pparaska

Thanks, z ya! Fast is relative. It feels quick to me, but I'm getting used to it already. And there's always the guy down the street with the D-1 supercharged 383 in a 64 Nova - runs low nines on street tires, after blowing off some intake tubing! Yep, there's always someone faster! I do have a digital 8 sony cam corder. What I need is a decent computer to hook it to for downloading vids and editing them.

Oh wait. If you mean the Summer 02 issue on the home page of their site, it's already out. I got mine a few weeks ago. It has an really nice article on Rick Johnson's immaculate V8 Z! http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=10;t=001026

Denny - I love it! horizontal slots, with sequential LEDs! Now THAT's more to my liking. Kind of a cross between the 68 Firebird tail lights and the 65 Thunderbird idea of sequential lights. Build it and if it's not outrageous in price, I'll put 'em in! Terry, when you said "...the rear of the Z needs as much horizontally oriented lighting as possible" I was thinking "yeah, that's what I was thinking but never really put in writing.

Terry, you assumed I wasn't a fool and thought I'd already done the CORRECT thing, that is checked and set total timing. I ain't that smart and performance tuning is pretty much all new to me since I've not really done anything like this in 20 years. I agree - I need to get the timing dialed in (the adjustable vacuum can too) and then go to the 650DP and start all over. I guess I need to get a few virgin throttle plates for the 750 vac sec before I put it on Ebay. I'm hoping I can get away with no holes in the throttle plates on the 650. If they're too big, then small changes in load (like the cooling fan coming on) at idle plays havok with the idle speed. I've got ALOT to learn about performance tuning. I've been researching tunig a bit and I knew getting the timing in the ballpark was the first thing to do, but thought setting it to 14 or so initial was close enough - WRONG - especially if you your distributor has less than stock maximum mechanical advance. BTW, on my motor, the 40 squirter was WAY too big. Big clouds of unburnt fuel behind the car when I shifted and put the pedal down, even in "regular" driving.

Awesome! Must be nice to tune on the fly like that! Good luck on the 10s!

Eric, to an extent, I agree. To me, the round thing is just too overdone and it doesn't compliment the lines of the rear of the Z nor many other cars. I know that's not a popular opinion here. But the fairlane GT lights don't fit too well either - they're too short in height and wide to make it look good to me. I actually think that if:http://www.zparts.com/showcase/zp_tail%20light2/pictures/dcp_3484.html had better looking lights behind the slats, and the panel was painted the same as the car, it's look the best - very much like what Tim240Z is doing. So, I kind of go along with your mystery guy on the "SAME OLD THING" idea. Just because it's (round taillights) on the Skyline GTR doesn't mean it looks good or belongs on a Z, IMO. That's all it is, of course, my opinion.

If you're think NO2, buck up for Forged Pistons and good rods with ARP bolts.

I didn't fix the hesitation problem, but I did something I've been ignoring for a while - LIKE A DUMB$#!T !!!! : I checked the mechanical advance curve in the distrib! Ross had mentioned a while ago that it sounded like not enough advance. So I bumped it from the 10 I started with to 14 BTDC like he suggested. Well, alot of people know that's not a good way to do a timing setup. Since this distributor had been dialed in on a machine years ago by a now defunct speedshop, it was NOT like a stock distributor, so 10-14 degrees BTDC at idle (with the vacuum plugged, of course) was not enough. With it set to 14 degrees at idle (800 rpm and lower actually), it maxed out a 2400 rpm to only 31 degrees or so. So I bumped it to 38 and went for a drive. Holy Moley! There must have been another 20-30 hp there! No, I haven't even hooked up the Road Dyno yet, but the timing and carb are getting in the ball park of where I need to start doing performance tuning using it. I did a roll on throttle mash in third gear at about 50mph. Woah, felt quick to me. Chirped 4th gear without powershifting, just shifting a bit fast and hammering the pedal back to the floor when I let out the clutch. I really need to hook that Road Dyno up to see what kind of performance (heck, just rpm versus time logging could yield 0-60, 50-100 times!) Oh. I need to put the inner valve springs in. I've been not revving past 5000 rpm. That recent Car Craft? article about low and mid range increases in torque with stiffer valve springs on the Comp Cams Xtreme cam makes me think I really need to do this soon. The motor has 500 miles on it anyway. I'll be putting the springs in this week and probably going to Mobil 1 oil. Is it too soon for the Synthetic? So Ross, and then Dave today - thanks for the jab to finally get me to check the total timing. Damn, I feel stupid.... BTW, the 650 should be here this weekend or beginning of next week. I can't wait. The 750 works well 99% of the time. but low to low-mid rpm off cruise stumble is still there. I tried a 28 squirter and it's still a big hole there. Having lots of fun driving it lately guys!

