pparaska

The stock Z driveshaft (transmission to diff) u-joints are absolutely tiny in comparison, if my memory serves. (Anyone that has a stock motor in a Z, I have a new pair of these, I believe they are from Nissan. If you want them, I will sell $25 with shipping for the pair.) I think anything more than an anemic V8 would bust those things into shreads easily. I also have a new Spicer halfshaft u-joint X-1505? , the same one that Motorsport sells as heavy duty. That's for sale also, It would probably be o.k. for a mild motor, but people here say that they break them with healthy amounts of torque. I paid $36 +shipping, will ship to you for $20. [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited August 29, 2000).]

Grinz, this is exactly the type of question that the JTR manual helps you answer. I know some Fordnatics would cringe at having a book that talks about a conversion with a GM (shudder) engine on their bookshelf, but the JTR manual has much information in it that even non Chevy engine converters can use. I'd say even if you are going with the Ford, the JTR manual helps in areas other than engine and transmission. The JTR manual discusses how to adapt a GM driveshaft to the R200 with a simple, NEAPCO adapter. You could use that adapter, with a GM to Ford U-joint (they've been around forever) and a shortened Ford driveshaft. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Jim, the full size HEI distributor forces you to place the engine maybe 3/4" more forward than the smaller diameter distributor (I didn't know that there was a smaller diameter HEI, but I know the regular point type, Accel, MSD, etc. ones are smaller). Even with the smaller distributor, there is still room at the firewall for the bellhousing, but not much. The brake line going across the firewall would be the next obstacle, but that could be moved up. This might gain another 1/2" of clearance, if you had no distributor. My blowproof bellhousing has an ear right at the top that gets close to the brake line, but there's still about an inch of clearance. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Yes, you have to pull the spindle pin lock bolt's nut and then tap out the spindle pin lock bolt. After that, it's on to what generally considered the toughest disassembly process on the Z - removing the spindle pin. It's generally rusted in pretty well on cars tha see salt on the roads or even alot of rain. There are many ways: (All of these methods work better when you can soak the spindle pin area with something like Liquid Wrench or Kroil for days before hand.) 0) Wimp out and take the strut/arm to a machine shop or good mechanic and have them press it out. Beware that the arm can get bent if they mount it wrong in the press. 1) cut the spindle pin on either side of the strut, where the bushings run up against the strut housing, separate the strut from the arm, and hammer out the parts of the pin using a drift and hammer. Buy a new spindle pin before you do this to make sure you can still get one. 2) put the nut on the spindle so that it is the first thing the hammer will hit when driving the pin out of the arm/strut. Use a brass hammer (or a hunk or brass and a small sledge (2 lb) hammer) to drive the pin through. Note that if you have to really hit the pin with alot of force, it might compress the threaded end of the pin and screw up the pitch of the threads so the nut won't work anymore. That's why I did... 3) Make a tool out of tool steel rod that's the same OD as the spindle pin. One end of the rod should be drilled and tapped to match the threaded end of the spindle pin, and be deep enough so that that it extends to the unthreaded shoulder of the spindle pin when fully threaded onto the pin. Thread this tightly onto the end of the spindle pin. Now you can use a sledge hammer on the other end of the rod to drive the pin out, without messing put the threads. Both 2 and 3 require that you have a very solid method of supporting the other end of the assembly. The key here is to make sure that you are supporting the inner sleeve of the bushing at the other end of the assembly, so the shock load gets firmly transferred to the strut housing in an equal but opposite direction to which you are banging on the pin end. I used a piece of steel pipe that had the same ID as the inner sleeve of the stock bushing to do that. The reason for this is that the pin is generally rusted into the strut housing and you need to support that housing well to get the pin to move through it. When you put it back together, make sure you coat the spindle pin with Anti-sieze so you can get it apart again if you ever need to. Good luck, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Guys, on the question of the Edelbrock. I like alot of the features that I read about (no spilled fuel when tuning, the metering rods are easy to change, and it is built for other than just WOT use), but has anyone used both a Holley and an Edelbrock (or the Carter AFB) and have opinions? I have a 3310 Holley (750 Vac secondary) on my motor now. A little big, but hey, it'll just just 2 barrels until the back two are needed - I have the quick change secondary spring kit in the carb.

What Morgan said. I'd worry about letting my cheap (wished I'd never bought it) Craftsman 6 hp 60 gallon "oilless" compressor running any longer than what it takes to fill the 60 gallon tank to 120psi. After about 70psi, it starts really making the air hot. For the kind of stuff you are doing, I'd look to nothing less than a double stage compressor, and I'd put a heat exchanger between the compressor and the tank.

BLKMGK, I was wrong about that. They are the Hooker 1 5/8 block huggers. I had them stainless/ceramic coated, along with the rest of the exhaust (except mufflers). They haven't seen the engine start yet (soon, I swear), so I don't know about how it will work. It looks terrific.

