Bartman

I think this is just another famous urban legend that's been around in one form or another for many years. Mythbusters just did a show about this and couldn't find any truth about this supposed "big oil company conspiracy'...not that mythbusters knows everything. They researched and tested several ways that advertised reduced gasoline use and some that claimed to eliminate it altogether..and to no one's surprise none of them really worked as claimed. The only thing that did work was running a diesel engine on used cooking oil. They made no changes to the engine and just filtered the cooking oil before use. Not quite the same mileage as using diesel, but pretty impressive nonetheless. I think one of the interesting technologies for the future is the use of ethanol. There was a story about this a week or two ago on Dateline http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12713171/from/RSS/

I like riding bicycles; I've riden the entire Pacific Coast of the continental US as well as several bicycle trips in Italy, Austria, Hungary, etc. I used to do a lot of freefly type skydiving (over 800 jumps), but since I've been working on my Z I haven't jumped in a while. Here's a pic of me in my last skydive with the fog rolling in over the Pacific Ocean at sunset. If you look close enough you can see the top of Catalina Island just before the horizon.

So I installed my checking springs and placed my new head on the block with the old head gasket. I didn't want to use the new one because I had to cut out around the pushrod hole to allow the adjustable length pushrod checker to fit. I turned the engine a couple of rotatons and with the checking springs my old hydraulic lifters stayed expanded so I used them as is. After playing around a while it looks like I got a pretty good wipe pattern. The picture isn't the best, and I didn't touch up the red marker at all...but I think I got it. It was actually pretty fun and easy to do. Because of the nuts on the pushrod checker I actually had to have the checker in place and then set the head down over it...otherwise I couldn't get the tool in place. I also had to be really careful installing and removing the rocker arms so that the wet ink didn't get messed up. So thanks for all the info and now I'm ready to order up my pushrods!

Personally I think it would be better if it was reversed so that it was bent down in the back and cut in the front...something like what blueovalz did on his car. That would be similar to the look you are after, but would provide the beneficial venting. If your just after something different and don't care whether it improves airodynamics or not then you can just disregard everyone else's comments (including mine). Ultimately it just needs to make you happy.

Some people will tell you that fiberglass bonded to metal will always crack eventually (different rates of thermal expansion), but there are also quite a few people that have done it without any problems so far. If you really don't want any cracks your best bet is to bond fiberglass to fiberglass. Anyone have a fiberglass scoop bonded to a metal hood (say for a few years or more) without any cracks? On a similar issue, I saw a Z that had the rear spoiler blended into his car. I would imagine that would crack eventually as well. I would be very interested in anyone that has discovered a process to bond fiberglass to metal that will not crack.

Doesn't sound normal to me. In addition to the bolts you mentioned mine had a couple of bolts on the bottom of the fender that bolted them vertically to the car.

Here are some pic's of the car from his album I heard he has a blue one for sale now..maybe the one that's in the bottom pic?

I'm pretty sure that's the one that was listed on this site 'for sale' for quite a while. Don't remember who was selling it, but someone from the San Diego area. I heard the guy who bought it talking about possibly taking it on the 'Hot Rod Power Tour'.

Yes, it was a SUPER close tollerance fit and the vacuum did make it seem like it wouldn't come out; but I did manage to get it apart last night. Now I can shim it up with washers and use it for checking.

I removed the retaining lock from one of my stock lifters...at least I thought it was stock. Based on what I'm looking at and what I've read, it looks like I have a solid lifter! I couldn't get the pushrod seat to compress before I took it apart, but I thought maybe I wasn't pushing hard enough or the amount of travel is so small it's hard to notice. The center of the lifter is open, but it looks like there's an internal step inside the lifter body preventing the pushrod seat from moving. It would be pretty hard to take a picture, but I can if it would help. How much travel should there be in my stock LT1 lifter? It looks nothing like the drawing of a hydraulic lifter in this tech article http://www.cranecams.com/?show=techarticle&id=2. I guess it's not really a problem since I'm getting new hydraulic lifters, but I would like to know for sure what my old one's are (if they are solid, now I can easily check my piston to valve clearance and valvetrain geometry). edit: I found a site that has some good pictures of a stock LT1 hydraulic lifter and a solid one. Maybe I just haven't been able to get the piston assembly out of the lifter body. I will investigate more tonight. http://www.caspeed.com/gallery11/

