randy 77zt

i have gc 12" street coil over kit with camber plates on my 77 z.the longer springs ride better but you have to grind the welds on strut tubes and remove old perches and weld on rings to stop threade collars form sliding down.some coil over kits use 7" springs but car will ride rough.to put camber plates in you have to do major cutting on strut towers-like removing about %70 percent of the tops.my car will go to -3.5 camber.the plates rattle on bumpsthe spring rest on a aluminum spring perch with a bearing under it for turning.my struts were not cut but on gc track kitthey cut the struts and use toyota mr2 cartridges.i put this set up on a 240-it will go to the ground .my spring are 225 lb front and 250 in rear.i would not do this to a street car but i use my car for driver schools at roadc race tracks.car is plenty low and if it is too low it dosent handle as good-done that at sears point.if car is too stiff tires slide on top of pavement.if i do another z i am going to copy simon's control armsand use stock parts on top of strut.except maybe put aluminum coil over perch against bottem of a 240 stock upper strut mount and use coil over springs.

i hve a set of eibach prokit springs laying around for 75-78 z.i liked the ride but changed to coil overs for track use.it takes struts with good rebound dampening though.i used tokico 5 way illumina and had to run the rear on position 3 to control rebound.the front i ran full soft on street

mike -i have the aluminum coil over spring perchs on top betwwen springs and camber plates.no rubber.car is very low-rear axles go upward to wheels.i am going to take camber plates out for winter.i am going to build some rear control arms when i get around to it .i have lots of z parts to cut and weld on and the local pick&pull almost gives them away.

i have a magazine with an article on getting 382 cubes fron a 351 ford.crank was ground to use 300 cube straight six connecting rods-this increased stroke.blockwas bored .060 over.rods are 6.210 long.engine made made 560 hp on dyno.article was in hot boat june 1998.you dont always need a chevy for hp.if any body has ever worked on boats you know engine has to be built right-they run at high rpm all of the time.

i can tell some thing about engine weight from experience.i cannot lift an l28 block.i can lift a ford 302 block and put it in parts washer.so a 302 with aluminum heads might improve weight balence and be lighter.i have a loaded l28 turbo engine on a stand-if i could get a large fish scale i could weigh it.

i use my z for driver schools/open track events at sears point ,laguna seca and thunderhill.car has camber plates,coil overs,urathene bushings,modified front crossmember,four wheel disc brakes and more.i drive car to work 50 miles a day.if i ever build another z i willnot do this again.why-because it rattles on bumps-tire noise from the road comes into car from rear strut housing from camber plates.at i have some parts that were bought and removed that are laying around because thay did not work at the track.my car is aligned for track days by me on computor 4 wheel alinment rack-they let me use the rack at work since that is what i do.with camber plates you get little toe change on camber adjustment.the control arms with rod ends would be ok if you didnt have to remove the bolt they pivot on otherwise i dont see any advantage.the best control arms i have seen are the arms that simon in austraila made-easily adjustable and use oem or urathene busings.with these you could set a car up for track with out rattleing parts.i am going to copy the rear set and ditch the camber plates.camber plates are good for race cars though-fast adjustment with out jacking up car.probably the roads in australia arent as good so simon wanted to leave bushings in to make car last longer with less maintenence.

i have gc plates in front and carrera plates in rear.gc plates are best-they dont rattle on bumps.the carrera plates are coming out-they rattle like crazy but would be ok on a trailer car.plus they were supposed to be bolt in and they would not give more negative camber if used in oem strut tower holes so i cut & redrilled tower holes.if some body wants the carrera plates i will sell them for $100 plus shipping.

check out this monts issue of hot rod.they built a chevy 383 for $2000 that dynoed at 400hp.all parts sources are listed and they even gave carb jetting & timing specs.

the vss was used as input for egr control,canister purge,cruise control.if you are doing a z swap you dont neeed to hook it up but you will have trouble codes and it is better not to have trouble codes(dtc in obd 2) in ecm.you can drive a electronic speedo like a automeeter unit from this to eliminate speedo cable.the speed the ecm sees wont really have much of an effect on it.it mostly just looks for open input circuits.i work as a tech at a ford dealer-the techs always wonder about the engineers and why they design vehicles to be so hard to work on-like the new f-series trucks with engines 1/2 under the dash board.and who writes the warrenty time standards?

