BLKMGK

You forgot the intercoolers. Now add up the price of the turbos ($!), Injectors ($!), and Intercoolers ($!). Exhaust too. Ooops, you just bought a V8. How much do the TT motors weigh BTW? Plumbing and all? I'm wondering if the weight is really all that different. What do replacement parts cost? You get th eidea - a V8 is going to be a pretty viable solution I think.

Am currently wrestlng wiht this. Pete's setup looks pretty awesome but it requires a particular alternator that I didn't realize until AFTER I'd purchased a standard sized alternator (I think - it's one wire so maybe?). I've also got a short water pump - a potential mistake. Since I also want to run A/C down the road Pete's setup REALLY looks good (sigh). Zoops seems to have a great number of brackets but very little in the way of description as to how it will mount on the block etc. unlike March who seems to show much of their stuff on a motor. S&P has nice stuff but very little on the web and mostly for EFI. Some of the setups out there seem to preclude ever running a radiator hose to the top of the motor too - huh?! Anyway, I'm still screwing around with this and hating every minute of it! Pete's been real helpful but buying a new alternator (?) AND a new water pump just isn't in the budget right now. Not when the alternaor is as high as $250, the pump as high as $150, pullies $40+ apiece, and the brackets still have to be built... March's setup is $300 BTW but includes everything except the water pump I'm also considering this setup at the moment but it might be too tall -> I think I can flip the alternator to the passenger side where I want it so I don't have to move my oil filter and lines until I do the A/C. Unfortunatly that looks like a mightly long freespan belt run! If my alternator is the wrong one I may stick to the March setup and give up the A/C for now. Not being a GM expert it may take me awhile to figure out if this one wire alternator is the smaller size needed to mount it in front of the head and still line up (sigh). Here's the March setup -> This is what I'm trying to avoid -> The bracket I have now from GM mounts something like that. Long belt run and the top bar can move at higher RPMs if it's not sturdy enough. Lone, what did you use? Got any pics? Anyone else got a magic setup like Pete's to share? Here's his setup -> Pete's got a bigger pic on his site but I didn't want to hose everyone's reading here.. [ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]

Well... I guess it would depend on the speed. Look inside the doors of a 240Z sometime and examine the crash protection. There's A stamped sheet metal bar in there - NOTHING else! Remove the window assemblies from one of those doors and you could ring that sucker like a gong. A side bar may not stop a car coming through but I have no doubt it would slow it down much more than what's in there stock. I have no idea what safety standards were in the 70s but wow is that door thin. I wonder if sidebars run low like the Autopower cage in my Mustang would help at all? They would almost act like a frame and help prevent flex from the side but they wouldn't slow much of anything coming through the door up higher. It would provide strength but not get in the way at least. The sidebars I've got are a PITA. NOT for the daily driver. The SCCA car I nearly bought was pretty sick - it had a triangulated CAGE on each side by the doors. THAT provided impact protection I'm positive. Looked like bridge supports! It was too much, no way was I going to buy a car with that much cage in it for the street...

I have to ask... Why? I'm not putting down the swap mind you, just wondering what it was that attracted you to that engine and how you heard about it. That motor looks pretty darned neat and I had never heard of it before. Will you be looking to turbo it in the future or tweak it further? Heh, might have to get together with you and Scottie next time I'm down - love the old Mustangs! I've got family in Cocoa...

Umm, what will you be using it for? Mikelly is working oon a 20+ point cage. I've got a 8 point cage in mine, others simply have subframe connectors of their own making. You'll probably get a million opinions on this as well as learn what a PITA side bars are with a cage - but they will also protect your butt in an accident if you're T-boned. What is it, exactly, that you're trying to accomplish? What are you doing to the car and with the car?