I found another forum that specifically discusses the pro's and con's of Exhaust Gas Recirculation http://www.domestictunerz.com/index.php?showtopic=13173 I've copied the specific information in case the link doesn't work: Exhaust Gas Recirculator(EGR): The EGR valves primary purpose is NOT to reuse unburned fuel as is commonly thought. The EGR's purpose is to cool the combustion event, thereby reducing NOX emissions. It does this by introducing exhaust particles into the intake stream, allowing advanced timing by adding broken down and expended fuel atoms which will not burn again. This reduction in the ammount of a useable air/fuel charge reduces combustion temperatures. This results in higher fuel mileage, especially during extended periods at cruise speeds. Other benefits are more advanced timing resulting in more power. There is a tradeoff here which i'll get into in a minute. The downsides to the EGR are it will, over time, gunk up the intake tract of the engine severely, especially if the valve sticks open, allowing extreme ammounts of exhaust gas into the intake. The benefits of blocking off the EGR are a cleaner intake charge, and more power as the computer will generally speaking, still advance timing as if the EGR is enabled, however this can lead to detonation, increased NOX emissions, and in severe cases, can literally melt the exhaust valves. In most cases, blocking off/removing the EGR will have no ill effects that are measurable, nor will it cause long term damage to the engine. Newer engines are no longer coming with EGR valves as better methods of fuel and ignition system control are becoming available, and the days of detrimentally fluctuating fuel mixtures are pretty much over. BTW - My EGR has been removed and programmed out of my PCM.

What thread sealant would you recommend for head bolts (Of course I'm talking about head bolts that require thread sealant in the first place)?

I know from first hand experience how tough it is to paint the engine bay. Looks like you did a great job and looking forward to seeing the whole car painted.

I looked closely at my stock LT1 lifters and I decided to go ahead and replace them. I called Comp Cams for advice and the person I spoke with in tech support was extremely helpful. Since I was looking at ordering a new set of lifters he recommended to take one of the old lifters apart and shim it up with washers to use for valvetrain geometry checking. He also recommended putting on checking springs before running the test (they cost a whopping $2.28 for a pair). He also sold me the lifters at a lower price than their list...and even lower than Summit's price. Once I figure out the proper pushrod length I'll be calling them back...and based on the support I got I'm happy that I have all Comp parts (cam, lifters, rocker arms, springs, and pushrods).

Search for "LS1 tank", there are several threads discussing this swap with fairly detailed installation procedures. I've done it myself for my LT1 and it works great!

Looks like you worked out your problem, sorry I wasn't of any help. Hopefully the correct sender will resolve everything.

JTR engine mounts work fine for an LT1 engine. Here's a link that talks about transmission mount options. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=94584

The solid lifter I got was SLP-AT-992 from Summit. Will the pushrod length I determine using this lifter be the same as the length needed for my hydraulic lifters?

I ordered a solid lifter and an adjustable length pushrod to determine the proper length needed for my setup. My question is once I determine the length required with the solid lifter how do I adjust for the hydraulic lifters I will be using? I assume I need to add or subtract the difference in the height of the solid versus the hydraulic lifter, but is that difference with the hydraulic fully pumped or fully depressed?

If you want it all black but you're worried about about waves in the fiberglass, you could go with a satin black...that would look really mean. My vote would be black top silver sides with a blue or red pinstripe between then.

I'm not having any problems with the pump auto-triggering or overflowing and I run the pump at full speed. It may be because my filler neck goes through the body just forward of the opening for the original Datsun unit. I just screwed in a plate to block off the old opening and removing this allows me access to install and remove the filler neck at it's new location. This allows my filler neck to angle towards the wheel well and didn't require me to increase the existing angle in the neck like Mat73GNZ did. I think that mine is a continuous downward feed and that's what prevents it from backing up while I'm filling up the tank. All I need to do is remove a small section of the filler neck so that I won't have the top of the new filler neck sticking out. Edit: Thinking more about my install, I'm wondering if it might be better to cut the top off of the existing filler neck as opposed to cutting a piece out and welding it back together.

I did something similar, but my LS1 filler neck sticks up out the top of the Datsun cap. I think I will cut the neck down like you did so I can use the Datsun cap.