BLKMGK

I'm starting to consider 1 3/4 headers myself. Not sure yet who'll get the call but before I order I want my motor to show up so I can see which heads it's got - angle plug or not I asked for straight plug but ya' never know! Should be Edelbrock heads.. Block huggers for sure though and probably NOT cast headers. I just don't want the weight is all. Will plug wire clearance be an issue with that size primary? What size collector do these usually have? I seem to recall three inch and that's a touch big. I don't think I want to run anything bigger than 2.5 inch pipe. If the price is right I'll be running ceramic coated otherwise I'm pondering just wrapping some regular headers and dealing with the fractures later with a better set of headers. Very interested to see what other's experiences have been. Mike, you're looking at 1 3/4 headers - you really think you've lost that much power with your current setup? P.S. Followed the links - yup 3inch collectors. Hrm, think the first opne might fit an older Z? Too expensive to wrap - those suckers are nice! I'd only wrap cheap junk Hooker or Summit headers (grin). [This message has been edited by BLKMGK (edited September 11, 2000).]

Okay, first - I've not ever done this. However since you're desperate I'll impart a little of what I've read concerning this here and elsewhere. Yeah, you've probably got some rust in there. That's supposed to be one of the hardest parts to dissassemble so don't feel too bad. If you beat it with a hammer it may break or bend things - you may trash threads too. Coat it with oil, coat it again, wait awhile and coat it again. Tap lightly with a hammer to help get the oil in - don't beat on it! Others have made fixtures to draw the pin out by screwing down that nut but not having done this I can't describe it. IMO I might consider a little heat from a torch when I get to that but be careful as you don't want to effect the heat treating - warming it may wick in the oil though. I've heard some people speak of using a press but you HAVE to set it up properly or you WILL bend something! Support it well if you use a press and move slowly. Take your time on this one and I'd slather that sucker with high temp anti-sieze afterwards. You might even have to put new pins in - I expect to wire wheel and polish mine before they go in with some serious greasing! I've got this job ahead of me and I dread it. I've eyeballed that area, nothing more. Check out Zcar.com 's archives on this and you'll find lot's of anguished cries like yours. Read some of the solutions, in fact read a bunch. If you find a way that works well for you PLEASE post about it so other's can learn. I've done a bunch of the bushings back there and have more to go - I figure I may just drop the whole rear suspension and do EVERYTHING including R200 swap and brakes at once to get it over with. Solid Us are on order already... Good luck!

Okay, with the car back home with a cage I get to now ponder seat beltsharnesses. I've got th estock belts in it now and will keep these unless I need the mounting points but I'd rather be using 5 point harnesses. Looking at the catalogs there's a bewildering array of brands, types, and latches. I've used the belts that have a cam lock up front and liked them fine. I know I want a submarine belts aka crotch strap. H or Y mounts? I don't have a seat belt tab welded to the strut tower brace right now. I've seen belts that appear to be looped aroundmounted to the rollcage. How does that work? Chassis shop seemed to like Y'ed belts better and said they wouldn't spread apart on me, yes? My parts car had belts in it and tabs, I really think I'd prefer to mount to the cage instead.Those belts were WAY out of date BTW and made by a company I'd never heard of. Should I maybe look ina catalog geared more towards SCCA type racing rather than Jegs? Ideas and tips appreciated, thanks!

Some shots in the dark here. Is it near the exhaust? Is it getting enough voltage? When it dies are you sure it's still getting juice? Is it possible the fuel lines it's feeding are too small? Hrm, same pump I'm considering...

Went for the Epoxy stuff. It's used on appliances and it ought to dry super hard. Man, trying to get all th eangles and to get the side that shows through the quarter windows is a bitch! Pulled the masking so I could see through the window - missed a ton. Now I'm going to be scraping the paint off the windows... Haivng the primer made it easier to see at least. If you do this pull your seat belts all the way out so any paint gets on an area that's normally rolled up Yeah, still have use of my stock belts! Almost done - next coat in a few then I'm through. Hope it wears well, this was a PITA! Sound deadener, insulation and then the rest of my interior is yet to come.

Looked closer today while painting the cage. Looks liek my box will be turned 90 degree and fit in between the two cargo boxes - I think it'll fit. Will go with a sealed battery, couple of bucks on a good battery is no biggie after all the rest of the cash getting sunk into this baby Hrm, we need to start a handling thread on this (lol).

