Ineptitude01

Given the amount of "dyno drama" that poor Rob has had to endure, my understanding is that it's now up to the owner to share information if they want it made public. For instance, two guys in the Roadster community - Will and Alvin - had a sort of "not entirely friendly" rivalry over whose car could make more power. Will runs vintage race, so original U20 hotted up by Rebello and only era-appropriate mods. Alvin runs an SR20, which is one of those controversial things in Roadster-land due to the frame cutting required to fit it. My dumb ass accidentally got in the middle of it when I took my Roadster with the Lou Mondello "R23" stroker to ZCG for a dyno day. Since I'm friends with both Will and Alvin, I thought it would be fun to challenge both engines at the same time, y'know, "haha, what if an R16 made more power than either of your cars?". It turns out that it was a whole can of worms, and I wish I'd never said anything. In the end, Rob was willing to plot my run against theirs on the shop computer, but on the condition that I didn't take any pictures or share the comparison. He emailed me my own dyno results to do with as I wished, but obviously I wasn't allowed to take Alvin's or Will's.

Holy MOLY. I thought I was going to be able to live without one of these heads, but now I'm looking around for stuff to sell on eBay. Sheesh! Thanks a lot, Derek! 🥴 I think I asked before, but it sounds like nobody has done any forced induction yet? I'd be damn curious to see what a stock bottom end with a nice modern turbo could push through that head.

I would imagine it's going to be a good combo, really similar to the T-5 and R200 in a S130 Turbo (0.78 5th, 3.545 R200). That's probably the exact diff I'll be using, since I'm sitting on a mountain of 280ZX parts. The only thing that gives me pause is that 3.79 first gear (compared to the T-5's 3.5). With a nice modern turbo, a 3.364 rear might actually be a really good match.

Thanks, pre-ordered through Chris. Now I just have to decide what diff I'm going to use!

This is awesome! I've been waiting for Rob / Z Car Garage to get more of the Hoke adapters in, but I think this is honestly a much cleaner option. If you still need one... I believe I have a CD009, purchased from a local auto wrecker as having come from a 2006 350Z (VIN JN1AZ34D56M307564). I'm not doing anything with it until I have some method of attaching it to an L28ET I haven't built for a 240Z I haven't restored. So, if you need to borrow an input shaft or any other guts, I'd be happy to loan you anything you like if it means I can get my name on the waitlist for one of these bellhousings

Did you ever decide which way to jump with this? I love the coil bracket, and would be very interested in buying one.

Speaking of bringing the head alive, has anybody planned a turbo build yet, or still all NA? It seems like a modern gigantor turbo would be a really good match to this head's flow potential.

I think that's a great price, and obviously anyone who buys one is supporting a fellow Z nut, so it's a good cause! Really cool that technology is enabling this kind of cottage industry, and it's no longer a case of "maybe some day Edelbrock or whoever will notice us". One question I realize I still have: I can see how some of the parts in the "optional" list are actually optional, or can be sourced from the manufacturer directly (eg. the OEM Honda parts). But, when I scroll back through the pages and pages of R&D you did to get things like the camshafts right... I can't imagine any other viable way of making this seup work. I feel like you'd have to be NUTS to go it alone on almost any of that stuff. Am I missing something? I mean, I imagine someone with a similar skillset could duplicate all your effort and come to the same conclusion independently, but that seems risky, difficult, and slow.

Watching with great interest. I've been saving my pennies since you mentioned the first ballpark figures, and I imagine others have as well. I didn't really want to be one of the early test subjects though, and I figured it would get old to spam the thread every day with "this is so cool, I absolutely must have one, etc" That being said, this is so cool and I absolutely must have one.

Sorry, my attempts at tongue-in-cheek humor don't read well on the internet. I love this head, I love this thread, and I'm watching for the "public" release date. Derek (and anyone else) should feel free to correct me if I'm totally off base, but my assumption from looking at the V3 builds posted so far is that it's still pretty bespoke, and there isn't really a 'standard' or 'turnkey' config. Though, these manifolds are drool-worthy and answer one of the big questions I had. I really enjoy the idea of this head in a "modern" 432-inspired build. RB engines are so last-season, anyways.

Reading this thread finally pushed me into getting another S30 shell. It doesn't have an engine, so... Obviously I should RB swap, right?

