jt1

In my experience you need at least 1/4". Sometimes you will see a little touch at that, but not enough to hurt anything. jt

Towbar, those look nice. What primary and collector diameter did you use? Were you able to keep the tube lengths pretty close? That's some nice work. Welcome to HybridZ. John

The price sounds reasonable. I'm not familiar with Enginetech, but it sounds like it's import stuff and should probably be checked closely for clearances, quality, etc. The stock 400 rods are weak, and a stock crank is cast. So, you can't turn much rpm with it, but it would make a lively, somewhat hotter than stock motor. To build a real screamer you will use the block and not much else. Any flat tappet build is a little risky with today's oils, so keep that in mind on the build and break-in. Around here, good 400 blocks are hard to find. A good block with nice machine work would easily be worth $800, maybe more. jt

LVSALT, that's quite impressive. Do you have any more pics, and maybe some details about the buildup of your car? Welcome to HybridZ. John

You'll need a proportioning valve. There are way too many variables involved to not run one, unless you change to a dual master cylinder setup with a balance bar. jt

....hee hee hee hee.... I like it. jt

This is hilarious. V-8 guys will love it. Whoever puts these together is great. jt

The Jeep will work fine. I agree with turbo you'll need a trans cooler, and make sure your trailer has brakes and that they work. A friend used to tow his Z to the track with a GMC Astro minivan. It wasn't a high speed affair, but he got it done just fine. jt

Very impressive, that's a nice job. John

Bah. It skipped over us in the western piedmont. We barely got enough to cover the ground. I enjoy one or two snows a winter, then I've had enough. jt

Borrowing money for an investment only makes sense if the investment returns more than the interest rate & expenses. Otherwise you're better off saving. A property isn't "cheap" unless you can rent it and be positive on the cash flow. Feeding it doesn't make sense unless value is going up. Be careful borrowing floaters or balloons right now. There is at least a decent chance you could be looking at 15- 20% interest rates in the next few years. Interest, taxes, and insurance eats at you profit every day, whether the property is bringing in money or not. Not trying to be negative, just a few things to think about. jt

Since you are running an auto, you have more flexibility in positioning the motor. With a straight drive, you got to get the shifter near the shifter opening in the console to avoid a major hack job. You might be able to use the mounts like you describe, I just don't think anyone has done that and posted about it. The JTR setup works really well with blockhuggers, and is usable with the S&S's, but they are pretty low. I used to think the blockhuggers cost some power, but Mark's yellow LT1 car makes way, way past 500hp with them, so they're not that bad. About the only dis to the JTR setup is reworking the hood latch, but JTR makes some nice pieces to deal with that. One thing for sure, you need to get the engine position and headers worked out before you make the drivehaft, or you will spend unecessary $$$$ changing the drive shaft. jt

I'm not sure. I haven't seen a setup like you describe. Your fore & aft location is pretty close to the hooker, but the motor may be lower. The Hooker header tubes 3,5, & 7 go inside the steering shaft, and #1 goes outside the shaft, so there's not a lot of adjustment available. The JTR setup is hard to beat. What are your plans for the car, and what kind of trans are you going to use? jt

Most header designs are close to the steering shaft. As long as they don't drag on the shaft, it's not a problem. You won't have any heat related issues. jt

Probably the best thing to do is figure out which mounting setup you have. This will tell you which headers you need. Post a pic, or do a search and look at pics of the three basic mounts. It could be JTR, MSA, or Hooker. It sounds like the Hooker is most likely. jt

Congrats Derek!!! It's great to get that opportunity. Make the most of it! John

Rumors of my wealth are greatly exaggerated!!!!!!!!! jt

$55K and didn't hit the reserve? Holy Crap. jt

Get a tko with a GM bolt pattern and input shaft. It will handle the torque, and uses standard SBC bellhousings and clutches. With JTR mounts, you might have to trim the shifter opening slightly, but probably less that 1/2". The only reason to use a high dollar T5 over a tko is the T5 is about 10 - 15# lighter. jt

No. That fundamentally doesn't work with V8 cranks like it does with 4 cyl. cranks. You must use bobweights and spin the assembly. Read the article. jt

You can't knife edge balance a V8 crank. You can knife edge the counterweights, which is done to reduce windage, but is different from balancing the rotating assembly. Read thru this, it explains it better than I can: http://www.circletrack.com/techarticles/ctrp_0504_engine_balancing_tech_terminology/index.html Bottom line is that if you're using anything other than stock components, plan on getting it balanced. jt

Try running a lot more initial timing, like 18-20 degrees, and see if it helps. If so, check your total timing and limit it to 35-36 deg. This will clean up the idle a lot. Then set idle speed and try to adjust the mixture screws. Hopefully they will be responsive now; if not, you will need to open the secondaries a little to get the primaries off the transition circuit. jt

Dave, how much offset did you use from the bracket to the rotor? Looking at mark's calipers at the track, it looked like the rear of the caliper was deflecting outwards from the strut tube, and the outer front corner of the caliper was deflecting down towards the CL of the hub and outwards away from the strut. The total deflection had to be around 0.150" at the front of the caliper for the caliper to hit the rotor like they did. John

With some smoothing, 1.15 - 1.18g is the peak I've seen. Mark is running larger tires than me, so he may beat that a little. jt

Glad everything worked out. Having spent a good part of the weekend watching mark drive away from me, I can verify his car is working very well!!!. John