Dragonfly

I ride a VFR 800 (Honda) which is considered by most as a "crossover" bike meaning that it looks like a sport bike (and has some of the feel of a sport bike) but sits more upright like a cruiser. In general I would not consider it a bike for a new rider but with your size and weight this bike would be very manageable as long as you keep your "fist" out of it. I picked mine up used with 380 miles on the clock for $8k and the dealer price is $11,500. A couple of suggestions for you is to ignore the condition of some of the bikes you see on CL and go look at them in person and (only if you feel safe) take the bike for a short ride, this will let you know real quick if you really like the feel of a given bike, but remember not to bite off more than you can chew because if you drop it or wreck it you bought it in my opinion. when you do get a bike be careful with your insurance as some carriers will only provide medical for any injured by you but will not cover your medical (ask them point blank to know for sure). Also as some others mentioned at the same time you get the bike get some gear, buy your helmet new then go to some thrift stores etc and look for jackets, gloves, pants, boots etc. One more comment/suggestion if you have to deal with stop and go traffic during your commute you need a lot more than the practice you currently have on riding, start practicing on the freeway during light traffic conditions during daylight hours and while learning the feel of the bike practice predicting what each and every car around you is going to do, when you can predict at about 90% accuracy then you can start practicing during heavier commute times. As a fellow rider I do not want to see you laid up or dead any more than you do. BTW here is a pick of my VFR. Dragonfly

In my mind stealing a well known car in a small area where everyone knows the car is like stealing a famous painting from a museum. If the thief does not have a destination for it prior to the theft they are stuck with something that everyone is looking for and no way to move it. If that is the case it is either long gone or it will show up abandoned. I have never (thankfully) been carjacked but I have looked down the wrong end of a gun knowing that any move percieved as wrong would cost me my life, so knowing what it is like I feel you did the right thing. The other thing to keep in mind is if they do get caught the fact that they used a gun will add many years to thier sentence. I hope you get your car back and I am glad you are alive to tell us about it. Good luck Dragonfly

Agree 100%... for street I run 255/50/16 on the back and for drags I run 275/50/15 Nitto 555's. When the tires are cold they spin alot when they are at temp and sticky I break parts. Dragonfly

Was gone for a few days on vacation but I'm back now. Anyway I would like to say that the block looks great, I like the paint you have choosen. My block is painted in what is called "natural cast iron" which can be seen in the picture I posted earlier in this thread but I do like that lighter color "iron paint" though. Any way even though I have been somewhat nit picky on your build it is looking good and for what I am guessing your age is and the amount of money you are putting into it you are doing a good job and I think you are going to have something to be proud of when you are done. If your dad happens to have measuring tools around you should do at least a partial blue printing of your build while everything is apart and easy to reach... but that is just me trying to put more work on you. Dragonfly

Throwing my 2 cents in here: First of all get the car back as stated by others (and I am guessing was done today sometime). Second document everything done from the time you parked your car to the time you got it back from the yard, write down names, places, times, comments and notes about everything (if you have not done any of this do it now while most of it is still fresh in your mind... and go into as much detail as possible). After having done the above make copies of everything and file it as a complaint to the police department and to the city. The reality is that it will be almost immediately burried by both but it will still be there and with enough complaints from enough people sooner or later changes will be made and you can at least feel better about doing your part to cause that change. As pointed out by others it is all about money and fairness has nothing to do with it. I would also say that IMHO getting a lawyer for the situation you described would be about as benificial as tossing your wallet in a bonfire and probably twice as costly. As a side note, go buy a cheap car cover, if you ever have to leave your car looking "non-op" put the car cover on it and still move it at least once every 24 hours. Dragonfly

