TimZ

Thanks! I think I mentioned this before' date=' but Dynomax has a new muffler that would make this [i']really[/i] easy to do with a V8 Z: http://www.dynomax.com/Products/Ufx.asp

New pics - I've finally been able to make some time and made a fair amount of progress on the exhaust. 4 inch downpipe to four inch oval inlet, along with 2.25 inch pipe (with a homemade oval section under the trans) for the wastegate: 3 inch oval pipe out each side: Oh, and I got the compressor housing polished up:

My trans was really loud at first, too - I was running redline d4 as I recall. I'm currently running straight Royal Purple synchromax (not mixed), and it is much quieter.

Screw the hacksaw - you need a chopsaw.

Yes, that's right - if the the valves are not installed to the same heights, then all bets are off. I think you might be able to compensate with different size lash pads to get the wipe patterns back in line in this case, but I'm not sure what this does to the rocker ratios.

This brings up another point - when you move the wipe pattern around on the rocker pad, you also end up moving the valve event timing with it. If I recall correctly, moving the wipe pattern to the "cheating" side of the rocker advances the valve event timing. This can be easily compensated for if you move them all to the same place, but if you start moving the wipe patterns around on a per-valve basis to try to equalize the lift, you could inadvertently scatter the valve event timing as well.

Yes that will work, but you should be aware that the failure modes of this are pretty severe. If the switch doesn't get tripped for any reason (hose falls off, wire comes loose, fuse blows - pretty much anything), your wastegate will never open and you will have uncontrolled boost and broken stuff (most likely ring lands) shortly thereafter. It would be a good idea to put some thought into how to get around this. Maybe reverse the logic so that you have to power the solenoid to block the signal to the wastegate. That strategy is a little better - at least for most of the failures, you'll just get stock boost.

Not exactly - the coarse surface helps to aid thermal transfer in either direction. In the case of the intake manifold or carbs, what you are worried about is thermal transfer into the manifold (assuming that there is more heat outside than inside, which is generally the case). So, it sounds like Vizard is advocating polishing the surface to reduce it's surface area and thus its capability of absorbing heat from the engine compartment, which should work. I would think a heat shield or thermal coating would be more effective, but this mod is essentially free, except for labor. For this purpose, you wouldn't have to have a show-quality shine. Just smoothing out the graininess from the casting should get 99% of the way there. Scotch-brite on a roloc disk and a die grinder would made short work of this (just be careful not to take off too much material).

Why is this? If the pump is making pressure, you should see fuel coming back through the reutrn. Are you sure you have adeqaute fuel pressure?

Thanks for the very thorough answer. Hope I didn't sound critical - I have no doubt that it will work fine, especially since you are paying attention to all the right details. I'm just not used to seeing the backside taken down that far - probably not a good cam for a novice (from an installation standpoint)...

Wow - what thickness lash pads do you need to run with that?

Well I used to live in St. Louis (St. Charles, Creve Coeur, Ferguson)- does that count for anything? I do know a really good, honest mechanic there in case you get in a bind.

Paypal sent for two XL

Why not just remove the hose and plug it? I can see no value in keeping it. All you need is two 1/2 NPT plugs at maybe $1 each

Epoxy on a Ron Davis rad? That sounds odd to me - I've had three different Ron Davis rads over the past 10 or so years, and they have all been 100% welded.

Here's the pic again: From the pump' date=' the water flows to the back of the block, where it enters the head. It then flows from back to front through the head back up to the thermostat housing. The pump inlet is the lowest pressure point in the system. The pressure [i']everywhere[/i] else is higher, so the water can only flow towards the pump inlet. So yes, the fitting at the back of the head is the water outlet and the one at the front is the inlet.

In this implementation, the small turbo's wastegate feeds the big turbo, which has a conventional wastegate... http://www.turbosmart.com.au/index.php?id=75 Seems to me that you would a really huge wastegate for the small turbo to be able to adequately feed the big one.

I read the help again on those settings, and the ACE6 value is added in proportionally to how close to the maximum MAP rate of change the current rate of change is, so you almost never get anything out of it. I think you want to use ACE7 in addition to ACE6. ACE7 is just added in for the time period, without getting scaled by the rate of change. Try 50% in ACE7 and see what happens (might end up being too much...). OR you could try putting a really large value in ACE6, like 250%. Or some combination of the two.

Yes he is. I've been dealing with him for several years now (basically whenever I break something ) and he has never steered me wrong.