zeeboost

Awesome, didn't know the C7s were being released yet. IMO it'll be hard to top the c6 but I'll hold judgement until I see one in person.

Rsx seats can fit pretty easily without much modification at all, but it's not the best choice if you're 6'4" like me bc they raise the seat height a bit. If you're a smaller guy then they'd be perfect.

Miata is by far the best on that list, as far as overall performer, reliability, and maintenance costs. I have fun any time I get to drive a z3, but in my experience older German cars are typically expensive to maintain, and questionable reliability. Most of the older crossfires I've seen had several issues and had subpar interior quality. Plus my 240zt smoked a modded srt6 pretty bad, so it lost a few points in my book. I do like the rsx but it's fwd.

I did actually search around, mostly found results on honda and dsm forums. There was a lot of conflicting answers and nothing concrete, so I came here. I hold this forum in pretty high standards as it's one of the most technical ones I visit, and I've grown accustomed to the technical answers delivered here. I searched the archives and didn't see it talked about, so I figured better safe than sorry. As I mentioned earlier, 2 of my previous turbo Zs would spin freely at idle, one of these was including a freshly rebuilt one by the same turbo shop...hence why I was worried. And who knows, now in the future maybe someone will encounter the same thing, find this thread, and then be rest assured if mine starts spinning freely at idle. I'll put some miles on it and see what happens. *edit*, also when searching this topic, I found one poster that said he'd seen that happen once where the turbo wasn't spinning freely at idle, and then it seized two days later. I think that also motivated me to create this post.

And yes the compressor outlet is hooked up.

The only thing I have to compare is two other turbo Zs I've owned that had open downpipe at some point, I could hear them whistle at idle. They were was also a journal bearing. I may try to post a video up...it just doesn't look right to me.

Just under a month ago I had a factory T3 off an '83 280zxt rebuilt by a reputable turbo shop that's been in business for many years. I just now got the engine fired up today, and with no exhaust bolted on the turbo, I noticed that it doesn't spin at idle. It will spin at 1500 rpms or so, but when you let off the throttle it doesn't coast to a stop...it's bit more sudden, as if it's dragging on something. I removed the oil drain and cranked the engine over, sure enough oil came pouring out, so lubrication shouldn't be the issue. I can spin the turbo pretty freely by hand, and from what I can tell, the blades aren't hitting the housing. I had to clock the compressor housing differently so that it would work with the n/a manifold, but all the bolts are tight and I can't see that causing an issue. Do journal bearing turbos have a break-in time? The engine's only ran for 20 seconds roughly, because the turbo not spinning kinda freaked me out. I'll probably call them tomorrow, but was hoping to educate myself on this a little more before jumping the gun on them.

Glad to see you're happy with the 5.0, they're very capable engines even in stock form. Another buddy of mine has a 2012 with the Ford Racing (may be roush) supercharger, pushing over 600rwhp on stock internals. From all the different exhaust setups I've heard in person, so far I've seen the best results from gt500 mufflers and deleting the resonators. These came stock on other mustangs than just the gt500, so you can usually find them with low mileage on craigslist for $150-$250 when people go a different exhaust route. I think they're just over $300 brand new.

There exists a sacred build thread where several people posted pictures of their setups that could give you an idea of how to route the pipes. Because this website is stingy with sharing information, the administrator often buries it deep within the archives. To help you find it, I've created this treasure map. If you don't follow its exact instructions, you may not find the information you're looking for, so I implore you to stay the course all the way through the long, cruel journey. Good luck:

I'm almost finished converting my brother's '77 n/a to a turbo, but I need some info for the banjo bolt that feeds oil to the turbo. I don't have the factory banjo bolt but I've already drilled out a bolt with a .063" bit, however the more I think about it, the more I don't want to restrict the oil to the turbo. I'm afraid that the oil will coke and clog that small passage much easier in the restricted banjo bolt than whatever size the factory orifice was, here's why: - It's not a water-cooled turbo...just a rebuilt factory t3 - He's not running an oil cooler - Although I'll tell him to let it idle for a couple minutes before he shuts it off, I doubt he'll do it every time - With him being a poor college kid, I doubt he'll use the best oil on the market - With the factory setup, I haven't seen any issues with too much oil pressure blowing out the seals So, I think I'm going to drill my bolt to be a little larger and I'd like to just stick with the stock size that the factory used...I just need to know what size that was

I should add that I was trying to keep track times in mind and remember watching a motor trend video a while back where I thought a new 5.0 gt ran a faster lap time than the BMW m3. I was wrong...turns out it was the boss 302, which is over the $30k limit. A little over 2 seconds faster

The new 5.0 is a pretty good performer for the price, though it is more of a porker than you're used to (Datsun, z3, miata, corvette, etc). Friend of mine just picked up a new 2013 for a little over $25k.