for those members who have used different turbo size combos-which would be best for sears point or laguna seca-rpm range runs about 3000 to 6500 max boost 16 psi on union 110 nascar gas.i usually floor it about 50 feet before apex-but i run a basically stock 81zxt engine.i run those driver school -open track events in my car.and drive it to the track and drive it to work.

i have been investigating aftermarkit efi systems for about 2 years .last spring in san felipe baja i saw tec 11 on race buggys with honda b16 engines or toyota 4ag .i myself dont like it because ecm is with ciols in engine compartment and running in california underhood in a street car insummer it gets hot.the sds is probably good enough for %90 of most uses.i down loaded the sample haltech software to play tune up master but i dont know DOS but i did get to some of it after 2 hours.the fel pro system has a fre sample too.i think most problems come from installation and peoples ability to fabricate harness and solder wires together and route to make it reliable.i am thinking of haltech or sds when i can afford it.

explorer racks are 2.5 turns lock to lock like mustang-evrything is standard now.

4.6 liter would not need a new oil pan though-sump is rear.engine is very smooth but not best bang for buck.i am a ford dealer tech-so i get to work on these things

no idea on thred size on ford racks-you could always get the tap&die set out and rethread the ends for zcar tie rod ends after you shorten the width a bit.the newer ford explorers have a rack with mounting bolts that run vertical-if you welde a piece of steel plate to bottem of crossmember you could bolt rack to it.

the 5.0 mustangs have better steering ratio and rack is same body as tbird unit.i would stay away from old mustang11 racks though.the next time i change a rack on a 99 explorer at work i might keep the core to use for mock-up.the bolts come in from bottem instead of front like mustang rack.

if you are worried about handling build your own motor mounts and put in a 302 ford with aluminun heads.set the motor way back-the distributor is in front of engine.weight balence will improve -ford engine is lighter and will be almost behind crossmember.some day when i get some money i am going to yank my l28 turbo and install a built 5.0-but i am a ford dealer tech for a living.

the yellow wire from ecm should trigger it-the wire that goes to power transister-when i wired my 77/81zxt this is the only wire triggers spark.81to 83 use power transistor on coil for spark.the 6btm will retard on boost but this should be handled with ecm in ideal situation.

the diffs are both the same.you will have to build an adaptor to use cv shafts though.you will have to swap rear covers and pinion flanges to.check the posts for adaptors for cv axles.

i am putting a 94 lt1 in a 66 nova ss for a friend-these distributors suck to get to-i would only use delco parts on a chevy though-have had problems with non oem parts.

there was a couple of 200sx turbos at pick&pull last weekend -supposed to be 4.10 r 200 but i dont know about ring gear bolt sizes-i have a 87 300zxt lsd on floor and a 75 r 200 3.54 out -i will check on this bolt size thing for myself.paying $650 for gears is too much.

buy the motor and mess with cv shafts later.i dont run cv shafts on my 77/81zxt and dont have any problems.have a set af cv shafts in garage know but it really isnt a bolt in swap.i have a pick&pull around here that sells stuff dirt cheap.got a 3.7 300zxt lsd rear for $56.best trans is 82/83 zx-has best ratios for sports car use-thats what i run -close ratios for sears point and best 5th for freeway.i could probably send you a trans but i could not guarentee it-that is why i dont resell parts from pick&pull on z car forums.trans are $75.some time they need countershaft bearings-got a 84 300 zxt t5 in stock .

you can try motorsport but very expensive but i know they have a r134 kit.new type compressors dont take as much hp to turn.on some cars having the windows down creates more drag than the hp draw from ac.my factory ac still works in my 77.also try a company called vintage air-they make kits for street rods and old muscle cars.if you have a pick&pull maybe you could throw something together from 280 z.

i would not want to do this because it probably weaken the structure of the unit body unlesss some subframing is done.car would probably shift if it wasnt jacked level and body stripped when done.

you would make more hp with a stock zx turbo drive train with boost turned up some.plus have more low end torque.i bought the zxt for parts for my 77 for $200.

i raised my front pick up points and moved them out ward for more negative camber.then i heated & bent outer tie rod ends to make them run straight to rack.i dont use those bump steer spacers.the front pivot point on cross member is almost directly behind ball socket on rack. mr scca-where you at shasta run at thunder hill this year?