pparaska

getZ: I used the stock 240Z sender and an Autometer Pro Comp Fuel Level gage for the older Fords: http://store.summitracing.com/default.asp?target=partdetail.asp&autofilter=1&part=ATM%2D5416&N=115&autoview=sku I then used a resistor in parallel with the sending unit (at the gage, from the sender terminal to ground) to get it to read near the correct range (E when empty, F when full). Here's how I figured out what resistor to use: http://alteredz.com/gagecalibration.htm I did the same thing to get the electric temp gage to read correctly at 180 and 210. But I'm installing a mechanical gage now - they are much more accurate than the electric ones. Ultimately, I'll probably have a custom fuel cell built and not use the stock sender, but a 0-90 one instead.

Pretty cool. If your game for showing us how you build the electronics and program it, I'd like to play with that too. I took the data in your calculator and tried various linear trends to see how bad the data would be, and it's not possible to have E and F read correctly and have the middle be at all close - 3/4 would read like 3/8! I look forward to seeing progress on this.

Wow, that's impressive looking! I mean the engine install! I can't imagine how you're going to hook all the power up - what's the plan!?

Congrats! The engine sounds great and things are coming together nicely!

Zcar.com - all of the knowledgable people that post over there that are worth listening to are on this site - no need to go there unless you want to be part of the "cliques" that are over there. classiczcars.com - alot of the same players that make zcar.com a circus are on classiczcar.com too. I really like Mike, the owner, and was part of that email list for many years (one of the 1st members). What's happened is that 98% or more of the GOOD, OPEN MINDED, TECH-SMART people in the Z world that are on the Internet are on HybridZ.org. So there's no real reason to go anywhere else, and I don't unless one of my photos on classiczcar.com gets a comment and I get an email, etc. Grumpyvette - what I see as a huge issue with you and the vette world are the NCRS purists and you're disregard for keeping things stock . You must drive those guys nuts! WTG

Yes, use a second cable from the ground post to the engine block near the starter. 2 gage is probably fine, but 1 gage or 0 gage would be good insurance. This will help the battery get a full charge also. Many times people forget that the ground side of the circuit is just as important as the positive side. Having a minimal voltage drop in both the positve charging wire from the alternator to the battery is important (and the positive sensing wire if you're using a 3-wire alternator, which is recommended for relocated battery systems), and on the ground side of the circuit will allow the alternator to apply the full charging voltage to the relocated battery. I use a ford start type "solenoid" (contactor, really), like this, to run my battery positive to, and I run a #8 wire from my alternator output to there. That means minimal voltage drop on the positive side of the charge circuit. I also run an 8 gage wire from the bottom alternator attachment lug (with the long bolt) to the place I run the 2 gage ground cable to on the engine block. This is probably one reason I always have a fully charged battery. Of course, the same goes for the starter circuit - along with that nice big 1/0 gage battery positive cable from the battery to the starter, you need a nice big copper conductor for the negative side. That negative battery cable from the battery all the way to the engine block near the starter provides that low resistance path. Try seeing what the voltage is from the negative battery terminal on the battery to the starter mounting bolt while cranking the engine with the ignition unhooked. You might find that you're losing something near a volt due to reliance on the vehicle chassis (steel) to conduct that high starter current on the ground side of the circuit.

Just my opinion but... If you put the battery in the back of the car, don't depend on the chassis to run your ground side of the circuits. Steel isn't a good enough conductor for that length. Run a separate ground cable from the battery to the engine block near the starter, and then run your body to engine ground from that area. Welding cable comes in black and it's cheap. I run a tiny regular battery (can't remember the size, but it's for a small car) and 2-gage battery cables for positive and ground. Never really had a problem with starting.

The 350Z is still a toad to me, styling wise. I like the G35 looks better. Both are too heavy IMO. A C5 is too big of a 2 seater for my tastes. Too hard to see out of. I guess I'd get used to it. No one makes a 2 seat sports car that I'd want. I'd have to build my own The C5 comes closer though - much closer than a 350Z toad. The C6 would be my first choice for a new 2 seat sports car at that price range. Too bad GM screwed the pooch on the Solstice. 400 lbs more than it should have been. Do the C5, IMO.