Since we're confessing... On my Mustang I pulled th eupper intake, sanded it smooth, hand sanded it, then polished it until it gleamed! I then did this for brackets and have even done an ATI blower or two for friends. The Z has SOME chrome, mostly the alternator. The rest is brushed aluminum an din fact today I almost polished my cut off switch handle but left it brushed instead. Why? Well, bare aluminum oxidizes just like bare steel. People claim aluminum "doesn't rust" - that's not true. It just does it differently and in some climates (Scottie's) it will goto dust just like iron. As soon as water or any other chemical hits it you're polishing again! I DO polish stainless pieces but let me tell you it's about 5 times harder to bring up than aluminum! IF you choose to polish aluminum look into having it clear coated as soon as it's done as the maintenance on the soft polished aluminum is a real bear. Let some brake dust get into it and you're looking at a BIG polish job all over again (shiver). My Mustang now has a bare minimum of polished parts. The intake is sold, the blower I've got is cast, and only a bracket or two and the throttle body are polished nicely. It's just too much work to keep up IMO and I regretted ever having spent that time laboring over it. Nowadays I polish stainless bolts, chrome, and parts for friends if they ask nice but little for myself It helps that I've got a full size buffer, that first intake was done mostly with a drill and hand work. P.S. I would NEVER try to polish anything as complicated as say a tunnel ram or carb intake. I tried ONCE for a friend - NEVER again. Too much work to do it right.

I've always wanted a 2.3liter 4cyl Turbo'ed Pinto I've spoken to guys thathave done this and know someone with a Merkur that hums - fun fun! The circle track guys here use 2.3liter Fords and rev them to 8K or so all night long on stock rodsparts. It's pretty amazing! I take nothin away from the smaller engines but just don't want the hassle of engineering it all myself. Heck, a TT rotary in a Z would be wild but the V8 is documented to the hilt thanks in no small part to this site...

But wouldn't that length of negative cable also be just as likely to get grounded? I'm just not quite sure what htis saves other than some cable since I could mount my ground in the back off the switch. What am I missing or is that it? Not sure I'd want my main ground point at the furthest rear of the car As for the remote switch to kill - the street rod guys have those. Cost is about $89 or so from what I've seen. Several are made for this purpose. Lastly, IF you decide to use that small hole back there do NOT get the Flaming River switch. Instead look to the Moroso heavy duty switch. It might not be as nice BUT the hole size is likely okay - the Flaming switch uses a hole of giant proportions! At least I know a new piece of metal between the lights will cover this ugly thing (sigh). I'm considering installing a jumper over the contacts for street use so people can't twiddle it at shows and whatnot (ahem). We'll see, I'm picking up battery lugs tonight...

Mine was pretty cheap too for the windshield. Old glass might be tougher to handle and pitted to - I'd go new on the windshield (okay, I DID go new). The difference was night and day! Side quarter windows shouldn't be bad and on E-Bay they usually ship with chrome etc still attached (I've got spares!), door windows I'd wait on until you had the new glass and were ready to swap as there's a bunch of parts in there. Heh, sounds like the hatch in my rafters w/glass is going to be there for awhile if rear glass is as expensive as that. Ouch! seriously, it's a shame you're not closer...

I've got Precision's kit myself. The back glass seal was thinner than the NISMO one which then exposed a previous paint color (grr). You won't have that trouble. They had trouble geting the chrome in too. Front glass was more of the same but unless you know to look it's not a big deal. I've got their door seals, they work better than what I had and I can slam them if I must. Rear hatch seal sucked and had to be trimmed in several places and still flops around in some. I'm gluing it down as best I can - it's pretty wimpy. The rest is in a bag - I bought it for another car that I then got rid of and am just using what I need right now... For the price th ePrecision stuff isn't too bad but DO go straight to them and NOT through MSA or VB who mark it WAY up even when it's on "sale"

My understanding is that prep for chrome is nearly the same as polishing - it has to be smooth or you'll see dimples etc.. That price sounds like a good one ut I'd wonder abou how well it will weather for that price. Chroming can also embrittle the part but I don't know if that will be an issue. Polishing would be awesome but don't do it unless you're also going to clearcoat otherwise it will be a PITA to keep up with (trust me).

Funny you should mention this. I too wasn't real scientific on where we put my peches. As it turns out the rear is pretty good with lot's of adjustment up and down. The front on the other hand is near the bottom of the adjustment range and running out of adjustment. Thankfully the ride height looks to be just about right and it doesn't need to go lower. (shrug) I guess lower rate springs could be used to drop it more if I really had to but I think I'm happy with it. I'll just raise the back a bit to get it to look "right" and be happy. So Pete - you supported your threaded tube with muffler pipe to get it right? Seems to me that's probably a really good way to do it since varying spring rates will change where the threaded tube needs to be for full adjustment. (I think) I don't believe this is a one size fits all kind of thing with where to put the perches...

Are you just doing the rear brakes and not the front? If so I'll be very interested too as I'm not sure just how much effect the rears alone will have. Since you push your equipment harder than most of us on a regular basis this will be a good test IMO.

