silicone boy

I just wanted to throw in my 2cents since I have many of the components that Pete talked about for my initial 383 build, then tore the engine apart for my turbo build. I'm not an engineer, or even a knowledgable motorhead, but I grew up in an engineer houselhold and everything had to be twice as strong as it had to be. That's why I was talked into ditching the cast Scat crank for the forged one and getting forged pistons rather than the hyper Kieth Blacks. The con rods were forged Scats. Once underway on my turbo build though, someone posed a question to me: Had I ever seen a cast crank fail in real life? No, not even on monster application. Also, at the point of failure of a turbo motor, would forged pistons really be less prone to melt through than a hyper piston? Probably not significantly. We would be in catastrophic territory no matter what my rotating assembly was made of. I'm glad I have the bulletproof components, but they are not bulletproof. I just feel better about it., and I also have a quality Scat stroker assembly just sitting in my garage gathering dust. I also want to add that I like Pete's rationale for blowing a 383 rather than a 350. The extra cubes make up for the lower torque that a decompressed 350 would get you, and the forced induction will make up for the lazy revving that you get with a 383.

Compared to what you would spend restoring a rustbucket, I would say go for it. That's a real clean car. The engine location is as it should be for a JTR conversion. I've had some reservations about the wisdom of a stroker in car that weighs less than a modern Honduh Civic, but it's nice to have that dilemma. Sure I would like to be able to rev quicker (I have a 383 receiving a couple of turbos), but you can't argue with the numbers that Mike Kelly has put up in the past-that's a monster. Also, nothing revs quicker than my FD RX7, but I get my butt kicked by torquier cars like the Z06 Vette (darn, Mike has one of those too-talk about a man with too many toys).

Moby, Where exactly is Calhan? Also, check out my posting today of the TT383 in my 280z. The V8 was not a tight fit, but the plumbing for the turbos was a major PITA. Almost there, though. Ben

Thanks, I'm not quite sure why the pictures didn't come up on my original posting

Well, I've taken a break for HybridZ for the past few weeks, but I'm back because some of you have been kind enough to care and track me down. I've been working in my garage skunkworks on the twin turbo 383-slower so I don't burn out. Here are some pictures. It's not as intimidating as the Turbomeister's, but it's going to work. I'm really not that far from being able to fire it up, but I'm doinng little jobs here and there--if I applied myself, I would be a weekend away or so. Please comment. The biggest hurdle right not is I'm going to have to modify that giant intercooler. It gets in the way of the hood spring mechanism. I'll probably have to have it shortened a wee bit.

I own 2 AR-15's, an AK 47, an AK 74, and a Sig 225. Do I support the NRA and think that anyone should be allowed to have a gun? Absolutely not. I go to a lot of gun shows and stores and frankly, I'm scared of the people that are allowed unfettered access to guns. I think you should have to pass some kind of a civics test, showing you are a good citizen before you can own one. Why do I own such "weapons"? For target shooting only. I don't plan on using them for self defense because I am convinced of the sanctity of a human life, even of the one who is trying to take mine (not likely that I would ever run into such a situation). I think the idea of trying to overthrow my government with small arms is ridiculous also. As the experience in the former Yugoslavia shows, sidearms against a modern army does little good. The last I heard, an M16 round does little against a modern tank. You may say that Kalashnikovs have been effective in Iraq against our army, but this is not the case. Instead, the more effective weapons have been RPG 9's and old artillery shells, and I don't think our founding fathers ever felt that we should have access weapons such as these.

