MYRON

Here is a link to a bunch of them.. They are pretty long.. http://www.taner.net/movies/darius/ Myron

I have been trying to get him to stuff a big motor in it. I think he has decided to go with a mazda 1.8 turbo. He has 2 of them and he is talking about hacking the other one up!.. I have seen one with a 427 walk away with a road corse event.. He was leaving ALL the other cars like they were sitting still. Myron

Yeah, I am still kicking it around. I just watched all the videos of Darious's car. That thing is incredible!... I think he is using the R230 and cv axles... Ther is a video of him outrunning an R1 superbike!. We are making a rotisserre this weekend for my brothers Sunbeam Alpine and for my car as to.. After I get it upside down and the tank out of it I may change my mind and go with the R230..

I think the 2 main reasons for me to go with a solid axle of some sort is Strength and Flexibility.. There are just way more parts out there for a solid axle and aftermarket brakes. not to mention the wheel selection for a 5 lug GM bolt pattern. Buying the high-po parts for the Datsun would cost me an arm and a leg.. Have you ever been in a 475hp Zcar under WOT and shifting at 6500 when those Ujoits let go? YEEEOUCH, It scared the piss out of me! If it would have happened on the passenger side it would have destroyed the fuel pump and started a big fire... Besides if I ever want to put in a glide and a trans brake in it I wont worry as much about breaking things...

I may have worded that wrong. The car will have a single leaf on each side of the car like conventional leaf springs. These two leafs act like the first 2 links in a 3 link setup. The last link is just above and to the left of the pumpkin and it angles down and across the front of the differential making the 3rd link in the system. Ron, Yes the cage will be certifiable. I am thinking in order to make this work he would have to have some rather long shackles hanging out the back of the car and I really do not want that.. Myron

I think he wanted to do a monoleaf because of space constraints. I do plan on having an interior in this car and there is not much ground clearance. He was taling about cutting from the seat mount back and basically starting from scratch. What are the pros/cons of the monoleaf 3link and a standard 4 link setup? I dont plan on taking the car to the stip except for the first few times to get it dialed in. Ray, Tommys paint and body does alot of the higher end cars in Conroe..

The guy from Bob's Race Car Chassis came by my house this weekend to look at my car. After taking some measurments and crawling around under my 78 he quoted me 2700.00 for a complete back half job and a cage. He said He wanted 1/2 down and half upon completion in 30 days.. He can start April 15th. He also suggested putting a Fiero front clip under the front because of the flexability and the ease of getting aftermarket parts... This price includes the motor mounts and tranny mounts for the LT1 and all the work to stiffen up the chassis from front to back... He suggested a monoleaf and a 3link type setup. with adjustable coil over shocks. What do you think? should I take the plunge? Myron

Rick, Glad to hear that it wasnt something major(like the 3 destroyed rods on my LT1). Did the pickup screen have any damage on it from maybe getting beat on by the crank/rods?.... Myron

TFL, The car that I mentioned before I beleive has a 2 speed powerglide and a trans brake and he had slicks on it as well. I heard he is spraying it as well, so it should hold up to a ton of torque without any problem... Myron

TFL, I have looked into a solid axle setup for my 78. I have heard and seen a few pictures of a guy with a dana44 from an old mail carrier jeep. The car would supposedly run high 9's in the qtr. and it is narrow enough that you dont have to cut it down. I know that it should be somewhat lighter than the dana60 and if it holds up to 9sec. passes it should work great.. Cheap too!!! Myron

There are several versions of the LT series motors, some LT1's from the A body GM cars like the impala and the buick roadmaster have cast iron heads and are rated around 260hp and a little more tq... The Lt1's in 96 and 97 T/A's and Camaros are rated at 285hp and I think close to the same tq. There are LT4's that were in the Vettes and rated around 305hp... Are you looking for a used one from a takeout "wrecked" car? or are you looking into a new crate motor? the grand daddy is the new LS6 as mentioned before, but they are going to cost you around 6K new.. I am in the process of putting an LT1 in my 78. The motor will have some sort of forced induction and I am looking for around 500hp. Myron

He Scottie, thanks for the heads up on the manifolds. I probably wont pick them up right now because I am still somewhat up in the air on my total package for the car. I wanted a unit with a 5 or 6 speed but the chassis is for an automatic and I have all the computer/wiring to make a 4l60E work. Eventhough it is an automatic they are really nice trannys's I love the one in my TransAm. It shifts hard and has been bulletproof with my abusive driving for 120,000 miles. Myron

I am taking this weekend to spend with the family and do a little treasure hunting.. but next week I will realy start messing with the Z and trying to make some decisions on what I am going to do to it... The only thing that is 100% going to happen is it is getting an LT1 powerplant.. The rest is all still up in the air. Myron

I will include the 130lb Rottweiler!

