BLKMGK

Hrm, ATI blower would run me a little over $3K. To do a turbo setup - twins - I'd have to have manifolds fabricated, piping fabricated, purchase two GOOD turbos, and route the exhaust etc. Don't forget that the turbo to intercooler piping will be more complicated than with a blower too. Ceramic coating is expensive and for a turbo app you're likely looking at the Swain white coating - looks like chalk. I've got this on my 302 manifolds and if it reduced heat I'd hate to see how it would've been otherwise! It didn't wear well BTW and could be easily scratched and stained. I STILL had glowing manifolds on many occasions I'd also argue that turbos DO take some power to run even if it's not readily apparent. Having said that - turbos ARE better IMO if power is all you're looking for. Turbos are nice and quiet and also take out noise form the exhaust. IF I were to do a Ford powered Z the manifolds in my garage would certainly be put to use. Yeah, I'm pretty tempted!

Couple of things... Denny's can narow those shafts if you'd like,when I spoke t them about my driveshaft I also asked about that and they claimn to do it all the time. They can do SOME CV shafts too BTW. Polishing - don't do it In the Florida air it'll just get nasty again unless you clearcoat it - BUX! I'd just have it powdercoated black and be done with it. I've polished lot's of aluminum and I've seen how the Florida air eats it up too - electrolosys (sp?!) is also VERY bad down there so watch that where iron and aluminum meet. My Father's pool latch was eaten up BAD down there and it had been anodized! I cannot wait to see hwo this comes out Scottie. will you be doing the front brakes too in order to balance things out? any and all measurements you can document would be great. I don't anticipate doing this myself and am more apt to go R230 but I do have a friend who's offered to set me up should it become "necessary" down the road Lastly, somewhere I've to pics from Carlisle of a complete 'Vette suspension out of a C5 held together by wire ties and the backbone piece. I'll try to dig that one up - it was wild! That stuff is fosale all over the place. People must be whacking the new 'Vettes at least as fast as they did the older ones (sigh). Goo luck Scotty, this is going to be awesome and can't wait to hear about that 10second time slip!

Check my site and the exhaust pics that I linked to elsewhere here - there are pics from under my car. anything in particular you need a shot of?

I have a "normal" 350 block in mine, pics from underneath on a rack I don't think I have right now. Pics from above I can takepost all day long If I get it on a rack anytime soon I'll see if I can snap some pics. I HOPE that it doesn't require rack time in the near future! Baby gets a new slave and a bath tomorrow night if all works out well. A trip to the shop for funsies on Friday possibly - if I can I'll try to get pics on a rack then but if they're busy I won't be able to.

Smogging is coming to diesals now - at least newer ones. I for one am grateful as the trash they put out is pretty bad and includes carcinogens. I once drove past a bus yard taking my mother to work near DC, the busses were all being cranked up to warm for the morning. I LITERALLY could NOT see and had to both slow down and turn on my lights - the sun was up! Seems the wind was blowing all of the fumes across the road form 50 or more busses. Yeah, Metro doesn't tune their crappy busses hardly at all it seems. Anyway, diesel rant aside - Owen what year, make, and model was the car? For those of you in Cali this is crucial and here in VA where they adopt much of the left coasts laws it's also of interest. We now have dyno emissions testing (sigh) but a good cat cleans up much. A 73 Z should have nothing to fear IMO and a cat CAN be a serious fire hazard so I'd say putting one on would be a mistake (IMO). Talk to the smog folks and get the straight scoop - not word of mouth from someone angry about getting caughtfined.

