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Mike Kelly's Zcar Project


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Few pics from yesterday at the dyno.  This was before we did a baseline with the low profile carb hat on the motor.

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This is one of their customer's cars.  Headlight/electrical issue.  Other than the rear deck spoiler, the car was bone stock and had a recent respray... still had that "old gas" smell... Great shape for a 78!

 

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So here is what I did to resolve the issues with air cleaner and crank pressure when we decided to ditch the setup I had.  First I bought this part number which is a smog air pump for a 1998 LS1 Camaro:

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Next I checked the wiring and found one ground (black), one wire to open the suction port (red), and one to spin the blower up (Orange):

 

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Then I soldered, shrinkwrapped, and made a harness with a 15 amp inline fuse for the setup.  I plumbed the air-oil separators to the unit and the unit vents with a K&N breather filter:

 

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I also installed the air cleaner base/filter/top:

 

 

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I will get to try it all out this coming week at VIR with Chin Motorsports!

Edited by Mikelly
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Hi Mike, I noticed in one of the pictures in this thread, you used a dual snorkel air cleaner similar to this: http://www.fortesparts.com/product_info.php?products_id=194  Why did you abandon it? I'm looking for something to get cold air to a street driven V8Z. I was previously looking at the single inlet carb hats same as you were using, but after your dyno results, don't think so. I only have a warmed over 350, not a fully race prepped 383.

tia

chris

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Mark, It is full course. I am hoping no more issues.

 

NCChris, The Dual Snorkel air box worked great but the hood vents I installed are interfering with the size and angle of the box. So that is a no go.

 

Mike

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I'm going to drop the LS1 shortblock off with the engine shop on August 1.  I have made the decision to go with the LS1 as soon as the combo is worked out and the motor is built.

 

Mike

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I'm going to drop the LS1 shortblock off with the engine shop on August 1.  I have made the decision to go with the LS1 as soon as the combo is worked out and the motor is built.

 

Mike

Finally.........

 

I was going to come up and surprise you today at VIR but it just didn't work out. Mark asked me this past weekend if there was any way I could come up. I have appointments today and tomorrow that were impossible to reschedule. Have a safe and fast time.........

 

This past weekend at RA with Chin we had 4 complete totals, 3 corvettes and 1 e36. Preach that safety.

 

Look for a guy in an '86 red porsche. His name is Mike Halsey and he and his companions are from Ontario and doing a tour of tracks. He was my student for the weekend. Please introduce yourself and let him know we are friends. I would ask you to give him a ride but I know you don't have the extra seat anymore.

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I'm going to drop the LS1 shortblock off with the engine shop on August 1.  I have made the decision to go with the LS1 as soon as the combo is worked out and the motor is built.

 

Mike

 

My only problem with this is there is waaaay to much time for you to change your mind again! Drop it off tomorrow :)

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Low low turnout so far... Less than 50 cars total, but of those, 2 Ferrari 458 racecars.

 

Matt, We met up with the guys from Canada. I volunteered to do ride-alongs tomorrow.

 

So I am on the phone with Matt, Driving 55 mph in my diesel rig hauling my trailer in the heaviest rain I have seen in a while... I see out of the corner of my eye a tree falling, I am talking at that moment with Matt about the sad footnote of another tree falling, that tree being OAKTREE at T12 VIR. The tree I am worried about falls down an embankment and somehow my trailer and truck miss it as it falls into the highway behind me, somewhere on the Rt29 bipass around LInchburg, Va. Sorry to those following in the blinding rain, because someone probably hit that tree behind me...

 

Going to be an interesting two days. My student has an S2000, and My car has only slicks and no wiper assembly. I hope like hell it dries out!!!

 

Mike

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Mike,

 

If one of those 458 Challenge cars is white and a husband and wife team driving it.......................Beautiful car (and trailer and toter) just make sure to flash your lights when your on their bumper as none of their mirrors seem to work. 

 

My Canadian friends are very nice and good drivers. I was hoping that Mike in his red 86 would somehow get you as an instructor and he could make headway getting your input, like we did at RA, over his compadres that thought an instructor was not needed. Please be sure to tell them hello from me.

 

I checked the forecast and it looks like all you really need to watch out for is falling trees.

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Sidelined, yet again. Crank case pump blew a fuse pushing oil out of the motor, filling it with smoke and something associated with the starter quit working. Car had to be towed in.

 

Frustration is an understatement. Goddamn I miss my Porsche.

Mike

Edited by Mikelly
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Brand new everything. Two wire, one to ground, one to power with an inline fuse. Nothing sophisticated. I am beginning to think it is time to cut bate. This "rod" doesn't want to fish, it seems. Actively shopping track cars right now.

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This car has had to see the most failed new parts on record. I'm sorry to say but I think I'd throw in the towel as well and buy something that I'd only have to change tires and seatbelts to track.

 

Good luck Mike.

 

Joe

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Oh, man! Mike, you might do really well on that car to Rocky Auto on the international market (I imagine only a sultan or sheik could afford it), but I'd hate to see you eat all your hard work. Please, please reconsider. If I had that car, I would just de-tune it and race it with a more conservative setup. Put a $1000 junkyard LS in it bone stock (don't even pull the heads) with no control systems on it and wear it out. It is almost like you've built it so well that all your super sophisticated upgrades are just fighting you. I'd love to have that chassis, but I would hate to have to maintain all the supporting assemblies: if you had a $1000 engine, could you live even without a dry sump system (I don't know)? I'm not anywhere near your level, but my motor still has the same spark plugs it had from the junkyard! And I'm having a ball. Dopey rednecks have a lot of fun with our cobbled up cheap shi...consider joining the redneck club rather than pulling the plug.

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Keith, thats the thing. There is nothing exotic about the motor. It is a stanard chevy 1st gen v8.

 

I appreciate the encouragement to "stay in the game" and "keep at it" but three years and 8 events, not one single full session complete. Easy to give advice to continue pouring money and time into it until you live it with this particular project. Trust me.

 

I don't know what I am going to do right now, but if anyone ever asked my opinion on building one of these cars in the future I would tell them to take up golf.

 

So fuqin disgusted with this project and this experience at this point.

Edited by Mikelly
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I don't know what I am going to do right now, but if anyone ever asked my opinion on building one of these cars in the future I would tell them to take up golf.

 

Mike, I'm not going to tell you what to do, I won't even tell you what I think you should do. It's your time, your money, and your project. Even when you started this thread you weren't against the idea of building the car and then selling it. Staying emotionally detached is good, but onto my point.

 

How many parts/issues that you've had are actually Datsun Z Car Part specific? Haven't most of your issues been aftermarket or Non-OEM brand parts? I'm not trying to point fingers and say one company is better than another, but I'd just like to see you have a real down to earth realization of where the problems arise. Obviously there's plenty of S30's out there that people track often. I think it's a disservice to the S30 to blame the chassis for problems it didn't inherently cause.

 

If I'm wrong, and that you've had issues that are Z-Car specific time and time again I'll retract my statement and say that you're more than welcome, in my book, to slam the Z cars and promote an anti-Z-track-car agenda. :wink:

 

And now take a deep breath and realize I'm just trying to help you out. :-D

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