jt1

I'm chasing some spark scatter, 3 or 4 deg at 4K up, and decided to try one of their $$$$ timing covers. I've been using a button and stock stamped cover and figured the cam was bouncing around. How in the #@$% do you get the shims to stay in place behind the thrust bearing until you tighten the gear up???? After a zillion tries, one or more of the shims falls between the gear and the cam every time, resulting in a wobbly gear. I tried some heavy grease to hold the shims in place, no luck. Considered silicone, but figured that would affect the clearance too much. Taking the motor off the stand and standing it on it's end is not an option. The slight chamfer on the back of the gear only makes it worse. Thought about breaking out the MIG, but I may want to tear it down in the future. Any suggestions? ...considering putting the $4.95 button and $2 cover back on.... John

I've never seen an intake you can get to all the bolts with a torque wrench, although the newer vortec styles look more promising. Experiment with one you can get to with the torque wrench, then see what it feels like with a box end wrench, then pull them all about the same and you'll be fine. Tighten the bolts up in stages, ie light pull all the way around, then medium, then heavy pull. John

I used straight hose on mine, sbc/jtr, with no problems. The hoses are tight against the valve cover, but it hasn't caused any trouble. It might wear a little in extended use. John

I've got that same Autopower roll bar. I don't know what the intended use of that flimsy strip is, but I sure wasn't hooking my belts that POS. I cut it out, and welded a 1 3/4 bar between the rear down bars to attach the belts. I set it 2" below my shoulder height with me sitting in the seat. Putting it between the rear bars rather than the front ones lets the seat go all the way back, and doesn't interfere with the diagonal brace. John

David: That's a nice balanced setup. Mine is on the edge of streetable, at least with the lightweight clutch and flywheel. You have to be just right to start off without killing the motor or spinning the tires. It would be a little better with a stock style clutch. Get it to a chassis dyno, tune the carb and timing, and let us know how it does. I bet you'll be pleased. Mike: I have a ton of respect for the 292/492 heads. They are one item GM definitely got right the first time. I've got a set of 292's I would run except for the weight penalty on the front of the car. The XR280R is 242/248 @ 50, 570/576, 110 LSA, 016/018. It pulls nicely from 3000 to 6500, but has a pretty rough idle. It sounds good to me though! The TF's are advertised to flow 235 out of the box, the Canfield's 260 with a "mild bowl blend", whatever they call that. No info on the Canfields out of the box. I may get someone to clean them up if i can find somebody interested. No one local has a flow bench to really check them out. They may help the car a little, but I suspect the limiting factor now is the exhaust. John

Mark, I'm really looking for a durability increase rather than a big step up in power. The trick flows have eat the valve seals again, and the Hookers have several cracks in the collectors. I'm not at all sure the S&S's will work on my car since it's so low, possible ground clearance issues. Maybe it will be a little stronger, but probably nothing earthshaking. I'm gonna try and be ready for the April T1 day; What's your schedule looking like? John

4 bolt block +030 Cola 4340 crank, 3.48 Manley 5.7 Hbeams JE Flat tops, zero deck, 10.4:1 Trick Flow twisted wedge heads, out of the box Comp XR280R, Comp promag 1.52 rockers, 977 springs Edelbrock performer RPM air gap Holley 700 DP, Choke cut, radiused & polished MSD 6AL & MSD dist Hooker block huggers into a single 3", double chamber flowmaster No specific horsepower goals. Last time on a chassis dyno it pulled 352 at the wheels. I mostly open track the car, so no 1/4 times. I'm currently upgrading to 197 Canfields and 1 3/4 S&S headers, and am pondering intake/carb. I'll probably stick with what I've got right now. John

You can buy them direct from S&S, about $300 I think. I don't know if the 5 degree collectors are extra or not. http://www.ssheaders.com/ John

dsommer is CORRECT!!!!! After checking Comp's catalog and double checking with the tech line, my cam, a XR280R, doesn't require a bronze gear. It's ground on an austinite cast core, not a billet core. I ASSumed all the solid rollers were billet and needed the bronze gear. The appearance of the cam really threw me off, the entire surface was machined. Normally on a cast core cam, the area between the lobes still have a as-cast surface. ds, you've saved me a $100 polymer gear and probably more grief in the future. Thanks a ton. John

ds, it's a comp billet solid roller. What sorta threw me off was the cam I replaced was also a billet comp solid roller, and after 2 years use, the gear looked like new on the HEI dist. This one didn't make it quite that far! John

Thanks everyone. MikeC: Will shimming the dist up or down change the depth of engagement or just shift the wear patch on the gear? Mine looks like it is a little high, about the thickness of the gasket. I estimate the engine to have about 2500 miles on it since installing the cam & gear. But about 1000 of those miles were hard ones in open track events, the rest street miles. I changed the oil several times, and did notice a brassy sheen to the oil. I also cut the oil filter open each time, and there were no particles in the oil filter. One tipoff I missed was as I was checking the timing before one of last years last events, I was getting 2 or 3 degrees of spark scatter. I should have checked it then. Yesterday afternoon in a paranoid fit , I pulled the motor, tore it down and checked the bearings. They were fine, showing only a little wear. I've been chasing a persistant leak around the oil pan and this is a good opportunity to fix it. I'm gonna try one of the Comp polymer gears and see how it does. I'll let you know. John

