BLKMGK

Heh, DUH! I never noticed that... DO be aware that while brosing their site using some of their searches that some wheels did *NOT* show up that DID come up when I browsed by manufacturer. In some cases polished or chrome versions came up but NOT the painted ones - weird! FWIW - th elug nuts they sent were good quality, they sent McGuard locks, and the packaging was very good. It took awhile and they did NOT provide a UPS tracking number but I'd most certainly buy from them again if TireRack didn't have what I want. TireRack was able to ship, to my door, two tires (only) for the woman's car in LESS than 24 hours. Talk about shock! Mucho' impressive but they've NOT got the wheels I wanted, nor the tires, and they won't let you look by size that I could tell - they don't give out offsets either. Bleah!

Now that you mention it... I've seen little "roofs" tacked onto exhaust pipes before. You get a piece of steel and sort of sit it up on little legs so that there's an air gap between it and the object you're trying to protect. Hard to explain. However I'd think that we're going to have our exhaust pipes pretty close and that room won't allow for this - no? I may try to bend somehting from some aluminum I've got and leave an air gap. I THOUGHT the Moroso starter shield did this but apparently not from what Pete says. I guess aluminized header wrapping works too but it would seem to me that would hold in any heat it gets (shrug). We'll see - I'm not stressing about this just yet

Have the tank boiled at a radiator shop before welding on it. Gas VAPORS are far more dangerous than the liquid itself. In fact if you get gas cold enough to NOT give off vapor you can extinguish a match in it without an explosion. Don't take any chances - have it run through a solution to remove all traces of gas. I cannot imagine any welder with an ounce of sanity working on it otherwise. The shop I hang out at ALWAYS has them boiled. I've had a tank sitting out for a year that still has some fumes (smell) in it - go figure....

I guess what I don't liek most baout the smaller headers is that there's a STEP coming out from the port into the header - yuck! I wanted to go bigger but the prices are pretty high and there's no way for me to know how well it would fit short of plunging in. I'll be interested to hear how Mike's new headers fit as there could be an upgrade in my future too one of these days. It'll surely help others who come after us...

TWO WEEKS?! Argh! I'll just die waiting (snicker)! Wheels and tires STILL not here so no biggie, maybe today they'll show. Starting to run out of things to work on - wow! 11inch brakes in the back seemto make the most sense to me with such big ones up front. (shrug) Ought to be easier to balance, we'll see. The Wilwood spots drive the cost up a bit but if you want an E-Brake that's on of the better ways to get it. I'm just not comfortable NOT having a mechanical brake on this puppy just in case...

I understand the wiring of it although Pete's wire color will help greatly but I still don't understand WHY this is effective. HOW does this solve a problem? We still use the stock solenoid right? How does a second one give us benefit? I'm going to do it as it's obviously proven effective for others but I'd liek to better understand why it helps if the same stock stuff still gets juice... Will probably find a mount for it tonight and begin wiring - woohoo!

I think a heat shiled might be a good idea. Air gap is even better but a shield in between - with air on both sides - would probably really help. I've seen some blankets that wrap around but IMO that's asking to hold heat IN too! The one I've seen pictures of that looks best is a stainless sheet looking thing. Damn, I knew I forgot to order something from Jegs!

Oh yes, I'm a happy camper! Discount Tire told me 3-4 working days, it took almost a week. Wheelstires showed up in darn near perfect shape with the only marks being something you'd pickup in the first mile anyway. They put the right tires on the correct wheels, balanced them with weights inside the rim, provided lug nuts with the correct thread - too bad they're acorn style closed ended nutz. I've posted pics on the WEB site but they're pretty bad. My camera just isn't very high rez and I'll be upgrading as soon as I find a good replacement. http://216.254.117.47/development/testweb.nsf/4691e0edd8a01bd6852569ae0075e9c4/09cfd64869c04dc885256a5d0004773f?OpenDocument The front wheels fit VERY well. I may not even need a spacer and if I do it'll be thin. I'll know more when the car is on the ground - that will be when I've got lug nuts I can use or hack these off (shiver). I'm going to try and hunt down some splined "tuner" lug nuts maybe. No matter what they will have to be trimmed and I'll lose that nice ARP starter nose - bummer. The rear wheels will need a spacer I think - I'll know more when I put a rotor on there but it's hitting right now. If it needs a spacer it won't be too bad and the wheel should tuck into the wheelwell nicely. The wheels look NICE! I think they're flashier than the Trophies but will grow on me. I'll try to put up some more pics when I've got a chance, especially a closeup of the wheel. If you're going 5lug and running 300ZX hubs up front these puppies are pretty darned nice! I'll measure and post actual backspace when I've had a chance to measure it as the rear shoudl certainly be applicable to everyone and the front helpful to those with the ZX hubs. Another milestone reached!

