pparaska

Lone, as I was reading the top part of your post, I was thinking the same thing - if the turbos are put down low in front, couldn't you duct air from the air dam back over them (shrouded from above) and back under the car or even if you got fancy, out a duct that went to the hood with GT40 type openings?

quote: Originally posted by Kevin Shasteen: The hard part is determining what "Properly Tuned" means to the driver.[/QB] That's a mouth full! And that's exactly why, as you said, the OE's have a hard time doing it and keeping the thing warrantee-able. But that's where us hot rodders come in - WE decide what's right and build it for ourselves! (or pay Lingenfelter to )

MMMM. I like. I wonder if that turbo wouldn't hit the inner fender though. Of course, that's nothing a little cutting and welding of the inner fender couldn't fix . With a not-too-low compression (8.5:1 or 9.0:1) 350 or 383 SBC and TWO small snails, would all my whining about lag be nil? Seems like two small ball bearing turbos that made power up to 6500 (I don't need even that much rpm)would be awesome and have little to no lag. Could two be selected and engineered into the car to have boost at 1500 rpm or lower?

Not to bust chops or anything, but just a disagreement: quote: Originally posted by Kevin Shasteen: Remember, the "Lag" is not a bad thing; Well, some of us think it's "bad". On the street, if you come from no/low boost to boost (i.e., through the "lag") in a corner, it can be NO FUN - I can imagine a high hp turbo FWD or RWD car coming through lag halfway through a hot corner would be deadly! Even some road race type cars with turbos get in trouble here - I've listened to enough race drivers say this about turbo porsches, etc. For drag racing, it's not a problem, since the system would be designed to never run through the lag through the 1/4. quote Personally, for a street car, that "wait" for the boost to come on is very bothersome. Certainly, I've gotten my OE turbo car to not lag as much, but it's still an issue. With a crank driven Roots or Lysolm supercharger, the torque and power are "right now". Same goes for a large displacement engine that's tuned (cammed, inducted, etc.) properly. I've seen people talk about the kick in the back that a turbo gives. Well, I see that kick in the back as a signal that I wasn't being pushed in the back by the seat hard enough before the turbo spun up. I guess I look at the glass as being half empty . Cheers, [ August 28, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Mikelly, remember the Mount Vesuvius imitation my Holley carb did soon after startup? A little piece of crud got in the needle and seat and the needle stuck opened. Easy to pull out, just remove the screw that locks the needle height adjusting nut on the carb bowl and back the nut out until the seat/needle assembly is no longer threaded into the bowl. Lift the needle and seat assembly and inspect/clean. No more than 7 psi to the carb also.

John, since you are now a moderator, you could search the other forums and move entire threads that are MOPAR oriented, or copy threads that are partly MOPAR oriented to this forum.

Wait, you mean that a car sold BEFORE cats were available needs a cat to drive around in that socialist state you live in? Jeesh!

Awesome swap and awesome engineering and shopping to boot! It seems always you find the inexpensive way to do things right! When I price out stuff it always seems to be higher than I think! Thanks for documenting all this!

To me, it doesn't matter if the strut cartridge was designed for the front or rear of a car - all that matters are: 1) strut cartridge body length (will it be too long?) 2) strut cartridge travel (is it enough?) 3) damping characteristics (enough, too much damping?) 4) adjustable damping (nice to have) 5) strut shaft diameter (strength issue) 6) strut shaft end type (will it fit in isolator, etc. with little difficulty?). I don't know what the MR-2 has on the front -are they even struts?

Yeah, Jim's got it right. Try some valve lapping compound on the screw-driver tip for those small philips screws. BTW, you have to take the outer rubber gasket off the frame to get to the screws - it's just glued on. If you're careful, it will pull off and be re-useable. VERY carefully take the screws out, and the frame is in two pieces (top and bottom) which slide apart and the window is captured between them. One window I had did have a problem though. The brackets on the ends of the frame that the screws go into are steel, welded to the stainless frame. The steel and weld rusted away and broke loose from the stainless. Glad I had some spares on hand (I have about two of everything - one on or staged for the car, and a useable spare in the basement. ) BTW, I used a screwdriver inserted were the frame edge overlapped the steel bracket and twisted it to open the space up, forcing the frame halves apart. HTH,

mac, I have an X-pipe (expensive Dr. Gas one - wish I'd found the cheaper place you listed). I LOVE the sound. It really does even out the exhaust sound to a beautiful balanced moan. Really sounds great at 3000+ rpm.

I'm with ya on the Pontiac motors - I helped a bud in college build a 69 GTO 400 up - ram air III heads, nice cam, 4.11:1 12 bolt posi, Muncie M-22. That thing was a hoot! Low end torque was incredible. Best part was he had me drive it while he was a way at school! Too bad the motor is heavy for a Z. Seriously, if I was looking for cubes, I'd be looking at a 400+ SBC.

