josh817

I love brunettes! She's old enough to be my grandmother probably, oh god! Most attractive woman from the past that I have seen so far is the chick from the Mommas and the Papas and I'm not talking about Momma Cass either! Mmmm Michelle Phillips when she was younger.

I don't understand, it was a serious question, why must you hammer me like that? The last sentence was "I think it would be fantastic to watch how its done." I'm eager to learn and yes I know I have a thing for "just print it out in large bold letters" instead of similes, analogies, and allusions. Don't you see that I'm just trying to give in so it can stop? Me making a statement on where I want to live, in a relaxed manner, doesn't show you that I'm losing the will to discuss/argue/whatever you want to call it? I'm not going to make up excuses here but I have one last exam to take this year (in 4 hours), my senses may not be very astute as far as coming up with ideas is concerned right now. You know you word this stuff in a way that is difficult for young guns to understand. You and Woldson have both said it before, it comes with age, so whats your problem Tony? But seriously, I want you to answer the question because I really do want to see what its all like. I'm going to take a wild guess and say you learned by speaking to them, having meetings, going there for yourself, etc. I don't do any of those. Maybe I could look into getting my hands on some Z magazines from over there and that sort of thing I suppose. Tell me what you think. I'll be sleeping in a tent Friday-Sunday at the track. I'll be done with school, meaning more time to ponder on life, universe, and everything else.

Because of family, Woldson! Have some in RI and NJ, not going to NJ, probably won't do RI, don't mind Mass. though. Actually, I don't mind any of the states, I just like the north east, can't stand the midwest, wouldn't mind the west coast. I don't know anything about moving, but I think its safe to say I'd have to have a reason to go there. Reason as in like, job offer, I would think. Wherever the profession takes me I suppose.

-When it comes to price, there isn't a right and wrong, its objective. It would be easier to call me flat out cheap and its just me complaining that the price seems ridiculous to me. That would be my highly debatable opinion. -Lol don't revert to what state I'm residing in. Believe it or not, I hate Texas. The only thing I like would be the lax gun laws but I don't even shoot. If I had a choice I'd move to Massachusetts or Rhode Island. -How exactly do you think I can shut up and listen, to dudes in Japan? I don't go to Japan, I don't speak Japanese. How does this work? I'm not being sarcastic either. I think it would be fantastic to watch how its done. Anyway yah, if you want me to sit down - shut up - and listen, I can do that too. Its the only way to end the madness!

Lol its still fun regardless. I used my one freebie, next time, maybe.

Yah thats the problem, I don't understand like... which way I'm suppose to be swaying here. The agenda, what is expected of me to end this, I suspect is similar to what you're saying "I, as well as others will be waiting for a thoughtful, considerate response, because of you." Am I suppose to write up a surrender terms? I don't think so, I still hold my opinion, like you said, its highly debatable. It seems like the situation is fairly delicate so I'm trying to type accordingly, I'm just not getting. Is it like an apology that you want? That's not going to happen, I'm still not forfeiting my opinion. I forfeited a lot in this thread, you guys swooned me over to "the other side". When I say my opinion, its that I think prices are steep.

What to you mean Woldson? I'm aware I keep drilling myself deeper by I'm not going to just stop posting in my own thread. The agreement grounds I set out, are more then favorable, I don't think its something too far to accept. So my question is, if those "terms" can't be accepted, what exactly is the agenda here? What will it take to end the conversation? My little reputation I have on here may end up being tattered but for the last week I've been trying to end this. Even if it does become tattered, its ok because this is simply 2 different views on a subject. If its going to hinder people from seeing the full me when I do another build thread (working on it), then oh well. I'm not going to let the intrawebs - a series of connected tubes - get me down. Just have to keep chugging along.

