wheelman

Use a Heli-Coil, like has been stated before they are much stronger than the steel of the block and not that hard to get in straight. I had to put one in the nose of my crankshaft and had no problems torqueing it to 70 ft/lbs. I would seriously consider doing all of the head bolts while you have it apart, it would really suck to strip another and have to go through the exercise again. Wheelman

Sounds to me like you've got some mixed up goals. A high reving 302 sounds like a fun motor but to expect it to get decent mileage, be in the powerband all the time and run a carb is not gonna happen. Here's an idea, put a 5-speed in it, cruise in 5th at about 1700 - 2000 rpm and then when you want to blow someone away shift down and punch it. Even a high rev motor should have enough torque at around 2000 rpm to handle the light weight Z. I'd also look real hard at using some type of EFI system if you're worried about fuel mileage. You can tune the air fuel ratio much better with fuel injection than a carb and if you went with something like Mega-Squirt it doesn't cost a fortune either. Wheelman

Welcome to the board, the first thing you'll hear is use the search function. This site is full of information and just about every question you'll have while doing a V8 conversion has already been answered. There are a couple options for kits that will mount a Chevy small block engine into a 240. The preferred one here is sold by "Jags That Run" (jagsthatrun.com). They sell a book that describes the process and has engineered drawings so you can make the parts if you don't want to buy them. Get their manual and read it a couple times before starting the project, it'll answer most of your questions and get you started in the right direction. Nobody sells a complete kit including engine and transmission. The other 2 places that sell conversion parts are: Motorsport Automotive (zcarparts.com) John's Cars Inc. (brokenkitty.com) What do you plan to use the car for? Drags, AutoX, Roadracing, street, all the above. Have you looked it over real good for rust? What do you plan to do to the suspension and brakes if anything? Wheelman

The first engine swap I did was replacing a 289 with a 302 in an old Ford pickup I had. It had an automatic transmission which I hadn't had much experience with. I thought I had the TC pushed all the way into the tranny when the engine was lowered into place but didn't. A friend was helping me and he was a pretty big guy. So the engine wouldn't slide all the way back onto the tranny and instead of pulling it out to see what the problem was my friend and I decided to start reefing on the tranny bolts to "pull" the engine back against the tranny. He eventually busted one of the mounting ears off the engine block before we decided to pull it back out. I repositioned the TC to where it should have been and used some JB weld on the mounting ear which never did give me a problem. I was worried about the tranny so before taking it for a spin I called a couple local tranny shops who told me we probably busted the pump but it never gave me any problems either. I dodged a bullet and learned a very valuable lesson about being meticulous when assembling things. Wheelman

The LT1 I installed is from a Caprice cop car and I'm having some issues with the alternator, it's a Delco CS144 140 or 200amp unit. I'm not sure if it's whats called a single wire but I don't think so. It is currently wired up with the main output going through the amp-meter into the rest of the Datsun harness and the F line on the SFLP plug is connected to switched +12volts through a 10amp fuse. When I start the car it puts out 13 volts and does not charge the battery, at least not enough to keep it from slowly being drained by the starter. If I hook the S line up to the positive terminal of the battery and start the car it will put out between 14.8 and 15 volts and does charge the battery. If I pull the SFLP plug it doesn't put out anything and the amp-meter remains centered. When the alternator is working the amp-meter is generally pegged at +60amps whether the S line is hooked up or not. Questions: Should I leave the S line hooked up? Will it over charge the battery this way? Should I unhook the F line? What should be done with the L line, if anything? Should the amp-meter be showing a +60 draw/flow? Thanks Wheelman

Thats great. I did the same thing in mine when it was in about the same condition, fenders removed, no hood or door glass and open headers. My neighborhood is just a regular street so I attracted much more attention than you did. plus I was a lot more agressive on the throttle. Anyway congratulations and keep us posted with more movies as the project progresses. Wheelman

OK I stand corrected and admit that I jumped to conclusions that were not based on any data from your actual circumstances. When I was young it was expected that as soon as a young man finished college he would move out and make his own way in the world, times have changed apparently and I have not kept up. My son who is 18 just went off to Airforce basic training and will most likely not be moving back into my house, at least not for the next 4 years. These things color my view of how things are and I have no reference to draw on regarding how difficult it is to start off in life these days. Please accept my appology for jumping on your toes. Wheelman

I just spent the evening chasing down a problem with the fan circuit, turns out one of my relays was bad and it shorted a bunch of stuff together. The symptoms were that the car would not shut down when I turned off the key and the high speed fan circuit was energized all the time. I replaced the relay with a spare one I had after tracing out all the circuits involved and everything works as it should. My suspicion is that the relay was bad right from the start (it was pulled from the donor car) but I can't be sure. It was a bosch unit that was used as a fan controller in the Caprice so I think it can handle the load of the Taurus fan. If the new one fails in the same manner I'll let you guys know. On a different but related topic, when I originally wired up my alternator it would not charge the battery but put out 13 volts. It's a high output (140 amp) single wire unit used in the cop cars. I connected the S line from the SFLP connector to the positive terminal on the battery and it now produces 15 volts all the time. The F line is connected through a 10amp fuse to switched 12volts. Will this over charge the battery and/or will it damage the alternator? Wheelman