Brian (1 fast z) is a pretty cool guy, I don't think he will get upset with you for posting the pic. My rods were shot peened after I lightened, balanced and polished them, they came back with a dull appearance but not neccisarily with what I would call indentations, it was more of a texture. The area of the rod you have pointed out is not going to be a problem in my opinion, the area of concern is the beam. You should lay all the rods down side by side before they are shot peened and do a very close examination of the beams on them to make sure the shape and dimensions of them are the same, if you feel confident that they are then send them out for shot peening. When you send the rods out for shot peening make sure to use old rod bolts in them and if you can remove the rod bolts, grind the heads on them down enough that they are almost small enough to pull through the rod then put them back in. By doing that the person doing the shot peening will be able get more of the area around the bolt heads. After installing new rod bolts use a Sunnen rod gage to test the roundness of the big end and hone them round again as indicated by the gage prior to installing the new bearings. That should allways be done when putting in new rod bolts after installation and checking bolt stretch. Dragonfly

aziza z, Myself and Jerry from ZRaceProducts have been working on the same thing, we just did not realize that someone else already had them and was selling them. As for your question about strength and angularity we were going to advertise a guarantee up to 700 ft/lbs at the wheels (the manufacturer rates them at 800 ft/lbs *for the size shown in the ebay add), I do not recall the angularity for them right now but they do have a 12mm plunge depth for each end of the shaft giving a total of 24mm (almost 1 inch) of plunge. The plunge is the amount of length change on the axle. Dragonfly

Maybe I'm missing something but I do not see a problem. Is the float damaged and not floating? The curved piece that is on the pivot rides on the top of the float as it floats in the bowl, the tab on that same piece is pushes the popet valve and is how you adjust where the float causes the valve to open/close. I would pull out the poppet and check the seat to make sure there is no damage prior to adjusting anything, all you have to do is remove the pivot pin for the curved piece set it aside then remove the small "spring" that holds the poppet into the valve then the poppet lifts right out. If you need to remove the valve itself you need to use a 10mm socket (if my memory is right on the size) to unscrew the valve from the housing. Just make sure you are carefull because you are dealing with aluminum and brass both of which can easily be damaged. Dragonfly

Since I have never done any head porting myself I can't say much about that part of your build, as far as the intake porting the idea behind it (since most people are modifying a stock intake) is not to necisarily increase velocity or volume so much as to create a smooth transition from the source (in this case the entrance to the carbs) to the intake port of the head. If you do not match the gasket and the intake ports to the ports on the head then you have a restriction or a rough area of some sort either of which will cause disruption of flow beyond the amount wanted in order to keep fuel atomized and in suspension. As far as the rods go they look much better in the latest pictures but I am going to give you a little bit of a hard time again... the original pictures you posted showed what looked to me like uneveness in the removal of material from the rod, now that the rod(s) are polished they look much better but they are probably still uneven just not nearly as noticeable. If you happen to have access to an optical comparitor ( http://www.msi-viking.com/optical_comparator/ ) then I would recomend you check each one of them for eveness. Again they look much better but I still have some concerns. Dragonfly

When I had my head ported and polished it was done by the owner of a local race only machine shop. He was semi conservative with it but also he did manage to increase the ports by about 10 to 15% (by my estimate). I run carbs on mine and they have the injector notches in them but when ported my machinist put so much of a radius into the injector notches that they look more like a shallow oval at the top of the port, he only did this as deep into the port as the notches go to insure not striking water. I did my own work on the gasket matching and intake porting. The first thing to do is put the gasket you are going to use on the head, then bolt the intake onto it. Now find an easy to reach location on the underside of the intake manifold and drill a 1/8†hole into the webbing portion of the intake where you know the drill will go through the gasket and into the head, IMPORTANT make sure you do not drill any deeper than 1/8†into the head (do this by measuring the thickness of the webbing and the gasket then add 1/8†to it and mark your drill bit with tape at that point). After you have drilled this hole remove the intake from the head, use a piece of 1/8†dowel rod that is about 1†longer than the point you put the tape on your drill bit. Place the dowel through the hole in the gasket and make sure the gasket is flush against the surface of the head. Now take an Xacto blade and cut the gasket to the exact size of the intake ports (and exhaust ports). Now remove the dowel and gasket from the head and place the gasket on the intake manifold, insert the dowel to line the gasket up and use at least two bolts with nuts on them through the stock bolt holes to hold the gasket onto the manifold. Using a marker color in all the metal you can see inside the gasket, remove the bolts, gasket and dowel. Now you can port the intake by removing all the inked portion of the manifold and tapering the runners as deep as you can go with your tools in order to create a smooth transition. When all the above is done and you are ready to assemble the intake and exhaust to the head use your dowel again to line everything up then tighten your bolts/nuts. The reason you do not port your exhaust is because most of you will have a header and there is not enough material there to remove. Don’t forget to remove the dowel after everything is tightened down. Dragonfly

