Mike C

Congrats!!!!!

http://www.gearzone.net http://www.5speeds.com should be the same site and be able to answer those and more Q's

Are you talking new or used? The Synchrowave 250 new with built in watercooler and watercooled torch ("runner" they call it meaning ready to weld excep for gas) is $3300. But at least shipping is free... All of the welders I am considering have adjustable pre and post flow. I can get the esab for $2300 with a water cooled torch, but without foot pedal and water circulator. That will put it around $3000 also, and really knocks me out of the market this year at least.

The Precision TIG 185 from Lincoln is supplanting the 175 at not much more money. But it has a wider power range, Micro-Start low amperage starting, AND a built in pulser. I like the case size of the Miller better, but no pulser which is $. I agree going bigger is better, but as much as I would want to, I can't ALWAYS buy professional tools. If I could, I wouldn't have posted this but just bought the Esab to begin with, added a watercooled torch, foot pedal, and water cooler. I know you can torch weld 4130, but it is VERY difficult to do in a complete car. Chance of fire is high or damaging wiring, etc. One of the beautys of TIG is the relative small area affected by heat. Thanks for the input, anybody else?

Trying to decide where to post this I have concluded there needs to be a "Tools" category. Seems these Q's always come up and it would be nice to have the reference point. I am going to build a roll cage for my Jimmy with mild steel and MIG weld it. But for my Camaro and the Z, I would like to work with 4130 CrMo to control weight. With that said, I am contemplating buying a TIG welder. It seems that the Miller/Hobart Econotig and the Lincoln Squarewave 170 are still reasonable choices, but just a little more money gets you more welder, so I have ruled them out. Unless I can find a new one for less than $1000. Right now they are running about $1300-$1400. I have narrowed my choices down to 3 (well not really, but they are the front runners.) All are sold "ready to weld" more or less. The 3 are: Syncrowave 180 from Miller ~$1500 (all w/o cart), the Lincoln Precision TIG 185 ~$1600, and the ESAB 252 at about $2300. The ESAB doesn't really fit with these other two because it is a 300 amp machine. And it doesn't come with a foor pedal. And it costs 50% more. So the real war is waged between the Red and the Blue. The ESAB is the welder I reallly want, but it will have to wait another year or more to come up with the extra scratch. But it would be a welder that would last a lifetime. Actually, any of them seem worthy of my hard earned green. So, any of you TIG gurus offer up your thoughts pro and con on each (I have my own thoughts, and it will be interesting to see what you guys conclude.)

You need first gen Eclipse seats. I'm not sure when the break is. I have Eclipse seats in my car now (and a set of Talon seats for sale). I am very happy. Now if I was any taller than 6' I wouold have problems. If I was to autox with a helmet i might have problems, and I'm pretty sure I'll have problems when I go to install my roll bar. But the install is pretty straight forward. The front holes line up with the factory Z holes! Just use the bolt and nut from the Eclipse/Talon. The rear of the slider needs to be modified. This requires cutting off the foot where the seat bolted into the Eclipse. Then mark along the slider where it will lie across the Z's seat mount. Then weld a 3/4" long bolt to the slider as a stud. Reassemble the tracks onto the seats and bolt in. One of the reasons I really like this seat install is ZERO modifications to the car. And the seats have the same profile as the factory seats so they look right in the car. The first pics is the Talon, second the Eclipse. I just like the color combo of the Eclipse seats better. The Talon seats have larger bolster, adjustable thigh support on the drivers side (you can see the lumbar adjustment in the pic) and moveable headrests that the Eclipse seats lack.

It is a standard metric, but I don't remember which one and am not at home to check. I bought the Harbor Freight spindle die set for $19 and it came with the correct one at least for the 280 spindles I had damaged.

Nice setup John. What are the specs on the XR280? My cam is the 280AR street roller 280/280 236@.050 .550 lift and I lash at .020. My motor is mostly a 71 GM LT-1. .030 with single trough TRW flat tops ~9.8:1. GM Nitrided steel crank std/std GM Pink Rods w/SPS bolts Moroso pan,windage,pump,etc. Crane Gold rockers GM iron 492 heads 2.02/1.6 manley pro-flows comp 950 springs 10 CC Superlocks Titanium Comp retainers Victor Jr. MSD dist/6A BG Stage III 750 dp rated at 1040 cfm 110 mph trap speed with my 3500# car suggests 360 rwhp. Which ain't so shabby for a GM iron head motor build twenty years ago! Just for giggles, I plugged the numbers in the computer, changed nothing but the weight by 1000# less and it puts the car in the high 10's! Your car should be their or low 11's. I'm interested to see how much power the heads are worth...if any.

I think it will, just like a ring & pinion. I haven't done this in years, but this is what I recall. You want as much engagement as possible, but you do not want to bottom out the oil pump shaft if that is possible. What I did was drop the dist into the block and measure. I measured the gasket thickness and assume a 30% compression. I then added a shim to the assembly to give me something like .030 from bottoming out. I don't know where I got all of this, but it seems to have worked well in my motor and has been 16 years now. Please post feedback on the polymer gear. That is the route I am considering. The distributor gear is the ONLY reason that I don't trust taking my car on longer trips without the old points distributor in the back seat.

