BrandonsZ

That is the stock knob, I like it, but I wish they had an "L" shaped knob with a button for reverse lockout. I had to use a M12x1.5 bolt (which is hard to find considering they usually come M12x1.75) and take out the little adapter thread fromt he inside of the stock knob. I would have put it in upside down if I could, it wouldn't fit in the tunnel without major mods and interference withthe seats in this position. I actually have two mufflers, that small one in the photo is a 12" x 3.5 dia resonator, the main muffler is a super 40 delta from Flowmaster, it's the shortest muffler with 3" in and 3" out. FLO-953047 from summit. It just barely fit in the stock muffler location turned 45 degrees and tucked up in the fender. I can show you more pics, PM me. It sounds freekin' awsome and I'd keep it like this, but my wife and friends say it's too loud,a nd they can hear me comming from a mile away, that'll draw too much attention, but inside it sounds perfect. So I'm going to put two more resonators on the 2.5" sections of pipe closer to the engine. Flowmaster does deliver what they promise a low soothing tone.

Considering gas prices, I'm glad I get better gas mileage in my 240z hotrod than my 240 Volvo.

they both work, why not. I hate the junk yard, but that's me.

In my owner's manual for my auto transmission, it says "never backdrive the transmission, use a flat bed or lift the rear wheels when towing".

I can't see a thread like this go without props for the fles-a-lite 180 extreme. It's more expensive, but the shroud fits perfectly and needs no modification with the JTR rad and mounts. PM me if you want photos.

I have an old school 350 (gen I) pre '86 and there is a transfer plate between the stock T56 LS1 close ratio transmission and the lakewood ($335) standard bellhousing. There is also a custom pilot bearing that moved the pilot bearing further rearward by the depth of the transfer plate to ensure mating to the trans shaft. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4134&cat=500&page=1 5speedtransmissions.com is where I got my adapter plate and bearing ($350 and $300) not cheap, but worked really well. The ls1 tranny will place the stick about 3" further back, but in my case it ended up putting the knob in the exact position as stock because the stock shifter was bent back about 3 ". the new shifter is straight up, and I made a shift stick from a 3" bolt and a 1/4" plate to mate to the T56 shifter link which is about as simple as I have ever seen. This was with the JTR position, but I actually have about 1" between the firewall and the distributor. This is of course where the shifter ends up if you have a stock ls1 tranny, the aftermarket one and some F-body ones have a shifter that is several inches closer to the front (different tailhousing) which would have simplified my install, but they do NOT have the close ratio gears which I am really appreciating, especially the low grumble of 1500rpm on the freeway with the .50:1 6th. I used the stock shift boot, shift knob, console, and boot plate, but had to turn the boot and plate 180 degrees and move them about 2" rearward. I also had to cut .5" of sheetmetal rearward and move the console .75" rearward (as far as it would go). It looks like stock though. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4135&cat=500&page=1 The crossmemeber from Stealth conversions worked perfectly, although I have about 1" of spacers between it and the stock transmission mount, I of course had to drill two holes instead of the one it had. It even afforded enough room (barely) for the 2.5" exhaust coming through both sides. http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=4136&cat=500&page=1 If you have any further questions let me know, I probably have all the answers for the T56 + 1st gen SBC in a 240z. Not that they are good answers necessarily.

The fork should be very near loose if not slightly loose when the clutch is out all the way, I had to loosen the clutch pedal adjustment to ge tthat extra .5 inch of clutch pedal travel. Obviously if you are pushing ont he beraring weith the fork too much it'll wear out sooner. I think the clutch gap should be .020 to .050, but how do you measure it? I haven't figured that out with my setup. But I have about 1/2" of clutch travel when the transmission is completely disengaged and 1/2" travel after it is completely engaged and so far no sandpaper "fingers crossed". What slave cylindar bore are you using? I have a match 7/8 master and 7/8 slave bore (external mounting).

Ouch, don't tow it with the rear wheels dragging without disconnecting the driveshaft. This is standard practice. Get a flatbed if you want to save the hassle, or drag the front wheels.

I am happy to report that with over 300hp, running 87 octaine, 10 deg BTDC at idle (vac advance temporarily disconnect) with a 650cfm edelbrock AVS 4-bbl carb, 350cid, T56 6-speed manual .50 6th with the 3.36 stock rear, I get 25mpg hiway. The car got 18 hiway with the original engine (2.4 with 4-speed I believe it was 1:1 4th). Adding this drivetrain lowered the car .5" front and .5" rear so I think it must have been at least 200lbs heavier, I wish I knew, but it feels a little stiffer and handles better IMO (jtr position). ~1500rpm @65 in 6th, and plenty of torque to spare.

