getZ

got a color chart?........never mind, I answered to quick, the pictures popped up after.

I like what you did. Nice work! I was looking for a console like that for my 73 camaro. I think the only thing I would do different is to wrap the individual pieces of wood with the vinyl first so you don't get any seams showing and use little "L" brackets on the inside to hold it together.

hydroboost.com hydraulic assisted brakes like some trucks have, but I don't know if this would fit in a z car. hook it up to a power steering pump, but if the engine shuts down, its like power brakes without the power assist. You really have to stand on the pedal to get it to stop.

It seems strange your fuel pressure goes up without the regulator. It should go down without the regulator on an EFI system. On an EFI system, the regulator is on the return line to the tank not the input to the rails. It holds pressure in the rails instead of (in the case of a caburetor) where restrict fuel coming in.

I used an after market shifter so a cable setup was easy. In the book I thought they kind of showed you the stock automatic shifter could be used with a stock linkage, but it kind of depends how your exhaust is routed. If space is tight you can also use a cable type setup on the stock linkage, but you will have to fabricate the connections and a mounting bracket for the cable sleeve, the latter being just an "L" bracket with a hole in it for the cable.

....oh yeah and if your notcher is like mines ('Ol joint jigger), it required a half inch drill which has a lot of torque. I was so preoccupied watching the holesaw go to work when the drill seized into the tubing, the drill came out of my hand and came around and smacked me upside the head.....USE TWO HANDS on that drill! It doesn't really hurt, but you feel real stupid afterwards

I don't have the manual in front of me, but I remember parts of it. What kind of tranmission do you have?

I second that. I wouldn't recommend doing this, but after installing one side I got fed up with the car being so low and me being so cramped, I raised the car up another 6 inches with bigger jack stands. While raising the car off the shorter jackstands from the diff, the car raised very unevenly (about 2 inches). Before that the car would raise pretty evenly, maybe a half inch difference.

I installed bad dog rails as well, but money talks. I ordered them and sent the payment right away. The front ones came in about a week. Later when I ordered the rear ones John told he was making a batch up in about two weeks and they were delivered a week after he said the would be ready.

I know some of the early LS engines had ring phasing problems where the top two rings were directly in phase. This also applied to the truck engines as well, but I'm not sure the problem went as late into the 02's. If that's the problem I not sure it's a very good deal.

there's quite a bit of information on the topic in the archives. I assume you're posting in HybridZ because you're not after a classic resto, so improving the structure is okay. Here's a couple of suggestions. If your rails have enough material on them you can cap them with: http://www.baddogparts.com/bdp.htm or you can use Pete's idea: http://alteredz.com/structuralmods.htm

Probably something like that, maybe a little less depending on how much line you run and how big a cooler you use.

front hubs if you want to do a AZC brake upgrade rear stub axles, the're stronger with a larger spline count, but you'll also need the half shafts with that as well. turn signal switch if they are good headlight switch if they are good, these go bad pretty often ashtray, I dunno just thought I would throw that in

I remotely mounted the filter up front to keep the filter away from the exhaust. I ran the lines directly sideways from the engine to the frame rail down a heat reflective sheathing. If you wanted to add a cooler it would be easy enough to do in series with the filter up front. The generic sbc summit brand worked fine for me, but I also used 90 elbows right out of the oil filter adapter to send the line straight out to the frame rails. I used aeroquip lines, but you can plumb part of it with hard line. Just make sure you use at least some soft line to allow for engine shake.

I guess I got lucky having talked to couple of guys who had installed theirs already and warned me of the problem, although I'm pretty sure Dave warned me about it a year before I finally got around to installing them. Part of the clearance depends on how much you have the car lowered. I grinded off the lip (bottom three mm of the arm at and angle) and have had no issues. I double checked it by raising one front wheel up to where it was just past parallel with the ground to see if it had a chance to bind and it looked fine.

Miles, I can help this weekend, but the only day I have free is saturday. If you need help integrating the wiring to the z car it should be pretty staight forward, just remember old cars do quirky things sometimes when they haven't run for a while. One of my headlights would not allow any lights to work once. I tested for voltage at the headlight and after that checked out, I reseated the bulb. The lights all started working and I just kind of scratched my head. If you need specifics on the engine wiring I can help, but you will need a good set of schematics. BTW what year is your car. I have schematics for both a 240 and 280, but the 240 ones are on a CD and it's easier to print them out. Joel

I feel your pain. That's why I don't drive my z to work anymore, lunch time parking lots are the worse. The last guy who parked that close to my driver side door put their car about a tire width over the line where I had to climb in the passenger side as well. They lost a passenger side mirror in the duel and the bottom of my shoe was fine.

You might want to wrap the handle of that jack with some pipe insulation, keeps some frustration from surfacing later.

Why not just cut the original motor mount brackets off and move them back 2 inches or do away with the JTR setback plates and move the original motor brackets back even further?

This is still around a thousand bucks, depending on what you pay for the old tpi setup. This is with a stock GM ecu using a Mass airflow sensor type system attached to a holley stealth ram. A chip will more than likely still need to burnt. http://www.gmhightechperformance.com/tech/0307htp_hollley_stealthram_intake_third_gen_iroc/index.html You can probably get this setup to run without a wideband O2 sensor, but you will not see the full potential without one.

If you are really going all out, I'd do what the super stock guys do. They cut the roof off and part of the body, build the cage on to the frame and tack the body back on the frame. It's much easier to weld and get a tighter fitting cage. There a few places here in town that can build you a complete chasis. You might try asking Danny at Spanky's where he got his cage welded for his Nova.

I'm not so sure you really want a full NHRA cage in a daily driver, mostly because climbing over that side bar is a real pain. You can make the side bar removable and most tracks will allow it ( I'm pretty sure firebird and speedway will allow it), but those guys allow a little more slack in the official NHRA rulebook. Here's some basic guidelines: http://www.nhra.com/contacts/tech_faq.html. If you are going to build it yourself, I would get a copy of the rule book. They go into much more detail about floor mounts (bolt in versus weld in), seat belt placement, side bar placement, motor plates, etc. If the budget allows it, go chromemoly, it's much lighter (because they allow a thinner tube wall)

There's a reason why you don't see copper lines on most cars. Pure copper is not that strong. There's an automotive grade line out of England for classic cars that's supposed to okay, but I would be a little leery about using it in a car that will see a lot of track time. I used prebent stainless lines from classic tube. For the most part the lines were pretty close to what they needed to be so not a lot of bending and the price was a couple hundred bucks. My only complaint was a mismatch on the flare seating they used. The distribution block on the 240z is a weird fitting seat. It's easier to pull that thing out and use standard t-fittings with 45 or 30 degree seats.

Not really. My car was originaly a 4 speed car. I pulled the hydraulics out for the clutch but left the pedal installed. That part is pretty easy. The only other difference I can think of somebody mentioned a park/neutral safety wire in the console somewhere. I suppose my car has it in there somewhere, but I didn't know about it at the time and tapped into the ignition switch area to make a park/neutral safety. I wouldn't have even bothered with that safety switch had it not been a requirement at our local track.

I've got a couple you can have. I pulled both of mines off to give me a little more suspension travel. I just greased up the inside of the axle. PM me with your address. I can send them out when I get back into town tomorrow.