Gollum

You know... I try to be open minded about nature and try not to just kill something I don't now anything about, but I must confess. I found 3 seperate recent snake hatching areas in my backyard last winter/spring. All questionably diamond heads (prominant jaw that was wider than the rest of the body) and I killed them all without hesitation. Maybe that was wrong, but I just don't like the idea of ratller's in my 1000 square foot backyard. Then my neighbor has been having issues with gopher snakes coming into her garage. Now, a grown gopher snake wouldn't bother me too much, as long as it doesn't suprise me as I unknowingly remove it's sun cover (ie wood or some other random item). I'll spare the life of a snake I find hardless, but sorry to the animal lovers for killing any and all rattlers I come across. They give me the willies man.

Lol. I saw the pics and started chuckling. I looked at it some more and really started laughing. Then I read the posts here and now my abs have gotten a sufficiant work out for the day.

Well, stock bottom end maybe but I'm sure he couldn't do that on the stock pistons. He probly also either had the newer heads or had headwork done to the old heads. The stock pistson are known to only be good to about 500hp, largely due to the higher NA compression that tends to limit boost pressure.

Yes the ZX has an L series, the L28E to be exact. I plan on swapping the motor out in the next couple of weeks if money issues work out right, when the time comes i'll check the timing cover now that you've mentioned it. I had a new water pump too but I'll check it out to be sure.

Don't forget what alot of the weight in modern cars is for - safety. Chassis design is totally different nowdays, am I wrong?

I might reverse compression and displacement, but that's maybe. And the number of cylinders seems to make a largest difference in how smooth a motor sound. Like a honda always sounds harsh in a way compared to a V12 or F1 but has some similarities. I assume this is due to the fact that there's just less pistons making that sound. I'm not saying that's not a HUGE difference, and I think that's probly a big part of what makes exotics sounds so amazing. But now i come to a guitar analogy One guitar playing something can sound cool, but double the track and now it sounds much fuller and richer. Same sound but much better. Take an engine and double the pistons and yes it's a VERY different sound, but I can't see that being the #1 contributor to say, the sound of an F1. If it seems like i'm posting alot in this thred it's just becuase I REALLY like this topic and it facinates me and I want to learn more. But maybe I should try to figure out what 'I' think is the top contributors to engine sounds so you guys can debunk me

Many people don't give the 5.0 block much credit. I've worked on the cobra motors and consider myself a fairly knowledgable ford guy, and to my knowledge the cobra shares the same block as the other 87-93 cars. The cobra DID have differnet heads, cam, intake (upper AND lower), and exhast manifold. Now, if you go and try to get over 400hp on the stock heads the block won't like you very much. If you don't let the motor breath and force induction it it's gonna blow up. So, keep that engine breathing, stay out of detonation, get a GOOD tune, keep the RPM under control, and it'll be a happy motor. And if somehow the block DOES go south, then you just upgrade to a 351w

Sorry, I didn't want to make it an argument, just simply trying to make sure we're all in agreement in some shape or form. An analogy that probly won't work for many people, is the guitar, one that I think about myself for my own analogies. Between electric, acoustic, nylon, and the thousands of amps there are near infinante sounds possible for guitarists, even 2 guitars with the same guage strings set to the same tunning can sound totally different. Anyways, that's just something I think about whenever I think about engine sounds. Anyhoo, lets continue the light hearted talk shall we?

funny you should mention the celica... i've been looking for one for sale for about 2 months now... I figure it'll make a good daily with future prospects as an overhaul project. The front end of the celicas have dodge written all over it to me. Very demon-ish.

oh ok, that makes more sence, duh. Thanks for cleaning that up. Well good luck with the project, i'll be joining you if I can find a l28et sometime soon for a good price.

wow, project seems to be moving at a good pace. I agree though, it's always nice to get questionable parts working before you go and modify something that would put more stress on it and such. Oh, and you meantioned a 5 speed conversion. Your ZX didn't come with a 5 speed? I didn't even know the ZXs had 4 speeds at all, and i've seen a fair amount of them.

no, it means it'll be full of people putting evo motors into electric cars... or would be electric motors into 350z's?

Yes, but then a brass player might use a mute. Then you've got room dynamics, and you've also got lip pressure and other variables of the player. I agree, a certain siz piston will create a certain sound, but there's just so much more that goes into it that when you've got thousands of fires per minute one single influnce on the sound just gets blended in with all the other noises the motor makes.

I've got it up on a torrent that I made, so get yourself a torrent program and search pinks on thepiratebay.org and you'll see the torrent. Download that file and open it up in your torrent program, it's that easy. File size is almost 50 MB and i've uploaded almost 800, so at least a few people have it by now.

Maybe kids will lust after an electric cars. Ya never know. But I bet it'll get better than 30 mpg weather it's a 4 banger or 8 cylinder. The new impala is advertising 28 mpg with 303 hp. Pretty nuts. Well if we continue to reduce our depenancy on oil maybe we'll remove all funding for terrorists

I think we're gonna be getting this for the next 3 years. Oh well, good publicity I say! Hey, georgia flash, let us know who wins Just listen for the singing at the eng

Chevy once made a prototype rotary vette But I don't have pics to prove it, just big history databases online of the rotary engines.

