Tony D

Sunrise in Glendale does MS installs.

People Move On. Such is life. Car was nice, though!

I didn't think it was that objectionable. I thought it sounded quite good. But to correct the statement of the duals...if that still has the same exhaust on it that it had in Syracyse it merges to a single, then back out to a double near the rear.... It had a distinctively different note than the dual megaphones originally on the vehicle, which is similar to the sound in the "Bad Day at El Mirage" You-Tube Video. Though that is in-car, and done through a terrible microphone...

This would come under my definition of 'performance maximization'... Recall we gained 40HP on the Bonneville car by swapping to EFI and ITBs from identically sized Weber DCOE's. Even our dyno operator said it "You could have gotten that power with 55 Webers, but you wouldn't have had the reliability without the crankfired igniton." It's all how you define tweaks and polishing. I never said idiots. I said some people just don't think any variation from standard assembly tolerances is acceptable. We put the Bonneville engine together in a Home Garage in Clairmont. It was covered with a Hefty Bag when we left for the evening. This stuff isn't rocket science, but there may be a bit of art to it. If you are searching for a concrete quantification or scientific explanation, I proffer you won't get one. That would put his setup into a Factory Assembly Manual mode---the next guy goes and follows all the exact same dimensions (lets say to 5 decimal places, for argument), follows the same component list, and then yields 20, 30, 40 HP less. How do you explain it? Many of these EP gurus you speak of, do they punch out the engine and warranty how much power it will make before putting it on the dyno? Unlikely, they will give you a 'range' and if it's not up to their liking, it comes back apart. If it is, they go 'whew' and send you the bill. But until it goes on the dyno, even knowing every component is what it's supposed to be...they don't know for sure till it runs!

There is ALWAYS and a$$hole driving out there that distinguishes himself, TRUST ME! If you aren't an idiot driving, and follow the spirit of the rules, you won't need to fear the 'People's Curse'. If you think these cars only cost $500, I've got a bridge in Ney York for sale as well.... At Thunderhill you are going well over 100 mph (at least we were!) into Turn 1. If you think I'm getting into a car with a substandard roll cage, or without GOOD BRAKES AND TIRES you're NUTS! Those items, as well as many others are considered 'safety items' and are not costed under the $500 cap. When we took our "Brown Turd" in for Judging, they had NO PROBLEM believing it was under the $500 cap. Then again, I bought 6 Z Cars for $500, so even if I valued it at the Full $83.33 it was technically worth, and simply transferred good parts off the other cars for a 'fractional value' we would STILL be under $500. If we documented the SALE of parts off the other cars for the stuff we didn't use, and that people paid us for...there is NO WAY they would believe us! Matter of fact, I'm selling a dash and a filler neck off one we cut up already...for a whopping $50! My son laughed when I told him how much someone was paying for them. "Get it out of the yard!" was more my line of thinking.... Yeah, for what we sold fenders and crap for, we would be UP a terrible amount. And I still have TWO chassis left after trashing the first car the first year, and prepping #2, and cutting up the 'partial car' for parts sales and donor pieces. hell, we still got the fenders from "Turd One" on the current car (as well as the doors!). The legend lives on. How's that for interchangable parts??? When you run the race in a manner that says "WE got a real race car here" and also "we like to make contact and bump other people regularly" that usually gets you the curse. If you are fast, and safe...people may hate you, but likely they won't be vindictive. Then again...you never know! That's the WHOLE point!

So someone coming with several containers of Zed's (four of which are RHD already) might have a ready income source should they choose to emigrate..... Hmmmmmmmmm:hijack:

