pparaska

I got a pair from Greg Clark ClarkZCarsofAZ@webtv.net for $100 a pair. He only sends good parts in my experience. Very nice guy to deal with. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

I'm about 99.999% sure they non-WC T5 bell housing should work fine for the WC T5. It's GM afterall, they try to keep things non-changing for as long as possible - one of the things I like about working with GM stuff.

Jim, Andy Bayley is the local electronics guru - I'm just a hack . BTW, does anyone make a digital temp gage for these types of temps for a car? Like one that just reads one temp? If so, I'd imagine it wouldn't be hard to make up a simple switch box to go from multiple sensors (thermocouples) to the gage, and then combine the signals some how (not sure how) to get differentials.

Jim, I just ran a 383 that I had put together based on Ron Jone's input on DD2000. It had a HP peak at 6000 of 467 with large tube headers and mufflers. With small tube headers with mufflers it made 458. Note that the manual for DD2000 says that: "Headers with tubes that measure 95% to 105% of the exhaust-valve diameter are considered “small†for any par-ticular engine; tubes that measure 120% to 140% of the exhaust-valve diameter are “large†tube headers. Header tubes: 1-5/8" = 1.625" (assuming they mean the "stated tube size) 1-3/4" = 1.75" (assuming they mean the "stated tube size) Exhaust valves: 1.50" exhaust valve * 105% = 1.575" 1.50" exhaust valve * 120% = 1.8" 1.60" exhaust valve * 105% = 1.68" 1.60" exhaust vavle * 120% = 1.92" So, running 1-5/8" headers on a 1.6" exhaust valve (a small tube header for that valve) is not a big deal as far as I can tell, for a 450 hp motor. Especially if it's a street car that will only once and a while be spun to it's HP peak. JMHO, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Krys D, Good point on the boot into the shifter/stop issue. The page I found on Pro 5.0 shifter installation, and the instruction the came with the shifter describe cutting teh center of the OE Mustang inner boot so that it fits around the aluminum casting, below the shift-stop bolts. This method should keep the boot out of the shifter and bolts. I plan on backing this up with the application of a large hose clamp the secures the boot to the housing Most of these aftermarket shifters have a top plate (that the stop bolts thread into) that is a larger diameter than the shifter housing, so a clamp should ensure that the boot doesn't slide up over the top plate. I'll take pics and post them when I do this. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Bump .. as in bump this topic up to the top. Took me a while to figure that one out.

Not a good time to be thinking about any timeline extensions or extra dips into the finances, trust me .

I emailed this to Mike already, but Mardi charged $300 for that. Not cheap, but they are tight (even with used tulip recievers) and have excellent grease and new boots. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Yeah, that'd be pretty cool. What I'd really like is a T-56 with a Ferarri inspired paddle/auto shift function. Clutch only for launch, and paddles putting the clutch in/out and shifting for you. Add and auto mode to that and you'd have the "ultimate" 6 speed automatic. I can dream, huh? ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

One guy that's doing this is Dr Pete. Check out his site at: http://www.bomgarden.com/350zxnew/Untitled13.html ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

The driveshaft with a GV OD on the back of a JTR position TH350 would be, what, 10" long? You'd have to relocate/reorient the differential to get any kind of decent u-joint angles with a shaft that short. The T-56, T-5, Tremec 5spd, 700R4, and 2004R are much easier and probably cheaper ways to get OD, in my opinion.

Either that or the journals have a larger-than-stock radius. But this is a stock motor, no?

