strotter

Tired of fiddling with wet manifolds, finally dropped a (not too bad) wad on a StealthRam ( http://www.holley.com/HiOctn/ProdLine/Products/FMS/SR/fSR1.html ). After being profoundly impressed by the performance of Dan Juday's little woosy 305 (did I say that out loud? My bad...), I've been lusting after something with more injectors that can utilize a better ecu. Also a design less than 20 years old is good. Thunder Racing has a sale going on, so I figured, what the hey. So, the plan is to take delivery here in the next couple of weeks, pick up injectors and wiring gear the month after that, miscellaneous "stuff" the month after that, and begin the teardown/buildup early June. While I'm at it, I'll take care of some of those little things I've been putting off - hard steel fuel lines up & back, GM engine mounts, crossover on the duals, multiple tank pickups, detail some paint problems, apply tint to the windows, so on. Probably looking at, I dunno, two weeks on the outside. May be time pretty soon to look into an LSD of some kind, too.

You're welcome, Dan, it was fun. And believe me, next time somebody makes a comment about "boat-anchor 305"s, I'll tell them about the little "carbon clearing" exercise you did with that thing - mine won't bark it that hard on the 2-3 shift, and I spent all *kinds* of money on that darned thing. Torque, huh? Maybe it's something I should look into...

Dan, I'm confused about what you have in the truck. I seem to recall that the vortecs have a multi-point injection system, with a large "monoblade" (translate big-a$$ 1-bbl) throttle body, like this one on ebay: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7960951835&category=36474 When you say "TBI", I think of a system with the injectors at the top of a carburator-lookin' arrangement, like this one: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=7962262370&category=33558 So? Hmm? Hmmmmm?

That's the oddest weather-related thing I've ever seen. Please excuse a Cali boy, but what causes that? What, it rains and then freezes, or something? I've honestly got no idea.

After installing poly bushings, rebuilding the steering rack, replacing the tie rods, and general futsing, I still had a little steering slop, and I mean a little. But it was driving me nuts, so I finally tracked it down to the universal at the base of the steering shaft, behind the damper assembly. I imagine the teeny little bearings in there are shot. Q: is this thing repairable is some way? The bearings appear to be staked in place, and I've never tried to disassemble such a thing. I imagine I can grind down the staking points, pull the little bearings, and find replacements. Assuming of course it's the bearings, and not the cruciform in the middle. Any suggestions? Anyone ever done this?

My second favorite car-related site is thirdgen.org. There's a *whole bunch* of great technical information there, especially in the DIY PROM forum. People can be - um, "testy" sometimes, though. Can't expect the same high quality as here, but that's the breaks.

Those guys don't run the world. *I'm* on the Committee That Runs The World, and I don't know them at all. 'Course I'm not that good with faces...

Those Fiats are pretty little cars (as are many Italians) in stock form, but *MAN*, that's as ugly as a fairly hairy human butt. A sweaty one. Cool drive-train concept, tho.

They're not going to drop that Lotus into a crusher or anything, are they? 'Cause that'd be wrong. Just ... wrong.

I saw the movie, too, but I didn't spot the Z - the only thing I could think during that whole sequence was "Wow, they have roads in Hell - as a matter of fact, they have *freeways* in hell. Or, they used to, they seem to be all torn up now. Huh. How come they built freeways, then didn't keep them up? Was there some civil engineering going on in hell, and then they let it all go... and they must have had cars, so denizens of Hell drove around. That doesn't seem so bad. I wonder what the restaurants in hell were like... "... probably all Taco Bell..."

I've mounted several manifolds, including a victor-type single plane, using the JTR mount position and a TBI throttle body (which is roughly the same height as a 4-bbl carb). The limitation comes down, in my observation, to the filter assembly. With the victor, I used a home-brewed cold air intake, which added only about 1.5" above the injector pod. AND, it was in contact with the hood - luckily it was rubber, so contact wasn't so critical. Currently I have a Performer RPM (not an air-gap) with one of those little triangular Edelbrock filters, also very low, giving 1.25" clearance.

Yup, you have to be able to take off smoothly while drunk with a blond fondling your zipper.

