280zwitha383

Ok, sorry it took me a while to respond. This is a cousin by marriage.. or something like that. It was just easier for me to call him a friend! Anyway his transmission is just staying in gear (I think second), meaning it won't switch to 3rd (which is the transmission 1:1 gear if that means anything in particular). It's not slipping, it just won't shift. It's an automatic chevy transmission (700r4). He took it to a shop and they told him the transmission needed to be replaced and quoted him $2500 so he ordered one online and figured I would help him put it in. I really don't have that much time to help him but I went and looked at it and was tossing around the thought that he could just flush the fluid out (whatever it may be) and possibly be back in running condition since whatever is in there probably isn't functioning as the best hydraulic fluid. If the fluid was burnt and I simply didn't recognize the smell then there wouldn't be a point to swapping the fluid out in the transmission that's in there, which is why I'm inquiring. I guess the consensus is that this probably isn't burnt transmission fluid then since it doesn't smell burnt at all? So then if he did mix transmission fluid and oil could that even give the symptoms I'm describing? I obviously don't know the first thing about transmission troubleshooting. If one goes out I just stab another one in usually!

I went and looked at a friends car who has already ordered another 700r4. The thing that gets me about it is the transmission fluid looks like oil. It's a brown color and smells like someone mixed transmission fluid and oil... It actually looked as if it was separating, like how water and oil does. He swears no one put oil in it but he's young and probably not the most straight up character. So, my question is I guess how do I tell the difference? It definitely doesn't smell burnt in any way but I've never smelled burnt transmission fluid either. For that matter I've never smelled transmission fluid and oil mixed together but I would think burned transmission fluid would have a distinct burnt smell to it. I appreciate any input!

Let me first preface this and say that it doesn't freeze here very often so it's not old hat to me like it probably is most other people.. haha. Anyway, I've got an engine sitting in my willys that doesn't have any coolant in it and it may freeze tonight. It's my understanding that what harms a block is when the water in it freezes and expands putting pressure on everything. So am I safe to assume that without water or coolant in the engine I have nothing to worry about?

Well I looked at the wiring today and totally forgot to look at which terminal it goes to on the alternator. Anyway, the thick white wire goes to the "s" terminal I believe (should be your main charge wire) and the small blue wire goes to one of the terminals that have a connector that go in the top (this gives you the correct effect on your gauge with the light, ie if the alternator isn't charging your voltmeter will show your actual volts and the light will come on saying it's not charging). I'm sure this is common knowledge somewhere on here because I certainly didn't figure it out myself so I would think a search would put you in better shape than my poor memory.

I'll try to look tomorrow about the alternator wiring. I'm sorry I didn't get back to you about it before, it completely slipped my mind.

Yeah but I would imagine you're going to blow a few hundred on the intake

To heck with the 305! What's your budget and what do you have already?

It comes with the wiring harness and computer?

I need to remove a good bit of rust from the bed of an old truck I have. I'd also like something to clean the driveway if both of those are possible. A guy told me something about a wadu(??) he said was an attachment to a pressure washer that would pull sand or other media but I haven't been able to find anything like that. I'd like to be able to blast rust and dirt from small parts. I kind of lean towards the idea of wet blasting just so I don't breathe all the stuff but I don't know where to start. Any help would be great!

I'm going to give it a shot

I always ran mechanical pumps on the ZX's with the stock electric pump bypassed. You might have blown the diaphragm out of your mechanical one with your electric pump actually. Either way you only need one, either regulate the electric pump or bypass it.

I bought a 1948 Willys truck that's got a ford 9" bolted in and supposedly a camaro front suspension welded in. This guy has been sitting for a while and has just had the brake lines sitting open and out in the elements and I was wondering how concerned I should be with them (they're cut short just including the hose part that's flexible enough to allow some suspension movement). I would think trash in the lines would eventually harm the calipers but I don't know if I'm concerned about it enough to disassemble them all. Should I try to compress the pistons and force any fluid that's in them out to clear the lines out or might I even be alright after I bleed them? Also, I'm going to need a brake booster. It's all four disc brakes and I would think this truck is going to be very light (it's just a frame, cab, very small bed, and a sbc/350 turbo). Would something like this be sufficient?: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/7-CHROME-STREET-RAT-ROD-BRAKE-BOOSTER-MASTER-CYLINDER_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem588404106aQQitemZ380171980906QQptZMotorsQ5fCarQ5fTruckQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories Thanks!

I recently reassembled my 383 with a new comp cams hydraulic roller 282 (p/n 08-432-8) and put a new cheapo ebay special bronze gear on the distributor (I previously had a used slp51010 cam in it before and ran the whole time on one bronze gear that I can remember but just figured if I put a new cam in I would start with a new gear). So a few days ago (and a little less than a thousand miles later) I pull the dipstick out and get some major shiny stuff floating around in the oil. So I pull the distributor out and the bronze gear is almost eaten completely through! To me it seems ridiculous to have to replace something this quickly. I've heard about a composite gear (comp 12200) which is a little over a hundred dollars. In my thinking if this composite gear lasts longer than 3 bronze gears then I've actually saved money. And supposedly the bronze gears only last 10-15k miles anyway. Have you ran either of these? I know you like the pressed in gear and crane cams better but I've got to work with what I've got! haha. I've also seen the recommendations for slotting the distributor and even the block. I'm just wondering what your experiences have been (and anyone's for that matter) with the bronze or "composite" gear. I do also have a melonized gear which I know is for the stock roller cams but I haven't heard conclusively that I can use it on this billet cam and I don't care to take the chance unless I'm fully convinced. Thanks for any help!