I don't mind helping out when I feel it is doing some good. The copper ceramic should grab very well and since you said above that it is sprung you should be ok. The ceramic is still going to be hard on your flywheel but as long as you don't do a lot of clutch slipping you should be fine with a light resurfacing of the flywheel when it is time for clutch replacement. The materials in the clutch sound to me like they make the pressure plate the limiting factor for hp. Make sure also to follow the manufacturers recomendations on clutch break in or slippage will be a constant problem. Dragonfly

It sounds like it will probably hold, but there are a couple of things you should look at and/or be aware of: First, is the clutch a sprung hub or not? Second, ceramic is harder than cast iron and most steels/alloys. If the clutch is unsprung its going to make for some very hard shifts and difficult take offs from a stop, if it is sprung these issues will be reduced but not eleminated. Because of the hardness of the ceramic when it is time to change your clutch it is also time to change your flywheel. The other issue with ceramic is that it is brittle and has no elasticity without being specialy alloyed when manufactured (very expensive), what that means is that the ceramic is suseptable to damage by shock which is fairly easy to do when using it as a clutch puck. Disclaimer I have not personaly used or dealt with a ceramic clutch so I may be completely wrong about the brittleness/elasticity of them, I am basing what I say on my personal knowledge of ceramics as used in the aerospace industry and calibration specifications. Dragonfly

Yes, all the L series dampers are interchangable. I run an L24 damper on my F54/P90 combo. I phased my distributor (and locked it down) then set my timing at 15*btdc @ idle and 34*btdc @ 2500 rpm and up (cam I am running comes on at 3000 rpm so I am at full advance prior to cam coming on). The 38mm's are working fine for me and cost less money but the rest of your thoughts are a little off. The 45's may come with 36mm venturis but you can get larger venturis for them without reducing the venturi effect (Burnelli principle) by reducing the incoming and outgoing slopes of the venturi as done to create the 38mm venturi in a 40mm carb. Contact Southland Clutch http://www.southlandclutch.com/ and talk to Kim or Tom (Kim is a dude) and let them know that Miles from the Z Club of San Diego told you to call they can hook you up with a 6 puck sprung hub clutch and heavy duty pressure plate capable of holding 400 rwhp for around $300 plus shipping. I suspect a $140 clutch is not going to hold 300 hp but if you want to try it go for it but keep the link I posted above so when it dies an early death you can replace it with a good one. Dragonfly

The porting and polishing on my head was done by a local race engine builder so I don't know about where you might strike water so be careful. I have no flow numbers on my head so again I can't help you much there. I have tons of information, comments and advice stuck in my head but you have to ask the questions otherwise I will be writing a book for a post, but anything you may want to do to your Z I have probably already done to mine so I can help you out if you ask before you jump in. Dragonfly

Keep the pics coming... I would like to see the pics of the rods after you are done with them. The cost of having Robello doing the venturi's in the carbs was not that bad, the bad part was how long it took to get them done and back. Here are a few pictures of the venturi's. stock venturi and modified. stock venturi and modified. installed in one of the carbs. Here is the link to Dave Robello's website if you decide to go that route. http://www.rebelloracing.com/ Dragonfly

