pparaska

Sharkman, I've asked Jim for the details but he says his notes are to sloppy to give out and he'd want to better document what he did. I suggest you give him a call. Just so it's a bit of work (and I'm not actually typing his number here), hit the following site: http://www.datsuns.com/cars/jimbiondo.htm I don't know alot of details, except they were C3 vette stubs that were after market hipo pieces so as to get a really strong piece. I think he used the stock C3 vette bearings with bushings that went between the outer race and the Z strut housing. The bushing has a step in it to capture the races to keep them located laterally. He had the axles drilled for the Ford bolt pattern to match the 300ZX 5lug pattern. He had a custom companion flange, nut and adapter to the CV shafts (280ZX Turbo) made up. NO IDEA how much this cost, but I'm betting it's 500-1000 US dollars for the parts mentioned and all the machine work. This is all I know from discussions with Jim. If you do get specifics or drawings, let me know. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Owen, I believe the Maxima brackets, 82-83 rotors, and 82-83 calipers will all bolt to the 240Z-280Z series and work. I don't know about how the brake cable attaches, but I seem to remember it wasn't a huge problem. The swap I have on my site and on the tech articles page on this site is somewhat outdated by the parts you have. Some feel the extra weight and smaller pad size of the early 280ZX rear discs were not as good as the later parts you have.

Ya know, I remember seeing Henry Costanzo's fix for overheating. I saw it at the 95 Atlanta Z car convention. A 4" muffin fan in each inner fender to pull the heat out of the engine compartment. Here's his write up on it: http://www.georgiazclub.com/v8cooling.htm I don't know if this is Mike's problem, but I thought I'd mention this remedy. Pete

Michael, Sounds like you have your work cut out for you! I was wondering if it made sense to either use a custom small diameter balancer would help, or better yet, put the engine back a bit (with firewall tweaking) so that the balancer is behind the rack but infront of the crossmember. Of course, there are the pulleys to worry about then. 435hp at the wheels! That sounds awesome!

I went with dual 2.5" exhaust with large mufflers. The main reason was for ground clearance, as I knew 3" exhaust on a lowered Z was a tight fit. I used the large Dynomax Hemi Turbo mufflers since they are known to have low backpressure but very good noise attenuation and the low rumble I'm looking for. No idea how this sounds yet - haven't started it yet. I hate loud exhuast. My neighbor's and their open pipe Harley's drive me nuts, wake up my kids and wife, etc. This system is not easy to fit - I hacked a good 1/3 out of the spare tire well (see my site for pics) and it's not light. Not the most efficient system in that regard. But it ought to flow well, since the mufflers are low restriction and it is all mandrel bent (I fabbed it out of MANY pieces.) I was thinking about a single exhaust, but wanted t odo a 3.5" system. Hard to do since only loud race mufflers are available. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

I have them in 1.5" shortened front struts. I don't know the year of the part I have. Les, who used to work at Carerra told me the MR2 strut was actually stronger (larger dia. shaft) and the right length to use in the shortened (how much?) strut tube. Ground Control or Top End Performance sell an adapter to let it bolt into a stock Z top isolator.

Kind of crazy, but could ATI make one that could turn the other direction to create boost, and mount it with the pulley aft, the housing fwd?

I remember reading about this engine. The nice thing about it was the rod/stroke ratio was better than the long (6.0") rod 350, and therefore can handle more compression due to the slower. piston speeds near top dead center. The magazine that covered the build up and test reported on in incredibly high and flat torque curve, and if I remember correctly, it didn't drop off until the late 5000's or early 6000's rpm. Something to think about! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

If the fan pulley is smaller than stock and the crank pulley is larger than stock, then you'd be turning the water pump and fan faster than stock, not slower. The smaller driven pulley is turning more revs for each turn of the larger diameter driving (crank) pulley. I'd think this would help the fan pull more air through, but would it help or hurt the woter flow rate? It'd be faster, but is that good or bad? Might it cause some cavitation in the pump? That's not good.

Man I want that system when you get it worked out (for a T-56?). Patentable I would think. What are you doing for the control electronics for the clutch and gearshifts? Are you still thinking about paddle type shifters? Cool!

When you relocate that hole up, you can relocate it out also, to add negative camber. I made the position of the pivot holes adjustable. Separate adjustment up/down and in/out. I have no idea whether the adjustment will hold as it gets loaded going down the road. If I find it moves, I'll weld the mechanism in place!

I followed the Sanderson link someone posted the other day and I was amazed at all the different block hugger header designs they had. The have them that are made to work with all different types of SBC heads, angle plug you name it. Check it out!. They have a range of primary diameters also.

"Jerry Rig"! Heh, did you see the pic of the 2x4 rotisserie stand on my site? Pete "use whatcha got" Paraska [This message has been edited by pparaska (edited May 04, 2000).]

Spencz, great news! Did this guru you talk to have anything to say about the CV angles you'd be seeing? Please document all the parts and steps in a tech article when it's done! This has got to be one of the best Hipo mods for the Z!

