pparaska

I've been running around for 400+ miles on an eyeball suspension alignment (going to fix that this weekend). Well, 2 degrees neg camber on the rear means not much straight line traction! I think you really need to consider camber when drag racing, to get the tire/wheel perpendicular to the ground (i.e., 0 camber) when traction is the worst. That means in a bump suspension position in the rear.

Get a good 4 pin relay (VF30 or VF40) from an auto parts store or Radio Shack. It will be marked at the terminal connections with the following numbers, 85, 86, 87, 30 (and possibly 87a). 85 and 86 are the relay coil. 30 is the "arm" contact of the relay 87 is the Normally Open (NO) contact 87a is the Normally Closed (NC) contact Run a power wire from a fuse from your fuse box that gets "hot" when the key is turned to the on postion. Run this wire from the power side of the fuse , that way you're not adding to that fused circuit. Run that wire to the number 85 terminal on the relay (one side of the coil). Run a wire from terminal number 86 (other side of coil) to the terminal on the fan switch. Since the switch body is grounded and it forms the other contact of the switch, the circuit to the relay coil is now complete. Run a power wire from either the battery, the alternator output or the feed side of another fuse and run it to terminal number 30 (arm) on your relay. Run a wire from number 87 on the relay to the high speed terminal of the fan. Connect another wire from the common wire on the fan to ground. With this setup; terminals 85 and 86 act as a switch and connect terminals 87 and 30 together which sends power to the fan. To run two relays in parallel, just run wires from terminal to terminal on a second relay. IOW, from terminal 30 on the relay above to a second relay's terminal 30, and so on. Hope that helps

They made a 4 bolt 400 block, but it seems to be and accepted thing that they were weaker than the 2 bolt block.

Ron, I'm having problems with my 3310 being too rich as well. I think most of the problem is that the transfer slot is being uncovered too far at idle and loading up. Alot of overlap in the cam will do that. I'm going to drill holes in the throttle plates to let more air in to lean out the idle mixture and allow more of the transfer slot to me covered up. Other than that, the 3310 is typically rich out of the box. You may need to reduce the effective size of the idle fuel restrictions (IFRs) (with .014 to .016 dia wire in the IFR hole in the metering block) or increase the idle and/or main air bleed holes. I was reading my new copy of Vizards' book on intakes and manifolds and came across an interesting philosophical discussion of the Holley "Main" metering circuit. Vizard thinks its more aptly called a cruise circuit, because it is only part of the fuel circuit for any application of the throttle that creates less manifold vacuum than the power valve rating. His advice is to adjust the main jet size for cruise mixture and to play with the power valve circuit restriction (PVCR) size to get the mid to high load mixture correct. All of this would be easier with an O2 sensor, and a wide band one at that. Again and again recognized high performance V8 experts tell me that a 750 carb is NOT too big for my 327, and will make more power. They say all it takes is correct tuning. Then again, others say I need a 650 and any more is not going to make more power, just make idle and throttle response different. I think there's truth to both arguments. I think a 750 on my 327 or your engine could work well, if the correct venturi boosters, throttle plate holes, powervalve, PVCR, IFR and jet sizes, etc. are used - but probably not an out of the box 750. But that's a TON of tuning. EFI would be SO much easier. If only the money would fall off a tree or something!

I'm not sure, but I was wondering - how is the cat? Did it live very long after it knocked your rings on the floor?

Sorry I slipped on this little task - been working about 70 hours a week lately - and my memory stinks! My fancy-smancy relay circuit is all for nought. I have the fan come on high if the fan switch says the engine is hot, and also if the A/C is on. Use a thermo switch (like the the JET-60601 from Summit racing) in the water passage of the intake or in the cylinder head (I prefer the intake). Like Lone said, just use high speed. I've been using mine on high only because low doesn't seem to cut it in the present heat. Plus you want to wire it to run high if you have A/C and turn that on. So it's pretty easy - get two 30 amp relays and run them in parallel: - Have the fan switch activate both relays (the fan switch is grounded. Connect a 1 amp fuse to 12V positive and run that to one side of each relay coil. Connect the other side of the coils to the tap on the fan switch. You can use #16 wire for all this. - Run a #12 or #10 wire to the arm of each relay from a 50 or 60 amp Maxi fuse connected to the alternator output - Run a #12 or #10 wire from each NO contact on the relay to the high speed winding terminal - Run a two #12 or #10 wires (in parallel) to a good ground. The reason for two relays is that the typical VF30 relay only handles 30 or 40 amps. Running 35 amps through one of these is testing it's capacity too much, IMO. Therefore, run two in parallel as I describe above. Hope that helps, Pete

They sell a solvent, but once it's cured, it takes some nasty chemicals to melt it. Heat gun? Torch? Dry ice?

Yep, build it and test it. Change something, build and test again. Well, they're a little more intellegent than that on the matter, but ultimately, they build and test!

