wheelman

John, Several years ago I was almost transferred to Boise by the company I worked for at the time. I liked it, especially the Eagle area. The winters are much harser than Seattle, the summers can be hot and traffic is a nightmare depending on where you live (well compared to where I live now but not Seattle). Idaho is a very conservative state law wise and the Boise area has a high concentration of Mormons, housing costs are reasonable especially if you buy in the Nampa area (about 30 miles west of Boise). Meridian and Eagle (western and north western suburbs) are the areas that have the most growth and the highest prices, east of town towards Mountain Home AirForce base is very desert like but the prices are better. Overall I really like the area and have kept it on my list of places to consider when I move out of the Tri-Cities. Wheelman

John, Have you considered the Spokane Wa. area? Medical industry is huge there, good climate with relatively moderate winters and perfect summers. Local drag strip and active Auto-X club. 4.5 hours to Seattle and Portland, 30 minutes from Lake Coure D Alene in Idaho (Sp) for water sports and Mount Spokane for Skiing. Land/housing is very reasonable and the city is large enough to offer good services but not so large as to be called a big city. The traffic can be a pain there though. When I lived there I planned my route around making right turns as making lefts across traffic was an act of god. The Tri-Cities Wa. (Kennewick, Pasco, Richland) is also not to bad but gets pretty hot in the summer (desert climate) and not quite as large as Spokane (which has it's pluses like basically no traffic). I've lived here for 13 years and it has grown on me although someday I plan to move to an area thats a little more green, like the Lake Cour D Alene area. Wheelman

BWRex, I used a stock Camaro slave and a Wilwood 3/4" master. I followed the JTR method to connect the hose to the slave and the Wilwood came with a double flare fitting that was compatible with 3/16" brake line. I had a local hydraulic supply store make me up a line, cost about $20.00. If I had it to do over again I'd use a 7/8" master, the 3/4" gives a very long pedal travel and I was forced to cut the stop from the floor. The only mods to the crossmember were slotting the hole on the top where the mount connects and opening up the hole below that so I could get a wrench on the nut. No mods to the clutch linkage. Strotter, Even if I had tried to use the JTR crossmember I would have had to remove the ears from the tunnel, either that or bend them over to clear the side of the tranny. I did have to clearance the area close to the slave cylinder mount to make room for the clutch fork as you state. Wheelman

Here are the pictures of my crossmember setup. I used the stock Datsun crossmember, slotted the center hole in it so I could move the mount left or right as I needed and also slotted the holes in the mount to match up with the flange on the transmission. I've trimmed up the mounts since I took the pictures but you'll get the idea. To make the hangers I cut some 3X3 1/8" thick tubing to make a u-bracket which I then welded to some 1/4" plate. Each hanger is bolted to a plate through the tunnel wall to add extra bracing. I'm contemplating welding the external plate to the tunnel wall but wonder if it would add much more strength. I used washers as spacers on the bolts that hold the crossmember to the hangers to eliminate front to rear movement. Let me know what you think. I should really take some more pictures to show the exhaust pipe clearance this setup provides. Wheelman

Grumpy, What do you think of using Vortec heads on this combination? Wheelman

If it's an LT1 specific part then it should have the correct counterweight already mounted. BTW: How much are you paying that "billet" flywheel? Wheelman

I'm pretty sure I left the outer metal bushing ring in place when I installed my poly-urethane mustache bar bushings. Are you sure you're supposed to remove them John? Wheelman

I had to remove those side mounts on my 73 240 to mount the T5. I didn't use the JTR mount but moved the Datsun crossmember back about 4-5 inches in the tunnel. I have some pictures somewhere I'll try to find and post. Wheelman

Danno74Z, Yes I installed the cam myself and did the valve springs at the same time, but I kept the stock rockers. The LT1 I have came from a Caprice cop car so it has the iron heads which are supposed to flow about 20% better than the aluminum ones. Feel free to email or PM me with whatever questions you have. Edit: BTW Nazar don't assume the cam is a hot cam just because the rockers are rollers. To be sure you either need to pull it and look for part numbers or measure the lift and duration. What car did the engine come out of? F-Body or Vette. Wheelman

Danno74Z, I like it alot. It has just a hint of a lope and makes good power all the way from 1500 RPM to 5500 or so, although its a bit hard to tell in these light cars. I set the rev limit at 6300 after putting in stiff valve springs but have not taken it that high yet, by the time I get to 5800 in a gear where you can tell a difference in power levels it's going fast enough to get scary. I want to get it on a dyno at some point to get a better picture of whats it's really doing but there aren't any local to me. The light flywheel means it revs in a heart beat which takes some getting used to when launching and shifting gears. Wheelman

Does the flexplate have a chunk of metal welded to the back side of it close to the ring gear? If it does this is the counter weight put in place by the factory, this would indicate the engine was not balanced. If it isn't there then there's a good chance the engine was balanced and your billet flywheel will work. Good luck. Wheelman

Danno74z, The flywheel was a brand new 153 tooth unit made to work with a 305 that has a 1 piece rear main seal (86 and later). These engines, along with the 350 from the same years I believe, are externally balanced just like the LT1. I was able to take it right out of it's shipping box and bolt it up. No machining of any kind was done to balance it to my engine. Before I did this I talked to the manufacturer (McCloud I think, not sure as it's been a while since I bought it) who told me it was direct a bolt on and was balanced correctly. It is also only 16lbs which makes for quick revs. Wheelman

Dude did you read what I said? Take the whole rotating assembly to a machine shop and have it balanced. If you can't afford to do that then get a stock flywheel and forget the fancy billet one. Wheelman