Search. And look here: http://alteredz.com/structuralmods.htm

I'm sorry, but I'm going to raise the BS flag here. This is an old wives tales. HybridZ is about NOT stating the same old mis-information over and over. The parts don't really cost that much more, if any. And they are readily available. Pick up a few magazines or look at the offerings from the crank and piston manufacturers. It's More than a tad bit more torque, it's more torque and hp across the 1000-6500 rpm band, figure 1.2hp/cubic inch more. Sorry to dis your dad's opinion, but there are many 400s running around on dirt tracks proving this just plain wrong.

Glad to hear you're running a .060" over 400 with no problems. Mine would have been fine if it didn't have a sleeve AND I hadn't run it lean at WOT! BTW, with the 327 and 400 blocks on engine stands next to each other the other night, I was explaining "There is no substitute for cubic inches" to my 9 year old daughter (who was helping me measure the bores and pistons for the 327.) It seemed really obvious to her that an explosion in a larger diameter combustion chamber, connected to a larger stroke would make more power. I can see I'll be building a hot rod with her some day! Now to get my 12 year old son off X-box Live long enough to teach him some gear head stuff!

From the original 265 to the 283, then 327, then 350, then 400 Gen I SBC and then to the LT1 Gen II, the blocks all have the same basic outer dimensions and mountings. How far back to mount would be the same for all of these, (all things kept the same) except the LT1 makes it easier to go farther back since there's no distributor. There's a common Furd 393 stroker from the 351, not heard of a 393 SBC setup. I guess if you take a 350 block .060" over, and a 3.800" stroke crank (like GM uses in it's 383 crate engines), you'd get 393.56 cubic inches.

BWRex - good point, but it took me 11 years (off and on) to get this car built! No way I want it down and out again! The wife is NOT happy that it's being "reconstructed" again. Got the Dart block back from the shop after they bored/deck-plate-honed it for the pistons (0.030" bore). $328 for that plus the cleaning. Ouch. This shop is NOT cheap but very good. The thing is beautiful. I have all the piston's rods sorted to fit the holes the best and also stack up to a .003" inch variance in deck height. But the decks need 0.028" cut off of them to get a zero deck height, so more money will be spent. Also working on fixing the 327. The crank needed to be ground (now .010/.010). Two replacement rods were had from the shop's stash. They're rezied, have new ARP bolts, on the pistons and have been balanced to the old one's specs. I honed the cylinders last night - after teaching my 9 year old daughter how to use a .0001" vernier micrometer and a dial bore gage and measuring the #1 bore and piston with her! - She asked tonight to go out in the garage and do the rest! Too bad I had already done them!) I put 400 sand paper on the 220 stones and put a nice fine cross hatch in the cylinders for the Moly rings I just ordered. The 220 grit did a good job of cutting the glaze, but it was too rough IMO. Most moly ring sets instructions say to use 320 or 400 as the final grit. So I'll get the 327 back together this weekend and hopefully in the car soon. The car needs to get to the body shop. I'll have a freshened 327 to sell after that too! Can't wait to get the 400 going again. I've really outgrown the 327 and want that BIG low end punch from the 400 back under the hood!

The problem with building a 400 is finding a good used block. They don't take well to anything more than .030" bore usually, so after the first rebuild, it takes a good sonic test to find out if it's worth a bore. I had a .030" over 400 in my Z, but the builder used a sleeve in one cylinder. The shop that bored the replacement Dart Little M block said I probably just ran the sleeved engine lean and caused the sleeve to separate. I bet he's right. Just before it went bad I was giving a joy ride and the tuning was not good. Anyway, if you're doing a 400 build, do what my machine shop tells people to do - "get a real block", i.e., a Dart Little M. $1800 is not cheap, but it is good for more power than you'll probably ever build it to, and more than you can use in a Z. Go with 6" rods, and the pistons will be short and light (I used Probe SRS). That enables you to use a light crank that can be internally balanced. The rod/stroke ratio is about the same as a 350 with 5.7 rods, so the rod angularity is about the same, which should give the same level of wear in the bores/pistons.

I wanted to run another line for fuel delivery and use the stock 3/8" line on my 240Z for a return line for EFI. The stock lines on the 240Z (brake and fuel) run up in the tunnel. With the Tremec 5spd, this gets very tight. I ran the new 1/2" AL line along my frame rail (subframe connector) below the floor, on the inside of the frame rail.

