Mikelly

Check the intake and exhaust manifold studs. Also, this "performance" cam, did it come with new thickness pads to correct the rocker geometry? I noticed a difference in valve noise when switching from a carb setup to a FI setup... and again when swappingout cams, due to the rocker issue I mention above... But check the studs on the header and intake first. I'd also pull the valve cover and check to see if the oil spray bar has had it's bolts loosen up. And while you're in there, you might re-torque the head bolts to be certain everything is good! Mike

Pics of comparo are in my Album!!! Mike

McTomTom, There are not shortcuts on our site... Do your homework and READ THE VOLUMES of information we have collected for you over the last 5 years. Not being harsh, but we get this question A LOT! Oh, and welcome... You'll need thick skin around this crew! mike

Jody, If my car is back by then (Gone to a shop for a custom exhaust install and the guy is having issues...) then I'd like to do that... I'll need some time though, because this is from scratch, never done a tune on this car before. Mike

You ain't kiddin'... JUst spoke with Mr. Creech and he has me penciled in for a dyno/ LS1 edit1 session on the 11th... We'll see! He's even offered to put me up at his place for the night! Mike

Jim's car is coming along quite well... We had the cage installed to fit around Jim very well with a lower rocker bar tieing into the front hoop, as well as the rear fenderwell and the rear main hoop in a triangulation, a rear Xbrace instead of traditional rear hoop support, a cross brace, and a diagenal brace, along with a dash bar. The dash was pulled so the cage is pretty tight into the car. So this is the list of work this shop had levied on them... Pull the motor and trans, exhaust, and all engine bay parts. Remove full interior Tear down motor and send to machine shop Remove all interior TAR/ Sound deadening material Remove all exterior sound deadening material cut out and replace frame rails and floor pans Welded up and ground smooth all seems for framerail to floorpan joints Cut out spare tire well Install fuel safe fuel cell Fix axle issue Shorten Stud length on all wheel studs Repair interior wiring install 12 point cromoly cage Fabricate new seat braces Paint engine bay, underside, and inside of car, including cage Test fit new motor and transmission Fit new motor and transmission So far this is as far as has been gotten. We still need to install a radiator, interior dash and seats as well as harnesses, and rewire the new fuel injection, plumb the fuel cell, and do the final install on the motor and trans/ driveshaft. Then the alignment and the brake breakin will need to be done, along with the dynotune and final tune. These guys have charged him by the hour and only cost for materials. No mark up was made on any parts. When I look back at the work and see how good it finally looks, I can honestly say they did a very good job. The finished product will really be one of true amazement, and this car should hopefully be in more than a few magazines when all is said and done. My point to all this is the amount of time something takes... We are "Do it yourselfers" and sometimes we forget how much time it takes for someone to do something, and what that relates to in shop cost or income... When I read back on that list of work that Express has completed, I can very easily see where the money Jim has paid has gone. I know Jim had no intention of having this project spiral into this, and I certainly didn't, but I think the bill is justified, based on the work. I drop by that shop atleast once per week and see that someone is working on his car... That car is a work of art... Mike

Mark, You have a VALUABLE resource in Durham... His name is Jeff Creech and he is a god with LS1 Edit... Carolina Auto Masters 113 S. Elizabeth St. Durham, 27701 Tel: 919-680-3966 Mike

That's $30 canadian... Which is equal to our minimum! Couldn't resist! Mike

We'll have picks and some much needed answers to this question in the next two weeks. JIm's motor is being prepped for install and the headers should be here this week from S&S. Mike

Heartburn? I'd be stopped up tighter than a drum... OUCH! Mike

I used to manage a whole division of systems test engineers for the National Geospatial & Imagery Agency. You want to get familier with the PMP process and go onto DOD's website and get familier with Acquisitions processes for DOD. If it is a DOD contract, you really want to familiarize yourself with the whole "Documentation" process! That's what I make my living at these days! Mike

I used Flow Tech ceramic coated 1 5/8th blockhuggers on the previous car with 383 stroker/ T56 combo and I ran 10:98s in the quarter. I'm not 100% convinced that block huggers are going to lose THAT MUCH power when compared to our other header options currently available. Biggest issue we have is LACK of space, and these S&S headers are a compromise, even though they have longer 1 3/4 primaries... To get the right flow characteristics, ground clearance, and fitment within the engine bay, I'm not sure we'll be able to get there from here... Which is why I haven't sold Jim's ultra expensive Sanderson 1 3/4 block huggers yet! We may end up running them on his Project car when all is said and done, and unloading the NEW S&S headers I ordered for it last week... Time (And Money) will tell! Mike

I just saw your pics and those are the wheels I'm rolling my car around on right now. Mike