rsicard - Again, I don't have any plans on making this a track car...just a weekend cruiser. I wasn't even planning on replacing the current engine until my friend told me he'd practically give me his 396. And honestly the only thing that has me hesitant to install the 396 is I've recently seen 2 cars spin out of control. One was a 550rwhp procharged '08 mustang gt...floored it in 2nd gear and spun out of control, ended up in the ditch. The other was an 800ish hp cadillac cts-v that nailed it on the highway and spun off the road into a concrete barrier. I don't want to destroy the several years of building up this car just because the torque caught me off guard and I couldn't handle it. I'd also rather not have to run drag radials to keep the power down on this one, I'd prefer to stick with street tires. I'm assuming this was "properly prepared", it was built by MTI and from what I can tell they were huge 15+ years ago selling several well-established Lt1 396 engines. Grumpy - thanks for chiming in. I'll admit that I'm awful about regulating torque with my right foot...when I wanna move (in a race), I just stomp it. I have adjustable illuminas and coilovers on this one, but that's about it as far as suspension mods go. I really don't like how much it squats under acceleration (another reason that I was worried about unpredictable) but I've read up on some modifications to help reduce that.

This car is mostly a weekend cruiser, but will see the occasional lead foot every once in a while. I'm mostly concerned with street manners wot. I guess after looking at the dyno graphs of several 396 lt1s and seeing a virtually instant and flat torque curve, it made me question if I'd be able to control this thing at wot...hence this post. My current setup is a bit more predictable and isn't as torquey. But I'm pretty sure I'll be buying this engine...it's too good of a deal to pass up.

I just came across a killer deal for a low-mileage 396 LT1 for sale...the seller (buddy of mine) said it would smoke at WOT, but he wasn't sure why. I know I've heard oil consumption being a problem on these, so I figured it's likely to be an oil ring issue. Anyways, I'm thinking of buying it and replacing the 355 sbc I'm currently running in my '82. I already have traction issues through 1st and 2nd gears (I'm running a t56 with a 3.9 R200). I've never driven a stroker engine before but I understand they're more torquey than my current setup. I'm currently running 255/40/17s in the rear...I may be able to upgrade to 275, but don't know how much it would help. If it's going to be uncontrollable to drive at WOT, then I probably will just pass this one up. But I was hoping someone here would have experience with a 396. So basically, for those that are driving around with a 383 stroker in a Z, how predictable is it? Would also prefer if anyone has first-hand experience driving a 396 sbc. It seems to be a more popular engine for the caprice / impala ss, but those things weigh around 2 tons so it's driving characteristics would be a little more stable.

I'm looking for the complete setup from the block to the turbo. Thanks

As the title states, I'm looking for one in good working condition. I would prefer if it came with the oil pump driveshaft as well as I can't seem to find the spare I had in my garage at the moment. Let me know

And ironically enough, richracing, I just bought some rsx type-s seats that I'll be installing in my '83 shortly. Guess I'll add the pics in when I'm finished with those as well.

Hah, didn't know I wasn't the only one that installed these. They barely fit in the 280zx...I'll probably have to modify the rocker trim (scuff plate?) to fit because of the electronic seat controls. IF they had manual leather seats, I would jump all over those, but I didn't have any luck finding them so just had to play the cards I was dealt. Anyways, the passenger (manual) seat fit like a glove, the driver (electric) took some finess, but was able to get it to work. And yes it was extremely easy wiring up the switches...just 2 powers and a ground, or vice versa. Sorry, I installed these a while back and can't remember the color coding, but I believe they were the only thicker wires in the harness (16 gauge maybe...versus the other 20-22 gauge wires). And yes, I think they compliment the interior very nicely. Keep in mind the car is still being pieced back together so I'm missing trims / panels / etc. Just figured I'd take some pics to show these seats will work, since the topic came up.

Looks great! It's similar to mine, which is just a modified MSA II front bumper. Closing up that gap between the bumper and hood makes all the difference in the world.

I hope you degreed the cam b/c it was off according to the dyno. If the cam timing needs to be adjusted, you would have to go through all the VE tables regardless, so I would just start from scratch with the tuning. Or at least download a base map from the forum and use that as a starting point.

This little project Z has cutouts for similar tail lights: http://sanantonio.craigslist.org/bar/3339505066.html

I haven't changed mine out yet, but our exhaust guy says that he's heard the exact same noise that my exhaust was making on two different cars, both with similar setups (and both had the exact same muffler I was running at the end of the system), and a muffler with a simpler chamber design or straight-through design fixed the problem. Mine is more of a raspy resonance that's made during 1500-1900 rpms, not load dependent. It'll make the noise cruising down the highway or at idle. That's really the only advice I have towards it. Otherwise, keep looking into resonators.

I have the same issue, running a twin 2.5" to single 3" with a super delta flowmaster at the very end of the system. Mine is due to the chamber design of the muffler combined with it being at the end of my exhaust system. Since I don't have any room to move it further upstream, I'll have to install a different muffler if I want to fix the problem. A resonator could help fix the problem...never tried that so I can't chime in on that one.

I'm in complete awe of your work, it's just amazing. I don't know if it was said already in this thread, but what shop do you use here in Austin?