Dan Juday

Welcome to Hybrid Dave from O. Are you really going to try and wedge that ZF in there? Sell it to a Vette guy for big bucks and pick up a T56. Much less hassle. You will probably make money on the deal. Are you going to go the smog legal route, or wait two years 'till the car is age exempt? If you go the legal path I know a Dave in H.B. that has been there and can guild you. Good luck, and by all means get to Tims BBQ. Dan

Hey I hate hi-jacking a thread, I think it's bad manners. That said, life is hectic and the progress is slow but it's coming. If I get a few more things back on it this weekend I'll post some shots. Now back to the topic. I checked with Ross and If you buy those springs from Frank C. and the rest from Ross you can save about $70. Not too bad!

Check the Buy-Sell-Trade forum. There is a listing there for Hypercoil springs, new in the box, for $60 a pair #150, #175, & #200. These are just the springs, you still need to buy the other parts from Ross but you can save a few dollars this way. The guy selling them is a friend of mine and I can vouch for him. I'm running #150 front and #175 rear but I'm an old codger and didn't want a bone jarring ride.

Sorry David that we were never able to hook up. You'll have to come up again when I'm not "on call". Three calls, 12 1/2 hours of o.t., ruined my whole weekend. But what a paycheck I've got coming. Nice score on the motor. Now explain how this thing bolts up to the stock S30 motor mounts.

I have no doubt it will hit the sway bar. With the stock mount and the larger Chevy u-joints it is very very close. The Tyler mount lowers the nose of the diff from the stock location for better V8 u-joint angles. You can run without a rear bar or switch to an aftermarket rear mounted bar.

CVT's have their limitations. Generally you find them in light, low power vehicles. The segmented belt and variable pulley connection does not transmit high power outputs very well. Slipage causes friction and then heat that causes more slipage and then damage. CVT's, like electric cars, have been around as long as the car. But after a century of many bright minds working on them, both occupy only a tiny fraction of the automotive market.

There were a couple of pics posted here a while back of an S30 customized with t-tops. Do a search for t-tops and you should find it or a better reference to it. Next closest thing is Rory Batemans S30 based Tomahawk. He is now making hard tops for them in a one piece and a four piece that utilizes t-tops from the S130, '79-'83 280ZX. Rory remarked to me that he was surprised at how similar the roofs are between the first and second generation Z cars. I've seen one of these tops myself and I can tell you that it should be very possible to replicate on a stock roof. If you consider that the relationship between the windshield header and the side glass does not change from stock on the Tomahawk the only unknown would be the rear edge of the t-tops to the roof. Lots of work though, and you will need to consider the structural ramifications. There will be a lot of twisting and compression leverage on the t-bar. Rory gets around this by designing in enough tolerances and a plethora of weather striping into the top. He has weather striping between the body and the targa section, targa to t-bar, and t-bar to windshield header. Wish you the best of luck if you try. Be sure to post some pics for the rest of us. 8)

Very nice Justin. Those look too big to be Johns scoops, and the angle at the openning is different. Did you make them yourself?

There's a Z parked right next to it, black with a white top. And another shot, is that a Peugot? Looks like Colombos car in white. Either way I'm thinking 5.7CSI/ls1

Buy the Helm manual and do it yourself with the OEM harness. It's not that hard. Plus you get a free education in EFI. Can you believe they get 600 clams for that? They are preying off of ignorance and fear.

Listen to the good advice Joe. Go to the track. You just started at that cool new school. You'd hate to miss a class because you were in jail... or the hospital... or worse.

Spag, you gots to do some reading. Hit that search button and you will find a wealth of info. Short story: it's a bolt-in in the 1 gen Z cars with one of the available kits. That's not to say that it doesn't have many challeges. Auxilary has posted a nice run down of parts needed in a recent post. http://www.hybridz.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=26672 Good luck, and welcome to Hybrid. 8)

Missed that one. Yes, I learned from someone with lots of experiance the best way to do that. Drop me a note before you start cutting. I can save you a lot of grief. No welder needed either.

O.k. Sooooo, are the L6's in or out? Oh ya, and can someone help me fix my horn button?

It's not just an AOL problem, although I can't imagine why AOL users still put up with all the crap from that provider. Didn't take me long to figure out that there are many other providers out there that offer far superior service for the same or even lower price. Anyway, Ernie, a.k.a. RacerX, was over yesterday and he was complaning about the same thing. I even had this problem a while back. Fortunately I have wonderful tech support with my ISP, read no automated answering service. I still don't know what they did, I'm not terribly web savy, but it's fixed now. Call your tech support guys. If they can't help you drop them. They don't deserve your business.

Nice work Wags. Get one of those small drycell batteries. You can mount it anywhere and they have plenty of power. That's what we used on my buddies Tomahawk. The small ones would probably fit in one of the storage bins behind the seats.

Ugg! Just checked the calender. That's Tuesday through Friday. Well that's the lid on that. Maybe if I plan ahead for next year.

I seriously doubt you, or your wheel bearing, will notice any difference. The distance from the three empty holes to the center of rotation and the rpms we're taking about make it pretty much negligible. I would think a chunk of gravel stuck in the treads would produce more vibration than any imbalance in the stub axle.

To get a good idea about what the training would be worth check out a trade school in your area that teaches bodywork and paint. Add up the cost of the classes, books, and so forth, and divide by the rate of unskilled labor in your area. This should give you a good idea of how much time you would need to give them. Be generous, remember, they are taking a chance with you too. And keep the attitude that they are doing you a favor. They will be happy to teach a greatfull, enthusiastic worker.

The T56 was the perfect tranny for my buddies Tomahawk because it made highway crusing much quieter. 65 mph with sidepipes and the top off is very comfortable now because the motor is only turning 1400 rpms. I chose a T5 for my car because I believed a 6th ratio would be superfluous and I couldn't see spending the extra money. After driving my buddies I can honestly say I was wrong. The ratios are great. He has a '95 T56 with a 3.54 rearend and tall 305/50/15's. This is a wonderful tranny that shifts smooth and you don't have to worry about abusing. The only drawback is that it weighs about 75 lbs. more than a T5. IMHO the advantages of this tranny far outweigh a 75 lb. gain.

Wish I could have my car ready to go in three weeks. No chance of that. I'd love to bring it to display your products. My bodyshop guy would like it to be there too. Hmm, maybe I could just take the time off work and devote all my time to getting it together? Another unlikely scenario.

That's Ron Best's car. It has a SubtleZ kit on it with an MSA airdam and a custom rear spoiler. He lives in Auburn CA. Nice guy, he was at the MSA show this year.

Those sure look familiar.

There are a couple of variables you need to account for. One, not all valve covers are the same. This may not amount to much difference, maybe 1/2". And two, jtr has you slot the holes in the motor mount towers up to 1 1/2". In my tpi swap my motor sits at the far aft end of the slot, but when I did the LT1 swap the motor went to the front of the slot for better tranny clearance. Also, the front crossmember spacers can make a difference as to where the motor ends up. I used them in the tpi swap and not in the LT1 swap and I believe that is why my tpi is farther back. The spacres give you more clearance in the tranny tunnel since the motor sits lower in relation to the firewall. All that said my valve cover (tpi/T5, jtr) is about 1 3/4" from the firewall.

An LT1 is still a SBC. So, other than port shape and plug angle, header choice has more to do with engine placement. If you put it in the JTR/set-back position you still have to use blockhuggers.