Mikelly

I believe they are for Mark's Early 70s Zcar... Mark, You sure you're a dentist? I believe Jesse James is having try-outs for a new fabricator in his shop. Looks good, and I'll absolutely want to copy this AND your dry sump setup at some point. Mike

jbc3 is from Frederick Maryland. I haven't set a date yet. I'll coordinate with Doug and get back to you guys on it... Probably early to mid-December. Mike

Guys, I'm trying to see WHO is interested in a ZCAR shindig at either Doug's place or mine... Hit me offline or chime in here... Location would be Fredericksburg Va or Newport News Va. Mike

Nope, not to easy... SEARCH!!!! Thread closed, no spoon feeding allowed... MIke

Good one, John! Mike

I'm going to sit and wait until those new Dart heads get shipped out and bolted on to a few cars and see what the numbers are. If I don't go that route, I'll probably get a set of LS6 heads that have been cleaned up, and then I'll either sell or keep these heads for a later motor for the Zcar. My eventual goal is to have a LS1/LS6 based motor in the Zcar. That won't be for a few years, since the 383 stroker is still new and sitting on the stand. This set of 98LS1 heads would go great in an application where emissions isn't an issue, so I may just sit on them and wait for that eventual upgrade for the Zcar. The whole purpose of upgrading these heads on the Vette will be purely for advertising to sell the car, if I decide to sell it at all. I drove the car to a business meeting yesterday (DoD contractors seem to do a lot of business on Sundays) and it is just so much fun to drive and still knocks down good mileage. I have developed an oil leak around the adapter block for the oil cooler though, and I may ditch it for the winter, since I won't "need" an oil cooler from November to March, but it is a pain to remove and re-install! Mike

So after my little trip to the dyno and the results and disappointment, I started doing some research and reading, and then spent some time on the phone with a guy I used to do some work with who just happens to be a machinist and a chevy die hard. Seems that the LS1/ LS6 heads really don't like large port jobs. I'd measured the intake and exhaust ports on the new heads in comparison to the old heads I had on the motor that grenaded. The new heads had MASSIVE porting done. In a normal traditional SBC head setup, the port velocity issue isn't as finicky (Or so I'm finding) as on the LS1/2/6 head configuration. Jeff Creech hit the nail on the head when he stated "less is more". I've found a whole host of guys running the same cam that I have, and LS6 casting heads with a clean up on the bowls and minimal port blending to keep uniformity in the cross section of each port without opening them up, and these guys are making in the 420-440 WHP range. Several of these guys have used the SAME dyno and SAME tuner I have, so I know that we probably screwed the pooch with these heads... On the plus side, these heads will work GREAT with a much more radical cam setup and something like a FAST 90mm intake and TBody or 90mm intake and LS2 Tbody. Oh well, it's still a lot of fun to drive, even if it is only 375HP... Mike

You might be able to fabricate a mounting plate that uses the rear bumper strut attachment points. Of course, with the power you're putting down, I would want a cage and subframe connectors, or more of a true tube chassis car under me...I'm sure you've probably got all the cage/ subframe connectors and such. That is the only thing I'd be worried about... Puting that much force back through the unibody of the car. You're picking that front end WAY THE HELL UP! Never seen that on a stock suspesion Zcar... I'm impressed. Mike

Actually, I pulled the numbers off the asa cam and it isn't THAT wild a cam after all... Hmmmm... Kinda backs up what Jeff was saying about the asa heads, though they are pricey... I may end up with a set of #243 castings and start over with larger valves and yadayadayada... Mike

I took the liberty of cleaning up the "off-topic" posts in this thread. Let's keep it on topic. Anyone who cares to discuss the copyright or "Respect" issues offline can contact the admin staff or myself if there is a problem. Back to the topic at hand... ZG Flares on a light blue S30... I have none... Mike

I don't think there is a single thing wrong with the kit Dave put together at Arizona Zcar. When you look at the quality parts, the time it took to sort them, and the price, It is a bargain... There are a LOT of options out there for Zcar brakes, and this one is certainly another of the many to investigate. Mike

They are a full race head, but apparently work real well with mild cams. The ASA cam is a little more aggressive, but again, something to look at if emissions aren't a concern. I'm gonna sit tight, run this package over the winter and see what hits the (used) market. I also want to read some feedback on those Dart heads... Can't wait to see them in action. Mike

The only problem with the "X" in my cage is the fuel cell can't be removed now. I tried... This was one thing that Piper overlooked, even though he knew I would need to remove the cell at some point... I'm probably going to have to make the cell removable from the bottom of the car at some point. Right now I have not reason to remove it, and I can take the top of the can off to get into the cell to change out the foam and do maintenance on it. It's the little things... Mike

I'm not doing one of these swaps, but know a small amount about the LS1 in general. There are a few here who are in the middle of doing the swap, and I'll let them speak for the mount issues... OBD2 means you'll be able to pass emissions better in my opinion. You'll need to use a standalone or LS1 computer. But tuning is easy with LS1 Edit and a skilled tuner. You'll want to get a custom harness from one of the many vendors. As for the gauge cluser issue, I don't know what guys with Z32s are doing. I'm guessing doing Autometers would be cake though. Also, Painless has a gage harness for just this purpose. Mike

That red car is a 72-73 Toyota 1st gen. Celica I believe... I had one in highschool and loved it. EDIT: Actually, I noticed a few things on it that might make it a 75-77 model... Been about two decades since I was into Celicas... Mike

Sadly, I suspect there are reasons why he isn't on the board much, and isn't returning calls. On3Go, I know he's your buddy, and your trust in him is, well, yours... But actions speak louder than words. I'd advise anyone dealing with him to proceed with caution, based solely on recent history. Mike

