Tony D
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Posts posted by Tony D
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Low battery voltage causes problems in ALL ECU's. It was the primary reason for the redesign of the ECCS after 1981. The 81's are especially susceptible to frying the ECU if the battery dips much below 9.6VDC during cranking. It's why Nissan went with the gear reduction starter on the Turbo Models!
If you don't have a GR starter, you might consider it to drop your cranking draw...
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Yeah, my guess would be the Megasquirt Forum on this site...
Though, honestly, in the Engine Components Section under the HybridZ index, it is called out as 'MegaSquirt' and not 'megasquirt'...but you would think it shouldn't make a difference when you search...
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I broke a brand-new, never used AT100 Snap-On (BluePoint) die grinder dropping it and snapping off the air inlet portion of the casting. It was $105 at the time.
I replaced it with a Harbor Freight die grinder ($9.99 at the time). It broke as well doing the same thing...
Then I took them apart. Now, realize this was 1996, and at that point Harbor Freight was probably getting their air tools sourced differently than now, but...
Aside from the casting that said 'Blue Point' and the other from HF that said nothing on it...they were identical---by identical, I mean they both had 'made in japan' stamped on the bodies in the same spot, with the same stamps, the NTN bearings inside were the same, the vanes were identical, the rotor body had the same part number stamped on it....
It was the LAST time I spent $100 for a Die Grinder from Snap-On.
Similarly, the 1/2 Drive Impact Wrenches from HF were $58 at the time, and the I-R tune up kits were $58. The parts interchanged. They were knockoffs.
Working for I-R for five years, I learned they source parts the same as anybody else.
What matters most is that for the tools you use the most you buy the best quality tool your income allows you to at the time. But don't get crazy hung up on brand names or cost thinking that something expensive is automatically better.
I watched through dissection many Snap-On rebrandings of other far less expensive tools (for instance Black and Decker Professional Angle Grinders, Snap On price $256, B&D price, $68! Same exact electric angle grinder save for the stickers on it!)
The link above about who makes the tools is a good start. But if you keep your eyes peeled, you wil find the same tools you can get from "Snap On" from their OE Supplier with their own brand on it far more reasonably priced.
The key is the stuff you USE, you want to be decent quality. As stated above, when you start out maybe you don't NEED the best.
It's like school loans. Many people go out and get $120K in debt for college. Woo Hoo, now they got a $70K job...and $120K debt to service.
Same goes for mechanics and technicians starting out. Some times 'community college' makes FAR more sense, ESPECIALLY when you are in the trade and think you may 'change majors'---sucks to have $30,000 in Hand Tools in a big roll-around box when you find out you're in production management.
Nice for working on the car at home...but what could that $30K have bought you otherwise?
As someone who has conservatively 3 full sets of tools due to having had to maintain a home set, travel set, and shop set in the past. Collating them all together when you go work in the front office makes you stand back and either say "MAN, I'm glad I bought Craftsman!" or "Woah, how am I going to sell some of this stuff off now?"
Tools are always on sale, for sale, or up for grabs. Remember that. There is little to go wrong with an open ended wrench or ring spanner. Pawn shops are great places for deals on partial sets, or to fill in what you don't have. Beats paying full price, and the warranty is still the same.
I would search the socket bins at the local pawn shop for BROKEN Craftsman sockets, and buy a couple good ones at the same time. Usually the owner GAVE me the broken sockets "Oh, you can HAVE those, I can't sell them!"
Wanna know where I went with broken Craftsman Sockets?
Hard to beat free or nearly-free tools.
I digress...
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I don't think the car wash will give you anything even if you have it on video that they employ little elves in wetsuits with little hammers to hold on to the foam strips and bang on your sheetmetal!
A mechanical carwash has about a million signs at the entrance (ESPECIALLY in California) disclaiming any liability for damage that may be caused.
