BrandonsZ

I heard it's the second best feeling in the world... I don't even have a Z yet, but I am consistently surprised by the teestimonials. There is something to be said about anticipation... But like the night before Christmas if you get yourself too revved up, you may be in for a dissapointment, however, in this case I am not seeing many dissapointments, that is unless someone is using a bad carb, or a poorly setup computer.

Not all that bad, but pay attention to detail, I'd still open and dry out every connector, the rad fluid still might be int he connectors and bridging the connectins, that could fry your new computer as well. Also, your exhaust leak is probably a crack, you had nice hot exhaust manifolds and then quenched them with relatively cold antifreeze, It's probably nothing that a good weld coundn't cure, Don't make my mistake when I was younger, I thought it was the gasket and kept tightening on it until the bolt broke. Probably another $100. Good luck and welcome to the world of endless weekend projects.

Glad I helped. 8) Once I was adjusting the carb on my SBC 350 and I had to take the plugs out of number 4 and 6 for some other reason and I accidently marked them wrong so I thought I was putting them exactly back in the right order, and then spent a week troubleshooting why I got flames coming out of my carb and bucking at idle. Soooo sad, no forums back then. (80's) Good luck with the electrical, I'd suspect everything, replace every relay. Thanks

Oh, hey, now I know what your problem was! You are using a sealed coolant system of course, but your relief valve isn't working properly. If you have an overflow, the radiator should draw fluid from the reservoir when it cools down and replace the expanding fluid as it heats up. It's not doing this correctly and that's why your rad hoses collapse. Of course when you put it on the dyno the engine got hotter than usual and the fluid expanded more than usual and your radiator hose blew up because the pressure was too high, and the rad pressure valve didn't regulate! You need that system pressure checked before you go any further or may have to deal with this again. Any car I ever owned had a reservoir and a rad cap that has a relief valve in it so when the pressure goes up, the valve opens and lets the pressure above a certain level out. You have to have a relief valve somewhere or you'll blow a rad hose again. Same reason why your hoses collapse, the valve should let the fluid back into the radiator when it cools to replace the volume of fluid; when it cools it contracts. Older systems use a rad cap and an overflow hose so it just dumped the fluid into a reservoir when it heated up and sucked it back in when it cooled off. Your system (among your other unfortunate problems) is lacking this function either by omission, or by component failure namely the check valve? You need to have that system pressure tested before you go merrily down the road again, that is if you can get it started again, I sprung a leak in my radiator once on a F150 and it rusted the coil, wrecked the electronic ignition, and caused trouble with the front blinkers. It never really recovered from it and missed for the rest of the time I owned it even though I replaced all electronics associated with the ignition, I swear it overloaded the computer when the fluid hit the sensors. Rad fluid is conductive.

I was listening to THSS yesterday and yep, he got it right, the gay community should be up in arms about this, why should the color normally associated with gays be used for "wrong". Is this some condserviative agenda in disguise of a liberal obsurdity? Think about it. Following this, and other things in the school news lately. Next they'll say no red drugs! And only knives under 3 inches in length so that noone has knive envy? They already have the "no red scarve" rule, then they'll say no red underware or red tatos or red nose rings. then red lipstick, red eyes, RED KETCHUP! What a world would we live in without red. This might be a conspirasy of the colorblind, we should write our congressmen immediately! I mean congresspersons, sorry. Or perhapse, the kids are just sick of seeing red all over because their parents have no time to help them with homework and they are poisened by mindless video games. And of course the rise in obesity in schools isn't helping, the mind won't work right if you don't exercise. "yes I'll have a happy meal with supersized atkins beat frys, bunless soy burger, and an Sugar free-Oreo-Snickers-Chockolate-Butterfinger Shake with McCandy chunks swirled in it." Eat that or raw sewage... I'll take the health benefits of sewage. I got a test back once and it was corrected in green, I swear I thought I was doing great even though I nearly flunked it. It certainly felt better, but should it have? Should we be telling kids it's "ok" if you flunk everything? Have you heard some inner city high school kids trying to talk today? What kind of pigeon english is it they teach with purple pens in English. Dang what a difference 10 years makes. Where ar we going in the next 10 years? Did I miss anything?

