BLKMGK

Yup, count me as interested in interior panels - especially a dash cap and door panels. I've been considering this myself for awhgile - even posted about it but no one seemed interested. I ASSume you know about Aircraft Spruce? They can supply you the quality materials you'll need. I'll also ASSume you know about this page -> http://www.bryanf.com/info/carbon1.htm I'm dying to do the dogleg panels behind the passenger area, the kickpanels, the dash cap (maybe), and the door panels especially.

Take the comma off the URL. For some reason that seems to happen here alot if you use punctuation after the URL (shrug). www.zhome.com that should work OR http://www.zhome.com/rnt/FordPower/index.html

Well two reasons I guess. I'd not taken much of a look at the MSA hoods as I'd heard such good things about the parts John sells. Second reason was that John was nice enough to stop by here, tell us about his product, and was an all around personable guy both here and on the phone. That goes a LOONG way in my book. Try calling ArizonaZ sometime and you'll understand why - I'll NEVER buy from that jerk ever! $1K minimum purchase and you'd think you were putting him out to buy something from him... I'm toying with the idea of modifying a stock hood with a cowl scoop. I've got a pristine hood from another Z that I was going to let go with my parts shell but... It may find itself on my red car instead! am going to have to look around at scoops first - there's one place that caters to the ChevelleCamaro crowd that has steel cowl scoops that might work - perhaps with a little sectioning etc. Cost will be a factor. Worse comes to worse I'll try it with a stock 240 hood. The 280Z hood I'd fouond new for $50 fell through as I didn't keep after the guy. Live and learn! Was local too (sniff sniff).

Thanks! John is th eone doing the searching right now on his end tho'. If he can't find a cheaper carrier I simply will have to find another way to get the heat out from under the hood. I DO have a second pristine 240 hood that I could add a scoop to. I've seen steel ones advertised in a few mags and there's a quality body shop nearby so... I might try that. The glass hood would be SO much easier though! We'll see...

Heh, nothing personal and you're not being ignored I for one just have no idea if it would work or not! If the rack could be bolted in etc. powering it with a PS pump of some sort isn't a biggie but getting the suspension geometry right and getting it bolted in are the biggest hurdles. Personally I've not found the manual steering too bad even with my smaller wheel. I DO get annoyed at the way the bigger tires up front track the road - I have to pay attention and suspect that an alignment to better specs may be in order.

Have a 72 chassis in Manassas Va. Can send pics and details if interested. Comes with 2.8 motor and 5speed trans if you'd like. Fairly disassembled right now but is a roller. Do not believe the rust is bad but the battery tray area has been removed and needs replacing.

87 desireable? HELL YES! Good job - you stole that sucker! Congrats - you'll make that back in no time flat I'm betting...

Heads.... Trick Flow actually has a couple of heads - th eones that are really "trick" and then a set of heads that apparently doesn't get talked about much. Super Chevy has used those heads in SEVERAL build ups with terrific success. Since this isn't a 350 I ASSume you're doing this on a budget - consider trying to find out which heads Super Chevy has been using and look at them. These suckers are apparently something like $700 complete - under a grand for sure. Aluminum too Anyone familier with the heads I'm talking about? Maybe offer some personal experience other than the magazine stuff. I've not heard great things about Twisted Wedge heads - rapid valve guide wear being the big thing.

Just an FYI. John is having some trouble getting my hood out to me. His cratingshipping company wants $60 to crate the sucker and $185 to ship it to VA! UPS apparently won't take it - too big, and the freight company says too small. We're still looking for options to include Air Freight (I'm near an airport) but I'm not sure how well that will work out either. Bummer! We'll see what happens. As you might imagine I'm not keen on paying double for the hood so this may kill the deal altogether. John's doing his best though, this isn't really his fault. It sounds like he's not had to ship too many single parts like hoods before...