I think the crank will have a large impact on the texture of the sound yes, but I don't think that's what will make the difference between whiny and beefy sounds. If you took a SBC and put in a 180 degree crank I don't think it will automatically start sounding like an F1 car. I think it will rev smoother sounding and have an overal more harmonic sound, but it probly won't change the overall pitch and such of the sound. Just a couple weeks ago I saw a guy at a car show who build a 1/3 scale 350 SBC that actually runs. Pretty cool. It sounded like a 350 chevy that had an audio clip that was sped up, in other words it sounded identical but higher pitched. Now, if you put a 180 degree crank in THAT motor we might be getting closer to that F1 sound. Now put on equal length headers, and some nice ITBs and it will REALLY scream. And i'm not really positive about all ferrari engine specs, but I know the lambo mercialago is 88 bore 89 stroke, but it sounds deeper and more mean than ferrari's. EDIT: Go here and click V8 Video http://www.weberprecision.com/ Pretty cool but you'll see what i'm talking about. Sure it's all high pitched but it still sounds like an american V8, wich very well is probly the crank design.

Yea, odds are I'll probly stick with my current situation (partner in small computer/network design/repair company). The pay sucks right now but if it ever takes off I'll make plenty of money(wich it will once our client base grows, since our clients love us). I highly respect the input mike, and I know, one of the worst parts of the job would be the fact that there isn't any respect for the force nowdays. The funding isn't that bad, but it really depends on city. The richer suburbs have some of the most overpaid workers for how little they do, while other areas like richmond deal with things like drug busts regularly yet see similar wages. Makes no sence.

It's ok flames, I thought so too for years apparently! Yea, 4 rotor would need custom intake, exhaust, misc bolts, oil system. But my point is that people have done it. I bet there's more 4 rotors then rotary motors in Z cars (judging by the only one I know if is auxilary's and his isn't on the road).

From what I hear (from my future brother in law, who works for someone on the city council in oakland) thier problem is that have so many people who go through the acadamy and then get transfers after thier first year is finished. Suprise suprise eh? I must admit it sounds cool. All kids have played cops and robbers at least once in thier life, and everyday when I see someone doing something stupid on the road I wish I was able to pull them over. But do I think it's worth putting my life on the line? Not really. Would I be willing to gamble with my life for a few years? Maybe, but that's a big maybe.

Yes, but if you watch the vid of the 1UZFE with ITB's it has a deep growl that you can hear behind the sound of the intake. This has been a big discussion between me and car friends lately, becuase honestly I don't understand alot of it and truly don't know how much everything contributes. But lets look at this, what creates noise in a motor? Friction, air movement, and combustion. An explosion will always create noise, and more pressure = different noise. So a higher compression motor will have a different sound from the same exact motor with a lower compression. Now there's definately intake noise that really contributes to the engine tone that's emitted from the engine bay, but that should have much influence in the exhaust note. Now, the odd fire V6 thing. I thought this was due to the fact that 2 cylinders must share a crank posision and 360 doesn't get divided by 6 very well. You could give each cylinder it's own bearing on the crank but that would weaken the bottom end becuase it would have to be a thinner more seperated crank. Now, 180 degree or 90 degree crank, a V8 will still fire one cylinder per 90 degrees of crank rotation. Yes you could make two pistons fire at once, but why when you can have 8 evenly spaced fires even with a 180 degree crank. Intake is something I wouldn't have given much credit to a month ago in contribution of engine sounds, but you can easily hear the intake on a ITB car going down the track admists all the noise of exhaust. You have to consider that the air going into the motor is going in under some serious pressure so the air is going to make noise no matter what. Turbos will obviously have a bg contribution on noise even without the wistle of the turbo. All the exhaust has to go through the compressor so it HAS to change the sound of the exhaust. Also notice that the vid posted earlier of a ferarri has a redline of 8k and it still sounds remarkibly similar to a F1. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3747528804485007709&q=Ferrari Is it the piston size combined with insane piston speed that creates that noise? I mean, a tiny go-kart still sounds like a lawn mower, not a F1. So even simple piston size isn't all of it. Granted go-karts are usually 2 stroke i'm just pointing out there are SO MANY variables to count here. As far as I know (but this isn't solid information) F1 cars tend to run short stroke, high bore motors, wich is largely what allows so many RPM. Makes sense, but many ferarris have small piston'ed V12 motors with quite long strokes compared to bore. So what I'm getting at is that this has bee a big topic for me lately, and I have yet to figure out an ouce of it. I doubt that really helped anyone...

Well I don't know who here keeps tabs on local law enforcement but the local oakland PD has been very short on men and is willing to pay extreme wages. The overall lack of interest is due to the fact that no sane person wants to work as an officer in oakland, one of the highest crime cities in the bay - along with richmond (where I live). Not that I'm REALLY considering it, but it's been a thought in the back of my mind, to look into applying to become an officer. Start wage for traniees (same wage you recieve while in the acadamy) is $5,184 a month. Then entry level officers make between 69-87k a year. I come here not to make a choice, but to gather opinions. I'm still not really considering this, just looking into it. The main thing I don't like the idea of is putting my life on hold just to make some money, wich I assume is what will happen becuase I assume there will be long hours guarenteed. So, anyone here have experience in the field?

Yea, I can't remember what the exhaust looked like. Oh well. But what I still don't get is why nobody's making shafts for 4 rotor conversions. There's obviously people who have done it, I'd imagine there would be quite a market for it if someone would make enough of them.