Tony D

But it's 'even steven' when it's hung...at least mine was. Yeah, it was more visible (hung down lower, but evenly. It wasn't any lower on one side than the other...though the sentence now that I reread it may be two separate, different items 'it hung down very low' and 'didn't fit well on the left side at all'. I read it as one sentence lumping the two together in the same thing, as in 'on the left side it hung down really low and didn't fit well at all.' Which meant it was off those damn mounting points that stick down from the floor. Mine is a 73 as well.

I have some Ektrachrome Slides of one of my cars in Japan...Floors? We don't need no stinkin' floors! And one in Michigan where a tree was growing through the spare tire well, had pushed the hatch glass out, and straightened up. There was another sapling that had come up between the headpipe and the block, and was actually growing around the manifold and SU! Old 35mm stuff from years ago. One day, I'll start scanning this stuff for posterity... LOL

Another shot from ElMirage in June from the 'HybridZ' #236 Car. Runs a 380CID (if I remember correctly from our discussions) SBC he salvaged from it's former mount in an Opel GT.

My BMW 320D in Spain got maybe 40 in normal driving. The VW Jetta (a 2008) got worse. Matter of fact, when driving spiritedly the thing got 25mpg equivalent. I think this is a bit of over-egging the pudding unless you are talking about some 1.2L Deathtrap driven at no more than 50KPH in top gear downhill... I'm hoping Spain, France, Portugal, The Netherlands and Germany still counts as 'western europe'...it's getting dangerously close to 'central europe'.... 4500KM in three weeks, thrice this summer for a total of almost 15,000 km driving. Does this qualify me to comment? Franks Essing-Tuned Diesel M3 got better fuel mileage than the stock 320D I was driving.

From a theoretical standpoint anything is possible. Benchracing... At Bonneville if you run over 200mph, you are required to run a 5 lug on the car, amongst other things. But traction will be alimiting factor on most cars getting towards the 'snapping' potential. As I recall, didn't the Turbo Electramotive cars have 700+HP and four lugs... It's a moot argument. Benchracing theories sound good, by the water cooler, all day long!

Unless the bobweight is identical... It has to be rebalanced or you're setting yourself up for stressus maximus at even pedestrian rpms...

Compressor Engineer for FS-Elliott. I'm sure my mate Elton and the VP of Marketing Sales (oh yeah, he's on a TOUGH assignment, right!?!?) are in the Land of Oz evaluating local shops for a distributorship licensing agreement. We don't have local representation there yet. Comp Air NZ would be a feather in our cap to snag away from Cameron, and being I know people working there it would be an easy excuse for me to go... But noooooo! Yes, I was referring to not modifying the head gasket. Up to, but never touching it. I personally prefer to use a previously compressed gasket as well, as it's more accurate of what you have in the engine instead of an undeformed one. And if you tag it with the stone...meh, no biggie! You should see the notches on our L20A bores to get the L28 Size valves to clear the bores! Muahahahahha!

There is that... I know what you mean about the terrain following flights. I had to go FOL in Korea and got loaded on a blacked out something that smelled inside like...er 'garlic and fermented rice'. Loadmaster came to me with a minimaglite hands me three bags, tells me to 'stay put no matter what' and makes sure by lap harness is really secure. Apparently I had no 'need to know' this was a jump flight for a joint US-ROK special forces mission... I can distinctly remember what I thought when the light came on after the back door started going down in flight: "God, please don't let one of these gung-ho morons think I'm freezing and drag me out of the back of the plane without a parachute!" Yeah...that was another interesting flight... I used to have a 'never say never' in a signature line. It referred to my last 141 Flight out of Kadena to Osan. As I got off, it was 'Well I'm never flying on one of these damn things again...' 10 years later, as a civilian sitting backwards looking at the passenger emergency information card on a 141 leaving Johnston Atoll that line came to me and stuck... Same thing goes for having an AK47 issued to me... That's now like 21 years after the fact...

That's still a generous timeframe, and skips some steps that occurred on Bryan Blake's Silver Car after he broke the piston skirts at MSA the one year. We towed his car using my towbar up to a garage in Glendale where, from the time it rolled into the bay, to the time it rolled back out under it's own power and drove off was just about or just under 3 hours, give/take 15 minutes... We pulled the engine, pulled the head, pulled the flywheel. On the replacement engine that was there at the garage, we did the same. Then we installed Bryan's Head, Intake, Flywheel, etc, reinstalled the engine and the hood, and re-fluidized the appropriate items. And on initial fire up I almost ran everybody over with the car in gear... But everybody at the Saturday Night Event was amazed that we made it to the event on time, and that Bryan's car was driving to it, and the engine at idle 'no longer sounded like ice cubes in a blender'... Watch the VW Engine Changes at the Bug-Ins...fast fast fast...

