BLKMGK

Mechanical fans DO rob power. I've watched dyno runs of Ford Lightnings done with and without an electric fan - they pickup power with the electric fan everytime. There's an electric load involved but it's NOT as bad as te mechanical fan even with the fluid clutch. The reason people tell others to dump the BlackMagic fan is because it's a POS! Get a REAL fan like the OEMs use and it's a non-issue. I drove my Z in the Summer heat too and it wasn't a problem - no overheating. I could stand at the BACK of my car and feel the heat from the fan. I also observed it suck a piece of paper off the garage floor and stick it to the radiator when it kicked on. Sick! As for the Ford vs Chevy - GM motors make big torque too! I personally would do the 351W myself if I were doing a Ford. When the motor in my Mustang needed a rebuild I did a 351W - it was a no-brainer. Parts interchange between the two in many cases and the physical size was also really close. Who needs local sources of parts? Mail order will get you any part you need for a Ford motor. Heck, this town is BIG on Fords and Chrysler products but I drive and modify my Toyota with ease.

Where would I buy a car with near 300HP for $27K? How about I BOUGHT a 390RWHP car for $27K? 1995 Supra. It's now closer to 500RWHP for a few grand extra. How much will that Z cost to get to say 400RWHP without spray? Yeah, I thought so. RX7 left out shores primarily due to emissions - making a rotary clean is tough. Supra left due to low sales - the asking prices were insane. My window sticker say $50K+ I think, but am no sure, that low sales killed the 300ZTT. The 350Z will sell I'm sure. Lot's ofpeople want an Audi TT but most cannot afford it. The Z will appeal to those people I'm sure. They will talk all about handling and how power isn't a big deal until a Z06 smokes them A Miata handles great, can be had cheap, and can be turbocharged more easily - I find them at least as appealing as a 350Z. Had they put turbos on the 350Z I'd be doing handstands but they didn't and adding them will cost cubic dollars. Where's the beef?!

thats what my thinking is Water removes heat better than air - it's probably a good bet that with a well done air/water setup the air would remain cooler for longer periods of time. Go read the Autospeed article on intercooler sprayers - you'll learn that intercoolers are as much heatsink as anything else and in that case the more heatsink the better. Water makes having a larger "sink" easier. You really ought to do some reading. Since when is nitrous flammable? CO2, if it gets blown into the intake will ROB power - like a fire extinguisher. Nitrous, since it's oxygen bearing will do the opposite. Again, read the Autospeed article - nitrous would have to be used in great volume to see much difference. I've heard of people using as much as 10lbs in a single dyno run to get a decent effect. i'd much rather spray that into the intake where I could take full advantage of the temp drop and oxygen benefits

I'm waiting on the EVO VII and hopefully the WRX STI to make it over. From what I've read they screwed the Skyline too and I won't touch it either. Sad thing is I was actually pondering one if it was as nice as we've been led to believe in the past. Instead it's looking to be N/A too. Guess we'll see. The Mitsu could be interesting

How good were the instructions with the new kit? Are we talking Heathkit or "here's a schematic and a list of corrections to it - good luck!"?

Sensor is around $135 - the controller box is a bit more than that - something over $200 if I recall. The new type 2 box? Why would you want the Bosch sensor? It's slower and more expensive! Nice to have the option but the Type 1.5 box using the NTK sensor is what I'd want. [Edit - kit is in the $135 range, assembled is what's more.]

What he means is that it can sense what cylinder knocked and retard THAT cylinder instead of retarding them ALL. Just because one cylinder knocked doesn't mean the rest are going to Same setup used on my standalone - way cool!

Umm, care to back that up - read my post above. A body of water will remove heat from the air more quickly and will transfer that via a radiator to the air fairly well too. Think of it as a GIANT heatsink. Looked at a Cobra or Lightning truck lately? They solved the packaging issues and managed to intercool a Roots blower using water. Done right their IATs will be nice and steady and formwhat I've seen they did indeed do it pretty well. Fluidyne just released some nice heat exchangers for them too

Pretty much my thoughts - they can keep it until they do it right. I've already seen kill stories on these cars - it's pathetic. One raced a Vette' and when he lost was confused - seems the dealer told him it would "eat a Vette'". Not even close!

IMO the pro do NOT outweigh the cons. Water cools more rapidly than air and an advantage to water is that it can be dropped below ambient with ice for short periods of time. You can also increase the amount of time it takes for the intercooler to heatsoak simply by increasing the amount of water involved. Friend's with Lightnings do this often with a cooler in the bed - ice and a larger water resevoir mean they can go longer before the intercooler gets warmed. With enough water you'll always be near ambiant - try that with just air. Water intercoolers can also be packed into a smaller space - think Vortech Aftercooler. The actual portion doing the cooling of the water can be put anywhere thatair can reach it - think MR2 with front or deck mounted radiator. That said there ARE cons which mean that it's not the best solution for everyone. In a Z where there's TONS of room in th enose I'm not sure it makes much sense....

Ford Taurus SHO. Ford block, Yamaha (sp?) head

Coming into this late but I'll echo the 555Rs. I had them on my Supra daily driving and IMO they stuck GREAT in the rain! Unfortunatly they also wore out so there are now regular 555s on all 4 corners now. The Z has 245 45 17 555Rs on it if I remember right with 225s up front. To do it again I might have kept my 15inch Panasports Still, the 17s look nice but raise the car up a bit which you've already noticed it seems. Switch to a pair of 555Rs and see how it goes. A 245 should fit the stock wheelwell if it's spaced correctly - I'm using Mustang offsets. The 555R hooked DEAD on my Supra and would actually bog the motor if I wasn't careful. I've got them sitting in the garage on another set of rims, ought to take them out for a spin sometime soon to see how they don with the new turbo IF the 555Rs don't hook you better THEN consider more expensive changes, start cheap and work up! After tires I'd consider springs - let the rear squat some. Zs seem to hook well squatting and your rear suspension can handle it from the sounds of it. If that still doesn't do it maybe consider some way to kill off lowend torque using the Speedpro..... Keep us posted and let's see some more pics man!