They let you change out the engine to a different manufacturer's engine and still pass the inspection as though nothing was different? OR did you get permission from the DMV and subsequently from every inspector you go to? And when they're sitting there scratching their head when the smog check computer blows up when it's not understanding the signals coming from a corvette computer in a nissan body, what happens then? I would greatly appreciate your best explaination of this, because in California, they fail you if you put a C&M air filter on for G***'s sake!

In the 80's Honda experimented with a direct drive turbine engine. I bet the idle was kinda high ? You think? Of course the horsepower potential is mindblowing for the size of the engine. Pretty good power density there. "Do you know how fast you were going?" 8) "Well sir, I stopped counting the revolutions on my speedometer when I broke the speed of sound." "No really, do you know how fast you were going, my radar gun just says 'EEE'." 8)

A 1970-1976 Cadillac Eldorado came with a 500cid (8.2L) with a transaxle. You could put the whole thing in the back of the Z. It wasn't sideways. That is if you don't mind sucking gas fumes? Then you could turn the front into a trunk and fill it with cement to offset the weight and balance the car. I thought a V8 in the front and a V6 in the back would be a cheaper way to get a V14? Think about it.

It looks fat! Like a Sumo wrestler. But amazing.

What about placing a small V6 in the rear (take out the hatch and gas tank). Position and a heavy V8 in the front and then you could balance the load and have great gas mileage with the 6, but great power with the 8. Run them together for flight testing. You could in stall a mid diferential like used on 4x6 limos, or the rear engine could be placed in backwards and chain driven to the driveshaft? Just hold the. Probably not worth the weight of two transmissions. Actually I think I've gone too far here, but fun to think about anyway. I heard about modular V8's but you still have the friction of all 8 cylindars even when running 4. I like the decoupled idea better, maybe 2 Porshe V4's?

maybe a clutch between them? You could have 1/2 power and great gas mileage and when you want to drag, you start up the second one, let out the second clutch and and pow instant double horsepower. This sounds fun, but probably isnt.

I remember watching the tractor pulls and they had tandum engines, parallel engines, and mixturs of this. Probably not very easy, but I think it's possible. Only for the eccentric though.

Well, it could be done the hard way with some sort of transfer shaft between two seperate two rotor motors, like they do in the tractor pull. Probably cause more trouble than you want though.

[MIKELLY] I will go with Victor Jr., why not. [z-rific] It's makeing sence now, I don't know enough about this but now it's starting to make sence. The higher stall actually keeps the car from losing traction? Doesn't it put the rpms in a higher (more powerful) bracket? I would think it would peal out more, but shifting softer does make sence. In fact the only things I like on the ZZ383 is the aluminum fast burn heads and the new (non-rebuilt) block. Nothing else really interests me, but I would like to use a Q-jet because I can get one with a automatic choke and mechanical secondaries. What do you think about this setup?

With a 2000 stall converter, I figured it would limit the torque off the line since that 383 engine has so much torque and all you'll end up with is wheelspin. I am used to driving a stick, but it's true when you really want to accellerate I fether the clutch up to 3k. But it's a tiny engine in my honda. This is a brute. Would a 2500 stall torque converter waste mileage for not much more improvement in useable power?

[305240] But you had fun right? If not, then it was fun driving it when it was done right? Would you do it all over again?

I was wondering (I know I do a lot of wondering here) but has anyone thought of putting two V6 engines in tandum for a cheap way to duplicate the smoothness of a V12 with the power of a V8? It would probably be an interesting project and the braging rights for originality I think would be high. I don't much care for the free space that is left in front of the SBC. But it's such a minor point.

There's so much room, couldn't you put 2 of those in there in tandom, then you'd have a real screamer! A quad turbo!

Yes, but you could strech the hood and front end, and then that would be one heck of a clown car. On that point, why not put two V8's in tandom.

This may have already been suggested but has anyone thought of putting that new chevy 572 in a z? That's bigger than the 500 block, and looks like a monster. I can imagine the entire front end would have to be redone, but with 750hp and (can't remember the exact numbers) 700lbft of torque? I suppose you can get that kind of power out of smaller v8. There's another one to wet the pallet, Cadillac is putting out a new v16, it's supposed to be 12.0l and put out tons of power. Can you image how smooth that would be? (not sure if my source is 100% correct) Just to be complete what about the new volkswagon W12? It's as short as a v8 because the cylinders are staggered. I think I might look into this one myself. Just dreaming...

