Andrew Bayley

HEY!!! Those are MY old manifolds!!! Seriously though, I had a set of manifolds that looked nearly identical to those. I originally bought the kit for my Z, but I couldn't fit the turbos The strut towers were in the way and the turbo's sat too high. I would have needed to do A LOT of sheet metal work to get it done. I will say though, the idea is still very tempting . I tried to adapt my kit to my Impala SS, but the time and money was more than what I wanted to invest into my daily driver. Oh well... Scottie, where do you keep finding all these "gem" pictures? -Andy

First of all, let me give you a little background on my problem. There has always been a small leak coming from somewhere in the transmission. The really weird part was the fact that it only happened when the weather was hot (over 80 degrees F) and/or humid outside. Every time the weather got this way, there would be a nice half quart of fluid on the floor. Not good eh? Well, at first I thought it was the pan gasket. Replaced that and the problem still continued. Next, I replaced the dipstick o-ring. Nope, still leaked. Finally, I checked the cooling lines and TV cable housing. Neither one showed any signs of leaks. Now comes the fun stuff. Every now and then at the track, I would notice a little trail of smoke following me through the traps. No biggie, it didn't last long and the trans still felt tight as ever. I always thought it was simply my front main seal going out. Then one night, while laying a little smack down on a heavily modified mustang , I noticed a VERY LARGE cloud of smoke following me down the road (it would have really sucked if I had lost...) Again, I just thought that it was my front main seal. The whole time this leaking was happening, the trans was tight, and the converter was loose. Everything worked like it was supposed to. Here comes the death blow. While on a desolate country drive back in September, I decide to "get on it" through second gear. About a mile later, I look back to see a smoke trail of biblical proportions (yeah, it was huge). So I pull over to check it out and sure enough, it was trans juice. There was no longer a little leak. This time fluid was coming out at a steady stream. I drove the Z back to my cottage which was about 20 miles away. The whole time, the trans acted like it was supposed to. Of course, I didn't get on it any more, but it shifted like it normally did at partial throttle and the converter seemed to function normally. So it's a bad pump, right? Well, that's what I would have initially though. When I pulled out the trans and observed everything, I couldn't find any obvious leak from the external of the trans (even the front main seal). So for the sake of science, I put the converter on the input shaft of the transmission and spun it a few times. Two thing happened when I spun the converter. One: fluid almost immediately started to leak from the seal area. This doesn't sound like much, but since my converter was bone dry I was concerned. Second: there was A LOT of play in the converter once it was "seated" correctly on the input shaft. I'm pretty sure that was simply because the converter was empty, but I'm still concerned. I'm just praying that my converter isn't fried!!! I'm 90% sure that my pump is shot. I'm not sure what exactly it is inside the pump that let go, but I'm hoping that's all it is. Just before I shut the motor off for good, I did notice a slight knock coming from the transmission. Something was moving around. When I pulled the trans, I notice that two of the converter to flex plate bolts were finger tight. I'm hoping this was all the knocking noise was. I do not want to throw down another $400 for a converter. A few hundred just for the trans rebuild kit is already a tight stretch. Please, if you have any idea, suggestions, or comments, feel free to float them my way. I'm starting to get a little concerned over here. -Andy ------------------ My very slow Web Site

God! Please don't say stuff like that!!! I'm really nervous about what is causing my massive leak in my transmission. When I put the converter on the input shaft, there is a lot of play in the converter. I'm hoping for the best, but I fear the worse. John, I hope you don't mind if I e-mail you off line to talk about this. I haven't found too many people with 700 knowledge, or experience. -Andy

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, John Rub it in my face why don't 'cha. Sorry for beeing bitter, but I just found out last night that my transmission pump gave up the ghost. Looks like my $3 front main seal fix is going to cost roughtly 100 times more now Oh well, better I figured this out now and not in the middle of June. I'm sure I have it running in time to have you run faster than me Don't tell me where you live, I might be tempted to remove your driveshaft until I get my Z rolling (yours too Scottie!) Now, to the "other" johnc... Furniture coating, hmmm. I never thought of that. Might have to look into that. Thanks -Andy