In my opinion you need to look for some new rods. Those may work just fine but they may also make thier way through the side of your block. My concern is that you removed material in a very random fashion from what I could see in the pics you posted, by doing it the way you did I feel you probably introduced several new stress points as well as moving the balance points of your rods all over the place. I have done to my rods what you are attempting to do to yours and there is a correct way to do it, but it is also time consuming and difficult. The first thing is to use a fine stone on a bench grinder to remove the casting seams on the sides of the beams VERY IMPORTANT when doing this only work from end to end NOT from side to side, any marks in the beam from the grinder should run up and down the beam only. At the big and small ends of the rods where the grinder wheel can not reach use a 2" or smaller wheel on your grinder to do that part. Across the top and bottom of the rods you have "balance pads" you need to leave enough material on them to balance the rods after you are done with everything else. Now that you have all your rods ground down evenly with your large and small diameter wheels it is time to remove all the grind marks from the rods, the tool for the job is a Cratex rubber grinding wheel like this: The quote above comes from this website: http://www.newmantools.com/cratex/index.html As you can see you can get these in different sizes, you can also get them with different grits, use the same diameter Cratex wheels as you did grinding wheels and work the beams on the rods with them untill you can no longer see any scratch marks from the grinding wheels. Once you have reached this point balance the rods, if you or your father are not able to do that yourselves pay the two or three dollars each to have them done. On a different note the 40mm carbs may be a little small for the cam you are planning on running. I am running a smaller cam than you in a 3.0 liter stroker with 40mm Mikuni's and I had Dave Robello custom machine some 38mm venturis for them which added about 30 rwhp but a set of 44mm carbs would have been better. Dragonfly

Yes, the negative wire of the ignition coil is the source wire for your tach. I run an MSD ignition on my Z so I have to run an MSD tach adapter in order for mine to work so I have not experienced the phenomina of my tach behaving like that. Since the overheating issue is only when idling (stuck in traffic etc.) then you may want to look into the option of an electric water pump (as long as your electrical system is up to it). Some of the benifits is that it runs at the same speed no matter what your engine rpm is that way you have optimal flow at all times with no cavitation because the second part of keeping everything cool is transfering the heat from the source (engine/combustion) to the disipation point (radiator) and that is the job of the water/coolant. An optimal pressure and flow of coolant allows the best heat soak time and heat transfer time when combined with a properly functioning thermostat/radiator/fan and shroud assembly. The first part is of course the properly functioning thermostat/radiator/fan and shroud assembly. Dragonfly

Ignition coil. Dragonfy

The fan clutch is a viscous (sp) clutch that controls the speed of the fan in relation to the speed of the engine. The clutch viscosity is controled with a bi-metal coil (spring) that you can see on the outside of the clutch, make sure it works smoothly or you will have problems. When I ran a mechanical fan I used the Nissan plastic one that comes stock on most L series motors and I would recomend you use that one as well if you go back to mechanical. A fan shroud makes a huge difference and should be the first thing you consider after insuring that there are no clogged passeges in your radiator. As for the tach issue also check the connections to your coil and the large resistor that sits just below the coil with the three wires on it. Make sure all connections are clean and look at the underside of the resistor to make sure the coil of wire on the inside is not damaged or broken anywhere, if the coil of wire inside the resistor is dirty or corroded be VERY cautous with cleaning because it can be damaged very easily. Dragonfly

