josh817

All very good ideas. Starting from the top: 1) I can't drop the course otherwise my financial aid gets wacky and I won't be able to afford school if that occurs 2) I have been told mixed things (another example of how our star staff and my lovely tuition yields ten different answers from ten different people). Adviser said you cannot take MAE courses at the community college and transfer them in. Everyone from my Physics 2 class at TCC said they were doing circuits, statics, and dynamics, at TCC.... However, I didn't think much into this because I must have 12 hours somewhere to get full time student financial aid. I have hit a point in my degree where there is no more wiggle room unless if I took a blow off course that had nothing to do with my degree plan, otherwise, I'm stuck taking the 4 classes I have now and can't move forward as these are prereq's. Statics namely. This actually served as part of my problem to being put on the naughty list in the first place. My OVERALL GPA is a high 2, low 3, but at UTA they split your GPA's into 3 categories and these 3 categories must be above 2.25 otherwise you get the boot. Well, one of the categories was math+science+eng GPA. After I failed calc. 1 at UTA, I ran to TCC and did just about everything there. I did my physics, my chem, my english, my history, calc 1-3, passed those bad boys with straight A's and I'm proud to say it wasn't because TCC being a community college "just hands it to you". They transferred in, I got credit, but thats all! The GPA's don't transfer in, that makes sense! So, when I took 16 hours last semester, but 3 of those hours was Linear Algebra (the only class I took at UTA so I stayed enrolled as a student). I made a C in that class which not only threw a red flag because I made a "2.0 semester GPA" (even though I had straight A's at TCC) but it always dropped bombs on the math+science+eng GPA category because I only have about 8 credit hours that were averaging in. I think that number was a 2.48 and when the 2.0 went in for a 3 credit hour class it knocked me down to a 2.08. There wasn't anything in there to act as a buffer. These are the reasons why I think I'm done taking courses at TCC. I need to start working on that one category because as soon as I'm done with my "pre professional" courses, I will be reviewed and hopefully allowed into the actual aerospace engineering department, however the terms are that these three GPA's are above and stay above 2.25. If I take all these courses at TCC, and that GPA stays below a 2.25 because the GPA's don't transfer over from TCC, then I will be stuck with no more pre professional classes to take but a suffering GPA. Hopefully that makes sense. 3)I think I will join a the AAIA. Although I feel loaded down to the max, I think you're right in that I should attend some seminars and get an idea. Besides, they have free pizza. 4)I am indeed thinking about perhaps doing baby steps to work up to a BS. However what I also contemplated is what if I land myself in a different degree but get a hook up to do something with my hands. One thing I have learned is that you may have a degree in X but your career is in Y. An aerospace engineer as a high school teacher or you know, whatever. 5) That was just one example of the difference between the terrible Mcgill Statics book and the good Hibbler. Mind you, Mcgill didn't even explain what a couple was so if I didn't know any better and never used the Hibbler book, I'd be even worse off! Everyone is doing terrible right now. I didn't realize it until today when she asked if we had questions and a kid asked how to find the moment about a line. Yah, we went over that stuff like two weeks ago, she acted shocked that he doesn't know this two days before the test but lets get real woman, you blasted through it. People had questions, you went on and inevitably left the entire class in the dust. She is literally, the only one who is keeping up with herself. She asked the class how long it takes to do one homework problem and to my surprise, I'm not the only one that takes an hour or longer. Again, she freaked out "these should only be taking you 30 minutes at the most". We informed her it's not the calculations, its trying to figure out what Mcgill is asking us and how to get started. As you can see above, he loves playing with his words and screwing you over, Hibbler doesn't pull that ****. Regardless, the way you guys described the problem is how I solved it. I figured my answer was wrong because a couple should produce a moment and I didn't have a moment, I just had a line of a certain magnitude with a certain theta that canceled out the other two. I still suspect something fishy about him calling it a couple though. Something about those double arrows... Hah, thats a shame he didn't mention it or explain that notation. As the prof. said "this book is challenging for beginners but for the more advance reader it's actually a clearer representation of the material." I guess she learned that logically, we all beginners except for those who are retaking. Not only that but she asked if we are doing practice problems. The answer is yes but we have no idea if they're correct. Odd problems have answers in the back but no work to show the steps so if you have the wrong answer then you're like.... well that's cool... Oh and TX1021, there apparently IS a solutions manual for this book She said she had it and assured us that it was "of no use" because he skips most of the steps to the problem anyway. That left me ROFL'ing when she acknowledges that even his solutions manual isn't user friendly unless you've taken this course before, yet she's surprised we're all squandering in our own muck. The solutions manual must be pretty exclusive I suppose. Oh and I forgot, the study buddy friends thing. I had received three phone numbers, two of them were guys just as lost as I was, the other was a kid who was retaking it a second time. He understand the stuff but never did his homework last time. He isn't interested in working together. Today I went in search of new people and no one is really interested. The problem I am seeing is that this is a freshman level course. Most of the kids in there, are freshman, and they're going about it thinking they will skip class, not do homework, whatever. Generally, not the people I want to study with. Ironically, of the 4 classes, 3 have attendance policies where if you skip more than X amount of times you get points deducted. Statics doesn't have this. I have a gut feeling it's them holding that worm in front of your face waiting for you to be a sucker and take the bait. Here, a difficult class with a **** book and professor; we know you feel like you can skip class because she doesn't do anything, right? Hah Such is life. Back to the grind. Tomorrow I'm not doing anything but practice problems. I am determined to go into the test like the Hulk.