(Warning, Pete is getting up on the podium to preach non-conformism. Some will want to shoot him after reading this or at least think he's gone off the deep end...) Eric, I agree with much of your critique of the cars shown above. And to me this points out an important lesson - don't pretend you're a Picasso, if your not! Styling (I tend to think that Engineers design things, not Stylists ;D ) is not to be done without a broad eye that thinks about the effects of the changes. The "tension" you describe about the Peirre Z's tail lights for example. BTW, I saw that car at MSA this year and I agree it is a great custom Z body -definitely on my top ten list, if not top 5. I also agree that the first Z you showed above just doesn't look balanced. Not to my liking either. New and different seldom means beautiful nor timeless when it comes to styling. Fads are for shallow thinkers, in my mind. And all a fad is, is a styling concept gone popular because it's new and someone has told everyone it's great. Sometimes it is, but not often. The thing is that I think Dan has done some incredible styling by taking the already certifiably beautiful lines of the Z and adding different custom body kit parts to come up with an original thing of beauty without falling prey to the trendy garbage we see pushed upon us by the parts vendors and then the automakers. I've said it before and I'll say it again - Dan, please think long and hard about what you do with the tail lights. It can really create "tension" and "uneasiness" in how one feels about a car's styling and it's not to be played with hap-hazardly. Please, Dan, don't just go for the trendy stuff that's available out there. Please look at this decision the same way you went about choosing the non-obvious array of parts to come up with a beautiful design that in no way SCREAMS at you, but reminds you of a beautiful thing from nature, like the curves of a beautiful female body, or a sleek feline animal. I may seem over dramatic, but trendy fad crap just drives me up the wall. So many people want to be a part of some accepted club that has hooked onto something that's new and cool. The 1st Gen. Z is and always will be a thing of beauty. Dan has modified it, but in my eye not taken away the beauty, but expressed it in a different way. Putting a row of circular tail lights on it takes away from the gentle non-constant radius curves, in my eye. It kind of erases them by drawing your attention to the circles. O.k. off my soap box

I can't remember if it was Puhn's book (How to make your car handle) or some other book, but you can't use the Friction-force=Normal-force TIMES coefficient of friction equation as you might expect. You COULD measure the friction and normal forces and back out a normal force dependent coeficient of friction, but now all you've done is create an empirical solution. The tire acting on the road is NOT your typical surface friction problem that only depends on normal force and a fixed coefficient of friction. As the tire is loaded, it grabs onto all the minute jaggies of the road surface. The creates a coefficient of friction that is a function of normal force and to some extent the traction force pushing the rubber that is in the little depressions underneath little cliffs and jaggies in the walls of the little depression. Some things just can't be represented with a simple equation. Pete Paraska MSME

Counter vote: I like the 300ZX lights better, Wagz. Something about round tail lights on a car with such nice changing radius curves just doesn't jive for me. To each his own!

Mark, thanks for making that site an posting here. That's one clean looking install in the Z! Nice smoke screen! That Nova does NOT look like an 11 second machine - very sneaky! I like!

The outer diameter difference won't matter. And a thousandth (0.001") is nothing to worry about. Glad you found something that works!

Tim, that's the best looking tail light treatment I've ever seen on a Z - and it's not even finished yet!

Yes, Jim, I noticed that too. It would seem taking your foot off the accelerator would be hard to do!

Welcome to the world of open minded drivetrain thinking! The L6 is a nice engine, but if you want to go NA, cubes are the answer, and to me, even a 3.1L stroked L6 won't cut it. Turbo and anything goes. Anyway, click the Search word at the upper right of the frame, and search this forum for the word "handling" in the subject only, and three threads appear. One is one of the longest (if not THE longest) thread on this site that goes into the V8 handling question: http://www.hybridz.org/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001259 I don't think you have anything to worry about. The V8 is shorter in height and length which when installed low and against the firewall pretty much negates any small (100 lb or less) weight gain. Put the battery in the back, go with AL heads, intake, waterpump, a mini-starter, an AL radiator, headers, and you're not very much above an L6's weight anyway. Go with the Ford SB and you can be lighter than the L6. Cheers,

Dude, you're not alone in your love for the Ford Forty-Nine. I love that thing. That'd be a great family car!

Duh, I was asleep at the keyboard (at work still...) I have the HEMI Super Turbo (2) in the stock location. I had to do a bit of spare tire well surgery to do that though. Anyway, the case on the Hemi version is 20" long, like 23 or 24 including the nipples (heh). I cut the nipple off the inlet side and put a near 90 (more like a 75) degree bend right at the muffler case. On one I had to use a section of a tubing donut. All the info is on my page. If I left something out, let me know: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pparaska/exhaust.htm Hope that helps.

Either that, or a Super T-10, a Ford Toploader or a Chrysler 833 trans - I think there are bellhousings or adapter plates for both of those. Of course, the Tremec TKO is pretty stout.

That's cool - I just thought it was pretty strange that they look so much like the original Euro 240Z taillights.

I have no idea how that could happen - I tired of that place years ago. BTW, for an example of a kick-a$$ Twin Turbo SBC, check this out: 1982 1200HP/1000TQ Twin Turbo SBC 427 Corvette Freaking incredible! Not for those without DEEP pockets.

Thanks DAW - I may be looking for a 280ZX cruise control vacuum pump/reservoir at some point here soon - if the motorcycle pump doesn't work. I may add a tank to that.

Yes, Phil you were the one, I just couldn't remember who it was. I think that looks great!

Welcome Back, SuperDan! You have quite a bit of HybridZ to read . Cheers,

Dave, I agree! But don't overlook ChevyTalk's Performance Related Forum