pparaska

All I can say is I want to be there! I'll fly anywhere you guys want to do that little HybridZ get together! I definitely feel a kinship with you two characters

The reason I said the 350 was that you can get one built locally (without a core!) for $400 and it'll handle 400+ hp easily. A TH400 is probably not needed for all but 500+ hp engines. But a used one in good shape might be the cheapest way out. I guess I just like having 3 gears, but a PG makes alot of sense in a light car like a Z. Isn't the 400 ratio a bit steep for a street Z with a 3.545? I'd think the 350 would be better.

jeromio, I'm with you - I almost bought a tank of R-12 years ago and never did. I've heard that yes, it's the oils that are a problem. But if you use an Ester based oil with the R-12, there isn't a problem. I'm getting ready to charge my system this week. It's getting hot and the lift-off date is very close.

Davy, I've since read that I should have "cooked" the chain in oil first, and maybe it wouldn't have stretched. But I'd had enough and just went to the gear drive. That Dynagear piece looks good. I almost bought that, but decided the PJ unit was proven, so I went with it. Owen, I'd LOVE to do the belt drive (especially the dry Jesel unit) but that's a huge pile of money to turn the cam!

Pretty wild. I think for the price that'll fetch, 30 of us could maybe go in on it and drive it once a month each . Van, what's up with the car - need some pics dude!

I second that opinion! I led a very priviledged teenage life - car wise that is. I had a 70 Camaro that I put a warmed over 327 in, but that's just a start. My buddies had: 454 SS Chevelle, 68 GT500 Shelby's (one had a fastback, one had a convertible), 69 GTOs, and an 70 AAR Cuda. Talk about spoiled! The Shelby's were a blast (428 Cobra Jets) straight and around corners, the Chevelles were nice cruisers, but the Cuda was incredible. The guy with the Cuda took the six pack motor out, and put a built up 340, W2 heads, solid cam, nice intake, etc. in the car and a nice manual trans and 4.11 posi rear with some nice traction aids. It turned 12s flat on street tires. To me it was pretty incredible - it ate the Shelbys! The guy was incredible behind the wheel which made the experience that much better. That 340 was one sweet motor. It reved great, and had a really broad torque curve. I think he shifted at 7000 and it was still making great power. Totally streetable too!

BTW, I found a try-it-for-a-month schematic package late last night. I should have my fan relay schematic up in a day or so. All you'd need would be a relay box out of a car, with 5 relays in it, and add some wire and 4 diodes and 2 low-amperre switches and you'd be able to run the 2 speed fan with many options for running the fan at any combination of sensor input (thermal fan switch and A/C pressure or clutch switch). But the easy way is to just use the high speed all the time, whenever the thermal fan switch or the A/C is on. But my fan pulls 35 amps on high and is overkill if the A/C isn't on. It really pulls the idle rpm on if I have the fan on high.

Turbo Hydramatic 350, built by a reputable shop.

First, take a dremel tool or die grinder and grind away the peened over portion of the stub axle nut. Next, mount the tire/wheel back onto the stub axle, lay the tire/wheel outer face on the concrete floor, stand on the tire and use a good impact to loosen the nut.

Sounds cool! In case you hadn't seen it posted here, buy the http://JagsThatRun.com manual and do lots of searching on this site to get questions answered! Welcome!

Now, maybe I haven't been spending enough money on chains, but the Manley and Cloyes chains I've used on two different SBCs seemed to stretch quite a bit (1/2" of play after 1 hour of running on the Cloyes!). I researched this a bit and grumpyvette said he'd used the same Pete Jackson gear drive for many years. There is a dissentor on Chevytalk.com that says that they are junk and you should only use the pricey single idler type. I have the Pete Jackson quiet drive on my 327. It is not totally quiet, but makes a bit of noise. Can't hear it much over the exhaust when the hoods down. It's on par volume wise with the clatter of the solid lifters. Personally, I think the rough idle lope, solid lifter clatter, and whine of the gear drive make the car music to listen to!

John, this guy's incredible. I'm sure all this work (the strut tower mounts, and this rad stuff) isn't cheap! I see you've designed this to be stiffening up (triangulating) the frame rails to the rad support. It seems I remember you mentioning that this was a "flexible" part of the car and that fixing that really helps the front end geometry stay put.