Not that backspace includes the rim lip thickness (on the order of 1/2") So that's why backspacing, rim width and offset are not directly related, unless you include rim lip thickness. Therefore, offset = backspacing - 1/2 rim width - rim lip width Assuming a 1/2" rim lip: offset = 5.125 - 8/2 - 1/2 offset = 5.125 - 4.5 offset = .625" ~ 16mm (So Danno, that 15mm looks o.k.) So working backwards: Backspacing = offset + 1/2 rim width + rim lip width For jeremio's wheel: Backspacing = 20mm + 8/2 + 1/2 = .79" + 4.5" = 5.29" (remember, I'm guessing a 1/2" rim lip width) Hope this helps, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

quote: Originally posted by simon-zbuild: ... Hope the back gets better Mike, and, well Pete, Im sorry, but I think your Z-FEVER has mutated to an even more scary disorder!... Cheers - Simon I think it's call extreme HybridZ-neurosis. Whatever it is, I love it P.S. StreetRod painter Richard Glymph and friends were in my garage tonight sizing up th job. I'm in for a big bill, I'm afraid. The previous shop that did the body work and got it to the point of "being ready to shoot" didn't do such a great job. The wife is going to KILL me. At least the guy can get right on it, and I have no question it will be a high quality job. I just hope I can afford his (yet undetermined) estimate. Hmm. I got an enticing offer in the mail today for a second mortgage with a check for $50,000 if I sign up. FORGET IT! I'll just have to rob a bank or something. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

No idea if "Cheeks" is the right term, BTW. I pulled that one out of my arse, or maybe it's legit, but I doubt it. Umm. putting the rods against the crank throw "cheeks" is just for checking the clearance. You shouldn't be turning it with the feeler gages installed for checking.

Yeah, I've had long discussions with the guy at M.A.D. Enterprises about that assinie rule. I understand the need for the safety crew to be able to kill battery power to the car. But what's really stupid is the rule says it must be on the POSITIVE side cable. That's the stupid part. Usually the switch is situated in the back of the car where if it got punched in, the terminals on the switch might find themselves grounded out on some nearby sheet metal - instant high current short, and a high possibility of a fire or exploding battery or acid spewing. The guy at M.A.D. Enterprises (can't recal his name, but M.A.D. are his initials) thinks it would better to put the cut-out switch on the ground cable. I agree, it carries just the same current as the positive one, and is just as effective to cutting power if interrupted (assuming ALL circuits are fed through this cable and none before). So if you cut the ground side of the circuit, it's just as good. (Ignoring the alternator powering the ignition, which you need to handle with a special switch or relay anyway.) The benefit is that if the car gets in an accident and the switch terminals hit sheet metal, you have no positive to ground short, just a ground to ground short, which in the worst case means that the switch will then be ineffective.

Beautiful work! I think you should leave that one on the coffee table and make another one for the car though . Nice "frilly" for the TV room! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

I've seen it called snow balling (I refer to my car as the snowball sometimes), "might as well", project creep, others. It's the sign of not being abole to stick with a plan - I see it as a positive thing somewhat. You learn more, find deals, make new decisions. I don't see a problem with it, as long as it's a conscious decision and it DOES get finished. I'm on track for a June hit-the-streets date, BTW . Kevin, don't worry, my skin is thick from many years of jokes about my timeline. I don't mind being an object of these jokes. Mike, I hope you recover soon!

I relocated my battery to the package self, just behind the passenger seat. I ran the positive cable from the sealed battery box, through a cover plate for teh tool box opening on that side, to a battery cut-off switch mounted down in the tool box. Then the cable comes out of the forward bulkhead of the tool box. The switch is mounted on this forward bulkhead. The switch is a real pain to get at, so it's a bit of a security measure having it like this. I just reach behind the passenger seat and can turn it on/off and take the removeable key with me. Not to worry, I have other safegaurds if someone gets around the switch that are very well hidden. Only my wife and father know where those are . I know you want to keep from having to pop the hood, but here's an idea. For a battery in th stock location, how about this: Mount a battery cut off switch in the firewall, down in the high foot well area on the passenger side, but out of the way of where someone could hit it with their foot. Have the handle in the interior and the terminals of the switch would be on the firewall in the engine compartment. That way you could run a short cable from the battery down to the switch, then from the switch to the starter. There would be no to tiny increase in cable length this way. I think you fender well idea would be good as well. JMO, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Unless I'm totally out to lunch on this, I think that one acceptable way to measure side clearance is to get the rods big ends separated so that they are against the crank throw cheeks and measure the clearance between the rods. I wouldn't try to measure three clearances : crank-rod, rod-rod, rod-crank, as that's prone to error. The other way is to measure the distance on the crank that between the throw cheeks on either side of the journal surface with an inside micrometer (or snap gage and outside micrometer) and compare that to the thickness of the two rod big ends together (with an outside micrometer).

