Getting upset with 240Z

[Guest Anonymous]

Iskenderian was me until lately. They seem to be playing 5 card stud with their website.

 

Crane on the other hand is the most open with info I have seen so far. Most of the websites treat the reader as if they were either experts or dummies with no room for the mind to be nourished and grow. I buy no cam or anything else for that matter unless I have a pretty good understanding of what's going on. This sure makes it hard to select items because the vendors don't want you to shop and compare at all but just blindly buy the name because a friend runs that one and you like it. It is the worst with the muffler crowd. But I digress.

[Michael]

Grumpy – To slightly change the subject.... I’ve been following your advice on big blocks in various posts (such as the 496 marine build-up), but prior to this thread I didn’t realize that you had a big-block Z! Do you have pictures/text about this car? Would you summarize the characteristics of the engine build that you chose? You’ve heard the story with mine – chassis is together, but engine is ailing, while I waffle as to what to do with it (for instance, whether to cough up >$2000 for aluminum heads, especially when AFR comes out with oval-port heads, or to mess with my 346236 castings). 632 cu in mountain motors are wonderful things, no doubt – but I would also be curious to see your views on “budget” offshoots of the 454

 

As for the roll cage story – I don’t have the benefit of practical experience, but the consensus among chassis builders with whom I have come in contact is that triangulated structures are vastly superior to quadrilaterals, and swing-out bars, such as door X-bars, might be OK for rollover protection purposes, but they don’t help much with chassis stiffening. My car has welded-in X-bars which tie to the frame rails in the bottom front (diagonals inside the wheel wells), the dash bar in the top front, and the roll bar in back. By no means necessarily the best solution, of course - but it certainly feel solid on jackstands. Pete Paraska has pictures of my car on his site - http://mywebpages.comcast.net/pparaska/MichaelOlsBBZ.htm

[grumpyvette]

I DON,T HAVE A BIG BLOCK (Z) I said I HELPED BUILD ONE! AND IVE WORKED ON and HELPED MODIFY SEVERAL OF THEM OVER THE YEARS(and about a dozen differant sbc (Z)s )

my cousin had one he bought 1/2 built that we finished building also

 

btw all the roll cage things you mentioned are true

" (is that triangulated structures are vastly superior to quadrilaterals, and swing-out bars, such as door X-bars, might be OK for rollover protection purposes, but they don’t help much with chassis stiffening.)"

 

. (My car has welded-in X-bars which tie to the frame rails in the bottom front (diagonals inside the wheel wells), the dash bar in the top front, and the roll bar in back.)

 

 

SOUNDS GOOD

 

now I have built and raced AND OWNED a full roll cage 68 corvette with a fuel injected 496 big block that ran consistant 10.25/135mph that had extensive mods (IVE ALWAYS BEEN A CORVETTE NUT)

 

now I took a differant approach on the big block (Z) build , what I basically did was remove the front clip/suspension and all of the interior and floor, I took very carefull measurements then built a roll cage and lowered the body skin over the roll cage and welded it in place, the passenger door was partly blocked with a diagonal brace, the drivers side door had a swing out brace.It was made out of 2" moly tube I bent and cut to fit, the lower frame rail was made of 2 -2"moly tubes placed side by side and welded together tha extended forward of the engine to the bumper brackets an tied together and to the rear bumper with diagonal braces