Sue Mazda for making cheap sheetmetal doors. They have bigger pockets and are just as liable in this as a car wash roller set to industry standards that is functioning properly and which just maybe happened to rearrange your door profile. It didn't do it to 100 other cars that went through that day---so that kind of points to the car more than the car wash as the more liable culprit!
Sucks to have thin sheetmetal. You should wash the car by hand. Perhaps your car is giving you the buttface because you threw it in the nasty abrasive foam strip cleaner. Left it at the elve's mercy. Ever watch Herbie? Buddy Hackett was on to something there...
Go out and apologise to your car, take it for a nice dealership oil change and 30K service, get it hand washed and detailed...and maybe, just maybe it will unding it's door for you showing it the proper attention it felt it deserved.
You masher! You probably use Wire Hangers on your clothing as well!
Putting your car through an Automatic Car Bash. For shame! For SHAAAAAME!
REPENT!
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I wasn't busy. Bernard and someone else was busy. All I did was deliver two head gaskets and suck beer. I may have held feeler gauges at some point, but that was about it.
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I had to share a hotel room with him!
That explains the curious 'Duckman Waddle' you exhibited during the show.
If I Don't ask, I can't tell!
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But its not like youll dyno a car and have it do 150 whp on one dyno then have it go lay down 200 elsewhere.
I have done just that! One dyno said 147HP. Same day, across town another brand of dyno said it made 202HP.
I have seen dyno operators who host 'club days' on a sunday or saturday when business is slow 'tweak' for higher numbers than they normally would get. Keeps 'em coming back.
I know people who 'shop' dynos---the braggers JC is talking about. They avoid places that show 'low' numbers.
The numbers are really pointless. It's the variation between pulls from the adjustments made that are worth their weight in gold. Two hours playing with cam timing (advancing and retarding) are probably the best $200 you will spend on the car. Our Bonneville engine went from undriveable (wouldn't pull the next highest gear) to a record setter after two hours of judicious tweaking, making a run, tweaking, making a run...until as Drax mentioned, the 'power under the curve' was maximized. It didn't return the same PEAK HP number as previously, but the car would pull between the gears like a banshee afterwards.
When it's all said and done, no matter what your dyno sheet says...if you can't hook it, and translate it to a track result, it's nothing more than a number on a piece of paper that you will use for bragging and not a whole lot more.
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"The one that was poorly maintained."
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RE: Squish.....
I'll bet a lot of big block chevy guys look at the L88 closed chamber heads a lot differently than they did way back in the day when everybody said open chamber was the way to go.
There was a good article about at least a decade if not 20 years ago where Jim Feuling (olds aerotek engine builder....1000hp quad4) did some big block chevy heads that could run something like 11 to one compression on 89 octane making like 700hp......Wish I could find it as it had lots of discussion of "squish".
There is nothing really, truly 'new' in this area, we are all just rediscovering that which has been learned previously. There is common misconcpetion, and the odd few who test, try, and learn.
Each generation has it's oddballs who took the time to try something 'different' and get results. But when you start really investigating, you find...for the most part...it's all been done by someone before.
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He also stated that even with a modified engine. There is no way a l28 could ever, in any posible way, make 300hp, or even 300rwhp with only 10 psi.
Quit arguing with idiots on Myspace! I have seen on a dynapack, an L28 make 280ft-lbs at 8.39psi. The same engine after further tuning (identical mechanicals) made 300+ at 10psi.
The same externals and head made well over 300hp on a bone-stock L28ET bottom end!
Making 300HP at less than 12psi is not hard at all, and anybody saying it was impossible isn't worth arguing with in the first place as he is expressing his ignorance of the L-Engine's capabilities.
475 HP on a stock L28ET Bottom End? Sure, why not. More boost.
And those are all RWHP from Dynapacks, Dyno Jets, Mustangs, and one Clayton in-ground unit. I won't get into which read the most 'optimistic' but I will say the Mustang was the 'heartbreaker' of the bunch. When using 1/4 mile and trap speeds as a predictor, the Mustang was the closest predictor of performance on the road. Mustang and Dynapack needed the least (if any) compensation to the fueling maps when driven off the dyno onto the real road.
