Tony D

Wow, Necroposting.

Never say 'impossible' when dealing with mechanical items. In this same vein it would be 'impossible' to thread insert the spark plugs for the same metal-shavings reasons, or for that matter blend and match port the intake and exhaust ports with a grinding burr. Both of which I have personally witnessed being done in several different ways while the engine was assembled, in the car. Let your mind constrict your possibilities, and it will.

Multimeter.

flywheel weight? rear gear ratio? There is far more to perception of acceleration than horsepower and torque. I have been in some very high horsepower cars that didn't feel fast at all. Hell, my Fairlady felt fast as hell with the triples and headers, and felt really tamed down and docile with the stock EFI on it. But it was almost 2X the horsepower in the stock condition, versus modified. Butt dyno was overruled by actual dyno, g-tech, and those dragstrip passes!

I guess one, maybe three at most from my 20's survive. This past April I went 600+ miles round trip and spent 3 days rescuing one of them when their internet purchase broke down in the middle of the night (that hasn't changed since he was 20something---not listening to someones advice and run run running to get something done instead of THINKING about it and starting out a bit later, but in better shape...) Thing is he lives in DE, I'm in CA. Another is in PHX, and probably the closest is 70 miles away. And that is it. Guys who would, if I called, would help. Most of the rest are leeches on legs wearing lipstick or sunshades looking for a lot with nothing in return but my blood and time...

People who walk into a fabrication shop and get scared by a guy in a welding jacket and hood probably aren't on the brightest end of the bell-curve. I mean, top it off they're cold-calling salespeople. That's equivalent to a leech that grew legs and put lipstick on!

search on "sneaky pete". RPM Activated switch tied to a WOT input to turn on NOS and shunt the factory temp sensor so the fuel goes full rich thinking the engine is cold. Done, thought of, implemented. Fits under the intake manifold on a V8, inside the roll cage on a sprint car.... This one has been around forever.

So the stock wastegate takes it's exhaust for venting overboard after the turbo then, eh? Sometimes I wonder about the posts here recently...

"Altitude Switch"---not present on all models, but it was an anneroid for Z's sold in high altitude, and hooks up to a set of contacts present in the ECU. Close those contacts and the entire map enleans 7%.

It won't help at all for my comment that at the San Antonio Z-Con my stock Fairlady Z 2+2 ran consistent 15.50's (26 passes that night)... Don't swear at me like the guy with the matching coupe did. Best he could do was 16.45 all night long. My burnout box display made it into J's Tipo in Japan... Even stock, there is stock and there is optimized. Too many times people think there is HP to be had simply by bolting on things. I had Triple Webers on that same car, with a header, and blah blah... And it spun the dyno to the tune of 84 RWHP. After putting it all back 'EFI STOCK' I was running 147 HP and consistent 15.50's with a best time of 15.30! Technology is not necessarily the answer, but proper setup of the components so they work well together is critical. Bolting on stuff rarely helps.

If anybody wants to see the logical 'drive by wire' conclusion, get the Japanese Anime "Ex Driver"---its about Japan with auto-drive cars. To keep the cars that get 'haywire' from a computer malfunction they have a team of drivers who run in totally human controlled cars that go shoot-out the sensors on all four corners of the auto-drive cars. Throughout the movie you see people getting in the car, and saying where they want to go, then sleeping. When a car malfunctions, all the cars signal (why do they need signals?) and pull over to the side where the Ex-Drivers blast along to incapacitate the rogue vehicle. The people inside are terrified by the 'uncontrolled' vehicle. (Somewhat like Camry Owners...) The Ex Drivers have interesting vehicles. Lancia Stratos, Lotus Super 7... Very technically correct with good engine sounds and technical drawings of the vehicles engine bays. And of course in the Movie, they come to America (Los Angeles) for an Ex Driver Competition. One of the American Ex Drivers runs around in a.... you guessed it: 240Z! I started with the series when it came out, and it took four episodes before it got to a 240Z. In America. With Italian Mobsters eating Spaghetti... What about Italian Mobsters driving S30's? All I can think of with the future like that is "Kill Me Now" Drive-By-Wire.... Pffffft! Shuddup! It's an Ex-Driver car! No drive-by-wire on that one!

