jt1

Had a nice weekend, although I would have liked to make the Charlotte show. How was it? Speedo was truly awe inspiring, I'm considering moving up to the thong division. jt

Looking good. What color? Are they going to go ahead and paint the outside now? John

Congratulations. Finding the right woman is truly a blessing, marrying my wife is the best thing that's ever happened to me. Staying drunk half the time and chasing whores was really a tough lifestyle. John

Lots of good advice above, I pretty much agree with all of it. About the only disadvantage I have in my own business is that it becomes your life if you let it, and it's real hard not to let it take over. 50 - 55 hrs/wk are the norm around here, more when things are bad. It's so much a part of you that if things aren't going well you feel totally responsible, and sometimes the stress mounts up. The money can be excellent, but the downsides can be bad too. Don't be overly optimistic and set yourself up for a big letdown when you hit hard spots, cause there will be some. Employees can be a huge headache when you are depending on them and they let you down, and if you're doing a partnership you had better know the partner as well as you know your wife. One of my good friends summed it up pretty well: How do you turn an adult into a 2 year old? Hire them. John

Cheap autox/track day car? Get everything on the car structurally sound, in good working order mechanically, and dependable. Replace all the rubber bushings with urethane ones. Stainless steel brake lines help pedal feel a lot and your are probably cracked. Flush the brake system with quality fluid. Get as much a performance oriented alignment as possible. Then go run the car at 8 or 10 events, get some seat time, then decide how far you want to go with mods. You will increase your driving skills a ton, learn a lot, and have a good time. Once you start modding stuff, your pocketbook is the only limit, and you will get a better idea of the direction you want to go and how far. The main thing is you can learn a lot and have a ball with a basically stock car that's safe and dependable. John

You didn't say if your car is a manual or auto. The ZX booster won't work with a manual because it interferes with the clutch master cylinder, unless you want to move the clutch master over about 2", which is gonna get complicated. It's probably best to use the ZX master on your booster. Pushrod length seems to be hit or miss. Some people don't have a problem, others have to adjust it. Very well said. John

Good deal!!!! Glad it was minor. John

Mark the point of highest runout on the rotor and stub. Then remove the rotor, rotate it 180 deg, and check it again. This should show whether the runout is in the rotor or the stub axle. You might also try torqueing the lug nuts in stages. Sometimes pulling them down at once will introduce runout in an otherwise straight setup. Putting a wheel on can also make a difference, since it spreads out the clamping force of the lugnuts. If you can get to the rotor to check the runout from the backside, check it with a wheel on. John

Unless you're capable of better spelling than demonstrated in that post, searching will also be a waste of time. Close your mouth. The drool will eventually ruin your keyboard. John

Brake lines use a double flare, so you need a double flare tool instead of a single flare. It's harder to get a good double flare than a single, practice on some old lines before you start on the one's you're going to use. Inspect the lines you're gonna reuse carefully for wear and corrosion. When I replumbed my whole brake system, I found an auto parts that sells metric lines and has a good commercial grade flaring setup. I bent the lines with a tubing bender, and marked where I wanted the nuts, then had them do the flares. It worked great, I didn't have a single leak. If you can find somebody to do this, I'd recommend it as getting a good double flare job is a lot tougher than a single flare. If you do it yourself, by the tool first and practice a lot. Buy the best tool you can find, some of the chinese ones are junk. John

#4 is gonna be halfshaft, not underwear. John

John

That was different. Anyway, sometime back there was a post where somebody weighed a bare unibody. A search would probably turn it up. John

Buzy, you're doing the right thing. About the only way to tell if a lifter is bad is if it has crud in it or the face is worn. If the internal clearances have opened up you can't tell it, except by process of elimination like you're doing. Checking the lobe lift is by far the most important. +/- 0.002 is plenty close, if a lobe is going flat you're talking about 0.050 to 0.100 or more. Hope you find a simple problem, not a bad one. John

Mike, the guys who run for the class records are serious about the rules for the different classes, like engine and aero mods. They have stringent tech and there are no mulligans. For the fun run, which is for a time slip and nothing else, the only tech is for safety equip. I'm gonna give it a try for the heck of it, I'll post up the results. With the spook style front spoiler, my car got real light around 140. With the MSA airdam, it seems stable to about 150, which is as fast as I've been. Should be a neat thing to try. John

If the nut wasn't loose, then it does sound like a bad lifter. You can replace the single lifter or the whole set on your existing cam, you just need to use cam assembly lube on the new ones and go thru the cam breakin procedure just like you've installed a new cam. Use assembly lube, crank and bring motor to 2500 rpm immediately with no idling, stay at 2500 rpm for 30 minutes, shutdown and change oil and you're good to go. Use a oil that has zinc in it, like Rotella diesel oil or Mobil one for the breakin and it's a good idea to keep using it on a flat tappet motor. The new oils with the sunburst logo are non zinc and intended for hyd roller motors, they don't do well in flat tappet motors. John

We've got a land speed group here in NC that runs on an airport runway. One mile runup to the traps, then almost a mile of shutdown. I'm gonna give it a try at one of their fall events just for the heck of it. They have a "fun run" group, but some of these guys are serious. http://www.ecta-lsr.com/ A local guy here runs a modded L6 Z with a gnose and rear spoiler in the low 160 range. John

A new rocker arm nut should take care of it. It doesn't take a lot of pressure to preload the lifter, but the nut should be "self locking", and you definitely shouldn't be able to turn it with your fingers. It's working loose as the motor is running. Get a new nut, most likely that will solve the problem. You want 1/2 to 3/4 turn preload after you can feel resistance spinning the pushrod with your fingers. John

CCW's are good wheels, strong, and they'll build you anything you want. What width do you think you'll need? 12's & 10's? Maybe some Fikse's would be appropriate? John

Looking great. Can't wait to see some 335's up under that bad boy. John

There are 4 wheels and he wants $114.30 each for them, or a total of $457.20. 4 bolt hole pattern on a 114.3 mm diameter circle. Stock for early z's. John

Your friend is right in that if you get a bunch of metal in the motor, they should at least be cleaned really good, but you can do that yourself. A rebuild would mean new bearings, bearings, and axles, which might not be necessary. Have you been able to isolate the problem to a certain valve? John

Those 215's rock, Pete. A little work really picked up that exhaust. These heads are within +/- a few cfm of the AFR 195's, except at 400 on the exhaust, where these are about 10 cfm short. By 500 the Canfields have caught back up. It would be interesting to know what goes on there. I don't have any of the simulation programs. If somebody does and wants to plug in the data, I'll supply all the specs. John

Have I mentioned I'm installing a moving map GPS unit in my car? Cause I figure the car Mark is building will blow me so far into the woods I'm gonna need a GPS to find my way back to the track!!!!:biggrin: John

Pics don't do Mark's car justice. It's immaculate, very well thought out, and superbly executed. Oh, it's fast as hell, too. John