jt1

My experience agrees with JohnC and Wheelman 100%. I will add it's easier to overdrive the A's. They overheat if you let them slide much. The R6's aren't that great a tire IMO. They're not as fast as the A's when new, they heat cycle out just as quick, and you wind up with a 30% worn out tire with not much grip. Overall the 710's are much better. jt

A dust cover is what your looking for. It bolts to the bellhousing and covers the hole, and does not move the bellhousing to the rear. The plates like the lakewood move the bellhousing some. A junkyard is your best bet, or it's very easy to make one out of some thin aluminum or sheet metal. Trace the bellhousing outline, stop it just short of the block, mark and drill the holes, and notch it for the trans. jt

Mike, I've fought the same problem. The best thing to do is clean the block and intake with solvent, then lay down a thick bead of silicone and install the intake. The gaskets are junk. Due to casting variances, sometimes the mating surface right around the dist is pretty narrow. Lay the intake on the engine dry with the port gaskets in place, and observe the gap between the intake and block. The bead of silicone needs to be roughly twice as thick as the gap to get a good job. Sometimes I lay down one bead, let it tack, then put a second right on top to get it thick enough. When you install the intake, be sure to look down the dist hole and check that none of the silicone squished out enough to interfere with the dist. Smooth it with a finger if it does. Good to see you getting close. My build is lagging. jt

Sure sounds like the modulator is bad and it's sucking trans fluid into the intake. Is the trans fluid down enough to tell? jt

3. An old Craftsman metal one, non-dialback. 2. Flaming River. 1. French Grimes. jt

The 327 is 4.0" bore x 3.25" stroke, using the same external dimensions as all sbc's. They were produced from the early 60's thru 68. In 69 the stroke was increased and they became 350's. The 68's were large journal, all the previous ones were small journal. All of them are fine engines, and will do you a nice job if that's what you want to build. On the pad at the front of the pass side cylinder bank there should be some identification. The three letter suffix there will tell you a lot about the original application. Find the suffix and then go to mortec.com or nastyz28.com and look it up. The casting number on the block, generally located at the rear of the drivers side head, can also give some info. jt

Well spoken. jt

Congrats on getting it running. I'm envious of what you've done in a short time. I wish I could make that much progress on my project. When does it go back to the track? John

That's great, moving under power is a big one. I agree with the guys above, let's see some smoke. jt

"Tight budget" and "Hoosier" don't go together very well. They are very good the first couple of heat cycles, then start dropping off very quickly with more heat cycles. If you're going to try and run the same tire for several events like most budget racers, I'd look at the Toyos. They're not as quick, but last a lot longer and are much more consistent. Like Jon says, you might buy some used tires from some of the faster/higher budget guys, if you can find the size you need. jt

IIRC, you can mount the shifter 3 different places on the trans. In the rear location, I had to trim about 1/2" of metal on the tunnel to clear the Pro 5.0 shifter ring, which is a good bit larger than the tremec shifter. I also had to trim the console some. No problem with the tunnel, the stock trans mounts had been removed by the PO. The case and input shaft fit stock GM bellhousings and clutches, but the output shaft is ford toploader, so you have to use a conversion U joint. jt

It would be interesting to measure the intact pistons and see how much wear they are showing. You may have had a good bit of clearance even with the bores being in spec. jt

I've been running a tko since about 2004, putting about 400 whp thru it in road race app. No issues, shifts smoothly, GM synchromesh fluid. In the jtr position with a Pro 5.0 shifter, I had to trim about a half inch from the front of the shifter opening. jt

It will be fine. Bolt the head back on it and check it from the bottom and see what it looks like. jt

Neil is a smart guy and I have a lot of respect for him and his work. However, most of his background is with formula type cars that have a lot of aero downforce. For average guys like us running Z cars at trackdays, I would approach that method with a good bit of caution. Mark, Tom and I have talked about this a good bit, and done a good bit of experimentation. Z's are notoriously loose under hard braking, and it's real easy to be sliding backwards thru the grass hoping you don't hit anything. Been there, done that, many times. jt

That looks like a nicely done mod, but I don't quite understand what they were trying to accomplish. Did they give any details on how they came up with this, and what the goals were? jt

Nice results. The torque curve is noticably flatter after the peak with the E85. jt

Sorry you blew it up, Dave. Tracking a car is a boatload of fun, but it will find the weak links right quick. I hope it's an easy fix. Nice vid. LRP looks like a fun track. Lots of guardrail though! jt

No, the second section would be 52 x 11. The total distance leading edge to trailing edge is 18". jt

The front edge of the whaletail is 41" wide, and attaches to the hatch about 2" behind the glass. It tapers out to a max width of 54", this max width 7" behind the front edge. It then tapers back in to 50" wide at the trailing edge, which is 18" from the leading edge. The trailing edge is slightly curved, with a chord of about 2". There is a 1.5" lip which begins at the wide point and goes all the way around the trailing edge. Rear corners have approx a 3" radius. Sorry for the slow response. About 2:30 am I decided to load up the 930 and go to the track, and just got back. John

ASSuming an understeering car and a positve scrub radius, isn't that reversed? Or maybe I don't understand? jt

I've still got the one from the tunnel. Can you be a little more specific on what dimensions? jt

Is the fuel tank vent functioning properly? Sounds like the pump may be pulling a vacuum on the tank. jt

The heading on the chart is lift, so a negative number indicates downforce. A way to verify that is that as we increased the angle of attack on the wing, the negative number gets larger. The blue car had vents in the inner fenders to allow air from the engine compartment to pass into the wheelwells and then out the fender vents. This mod is discussed in detail in one of the threads about the bonneville cars if you want to hunt it up. jt

Dave, are the 280Z rack bushings in good condition? If they are soft, it definitely gives the car the "muddy" feeling. The rack moves some before the wheels do, and the more grip you have the worse the muddy feeling gets. It took me a while to figure out why better tires made my car seem worse. jt