AClockworkGarage said:This coming Saturday I'm going to bring her out of winter hibernation and try to get her to the Cars n Coffee at Griots. We'll see if she makes it or not.
If you see me come say hi... If you see me on the side of the road... bring beer.
Generic cars and coffee or is it themed like a lot of the griots events? aka, trying to decide which car to bring if I could make it out.
In reply to iansane :
The theme is "hot rods" but you can bring whatever. Nobody's gonna kick you out.
I just started living part time in Tacoma. How the hell did I not know about Griots? I'll have to make it to one of these meets at some point.
JeremyJ said:I just started living part time in Tacoma. How the hell did I not know about Griots? I'll have to make it to one of these meets at some point.
No time like the present. Starts at 8, see ya there. I'll be the guy who looks like me.
There's donuts.
Free donuts.
I made it there and back again.
After an 8 month backorder this arrived today.
In a turn that will surprise literally nobody, it's damaged.
That is, I believe the last part I need to start my weatherstripping project. Unfortunately it is the my last excuse not to.
Took advantage of the ok weather today to replace some door trim. Nothing big, but it's something.
Whatever happened with the dual inlet air cleaner.........I mean I know a guy who would use it......
It's in my shed somewhere. I've still got the housing, lid, K&N, one of the scoops and a replacement decal. The ducts have disintegrated and the P.O. removed all the smog hardware.
While it's probably worth little in this condition and I'm pretty sure this car will never go back to stock, I'm still reluctant to get rid of it.
Summer draws to a close and spooky season is upon us. A few projects are sitting on the burners waiting for money or time.
Took her to Radwood PNW last weekend. This might be objectively the worst photo anyone has ever takwn of my car. But it's also one of the most interesting.
Some intrepid bastid was wandering around snapping photos with a modified Game Boy Color.
The year is coming to a close and it wasn't a big one for the Z. I didn't get to any races this year, and only a handful of car shows. Between SWIMBO's 2 surgeries, a cross country trip and trying to adapt to the graveyard shift very little got done. Now,she's tucked in for the icy winter...
The floors still need to be patched, and a lot of interior parts are still on perma-backorder. But this coming year I really want to whip this thing into some kind of shape.
The main issue I have is that in spite of all the upgrades I've done this car it still has an essentially stock, 40 year old tired 305 in it. Every car I've owned up to this point has been a sleeper, now I've got a car that looks fast as all get-out and it's slow as hell.
There's no two ways about it. That motor has to go. I figure there are 5 options.
1. Rebuild the stock motor/build a high performance 305.
The engine in the car is numbers matching and it is the best 305 ever made, but it's still only worth about 200hp. The rest of the car is so non-stock that numbers matching engine doesn't mean much. The 305's small bore means that the heads and pistons are specific to this block andwon't benefit from the Small block's economy of scale.
2. Build a 350/383. This is sort of the easy button. a good long block would be a pretty quick swap and I could keep all of my external accessories. Small blocks may have been overshadowed by the LS but they are still pretty solid performers.
3. Speaking of the LS... there's the LS. The price is coming down and they are super solid performers. Getting the 450hp I want is not hard at all. The downside is that everything would need to be changed, including the transmission and fuel tank. It's a huge job for a lone moron and his gravel driveway. Also: super boring.
4. Turbo 3800. If cost were no object this would be it. The modern 3.8 can make the power and is lighter than even the LS. And it would be interesting as hell under the hood. The downsides are the same as the LS. everythong would need to be changed, but when I was done I wouldn't have the LS's huge aftermarket.
5. Electric. Boogie woogie woogie. This is the future proof option. Id love to go zero emissions hillclimber in this and all the crusty old boomers crying and E36 M3ting their pants about electric cars almost makes this the winner. But I think it's too soon. The cost is still too high and the tech just isn't where I want it to be yet. 5 years, maybe 10 and I'll be able to get a lot more for a lot less.
I am absolutely open to your feedback.
Would a Vortec 4200 fit in there? Plenty of bellhousing options and a turbo build can be put together with relative cost effectiveness
Slightly less serious note. Honda J series swap it. Add Supercharger.
