BrandonsZ

my vote is to take that engine/tranny and put it in a truck and then tow the Z around behind it for shows.

350 is cheapest, and most common, but who wants most common right? I'm planning on a 383 and I expect to pay about 10000 when all is said and done... (not including the car) fingers crossed. And I do plan on driving like an ass. why not?

Your 1970 engine is set up for Leaded gas, watch it, the valve seats are softer than modern engines and like to degrade on unleaded fuel I heard. The 1971 was the first engine with "unleaded fuel" It had 365HP and 550LB-ft. and it was DAMN fast for a 5100lb car. I miss it, but it was ugly as heck and impossible to park. Handeled like a drunken elephant. But fun!

Actually the deisel fuel is injected at the end of the compression cycle, only the air is compressed and the fuel is injected near TDC which then immediately ignites, that's why you don't see carburated diesels. Also, that's why the diesel injector systems have as high as 5000psi. Look it up. Also why there is no "unwanted detonation". If you compressed the fuel and air together it'd ignite at some point maybe even on the intake stroke.

You can do this, and as long as you don't have any trouble keeping your battery charged, or keeping the engine cool, you'll have more power. Alternator The honest truth is you have enough power from the alternator at 2-3000rpm, so as long as you are 2000+ you aren't gaining anything significant for electric power. However this pulley has mass and takes torque to ramp up to speed, and similar to when you put a lighter flywheel your responce time will increase by an infinitesimal amount with a reduced pulley. (go aluminum of course). The alternator drags on the belt only if you are using electricity, so when you turn up the bass on your 1000W amp and turn on your lights during a rain shower with the windshield wipers going and you are rolling up your windows and draw on the alternator will be as much as you are ever going to get whether the pulley is going 2000RPM or 10000RPM. So the return on this investment is rather low. Water Pump You need a water pump to pump water through your block to keep your engine cool, and the higher the HP output the more heat it creates, so you might think a higher volume at higher speeds would be good? Not really since higher speeds will increase airflow through the radiator which increases efficiency and therefore the volume flow only has to be enough to keep from overheating the engine. There is a point of diminishing returns with flow volume vs. heat loss, However, the pump is constantly pumping and the force required to pump increases as the speed pumping increases. If you really want to save power, put a motor on the end of the water pump and drive it with electricity. Get one that's adjustable and you could even turn it off with temperature sensor control. Or you could "dial it in" and leave it at one speed that will work in all conditions all the time. Remember the power only robs from you when you use it. Reducing the water flow by reducing the pulley WILL give you more power in some cases, but if your engine gets too hot, it'll rob your power. and of course you don't want it to overheat. Also, take off that dang flex or clutch fan and put on electric ones, they'll save you power and actually regulate engine heat better depending ont he temperature of the day and the driving style of the driver.

The best approach IMO: 1. Check battery for weakness: -listen to the startup, those older V8 ignitions, needed a strong battery to spark through the points, when you are cranking over, if you have a slow crank like the starter is laboring, the battery voltge can drop significantly and the alternator isn't helping at that point. when the voltage is low the points fail to create enough spark. If you have electronic ignition, there are similar problems, just watch the battery. 2. Check your points(if applicable), cap and rotor. -A little corrosion here can cause a lot of trouble. Even on a late model car, the ignition module can become sensitive to heat when it gets old and open when the temperature is too high leading to poor performance, sputtering, stalling, and flooding (no spark to ignite also causes flooding). 3. Check the coil - A chilton book will tell you how to check for this. -Coils are pretty passive and usually rock solid, but can sometimes fail, and heat is a factor with it as well. 4. Check the plugs - Use Regular ones, not platnum. -Good platnum plugs last forever but have slightly higher resistance. -Sometimes when you have flodded the car the plugs will foul and they need to be removed, cleaned (might as well regap them) and be replaced. Also, shortening the gap to .035" can actually help a weak or old ignition system even if the system asks for .045". Now that you've spent the last hour and nothing is wrong? Now you can spend the rest of the weekend rebuilding your carb, shouldn't hurt unless you break something when you do it, or aren't following a good book and put it together wrong. Lastly, just pat yourself on the back for sticking with the Carb because your headaches only increase exponentially with electronic or computer controlled fuel injection troubleshooting.

