wheelman

Yes I know Tim, everything about the LT1 is special. Wheelman

The ones I've had in both my Ford trucks have had those barbs. Of course I can't say whether they were OEM or not. I haven't pulled the stat in my LT1 yet but when I do to replace it with a 160 degree unit I'll see if it has them as well. Wheelman

Jon, What brand of truck do you have? I used to have a 1970 Ford F100 that had a 302. When I replaced the thermostat I noticed that it had a bleed hole that allowed a small stream of coolant to flow even if the thermostat was closed, does yours have one of these? Maybe thats part of why it takes so long to warm up. That truck was the most cold blooded thing, took forever to warmup even in the summer. I now have a 1988 Ranger which had a plugged radiator when I bought it. At first I didn't know this and took a 150 mile trip during the summer. It gets pretty hot in south eastern WA and I had to run the heater to prevent the thing from overheating, but the point I'm trying to get to is that when this happened it forced the thermostat into a locked open state and I had to replace it. I pretty sure thermostats are setup this way because the thermal properties of the spring changes when they get to hot and then they don't work as advertised. You guys who are either not running a fan or manually control them may find that your thermostat gets put into the locked open position if the engine gets too hot but doesn't overheat. Just something to keep in mind when your engine won't warmup correctly. Wheelman

I was pretty disappointed in the commercials also and the game wasn't very exciting. Seemed more like an early season game than the superbowl, to many mistakes and penalties. I enjoyed the half-time show more than the game itself, of course it's pretty hard to not like Sir Paul. Much better than last years MTV wardrobe malfunction fiasco. Maybe next year the Seahawks won't choak and I'll have a real reason to get excited about the game. Wheelman

I think he meant flywheel HP not Front Wheel HP. Wheelman

I ran water through mine for about 10 minutes then ran the exhaust from my pickup into it before actually cutting or welding. Everything turned out OK for me but I take no responsibility for what might happen. Wheelman

I don't think it's unique to the 78 because my 73 has the same one. Maybe the PO bought the wrong one at a parts store then adapted the wire. The 2 prong plug does connect to a single wire on mine. Wheelman

I have to agree with Johnc that ours is not the only country that has been able to form a representative government. Ours wasn’t even the first, in fact ours is loosely based on a combination of a Greek democracy and a Roman republic. But these aren’t the features that have made it work and it wasn’t the founders either, it’s all of us. Every 2 years we form a new government and we’ve had many crisis over the years that provided opportunities to throw it all away: The civil war, WWI, WWII, 911, The cold war, the great depression, and there were probably others, but at each of these cross-roads in history we had the chance to give total control to the government so we would have security but we didn’t. We value our freedoms too much to throw them away because of a temporary condition. I believe the Iraqi people are just like us and when given a chance to be free they will take it and defend it. As for the religious aspects, their laws are not based on Islam and never have been. Sadam is a luke warm Muslim at best and didn’t let the Imams tell him what to do. He belongs to the Sunni sect which are much more liberal and progressive than the Shiites. The Shiites may end up with the largest group in the government but they won’t be the only group, they will be force to cooperate with others, and they still have a constitution to write, who knows maybe they’ll actually put a separation of church and state into it. Isn’t history in the making entertaining to watch??? Wheelman

TurboViper, So are you still planning on converting the LS1 to a carbed intake? I have to agree with Maichor. If that's still your plan then save yourself a ton of money and get a first gen SBC. It will be eaiser to install, much less expensive and the money you save can be used to build it to the point where it makes lots of power. Just my $.02 worth. Wheelman

This is a tough question to answer not knowing what all is included in John's package, parts and documentation. I would get the manual (it's only $35.00 I think) and then if it's not useful sell it to someone else and if you decide not to go the LS1 route then it will be even more useful. There is a lot of generic information in the manual that pretty much anyone swapping a new motor into the Z will find useful. Wheelman

