BLKMGK

If I were doing an RB I'd buy them. Hassling to build your own mounts or trying to get something from overseas is a PITA. the JTR mounts I used could've been built but they had done the research and were selling them for a price that was reasonable so I bought them. These have a FAR smaller market and are well built and won't rust. In the grand scheme of an engine swap $300 is peanuts for something that saves so much work! Geez, so many more interesting motors than the SBC nowadays. If I were doing it again the 2JZ and the RB would rank higher on my list than the SBC. Oh well, maybe next time

Okay, I'm going to try and get my butt moving to get this car back on the road. My original plans had always been to use the carb for testing and shaking out bugs and then goto EFI. That was more than a year or so ago and I'm finally going to CVs which shoudl be one of the last driveline bugs. So, plans are to mount the SX pump and filter in the garage (we'll see how loud it is), purchase an AEM 1010 ECU with a Honda connector, build or buy an engine harness, adapt the harness, mount up a Victor Jr. drilled for EFI, slap a throttlebody on it, and probably run 8 LSI coils once I figure out where to mount them. For triggering I think I'll go with the trigger from Electromotive that replaces the distributor - it'll be VERY clean I think. Not sure how long this will take me. Suspension must be done and tested first then an intake drilled and setup. The rest will be pretty easy IMO as EFI is really not that hard to do and the AEM will cost me under a grand with connector. Oh yeah, dual channel W/B too, I'm getting one for my Mustang with ECU and will probably swap it back and forth Yeah, I'm a little excited about finally getting moving on this sucker! 8)

Use the OEM ECU and look at something like LT1 Edit to modify the programming. In fact I think that GM may even make a harness and ECU just for swaps. Unless you're going to be heavily modifying the motor a fully programmable EMS is a waste as you'll spend a TON of time trying to get things like drivability perfect when the OEMs have already done the job for you

Look into what it takes ot make welds on a Titanium exhaust - you won't want it. Lite as a feather but not cheap and a bitch to work with.

Sick of not being able to drive my Z for fear of breaking something I've finally begun working on swapping the CV axles on I've got one side's strut pulled, the stub out, and will have bearings pressed on the new stubs tomorrow time allowing along wiht a new dust boot on that side. I'll then pull the other side and get it together too While I'm at it I'm going to try and setup the Wilwood E-brakes. I've only had those parts sitting for like a year! Which nut is it for the stub axles that does NOT require peening? Is it the ZXT nut? I need to get a set of them and when I tried last time I got the wrong ones Anything I should watch for while doing this? My stubs are drilled, studs pressed, adapters welded. One CV looks longer than the other, which side does it go on? Anything I can do to prep the CVs or just put them on? Boots look fine! Heh, on to the EFI!

It IS all relative. My W/B compared to the local dyno is about 1 A/F point off which would seem to suck except they use a tailpipe sniffer and NOT a bung (this sucks). In fact looking at my logs I find that their sensor is also reading several hundred RPM "slow" due to pipe length! I agree that even buying somehting like the FJO has some risk. Free Air calibration would seem to rule some of this but using a test gas would be even better. To me .1 accuracy is incredible - anything within .5 is good enough for me actually. The trouble is that since it's ALL relative you might be close to someone else's meter and still be off or I might do something during assembly that tweaks mine <sigh>. Buying something like an FJO or AEM is worth it to me but no way will I pay what Horiba and Motec want, I know those guys are pirates. As for EGT... see above. If you REALLY want to tune then buy the tools needed and tune. You might be surprised at what you can learn with a good A/F meter, I've learned a ton. I think I've said it before - I will NEVER try to tune a car without a W/B ever again. That said - sometimes you can "fool" a W/B too so you have to understand those circumstances too. To REALLY tune I think I'd want an EGT, W/B, and a cylinder pressure sensor ($$$). I spoke to someome who works with the pressure sensors everyday for a big diesal manufacturer. He said that the slightest change in fueling and whatnot was readily obvious on the pressure graphs. I'd LOVE to have one of those to tune timing but they simply cost too much for any one person to afford at a hobbyist level. Hopefully they will come down like W/B have....

Couple of things - narrow band sensors can tell you rich or lean over and below stoich. That means rich might be 13:1 or it might be 9:1 - one of those melts pistons in my motor the other blows raw burning fuel out melting my turbo. Hell rich could even be 14:1 with the response curve those suckers have - they flip like a lightswitch. That's why in closed loop operation the Autometer gauge looks like a disco ball as the sensor flips richlean as the ECU compensates. Techedge - I've yet to see those suckers tested against another meter by an independant 3rd party. They were challenged on the AEM board but the guy doing the testing has never heard back from them on an eval unit and refuses to purchase one himself just to prove a point. If you're building it yourself you may also run into issues where one unit is more accurate than another - yes even with free air calibration. Currently someone I know is testing Horiba, NTK, FJO, Motec, and AEM W/B against one another under real world circumstances. I hope to know soon how close they all came to one another but I won't be surprised to find as much as a half point or more difference in some of them. Techedge isn't in this test for the reasons stated above. I've also heard at least one other person cast some doubt on the Techedge and this was a guy with access to test gas and measuring equipment however he refused to publish his complete findings The Techedge makes me nervous frankly, if it's off how would you know exactly? Is it really worth risking a motor over say $300? I wish Techedge had sent an eval unit to this guy to compare against the other main ones out there! If nothing they have provided low cost competition. I'm pretty much on the fence concerning these meters but don't think I'll trust an expensive motor of mine to one of them. Yes, today you can still manage to find NTK sensors at "reasonable" prices, that will slowly peter out as the remaining supply goes away. I happen to have 2 spare sensors not counting the one in the car but will go Bosch for my next W/B install. I paid nowhere near $190 for these spares! The Bosch sensor AEM is using is supposedly a pretty new one and only costs $30 to replace I'm told. NTK can bite me and so can Honda @ $300 apiece! Porsche, Subaru, and others supposedly use these Bosch sensors so no way will these go away so easily