22 and living at home with Mom and Dad. And for free no less, do you also have fridge privileges? Dude, if you were able to earn a BA by the time you were 19 and haven't moved forward with life since then it's time to get off the stick and do something. Set some goals, do what it takes to move towards them, the first being to move out on your own. I hope this isn't to harsh but I just had to say it!!! Wheelman

I really like the looks of that. I think it would even sell as a kit car but I have no idea what chassis could be used as a base. Maybe do it the way Factory-Five does the Cobra kits and use an F-Body for donor parts and build the rest around a tube frame of some type. Anyway as Tim says it's a bitchin car. Especially the Z28 and SS styles. Edit: I have to say that I've never been a big fan of the Camaro, more of a Ford guy. As a kid (in the 70s and 80s) they were like as$holes and bellybuttons, everyone had at least 1 and they always seemed to stink. Over the years they haven't gotten a whole lot better. I did like the 67-69 models and this design really reminds me of those, so when I say I like it that means something in my book. Wheelman

OK I have the take the opposite side of argument from POP on this one. I'm 40 and had my kids when I was young so both will be gone by the time I'm 43. I spent the majority of my younger life working toward the future so that when my daughter moves out I can enjoy the rest of it. My view point is that spending your meager resources now on a car will only delay the point in your life where you can decide if you want to work or not. I suggest getting rid of the car, set goals for your future and work toward them (sounds like you've already done this) and don't let things distract you. Educate yourself in financial matters so you have the ability to determine the long and short term consequences of certain spending patterns. Use this knowledge to map out your life, don't let emotions drive your decisions. I had to learn these things the hard way and it has meant that my decision date for whether I want to work or not was pushed farther into the future. POP is correct that Z cars are becoming more rare but there are other cars worth making a hobby out of and Jon is right about the rust also. My Z had a "small rust hole under the battery tray". HA. Turned out I had to remove the entire tray along with a good portion of the firewall and inner fenderwell just to get rid of that spot. There is more rust to get rid of and I'll guarantee there's more rust in your car than you've seen, that is unless you've removed all the undercoating (inside and out) and checked all seams and cavities. Anyway I won't turn this into a lecture, what I'm trying to say is look long term, decide what you want your life to be and make it happen. If that means keeping the Z, pouring your limited funds into it, possibly sacrificing other opportunities then go for it but know what the long and short term consequences are when you make that decision. I'll climb down from my soap-box now. Wheelman

I noticed you said it was a fuel line, if it has been drained and is dry use a little heat from a torch. Blow out the line real good with an air compressor first to make sure the vapors are gone. Wheelman

In that case 500HP is going to be way more than adequate and if you can avoid the very hard drag race style launches the R200 will hold up just fine. I would swap the half-shafts for CV axles and possibly put in new stub axles just for peace of mind (I did) but they probably aren't really necessary. It is the launches that kill them after all. My guess is you'll be very traction limited which saves the drivetrain parts but takes its toll on the tires. Put sticky drag radials on it, do some hard launches and things will start to break, so wheel spin is your friend. Sounds like it's going to be a real beast, post some pictures when you get the engine in. Have you made sure there's enough clearnace for the Vortech yet? Are you using EFI or a blow-through carb setup? Wheelman

Welcome to the board. What is the intended use for your car? Street, drag, AutoX, Road Racing or combination? The rear brakes can be swapped out for disks, in fact there are several kits from various vendors that make it a realatively easy project. Again do some searching and you'll run across many posts discussing it as well as posts about swapping the half-shafts for CV axles and upgraded stub axles. These changes can pretty much make the rearend stout enough for 500HP. Wheelman

Have you checked the castor settings? After I put in all new poly bushings I got the castor setup wrong and the steering was very heavy, particularly at low speed or stopped. After I had an alignment done the steering is much lighter and the car seems to be less darty, although I think that was caused by bad toe settings. The other thing that comes to mind is the profile of the tires. Are shoulders of your tires more square than your friend's? A more square tire might actually have a larger contact patch even though both tires are the same width. Wheelman

I also used Cozyz's setup for my Taurus fan except that I have the LT1 PCM controlling the high and low speed circuits. I tested my fan to see what would happen if both sets of windings were energized and found that it got pretty hot and actually ran slower than if just the high speed circuit was on, this is why I decided to use Larry's setup. Wheelman