SuperDan - I think we need a Mopar V8Z Tech Board! BTW, the SB Mopar does have shaft rockers - sweet motor.

They already offer it with AL 220 Motown heads. That's the one I was quoting hp and torque for (from their site).

Those EPA rules are one reason many fiber glass places are using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) processes. The days of the chopper gun in Cali are over. One VARTM process I know of is proprietary has excellent almost nil void content results, great compaction, etc. A license is like a half million last I heard. It's called SCRIMP. There are others doing similar things though (although the SCRIMP patents are pretty broad). I've seen huge things like bus bodies, and decent sized ship hulls "SCRIMP"'d in one "shot" - pretty impressive. Anyway, since everything is in a vacuum bag, the VOC's have a hard time escaping. The great thing about it is you get excellent, high strength, low void parts out of it. Set up costs for doing VARTM is not huge - vacuum pumps, hose, vacuum bag material and equipment. [ August 25, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

There's a 455 Pontiac in a Z here in MD - a bud saw it the other day. BTW, a Bill Mitchell motown 427 small block is puts out 530 hp, 540 ftlbs of torque on pump gas. Check out: http://www.theengineshop.com/engine.shtml Ouch, $9500 for it though. Just a stupid-simple carb motor that runs on 93 octane and makes tons of torque down low and up in the 6000 rpm range.

The Turbo 400 is a strong transmission. But any decent performance tranny shop can build a TH350 with all the strength you'd ever need on the street. Plus it's lighter, and the gear ratios are better for a light Z anyway.

327s are getting a bit hard to find and the parts are less available and more expensive than 350 parts. If you are after good street manners and want 350-400 hp, a 350 is a great way to go. There are short blocks, long blocks, crate motors, recip assmeblies, etc. for the 350 that are cheaper than any other engine you can name. And available everywhere. BTW, I like 327s, but my recent debacle showed me how scarce 327 cranks and such are getting. Then pricing bearings, etc. showed me that there is a big difference in price between the 350 and 327 prices - 350 being less. I'm not sure I'd want to nurse a 327 along much longer, unless it was in a car that came with one that I wanted to keep somewhat original.

If I wanted an AWD Z, the first thing I'd do is look for a platform that could be used to mount a 240Z body (with the floor/inner fenders/hatch floor/etc. cut out) onto. Maybe a stretched WRX? The Z is pretty narrow, so that's going to limit you.

quote: Originally posted by Andrew Bayley: Lone, please don't misinterpret what I just said. If you get 500 - 600 hp out of that LS1, we will be able to find a way to get that power to the ground. No more Vipers problems... guaranteed How about a 1/4 mile long rack gear, with pinions on the stub axles - along with a spring and a slider on the track to hold the rack and pinion engaged?

John, You've not only NOT offended me, but I thank you kindly for all the insight! Please do post here - I think it's very valuable to have a successful Z body kit maker post here! I for one think you've given way more than you needed to in the two posts by you recently. And I hope you get some business out of it too! I met you at the Atlanta Convention back in 1995 and I was impressed with your demeanor and willingness to answer questions - I wasn't looking for a kit (although I'd love to do one someday), but just asking questions about how you strengthened the unibody, etc. I was glad to meet you then, and I'm glad you've joined us at HybridZ! Please come by as often as you can and join in. Many Thanks, [ August 24, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Mike kZ, since I just had the car painted, All my underhood cooling options will be just that - under hood first, so as to save the bodywork. Henry's idea of fans in the inner fender is good, but I may put a fan or two in the firewall into the cowl area instead. Stealthy and effective unless you're at speed. Plus I figure heat wants to go UP.

I had heard of the tranny fluid for cylinder bore cleaning idea before, but I recently re-read it in a book titled "The Step-By-Step Guide to Engine Blueprinting : Practical Methods for Racing and Rebuilding", by Rick Voegelin, ISBN: 1884089267, 1997. BTW, this book is excellent, although much of it uses the SB Chevy for examples. It has great general info though.

The reason I took them out was to help me get the same u-joint angles on the front and rear u-joints. With the spacers in, the engine/trans did not have a big enough "nose up" angle, compared to the diff, so I took the spacers out to raise the front of the engine. This helped. (see my site under: http://members.home.net/pparaska/drivelinemods.htm ) I moved the stock hood latch over next to the distributor (SBC install), so I didn't need the clearance above the distributor as I would have needed with the JTR bracket. Luckily, with a Holley 300-36 hi-rise dual plane mainfold, 3310 Holley carb, and 14" drop base air cleaner, there's 1/2" between the hood and front area of the air cleaner. BTW, it has nothing to do with harmonic balancer clearance, as the engine is bolted to the crossmember. It also has nothing to do with the front ride height. If you leave out the spacer, it does raise the roll center of the front suspension, and it raised the crossmember, and the oil pan! [ August 24, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Love that Z! That's the one that Eric Neyerlin has on his site. Beautiful!