No way can you use EGT alone to really tune a car - only if you're working with an OEM ECU that has a set spark curve could you do this by comparing with others. For instance - I can run a PIG rich A/F and retarded timing and get sky high EGT. Just looking at the EGT how would you know what was going on? Some would tell me I was lean EGT work best in conjunction with a W/B O2 IMO. This way you can see your TRUE A/F and use the EGT to evaluate timing. Also - most EGT are fairly slow. I've tuned with an RTD type sensor that was incredibly fast but it didn't have a gauge, had to be read by my EMS, and the danged thing died on me. $149 shot! I use an Apexi EGT with P/H and warning just to keep an eye on things but with their track record I'd never mount it in front of a turbo since when it fails it takes the turbo with it As for what W/B works best be aware that the current Techedge offerings only use a VERY expensive NTK sensor that has recently become RARE. Replacements from Honda are $300! Soon Honda may be the ONLY source for these AEM makes a Bosch based W/B that rox however it currently has NO display and is designed to be attached to an aftermarket EMS. Techedge V2 is supposed to use a Bosch style sensor but I don't think it's been released yet. Lots of W/B info on the AEM EMS support forums....

Which Supra coils are you using? the Supra coils on my MKIV require an ignitor to fire them and are NOT cheap. If those are what you're talking about look at the LS1 coils instead - integral ignitor and they fire nice and hot for about $30 a coil plus the connectors are readily available (so are Supra actually). I've actually switched from Supra coils (mine were old), dumped my OEM ignitor (which is "smart" with regards to dwell and hosed me when I went waste-fire), and installed LS1 coils which do exactly what I want with regards to dwell. As a result I can now idle MUCH leaner. The Supra coils aren't bad but for the money you can do better. It's possible to use LS1 coils in a COP config or if you want to go that way and not research interconnects for th eLS1 lemme' know and I can find you some true COP style coils that aren't big bux.

Stupid question... my research on some of the JDM engines has found a couple of different places noting that you always need to check the oil pan to make sure it's not been dinged. Apparently the engines get tossed around a bit and the oil pan can get dented upwards such that it either blocks the oil pickup or can actually bang the crank (did this on a SBC once). Migh tbe too late for this motor but posisbly something worth checking - especially if the pan isn't cast aluminum. Is the RB motor using a cast pan?

AEM sells only PnP systems - this is true. However this is really just a wiring issue - the Honda 1010 box is what they have in their drag Civic and I believe is what has been used to get an Audo 1.8T running recently too. This works well because apparently those Honda connectors are cheap, easy to get, and that box has all I/O enabled. Only a few boxes have some I/O disabled BTW. Chevy SBC apps and others are on their list. I've been bugging them about this because there's one or two GM ECUs that cover a HUGE range of motors and platforms. If they did this one they could really get a bunch of platforms covered at once pretty easily. However their focus at this time is getting a solid version of their software ready to roll and they've stated that NO new apps will go out until this is done. That software is CLOSE, I've been beta testing it for them for awhile. Hopefully when this is shipped a torrent of apps will come out, I know the Viper is high on their list too. When a SBC app is out, if I don't do it sooner, I'll put pone on my Z. To be clear - the AEM software can handle most any sensor and each box is NOT dedicated to certain sets of sensors. You could even just use a simple trigger wheel if you wanted as that would be cake to setup. Considering the cost, especially at wholesale, the AEM is a huge bargain and is likely competitive and more powerful than other solutions you're familiar with. If you want head over to the AEMPower.com WEB site and ask some questions about what you'd want to see..... P.S. They don't have a simple generic one size fits all box advertised because the support headaches would drive them batty. As it is they have tons of phone calls and 50+ postings a day on their support board. Can you just imagine the torrent of "how do I wire up my '67 Triumph distirbutor to the AEM?" type questions if they had official support for a generic box? Figuring out some of this stuff takes time with an O-Scope and the average Joe just doesn't have the skill. AEM has also found that some service manuals that describe this sort of sensor data are NOT always correct

The headlites, the dash lites, all sorts of stuff are HOT all the time if you check them with a volt meter. When you switch a switch you're giving the circuit GROUND not HOT.