I've been married 11 years. The wife first had to put up with me getting a marathon Masters (Thesis) degree that a prof roped me in to (I'm a sucker). While I was finishing that, I started to build a V8 for the Z. That was 9 years ago. The wife likes fast cars (her boyfriend in highschool had a 68 GTO that she helped work on). She likes the Z. The money part (I'd bet somewhere nearing $17K (I paid more than half of that for EXTENSIVE outer body rust repair, under, in, out bodywork) she minds, but since it's been spread out over so many years it doesn't hurt that much. What she hates is that it takes time away from the family (2 young kids) on the weekends. She's the one that orders me into the garage to "get that damn car finished". She puts up with it but hates that part now. It's been too long. It WILL get on the road this year. I love my Z - it's much more than a car, it's a hobby. But I love my wife too. Anybody that can put up with the money flowing into it instead of the nice furniture, more trips, etc. that she wants AND THE TIME it sucks away, how could I not love her! Single dudes, wait, have fun, then get married. Find a wife that loves what you love. It can be done. Don't get roped into a marriage where the car will be the wedge that drives you apart. Oh yeah, I agree. Don't keep any running totals around. They will depress you and cause lots of trouble if found. It's a hobby and sure, it costs. Who really cares how much money is in it? How much do your buddies spend on pool night or golf weekends? Or the workaholics that need therapy at $100/hr. One reason my car project has been so long and drawn out is that it's theraputic for me to go in the garage and put that thing back together the way I want it. Money pit, yes, but your buddies can't sell what they've gotten out of all the golf weekends ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Yes, an 8 inch free length rear spring, which force me to a 300 lb/in (I might be able to get away with 275 lb/in). The issue is that for that short of a spring, you only have so much room until you get to coil stackup. The static weight of the car uses some of that, and hitting dips, etc. uses more on top of that. The stiffer spring compresses less for the static and dip. If they're too soft, you get coil bind when you hit that dip, etc. But I've got a plan to be able to lengthen the spring. I've used the 240Z top strut isolator. I'm going to take some height out of it (I think you can take close to an inch out) by taking the shell off the rubber (heat slightly with a torch), cutting the rubber height down, reassemble, and peen the shell over the bottom part of the rubber to encase it. Maybe some rubber cement in there as well. I've heard this works well. I have an email in to Andy at Dandos to see if he knows of any progressive rate coil overs, and if they are available in 9" free length at the rates I'd want (probably around 200 lb/in.) ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

I have updated a few things in the v8 swap as far as how I relocated the hood latch. I have pics of a few things to put up too, I just need to get some round tuits . I'm presently working on wiring. I have a few hard brakelines to remake for the AZ Zcar brake conversion I've installed, get some radiator hoses, and do a bit of fuel plumbing under th hood. At the slow pace I work at that could take me until mid Summer easy. I'll post to this thread when I get a decent update on my page. Lot's of stuff I'd like to do to add/change it. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Referencing Fikse's site (the best description of wheel terminology I've seen) http://www.fikse.com/cad.html they have the following graphic: notice the difference between "rim width" and "overall rim width". Overall rim width is the standardly referenced rim width with twice the wheel lip width added to it. So when converting backspacing to offset, you need to: subtract the rim lip width from the from the backspacing, then subtract half of the rim width to get the offset. The rim lip width is generally about 10-15mm. So for a 149mm backspacing, you get: 149mm-15mm-(9in/2)*25.4mm/in = approx. 20mm positive offset (using Fikse's offset convention.) I remember positive offset meaning a deep dish wheel, but I'm dating myself . So 20mm (4/5 inch) is not too much. The reason for this offset is to get as much tire inboard as possible. Some might say overkill here, since I had to run 8 inch coilovers to get it to fit. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Let me try to clarify how I tied this together. If you look at the pic below: you see that I had two tubes comeing together behind the T/C bracket and ahead of the firewall. In the following pic: notice that they are not tied together. I used som 3/16" plate to make gussets that tied the tubes together vertically. It's all painted in the picture, so look hard. I plut and edge welded a plate to either vertical side of the engine rails and floor rails, as well as the new thicker piece of firewall/floor where the floor tube (subframe connector) came through. This is a very stiff connection. It sounds like you're using the stiffening plans that come with the VR kit. I really like that plan for the unobtrusive side bar. I bought the plans so I could see what his ideas for the reinforcement alone. Someday I'll get around to applyiing them! ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Mike, great post! jeromio wrote: quote I hope my recent post on how I fit the larges possible wheels on the rear of the z and it needing stiff springs was what lead you to that conclusion. I did that to get that last bit of clearance for the wheel. If you don't run up against the edge of wheel fitment and go with a 17x8.5 or less, the spring perch of the coilover should not lessen the travel. The thing that lessens travel is to addition of "lowering" springs without taking some section length of tube out of the strut and use shorter cartridges. This does take away from the available bump travel. The same would be true if you used coilovers with the collars adjusted to lower the car by 1.5 inches or more, or lowering springs that lowered it very much over stock. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Any idea how much current it will draw at full bore? I use the VF40 (40 amp) series of automotive relays that you can get from parts stores, Digikey.com, Allied, etc. The electronics suppliers can get the sockets for them also. I'm using a bunch of these all over the car for things like by Ford LTD blower fan, 98 GT mustang cooling fan, and the headlights. They http://www.siemens.de/ec/relay-catalog/data.cgi?rel_id=2935&language=en make a 70 amp one if you need it for big lights or something. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

Don't Canton and Moroso make short pans? The one from Moroso I've seen advertised (Summit or Jeg's) is designed for circle track use, so I don't know how it would do for right turns .

