pparaska

...and if you're going to be buying rods, why not build a 350 with 6 (or 6.2 possibly?) inch rods to get the rod/stroke ratio in the (better) 1.7-1.8 range. Broader torque curve (improved breathing characteristics, etc.), less road angularity, better detonation resistance (for the same static compression ratio). Good Forged rods in longer than 5.7 length are not very expensive. Nor are pistons to run them.

Many if not all of the Al SBC aftermarket blocks are VERY beefy, and this negates a decent amount of the weight savings. No numbers handy, but this topic came up before here.

JTR: http://jagsthatrun.com

A yoke, in general is a part that holds a U-joint I believe. But what we're talking about here is a Slip yoke - that slides on the splines of the output (tail) shaft of the transmission and holds 2 cups of the front u-joint.

I always disconnect them at the far end and leave them connected to the center panel. You can get to them at the things they actuate easier than the ends behind the control panel.

Guys, I'm 6'2", 230 lbs and I got my fat body into Michael's car with not alot of trouble. Nothing I'd want to do everyday, but not out of the question for a race car. I echo Michaels sentiment on how far the door bars usually come to the driver. If it's just inches away, it's probably going to crack your ribs (concentrated load). Sure, the corner of a car coming through the door without a door bar is going to be nasty, but I'm not sure a simple door bar is going to help much. It WILL bend, and you WILL come into contact with it. I might actually prefer for the whole door to ocme in on me, spreading out the load. I know, I'm probably just rationalizing not having door bars in my car .

Heck, or better yet (if you have room) jam another nut on top of the existing one.

Jim, you're right. It's a CS130, and it's smaller than the small SI alternator. These are tricky alternators as the tolerances are very tight and a rebuilder has to really know what they are doing and have special tools to work on them. The Street and Performance one I have, with AL fan and pulley on it was (I know, crazy!) $250. Hope it never goes bad! But I made my own bottom bracket and only had to by the adjusters (not in the picture Jim included above) an the cheaper V-belt pulleys. V-belts are cheap and you can get them ANYWHERE. [ June 06, 2001: Message edited by: pparaska ]

If you have compression and fuel, the timing might be off 180 degrees. Make sure that you have #1 cylinder finishing on the compression stroke and not the exhaust stroke when finding TDC for the distributor (rotor) orientation - the intake valve should just be closing when the piston is coming up to TDC after compression. 7 and 2 near the battery connection on the HEI is correct.

From Dave William's Engine Weights guide The FE is around 650 lbs. That's alot of weight for only 390 cubes. If it was a 427 side oiler (in my dreams!) I'd say yeah, but not a 390.

Mike kZ, yeah they can make one. In fact, I'd suggest that instead of the Dr. Gas unit so they could make it narrower. They should use bends that open wider than 90 degrees, more like 135 maybe. That might be more difficult to weld together. That way it will be easier to fit in.

John, Look in Racer Wholesales fliers.

It's not the length of cable that concerns me the most, but those exposed terminals on the switch. Smack thre rear of the car and they can find ther way to ground easy enough. Then you have a nicely grounded hot battery cable from the battery. Oh, I'd not ground the switch on the other side, I'd run a huge ground cable up to the engine block near the starter, and then run the rest of my harness grounds from that. That's what I did, but came straight from the battery, and put the switch that's mounted in the tool box area off of the positive side of the battery. If the damage to the car is bad enough to fold up the tool box under the deck of the Z, the passenger and I will be dead, and any fires won't really matter much - I plan to be cremated anyway . I also ran a #10 wire to the dash off of the battery side of the cut-off switch to power the radio, etc., like you mention. It doesn't matter which path (cable, chassis) is longer, positive or negative, they both handle the same current. So using the switch to cut the negative cable or the positive makes no difference, as far as voltage drop. Thanks for the tip on the switch brands!

John, why not use those bleeders that you put on the valve stems that keep the tires from getting too high a pressure due to the heat? Of course, once you're done on the track and the tires cool, the pressure will be lower than you would want to drive home one.