You don't have to balance the new flywheel to the old one, just get an LT1 T56 flywheel and clutch setup. The counter weight built into it will be the same as the one on the flexplate. If you're really worried about it get the flywheel and clutch and take the entire rotating assembly to a machine shop and have it balanced. I converted from an A4 to a T5 and used a flywheel from a late model externally balanced 305 with a matching clutch and everything works great, no vibrations at all. Just make sure to get new flywheel bolts instead of using the old flexplate bolts. The flywheel bolts are slightly longer. Wheelman

Bart, I bought one of those Harbor Freight bottles and they are indeed empty when purchased. I ended up trading it in for a 100cf bottle at my local welding store because I used alot more gas than I anticipated and the refill price difference between the small and large bottle was only $12.00. My recommendation is to get the larger bottle and refill it much less often, it really saves you in the long run if you do much welding at all. Another thing to keep in mind is that as the pressure in the bottle drops the flow regulator will need to be tweeked to keep the flow rate you set (at least mine did, cheap regulator I guess), the larger bottle delays this as well. Wheelman

Here is a link that answers pretty much all the questions about swapping to a vented opti. http://para.noid.org/~muttvette/opti.html Wheelman

The primary problem with the optispark is it builds up corrosion from moisture, if yours is a 95 or later it is vented which almost eliminates the problem. There is one alternative not mentioned already but it's a big change. Mount a 36-1 toothed wheel on the harmonic balancer and a VR sensor which is then used to drive a Ford EDIS-8 system. To use this though you'll either need to replace the ignition parts of your current system with a Mega-Jolt or replace the entire PCM with Megasquirt. I have a 95 vented optispark on my engine and have gotten it wet a couple times with no ill affects. Don't be in to big a hurry to replace it if you aren't having problems. If you insist on a replacement check into the DynaSpark as well, it's a redesigned opti that is said to be pretty much bullet proof.

The 10.5/10.4 inch pressure plate and disk are what you need with the 153 tooth flywheel. I think the 10.5 inch designation is generic with actual dimensions being a little different depending on the manufacturer. Another option for the slave/fork/bearing parts is to find a later bellhousing (84-91) with the mount for the slave and the fork that goes with it. This should be less expensive than a hydraulic throwout bearing and is easier to fix if a leak develops. Once you have these parts you can switch to a WC tranny without changing anything else, the spline counts and dimensions are all the same unlike on the Ford trannys, at least thats what I found when researching the subject to put my system together. Wheelman

Really sounds to me like the distributor is out of phase. I just put a new timing belt on a Volvo that had been sitting for a year waiting for it and had also been worked on by someone else before I got it. When I put the belt on it pinged real bad, not back fire but ping. Turned out the prior "mechanic" had re-phased the distrbutor in an attempt to set the timing after the belt had slipped. Took me a couple days to figure this out but once I put the dist in correctly it ran great. I guess the next question is how would the dist have gotten changed while it was at the tranny shop? What all did they do? Did they pull the engine/tranny to run the fuel line? Anyway, something to consider, along with looking for a cracked cap and also burned plug wires that are arcing between them causing spurious firing. Wheelman

HA, thats great, I just had to bring a half dozen glasses back in to the house from the garage the other day. The wife made me wash them with Dawn before she'd run them through the dishwasher, seems dishwasher detergent doesn't clean engine grease like the normal liquid dish soap. Wheelman

Chuckie, I used the exhaust gas method to weld this tank and have made several attempts with the welder trying to eliminate the pin holes. I plan to flush it real good with water and fill with exhaust from my pickup before getting a flame near it. Thats what I did each time I welded on it and I'm still here so I'll do it again. BTW: Thanks for bringing me back to my senses, I was looking at the JB WELD again after having tried it once already to seal these holes. The version of it I used was not gas proof and never cured, thats why I tried the Seal-ALL, which did work for a while but also doesn't seem to be gas proof. Maybe it's just me not applying the stuff correctly. So now it's off to the hardware store to get some acid core solder and a new can of propane for the torch. Thanks for the feedback guys, I'll let you all know how it turns out. If I can't get this to work then it's a swap to the LS1 tank. Wheelman

Jolane, What are the JB weld products you're refering to? I checked thier website many moons ago and didn't see anything like what you mentioned. Wheelman

Last summer I welded a sump on my stock 240 tank to feed the LT1. I've had problems with pin holes and thought I got them all sealed with some stuff called Seal-ALL I found at Walmart. I was under the car last week and discovered it's leaking again so I'm looking for other alternatives. One direction is to abandon the stock tank and install an LS1 tank. I can get the tank locally for $75.00 and a used pump/sender unit from eBay for $50.00 plus shipping. Then I have to fab the mounts and cut out the spare tire well and all the attendant things that go with that project. I also already spent close to $200.00 for my current pump, filter and fuel lines. I was reading a question on another forum regarding welding on a gas tank and one poster mentioned brazing to seal the welds, which got me to thinking about using plumbers solder to seal mine. Will it work or would I just create a bigger mess than I already have (really isn't that big just frustrating)? I was thinking I would use a propane torch (I don't have an acetylene setup), heat the area real good and flow the solder over the whole seam. What do you guys think? How would it hold up to vibrations? Wheelman

Nice siphon hose you have in the back there. J/K Looking good, how are you planning on filling in the space around the fuel cell? Will you have to open the hatch to fill it up? I considered doing the fuel cell thing but don't like the idea of opening the hatch to fill up and didn't want to do that much fab work to build a filler neck. I'm seriously considering the LS1 tank swap right now. I welded a sump on my stock tank but have leaking problems and don't really like the fuel lines hanging out the back the way they do. Keep up the good work. Wheelman

When you do the fronts be sure to notice the orientation of the lettering on the springs, they are progressive and have a top and bottom. The rears are linear so it doesn't matter. Wheelman