baddriver

I was thinking of the springs from a first gen 2+2 used on a first gen coupe. The springs look similar, but I haven't got them off the 2+2 yet to see if they are exactly the same as far as total diameter and length. I read somewhere that they were a little bit longer. It looks like I'm going to try it though, as I was quoted a very reasonable price for the springs, so even if they don't work I won't be out much. Anyone have suggestions for a shock that would go with this combo? Something besides the $120/each adjustable illumina's?

Can we re-visit this topic? I am interested in using 2+2 springs on my coupe, I've found from searching that the 2+2 springs are longer, and so would need to be cut down a bit to give stock ride height. Has anyone done this? How stiff is this setup compared to the stock springs, will I regret the change? I am planning a v8 swap, so I'll have a little extra weight, but the 2+2 springs are sized for a heavier car plus 2 extra passengers, so I wonder if they will be too stiff, especially after getting cut. If your wondering, it's a 74 260 z with 20mm front and rear sway bars, stock shocks ( I know they'll have to be upgraded w/ the springs) and right now stock 6 cyl, but planning an LT1/T5 swap.

I understand the concern about Buy/sell threads turning into large discussions, and I know that the size of this site must be difficult to manage, but I think locking out responses is too extreme of a measure. Posting questions and answers for everyone to see prevents a lot of repeat questions to the seller, and I think it is too valuable of a tool to do away with. Off topic discussions should get deleted, but I understand that the site administrators don't have time to censor everything. Still, I'd like to see the threads unlocked so that on-topic questions and answers could be posted. Thanks for keeping up the best site on the internet!

No one loves the search function more than I do. I've solved numerous problems and learned volumes of stuff by typing in a few key words and reading up on the dozens of posts on any given topic available here. But I also think that the value of posting new and repeat topics is highly underated. I visit this board a couple times a week, and in the two years that I have been doing so, I have learned far more about Z's and cars in general by reading up on the ongoing discussions that appear every day. The problem with searching is that it's tough to know what you don't know, if you know what I mean. Searching would have taught me nothing about things like water injection, megasquirt, power steering conversions, and aerodynamics, simply because I never would have thought to search for those things. But when they come up, I read up on them and always learn something new! The on-going discussion that this forum carries is the reason I come back here on a regular basis, rather than just when there is something wrong with the Z. Sure it makes the database huge, and repeat questions get old quickly, but the conversation is educational and entertaining, and this site would be a lot less friendly without it. As has been said, there are no stupid questions, but there are dozens that leave me thinking 'why didn't I ask that?' Hooray for noobs w/silly questions!

I would have thought it would have a fuel odor, but if the voice of experience say's otherwise, I'd believe them.

I'm going to assume that you don't need to worry about emissions testing at all, since you have a 260. You need the fuel feed to the carb of course. You absolutely need a vent line, otherwise you won't be able to fill the tank. You only have to have the vent line at the very top of the tank. The other lines allow you to fill the tank and get all the air out in the event that you are not on level ground. Without them some air will remain in the tank, but you'll still be able to use most of the capacity. You can connect the large vent line up to the fitting in the fill tube (this was previously attached to your expansion tank) and this will let air out when you are filling the tank, but this leaves a couple of problems. One is fuel expansion. When gas changes temperature, it does expand, so the pressure in your tank can increase significantly. The other problem is that as fuel is pumped out of the tank, the pressure in the tank will drop, eventually leading to starvation. So somewhere you need a provision to release pressure that builds up when the fuel heats up, and to allow air into the tank to replace fuel that is pumped out. Connecting the vent line to the fill tube won't solve either of these problems because when the cap is on, the fill tube is closed to the atmosphere too. A vented cap might help, but I've never used them and I don't know if they are two-way vented or if they have a one-way valve in them. No matter how you do it, if you have removed the factory vapor canister, your car will smell like gas pretty much all the time. Restoring the factory system is the best way to address this problem. The factory system has all those hoses and vacume lines for a good reason, they are needed and the fuel tank won't do it's job as well without them.

A switch tied into the coil will allow the car to crank until the battery is dead, the thief will just think your car doesn't run and move on. If you have removed the mechanical pump and just run an electric, you can put a switch on that circuit so the car will start and run for a minute, but then die a few feet down the road. If you really want added security, buy a key-switch (radio shack) and wire that in. Then you need both keys to start the car. Theives are lazy bitches. Otherwise they could get jobs and buy thier own stuff rather than take yours. Use that to your advantage. Anything that makes taking your car too inconvienient to steal will do.