Here's the way I did it for a mildish 327: Pete's Exhaust 1-3/4" Hooker block huggers, Dual 2.5", X-pipe, two Dynomax Super Turbo Hemi mufflers (20 inch case) on the left side of the car. It took some fabrication to get it tucked up in the tunnel and 1/3 or the spare tire hole is filled in now. Just one way to do it, but I built it with much the same goals in mind. No data yet on how quiet it is, but very soon, I'll know! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Drax, I can't remember the exact length, but I guessed the engine rails are 36 inches long. For 2 of them in 2.5x2.5x.093wall, they weight 19lbs combined. I wouldn't go much thinner, maybe .085, but that only saves a couple of pounds for the pair. Any thinner does doesn't seem worth the tiny decrease in weight. Remember, these things take some serious point loads and having a decent wall thickness is important to keep things like sway bar mounts, etc. from pulling out, fatiguing, etc. I used this size because that's what a buddy could source from a scrap pile at work and they seemed like a great candidate. Hope that helps.

Cyind, please give us the details of the Vette rear in your car, how it was done, etc. I know there was a place down that way it Texas years ago (Conversion Concepts?) that had a catalog where they said they were working on a Vette rear end swap into the early Z. Are you affiliated with that bunch? Thanks, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

I think Matt's suggestion of shortening the struts (and using shorter cartridges on the 240Z is important if you lower the car more than an inch or so. On the 280 you can use the shorter 240 strut on the rear to lower the car and not lose bump travel - I didn't know that until this thread. Lowering more than an inch without shortening the struts will have you hitting the bump stops for all but very stiff springs. I've been through this with the Motorsport lowering springs and it rode very rough - because lowering with just putting shorter springs on makes you have less bump travel and you start to hit the bumpstops which is bad for handling, ride, parts, and safety.

I don't know of any addvantage per se, except most of the AL water pumps are available in short format only or short and long. It might be nice to not have an extra set of gaskets with the spacers to make the short pump work on a long setup. The other thing you have to think about is the accessory mounting (alternator, etc.) you'd need different brackets with the short pump, and those may space the alternator or whatever too close to the hood, headers, etc. Hey, if you have it set up for the long pump, I'd just keep it. I don't see any advantage, only more work to convert.

Guys, I think the JTR mounts are great, as far as making the setback a bolt in operation. But those 1/4" plates probably are the cause of some of the harmonic vibration issues. There are some V8 Z conversions I've seen/heard about (Henry Costanzo's for one) that use a separate engine crossmember bolted to the frame behind the stock crossmember, that allows for the mounts to bolt directly to it. Henry bought his from someone, but I don't recall his name. I'd bet he's from Georgia. I'll give Henry and email and see if I can find out. Henry's car also has the stock engine mount "towers" cut off and the area cleaned up so that it looks like they were never there. For those of you that are into designing and building parts, I think this would be a great idea. The issue is how do you attach it to the stock Z frame rails? I think a good way would be to have the new crossmember sandwich the rail top and bottom, and through bolt it through the frame, but you would need to install some sort of tubular spacer to allow tightening of the through bolts without crushing the rail. Another option would be a weld in piece, but I'd rather not have it that way. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

I'm pretty sure they are the same halfshafts and u-joints between the R180 and R200. Just be sure that the u-joints haven't been replaced with the kind with the threaded hole in the cross between two adjacent trunion caps for a grease fitting.

Matt, The fact that it's smooth to 3.5k, vibrates until 4.5k, and then is smooth might still be some kind of engine imbalance. That sounds like a classic "harmonic" vibration - that the engine hits a harmonic frequency (rpm) and vibrates noticably more. It could be that the engine mounting system has a natural frequency that coincides with the vibration in that rpm range. Are all the bolts for the engine mounts and brackets tight? Are the mounts good? ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

I don't know. If your car sounds like Mike Kelly's, all bets are off on the sleeper thing if it's running and you have your windows down. But with your windows are up and your stereo going loud out on the highway at cruise, you might be fooled until he steps on it. Mike's car sounds great BTW - no, not the sound of a silky high windng L6 (which I also like), but the sound of cubic inches, a big cam, and a large free flowing exhaust (which I prefer). It sounds great! I love the sound of a big cubic inch V8 at a rough cammy idle, something you can loose some of with EFI if you tune it out. One thing to consider is that somebody might be checking out your car in a parking lot (with or without you around) and might see those emblems. That might get them to lay on the ground and check out the underneath and respect. The attention might be good or bad if you aren't there. I think I'll go for the sleeper look while the engine is off, but the dual mufflers (side by side) kind of give it away. I like those oldie V8 emblems - the big V with the 8 in the middle. They'd be pretty trick on a dark car painted the same color. I just don't know.