When I had mine in the car, the factory unit with the bolt on piece shortened seemed to work real well... Very smooth and I never missed shifts. I had the Hurst, and the Kirban in my Corvette and BOTH are junk. To much tension on them for my taste! My T5 came with a steeda Triax and is VERY nice! Mike

I tried fitting 275-40s on my Z (In the link above) and although the wheel cleared the strut assembly with the right spacer, it simply would NOT clear the fender under comression... I tested it by removing the spring with the car on jack stands, replacing the wheel/ tire with the proper backspacing (Used spacer) and then jacked up the control arm to simulate the stroke... With 3inches of strut travel, the fenderlip to top of tire clearance set at 1.5 inches, the tire had a total of TWO inches of travel before making contact with the body of the car... Under heavy acceleration, you will get a 275# coil spring to compress that much. Bottom line is even with the fender lip rolled (Mine are) it rubbed the fender inner well. Mike

I got the figure for the 2005 RT10 COUPE (They dropped the GTS name), which is the lates version of the Viper platform, and is built off the 2004 convertible platform, direct from CHRYSLER in the latest Car and Driver... Which states that the latest 2005 Convertible is pulling .40CD and the Coupe is expected to pull .39... Just reporting what I read... Mike

Here's what I did with my stock fendered Z, coil overs and Mustang 8 inch wheels with 255-45-17s... I used a 1/4 inch wheel spacer with the tire mounted to get the sidewall to clear the perch... You can also run 1/2 inch spacer and roll the inner fender lip with a piece of pipe... Most of the guys are doing this to give more clearance. Keep in mind, I was running the ground control 12 inch springs, so your 10 inch springs should be fine... now I am running 10 inch springs, and they are on the car in the pics.. If you have access to yahoo... go here and you can see the wheels on the car... It is the car with the primered back half and white fenders/ doors http://photos.yahoo.com/dat74z Mike

I'm Irish, Northern to be exact... And I love Guiness. However, I also like a LOT of other beers... Yuengling Black and Tan is silky smooth and has contributed to my expanded waistline! I also Like Dominion Lager. On the lighter side I like Grolsch, as well as DosEquise, and I like Budvar (German varient of Budweiser) and I can drink Corona with lime. When I was in Bosnia, We drank a LOT of Tuborg and a little of Heinekin. However, Lately I've been drinking a LOT more whiskey. Jack Daniels Black Label for mixing, Green label for sipping, and Gentelman's Jack for just about everything... Might actually break down and grab a bottle of Single Barrel and try it... I'd love to pretend to be sophisticated enough to tell you why I love a certain wine... But the truth is the there are about 10 brands my wife and I bounce around to. Pretty much it has a cork, is a Shiraz, Merlot, cabernet, Zinfindel, or chardonnay. The thing I like least about wine is how it drys me out... I always need to drink a LOT of water afterwards... Alice Springs, Our Dog Blue, Madison, Lindenmans, Meridian... I tired a few years back and spent a ton trying to educate myself on wines... What I found is that French wines aren't what they used to be, and that a good Italian or Californian wine will go head to head any day... And then there are the dalmation wines from Croatia and Bosnia, as well as Montenegro... Is it to early for a drink? Mike

The point I was trying to make in this long winded post was that maybe .40 isn't a bad number... It isn't great, but not bad either... especially when compared to the likes of an $80k viper! Good link Matt! Mike

Michael, I think you're looking at this backwards... CD numbers being lower are MUCH better... So if the C6 pulls down .28 which is amazing. The fact that a viper coupe hits .39 CD isn't cutting edge. The Datsun Zcar is not pulling down less than .40. Richard, I'm well aware of much more factors in play than just CD. and that the trade off in downforce is drag. We've all been on http://www.mulsannescorner.com and there are ways to achieve better downforce to drag ratio with. Mike

