silicone boy

So true about how great this forum is. Very knowledgable brain trust. Congrats.

Tim, twin T04's will be awesome. The grapeape site was a great help to me early in my build, as there were not very many chevy turbo sites out there at the time.

Ok, here they are

Yes, I looked at those Banks units and they are stupid expensive. I'll try to post a picture of mine tonight. I simply took a set of Corvette LT1 headers, flipped them over, cut off the original flange, and welded on the turbo flange you will need. They fit perfectly onder the stock hood of a Z if you are using a T3/T4 hybrid. Believe me, I have tried many different configurations and this idea hit me in a dream. I made many diffent prototypes and none of them worked out very well. I even bought some sweet custom stainless units and they didn't work in the tight confines of the Z.The great thing is, these headers cost me hardly anything to make and have built in aluminum heat shields (I even put header wrap between the headers and heat shields for more thermal efficiency). Given the fact that they fit in the tight Z quarters, they would definitely work in a universal application

I do almost everything by myself out of pride-that is until I burned out and farmed the project over to a shop for completion. Trouble is, I also made all the mistakes by myself, since I hadn't done any of this stuff at all prior to the Z project. At times, I think I would have been more productive with others around since I'm prone to long periods of staring at a particular problem on the car and thinking about the possibilities. Having others around to brainstorm is helpful.

I'd hate to be the tech that has to take care of that thing. Talk about a cluttered engine bay!

utvolman99, You've come too far to second guess yourself. Once you are done, I'm sure you'll be happy with your choice. With all the LS1 swaps in progress right now, I have second thoughts, but it's too late. BTW jmort, you're right about the drivability of a V8 with low boost. Mine's so tame at low rpm's and when the turbos kick in, look out. With the low end torque of the stroker motor I don't really notice the lag.

Grump just amazes me with his posts. Very thorough. You should have your own show.

All that and a bass pond too? It's heaven.

Yeah, the other 1000+ HP monsters we sold them were F-16's and they take a few hours to learn to operate. Why do they about blow up? They use jet fuel for regular unleaded in the UAE.

Granite tile is out? Darn. I was going to do my dashboard in granite.

Mike, we're about the same age, and I think about retirement all the time. For all the youngsters out there, listen up and start to save early if you can. I couldn't start until relatively late in life and i's killing me. Another tip--don't do what I did and create a monster lifestyle you have to feed. I said I would never do it, but I have a hell of a mortgage to pay. To give you an idea, my neighbors include John Elway (Hall of Fame quarterback) and Champ Bailey (former Washington Redskins and now Denver Bronco all world cornerback). I have to run like hell to support this lifestyle, and you would all be well advised to avoid my mistake and save, save, save (then again, I have a garage that's like a car lover's dream--one of the garage bays goes down to the basement, where I can store up to 5 cars). Oh well, looks like I'll be putting in breast implants for a few more years to come.

The shifter comes out in the same place. The tranny fits just fine in the tunnel, especially if you use a sledgehammer to help it a bit.

You can actually get it done in 3 days. However, you'll have to get Chip Foose's crew at Overhaulin' to do it and it'll be done in a snap, especially if you have Courtney Hansen helping you. Seriously, as someone who has had the drivetrain in and out of the car several times (I once was able to take my SBC/T56 from the garage floor and bolt it into the car in 45 minutes!) I can tell you there are other issues that will hold you up, such as wiring (keep as much of the original engine harness as you can), exhaust (have someone else fabricate it--trust me), cooling (fan, radiator) that will draw this project out. In order to make this the most time efficient, I would make sure you have all your parts lined up and stick to a checklist. In other words, exactly the opposite of what I did. Also, I wasn't sure, but is the rest of your car optimized? I hate to see brakes cry under the strain of double the horsepower they were designed to handle. I'm a fan of brakes/suspension first, then engine.

Having been the victim of many 2AM calls, I know they are never good. They always suck the life out of you for the next day. Glad to hear your dad's doing well. Those stents are awesome.

My bad. didn't realize we were talking about the Nissan motor.

Yeah, but my new harness now looks like the one on the left

I consider Scottie our Master Yoda of the GN turbo V6. What a motor!

I lived in Raleigh/Durham for nearly a decade and grew to really like it. It's humid but housing is really cheap. Lots of folks to work on your engine too, as long as its a Ford or Chevy V8. Everything else is "furrin". Colorado is fairly nice. I grew up here. Hardly ever snows in Denver and the Springs and never rains. Lots of outdoors things to do. Housing is not super cheap but not bad by Seattle and LA/SF standards. I know that the wife wants to be around relatives, but considering how half of Orange County has moved out here, it'll feel just like home. On the automotive front, quite a few nice tracks around. One thing blows, though, and it might just be a deal breaker. At this altitude, you lose about 20% of your horsepower!

I agree with John. I'm particularly sensitive to this issue because I was blessed with a superhuman ability to spell (Spellcheck was my kryptonite) and cursed with a tendency to construct extremely long and complex sentences verging on "run-ons". Examine the last sentence and you'll see what I mean. As a result, I'm all for just getting your point across. If it's full of spelling errors, all the better because it makes me feel superhuman again.

Man... why did I spend so much time worrying about which muffler to use when I could have just gone with the straight pipes--I would have sounded every bit the 4 digit horsepower that everyone thinks I should have. Of course, no one would race me and that would be no fun.

ON3GO's thread about driving out and about sent chills up my spine. We need more stories about going out and smoking unsuspecting F-Bodies, Porsches, even Vettes. We use to do this on this part of HybridZ, and I never got tired of it. I can't really go around and cruise just yet, much less do even less civil things, as I don't have lights hooked up yet (and consequently don't have it registered). I therefore have to live through others. So come on, share your stories.

It may be possible to get a Spec Miata for $9000 with a well tuned engine and suspension goodies. It would streetable (with some muffling) and a blast to drive. Plus you could work to a competition license. You wouldn't win the saturday night street drags, buy it would be a great all around car. Having said that, you've made me think about getting one! Darn you!

Yeah, ....what Mike said.