randy 77zt

even though i work for ford i would buy a chevy 2500 hd-the ride and interior noise are alot better.my dad has a 2500 hd and i drive fords at work since i am a ford technician-so i ahve driven both.the chevy also has a real truck trans-allison 5 spd auto with a button for down hill compression braking.i was driving around a ford f250 4x4 this morning -the ride with the straight front axle sucks.

i heated my tie rod ends and took the downward kink out of them-they run straight to rack.i am not a big heim joint fan on a street car but if it only a weekend hot rod it would be okay.then i raised the control arm hole in cross member.the control arms bolt on almost behind the ballsockits on rack.i dont use those bump steer spacers.i dont think there is much bump steer in my car but i would have to take springs out and check it on the hunter 4 wheel alingment rack at work.i could use the air jack on rack to run car up & down.i align car for a track day and align again when i get home.right now i have -1.5 camber in front with struts at limit on plates.track days i run -3.2 to 3.4.the rear has -1.2 with .15" toe in with no correction devices.i dont notice much difference with out rear camber plates but could use more - camber in rear.if i was going to set up a car for an open road event(silver state )i would use only about -.5 to -.8-this would keep groves in pavement from pulling tires around.i cant get less than -1.5 out of my front because i mad front track wider when i redrilled my crossmember.it wanders on rain grooves a bit.you could compensate for this with lower control arms you make.my car is a reasearch car for me-i want a car to drive quiet to work and then out run trailered in race cars at the track.

i have gc plates -they go underneath.you have to open up the strut tower alot.i use a sawsall and a rotary file in a die grinder to do this.my car is set up with 12" 225 front and 250 rear coil overs from gc.their (street) coil over kits use stock length struts-this is what i have.car will handle better not lowered all the way-i have proved this at sears point.most of the guys onthis site have installed coil overs to run bigger tires.my car is used for a work car so that is why i have long springs.you can tighten a car up but you will never know if it is right untill you run a race track.

i use these rotors on rear on my 77z with turbo motor .car is used for drivers schools at laguna,sears point ,thunderhill.never any problems with rear.i run willwood dynalite 2 piston calipers on a .5" aluminum plate brackit.i dont run park brake-took all that stuff off.

a challenge-i could try to cut a cover out by hand while you try to program cnc machine-i make my parts the old fashoned way-with a vise and a sawsall.i am sure your parts look better though.good luck with project.

ford does things like throttle body size to limit warrenty claims-the 5.o was choked for that reason.the late model explorer tb's i sent out for almost free were 65 mm.part of that can be explianed by stall speed in torque convertor and a heavy vehicle and an abrupt tip-in to make vehicle SEEM like it has power.a turboed engine cam use a little smaller tb than a na motor cause the turbo will pressurize intake.the late model 5.0 explorer has a large tb.vw has to design for autobahn.this monthes sport /compact car mag has a test on a focus with a bigger aftermarkit tb-it lost midrange torque but the kiddies that use daddies visa will order this stuff anyway .some of the american lemans series cars had air restrictors in the air box to make cars equal-the air goes supersonic in thse things if not designed correctly.us mature engine builders dont care where parts came from-the cheaper the better.just the dyno print outs and no bs.

there is a tool you can screw into o2 sensor fitting to check back pressure.anything more than 7 psi is excessive.snap on & mac sell them.car will run with o2 sensor out .

zgeezer-if you end up not using the sho i will buy the whole car-i want a sho for a sand rail.the engine isnt hard to work on out of car.the crank position sensors go out then no spark.the timing belt and water pump are a b^&*$ to change in car.i think you could turn the intake manifold 180 degrees to get throttle in front.another possability for a bellhousing is a 75 mustang 2 with borg 4 speed.the eec 4 system isnt loaded down with excess sensors like eec5/obd 2 systems .if you try this get the ford book called evtm for the car.this will show you where to disconnect wiring and what to save.i have heard rumors that there is a resistor in ecm to cut to eliminate rev limiter.engines were tested to 11000 rpm.the engine was completly made by yamaha.if you need any info i am a ford dealer tech for a living -email me.

to plug a hole like this i usually get a gaskit and scribe pattern on to a piece of aluminum plate.kind of a pain but it saves money.how do you like the dtafast unit?i have the sample software on my hard drive and like it.i work at a ford dealer i get free stuff-like the ranger v6 coil pack you have.the distribitor for west coast said he has some older 6 cylinder units in stock-would like to try getting rid of oem nissan injection on my 77/81zxt z.

i have a set of 15x7 asc/mcclaren wheels from a special edition asc/mcclaren mustang laying around.thinking about taking them to stockton rim & wheel to see if the hole could be machined for nissan alloy wheel lug nuts like i use on my 81 zxt 15x6 wheels.wheels were made by oz-grey mesh with machined front.some of those cars had ugly orange mesh wheels.mustang is 4x4.25.you can order center line wheeels from summit drilled for z.i would like a set of 17" forgedline-not enough bucks though.