383 it. Vortec heads, longtube, good headers and send it.
In reply to birdmayne :
I despise Hondas. I will never own one again.
birdmayne said:Would a Vortec 4200 fit in there? Plenty of bellhousing options and a turbo build can be put together with relative cost effectiveness
They will. I'm pretty sure I saw some guys at thirdgen.org swapping turbo'd 4200s in almost a decade ago. I presume a 4l80 bolts to a 4200 since I'm pretty sure they came with 4l60's but does the 6l80 bolt up?
I've missed this thread and progress. A 350 or 5.3 LS IMO. If you are going to spend 383 money, you can do the LS swap instead. A budget 350 build may work if you find the right deals. If you want to be awesome a destroked 350 ala vintage Z/28 302 build would be most awesome. 7500 rpm comes in real handy in autocross.
AClockworkGarage said:In reply to birdmayne :
I despise Hondas. I will never own one again.
But VTAC and slouchy beanies and deeeep V neck shirts...
An SBC is still a really good option and as noted you could run it with your existing fuel system, transmission, belt-driven accessories, pretty much everything. At worst you might need a new flexplate if you go from 2 to 1 piece RMS. A lot of the advantages of the LS swap, such as fuel economy and reliability don't really matter so much in race car/weekend toy that isn't going to see that many miles.
But on the other hand, I don't think going LS would be that hard in that car. It is a well-documented swap and almost everything you need is available off the shelf. I think you can keep your existing transmission - at least it seems you see a lot of LS swaps using traditional SBC automatics. Also since many (most?) third gen's came fuel injected you could probably get most of what you needed for your fuel system at the pick n pull.
On the plus side, in the time you have had this car 3rd gen prices are way up so you are ahead of the curve there.
Surprised to hear it's hard to get interior parts. Would've thought parts for this would be plentiful and easily had
^Interior parts are all broken already. And were 20 years ago
Fun thread to read. Kudos for the persistence to keep at it despite all the setbacks and unforeseen obstacles.
On the engine topic, to me it depends on what your long term goals are for the car. If you plan to keep it long term, want to make big power, and want EFI, LS seems like the right option. Else SBC in 350 or 383 flavor makes the most sense to me. Much simpler upgrade, plenty of power capability for autocross, less invention required vs other low buck options. The 305 rebuilt just leaves too much extra fun on the table.
I owned a 92 RS with a 305+700r4. Swapped it to a vortec headed 355 + T5. Really transformed the car from underwhelming to reasonably fast. These days I have a 2nd gen with a 377ci SBC + TKO600. Perfect for autocross with a wide rev range but I wouldn't recommend it over a 383 unless you have a spare 400 block. Aluminum heads are a good idea if changing the heads. Weight savings are significant and you can run a higher CR all else equal.
I also went from edelbrock carb to Holley 650 to MS2 port EFI on the 2nd Gen. Highly recommend EFI in some form for autocross. TBI can be okay, but I found port to be much easier to tune for both power and drive quality.
6th option is a LT1 t-56 combo out of a 4th gen. 275hp and a ton of torque should spice things up nicely... generally they are cheaper then a comparable ls.
In reply to GCrites80s :
Then buy new ones. It's a Chevy, they should be cheap and plentiful but it sounds like they're all on back order. That's what I'm commenting about.
OE parts are all pretty crap by now, and the repro market for these cars is just spinning up. They're getting to that age.
Ive been waiting on a new set of door panels for over a year now.
Realistically there are only two engine options. A SBC ir an LS. The SBC is plug and play, the LS is future proof.
A thing to know about me us I do not have credit cards and I do not finance things. If I cannot buy it outright then I cannot have it. This puts a limit on the things I can have.
The SBC is leading my list because it doesn't require a lot of things. No fuel mods, no mounts, no exhaust, no accessories, no wiring, no transmission. Nothing. It's as simple as pulling the old one out and putting the new one in. And money I spend goes into the motor.
An LS is going to require a lot of spending before I even find an engine.
So thats the dilemma.
As for the 302 suggestion. I'm 100% with you and I'd love to. but They kindve suck in front of automatics, and my knees are too far gone to drive a stick anymore.
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