It could very well spike. I don't know th eZ motors that well but I know that other cars will spike with theat much restriction removed so be careful. As to max boost - I don't know that either but I DO know someone who's boost gauge has read 12lbs on a "stock" ZXT. Obviously something's been twiddled by a previous owner but the car SEEMS to run fine. Personally I think that's WAY too much boost. Be careful and I'll be VERY interested to hear what others say about max boost in this app.

Airplanes use this too - it's called "spraybar" if memory serves. The racing planes carry huge tanks of some mixture that they spray on the intercoolers during a race. It's a short duration thing obviously With an electronic boost controller you could wire it such that if the tank went dry it reverted to low boost... Personally I'm not sure I'd want water going all over the place - like under my tires! You'd want a pretty fine mist I'd think - washer pumps aren't know for working long under constant use or for hainv high pressures so you might want to look for a heavier duty source as a pump. (shrug)

The NOS will greatly increase exhaust flow - that's how it helps the spool up. I'm not sure there's anything you'd need to do special to run with a turbo except perhaps to run a little rich. I can't help but think that the higher temps associated with a lean mixture would be good for the exhaust side of the turbo? Detonation would be doubly bad too!

FWIW - I picked up a solenoid for an '88 5.0 Mustang. It has only three lugs - two big, one small. Ought to be cake to wireup and it's pretty small too. It says it's "diode protected" on it (shrug). Very cheap I might add. As I understand it I wire the S terminal on the starter to the HOT lug, then run a wire from that lug to one side of this "contactor" Will hav to puzzle out which Datsun wire goes to the small lug but I'm pretty sure the JTR book has this down cold for me. My battery lead isn't as large as some others so we'll see how it all works out. Still need to find a good ground strap with bolt holes on both ends. The ones I've found so far all have battery terminals on one side (grr). Anyway, this sucker is smaller than the one pictured, mounts flat, should be dirt simple to wire up, and is less than $20. P.S. Since the stock Chevy soleniod is still used on the starter I'm a bit confused as to why this helps anything. Have I missed somehting? Do we bypass the stock piece in some fashion I've not noticed? TNX!

Another possibility to silence the mouse convention is white lithium grease. Spray it in there - it hangs tough for a good little while. The silicone stuff actually seemd to make squeeking WORSE on my Mustang's front swaybar - I got to HEAR every seam in the road with that sucker. Ick!

Just an aside - if you look in the Summit catalog over inthe 4X4 section you'll see some rollbar wrap that's cut to fit. $29 for two 5foot long pieces I believe. This stuff is NICE! Wrapped a couple of bars on my car with one piece, I think one package will do most all I need to cover. It's stretchy and uses velcro so it's a bit of a PITA to work with but you can just keep pulling it off till it's right Perfect for "finishing" up the rollbar padding and keeping the padding out of the sun. P.S. The JAZ rollbar padding is HARD as heck. I tried using a couple of half pieces for my side bars - bleah! As soon as I slide in the velcro let's go as I go over and gnaws on my leg. I'm going to get some slightly softer stuff that will wrap the entire bar instead.

Hey guys - just grabbed the S10 silicone insulators I mentioned. They're a little narrow for th eradiator I've got wbut with a little trimming they work great up top. However down low where I have the tanks sitting on the JTR bracket they're just too small! If you run the JTR specc'ed rediator these might work better but NOT with the wider HOWE radiator I'm running. Up top I had to completely rebend my brackets to fit them. Thankfully the aluminum wasn't hard to work with and it went well. These have the little rubber tit on them like Pete's and a hole to use this was easy to do. I'll have pics up as soon as I have time to download them from the camera Lastly, I may have found a way to mount the bottom of the Cobra fan I've got, maybe the GT style too. On stock Cobras there's a steel clip that grabs a portion of the radiator shroud and a flat spot on the radiator. It looks like my radiator has enough of a flange there to do this! I've not yet got a clip but will be tracking one down ASAP. I think I'll need to do more work to support the bottom but this is a good start. There's also a little rubber tit that prevents the fan from rubbing the radiator that I'll need. Again, this is a stock Ford part! Fun 'n games!

Have you considered shorty or block hugger headers? The Flowtechs I got are on th esmall side but they clear everything perfectly - it's like they were made for this swap...

It's on it's way. I'll let everyone know how it works out. Where are Victors predrilled for $300? With fuel rails and mounts? Throttle bodies aren't cheap though and neither are injectors although I can get deals on those. Some of the Mustang Spyder setups use a 90 degree bend bolted to the carb mount with a normal Mustang TB bolted on... I'm a long ways from an EFI setup though. I did see that Whipple is supposedly putting out a nice ECU that may be MAF capable. Hrm!

Anyone got picks of this stuff? I used flat black on my engine bay but it stains easily....

Since we're mentioning possible issues with this swap... I believe it may also accelerate the valve faster. This can supposedly lead to an earlier valve float situation on a car with borderline springs.

