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Section the tube above the spring mount if you're not running coilovers. This is not a good idea with coilovers because the weld will have to be ground smooth for the threaded sleeve to slide over and would probably be weaker. John

A search on "frame reinforcements" in the Brakes, Wheels, Suspension and Chassis forum returned 418 hits. If it's the green one, replace the passenger side floorboard and both subframes and you'll be fine. That's a pretty nice car, just needs some TLC. John

I agree with Forrest. HybridZ has always been about quality tech, not some bLiNg idiot whacking off over his dubs. We need to maintain that level of excellence. If we piss off a few dumbasses along the way, who cares. John

Welcome to HybridZ. That car has a lot of potential, it just needs some time and $$$ to help it realize it. There is a ton of info here on just about anything you want to do to it, read around some, figure out your goals, then establish a time and $$$ budget. You will have something to be proud of when you get done. John

EZ fix on the timing pointer: Fab up a pointer from AL, bring the piston to TDC and mark the pointer. This is a lot easier before you put on the heads. John

Without raising the motor, the only options are to move the steering rack forward, something you don't want to do, or to cut out the firewall, add a "doghouse", and move the motor to the rear. Unless I was running a super ultralight clutch and flywheel, I wouldn't even consider an 8" damper. John

Well spoken. John

Probably the easiest thing to do is weld another seat for the threaded collar on the tube, higher than the on you have now, so you can regain some adjustability. The softer springs are compressing more, and lowering your ride height. John

I have a 6 1/4" damper, and in the JTR position, have 3/8 to 1/2" clearance to the steering rack. So an 8" isn't gonna work without spacing the motor up. You could probably add some spacers and raise it a little, with hood clearance in mind. Moving the engine forward makes it worse. John

One of the guys Indeed. John

Mark, not bad but some. It was still blowing just a little oil out the breather with the dipstick zip tied down. Just enough to see a few droplets on the valve cover and plug wires. Obviously it's not venting enough. It's sucking oil into the intake thru the PCV valve, since I can't run a baffle under the PCV, stud girdles in the way. I was thinking this system would vent the crankcase a little better, eliminate oil into the intake, blowing it out the exhaust instead. I'm either gonna try this or use a breather tank setup like you've got, haven't really decided yet. If this setup doesn't work well with mufflers, that's gonna be a big negative. For those wondering what I'm doing, I run my car at open track road course events, turning high rpms, 7K, for usually 20-25 minutes at a time. I'm using a PCV valve on the pass side and edelbrock breather on the drivers side, and blowing a little oil out the breather and sucking some thru the PCV. No baffles on either on due to clearance problems. Motor is fresh and leaks down good, but isn't venting enough. Suggestions are welcome! John

Like this one: http://www.moroso.com/catalog/categorydisplay.asp?CatCode=13023 If so, a couple of questions: Did you use any kind of baffle below the separator in the valve cover? My stud girdles are very close to the valve cover and If I can use any baffle at all it will only be a flat piece of aluminum. How far did you let the tubes protrude into the exhaust? And lastly, how does it work? Good, fair, or waste of money? John

First I would have the bores checked to see if the block is usable at 60, ie straight & round, not much wear etc. If that's OK, sonic check it and if it's OK then, go with customs. If it's gonna have to be bored, sleeve it or hunt another block. Most 400's are getting pretty thin at 60, but you never know till it's checked. John

Sounds like it's going a little lean when the secondaries open up. Try a little stiffer spring in the vacumn pod to slow the secondary opening down some. Another possibility is the secondary might need jetting up some. John

Beautiful pic. Nothing like a good track day kicking some p-cars around. What track? John

As usual, Grumpy is right on the money and brings the tech to back it up. My post merely points out that gun control is a slippery slope and does nothing to stop criminals, only removes the rights of law abiding citizens. John

I believe anyone who has a felony conviction or mental problems, should not be allowed to own a firearm. Otherwise, anybody should be able to own, carry, and use any firearm they see fit. The penalties for using a firearm illegally should be harsh. So far as people who say we don't "need" assault weapons, think about this: We don't "need" V8/turbo/nos/RB26 Z cars either! All the arguments against assault weapons can also be used against high performance autos. You don't need a car that will go faster than the speed limit. You don't need a car that will accelerate quickly. You don't need a car that will pull 1 g in a turn. A car that will go faster is capable of killing more people than a slow car. Because a car with a spoiler "looks" like a high performance car, you don't need it. This makes just as much sense as the assault weapons ban. Because a weapon "looks" deadly means it it and you should not be allowed to own it. It's definitely a nose-of-the camel thing- once the safety nazis get done with guns, what to stop them from starting on cars? After all, "cars" kill a lot more people than "guns"! John

I know your feelings. I refused to sell a car to a guy one time. It was a 69 Vette I had put a strong 427 in, probably close to 500hp. A rich daddy type who couldn't check the oil was gonna buy it for his 15 year old son who was getting his license in about a month. I spent about two hours trying to explain to the guy this was a high maintenance gearhead type car, not a put gas in and drive it deal, it got 8 mpg if you drove it conservatively, and because power steering on 69 vette's really sucked, when you hammered down on it you had better be paying real good attention. Not a car for a beginning driver. The guy got really pissed, he had my asking price cash in hand and demanded I sell him the car. I refused and he got furious, and threatened to take legal action. I told him to keep his money and call his lawyer. Never heard from him again, and sold the car to a vette nut a week later. Sometimes though, I wondered if I should have interfered with Darwin doing his job. John

A 283 block won't go to 4" without sleeving it, and maybe not even then. A small journal 327 block would be just the ticket. That would be an interesting combo. John

There's lots of info here about T5's and T56's. Try a Search in the Drivetrain Forum. John

Congratulations Brian! It's always a rush to hear something you've worked on for a long time come to life. Nice looking car and engine too. How about some details on the alternator and mount setup? That looks pretty sweet. John

Very Nice. The pic of the Z and the Cobra is fantastic. John

The Victoracer V700 is an excellent track tire. There's no need to shave them, they barely have any tread when new. It is a good idea to heat cycle them before taking them to the track and running them hard, they will last longer. They are a little slower than Hoosier's, maybe 1 sec per 60 sec lap time, but they will last about twice as many heat cycles before they start to lose grip, and they are generally worn to the bottom of the two deep grooves then anyway. They give you good feedback and break away predictably. I use them for track events, they are only a little slower than Hoosiers or race slicks and a lot cheaper. John

You can just take out the plug and put a nipple in the water pump no problem, that's the way mine is set up. As far as I know, it doesn't make any difference which way the water flows thru the heater core. John

I spoke to their tech line on three different occasions, never did get much help. I tried to get them to send me an o-ring kit for free, but they wanted about $38 for it IIRC. The HTOB is really a pretty well engineered piece. The problem with mine was the o-rings were cut during assembly. I cut one myself the first time I reassembled it, then got it right the next time. The o-rings are standard stuff, nothing special. The McLeod HTOB is also popular with Mopar guys putting Tremec TKO's in old Mopars. On the Moparts board, it was posted sometime late last year that McLeod had changed the style fittings used with this bearing, and that you could get a retrofit. I haven't seen any of the new style fittings though. John