bantambunny

First zed i've seen in ages! Was it any of you lot? :dance:

Haha, it does buddy, it sits perfectly flat. That was just resting without the pin in place on a piece of rubber. Managed to get out for a first drive last night on the road in it. I did some base calibration and changed a couple of jets to lean it off slightly on the primaries. Still running about 13:1 on cruise which is still too much but i need to order some smaller jets in to complete the tuning for the road. It picked up like a scalded cat once i'd adjusted the mixture and dropped it back a bit and hopefully won't be quite so thirsty now. Handling is still a bit wibbly wobbly but much firmer than before and to be fair the tyres are low, it's still up in the air on the front and the rear suspension is still clunking away so i need to fit some standard rear springs or a spacer to get it to ride without topping out. What i ideally need is the Miester R/S's I desperately want to get the ride just right. A bit more work on Friday to swap over the suspension setup over on the front and fit the adjustables on the front and back and we'll see what it's like. Should hopefully get the revised gearlever back tomorrow so i can work on the agricultural gearshift it has at the moment. It's quite tappety inside the car so sound insulation needs to be thought about when i get chance, probably more on the bulkhead and around the air vents but i'm not too bothered really. Temperature is bob on 85 degrees c, oil temp goes up to 100 degrees c and the speedo now works but now need calibrating over a mile. Fuel gauge still doesn't work so need to rewire the sender and see if i can kick it into life. Getting there and i'll be off down to North Weald next weekend to get stuck into the zclub drag challenge.

I've got a pair of fog light ducts and was really pleased with how well they were made and how quickly he sent them out :)

What a top guy, not everyone would do that! :)

Happy birthday fella, hope you have a great day! :hyper:

So far i've won, 2 cheeseburgers, 1 sugar donut and 2 sausage and egg mcmuffins! :) ....but no house or car yet dammit! :headvswal

Cheers buddy :)

Okay right, it's Tuesday, i'm back at work and it's pay day! :hyper: I've spent the past 8 days solidly digging out 50 square meters of garden to build my driveway while i've been off and haven't touched the zed till yesterday. I'd left it that it was running, fans were calibrated and wired in, tuning was roughly right to get going but needed re-jetting when i could get it up to speed but the bonnet catches weren't fitted. I accidently bought the wrong aerocatches a while ago and ended up with the flush ones that mount underneath. So decided i'd rather not end up with bolts sticking through the bonnet and try and and find a way to mount them without compromising the paintwork. The bonnet is a 3 skin affair so drilled the holes interlinking around the template then used a pair of plier bent the bottom 2 skins outward to allow the catch to slide into place. With a bit of pushing, shoving, banging and hammering i managed to hammer the ally back into place again and trap the catches in place with no flex and they look bob on! A little paint flaked off from filing so may have to use a little silicon to just cover it up and make it watertight but i'm happy with the first one. The bonnet pin was a pain in the arse to fit but got there in the end! So what about the rest of the car? Well i did get the timing spot on then ran out of battery and petrol so messed it back up but will top it up with a couple of jerry cans and get it out on the road to see what happens. A couple of mods i've done over the last build: i've fitted an expansion tank alongside the catch tank under the wing. Ended up teeing off the top heater hose then back down into the suck side of the water pump. Can't vouch if it works yet but we'll soon find out. Managed to get all the gauge senders working bar the fuel level and fuel pressure gauge. The sender is definitely faulty on the fuel pressure gauge as i swapped it for a boost gauge and got a reading (just the wrong one). The water sender was the annoying one to find a way to hook it up then had a moment of inspiration - hack off the hose connector on a brass fitment and tap the hole: I've wired up both fans and mounted them on to the rad this time to make it quicker to get the whole thing out to work on the front of the engine in the future. I've got 2 weeks to get the car prepped and broken in to race at weald in essex so you'll see a few vids coming up as soon as I get some road time. Just hope the weather holds up!

Howdi all, sad as it sounds I haven't been able to take the car on the road because it's the end of the month and I've got bugger all to pay for petrol :( It's gone through another £8 just tuning it so until Tuesday I can't do much more. Very very frustrating for me especially with the sun being out - I'm itching to drive it now :rant:

Just working on the driveway and garden while the weather's good buddy, I'm thinking Sunday 8th May for our BBQ if you're free?