Based on what Jeff Creech has seen over the last few years, I'm not gonna go with a patriot head. The inconsistancy (And he has a LOT of dyno charts to back it up) of the heads is the issue... You get good ones, and then you get bad ones... I'm actually gonna take Jeff's advice and drive the car over the winter and see how it does. By spring, some of these Dart heads will have been installed and run... Once we get feedback, I'll know to either get a set of those, or use my 99 heads or something Jeff may have in house. Those ASA heads need investigating too... Jeff swears those make B-I-G HP. Mike

Those heads have been worked on and don't have stock valves in them, which is another pisser... I had 2.02/1.57 valves installed. I don't recall all the information about the 97/98 heads, but your money is better spent on later model units. I've probably got about $800 invested in them, including the springs and retainers. The cam feels great NOW... Before the tune was done, it was very lazy. I gotta tell you guys, and I witness it again first hand yesterday when Jeff called their tech line for an unrelated question, but THUNDER RACING's tech support has been AWESOME from day one. The cam kit and all the parts I bought from thunder are well made, with clear instructions and their service is top shelf. You guys know that I pretty much trash vendors when I don't get reasonable customer support... Well Thunder Racing is at the exact opposite end of the scale... More retailers should be like them... They stand behind the parts they sell, and they sell great parts. That cam is one of their most popular. Mike

The first two can be bought through MSA at http://www.zcarparts.com (Imagine that, me directing someone to them! ) and I don't know where you'll find that last part... Just FYI, most members here haven't had real good success with showcars parts quality. Not to mention the fact that the guy isn't to easy to deal with. Mike

Mayo, I had thought about that with my cage as well, Until the guys at Piper Motorsports advised me otherwise. They had a car in their lot that had impacted hard into a tire wall and the stock gas tank had erupted after it ruptured on impact. That was all I needed to see. Having been involved in a rear collision impact where my Car was hit from behind, I've seen what can happen. You need those bars to protect you from the fuel cell impact and to keep the chassis as straight as possible. If you are wearing good harnesses with a good racing seat and the proper head and neck restraint, you should be better off then having all that "stuff" behind the rear strut towers impacting the interior... Including the fuel cell. I was a huge fan of crush zones, and still am. But the Zcar is so small, and space is so limited, you kinda are forced to dance with one devil or the other... Pick one. Mike

JT1, I shoulda... Man, I thought I posted that I was gonna be down in that region... I could live there... GREAT scenery and lots to do... On our list of retirement options for sure! Yea, the dyno busted me hard. My little brother was with me, which made it even more painful, because we both expected bigger numbers... The first run was funny as hell... Shoulda had a picture of my face when I saw 353HP... I was like "all this money on a new, better motor and I come away with 17HP more than my old tired motor with the same bolt ons???" My disposition improved after all the dyno runs were completed and we took it for a test ride. The tune was worth making all the power usable... I just expected much more for a "heads/ Cam" package that is supposed to be a proven combo. This car is now my daily driver though... With that kinda fuel mileage, I think it might be doing better than the wife's BMW. Mike

I've still got the heads that came off my 99 block. I could get them worked on... What I anticipate is resolving the head issue, and taking the car, with heads back to north carolina and leaving it for a few days. I'll give Jeff the business to install them, since he'll be retuning the car anyway. He only wants $600 for the install and the retune, so I think that's reasonable. If he was closer, I'd just throw the heads on here, but since it has to go on the trailer to get there anyway, might as well let him fight the PS pump bracket! Those 98 heads really surprised me. The story on those is this: I bought the car in early December for $17900. I immediately got Dave Williams and Jeff Creech involved in planning another motor for the car, since Mine had 92K miles on it when I purchased the car. Over the next 9 months I scowered the internet for deals. I found those BRAND NEW heads on ebay for $200. I didn't run the numbers, so that is clearly my fault. I also hadn't heard about the poor performance of earlier LS1 heads until the motor was sitting in my shop, already complete. I took a dial caliper and took some measurements of the intake and exhaust ports on the 98 heads (Already bolted to the block) compared with the 99 heads that were off the old motor and Dave had really opened up the ports on the heads. So I was pretty stoked, thinking "big intake and exhaust runner work, big valves, and a fresh clean up on the bowls!" Wooohooo... Uh no. I don't know. Maybe the intake is restricting it now, but Jeff has been doing this for a long long time and he just shook his head and said "heads". Ugh. Live and learn... I'm still coming out on the good side of bad I suppose. I still have less than $28K total in this car and all its Z06/ performance/ Road race/ stereo/ interior upgrades. Mike

Only issues I can see you addressing in the future are the tranny... TH350s don't have overdriven gears for better highway cruising and that can hurt you two fold... Fuel mileage and NOISE. Taching the motor up droning down the highway will get old over time... If the body is solid with no rust, and the chassis is solid, Sounds like a good deal to me. Check all the areas for rust you know... Battery box, floor pans, frame rails, inside under gasket at the rear hatch seal, TC rod mount box cracks. And if you can get a peek behind the interior panel at the gas filler lid, you might want to look in there... I found rust this past weekend in mine while converting the filler door for my fuel cell. Welcome aboard! Mike

Getting it through Customs would be another issue all together... MIke

Dart is getting ready to release a new set of heads for the LS1 and they aren't priced bad at all, considering you get the built head, with titanium retainers, and springs up to .630 lift, for under $1400 for the pair. Yesterday, when I was getting the bad news that these heads aren't going to support my goal, I asked about what to do next. Jeff recommended the ASA heads or a set of LS6 heads. He said to much porting and clean up has hurt these heads, which is also why the Patriot heads out of the box are so "hit and miss" on consistancy. I'm signing up for a track day rental in Richmond on the 11th of November, So I'll have an idea of what this Vette runs in the 1/4 then. Mike