A part of me wants to know what aerospace engineers even do. This is somewhat of an example for what I'm walking about. You said you you think about a problem and get a solution, my brother in law says he designs this that and the other at Lockheed, my father an electrical engineer, I've seen his work place but I have no idea what he did. What I mean by what do you do is not what general work you do or project you worked on, I want to know what the work was. When you go into work, what do you do? Research? Pad, pencil, calculator? All computerized so you never see this stuff again really? Write performance reports? Jot down performance notes and send them to someone else who writes the reports? I'm narrowing it down and that may not be realistic in that I may not land the same sort of job however I'm looking for an idea as to what sort of things engineers actually do day to day. Maybe, by getting the input from others, I can be like uhhhhh yah I don't want to do that every day for years. I'm very confused right now. I have a good feeling I can scrape through Statics but as I said before... it isn't getting any better from here. I can try to separate myself from that teacher but... that's not a sure sign of doing well in the future. I appreciate a challenge, I want a challenge in my work but I want to be able to achieve and jump those hurdles. Investing over 7-10 hours on a 10 problem homework assignment only to get 6 of 10 points, who knows on the test, that **** isn't going to work. All my other classes I can invest a lot of time in, and the output will be relative to the effort being put in. I may take 3 or 4 hours on Circuits homework but I understand that **** when I'm done. I just took several hours for a lab report but I know I'm going to make a B on it, and made A's on my projects. Statics though... And that's the worrying part because everything from her on out isn't going to be like Measurements and Methods, or Coding, or Circuit Analyses, it's going to be like statics, calculating forces, blah blah blah. Things like this are burning me out very fast and makes me not want to do this anymore: Definition of a couple, and then homework problem from the **** book, saying couples, when it doesn't even meet the requirements of what a couple is.... And yes, the help online describes a couple as what is shown in the second picture, not the first. Left in the dark. Personally at this moment it appears I want an easy way out, an easy degree that will get me somewhere. Of course, easy to you is hard to me, easy to me may be hard to you. I get great joy when I can sit down, analyze, and bang problems out. "problems 1-10 bam bam bam bam, uh oh I'm stuck, peak at some outside resources. Oh ok, I think I got it, bam bam bam bam" Not, "............ what? where do I even start. Ok so you did that step but I'm still lost". I get much joy out of learning, doing, and understanding. When I don't get these three things, after trying hard and doing everything advised, I start to think is it just me and the material not wanting to mix and maybe that's how it's suppose to be, move on. Great example would be my lab report today on sampling rates for a dynamic audio signal, what happens, why does it happen, why do DVD's sample at 96kHz, why do "audiophiles" say their vinyls sound better than digital music, etc. It took me a few hours to type it up but it wasn't completely oblivious. I did some outside research, I learn it, I can teach you it probably at this point; that's how clear it is to me even when I haven't had any sleep in 24 hours! That's how I want my college career to me with a few blunders here and there. From the sound of things, what I described, what I enjoy doing, is more of a trade job as you already stated. This isn't the first time I have heard this. I don't know how I feel about learning a trade.