Ha ha ha, Laugh all you want Kevin, but I've actually skied behind the old man's 32 foot Offshore before. We took two (yes, two!) 75 foot ski ropes tied together and used that for a rope. It took forever to get up, but once I did... hang on. I was only going about 40 mph so the spray off the boat wasn't that bad. The rooster tail doesn't really come on until about 70 mph with the drives trimmed all the way out. Also, if you show up within the next three months, bring a dry suit and a U.S. Coast Guard Ice Breaker ...now thats what I'd call "Brain Freeze". -Andy

Just like the subject states, how much should I expect to sheel out for getting a set of headers coated. I've been getting quotes around $200 for my set of long tube headers. I;m just wondering if the three places I talked to are trying to rob me, or if these prices are normal. Thanks in advance. -Andy

I actually thought about Tony at first, but I'd really like to do things locally (sorry Tony). Tim, I went to Autorama with a mission this year: Find a (competent)place that does ceramic coatings and such. Out of five booths, only two of them wanted to talk to me. Must have been the fact that I didn't look like the type that would drop $100K into a street rod. Joe Williams Exotic Coating 30708 Beverly. Romulus,MI (734) 595-4674 He sounded more interested then number two I'm about to mention. Also, he's right down the road from us between Merriman and Middlebelt, and Van Born and Ecorse. He quoted me $250 for stipping the headers (I've got little surface rust from running them last year) and coating both inside and outside. Doug Byron Process Coating 36 Harrington Croswell, MI (810) 679-3035 He seemed a little more "cocky" than the other guy at Autorama. You know the type, "Let me tell you why MY coating is soooo much better than everyone else's." Also, he's located up near Port Huron meaning it would take a good two hours to get up there. Let me know if you to do something soon. I'm thinking of dropping my headers off to the guy in Romulus next week some time. Maybe he would knock a few bucks off if he did both ours orders...then again, maybe not. Let me know. -Andy

Thanks guys. For some reason unknown to myself, every time I work on two motors side by side (in a boat) my sense of cylinder numbers gets all screwed up. Oh well. If any of you guys are ever in my neck of the woods and want to go for a boat ride, look me up. Of course, you will need to do it within the two weeks of boating we have up here -Andy

...what is the firing order on a Small Block Chevrolet. Also, I need someone to refresh my memory on how the cylinders are numbered. It's been a long time since I've had to do this, so cut me some slack, Jack. Also, I've been wrapped up in Dad's "Blown Big Block" project that I've forgetten most of the small block basics. After working on (or shall I say "in") the boat, my V8 looks tiny. -Andy

Great deal, looks like I might have potentially overpaid for it myself. I knew you could do it. Let's talk motor now; 406 sbc 12:1 +.600 inch lift solid roller cam 250hp shot of nitrous Yeah, I think that would be a good "starter" motor for you. -Andy

I've seen some big M-F'in' turbo's on Train Diesels before.. but holy $#@%!!! I think you're gonna need to bust out the 250hp shot to get that thing turning. -Andy

If one of those is taking up too much space... I'll be happy to take one off your hands for you (for free, of course) . ...nice deal, want to help me buy a house? -Andy