Call me dumb, but I owned my 92 Honda Prelude for 7 years before I realized that the guy who owned it before me put a high performance Cam set, and high compression pistons in it. I naturally just thought that car was super fast from the factory and never thought twice about it. It's got 11.9:1 compression (measured). Has non-stock chip and the exhause is cat-back different than original. I bought this thing without knowing anything about hondas but it just drove better than the others I looked at and I thought it was because it had the B23 engine in it. Well, by Looking at it it doesn't look much different than a stock Honda. I guess that's why I could smoke Mustang GT and Camero RS's (street raceing only). I got beat once by a ricer with a turbo Eclipse, but just barely. It's fun to drive but won't pass SMOG anymore since they added the NOX sniffer and lowered the max to sub 900ppm. I got 950ppm NOX, but my CO is 0 and my HC is like 10! Too late to fix it, I guess I'll be donating it to charity for a tax break, can't sell it without passing the smog, put $1500 into a new cat and the entire series of sensors before I realized my compression seemed too high, and then checked the computer. I knew about the exhoust cause it sounds pretty nice when you acceerate. but 7 years and over 130k and that engine just keeps hoing, I guess even 11.9:1 on these type engines won't detonate on pump gas, then why does a V8 have so much trouble above 10:1?

Nothing wrong with Carbs as long as you are talking about the kind that sit on that V8. They're nearly foolproof out of the box and people who say they are having a lot of trouble "setting up" their carb usually have an electrical problem or a weak spark. Unless you want to squeeze that last Hp out of it, the carb is usually a set and forget plug and play thing (IMHO).

I don't like Cow-lee-fornia. ;(

search for LSD, you'll find some talks about them, they give sites and prices ~$300 as I recall.

I've driven hundresd of thousands of miles on several carburators and they never fail "all of a sudden" I'd bet a hill of beans that it's something in the ignition. Rule of thumb if you smell gas and it won't start, but it was running recently, check the spark. Make sure the connectors are tight, check the coil, check the distributor, check the rotor, check the plug wires. A cracked rotor could do this, bad points. Once the rotor on my old caddy actually broke and the little metal sweep moved off center by 10 degrees like it hit something and that thing sputtered like a b, spent time adjusting things and then checked it. The cap was loose, so I accidently knocked it and the rotor had come in contact with one of the contacts, which knocked it off, just as I was adjusting the carb, which instantly made me think it was the carb. I save the carb as a last check nowadays, it's never bad in my experiance, but instead it wears out over time.

Or the fuses, could be the fuses... I agree. "BOO!" But if not that, perhapse an exorcism would help.

Right and you also want limited slip.

I am still having a dilemma, I should know after this long list of posts, but I still can't get past the choice between 700R4 and 6-speed. I ALWAYS thought a sports car deservs a stick, but I've driven a stick for 10 of the last 14 years and to be honest, I am really getting tired of the stick in traffic. When I was a kid, there was no dang traffic, or at least I didn't see any, and when I got my job 25 miles away, it was fun to cruze up the freeway with the control of a stick, but slowly the clouds of change have rolled in and the car isn't fun anymore on the jammed roads. It's still fun for the times when I'm smoking some Mustang (I have a prelude SI with 11.9:1 compression pistons, mod cams, and about 210 BHP 7000redline 120kmi on this config, have to get rid of it, won't pass smog anymore, and endless electrical problems.) But I'm going to get a 240 and do the switch with a zz383 carburated (425BHP). It'll have gobs of power and torque, I can't imagine driving that much power with a stick, I would hate driving in traffic with that much power going 5 mph in socal. ...

Your car is possessed. It's ok, it happens quite commonly. Two of my cars are posessed. Yes, and usually the spirit is quite benign, it just likes to irk you off sometimes. What I do is leave a few thinkg broken and complain about them a lot when I'm in the car, but never fix them. My A/C switch broke and I replaced it. then it broke again, and I bypassed it with an entirely different switch remotely positioned, then THAT switch broke . So I hard-wired the A/C wire and the A/C was on all the time. But then the same day my heater control lever broke, IN THE HOT POSITION!!!. I fixed the wire and then the heter core started leaking within a week ! The day I replaced it, the lever broke again , in a different place IN THE HOT POSITION ! So I bypassed the heater core all together and the A/C fan stopped working so I had to disconnect the A/C pump . This all happened in a 3 month timeframe. After being used to working every saturday on a new problem, I just gave up, I didn't touch anything, and just didn't have any climate control. Car has been driving like a dream for 3 years since. Kinda sucks on a hot or cold day, but who cares. I know that as soon as I try to fix that stuff, I'll no doubt be calling a tow truck.

