AkumaNoZeta

What I've always wanted to do was cut out the spare wheel well and weld a beaded sheet to give it some rigity and flush up the trunk floor. Then get a fuel cell, or make a custom one that went under the trunk floor and have a fill tube going behind the license plate like you see on other cars.

Anybody have any ideas on what to do about the steering? The only thing I can think of is using a lot of u-joints, starting off with pretty much right below the steering wheel because it needs to come out of the firewall through a higher point and then go over and around the engine. With the level of modification it takes already, I don't see any reason why the steering rack can't be rotated to make it easier to line up the new steering arm.

To the exhaust idea. Whenever I think of drag I envision it as a vacuum behind the car slowing it down, so I've always wanted to relocate my exhaust into the middle of the back of the car so that the exhaust gases fill up the vacuum a little bit and using the vacuum to pull the exhaust gasses out, therefore reducing backpressure.

I have another question for Mr. Mortenson, you said the heims were due for a change after 5 years or so. How do you tell? Do they just start looking bad or can you feel it while driving?

Liked how it sounded, but $2200?

When it comes to hiem joints I've heard people that use them didn't notice any ride harshness, only more road noise, and even that was marginal.

19" is what I heard for a LS1 Camaro that got corner scaled so I used that as a base and used the 4" difference as an estimate of how much lower the EJ sits. With the way I think I rather do the work with the higher CG heights so that whenever I get to the swap and it's actually lower I would be more satisfied, instead of shooting for a lower number and it actually becomes higher.

I was just playing with it to do a 5.0 vs. EJ25 type thing. I assumed 19" CoG for the 5.0 and 15" for the EJ25. I also did it in 2 ways, first I did it assuming the vehicle was 2400lbs with 45/55 weight distribution and then I did it with differing factors. For the 5.0 I changed it to 2500lbs with 45/55 and the EJ25 with 2300lbs and 40/60. It kept me occupied for a little bit at least, supports my reason for wanting an EJ to.

Where do people find those things anyways?

I guess I just don't like it because with the idea of the track being measured at the tire's center than track width would decrease with wider tires keeping the outsides in the same spot. The SAE standard code thing is the only way it makes sense to me.

The only thing he did to that car I like is how he eliminated the headlight buckets (except I would have moved the replacement headlights to the ends instead of so close to the center) and the intake on the engine. I don't like air dam, sidekirts, flares, or anything else. Never was a fan of the Pantera hatch either.

Why is wheel track measured at the center of the tires? I was thinking it could be because that's where most of the weight on the tire is, but that may or not may be true based on tire pressure and camber. I have a feeling that track should be measured by the outermost edge of the tread. I've been thinking about this while playing with the Lateral Load Transfer equation in Tune To Win by Carroll Smith.

I really want to have a plastic fuses too instead of the glass ones. Everytime when I start pulling out one of the glass ones I just keep on getting images of it shattering

And you're right. I really haven't tried fixing the wiring yet, I've just tried hot wiring the distributor in an attempt to get it running just enough to drive it home to work on. Thats why I'm asking after I do get it towed into town, should I just try going through the wiring that's there and fix what needs fixing or just go get a Painless harness so I can have more modern fuses/relays/etc? I need to get it running pretty quick because the Mustang is getting un-drivable so I don't want to spend weeks going through the factory harness when I could just spend days putting in a Painless harness or vice versa, but I also want to keep it simple because eventually I'll be doing an engine swap and when I get to that I don't want to make it more complicated than it has to be.

Well the car is sitting in the middle of the woods at my aunt's house with boxes and boxes full of junk parts I had to get out of my garage inside of it. That's why my friend is supposed to have it towed into his shop so we can actually work on it. I don't know when we'll actually get around to towing it but its pretty much impossible to work on it where its at now. I don't know how good the work from the previous owner is and when looking at all the wires under the hood the insulation around them is dry-rotted and flaking off and it just looks like a mess. The previous owner swapped in an L28 but kept the carbs from the L26 which I replaced with a 4-barrell AZC set-up.

The car doesn't run, the turn signals don't work, and neither does a lot of other things. I don't really trust the wiring in it because I don't know if its just a lot of backwoods redneck kind of work or if thats just the way it came like from the factory. Either way I want it all simplified, cleaned up, and updated so everything works, the car runs, and I know it will last for quite a while.

I'm getting my 260Z towed to my friend's shop (the barn behind his house technically) so I can rewire the entire thing. I want to just get a Painless harness and hook that in thinking the more modern technology in the car would be a lot better but he says I should just go through all the wiring, remove the wires I'm not using (the ones that went to the AC and who knows what else, there's a lot of unused connectors here and there) and replace bad sections of the wires I am using. Which idea sounds the best to you guys and why?

Wow, that really makes me wish I had a talent or skill

You've got to remember, not everybody here is en engineer or physicist. Some of us are just amateurs and beginners that need more information/help here and there.

I understand what I was asking about now. I'm sorry for using the "raindrop" shaped term now. Its just something I got in the habit of using while talking to other folks.

Are there anything like miniature CV joints that can be used instead of U-joints in case you need to go more than 30 degrees? I'm just asking out of curiosity.

That makes sense, but if it works for the high speeds, why doesn't it work for the low speeds?

But airplanes and salt lake cars seem to have the needle point noses, how come it works for them and not slower vehicles? The needle nose seems to make sense because it looks like it would cut through the air.

To me it just looks like an old Charger or Challenger so maybe you could work something out from that. Maybe get the front end from one of them and take out a section from the middle to make it narrower. Personally I MUCH prefer the earlier Skyline.

I understand that, but I mean why is o> a better shape than <>?