Matt, are you absolutely sure it is firing on all 8 cylinders? I know this sounds nuts, but if it's a 305 with the stock harmonic dampener and flywheel and all 8 rods and pistons are the same weights, it should be fairly smooth. But if it was vibrating before the rebuild, the only thing I can think of is that the compression is very low in one cylinder, the cam is wiped on the lobes for one cylinder, or there is a bad plug or spark plug wire. How's the compression on all the cylinders? Have you tried running the engine with just one plug wire off (with a plug on that removed wire that has it's case grounded)? Try this with each cylinder. If you find that with the plug wire off a particular cylinder it runs no worse, you've found the bad cylinder. Then test the amount that the valves are opening on that cylinder, relative to the others. If it's lower, you have a wiped cam. Just a few ideas.

Guys, Jeremiah (axrph) sent me some pics of the V8Z that the guy is selling. Decent looking car, but... I enhanced this one: (it looks worse now actually) to show the hood latch that was in a shadow. You can plainly see that it is a "scarab" engine placement. Also look at the valvecovers in relation to the strut towers. Sorry for the not so good news. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Matt, what's the history of the engine balance, the flywheel, etc? If you have a 400 crank that's not internally balanced at some shop, you need a flywheel with a counter weight, as well as a harmonic balancer for a 400. Then again, I remember putting a 350 "goodwrench" engine in a truck that had a 350, and it had a vibration that we never traced down. Definitely in the engine and not the trans, etc.

I learn something every day! Thanks for the education, Mike!

Yeah, I know about u-joint speed variation being present if there is any angle at all, even if correctly setup (same angles) and phased. But the issue is if you ask too much of them (u-joints) with lots of large angles and don't pay attention to the phasing and equal angles, you get weird monkey motion, even in steering linkage. Some of the early Cobra kit cars had this problem. Just bringing up the point as something to look out for. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

John, you are right. That thought of yours about not bickering about what should and should not be put in the Z engine bay is part of the Mission Statement on the home page of this site. And it's exactly that argument that gets such BS going over on zcar.com, etc. Remember the infamous Ron Stoy?!!!!! Back to the tech stuff. I was spending some of my many long duration long distance phone calls with Jim Biondo once and he mentioned a very quick (10s or 11s, I'm not sure, maybe even 9's) 240Z he had seen race at a strip that had a Supra Turbo engine and transmission. This guy was going very quick and it seemed like the swap was fairly easy from what I recall. I think the length of the engine might have dictated cutting out the rad support and moving the radiator forward, but my CRS is getting pretty bad . It's been done, and it was quick. I don't know how it would handle, as a turbo inline 6 can get pretty nose heavy with all the turbo piping and the length of the engine. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Welcome to HybridZ! 1) Have you seen any pictures from under the hood? There are pictures on this site of the JTR engine placement, and a really good one (directly across the strut towers) on the the JTR site at: http://www.jagsthatrun.com/Pages/Datsun_Z_V-8.html Basically, if it looks like the engine is placed like in that picture, it's not a Scarab engine placement, which is good. If the stock hood latch bracket is still in the stock location, it's a Scarab engine placement. BTW, I don't think Scarab was around to sell kits 7 years ago, so if it is a Scarab engine placement it might have been done with a Nordskog kit which had a the same Scarab engine placement, and Hooker makes engine mounts, headers, etc. to do a swap with the Scarab engine placement). The issue is that the car will not handle nearly as well with the Scarab engine placement which is 4 inches forward of the JTR placement. You also have traction problems on take off. BTW, get the JTR book even if you are buying a converted car - it's the bible for Chevy small block V8 Zs. 2) That TurboHydramatic 350 will not be the best for highway cruising, even if the guy managed to get the no-longer-available 3.15:1 gearset in a R200 diff. With an R200 diff with a 3.545:1 to 3.9:1 ratio, plan on listening to that same 3000-3500 rpm at 65. The options are usually a 700R4 automatic or a swap to a Tremec/Borg-Warner T56 from the late model 93-97 Camaro or Firebird. Best of Luck, ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@home.com">pparaska@home.com -

Don't you need an even number of u-joints, with the same included angle at each pair (a pair being those that are adjacent in the middle, and then those next to them)? I thought this was how you got the "speeds" the same at the end of the steering rod. If the angles aren't matched and the joints phased correctly, I'd think it would get a bit weird steering wise. For the angle that Scottie's car shows it's probably not a big deal that he has three joints, as the one at the firewall looks to have a very small or no angle now, so the two nearest the steering rack are probably equal angles. Sorry for the rambling.

Morgan, first of all, the CV swap only works for the R200, clutch type LSD or not. It does not work with the R180, nor with the viscous LSD R200 out of the all white 300ZX. To put the CV shafts in a 240Z or early 260Z (can't remember when the stub axles actually changed in the 260Z), you need the 280ZX Turbo halfshafts and companion flanges, but you need to modify the companion flanges by swapping dust covers with the 240/260 ones, and you need to use the R200 pinion seal with the rubber ground off the outer diameter.