Seems to vary with the alloy of the gear. The one in my Camaro now has been in there a long time, but probably no more than 2500 miles. It is on an MSD distributor. The one before it looked like yours with only about 600 miles but was a .491 shat GM points distributor for what that is worth. What you need to do is figure out how much clearance you need on the gear, drop it in without a gasket and use a feeler gauge to measure. You may need to run a thin gasket or shim the distributor up to get approriate clearance. When I bought my roller there were no other options. If I had purchased one in the last 15 years I would have gotten one with an iron gear pressed on so you can run a conventional iron distributor gear. Crane says no on the GM melonized gear, or at best a "maybe" but they say the Ford OEM gear is fine with their cams. GM runs a melonized gear on their factory rollers(same with the FOrd, so I don't no why theirs is but the GM isn't small alloy difference I assume.), but they are cast steel and not billet. Comp was non-commital on whether the GM melonized gear would take out my cam, so I still have the bronze gear. But Comp has a new composite material drive gear that I think I will try. Costs as much as 3 bronze gears, but they say wear is virtuaylly nil. $100 is cheaper than having to replace a whacked billet roller that's for sure.

Hagerty wouldn't even talk to me. They said vehicle had to be COMPLETELY stock and showroom condition.

I must say I concur with an engine swap NOT being the place to start working on your car. But it can be show quality for a reasonable budget, but it falls into the old adage that you can have it good, cheap, or fast in any combination, but not all of them! So Good and Cheap means it will take FOREVER while you scrimp, save, shop, and trade. If you want it now, and you want it nice, get the wallet out!

They were also made by Fairbanks. Called a Clutch Flite in the Chrylser form and a Clutch Turbo in the GM TH400 guise. They were the predecessor to the Lenco for all intents and purposes. A special pump drive engages the clutches so the auto part works. You have to clutch and shift like a manual in most cases. All of them should be full manual valve body, meaning the car will stay in whatever gear you select, regardless of speed or throttle position. They are an interesting idea, and if you could get one cheap, why not?

Yes, the LT1 should be fine with the one piece rear seal 350 flywheel.

I don't know the answer to that. Jeg's catalog describes it as having a Cobra style pocket bearing and a steel input bearing retainer.

The Buick 3.8 or 3800 bellhousing if a BOP (Buick Olds Pontiac) pattern and will not bolt up to the Chevy. If I was buying all new parts, the brand spankin' new Ford Motorsport T5 and the Lakewood bellhousing is the way to go. For $1500 you have a brand new trans and explosion proof bellhousing. What you will find with adapters is that they are also very expensive. You can check with TransDapt or Advance Adapters about availability for the one you want. But IMO, the steel bellhousing is a no brainer in an ultra high performance vehicle.

Says on one of the pictures that the mags are Sterlings.

The 85-86 305 and 350 tpi units are the old style bolt pattern. All of the Corvetter TPI's were the old style pattern. Only the 87-92 cast iron head TPI manifolds have the new style pattern. But you are correct, they can be elongated. But it helps to have the bolt head apply pressure evenly to the manifold, that is the purpose of the angled washers.

Hmmm. There are more applications for T5's than you can count. GM, Ford, Jeep, Nissan, etc. But I'll guess you are talking about Nissan application T5's? 82-83 turbo cars and 84-85 turbo cars. They have different gear ratios and input shafts requiring different bellhousings. And the block pattern is different from the L6 to the V6. The 84-85 will be stronger due to it's lower numeric gear ration most likely. It also has a tick more overdrive. You can get the list of trans ratios and some pics of the L6 T5 at http://www.zhome.com go to the index of technical articles then drivetrain. If not Nissan, then there are both regular and World Class versions of the GM and Ford T5's. The World Class units are the stronger, and in the case of GM's more expensive.

It sounds like you have an 87 and newer intake manifold. Or 87 and up heads, but most likely the intake. What year was the boat? My 94 Malibu has the angle bolt GM cast iron high rise intake. They changed the bolt angle on the SBC engines, except for the L98s with aluminium heads which kept the old pattern through end of production, this includes the L98 headed crate motors as well. It is possible to slot the center bolts then make some tapered washers to evenly clamp down on the intake. Some aftermarket intakes ship with fasteners for this purpose, you might can order from Edelbrock or Holley. You are putting together a hydraulic tappet valvetrain? Have you read David Vizards method of lashing the valve train to eliminate lifter pump up? Other than that, the method you described is how I do mine, but I only use 1/4 turn initially. Then relash to zero clatter plus 1/4 turn with the engine hot and running.

No it is not. The early cars have the 2.8 litre bellhousing which is the 60 degree motor. It is basically same as Northstar. The 3.8 powered cars use the Buick/Olds/Pontiac pattern. The 2.5 litre 4 cylinder bellhousing might be the same however.

I was just posting my approval (at least from my research) of the JD2 bender. You are correct on die pricing. I had transposed in my head $108 and $180. Still a good deal IMO. Especially if you have more than one to build.

I bought one of these sets from Motorsport from my car and was quite pleased. Here is a link to a guy on another board I do who sells them for HALF of the $70 I paid from Motorsport. http://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/showthread.php3?s=&postid=680157#post680157

Get the tag number off of it and go to http://www.gearzone.net and enter into their T5 identifier.

The next big tool investment I make is going to be the JD2 bender. Probably 3 die sets as I have 3 cars I want to cage. Check out williams low buck tools for their fish mouth shear. Seems the Ol' joint jigger is cheaper, but once you start buying (and using!) hole saws, it gets expensive fast. The chromemoly cage in my buddy's 90 Camaro used 12 hole saws if memory serves. At $15 each gets expensive quick. The JD2 Model 3 bender is priced at $266 right now for bender and optional degree wheel. Add one die set and it is $375 plus shipping. It is 1/2 steel so probably ships truck freight. I haven't decided on manual or hydraulic yet. Probaly manual and 1 3/4 die first. I want to re-do the 2" cage in my Jimmy, but might decide 1 3/4 would be OK if padded. With the top off could look stupid with too small a tube... I want to do the Z and my Camaro as well. Probably could do 1 5/8 in both of them but am considering 1 5/8 for the Z and 1 3/4 camaro.