were all so dead here lately, i thought id see what projects or what not everyone is doing. Im starting to crack down on my interior, starting custom door panels and finishing gauge swap (info in link below). Also figured id do a tech article on the swap. Anyway lets get some posts rollin in here! http://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/show...hreadid=215247

hopefully to be seen at Bandemere and Douglas summer 2004

http://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/show...hreadid=207163

It is all about the $$$$$$$$$$$.
My cars are way down the line on the family budget list. So I have to do my work/mods alittle at a time. But atleast they are in the budget.


Laters,
Conrad

the JYD was built on a shoestring budget.

scroll to the bottom for the movie

http://www.outlawperformance.com/JYD2.0.htm

nice tom, thats an interesting motor your building. Im personally looking to throw together a 400 on a budget. Plan is to find a block and slowly acquire parts over the summer and even into the winter and get it in next year.

youll have to let us all know what it pulls on the dyno

depending how much you drive, a stock rod length 400 is not a biggie. the bs about them not revving is just that, BS. The rod angularity can be a problem with piston skirt wear but alot of the 400's you find still run and have way more than that on them. I wrote a cool article about a 400 we did years ago, you should check it out.

http://www.thirdgen.org/techbb2/show...light=compucam

good story, high 12's with smog crap on a low budget. I wanna build it right which is why im giving myself so much time, it will be drivin alot but id like to keep it relatively mild. If I could break into the 13's at bandimere in street tires id be happy. The only big problem is finding a 400 block, but patience is key.

How does the rod angularity effect skirt wear? Im planning h-beams (stock length) under forged pistons, open chamber heads (72cc prob), maybe around 10-10.5 compression, about .500 cam lift (full roller ofcourse), performer rpm with "stock" cc q-junk and full exaust (header choice depends on where emissions is going, an insider has told me they plan to phase it out due to the money being lost and that most the jumk is off the road now). Car already has 3.73's so ill just need some sfc's and a little more tranny work.

The only problem Ive seen with 400's besides the typical craked blocks and worn to nothing castings is rod breakage. I'd plan on upgrading the rods, well at least buy a new set of replacement rods and shove some ARP bolts in them.

As far as new for me, budget of course is tight, splitting effort between 2 cars and a truck is wearing me down.


My #1 priority for now.

The Malibu's been gone through mostly....
Frame and undercarrage resto done, new poly body mounts, bearings/bushings for rear end/tranny, brakes too damn much stuff. The 427's nearly ready to drop, still cant decide on a good cam. The patriot headers had to be sent back, collectors droped from a 2-1/2 connection to a freaking 2in collector.

The firebird needs more tweaking, still running around with a primered PB hood, someone slammed a basket at wally world into the rear bumper and chiped a 2x2 peice of paint out. So as far as Im concerend the entire car need painted again to match right. I need exhuast reworked again, the muffler shop moved my axle over pipe up and back when they put the leads on for the headers, now its vibrating like crazy on the heat shield and just ticking me off to no end and I still havent got the oil changed yet.

The truck needs exhuast work also, the H pipe from when I had the 402 in is too small for the SB and the pipe and headers are streched togather to the point Its breaking hangers when the engine is tq'd. I think I might take care of this problem today if theres enough time to get some flex tube and gaskets. I'm thinking about cuttingthe H pipe in half and clamping in some flex tube in the middle to allow it some flexability, but of course that crap rusts like no other but theres not much of an option as far as cheap goes. Common luck lotto ticket.

Thats about all I'm up to.

Santa was good to me this year! I just got a wonderbar from TDS,and from spohn I got some greasable poly swaybar bushing and poly end links(fortunately wife follows instructions on xmas list very well! ) .My folks and my sis sent me some summit gift certificates so I just ordered some moog front springs and some kyb struts with those. I have alot of moog stuff from last xmas too so the first weekend in january that I have off the front suspension is getting ripped outta there. I figured while I have that apart I'll put on some new front calipers(seals are bad on current ones) and new front pads.Advanced auto had some good prices on bendix stuff.
I also have some leather 4th gen seats and new carpet waiting to go in.I was gonna dynamat the floor first but that stuff is too expensive.Home depot has something called seal and peal thats similar to dynamat but only like 60 cents /sq ft so I think I'll try some of that stuff on the floorpans and see how it works.

