Best Crate for a 1970?

[Tom Bryant]

Also if you decide to try to use the long water pump and your car came with a short one none of your accessory pulleys will line up.

 

[Evolution1980]

Note with the ZZ4... You may need to swap out water pumps, as the one that came on my ZZ4 had too long a neck and it would have put the fan in the radiator. If you do have to swap out water pumps, it's a good time to replace the old OEM with a better hi-perf model. And then since it's new, toss a nice coat of laquer on it to keep it rust free and purty lookin'... I have a nice blue, semi-gloss finish on mine.

Nevermind that :duh
...I forgot, your car had no engine to start with, so I'm assuming you will have neither an OEM pump nor carb.

 

[Bill75]

Zz4 Faq

Here's what appears to be a very good article on what to expect when installing this engine in your car from another forum. I thought the guy did a great job with the details, hopefully it provides some help.

http://www.corvetteforum.com/techtips/viewsubtopic.php?SubTopicID=167&TopicID=3

 

[MY02-Z06]

My opinion would be to look at a 383.They can be had with relativley low compression and will still produce good street torque.You`ll feel that on the stoplight to stoplight.You wont have the weight of the BB but some of the performance.
The 700R4 is a good option just make sure you either install it yourself or have a "qualified" Tranny shop do it.
Just my .02 Cents.

 

[JimC]

Evo, Everyone: Thanks for all of the advice. Everthing is going well so far with the ZZ4. If we can make this work, a big block may be in our future. For now, it would be great to get the car rolling under it's own power!

Now it's time to hijack my own thread and ask a total newbie question. This weekend, I picked up the basics for the front of the engine and we began loading it up. You can see the fuel pump, crank pully, H2O pump pully, etc. The one problem we are having is how to set up the Alternator. I've got half a dozen books and catalogs but cannot find an absolute reference. You will see the brackets I purchased but I'm now thinking they are for a BB as opposed to the SB 350.

Is there anyone out there who has successfully installed a ZZ4 in a '70 (or similar) vette that would know which is the best bracket option for the Alternator? I suppose we are going to run into the same heartache when it comes to the power steering pump! Good thing we don't have a smog pump and AC compressor to worry about! (Although not having AC is going to suck on those hot California days!)

Here are few photos. I tried to keep the resolution up enough so you could get a good look at the car but the site limit prevents a higher resolution image.

-J

 

[JimC]

Bill75: Great article. Excellent find! Thanks!

 

[Evolution1980]

Evo, Everyone: Thanks for all of the advice. Everthing is going well so far with the ZZ4.
Now it's time to hijack my own thread and ask a total newbie question. This weekend, I picked up the basics for the front of the engine and we began loading it up. You can see the fuel pump, crank pully, H2O pump pully, etc. The one problem we are having is how to set up the Alternator.

No problem, Jim.
I'm at work right now, but if my memory serves me correctly and if the setup is the same as on the '80, the alternator hooks up on the driver side. Your bracket with the alternator looks a bit long to me, but again, my photographic memory is blurry. As for the pulleys, I know there are specific sets for SB/BB and with & w/o AC, and other accessories. Since the engine is out, have you considered popping for a nice polished set of March underdrive pulleys? I have 'em on mine. They look 'puuurdy'!. I can get some pics of my setup tomorrow (wednesday) when I get home from work.

 

[JimC]

No problem, Jim.
I'm at work right now, but if my memory serves me correctly and if the setup is the same as on the '80, the alternator hooks up on the driver side. Your bracket with the alternator looks a bit long to me, but again, my photographic memory is blurry. As for the pulleys, I know there are specific sets for SB/BB and with & w/o AC, and other accessories. Since the engine is out, have you considered popping for a nice polished set of March underdrive pulleys? I have 'em on mine. They look 'puuurdy'!. I can get some pics of my setup tomorrow (wednesday) when I get home from work.

Discovered March just a couple of days ago. Gave them a call after visiting their site and they have a nice kit for the car including all hardware and instructions for a very reasonable price. Decisions decisions... Stick with what we have or have some fun with the serpentine system... Anyway, would love to see some photos! Any input is great input.

Your Vette looks incredible. It looks like you have spent a lot of time with it.

-J

 

[Evolution1980]

Decisions decisions... Stick with what we have or have some fun with the serpentine system...

March has a serpentine setup for our cars? Hmmm... well, I guess that seems reasonable. I'm running a redundant belt configuration, so I couldn't use a serpentine system. (I'll give ya the lowdown on the 'redundant' part when I get to posting pics.)

 

[Evolution1980]

If you don't see any images, let me know. Or, just go out to
http://photos.yahoo.com/EvolutionCAC and you should find them there.

What I was saying about redundant belts is that under hard acceleration and then hard braking, I was spinning the belt off the crank/waterpump/alternator. Well, with aluminum heads, not having a waterpump working can be a major disaster! So I bought the underdrive set that you'd normally get for a car with A/C. In the pic, you can see that I have the main belt that drives the alternator and waterpump, and a secondary belt that only goes to the waterpump. I like the insurance this setup gives me. If I lose my alternator...no big deal, I still have plenty of time to get home. Lose my waterpump...every second counts!

 

[JimC]

Great photos and very helpful. Beautiful car. I'm surprised you were throwing belts. Were you running the stock 350 pulley set from the car's original motor?

The March serpentine kit model for the 350 w/o AC is #20450. They have a photo of the configuration entitled "Outward Mount Standard Rotation Short Water Pump" on the site and it does look great.

We are going to stick with the stock pulleys at this point. If we start throwing belts we will change to the March system but the important thing is just to get the car running at this point!

-J

 

[Evolution1980]

Great photos and very helpful. Beautiful car. I'm surprised you were throwing belts. Were you running the stock 350 pulley set from the car's original motor?

Yup... The other reason was to free up a couple HP where ever possible. Whether the underdrive pulleys actually do or not...I don't have any dyno proof to show. If it's only even 10hp at the crank, I likely wouldn't notice it on the butt dyno. But either way, it was both a cosmetic upgrade and for mechanical upgrade (redundant belts).

 

[Jack]

In lower circle track classes, we run Vbelts ... one is redundant. We don't run an alternator but we do run PS pump. We run dual groove underdrive pulleys on crank & wp ... single groove on PS pump. One belt is selected to self-tension and runs between only crank-wp. The other belt runs between crank-wp-PSpump ... the PS pump is on an adjustable bracket & that tensions belt.
I was at goodguys streetcar show in Charlotte last Saturday ... I did see several serpentine setups at vendors ... seems like they were made by "Vintage ... " something ... they looked very nice ... nicer than the March setups I've seen.

In the upper class circle trackers, we run serpentine. From KRC, Sweet, Moroso, CV etc. I looked at price March v. CV a while back & CV was less. Not to knock March but CV is REAL race stuff. Usually, the race stuff is not chromed or polished ... it's usually hard-anodized. If you're starting a serpentine setup from scratch and have yet to buy any brackets, pulleys, pumps, alt ... I suggest you'd come out better looking at CV's "S-Drive" setups ... www.cvproducts.com .

BTW, most true race serpentine setups w/ alternators use a small hi-output Denso alt ... and later Saginaw type 2 ps pump ... most, but not all, w/ remote reservoir.
JACK:gap