Dremel? Hehe, expect to spend a TON of time doing it. On the other hand you're less likely to screw it up by getting a little too crazy. A decent carbide bit in an air tool can eat some SERIOUS metal! Do NOT port this inside the house or garage, do not port them on the concrete driveway either. Find a nice quiet place in the grass, wear hearing protection, wear eye protection, wear some breathing protection. Iron dust produces rust if it gets onto concrete, will hose your lungs, will trash your eyes. You get the idea. Oh, wear gloves too! I've got all sorts of little metal filings in my hands and my knees from the grinding I've done in the garage where it's gotten into the carpet. I can also tell you that it costs about $140 to have a metal sliver removed from your eye and that they use a tiny DRILL to remove the RUST around the sliver. Not cool....

JTR mentions a silicone mount from an S10 pickup. 87-93 is th eyear I thnk. I've got four of them on order but have actually got it mounted right now with rubber from the old rear hatch seal Unfortunatly the spacing is tight where the pieces were welded - I should've left more room. We'll see how this works out first before I redo anything. Oh, those silicone pieces aren't very expensive... Took some aluminum stock, bent one end 90degrees, had a friend weld on a short stub, drilled a hole in the "mount" and in the crosmember, bolted it up! I have two tabs made from aluminum diamond plate ready to be drilled and bolted on. The very bottom is what I'm worried most about. Had to cut up this Cobra fan a good bit but it's now just a round housing that fits between the tanks. Ought to move some SERIOUS air when done and sealed up.

I have those heads too - and 1.5 rockers. If you swap rockers you might also end up needing pushrods - maybe. It's a cheap way to bump lift and a slight duration bump too supposedly. But it's not much an dif money is tight I don't see a reason to do it. I bought into this with my Mustang but it didn't have roller rockers so it made more sense. If you needed rockers then buying bigger would be okay but why replace the good ones you've got now for bigger? On the Mustang I noticed NO difference with the butt-meter. Sure, maybe at the track I'd have seen a tenth but with my driving there wre plenty of other places to find a couple of tenths I'd say do it when you've got the money and some burning reason. This isn't a "big time" loss IMO. Ask your friend how much power you're giving up - if he says more than about 15HP I'd laugh. You can get that much tuning the carb up.

A couple of added points... if you go with a big front bar reinforce the mount block points. I've got a BIG bar in the garage that was pulled from a previus car - it had been nicknamed "frameripper" by the previous owner - this was STREET driving too! Presently I have no rear bar but with the L6 I did and this car ran great. I've had to remove the bar to install my rear brace and found out it had been binding the control arms too. Like Pete I'm going to go with no rear bar first, maybe go bigger up front with what's in the garage, then maybe a rear bar. As you've seen - everyone has a different idea! I'd suggest experimenting on your own. Buy a matched set of bars and mixmatch with what you've got. Back to back testing and your driving style would be your best bets IMO - no one shoe fits all.

First of all, 4bolt mains are probably NOT needed, the factory 4bolts supposedly aren't that strong. Depending on usage neither is forged rods etc. The new PM rods are supposed to be stronger than the "Pink" rods of old - consider those as they're CHEAP. Having said that... I went forged everything! I also went 383 and if I did it again I'd go 406 probably. That being said I've yet to drive the car so maybe not I went forged because I wanted insurance. No worries later on about what I should've, could've, would've done. Eagle rods, Eagle crank, ARP everywhere - I used a reputable race engine builder. I can supercharge this sucker, spray it, do whatever I want. I also went flat tappet and perhaps should've gone roller. My reason for that was that the HP range I wanted could be hit without the added expense of a roller, did the same in my Mustang motor BTW. To say that rollers rev fast is fine but do the test back to back with a flat tappet cam, I'm not sure you'd notice a difference in the real world. There's certainly a difference in cam profile but if you're worried about bending the car what HP range are you shooting for anyway? You can hit 425+ HP with a flat tappet cam (shrug). I'd suggest you look at MJ's short block and at the ZZ4 short block. I'm not crazy about the ZZ4's pistons but it sounds like you don't want a ton of HP anyway so.... Jeg's has that sucker intheir catalog now I believe..

I've got two pieces of thinn(ish) aluminum stock. They're about 3/4inch wide and maybe a 1/4inch thick. End of them is bent 90degrees and I've had a second piece welded to them. Looks like an F Those are my top mounts. They also have holes drilled in the piece that hangs behind the radiator so that I can emulate Pete's mounting idea for the fan. I've got tabs made for the fan but need to lower the radiator and decide how to mount the tabs on the fan. Pop rivets I'm not sure I trust since most of what I have is cheap crap. Epoxy alone also seems to be asking for it. I'm thinking maybe bolts AND epoxy. Tabs were made from a sheet of thin(ish) diamond plate from the hardware store. We'll see how it works out and I'll take pics if it does. Look closely at Pete's mounts below... [ May 27, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]