strotter

Well said, David. I think every person on this board can relate to your feeling of "Well, I'm a dweeb at this stuff, but maybe I'll give it a try..." I vividly remember sitting in my laundry room (red concrete tile floor, insane-asylum green walls), our only car's blown engine spread out on the floor in front of me, a greasy copy of "The Idiot's Guide to Volkswagen Maintenance" in my hands, desperately trying to figure out where all the parts went. I was 19, there was no money and nobody who could help. When, after all the work, the sweat, the frustration, the thing actually worked, some switch went "click" in the back of my head. You know what I'm talking about. The difference between "It needs to be done" and "I can do it".

Yesterday I thought of this very thread - I was running my car "around the block" (about 10 miles in country and small town) when I was coming into Woodbridge (a little micro-town near where I live) what do I come across but a silver Viper coming the other way. It was being driven in a "spirited" manner by an older guy (early 60's?). I was *seriously* tempted to spin a quick u-turn and track him down, REALLY find out if a hybrid can keep up with a Viper, but I thought better of it. God, I hate being mature. Also I hate being in the middle of tuning. Someday, someday...

I just Monday started the tuning process on my TBI system. It's a total hybrid motor - a 327 with a Holley 670 intake, single-plane, Comp 270 cam, Vortec heads, roller everything, five-speed, so on. None of the PROMs I found are even a good *approximate* starting point, especially with the cam. This thing may be a gigantic time-saver. The only downside I see is me running into a tree 'cause I'm looking down at the display at the wrong moment. Hey, maybe I can win a Darwin award! "Guy wanting to go fast ends up stopping fast!" I ordered a Romulator and the software anyway.

Vandread, be very careful of any 240Z that hasn't lived its entire life in, say, Arizona or New Mexico, because if it hasn't it has rust. Simple as that. The cars were notorious for rust, and virtually everyone who's done work on them has found at least some. Look it over very carefully, especially in the engine compartment under the battery, the floor pans, and anyplace else exposed to road salt or constant moisture.

You know, that's a pretty good idea. It's not like the board is hard to navigate, but I think a lot of newbies have no idea where to start. Perhaps a "Newbies take note!" button at the top of the forum, which would take them to a FAQ section. Heck, I'd be willing to start a FAQ, if I could get some help from others.

Crankshafts were changed to move the keyway some time in the '70's. But the difference was only around 10 degrees. Perhaps you have a combination of one of these older cranks (or of the older design) and the wrong timing indexer?

I just finished reinstalling the heater controls on a '72. It was fugly. I had to twist into positions I haven't twisted into since I got my first girlfriend. I'm sore all over. I was thinking "That job was horrible - but it wasn't as bad as replacing the suspension bushings ... now *that* was bad". But there are lots of jobs like that when you work on old cars. So I'm wondering... What's the worst, most time-consuming, messiest, most painful, sweatiest, most frustrating, or just plain HORRIBLE job you've ever undertaken on your Z? Please be specific, I want *your* pain to make *my* pain feel better...

Not a movie, but related to what PeteW said, there's a book called "The Greatest Generation". I think it was written by Tom Brokaw, the news guy. It's about that generation of men and women. The thing I got from it was, think about those guys at that time. They were born into the cruelest depression the country has ever seen; just as they were becoming men and things started looking better the war came along, and they had to step up (did you know they instated the draft because *too many* guys were signing up?); then after that was taken care of they came home, put those memories aside, and built the most beautiful and powerful country the world has ever known. Now they're dying off, and I don't think most of us have every talked to any of them about that time. I know my father plain refused to talk about it, though I know he was a bomber pilot; my best friends father didn't tell him that he was in the Pacific theater (Wake and Guadalcanal) until he was in his twenties and was himself a veteran; most of them just never brought it up with their kids. It's a great book, and well worth the read.

Well done! I went through this myself last summer. A whole lot of work, but you get that "Damn I did a good job!" feeling every time you look at it. So you come down on the "Louvers are cool" side, huh?

What's interesting about this thread is what cars people consider "not cool".

I've noticed lately that the board has been working really well. No more "forgotten logins", no more logging me out if I take too long between pages, so on. I don't know what the moderators did, but it's all cake now.