Wow, this went downhill fast?! Guy said he didn't like ATI and planned a Vortech for his car - where's the slam? FWIW - my friend just moved up to one of the D series on his Cobra - it's a 98 too I think. Drove it just a little while and proceeded to yank the motor out! I asked him why he did this as it was running REALLY good from I'd been told. He said it was making os much power that he was afraid something was going to let go if he didn't pull it out and put good rods and pistons in it! This guy works on Mustangs 6days a week and is one of the only ProCharger dealers in VA - if he's making so much power that he's afraid the stock stuff can't handle it I'd say he's doing somehting right He was estimating in the 400s HP wise before - I can't imagine what it's doing now. Swapping a T56 too and says it was cake to do...

Camaro? Hey, I like them too but the cost of building one, the fact that flippin' everyone has one, and the weight have made me happy with my Z. What are the chances of you pulling up to some youngster in a Camaro and having him go "Wow, what's THAT?!"? Happened to me with the stock 6 banger, can't wait to pull up with a V8 next time Nothing wrong with a Camaro but I think the Z would be more fun. Handle better for less cash too...

I got my car back from the chassis shop - woo hoo! All fixed, have rear vision, and the bar is right where I wanted it They even patched a hole that was found in the floor covered in fiberglass (grr). Now then - bar is bare metal and has some surface rust - already hosed one pair of pants getting into it! I've now primed it with Veriprime etching primer and expect to paint it with something tomorrow. If the body shop suply were open I'd try for a small amount of auto paint but I really don't want to mess with that. Oh yeah - I primered with a foam brush - done right it self levels and looks GREAT. Ideas on paint? I'm thinking about some of this "epoxy" spray paint I see around. Over the Veriprime it ought to hold well, yes? Most of the cage will be covered with foam anyway but some will obviously be exposed and I'd like it to look good. Epoxy stuff okay? Or is there something else the body supply place might have that would work better - that could be brushed perhaps? Just want a hard finish in black is all without a ton of overspray around. I've masked but I know how overspray can be... P.S. Brushing sounds cheesy I know but I learned with the primer that if you're careful and have no runs it will work out fine. The Veriprime stuff was cake to apply and I did the entire front of my parts car with it after sandblasting and it looks sprayed (shrug). Use a foam brush though - bristle brushes would probably look terrible!

In fact John I think Mike is up near you neck of the woods and comes down South your way to race his 510. I bought 5lug brakes from him myself and he was most helpful and it didn't cost ANYWHERE near $2k! He doesn't use the Toyota calipers from the 4X4 - he uses them off of another later model Toyota truck A 300ZX spindle is used up front for me with an off the shelf rotor an dpossibly a customer spacer. Rear uses late(ish) model stuff as well with I think a custom bit done on the rear rotor (I need to look at my notes I guess). Not sure I've got a rear E-brake. If you go 5lug you'll have awider wheel selection but may wind up closer to your $2K number. He sells 4 lug stuff too I think. I used stock style pads as the added size should haul this puppy down quickly enough. If I need to there are stronger pads available too. Last but not least - he's got the billet high dollar stuff too. IMO this just wasn't needed (shrug). P.S. When I get around to pulling my brakes I've got a solid rotor Toyota setup up fron that will come off. Not sure when this will occur and it's not the more desirable vented rotor but expect it'll be sold cheap to a member here. It stops the car right now just fine

Speaking of the JTR bumpsteer mod - anyone done it? Is it worth it? My wheel kicks aoround a bit going down the road (solid steering shaft) and am wondering if this mod would help. I'm looking for a spare crossmember anyway and had been considering making these mods to it. Would appreciate any comments on it's effectiveness. I've already got spacers under my struts it seems (shrug).

I've not yet decided on a battery but something sealed for sure! On top of that I'm running a sealed, vented, aluminum battery box. I figure I'll mount it as far forward on the rear deck as I can and will probably run a cutoff switch there and maybe another on the rear - we'll see. I'm going to try and keep the storage bays functional - or at least one of them. I'm going to use one of the battery kits that Summit etc. sells even though I know I could get welding wire somewhere around here. On the Mustang I ended up running two cables and using large circuit breakers on them With just the one cable I blew the breaker starting it hot a couple of times! The box I'm using is from Summt and it pretty darned nice. Not a high polish but pretty close, it looks like it'll seal well and meet tech. I don't want the battery back behind the axle - this will be mostly a street car, some drag, possibly some track use. I'm most comfortable not having anything hanging back behind the axle acting as a pendulum.