I feel compelled to reply, even though I don't like to discuss politics in a forum that gives me great pleasure. Sure, we won a great "tactical" victory in Afghanistan and Iraq, but I fear the American public and our leaders are sadly unprepared for the realities of modern warfare. It's not about bringing in a lot of soldiers to occupy territory. As the greatest general of the last century said, General Vo Giap of North Vietnam, victory comes when you take away the enemy's ability and more importantly, will to fight. Against Al Quaeda and the Iraqi resistance, we have done neither. What we are witnessing is a significant development in how modern assymetric warfare is waged. In the last part the the 20th century, smaller forces have been able to defeat larger technologically superior ones by using all available resources, and I don't mean by force alone. Gen. Giap felt that technology was irrelevent and essentially developed the modern multi-modal warfare concept. He realized that he couldn't militarily defeat us, but he could still win by the steady drip, drip of American blood. Use of the media for psychological warfare purposes on the American public was important to the North Vietnamese battle plan. Unleash American military? Well, Gen. Giap calculated correctly that the Soviets and Chinese would enter the fray, something we didn't have the stomach for. He basically won by not losing and no cost in NV lives was too high. Mohammed Farah Aidid defeated us in Somalia withough very many shots simply by brutalizing the bodies of dead American soldiers and using the press to broadcast it. For those who thought we should have gone back in there and retaliated, I would say "against whom?" and also point out that the American congress wanted nothing to do with it. I see similar problems in Iraq, where significant errors in judgement were made. Sure, we were able to roll into Bagdhad (I'm surprised it took as long as it did), but doesn't it disturb you that thousands of Iraqis who said they would defend Saddam to the death simply vanished into the desert? What we have here is a group of people who have carefully studied and planned for assymetric warfare over the past 12 years. They know that they cannot defeat us militarily, but they will continue to blow up American soldiers one by one until we get tired of it and leave. You can say we delivered an ass whuppin, but they achieve their pre-war objectives. When we do leave, a radically right wing conservative government will eventually take over. To make matters worse, we have done exactly what Al Quaeda wanted us to do. We took down a secular Arab dictator that they despised and they then were able to pour into Iraq and kill Americans. Sure, we dismantled their training camps, but they don't need them anymore. They have the best training ground they need in Iraq where it's open season on Americans. The beheadings, the killings of oil workers in Saudi Arabia, are all part of an effort to disrupt the world oil supply and, more importantly, take down those bastards in the House of Saud, whom we support. You could say the Paul Johnson died for those 9000 princes that live like, well, princes while poverty climbs among their people (the per capita income in Saudi Arabia has been cut in half over the past decade). Yes, expect it to get worse before it gets better. Saudi Arabia is ripe for revolution stirred up by Al Quaeda, and we'll have to go rescue the sorry asses of the royal family. Unfortunately, nearly all of our active combat personnel are pinned down in Iraq looking for imaginary WMD's All is not lost, though. What the right wing conservatives of Al Quaeda fear the most is the liberalization of arab culture (like giving women the right to an education, allowing Arab babes like Rudi Bakhtiar of CNN-actually she's Persian-to bare their belly buttons). Over time, though, liberal democracy will win. It's the inevitable course of human social evolution. Remember, slavery is now illegal, women have the right to vote, and racism is no longer tolerated in mainstream society. It may take a while, but we will defeat conservative Jihadists, not with our guns, but with our ideas that will take hold in the Middle East. All we have to do is flood them with MTV, Brittney Spears, etc and the Muslim world will look very much like ours in the latter half of this century

ok, then. i think i'll take a high revving 4 cyl with a turbo

Why not both?

Well, I do have a spare Suzuki Hayabusa motor sitting around that I want to put in a shifter Kart, that would be unique. I'd feel guilty selling it because anyone who bought it would probably get killed. By the way, looking back on it, it would have been cheaper building a Cobra, and it would be running by now

http://Impressive......looks like the turbocharged SBC is just as tight a conversion as the VGDETT Yasin You think that's tight, you should see what it's like plumbing 2 turbos in a Z engine bay with external wastegates and plumbing for an intercooler. Turbomeister has done a twin turbo without these extras, and even that looked like a tight fit. Sometimes I wished I went with a giant single turbo like that, but it costs megabucks.

Aw, c'mon now, it's just a flesh wound!

For that kind of money you could get a 125 cc shifter cart. It's doesn't have to be a Honda, you could get a Yamaha motor. It's reliable and doesn't need much maintenance. Gas mileage is awesome too. The handling is out of this world. I doubt if there is a stock or even modified vehicle that could beat it. It wouldn't do that well in a crash, though (I'm just guessing here cause the feds have never tested it). On the other hand, if you were in a head on collision with say, a MINI cooper, it wouldn't hurt for too long.

I love those things. My brother and I own an auto shop, and we have decided to put together Cobra replicas as a way to keep the techs occupied when things are slow. I can't believe how much even replicas are selling for if well built. We're putting 351's in them (they're nasty enough, I don't want some middle aged dude to get killed in them) unless someone wants a real fire breather. Of course, we'll have to break in the engines by driving for 1000 miles or so. I can't wait-better make that 2000 miles.

Normally, I'm really offended at the term "white trash" (and I'm not white), but in this case, I can't really think of any other term that fits

Hanns, You are an inspiration to me, and my conscience too. Every once in a while, I get lazy and stop working on the TT383 project. Then I see you post and I get motivated again. Right now, I'm finishing up the exhaust and I'm waiting to take delivery of some lower compression heads so I don't melt those pistons.