Most people believe that removing the smog equipment will help the car so a lot of people have those parts laying around and would probably give them to you for the cost of shipping. I personaly feel that unless you are racing the car there is no real need to remove the smog equipment. Here is a link that should help you out a little and get you moving in the right direction: http://www.autozone.com/az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1d/1a/32/0900823d801d1a32/repairInfoPages.htm also don't be afraid to look for any other diagrams etc. that you may need from that same link. It would probably be in your best interest to buy a factory service manual for your car, it would make it much easier for you to hook up and test everything. For your raw fuel smell check the hoses on the evap tank that is in the back of the car on the passenger side (inside the car behind the plastic that is nearly impossible to remove), there are also two fuel hoses that come up through the floor in the back of the car behind the plastic that covers the tail lights (remove the entire cover), these hoses should also be checked and the rubber seal between the hose and the "tube" the hose comes through should also be checked, if it is badly damaged go to an RV store and ask for a roll of "dum dum" tear off some and stuff it into the tubes around the hoses to seal that potential leak. You can also get raw fuel smell from the front of the car, if your carbs are not set right and spewing gas fumes they will make thier way through any openings in your fire wall and your cowl vents (where the wipers and wiper motor are) this is the area where your ventilation gets its fresh air from and if fuel vapors are getting in there you will get them inside the car also. Dragonfly

What I see in this picture is very typical. The piece with the broken fitting is a valve which would normally be connected to the air pump (aka smog pump) under the A/C compressor, the other hose off the "T" goes to the anti backfire valve then continues into your balance tube. The other two pieces that are missing vacuum lines are for controlling your throttle when shifting, they are only used on manual transmission cars so you would not see them on an auto tranny Z. If you are not having problems with the car being jerky when you shift I would not worry about those. If the smog pump is removed I would not worry to much about the broken part either BUT if that valve is leaking by it can certainly cause some strange problems mostly with your idle but also potentially your fuel milage and back firing. Most people remove that entire system thinking it makes the car run better but that is not really the case, most of the time it just makes the car spew higher emissions, so in my opinion you should try to fix it before you try to remove it. If you do remove that whole system make sure you remove all of it and completely seal every hole left from the removal. Dragonfly

I believe you have some of your math a little backwards... most of the 3 liter V12's have very small pistons as well as short strokes, the primary reason is because the rpm's they run causes the piston speed to "outrun" the flame front. The fuel can only burn so fast so a smaller bore allows a more complete combustion at a higher rpm therefore making the engine more effecient. found on a different forum: So from that we can see that a V12 will have even smaller bores in order to maintain only 3 liters. A square engine will certianly have a higher rpm range and rev quicker but a well balanced and lightened stroker will have more torque, more HP and rev suprisingly quick. Just my opinion but I think there really is a reason you see a lot more stroked L engines than you do squared L engines. Dragonfly

I can't answer your question for you but I can tell you that my Arias forged pistons with rings, full floating pins and wire locks cost $800+ and that was several years ago. Mine were also lightened and weight matched by Arias after being made to my specs, so you might want to give them a call prior to paying for just "forged" if you know what I mean. I can also tell you that if you are concerned with balance and weight (which you should be about balance at least) the forged ones get another mark on the "pros" side of the list. Dragonfly

IF that is what is causing your vibration and noise you need to fix it quick. Even if that is not it you should take a look before doing much more driving. This thread is about what happened to mine when a pressure plate bolt backed out... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=131772&highlight=Dragonfly I had no warning before mine let go and as you can see from the pics in the thread it did some damage to, and inside the bellhousing. Dragonfly

I have run into the brown widow issue as well but I still have a population of black widows. The brown widows started showing up in force about a year ago and I even found one in the door jamb of my Z (it died very shortly after). I don't have kids or pets to worry about but I still go out about once a week at night with a flashlight and do a widow head count (location really) so that during the day I don't accidentily wake one up. I also like to keep them around as my own version of a gaurd dog (or spider in this case) because in the past couple of years the "break in" rate has gone up in my neighborhood and if some one breaks onto something of mine I will just tell myself "he must have gotten bit messing around there in the dark", and I think a judge would be hard pressed to let a thief sue me if he was bitten by a spider instead of a dog. As far as the fighting in the terrarium goes you really have to bounce them into each other to get them to fight (experience speaking) other wise they will just keep thier distance from each other and do nothing. Dragonfly