Thread: hi i am new here

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hello let me tell you a little about myself. started working on cars at the age of 10. am now 50. have two current projects. a 1978 zcar getting a 440 dodge engine. a 1965 dodge dart also getting a 440 dodge. five years ago i built a 280Z, with a 500 caddy engine.

Originally posted by drahgonking
hello let me tell you a little about myself. started working on cars at the age of 10. am now 50. have two current projects. a 1978 zcar getting a 440 dodge engine. a 1965 dodge dart also getting a 440 dodge. five years ago i built a 280Z, with a 500 caddy engine.

Welcome drahgonking_
Got Pics.?

I think the ranks of the "Mature Hotrodders" are growing. I too would like to see some pics, especially of your mopar. I love 440's!

Welcome to CHR, sounds like some kewl projects. Post us some pics.

Welcome the dart is a car i have always liked but i would love ta see the 500 caddy stuffed in there if ya got a pic of that

hello again. i had a bunch of pictures of my zcar that i put the caddy into. had a friend in alaska who while i was working was going to load my trailer for me.he some how forgot to load most of my tools. my old original chilton manuals. the pictures of my luv truck with the 400 sb chevy.the pictures of the zcad and other cars i have had.when i moved from alaska. two years ago to colorado.i got a job heat treating bolts. i loved the perks i could make my own grade 8 bolts just about any size. i was injured on the job,and have been on disabilty for a year.it has taken a year to strip the dart down where i want. the original weight was 2700 lbs. i hope to keep it at 2700lbs with the 440. to get to the point i am not blowing smoke up your a$$. i don't have any pictures of any thing right now hope to have in the future. i would put a caddy in the zcar but i have the 440 sitting around doing nothing. i got the idea from ron ruschman (ronruschman.tripod.com) he did a nice job on his.

Hey, my brother is a zcar person, and has a 440 dodge engine he'd like to put into his 280z. Anybody know if that is possible?, and if it is, how? ANY information on how to do it would be very welcome, because we don't know if it would actually work. Any info send to raticus4@yahoo.com. Please! We are dying to know!

Originally posted by brickman
I think the ranks of the "Mature Hotrodders" are growing. I too would like to see some pics, especially of your mopar. I love 440's!

Brickman, are you sure that "Mature Hotrodders" isn't one of those "oxymoron" things we hear about? I know plenty of OLD hotrodders but I'm not too sure I know any MATURE ones!

And welcome, drahgonking. you have some interesting projects.

Jim

Hey Raticus4,
Of course it is possible to stuff a 440 in a 280Z. All you need is a sawsall, a mig welder, possibly a mill and a lathe and you are ready to go. Oh yah, probably a lot of time too. But anything is possible. Not always logical, but hey, if logic kept us from doing things, half of us wouldn't have the custom rods we do! If you can buy it off the shelf, it just aint custom!

Chop chop!

Brian

Welcome. ALthough I am mostly a Ford and Olds guy, 440's are great engines. It really doesn't take a whole lot to make them come to life.

As for the Z, in '64 I built a Bugeye Austin Healy Sprite with a 289 Ford in it. Got it out of a brand new car that was wrecked. Took a little shoehorning, but hood closed. Used a C 4 automatic and stock Sprite rear end with stock 4:22 gears . Ruined a nice little car. It was nose heavy, but could smoke the tires at 60 MPH. Axles were a problem, the ends would keep twisting off, so I started buying them 3 or 4 at a time from the junk yards.

I'm like you, for some reason, when I went into the service all my early pictures got lost when my Mom moved. Wish I had some of those now.

Anyway, welcome to the forum.

Don

Hey Brian, or well, anyone else, What are the problems that you encountered in putting the 440 in the z? Any tips for ours? (280z)
Any pictures? Please, we want to know everything on how to do it, and the performance it would have.

drahgonking,
In my last post I got so hung up responding to Raticus4 that I forgot to actually welcome you aboard. So, welcome! I myself am relatively new here as well, but it is great. There is a lot of good info and some really interesting projects. The best part for me is reading about someones problems (non psychological), then after everyone pitches in with ideas on how to fix it, to hear what actually solved the problem. Anyways, I hope to see some pictures of your rides when you get a chance to post them!

Raticus4,
I haven't actually done the V8 z but I have seen it done with a small block chevy. That car was bad ass until he planted it in a house running from the cops for doing, well, burn outs! My guess is with a big block it would start getting really nose heavy and not do too well in the curves. I know there was a kit to do the small block conversion from I believe it was SCARAB. I also was curious and looked online and found some interesting sites. Check these out as possible starting points.

http://alteredz.com/MichaelOlsBBZ.htm

http://alteredz.com/index.html

http://alteredz.com/links.htm

I am sure this is just the beginning of what you can find on line. The first two sites are pretty detailed about what they actually did.

I hope that helps. Good luck and keep us posted!

Brian

Hey thanks for the info! that will really help- a lot! Thankyou very much! that is all the info that I need, and hopefully, it will be sufficient for my bro. I'll keep you posted, and on my ride as well, where I may alter a ford ranger, and make it quite a bit shorter and lighter too.... Anyway, thanks!

Uh ...... no.

Hey thats pretty funny. Ah, regardless, Raticus4 got some good info out of it!

Brian