Dan Juday

Next time you meet take it to the track. We are out here chastizing the young guys for street racing. Us old folk need to set a better example.

John is a great guy to work with. The quality of the kit is very good considering that this is a "race car" kit. I used the YZ rear fenders and the SubtleZ fronts. John was happy to accommodate me with the various small sections of different molds I needed to blend it all together. He is a true professional. He parts are not cheap but i've never heard any of his customers complain. The search function is down untill the new site is online but if you scan this forum you can find a lot more info on this kit and John Washington. EDIT: I re-read your post and saw you plan to use the C4 rear end. The YZ fenders will come up just short of fitting that rearend without sectioning. Sorry to break the bad news to you.

I owned a '78 Brat years and years ago. That was the first and last Subaru I've ever had experience with so please excuse me if my info is dated. I bought it cheap because it had a rod knock. This much I remember very well That boxer four was very light. You could almost unbolt it and yank it out of the engine bay all by yourself. It seems to me that even the lightweight LS1 would be significantly heavier. With the relative location of the wheels to the engine bay that the Subaru drivetrain dictates I think you would be looking at a very nose heavy car. Like I say, my Subaru knowledge is 25 years old so someone set me straight if I'm off here.

Right on Mark!!!! That is good news. How many bedrooms? You would need a mansion to have one for each of your kids! How's the HVAC, need any help?

It can be done safely. This one I wouldn't though, I'd go see it.

Jon, excellent discription of the rear stub axle/bearings set-up. Mike, yes i'd love to see pics of your modified slide hammer. Maybe you could even pull a tire and show how it mounts up to the axle. I can be a little daft at times, had a trouble following your discription of how it works. While we're here and the search is down (I know the answer is there) for us 240 guys can we upgrade to 280 stubs while things are apart? The 280's are larger and stronger, right? Is it as simple as getting 280 stub axles and bearings and wacking them in?

Brett used the scoop froma '69 Mercury Comet on his S30. Bet it would look sweet on a S130.

Thanks to Mike every LS1 swapper can now simply order the correct set of headers right from Sanderson. Props to the trailblazer.

Starion/Conquest seats are nice. They fit the Z well and adjust manually many different ways including headrest angle, lumbar, side bolsters, and thigh support height. Interesting to look at too. More of a modular look than the typical car seat.

That is only the second time in my life I've seen those flares. Lower the car to the ground and they look sweet. I had a friend with an Opel GT back in the late 70's. It's not very impressive from the drivers seat.

I swear I read "shorts" the first time.

Intriguing! You're a little optimistic on the weight savings. I believe it's a lot closer to 75 lbs. lighter, but still not insignificant. VSS should be no problem, just a pulse signal. T5's used 4k pulses per mile. Well worth investigating. Bet G-Force could answer the question.

Me thinks we high-jacked this thread. : Yes, you need the VSS. Does losing the 4L60E mean you are going with a stick? If so you have no worries. T5's and T56's come with them and Tuner Cat allows you to choose which VSS you have (there are different types). If you plan to use a turbo 350 or an M21/22 (can't imagine why you'd want to JMHO) then you will need to buy a cable driven VSS.

On an LT1 I'd stick with the stock ECU and buy TunerCat. Megasquirt is speed/density and batch fire and the LT1 ECU is mass air flow and sequential injection. You'll spend about the same for TunerCat and the cable as you will for MS.

Looks good. How is the shifter position? BTW, you have small feet Alex.

It's your IRS that's doing it. In a straight line when enough torque is applied to the rearend to break traction the twist of the driveshaft is transfered to the case of the differential due to the resistance of the weight of the car and the stopped wheels. Essentially, as the pinion gear pushes to turn the stopped ring gear it tries to climb the ring gear. This "climbing" force twists the entire housing. If you have a live axle this twist means that one wheel is mashed into the pavement and the other is lifted (unweighted actually). The unweighted wheel obviously has less traction and spins while the other gets great traction but the torque is now all waisted on the spinning wheel. With an IRS, like our Z cars have, the differential still twists but since the wheels are connected with jointed half shafts the weight on the wheels remains equal. Hence, two black stripes. Now, throw the car into a curner and tromp on it and other forces will upset that equalibrium.

So Scott, got that thing screwed together yet? They're talking about another Anywhere Cafe get-together. I've got a hawk in the garage right now that I would love to bring and pilot in a black streak contest with you. Does this bring back memories? What a sappy grin!

Zoops makes these cool billet ones with the bow tie.

This should have already been asked, what do you plan to do with the car and what is your budget? The LT1 is a nice choice because is it a bolt-in swap, has all the advantages of EFI, is a relaxed street motor for daily driving, and is a strong motor right out of the box but with the potential for gobs more power. A carb motor will be cheaper and easier. It can be built for big hp numbers but it wont have the same level of refineness at those numbers as an EFI motor. The LS1 is a step above. Lighter, stronger, silky smooth with even more potential. But this one will be the biggest challenge and cost. As far as what displacement that's simple. Cubes = power. The whole argument that a smaller displacement motor will rev up faster has had a lot of holes shot through it. Any motor can be built to rev if you throw enough money at it. Between the LT1 and the LS1 the Ford swap has lost a lot of it's allure. While it's true that the Ford is lighter, a complete f-body (aluminum heads) LT1 is not that much heavier and has the distributor in the front out of the way of the hood latch, like the sbf. The Ford has fitment challenges as well, namely the pan that has been mentioned, and the drivers side header to steering shaft clearance. About weight gain. Even worst case senario we are not talking about making a sports car into a truck. Because, in the jtr position, the motor sits lower and farther back in the car. The difference adds up to having an average size person sitting in the passinger seat. Whata ya wanna do? Whata ya wanna spend?

Yeah, these cars were talked about here a while back. What a shocker, eh? A Ford 280ZX???

We need the search function back. We were just talking about this.

If this is your first motor swap and you don't have a lot of experience or the tools for fabbing brackets, mounts, headers, ect. than the sbc with one of the available kits is the path for you. The jtr kit is well engineered and cheap IMHO. Follow the book and post questions here when you run into snags and it will be enough of a challenge for you. nsadhal, you live in Berkeley, you need to come to the Rio Vista show in April. It's only about an hour away from you and you can see several V8 Z's, Chevy, Ford, carborated and EFI. Get a close up look and talk to the builders.

Two words: Velo Rossa!