But back to the topic, I'm with Drax on this one: Claim you made 180RWHP. That is what the dyno said, that is what you made.
Unless you use an SAE traceable Dyno (er...like the Mustang in some configurations) you will not be able to reliably calculate flywheel HP numbers.
Stick with the numbers given to you. If you want an engine number, put it on an engine dyno.
I tend to take any dyno number with a grain of salt, as it's a 'grabbed number' that could be higher or lower on any given day. The differential between your last run, and the present run on the same dyno is probably the only useful number you will get from most of the dynos out there. It's a tuning tool, nothing more. If you want bragging numbers, read the operations manual from the Dyno and figure out how to play with the smoothing and other operator entered variables...you can make them read almost any number you want if that is what your inclination is...
Two Lane Blacktop Quote of the Day:
"How fast she go?"
"Depends on who's around!"
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I really don't know how quaife sells their units for $1,400+.
IMO this unit is way too simple to be expensive. As long as the manufacturing processes are legit it's really hard to screw this up.
The same can be said for Centrifugal Air Compressors...
Just that little caveat: 'As long as the manufacturing processes are correct (sic)'...
You would be amazed at how 'simple' things really aren't so simple.
The pricing is coming down through China, and through Fuji Heavy Industries producing in large quantities a similar differential. Once the OEM's get supply chain management going in third world machine shops, they have all the testing gear and training to make extras for everyone else!
Believe me, this is not as 'simple' as it sounds. The forces on the gears internally are quite high, and metalurgy/heat treatment is critical to longevity.
Quaife was amortizing developmental costs for a small market. The market has grown, and as demand has increased so has the competition. Expect to see lower pricing, or extinction of that alternate source.
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I watched you cavorting with your concubines. Nice bells she had on. How do you keep her hooves so shiny?
Nice to have metcha!
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WOW! That looks JUST like a Head Gasket I looked at on Friday Night after the MSA BBQ!
Muahahahahha! "You are not alone!"
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You're fortunate that it's a 2+2, and not an early coupe like mine. The early (mine was produced 7/78) JDM 280Z(X)'s had a different configuration of rear deck and full size spare than US models. The 2+2's are very similar, though, save for the color combinations available. Looks like yours is standard tan, though, so that should not prove to be so bad.
All engine stuff is readily available. But if yours is like mine (and I bet it is) you have a VERY different ECU, with stepper motor idle air bypass control, as well as an O2 sensor and dual-plate progressive throttle body.
If you decide to get rid of that stuff, and go "US Domestic" help a brother out and send me a shout on what you are removing. I don't have any spare ECU or harness...and that dual-bore throttle body could come in handy for the future!
BTW, you have a "Fairlady 280Z 2/2", from the looks of it, the GL model...
Have fun, mine was stored 14 years, and needed a new fuel pickup, and fuel pump to get running. If it runs with starting fluid, you're on the downhill slide to taking it around the block...you know it got spark, you just need fuel! Clean your connections very well, and coat them with dielectric to prevent any further oxidation.
Again, good luck!
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That is correct, the L20ET's only support 145 HP, what you can do is install an adjustable FPR and up your fuel pressure to make up for the difference in fuel delivery between the N/A L28 (L20ET) injectors, and the 270CC units on the L28ET.
4 bar? I forget. You are limited on boost then, though, since the stock fuel pump will internally bypass at boost pressures above .7 bar.
Getting larger injectors in the 270 to 320CC range is advisable. It's always easier to 'trim fuel down' somewhat, than to increase it appreciably by increasing the pressure under boost.
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Actually, the center cartridge of the L20ET is identical to the L28ET. The only real differences is the A/R on the exhaust housing, which is a .43.