We have our first test this Wednesday. Like I said before, if her test has nothing to do with the homework in the sense that the book words what it wants horribly, then I may be fine and dandy considering I've been putting in so much work. Currently though I have invested ehhh 4 hours into the homework, only 2 problems of 10 done... Perhaps my homework grade will suffer. Your first question is practically what I'm trying to solve. I recently told my mom that I have a really hard time honing in and focusing on my work for certain subjects. I use to be able to sit down and work, after 20 minutes I was in such a zone I didn't want to stop until I saw it all complete. With Statics, I sit down and I get livid. I think why in the world did they change to this god awful book; I've seen the old one, it's great and it has a solution manual or if you don't want to use that you can check out Cramster.com and find some stuff. There are resources associated with that book to help you, with this one, there is absolutely nothing. Perhaps it is just my attitude right now after dealing with it this weekend but the way I'm seeing things is if I make this class, as you stated, there are plenty more of higher difficulty that I get to look forward to. I would hate to creep my way up the latter and get to a point where I say I'm done and change majors. Right now is a good time to change if need be because I have all science, math, english, history, economics, communications, etc. baby courses taken care of. Now that I'm taking all MAE, the longer I take these courses, the deeper I dig my hole into credits that will not help at all in another major that requires 2 years of coursework on top of what I have. So, I don't really know if the dedication is there... Currently, I am trying not to dwell on the idea of changing majors. It's early in the semester and I don't want to get premature ideas in my head that I won't get this. It could be a bad egg of material and next chapter I will catch on. I mean after all, the idea of getting a different book and completely ignoring the crappy book didn't occur to me until a week ago after we had already covered 4 weeks of material. I've been playing catch up ever since so maybe after this test, I can keep up with the class in the different book. I won't lie though, I get excited at the thought of changing. I can honestly say that my college career has been the worst and most un-enjoyable years I have experienced by far; both because of academics but also other reasons beyond this topic. I don't know what I would change to, maybe accounting... Something that will actually land me a career. I do like to work on the computer, and I know how to do so quickly and efficiently. I HAVE enjoyed my Circuits class, perhaps EE but I'm not sure. My mother advised that if I do change majors I should change schools too. Not only does UTA give me bad vibes and stress from them pounding my face in over the past 3 years, but I have a very VERY sincere feeling that they are not there for the students. You read the school paper and within every article is something about promoting the status of UTA. It is obvious and I think even admitted that the president of UTA is tired of being considered a branch off from the main UT school in Austin; so he tries to vamp up UTA to give the false appearance that it's as prestigious as Austin. A new building open "one step closer to world recognition", "tuition increase because of hiring of star staff", blah blah blah. Star staff... yah, people who can produce research but hate teaching. Just like my Statics teacher! No research but she openly admits she hates teaching statics, dynamics, and solid mechanics! So you wonder, what was administration thinking, hiring someone who hates teaching. Or changing books to a worse one, or perhaps assigning those "key assignments" where they say if you fail this assignment you fail the class; not because of how the numbers fall into place but because "this is a major theme of the class and if you don't get it you shouldn't get the class". Ah, ok, makes sense. I'm surrounded by people who don't care, administration that makes decisions that are detrimental to students but perhaps beneficial to them, and most annoyingly, admin staff that can't do their jobs. I mentioned in an earlier thread about college how I attended a mix of community college and UTA. Community college was $50-$60 per credit hour, UTA is around $360. I didn't have to pay for my parking tag at community college because it was a given that if I'm enrolled, I should probably have a tag. They provided a parking spot for me, and