jt1

$1600 sounds like a decent price to me, although not a screaming bargain. Do you know anything about who built it? Is there any warranty? Has it been test run or dynoed? John

Unknown. Driver is too chicken. John

The reservoir doesn't have to be at the highest point, but the system is much, much more trouble free and requires less maintenance if it is. I used to see circle track guys with the low mounted reservoirs spend tons of time getting air out of their brakes. You can plumb Tilton master cylinders up with a remote reservoir if the MC mounting position is too low. John

Most likely you can back the adjustment off some and take care of it. If that doesn't do it you need an adjustable proportioning valve, or some harder rear shoes. Too much rear brake is usually makes the car very twitchy under braking. John

I've seen two 911's with SBC's show up for track events at CMP. One is immaculately executed and wicked fast; the other has a nice 18* motor in it but a lot of poorly done details, especially the cooling system. Both used inverted 930 transaxles. I thought they were pretty cool, but most Porsche guys who see them act like they've just seen the antichrist. John

Another thing that helps out sometimes is right when you quit welding, take a ball peen hammer and tap down the metal right ahead of the weld, where you'll be welding next; it has some heat in it from the weld and won't spring back, thus closing the gap even more. This works best when you're doing the 1/4" at a time deal. John

I don't think you will have a problem. It will not be optimum, since the baffles and trap door are set up for left hand turns, but it will be better than a pan with no baffles or doors. If it has kick outs, they can get real tight with the exhaust on a V8 Z. John

When my 355 was in a 300 RWHP state of tune, it would consistently average about 22mpg on a trip if I kept my foot out of the double pumper. I had a 700R4, 0.70 overdrive in it then. Cozy's list is a good one. John

I don't think any of the two piece seal blocks are high nickel, I've never even heard it mentioned. Right now I'm using a mid 80's 4 bolt two piece mexican block, which seems to be pretty decent. Wall thicknesses were pretty good and it doesn't seem to wear much. John

I'm with Matt. No freakin way the highway patrol will admit there could be ANY possible error in their timing and speed calculation methods. John

That's heavy for an autocross/road race wheel, but about normal for cast AL street wheels. I think those would look great on a street Z. John

Welcome aboard. This is a tech oriented site, and it's great to see someone join up in an intelligent fashion, rather than the typical "How much does it cost to V8 a Z? Will I need NAWS to outrun my 3rd cousin's next door neighbor's ex-boyfriend's JATO powered Civic, which he says run's 8's in the quarter? V8 Z's make great open track cars, that's mostly what I do with mine. Check the classifieds, lots of good stuff shows up there. John

Marcus, I know it really stings to get burnt on a deal. We've all had it happen at some point or another, and it makes you want to just say the hell with it and go in another direction. BUT: If you get out of the project now, you're going to take a bath on it and it's going to be a bad memory for a long time. Set it aside, think things over, and when you get ready, start on it again. If you see it thru to completion, you'll have a unique, fast car that's a ball to drive, and the special satisfaction that comes from saying "I built it myself". V8 Zcars always draw a lot of attention and will outrun almost anything you see, so owning one is a really great experience that only a few people get to enjoy. Finishing the project will turn it all into a big accomplishment that you can be proud of, despite a few bumps in the road. Bail on it and it will be a sore spot for a long time. John

Marcus, that really sucks. I hate to see a deal go bad for anybody. Hopefully you and the seller can get it worked out. The TW heads work great when properly set up, but they are susceptible to valve guide wear if the wrong lenght pushrods are used. If you wind up keeping them, have the guides checked before you run them. I ran a set for a couple of years and have a good bit of experience with them, so let me know if I can help out. John

There is some flow restriction there, but as a practical matter the effect is pretty small and would only be noticable on a back to back dyno comparison, maybe 5 or 10 hp at the most. Getting the headers to seal to the heads may be a bigger problem, sometimes when the port shape is different the gaskets don't have much sealing/clamping area and give problems leaking. John

Uh, well, uh, yeah, I was planning to go, but, uh......... Tell you what. You bring your car and we'll let David drive them both. Deal?

I've got a set of those, they are nice heads that perform well. Because of the canted valves, it's important that the valvetrain geometry be right on the money or you will eat the valve guides quickly. It takes special lenght pushrods and a different lenght for the intake and exhaust. Comp makes a set of roller rockers with offset fulcrums that makes it a lot easier. The early TW's had iron valve guides in them, and that combined with incorrectly setup rockers caused some problems. My 355 w/those heads made 330 at the wheels. John

Hey David! Good to see you around your old stomping grounds. You know, I really don't recall offering to let you drive my car........ Must have been a Cuervo moment. John

Some more checking would tell for sure, but that looks like a complete rebuild is in order to me. Usually if you can see any copper the crank will need turning rather than just a polish. How do the pistons and cylinder walls look? John

Cody, I have no idea what rotor temps I'm seeing on track. I've thought about getting some of the temp sensing paint and putting it on the rotors to see what the temps are. A fellow with an infrared heat gun shot them at 600* after a cooldown lap and pulling in the pits. The cracks are more a function of the number of heat cycles rather than the ultimate temp. That pic was taken when I pulled the rotors off and swapped on new ones, I thought those were shot. John

For a daily driver/drag race/autoX car the Dynalites will do all you need. If you're gonna open track the car much, the Superlites are the stuff. I track my car a lot at a track that's very hard on brakes, CMP, and even hammering them enough to get the rotors looking like this: the cast Superlites are still looking for more. John

Well, since I've owned it anyway. I track the car a good bit, and it's usually covered in brake dust, oil, rubber marks, and general dust and track grime. We're having a local car show tomorrom that is a pretty good sized event for around here, about 350-400 cars, and several people had asked me to bring my car. So, about 6 hrs worth of cleaning, washing, and two coats of wax, and the old sweetheart looks pretty nice. Even Spillman's rattle can paint job looks good with enough wax on it! John

The dots aren't supposed to line up at TDC; they generally line up 30 or 40 deg before TDC IIRC. As long as the center of the crank, cam, and the two dots line up you're fine, but it's not at TDC. And it doesn't matter if the dot on the cam gear is at the top or the bottom. The dot on the crank gear should always be on the top. John

Mark, that's sweet, those are a really cool ride. BUT- You said you were going to go buy a new truck, and come back with a Caddy CTS-V????????? Does it have a trailer hitch to tow the Z to the track? This I gotta see. John