pparaska

I third it - I hope I can fly out and make it. I'd love to see someone TIG and talk about how to do it.

I want street shots too! Like Darius in the cul-de-sac doing donuts Believe me, I love the R1 vs Darius street race vid. And since NOONE else was on that stretch of divided highway, I'd not be too adverse to the inclusion of that clip either! But playing in traffic and night racing with bystanders alongside - I'm not for that. JMO.

Richard, I agree about the use of music if the original vid soundtrack is lousy - I'd rather hear music than nothing or noise! I just don't like the almost total music drowned-out that the HybridZVideo has. I'd rather hear the engines roar and the turbo's spool! I'm looking forward to seeing this! (The only vids I have of my Z are from the 1st SEZ event.)

Tim - I rack that issue up to one word - IRRATIONAL.

Richard and Terry have excellent points. And I believe Terry hit it right on the head when he said that the purists argue from an emotional point of view, and no "convincing" would be done by a debate. Nor should a purists be debated with...they are arguing from an emotional and irrational point of view. But then, I gave up long ago on trying to convince a purist that it's o.k. for me (or others) to modify a Z so far (e.g., by putting a V8 in it) - I just point out to them (sometimes forcefully) that it's not their right to tell me or others what we should or should not do to our Z's. Just like I don't like others cramming their religious beliefs down my throat, I don't want others to cram their Z car "beliefs" down my throat, or others. And I don't preach to them either. The issue is silly, in a way - I could care less if a purist doesn't approve of what I or others do to our Z cars. They hold the "ideal" of a Z car up to a spiritual, almost religious level, which I think is ridiculous. I have no use for those people or thoughts in my life. To me, they are spending too much of their brain power worryng about something that is just unimportant to most everyone else - how OTHERS should view the Z car, in their mind. They can't make me think like they do, so they should not even try. There are MANY restored-to-stock Zs out there, and quite a few all-original and Concours-level restored Zs. There are plenty of near-stock driven Zs around to. You may not see them often, but they are out there, and not that rare. If you can easily find Concours and near-Concours level Zs in museums and collections (which you can), I don't see modifying a not-reasonable-for-concours-restoration example of a Z. Then again, I'm not sure exactly what Art is after for this article. ( Art, I PM'd you back with my phone numbers. )

Where's Mike Kelly? Mike - you still have those Freakin' Flyer miles burning a hole in your pocket? I don't think I have enough to go to Cali.

Ross, any updates? Did you ever get in touch with anyone that had an appraised or sold Z for a good $$ amount that could help your case with the insurance company? No word on the car being spotted, I'd assume. I keep crossing my fingers hoping to hear it was found safe and sound. Lot's of Luck, Pete

I'll take it on, if you like. I've been defending the swap for about 15 years now, and I know how to keep it civil (which I agree is important - I don't want the V8Z rep. coming off as arrogant, etc.) How would this work? Ask a question of the purist side, and let the V8Z side counter? Then back to the purist side, and the V8Z side counter? It could be done in a special thread on HybridZ, with a moderator being the only one to post the responses from either person. We wouldn't want to have others chiming in. My initial response to the question is it bastardizing to put a V8 in the Z, is that it depends on who you ask. My point of view is that it's my car, and what I do to mod it is MY business alone. If others think it "bastardizes" the image/aura/idea/intent of the Z as Nissan designed it, that's there delusion, and I won't argue with them. The Z is a mass produced vehicle made to put money in the coffers of Nissan. It's not a 1-of-40 made Ferarri GTO 250.

Welcome Back, Myron - I've wondered what happend to you. Glad to hear you're getting ready for another HybridZ! What's your occupation now?

Great Idea, Richard! A few comments: I have to agree about rather hearing the car than the music, although low in the background would be great. But I'd MUCH rather hear the engine and spinning tires than just music. In other words, make it seem like I'm watching WinterNationals clips with the pounding of the engine . Please do me a favor and do a version without music if you're putting Rage Against The Machine with vocals to it. I can't stand the singer's "voice". Just my personal taste. Jimi Hendrix would be where I'd start . I'd also prefer to not have street racing in it. It's not that I don't hammer my car on the street, or get into the occasional blast against something for a short spurt (I do). I enjoy watching a few of those vids too. It's just that I think it be better to not have street racing on a video put together as an "official" HybridZ video.