Hrm, off th etop of my head there's DFI - both old and new, Motec ($$), Haltech, Holley, FelPro (nice!), Electromotive (I'll believe the new Tec II when I see it), SDS, Edelbrock's setup, using an OEM ECU w/software, SpeedPro which might be Mustang only and might have been renamed, and probably a bunch I've forgotten. My thoughts on some of them -> Haltech I don't much like because they've seemed to lag behind for so long. Felpro I think I really like - wide band O2 is a nice option and several tuners have commented on it's abilities. TEC looks good on paper including wide band O2 and some neat software but a learning curve - it's datalogging is nice as is it's graphing. Is Electromotive finally selling wiring harnesses at a reasonable cost? I like SDS for it's simplicity and lack of laptop need, I don't know much about it but it looks good if you don't wish to tinker. DFI's old style I don't much like as it's software is dated and it's datalogging slow - I've used this and have one in the garage with a Mustang jumper harness. An EEC-IV is on the Mustang now. The NEW DFI is looking pretty sweet though, I'd like to know more about it's software. Holly and Edelbrock are okay for stock type motors but lack much flexability IMO but I wouldn't mind learning more about them. Oh, Motec is just way too expensive - it's hard core race car stuff with individual cylinder fueling. Actually, a FelPro or high end DFI can do that too and possibly the TEC series but it's usually an additional cost option and is big bux - NOT needed by most. Overall I'm not sure which I'd pick for myself. However if you're not real "up" on EFI I'd look VERY closely at SDS. Sure, it lacks some high end features like datalogging but it's "good enough" for some pretty fast cars and it's not super expensive. I'm considering it myself even though Electromotive is literally just blocks from my home Sometimes not having as many knobs to twiddle is a "good thing" as it keeps things running better (lol). Plumbing for most all of them will cost about the same BTW.

Sure, a turbo can be dne. The plumbing will be a bear to squeeze in IMO and there will be heat issues underhood. However a turbo makes nice smooth sweet power and actually quites th eexhaust - it's awesome. Btu again, it's complicated, expensive, and not something you can find off the shelf. Something like an ATI supercharger can be ofund all day long and could be bolted in for a fraction of the time incvested in the turbo setup. 10lbs of boost is 10lbs of boost - it makes power! You may not have the ease of adjustment but done right a blower is pretty competitive vs a turbo especially when costs are added in. It is, unfortunatly, noisier which IMO is a downside. The P1200 on my 351W is so loud it nearly drowns out the sounds of the motor It's a nice sound though so I don't bitch to much Is all up to you. If you've got the skills and connections to make the turbo work then by all means go for it - you will NOT regret it fi you can get it bolted up correctly. Just PLEASE document the heck out of the install so others may follow your lead...

I will see what I can do to help you out. In the meantime would shots from above be helpful?

Shoot us a pic so we can see what sort of hoops you'll be jumping through to bolt it up. Methinks that for the trouble you'd be better off buying an LSD R200 or adapting an R230 which is at least close. What makes you believe that the R200 won't hold up? Folks here aren't popping them left and right - Scottie changed his for a better gear ration, he wasn't blowing them up with trans brake DRAG launches so... Why the worry? Until I break mine I'm sticking with it...

*giggle* With my timing "issues" I had a few blasts of flame too. I was on th epassenger side working the solenoid with a jumper wire and the driver's side throttle linkage with my other hand. Needless to say I lost the fur on a portion of my arm after one such ball of flame Also, if it's just flame in the open carb I've found that cranking the engine can often put it out - just don't pump the gas (ahem). I hate carbs but imagine the joy of a fuel leak on a 40+PSI fuel line! A pinhole can stream gas several FEET! Ask me sometime how I felt about an "additional injector" popping off on the Mustang twice while cranking - on a cold engine thank god. Hence my purchase of a DFI and the removal of that piece of junk!

Whoa! Check the rules - cars that were NOT previously equipped with CATs do NOT need them no matter what state. The reason for this is the fire hazard they pose on cars that were not designed to package them. I suggest you speak to this guy and find out what year that car is - something smells here. $6K is three emissions devices bypassed or removed - it's usually $2K per device BTW an dit's a federal offense to remove catalytics (ahem). Anyway, what kind of car was this and what year, need more info. Considering how clueless th eCHP apparently is when it comes to exhaust noise it's quite possibel the guys who wrote the ticket were full of crap and he can get out of it - or his car was supposed to have cats due to it's age....

I think there's some confusion here. What's desired is to use an olde rmotor with the two piece rear seal, it's native flywheel, and then stick a T56 on it. Question becomes can you bolt a clutchpressure plate to that unit and have it work right? I'd say no without machine work but I'm NOT a GM guy. since there exists a flywheel just for this purpose I'm betting that it has to be used. My case was special - one piece rear seal block but a crank hat expected th eolder style flywheel. I had to but th SFI Centerforce wheel as a result - bleah. I CAN tell you that the LT1 flywheel will in no way shape or form bolt up to the older type crank. Keith Craft called Eagle to verify what the screwup was in my case - Eagle makes the stroker cranks in both seal types for the older style flywhel - I have NO idea why! Clear as mud?

