I turns at half the speed of the crank. Just because the rotor is lined up with #1 and the timing mark no the crank in can still be 180 out. You can also just move the spark plug wires around 180 on the distributor cap and get the same results.

Check out some of the small paint shops in the area, some of them are in the same ballpark on price. I had mine done in a small shop in AZ and got it painted with the stripes cheaper than maaco. It not a show quality job but sure looks good driving down the road. Prep is everything. Take off anything that needs masked off if possible. That is where most flaws are. It really depends on what you want.

The Turbo distrubutor has no internal advance, it is done by the computer.

I may be way off here, from my reading a NA Distributor will not work on a turbo engine. The connection to oil pump is different. To run what you have you need to change the oil pump to a NA pump. Please correct me if I am WRONG!

My son showed me how to use the Itunes program to do this, I do not remember how. It is in there some where.

If you are concerned, I would soft solder it with 50/50 solder. It can be done with a propane torche. 50/50 solder is still available at stained glass stores. Clean the area well and use a good flux paste. Use a folded cotton pad that has candle wax rubbed on it and wipe the area just before it cools and it should require limited sanding.

Here is the tripple SU set up by Ztherapy. I really do not know what the problem is with the center cylinders, Jag ran tripple SUs on thier engines with no problem. Thier runner length is about the same, maybe a little longer. Inline 6s all have the same firing order from what I have seen.

The L series SS rods were developed for the Nuclear industry at Hanford Washington for welding SS piping systems. It runs cleaner and flows better. Learned this when I worked there about 20 years ago. Also 316L stainless does not loose as much of its yield strength at higher temperatures.

The same you get what you pay for! I have some of there stuff and it seems to wrork just fine. I have a set of large open end box ends and have even used them for a hammer wrench and they still are in one piece. Z therapy use to recomend thier gravity spray gun over the high priced brands. I have one and it seems to spray better than I do. As for benders I have one and it seems to work OK if I take my time. Double flaring tool I would buy a quality tool for this.

I have DVG Webers on my Z and it really does not like to start on the mechanical fuel pump. I have my electric pump wired so I can turn it on and prime the system and start the car. On average my car sits about a month at a time between the times I drive it. It likes a shot of starting fluid in each carb and the will start right up. After it has started I turn off the electric pump and let the mechanical pump do the work. After it has run I seldom have any problems, but I do know where the electric pump switch is. If I use the accelerator pumps it tends to backfire when I get too much raw fuel in the bottom of the traps. These carbs are not the best layout.

I want to extend a Merry Xmas to all of you. Enjoy this special day with you family and friends. I hope Santa gets you that special part that you have been wanting. Merry Christmas from Prudhoe Bay Alaska.

Hey don't go knocking those engineering technology degrees, I have one. Congrats on getting the scholarship. Engineering is in need on new minds to replace all of us old engineers. You must have been very good for Santa to bring you that gift! Merry Xmas

The man can ticket you and have your car TOWED if he wants to, he could say your car is not legal for street use. It is a federal statute that requires the red reflectors. If you look around at some of the new cars with the clear tail lights you will see the red reflectors on the lower part of the bumper. Also if you are rear ended in an accident they could say it was your fault due to the darkened tail lights.

What I was talking about is advance on the distributor not retard under boost. The turbo distributor has no internal advance in it.

Here is the book on the subject. http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Chevrolet_TPI_TBI_V-8.html

Have a Springfield 06 that my dad bought back in the late 40s or 50s was wrapped in a 1904 newspaper still in Cosmoline. He sporterised it and added a Limon peep site. I will drive nails so to speak, one straight shooting rife. I need to get it out and see what the serial number is. I think it is a low one, the later rifles had stamped mechanisms and this one is all machined. I don’t keep up on shooting as such and this is the first thing I have seen on problems with this rifle.

I am in a similar quandary, I have figured out what I am going to do on the for the ignition on my blow through triples supercharged using my current engine STD 280z, remove the vacuum advance and only use the centripetal advance. I have a turbo engine sitting on an engine stand and what to use on it is another question. I was looking at MSD timing units but really do not know which one to use. I guess that Megasquirt would be an option. I have read that you have to change out the oil pump to use a standard distributor on a turbo engine so I guess this is another option. What I really need to do is get off of my dead ass and get the supercharger installed!