If applied to an L28, your boost threshold is around 1700 for a 17psi boost level. You will be able to get full boost by 2000. Running the smaller L20ET turbo on an L28, it acts more like a Supercharger than the traditional turbo where when you drive it wrong, you find soggy 'bottom end' performance.
My setup was all in by around 5500 with the smaller turbo, but it was a hoot to drive. I lament selling the turbo to someone with a 2L Isuzu!
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Too bad you're on the wrong coast... as Roosty said, there is kind of a glut of this stuff now. I wanted a lathe, and ended up in a deal where I had to take the Bridgeport, 17X36 Milacron Lathe, a Trinco 48 Bead Blaster with media reclaimer, and a 20X20 Mezzanine!
A mezzanine!!!
I figured I would scrap the mezz and sell off the Mill, till my wife saw the mezz was constructed from pallet racking. Then she wanted it for storing stuff around the yard in different places. Whoodathunkit? And the Mill sits at the shop I bought it from, and they call me every so often wanting me to come pick it up. I threaten to return the trailer to them to park in their shop...and they decide the Mill takes up less space than 'the damn trailer'...
I even tried to palm it off on John C...even he doesn't have the room!
To paraphrase a Queen Song as my (second) mill sings:
"Need somebody to love me, Need somebody to love me!"
All I wanted it for was the R8 collett holder. I got everything else! LOL
Anybody need a Bridgeport Mill in SoCal?
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The flywheels that are used with this type of clutch are extremely light.
The lack of inertial mass from the flywheel would make it almost unusable on the street. Its do-able but I bet you would not like it.
That's not entirely true! The flywheel is a custom piece, with the drive dogs on it for the standard 7.5, 5.5 or now the smaller 4" clutches.
All you do is specify an inertia ring be incorporated in the flywheel, and they can do it. JeffP had a three-disc quartermaster mated to just such a flywheel after inquiring on it. I told him to specify it, and they made it so!
Normally if you are running a 4 or 5 " clutch, inertia is NOT what you want.
Most people running clutches on the street will opt for the 7.5" diameter discs. Far less inertia than most standard (Tilton 11# comes to mind) flywheels made for 'performance/street usage' due to the weight of the slippers, cover, and MOI decrease. The flywheel doesn't need the heavy bolting mass the stock 225 or 240mm clutch cover would dictate, so it can all go away---with vestigial webbing for the flywheel.
All you do is have the flywheel machined thicker out by the ring gear. A little goes a long way.
But due to their action they DO wear more, ezpecially if you slip them. ANY clutch wears, and single disc units are simply massively thicker by a factor than three plates in similar flywheel to throwout collar distance.
Now, if you want to make a custom T/O collar, and thereby allow yourself FAR thicker facings on each of the clutch discs rubbing on those slipper drive plates, then you will get more wear.
Our multi-disc Tilton was running around $300 to rebuild with discs, drive plates, and a resurfacing of the cover. But we only did it once. We used the clutch more in staging lanes or moving onto/off the trailer than we did in a pass down the track. They like 'on or off' but slipping simply wears them. And with less material there to wear, they get the rap of 'wearing out fast'----they aren't wearing any faster than a single disc...they just have less wear material as a function of the construction constraints most pople put onto them!
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Well I was specificaly speaking of the factory datsun unit in the early s30 chassis.
Then that bumps out Goldenrod!
Back to the LSR Z...
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Those VW's are much more tortorous than some paltry Auto-X 240 Engine!
And they only go when your wife is driving.
Let me refer you to my WIFE and you defend a decision to buy a spring center disc for her car EVER again!
(Now you know why I do the clutch changes after dark, and keep the boxes out of sight!)
If you have ever heard "Does that clutch have those damn springs on it like the VW Clutch did?" You would understand my pain!
Limping home along Magnolia Blvd from Riverside to Corona through Home Gardens 'garumpha-garupmha-garumpha' in a VW Microbus with no Air Conditioning in August down a nary wide enough emergency lane and then having to cross traffic with a left turn.... I do that to her again, and it's curtians for my 401K!