Sodapope - can you ask them what they'll let an R230 go for out of one of those late Zs? If they've got a pile perhaps they'll let it go fro a decent price. will they ship? Might want to grab a rear and a set of the CV axles Would like to investigate the R230 swap. Will have to look and see what ratios are out there. Would love to hear how this Q45 setup works out and if the Z 5speed works. IMO a pretty stock Q45 motor would be plenty for a nice light Z. Smooth as glass too! Drooool.... Kripes, I need a second Z to play withnow (lol)

FYI - the one piece oil seal crank I bought to stroke my motor to 383 cubes had the OLDER style flywheel mount on it! Can you say Centerforce flywheel anyway?! I bought the one piece seal block in order to avoid that (sigh). I no have a spare flywheel for an LT1 I can't use... I'm honestly not sure why the older flywheels wouldn't work with a T56. I'm no Chevy guy though so I used what I was told would work correctly and got an SFI rating as an added bonus. Keith Craft felt bad about the flywheel mixup and sold me the Centerforce unit at their cost - including sending along the invoice to prove it. They also got it expedited from Centerforce - they were VERY cool about helping me out.... Kripes, bad enough I don't touch type but this keyboard's keys have to be POUNDED to wok right (sigh). [ August 27, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]

Mine did this to me the other day - choke wired up correctly? Looked like my choke plate sort of fell closed It's wired up now!

The R200 came in th elater Zs, the 280s and up I think. However that rear swaps right into the older cars The 87.5-89 300ZX Turbo cars have the rear you want if you'd like a limited slip. Skip over the SE all white cars though as those are viscous and harder to swap in. We're working on getting info together for an R230 swap out of the Q45 and some other cars (300ZX later years) but that's not quite to the point where it's as easy as the R200. Hope oit gets there soon though

Are you talking tyhe "frame" around the windows? That's "easy"! You remove the trim inside the car, unscrew some little tiny screws, and remove the entire quarter window. The trim is bolted on as sort of a fram around it with little angled pieces in the corners. I've got some spares w/glass if you'd like to try and do it that way as a swap. Be careful with the screws coming out - the heads strip easily and are simply Phillips heads as I recall.

First, buy the JTR swap book. The new version has updated info in it and will give you a VERY good idea as to what's involved. You'll also want to look around to see if there are any rust free Zs in your area and what they're going for. Since you didn't fill out that portion of your profile none of us have any idea where you're located to help you look. Aside from the drivetrain and car don't forget the suspension. You'll want to be able to harness the new found power and you'll also want to be able to stop. There are mild brake upgrades and there are wild brake upgrades so your budget and desire to stop will have to be your guide The little things are what eat you up. Radiator is about $180, electric fan can vary, exhaustheaders, driveshaft, new wheels?, etc. etc. I can't easily give you a final cost, I'm afraid to add up my receipts, but it's not so bad as project cars go. After you've gotten the JTR book make a list and research parts prices. You can do things to save money and we'll help you where that's a good idea but you'll want to make a list as a start....

The glass itself does indeed get pretty hot. However the items inside don't heat up as much so the inside of the car isn't so bad. I've considered tint for my Z but I'm not sure how easy it would be to get to the quarter windows with the cage in place Try this when you've got a chance - open a tinted door and put your hand in the sunlight then close the door such that the sun has to go through the tinted glass. I think you'll find that your hand feels a bit cooler. I'd actually expect tint to be pretty big in Texs, 'Vegas, and I know it's REAL big in Florida. Anyplace where th esun roasts things I'd expect to find tint all over.

Wow Pete, the last article I read was with iron heads I think. Those motors are QUITE stout it seems. Honestly though, with that or some of th eother sicko' torque monsters that are being tossed aorund I have to wonder how traction will be gotten. I think a smaller lighter motor with more top end and less torque is likely to be as fast for less. Obviously at a certain point the bigger motor is better but geez, I'd liek to do more thna go straight and wheel tubsslicks tend to prohibit much of that...

Every tint job I've done myself, a bunch of them, has purpled over the years. I have also always used soap. I'd point out that the level of quality in the tint that's sold for consumer use has never thrilled me either. This IS a job where a pro should probably be used, for th ebetter materials if nothing else. The tint on my RX7 is awesome and shows NO sign of purpling either, I'm pretty impressed.