security. UTA, you get to pay $125, "security", and fight for a spot. Staff there... when it came to getting your vaccines before you can enroll, TCC was easy! You can't register until you show proof, thats it! UTA, welllll you need your shot, I get my shot and go to show proof "no you don't turn that in here, go to the other office across campus." "no, you don't turn that in here you turn that in over there." "I just came from there" " "Let me call them to check. Oh, they're saying you don't need that" A week later, bulletin on the website "get shots or you will be dropped from classes" So I try to turn my documentation in again "call this company, they're handling the paperwork for us" So I call the company... "we don't have any student records on file from UTA and no one can turn anything in until we have them. We're basically waiting on UTA to do their part but we will email/call when we receive the student info" Never got an email or a call, never was dropped from courses, never showed proof of shot.... what? Nonsense, for $360 per credit hour compared to a measly $50. And my adviser... That woman sends me some vague email saying I'm booted from the Aerospace department and I will now be "undeclared engineering", I presume it was from taking one course at UTA last semester, that being Linear Algebra, which I made a 78 or something in but that shows up as a 2.0 and my magic number was a semester GPA of 2.25 so shame on me. I believe it was called being "dismissed" from the department. Of course, this was sent out the last day before everything closed for Christmas break, at night time, so you can't get a hold of anyone. I do my own research and dismissed is the same as being expelled practically from the department and all courses will be dropped associated with that department. I start freaking out and I get to wait a week before I can get a hold of anyone. I email her saying I want to talk to someone immediately about the situation and also how no sort of documentation was attached to the email explaining what this means, what will happen, that sort of thing. She replies saying "I didn't send that email, the university sent it". Alright, I may have made a C and been dismissed but I'm not a dumbass. It has your name on it, from your address, it's from you. Oh yah, same lady did this sort of thing previously. Sent out an email about advising requirements before you can register, 3 days before classes started in the spring. I asked why she waited until 3 days before classes started. Her response was she sent it out a week or two in advance. AH K ITS NOT THERE YOU DIDN'T SEND IT. I feel like I have been wronged, played with, and led on say I stay trapped within the system. Advisers who want to throw you right back into a class that just got done raping you, or they look at you like you're an idiot when you say you want to go to a community college and transfer credits, then they won't help you achieve that by guiding you. Or maybe when you say you're taking 12 hours and not the "recommended" 16-17 hours; "why do you want to do that".... are you a retard? I can't handle 17 hours. Look in your computer, go back to the semester I took 17 hours with labs here at UTA, what GPA did I get? And while I'm at it, I detest curves! A curve is given when the majority of the class does poorly. There have been instances where maybe 10% did well and no one else did, therefore no curve was given or a very small one was distributed. I say this because if everyone suffers and a curve is given, on every test so it's not like it's getting better, doesn't this mean there is something wrong with YOU (the prof.) or your TESTS? You can't cry lazy student when EVERYONE suffers. Perhaps a curve is good for the first test and students improve later down the road as they find out what your tests are like, or perhaps you change your test to conform to what is REALLY necessary to test over and not your personal goal to achieve a 50% class average. Yah, had a teacher once that was proud of that and yah, I dropped that course. A curve is used to fill the gap a teacher makes between them and the student because they either can't teach effectively (so why do you have the job? oh yah research) or because the teacher wants to make a hard test and I suppose... feel good when everyone suffers? Why not test over relevant material that is within our level and get an accurate reading of where the class stands rather than bombing everyone and handing out "free points" to fill the gap. I digress. I'm pissed, tired, and still have to finish this lab report because I blew 3 days of devotion to statics for nothing.