While trying in vain to find some interior resto parts for the woman's Impalla SS I stumbled across some info on Slick50. It seems these folks have had at least one lawsuit filed against them for making false claims - and lost! http://www.b-body.net/Technical/Reference/slick50.html I know oil additives have been mentioned here at least once so I thought I'd point this out for everyone. Hmm! P.S. Finally stumbled onto an Impalla SS WEB ring. Why did none of these sites show up in any of the 4 search engines I tried?! Sheesh, and I thought parts for Zs were hard to find - I get lot's of hits on Z search terms!

Yes, melted with a torch and spread with a hardwood handle coated in some form of wax - not sure if it's paraffin or what. Beware of fumes - lead is nasty stuff and the fumes aren't conducive to your good health. How much of an area do you need to cover? This, like Bondo, isn't something you want to spread real thick...

Mike, what about something NOT billet? I've got a set of your brakes for a 5lug conversion - will I have NO parking brake? I've not pulled it out of the box yet to be honest (grin). Personally I'm not real hung up on the billet stuff. If it's aluminum I can polish it myself if I have the urge or go with some of the new brake paints. I'm mostly interested in functionality and am not going to run slotted or drilled rotors either. Leaving it in gear is a good idea but on a hill popping out of gear is possible, especially if someone taps the car parking in front or behind you. It also puts some stress on the drivetrain that I'd prefer to avoid. There's also nothing so thrilling as losing your brakes to make you glad you've got an E-brake (shiver). At least with a stick you can downshift! What about these tiny rotors that bolt the front of differentails? Too big? I've forgotten where my rear calipers were sourced from, Mike I think you had told me. If they were from the front of another car then yeah I'm going to be head scratching on this one too I'm afraid!

I hear ya! Emissions is one of th ebig things for me too. My Mustang is modded to hell but I've always got to keep one eye on emissions legality - or at least look like it's legal. The Z is also "different". I see Mustangs EVERYWHERE! I used ot have a Vega GT with a V8 (miss that car) and I got more looks and questions in that than I ever did the Mustang. With the Z I've actually had younger drivers ask me what it is - they've never seen one! Lot's of drivetrain options too - I like that A twin turbo 6cyl would be pretty darned nice as would a supercharged. Don't guess that's an option in this case though it would probably be lot's easier to package than two turbos. The SuperCouple motor looks pretty compact to me...

Yeah they do - check out 5889 -> http://www.autometer.com/hp/99catalog/phantom/39.html 160mph is fine by me actually. Oh wait - you wanted the Phantom but not the Ultra - here's the Ultras -> http://www.autometer.com/hp/99catalog/ultra_lite/47.html 4489 is what I'd buy. They do make it but it's possible that's it's a recent addition to the line. I'm still waffling to be honest. I've got Phantoms in my Mustang and I saw some other Fords today with them - damn they look sharp. The Ultras would look pretty spiffy too I've no doubt. You just don't see Silver guages as often - especially with the rice factored in nowadays. The Lunars looked to be perfect but alas - not going to happen anytime soon! So, I'm pondering and flipping back and forth. I DO have a cell though so I most certainly need a fuel guage - already ran out once! I'm holding off on the speedo until it's got the LCD tripmeter though. I hear you on the 4inch tip(s). I WANT that badly too but I'm afraid the noise will be sky high once one of those suckers sees real horsepower. We'll see - I'm aways off on that too... Hrm, got any photos of your dash you could post? Used an in-dash tach right?

Heh, PMI - so that's what it's called! This is also why I mount my batteries right over the rear axle and not too far to the side. Keep it in the middle and keept ir close in. I once got to see the effect of this sort of thing up close. I used to work with some heavy tempested equipment and some of the heaviest was printers. We drove station wagons back then for service calls and these things were so heavy you never shoved them more than you had to. Seems one of our guys forgot he had one and took an off-ramp at speed! Whooops! Car nearly came around on him and he swears it felt like it was going around the turn sideways - it certainly looked it! Needless to say, I've taken that object lesson to heart and try to keep things low and to the middle wherever possible - especially batteries! Mount them sturdy too, you don't want that puppy greeting you up front in the event of an "incident". My box is a sealed Summit aluminum one....

Hawk - you're using a single pin to hold the hood on? I'm not sure I'm that brave to be honest but I'll take a look at it. John did mention that a stock latch can be fitted so i may do that with the possible addition of pins or Dzus. Take a look at this month's Hot Rod on th enewsstand - Mike Kelly especially. They've got shots of cars on the strip that are deforming due to wind resistance. Glass hoods especially have problems and I know several Mustang guys that have hoods fly off that just used th estock latch. I myself have had two steel hoods flip back on me (don't ask - it was driver error). Granted - the Z hood won't flip back but it will rise up and block vision badly! BTW - hood article may take a bit longer. Surprise call by the chassis shop - it's getting work done NOW. Took it over hoodless - people gawked and stared. It's just three Webbers - so far Hawk, I'd be VERY interested in how your hood is wearing and any install tips you picked up. I'm looking forward to getting it painted and setup soon. Want to do the glass bumpers at the same time too...