My car has all kinds of squeaks from the plastic panels rubbing together in the back. I've heard a couple of suggestions for dealing with it, like using graphite lock-cylinder lube in all the joints, or lining them with foam weatherstripping. Identifying where the squeak comes from might be just about impossible, if you've got the time try and just (dry) lube all the places where plastic panels come together or rub on painted sufaces. At least you'll be eliminating possibilities. Another option is those miata seats with the speakers in the headrest, I think you know where I'm going here.....

For some crimes I think a sliding scale is appropriate, drunk driving maybe, reckless driving. The guy was in a 25 zone so maybe he was putting people at risk, but if he had been cruising down the highway doing ninety on a warm, sunny day, I'd say that was rediculous. I understand the need to let the rich feel the consequences of thier actions, but the scale should take into acount actual risk to actual identifiable people rather than just income.

I agree that the 400 is the way to go. I have one question, though, what are people doing for harmonic balancer and flywheel? The 400 was externally balanced, so unless you are going to have it internally balanced, you'll need to keep the externally balanced flywheel. Also the harmonic balancer for the 400 is larger than the 350, and I think there are clearance problems. These same problems must be addressed for the 383 since you are using the same crank. Obviously people have found solutions, what kind of added expense does this entail?

I'm a little late, as you have plenty of good answers already, but I'll throw in my $0.02. If you can find a 400 SB for a reasonable price, use that. That engine is an incredible torque-producing machine and will produce all the umph that you can take. You won't need to invest in expensive heads or fancy cams to make a lot of power, although if you do you won't be able to wipe the grin off your face when you tear down the track. I've already bought and destroyed one of these when I was a teenager, so I won't let myself have another one. (I didn't destroy it too quickly, fortunately. I got plenty of thrills out of it) Second choice is the LT1. I think it's the best choice because of the aluminum heads on all the F-body engines. Good weight savings, good power. If I was going with an Iron-head engine, I'd probably go with a TBI 350, just cause they are dirt cheap. I like F.I. as you can tell. (my reason for preferring the TBI 350 to the iron head LT1 is AC- works with the TBI, pretty expensive to get to work with the LT1- not a concern for everyone. ) Personally I think putting a carb on a motor that came with FI is like putting a v6 into a vette. Sure, the power can be had, but it's just so wrong! This opinion is not shared by everyone here, but I stand by it. FI just runs great. So the right motor is the one you can find, that's priced right, that you like. Give me the money and I'd build a stealth-rammed 400 SB with aluminum heads. But since it's my own money my plan is a stock LT1 with a T5. Oh yeah, There is the 6-speed vs 5 speed question. I've asked this one myself at least once. The general consensus is: 6 speed T56- great tranny, very strong, very nice shifting, all around great. Heavy, Expensive and won't drive the factory speedo. Has a vehicle speeed sensor and will work with LT1. 5 speed t5- can take a strong stock or slightly modded motor, can be built to take a lot more abuse for the price of a used T56. Less great of a tranny but still works very well, far cheaper, will drive the stock speedo, but requires a vehicle speed sensor adapter to work with the LT1. lower weight. Automatic: Drag racers love them. I think they are boring to drive. In their defense they are cheaper, very reliable, easier to install, plentiful, and probably shift much better than I do.

How about a compass, a clock that shows the phases of the moon, and a barometer?

Yeah, it's a hard lesson, but for the most part, adding a lot of aftermarket parts reduces the selling price of your car, cause you can only sell it to a small group of people who would want the mods anyway, and a lot of those people would rather do it themselves. Still, sometimes you get lucky and another kid with even less experience and more money comes along.....

Try the 6 cylinder board, there is a lot of discussion going on about the RB series engines there. I don't know much about the RB25DET, but from what I have been able to learn about the RB26DETT, it is a very expensive swap (compared to say, a V8) and requires quite a bit of custom hardware. The RB25 is a less expensive engine, so it'll cost less, but still may require quite a bit of fabrication.

There is a quarter mile calculator here: http://www.web-cars.com/math/qtr_mile.html that you can use to figure approximate quarter mile times. I checked it for a 2800 lb car, and around 220 hp, and got a 14.747 second quarter at 100.24 mph. Adding 45 pounds with no other changes gets you a 14.845 quarter at 99.7 mph. So the difference in acceleration is pretty small, you can put in your own HP numbers and weights to know what it's really worth. As far as braking and turning go, consider what portion of the total weight you are removing. In other words, a 45 pound difference, is about 45/2800 1.6% of your weight. Of course, it's more complex than that, ideally the grip of the tire is related to the normal force, so an increase in weight causes and increase in grip, but we know from the real world that grip does not increase quite as fast, so you don't quite gain enough grip to accelerate the added mass. The straight-line problem can be solved with horsepower. Adding 5 HP to the numbers above gets you back into the 14.7 range, so if you get 10 hp more from the iron heads, that's actually going to work to your advantage in the strait line. The weight change is tiny, you'll never feel it, or even see it in your times until you are a very experienced driver. Everyone knows cutting weight is a good thing, but it's not worth quite the level of obsession that is devoted to it.