I kept mine as well but it deformed some. It's actually tougher to drill than the HUB! To drill it I used a vice grip to hold it against the hub and drilled away. I did NOT remove the stubs to do this BTW (shrug). Not sure it was a big deal and it could probably be cut away some - I ende dup flattening it some while I was at it but be careful as this is how one of mine deformed. I hear it rubbing a tiny bit and hope that it will clearance itself quickly...

Hrm, I guess I'l run a high PSI cap until i decide to hookup the heater core. I have this fantasy about getting Vintage Air but I want it on the road first!

Judt realize that the FlowTechs are possibly flow limited (nyuk nyuk) and that I've got no knock sensor of my own so I don't know about clearance. I DO have a later model block though so if there's someplace you'd like me to check clearances for you I can try. I've got an old DFI knock sensor laying around somewhere...

Owen, you've fired it? Do tell please!! Mike, that's a great idea actually! Not sure what sort of room I have but that's a good thing to think about. more than one muffler seems restrictive to me but heck I want it mostly quiet and will sacrifice HP if I must. And to get the look of the Dunk type muffler it would be worth it too Thank you! Have you fired yours yet? I'm nearly to the mufflerexhaust stage

Find the sensor that feeds that warning. I'll bet it's in need of attention. Is this thing supposed to be indicating water TEMP or LEVEL BTW? Do you have a temp gauge to go with it if it's supposed to be reading temp?

I run the aftermarket stuff for exactly the reasons Pete mentiond... I wanted better looking more accurate gauges and I wanted them to match. Stereo will have a clock so out it went along with EVERYTHING else in the way of gauges. Speedo wouldn't have worked easily with my T56 anyway and I didn't want to monkey with trying to calibrae the ugly tach - which didn't work anyway on my car! I've got a fuel cell with GM sender - aftermarket gauge. The oil pressure and water temp are both mechanical Autometers. The tach is a shift light tach meant for mounting ON the dash but sits in the hole just fine. I spent an extra $30 or so for theSummit switch that will do peakhold. I looked inide that puppy BTW - there's a bit more to it than I expected, just buy it rather than try to build it IMO. Anyway, in the end you'll have a really NICE looking setup that's reliable. You'll have given up the clock and the amp gauge though. You'll also have to do something for turn signals, high beam, and brake lights. I'm using LEDs for these and if you're interested I can post lessons learned - there ae a few gotchas! I don't think this can easily be made to work with the stock fuel level though as Pete indicated it's a litle whacky. (sigh) P.S. Oh, in my case the clock was toast, tach didn't read past 3K, half the lights were dead, and the ammeter was quirky too. I think the water gauge was okay but I only used it to look for "abnormal" rather than an actual temp. Obviously my car doesn't look stock so keeping the stock gauges wasn't a big deal...

I picked up an Avenger off of E-Bay at about $40 less than Jegs. I've NOT run it yet but it does seem to have all thr tricks already done to it. We'll see!

Pete, thanks for the reminder on the rim, I'd completely forgotten that! However, Eagle is apparently advertising these as +42mm so we can toss the math I guess. +42mm puts it fairly deep in towards the strut doesn't it? I've got a +40mm 17X8 up front. I have tried it on the rear and it hit pretty badly. The 7.5 width only saves a 1/4inch on each side, yes? I think +42mm will hit. I can try my front wheel in back again and take pics if that wil help. Lemme' know. Mike - what's 7/8 AIR? Space between wheel and strut? Air gap?

Never mind, I can't get it to link either. I think I just lost my mind too since the URLs themselves are correct.. Need to block the glare on the windshield for a hood shot BTW [ June 04, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]