I'm drooling, John! That looks really sweet! Nice workmanship! Just wondering about something though. You said something a while ago about the problem with the strut towers being that they twist (I'm assuming about a vertical axis?) If so, I was wondering if it was better to mount the strut bars so that they intersect the top of the tower more like tangent to the top circular form, to react the moments. That is, instead of in line with the strut cartridge end.

Beautiful! I really like that Red! Man, these cars look SO much better without that rear bumper!

I'll see what I can do. My schematic is pretty messy. Anybody know of a freeware schematic layout program?

Heavy Z, the few V8 Z's I ridden in with only a front solid diff mount made a little noise when accelerating, but was REALLY objectionable to me for a street car was all the racket when you backed off the go pedal. What you describe sounds pretty common to me for a not-new R200 with a solid diff mount.

I took a different route putting the Autometer 5" IN-DASH monster Tach and Speedo in. When I bought the tach a few years ago, it came with the older style bezel ring. I simply cut about 5/8" off the back side of the Datsun black plastic gage bezel (near where the little screws hold it to the metal Z tach case) and fit it to the front of the Autometer INDASH tach. It's kind of wierd fit, but I used some postal cellophane tape (the strong sticky stuff) to hold the two together. At the rear, I made a bracket out of 1.5" wide flat steel, bent into a u-type shape, with holes that the studs at the back of the tach went through, and the studs for the Z wing nuts went through. A year later when I bought the In Dash Speedo, it had the new style bezel ring on it. But it came with a note that said if you shipped it back, they'd put an old style ring on it for you. It just fits together with the cut-down Z bezel better with the old style, so I sent it back. One nice thing about putting the Z bezels on the Autometers is that you can mount some low profile LEDs like Radio Shack sells (the threaded shank 12V ones) in the sides of the Z bezel for turn signal indicators, high beam indicator, and parking brake indicator functions.

Nice setup. Looks like a nice match of parts. To get the spacing to show, use the [ code] [ /code] (without the space after the [ ).

Damnit. Why the F#$% would they continue to sell this if it has this DESIGN FLAW. That really torques me off. I have that part in my car, and now I can look forward to pulling the engine and trans at some point in the future to FIX THEIR SCREW-UP. Thanks for the info.

I also hate to see threaded parts in bending - threads are stress concentrations, especially when bending is involved. It's good to see practicing mechanical engineers like Dan and katman comment on these things (I is a M.E., but hardly "practice" the stress weiner stuff anymore - unfortunately). I think providing 1-7/8" of adjustment is overkill anyway. If you made the threaded part shorter, it'd still have adjustment, and it'd be farther away from the large bending moments near the center part of the arm. The black pipe doesn't bother me that much. The gussets sound like a good idea. Pete Paraska M.S.M.E

If you're going to use two speeds like that, then you need to use more relays. BTW, the high speed of that fan is probably very much like the GT Mustang fan I have and pulls 35 amps. For that reason, I used two VF-40 relays in parallel (both the coils and the common and NO contacts) to split the current between them. That would make three relays. Anyway, the answer to your other question is, yes, you should have the low speed cut out when the high speed is on. I have a circuit that I made up to do this. If you're interested, I can post it, but it's a bit overkill. Another way to handle this is get the underhood relay module from a Mustang or maybe the Lincoln and use it. I have the pages out of a professional chiltons that could probably be used to wire the fan to do what you're looking for. The easy way out is to just let either the temp activated fan switch and the A/C switch turn the fan on high. Put the switches in parallel to the relay coil(s) and either or both will turn the fan on high.

Hmm. I'm a bit-out-of-practice stress weenie that'd like to get back into that field. Bombers, that'd be cool. But I don't want to move, although I like that area. Dan, I have the B' S03s on my Eclipse daily driver and I really like them. Good thing I drive less that 5K miles a year! Those are some sticky street tires! Hardly what I'd think of as a daily driver tire!

Craig, I'm confused. They should be able to just put a 1310 series joint in the aft end of the driveshaft, and install the flange on that. Of course, after removing several feet of length from the shaft .

The OE bolts are made for that application. The only real upgrade would be NAS or AN (cheaper than NAS) bolts. NAS bolts are made for shear applications like this. I'd stay away from regular grade 8 bolts - they don't have the correct diameter shank and you want a snug fit. OE or AN or NAS. That's what I'd use. I have OE in this application for the CV's, adapter, etc. NAS on the driveshaft.

WTG Dan! Congrats and glad you got it fixed!