My daughter has Saturdays free for the 1st time in 9 years. She says she wants to race the Camaro next summer, and the tranny needs going through so it will shift 2-3, and then perhaps we can consider some 3.73's. Oh, son turns 16 in April, perhaps HS class for him in the Camaro (not sure about that one yet).

My boss surprised me with a little atta-boy just before Christmas, which was enough for that weather station I've needed for the past several seasons. I don't plan on doing anything to the '57 to make it any faster, just working on consistency (aka weather station) and safety (power front disks, driveshaft loop, fix header flange leak). Oh, and replacing the Bullets with Summit ovals to keep the nerves a little quieter while driving it on the street.

reconsidering my options i might go with a zz4 instead, either way itll be a while, so to feed the need for speed im getting a motorcycle come tax time. I did a build on paper of what the 400 would cost me to build and it would be about 3100 plus a block, heads and machine work. Ill still keep it a future goal when im making more money. The zz4 still puts out almost 2x the power of my l69 so its nothing to gripe about.

Since I picked myself up a $100 Honda to drive to work, my car is getting it's serpentine belt conversion, PBR rear brakes, Corvette seats finished and maybe a 6 speed and paint. Oh yeah, and a tire rotation, since I have to have the tires remounted to do so, I might as well do that while it is already up on jack stands. The only thing that I have gotten done is the exhaust cut-out, it's done and bad ***. You all have a Happy New Year and be safe out there tonight. Talk to you all in 2004.

Nothing new, just no money to spend on the car.

I want it to stop snowing! I hate seeing my car dirty...

well Im eeking out the $$$ bit by painful bit to get the 91 Z28 drag car done. I had to spend the $1000 I had saved for a trailer on lame x-mas presents. I did just get a Accell 58mm TB (1000 CFM) with flange, IAC housing, and all sensors mounting bolts and filter for $300 on ebay Its my x-mas present to my car.

Well, my baby is getting some late christmas presents. I've had headers laying around for a while, and I ordered bulletproof axle components this week (new axles, gears, and posi). :lala: I would also like to put new brakes on all the way around and rear shocks, but I think that might be a little too deep for my pockets to reach at the moment. Oh and I'm picking up 85 IROC wheels as soon as I can get to Denver from a friend. Tires will take a while to get though. I'm going to try out the BFG Traction TA's so I'll let you know what I think of them when/if I'm ever able to afford tires.

Oh, and I got a new bumper, fender, and GFX on there in December b/c of the fender bender I had in September.

Hmm, what else....

I think that's it(for now).
-Jesse

these days it is all focused around the white 91. I did put it's 352 (400) block on the stand, cleaned up the shop some, put the car on the ground and then back up again centered under where the hoist for pulling the engine is. I still have to take the stock 91 L98 out. I intend to swap the rear end and build the brakes on it (I got another set of late rear discs same as the 1LE). Then I will pull the engine and tranny as one. A friend of mine really needs the stock K member for an IROC project he got cheap that has a damaged A arm and K member. I will then put the tubular one and coil overs at that time.

hey tom, whatcha gonna do with the stock l98 ?

i havent decided yet because it is a tossup between using it in my truck and putting it in a car so the wife can have one sorry

If its of any consolation, I have to re-"bearing", and re-"crank" it because the previous owner drove it with antifreeze in the oil and about 10 mins after startup it starts a real gentle rod knock. I know it hasnt spun a bearing. so It will live on with some moderate repair (Ive done this before a few times with other motors). Sometimes you cant, sometimes you can, I know by how hard it is to even hear the knock that it is repairable.

Since it's stopped snowing and has been in the 60's the past few days, I figured people may have actually started on some of the stuff discussed above (present company included).

I have the front disks on the '57, finally gave up trying to modify the booster/master from the donor Camaro and have a manual master that will bolt in on the way.