DOH!! I KNEW I should've looked it up to be sure! I'm sorry about that, I was pretty tired and math makes my head hurt. I believe what most folks try for is a centered wheel on the Z. In my case spacing it inwards 20mm was fine with an 8inch wheel. Ah, there's the screwup - it's 25.4MM per inch NOT CM. My figures were right but not in CM - in MM!! Okay, so your wheel is +42mm? I was close That puts it 1.6 inches DEEPER towards the strut than centered I believe. +20mm was okay on an 8inch wide wheel, you're losing a 1/4inch per side which is 6.35mm. That's 15.65mm closer than my wheel or .62inches? I can tell you that there's NO way I could space in a half inch+ with my coilovers in back! You're looking at longer studs (ARP), a half inch spacer, and possibly problems with the outside edge hitting the wheelwell. Mine is close but okay but you save 1/4inch right off the bat so you migth squeeze that last 1/4inch in okay - I'm just not sure. Suggest you price studs and spacers before you decide, I'd expect that to add another $50+ per side or so Spacers from the local Trak Auto can be had in 5/16ths so you could stack 2 of them (shiver) and only spend $16 per wheel but that's a little scary. ARP lugs are like $11 a set I think - I would be sure to run strong lugs if you must extend and run long spacers! New nutz too but you may need these anyway... I've not looked up those wheels myself so I don't know what they look like. Double check my math (ahem) to be sure I'm not WAY off please. At $150+ a wheel you might be able to do better with another wheel unless that style really turns your crank. My Konigs were 5lug and 17inches, I think I paid a little over $200 each for them (fuzzy and I CAN'T check Discount's site). In a 16inch size you mightshould get them cheaper - I'd check them out as it really looks sweet on a Z if they will fit your car and budget. My track is wider up front than yours from my brakes so I cannot help as much there but I believe the front is a MUCH smaller problem to deal with. Lastly, someone else PLEASE jump in and double check my math etc. here!!! I knew squat about this a month ago and had to come up to speed REAL fast in order to make sure I got the right wheels for MY car. I DID but I don't pretend that it wasn't halfway blind luck. I know another member got all +20mm on his car and it fit perfectly. Knowing this I had to grit my teeth when I got something like +40 for the front of my car - but MY track is WIDER than stock so my front numbers won't match anyone except those who are 5lug. Other input owuld be helpful here please....

Yeah, I caught his blurb about aluminum radiators and had to stop and think myself. I spoke to a radiator guy who HATES the epoxied end tanks since he can't fix some of them. Depends on the manufacturer - Fords no, GMs yes I think he said. All aluminum can be welded up if it breaks within reason. Mike's comment being the only thing that would push me towrds the OEM stuff in a daily driver since you KNOW that stuff is made to last - hence my OEM starter The 22+lb rating for the cap - now THAT made me stop and think. Thgat's like DOUBLE what a street car normally runs. I know this raises the boiling temp so I gritted my teeth and got a high rated cap from Moroso. Why are these "race only" caps and why is th epressure so much higher? I see no harm in running a lower pressure honestly but I wanted the best cooling I could get. Water/glycol/Water Wetter will be going in mine after it's broken in. Straight water for break-in just in case.

Funny you should mention that Pete - I just mounted my switch in back today I had an old alarm switch back there that was no longer used, I had to enlarge the whole (gulp) and now the required switch goes right in. Yes, it's ugly, no I can't reach it up front (sigh). Now that I've read where you put yours I wish I'd read it before mounting mine! It wouldn't have passed tech but part of the reason I mounted mine back there was I saw no good place to easily mount it near the driver (sigh) - your solution rox! Ground versus hot, we've had this talk right? I'm a little torn to be honest. I'm trying to recall why ground is better, other than what will happen if the switch gets grounded in an accident. I've mounted my switch but not yet wired it, I'm going to ponder this. I'll follow the rules until they make zero sense... As for some of the other plastic boxes being strong enough - I wouldn't bet on it and certainly not my life! Talk to someone who's been in an accident with something in the back - the forces are incredible. I'd want something tested which is what that Moroso box sounds like. I DO have a non-sealed steel box in my other car and I don't like it. The Taylor box mentioned sounds like mine only mine doesn't have bolts holding the lid down - I bought it from Summit and I hope it'll pass tech - it's vented correctly. Summit was the only place short of a Rod shop that I could find one. P.S. Pete - the SCCA is supposed to require that rear cutoff too BTW. I will probably sneak a low amp circuit or two off of the battery prior to the switch which is why using it for ground might be harder? I figure alarm, stereo, nothing else and all on fuses. I've got a pair of 30amp circuit breakers in parallel in the Mustang instead of a switch, I'm tempted to use them on this car too if 60amp would be enough. I don't like that long run from the battery to the switch! I've seen what happens when a high amp line gets crossed straight to ground - I lost a car because of that after a small fire burned the insulation off. If you carry an extinguisher always carry a good pair of wire cutters taped to it too - trust me on this! Always cut the battery cable to be sure or the fire is likely to restart.