I would have to agree. Even sanding blasting it, I would think it would just dull the surface and not chew it up a lot. Perhaps a cylinder honer of some small size, something similar, and some compound will clean it right up. Certainly something that could be done with a hand drill at home. Remember, they don't have to be mirror finish and polished like a crankshaft, usually. Well, mine weren't.

Aerospace engineering at UTA. Still doing basic coursework so it's the same classes that a mechanical would take. I'm losing my ass in one of 4 courses, that being Statics. I have exasperated all ideas and advise given to me and I can't even do the homework. I have gone online, watched video lectures, used different books, formed a study group (but we're all just as hopeless), talked to my proffesor... I spent the past 4 days reading through the GOOD book from last year. The department decided to change books, who knows why; maybe not enough were failing, maybe they wanted students to buy a new book. Regardless, I have the good book and the solutions manual to it. I studied it, I did the example problems all by myself and checked to see what the book did, they matched. I was feeling good, then I went to do my 10 homework problems from the **** book we currently have. Of the 10, I was able to vaguely do 1... ONE PROBLEM. So I go back and try to reference, NOPE, it's a horrible book. The examples it gives you don't match the homework and the homework/examples from the good book don't match this either! I'm swallowing my pride. I don't mind saying this isn't cut out for me or that it just isn't clicking for me. I'm in such a grey zone right now though. I love seeing how things work, I love wrenching, I love designing/building stuff for my Z, but god honest truth, when I do it I never sit down and do force loads and all that... I sat here saying because I love doing those things, engineering is cut out for me.... but if I can't get this Statics stuff, the very BASICS of whats to come, then what the hell... Then I ask myself, ok so I lose my ass trying to get this class and I skid by, now I have dynamics, fluid dynamics, structures, solid mechanics, basically a repeat with more difficult stuff. Now of course, we don't even have enough grades to determine our future in this class, haven't even had the first test but the feeling I have right now tells me this isn't going to make sense later either. Alright, long story short, I am asking for a list of questions to be posed to me. Depending on how I answer them may guide me towards engineering or away from it. Right now I can't decide whether its the school, the teacher, the book, the material, is it me, do I like engineering type things but I'm just not suited for all the calculations, etc. I'm at the point where I must make a 2.25 GPA or else I get put on the naughty list and if it happens again they kick me out of engineering. However if I drop, my financial aid screws up and at that point I might as well drop out because the money I have set aside will last about a semester maybe two, without loans and grants. Granted, the other 3 classes (Circuit analysis, coding, measurements and methods) I am doing swell in... but statics... not feeling it. The fact that everything ahead is more like statics and less like the other 3 courses worries me. If I do not get this class, I go onto the naughty list and this is all assuming that I decide to retake the course. If the teacher sucks, then I have a chance to get a better one, but not a better book. If it turns out this isn't for me, then I fail statics, a second time, so I learned the hard way and that's what I'm trying to avoid. I'm seriously VERY lost right now. I can take courses over and over again and yah get my degree after like 7 years but lets face it; if I had that much trouble just getting my degree and now I'm going to have a career in that field, that means I get to look forward to frustration and stupendous amounts of extra effort, just to skid by in the work place. There has to be a point where persevering doesn't lead you in the right direction but begins giving you false hopes. I can't do much about my situation right now but tomorrow I plan on visiting my professor and asking what more can be done. Like I said, I have done everything that has come to mind or discussed. Who knows, maybe her test questions will be challenging but not as complex, confusing, wordy, as the homework. Mind you, she admits herself that the book sucks for beginners but is good for "more advance readers". Oddly enough, the reason why we take this course is because we're beginners and hopefully by May, we are "more advanced", therefore I tip my hat and say thank you for the **** book. Not her fault though, the departments fault, and she can't do anything about it. Point I'm getting at is if she thinks the book isn't suitable perhaps that means her test problems will be hmmmm maybe similar to ones from the GOOD book and in that case I'm golden on tests but screwed on homeworks.

Fathers shop. It's 5 minutes from my apartment in Arlington so I bring stuff from North Fortworth where the Z is (my moms house) and try to do most of the work at Dad's shop so I don't get stuck on something that I don't have the right tools for back at home... Two or three of the cars in his shop are ours, the rest are customers of his. One of these days I'm going to weasel my Z into an empty space in there so I can get some REAL work done...

"My question, will putting my N47 head on a block with flat tops give me "compression in the mid 10's?"" If you do change cams or get a regrind like Pyro says, resurface your rockers. If you have hydraulic rocker pivots, and you switch to a grind or earlier cam that was running on solid pivots, then be sure to change them out. Not doing either of these things will yield missing lobes and glitter in your oil. Changing pivots from hydraulic to solids is relatively simple. You would need a breaker bar or large wrench, I think it's 21mm. Be careful not round them off since they're oily. The solid pivots are a different thread size so you will need to order Timeserts. I haven't done this in years but... the part number is somewhere around here and they usually run like $30-$40 for a set of 12. These Timeserts have threads on the outside and on the inside. This allows you to thread it into the head, and then screw the solid pivot into that. Add Locktite and torque down; again I forgot the specs but I suspect something like 35ft-lb. If you get a hydraulic cam reground to something else, I'm not sure if one should change out the pivots.... Just don't run a hydraulic cam on solid pivots and vise versa. This however is probably all pointless because you said N42 head and I don't think that has hydraulic pivots... Just in case though! Refer to this if you decide to go to a stock cam with perhaps better specs. Also, at the bottom of that page is a blurb about which cams are the "good" ones so if you run hot springs, you don't fry your cam. http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/cam/index.htm

