jt1

I don't think you're going to get enough friction between the caliper and mount to eliminate shear in the mounting bolts. Moving the caliper further away from the mount increases the bending and tensile loads in the bolts and mounting ears pretty quickly also. It could probably be done, but I would be very suspicious of any caliper mounting setup that wasn't well designed and proven. I think it would be a lot better to get the hats right. John

The new MC will already have the piston in it, so no problems there. When I did this sway on my 73, the existing pushrod lenght did fine, but I have seen posts where some people had to adjust it. This may be a model specific deal, since the boosters vary slightly, so maybe someone with a 71 will help out. John

Would it be better to orient the groove slightly ahead of the contact points of the two gears so they would receive the oil before meshing? I think this is a great idea. I'm gonna do mine next time I have the dist. out. John

bliNg! Try a search, jmack. Lot's of good info about different setups and sizes. John

I wonder how sticking one of the magnets to the outside of the pan would work? Would you still have enough magnetic force to catch metallic particles? Would it fall off? Duct tape to help secure it? Be nice to get the benefits and not have to drop the pan to install it. John

Yep. John

The Wilwood valve will give up to a 40% reduction in line pressure. I've got one on my car and it works great. Only problem is making the metric/standard crossover somewhere to plumb it in. John

Very nice, especially for a nine month buildup! What kind of A/C setup is that? John

I agree with Bob's analysis of brake torque. I think the real question here is not one of ultimate strenght, but of allowable deflection and fatigue cycle limit. A thinner bracket will deflect more under braking loads, causing reduced braking efficency, more pad wear, and shorter caliper life. The greater the deflection, the more the bracket is fatigued, and the number of stress cycles it can withstand is reduced, generally not in a linear fashion. A thinner bracket may deflect 0.025" under max braking and have a lifetime of 10K cycles before it breaks. A thicker bracket may deflect half that much and have a lifetime of 100K cycles. So what's an acceptable deflection limit and life cycle expection? I dunno, someone with more experience with braking systems would have to answer that. I can chip in that my DPR brackets, using 12.2 wilwood rotors and wilwood superlites, have survived two years of approx 10 OT events per year with no problems. They are made of 1/2" steel. John

Tim, check out http://www.turbodieselregister.com. You have to be a member to post, but you can read all you want. Lots of great info there about Dodge/Cummins. I think johnc might be getting close to the edge. John

Subdermal, those are some nice results. What was the compression ratio and what kind of gas? Do you have any flow data on the heads? Were they the 23 TrickFlows? Thanks, John

I think the truth is somewhere in between. Almost all news coverage nowadays has some spin to it, or glamorized to sell ads. I see Jessica's story as remarkable, not heroic IMO. First of all, the whole thing started when they GOT LOST. They apparently resisted the Iraqi's somewhat, but got killed or captured. Brave, but not heroic. I think the Special Forces using blanks is complete BS. These guys are deadly serious, and even if the intel said the hospital wasn't guarded, the intel could be wrong, or a few truckloads of Iraqi's could have driven up in the meantime. Flashbangs are routinely used in entering a building. They stun and disorient without the danger of shrapnel to friendly forces. If Saddam didn't have WMD, he was working towards them, with concealed facilities. We gave them 6 months notice we we going to come kick their ass. Plenty more concealment or transportation out of the country could have gone on in that time. We may never find them or Saddam; many Iraqi's don't trust the US because of our wimpout when the shiites uprose against him and we let him slaughter them, and are unwilling to help us. John

#/hp is certainly revelant, but so is the amount of tire on the ground. Vette's and viper's both have huge tires compared to unflared Z's, even though they are heavier. I'd like to see someone do a #/(square inch of contact patch area) comparison between different cars. I bet it would be interesting. The amount of grip is the limiting factor on how fast any car accelerates, turns, and stops. John