I was putting around Pick'nPull, and I noticed this *huge* rubber intake fitting on a mid-eighties Volvo sedan. Went from the filter assembly to what I took to be a mass-air sensor, or some other f.i. goody. Took a couple home, sure enough, they're about 5 1/4" across the snout. Spent the next couple days adapting it and explaining to my woman what a "cold air intake" was, and why it's a Good Thing. She wasn't especially interested. However, I thought you-all might be. It's not perfect - the inlet's only 2 1/2" across. I managed to cut and tuck and finally fit a 3" inlet (cat-food can diameter, don't ask me how I know), which should feed my mild 327 just fine. I'm mostly interested in the low-profile nature of it. However, at some point in the future I'm going to try to "double" it for a dual 3" inlet. Not really necessary, but much sexier. Also, way way cheaper than the K&N intake.

The first time I drove my car to work, the early-arriving car-hounds clustered around the car instantly. One of them (an Asian kid, who was quite into cars) looked at it and said "Well, I don't go for American cars that much." I was dumbfounded, this was before I even popped the hood. I said "It's a Datsun!", to which he replied "Yeah? So?" "Well, uh, it's a Nissan! Datsun changed its name to Nissan back in the 80's!" at which point he got interested. Later on, I was teasing him about his lack of car knowledge, and he told me "Look Mr. Trotter, that car was built, what, like about fifteen years before I was born." So, I spent the rest of the day feeling the aches in my back and my knees.

So let me get this clear: "Rice" constitutes things that don't make the car go faster, be safer, or be easier to live with. Right? Except of course fancy paint jobs. And of course aluminum wheels. And chromy stuff under the hood. And replacement steering wheels. And powerful audio systems, and, well, possibly there are a couple of other things... C'mon guys, the rice thing is about taste, no more and no less. One mans "dress up items" are another mans "bunch of crap". Utility has very little to do with it. If I add up the costs of all the non-performance items on my Z, I could have afforded a damned nice set of stickers, neon lights, and a truly giant fart-pipe for my Civic (and, well, maybe a whole bunch more stuff too). And also, let's be honest here: virtually all of the high-performance modifications we at HybridZ make to our cars only truly come into their own when we're breaking the law and endangering the public. For instance: I have Z-rated tires on my car. "Z-rated" means approved for speeds roughly *double* the maximum speed limit in California, and most other states. I have *no* reason to *ever* drive that fast, under any circumstances, on any public street, anywhere, any time. Doing so would qualify me as an irresponsible jerk, and if anything should go wrong at those speeds, I would be remembered as either "suicidal" or "a murderer". Nevertheless, I bought the tires and had them installed, knowing full well I wouldn't use even a fraction of their capability - why? Because it's good to know that if the aliens attack I can zoom up to the mountains really really fast? No, because it's *cool* to have the capability. *My* sense of "beauty" has to do with power kept in check, in having control over something that's inherently difficult to control, in being able to do something even though I generally choose not to do it. Beauty to me also has to do with creating, with my own hands and sweat and thought, something nice from something ugly - like restoring a rusting piece of crap into an attractive, utilitarian, and even *artistic* expression. For others, it's something different - a brand new Lexus, tall tires on a 4X4, or stickers and a fart-pipe. It's all the same juice, just oozing out a different orifice. I think the thing to remember is, they're car-hounds, too. And *that*, to me, is the bottom line.

I'm having a heck of a time here. The GM T5 in my Z appears to bad, but I'll be darned if I can find a similar unit in the local junk yards - except for the yard that want $650.00 for one, or the yard that want $750 for one! I *can* however find Ford units (in Mustang 5.0's) locally. Here's the question: can I swap my existing input shaft onto a Ford-type unit? Are the output shafts similar? -or- does anyone have a line on a good used one that I can *afford*???? (I'm in central California)

Are the innards of a V6 type GM T5 similar to the V8 type? I know there are different splines on the input shaft, but are there other internal differences as well?

If I could read, I wouldn't be writing, now would I? -or- I just wanted to make sure he saw it! -or- Well, my girlfriend says I'm good looking, I don't need brains!