I'm with Garvice. Unless you have some terrible boost transition traction issues... And then, that is what makes driving a "Skill" drive by wire puts throttle response into the engineer's hands, and not the drivers. Anything that can alter my direct connection to the vehicles inputs and feedback is 'bad' for my driving experience. I'm sure traction and stability control is a great thing for a passenger vehicle, it adds safety, and etc (or does it?) But really if driving becomes nothing more than punching the button mashing the throttle and pointing it with hte car making all the decisions to keep you 'safe' what is the point of driving then? Take the bus and at least get some sleep! The latest Consumer's Reports rates one of the SUV's out there "Unacceptable" because SOMETIMES when the throttle is abruptly lifted in a hard corner the vehicles Stability Control doesn't ALWAYS stop it from swapping ends! Like this is a fault. That manufacturers now make vehicles that do not give the driver feedback on the basic laws of physics is DANGEROUS IMO. That an automobile rating agency now considers a car doing what physics SAYS it should do under given conditions is now 'defective' smacks of Naderisim taken to it's (il)logical conclusion!

Well, if this thread is now about doing impressive smoky burnouts, I successfully amazed a plethora of onlookers by boiling the tread off my 10" stock tires in my brandy-new 1984 Suzuki Alto Automatic. Automatic 550CC's of raging power, and I could smoke the tires. There isn't a car I've owned that I couldn't induce a smoking burnout. Once, in the dormitory someone said "All that means to me is cheap tires" and I guess that stuck. On the G-Nosed car...nice. I have one like that. Tires for it are expensive enough I don't want to burn them up!

This is a spurious suggestion based solely on presumption by the suggestor. It's known and been functionally proven that cowl area is the highest pressure region on the car's body up front. This is the WORST place to vent the engine bay...and think about where the S30's INTERIOR FRESH AIR PICKUP is located: the cowl area. (This provides motive force behind flow-through ventilation, there is so much pressure there!) If you vent your engine bay to the cowl, you will have HOT ENGINE BAY AIR pumped into your FRESH AIR INLET FOR THE CABIN. Guys, theories are great, please couch them as such rather than suggestions from a point that looks like you tried it and it works. Venting to the cowl (along with a cowl induction hood) are TERRIBLE ideas for letting air OUT. It's the source of air IN! Duct your intake plenum there, duct your turbo intake there. But for god's sake DON'T EVEN CONSIDER IT AS A VENT! The pressure there even at low speeds is astronomical in terms of water column. I endorse the 12V Computer fans over 3" holes under the MC and Battery. The wheel wells are low pressure at speed, and the fans can make a real difference when in slow traffic. Seal the radiator correctly and put the fans on a temp switch that turns them on when above the ambient engine bay temperature on the hottest day of the year driving down the road at 30mph in 5th gear. You don't want them trying to run when going down the road, they will hinder the flow. Likely your fan bearings will take a beating and fail the motors in short order if they are sealed tightly over the holes. If found standing them off with some circuit board standoffs around 50mm allows the air at higher speeds to escape and had my fans lasting. When I made it so it was ducted on the fans out, I was failing a fan or two every couple of months. The only conclusion I came to was that the fans were overspeeding when I was going down the road at 60+ mph and they just couldn't handle the airflow over the fan blades when ALL the air possible went over them. Standing them off seemed to have little or no effect on underhood temperatures at low speed---simply blowing air 'in the direction of the hole' seemed to work well enough. The big payoff from the standoffs was the fans weren't coming apart. I used a Hayden electric fan controller with the probe on the firewall set around 140F (with a 160F thermostat). It seemed to work fine venting to the wheel wells. Good Luck

First, lets define 'higher' and 'longevity' and then we can go on to answering your question. I would dispute the contention fully counterweighted lets you rev 'higher', just that it increases reliability when revved to standard rpms all the other cranks make. A standard L-Crank will run over 10K rpm with little prep or problem...how much "higher" are you planning to go?

Definately looks ported for carburetion...

Check out the comments on the cam thread sticky. Are you talking cam or crank degrees for the differential? Valve lash of 0.001" can affect your opening and closing events radically like 5+ degrees, and 'how' you determine TDC for the pointer is another matter---some people will run the dial indicator on the top of the piston and when the crank stops providing upward movement call it TDC. Others will use a stop and go forward and back and average the center. The difference can be radically different because of the swing of the big end of the rod, the longer the rod (or shorter) can impact the difference dramatically in terms of degrees. It sounds like you might have a cam that had an oops on the lobe separation. I'd call Ron with the build spec and talk with him about it. He can set you straight, listening to him for a while on the subject should set you straight, or at least figure out what 'YOUR' cam is doing. (Then again is it really your cam if his name is actually on it? )

I know that dude. I'll be in Bangkok tomorrow afternoon. I wish I remembered to order something...he already said I could pick it up or have it delivered locally to our distributor at no cost. Pack it in my bag and take it home! LOL

