BrandonsZ

Sounds good in theory...

LT1, more torque.

Dat's a nice shade of stupit.

Good luck Mike! Wish I had the balls to do that. But about the free time? Enjoy it now, well... you'll see. Congrats!

"I can tell the Z's center of gravity is much lower" Put a T56 and V8 with alum heads, intake and water pump in that puppy, and to be honest with you, I actually feel like the car leans IN to the turns. Like as if the center of gravity is below the roll center. I know this seems odd, but my drivetrane is about even with the wheel centerlines, and I sit so low because of the broken seats that my 210lb weight is probably not far off line with the roll center as well. The Z does not feel like it's on rails, the front tires do, but the rear will kick out, but it comes right back with a slight throttle adjustment. After driving a Prelude with 60/40 front drive, I was very afraid of kicking the rear out, because, although it would do it predictably, it would almost certainly oversteer, and not drift, and I'd usually have a heck of a time pulling it back without losing controle, (which happened twice). This car? I kicked it out like 20 degrees and it poped right back like I meant to do that, if I had kicked the prelude out that far, I would have paid for it literally. I'd take this Z with all it's vibration, smell, and loud exhaust over the Prelude any day. Sounds like Dodge has it's act together even if it is a FWD. Cool car. What's up with 18mpg though? I get that tooling the neighborhood with my car! But I'll never see 30mpg on the hiway, got 25 once though.

Don't drive angry and slap the shift knob, ouch! Do you think this was inspired by the "Golf" war? Cell - "Yeah hunny, I lost my car again."

Most cars do this I thought. Mine does 'cause I bought a pressure switch and hooked it up through a relay to the fuel pump.

You got a spybot, use Spybot Search and Destroy to get rid of it, it's freeware.

The Balls part of it would be to have a large displacement engine in a small car, sure you can have a corvette, and they're awesome, but there is just a little bad taste in the air when people speak of the corvette, like everyone is jealous of it or think it's too... phallic, I'm not one of them but my wife is, which is why I have a Hybrid Z and not a Corvette today. It's been proven time and again, that you can get good gas mileage from a large displacement engine in an aerodynamic light car. I would be a customer to Nissan if they ever got enough balls to make the production 500Z. All the modern luxuries, modern suspension, modern aerodynamics, modern style and modern power. But those days are waning with higher gas prices nearing inflation adjusted historical highs (about $3.30/gal would match the early 70’s crunch) I am not looking forward to 20+ years of a Toyota and Honda gas sipper dominated market. Remember today fondly, the balls are about to recede for another 20 years. IMO.

I own a 240 DL Base model 1991 nearly 200k, the motor mounts are shot, but since they are entirely captured, it doesn't seem to matter. I can move the engine with my finger and it moves about 2 inches in it it's mounts. The front brakes wear out every 10k, but they are cheap and take only 5 minutes to change, and basically just need a C-clamp and a pair of needle nose plyers to remove. Every time I work on it, I get the feeling they knew what they were doing because everything is so easy to get at and work on, and nothing is burried. Slow as a dog, AC sucks, no good for mountian roads, starting to rust, paint is still as shiny as the day it sold. (white). Nice car for Grandma, but too gutless for me. I hear the turbo versions are good though. You don't want any model after the year Ford bought them. The 90's were their peak. Reliability is good but not since Ford tainted them.

I think you have the heart of a hot rodder if you say, "lets give it a shot". Even if you've never done it before Even if nobody else has ever done it before Even if it sounds silly Even if you'll get no recognition for it Even if it'll cost you more than it's worth As long as you have fun doing it and have something to show after it's done.

If you like revving so bad, just turn your stock Tachometer up a notch, then you top out your 5500rpm V8 but it'll look like you're doing 8k. But you'll feel much more torque and have a more drivable car, IMO. I haven't gotten around to "fixing" the stock tach and it says about 1.25 more than it should. You wouldn't know except the RPM at idle looks high, especially since I can't turn my idle any lower than 750-800, idle passeges/jets on the carb are biger then they need to be. So it sort of sounds like the stock car did on idle... like bubububububububububub instead of like bum bum bum bum bum bum And with the gear reduction starter it even sounds like a smaller engine when starting. nananananananananaanna instead of rur rur rur rur rur rur.

Put tune-up grease on all connectors especially ones that will see the highest vibration, MAF, etc.

In the 9 months I spent, I bet it took me at least two weeks of work just to take all those hundreds of pictures. It probably took at least two weeks just time spent sweeping and putting tools away so I could find them again. (time well spent) I know I waited about 4 weeks for parts that were late. And of course the wife's demands, happy to say no altimatums and only got yelled at once or twice for spending too much time on the Z. Remember the cost of this project goes up with the number of times you get the wife/girlfriend pissed off. I had to do maybe 2 months of "other" house related projects to keep her happy. Including redrywalling the firewall, and some new cabinets int he kitchen. I talked her out of getting new windows (which I'd install) untill next year. So maybe it didn't take me that long just for the swap. Let's say a solid 4 months of 30hour weeks. so 360-400 hours.

Can't beat it. Heh heh heh.

#1. Bring a timing light with you when you shut down. A. If there is flash (spark) then it is a fuel problem go to #2. B. If there is no flash, you have: - Bad engine relay 40% - Igniter problem with electronic ignition 40% - Bad Connection somewhere 10% - Bad computer or other electronics 9% - Gremlins 1%. #2. When it stalls and you were running see #3, otherwise you tried to start it just after shutting it off and now you have no fuel: A. Unscrew your gas cap, try again, if this solved it get a new pump. 50% B. Tap on the fuel relay, or unplug it and shake it and plug it back in, otherwise check it for function, try again, if this solved it get a new relay. 49% C. 1% fuel gremlins. #3 When it stalls while the engine was running, and you still have spark and it won't start: A. Check the Fuel relay 50% B. Check the Fuel presure (might be low enough to stall), need a new pump and/or filter. 49% C. 1% your car is possessed, get an exorcist.

3X rainfall last year + no rain for 9 months... you'd be stupid to think there would be no fires this year. Glad they are on top of it, or at least have a full force on it, sounds that way from the radio.

dang.

Worthless enough for you to post on it? BURN! Sorry.

Come on, it's time enough to have a V-8 in a Z from the factory... what's up with that? Maybe a 500Z? That's be sweet. And why not make it twin turbo? I think we missed our chance to see this with gas prices rising, they are starting to concentrate on other things like mileage in the comercials instead of horsepower. Sad sad sad. Maybe someday.

Wow, I might be a hot-rodder... I didn't even realize it. I thought I was just a greese monkey/fabricator who had way too much time and money on my hands. I'm streching a little with the stock diff, brakes, suspension, tires, but I think I can apply myself to Grumpy's post, cool. I mean I didn't make my oun driveshaft, but I had to have it made to my specs, I didn't make the engine mounts although I had to grind on them a bit to make the headers fit, I didn't make the transfer plate between the LS1 tranny and old school block, but that's not exactly an off the shelf part. I did fabricate (weld) from J-bends and straight pipe the 3" exhaust and everything else though. I think that counts. But I wouldn't consider myself to be a hot-rodder unless I tear into that crate motor and make it better too. I think I'll leave this one and tear into my truck motor. I'm less concerned with gas mileage there. Thanks Grumpy.

There is an orange 240z EXACTLY like mine running aorund my neighborhood. What are the odds! I was told by the mailman that it's for sale, but not where it is.