Very nice job!!! That turbo is enormous. Any reason you decided to weld the crossmember to the frame rails rather than bolt it from the top? Just curious. How far below the new crossmember is the bottom of the oil pan? Wheelman

Sean73, When you say fully compressed for the CV axle does that mean you're pushing both CV joints as far in as possible? When you made your measurements had you flipped the CV cage on the outer end of the axle? If not then you need to add an additional 3/8" of play to your equations which would then make it 3/4" of play instead of 3/8". Wheelman

Sean73 1/4" at what point in the suspension travel and how are you measuring it? Wheelman

Sean73, I have the Modern Motorsport modified flanges on my car right now and they do not add 1/2" to the length of the axle. The original 240 or 280 flange is inset into the adapter so that the outside surface (closest to the wheel) is flush with the same surface of the adapter. There is a little length gained when the adapter is welded to the flange due to it's thickness but not enough to cause binding. I've run my rear suspension through it's full range on both driver and passenger sides with no binding. I have a 1973 240Z with an R200 and CV axles from a 1984 300ZX Turbo with Ross's adapters and followed the instructions to reverse the cages. It works as advertised. Drax, Speeder's rear is definitely not at stock ride height and looking at the differing pivot points of the CA and the axle/halfshaft I believe Nigel is correct. Once the CA passes horizontal going toward droop it's arc is tighter than the halfshaft and is pulling the hub toward the center of the car thus shortening the halfshaft. The situation appears to be even worse as the CA passes horizontal in bump. The halfshaft should be at it's maximum length when the CA is horizontal. At least thats how it looks to me. Edit: Drax, You ammended your post before I submitted mine. I think we're saying the same thing. Because the pivot points are different the rate of change will be different but the halfshaft gets shorter in droop and bump. Wheelman

On a related note has anyone here used a Henrob torch? It looks like you could get a very small flame that concentrates heat in a small area. It wouldn't necessarily speed up the process but looks like it could produce some very nice looking welds. Earl, I also recommend going the MIG route. I welded a very small amount with GAS and have done alot of glass work with a Methane torch so felt very comfortable with a flame but controlling the heat can be difficult and it definitely takes longer. Wheelman

Guy, Good catch, you're correct I did list them wrong in my post. I was looking at a pin out list and trying to keep it straight in my head while I typed and crossed them. Maybe I'm a bit dyslexic or something. I plan on putting the PCM in the passenger footwell and I'm trying to rewire the system in a way that reduces the number of wires going through the firewall. I'll have to look at the different circuits and determine whether each power connection can be sourced from a line already in the engine bay or behind the dash and then put in whatever fuses I need to protect everything. I have the relays from the donor car so I'm going to build a board for those as well. Flibuoy, I suspected the grounds were all the same but thought I read somewhere that it was a good idea to keep the analog and digital grounds separate to prevent dirty signals. Anyway I guess it doesn't matter so I'll combine them all into one and use the Datsun ground wire that is already routed through the firewall. I have a bunch of amphenol 13 pin connectors that I'm thinking of using as a means to route most of the PCM circuits through the firewall, what do you guys think of the idea? If your not familiar with these connectors I can post some pictures but they are military grade sealed locking round connectors that can handle wire guage of about 20. I think I can route all the PCM connections using 4 of these and still have some pins left over but my concern is that the wires won't be large enough. Wheelman

I'm working on my wiring harness right now and need some info regarding how others have wired their LT1 PCM or OptiSpark outputs to the Datsun tachometer. I have a 280Z tach I'll be using as well as the JTR manual that explains the 15K ohm resister to keep it from jumping around so I think I have that part covered. My question is which of the tach signals have you guys used? The low resolution signal from the OptiSpark, Red PCM connector - pin 13 or The PCM tachometer output, Black PCM connector - pin 2 or something else. If I use the tach output will I still need the 15K ohm resistor? One other question, can I combine all the ground connections going to the PCM into one main ground with the overall vehicle ground or are there some that must remain separate to create digital vs analog grounds? Same question regarding power? I know there are switched and non-switched direct battery connections but can they be combined into switched and non-switch power buses so to speak. Wheelman