I have decided to come out of the dark ages and try to learn to work on newer cars. My wife's 01 Buick has a check engine light on, and rather than pay $50 for the shop to read the code for me, I thought I might look into buying a scan tool and doing it myself. I am not a mechanic and I haven't had the opportunity to use the many fancy new electronic tools available, so I need some advice. I want to be able to fix the buick, sure, but I also don't want to have to buy another tool if I get an older OBD-1 car for myself someday (1st gen eclipse has been on my list for a while) So, here is a bunch of questions. Do I need a scan tool to read OBD 1 codes, or can I get the light to flash like I did with my old 88 ford truck? The universal scan tools seem to run around $150-$200, but I've seen other tools that cost $400-$1000 and even more. What do the more expensive tools do that the universal doesn't? Is it vital to working on a car to have the other features? The universal tool reads the P0 codes, not the manufacturer specific P1 codes, do some inexpensive tools do both? Do I need to be able to read P1 codes (I probably will) Do I need a new tool for every manufacturer? I've seen a few systems that let you hook a laptop computer or PDA to the car and use that as a tool. Is there a disadvantage to these systems? It seems like to upgrade all you would need is new software. That appeals to me, but the software costs as much as a scan tool. Anyone have experience in this? And, as a final catch-all question, Am I completely neglecting some other important consideration? I'm technically minded, and I think I can learn to get along with my car's computer, but I am also very cheap, so I don't want to waste my money. The adds for these things tell me everything they can do, but they are less clear about what they can't do. Thanks for your help guys. Jeff E.

Those are some great movies. I wouldn't say it's my favorite, but has anyone here ever seen "Two Lane Blacktop?" It's an old B movie that I barely remember, but I remember really being impressed with the style and attention to real attitudes. Two guys basically trying to get ahead in drag racing. I remember in one part they get challenged to a street race, but turn it down 'cause there's no money in it. Not like todays rediculous ego-driven hollywood street racing movies. And "Catch me if you can," Not the recent Decaprio disaster, this was another older B movie about a high school drag racer trying to save his school from closing.

Zfan, I think that you could get the early, non-sequential system to work with a non- LT1 engine, but there are two big problems I see with that. One is that the distributor design is very different, and I don't know if you can make the LT1 computer work with an older distributor (well, I'm sure you could, but not easily) The other is the crank position sensor, which you won't have on the older SB. I don't think the early LT1 engines had the CPS, so they might work, but the later engines certainly need one. And you would need to modify the intake manifold to fit on the older block. No, scratch that, since the new manifold has no water passages, you would have to modify an existing older FI manifold to accept the injectors. All together, yeah, it could be done, but it's probably not the easiest way to get FI. You could get a TPI, replace the runners with siamesed runners, a big throttle body, etc and have a system, but you might as well buy a stealth ram like Grumpy is always suggesting for the money you'd spend.

Get a big pink caddy and start pushing makeup. The topic of cars will never come up.

I have that book, and I know where you are coming from, but the book basically states that you need to replace the runners, fuel injectors, intake, throttle body, etc in order to make good horsepower. When you get done with all the changes recommended to make the TPI 'competitive,' there's almost nothing from the original tpi left! The LT-1 makes good horsepower out of the box, not after you add $2,000 in accessories, and that's the appeal. I found that book to be more of an advertisement for aftermarket parts than anything else. It has some great info, and it's certainly correct that if you already have a TPI, you can make it competitive with an LT1, but if you are out shopping for engines, the LT1 is hard to beat.

That is a heartwarming story. Secretly, or perhaps openly, everyone who has ever been passed in bad weather wants to see that happen.

I got a laser level for x-mas, and I was wondering what I was going to do with it. Now I know!

This should be an after school special. I'm no genius, but even I knew what was going to happen when he shook that bottle up.

I've always thought that if I had the means, I would start one of those cool indoor go-kart tracks. Rent a building, buy insurance and 10 karts, and you wouldn't have too much overhead. It would be a lot of work, but in the mornings before you open up, you could bring out your own suped up kart and drive the track a while. Plus when you got bored with the track, you could change it! It's probably just a pipe dream for me, but I've seen a lot of these start up lately, and I'd like to get in on it!

That sounds like an ideal application for the belt-driven variety of turbo. Have you thought 'supercharger'? Otherwise, I don't see any downside to keeping an eye on the exhaust temp and making sure you don't overheat it.