pparaska

Craig, with a 34 in inseam, at 6'4", you have a very long torso/head! You know that. That's going to be tough to fit into just about any car with a helmet! I have Corbeau A4's in my 240Z, with the stock slide adjusters and some simple adapters that are flat stock. They do put the seat bottom a bit higher than the stock seats. I'm 6'2" with a 36" inseam, so my torso/head is not as tall as Craigs. The top of my head is about 3" below the roof sheetmetal, with the seat all the way back. Wish it was lower.

My experience: 240Z blower: rating 3 (out of 10) 280ZX blower: rating 4 (out of 10) 1986 Full size Ford LTD blower: 10 (out of 10) That Ford blower took a good bit of cobbling of the 240Z fan box, but it puts out easily 3 times the air of the 240Z unit. Hopefully, I'll get the car on the road and the A/C charged in time this Summer to test it out.

Sounds alot like my setup for the fuel pump wiring. Glad to see someone else pays attention to adequate grounding! Are you sure the FP is actually seeing this same voltage as the volt gage? I don't know where the volt gage is wired in youur car (or is it the datalogger?) Anyway, can you get the datalogger to measure voltage at different locations? Across the battery, at the FP relay, at the FP itself? Or use the voltmeter and peek at it with it at different points in the electrical system to hunt down the drop. Also you could put it from the battery + to the FP + and measure any drop, etc. Not sure I'm any help here...

The tough thing about doing a separate crossmember (if that's what you're getting at Davy) is that the frame rails on these cars are thin and usually rusty inside. In other words, they don't like to take concentrated loads well, so mounting a new crossmember under the SBC mount pads can run into trouble. The stock crossmember is bolted to a reinforced corner of the frame rail, so this helps spread the loads. Luckily for me (?), my rails were rusty enough that I replaced them - they are thicker steel and could take one of these universal crossmember solutions better.

Randy, thanks for a good read! I see you've found a new home here - Welcome! I, for one, am glad to have anyone who loves Z's, cars, people, has an open mind about what to do to the cars you love. Not to mention someone that can right prose like that! Cheers,

Car is still in the paint shop. Barring no more hold-ups, it's due in my garage near July 4th. I think some tire smoke is in order on the 4th if that happens .

Sounds like they (MSA) put the distributor right against the firewall, like JTR. I am really intrigued about them putting the latch over to the side 6 inches. I did that on my own, but the fun part is modding the hood to go with it. I'd love to hear about how they have you mod the hood.

Scottie, I'm no expert but my feeling is that you shouldn't be seeing 12.3 volts with the motor turning more than an idle. How big is the wire from the Alternator to the battery and the rest of the loads? I like to use 8AWG for that, but 10AWG might be enough if the distance isn't too long. What's the voltage at the Alternator output at higher rpm? How big is your wiring to the pump? Is the ground side dropping voltage? Electric fuel pumps are pretty sensitive to voltage drops - You may be losing fuel pressure/volume if it gets that low and you've calibrated everything at 14.2 volts.

John, sounds like it was a great week. Burning that midnight oil was worth it, it sounds like! BTW, how much lowered from stock was your car before you sectioned the struts? Hearing another instance of someone finding that their stock length struts were bottoming and causing understeer is refreshing. Glad it helped!

Another variable that gets lost on some people is the "character" of the engine, that is what the torque vs rpm curve looks like. This is what I think makes the V8 solution really shine ON THE STREET. To me, an excellent street machine (read Pro Touring type car) has a broad torque band over a band from ~2000 (or lower) to 6000+ rpm. Numbers like 350-400 ft-lb of torque or more over that range makes for an incredible street machine. Having to rev to 3500+ to make decent torque is plain annoying on the street, IMO. If you're into drag racing, there are all kinds of engines to do well here, from a gas turbine to a mega-inch twin-turbo Big Block. The torque band can be horrible below ~3500 and it won't really matter! Examples of great engines for a quick Z are ones like the Grand National Turbo V6 motor - Scottie's GNZ WILL be in the 10s this Summer with his GNZ. And he can pull down 20+mpg with the same car! The choice of engine for a street use car must really consider where the torque will be supplied in the rpm range that's reasonable on the street. It can be done easily with lots of cubic inches and not quite as easily with turbos or superchargers. But it can be done. I'd venture to say that building a 3 liter motor with no lag from 2000 rpm up and making 400 hp is not just a bolt in affair. But to do that with a 5.7L motor that's normally aspirated is darned simple. And to me, that's what a great street engine should run like.

That's a fortunate effect - good thing it doesn't pull the front end to the wall! Thanks for posting about that mag - I should add that to my subscriptions. I've heard some good things about it. Maybe I'll replace Road and Track with it .