Haha, another toy? :rofl: You just don't stop do you buddy lol Let me know when you're coming up and i'll pop up to Pete's and a cuppa! :) Well the car's getting there. Found a small leak in the top heater hose which is dripping as it's running, also had to hook up the second fan to keep the temp down. Did briefly get down the road and back but the tuning is way off. Spent a bit of time this morning getting it right but unfortunately flattened the battery keep starting it so messed up the timing reading and got to start again. Off to pick up the new gear lever today then i can start rebuilding the shifter with a direct shift system instead of the long lever. Means i'll have a direct short shift. I'll get some piccies up when i'm happy with it so far, just looking forward to giving it a longer run some point in the next 24 hours :)

It's working! :hyper: Started up this evening after working flat out on it. Just two new exhaust gaskets to fit and a bit of tuning and it's ready for the road. Will write more tomorrow guys and gals

Haha I would have agreed if I hadn't have snapped a sparkplug putting it back in :( Unfortunately, American spark plugs aren't easy to come by on a Friday night, so looks like drag racing is off the cards today - not a good start to the season :rant: On a positive note, bled the clutch, whacked it in 5th and got the speedo working off the sender as it turned on the key. All the plugs and leads are connected bar one. Just a few water pipes to go and we're ready to start. Oil pressure was spot on with no leaks - 65psi when I primed it Clutch is perfect with no leaks Fingers crossed on the plugs!

After 3 zed's i was lucky enough to have one with the V8 :D

Okay, i'm knackered but worked through my lunch yesterday to finish at 3pm and got straight into it as i got home. Rather than bore you with the whole story of all the problems I had, things i lost in the process and driving back and forth to my parents to grab tools i'll tell you what's done and what's left to do., Done: - Oil system complete including the remote dipstick tube which needs securing to the loom clips, all 10 litres of oil are in and no leaks - Wiring to the starter motor and alternator are complete, starter now works (wouldn't engage before) and engine turns on the key - Battery is charged enough to get it going but could do with with charging for a couple of days straight to get it topped up or just drive it till it's full What i'll be doing tonight: - Water system including the expansion tank - Fuel system - Plugs, leads and distributor (already pre wired, just plug and go from the last time) Then give it a start and see what happens! No sounds of anything clunking or scraping so i think i've made enough clearance on the rods. Really excited to hear that big old chevy block kick into life again for the second time! :hyper: More to come as i get there!

Well didn't get more than 30 mins on it last night before i went otu but managed to get the first engine mount secured in the right place and passenger manifold on. I'm on it all tonight and tomorrow so expect to see a few photos going up and the car being turned over briefly tonight if possible. Just need to prime the oil ways and connect the starter motor then test for any clunks. If that's alright then i'll hook the fuel line up and give it a brief start to check for problems then it's on with connecting up the prop/exhaust and we're done!

Hi Nathan, The best are the Tremek T56 or the TKO600, the one i have is a good strong box. In general the american manual boxes are shit, clunky and whiney so you're better off with the T56 as it's the same one they fit to most TVRs. You'll probably need a new belhousing adapter and i'd also recommend a collar style clutch actuator. That's what i used with mine and it gives a nice light shift between gears and makes the box feel a lot more modern. Cheers, Nick Hi Andy, I was going to get on with it last night but unfortunately was so knackered after the weekend i fell asleep on the sofa till 8pm :headvswal I've got to visit the parents tonight so won't get much done but planning on at least trying to connect up the oil side of things and the starter/manifold on the drivers side to test for leaks and clunks before doing any else. I'd like to get it done for saturday to get to santa pod but it's looking like alot of work to rush when i could take my time and get it right rather than botching it. Will definitely be started before the weekend just probably won't be on the road until Sat/Sun afternoon depending on the weather :(

I've still got to get around to popping down and getting those doors off you yet buddy, you can see what i'm up against to get this on the road to get to santa pod for round 1 this weekend :headvswal Well if i get enough interest i'll have all the adapter mounts made of 4mm steel and powder coated, the design i've made reuses the complete zed subframe with longer drop through bolts and spacers in the sides and the original zed engine mounts. Even though the car's going to be lowered 35mm it should still give me 4" clearance underneath. The gearbox mount may be a little harder as it depends on your box, i'm using a tremek tko 500 so that'd be different if you used a T56 box/Borg warner or even in Manta V8's case a supra box!