Ryalc - where can this LT1-edit software be found? I want it Okay - I found it! Hey, now this is my idea of a good way to go. Use a stock ECU with it's million bux worth of research and then reprogram it! If anyone can speak to how easyhard it is to wire this up to an earlier motor please speak up. I'm betting this is LT1 only tho' http://www.carputing.com/ As for the DFI - I know Duttweiler spends tons of time on it - I bought my system from him! His "base" map for my car had to be trimmed something like 40% before I could even drive it though. It was liek spraying for bugs on the way to my friend's house to get the laptop - I could hardly see out the back window it was so dense! DFI CAN work but I did NOT find it user friendly. It's initial startup routine wasn't very helful in building a map. BTW - what software version have you got? I've got what I believe is a fairly recent version here... I sort of collect this sort of software to help me decide on a system. DFI hasn't even gone Windows based for their older system and I'm not sure it's even being updated anymore. As for sequential - yeah it doesn't pick up much more HP (better emissions tho') but that's not the point. When everything is batch it's firing twice per revolution, sequential fires only once I believe. Injectors have a minimum time for opening and closing. Due to mechanical hysteresis you cannot go below this time because the injector will dribble instead of spraying - it tries to close before it actually even opens! I had my car running 30lb injectors as low as I could witht he DFI and it still idled FAT. Any lower and it would stumble and hunt - ick! It was trying to take the time I'd given it (total injection time) and cut it in HALF to fire it twice! Run those SAME injectors with a sequential EEC-IV from Ford and it idled like a kitten. What can I say? Datalogging with the DFI - how do you realisticly graph a .01 to say 1.0 O2 sensor reading against a range of 900 to 6000RPM powerband reading? Add to that the air temp range of say 60 degrees to maybe over 100. Don't forget ignition advance and boost level too. This is tough! I'm not a super whiz at Excel but this was just a bitch. Like I said - it was also not granular enough. If the motor revved real fast from say wheelspin you could sometimes see several hundred RPM between datalog points and O2 voltage could be all over the place. I drove nearly constantly with a laptop going next to me and datalogged entire drives home to try and work out driveability bugs. I could reprogram map values with one hand while driving after awhile. I did also have an interesting run in with a cop once while tuning but that's another thread. Suffice it to say that the factory spends the big bux on part throttle driving for a reason - WOT is easy by comparison. This is why the SpeedBrain for the Ford is attractive to me - stock curves as a baseline! IF you're going to use any ECU software DO make yourself a spreadsheet to show 100% duty cycle on the injectors, the DFI will let you program values higher than 100% (you don't realize it). Having a spreadsheet handy that let me see when I'd exceeded 100% sure was nice. You're not really supposed to go past 80% but... I was also not real sure on timing curves - I tried all sorts of stuff, a real shame the knock detector would go nuts from just revving the motor with no load. I didn't trust it one bit... Oh yeah - I didn't mention the Holly system before. The early Holly systems I wouldn't have ever touched. They were pure analog with POTS for doing your tuning - ick! They were also TBI - yicky! I've NOT looked closely at their current offerings but I did notice that one of them can actually run close loop now - wow.... Seriously, I'm not sure just how good or bad these might be right now so at least consider them and try to find someone using them to talk to. Edelbrock... Nice looking intakes! However it looks like one of those systems you program with a handheld controller. Perhaps there's one I'm not aware of but the handheld programmer thing isn't something I want. Yes, it gets rid of the "expensive" laptop but it frequently means NO datalogging! Datalogging will save your butt if it's done right. Datalogging allows you to see what's going on, the more data you get and the more granular it is the better off you are - assuming you find a way to display it... Electromotive's software will show you graphs of EVERYTHING you logged on one screen with a marker displaying where you're at. As you move the marker it jumps on all of the graphs and displays real numbers on the screen for each graph as well. Very nice. Hrm, I also found that the DFI wouldn't let me log enough inputs. I don't mean to hammer that system too much but understand it's the one system I'm intimatly familier with - live with any of them and you'll find issues - I promise! I've DL'ed the demo software for the SpeedProFelPro system and intend to look at it. I thought FelPro was offering intakes with their stuff - apparently not, bummer. Some of the Electromotive intakes look nice, maybe one of those with a FelPro ECU? I'd really like MAF though but it's either not available or a pricey addition to most systems (sigh). I may wind up going Electromotive myself but it'll be bux and I'll have to find a good tuner locally. Thankfully I've got a friend who used to work for Peter Farrell's RX7 shop who knows the system inside and out - he just doesn't know V8s is all. I'll ask him what he thinks of it and what the Electromotive's downsides are and report back - may be awhile tho'. P.S. For those curious about the workings of an ECU - in particular the GN ECU check this FAQ link out -> http://www.thrasher-ep.com/Chips_htm/cal_hints.htm Some other good links -> http://www.fl-fbody.com/members/bfranker/fbody/links.htm [This message has been edited by BLKMGK (edited August 11, 2000).]