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Cam Timing? Our Bville car has a similar dip but the dyno operator thought it was electrical as it was nowhere to be seen on the Weber chart we ran.
When we swapped the head/cam to the 2l, the same dip moved higher in the rpm band, making me think some cam issue rather than an electrical one like first surmised. It's around 6K on what we have now. Interpolating that 'above the dip' you still have at least 3K of useable pull, that seems about right. Ultra-close ratios and shifting above 9300 keeps us from hitting the 'dip' and loosing acceleration time.
We did the same: more fuel, less fuel, more timing, less timing. What seemed to make the biggest difference was a 2 degree change in the cam timing at the sprocket. We went in 2 degree steps advanced and retarded from 'straight up' as defined by the cam card and indication. I think it was 8 degrees either way. We settled on the position that gave us the least dip in power.
(Though I don't recall the Webers doing anything near that pronounced! But that was 10 years ago when we were running them!)
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With a couple of Small Ball Bearings in the center of the hub, a piece of steel rod with small lever arm connected to a truck bungee or light spring of known tension could replicate this setup under a normal shop workbench thereby negating the requirement to put it in the middle of the room and have a long suspension setup...
Various springs of various known tensions could be used depending on the physical mass of the object being tested. This variable springrate (also possible by using multiple holes in the lever arm...) could allow for testing of quite heavy objects as even a single 1/4-20 all thread piece can suspend several hundred pounds!
The only drawback is the friction inhernet in my suggested device, but this could be compensated through by doing several tests of know differential and cancelling out through the calculations.
And then it's under the workbench (kitchen table...), where the wife doesn't complain about it...
A flywheel dangling in the middle of the family room with inscribed arcs on the wall and a laser pointer might upset even my wife if I was called away on the phone and she arrived home unexpectedly.
She already suspects the issues with the stove stem from curing HiTemp Paint and Exhaust Manifolds therein...
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Wouldn't a cone suspended from a central point be self-centering and have less 'noise' for hte calculations---and as long as your cone was big enough, anything with a hollow center could be hung on it and spun.
Like, maybe, eviscerating one of those Harbor Freight Bubble-Style tire balancing thingamabobs, and using it as the centered hub.
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91939
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Tony D: Sure makes a hell of a lot of sense what you have experienced. The springs are just another failure point. Thanks ever so much for the explanation. Did not know about solid hubs but they make a LOT OF SENSE. Now I want a solid hub clutch disk!
Oh gawd, what have I started!
buying tools, info wanted.
in Non Tech Board
Posted
Why in the world would you use an ill-fitting wrench on ANY aircraft part?
IMO that's a poor analogy of the real world. You have to know what works and what doesn't. He's working automotive, not A&P. I got $10K+ in stuff from Aircraft Spruce because it was the only place I could find things like the 37 degree A/N flaring tools like I used in the USAF. Parker Tube Bead Rollers anybody?
Some stuff is specialized. Automotive work is not, at least not from what I've seen compared to Tactical and Strategic Aircraft Support. ILM ain't punching out Main Gear Struts for SR71's any more, either. Working AT ILM, I used Craftsman. Working ON ILM's products in the Military, I used the Snap On stuff they provided me. Being promoted to Captian for pay purposes while I sat in the brig for $100K in damage to an aircraft because I used something I was trained better than to use did not appeal to me at all!
"Your Tax Dollars at Work"
I have to agree with Carl Beck on his prioritizing of debt as well. BUY A HOUSE WITH YOUR DEBT NOW and pay with future income. Buy what you need, to do the job, with cash as you go. The house will pay you off 100X what your tools will ever dream of doing in a similar timeframe!
Hell, 30K in a house will pay handsomely in a 5 year or even a 10 year window. All those tools will do is depreciate! No matter what you use them for!