are 300 zx injectors bigger than 280 zx injectors?the ecm controls mixture by the ON time of injector.if 280 zx injectors are smaller the on time wont be long enough.the system will correct itself with proper injector size because of o2 sensor and maf sensor.the hot wire maf is supposed to flow more air than mechanical afm.also if you get 300zx injectors send them out for a clean and flow check if they are used.

benz injectors were from 74 to 76 450 v8.they have a hose on top like stock nissan injectors.you will need a programmable efi to run these-the on time pulse width with oem efi will be too long.the nissan injectors are about 25 lb/hr.mercs are 48-so at idle the on time will have to be much less.i replaced a set of these on a 450 slc in late 80's-i shouldnt have thrown them away.could have sent them to rc engineering for cleaning and flow test.

a suggestion for fuel system-use oem intake and injectors and get sds system to control it.this set up should make car trouble free .

nice advice-you can never ground something in a vehicle too good.a few extra ground straps dont hurt anything.

some of you guys that like sampling ecm software should try this site-www.dtafast.co.uk i downloaded from this site and figured it out fast-and i am a klutz with a computor.i liked how you could drag fuel points and timing points on a map with the mouse.

whats it cost?sounds a little expensive for most auto hobby types.sounds like something out of a world rally car.do they have sample software to download?

i run magnacore wires on my z.got them direct from magnacore.they have been on car for 4 years.no problems.i was sold on them back in late eighties when i saw them on a turbogharged merkur that was from roush racing.it was running in old trans am series.the fit is as good as oem too.

i have been reading about these cars for a few years -i like the power to weight ratio and handling.the sand rail guys sre building small cars with bike engines in them too.i am going to build a mini sand rail with an old suzuki 750 motor i have laying around.

i checked out the megasquirt system-it seems like the systems all there on the site.when i was in electronics i college i made circuit boards with a photo masking system you could get at electronics stores.problem with system is it is fuel only.as time goes on more people will probably post plans for home made fi ecms-may be recycle that motherboard from that old pentium 1 computor you dont use any more.i think it depends on if a person has lots of time and no money or no spare time and lots of money.

hedman & street & performance make block huggers headers for lti.ports are d shaped-thats why there are special headers.if you are just going to run the alternator you can probably build a low mount brackit and run a real short belt-there is no water pump pulley/you could pivot the alternator to tension the belt.street&performance will probably want to sell you a 94 ecm and their harness-bucks.sds is a stand alone efi computor that you program with a hand held programmer box that comes with the unit.goto www.sdsefi.com-very good website.the sds uses gm sensors.you would have to mount magnets on crank pulley and mount a pick up for them.the opti spark will be working as a distributor only.the buddy i am working on the nova for wishes he would have waited a few more monthes for the 350 ramjet efi crate motor-ecm is mounted to motor and all you do is add b+ and fuel .if you can get alot of money for the lti i would trade it for ramjet crate motor.

len-the 96 had obd2-mucho sensors like gas tank pressure sensors,cat monitor o2s,purge flow sensors and more.the nova i am working on i bought gm manual and am hooking up oem harness.because of amount of extra sensors for obd2 most guys stay away from these.they prefer 94/93 engines.engine will run with 94wcm & harness if optispark(another name for expensive distributor) is changed.these engines are big bucks to play with because not much fits them.the nova i am building has $1200 in serpentine belt drive & alternator from street & performance-brackits & pulleys made from polished billit aluminum.for info goto www.tpis.com.the nova has most of their 405 hp kit except for headers.the reprogrammed the ecm for this engine and omitted what i deleted from engine + vats .after dealig with all the wiring mess if i put a lt1 into z i would probably just hook sds efi up to it-easier wiring and easier programming.by the time you buy software or have ecm reprogrammed and the price of a harness you are close to price of sds.

i dont know much about oklahoma dmv -but i would get the car titled in your own name before starting any work on it.the lt1 ecm can be reprogrammed to ignore parts ommitted .i am swapping a 94 lt1 into a 66 nova -i had a company called tpis reprogram ecm to work without VATS ,egr,air.if you dont reprogram you will have trouble codes and car wont run correctly.painless wiring has a fi harness for it.

lots of hybrid z'ers in my area-cool.we will have to get a run together soon before weather gets bad.one of my favorite z runs-up the back side of mount hamilton from del puerto canyon-great curvy road.

i have a t3/t4 that i havent installed on car bit tried it on spare motor.i dented the heat shield on manifold some with hammer.there are many different compressor and exhaust housings in t3/t4 family of turbos.guessing what car will do with different turbo is kind of a black art-will it bog and hit like a 125cc dirt bike or will it have a nice steady pull.for some reading goto turbonetics website and study compressor maps.

if somebody could get some technical books from bosch it would be great-like the kinds of books car manufacturing and race car shops like roush get for building efi systems for race cars.i have a local vw shop that will order bosch parts on a %20 markup-the only catch is no returns.if you ordered it its yours for ever.some of the fuel pumps on old bmw & mercedes cis systems flowed a lot of fuel.knowing what bosch # to look for at pick&pull would save big bucks.