Hrm, I think you'd be happier with a 4spd but hey - it's your car... So, how long is this thing? Compare it to the measuremeants of a T5 - bellhousing to shifter. Make sure it's not goign to poke up in the backseat or in your fusebox! Next, take a gander at that funky mechanical shift linkage. You going to be able to fit that in the tunnel? Will it all shift freely when you're done? Internally shifted transmissions are easier because they have no external linkage to bind or get in the way. 4spd manuals also present this probl;em if they're of the MuncieSaginaw type I believe... Where are you that T5s are so rare? Kripes for the Mustang crowd here they all but fall out of trees, I'd think the Chevies would be about the same - they came in enough cars for kripes sakes! Anyone here out his way that might have a source for him? I understand why an auto doesn't float your boat

LOL! Seriosuly, I'd be swapping out that harness. the difference just in how bright my headlights are, not to mention no more smoking headlight switch, is amazing. I've got Hella H4s now and intend to run more wattage when the V8 goes in - I'd never be abel to do this with the stock harness. The ONLY downside I've seen other than cost is that you can't flick from high to low beam as quickly. The relays introduce a touch of "lag" as they switch back and forth. It's no big deal but it's the one annoyance I've found. Now, if someone would just write an article on reqiring the whole fusebox... I need to hit PepBoys for their "Help!" fuse blocks just to see what potential they offer....

