JMortensen

Well I think the actual rubber engine mounts are the same for the engine, but not the tranny. But I asked if I was remembering correctly because it has been 5 years or so since I've pulled a tranny from a ZX. I think I'm right because I remember it being much easier than a Z... Jon

The tranny mount is different, IIRC. The Z has basically a flat bar which attaches on either side of the floorpan straddling the tranny tunnel. IIRC, the ZX has a much shorter crossmember which hooks into to brackets up inside the tunnel. Or have I killed too many brain cells since I was last under a ZX??? Jon

Wouldn't the duration determine whether or not you need the reliefs, not the lift? EDIT--Dan, did you have to turn your spring retainers down on a lathe so that they didn't hit the stem seals? I recall that you have Schneider springs and retainers, and I had to have mine turned even with my .490 lift cam. Also, did you cut the spring seats flush with the head, or was that not necessary? Jon

I have an ITG filter that fits your description John (black foam, red plastic). Never heard of an ITB filter, and when someone says ITB I think individual throttle bodies, but that may not be correct either... Jon

Why is this guy driving around with a cam under the dash??? Jon

Bastaad was right. That is the cheapest easiest way to get 200 hp to the wheels. Pretty much any V8 that is not from the smog era will get you there, and you won't be pushing the engine nearly as hard to get it. Jon

I thought John's car made 285 at the wheels... John??? I think if he did all that he stated up front and just slapped on an shaved P90 he'd probably have met his 200 whp goal. EDIT--Bastaad's results were probably mostly due to the carbs. Bastaad, I can't tell you how much faster my car is on the track with the Mikunis. It was a HUGE difference, then I tuned them!!! Jon

I think individual throttle bodies, aftermarket fuel injection, cam and header and full exhaust would net a lot more than 10 hp. Maybe I read his original thread wrong, or maybe Mike and John did, but I don't know how you guys can see that as a 10 hp increase. I don't think the pulleys and the electric fan are going to be a noticeable difference to the butt dyno, but you'd probably see a couple hp on a real dyno from those things. Maybe JohnC didn't read your original post... The things that are missing from his engine build ideas (in loose terms) are compression and headwork. The stock compression on your NA L28 is something like 8.5:1. Put a small chamber head on there with the rest of that to get 10.5:1 and you might be closer to your goals, but I don't think the 2 compression points (or even 4 points) gets you to 300 hp. Mike, I think that the hard part is NOT getting the first 85% of your hp increase, its getting the last 15%. There is a huge law of diminishing returns with the L series, and if you spend 20 grand on an engine you might get 20 more hp than they guy who spends $8K. And that last 15% takes you from an engine that can run pump gas to a finicky race gas eating tempermental bitch of an engine too. Look again at Dan's dyno chart. Runs on pump gas, 235 hp to the wheel. JohnC's going to hate this, but use the 15% rule, that's 270hp (it's just an example John ). Reduce that for the 2.8 vs 3.1 engine size, and you're now at 243hp. Back to Dan's motor again, it's that last 35 hp to get from Dan's engine to JohnC's engine that costs the huge $$$. Dan also says that his carbs aren't tuned to perfection. It would be a lot easier to tune ITB's with a programmable FI setup... so there is more hp there too. I DO agree that a high hp L motor is wasted in a ZX 2+2. Get a V8 if you want serious power without serious $$$. Jon

JohnB, if you've got a 4.44 rear gear, why are you trying to find a cam that works at 2500 rpm? Seems like you could get a cam that doesn't start til 3500 or 4k and still keep it in the revs with that diff. Or were you asking rhetorically? If you find that cam, BTW, let me know... Jon

The problem with using the front rotor in the rear is that it is meant to bolt to the back of the hub, so the center hole would need to be opened up and the lug holes drilled. Before going to all that trouble, you could just get a rotor that fits the lug pattern and the pilot on the rear hub, that way when you swap a rotor you don't have such a big job to do. I don't know about you guys, but I like to be able to buy the parts that have to be replaced regularly off the shelf. Vashon--that's Terry's car (BlueOvalZ). He found that the 280ZX front caliper bolted to the Maxima rear caliper bracket with a later Maxima front (vented) disc. Too much bias, so I think he switched to Cressida calipers which I think are the same as Supra calipers. Jon

If it's going to be RATM then its suggest "Know your Enemy" and whenever it says "know your enemy" the video could cut to a Honda or a Mousetang. Jon

No. The front stuff doesn't even come close to bolting on in the rear. Look at http://http:www.modern-motorsports.com or http://www.arizonazcar.com for some ideas for rear disc. Jon

We all like Tools right? How about some Tool? Jon

I'm in a similar situation to Tim. I've got 7 cd's full of autox footage taken straight from a professional TV quality DV camera and a small camcorder in the car, but no way to cut it down. Any suggestions other than buy a $1000 dollar piece of software to do it? I once tried QuickTime Pro at a friend's house using the Sorenson compressor dealy. It worked but then the cones at the autox started to show up like you were seeing double, and I'm not a big fan of .mov's anyway. Probably a built in "feature" of Windows, but QT takes forever to load, even on my new PC. Damn Microsoft BS!!! Jon