1: The argument has gotten out of order to such extent that extreme exaggeration and sarcasm is being put to use. Takes two to tango as my mother always says, don't hold the shield up for Tony. He can hold his own ground plus putting the fault all over on my side of the table wouldn't be fair in the first place, however once again my mother would always say life is unfair and continue the punishment. Don't forget, I was being accused for bashing American engineering and stuff in this thread, somehow. Before you start shouting at me, read everything and address all issues. 2: I totally agree with the communication thing that you and Tony talk about. Admittedly, I have a hard time translating the message in some of Tony's posts and it has caused some problems here. Some big face palm moments and such. And yes, I am very bitter about being rejected. When I did my little write up with all the pictures, later on a found a link to it on the Japanese dudes blog, laughing at us/me. One thing that makes me rage the most is seeing someone laugh at me because I can't do what he's done and I praise what he is able to achieve. Its not because of money, its not because of the lack of skill (well for my case that may be true but for a lot of people here in the states), its because you can't get a hold of it, if you go through certain distributors. I definitely agree with you that if you call them up directly chances are they will sell. The fact that you have a lousy distributor here in the first place means you need to get rid of them. 3: Kameari seats were priced with shipping in mind. Seats probably weren't the best example, however the other things such as collets and chain, still a dumb price. Collets can be stronger and lightweight, however they don't advertise light weight and if they seriously were something special weight wise, they would of jumped on the chance to list it out on the "what makes this cool" section. Stronger, lightweight, and adjusting the installed spring height are the only contributing factors that can make you go woohoo about collets. Its really quite a simple part... don't make it sound like there is some overly complicated role it plays within the motor and that I'm skipping over it all. Agreeably parts are priced for the Japanese market, which would work along side with "the go fast parts are exclusive and priced accordingly". 4: The $1300 was for Wako, its $1100 for Kameari. Wako, was camshaft only. The distributor I talked to, was one of Wako, however Xnke took care of the Kameari one. Quit talking to me like I'm ignorant. So for like the 3rd or 4th attempt to stop the madness, can we atleast agree to disagree? Can the statement "the go fast parts are exclusive and priced accordingly" not be good enough? If not, what exactly is the agenda?

Yep thats what I said, because I understand the whole "sell to people who you can depend on that won't screw you up" but I don't think that is the case here, as I explained. You and I both know there is a clear difference from being famous and from being well known, enough to be a customer of these people. I said being published in some sort of media, whether it be an article about how your car won in some sort of prestigious race or maybe about how you did something unique with your car/motor. Obviously something that makes you stand out. Like I said you'd either have to get into some sort of media, or maybe at like a car show a dude from Japan or with connections to Japan sees your car, likes it, spreads the word. I'll get back to this after my test soooo.... be right back!