Cheers buddy, for the record this is my 3rd block, the 9th time i've had to put the block back in, it's now cost me in excess of £13,000 and many many hundreds of hours, probably close to a thousand all in all not including the hours of research i've had to make during the build :) I'm going to go through all my posts on here and everywhere else i've posted and write up a book with photos to leave with the car for people to thumb through at the shows and then get the brackets and adapters made up as spare if anyone else wants to mount up a chevy into a 300zx. Piece of cake if you stick with a standard block and transmission :)

I have 4 of the Halfraud's ramps i use to get the car in the air, i just used 2 yesterday to get a bit of angle on it then an engine tilter to get it up, under and back up again :) I haven't actually had a VG out before (the car came with no engine) but i know the gear lever comes up further forward so it may well be shorter front to back but being single cam you don't get the huge heads on the front so it's actually a nice compact little unit for 6.3 litres :D Yep, cut the centre slam out to help get it out and in a little easier. There's a panel bolts in between in its place (the original is just there for the next couple of days until i rip it out mount the oil cooler/fans in a different way) Eventually i'll modify it so the light panels come out on bolts too to make it a ten minute job to get the engine in and out - if it's specced to race i need to be able to work on it pretty damn quickly :)

Well after losing the headbolts on friday i thought all was lost again getting the engine in the car properly this weekend. Amazing a stroke of luck occured, Saturday night i ran out of time to get the engine in so got a mate of mine to lock it up in his transit overnight and then drop it off first thing Sunday. Sunday morning i got about jacking up the front end to get it ready to install the engine when it arrived, opened the bonnet and in the corner where the battery used to go what's poking out? A blue plastic bag with 17 headbolts and washers! No idea how it survived a 10 mile journey towed over bumpy roads and still didn't drop out but - phew! :hyper: So torqued the heads up to spec, lashed all the valves outside of the engine bay (sooo much easier!) and set about putting the engine back in. 7pm i finally finished, engine back in, all mounts secured and ready to start refitting the exhaust tonight. More to come as it happens!

pics to follow, unfortunately ive had a set back (as aways) spent 3 hours trying to find the second set of head bolts and failed so had to order some more at £77 a set(!) :( So ill have to lash up one head and fit the second later otherwise i'll get nothing done this weekend! Off to finish off what i can before bringing the engine back and dropping it in.

Hi Nathan, it's a Tremek TKO 500 box from a mustang and a mixture of chevy and ford clutch plate/flywheel. If i were doing it again and had more money i'd go for the 600 as it's a little less notchy or even the T56 box but for the price i paid for it i couldn't turn it down. I'm hoping the notchyness or whining isn't quite so prevelant when i make up the new linkage. As my dad said when he drove it, it sounds like a 1950 breadvan :rofl: Well time for an update. I can't access facebook any more from work so haven't got time to reupload the photos but made some huge progress yesterday and i'm on track for getting the engine back in tomorrow morning. The whole bottom end is now finished, sump is back on and torqued down. One of the problems i had previously was the incessant leaking from the sump i was getting seeping through the welds and out the back. The original gasket was a 4 piece affair with felt on the sides and rubber front and back with a good dollop of silicon to fill in the gaps which didn't really work. This time i'm completely degreased it prior to fitting and used a one piece rubber gasket with better bolts. Even the hole that cross threaded badly last time has been straightened and all torqued up. I put the first head on last night to check for fitment and it's looking ace. Going to flat off and polish the front faces today before fitment then get the last bits done ready to go in tomorrow. I'm off this afternoon again the same as yesterday so about 9 hours straight to get it finished off so unless i hit any more snags i should be hooking pipes and wires up tomorrow to give it a test start. God it seems so long since i last got to drive it, I can't wait now! :hyper: If i get time today i'll tidying up the paintwork in the engine bay seeing as the weather's so good and fitting my aerocatches and bonnet lift ready for tomorrow. Really hoping I pull this off now, the weather's supposed to be amazing the next week so i'd at least like one day with the roof off and that beautiful V8 soundtrack humming away in the background :)

Great news buddy, congratulations! :hyper:

I'll be up for that, less chance of breaking down if it's only in Atherstone down the road :rofl: Car should be on the road next week, just putting the finishing touches to the engine today then it's going back in tomorrow