Ray, I dont have to working on a car to buy the beer!!!.. I am actualy going to try to get the car to the chassis shop next week and have them get ready to stick a solid axle under it... Andrew, I will sell you my house and if you pay me MSRP I will include the Z project car and the beer fridge!... Myron

My nightmare is over! here is how it went. I paid 2100 for a complete lt1 with everthing, computer,wiring harness,and all the accessories. I pulled my bad LT1 and put this one in.. It turned out to be the wrong year 94-95 it ran fine but it had low oil pressure. We called and raised a big stink because of these issues.... They guy said we would have the correct COMPLETE setup before the weekend.. Well, it didnt show up and we got put off another week. When the "correct" motor came in it did not have all the stuff, the harnes was cut and it didnt have the accessories. We raised a big stink and the guy said that he would give us 500.00 back when we brought the wrong motor back to him... Well the "correct" motor had a busted motor mount boss(no big deal).. So we called today to complain about the motor mount boss and the guy said "lets just call it even".. I got two running LT1's with most of the accessories for 2100.00 delivered... Myron Finally a stroke of good luck!

I plan on cutting the C/R to acomidate the boost. I have just heard that LT1's respond better to differnt forms of forced induction... I like the idea of no drag on the crank if I was to go with turbo, but the Turbo creates alot of heat under the hood and the xtra plumbing involved may be very costly and difficult with the cramped space between the frame rails. I was thinking custom headers that come forward... I just dont know what is going to be my best option... Myron

Does anyone out there have any experience with a turbo and a supercharger on an LT1?? I know the pros and cons between the two, but I am curios as to running either on the LT1.. Actualy I have never heard of anyone running a turbo on the Lt1... I have been playing around with the desktop dyno and the turbo seems to be a pretty good option... What do you think???

Jasons car does, maybe did have, an open diff in that video. He did have to fix it once before and he told me how to fix mine(now belongs to ChrisT). The weak link is a small roll pin that needs to be replaced with a solid one. My previous car would hook like crazy in a straight line but if you had a greater load on one or the other tires it would light up just one tire... Myron Missing my 77 bad

The model of wheel on my previous car were perfectly suited for street use on any vehicle not exceeding 4800lbs. I do not know how the SCCA rule book reads but think they do not allow any two piece wheel of that nature. If you look closely at the "drag use only" disclaimer on the info for those wheels they list the front runners 15x3-4 and then the 15x12's for wide slicks. Most of the other sizes are for street use. Myron

Where in Texas?

Danno, you are correct sir. I have a 97 Trns Am that is rated at 285hp. After my search for a motor to replace the blown LT1 in this car I discoverd that many of the salvage yards are trying to get top dollar for the caprice/roadmaster/impalla LT1's. One must be carfull when searching for an LT1 not to get the differnt ones confused. I had a guy tell me he had 3 lt1's. 1 from a 96 one from a 97 and one from a 98. he claimed that the 96-97 were from impallas and the 98 from a trans am.. Well the LT1 went out of production in 97 so the 98 he was claiming to have either had to be an LS1 or he had the year of the car wrong. The 96 was the last year for the iron headed impallas. end result was that he only had a 96 caprice LT1 iron headed car. Be careful if you buy one because the computer/transmission from a caprice is different than the Lt1 T/A's and camaros. I doubt one wants to have a high performance Z car that shifts like grannys Buick Roadmaster! Myron

I own a dodge durango with a magnum 318 and the motor has tons of torque. It hauls that 4900lb Durango no problem. The only thing i would be concerned with is thelack of options on headers. I am sure that ther are some out there, but i think the choices are a little more slim. I know that the headers that I used on my sbc Z were choking the motor bigtime. Beside that i say go for it!... My dad had an old delivery van that had the 318 and it had well over 300,000 before it was retired. Myron

I also think that the LS1 has slightly larger valves than the LT1... 2.0 as opposed to 1.94 intake.. The new LS6 would be the real treat! 385/385 bone stock! it propels the ZO6 vette to 60mph in like 4.5 sec and 1/4 in i think 12.66-13.0.. the computer in the Zo6 is also said to be fast enough to compensate for a 250 shot of DRY nos...

I am doing the lt1 swap and all this computer/ecm/obdIII/sensors this and that... I have a factory harness and computer and LT1 from a 97 Trans am.. Do I need to scrap the computer and harness and just go with an aftermarket unit?.. I contacted TPIS and they told me that i should just get the factory unit reprogrammed and that it was well capable of running some big power #'s Myron