Haven't done anything to the Camaro. Doesn't look like the young'uns will be racing it, this year at least. So, it just gets driven to work, and DIA when business takes me out of town.

Tom, when was the video of your old JYD shot? That's Bandimere, I presume. I don't recall seeing it out there, I usually remember 3rd gens. Are you planning on running in any particular class(es)?

My friend Brian owns the JYD now and I don't know what it will take to get him to the track. As far as me I don't know when I will be getting anything done.

Well, I finally finished my serpentine belts. Whatta bitch. If I never have to solder another wire as long as I live, it'll be too soon. First I lengthened the wires... too much. then I had to cut and re-solder them. Then just when I thought it was over, I came to the painful realization that the air flow meter wouldn't work where it was, so... Five more wires to lengthen which translates to 10 more solders. On to the tranny next. I'm hoping to have it in for the summer. Got most of the parts and now I just need to actually do it.

I assume you've all done your taxes and have your e-Refund already...

Tom, couple of other dumb questions: Do you really only weigh 120 lbs? You said on your JYD link it weighed 2880 lbs on two different scales, so it'd be 3000 lbs with you in it. I thought I saw the Winston sign on the time board on your video, so that must have been before 2002, correct? If it was before 1999, I may not have taken note of you, since I didn't have the Camaro yet. Sucker sure did leave hard (what's all that dust/smoke coming out from under it when you launched?). What tires were you using?

Oops, that's 4 dumb questions...

Well, I got the brakes and rear shocks done, and I picked up the wheels to start polishing. I have all the axle stuff in my room awaiting the installation over spring break to minimize down time.

I also got a 145 mph speedo and new poly end links added since the last post. I think I put in my BMR LCA's last November or December, I'd have to check. I also re did the intake base gaskets on Sunday and put in a 180* t-stat and threw the 160* in the trash. I'm changing the oil today after class.

I think that's all for now....and I wonder why I never have money.

-Jesse

To be honest it isnt my intention to mislead or lie about it. The problem is that I cant remember if it was 2800 with or without me (Brian has the scale sheet but I cant remember if I was in it or not) so I say 3000 lbs just to keep from misleading people. I may have mistakenly mixed my metaphors though. Maybe I just shouldnt mention it anymore until we get it scaled again

Edit: oops I missed the other questions.

The dust/smoke is the dumps opened behind the front tires (full dual 3") and there is no purge so that is a puff of fuel without nitrous coming out of the dumps. I usually "bomb" it during the burnout, I forgot to in this instance.

For those of you that do not know bombing is a "purge through the engine" by toggling the nitrous arm switch while the engine is rev'ed. Nitrous companies will assure you this is dangerous, and they are right. To minimize (but not eliminate) the danger I do it under load in the middle of the burnout.

26x10.5x15 ET streets

Yes I do have my taxes done, but no refund for me this year. I figured that I'd better spend some money before I had to send the feds any. Actually I've had a T-56 around for about 4 years or so now, it was just destined for my wife's 260Z. I only recently told her of my plans to hijack it and put it in my car. She said that as long as I give her my auto, she's ok with it. Now all I really need to figure out is if the VSS in my auto will replace the mech speedo drive in the 6-speed. Before anyone says that the 6-speed is already electric, it ain't. The car was converted when it resided in my brother's IROC. It should only take me about a week or so to finish that little task, so that means it will take me roughly 3 months to pull it off. I have now added 13" brakes to my list of goodies by the end of the summer. Those I was actually able to score me some Baer brackets & what not to put them together. All I've got to come up with are rotors & calipers. Do you think the wife will understand forgoing the cruise this fall in order to accomodate the paint job and the wheels?? Probably better not even suggest it, I don't want to have to live in the GTA.

bummer,

if both the car and tranny were elecric you would merely need the signal buffer box.

if the car is electronic but the tranny isnt you can get one of the signal generating mechanical senders sold from a variety of vendors.

if the tranny is electronic and the car isnt the instrument cluster can be swapped to the later electronic type or an "x-box" can be used to run a cable to turn a speedo based off of the tranny electronic pulse output.

