Mike C

That's nuts. My old 35x14 15" GroundHawgs on Barts 15x12 steel rims only weighed 90#. And I thought THAT was nuts but it was at least a BIG tire. Maybe my scale was wrong? This must be a conspiracy with the brake pad companies!

280 bars are bigger, but only the 73 240 have the factory sway bar mounts IME. If you have an earlier car you need the uprights which is why the smaller bar kit is more expensive. But the cars are lighter. If you have a 73, best thing to do for the $ is just bolt on the 280 bars.

GM used the Eaton with 4 coil springs in the 12 bolt truck until 74-75 or so. Then that monster showed up... In the 12 bolt 'til '81 or so when they switched to 8.5 10 bolts. The 10 bolt uses reverse threads on the ring gear bolts FYI. The factory 8.5 10 bolt in cars like camaros/firebirds used a single flat spring instead of the coils.

Mine came from Summit for $219. Haven't priced them recently.

Hey Tim, Pic was from '02. Garage is a mess right now. Convertible completely apart and on dolly in my regular garage. My '69 is sitting where the convertible is in the pic, the Z is on the lift and my WWII jeep is under the Z! I still have my truck. It did not meet reserve on ebay. Will hit autotrader next week. I want to sell it, I want it to find a good home, but I will not give it away. Not sure what part of the first line "$4000 reserve" these idiots missed. But oh well! Anybody else interested, shoot me an email! I love my truck and will miss it dearly, but the 3 of us and the dog don't all fit. I have a self imposed restriction on myself of not getting new driveshaft for the Z until truck sells. Really want to have the Z at our clubs September show.

Here is a shot of mine. Full of crap right now since I am remodeling master bath. That and the proverbial little red wagon and the little tykes car!

GM is in the business of making money and not cars. They have done lots of R&D on the LS7 and install it as a production motor. It has to meet fuel economy, emissions, and noise standards. They will just make more motors than cars and sell over the counter. This is not a race motor but a low volume production part designed to go 100k+ miles and be track capable. Personally, seems like a really good deal. I know stacks of guys with $20k in a drag race motor. Makes more power than the LS7, but no warranty! Besides, you just don't hear about NA motors chewing pistons up. If this motor was going to be forced induction maybe the piston issue could be revisited.

The biggest air hogs are sanders. If you are going to paint several cars, the two stage is worth it. For grinders, drills, impacts that don't run a long time, the single stage is OK. My Campbell Hausfeld is a 6hp vertical tank, 60 gal cast iron pump and is 12 years old now. When it goes, it will be replaced with a two stage no doubt about it.

How old is your roller cam? My street roller is a steel billet as well with a steel gear on it, but it is 17 years old now. Many late model aftermarket cams use iron gears pressed on. GM and Ford use Melonized steel gears to run on their roller cams. I have heard that the Ford gear works well on the aftermarket cams, but the GM one does not. No experience from me here. The melonized GM gear is about $25, the bronze gear $35-$40, and the polymer gear is $105. I have a bronze gear on my motor and am not sure on its remaining life. The first gear made it about 500miles and I carefully adjusted the load on the next gear using Moroso distributor shims so as not to bottom out the oil pump gears. The next gear has 4000-5000 miles on it. I bought one of the new Comp Polymer distributor gears which they say has virtually zero wear and is now wet sump oil pump compatible.

Mitsubishi TD04 will fit. Not sure if the others will. Map on my 16G shows capable of 350 wheel horsepower on a 2.8L motor.

Got this link from the Austin Z club pres. Don't know what it's for and haven't seen it anywhere else. But me like! http://videos.onestopwebhosting.com/Videos/GeneralLee.mpeg

The LS motors have pressed on crank pulleys with no bolt. Seems GM had this same problem in the 60's with the SBC and added a balancer bolt. That would also seem to be a reasonable solution to said problem.

Just to add a little about the Lincoln welders. They make a 135 (compareable to the Hobart 135/140) and a 135 plus (compareable to the Miller 135) which both run on 110v. The plus adds infinite voltage control instead of click stops. Same is true with the 175.

Classic Industries sells POA valve replacment with the orifice for R134 for Camarso, Firebirds, Novas, Chevelles and Trucks. They are $99, but you may have to get hoses fabbed.

Looks great Tim! I enjoy my new truck, but miss driving my 70 all the time.

I agree on a stuck/too tight drum. I have never had much luck determining gear ratio of non-LSD axles this way. The Spider gears ratio rotating around the side gear acts as a multiplier. Depending on that ratio, you can get a screwy result.

Until '85 on the Mustang, and '88 on the Camaro as well as the Nissan boxes and jeeps, the T5 used gear oil. Only the WC boxes run on ATF.

No easy bolt ons, but any of the Griffin 24x19's will fit, you build mounts. The single 1" tube is the cheapest, but at minimum I woul go the double 1" tube which they say is good to 400 hp at $189. The double 1.25" tube is good to 600hp at $259.

I have a Lincoln PT 275. At full bore it's 105 amps, without the power factor caps. With it is only 85. 230V single phase. Congrats on the new welder though, before I found my PT275 on clearance I was seriously eyeballing the 180 SD. Nice machine.

Cool. Congrats on the buy. It's a beautiful car. I talked to the former owner about the cage and build at the Capital Z show last year.

Looks good Tim! Glad to see you still wrenching on your truck.

Changing cams changes the rate at which the shot is delivered, and changing to the larger pump changes the amount available. But the shooter is what determines the volume of pump charge delivered. If you haven't changed shooters, that is your best bet. If you have a tiny shooter, you aren't using all of the 30cc shot, much less needing the 50.

Bog is almost always because too much air is injested in the motor. By enrichening the idle mixture, you minimize how much pump shot is required to hide the "bog". The accelerator pump is the tool used to cover this. The extra fuel stabilizes the motor until fuel can start flowing through the primary metering circuit. On a Holley you can change pump cams & squirters to increase the shot. You can also take the existing cam and move the screw to the second hole which will speed up the rate at which the pump shot is delivered. Make sure that the gap between the pump arm and diaphragm lever is adjusted correctly as well. The 30cc pump should be sufficient for just about anything. My 1040 cfm stage 3 BG 750 only has dual 30cc pumps. On a Q-jet, you can slow the rate at which the air doors open. This allows the existing pump shot to be sufficient to cover the "hole".

I'm 6 ft and have Eclipse seats in my 240. There is a TON of room with the stock seats, but if I was more than a little bit taller I would have to ditch the new seats. They are higher and don't go back as far.

Looks great Mat. I'm glad you are keeping its street manners in mind!