Incredible - almost. What really gets me is the excuse someone gave for the thief having a rough time financially and using the theft of this car as "He was just looking for a way out." That won't do him much good with the judge, jury, or Bubba in the pokey. Hmm... I think I may add a few more hidden tricks...

Mikelly, I guess someone beat us to it on the article?

Thanks for the help guys! No, no dirt in the carb. I have it apart almost daily . Ugh. The needle and seat was fine when it did this and I pulled it out right there on the side of the road. No dirt, and no sticking. the fuel level in the bowl was fine too. I pulled the bowl yesterday to do a jet swap and it was all clean in the bowl, and that side of the metering plate. I'm beginning to wonder about vapor lock. But I agree it doesn't seem to make sense that it doesn't do this more often when it's hotter out. I'm thinking about a gasket/heat-sheild/gasket arrangement under the carb now. I don't have much room for stuff between the carb and manifold, so it will most likely be a custom job. In the mean time, Dave, I think I'll try popping the hood and letting the safety latch catch it, allowing it to only raise up and inch or so. I'm sure the gaskets are fine - I'm super careful when working on the carb and I double check stuff like that - I've been burned by that stuff before too! And I have a perimiter type carb to manifold gasket on, so that couldnt' be blocking it. I may do what you said, Kevin and try the 600. Or I may just wait until the 650 DP gets on the car.

I'll look at my paperwork at home. The CS alternators have I think 1 large and 3 smaller pins in the connector. I'll find my notes and find out which is the field wire. I agree, you could use a switch on the field wire to cut power. The field wire from the alt is very near ground when it's not turning, and near the output voltage when it's charging. If you open that while it's running, it should cut the output power and the drag on the motor. I'm not sure if that's hard on the electronics in the alternator though. BTW, the CS is a nice design - clean filtered output and lots of amps even when it's spinning slow at idle. Way expensive though. Isn't the field wire actually the indicator wire? I mean, I only used the field wire on my CS130 and it's hooked to 12V with the key on through and idiot light. (I like having that feedback, myself - nice to know when the alt's not putting out!) The voltage feedback wire is actually handled internally, eventhough it has a terminal on the alternator. I got that info from M.A.D. Enterprises in CA. He's done alot of research on these alts and even helped GM straighten out their databases on the alternators. The only wires you need to hook up on a non-one-wire CS is the field wire and of course the output wire.

Aren't the Forzas a bit wide in the shoulder wing area? I believe the Corbeau A4 is not as wide in that dimension. Even still, I had to mount it a bit off center toward the tunnel in relation to the steering wheel to not have it hit the door panel. I don't like having the seat not centered behind the steering wheel.

Aaron, I don't have any experience with those brands. I used Sherwin Williams Tile Clad II. Good stuff. But if I could find something tougher and more chemical resistant I would use it, and $20 a gallon wouldn't stop me. I really like the epoxy painted floor. You can wipe up spills easily, and brake fluid hardly touches the stuff (just cleans it up a bit ).

Jim, I agree on the shallower cell. I've seen a few deep ones in a Z, and it just looks weird and dangerous having it hang down alot below the bottom of the rear valence.

Mike, I'm such a pain-baby - I would NEVER think about mountain biking after hearing all your stories. Good thing you didn't get hurt so bad that you missed the track day! Sounds like you're now moving into higher speed two wheeled stuff. But sliding on the pavement with the right equipment on your body may be preferable to mountain biking, injury wise? Sounds like the track day was a blast. I'm hoping to be at a track day this fall at Summit Point with the Z. You've got me thinking about that again! Glad you didn't get hurt too bad and got to get out on the track!

Man, sorry to hear about that!

Thanks for that tip Dave. Just wondering. Any chance that my stand alone MSD soft touch rev limiter is hosing things up? I disconnected it, but it will be tough determining what the problem is since it is so unpredictable. One indication is that the car died twice in about a mile of mild driving last night (right before I posted this), and the second time I pulled the distrib cap to take a look (everything looked fine). I saw the two connectors for the rev limiter that I had spade terminals in, so I unhooked it hoping to do ANYTHING to get me home. It ran fine all the way home (about 30 miles).