I spent a decade in NC, so I know a bit about the colleges there. NC State is a great engineering school. Duke has a great basketball team, but your chances of getting any playing time are low. You could probably start for the football team. The girls SAT scores are too high, inversely proportional to their looks. UNC has better looking chicks. It's a good all around liberal arts school-a great value in education. Clemson seems to have aligned itself well with the automotive industry as you have reported. I don't know much about USC, but I don't like the fact that they are proud of their mascot name "cocks". How about Georgia Tech? They are supposed to be the MIT of the south, which migh explain why they got manhandled by UConn.

Wait a minute. Karts don't have front brakes? Come to think of it, you're right. I guess I'll just have to use a new pair of running shoes for front brakes, kinda like they did on the Flintstones. Hope they don't overheat

Hey, I just got an evil idea. Do you think it would be stupid to put my motorcycle engine on the back of a race kart? Something tells me it would be a Darwin award winner, kinda like the guy who strapped the jet engine to the back of a Beetle. Still, the idea of my butt skimming about an inch off the ground at around 150 mph has some appeal. On the other hand, I'm sure the brakes and tires are not up to the challenge.

I thought about using the twin turbo motor out of my FD3S RX7 since it needs freshening up anyway and I wouldn't mind an LS1/LS6 swap into my daily driver, but the Busa motor became available. Motor and gearbox weigh only 200#. My back didn't think it was all that light though.

Go to http://biketransplant.tripod.com They have great information on Lotus Super 7 type cars with bike engines. This site and http://locost7.info inspired me to build a Sevenesque spaceframe chassis recently. I picked up the ultimate bike motor, a Suzuki Hayabusa motor at a wrecking yard. It had only 300 miles on it (I'm told the guy died). 180 HP, stock at 10,000 RPM. It's probably the closest I can get to a Formula One car. I took on the project as a learning experience. I'm learning about chassis design, suspension geometry, fiberglass and metal fabrication, etc. The suspension pieces are going to be made from spare 280Z parts (glad I kept them!). With a little fabrication, these "leftovers" will be incorporated into a double wishbone IRS suspension.It will be a 2 seater weighing in at 800 pounds. It will also feature a steering wheel mounted paddle shifter. The British kitcar industry (with Lotus 7 clones being their version of the Cobra kit car) has led the way in putting bike motors in cars. People may say that they have no torque, but what does it matter when your humming along at 12,000 RPM in a second. Ask anyone who has ever seen a relatively heavy Legends car race with a medium sized bike motor. Bike powered Super 7's and Locosts routinely give Cobras fits on autocross and race cources. There's even a UK manufacturer that puts out the Tiger Avon with 2 bike engines in it. 0-60 times are reportedly in the 2.5 second range! Now, if I could only finish the Z

Liar liar pants on fire!

Jeromio, You've described my exact feeling: victim metal. I cut metal just for the hell of it, in all kinds of shapes. No noise, just a death ray that I shoot at the metal. I feel like a little kid! Just the other day, I made a ZCar in profile, just for fun.

Well, when I started the TT V8 buildup, I didn't consider a single turbo setup enough. I'm going batty routing all that plumbing. theory aside, it's become a real world practical problem running all that intake and exhaust plumbing through what I thought was a spacious Z engine bay-mine now looks cluttered and spark plug changes won't be fun. It would have been a lot easier with a single turbo setup. Spoolup would not have been that much an issue since I have a healthy stroker motor with plenty of low end grunt anyway. I will make the twin turbo setup work, it's just not as elegant as I thought it would be.

Ya know, I always wondered why people took so long to finish (if ever) their projects. Now I understand. I just get too tired after work to spend time in the garage. Too many distractions, too. Then I get a burst of energy and get a lot done. Right now, I'm distracted. I'm supposed to be finishing up the exhaust system on my car. It's slow going and I should farm this out, but I'll keep on struggling with it. Unfortunately, I've started with another project. I'm building a Lotus Super 7 clone, or a Locost from scratch. It uses a spaceframe and I'll use the suspension from-surprise!-a 280Z (glad I kept all those spare parts). I'm using a Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle motor (180 hp at 10,000 rpm!). The motor and gearbox weigh only 200 pounds and the car should weigh only 700-800 pounds dripping wet. It should scream! I'm not abandoning the twin turbo Z project though-I'm just taking my own sweet time. My wife isn't totally happy with all my projects, but she admits they're better than a mistress.