Although I have a build thread on HybridZ I thought it would be a good idea to create a blog for this project.
First a little about me. I’ve been involved with 240Z’s in one way or another for over 30 years. It pained me to type that:) I’m an independent pattern maker for the foundry industry. I have a fairly high tech pattern shop. Two CNC routers, Two CNC mills, 3D white light scanner and all of the traditional saws sanders etcetera that you would normally find in a pattern shop. I also do short run vacuum forming and CNC machine prototype and production work on castings.
Back in 2007 I decided I wanted something unique for my 240. Being a patten maker it had to be a casting. Doing research led me to HybridZ. Here are 3 links to the build. It’s an interesting read if you want to know what goes into a traditional sand cast intake manifold. I received an enormous amount of help and encouragement from the HybridZ community along they way.
Design stage Pattern making Casting and machining
The intake manifold project was great but what I really wanted to do was a twin cam head. At the time it was just too much of an undertaking to do with traditional pattern making tech. Even with CNC machines. It rattled around in my head for a while and as they say timing is everything. I was starting to use a fairly new technology that produces foundry sand molds via 3D printing. The results were amazing. Not only were they patternless the normal constraints of split boxes and draft no longer applied. The more I worked with it the more I WANTED to work with it.
And then I get an email from the infamous TonyD