Electric fans. The nice thing about them is they rob power (through the alternator) only when needed. The bad thing is it takes quite a motor and a good fan blade design to get them to pull enough air through the radiator. The OE fans I think are better than most of the aftermarket ones. Think about it. ALL new cars have electric fans, and they are usually oversized to provide a margin of safety for the worst conditions. Do you think the OEs would skimp here and risk a ton of overheating problems? I think not. Do you think the aftermarket guys have anything to lose if your fan doesn't cool well enough? Not much, IMO. The Ford fans seem to be used alot by engine swap people. JTR recommends a few. I'm using the 19" 98 GT mustang two speed fan. It does not have a shroud that completely covers the radiator, but I hear the Taurus one does. I do know that at high speed it is fairly quiet and really pulls the air through the radiator. At low speed it pulls fairly well (8.5"x11" sheet of papar on the front of the radiator test.) Supposedly the low speed of these Ford fans is equivalent cooling wise to the Flexlite 150 fan. The mustang fan pulls 20 amps on 12V at low speed and a whopping 35 amps on 12V at high speed. That coupled with efficient blades (somewhat evident from the low noise) and the relatively high amount of suction through the radiator (compared to the two 10" electrics I used to have) would lead me to believe that it will cool well. Food for thought... Another cooling issue with the Z swap. Make sure that the incoming air to the radiator support doesn't easily bypass the radiator. There are alot of holes around the radiator and the radiator may not fit tight to the support. I made sure that everything was sealed well with aluminum duct tape. And I'll close off some of those holes, possibly using a ram air box and a hose to direct all the other air through the support to the carb . That way the radiator gets the most use of the air forced through the grill and the engine will use what it can. I also made sure the the A/C condensor was ducted directly to the radiator core so that the fan would not suck around the A/C condensor. Hopefully, these efforts will have the engine running cool with no waste of the electric fans efforts, and the A/C will actually cool. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

I think I hold the record at 9 years and counting. But I've gotten carried away and had lots of time off in that time frame. I've basically restored the body and modified all the mechanicals and lots of other stuff. That's not a good example to site, but I thought I'd throw in an example of a "snowballed" project (thanks for the name Mike!) Do a simple install with minor mods like JTR outlines, and I'd say a few weekends and a handful of weeknights, once you have EVERYTHING lines up that you can think of. There are always those unseen parts that you'll need to run out and get. ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -

DennisK, Lowering the rack BY ITSELF would be a fix, but you'd have to cut off the brackets from the crossmember and weld them back on in just the right place (adding material) and just the right attitude. Lowering the crossmember lowers the rack and the CA pickup points. If you don't relocate the pickup points and just move the crossmember, the bumpsteer curve stays (mostly) the same, but you move the at rest point on the curve. Actually, lowering the crossmember with the JTR crossmember spacers is the opposite of adding the "bumpsteer" spacers. (I hate that name, but everybody knows what you mean when you say/write it.) Lowering the crossmember would make the angle of the CA to the pavement move from a angled down from the CA pickup point to more horizontal or from horizontal to angled up from the CA point relative to the pavement. Adding the bumpsteer spacers has the opposite effect, so they might be a good idea if you lower the crossmember. Note: I've seen several V8Z converts not see the need, tunnel clearance wise, for the crossmember spacers. And as I've posted somewhere before, the crossmember spacers, coupled with the JTR trans mount are probably partially the reason for driveshaft u-joint angle problems and vibration under load. Funny how a discussion of bumpsteer gets you into driveshaft u-joint angles, no? Anyway, try leaving them out if you don't need them. You can install the crossmember spacers and install the engine/trans, check for clearance between the top of the bellhousing/tranny combo and the tunnel, and take them out if you find there us room to raise the engine 1/2" and you need addtional oilpan clearance and/or it would help with your driveline angles. BTW, I just ordered what looks to be a copy of the Competition Engineering Angle finder for doing driveshaft u-joint angle checks from http://www.mcmaster.com for under 12 dollars. (part number 20025A32, $11.55) To tell you the truth, I'm not sure if the "bumpsteer" spacers are useful if you raise the CA point and leave out the crossmember spacers. I have the crossmember spacers out (to help get my driveshaft angles more optimal) and I put the bumpsteer spacers in. I also raised the CA pickup points so the effect should be (with a 1.5-2" lowering) that the CAs angle down at rest from the CA pickup points outward. If this angle is too severe, I'll remove them. I would think that the camber curve would get exagerated as the CA to pavement angle became too large, and that wouldn't be good if the car handled relatively flat. But I'm no racer and this is all theory. Any roadcourse/autox racers car to comment? ------------------ Pete Paraska - 73 540Z - Marathon Z Project - pparaska@tidalwave.net">pparaska@tidalwave.net -