Jason, I've been reading your progress towards purchasing this car lately. Very interesting. I have been in that same situation myself a few times. I hope you don't mind me sharing some comments, some might sound a little brutal. First, Let's get down to the bottom line. What does he want for the car money wise? You don't have to answer this, as I know you have posted pictures and I would hate to see this potentially get bought out underneath you. When I look at the car, I personally cannot imagine paying more than $1000 for this. This is top dollar too. Believe me, I'd be trying like hell to get it for $500. I don't think an offer of $500 for the rolling chassis would be insulting. Think of what you are getting (or aren't getting): You get- 1) A body that has primer paint. This primer can be hiding two things. Remarkable body work, or... RUST!!! Most people who put any sort of time and effort into decent body work, would not let it sit. This says to me that there are a lot of skeleton's in this Z's closet. 2) A ratty interior that is chopped to all hell. If the interior was kept up this poorly, why would the exterior have been treated any differently? You don't get- 3) A motor. Since you are going with a conversion, this isn't a big deal. Small Chevy's are a dime a dozen. 4) Transmission. Again, no biggie. An overdrive will cost more, and a non-overdrive tranny is still live-able on the side streets. 5) Rear End. This is no big deal either, but now we need to start asking ourselves; "How much do I want to add to this?" 6) An interior. Another item that you will find yourself running to and from junk yards for. Ask yourself: "Do I want to DRIVE a V8Z, or BUILD one?" Bottom line: I personally don't think this is that great of a deal. Please don't hate me, I'm just offering you my honest, god-fearing, unbiased opinion. If the body looked wavy to me, I'd offer $500. If the body was DEAD straight (and I mean dead), it would be worth $1000 to me. If the seller wouldn't come down from a higher price, I'd walk. There are plenty of Z cars in So. Cal. to choose from. Limiting yourself to this Z would be like marrying the first girl you ever made it with. A Z is an extremely easy car to convert to a V8 powertrain. Also, it sounds like you would have to drop a motor in yourself anyway. Don't be scared by the conversion. It takes just one afternoon to setup the engine compartment (once the engine is out) for a V8. Really, it's not that hard. Also, if you get a 280Z... the rear end is already setup for an R200. You really need to ask yourself how much work you want to do. I originally wanted to simply "drive" my V8Z. I made the mistake of buying the first thing I found. This turned out to be a structural (rust) nightmare... but I got it cheap. The next car I found, was out in Arizona. It had a fresh coat of paint on a straight body with a very tired (260,000 miles) motor and trans. I picked it up for $1400 back in 1997. There are plenty of fish in the sea, do not limit yourself to just one tide pool. Get out there and look! Take a drive up to L.A. and see what they got. My opinion: (Car Price < $1000) = maybe sorry for the hard words -Andy P.S. Many V8 Z's with relatively mild small blocks are going low 13's to high 12's. Something that requires racing gas and only goes 12.4's is not very impressive, yI know ou can do better on your own (or with a little bit of help from this group ). [i've got very fat (not phat) fingers today... this is my third time editing this message!] [This message has been edited by Andrew Bayley (edited March 06, 2001).]

There had better be at least a few case in that fridge. -Andy

Yes! Your 400 is no good! However, I will be more than happy to trade (straight up... your welcome) my "cool" 350 block for your overheating 400. Seriously though, make sure you have the steam holes drilled in both the heads and gasket and you should be fine. -Andy

Jim, I'm running a 350hp (maybe more on a really good day) 358 sbc with a 125hp powershot. My quarter times are in the low 11's. RickB run's (I think) a 100hp shot in his 350 sbc and is running high 11's. John C (the one from Canada) runs either 125 or 150hp shot on his 400 sbc and has run mid 10's The power of nitrous cannot be denied. It truly is amazing. As for violent, I've never really had any problems. Just like anything else, you need to know it's potentials and capabilities. All three of the above systems I mentioned are (again, I believe) plate systems for carburator setups. Plate systems are supposed to "hit" the hardest. However, I've never really felt it. After all, most people on the street just anihilate thier street tires whenever they hit it low. Personally, I've run about half a dozen cars with Nitrous. The "hardest hitting" system I've felt is my current Z, while the "lightest hitting" was my dry manifold system in my LT1 Impala SS. Having a chioce between dry or a wet system, I would take the wet system any day. Too many things that can go wrong in a dry manifold. Just my $0.02. -Andy

Good pistons and rod bolts are a must. Forged crank and rods would be nice, but aren't mandatory for those levels. Running a $1.25 shot of juice on a 350 - 400 horse motor will build tremendous amounts of torque. The upper end power with juice will still be good, but not as much as the lower torque. With all the extra torque, mediocre driveline parts Will break! Be prepared. -Andy

huh huh, Leave it to a couple of Automotive Enginerds to ruin it for everyone (sorry guys). -Andy