http://atlanticz.ca/zclub/techtips/calcs/engine%20builder/index.html You know your rods, crank, and pistons are flat tops so no dish to account for. You can either enter in the default number for the N47 and select your head gasket. If your gasket doesn't follow any of the numbers like mine didn't (90mm X .6mmm) then you can enter it manually. Or, you can go the time consuming way and say "I don't trust these numbers for combustion chamber volume, I'll do it myeslf" and go get a plastic syring from CVS or Walgreens. Doesn't have to be a needle, then get some oil, fill syringe, start squiritng into the combustion chamber making sure that the head is sitting level while upside-down and that the valves are closed with the spring pressure so that they don't ooze around the seats. Also have a sparkplug installed obviously. Keep track of how many mL of oil you squirt in. 1mL = 1cc Avoid creating surface tension of the fluid in the chamber. You can get down and eyeball it or you can get a small square of 1/8" plexiglass or clear plastic, enough to cover one of the chambers completely. Drill a hole in it the size of your syringe squirter tip thing so you can place this plastic over the combustion chamber and insert the syringe tip into the hole to fill the chamber. Or I suppose you could avoide all that, get some clay/playdough, squeeze it into there. Run a straightedge across the surface of the head so you cut off any excess. Now take the clay that is in the chamber, pull it all out. It doesn't matter if you lose the shape of the combustion chamber or anything, for all intents and purposes you could just as well roll this clay in a ball and get the same results, or if you have a narrow container you could chop up the clay as long as you get all the little bits. Drop it into a container of water, obviously this container should have readings in mL increments of at least 5 so you aren't guessing between lines. See how much water it displaces, keep in mind that there is a meniscus so read the water level not the meniscus level, and thats your volume. mL you have after you put clay in water - mL of water you had before clay went in = mL of displacement of clay = mL of combustion chamber 1mL = 1cc Kdone get to work.

Problem is they switched from Hibler to Mcgill for dynamics and statics. Don't ask me why they did it, but they did... Hibler has a solution manual, Mcgill doesn't. The solutions she provides after we turn in the homework, are her own written out solutions and only for the 10 problems she assigns. The Mcgill book has examples in it but they are COMPLETELY irrelevant to the homework so you can't even flip back and reference things. When prompted on this, the teachers response was, and I quote "The text can be more tedious for some who are just learning the materials. It is actually a clearer presentation for more advanced readers." We're all beginners except for those who are retaking this course because they failed the first time. I don't know what the department considers when looking for a new book but this thing sucks and I have a feeling they were looking at it through their own eyes rather than the students eyes. It probably made sense to them, so they deemed it good enough. Not to mention the fact that there isn't a solution manual so you can't "cheat", even though we have already established that if you are using it with cheating in mind, you're going to get spanked on the test; otherwise it's a great thing to have. So long story short, there is no teachers book or solution manual. This book has been around for at least a year now and it has a reputation/rumor for being **** and stories of desperate attempts to get a solution manual that either doesn't exist or is impossible to find. Used them for linear algebra. I think I already checked for statics with no luck but I see you provided a video so I will go back and look again. This is the same response as the first one I made. No solution manual and on Cramster, some people have requested a solution to a problem here and there but no one has answered. Of course, Hibler is on there. Basically at this time, I have my roommates Hibler book and solution manual and I'm going to read over the examples and explanations from there. Not even going to look at my Mcgill book as to not get completely confused. Then hopefully I can switch that knowledge over to Mcgill to do the homework. If this doesn't work out well then I'm not real sure what to do after that except hope for a nice curve, even if I despise them with extreme prejudice.

Well... not surprisingly, UTA engineering department decided to change to a different author for its Dynamics and Statics books. The one they had before was a great book, self taught. The one now is HORRIBLE and when your professor just writes the examples that are in the book, you're pretty much on your own. Trying to keep the complaining to a minimum because nothing can be done about it, so I'm looking for other resources. I already have my roommates old text book (the good one) to read the examples, even though my homework is in the crappy book. Looking for something along the lines of video lecture or maybe interactive stuff. Forgot to mention, this is STATICS, haven't done dynamics yet. We have a test next week and we are all screaming pulling our hair out. We get the problems, it's just the time it takes... 10 homework problems each week, takes us usually 8-10 hours... The examples in the crappy text book, do not reflect the homework AT ALL. I understand they sometimes leave a gap for you to fill and learn, but this gap is uhh.... no. Teacher says we must be able to do this problems on the fly during the test. Anyway, she admits it's a bad book for beginners but it's pretty clear to more "advance" readers. Weirdly, she much not get that we are in this class because we are all.... BEGINNERS. Unless of course you're taking it again. Putting this post out there to ask anyone if they have a good youtube user or website that gives lectures. This method really helped me in linear algebra, watching free MIT lectures and lectures off of youtube. Thanks guys

Squirt some sealant into the slots that the seals go into, then tap them in. You can use a small punch and a small hammer, even a plastic mallet, to tap them in. I never got mine completely in but they were pretty close. Cut any nubs off with a pair of wire cutters.