Thanks NZeder. That's my point, cheaper, but lots of power. Now consider two 3.8L V6 from the Thunderbird SC (supercharged) in the late 80's early 90's. That engine was really nice even on that fat 4000lb+ Thunderbird, just one could be compared to a V8, but two? Possible salvage? It could be really cheap and when you pop the hood, BAM! two engines , people would go nuts . A nice drag car with a higher possible top end than a large V8, but it might drive decent on a country road with the right suspension. Hooking up might be trouble with so much weight over the front wheels. Imagine those nay-sayers when you pop the hood

Remove, clean and replace the battery terminals, and the connectors both at the chassis and solenoid. I was using those "anti corrosion" washers on my battery and the car started stalling on the freeway, I replaced the battery and a yaer later same thing, then I noticed the terminal was loose even though I tightened it as tight as possible. I removed the dumb washers and they tightened right up.

This guy might just be flipping the car. He might have put a MAACO job on it and is selling it before the 6 mo. warrenty expires and the car starts rusting like a B***. No one says you actually have to register the car if you can sell it within the time limit of the original deal . Slightly Illegal, but common.

Get the Gen II clear GE silicone II. It's paintable, lasts forever and will withstand a temperature range outside the limits of earthly demands. I used it on some "vents" on my truck 8 years ago and it still looks exactly like the day I put it on, dirt won't even stick to it, it's in full sunlight all day. (Wish I could coat the entire truck with it somehow.) Don't grab a tube of Bathtub calk, it'll become brittle in the sun and end up leaking again within a few years.

"zero to whoops I'm dead in 5 seconds!" That's great, I wanted to put a ZZ Chevy 500cid BBC in the 240Z before I came to this site, That would have been one very short test drive followed by several flips and perhapse a chance at being the second manned test flight into orbit without government funding. "St. Peter, I swear I thought it was safe." "The gates of heaven don't open for idiots, sorry, but I do know one guy who might have some vacencies." :flamedevil: dang... oh well

Good thinking, keep it in mind. When you are on the freeway trying to pass that Honda and you can only go 100, you'll be pissed no doubt. The R200? Is only a few hundred bucks, I would calculate the max speed and keep in mind around 2000 RPMs at 65mph in 4th . I don't think there is anything wrong with this setup otherwise. Sounds like a fun project.

Congrats, : I'm jelous. California is one of the dreaded states that doesn't allow modifications like thin on cars newer than 1974, otherwise I'd definately not be on this site, I'd probably be putting an all-wheel drive chassis and a V-8 in my Honda right now, instead I have to get rid of it because the engine is not going to pass emmissions and it's not worth fixing... Your fuel gage is wrong because you got a mismatch between your sender and your gage. There are several flavors of sending units they put out different resistance ranges for different types of cars. I forget the ranges, but I know some of them are opposite of others. If you measured with an ohm gage the resistance from the sender (one wire to ground) when the tank is full vs. empty you would know what flavor you have, then buy the appropriate gage. http://hp.autometer.com/products/c2/tachs_and_gauges/tachs_and_gauges.html This site has a programmable fuel gage, then it doesn't matter. Good luck.

Drax got it. 1) I'd bet it was a connection, it's always a connection. At least you'd hope so, don't want to think of the alternatives. Bad harness? 2) You may need to get the front off the ground and try to move the tires, it could also be a wheel bearing. Oh and one really stupid thing, Check your lug nuts, I mean take the wheels off and put them back on. You'd be surprised.

Especially if you are used to driving in a non-hicas car, and you hang a steep turn with power on the turn and OOps it "self steers" you right into that light pole. It happened to a Z fanatic friend of mine when we was used to driving a 240Z and stepped into one of dem new fangled contraptions. He didn't hit a pole, but the car oversteered him right off the road and once you're in loose gravel on the shoulder, it don't hook up too good.

Let me beat the others to the punch, Every time I read someone thinking of a lower final gear (like a TH350 in Chevy land) and talking about 3500+ in the 75mph range, I almost always read about three posts down, DON'T DO IT!!! I've heard so many reasons why you want the RPM to be about 2000 at 65 in the final gear, that I'm just going to say think twice. 3 of the past 5 cars I've owned have been Fords, and I love my F250, but it's final gear sucks. Luckily I would never dream of cruzing long distances in it, nor would I have to except now I'm considering pulling the 4-speed out of it or (hate the 2-3 shift anyway) to get a better RPM at 65. This dang thing runs close to 3g at 55! If it wasn't for the 35" tires I'd be maxed out at 75. The last thing you need is a race car that maxes out in the 90's. COME ON!!! I'm planning on the SBC conversion with a 700R4 for my Z and probably a 700R4 with BBC in my beloved 4x4. It'll be 4k at 165 with my setup and enough power to make me happy sub 55 (i've been told). Ford Rocks, and can be setup in whatever you want and can do anything... but Chevy is cheap and available... I'll take Chevy.