The only way your reputation would make it to Japan is if you're pretty big, I'd say big enough to get in some sort of media that would be published over there. That's a bold thing to ask for, just to be able to by a product. I haven't expanded on other products, however, $165 for a timing chain, $1400 for a "GT Seat", $60 for valve collets (never seen a problem with stock ones), etc. Are these priced so high, to exclude the lower budget scums of American society like myself? Is a seat going to give them a bad rep? What about a timing chain? Maybe valve collets? I'm going to have to pull this out for a second here: Now that thats out of my system, lets compare to another vehicle I'm having a hard time understanding, the BMW 1602/2002. $690 for a Schrick 316º or 336º camshaft $85/ea for billet rocker arm (you need 8) I think its a bit more then priced for the market and keeping out cheapo's. I understand the whole thing, price high to prevent the biggest is the best people but there is a point that you have to say yah right. Schneider will sell their biggest profile all day fora 5th of the price, thats what draws the people, however is Schneider's reputation horrible? No... ok well maybe its not the best in the Z car world. What about Isky? You keep talking about Ron, must think highly of him, does he have to charge $1300 to be the best? No one here seems to think that. Oh and he sounds like a nice enough dude to talk you down to a profile that would work better for your intended setup. That whole Japanese cultural spirit crap isn't buying anything in my books. I understand its far different then our society, a lot of the times for the better, with the whole respect and honor thing but let me be the first to scream hypocrisy. The distributor I talked to was Japanese himself, not and American sitting at a desk. This man had well known buddies back in Japan, he knows all the Z car shops, etc. Wheres MY respect, where is HIS honor? Can't be found. I bet you the only way you would find it is if you were Japanese yourself, or like we discussed, a bad ass in Z car society. Just how big a bad ass does it take? I haven't a clue. When you look at the Apple Ipod, the video ones, lol they're probably going to be extinct soon with all the iphones. Anyway, I saw an article once where they priced out all the parts in the ipod, showed where to buy them, came to like under $150 for parts. When these things were selling for $400, was I paying for labor? Doubt it. Was Apple trying to protect their company name by pricing high? Doubt it. Actually the answer is just because the demand was high, therefore they knew they could get away with it. Get away with what? Gouging. I don't blame these companies for gouging, they probably don't make many annual sales with their prices and honor codes. If the product is of good quality, which it undoubtedly is, then as a customer you shouldn't run into problems which make you purchase another of the product. It does bring customers back in to buy other products though, so thats good, but once they have everything they want sales will drop off. At Dad's shop, he can sell you a lot of cool stuff, for instance one piece axles that he designed. They went for A LOT of money, subsequently the only people who bought were serious racers or guys throwing in more powerful motors into a Spitfire (or anything else that may break an axle). Did he treat his customers like a boob? No. Dad would be an example of playing the proper role of a company like Kameari. He designed a lot of cool stuff, not surprising at all that a lot of it made its way to England. The axles made their way to England for the Brits who were running the fuel inject motors and who still thrash those British cars around. He answered questions with open arms and still does... sometimes too open! Eventually the demand died off. All the hard core guys purchased their axles, they weren't breaking anymore so no need to buy new ones, and that was that. It got to the point where he couldn't market them anymore so he gave the plans to Summers Brothers. I say let them sulk in their probable low sales. They won't be having my purchase, so that probably puts them at like 99 cam sales per year (exaggeration! don't pounce!) When it comes down to being sustainable, you have to think outside of the box. That means drop your Samurai Japanese culture and innovate your thinking so you can spread to another market. As long as they are in their own little boxed off world of Japan, which only has X amount of L engine owners, I don't think any major expansion will occur. Sales are low, prices are high, you probably don't need a ton of sales to make a profit. Being prideful and overzealous of yourself and your culture to where it actually hurts your sales, is silly. "Yah but they also have Europe and Australia, they're super respectable and have honor", biggest market for Z's was..? That's where you need to be emphasizing after your Japan market. Lets not forget the intentions of Nissan when they first came to America. Affordability was a big thing! The Toyota 2000GT was retardedly priced before the Z was introduced, sales were not great. What about all that Japanese prestige?! They went from selling affordable go fast vehicles to ridiculously priced parts? Talk about some change. Not to mention, if copying someone elses design (of course not exactly, that would be infringement) is such a big honor code breaker then can we please back the truck up to Hitachi/Mikuni carbs, the design of the Roadster and the Z, as well as the motor. Honor must not have been a big deal, when trying to build one of the most successful automobile company in the world. Then again, I guess you could always say these shops never want to be that big. I wouldn't blame them though. They probably share the same mind set as my father. I over heard him say the other day ago that the biggest complement he had was when a customer said they loved his shop because it reminded them of the old shops back in the 50's and 60's where people would come over on Saturday and talk cars, drink beer, etc. Like a mini car show every Saturday, its great. As far as outrageous pricing and piss poor distributor service from some, agree to disagree, and I'll agree to make the simple statement "prices are high because its an exclusive go fast product". PS: Also, did this man make whatever camshaft company look bad? Are they never going to sell to him again, after he posted in his blog about a cam breaking? Who's at fault? Who will be blamed? Seems to contradict with whats being said in this thread, but that's ok because I'll buy from Isky. If it does happen to break, I'll buy another from him, because it won't cost me $2600 total. Either they're a bunch of boobs who really do worry about their reputation being soiled by people who can't afford their products, or the whole reputation thing is partially/fully incorrect logic. I guarantee you, they sold to that guy again. "Yah they did because he didn't point the fault at them", neither would I if I snapped a camshaft or rounded off lobes, I'd probably just think back to ":[ Did I forget to add a bottle of ZDDP to my oil 1000 miles ago?" or whatever lol.

Make sure that if you are wanting to trade brakes, that you have good used/new drums that I can throw on, as well as new shoes. Wheel cylinders are the only things I don't know if I can reuse or not. I'd assume that if they're working now, they're fine. Basically my point is I don't want to do anything partial. I have everything needed to do rear brakes, minus the mounting brackets and caliper kits, so I'd like everything to do my brakes in trade. I'm only emphasizing this because one of my rear drums is fried. I pulled it off and saw there was no more pad, just a metal plate chewing the drum out. It still stops you, but ignorance is bliss. The 280zx brakes were going to fix the problem but as I stated above, I don't want to install.