Uh boy - this is a topic I've researched for YEARS Mike First - MAF vs SD. MAF wins hands down IMO! The reason Chevy folks prefer the SD is because it's easier to modify those computers for their cars ECU-wise. Also, the Chevy market hasn't had decent aftermarket MAF meters until recently and the packaging issues are a bitch for them. Here's the deal - MAF actually measures the airflow (wow, what a concept) SD on the other hand INFERS the air flow using a MAP sensor (vacuumpressure) and an air temp sensor. I don't know about Chevy ECUs but the Ford ECUs are smart enough to actually know the difference if you change the distance from the throttle body to the MAF meter! Yeah, most Ford guys don't know stuff like this and half the Ford crap is a Kludge - modifying the MAF for bigger injectors is STUPID and so are FMUs for blowers. I could preach forever on this but... Intakes.. Most factory style intakes were built for low RPM high torque low airflow requirements. Yes, even the ACCELL stuff! I'm not sure I like it at all to be honest. I REALLY like some of the setups that convert over SINGLE plane carb intakes. On a port injected fuelie motor suspension of the fuel isn't an issue so single plane works fine. Speaking of fuel suspension - the biggest advantage of TBI is that the fuel can cool the air through evap on the way to the valve. TBI also runs low fuel pressure so that's nice in some ways. Ever wonder why carb systems frequently beat fuelie systems in dyno tests for HP? It's the intake man - the runners are too long! Slap some injectors into a carb intake and spank that carb system into submission. ECUs... Go programmable for sure. The FelPro looks very nice but I don't know much about it. If the system uses one of those handheld controllers I'd skip it - go laptop but figure in the cost of one of these puppies. Most systems don't need a beefy laptop. The Electromotive system is sweet but expensive. I've got one of their latest software releases BTW. Since they're just up the road and I've got "friends", deals can be worked sometimes. Electromotive has nice intakes and throttle bodies IMO, get their catalog for that if nothing. Their datalogging kicks butt as does their data display (wow, more should do this!), I can let you see this if you'd like. Electromotive also uses MAF if you want and has direct ignition as well as knock sensing I believe. I'm pretty sure this can use a wide band O2 and with a MAF it will actually self programcorrect the fuel tables to hit your specified mixture ratio but I wouldn't advise running it like that all the time (smile). SDS I've heard good things about but don't know well, I can research it if you'd like. DFI? LOL! Maybe the new sequential DFI but the older one? - forget it! I've got one on my shelf from the Mustang right now. Non-sequential - couldn't lower the injector pulse enough because of that, datalogging BLOWS, no data display - have to use Excel or a text editor etc., the CPU is too slow for good granular logging, and the software is ancient. I've got the training manual on this system if you'd like to read it. Oh yeah - the injector drivers can't handle PeakHold injectors I don't think - it can fry. The O2 sensor is standard off the shelf crap too - you want wideband if at all possible. Their knock sensor falsed a good bit on my Mustang (shug). Haltech - they used to do only fuel and so I didn't look hard at them. I believe that they've improved and it looks like others use them so I can't add much here. Motec - squeeal! But you get massive datalogging, cylinder by cylinder mixture adjustment, racing quality hardware sealed up tight. Too expensive IMO. SpeedBrain - don't know if they've got this standalone but for the Mustang this rocks. Unfortunatly I've not gotten a good feeling as to whether or not the guy in Woodbridge can tune this puppy - I bought a custom chip for my Mustang instead, it came in today.. Whew, that's all I can recall on various systems at the moment Like I said, I've been looking into this for years due to the Mustang's needs. GM ECUs until recently sucked, Ford was kicking their butts in sophistication. EEC-IV ECUs actually ran Indy cars in a config not much different than the passenger cars on the road! However they weren't "cracked" until just recently and the GMs were. Even now I doubt some of the stuff coming out for them. There are programs on the 'net that allow you to reprogram a GM ECU's PROM, some especially for GNs (oh Scottie..?). I equate the DFI with the GM ECUs - old and crude until recently. I found programming the DFI to be a bitch but then I'm no rocket scientist and had no help at all. Programming is the bitch here Mike - I couldn't find anyone a couple of years ago that could help escept in NJ and it was expensive tuning. Look closely at the software for whatever system you consider. I'd suggest investigating the FelPro very closely and the Electromotive. There are some horror stories about the latter out there but they're local if you have a beef Somewhere I've got an URL with EFI comparisons, it was on Zcar and someone here might have already posted it. This is NOT an easy decision but it's one I'll be making after my car is debugged, just as you are. After you my friend.. Here's some Ford info -> http://www.gothorsepower.com/eecfile.htm Multi EFI makes -> http://force-efi.com/price.htm SpeedBrain - read the comparison table at bottom! -> http://www.gothorsepower.com/sb.htm Depending on how my custom chip works I may go with this system on the Mustang! FelProSpeedPro-> http://www.force-efi.com/felpro.htm http://www.mycar.net/sefi8lo.htm Whew, I'm done at last. Sorry to ramble guys and I'm sorry if what I've said contradicts what you've been told in some cases. I've spent waay too much time looking at this stuff and waiting for things to be commercially produced for us... [This message has been edited by BLKMGK (edited August 10, 2000).]

*cough* *cough* $3K?! Aaaah! Heh, the Minilites look pretty good compared to that Will check out that URL out of curiousities sake tho' - thanks. I'd like to see that Red Z though. I drool when I see some of th enew Hondas but I've not seen but one or two Zs with wheels of that style so I'm still deciding somewhat. Just picked up Sport and Compact Car again to check out wheels. The Photoshop cutpaste thing may be how I have to do this to decide for sure. Might even go 17s but that's pretty tall and the cost of tires climbs still higher. Depends on what's available I suppose.

This is true however... it seems that John isn't using the home crap - from the looks of his site I figured he was using something of structural nature. When he said it was available at Home Depot I pretty much ASSumed he didn't mean the usual crap for insulating but rather something I hadn't noticed on the shelf. I surely hope he's not selling that regular garbage for something like $40! (fuzzy memory but geez). Since he builds kit cars and convertibles I figured he'd have it down to a science - unfortunatly he didn't respond to my questions about where to inject the stuff other than the rockers. Where else to put it? I'm still mildly interested in this but not if I've got to worry about toxic fumes! Rockers, frame rails.. where else? P.S. Here's his price for it - $39 three cans. Hrm... http://www.reactionresearch.com/vrpricelist.html#requiredparts Perhaps I ASSumed too much (sigh)

Yo - check the tech section! Some dork posted a tech article on how to cure wiring blues with the headlights. Seems the voltage for your headlights must travel from the battery, through your fusebox, through your headlight switch (?!), and then through the harness to BOTH bulbs. By the time it gets there the voltage is in the toilet, the amperage is through the roof, and your headlight switch is starting to smoke. Just don't buy the same harness he did - he spent way too much and there are cheaper harnesses out there that will work as well or better for you. If you've upgraded your headlights or are considering it this upgrade is a MUST!