By "full roller" I meant needle roller bearings on the shaft and a roller tip. John

I am working on my car today, and pulled the distributor out. I was pretty surprised to see that the bronze gear is worn badly; to the point that some of the teeth are worn to a sharp edge. About this time last year, I installed the dist and gear, both new MSD items. I also changed cams at that time, to a slightly larger Comp solid roller than the previous cam. The previous dist, a GM HEI, had been in the car about two years, and the gear on it looked fine when I removed it, as did the cam. Is this normal wear for a bronze gear? The previous setup looked almost new when removed, after two years usage. Is my distributor running too high? The wear pattern is closer to the bottom of the gear than the top, but doesn't appear to be running off the bottom of the gear. Worn cam bearings? They were new when this motor was built 3 years ago. I'm not running huge valve springs, Comp 977's, which comp reccomends for this cam. Possible oil pump or pump drive problems? I'm using a high volume 4 bolt pump. Should I check it? Nothing showing up in the oil filter or magnetic drain plug. This is my first roller cam motor, so I don't have any experience to go by. Any thoughts or comments? edit: add crappy pic John

Volman, I've got a set of Harlon Sharp full rollers, 1.5 ratio, 3/8 stud, that I don't need. They're in good condition except for marks where they have hit the retainers at some point. I don't have any nuts for them, but I'll take $125 shipped. If you're interested, I'll send some pics. John

originally posted by intenserestoration "not once thinking" seems to be the key words in that sentence. You bought a car without checking to see if it had the original block. originally posted by intenserestoration If you wanted it to sit in the shop, why did you go to the trouble and expense of listing it on ebay? originally posted by intenserestoration You mean the "issued" of you buying a car without checking to see if one of the major components was correct, and then advertising the car for sale as "all original", again without checking? originally posted by intenserestoration You are openly admitting you advertised and sold the car as all original without checking to see if that was true. This places a huge burden of proof on yourself if that originality is questioned. You need to come to an agreement with David about reduced value or give him his money back and pay the shipping costs to get the car shipped back, so it can sit in your garage as you desire. I'm in for $50 on the plane ticket too. John

Looking good, Mark!! Lots of shiny new metal! John

I've known David Spillman for years, probably 13 or 14 now. David has his own business and has been sucessful for quite a while. He is well thought of by customers, business associates like myself, employees, and friends. We have bought and sold car stuff from each other, and I know many other people who have had dealings with David. I bought the car I've got now from him, and every thing he told me about it was true. How many people here can say the person who sold them their car was completely truthful about it? In this case it was a 30 year old Z with extensive modifications, with a lot of potential for misrepresentation, and every thing David told me turned out to be correct. I've never heard anyone say David mislead them. If David says this guy misrepresented the car and screwed him over, I think the facts will prove that to be correct. I have no knowledge of Too Intense, but I know David personally, not just an internet acquaintance, and I think he's telling the truth. I know newer members haven't seen David post a lot, since he sold his V8 Z to me a couple of years ago, but he was one of the charter members of HybridZ. Member #10, which he lost in the software changeover. Don't jump to conclusions here. John

Mike, I bought my TKOII from Fortes. http://www.fortesparts.com/index.html $2075 & shipping about a year ago. The TKO was $100 less. John

Bob, that'a a nice looking car. I've got to check that out in person. I think those are the no-longer-made Arizona Z IMSA flares and Gnose. Not really sure about the rear spoiler though. John

Mike- If you're going to use this car for street with some track use, I would reccomend a TKO instead of the TKOII. 5th is closer than I anticipated in my TKOII; there's only about a 500 rpm drop from 4th to 5th. This is pretty much a track split, if I were driving the car on the street much I would much rather have the .70 5th instead of the .83. I'm gonna put this trans in your 260 when it gets ready for it, and put one with a higher 5th in my 73 for street use. I know what you mean about the feel of a Z car. I'm a fan of vette's and have owned 9 over the years. They're nice cars, but none of then have the knife edge response and predictability of a Z. They can be very fast, but are bigger and heavier enough to lose the crispness of a Z. The first nice car I owned was a 76 280; I loved it except for a lack of power. I leaned towards vettes, then discovered V8 Z's. The best of both worlds; right now it's 3 Z's and 0 vettes! John

Another vote of confidence for Don's products. I have his 4 wheel disc kit and it is excellent. John

Excellent. A good laugh to start off the day. John

Some of the Jensen's came with 440's in them. They were a terror in their day, but like the guy says, overheating was a pretty constant problem. Now let's see, a low deck 451, ported ebrock heads, nice solid roller and a Victor with a HP 950 on it.......600 hp at only 6K rpm......I love big block Mopars........ John

Mike, most of the guys I know who track vettes run with the traction control off; They say if you spin the tires off a corner and the TC kicks in, there's a lag before you get full power again. John

Mike, that's a nice looking car, I'm glad you're pleased. Vette's amaze me because they are quick cars, yet retain the ride, sound level, convenience, and comfort of cars that are just people movers. Vette's are like M3's in that respect, but with more power and rubber. Get her tuned up, take it to the track, and give us a report. Two things to remember: Don't start hanging out at corvetteforums; Watch out for those V8 Zcars, they will hand you your ass!!!!!! John