Well, the Honda's all rev at me and do fly bys. No, I won't even give them a millimeter of my gas pedal travel... Guys in V8 Mustangs all look. Always a puzzled look... A pair of college age guys in a mid 90s BMW M3 (black with the M multi-colored stripes across the hood, some sweet looking wheels and huge tires filling up the wheel wells) buzzed by me and nailed it. I followed and pulled up on their left at a light (rural area). They were digging the car and I was digging theirs - it was really tastefully done. We were throwing compliments back and forth and the guy in the passenger seat says to his buddy "LISTEN to that thing!" (I guess he liked the lopey idle and rumbling exhaust). I grinned and said "Small Block Chevy". They flip out. Then the driver says "Man, that's a sleeper." I said "Yeah, until you hear the exhaust!" The driver wasn't as playful after that. There was no one around, so I went for it when the light changed, tire smoke in 1st and 2nd (damn, I need to get some camber out of that rear end) chirped 3rd, then 4th. They were very small in the rear view mirror. I know they weren't trying to race though. Pretty cool experience though! (Len, the Pro 5.0 shifter on my Tremec 5spd is very solid and fun to bang. A real close second to a Muncie - I remember what that's like! Fun!) The guys at the local street rod/muscle car cruise in always let me park with them. They hear the thunder and just grin. The guys at the MD Z club Cruise In last night seemed to like it, even though it was the only non-stock Z there. Some realy nice Z's showed up - a pair of red Z31s, a 280ZX Turbo, another 280ZX, a really nice all-original 260Z, and a 96 Z32. A few others too. My 6 year old daughter that went with me asked why everyone was crowding around my car. Yes, I was a bit taken with that! BTW, she complains that when I hammer the gas peddle, it hurts her stomach . Note to self: Don't take the daughter along unless I can keep the pedal in it's first 1/4 of throw. No races yet. I need to get the 650 DP on, do some alignment, and hit the drag strip soon!

Here's a blow by blow response, Kevin: No backfires. Quiet power loss. It seems to kind of want to run, but has no power and then just dies even with the clutch in. It's like the carb has run dry of fuel. But it's full. There's hardly anytime that there's not a smell of excessive fuel with the 750 vac sec on there. Although 3/32" holes in the primary throttle plates have allowed me to get the blades closed enough so that too much of the transfer slot is not showing and it's leaned the idle CONSIDERABLY. Much better now. I still have an off cruise stumble (goes for a split sec, then coughs, then goes hard from there). I'd tried jetting up from 68 to 73s, gone with 28, 31, 35, and 40 squirter nozzles, now at 25 and it still does it. 73 jets were rich and 70s seem pretty decent, but it's by no means dialed in. It's was about 80-85 the last too times, and the car had sat for 20 minutes before. Under hood temps seemed much lower than other times when it had not done this. I have grounded the distributor with another wire that goes to the firewall as well. Well, not really. I did notice a fog of fuel rising out of the primaries though, on the last ocassions. But it might do that everytime I shut it down, I don't know. No backfires. Thanks for all the help guys!

I did some of that - mostly the hat section unibody "frame" area under the back of the car. You have to wonder how much the metal gets weakened by all the heating though. I did an inch at a time here and there until it was all seam welded. I seam welded most of my frame rail and subframe connectors to. Lots of weld wire and lots of sheilding gas, and lots of wire brushing and lots of Oxi-solving to get the oxidation off. That's alot of "and lots"

I dunno - I still want to know if the cat is just maimed, close to death, or dead already! Just kidding!

There was a guy "dr. pete" that did this, but I don't know how it turned out. His web site kept changing ISPs so I don't know how to get ahold of him. I say if you want to do it, do it!

Sounds like you're getting into the fun part! Congrats!

This is weird. I can be driving along, either after just cruising or really getting on the throttle, and it will act like it is running out of fuel. The pump is still running (believe me I can hear it!) and I have pressure and there's fuel in the bowl because when I get out, and tap the throttle I can see lots of fuel squirting out of the accel pump squirter. Weird. I guess it might be electrical (ignition) but it seems more carb related. It doesn't cut out completely, but there's NO power and it will finally just stop running. After a few minutes I can get it to start again and it will work fine for either a week or 5 minutes. No pattern as to high underhood heat, ambient temps, fuel (did it on different tanks of gas), nothing. The setup is my 327, double hump heads -750 vac sec (sorry guys, the 600 just had NO guts) -Holley 300-36 dual plane with blocked exhaust crossover -Holley blue pump with regulator on firewall -GM HEI with blue streak module and Thunder something coil - #12 wire running to relay next to HEI for coil/distrib power, distrib grounded at firewall, grounds in car are extensive Any ideas appreciated.