No I didn't mean weld the turbo to the manifold but weld on the maiting surface of the flange then grind it flat so the gasket has a good flat surface to seal to. After I suggested it I thought about how hard it would be to get a good flat surface the gasket would seal to so maybe it's not such a good idea anyway. Wheelman

I'd be interested in at least 1 possibly more depending on the price. I would like to see cars from the members here with not only full car shots but engine bay and progress pictures also. Maybe a short BIO along with the picture(s) thrown in for good measure. Wheelman

A 110 MIG will do fine as long as it's a good quaility unit. If it has infinitely adjustable wire speed and current then it's even better because you can tune it to the thin sheet used for the floor. Make sure the unit is a Hobart, Lincoln or Miller and at least 125 AMP. When you weld make small tacks rather than trying to do long runs. To much heat will burn through the thin sheet very quickly then you're left with another hole to fix. Take your time and you should be fine. I'm not an experienced welder at all, in fact I just learned while patching rust holes on my 240 but I've found that the flux cored wire is easier to use and the solid wire with shield gas makes much cleaner welds. Wheelman

I checked the JB Weld website and they say it can withstand 500 degrees F for long periods and 600 for up to 10 minutes. I don't think it will hold very long at the temps a turbo exhaust manifold sees. What about welding up the flange and then grind it flat so the gasket seals it? Would be more of a permanent fix but take longer to do. Wheelman

By serial connection you mean either a standard 9-pin RS232 port or a USB to serial converter and one of the ALDL adapter cables correct? These guys sell the ALDL cables: http://www.akmcables.com Wheelman

Another option would be to keep the EFI manifold and use a MegaSquirt controller. Check this site to get info: http://www.bgsoflex.com/megasquirt.html The website has lots of info and other links with even more. Wheelman

Clint87z, Welcome to the sometimes very frustrating world of computer programming. I've been doing embedded programming for about 20 years, most recently working with serial ports on PDAs that are used as control and data analysis modules for handheld xray equipment. First a couple questions: 1. What development system and language are you planning to use? 2. Do you have the MSDN (Micro$oft Developers Network) documentation? 3. Are you planning to replace the DOS program or create a Windows shell around it? To answer your question regarding the the ffffffff in the IOCTL_SERIAL_LSRMST_INSERT call. This call turns on a mode in the comm driver that inserts line and modem status information into the data stream and also sets the escape character the program will use to identify that data. I hope that made sense. In simpler terms the call tells the comm driver to insert data into the data read by the ReadFile function that indicates modem and coontrol line status and also tells the comm driver to precede that data with the ffffffff. Your other question about flow control really depends on what language you're using. If VB then the use the "handshaking" property of the MSComm control to enable or disable flow control or the "CTSHolding" and "RTSEnable" properties to directly manipulate the hardware flow control lines. If you're using C++ then its a whole different ballgame and will take more space then we have here to explain. PM me with a description of what you're trying to do and we'll go from there. Wheelman

Welcome to the board. As for the CV conversion here is a link that will help you decide whether you want to do it or not. http://www.betamotorsports.com/benchracing/index.html Click on the R200 Handling Issues link and read the article. I'm doing basically the same swap you are and had decided to run the stock R200 half-shafts until I read the article. I was able to find a set of 300ZX CV axles at a local JY for $50.00 each and then got the adapters from Modern Motorsport. The swap was very simple and now I have the peace of mind knowing my setup will not bust the axles. Modern recommends upgrading the stub axles to 280Z units as well but I didn't go that route, I couldn't find any locally and I don't plan on racing mine agressively, only a little Auto-X. You might think about upgrading the T-5 with a G-Force kit but if you don't abuse it it might survive. Wheelman