One thing I wish I could do with th eAEM is turn off closed loop at idle and then turn it on higher. Instead I can only turn it off up higher if I want but down low it's always on. I guess I can just make my idle targets rich is all One thing to understand about A/F at idle is that exhaust flow is VERY slow and getting the W/B to read reliably can be more difficult since changes made take awhile to hit the sensor. I idle a bit rich, like 13.5:1, and it's MUCH more stable than if I go for Stoich. Part of that is granularity - when I'm down that low my map isn't granular enough. I can fix that but it requires doing a pile of math and work so I've not done it this time around - I plan to in the future. Watch the timing too - get too aggressive and the idle will surge. My OEM ECU on th eSupra supposedly only has 12 degrees of timing at idle, Im running as much as 20 but cannot quite get Stoich idle. <shrug> As for the price of the AEM W/B I'd look someplace liek Horsepowerfreaks.com since Chris has good prices. However be aware that the AEM doesn't YET have an external display. One coudl certainly be made and if you're handy with electronics the DIY display could be modified to work but as of yet it's not been done. AEM intends to fix this but I have NO idea what their time table is. I hope to have an AEM W/B one of these days for either the Z or my Mustang - possibly both. I iwll not tune without one!

My biggest concern would be the possibility of overspeeding the turbo since it would simply freewheel with no pressure against it and no exhaust being bypassed. I still might do it though I'm dynoiing on the 12th, I might try this if I'm happy with the first pull (I get two pulls).

You cvan work over the older 4valve motors for sure but the price goes up and up. The 10K price sounds high to me, I have heard that if you blow an older crate motor the Ford replacement motor under warranty is an 03 Cobra motor - yes with a blower If someone decides to seriously build a 4valve Cobra motor one of th ebest shops around for this stuff is local to me and is doing motors for Larocca (sp?) and others. I wouldn't touch a Shawn Hyland motor - I've seen their work more than once. <ahem>.

The headgasket is a known issues with known fixes. There are both better head gaskets out there and procedures for retorquing the heads. It seems that Toyota didn't torque the heads enough whihc is why they so easily blow - especially turned up. 5PSI is nothing, you might as well not have been running any boost. If I pull an intercooler hose on my car it's so slow it's not even funny! Even winding it out WOT it gets walked by pedestrian cars of all types. A low compression 6banger without boost just doesn't move. I ought to dyno it that way one day!

A good powedercoating shop will strip the part bare and do a good job. Nearly all of my suspension was donethis way and it's a VERY durable coating.

That 9second car is Nitrous Pete. Aftermarket automatic in that car too. I've seen more than a few Cobras make close to 500RWHP. My friend's shop works on them and Lightnings every single day. It's no wider than the regular 4.6Cobra motor but the blower raises it's height some I THINK. If anyone needs measurements, again, I can go over there with a tape measure...

Friend's shop hops up 4.6mod motors all day long - he doesn't see that many failures. Most of them expire from being run lean, detonation, or in some cases from too much power - I've seen rods removed from blower cars bent like an S. Hypereutectic pistons don't help either! The 03 Cobra runs Manley rods and aftermarket forged pistons. 500+RWHP is the reuslt and one of them has already run a single digit 1/4 on the stock bottom end - aftermarket blower. So which would I do? If you were looking at an 03 Cobra assembly the answer would be EASY However between a 1997 assembly and an LT1 which is MUCH easier to bolt in I'd do the LT1. It won't rev as high and the Optispark sux but of those two it would be easier to work with. The 4.6 WILL fit I believe, I've posted measurements before, but the SBC has been done and documented.

FAST is lacking in the I/O dept. They also charge a pretty penny for their W/B setup and it's single channel. The system forces you to send the system back to them for upgrades. Their software seems decent, some features I'd like to see in my AEM actually. However for th eprice I'd look at adapting the AEM to the SBC. In fact I'm considering this A Honda 1010 system coudl be adapted easily enough with the ignition triggering being the toughest part. I'm waiting for AEM to do a SBC app and then I'll take the plunge on my Z with a drilled single plane intake (finally). Pop over to the AEM forums for more info on the box. forum.aempower.com is the URL. I've been working alot with the system and for the money I don't think anything touches it!

3inch fit on my car! That exhaust isn't hurting you too much though as most Camaros I see dynoed stock are lucky to make 320RWHP with a few mods. 311RWHP isn't bad at all!

IMO go 16sw if you can find the tires you want for them. I have 17s on my car and it raised the overall ground clearance. 2454517s in the back and I don't think I could easily have gone wider without some spacers. I'm running the Konig 5.0s for the Mustang with two different offsets. There are some posts here with pics and measurements somewhere as well as some info on my site. I sorta' wish I'd kept the old style Panasports I'd had when I got the car but they were 4lug...

Head over to Supraforums.com and browse the MKIII section or to I-supra.com and look the same section over. The MKIII is lighter than 3600lbs I believe but it's not super fast. Many of these guys are happy to beat mostly stock Mustangs and a V8 Z ought to be able to do that easily.

Datsun switched ground and not hot...