I think what I'm going to do is find a tailshaft housing from a T-56 and just use it. I know that he had done something to the housing when he bought the tranny, so I'm going to undo it. My other option is to sell this one and buy a different one so then all I'd need is the buffer box. I'll look at it and see just what is what and go from there.

Stealth conversions, AKA Jaguars That Run, AKA Mike Knell (of TPI swapping book writting fame) is the guy I knew of that was converting T56's to regular speedo output by machining/modifying the tailhousing and maybe the outputshaft. I don't know to what extent. That is likely what you have now. They are $350 or $450 depending out which year of tail housing you have for exchange. SEE CONVERSION

Thanks for the link. I really don't like dealing with them bastards though. I called them once to see what headers they use, or if I could get just the headers, for the 350 into Datsun Z kit and they said "it's in the manual". All I wanted was a simple answer, but he wanted to sell the book. I told him that i didn't need the book, all I was lacking was the headers and he said "I guess you'll have to buy the book". Oh well, I got it figured out. I'm thinking that what I've got will allow me to use stock pieces without the buffer box. Like I said, I'll look into it. If I end up needing a new housing, I'll just sell this tranny to someone looking to do the conversion in a mech speedo car and buy a new one.

We've had such beautiful weather these past few days (at least on the front range), everybody must have a lot of updates/progress reports.

I got the master cylinder in and plumbed, but not bled yet. New mufflers installed, driveshaft loop installed (much easier to do when the mufflers were out of the way).

The list still doesn't seem to be getting shorter, though. For instance, I picked up a larger tranny cooler because I'm running a lot more stall than I did last summer. I'm going to put it in series with my existing external cooler.

Had to put rear brakes on my daughter's car in the meantime. Also realized the Camaro pinion seal is leaking more than I thought, so I'm going to try to do that tomorrow afternoon.

well I got my laptop fixed so it would scan but it still wont. the cable works with my pal's computer so I know its not the car or the cable. any who I got a 3rd laptop coming (this sucks).

on the 91 I have now got what is needed to build the short block (I picked up the rotating assembly).

update got a 3rd laptop works fine progressing already. stater died though (too much cranking with slowly fowling plugs since I built this thing) But atleast that will be fixed now with a better chip to lean it out!

Hey, I know about the fouled spark plugs too! I had to replace all of mine because of that. Oh, and the spark plug mod (see tech articles) is what caused the problem too. ....soo, I don't recommend that mod to anyone (kinda like the MAF screen mod).

Hmm, lets see, my new axle parts have been sitting in my room since around January (late christmas present to myself) and they are being installed for $300 on Friday!!! I'm have 28 spline Moser axles, an SLP Zexel-Torsen take out posi, Moser 3.42 gears, and of course all new bearings, races, and seals.

I have two quarts of red line for him, but the installer said to not use it and just use Mobil 1. Any comments or suggestions about that?

*edit* He actually recommended Amsoil, but I don't have the money for it. I think he said it was $15/quart or something crazy like that. *edit*

-Jesse

so I put a stock 400 starter in and broke one of the collector bolts off of my slp headers and the starter has a bunch of shim in it but it still sounds like it needs a whole other pack of them (it "Zings!"). the IAC housing is leaking coolant but relocating the knock sensor to the block from the head reduced the knock counts 100 fold so now its NOT retarding timing so bad to kill power and make it run hot. power is incredible already.

AMSOIL Series 2000 75W90, $9.20/quart, and no "additive" friction modifier requied. I've got it in every RWD vehicle I have.

There are several AMSOIL dealers in the Springs area.

lets see the last couple of weeks were spent doing body work trying to get my fender and front bumper cover in shape to be reinstalled. I've got motor mounts to install, and a couple of interior mods. hoping to spend tax money on heads to go with the cam in the garage. Anyone here intrested in a set of Aluminum L98 vette heads? and Tom do you still want those axles? let me know I'd be willing to trade the heads for some drag wheels.