280zwitha383

That's no lie....

I was talking to one of my friends about the same thing. He said, "Well, my truck is slow as crap and I'll rev at other poeple just to see if they've got something." That and the fact that people in completely stock work trucks will goose it a little when I get next to them makes me think that's what a lot of people do.

Yes, also use the white(?) wire for the tachometer. It's the exact same wiring. You might be pleased to find that you don't have to wire a resistor inline with the negative (tach) wire. I bought a resistor like JTR said and my tach wouldn't work at all so I took it out and it worked fine (this is only regarding ZX's). Of course you will still have to calibrate it on the back but it might work without jumping. 4 years is crazy. It's exciting to hear that you're getting close.

Well on the thought of walmart and.... well. My fiance overheard my mother complimenting my grandmother on her glasses. My grandmother quickly responded that she had found the glasses and my mother was very interested to know where. My grandmother happily said, "Yeah they were just sitting in Walmart, two pair of them with no pricetag so I figured someone must have left them there":rolleyesg

Is there any way to tell whether your jettings are close without an a/f sensor? I do have my timing set at 36* total and 14* initial. I will try the accelerator cams and a new power valve and see what happens. Should I get a dual stage power valve or a single stage? Alot of the reason I haven't tried anything with this carb is because the parts stores around here don't have the parts I need like acc. cams, dual stage power valve, or assortments of jets. So I would have to order them (or look around more here) and I just haven't had time lately.

The more I mess with my 670cfm Street Avenger carb the more I want a 700 or 750 double pumper. However, I'm trying to save money for a wedding, honeymoon, and house . So, I've been trying to get the one that I have running to where we can get along for now. My problem is that when I punch the throttle while moving I usually get a little bit of a flat spot at slower speeds and a very noticable flat spot at higher speeds. Once whatever catches up it's all smiles, but until then I'm pretty disappointed. Besides the flat spot I've been pleased with the performance of this setup. So here's what I have. 383 10:1 compression Dart IE 215cc heads SLP51010 cam (.490/.50? lift and 280* duration roller/ hyd. lifters) Victor Jr. Intake 670cfm Street Avenger Small tube headers going into a single 2.5" pipe w/ cutout th350 3.90 rearend stock mechanical fuel pump (ZX) I haven't tried a whole lot of things but I have played with the vacuum springs a little and I just can't bring myself to put in anything stiffer than the stock spring because it feels like I lose power up high. With the lightest spring if I punch it the car almost literally falls flat on its face. I'm pretty sure the carb has stock jets, power valve, etc. Now I would think that some bigger jets might help stuff out a little because it's a borderline carb for the engine and I've read that with a single plane intake you don't get as much vacuum and should install larger jets (like 2 sizes on both). I don't think I'm running rich and I've thought about trying to change out the power valve but I'm pretty sure it's a 6.5 and at idle I have around 11 psi of vacuum and in gear while idling I have 8 or 9 (so that shouldn't be the problem right?). I have never been able to get any kind of vacuum changes by adjusting the idle mixture screws unless it's under half a turn and trying to die, and I've tried the mixture screws everywhere from half a turn to a turn and a half without any noticeable change in performance (seat of the pants is difficult to judge because of the extreme gearing). I'm positive that I don't have any vacuum leaks and the only thing I have that's kind of weird is the check valve immediately after the carb which I would think doesn't ever send a low pressure signal to the tranny. I need to know where to start. I can't imagine that this thing could possibly want stiffer springs because everyone always says in a car this light the lightest spring should be used and my only thought is that maybe the carb is just that much too small for the engine and it pulls the secondaries open quicker than most people's since they are probably running a larger carb on their engines. From the paper that came with the springs it doesn't seem to me that anything stiffer than the normal spring will ever completely open up since I don't take the engine over 6k rpm. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks ~Lance

I kept thinking, "Stupid people, why don't they just post the link to the actual joke and not links to other links."

A new cam is plus or minus $100, while you've got the engine out you could pull the cam and run the #'s on it and go from there. With that said, don't take it that I'm all for you buying this engine. Especially in Houston, I would think you could find a billion different 350's for that price with similar stories and I'm sure a better deal is out there. You might check your local machine shops and see what they have laying around that people haven't ever paid for. Also, for the amount that you are thinking, have you considered a fuel injected engine out of some sort of donor car (Caprice, Camaro, etc.)? IMO fuel injection and streetability go hand in hand, plus with the donor car you can get a good feel for the engine and even the transmission.

Oh, and if he's put those supposedly lighter rods in the engine he should have had it balanced IMO.

Well, it sounds like you've already made up your mind. BUT, if he can show you that the stuff in the engine is legit with receipts for cam, machine work etc. and maybe you could hear it run, then I would probably tell you to take it. There are honest people around (especially here in Texas ) you just have to sniff out the turds.

So what's the new hot ticket for a hybrid? The rx7?

Ah, I don't downshift to slow down not only because I don't like doing that to a transmission but I don't like the thought of stretching out rod bolts because of the sudden reverse torque on them (don't know if that's factual or not but an old hotrodder told me that and it makes sense). Anyway, that I don't recommend.

First thing, I am not a transmission guy. With that said, I downshift my 350th a few times a day in medium to full acceleration. Feels good too! I also have the B&M ratchet shifter but with mine you can lift up either in park or in drive and freely shift to any position in between without ratcheting. IMO, if the tranny was built up a little and has a shift kit it should be fine. I do however try and match my throttle position with where the engine should be once I downshift so as to sync things a little better (make sense?). I will say that with my truck which also has a (stock) 350th I refuse to downshift because it feels quite ugly and I could easily see how it could mess the transmission up because it feels like it slams into place instead of shifting like my other one.

Jerks! I know a guy who keeps cracking his starters. I have always assumed that it is because he doesn't have it shimmed properly because he's always talking about how it will spin freely sometimes and sound like it's dragging at other times. He has tried shimming the starter but he won't ever use the rod that they give you to clearance the thing . As for the fuel coming out of the carb, are you running an electric fuel pump?

At first I simply laughed and then an almost look of horror crossed my face as I saw how much work someone put into doing this....

If I had to guess I would say that 500 hp is a wee conservative.

UUUUUUUUUUHhhhhhhhhhhh huhuh. He said schoolong

That's one way to do it I guess.

Actually I don't know, what I was referring to is a 280zx.

That's great but I was talking about the dude's face.....

vapor lock?

That's pretty funny. My brights like to come on and they don't like to go off. I need to clean my contacts for sure.