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=357271 LOL! Reminds me of stories of people building boats in their basement only to realize later it can't be taken out!

Damn! I'm looking for a lift too, if you hear of any deals I'm all ears. Need to lift the roof still but if I find a good one I'll store it if I must...

This thread might be helpful. It's talking about some of the various Supra trannies. Note in particular the W58 N/A tranny that's used in several models has different extension housing that can apparently be swapped to change the LENGTH of the overall trans and shifter position. This might help ya'll out...

To this I'd add - put the Tyvek over your shoes which should be high tops - use duct tape to SEAL it! Wear surgical gloves, seal them with duct tape also. Try to get one with a hood, do wear goggles, and certainly wear some sort of breathing thing. Expect to sweat a ton in this no matter how cool it is out there - trust me. I've done this on my back in a crawl space and when done I had no fiberglass issues - whew! Smelled pretty good tho

Heh, any BOVs or other neat toys in those clips? some of the stuff that comes over with JDM clips canbe worthwhile if you look closely.

I've got them on my '72 - they look GREAT. They're light as a feather too ArizonaZ made them once upon a time too but you had to buy $1K worth of crap before he would considermaking any parts. Mine came from Motorsport safe and sound for a reasonable cost. I don't recall the cost mind you but it was cheaper than new bumpers and beat ArizonaZ's prices. You will have to have some minor bodyworksanding doneto them and that's about it in my experience. I like 'em - can ya' tell?

Can you bump up to 245? I'm pretty sure that's what I've got under my rear fenders and any added traction you can get would be good. I never really got on my car very hard as I was breaking rear bits but spinning over 555R Nittos wasn't hard and they were 245s!

IMO - swap out the gauges for 2 5/8ths Automater mechanical. Tach will fit right in the stock hole as will the speedo. Trans selection will decide which speedo to get but I love my electronic one! Fuel level gauge might be an issue though so research that - it's been discussed here before. I went with a cell thatcontains a GM sender to avoid that mess. Better brakes will be a must! Certainly get the JTR book and read up here on the CobraTaurusMKVIII electric fans for cooling - they're cheap and STOMP aftermarket fans. I like the Howe aluminum radiator out of Jegs, it was cheap and cools great Overall the swap is an easy one IMO but easy to get carried away with! P.S. Be sure to read some of the threads concerning CV conversion and the R200 diff for the rear end. My car's Achillies heal is the rear and I'm needing to switch to CVs.

I was off a bit http://www.mkiv.co.nz/specs.htm the rear is pretty close to a 3.2:1. I still think a 3.7 would be okay but lower would be better since the motor likes to have a steep ratio to push against. Hrm, wonder if the Supra rear could be easily swapped? I think the Automatic Supras have a deeper ratio. That page should give some decent measurement info for the trans at least. As for that WEB site - it's Flash enabled with no apparent option to not use that crap. On my broadband connection it took awhile to load. It's cutesy but tells squat about what people care about - flashy website != impressive shop.

I'm with Alex - get the best flowing single plane carb intake you can get and convert it. Unfortunatly the guy I gave my intake to for the conversion hasn't been in touch for like 6months! Great price in money terms but the guy is too busy doing other things to bother with my piddly intake I'm not quite ready for EFI on the Z yet as the computer I want to use isn't quite out yet for a universal app so I'm not stressing too bad but this is getting a bit old. Anyway, what Alex said should work and you can use a cheap Ford TB or an NOS airdoor if you would like. A tunnel ram should work too but that would likely present space issues. The new Holley EFI intake that's tunnel rambased looks good but it too won't fit without a cowl scoop I'm pretty sure. Since you're injecting fuel nearly at the valve you want something free flowing anddon't have to worry about fuel dropping out of suspension or intake wall wetting

NTK W/B O2 sensor by itself costs $135. The posts above give plenty of options for true W/B measurement on a budget. Guess I'mnot sure what post you were referring to, both Pete and I were talking about "real" W/B using the same NTK sensor Motec and others use only not getting raped for it. Follow the links... Pete the new 1.5 unit looks sweet, I'm talking to a guy who's going to get a prototype 2.0 unit too using the Bosch sensor. Some kind of way this guy is able to get the Bosch sensors for just $38! That box will be able to use both NTK and Bosch sensors. Best of all from my standpoint is the fact that their new boxes are LINEAR across a 0-5volt scale. When using them with an aftermarket ECU this makes life MUCH easier and I wish my FJO did this. With electrical loads like lights I'm seeing signal change of .2volts and with the sensor being non-linear that can be a big swing depending upon where I am in the A/F range at any given moment Will order one of those puppies, just not yet. Their price doesn't look too bad IMO and the new boards look easier to build too...

$1600?! Wow, they're a bit more expensive here I believe. Biggest trouble with them seems to be where the shifter comes out Great ratios though IMO. The Supra's rear ratio is something in the mid 3s. A 3.7 LSD would probably work well with it. Can verify the Supra ratio if anyone cares, I think it's close enough to work well in our app. Wish I could do this swap!

5.3%?! Holy smokes, I just refinanced a year ago and that's low enough that it might be worth my while to check into! I'm going to be raising the roof on my garage so I've got a 13foot ceiling and adding heat plus a lift. This will be an equity loan but if the rates are low enough itmigh tbe smart to just redo the whole thing and grab some of the equity for the job. Hrm! How long does the process take?