jt1

Congratulations Austin, that's great news. I hope it works out well for you. That's got to be up in the dream job category. A old college buddy of mine has a son, another NCSU ME, who works for Childress. Long hours & hard work, but good pay and lots of perks. Drop us a tidbit every chance you get!!!! John

My experience is that the feathering shows up when you're really working the tire hard, at the upper limit of it's temp range. It seems to show up more on a hot track with an abrasive surface. With a good set of R6's, I usually see about 1.35-1.38 g's on the datalogger if you disregard the spikes and try to take an average. jt

Nice clean build on the engine. We need some burnout pics!!!!! jt

That's a cool discovery!!! I enjoy muscle car era parts. I would try to sell the intake and engine separately. Some of the Z28 guys will want the intake, and like you said, somebody with a vette might be looking for a correct motor. You might turn a nice profit. jt

The fellow who owns it brought it to CMP for an initial shakedown a couple of weeks ago. I rode with him for a session, and it's a beast. Like any new build, he's got some fine tuning to do, but's it's gonna be fast when sorted out. It's a very impressive build with a lot of nice details. I think he checks in here some, maybe he will post up some details. John

Rod to cam clearance is not a given on a 383. Depending on what you've got, you may need to clearance the rods, run a small base circle cam, or both. If you need to clearance the rods, that needs to be done before balancing. Be sure you can use your lifters with a 1st gen block. Check your heads to be sure you can run the lift you want. Piston to valve clearance, spring rate, retainer to guide clearance, and coil bind can all be issues. Do some research to make sure the parts you buy will be usable and not incompatible. Some good reading here: http://www.chevytalk.org/fusionbb/showtopic.php?tid/131229/ jt

FWIW, like Ron, I never bench bleed a master. I put it on the car, bleed it a couple of times, the bleed the rest of the car, and repeat the process. I've found bench bleeding to be a waste of time, but a lot of people think it's a good thing, so YMMV. The best thing I've done is JB weld a quick coupler into an old master cyl. cap. Then I set the regulator on my compressor to about 10psi, hook it to the master, and bleed away. It works great, forces air out better than pumping, and you can do it by yourself. Somewhere between 15 and 20 psi you will blow the cap off the master and blow brake fluid everywhere, so stick with about 10 psi. You may have a little more pedal travel with the discs than with the old drums. The physics are that you have to move a little more fluid for the bigger pistons, which necessitates more MC travel, which means more pedal travel. This is where the ZX mc helps outs. When I went from 1 3/8 pistons to 1 3/4 pistons on the front of my car, I wound up with more pedal travel, but better brakes. This isn't a bad thing since it makes modulation of the brakes easier. jt

Looking good, Mark. The paint looks great. If you fellows think it looks good, you should see it run. Take my word for it, that is a wicked fast ride. When he was running the car in primer, I got used to seeing a gray blob come around me and disappear into the horizon, hyperspace style. Mark, let me know when you get ready to go to the track, I've got to check it out in person. jt

Just teasing, Rick--- I have no doubts you're doing a first class job in every respect. John

That cradle needs a section about twice that big to hold on to that TT V6 rocket you're going to bolt to it? jt

Usually the larger reservoir is for the front brakes, but I don't think that would cause your problem. A slight hiss from the booster is normal. Did you ever let the master drain all the way? If so, you've probably still got some air in the system. Sometimes when you completely drain a system it takes a lot of bleeding to get all the air out, like running a couple of quarts of fluid thru the system. You also need to bleed all four corners, not just the rears. Since the ZX is a larger bore master, it will give you a firmer pedal, after you get all the air out. jt

I've got a 7/8" on my car, using a Tilton HTOB. With this setup, the clutch is real "quick", and I've been considering going to a smaller master. Are you interested in a swap? John

It was pretty common around here on dirt late models to increase the rear % when they started limiting the rear wings. RF's were moved forward 6-8" in some cases, but it got ruled out when it got so obvious. Some drag cars do it to increase the "rollout". jt

Sounds like you need to get the slave positioned correctly. Can you adjust the mount or rod? I may have a master I would swap. I'll check to be sure. jt

Nice. Looks great, sounds great. jt

This is the best way: These are available from summit and probably lots of other places. In a pinch, you can make do with a good metal straightedge and a set of feeler guages. It's best to measure over each end of the wristpin, then measure the edge of the piston 90 deg from the wristpin. Rock the piston, note the different readings, and average them. Do 4 measurements per piston, don't be surprised if they vary a few thou. jt

Usually it's a combo of the starter plus one or two other cylinders firing, then the inertia of the flywheel bends the rod. jt

It almost certainly hydrolocked either by water or fuel, or maybe oil. Bad injector, leaking head gasket, or getting water into the intake. Glad you found the problem and have a fix. jt

I agree the flares look like Jim Cook Racing, but I think the square headlights have been added. I've never seen a JCR kit with the square lights. If the basic chassis isn't rusty, it's got potential. jt

A big thing is the AZ's are weld in, while the GC's bolt in. Usually the max camber is limited by the top hat of the coilover hitting the inside of the strut tower, regardless of how much slot is remaining. jt

Probably the cleanest my car has ever been: Heading up the hill on the VIR North Course: jt

Very Nice!!!! Lots of good work there. Where are you going to put a skid plate? Any idea what the complete car will weigh? jt

That pretty much rules out a twisted crank. You can visually compare the rods and pistons, stand the pistons on top and compare the wrist pin holes, then stand the rods on the bottom and compare wrist pin holes again. Is the crank standard or has it been turned? A possibility is somebody spun a bearing on #6, ruined the rod, turned the crank and grabbed a 240 rod for a quick fix. A bent rod on #6 is also a possibility. A quick way to check the stroke on #6 is put the #1 rod & piston in #6, and see if it comes all the way up. jt