Scottie - Sorry I was in the garage all night and missed that - I may have a lead on having a famous Rod painter do my car in the next week and I was trying to get things ready for a visit by him Thursday night. Check your email, Pete

Mike, let me tell a little story to maybe make you feel better about your car project gone awry, in these past few short months. 11 years ago this silly fellow decided he was finally going to take his 240Z with L6 off the road, install some frame rails, floors and subframe connectors, and build a mild 327 and install it with a Monza T-5 and R200 3.545:1 open rear. All stock gages were to be used, maybe get some junkyard seats out of a newer car, no A/C, nothing fancy, no polished aluminum and little chrome under the hood and just make it a quicker driver. Maybe a paint job. This fellow did the metal work planned, built the 327, obtained the T-5 and parts to hook it up, found the ad for the 1st edition of the JTR manual in PHR mag and ordered it, and was ready to go.... Well, that was the plan. Then this fellow read Bill Reagan's book on restoring a 240Z and about the same time found major rust hiding in the rocker boxes of the Z. Well, the project started really snowballing at this point, as he decided that all the rust that he was finding (tool box area, various other placed in the back of the car, roof back edge, etc. etc.) really meant that the rear quarters should come off and new outer wheel housed should go on. To do this correctly, and to use some of the tricks he'd read about in the restoration book, the fellow became engrossed in a "frame off" body restoration, and all the little details that go along with that. LOTS of money was spent at a body shop to do the panel replacement and bodywork and paint prep work (no paint as of yet - maybe next week!). Well, the fellow gets the car back and it looks good, even in primer. Under the hood is painted nice and the engine goes in. Used polished AL parts become available cheap, and they are teamed up with new parts to make the whole ensemble match. The fellow says, well if I'm going to have all this nice shiny stuff in here, and that used A/C compressor is on, I need to add A/C and start doing a nice job when I hook stuff up. More snowballing. But this fellow is having a ball creating something of some beauty with his own to hands (and CC). The project becomes an object of his passion (to quote a great HybridZ'er). It snowballs into a huge time and money pit. In the mean time, this fellow discovers that there are TONS of good ideas out there on the Internet for Z modifications. So the entire suspension is modified (with a few unique tricks of his own), the brakes go through two complete transformations, and the electrical system becomes twice as complex as the stock 240Z. Junkyard seats give way to new racing/touring seats, etc., etc. And 11 years later the engine can run, the car can move, but IT'S STILL NOT ON THE ROAD. This fellow is wondering about his own sanity at this point, and is INCREDIBLY thankful his wife does not just up and leave him! Mike, in that light, I don't think the path these 5 months have taken you down is really all that bad. Hope that helped, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

It's pretty easy to take a $7 quartz clock movement (I bought one at a clock/watch repair place) and cobble it into the Z housing. I just sold one I had done this week - sorry. I even installed a regulator inside the housing to go from 12V to 1.5V for the movement. Plus I cobbled the OE hands onto the new clock stems.

Not so funny - Jim Biondo was working me pretty hard a year ago to take a nice LT1 with Hot cam, custom tuned computer, guru-done heads, etc. off his hands and put it in my Z. It was a hell of a good deal, but I had to turn it down. Thanksfully he sold it to someone else . The guy is a hell of a salesman. Yeah, I'll put at least a thousand miles on it before I swap it out. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project pparaska@home.com Pete's V8 Datsun 240Z Pages

Drax, the old K&E's go for big bucks on ebay. I'm holding on to mine for the kids college education fund . Jason, try calling Jegs or Summit. They cand get stuff that's not in their catalogs. Many times they just don't advertise some parts because demand is low. For instance, I bet Hooker has 3" mandrel bends, just not in those catalogs - but they could get it easy.