Heh, I can't wait till I see a Buick 455 or Mopar 340 swap! I hate the whole Ford vs. Chevy vs. Mopar thing. Like they said, do what you want, it doesn't matter too much. The Ford is lighter, the Chevy is better documented. It's up to only you! BTW, I'm running an old style 327 Chevy small block, a straight up bellhousing and a Tremec TR3550 5spd converted to Chevy use by darkhorse performance. My site has the details if you're interested. Welcome to HybridZ! If you're here, either you aren't feeble minded, or the rest of us are too!

KVR Performance makes pads for at least the non-vented rotor Toyota truck caliper - I had a set from them.

You can find his email address at http://www.georgiazclub.com/ He used an aluminum center section diff. I thought it was from a C4 vette but not sure. I remeber him saying it cost him a fair piece to shorten the arms of the housing and have adapters made for some generic Spicer telescoping halfshafts. The looked like male and female slip yokes, but I'm not sure. He knows about HybridZ, not sure he reads it regularly.

I have them only because when I put strut spacers (often called "bumpsteer spacers") on my Z years ago, it caused the outer tie rod to come down enough that it interfered with the 14x7 wheels I had on the car (Michael Ol has these wheels now). The shorter arms were almost enough to completely get rid of the interference, although I had to do some VERY slight grinding on the tie rod body to get clearance. I didn't feel that the steering effort as horrible, but it was a bit difficult to steer at parking speeds. Then again, it didn't seem hugely more difficult for parking speeds than before when I had the OE knuckles on and those wheels and 225/60-14s on the car. Body building could help offset the effect . The on the road feel was very nice. [ June 18, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

quote: Originally posted by Drax240z: ...The torque peak of the 82 280zx turbo engine stock is 2800rpm, which is pretty reasonable for the street IMHO. Reasonable, yes, just not what I'm into. And what is that torque? I have a car that cruises at 60 at about 3K in 5th (92 Eclipse GSX) and there's lag to be had - you need to shift down to accelerate, unless you have seconds to wait for the boost to build. This BTW, is NOT an optimized system, just a relief type manual boost controller which is WAY better than the stock bleeder valve. I know a larger turbo'd engine that's optimized for low-mid range would be different. quote: Originally posted by Drax240z: Pete brings up a good point about character, and drivability. Some like peaky engines, some don't. (I'm one of the former, BTW) It all comes down to what you want out of the car, and how hard you want to work to get the most out of the car. (row those oars!) As you can see from my above comments, I'm one lazy SOB who favors that latter! I don't want to have to row those oars! I know, the British sports car guys get all macho about how only good drivers can make an underpowered, tractor-engined 50s/60s British sports car go fast around a track. But to me, I don't care. Sure, that show's skill, but there's only so much fun I can have doing that on the street. On the street, you don't have the opportunity to be driving 10 10ths all the time to be able to have that fun. And here is where my lazy butt with a broad torque banded engine in a light car has some fun - be in ANY gear, at just about ANY rpm, and hit the gas. The result - a big kick in the back! Now THAT's MY idea of fun. BTW, there was a really good quote in the recent Road & Track talking about how the old Porsche people used to say cute things about the crazy handling of the older 911s and how it was just a bunch of rationalization (my words). (You know, the oh-so-safe, extreme lift throttle oversteer.) Something about how the newer Porsche doesn't need all those rationalizations. Just my point of view. quote No doubt a hell of a feat! Kudos to Norm. But what are the street manners? The goals of a street beast are much different than those of a drag car. A really tweaked peaky drag car is no fun on the street, IMO. 12.88s are definitely faster than most cars out on the street, but I want the ability to do it quicker later on once I get used to a mild V8. Bolt on some different heads, a little bigger cam, and a very streetable 400+ NA hp is easily within reach.

bubafet, great to hear from you again! Unfortunately, you missed out on Scottie's gracious efforts in setting up a group purchase for the weld-on CV adapter. This part welds on to the 240-280Z companion flange (280Z suggested to get the better strength 280Z stub axle in the car). Maybe someone has a set they aren't planning to use? I think it was a one time thing, not to be repeated. I've had about 3 or 4 people tell me they were going to make the bolt on adapters like I have on my car that's documented on my site. But I've never heard back from them either. Man, 11.95s - that's fast in my book. I know some are working on the 10s, but if my car were to get into the 11s w/o N2O, I'd be happy! I agree that you may want to hold off on the N20. BTW, does the back end squat alot on launch? If so, I've heard that raising the rear of the diff can help lessen the half-shaft angle. My hunch is that when the Z squats alot the u-joint angle is severe, and it really lessens the strength of it. U-joints don't like to transmit alot of torque at severe angles. Supposedly, 7 degrees is a magic number to not go beyond.