I'd be curious on how they turn out and how they mount.

Hey guys, a buddy of mine punched a hole in his ZX radiator this week so I'm on the prowl to help him out. Also, if you have an R200, preferably geared high like a 4.11 or higher, I'd like to see how much you want for. EDIT: I also forgot! I am looking for some aluminum rear drums for a '72 240z, new shoes, and brake cylinders. I have some 280ZX calipers (with the dust shield), good used pads as well as a brand new set, and brand new ZX rear rotors that I was going to put on but then I changed my mind. Why? The racing club I'm going to join says you can add bigger brakes but they must stay the same format (disk in front drum in rear), plus I don't want to work out the E-Brake bugs and stuff... Calipers are disassembled and I cleaned as much old gunk off of them as possible. They're ready to be rebuilt, I have the O'Reileys PN for the kits if you need them (kits are like $7 per caliper). I also painted the shields yellow with caliper paint. I'll get pictures later. Tell me if you're interest! I'll trade the ZX stuff for the drum, shoes, and wheel cylinders (I may not need these), or I'll sell the ZX stuff to you. Also if you have a diff with the gearing I want, and you need the ZX brakes, maybe we can work something out.

Yes! He's finally off my back! I love you Tony! The only time I feel rebellious is when you are you teaching me a lesson, rather then letting me watch someone else get it! For the original poster: http://www.break.com/index/play-him-off-keyboard-cat.html That's definitely you. Mods are probably keeping this alive, for our enjoyment. EDIT: I can't even fathom to explain the amount of laughter I am experiencing. The true reality of Play Him Off Cat, is extraordinary.

Hahahahhaha

You sure you didn't get a load of bad fuel and its causing you to ping? Check your timing and see if its too far advance. A dizzy should be at full advance at those RPM's.

I'm mentioning Bonneville because didn't you go? What was the youtube video you had. You know, I'm trying to be really moderate and swell with you by showing you some respect and acknowledging you have a lot more track/salt flat time then I do and you know a lot of big namers who have helped you over the years. Don't turn it around on me, Tony. Come on. The whole point of the statement was Wako and others are purposely set outside of the common market and like you guys are saying, high priced, because they probably know the only people who will seek them out are ones that are big into Z cars like you, Tony. Lol it appears I screwed up the flow of things by writing about these people, so now its that much closer to not being a "secluded" society. Drats. Hey... Its mothers day! What are we doing on here?!

I really think that if you built a dead motor, you and everyone else would understand that one piece of the motor (the cam) was not the killing factor. It was prevalent in ZRedBaron's motor when he made like 180hp on his first stroker but we understood it wasn't like... Schneider's fault for his cam or whatever he used. Thread started out ratty, however in the first post, at the very end in bold large letters, questions were being asked which showed the roots of the thought process. I think that the only way to fix the whole "don't ruin my product thing" is to become respectable like Tony, performing Bonneville runs. If I were in their shoes and so concerned about ruining my name (funny part is the distributor said "Who told you about the Wako 75s" as if, Americans weren't suppose to know the name in the first place, so what is there to ruin) I would only sell to well known and successful people to protect my work. Oh well. Work must continue. I sent the head over to the machine shop to have them press out the old guides on Saturday. I need to purchase valves, springs, retainers, and camshaft sometime soon. At the very least I need to get valves because Rick our machine shop man is going to find some seats that will work with the big valves from another application. I don't know if we will choose to use a different motors guides or if I will just get regular Nissan ones and have them machined. I need to ask how our other machine shop dude performs flow bench tests. Is it done by hour, like dyno time, or what? I don't know. I have a plan in mind but I don't know if it is a scientifically stable mind set. I'm going to have to do more reading. Once I get far enough along in my build, I will make a thread on it with a zillion pictures and all.