Slave or master is dead, perhaps all of the fluid is gone? #1 - check fluid level in master. #2 - check for fluid leak at slave and master. #3 - when pressing the pedal doe the slave move at all? #4 - tell us what the slave looks like and what trans this is. Black plastic slave or what? Fixing th eclutch thing shoudln't be too bad but we need to know more information IMO. This happened to me on my Z when I first bought it with the 6. It CAN be driven sans clutch but it's best done with minimal stops and NO traffic. My incident occured in rush hour bumper to bumper so a rollback trip was in order. Turns out my slave was dead, $20 part for a stock Z. No clutch driving goes like this if you wish to attempt it: place car in 1st gear, push pedal down if it's got a neutral start switch, crank car - it WILL lurch! Use the starter to get to where you've got some room, press down gas pedal, crank, HANG ON! Car should start and you're now running in first. Get up to shift speed, make that a slightly higher than normal shift speed - as this RPM comes up lightly pull back on the stick and let off the gas at the same time. As th eenginetrans unloads it'll slip out of gear, it should pop into NEUTRAL. In NEUTRAL give it a little gas to rev it up a LITTLE and lightly hold it against the 2nd gear gate. As the RPM drops down to where it would be in 2nd at this particular vehicle speed it'll drop right into second as things synch up in the trans. Rinse and repeat for each gear. Get good enough and you can let off the gas and slip it right into the next gear Stopping: Step on brake in gear, allow car to die - it WILL buck and lurch! Or pull it into neutral and turn it off after you've stopped. Put it in first and start as before - caution, leave some room between you and the car ahead of you when starting! Consider starting in second. Downshifting: Same as upshifting but when going into th enext gear down rev engine up a bit high as it'll want higher RPMs in the lower gear thna it did in the higher one. Consider using your hazards while doing this or being followed by someone who knows what's up. A rollbackwrecker is MUCH safer! However when I last had to do this it was good enough to get me to a safe place to park rather than the side of the highway. I once had to do this for over 100miles of mostly highway driving when a clutch cable snapped in the Mustang - it sucked! Be aware, this is HARD on both the starter and the transmission. The starter should live if you don't have to use it over an dover without time to cool, the trans should be okay so long as you use a light touch and don't try to cram it into gear. Good luck! Let us know what radiator and fan it has on it and what it's got for coolant. The overheating thing shoudln't be too bad to fix unless it's got a real problem.

I've always been told that when you fwelt pressure it was the piston coming up on compression but since I've had so much trouble with this myself I'm obviously NO expert. As for the #1 position on the cap - it can be ANYWHERE - usually. The ONLY time this matters is when the engine uses a cam sensor fo rEFI firing. Some setups are sequential and sequential setups need to know where the cam is. Often times this will be done with the distributor but NOT always. If it's a carb you can do whatever you want on the cap. In fact if the wires are long enough and you're off by a tooth on the distributor you can move the wires around to get it right without removing the distributor again. One other way to do this - ASSuming the TDC mark is correct. Bring engine up to "TDC" and stab in the distributor. Crank engine. If it backfires through the carb then it's 180 out, remove distributor, turn the rotor 180, reinstall. It SHOULD be right however this didn't work in my case and we had to play "distributor bingo" to get things "right. PITA Chevy! Ford has always been easier fo rme an dI've never had to pull out a distributor on a small block Ford changing intakes either...

ZFan, I'm just wondering if it'll be neough in conjunction with the muffler I've already got. The Sebring is a SWEET muffler that I don't intend to remove but I'd like to get it a little quieter is all. 2 chamber flo's are obnoxiious but 3's in conjuntionc with the Sebring might be good. I'll peruse their WEB site a bit and see if they've got anything that might easily fit under my car Ground clearance is something I certainly want to keep!

Umm Pete - that MoTown motor is UNDERRATED! Yup, according to what I've read their initial dyno runs (dyno test each motor) are consistantly HIGHER than the advertised horespower ! They're considering upping the power rating later on as a result. It seems that as they've assembled more and more of these, tweaked their setup, etc. etc. they've steadily gained power but never revised their rating. Sick power to be sure but it comes with a serious pricetag too. They may offer aluminum heads down the road BTW, at that point it'll be a MUCH more interesting package for a Z IMHO. One very nice motor though...