Speaking for myself, I have money set aside and I've been lurking this thread waiting for news of public availability. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I'm reminded of 2 Fast 2 Furious for some reason.

Wow. I'm as dumb as it gets! I forgot that there are TWO switches on the brake pedal, and I had disconnected the one for the lights when I was mucking around under there installing my foglights. Thanks for all the insight and responses!

I haven't replaced it. Had to pick my dad up from the airport, so I got home real late last night. Now that I think about it though, the one in my 79 parts car should work just fine, so I'm gonna go give that a shot. Like you said, very quick, very easy.

Interesting... I've been thinking about it, and because my car was originally an auto, I never hooked up the back up lights. I wonder if they could be shorting on something and causing the problem. I have spare bulbs, too. It seems unlikely that I would have burnt out only the bright filament on all seven, but I'll check, just in case. It sounds like I'm going to be spending some quality time with a multimeter this weekend. I'll let you guys know.

I'm really stumped. I guess I should check what the voltage is at the fuse, and see if it changes when I press the brakes.

I've got a good handle on all the problems with brake lights staying on (have several bags of those little rubber mushrooms ). But now I've got a problem I've never encountered before. I can't get my brake lights to go on at all. I checked the fuse, and replaced it on principle. I checked the brake light switch, and shorted the connector to it just to see. Still nothing. All seven (I have the center taillight panel) of my brake/tail lights work fine as tail lights, but there's just no lighting up for the brakes. Any ideas? Is there a relay for the brake lights somewhere? The FSM and Haynes manual aren't really geared well towards this kind of diagnosis. As always, any help is appreciated.

Well... I got the thing installed. Not a Champion, and not really what I expected. Very big, very light, but... ummm... Very... Barebones. As in, no drain plug. Also the inlet and outlet were about 1/8" too small for 280ZX hoses. I'm not sure if this is a known size difference that I should have considered before buying this thing, but regardless, there's some teflon tape being blatantly abused on each fitting. Definitely get what you pay for with this one. Does keep my temps cooler than they were, but I'm also about to reroute my turbo's water lines. I don't think it was a good idea to route them in parallel with the heater core, and they really should be from the water pump inlet - turbo - thermostat housing as I think it was TonyD suggested, and I know Big Phil has a video of a similar setup.

Just had a thought, does a BP6ES seem a touch cold for a plug on that engine? (I'm assuming non-turbo). It's the same plug I'm using, but I switched down to that because the 7 plug was too hot for my comfort under boost. If memory serves, shouldn't an NA L-series use a BPR7ES-11? I'm new to carbs myself (just got a '67 roadster ), but it seems like they should use plugs in the same heat range as a fuel injected motor of the same specification. Come to think of it, the BP6ES is going to have a relatively close gap (I think .026"?). Probably getting a lot of the NGK nomenclature wrong - but I've definitely had some funky spark plug related issues in the past.

The thread title is a bit trollish. I didn't mean for it to be, heheh. I was looking at this car on the Benz website today, and it just struck me that it looked REALLY similar to that image, and I know that the Z concept predates this thing by a while. I wonder if it's possible at all that the design team saw that picture, or if the styling cues are so ubiquitous these days that everyone's on the same bandwagons. Food for thought, and I thought it was pretty funny. If it's honestly offensive, maybe a mod can change the title?

I'm trying to figure out which part of that car MB actually designed. I think it was the ludicrously large emblem, gullwing doors, and peripheral parts of the engine. Everything else looks like parts of another car. Headlights from a 350Z, LED unders from an Audi, weird swooshy vents from a Chrysler... Now, don't get me wrong, I still kinda want one...

...I'm just saying, is all.

Ah, crazy tach... my favorite! I just had a very similar problem on my 82 Turbo with the Z31 ECU swap. I realize this probably doesn't apply since it doesn't sound like you have an electronic distributor, but on my car, it was the CAS that was bad. It was failing intermittently and dropping spark under load. That was what was causing my tach to jump around like that. Incidentally, I was using a Flamethrower coil at the time. I've since upgraded to the Z31 coil and I'm much happier with it. Never gonna use another Flamethrower on anything. I would double check all your grounds, and try a different coil. Doesn't sound like a fueling problem from your video.