Mikelly

John I hope like hell you're wrong. Mike

I ended up with a set of hooker headers that jnjdragracing sent me. They have a slip joint on the #1 exhaust pipe on the driver's side that allows you to remove the section before installing/removing from car. Should make getting around the Steering shaft cake, and hangs about as low as my 7 inch deep oil pan. I'm now cutting up the oil pan on the passenger side to clear that side header. Mike

Beautiful car, Matt... Good luck with the sale! Mike

I have to admit... Welding up this oil pan isn't proving "easy". I keep developing issues with pin-hole leaks. Today I'm hoping to create a sheet-steal overlay over the whole damned section I cut and formed. Mike

Joe, The driver's side header actually has a slip/flange connection on #1 tube to help get it around the steering linkage. JNJdragracing had no issues with clearing the steering linkage. Mike,

Joe there's no kickout on the Driver's side on my pan. It's just a passenger side kick out. Mike

I'll get pics out over the next day or two, but I've cut down the kick-out on the passenger side of the oil pan and think I have a nice solution for clearing the header on that side. I'm actually using the existing metal of the pan to fold up and create the wall and top of the pan. I'll still need to drill and weld a bung in for the drain, but it's looking good. Only unknown is getting it to seal up aittight and be leak proof. At this rate, I'll have the motor back in the car by Christmas.

If you aren't single, and have someone else you have committed yourself to, I think the better question you should ask youself is this: How is my project impacting my free time to spend with my significant other/family, and how is the constant drain on my finances to fund this "dream" impacting my/our financial and credit status. Men are some of the most selfish of creatures and being a man, I know how this often plays out. I'm fortunate in that my wife and I met after I had some sense of career and "wealth" moving in the right direction. She's stuck by me through a lot of projects, a lot of work, a lot of stress, and a lot of cash blown. But she is fairly proud of what I've built in the form of this Datsun because she knows that I've built it with my own two hands. And what's more, when some MORON says "Well gee anybody can buy a Porsche" she's quick to point out the work I've done on my own supercars as well. She's also very quick to point out the many weekend trips we take, the multiple vacations per year we take, and the much needed down time we both force upon our relationship so we don't get lost in the shuffle of LIFE and CARs. They're just cars, and if you have true love in someone, you'll know that spending time with them is far more important than any time you could squander on a hunk of metal. Mike

Got the driver's header mounted up: I can't imagine we're not going to make more power with this setup as opposed to the block huggers we were using. Mike

Fruits of my labor yesterday. I don't have a shot of jnjdragracing's headers on just yet, but plan to work to resolve the passenger side pan clearance. Otherwise the headers look like a good solution to the swap. Not sure how much I'll get done today... We'll have to see how it plays out. So as of right now the total rebuild ran me $1250 for the shortblock R&R/re-balance/materials. I have another $130 in gaskets and materials for the upper half rebuild, and I've got $320 into the headers I got from Jerry and John. I expect when it's all said and done I may have a total of $2K in the winter overhaul.

Got the top end buttoned up today on the motor. I can't believe I haven't had a parts washer until now. What a difference it makes in getting parts, well, CLEAN!!! I also got the headers in from JNJDragracing today. John and Jerry did a nice job on these. Only issue I will need to overcome is the passenger side issue clearing my oil pan. I can't imagine these hooker longtubes won't make a bunch more power than the block huggers I was using. Really close to getting this pig back in my pride and joy, gang. Mike

Resigned myself to this whole process today, and moved the LS1 back onto a furniture dolly, then the 383 onto the engine stand. I then got to the task of finishing cleaning the heads/rockers/pushrods/hardware. I then installed the heads and torqued them to spec, and installed the pushrods and rockers. They still need to be adjusted, but atleast I'm getting there. I suspect the motor will be completely done by the end of the coming weekend. Mike

Name doesn't sound familiar. I checked my local PCA roster and didn't see it either. I'm half way between Washington DC and Richmond Va. just off the I95 interchange. The 911 Turbo is one of the most competent and flexible daily drivers you could ever want to own. As long as you recognize its weaknesses and don't try to make it into something it isn't, it'll serve you very well. True supercar in sheeps clothing. Mike