I did a search on this site for "dynamic AND compression"; grumpy posted this some time ago: http://cochise.uia.net/pkelley2/DynamicCR.html I think it may be what you're looking for =)

Mike: my condolences and sympathy. It's hard for a man when the women in his life are having trouble and he can't do anything about it. Call me a sexist pig, but I'll contend to the day I die that guys have an instinct to protect their women. Something 'way deep down makes us want to step up and swing hard and make the problem go away; but when you can't the level of frustration can become tremendous. The best you can do, and I know it's not much, is hang in there, give them what they need, make their lives as easy as possible. You can carry that load, that's why you were made strong. The thing with your brother-in-law is a different deal. Drug abuse (and of course alcohol is a drug like any other) is something that you have to defend yourself against like the plague. It eats families like candy, and has a huge appetite. And not just the immediate family: the destruction can spread like a cancer, and is hard to repair once it has found a foothold. Please believe me, you and your wife are prime candidates for these problems. Do not fool around with this: get yourself, your wife, and anybody else involved with this guy to an organization called "Alanon". It's an offshoot of Alcoholics Anonymous, aimed at family members and friends of people with drug and alcohol problems. They're there to teach how to keep yourself and your family intact in the face of alcohol/drug abuse. They have meetings like AA, but you don't have to go twice a week or anything like that; it's more like study sessions, questions and answers and practical advice, things like that. You've already started the process, by distancing yourself from your brother-in-law: that was a good call, though there may be downsides to it. However, you will need to learn what to expect over the next (possibly many) years, and how to handle it in a way that will keep your family in one piece, and help this guy and his wife as much as possible at the same time. It is not an easy thing, but if you know what to expect you can at least know what to watch out for. Check you local 'phone book for the local Alcoholics Anonymous (mine has it in the "business" section), give 'em a call, they'll point you in the right direction.

What type of scanning are you using? Is it throwing any codes? Now that it's running, you should be able to get some useful data...

I've been re-calibrating my speedo, but I'm having trouble getting the words "Ludicrous Speed" to fit without being all bunched up...

Though I can't right now answer your question, I can tell you that after I pulled the motor assembly out of the car to clean and lubricate it, to no effect, I have decided to take it down to a local motor repair shop to see if they can either a) make it run faster by rewiring it or something, amperage be damned, or supply a replacement that'll run faster. I'm frankly willing to give up the "park" function if necessary - the thing is so slow as to be dangerous in even a moderate rain. If nobody else provides a good answer for you, I may be able to in a couple of weeks...

I've been driving my 327'd '72 to work now for two weeks. No major problems. Sometimes when coming to a stop, it would "moan" a bit, as drum brakes will do once in a while. However, yesterday I pulled into my little parking space, pulled on the emergency brake - and it gave a sorrowful moan for *at least* five seconds after I had come to a complete stop. It sounded, I kid you not, like a cow. "Mooooooooooooooo..." It was kind of spooky. I'm not the worlds best mechanic, God knows, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. It sounds like it's coming from the back, but you know how sound wiggles around a car. I'm thinking fuel system? I've got a high-pressure MSD electric fuel pump (which was off at the time of the, um, "utterance"), pumping directly from the tank, no reservoir. Pressure is steady at idle. So far as I can tell, all the tank vent lines are clear. Any ideas?

In addition to the problem with the system logging me out after a while, and its forgetting me between logins, the postings on the Home page *all* indicate they are in the "Announcement" forum. I suspect they're not supposed to do that. Just trying to bring a little more joy to the moderators.

I too blocked off the return line. First, I tried a nipple on the end, held in place with a hose-clamp. Material of nipple became brittle, allowed weep of fuel when filled up. Next, tried bending the end 180 deg, so as to pinch it, clamped tight with vice-grips. Couldn't get it to pinch tight enough to stop all fuel flow, still weeped. Attempt to put a second 180 bend into it dislodged the solder joint holding the fitting in place, came out in my hand. Removed the fuel sending unit assembly (only a couple of inches away), noted that there is a sleeve on the inside into which the short length of tube fits. My option: a pair of fuel-resistant grommets, a matching pair of washers to back them, a 1 1/2" #10 screw, and a lock-nut. Use a tubing cutter to cut off the return-line fitting as close to the tank as possible. Smooth the cut so that the end will not damage the grommet. Onto the screw place a washer, then a grommet, gingerly feed the screw into the sleeve inside the tank through the sending-unit hole (which is just big enough for a couple of fingers,) and then out through the tube. There will need to be at least 3/4" of thread visible, you may have to use a longer screw. Then place another grommet on the outside so that it seals the now cut-off tube, back it with another washer, and start the nut. Hold the screw gently with a pair of vice-grips in front of the nut while initially tightening the lock-nut (which will take a surprising amount of torque), change the vice-grip position to behind the nut when thread is available. Snug it so that it does not damage the grommet, yet still seals. Not elegant, but works well. At some later date, I intend to seal off the opening more permanently, but this is a fairly secure semi-short term solution. Good luck.