pparaska

I think the rear of the 1st gen Z looks best without a bumper. But I wanted to have one to keep the police from having another reason to pull me over. I took a stock 240Z rear bumper center section, cut 3/4" of depth out of it and added tapered end caps and had it smoothed and painted body color. (I need to post a pict I guess). I made heavy duty mounts to the body for it, and they are tied together with a section of 1" schedule 40 black pipe - very sturdy. Now the stock (modified) bumper is a bumper cover. It's only something like 16 gage steel anyway!

Are you sure the play is in the stub axle to housing area (the bearings would cause that) or at the bushings at the outer end of the control arm where it mounts to the strut housing? This would cause the wheel to jiggle much like bad wheel bearings.

True, it probably is easier, and the whole strut assembly is easy for them to take off - probably not much difference in price. Just swap out the cartridge and spring from yours to keep everything the same. Taking off the nut is a pain. You have to unpeen the nut or grind the peened area away with a dremel or die grinder before loosening it. And getting it loose is often quite difficult.

I agree with the auto. THe over rev protection is important on the Pontiac motor, unless you go to aftermarket rods. Those motors will spin a rod bearing in a heartbeat if you go much beyond 6000 rpm. I've seen the Pontiac 400 stock bottom end protest in this fashion more than once.

They look great!

Probably an LS6 (the C5 motor, not the old Chevelle big block). I deal with high tech all day at work. I don't want to have to deal with an engine on the edge of destruction because I turned up the boost a bit more and a piece of dirt clogged something and toasted the motor. NA cubes for me anyday. The LS1/LS6 is the new V8 on the block for hot rodding, IMO. It's one hell of a design with tons of room to make efficient power with low weight and not a ton of complexity, and the probability of a highly tractable, high horsepower, super broad torque band makes me drool. So I'd stay V8, but go for 90s technology instead of 50s and 60s tech . But that GN motor is sure enticing!

The best way to learn this stuff is to find family, friends, make new friends, etc. that have WORKING knowledge in auto mechanics. My dad taught me stuff, plus I had buddies in high school who I turned wrenches with. One thing that really helped us is that we had NO FEAR of tearing stuff apart. We learned alot, and sometimes we learned the expensive, difficult way. We also networked and talked to mechanics at service stations where we pumped gas (wow, that's when the pump jockey actually was AT the pumps, pumping, taking money, checking oil, clearing the pump - damn, I'm dating myself ). ...but that's how we learned. (Nike will love this JUST DO IT! Before I rebuilt my first engine (Summer between my junior and senior highschool years) I read the engine rebuild section of a Chevrolet overhaul manual about 10 times FIRST. That helped a BUNCH. BTW, I drove the pi$$ out of that engine (327/350), sold it to my boss and put it in his work truck, and he sold the truck years later. It was running great many years later. Luck, a bunch of reading, learning from buddies, etc. all had a part in that.

I read somewhere recently that a magazine had a test done of the Air gap versus non Air gap Performer RPM for the same engine and the effects were negligible. I agree that in theory a cooler denser mix should be better though. I have DD2000 and it's fun for playing gross performance level games. But once you start getting into the intricacies of cam profile differences (fast ramps like the Comp Cams Extreme series versus standard ramps) it's all too fuzzy. Unfortunately, the program uses an estimate of the lobe profile depending one the "cam type" (hyd flat, solid flat, roller) that you pick, and there's no way to tell it the true lobe action. Engine analyzer pro can do this, but it's $470! Of course, you have to have alot of data (like do a bunch of measurements of lift versus crank angle) to get benefit from it.

quote: Originally posted by grumpyvette: ...but in general a 3.36-3.73 rear gear makes for a good match to the torque and rpm range of the 383 engine for a street combo! Just remember that the Z has a smaller tire diameter in general (25in vs 27 on most Chevy's, etc.) and this has a sizeable effect. This is one of the reasons the NISMO 3.15:1 gears are so sought after for a non-overdrive V8Z. Unfortunately they are NLA from NISMO, but Eric Neyerlin knows someone with a set to sell...

Sorry, I've been in the garage - working on my shortblock and then my double hump heads (cleaning the porting job up a bit, lapping valves/seats, a bit of chamber cleanup). I've done a half doezen 327s and they ALL were pree 1968 and ALL had the snout drilled and tapped - could have been from the factory or after the fact, I'll never know. Yes, some were not also and a press fit was used. But I surely would prefer a bolt! 1/16" between the ports does sound a bit thin. I'd trim the gasket, but a mismatch here isn't so bad, from what I've read. I'd want a good gasket preferable with a metal core also, but probably not mandatory. Search around the aftermarket for a metal/composition gasket, I think they're available.

Awesome! Great looking fab work! That is the biggest intercooler I've ever seen - especially in a Z!

Thanks for posting those links, Jim. I have one of the ones listed in the first link on my Eclipse GSX : http://users.erinet.com/40666/DSM-MBC.htm It works fine, but I'm sure others are out there that work just as good. My only complaint with it is that it's pretty sensitive to the adjustment - a small bit of a turn is a few psi. But it works well enough.