Don't buy a Mazduh, or VolksFagon. Mazda is ford remember? More like an overpriced ford. Volkswagon has a keycode for almost every electronic part on the car, making them almost useless in a junkyard unless you need a fender. The E-PROM on them is "burn once" so you need a new one to program the computer correctly or you'll get that "you've voided the warrenty" message as soon as you plug it in at the dealer. So I've been told. Good luck, I like the Mazda myself, too bad they suck.

That's heavy. ??: good luck dude.

It's amazing how much I learned from this site. It's been a nearly daily reference. I decided against the zz383 and got a more universal Edelbrock 350. Amazingly it is getting 25mpg on the highway, to help with the better mileage is the .5:1 6th in the T56 manual tranny, which is (I feel) a better choice than the 200r4 auto with a .67:1 4th I originally wanted. After driving an auto for 5 years (suburban and cadillac) and then switching to stick (chevy and Honda), then having to drive an auto again (volvo), I just like the stick better overall. I don't need as much stiffening with the higher 1st gear (2.66:1), although it is way too much power with more than 1mm of gas pedal. It calculates out that my torque in 1st is 70% (1.7x) more then stock, although my torque at 65mph in 2nd is 110% (2.1x) more than stock. I did add some strips under the car and I'm going to add a panel to protect the oil pan, and some stiffening for the front crossmember to the frame. The JTR manual was a big help (and kept me motivated) in the early stages, but would probably need to be 100+ pages more to contain all the information I really needed to finish this thing. The purchase date was 12/05/04 first start-up was 7am Sunday morning August 28th, 2005 the first test drive was Saturday September 4th, 2005. I drove a lot this weekend. The car feels like a 4-wheeled motorcycle, you can feel everything. Even though it has an open differential, both wheels peal when you give it too much throttle. The car dropped 1" in the front (including the lower crossmember which raised the car .5") so a total drop of .5" front and .5" rear. Engine: My edelbrock 350 tuned to run on pump gas has instant response, and the electric choke makes starting effortless. It fits very well in the engine bay about 1" from the firewall (too much modification to the tunnel using the Lakewood bell housing for that last inch mounts slotted forward .5"). I can get to all the plugs, and everything else. I did drop the cross member .5" and there is .25" space from the 3"x14" air cleaner to the hood in three places. Cooling: There is about 2.5" from the front of the (long) water pump to the flex-a-lite 180 Extreme electric fan on the Stealth Conversions radiator, the shroud fits perfect inside the radiator mounts and covers 99% of the radiator, it keeps the car perfectly at 180-190F under all types of driving. Transmission: The LS1-T56 puts the shifter in the stock location if you have a straight stick that is about 3.5" long (I made one from a M12x1.25 X3" bolt and a 3/4" x 1/4" bar welded, ground and drilled). I had to flip the stock shift boot and move it rearward 2", I had to move the stock console rearward 3/4", and I had to cut out 1/2" from the rearward shifter opening (in the metal). (watch for the fuel and brake lines which I came extremely close to). Exhaust: The tone sounds perfect with a 3" Flowmaster Delta 40 in the stock muffler location, and another 3" resonator, although it is louder than I like, if you stay off the throttle in easy driving it is mild inside the car (the fuel pump is louder), I might add a couple more resonators after the headers because when you put the throttle down it really screams. I have Sanderson 1.75" block hugger headers and I had to put gaskets in because it would not seal between the two middle ports. Then 2.5" exhaust on both sides of the transmission through the Stealth Conversions trans mount and Y'd directly after. Then it merges to 3". There was no room for a crossover pipe, the only place I could put one would be under the oil pan or in front of the engine, so I skipped it. It was right on the hairy edge of fitting. I had to massage the trans tunnel to fit the exhaust in one place and dent the exhaust pipe in two places to get at least 1/4" clearance to everything. A few important words of wisdom I have after doing this swap are: 1. Completely isolate the fuel pump on rubber isolators and get one that is quiet, however it sounds you'll hear it louder inside than outside. Don't mount it to the gas tank, it acts like an amplifier. 2. If you need a tool, buy it, rent it, borrow it, and get it somehow because a lot of time is wasted in trying to fabricate a tool or using the wrong tool. 3. Keep it as simple as possible and don't concentrate on details that you can do after it's back on the road. (even with that mindset it still took 9 months. For reference, the exhaust alone took three - 12hour straight days). 4. Don't be afraid to innovate if you think you can do it better. Moving the hood latch over 3.25" toward the driver's side and modifying it slightly was all it needed to avoid the SBC standard MSD distributor. 5. The drivetrain must be a bit heavier since it lowered 1" front and .5" rear with a T-56, and SBC 350 with aluminum water pump, heads, and intake at about 1" from the firewall, (the Lakewood bell housing with an external clutch slave cylinder needed a fair amount of trans tunnel massaging.) The original trans mounts did not need to be removed, but I did pound on the passenger side original mount to move it about 1/4". I used the original trans mounts for exhaust hangers. 6. Keep your tools and parts as organized as you possibly can even to the point of OCD, I would put all my tools away 3 to 4 times during a 12 hour day between tasks to regroup and make sure I could find everything. When removing parts, I documented each part on the car, then off the car, then on the shelf so I could be sure I could find it and put it back on. Swept the floor after each time I cleaned up my tools. On balance I could have bought a really nice car for what I spent on this car, but I consider the 9 months of work to be training and it broadened my understanding of every part of a car, and if I bought another Honda, I'd probably be happy, but somehow I think this was worth it, and my prelude si never felt like it was going to fly in 4th (1:1). Thanks to all who helped me in this project! I really appreciate it, and in return, PM me for any questions you have and I'll try to answer them and give pictures if I can.