Mmmm I like it when people put it clear a. I think maybe I didn't see Tim's post because I don't recall it until seeing your quote just now, or maybe it totally just left my mind. Personally speaking though, I still hold on the regards to if you make very few sales per year, you better cherish the opportunity to grab a customer whenever you can regardless of how I phrase my email or call. When I see my father conduct business, as a man who doesn't necessarily have a huge booming shop with new customers flowing through all the time, he welcomes anyone. Yes sometimes we stumble over a few people who decide to have us do work and then say they can't pay, and those are the types that you avoid later on and just say "There isn't enough room in the shop, all the spots are taken right now". I remember a guy came in and very directly said he needed a broken wheel stud replaced. When you tried to talk to him about what model MG he had just to be good to him, he would have nothing of it. Not really a bad impression of him to us, but wasn't really polite either. Did we say "take your car somewhere else"? No, because that makes us look like a bunch of ingrates. As an automotive service man, its best you understand that your customer is your most valuable asset. It shouldn't matter if I wanted to spend $1300 to buy that cam, just to smack some guy outside the head with it like a bat. Its business, the distributor needs to focus on sales and getting that sale made (especially when you don't have that many sales of that product in the first place) rather than seeing if the dude is worthy of running that cam, examining his wording, and whether he will make a good home for this product. Its a car part, not a puppy adoption center, that's how it works. I don't know if I fully understand what you mean by grab ass. I know I'm going around picking information and compiling it, is that what you mean? Or do you mean just the fact that I posted this thread? I definitely see what you mean by self-serving and getting blown away by being denied service. It sucks because first off there are people here saying I'm morally wrong for trying to solve my own problem, even though I can't even get my hands on the cam in the first place (already discussed above how phrasing shouldn't matter). Then of course you saw the clash between me liking to do my own work, get my own **** done, etc. clash with denial of service, which leads to me going ok I'll do it myself. Obviously, wrong approach if I'm looking to make an exact duplicate. My rage blinded me, because I didn't really care morally. Honestly, I still don't, because I believe they turned down business, turned away the profit, so I'm not hurting some guys family by making my own. If it was really such an outrageous deal, they need to find a new distributor that won't shoo business away. Of course I still think, if you don't serve me, I'll serve myself. I won't just sit here and go woe me, why are those Japanese so mean to me. I appreciate you being a little more gentle with the criticism. I know Tony gets into what he is writing about but I seriously think you know... he scared everyone out of here, turned this into a moral discussion, got me to change my mind and just go with a different cam, yet it persists. Went I bit over the top. I didn't appreciate him pretty much pooping all over my parade, big time, and my parade wasn't copying someones cam profile either. I also didn't like how he comes up as I said before "on his high horse", being the big whig. It gets deeper then what we see just on the surface because one can quickly realize with the user title of Wiki and thousands of posts, the man is respected on this board, but that doesn't change my mindset if I think someone is wrong, not necessarily completely correct, or misleading. At some points in this thread I was getting the impression that the argument was either veering off or he was running out of things to accuse me for when he started attacking my examples and how in a clear example I said $275 for a cam sale, when the point was, as long as you are cheaper then the competition (that being less then $1300, maybe you sell for $1000). Even after discussing with Dad (he's a critic of me too a lot of times testing my whit at the shop) and my brother in law who graduate with a manufacturing engineer degree and a masters in like manufacturing business/statistics, think that $1300 isn't to fit the price market nor are their actions when it comes to sales. I know when I argue that myself it kind of looks like here is some 19 year kid, arguing with a dude who has the "wise factor", you know that saying where like age trumps all. Older, wiser, more experienced. I understand that Tony likes to challenge resilient teens that think they are going to outdo him, as him and I talked about in some PM's where a kid who took statistics thought he knew everything and consequently more then Tony. However, this isn't the case. Going to seminars on manufacturing and markets and being older, isn't going to put you at a higher level then a person with a masters degree on the subject. Not to mention having support from my father on the situation too, which is good since he typically thinks I don't speak up enough when I disagree or have a different opinion. He himself who owns a shop, has done his fair share of endurance racing with SVRA and sprint racing with CVAR. As well as being friends and being commended by Kas Kastner on his work towards Triumph's, to the point that Kas wrote about his work in his book. You see, I too can write off big names too to show that I am not just some young gun Joe Shmoe who is disagreeing with the Bonneville Wiki Man. I think I'm riding just as high as Tony is, on the horse, however it never showed because I didn't flaunt this background until now. I'm lucky to have someone like you, Woldson, who would give me criticism and also show some of the good side of me, especially when I was doing my motor build thread. It keeps moral up, despite all the run ins I had which were caused by me just not knowing enough about these motors. Had to do the reading, and just figure things out myself when it came to trying to alternate parts and stuff which became a very annoying and worry some problem at the time when I was already in debt with my momma just for the engine. Tony gives out some very useful information and criticism. I find that a lot of times its harder to understand but thats because he types in that mystic, old wise person sort of way. As you guys previously stated, being the reason why I wasn't understanding the full picture. I view this as some little interwebs tizzy. Had a disagreement, hopefully I'm not like banned from speaking with Tony or receiving free advice. I took what he said personally at first but now I'm just like meh no big deal. To avoid rogue threads from occuring I think it requires more time, thinking, and better wording on my part. I actually see a pattern happening here with my posts on HybridZ, where if I post right away without like thinking a good 10 minutes at least over it, I find myself going back and editing, or being too late and something flared up. LOL I can be an unintentional troll sometimes.