They do have a writeup of the ZX conversion. I purchased their zx mounts and they sent it to me (it's only a few pages) and said they were in the process of making a manual but I'm pretty sure that didn't ever completely pan out. Anyway, that's been years ago but as long as they're the same guys they're super nice and I wouldn't doubt if they would send you the writeup or sell it to you at a very reasonable price.

I have my ignition hooked up to the stock + for the coil and I also have the stock - hooked up so the factory tach will work. I also have the alternator hooked up to the factory wiring but I have the 1 wire alternator. I do have an additional wire hooked up so the factory batter gauge works though. I'll try and remember tomorrow to look and see which one and what terminal it goes to. Good luck on the first fire up!

Are you mixing fluids (still)? I don't think you could ever pull that much oil from the lifter valley now that I think about it because the intake is higher than where I would picture oil flow being. But I was also thinking you could have messed up some valve seals. If not a valve seal then I think you have something wrong with the bottom end. And I agree with bschlitz thinking that you might have warped heads too.

I guess you could be sucking oil past the intake gasket from the lifter valley area. Other than that I think you're headed towards a tear down.

This dude knocked the mess out of my poor little firebird and now I need some tail lights for the thing and maybe a nice white bumper if I could get lucky enough to find one. When I have some days off I'll call the local junkyards but if I could find a good enough deal on the lights online I wouldn't mind getting them already. Looks like ebay's best is probably $250+ for both lights which seems a little steep? Thanks.

I know the transmission mounts are different (at least JTR's mounts) between the two. The driver's side header can't just be any old shorty header on the ZX's because you have to work around the steering shaft. I have also been able to run mechanical fuel pumps with JTR's 280zx engine mounts and I don't think that's possible with their mounts for the Z's (so the engine mounts must be different also??). You don't have to buy a smaller harmonic balancer for the ZX like the conversion book says you do for the Z either... There's probably a few others that aren't coming to mind at the moment.

how cheap are these CHEAP probe forged pistons?

Ah, I wouldn't have thought to advance the timing that much. I did drain the tank before I even set the engine in there again but I have thought to take the carb off and double check everything. I'll give the timing a shot asap.

What's a Christmas tree? Is that like a butterface?

So the Z hasn't been on the road for about a year because I spun some bearings in the 383 right about the time I got divorced and up until a few months ago I haven't hardly touched a car... I know, sad story... haha:violin: Anyway, life goes on and I rebuilt the 383 and put a comp 282 hyd. roller in it and had some bowl work done to the heads, other than that nothing has changed. I just can't seem to get the thing to idle right. It will idle steadily for a second and then stumble and die if it's not warmed up yet (under load, while in drive). If it's cool outside it will idle so so in neutral but as soon as you put a load on it it will usually die (again, when it warms up it's better). The thing has a 3000 stall too so it's not like I'm really putting much of a load on it at idle in gear so.. I don't know. I've checked my power valve (it's a 4.5 and doesn't leak) and I've readjusted the valves, my timing is between 10-12.. for some reason it jumps around about 2 degrees even though I put a new bronze gear on the distributor. Could that be from too much end play on the shaft? I haven't ever been able to set my idle mixture screws on my holley 670 street avenger with a vacuum gauge because it doesn't ever change when you back the needles out but I've tried them anywhere from 1/2 turn to 1 1/2 turns with pretty much no noticeable change. I'm pulling right at 10hg of vacuum at idle but it goes down to 5 when it starts idling poorly. I just don't know what to point my finger at. The carb has the stock jets in it (I don't remember what they are off the top of my head), the floats are set right.. I've checked everything I can think of really and it still runs the same. Once it's going it runs right but it's just the idle that I can't get down. I haven't ever had a cam this big but surely you should still be able to get the thing to idle right.. The cam with the 1.6:1 rockers is a little under .550 lift intake and exhaust. I'm not running a vacuum cannister and I don't usually but would running one help me out any? I appreciate any ideas.

Doc, are you suggesting that the bolts might be the limiting factor of the eagle SIR rods? Grumpy, they have off brand rods with arp bolts? I think the arp bolts are a definite plus for sure but I would think that buying arp bolts for these rods would become counterproductive (cost of bolts + rods would be greater than simply buying some name brand rods that already had arp bolts). Plus if the arp bolts require you to torque them differently than the original rods then you would probably need to have the rod honed and that would just be rediculous.. haha. If they have some similarly priced rods with ARP bolts I think that might be the way to go. Dustin, I was actually looking at an auction for the kmj rods but the auction was ending too late and I didn't mention it because I couldn't get any responses to my question before the auction ended. That's a good deal on those scat rods but they're also pressed fit and I of course need floating pins. (The auction for the kmj rods ended at $129 with $16 shipping, it was at $114 when I posted my original question (which was already past my bedtime.... haha)): http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/WOW-SBC-CHEVY-5-7-Hi-Perf-I-Beam-Connecting-Rods_W0QQitemZ220303044933QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item220303044933&_trkparms=39%3A1|65%3A1|240%3A1318&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245

I think the car is cool as get out but for the love of GOD throw those door panels away!