It sucked really bad, just three months after that the clearcoat came off on three parts of the car all at once (hood trunk and near the dent), then the car really looked like crap, then it started rusting at the sunroof under the rubber stripping. Then the engine started burning 1qt per tank, and it barely passed smog befrore that it would probably never pass after that, then the battery cable connection to the battery failed and I couldn't tighten it anymore so I had to jump it to start it half the time, then "the club" broke and it got stolen 1 week later, to my dissapointment 1 month later just before the insurance comapny sent the check it was found within 1/4 mile in an area I drive past every day. Then the A/C switch failed, and the clock was so dim you couln't read it, and the gas gage stopped working it just read empty all the time. At that point I was pretty disgusted with it, and it had 225k miles, and needed new tires and wouldn't start with the key,a nd the battery was nearly dead because the connection was shotty at best. But when you got it running, it ran like a champ.

Hey I remember that track in Gran Turismo 2. Maybe in others? I smoked on that one.

"Dang Narrow Urethra!" Just a Hank Hill reference. Seriously, you should have adopted, the reduction in stress over not having children usually helps to pop one out. Don't be surprised now that the first two are out of the way that you'll get a surprise 3rd about a year from now thinking you don't need protection. Seen it too many times. Congrats! I'm looking forward to a spawn of my own in a couple more years.

In San diego, if you live in North county and work anywhere else, you hate life from 4am to 9:30am, 11:30am to 1pm, 3pm to 7:30pm, 10:30pm to 11:30pm m-f, saturday morning from 8am-12pm, and sunday afternoon from 3pm to whenever. No joke.

My Prelude was totaled... with $2100 in damage... one big dent in the rear driver quarterpanel... created while parked by an unknown skater with a headache. Skipped reporting the damage and donated it to KPBS December 04.

Simply, it's a ricer with WAY too much money.

Than I remembered that I once hooked a Jaguar AC blower to my Chevy Sprint. I had a Amp meter and it pulled 12 AMPS on full, it did nothing to help my car's sluggish nature. I thought it did something anyway so I tested it it with unofficial 0-60 testing, got no result... this means it just offset the extra drag it added from the power usage through my alternator. Sad... But this leafblower makes sense, it wouldn't be any different from running an electric blower, or a seperately run engine powered blower... Hmmmm... you could use a 4 stroke weed wipper enigne or a small motor cycle engine (hook it up with it's own gas line and intake and hook it up to one of those automotive electric blowers (minus the electric motor, you'd have less efficiency, but the power wouldn't be coming from the driving engine, or dragging on belt system with a belt driven blower. That could be interesting.

So glad they brought that back! I missed it.

Oh, my car! But it's a 350 in a Z?? Maybe he has a Flowmaster Delta 40 too? But yes it sounds exactly like that, sure my idle is a little more lopy, but when I rev it, it has that same race car sound, and it's nice and low on idle.