I trust our machine shop but then again, I could definitely see it being an odd mistake thinking they can be pressed in either way. If I could remember what the hell I did during the build or if I had pictures of it, I would get my answer! If I didn't check myself and just put the pistons facing the front well that's my own fault... My pictures went from block without crank, to block with head bolted down. hah best of luck to you akeboshi. It's a good thing you had a back up crank.

If you were running Pertronix or an electric ignition module (little black box mounted on the side of the dizzy with two wires), and hooked the 12v to the module up wrong/backwards, you could have blown the unit and thus have no spark. No spark+fuel, no run, and you already said you have fuel. Just go down the line of ignition by doing this: -unhook all the spark plug wires, take one and move it close to a KNOWN ground (close as in only a small gap for a spark to jump across), have someone crank her over, do you see a spark? If not then continue further below -unhook the center plug wire on the dizzy that goes to the coil, do the same thing as above and hold it close to a known ground, have someone crank her over. The coil should spark 6 times more frequently than the single spark plug wire you tested because the coil is firing for every cylinder, not just one. See a spark? If not then: -make sure you are doing this on a good ground. How do you do this? Well two ways, you can get a test light, hook it to the + side of the battery and touch several points that you think may be a good ground. It should light up and stay lit if you find a good spot. Usually the alternator adjusting mount or something clean and solid like that will work fine. No test light? Maybe you have a meter, set it to read resistance and if it has a "beep" option that tests for continuity then select that too. Put one lead on the negative side of the battery, use the other lead to touch spots around the engine bay that you suspect may be a good ground. If you have a beep feature, it should beep when you find a good spot (telling you that there is continuity between the ground on the battery and the spot you found). If you don't have a beep feature, the resistance should measure pretty low if not close to 0. -try the two tests above, with your newly found GOOD grounds, if you think you the place you were trying to get a spark at before was an insufficient ground. -still no spark? Pull out your test light or meter. The way the module works to my understanding is that there is a magnetic pickup sleeve in the dizzy. Every time this magnet rotates and pass by a certain point, the pick up sense it, then sends the signal down one wire, to the coil to say "spark now". By testing to see if you had spark at the plugs, we checked to see if perhaps your cap or rotor is bad. By checking the spark plug wire that connects the coil to the dizzy, we checked to see if you even have a signal from the dizzy or computer telling the coil to spark. At this point, if you don't have these things, we must answer the question as to why there is no signal telling the coil to spark, or why the coil isn't putting out spark. There are three possibilities to this: 1. No signal to coil 2. There is a signal to the coil but no 12v at the coil to initiate the spark 3. There is a signal and there is 12v, the coil could be bad or blown from the wrong hook up, in other words "you need a new coil" It's going to be difficult to test a signal to the coil when most of us only have a simple meter or test light, so we can't really test for that. We can however test for 12v at the coil. If you're running electronic ignition where two wires from the dizzy go to the coil, rather than an ECU, like Pertronix or the black box module, then we can likely assume that your 12v at the coil is making its way into the dizzy if hooked up properly. Following this setup: From DatsunZGarage - http://datsunzgarage.com/engine/ If you're not running this setup and your ignition is being controlled by the ECU then this is the last step I can really help with. The coil should have 12v to it, regardless of Pertronix, black box module, ECU controlled, whatever. After that, I don't know how to play with the ECU and test it or if it is likely to get messed up by hooking up ignition wires improperly. Ok so testing the 12v at the coil... Take your test light or meter, place one end of the light/one lead of the meter and touch it to the + side of the coil. Touch the other end of the light/other lead of the meter to a KNOWN good ground, with the key in the "Run" position (with the key on basically), you should read 12v/the light should shine. If you find 12v, we assume that you have 12v going down one wire towards the dizzy, and the module is putting out a spark signal to the coil/tach as the diagram shows. No 12v? Try jumping a wire with alligator clips, hell even duct taping some wire from the + side of your battery over to the + side of the coil, and see if it starts/run through the previous tests. If it does run then your problem was between your coil and ignition switch. Now that you have 12v at the coil and presumably the module/dizzy, the only thing left to do if it still doesn't run is change the coil. We do this because of the three things listed above, we can only try two of the three unless you have equipment to test for signals like an oscilloscope and then... I suspect you wouldn't be in this predicament. By changing the coil to something you know will work or most likely did work so should work now (granted your current coil is probably fine but we don't take that for granted while trouble shooting), you eliminate that factor. 12v + good coil + ??? = spark, ??? = is there a signal from the module/Pertronix/ECU? Other than that, that's all you really need for the Pertronix/black box module type ignition to work. 12v to the coil, two leads from the dizzy hooked up PROPERLY to the coil (switching these will blow the unit), spark from the coil wire, which then is distributed to the individual spark plug wires through the rotor-cap assembly on the dizzy. As for an ECU.... Don't have a clue.