Can you say Maxima 6cyl, Pathfinder bellhousing, 300ZX trans? How about more than 3liters? Seems the Maxima motor they were talking about was designed during a time when Nissan wanted to race in a particular series. However it's crank and rods are cheesy so... bolted in a crank from a different motor (300ZX?) which increased the stroke 10mm and ended up with a rodstroke of 1.7! I'm not doing a 6cyl but this sounded interesting - Sept 2K issue and was in one of the editorial sections...

.25 in the quarter is more than 12hp I'll bet. Without the weights and whatnot it's hard to say for sure how much HP was possibly gained but 12 sounds low. Realize too that this could be a small gain but across a large RPM range. Area under the curve is what you should always look at not peak HP. Peak HP is fine for bragging but a motor that pulls all the way across the RPM range is what wins at the end of the track and is lot's nicer to drive around town too. Interesting test by CHP, I'll have to look it up. I've not got a motor that big so that could help me decide what size headers tobuy. Right now I just don't know. Go cheap and small or buy Sanderson for the larger size and spend a bit more? Will the HP gain be worth it - magic 8ball is doubting it right about now since I don't race on all that often... Heh, I'll screw up the carb tune 12hp+ worth I've got no doubt!

The Watanabe wheels are pretty nice! I like both the black and this one -> http://www.rs-watanabe.co.jp/images/Cyclone/Cyclone18_80.jpg Not sure about the Wangen car - hard to see the wheels on the lower pics and the upper pics seem to have more the RX7 type wheel. It's going to be hard ot decide I can tell. How much are the Watanabee wheels in US $? As for switching braking systems - Mike I've considered that. However these brakes will allow me to fit a much wider selection of wheels. The Panasports are nice I'll admit but I think I want a 16inch wheel. It's possible I'll stick with them and I'll certainly run them for awhile. Once the V8 is in I'll be looking for more brake - then I'll have to decide. Switching gives me a FAR wider selection of wheels to choose from. Anything with an RX7, 300ZX (NA), Mustang, and maybe even Supra size will fit - that's pretty darned wide! We'll see - the Minilites are sort of an "old school" type wheel as are the black Watanabe's but are still pretty neat. Heh, I do like some of the 510s with the hi-tech wheels but some are pretty butt ugly. Hrm, maybe I'll try findsing some JPGs of wheels I'm considering and ppost to give you some idea. If everyone agrees it's butt ugly maybe I'll be swayed - I'm still a bit up in the air now as it is.

Two and a half tenths for us street guys is about two and a half cars at the end of the quarter - that's significant IMO. That's .25 btw Mike if that makes a difference to you not .025 and I know some guys that slave to get that kind of improvement. However, this isn't a real true back to back test in my eyes. You not only switched from shorties to long tubes but you also switched primary pipe sizes! The question for tonight's bench race excercise (smile) is: Just what gave you the extra power - the larger primary tubes or the long tube header contruction? Damned good question I think and I'm really curious! what about weather and traction the day of the test - where did you pick up the time? Was it in the eighth or the top end? 60foot dropped so I'd have to wonder about launch RPM and traction. We could toss this back and forth all night From the hassle involved though I'm thinking I'll stick to shorties no matter what. Ground clearance and skinned knuckles are two things I don't want to have to worry about if I can help it...