Some people get 147 to the rear wheels on an L28 stock build, and the engine runs out of steam at 5600. Others make considerably more using the EXACT SAME components and have a power peak at 6500. It's all in attention to detail, and biasing things to work properly. A lot of people have no idea what or how things actually work together inside and engine---and think 'assembly is assembly' and put components together then wonder why they are 'down on power' compared to the same components someone else assembled. Worse yet, they think that the factory settings are the ONLY way to assemble the engine. And if you do it that way, likely you will have very close to a stock engine. But if you know where to move this, and realign that....where to polish and clearance, where to rin a tighter clearance...all those little things can add up cumulatively. Sometimes the differences can be STARK. Sure, dyno differences can account for some of it, but I have had people get out of their cars and start swearing at me because my rat-trap POS 75 2+2 is a FULL SECOND FASTER consistently in the 1/4 mile than their pristine 75 Coupe with headers, big throat throttle body, performance exhaust, blah blah blah... Guy started swearing at me and claiming there was NO WAY I was that fast without a CAM in it! We are talking a consistent 15.45-15.50 1/4 mile against his 16.45-16.67 times. 2695# on my car, at a trap speed of something like 89mph. I got the slips somewhere. "It's not possible"...yet it occurs. And if you saw the car (some here have at the various National Conventions) you would swear to if my rattle-trap POS was a second faster than your shiny sporty Coupe! Who needs shiny paint? Unless I'm at Bonneville, I don't polish nothing! LOL

"I'm starting to have doubts, please don't take it personally... " Doubt all you will, the cam in the Bonneville engine that peaks at 8250rpms (and the exact same cam in a 2.0 peaks at just under 9K...) is FAR 'smaller' than many 'experts' say we 'need' to make the kind of power we did with it as well. And the 2.0 has FAR less compression than we ran in the 2.8, simply from a function of the small dome on the piston not being able to adequately fill the L28 sized combustion chamber of the head! Changing the dyno may change the peak point, but the shape and where the power is will remain the same. I'd have to agree with MonZster that many L's have a lot more cam than they 'need' to make the power, and the difference really is in preparation more than what specific 'list of components' you assemble.

Fitch showed how to use bathroom scales to weigh a car. Simply machines like lever work in reverse as well as when amplifing force... Perhaps the original request was so vague as to confound anyone wanting to answer? He mentions platform and suspension spring scales, yet not what he wants to measure, other than the approximate weight. I guess driving across a tuck scale with a visible display with the item in the car and not in the car is just too much work, so I'm all out of ideas. It's just outside 'bathroom scale' range... I mean, old platform scales with weights are all over the place. Newer uncertified for trade units that don't have certified load cels in them are a dime a dozen. Frequency of the items needing to be weighed, accuracy required, and size of said items all play into getting a proper 'cheap' scale scoped properly. I mean, a 250# bathroom scale and appropriate 2:1 reduction lever is all that is needed to have decent accuracy to 500# with little investment at all. But it's not something that you want to bundle your Coke with out of Medellein....they get testy if you short the shipments. Intentionally or not!

Mmmmmmm.... M-POWAH!

In general, the compression test is how the cylinder pumps up as much as what it pumps up to as a final number. Generally accepted is the 3 to 5 pump rule. The first pump is what is referred to as 'cranking compression' and should always be near 100psi. This is a general number that allows the engines to fire reliably and self-sustain the combusion process. You will notice people at higher altitudes with low compression cars have an issue starting, and they also may have a cranking compression around 65psi! The second-to-fifth pump will determine what condition the rings are in, as well as the valves. If you jump 95/125/155 and then maintain 155 through the next to pumps in the cylinder, this would indicate a generally well balanced performance. If you had the same engine, but went 135,155,155 you may deduce maybe carbon deposits (though likely the number would b e higher, like 175)---without a baseline test to know what it was before, a 'grab sample' of numbers is useless. This is the reason the compression test should be performed every 30K miles when the valves are adjusted. Do one before and one after and see how the performance changes. If you haven't done this before, you will be surprised! If you see an engine that goes 95, 120, 135, 145, 155...it's having issues pumping up to pressure. The rings may be a little worn. It should never take more than 3 to 5 pumps to bring the compression to it's highest point. But then you will get guys that use 'held in' gauges, which are useless. Or others with cheap gauges or bad dials you can't really read. Which puts you back on saying the number it'self is about meaningless. It's how the number is reached, and that the differential between them is minimal that is the most important. I have had people 'condemn' and engine because of 'low compression' of 100psi. Car would start reliably, and didn't consume oil, but their 'mechanic' condemned the engine to 'needing an overhaul' after doing his compression test. Thing would bang at 75, 85, 100psi and stay there on the gauge. Put my gauge on it, and it was 110, 145, 175! Remember "Thread in Connections"... (I'm sure that guy justified a hearty engine overhaul business based on his 'trusty old gauge set'...) Now, about this ebuillent cooling and wood alcohol gassification project I've been hearing so much about...