Tim, Awesome looking fabrication work! That's a nice pile of photos there showing some inventive engineering and fabrication. Man, that R230 mount kit looks good!

Hi Steve - glad you made it finally!

With the kind of torque that a built 400 with a 6-71 is going to put out (500ft-lbs or more, I'd think), you might not want to chance a T-5 (WC or not). Look at the T-56, Tremec 5spd, or Richmond 6 speed.

Jim Biondo got afraid that the stubs (280Z variety) might break and re-engineered the car leaving the stock suspension, R200 LSD, 280ZXT CV shafts, etc. What he did was take C3 (I believe) Corvette aftermarket BILLET stub axles and bearings and had bearing spacer rings made up to fit them into the 240Z strut housings. He used an aftermarket version of the C3 Vette companion flange and a simple adapter for the CV shafts. Of course, the R200 or more likely, the CV shafts would be the next weak link... But if I were turning 9s, I'd just put a solid diff in it. I understand wanting to keep the IRS though.

Sweet, Scottie! We await your definite joining of the 10s club! Beautiful install!

They get around the "breaking the law" thing by saying that it's a fine for an infraction, or some such mumbo-jumbo. I agree that red-light running has increased greatly in the 23 years I've been driving, as well as all the other rude and other bad driving I see. I agree that red light cameras DO have a positive effect as they keep most people from blatantly running them. The people who get caught on camera are the poor souls that are runnng up on a yellow at speed and happen to enter the intersection just as it goes red. The real shame of this is that the other direction does not get a green for a few seconds after the light that just went red, so there's no chance of a collision from the person who enters the intersection as it turns red or within a second of it turning red. It's a wasted ticket as far as keeping people safe. This may well be why you see officers not pursue this type of "gray area" infraction. They might cause a more dangerous situation by going through the intersection if THEY have the red. Another issue with these lights and cameras is that it's been shown that some juridictions that put up these cameras also LESSEN the length of time that the camera'd lights have for the yellow light, so that they are setting people up for running a red light after a SHORT yellow. This has been in the papers locally and on 20/20 I believe. Unfortunately, if many people weren't so self -centered in general, we wouldn't have this problem in the first place. Speeding cameras - those I really despise. The way Germany does this would be one LARGE reason I'd never consider living there. What a Draconian method of speed enforcement! I know it exists to some extent in my area (DC Beltway), but it seems Germany is rampant with this BS.

Jim, that looks Great! Mike was at my place yesterday and was bragging on how beautiful everything is done on your car. I'd love to see it sometime. 500 hp - that's got to be blast! I'll wear a Depends if I take a ride .

quote: Originally posted by SleeperZ: Just curious... Why do you need that much width The answer, I'd imagine is TORQUE versus straight line TRACTION?

I was honest with them. I told them I'd take it once a year or so to the track (I doubt I'll get there more often than that) to see how it runs. They seemed satisfied by that. They really want to only insure nice cars that are show-ish, not race cars. You can't blame them since they will give you and AGREED value policy for the thing. But they don't have a mileage limit - they love to hear that people actually drive the things to car meets, etc. The only problem that some might have with their policies (other than the race car issue) is that they don't want it used to commute to work, although they said if I drove it a few times to show people at work, they'd not have a problem with that. For me, the use policy they have and my intended use (pleasure driving) was a decent match. My car is a bit over-the-top as far as the body/paint quality for a daily driver anyway, and the parking lot at my work is notorious for door dings. I'd not want it out there anyway. Heck, if someone wants to see it at lunch or something, home is only 1.5 miles away from work so I can just go switch cars .

quote: Originally posted by DavyZ: Jimmy, The first V8 converted Z's made en masse were from a Company called Scarab. They sold kits and complete cars. Original Scarab cars have history and are very rare (read: expensive). Now we just refer to any Z car with the engine in same position as a Scarab. There is a write up on Zhome.com or the internet Z car club (I've forgotten where) on the history of the V8Z. Try to find it and read about it--very interesting reading. I found Paul Richer's (Paul R here on Hybridz.org) V8 Swap FAQ, and the History of the swap at: http://www.zhome.com/rnt/v8.html#HISTORY

That's weird. Hagerty has mine insured for $20K and it's not even finished yet! Don't say that it will be raced - that's the killer. They know you might take it to a track day to see how it will do, but they don't want to be insuring cars that are raced. Call Bob - he's pretty cool to deal with: Bob DeKorne Special Account Services Hagerty Classic Insurance (231) 933 3766 bdekorne@hagerty.com

jeromio, I agree about it not looking right with the body lines of the car - nice photoshop work, BTW! I think he must have done it that way to get to the stock door handle. Heck, I'd just do remote door latches if I was doing the body mods like this and do it jeromio's way!

Jens, thanks for posting that - looks like FAQ material. Can you email jeromio about that? Cheers,