Believe me, I am following your train of thought - I've been there! Maybe I should lock all my precision tools away while I put this one together? Nah, that wouldn't be any fun, and would actually be torture!

Minor update: I removed the pistons, cleaned the carbon off the tops, and removed the rings. I'll take them to the machine shop tomorrow. The machine shop called this afternoon and let me know that the block showed up. That's about 5 business days from me ordering it. My hat is off to CNC-Motorsports.com. Good price ($1806), excellent shipping cost ($75), and it happened in the 5 business days they said it would. Oh, I pulled the caps off of the con rods on the 327 yesterday - #6 had babbet missing, all copper showing, #7 had all babbet missing, about 60% of the copper missing, showing steel backing! The stock nitrided crank just needs a bit of work with sand paper strips and a belt - that's a nice tough finish. The machine shop has some old 327 rods that I'll have them resize and put on the #6 and #7 327 pistons so I can get that engine back in the car. I'll use it to get the car over to the body shop to get the rear end damage fixed while I analize on the 406

Agreed on the "fill the flair" thing. Even on a stock fendered Z, taking the tire out to the maximum outside extent of the fender lip is what makes the car look so agressive. That's part of the reason I think stocker Z's look silly - the skinny tire sits too far into the fender to make it look right.

Oleh: It's fine to have an opinion, but we all have as_holes too, and don't show them when it's not asked for. I mean negative opinions, with inflamatory remarks attached. How do you know people on this site that who's technical knowledge and opinion you respect aren't gay? Why would it even matter? Maybe you need a different adverb or adjective to get across your feelings, but I digress - that kind of negative feedback is not allowed here. Although I wouldn't do an I4 turbo Z, I'm not going to put someone down for doing it or attempting it. Seems some people need to read the RULES again... http://forums.hybridz.org/announcement.php?f=65&announcementid=2 Please do so, and edit your post.

Good choice! We need good HybridZ people - that don't have all of their skin burned off!!!

Michael is our resident aerodynamics PhD, so hopefully he'll chime in and correct me, but I believe the boundary layer (area where flow goes from zero to some significant percentage) is about 1/8". Minor surface finish details (rough sand casting surface versus polishing) won't amount to an appreciable effect, since the roughness of the sand cast doesn't reach into the boundary layer far enough. In a sense, your source is correct about the issues of fuel drop out. It happens A LOT in a street application, but it ends up not mattering much as far as mixture quality in the chamber, since the thermodynamics and aerodynamics there put the fuel (whether atomized or puddled on the intake or port) into a vapor form. It does end up mattering somewhat due to the proportions of fuel that are in the mix in each cylinder, as far as the final air/fuel ratio that results from the vaporized fuel content in each cylinder. A lot of fuel drop out can mean that some cylinders may be lean (not getting enough dropped out fuel trickling down the port) or too rich (too much fuel trickling down the port). The magazines always talk about fuel atomization, and lead you to believe that better atomization from the injectors or in the ports is some sort of holy grail. Unless it's David Vizard writing the article, I sit there with a HUGE salt shaker! As long as you can be sure there's no fuel vapor above the gasoline in the bucket, and there's no flame or spark, you could probably put a cig out in the cool gasoline - but I certainly wouldn't condone that experiment!

Congrats! It's a h3ll of a thrill starting and driving something YOU built, isn't it!? Keep the greasy side down and an eye peeled for the man in blue!

Very sorry to hear about that! A friends 70 Chevelle SS race car burned down inside his detached garage that burned down as well. Electrical fire in the stock harness. He never did find out what the problem was. After that, I almost always turn off the power from the battery (relocated to the rear of the car, just behind the passenger seat), using the disconnect switch I put on the wall at the front of the package shelf. Easy to reach back there from the drivers seat and disconnect the entire electrical system (except a 10 gage wire I ran forward for full-time use - that is connected to the battery terminal with a fusible link). Good luck straightening things out.

Think of a TBI as a carb you have more control over (with the right ECU and tuning). Although wizards can tune a carb to do a decent job at many load conditions, it's easier to cover all the bases with EFI, whether it's TBI or port. I think the TBI on a blown engine will work well, and might even be better than port injection. Having the fuel in the blower can provide some cooling of the mixture.