How about a 1.8 volkwagon turbodeisel. They get over 50 in that big bulky golf, in this car it would probably be even better, I can picture 60+mpg, but drive like a slug. At least you don't have to worry about frame stiffening?

[305240 & wheelman] I totally agree, I might look into 280's before I buy the 240. I think you'd have to be pretty careful if you don't know what you're doing with welding, and stiffening the car to heck. I've been looking at what others have done, and some of them would take a lot of time and effort. I also agree that I should not tax this car till the frame is stiffened, and if that means not installing the engine until I can do that that's probably the smartest thing to do. But i'm getting that feeling in the back of my mouth like you are about to eat something really good and then I start druling when I think about that 400+hp in a 2400lb car. I guess I better not let me wife drive it, she'd probably flip it. [Pop-N-Wood] there are so many choices, I really get stuck, but I'll get there. I can hear it now... "No honey, that's why I bought you that 'safe' new car you wanted. " "Yes honey I do care but...but...but... " "I bought YOU the new car, this is MY car!@@#$!! " "Yes dear.... ##$@% " On second thought, I suppose it better be safe, maybe I'll put a 1800cc volkswagon deisel in it.

I like it, my Honda Prelude was like that, it made all the other cars look cool and low. You have to admit the cars behind you look slightly lower and sleeker don't they? I don't own a Z yet, but I'll take note of it.

Awsome, that's great advice. Now I have a "launching point" from which to start this massive, life-consuming project. [wheelman] Are there any kits for a streetable sub-frame upgrade? [pop-n-wood] I'm going with this car for the weight, so I certainly don't want to buy heavy breaks, any suggestions for the rear breaks if the toyota's are heavy? It's always good to start somewhere. [siliconeboy] I figure I'll let the experts do the hard work of the engine and let me have all the fun. I like to bolt on a black box and let it work. I like the 3 year 30kmi warrenty, why struggle with it? Plus there are so many choices it'd take a month just to get a handle on what pushrods to use. After my previous projects, it seems I am always knee deep in a project for a long time and then when I'm finally done, I'm tired of it. So I want to get this thing on the road immediately, and the advice you gave sounds perfectly simple enough to start me out. So if I just pop in the motor and trans without any other mods, the car will shoot like a bat out of hell, then it won't stop, then the car will twist in half and the rear wheels will pop off? Sounds cool.

Ok I got funding for my project car like 8 months ago, but I have been too busy to do anything but think about it so a lot of thought has gone into this. (mostly at work reading this board). So I got a good rate for a brand new latest generation chevy ZZ383 with no miles outside the dyno shop. It's 425hp and 430ft.lbs with the fast burn heads, and a dual plane low profile manifold subtract 20hp so it'll fit under the stock hood with no mods. I'm planning on using an upgraded 700R4 rated at 500hp and 550+ torque. With a 2000rpm stall. I'll follow the JTR like it was the bible, and I can funnel money into this project if I need to. Q#1 Reasonable? I want to set it up to top out at 5krpm, lots of low end torque therefore 1st would be something like 50mph@5k, and the other three gears will follow. Q#2 Is this reasonable? I got my eye on a 1972 240Z a guy I know who wants to give up the weekly garage stops to the shop and doesn't know the box end from the open end of a wrench on his old car which is suprisingly good conditon, no rust, straight, nice all-around, drives good, bit of a slug 4spd stick. It's old and stock. Either this one or a similar one. Q#3 Any comments? I want to "mate" them and make the hybrid from this. I have a few extra bucks 'cause my wife talked me into buying her a new car after 2 years of begging her to let me buy her a 54-57 Belair and I told her that I could make a better car than hers with half the cost. So that's why I'm not going cheap. Q#4 Any comments? Please. Thank you. P.S. After all that she wants a new car and says, "you could have the bel air." 8) Sorry babe, I need speed and I'd rather start with 2500lbs than 5000lbs. But all's forgiven, she let me buy a '73 4x4 F250 and now I'm set to tow the hybrid if it overheats or flips over from the excess torque.