Ow wow! Both of those cars look like they've got some NICE wheels! This pic is one of the easiest to see I think-> http://www.geocities.co.jp/MotorCity/1147/FairladyZ/04172.jpg This one too -> http://zdriver.com/events/junesprints2000/images/EP_240Z.jpg I'm NOT sure those are Minilites but they look like they might be. They look awful nice to me. I'm just not sure that a set of of something like Borbet S wheels might not look better. (sigh) I've got time, I'll have to see if I can find out what sort of wheels those cars are running and maybe do some Photoshop work with a pic of my car to see if I like the Honda type wheels better. Fun Fun - thanks for the leads on these cars BTW - appreciate that!

Yeah okay - this subject again. I'm curious if anyone has gotten a good look at MiniLite wheels? http://www.minilitewheels.com/ Car Craft this month (Sept) has a Boss 302 Mustang (page 62 lower left) with them and they look damned nice! However the wheels on that car look more like the wheels they advertise for the Mini's and not for the Mustang?! 15X8 with a 5lug pattern - works for me! They will also do custom offsets, no biggie. They DO make 4lug wheels too and list a Datsun application This could be an option fo rlot's of Z cars methinks. Has anyone seen pics of a Z with these on it? Not cheap but there are made in England and are supposed to be quality built. They've got sort of the old style retro look to them IMO, pretty cool looking. The other option, over 5lug PanaSports, has been to look for a wild wheel like the Honda guys run. RX7 wheels will fit my car as will 5.0 Mustang wheels when I'm done going 5lug. Damned hard decision to make with so many choices. Old style or new, opinions? I'm in agaony here. Throw cost out for the moment and no I don't much like the Centerline look - sorry. (smile)

This has come up before a couple of times. Judging from the openness of the lower rockers and their desire to rust right off the car it's pretty attractive to me My interior is currently removed from the car and your post reminded me that I'd forgotten to order the silly foam (grr). I'm considering doing the rockers and possibly doing the frame rails - I'm less sure on the rails. http://www.reactionresearch.com/automotive.html Has the faom and I've sent John an E-mail to ask him about using it. I ASSume he's used it in his various cars and know where to put it for the most strength. I'm also curious as to rust prevention and if I'll have to worry about fire should anything have to be welded later on - a BIG consideration on the Zs I'm afraid. Has anyone actually done this to their car yet? Big difference? Quieter maybe? I've got a pile of DynaMat on the way for my car P.S. This from John over at VR -> You can actually buy the same stuff I use at Home Depot. (Hrm, what is this stuff?) However, particularly since you are going to be doing some welding and stuff later, I don't think I would recommend putting foam in there first. It is a fire hazard, but worse, it produces poisonous gas when it burns. Not a good thing! (Yikes!) Be careful [This message has been edited by BLKMGK (edited August 08, 2000).]

SCOTTIE IS RIGHT!!!! Grab the whole damned car - neighbors be damned! Seriously, the interior parts alone are worth a mint - nevermind the engine. GNs have all sorts of parts that are getting hard as hell to find. Little trim things - stuff liek that. If you grab that whole car you can strip it correctly for the drivetrain and make more than you bought it for via a GN site of E-Bay. A hassle to do yes but wow, that's a find if they'll let it go cheap. The last thing you want is to forget something or accidently mangle something you'll have to buy from GM to finish. Even if it doesn't wind up in the Z you've got an awesome deal. You could easily make a bunch of cash from the drivetrain alone.... Hope this works out for you man - congrats!

Headers is one area where I'm still waffling too. I KNOW I want shorties thouogh - long tubes ain't worth the hassle. I know guys making well over 500hp on Ford motors with short headers - I'll skip the hassles of long tubes My blown 351W has shorties for just that reason, I'll sacrifice a few HP for the ease of use. More than once I've wondered here what size headers to run. Sanderson and Reward both have some good ones. Sanderson has nice cast manifolds if I recall but I wonder about weight! I'll talk to my engine builder about size but if anyone wants to get together for a group buy I'd be interested. Cast manifolds can always be ported if you have to and they ought to run quieter. They'll hold heat in too but remain warm longer I think. The cast turbo manifolds on my Mustang weighed close to 30+lbs apiece - that I don't want! Takman, how long is your turnaround for coating these days? I've not yet got my motor and while I told them I didn't want angle plug heads I'm waiting for it to show up before I order. If some sort of deal comes up for a header that everyone agrees works well I'd go for it. I too have been in quite a quandry about header selection!