There were enough variables involved (isolator or camber plate, spring compressed height with a V8 and what ever other changes I did, etc.) for me to feel uncomfortable enough with what the guy at Carerra told me (can't even remember what that was) about where to put the threaded tubes. The back are supported by long pieces of tubing that are just big enough to slide over the strut tube, and go down to the casting for the hub carrier. I put a bunch of slits in the end (about 20, 1" long, along the length of the pipe) so that the fingers made by slitting the pipe would go up under the bottom of the tube where the sheet metal collar is supposed to go. This was before I bought the wheels from Jim Biondo. Those wheels and tires, along with the 1.5" shortened strut tubes mean the threaded tube needs to be at the very top of the strut tube (where it is now). I'm actually going to shorten the threaded tube since I can't use the bottom inch or so of adjustment as it is, and the added thickness of the threaded tube is taking away much needed rim to strut tube clearance (about 1/16" now!) On the front, it's a short length of exhaust tubing, resting on the bracket for the brake hose. Mind you I haven't really driven the car yet (except for a short trip up and sown the street), but I'd be leary of doing that much and tearing the spot weld that holds that bracket on, since all of the weight of the front of the car is being held up by those brackets . I'm waiting (and waiting and waiting) for the car to get back from the paint shop to put the rest of the parts in the car before I finalize where the front threaded tube will rest. (BTW, I just cancelled my Convention and Hotel registrations for the Kingston Convention - no way the car would even be painted by then. I'm bummed.)

The details I have are at: http://members.home.net/pparaska/240ZCVHalfshaftConversion.htm Other than the inner seal at the companion flange, and the swapping of the dust sheild on the companion flange (from the 240 part to the 280ZXT part), it's a bolt up. Assuming that your CV shafts don't bind when you install them. I've heard of two people this happened to : Greg Kring, and now DavyZ.

Mike kZ, Do the X-pipe! Firstly, you'll love the sound! Mike Kelly heard mine at 4000 rpm (the day I started the car). I think he'll agree that that even pulse sound from teh X-pipe is pretty sweet. Can't wait to get my car back from the paint shop just to be able to listen to that again! Lastly, you reportedly gain low and mid range torque over and H-pipe or no crossover. Hot Rod magazine did a test of all these options a few months ago as well.

I can see now that I made a good move pre-mounting my coilovers using exhaust tubing to hold up the coilover sleeves before I finalized the position on the strut. Sorry to hear that the guy messed up. 12 and 14" 2.5" springs are available just about anywhere that sells coilovers - common size.

Scottie, be aware that alot of these sending units are non-linear. 1/2 tank may not register 1/2, and 1/4 may be even farther off. I'd do some calibration of those intermediate points on the gage (with the sender out of the tank, or in and add fuel of differing amounts) before I trusted using a GM sender and a stock Datsun gage.

Mark, pretty funny - I suggested switching the E and F in the other thread!

Yep, that's a dust sheild to keep dirt out of the area of the outer bearing. It rides right over top of the end of the strut housing. I'd keep it if possible.

Scottie, the GM sender is bass-akwards as far as resistance. Empty is 10 ohms, 90 is full. The Datsun gage reads the other way, 88 is empty, 8 is full. I guess you could paint a white line on the F and make it an E, and paint a black line on the E and make it an F I tried to the the opposite - I bought Mike Kelly's gages and tried to get the GM style Autometer gage to work with the stock Datsun sender. No luck. Hell I even tried to rewire the winding taps differently and everything. I gave up and bought the Ford style gage. I think you'll need to buy a GM style gage for that cell...

The older Ford Fuel level sender is close, at 73 ohms Empty, 8-12 Full. Autometer sells one that works with that. The stock sender is something like 80 ohms full, 8 ohms empty. I had to add a few resistors to the circuit to get it to read Full and Empty with the sender in the Full and Empty position. See my site for how to do that: http://members.home.net/pparaska/gagecalibration.htm HTH,

Asthetics was part of it for me (to match the Pro-Comp tach), but I also wanted an accurate oil pressure gage (the Autometer mechanical gages are supposedly fine). I used a mechanical oil pressure gage. I'd use a mechanical temp gage as well the next time, as yes, I found that my old and new temp gages were off by 20 degrees in the 180-210 range, as were Mike Kelly's water and oil temp gages that he picked up the other day after I calibrated them. Since taking out the stock oil pressure gage meant I lost the Temp gage, I put one of those in also. Oops, now I needed a hole for that, so out went the AMP/fuel gage. I didn't want the AMP gage anyway (I'll use a Cigarette lighter volt meter) but now I needed a place for the aftermarket (Autometer Pro-Comp) fuel level gage. So out came the Clock. I figured I'd have one of those on the stereo face anyway. Kind of snowballed, didn't it?

Looks Great! That think looks like it would eat anything in it's path!