JMortensen

Why don't you just email Dave? He hasn't been hawking his stuff lately, so I wouldn't wait for him to see your post.

http://www.arizonazcar.com/bush.html and I think Victoria British has them also. Jon

A friend of mine built a motor just like that but I believe he used a P90. Compression was VERY low like 7:1, but he was able to run 20 something lbs boost (had a GIGANTIC Rotomaster??? turbo) and had no intercooler. He loved it. I met him about 6 months after he took the car off the road, and a couple years later he just parted it out and got rid of it, so I never saw it run, but he said it was the best L engine he had, and he's owned 20 something Z's. He was convinced that rod ratio was really important, especially on a turbo motor, and I guess he didn't mind the insane lag that it had.

I don't think they are on backwards, they are just on wrong. If you took a stock bodied Z and put a 10" wheel in the back and drove around, when the suspension compressed it would cut a groove in the tire. The whole idea of the flares is to give more room so that the wider tire doesn't hit anything as the suspension compresses. Just bolting the flare on doesn't help the fender issue, and the tire will still hit the flare or the old part of the fender when the suspsension compresses. You have to CUT the old fender area out completely, then bolt the flare to the body. In the back this is a big job. Here's a related thread: http://hybridz.org/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=34674&highlight=fender Good luck, Jon

The stock return line is 1/4", smaller than the feed line. I think the system needs a restriction there. You could run a smaller return, or you could just run it dead headed but the pump will die sooner with it dead headed. Maybe some others will chime in, but I'm not convinced that you need another fuel pump.

They won't tell you who manufactures their wheel bgs. Not sure if they'll give you info on pistons, but they wouldn't give me anything on the bearings...

RPMs was one of my biggest problems. I don't know that I broke 5500 rpms on either run. Coming out of some of the slow turns it had to be right around 2000. New 4:11 diff will fix that. It still has too much roll. Working on some bigger sway bars to help that. I got the speed bug. I can't get into the drifting thing. It just doesn't feel right. Kinda like when I was a kid: I used to go to the local bike jumps and jump as HIGH as I could. Then I started racing, and the first thing they tell you is that the less air you get the faster you go and your first lesson is how to suck up the jumps without getting much air. After the racing I couldn't catch big air anymore. I had trained myself not to. Thanks guys.

I try not to come across too strong, but if I have an opinion it's because I've thought about it, and I'll defend my opinions... I do try really hard to admit when I'm wrong though to try and balance it out a little. The gauges are Autometer speedo, tach, water temp, oil pressure, stock amp/fuel. Thanks for the compliments on the car. Hoping it will be quite a bit faster soon.

Buy back the salvage from the insurance company. Usually you pay the insurance co 10% of what they give you for the car. If you didn't have collision coverage then just get it from the tow yard, strip all your upgraded stuff out of it, and then take the shell to the jy. Glad to hear no one was injured in the accident.

General rule of thumb is 3 turns out for the adjusters on the bottoms of the carbs. When you pull the choke on the SU's, the nozzles get moved down, which richens the mixture. It is very very common for them to get stuck down, causing a very rich mixture. I would suggest you just stick your hand down there and push up on the bottom of the adjuster and see if they move back up. If they were stuck down, that was the cause of your rich situation. You really ought to buy the video from http://www.ztherapy.com. Its cheap and it will answer all of your questions. I think you're right that you're probably running off of the float bowl fuel all the way to 3rd or 4th. Fix the return line thing and see if that helps.

Yeah, so that you can cut the outer half of the stock arch out completely (and make a new fenderwell) and make room for the wider tires to go all the way through the travel. Right now it looks like he has fender extensions on... This is what it should look like... with the flares up against the body.

Is it just me or are the flares on totally wrong... Like you wouldn't get any more tire clearance with the flares on that way...

It's normal to get a little smoke/steam out of the breathers. Every time I put oil in my Toyota there is a little wispy steam looking bit of smoke that comes out of the oil cap. On my Z it comes out of the valve cover breather. It is normal. Unless the oil is milkshaked or you have some other reason to suspect that it has a blown headgasket, drive it.

The stock fuel rail goes to the carbs first, then has a smaller T at the end of the fuel rail with the 1/4" return line. You should definitely not have your return line plumbed in before the carbs. I seem to remember that SU's can deal with 5 lbs pressure just fine, but it's been a while since I've run them. How long does it take from WOT til the car starts to die? If your float level is set correctly I'd expect it to take a little while, because you'd be running off of that fuel and you'd start to stumble when that fuel got used up. I'd fix the fuel hoses right away and see if that helps, and if not then I'd check your float level. You can pull the fuel reservoir covers off without screwing up the gaskets if you're careful. Don't run the vents to the fuel return line. More than likely you'd end up pushing gas into the vents. If you have an electric pump all you need to do is switch it on with the engine off and wait. If fuel starts pouring out of the carbs, then you know that they won't hold the 5 lbs pressure. If it doesn't leak with the engine off it shouldn't leak with the engine running.

Oops, you're right Mike, swaged, not swedged...

I've been using a 3/4" rod end and swedged aluminum tubing for ~5 years on slicks. I think Mike was using 5/8" stuff. 3/4" has held up just fine for me. EDIT--My Z was my daily driver too for a long time, so I've probably got 40K street miles on those aluminum TC rods...

Delrin is a material like polyurethane. You can get it in a variety of hardnesses, and it's what is used in the G Machine bushings (very hard Delrin in those).

Just a suggestion on the TC rods: you might want to have a heims joint on top of a poly bushing, so that the bushing gets rid of the noise and harshness, but the heims joint allows the suspension to move freely.

L28 = 79mm stroke and 130.2mm rod = 1.648 LD28 = 83mm stroke and (L24) 133mm rod = 1.602 So the L28 has the better rod ratio. Personally I'd rather have a stroker than the L28 I have, but the L28 does have the marginally better ratio.

You haven't mentioned balancing the carbs. I assume you did that along with all your other stuff...

I found another theory as to why you'd get more power with neg crankcase pressure. It has less to do with resistance to the internals spinning inside a pressurized crankcase and more to do with the rings. Apparently according to the article I was reading the more pressure differential there is on either side of the piston rings, the better they seal. So basically the rings seal better with vacuum in the crankcase.

I don't think getting parts for a 2.3 is very hard. They are the motor to have in 4 banger dirt track cars. I've seen claims of 275 hp normally aspirated thru a Holley 390, and I actually believe them. A lot of rednecks have been working on that engine for a long time...

You could just bend the shifter.

Yeah, summit, jegs, etc have them Just a can with a couple hose fittings on them and a little filter on top.

That's an awful waste of time IMO. You're proposing disassembling the struts and cutting them down and rewelding them, then reassemble and drive around for 2 months, then take it all apart again, grind off the spring perch and weld a new perch on? Seems like a huge hassle. Basically you're doing the job twice at that point. If you want it lowered for 2 months I suggest you do it the easy way, take the center nut off the struts, jack the car up, pull the springs out, cut a couple coils off and reassemble. That wouldn't take nearly as much work and it would be a temporary fix.