So I'm reading the newest rags from Car and Drive and Road and Track, looking at the new Z06 and Viper... Reading about the whole aerodynamics thing, power, and all the stats when I get to the new Viper Coupe's CD number and I stop! .39 CD, down .01 from the convertible... .39! So why do you care? Well the Zcar fell into the CD of about .40-.41 range... this is big business... Big news in deed... You see, we who pursue power ruthlessly want to cheat mother natures grasp on all things of solid structure that are in motion....aerodynamics. Why this matters is this: We are now in a new century. 35 years ago Nissan built a cutting edge sports car that looked like it would cheat the wind... All these years later there are some of us (Me included) who have kicked the little Zcar for its horrific aerodynamic numbers... And now, all this time as passed and one of the baddest beasts in American sports car production is producing very similar numbers off the show room floor. I know, I know, It has a V10... This is irelivant if you are reading this thread on this website, as most people here have visions of motor swaps dancing in their heads... So yesterday I was on the phone with Doug Rippie himself, of Doug Rippie Motorsports, and almost as popular as the late great John Lingenfelter. In most GFM circles he always has been. Anyway, I'm trying to find replacement ball joints for my Vette, and GM doesn't sell them... You have to buy the parts they come attached to. So I'm on the phone with Doug and he is telling me how they beat this issue. Afterwards I mention I'm using this vette until my track day car is done and he asks about it and I tell him it is a little beater Datsun 280Z with a 383 stroker/ Gforce tranny and other bits... He keeps asking more info... Then he tells me that that very project is the one he has dreams of building some day. He tells me not to sell that thing ever, as guys throughout the country who do track days always tell of a little Datsun Zcar that owned the track at such and such location, on such and such day! I hung up the phone with a grin on my face. This guy campaignes a C5 in T1, and this coming season will have a C6 Vette to race, and drives one every day, and he is dreaming of... a DATSUN V8 ZCAR! So what does this have to do with the topic? Alot. I mentioned to Doug Rippie that I've got concerns over high speed instability and I qoute the numbers... He tells me to watch what the viper boys do with the new STREET coupe and not the factory race coupe. The race coupe isn't the same car, and has different sheet metal/ fiberglass/ bodywork than the production car, so we Zcar guys need to take ques from how the stock class viper owners make their cars cheat the wind. Bottom line is if they can make those pigs dance in the wind, we can certainly cheat mother nature as well. .40 drag is certainly NOT the svelt and sexy .28 of the new C6 Vette. It isn't a mack truck either. Talking on the phone to Doug Rippie made me rethink a few things while I was re-installing the torque tube, transmission and rear differential on my own vette. The while I was bolting the headers and cat converters back in, I realized how I have funneled way to much money into this corvette, trying to make it into a track car I can live with on the street... The whole purpose oif the Z in the first place! Sometimes it is easy to get distracted. .40 Drag is easy enough to beat... We've got guys on this board who drive their cars on the track at speeds above 140mph and none of them notice the poor handling described by most who drive at stock ride height and stock wheel width. Common sense practices can achieve a greater stability to lower those bumbers to a range within something closer to .35 or maybe lower. We'll likely never know though. I checked into renting time at a windtunnel a few years back when I was building the white V8 Z that JT1 now has. I spent a lot of time on the phone and what I found is that they are BOOKED SOLID by race teams around the coutry. Lots of folks with REAL MONEY book them years in advance. Getting time in one is almost impossible to schedule, and being able to afford it is almost impossible to overcome. They are extremely expensive, and require a second mortgage to afford. So us Zcar guys can only dream and imagine the numbers we pull, as we dream to cheat the wind... Mike

I agree with the others... Your coil wire may "look" good, but I'd bet there is something amiss with the shielding in it and there is a split in the casing somewhere (and I've seen this first hand on new "out of the box wires" ) OR you have a faulty cap. One or the other and needs to be addressed for sure... Now onto the BIGGER issue... Pinging up top? You need to address that asap before you kill another motor... I read a while back (Before XMas) how you was strapped for cash, so my guess is you don't want to be looking into the face of another motor rebuild... dial in some more fuel, or back off the boost... Mike

Checked everything yesterday and all seems well... No sign of water in the oil or the tranny... Mike

Yup. I had a set of those on the very first Z I owned... Very nice and tasteful. I agree with the others... Polish them! Mike

Yesterday I did one fo the absolute most dangerous and stupid things I've ever done... REALLY raised the bar on this one... and that's kinda hard to do for me... We had a horrible storm hit Thursday night and got over 4 inches of rain in my area by Friday morning... Friday afternoon on the way home from work, I figured I'd tour the back side of Quantico in my Z71 Chevy, and see how high the water was... This area is known to flood... So I'm following a BWM 3 series into water that is easily 2 FEET DEEP... And water is coming up past his doors on the first section... I'm nervous that he is going to stall, stranding me in the process... So I"m giving him gap... about 300 yards. We make it through... In front of him is a 2 wheel drive truck. He goes into the second flooded section of road and his hood DISAPPEARS! The BMW now has water above his SIDE WINDOWS... I've given them enough room because water is running across the road at a steady clip and I'm thinking "THese guys are gonna get swept away... " So they clear most of this 400-500 Ft. stretch of flooded road... and I go in... Water comes OVER My hood... OVER THE HOOD OF A LIFTED FULL SIZE CHEVY... I about CRAPPED MY PANTS... Then the truck MOVES... Seems more water is getting UNDER my truck than around it and it moves the rear about 2 feet from right to left... Funny, as I never saw either of the other cars MOVE In the water! After that stunt, and getting out unscaithed, I figured I was done for the day... I'll NEVER do that crap again! Dumb Dumb Dumb! Mike