How much lift? Too much can get the driveshaft angle's so sharp that it vibrates under load. I don't know how much is too much though. I do know some of my 4x4 buddies have a lot of trouble with this. John

I tried switching my springs, going to 275 F/ 250 R in the hopes softening the rear would help the car hook a little better off the corner. It did, but only slightly; entry push was much worse; the worst thing was the spooky feeling over bumps. It's real hard to describe how the car felt, sort of a whiplash effect on the rear that DID NOT inspire confidence in the driver. It was most noticable going thru the kink at CMP, a flat 100+ mph right hander with a big bump right at the apex. Penalties for spinning out there can be pretty high, so I ditched the spring switch idea. I don't THINK it was a bumpsteer issue, cause the problem wasn't there with the previous setup. I just switched springs and maintained the same ride height and shock settings. I blamed it on the car violating the "flat ride" principle; ie, a higher frequency rear rate than front, so when the car hits a bump the F & R settle at the same time. Sounds good, but in reality I am too ignorant and inexperienced to know if that was what was happening or not. Anyway, it resulted in slower laps and an unhappy driver! John

What kind of bars are you going to run with that, Mike? I've got 250F 275R, adjustables, a 15/16 f bar and no rear bar, and my car's a little tight on entry. I've just added some adjustable bushings to the rear control arms to get some more rear camber and hopefully hook the car a little better off the turns. I'm gonna take it to a fellow racer with a 4 wheel alignment machine and set it up, then try it at the track next Friday. I'm going to see if the rear camber tightens it any more on entry, then I'm gonna add a rear bar, size TBD. Your dealmight work well with a little more than normal rear bar, otherwise I suspect it would be pretty tight. I tried stiffer springs on the front once, and along with more push, the car was real spooky over bumps in the track, just sorta unsettled. No rear bar then either though. Hell, I don't know. Try it out and let us know how it does! John

How much do they weigh? If the bare wheel is about 16#'s, I'd guess they're real Panasports. If they're up about 20#'s, probably knock-off's. My 15x7's weigh 17#'s. John

Minilites are made in Britain; my Panasports are made in japan, and have Panasport Racing and and "made in japan" cast into the wheel. John

Johnc, are you running any cooling ducts on the white bitch? If so, how many? Johnt

The 280ZX has the regular R200. Anyone who is compentent with setting up diff's can install a quaife for you. The quaife is a wonderful LSD. The only bad thing is the price, in the $1200 range. They work great on the street and really shine on a road course or autocross. You may check with board member RossC at modern motorsports. A while back he had a deal on installing quaife's in R200 rears. http://www.modern-motorsports.com/catalog/default.php Also check out board member griemann's site. He has a lot of ZX specific info there. John

The ZX booster will not clear the clutch master cylinder on a 73. One of the unexpected items I ran into when I converted my 73 to a straight drive. I was using the ZX booster when I had the 700R4 in the car. The 74 260 booster is bigger than a 73 booster, giving more assist to the brakes, but still clears the clutch master. John

A zx booster won't work on a manual car because it won't clear the clutch master cylinder. A booster off a 74 260 is bigger than the previous years, but small enough to clear the clutch master cyl. I bought one at autozone for about $120. John

Standridge auto parts, south of shelby off sale barn rd; L & L auto parts on Long Branch rd, that crowd on county home rd across 74 from the two japanese places (Allen's?); the place on the right between Shelby and Kings Mtn, right where the concrete pavement used to start. Down on # 5 between Rock Hill and Lancaster there's a Nissan only place, but I can't remember the name. Problem is, not many places are gonna sell you a throttle body unless the rest of the motor is bad, they like to sell complete motors. John

Anybody got any thoughts about the bare chassis? No bumpers, motor, wiring, etc. Everything gone without using a sawzall. John

I know 280's are heavier than 240's, a lot more weight in the 280 bumpers. If you had two cars, both absolutely stripped to the bare frame, nothing else you could take off without the sawzall, how much heavier is a 280 than a 240?