I guess that isn't normal.

Sorry buddy, I have already purchased some injectors.

I hope mine are ok; wish I could remember the build! Not in the position to pull my motor(s)!

pics?

Very true! I just try to avoid the skirts like lava. Broken one before. Still have that set of 5 240z flat top pistons with slight valve relief, by the way, for those 4 cylinder people.

If you put them in yourself, I would take them out the same way. If not, probably best to send to the machine shop. If I were to do it: -find a drift or a deep socket that is obviously slightly smaller than the pin so you don't press the socket into the piston -brace piston on a solid support, preferably with a few rags over the support so you don't have metal on metal. Don't brace the piston on the skirt walls! Brace up at the top of the piston where its a solid piece; above the pin! -hold the big end with your hand -start jacking the press -it should slide through with little effort. There shouldn't be a point where the press starts getting tough to pump, and then the pin pops out a little, and repeat. If that happens, you're probably fouling something. This happened to us when we had an old TR3 piston rusted in the sleeve. My dad just wanted the sleeve so we put it in the press and started applying pressure on the top of the piston. It's a 12ton press and it got to the point where we had to get a cheater bar over the pump so we could get more leverage. After heating with a torch and applying some PB Blaster, all of a sudden BANG, louder than a gun shot, it popped loose but only a little. It would pop, you would get a few pumps in, and then it would get stuck again. Repeated this several times until it came out and it was very nerve racking... applying 12 tons of pressure to a piston stuck in a sleeve. I was worried the sleeve would break and send pieces into me... Finally got the piston out, cleaned off the sleeve; yup, big'ol crack going from the bottom, and circling around. almost made it's way back to the bottom, and if it had, I bet it would have gone flying. So, don't let it build pressure. The pin may be hard for you or I to push out by hand but a press should do it with ease and never get into a bind. Do this. You won't bend a rod and yes, you will be able to hold the big end. It won't want to angle down with tremendous force since you are trying to support it as close to the pin as possible:

Tony, I was rereading through here and you note the notch on the piston, which I understand, have seen, and made them face the front. Now the question is, could the pistons and rods be paired only one way? Could the pin press in the correct way, flip the rod around, and still press in? If so, I suppose you best have a machine shop that doesn't do V8 stuff and says "oh yahhhh we do that all the time" I had one of my fathers customers stand over my should while I was building my motor, telling me about his domestic motors and how he builds 700HP monsters. Then I remember, this is the same guy that bored a block .030" over, used the old std pistons with .030" over rings, and accidentally left a towel in the oil sump somehow so when he started it up he didn't have any oil pressure. A very bright person indeed.

Boy wouldn't that be unfortunate if it was all correct to begin with. I'd be PISSED lol

ahhh I accidentally hit reply and not edit. Sorry abut that.

Looking for some rear brackets used to put '89-'94 240sx calipers on. I have a complete brackets, calipers, rebuild kits, new pads, for the rear 280zx swap if someone would like to trade. I will trade your brackets for my brackets, calipers, rebuild kits, and pads. Calipers have been cleaned and "ceramic" painted yellow. Haven't installed rebuild kits yet. SS hoses in picture are no good and have been tossed, so those wouldn't be included. This is before they were painted yellow. If you don't want the brackets because they are 4 bolts and you don't want to pull the stub axles, I can cut them for you so they're 3 hole and you wouldn't have to remove the stub axle. These brackets are anodized aluminum. *** also looking for spacers to space the rotor from the hub on the Toyota vented caliper swap as well as 440cc Supra injectors, and MS (preferably V3). If you don't want to trade, name your price... I have a collection of various parts so if you need something and consider partial trade, just let me know. Thanks guys.

Oh boy... I don't remember any particular direction on mine either. Meh, car isn't running, but did run like a champ for 3 years (lost spark), I guess I will pull it and play around.... I remember notches on my KA pistons but I can't remember for the life of me about the rods... Can you quote his statement from the book? I don't have mine with me... I figure it's something like the oiler hole faces a certain side? Knowing me I probably ground off all remnants of it. :[ I feel like a hipster doofus now.