I thought Tip-Ups were what you anchored the six-pack to so it didn't float away under the ice in a current... Michigan allowed multiples and the DNR was always looking to bust people with more than the allotted limit. I would always put one more down than allowable and have a sixer on there. When the DNR stopped to nail me, I'd pull up the sixer and smile. Unless there was some swimming Canadian, it wasn't 'legal bait for sportfish' and therefore didn't count. After a while they stopped bugging me. Then the sixer could stay in the bucket under my butt, and I could actually fish in peace. Lakes Freeze. And we race on frozen lakes. I once was scolded for making 5 mile speed runs by every enforcement entity in Iosco County. It all started when the local Sheriff came out of the Dunkin Donuts (!) at M55 and US23 and wondered where the sound of a flat 6 turning 6500+ rpms was coming from a 9AM on a quiet Sunday morning. Then they saw the streak of a red, white, and blue 66 Corsa with a large Fluorscent 7-Up Sponsorship Decal on the door (and "22c" in Blue) travelling across the horizon at obviously 'excessive speeds'... We knew about Bonneville then, we just made our own! (3" Dual Megaphones straight off the header collector are surprisingly directional, BTW...)

A guy we called "Oagre" came up to me in the dorm one day, and says "D, you want some yen?" My question, being it was like a huge industrial mayonaise jar he was holding was 'How much?' "67,000" Uh, dude, you realize that's like $700 right? He stood there visibly shaken and all the color drained from his face. He wasn't particularly generous, so I figured he had no clue how much it was he was freely offering. So seeing his state, I asked: "Oagre, what's wrong man?" Really, REALLY quietly... almost in a whisper the enormity of what he had hit him and he said almost choking down vomitus: "This is my drinking change. I just threw what I had left in the jar. "If this is what I had left over...how much did I spend?" He staggered back to his room, visibly shaken by this development. It happens to everyone sooner or later. The key is to keep your eyes open going in, and set limits. Most people won't do that. It's the grasshopper syndrome.

It's not Z-Cars, dude, IT'S ANY CAR! That is what the people were trying to tell you. If you did that to a VW Split Window Bus, you would have a car worth $20K after spending 2X that on the Porsche upgrades. But restore it to immaculate stock and it's worth closer to $40K. Custom automobiles are rarely, if EVER worth the money put into them. Not invested, thrown into them and expected never to be seen again. Anybody building a custom car for THEMSELVES and then expecting someone ELSE to have the same vision as they do as to what is perfect is being foolishly delusional. Building one for someone else on THEIR dime is the way to make money (er... and that's iffy...) on the job. John C has discussed the economics of running a custom fab shop in the past. Making money in this line of work isn't easy as many neyophites think it is. Best to call it a hobby and kiss the money away, using only disposable income. Otherwise the sage advice: "I would need to eat pine cones for supper all year long. " Is eminently applicable. If you don't like Pine Nuts, consider taking a moderation approach to a project instead of selling the farm to pursue the illusion of being able to have it all. Life's great for the grasshopper until he comes knocking at the door of the ant mound when winter comes, and the ants frendily invite him in to share dinner. Which he soon learns is HIM! (The little allegory I taught my kid growing up...) Somewhere, and Ant is eating your car while you reconsider the priorities that you set to reach this point. Please consider this advice going forward. It's a car, it's not food or shelter. You don't have a house if you have a mortgage, you have a cash drain. Once it's paid off, your income becomes truly disposable. And it happens quicker than you think if you concnetrate on it! Good Luck.

Short selling results in tax liability for the difference. Thank's fer that Bill! Taking my advice about the hole in the air makes life a lot easier: spend the money like you will NEVER see it again, and you will live a happy life. If you don't have the money to spend, then you don't miss it. I got it to spend, but I couldn't fathom throwing $30K into a hole in the ground in a year on a car, horse, boat, or beer and whores for that matter. Couple hundred a month maybe. An average of $2000+ a month? If I did that my second house in Michigan would be PAID OFF in that same timeframe. Till one of them is paid off, I don't see a car as a priority in Maslow's Hierarchy rating above shelter... Seriously, you paid as much for your car as I paid on two mortgages over that same timeframe. And one of those was a consistent Double-Payment!

With a strut bar, you don't need anything in front of the swaybar mounts to drive the car other than some 2X2 and zip ties to attach the radiator to... Don't even ask! If you're intent on doing something, remove the upper radiator support, replace it with a removable bar with proper crossbracing, and lay your radiator down to be more of a bottom breather, closing up that huge open maw, and then vent the airflow out of the rad up over the hood...