Mike, .004" off the heads will be a minor increase in compression. Not enough to warrant a thicker (.040") head gasket. I'd go with the .025" composition gasket or the copper one the grumpyvette talked about in another post. Just don't do anything that will take the piston-head clearance beyond .040". As I remember, your pistons were .007-.017" down in the block when I measured. A .040" gasket would mean too much quench height - probably making the engine less detonation resistant than using the .025" gasket, or even the .021" SCE copper one. Maybe .025" + .007" = .032" (tightest piston-head clearance) would be better. Or get a custom .030" SCE copper gasket. But .032" to .042" piston to head quench height sounds good!

Mike, Years ago I bought my Tremec from darkhorseperformance.com I'd check with Hanlon Motorsports too.

That is one beautiful Z!! It has so many nice curves, that I'd go after a pearl. I'm real partial to blue . A bright, non-metallic/pearl color will wash out the curves. I'd love to see this ca in person!

I chose not to use the crossmember spacer blocks. I had them in, but when working on getting the u-joint angles small and equal front and rear, I found that the crossmember spacer blocks made that more difficult, so out they came. Check my "driveline mods" page for details.

Mikelly, I agree with no more than 1/4 turn, especially - while prelubing the engine. Grumpyvette has often posted how to prelube, break-in, etc. My experience is that you should leave the lash at 1/4 turn or less (when the cam is on the base circle) while turning the engine every once and a while when running the prelube/drill motor. That way all the lifters can get oiled through the lifter bore oil passages. If you turn them down to 1 turn below zero lash, the lifter may pump up after startup. When I've run hydraulic cams on the SBC, I used to run 1/8 or 1/4 turn after "clicking" while idling. This allows for more top end, since the lifter can't pump up as much as if you turn the adjusting nut 1/2 or 1 turn after the valvetrain "clicks" while idling.

Just kidding! http://www.alteredz.com Right now, it just points to my Comcast website. I registered it yesterday (12 Jan), so it may not be in the DNS you use yet. http://www.1and1.com is having a promotion through 21 Jan 2004. Free hosting for 3 years, 500 MB web space, $5.99/year for domain registration, 50 subdomains, 50 email accounts, 6 gigabyte/month bandwidth limit. That last part seems a little low, but I doubt it'll be any problem for my site. I finally bit the bullet and got my own domain. I had a hard time coming up with a domain name. Tell me if you like it or not. Cheers,

I try to check in every week or so - search for my name in the forums to see if I can help with any info - or learn! Or just look at the latest page of threads in the forums. I don't have enough time lately to scan all the threads like I used to - I miss that!

PETEW, I did the engine frame rail first, and had the car on at least 6 jack stands when I did that. I held up the car from the firewall back with 4, and then the radiator support with 2. Then I did the subframe connectors, with 8 jackstands. Even the cheap stamped steel ones will do, since the shell is so light.

WRD (out of business as far as I know) 5 spoke 17x8.5 front, 17x9 rear: (larger version here): http://home.comcast.net/~pparaska/image/firstdrive/firstdrive_LRv.jpg I think the CCWs are my favorites so far.

Thanks for the plug, Terry Here's a link to my page on driveline mods and u-joint angles, etc.: http://home.comcast.net/~pparaska/drivelinemods.htm

Pretty sure it is. I know, Mike and I were supposed to write that article on V8 conversions, using my Z as the picture model.... If I sold my house and lived in the street, I could swing that! Ouch $275,000 "invested"! I'm really blown away that the 350Z owners haven't jumped onto "Sport Z Magazine" more. They've sold a bunch of those - I'd think 1 in 10 350Z buyers would have subscribed...but then that's probably why I crunch engineering numbers and not six figure "investments".

I did mine with the car on the jack stands - 8 of them. 4 in the engine bay area and 4 behind the seats. That was to keep the car from sagging in the middle. The 240Z shell was light enough for me and my dad to lift - probably 400-500 lbs bare. But on the rotisserie, it'd be held up at the ends. I was concerned about it sagging for that reason. Maybe overly concerned, not sure.

Zsane, that's a pretty good explanation - I don't see that too often about roll center, center of Gravity, etc. If I read the first part of your post correctly, it jives pretty well with what I've learned from Carroll Smith's books, etc. Of course there's software out there to do this for you, once you have all the measurements. The packages I've seen are several hundred bucks. If anyone knows of a free or shareware version that does MacPherson and Chapman strut suspensions, I'd love to hear about it. Measuring the center of gravity (CG) location isn't difficult, once you have access to a set of wheel scales. Measure the weights with the car level, and then raise one end a specified amount (as much as practical - by putting something sturdy under the scales at one end of the car) and then solving some equations. I seem to remember seeing it in Puhn's "How to Make Your Car Handle," but can't find it now. I did find this with a search: http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4014/cgrav.html