Dragonfly

I have a lot of respect for your knowledge but I also understand that not everyone who is going to read this is going to be as knowledgable and accurate as you are. Although I have not personaly experienced it what I have read is that you are completely safe as long as the lobe never goes off the rubbing pad of the rocker but when you live on the eadge you are that much closer to accidentaly going over the edge. My engine being slightly more than a mild street engine has the wipe pattern right in the center as a peace of mind type of thing. Dragonfly

Been gone all day... When you look at the valve train look to see if one of the rockers has popped off of a valve. Most likely if it has the rocker will be laying loose in the area below the cam, also you will find a valve spring assembly with no rocker on it and it would most likely be missing the lash pad as well. Take a look at this thread to see pictures of everything I am talking about http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=126252. Below is a picture of what the valve train would look like if missing a rocker. If it is not something this simple your going to be quite busy wringing out the problem. Any way let us know what you find after pulling the valve cover. Dragonfly

Thats what I was thinking. It is not uncommon for an engine with a lot of miles on it to pop a rocker off when revved that high. Pull the valve cover and do an inspection. Dragonfly

I agree that you can run the .150 safely but I also understand exactly what Jon is talking about. If you do not have a reason (such as rule limitations) why not use a bigger cam and a more ideal wipe pattern? Dragonfly

As a long time rider I agree with many of the things said already and I would like to re-infasize getting the proper gear as well as the bike (no matter what the bike is) and wearing the gear everytime you ride. Beyond that your own ability to be responsible and aware at ALL times is what will detirmine if a motorcycle is a long term enjoyment for you or a short term mistake. A couple pieces of advice above and beyond are: under no circumstances should you ever ride if you are not 100% sober (wich includes being sleepy). And be aware that the majority of non rider caused accidents are from vehicles making an illegal left turn (or legal but not looking) in front of a bike that has the right of way. Dragonfly

Crap... I wasn't thinking, I posted pictures of my track car, I should have posted the pics of my drag car. Dragonfly

"where's the video?" I've got a Z car on the desk right now that can do that... I just need to figure out how to make everything else look real. Dragonfly

Most tire manufacturers tend to recomend rim widths that are within 1 inch (or 25mm) of the tire width. A 225 tire is 8.85 inches wide so you are .85 inches beyond the generaly recomended width right there. IMHO new rims cost about the same (short of some crazy bling) per piece as a good quality new tire, go ahead and get some new rims to put the new tires on you'll be better off for it. Oh yeah a 255 tire is 10 inches wide. Dragonfly

That sounds great but I am suprised you did not attract every cop within a 2 mile radius. Now its time to get someone in the passenger seat with a camera so we can see the headliner everytime you hit the gas. Dragonfly

Those video's are great, thanks for putting them up and keep up the great work. Dragonfly

You sound like you've done some watch and clock repair work, very few people realize that lubricants actualy atract dirt etc. You are also quite correct about the needles. The best way to check the needles is to remove the dome above the piston, carefuly lift out the piston, using good light rotate the piston around so you can see all sides of the needle and make sure there are no marks or signs of abrasion or rubbing. If you see any signs of wear on the needle that means the needle is bent and should be replaced. Dragonfly

The linkage rod that connects the choke to the linkage of the carb is binding which causes the choke to hang open. With your fingers pull the jet down then try to rotate it just a little bit, release it and see if pops back up, if not see if the binding is better or worse, if better tweak it a little more in the same direction, if worse tweak it in the other direction. Be careful and do not force it you only need to put enough effort to make a very minor change. If you force it you are taking a very real chance of breaking the plastic where the screw holds the link to the jet. If you can not get the link to change shape at all or it continues to bind no matter what try using a pair of needle nose pliers to bend the link slightly at the point in the link where it is already bent. Again remember very gentle bends it is very easy to over do it. Almost forgot what you should check first is that the linkage is not binding on the screw that connects it to the jet. Dragonfly

Yes. You just need to be sure that the collar is correct for the clutch and bellhousing so that when you push the clutch pedal to the floor the clutch is fully and properly released. Dragonfly