Apple computer's site has a variety of links, pick whomever you please: http://www.apple.com but do it quickly. If they can get in there before the second killer - disease - begins, many, many lives can be saved. I don't know about you-all, but I can put off buying goodies for my car for a month or two

Agree on the purist thing, that car is gorgeous. I imagine it'll end up parked in an air-conditioned garage somewhere, like so many of the collector's cars do. Seems a shame, these things are made for having fun, but at that price...

I have a pair of Borla flow-through mufflers up in the original position, and did have to beat the spare tire well a bit, but the original tire fits in there just fine. It's offset a bit to the right, but the original hold-down still does its' job. The muffler does not touch the well. Something that might have made a difference is that I mocked-up the exhaust and wedged it into position to see where the interference was - I didn't move any more sheetmetal than absolutely necessary.

I ended up using a thin, flexible putty knife to get them started, sort of as a "ramp" for the rubber bit. Putty knife (well lubed) onto the frame, one side of the a-arm *just* engaged on the frame, other a-arm jammed onto the blade, rubber mallet beating ensues. A third hand would be helpful when starting the arm onto the blade, keeping it an a ramp-like attitude. Also, don't put "first" a-arm too far into the frame at first, as you'll "cock" the bushing at too much of an angle, increasing the interference. Illustration follows: http://album.hybridz.org/showphoto.php?photo=955 [EDIT]: WELL, ALL THE TIME I SPENT GETTING MY LOVELY ILLUSTRATION TOGETHER, BOZ BEAT ME TO IT. SIGH

Subject says it all: those little yellow pop-ups that appear in the forum listings, the ones that show the first 10-15 words of a post, are driving me nuts! I've experimented with my options, but haven't seen anything appropriate. Am I missing something? Suggestions?

Super funny! Yeah, that woman's riding her bike in a bike park, and it's really funny when some guy runs an RC car into her face! Ha ha ha! She's mean! Getting angry at some guy for driving his RC car in her way in a bike park is mean! Excellent! I hope she had to get stitches and is scarred for life! Definitely a "dumbbitch" for doing what she was supposed to be doing, in a place designed for what she's doing! They should have thrown rocks at her face! Ha Ha Ha!

If it all rested on the shoulders of Bush & Sharon, there wouldn't be too much of a problem, would there? Arafat started his career as a terrorist of the most egregious type, took control of the Palestinian situation by hook, crook, and 9mm, and has kept a sore spot festering for the better part of forty years. With him gone, there's a chance - just a chance, but better than the nothing we've been living with - that cooler and more reasonable heads can prevail.

Actually, it was. Compared to most elections in the past, it was razor-thin. From http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781450.html : (arithmetic mine, and please excuse the sloppy columns) Year___Candidates______Electoral College Votes__Margin Popular Votes 1960 Kennedy/Nixon/Byrd______303/219/15_______118,574 1964 Johnson/Goldwater_______486/52________15,951,296 1968 Nixon/Humphrey/Wallace__301/191/46_______510,314 1972 Nixon/McGovern/Schmitz___520/17/0______17,999,528 1976 Carter/Ford/McCarthy______297/240/1______1,682,790 1980 Reagan/Carter___________489/49_________7,417,813 1984 Reagan/Mondale_________525/13________16,877,890 1988 Bush/Dukakis/Bentsen____426/111/1_______7,077,023 1992 Clinton/Bush____________370/168________5,805,344 1996 Clinton/Dole/Perot_______379/159/0_______8,203,602 2000 Bush/Gore/Nader_________271/266/0_______-543,895 2004 Bush/Kerry/Nader________274/252/0_______3,543,662 So it wasn't as close as Kennedy/Nixon, Nixon/Humphrey or Carter/Ford, but it was pretty close. By the measure of the Electoral College, it was *really* close. A mandate? Yes. A landslide? Not even. A "landslide" is 500+ E.C. votes, not 22. Personally, I think the (soon to be, and not too soon) death of Yasser Arafat will have a lot more to do with our Middle-East policy than who just got elected.

Are hitches even available for the 1st gen Zs?

Also, is this a new motor? Or is the problem something recent?

I drove an original Lotus Type 7 many years ago. It was a surreal experience - the car is virtually an extension of your body, you're butt is 4 inches from the ground, the thing goes where you *think*, not necessarily where you steer. Magnificent.