Hmmm... This seems like it would work best on smaller motors ( >= 2.0L ). The thing I don't understand is how they can maintain boost (as shown by the supposed torque increase in the dyno charts) without increasing impeller speed. Obviously as the RPM's go up, more air would be needed... right? All I saw on the wiring diagram was a simple W.O.T. controlled relay switch. After seeing that, I had a real hard time believing the dyno charts. Especially the Turbo MR2. It makes natural sense that the turbo's Regulated boost of 16 psi would eventually overcome the "supposed" 1.7 psi increase. Yet, the dyno sheet showed an increase... even when the motor had full boost. That doesn't make sense to me. Another thing that kind of upsets me about this item was their use of Dyno graphs. If I handed in performance data, pertaining to ANYTHING automotive, you'd better believe I would have to have some sort of statistical analysis done to it. In more common words... AVERAGE (more than just one dyno run). Now, I realize that most do-it-yourselfers cannot rent a dyno for weeks at a time to do development, but trying to sell something based on two singular data points is just wrong. It would be nice to see 10 runs before the device, then 10 runs after. Until then, I'll remain skeptical. ...maybe it needs Slick50 to operate correctly -Andy

Yeah, that's some serious traction in that NOS Z car video. I think he's is the quickest IRS Z car on this sight (I believe he runs low 10's or high 9's ) I really need to get a video of myself launching this year!!! Rick, if your going to blame something, blame my server. It its r... e... a... l... l... y... ... ... S... L... O... W... !... Keep trying and it should eventually load. -Andy

cannot speak on a metallurgical aspect regarding the tubing, but I am fairly certain that SCCA requires a diagonal bar for the driver (floor to main hoop). Something you might want to consider. I know NHRA does not require this. -Andy

There's actually quite a few of us here that successfully drag race with open differentials. The reason for such success, is because of it's independant design. In a solid axel car, the torque of the driveshaft will also create a torque load on the axel. This will cause one wheel to tuck up into the wheel well and become more unloaded than the other. This is what cause the natural phenomenom known as "one wheel wonder". In an independant rear suspension design (like the Z's) there is no solid axel. All the torque loading is kept in the differential. This is the primary reason that an open diff in an IRS setup will work so much better than an open solid axel. Also, when the tires finally let go and start spinning, most often both wheels will equally spin. Again, this is because both of the wheels have a relatively equal load on each wheel. The big thing to remember, is to keep the rear wheels level with each other. The primary cause for one-wheel-burnouts is unequal wheel loading. With our Z's, we have all been blessed with an IRS leading to better holeshots with stock suspensions. If you want to see some performance times for various Hybrid's, go here:http://grannypotts.freeservers.com/Times.html I think everyone except Ron Jones and Mike Kz has an IRS setup. -Andy [This message has been edited by Andrew Bayley (edited March 01, 2001).]

Ya know, that BRE style wing is growing on me... Since I'm an idiot and left all my M.S.A catalogs at my Dad's place, could someone please give me a ballpark figure on how much they run. Also, I can't imagine the installation being all to difficult... maybe someone could also reassure me on that. Thanks -Andy

Just wondering if anyone had some before and after comparisons of exhaust fumes with a rear spoiler. My 74 is really bad and I'm starting to think that many of my summer headaches are related to my stinky Z car. I've already went nuts with a tube a silicon sealer in the hatch area, but it still stinks. Would a modest spoiler help move the gases away from the car at all? -Andy

Bend the ears back with a hammer... hmmm, that sounds like it might work. Thanks for the idea, Rick. John, The best place I've found to post various pictures and/or videos is Geocities. It's pretty simple to use. Once you get pictures loaded there, you can post or reference them on this board. Otherwise, I can load them up on my site if you wish. -Andy