Ah, you're correct about the vents and thank you for the correction - whew! Shipping was a bit of a problem since they wanted to charge John a fairly great amount. However he had a discussion with the manager of the shipping company and they lowered the price by about half. It still wasn't cheap and crating was $60 but for just a hair over $400 it's here in one piece with ZERO shipping damage. I did ineed remove the springs. I'd intended to simply weaken them with a torch and may yet do so but not yet. If you don't remove the springs you'll get a pretty alarming bow in the middle of the hood - most uncool! Weaker springstorsion rods ought to work or I may simply put a pin through the hing joint to support it (shrug). I'll try to do the article this week but my chassis shop date is sneaking up on me - Friday. I DO have some pics already and will try to take more. Note that it's NOT painted, nor has it been trimmedfiled, and that I don't have the vents yet. John did send me some tips today including some on how it's supposed to be installed that he'd forgotten before - things are hectic out his way. He also explained why the hood was slightly wider than stock - this is intentional. All in all he's been a pleasure to work with and I'd buy from him again. I'll do the article ASAP and include painted pictures down the road when that's done... P.S. He says the stock latch can be made to work too. I need to look at this as I'm most comfortable with two latches We'll see!

Mark, let us know how the flywheel works out - was it super expensive? Ross - I'm not replacing mine but in the long run I may. If you've ever seen a clutch blow you'll understand why - th ebellhousing goes liek paper. Remember - we set these motors pretty far back and that the Datsun sheetmetal won't stop the bits or hardly slow them. Over time, and especially with high revs and heat, the flywheel can begin to get weak. When it's time goes it can be pretty spectacular or go with a wimper if you're lucky. Many folks prefer to play it safe and those who've seen the results of an explosion play it safest of all! I knew a guy who owned a Z 10 years ago. He claimed that during a race the flywheel bolts lets go. He stated that the wheel came out of the car in it's entirety, zipped through the bellhousing, and went skipping down the road throwing sparks everywhere like a buzzsaw. I've always discounted that story but it's pretty scary if it contains even a grain of truth...

Do these metal slaves have screw in fittings? Are they made for the T5 and T56 as replacements? That would be MOST cool As for th eFord master - you lost me. Drill hole huh? Not familier with this mod - can you please elaborate? Thanks!

Pete - Don;t forget this Mike -> http://www.fonebooth.com/forsale.html He's been pretty helpful to me in the past and has dropped his prices some on the coil overs. Chances are he's the guy I'll goto for this. Since I'm not lowered terribly much should I skip the sectioning? I'm considering getting a replacement set of struts all around to do the work on and then swapping it all in. Is it much work per corner to do a coil over?

I used to love that mag - thought I'd never stop subscribing - had paid up at one point as far as 5 years in advance. When that sucker ran out I never renweed - it was import FWD junk to me. I actually liked the DSM stuff. Neat cars! As for the Mustang... Last I'd heard it had been worked over by a shop and on initial fire they found a screw had gotten into the intercooler. First hi-end run blew it out into the engine and trashed things a bit. Needless to say that made a mess... That was about the last I ever heard about the car - a real shame. It had the same turbo kit I did and the same heads I'd bought for mine. I wanted to hear the HP they got out of it dammit! Nowadays I pick them up once in awhile. They used to have good tech articles but I get the impression all the little punks want to hear about now is neon and big stickers. Oh yeah and women draped all over the cars - pick up some of the import rags to see what I mean. Almost embarrassed to have them out in the office - some of the ads are pretty risque. Heh, I like young cute women but not when they get in the way of looking at a nice car pic Super Chevy did that the other day too - the women thought it was bad and I don't dare carry that one into the office. Was their issue talking about crate motors - guess the import guys don't have that market completely to themselves.

I don't think I'd do th eall aluminum SBC. Cost is high, parts selection can be funky, and I'm not sure the lower weight buys you as much as simply bumping the HP upwards. It might handle a touch better but for the cost? Most of the rest I'd liek to do myself. Power locks aren't a big deal but power windows and certainly a remote hatch release would be nice! Which guages do you like? I'm choosing those now... But hey, it's your car, your idea - build it any way you want and enjoy the heck out of it! I've got a 72 myself and am having lot's of fun with it. P.S. Go for a Momo steering wheel - they're niiice