Actually, if I get information on it, we can put it out to the Orange county Z Car Club (Group Z) as well as the four other Z-Car Clubs in SoCal depending on how big a splash you want to make. If it's like Empire Z's Avocado Run, they had 70 Z's from four clubs show for that run. That would be impressive in the parking lot. Maybe even local newsworthy....

I just can't view the facebook page without logging in... Just east of Corona, Man. Parked on '260 Island' ever since MSA moved to the new venue, and in attendance at every MSA event there ever been! "I'm worldwide" LOL (Literally, I'm sending this to you from Mohammedia, Morocco)

How do we know it's water in the glass, absent of properties testing?

Oh, I guess I have to join facebook to be part of it.... Oh well. Bummer.

It's like guys in Letterman Jackets jumping out of the stealth vehicle to pick up thrown hubcaps after doing a lawn job in the rival town's schoolyard during afternoon classes.... Doesn't it kind of give up that anonomity the Red Light Cameras BEG for?????

Liked they said above, Skyline, Cedric, etc.... That one is odd in that it's a late-model with EGR and an actual AIR setup. Normally they do not have those on the run of the mill early JDM items out there. My 77 Cedric had a similar setup. I trashed it. Now, you find that HA30 4 Barrel setup from the 67 model....let me know!

PSI: "Peeled Skin Index" The way automotive things were tested when men were men and sheep were sheepishly silent...

I have to smile watching that...

Same/Similar Sound, double the horsepower....that's who needs a turbo!

So stikcing your tuumb over the plug hole and seeing if they all 'fart' at you and calling is 'good enough' is considered wrong nowadays? What have things come to in the automotive world. Next thing you know you'll tell me ebuillent cooling had been supersceeded, and gum rubber tyres have been improved!

I had one e-mailed a while ago involving how stupid anybody was for thinking any of the given animals could get a banana out of a coconut tree. This, of course was found after I replied with a scope exception for the Giraffe, and clarification on the height of the tree containing the banana because the original scope didn't state the banana grew on the tree, merely that it was in the tree. it was at that time I decided I had been doing scope and specification a bit too long and needed a break. Not a joke, but when you argue the specifics of the joke before reading the punchline...welll....

I almost went apopletic on a national service manager who offhandedly said "that's the cost of troubleshooting" when I asked about the customer paying for a $2800 Printed Circuit Board alone (which we called in the first place---it was a broken trace with a capacitor bleeding down) but the FACTORY said we FIRST had to replace two different power supplies and a motor transition timer to get to that point! Customer was NOT happy. Neither was I, my reply was "That's not the cost of troubleshooting, that's the cost of replacing every part in the system from one end to the other until the most expensive part is the only thing left!" They then decided it was time to review all my warranty claims. Which I was fine with...found out my boss was spoofing them up crazily and raping them for extra money. About that time...I quit! I hate unethical people, but incompetent unethical people really set me off!

"Diversify and Survive"... (?) Never really thought about the HiFire and electronics, but I'm sure they were added to the line. Many companies take on lines and lines of products that they eventually become know for, but neglect the core business that got them where they were. There's nothing wrong with doing one thing well, and sticking to it IMO. I've seen many companies 'diversify to survive' right into Ch11. It's a sad day, Crane is gone. An 'alternative' is always good to have around. I hope Isky sticks with Cams and cam related products... If so, I'll be fine!

Prevost Motor Coaches have this as an option, if you so choose. Not only for backing the rig, but for watching down the side in the 'blind spots' where the mirrors hung off the top of the coach can't see. Color Monitors and everything!