PIcked up head and intake gaskets today, plan to have the motor back together by the weekend. John and Jerry (Members JNJdragRacing) are selling me a set of their headers off their SBC. I'll see how they work out and if I have to, I'll carve them up to make them fit. Should be on schedule to have the motor back in the car by Christmas. Mike

Off work sick today, so I decided to have an hour or so in the shop... Managed to put together the new parts washer I bought on Sunday, and fill it with solvent. I then pulled up the Dart heads for the 383 stroker and gave them a good washing after scraping the old gasket material off of them. I'll pick up a gasket set this week and go ahead and put the bits back together. Once the motor is ready to go back in the car, I'll unload the car from the trailer and have at it... Maybe by Sunday. Mike

I'm a little late to the love-fest... But let me say that A: I'm VERY impressed with the build quality of your project and B: I'm even more impressed with what that LS376 put down. That's actually the motor I would prefer to put into my Zcar as well... Those ITBs are seeeeeexy... Bravo man! Well done! Mike

Yup, my guess is it's in the booster... Mike

You can do one in about 40 hours if you plan and lay out everything ahead of time and make sure you're not going to have to spend time running around to parts stores. If you're inexperienced with swaps, plan an additional 40 hours. When I did my first V8Z swap back in 1997 I lost a full DAY trying to get the 6 speed clutch setup working properly. Mike

rsicard, I think the best solution for oiling is a drysump by far. I'll continue to run the champ 7 qt roadrace pan/tray/scraper and the accusump/remote filter/cooler setup until I move off to the LS1. Those headers I don't think will fit my application, but I'm thinking about getting Jerr's headers from him and cutting them to fit or buying some Sandersons and starting some chop/cut/build. Mike

Bringing this back up since I'll be re-usingthe 383 stroker for the near term. Mike

Joe, The problem there is as of now I have a shortblock that needs at minimum $1000 invested in it. Then theres heads/cam, and the rest of the drysump, bellhousing and everything else involved. Here's what I've decided NOT to do... I'm not going to assume anything from anyone anymore or take anyone's word for any value or worth. The Shop had a buyer lined up, that buyer has pretty much gone away. They were really just facilitating the connection between two of their customers. I'll make it work out somehow... But I'm not missing another season at the track. I'll start tracking my GT3, and then we all know what will happen. The Zcar will be relegated to a doorstop, again. Mike

Well I've now had TWO people back out on buying the 383 stroker so It's going back in the car for now while I sort out the build on the LS1. Really done with "selling" parts to people right now... Guess it's a sign of the times, but commiting to someone that you will buy something from them and then backing out with sketchy excuses is just not acceptable to me. Sooo that said, I'll use the beginning of this season to continue to shake the platform down, and then swap later in the year. Plan is to have the car and the parts back in the shop by December 22nd so I can start cleaning her up and putting her back together. The heads need to be cleaned up and I need to get a gasket set for the top end of the motor. Mike

Only thing I don't like about lexan (I have it in my quarter windows and rear hatch) is it scratches a LOT easier than glass. Matt if you get the name of that product, post it please!! I'm going to wait and see how bad this one goes before I replace it, but will likely go back to glass... I've got a really good installer who loves racecars local to me. He always enjoys coming out to see what I have since the last time he visited. Mike

Love it... "scripted" reality TV. I don't know when the American TV Viewer got hooked on the strategy of WWe style scripted drama, but the networks have sure killed my ability to tolerate most television programming. Mike

The only other thing I'll add is this... I "teach" people how to search complex queries using boolean logic at my customer site. I also write technical documentation in support of the software applications our customers use in searching large data sets. More often than not, the issue is how a person constructs their query. Rather than asking "Why" nobody responded to your question, you might want to go back and look at the content, and what it is you're asking. You may find that the answer was one or two search terms OFF from your intended search results. All that said, there have been one or two times I've searched for data and found that there simply wasn't a "current" answer to it, because nobody else was doing what I was trying to do. Mike