pparaska

Agreed on th 17s. I'd go to 16s if I were to do it again, to get more sidewall for "drag" type use, or just to have for stomping on the pedal. I'm thinking of 555 Nitto Extreme Drag Radials too. I've heard they can actually be used to good effect for curves as well.

I agree - the fender well becomes the limit soon after you move the strut inboard or use coilovers. I have less than an inch clearance between my inside sidwall and the inner fender. I'm running 8" 2.5" ID coilovers with the perch and spring up high, but that's the limiting part. This just barely allows a 255/45-17 tire on a 17x9 rim (see my page for details) under a stock, rolled fender lip. Although I have way less HP, I still have traction problems. Much due to 1 degree negative camber (need to fix that) and old, hard tires. Have you tried optimizing the camber? 0 degree? Maybe a bit positive static, so it goes to 0 degrees under squat? Also spring rate as someone mentioned is important. It seems that the guys turning low 60' times run like 170 lb/in springs in the rear. But that'll bring on a good bit of squat, and negative camber under squat. Tires are a big factor. I'm thinking of running Potenza S03s ore Kuhmo Victoracers, etc. Buying tires every 3-5000 miles may be expensive, but so is a C4 vette or solid axle conversion.

I used some really thin shim stock instead of the putty knife. I also had to shorten the length of the bushing, in the large diameter part of the outer rear arm bushings to get them to fit.

The correct part number for the Neapco/Spicer flange yoke is 2-2-899-1. The -1 is important! The 2-2-899 is for a smaller u-joint.

WOW That is one beautiful body! IMO, it's tough to beat the 240Z body style. Thank goodness for you and Terry Oxandale showing the world how it can be done! If I were doing another Z, and that kit were available, I'd be doing a 280YZ! The GTO 250 is a beautiful thing, but that 280YZ is just as nice IMO!

I have my Z on a Hagerty policy. (which reminds me I need to get some updated pics to them to raise the agreed value now that it's on the road!) They don't like cars they think you might be racing. They mainly look for the classic car or rod that someone gives only tender loving care to. No daily drivers. And you must show that you have another car as a daily driver.

With a roller cam on the edge of what many call streetabilty, and very good heads, that is possible, I'd believe. Check out combo 101: http://ryanscarpage.50megs.com/combos14.html The other way of looking at it is 500hp from 400 cubes is 1.2 hp per cubic inch, which is thought of as the top end of the streetable range by some.

Tim, I'm not in the market, but I'd think that this setup should be of interest to quite a few high hp SBC V8Z people. That setup should be good for some high hp gains versus the typical 1-5/8" blockhuggers. A side by side dyno test would be cool. $400 for custom headers (assuming that includes part of the jig cost spread over say 10 sets) would be cheap for a good custom header set. I'd also think that the T-56 trans would mean that only an Automatic trans car might have clearance issues with these headers. I wonder how they'd clear my blowproof bellhousing.

Excellent! We await more details, photos, video

...Or build a bigger engine (400, 415, 427, 434 SBC, for example) with the same "level of streetabilty" as that 400 hp 350 and have 460, 475, 488, or 496 hp, for those displacements. That's my plan and I'm sticking to it . (The 400 that is)

Looks great, Tim. Talk about a black hole!

I'm wishing I'd gone with 16x8s all the way around and be able to run a 55 series tire. The sidewall on the 255/45-17s are too stiff and hurt straight line traction. I'll keep them though, but think about this when selecting wheels.

Hmm. I'm still on the fence. Potenza SO3s or maybe Victoracers. I'll probably just go with the S03s since I know them to last a bit. Thanks for the pointers though guys!

Cool Stony! Do you happen to have any info on spline count, minimum shaft diameters, etc. between the stub axles (240Z & 280Z are similar, 280Z being larger) on the 240Z and the 300ZX?

No rear bar. But when I go from 300 to 225 lb/in springs back there, I'm wondering if I'll want one. I rode in a friends V8 240Z that had cut down 240Z springs, a 280Z front bar, no rear bar, and 275 tires in the rear (235 front). It handled pretty neutral, as far as I felt like pushing it. My setup also has that 22mm 280Z bar up front.

Man, I love those! In high school, I had a buddy that had a 70 AAR Cuda with a built 340. He had a blue Formula S Baracuda as well. Those things are sweet! Tough to find body parts for though! Congrats!

While I agree that cutting the stock springs can work, I prefer coilovers for the abilty to source different rates. I have 225 lb/in and 300 lb/in (front and rear) springs on now. Too stiff a ride for me, horrible for drag racing, or just hammering the gas. I'm going to 175 front and 225 rear as soon as I can get the round tuit's to work on the car. Try doing that easily without coilovers! My point is, if you goof on selecting your spring rate, you can get springs in 25 lb/in increments to play with. I agree it'll give more room for wide tires in the rear as well. Try 17x9 and 255/45-17s under a stock fender! But a sticky 225 or 235 would be as good or better.

I'd start somewhere in the 64 area on the primaries, maybe even as low as 60. Secondaries probably around 72.

Tough question. Depends on your compression, cam, heads, manifold, headers, exhaust. Start with the OE jet sizes for the listing number of the carb. The shop will have this info. That's a starting point. I did that on my 327 with a 650 DP and had to lean out the primaries by 2-4 sizes.

Dan, thanks for that info. The car is 99.8% a street car. But I have traction (acceleration) problems all the time when I hammer it in first or second. Me thinks I need to learn to modulate the pedal better . But better tires are a must. Especially with the extra torque coming this Winter/Spring in the form of a 406 with good heads and even lumpier cam. The Kuhmos look interesting, but they are probably way more fragile to street wear than the Potenza SO3s?

Nothing. The added weight is enough to make in uncompetitive.

Thanks John. How would you rate the other 3 tires you mentioned for tread wear, relative to the Toyo Proxes RA1s? I'm having serious traction problems as it is with my 327, and the 406 with 100hp/100lbft more peak will be quite a problem, I imagine. The Pilot MXX3's on the car are old and hard, so news stickier tires should be a big help (as well as getting the camber to near zero instead of the 1 deg negative it has now).

You ever seen a V8 with 8 equal length primary tubes of reasonable length brought together into a common Collector? It's a bag of snakes that sit behind the engine and above teh tranny. Great if it's a mid engined car, etc. but not in a V8Z! I can't remember where I saw a picture of that, but it was very interesting and intimidating.

Just what would you guys suggest for a 5-10K mile tread life (when driving hard some of the time, cruising the highways other times) SUPER STICKY DOT tire? I'm in the 255/45-17 and 235/45-17 range, but the tires you tell me about would probably be available for babykyle too. I have Potenza S03's on my daily driver (92 Eclipse GSX) and love them. Anything stickier with even as low as 5K mixed duty tread life out there that's better?

I have a 3/16" plate sitting on the floor between the tunel and the subframe connector, welded to the floor and subframe connector. Then I boxed the area with 1/8" x 1" flat stock, welded to the floor, the 3/16" plate, tunnel and subframe connector. A very rigid box without one side. My crossmember has 7/16" holes in it (4 per side) and this was used to match drill 7/16" holes in the floor&3/16" plates, so when I force the 7/16" bolts (with unthreaded shank long enough to go through the crossmember, floor and plate) through, there's no play you could discern by hand. Then it's all torqued down, and very rigid.