Welcome to the board. Be sure to use the search function, you'll be able to answer just about any question you can think of. More 350s are swapped because they are so common and cheap that it's nearly impossible to beat them from a price stand point. That having been said the 327 will make a swap that is a little bit more unique. You'll also hear that the 327 can rev higher than the 350 but this isn't really true in a strict sense as both need to have the valve train upgraded and then will have virtually identical red-lines. So from a price and availability stand point the 350 is a better choice, but everyone has one. The higher compression ratio of the 327 is only because of when it was built (read very high octane gas) vs most 350s (read lower octane gas and added emissions stuff). Get a late model LT1 and you'll have either 10:1 or 10.5:1 depending on what car it came out of. What are you planning to use the car for? The intended application should be considered when deciding which engine to use. Drag racing would probably benefit more from the extra torque of the 350 with an auto tranny while road-racing/AutoX might be better with the 327 and a 5-speed. I've got a fuel injected 350 (LT1) in mine with a light flywheel and a 5-speed tranny and it revs to redline (6300 rpm) very fast. As I was building it I thought alot about how different it was going to be from the L6 as far as revving to redline and I have to say it "feels" as revvy as the L6. Starts making power at about 2000 RPM and pulls hard through 6000 with a very flat torque curve, but thats because I swapped out the cam for a little bigger one. Wheelman

Brings a very strange image to mind. These things are great!!! Wheelman

Welcome to the board. How much power are you planning on running through your rearend? An R200 should be able to handle enough that you start running fast enough times that the drag officials will force you to swap to a live axle setup. The weak point in the Datsun IRS isn't the R200, it's the half-shafts and/or stub axles. If you swap those out for 300ZX Turbo CV axles or 280ZX CV axles the half-shafts are eliminated which leaves the stub axles. Ross at Modern Motorsports makes billet stub axles that should handle just about anything you can throw at them at a much lower total cost than the Heidt unit. I have to say though that the Heidt unit is very nice looking and I like the inboard disk setup, although changing pads can sometimes be a pain. Wheelman

I still think the scene is fake. Certain agencies will fake these scenes for practice exercises. As for the airborn theory, it makes sense that based on the bark removed from the primary impact tree that it would look like the parts might have been airborn but the door is clamped pretty tightly to the base of the tree and the bark is still in place. Even if the car had been airborn when it hit the tree the two largest sections would not drop straight vertically out of the air and have no horizontal momentum left, they would slide or roll a short distance after hitting the ground. My basic arguement with the scene is that it's entirely to neat and tidy to be a real accident. Emergency response teams will stage these things for practice sessions and thats what I think this is. Wheelman

Kazuya1274, Based on that tag # I'd say you have a GM non-world class tranny and should use gear oil in it not Dexron III. I'm not sure there is another method to externally identify one of these so it's a bit of a risk to just put gear oil it but according to the 5speeds.com site GM didn't put world class trannys in their cars until 1988 and retained the weaker non-WC in S10s and Astro-Vans for even longer. Wheelman

Energy Suspension makes all sorts of poly bushings for the early Z's. You can get an entire kit or just whatever parts you need from either MSA (http://www.zcarparts.com) or Victoria British (http://www.victoriabritish.com). There are other companies that sell these parts also, use google and you'll come up with a whole list. Wheelman

How can the gas possibly affect the valve train? If there is varnish in the gas it shouldn't get any further than the carbs/injectors and it would plug them producing a lean condition. I have a hard time believing the varnish is getting into the oil and then affecting anything else. Maybe it's funky oil and not gas. The only problem I've had so far thats related to fuel delivery is a plugged filter from all the junk coming out of my tank. Of course I've drained the tank several times in order to weld a sump on it and fix pin hole leaks. I'd look somewhere other than old gas for the cause of your valve train problems. Wheelman

I have to agree with the last 2 posts, save your money and get something that is built for a bigger engine. Beside your logic about not having to drive the Z is defeated the minute you pull the engine to swap in a larger one, it will take a long time and probably turn into an exercise in motorcycle engineering. I looked at their web-site and it is a nice looking bike but I didn't see all that much room for more engine and the frame tubes are very small. Wheelman

These Enkei rims were on the car when I bought it. I'm planning on updating my rims to 15s or 16s and would like to know what these are and how much they're worth. The picture doesn't show alot of detail but the rims are modular (at least 2 piece, possibly 3), 14x7 and in pretty good shape but missing 2 center caps. I've seen similar ones before (model 92s) but none were modular like these. I googled for info but found nothing like them, I figure they've been out of production for quite some time. I have a chance to buy a set of ROH ZS rims with Yokohama 205/45-16 Avids mounted from a friend. They're 16x7s and in great shape. He had them on a Pasat but didn't like them. Negoiations haven't started yet so the deal may not happen but I like the rims. Anyway, does anyone know which Enkei rims these are and how much they're worth? Thanks Wheelman