Dan--fair enough. I think you can run such high compression on 93 because your cam selection is correct for your combo. I certainly can't argue with what you've accomplished, and since I've never dynoed my Z I can't really offer up a counter argument, although I have a suspicion that I might be pretty close to JohnC's "max" on an E31 headed L series, and my engine is not really all that special. I'm just trying to give Mark another viewpoint on the heads... not trying to take away from your accomplishments. Jon

You'll DEFINITELY need to experiment, but I bet that Sunbelt has a tuning area in the shop where they could dial it in for you if you don't want to do it yourself. It is an art, but if you know what you're doing it is far from impossible. Mikuni parts are getting hard to come by but Mikunis are IMO easier to tune, so if you are thinking of switching your carbs for something bigger you might want to take that into consideration. Webers are harder to tune and keep in tune, but most people think that you can get more hp with properly tuned Webers. Jon

Good point, but IIRC Dan has flat tops. Jon

Dan I can't help but think that your carbs should be plenty big for 8K on a 3.1. In looking at your previous dyno charts, I think your spark starts getting irratic above 6.5K. I agree that 45's would be a better choice for Mark, but I don't think you've run out of carb. Could be the limitation of the gears on the dizzy drive. Maybe yours are worn??? I know the Pertronix unit only has one sensor, maybe the ZX dizzy style where 6 triggers line up to send the pulse would be better... I don't know. I know you don't believe in the importance of quench Dan, but for Mark's benefit, there is a large contingent of engine builders who will tell you that the piston needs to be close to the flat quench areas of the head to help combat detonation. If you stick a thick headgasket in there you keep the piston farther away from the quench areas basically rendering it useless. I have heard .035-.045 and I've heard .035-.060. This is why the P90 or the E31 would theoretically have an edge over a N42. On the other hand, if JohnC is getting 305 hp out of an N42, Sunbelt must be doing something right... Jon

Can't you cut and weld up a couple of KA intake manifolds as well? I know it won't work for the exhaust side, but should work for intake, unless it is tapered. Jon

Yeah, I hear you. I agree that it is pretty funny that people would be afraid of microwaved food but not of a cell phone. It's not like you take the food out and it's still producing radio waves... I've know a few engineers who worked for cell phone companies, and I don't have one, so I'll let that speak for itself. My wife has one and we use it for "emergencies." Jon

The E31 is great, but you need to install bigger valves and unshroud them to take advantage of it. It also has a really bad tendency to erode the coolant passages that the later heads don't seem to have, so you may want to double check yours. You may also consider milling a P90 .080 and going that route (which is what I would have done in retrospect). I've got a F54 with flat tops and E31 and an American cams regrind .490/280 cam. I wish I had a little more duration. .490/280 is not that radical IMO, especially considering your very high compression that you will see when yours is done. Mine idles pretty smooth, for what it is. All the cams I have seen tend to go from .490/280 to somewhere in the .560/310 neighborhood. There doesn't seem to be a middle ground cam like this .500/290. Have you found that grind, or is that what you are looking for? I'd be interested to know who has it... I would prefer lower gears for autox. I've got 3.70's and am looking to go to 4.11 for just that reason, so I think you're on the right track there. You can probably save yourself some gas $$$ by cutting the race gas with premium unleaded. My setup requires about 95 octane, but I think I could get by on 92 if I had a little more duration. I seriously doubt that you are needing 110, or that you'll need it with the new motor. If you mixed the 110 with 92 50/50, that gives you what, 101 octane? That should be plenty I'd imagine. You can keep cutting it until you find out what octane is necessary, and save some cash. Jon

The world would be a much happier place if we did cancer testing on sharks. On the same lines, the tobacco industry did a study in which the gave rats HUGE amounts of celery and they got cancer. Same thing with milk. Jon

I am definitely not an electrical engineer, but I've diagnosed battery drains before. Easiest way to narrow it down is to disconnect the neg terminal and attach your voltmeter to the cable and the battery post. Set it to milliamps, and you can see the draw. Then start pulling fuses, and when you pull one and the draw drops, you will at least know which circuit the draw is on. Then you can trace it down from there. HTH, Jon

One more thing since David brought it up. On my ex-bosses widebody Porsche it was necessary to reinforce the fiberglass, so they used 3/8" aluminum fuel line. They just cut to length, pinched the ends, and drilled holes for riveting the flares to the fuel line and the fuel line to the tub. That worked for 150+ mph with race weight (thin) flares, but his air dam was just a modified stock 911 air dam. I think this would work for a fiberglass air dam, but probably not a urethane since it is already less rigid and much heavier. Jon

I think Auxilary has reinforced his. I have a "Flex Dam" which had a rubber skirt, and I was unaware that it was flapping up when I was going 90+. Someone watching me on the front straight at Buttonwillow informed me, and I switched out the rubber skirt for plastic lawn edging which solved my problems. Jon