DISCLAIMER: Since I have the ZRaceProducts LCA's on my car I am going to show some favoratism. Like many others have said the stock LCA's are fine for most people under most circumstances. For anyone who feels the need to use aftermarket LCA's I personaly like the ZRaceProducts the most and YES they are on car adjustable, they have a powder coated exterior and have set screw plugs that allow grease to be added to the adjusting collar for a smoother adjustment. Like Jon said they are over built and they are also heavier than stock. I have only seen in pictures the MM LCA's so I can not make any comments that have value other than the fact that Ross is a man of his word and does good work (I have dealt with him personaly in the past -on the phone- and I know several others who deal with him on a regular basis). The AZC LCA's I am in agreement with others about not liking the latest version, the previous version I personaly felt were underbuilt but I will say that he has been building them for a long time and I personaly have not heard of any failures. John C. maybe I will have to give you a shot at my car so you can get an opinion of the ZRaceProducts LCA's. Dragonfly

I've got some serious big tire envy going on here. The car looks great. Dragonfly

I'm guessing to a degree here (because it's an RB) but when I did that on my L series engine I was able to go to the wrecking yard and pull the threaded sleave out of an L series block then put it into my block and thread the adapter onto it. The threads that go into the engine block were different from the threads that went into the adapter for the external oil cooler. I guess the short version of what I am saying is you can probably get one from the wrecking yard for a lot less than the price of a custom made one. Dragonfly

The only time I've been pulled over (in the Z) the cop did not even seem like he noticed the 5 point harness (or the roll cage) but he sure did notice my wide tires which is what he gave me a hard time about. Dragonfly

Shift point is almost always above red line albeit not by much, also the shift light helps when running through the gears but doesn't help much when in top gear on a straight or long sweeper etc. On my car I shift at 6400 rpm but I red line at 6000 (its a cam thing not an engine blow up thing). Dragonfly

Thats funny because I am usualy still writing while someone else is posting their answer. Dragonfly

Its mounted like that so that red line is with the needle pointed straight up, that way you do not need to focus your attention to see if you are at red line or not. Depending on the driver it can also sometimes be prefered running rpm is straight up. Dragonfly

Well as seen in the first of the pictures the carnage is not realy that bad. I was lucky and it was the inside u-joint that died. Below is a picture of the damage that was done to my ZRaceProducts LCA's. Yep, I knocked some of the powder coating off. Here is a close up of the broken U-joint. This pic is a close up of the piece that broke off, you can see the discoloration from the heat that was generated when it broke. And of course the last picture here is to show that I actualy did more damage than I thought. I seems I may have twisted the end of the halfshaft a little so now I have to put my ugly old spare halfshaft in there for the time being. I managed to manipulate the wife a little by showing all this to her and getting her to ask me what makes me think it won't just happen again. I explained to her that it will happen again unless I upgrade to CV axles... I got her, she has now given her consent. Dragonfly

I am going to do a quick fix right now with a new universal joint but I will be upgrading to some ZRaceProducts CV joints real soon. I personaly look at as a right of passage but my wife doesn't see it that way which is why I am doing a quick fix to appease her for the time being. Dragonfly

Well here's where it let go at. Dragonfly

Well I went out to RaceLegal to see how the 4.37:1 gears would do... I spent a lot of time spinning tires out of the hole which was killing my times. Most of my 60' times were in the 2.4 to 2.8 second range with a few 1.9's mixed in. They had worked on the track quite a bit trying to get the traction better and finaly they announced that cars were begining to hook up, so I got back in line for another run. Boy did it hook up, for about 20' I was hooked harder than I have ever hooked the Z before then bam clank... clank... clank... the drivers side universal joint turned into a handgrenade. I will see if I can get some carnage pictures up tommorow. I have in the past pulled a 1.7xx 60' time and this one felt like it was going to be better than that. Dragonfly

The smaller the opening on something the greater the pressure but the lower the volume. The object is to create the most correct balance you can between the two. If the opening is to small you will have to much pressure and not enough volume which will cause overheating due to lack of heat transfer. If the opening is to large you will have to much volume and not enough pressure so the air will dam up in front of the radiator pushing cool air around the car while becoming heated by convection and stagnant by lack of flow, of course this causes overheating as well. In the old days to remedy the above problems they put a fan on the front of the engine right behind the radiator to pull the air through the radiator (any time the engine was on), over time they added shrouds to make the fan more effecient. Now in this day and age they have done away with the engine driven fan on virtualy all cars and instead rely on a better design in front of the radiator to get the most use out of the air. The fans on these newer cars are electric and only turn on when truly needed, as you may notice the only time the fan comes on in a new car is when the car is in very heavy slow (or stopped) traffic or when the car is under an unusualy heavy load. Dragonfly