Lone, I think I've seen a two temp sensor before, but you could run two, that turn off/on at different temps that don't overlap. And you're right - juice should be given to one "speed" or winding of the fan motor at a time, never both. Hence, my complicated fan relay box . But this could be handled with a couple of relays, a manual switch, and a temp sensor as well. Have a DPDT switch run the relays. One pole of the switch to energize a relay that passes the ground signal from the temp sensor, and the other pole for a manual override to the other (high?) speed relay. The switch would be wired so that only one relay (and therefore one winding of the motor) was energized at a time. Jim, my car is not here and I'd want to look at it to be sure. But there's a big black wire coming from the fan connector that's ground. The larger (thicker) of the other two should be high speed. Try both the others and see .

Sure does - front diff mount is probably broken. Without a good strap above the diff (like Scottie has posted pictures of), the stock mount will rip apart with the stock L24's torque, not to mention 2 to 3 times that much.

No, not bored with that at all! Thanks! v8260Z, with those parts, it sounds like your in the 11+ to 1 compression ratio range. What is the compression ratio! That cam (246@.050") would be pretty big on the street, I guess the 4.10s would help that a bunch. Is this a drag only car, or do you drive it on the street? I have that Contender manifold on my 327. Glad to hear someone else sing it's virtues. I did pick up Mike Kelly's Victor Jr. I'll probably swap that on this Winter to see the differenece. My car is still in paint jail but I should be driving it for the first time in August. [ June 17, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

As Zach said, the weight distribution with an Aluminum head,intake,waterpump Chevy V8 can come out 52/48. Depending on what else you do (add a heavy T-56, relocate the battery, etc.) it can go to 50/50. Do the Ford V8 and you can get even better F/R weight distribution. Things to consider are: 1) How long will it take Rebello to build that 3.0L L28? I've heard he always has quite a line to wait in - because he's so damned good! 2) What do you want for a torque curve? I'd bet that the 3.0L normally aspirated motor will be peaky and not have abundent torque until 4000 rpm or higher. If you're racing, that's great, but on the street, IMO, that's not very much fun. 3) Would you be happy with doing in all the little things that a V8 swap involves. It's a fairly straight forward swap, but it's not an uncomplicated thing either. I'd at least read JTR's V8 Z conversion manual intro if you have initial questions, and buy the book and read it if at all interested. Cheers,

v8260Z - Those are some impressive times. What's the rest of the drivetrain like? Engine, trans, etc.?

Thanks for chiming in Michael. I see all those business trips around the country are beginning to pay off for us at least . Lone, you're probably referring to CFD - Computational Fluid Dynamics. Cools stuff, but the problems with it are various and germane to all types of computer simulations of physics: garbage in = garbage out, To do it right takes a skilled and experienced analyst, To get to good answers means doing it over again several times to converge on the (correct?) answer. Add to that, that the physics is not always modelled in enough detail (full Navier-Stoke's equation of fluid dynamics) to give the answers that get to the problem at hand. Not to say this can't and isn't being done, but it's no small undertaking either. Michael, what's the chance that a small model in a water tunnel would give any kind of results for various underbody designs that would even point to the correct design? How about putting a design on an actual car and putting a bunch of pitot-tube ports on it, drive it around and have someone record data for all the ports? I still think a better way to see if a design is good would be to build it on a Z, test carefully, and instrument the strut attachments to the body (load cells). At least you could see if you were helping or hurting the downforce/lift problem.

Thure, Mike, Jeff, Dave, anybody else. Here's my plans so far: 6/25 (Monday) - arrive at Tucson Airport 730 PM I'm booked for dinner that night. 6/26 (Tuesday) - most likely unavailable 6/27 & 6/28 - I'm keeping those two nights open to meet area HybridZ'ers. Let's try to use a thread (maybe a new one?) to organize this? [ June 17, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

Frank that was great! Hey, I made a foot room sacrifice to put in 2x3" subframe connectors that are between my feet and the passengers feet also. How about making a tunnel (top and sides anyway)in the same area? This channel would aid in the structure as well. I'm thinking out loud about how to put a venturi path under the legs/seats so as to not impact the interior too much. DavyZ's point about letting the radiator air exit the hood like on Terry (blueovalz's) car could reduce the underbody pressure couldn't it? If you had no grill, but ducted all radiator intake air from below the chin splitter, you'd be transporting some of the flow mass stream originating below the splitter to the flow stream above. I'd think that would help. This would require a forward canted radiator, like Terry's done. Terry, how much radiator intake air comes through the grill on your car and how much from below the spoiler? Mike Kelly also mentioned to me an idea about cooling the diff with a duct. This would create another longer path for underbody air. Have it exit the rear panel maybe, between the tail lights? Just some crazy stream of consciousness stuff - sorry if it's nutso. [ June 15, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]