I want another 5 speed for sure. I don't like the T5 so much because first gear is so damn high. I'm planning on putting a 4.11 in the rear so its like, 3.50:1 in first gear, don't need that. PM me with what you have. I was scared tranny rebuilds go into like the 800-1000 range after labor and parts. Trannies are one thing I don't do on my own at the shop. Doesn't that sound wrong?!

Background Story: My poor T5 bit the bullet and I didn't really rough it up at all. I was on the highway, shifted from 5th to 4th, then 4th to 3rd. At this point I was at like 4500RPM I'd say so I could pass this guy. I do my pass, go into 4th no problem. I go for 5th, it won't get out of 4th. I take my exit and it wasn't until I slowed down to 35MPH or so that nit would get out of 4th, without any fuss or grinding. Now every time I shift, it grinds going into 3rd and into 4th. I think I killed the syncro somehow. When I downshift I make sure to match the RPM's as best as possible so there is no jerking motion. I think its the syncro because it only grinds going into the gear, once its in its fine and if I match the RPM close enough it doesn't really grind at all. Question: Either way, I'm curious what a typical price for a rebuild is. We already know I'll probably need to replace some internals. I'm kind of wanting to try out a Nissan 5 speed, the "close ratio" model. I am only N/A, I don't drag race or anything and I don't think the torque from goosing the throttle can kill it, so it may be a good deal. My only problem is I am pretty sure I have an R180 and whatever drive shaft that is needed for a T5 to a R180. I want to just swap a Nissan tranny in the place of the T5 and not run into a situation. This will require more reading. Anyway, tell me what you guys think!

Why the sigh sir?

Thank you! Exactly! Another words, you can't buy it. I thought I was starting to think I was the only one who got that treatment for some weird reason. If anyone were hellbent on that cam, like I was before getting talked out of it, yes they would push to find an alternative way of getting that particular grind. One thing to note though before I nonchalantly jump to conclusions, there are two other sources that I can think of that will sell Kameari stuff and that is RHDJapan and ZCCJDM. ZCCJDM I think I emailed and they responded in a much more customer friendly way, I was asking about some pistons for sale though on a different board that the ZCCJDM owner was on or something like that. He was still short of words, but I wouldn't expect more from anyone else. I think Tony and I are the only ones that type like an entire page, sucking up that bandwidth.

Basically reiterated what I had said. I think its best that we agree to disagree. I have my own opinions. I won't share them of course, because I feel like I'm just spinning my tires here and this thread has gone so far off topic that it unfortunately has no real value in my camshaft pursuit I guess you could call it. As I said before, I don't like chatting on the phone until my welcome wears out. It doesn't wear out because I'm trying to cheat the person, it wears out because its like ok dude come on, are you going to buy or not. What if I call up Isky, talk for an hour, and then go with someone else because I changed my mind. Poor Isky just wasted that hour on the phone and didn't get any change in their pockets from a purchase. Right? Right. Alrighty I think we have an agreement coming up with that statement.

Yah most racing clubs require a quart for overflow. I was advising the exhaust thing so you don't gunk up the intake over time. When I go to the track for this one club, there is a guy there who was using a big plastic pickle container. Every race which is 20 minutes long, he filled that thing up all the way until it was spilling out and we'd flag him for blowing smoke.... that container was like half a gallon... haha he had a lot of blow by from a worn engine.