I was running down M55 between Tawas and West Branch one summer day, and saw the only other Microbus for at least 25 miles broken down on the side of the road. I stop, we exchange pleasantries as we have seen each other on the roads from time to time... Turns out he has dropped #3 Exhaust Valve and is dead in the water. 1500CC Single Port? Sure! Well, I just happen to have what you need... In my 'Milk Crate of Parts' I have spares. So with that Milk Crate upside down, and with 2 2X4's on the top for additional height we pull his engine on the roads shoulder. Pull his Left Head, and agree, he's done on #3. Swap on a junkyard head, junkyard jug with similar balancing numbers, reinstall it with old gaskets and some RTV, and in less than 2 hours he's on his way... But not before the MSP rolls up on us as we're bolting on his rear bumper. Gives us a stern lecture and wants to know what the deal is...we tell him and he doesn't believe us! Show him the parts...still disbelief that we changed a head and piston on the roadside with a $39 Sears basic starter tool set and parts I just "Happened" to have in the van at the time. ******************************************************* #2, rolling away from the San Antonio Z-Con towards the Houston Space Center, we come over a rise on I10 and I literally run into stopped traffic. A 1999 Toyota Pickup to be exact. Fan is into the Radiator on the Z. Car is running but not leaking. AFter talking with the guy for a while I realize now I'm puking green. Overheating. BAH! No real damage on his car, and I give him $300 to go buy a better tubular step bumper from JC Whitney--he's happy and I'm screwed. Do the "Start, run up to speed, COAST" drill to keep it from overheating in traffic as I dive off the next exit. I find the local post office...about the only place with Free Parking I see. Under the trees of the post office, utilizing my trusty leatherman, I remove the grille, the lower radiator shroud, and get the fan turning (it was bound on the shroud). But something is buzzin... Oh, the fan IS hitting the radiator. What is a man to do? Why, flip out the knife blade and then surgically remove the same bit of tip from the fan blades for clearance. Then drive the car from Houston to Mobile, across Georgia, up the Blue Ridge Parkway, through Michigan up to Copper Harbor, down through Wisconsin, and back to California. The last leg being done in a marathon of driving as my wife was working night shift, so I drove all day and she drove all night. I slept some place near Amarillo, and awoke someplace near Flagstaff. Continuous driving, 24 hours daily, stopping for maybe 20 minutes every couple of hours to refill (and er...drain) fluids in the vehicle. Did I mention I was towing an 800# trailer, and my wife and son were in the Fairlady Z 2+2? In West Virgina I noticed some 'green junk' at a fuel stop. Turns out the head tank was weeping coolant and it was evaporating leaving the dye on everything. 1/2 Tube of Aluma Seal fixed that issue. And in Michigan, when there was access to an Oak Tree, I took the chains that locked my spare trailer tires to the underside of the trailer and 'clearanced' the crash damage back to almost straight. I have photos of that process somewhere... ******************************************************** Oh, that list could go on....and on!

Go take a look at the F-Series Trucks from a while back...they have a very nice perforated grille to let air in instead of punched slats. Very sanitary and smooth looking. With a drill press, some backup wood, a nice grid pattern to lay it out...I don't see any reason why someone couldn't get creative and even 'punch' in designs using holes of different diameter for shading/etc on a solid piece and get plenty of air into the cabin for ventilation. Who says they have to be in a straight line, either...sketch some arcs that conform to the windshield or cowl... Or hell, even drill a "Rising Sun" pattern of fine holes radiating outward on the cowling... The pressure is all over the front of the lower windshield area...even making long thin slots with a 'rotozip' tool would accomplish venting adequate to let air in there and be relatively inconspicious. C'mon guys, I didn't even think about these ideas, they just popped into my head. Why be stuck on the way they were done 40 years ago? You're starting with a blank plate...you're free to do whatever you wish! For that matter, all you guys with louvres on the inspection covers should be clamoring for one with closed center area and matching louvres outboard... Those ideas just keep rolling in as you think about it. Cogitation...try it some time! LOL

It should never touch the gasket. The deck of the engine possibly, but never the gasket. On an L20A...yeah. But in that case, you simply use an L24 Head Gasket of proper vintage (as me how I know that tidbit!) My compatriot is in Sydney currently, then on to Adelaide, and Olympic Dam... And I'm here in Nigeria shuffling flights for a follow on to someplace in the jungle 4 hours south of Jakarta... How did I get it this chicken outfit anyway? Oh yeah, they paid me...

Not on the extrudabodies, but on TWM 45mm ITB's...which functionally should be equivalent. It expanded our power peak around 800 rpm upwards. There was a 17 HP difference at the old power peak in the ITB's advantage, and 40HP at the new power peak. Same engine, same cam, simply replacing a distributor and Weber 45 DCOE's with TWM 45mm ITB's and a TEC2 EFI system. Basically this is the same power level we expected had we gone with the 55 Webers the engine builder said 'were the next step'... Ever price a set of 55 Webers? The ITB's were cheaper! But that was not the half of the improvement. With carbs the engine idled at 1700 rpms, and roughly at that. And cold starting was not a simple matter...especially at 39F on November Mornings. With the EFI, we could take the exact same engine, and with a twist of the key start it at 39F, have it go to fast idle at 1800, and slowly work it's way down to an 1100 rpm idle. We actually screwed around with the IAC circuit and idle bypasses and were amazed with the ITB's in place (and owing to E-Motive's PAFFZ-Blend Software) we could actually idle the engine down as low as 450rpms!!!! Simply amazing and like night and day. The power to be had is only part of the picture. Sure, we picked up 40HP at our new rpm. That's on a stout motor. What we got was OEM Twist-Key reliability to start and drive a monster engine without pops, coughs, and any cold running issues...as well a no more transitional bogs due to low manifold vacuum, etc etc etc... If you are daily driving the car and have properly jetted and sorted carbs, that is where the difference will be...that and fuel mileage. If it's WOT, I'd liken it to what we did going from 45DCOEs to 45ITB's---equivalent to the next largest competitive carburettor. Frankly, we could have made half that ammount going SMALLER in ITB diameter and running 40's instead of 45's and STILL had all the advantages. For a street car, if you have 45 DCOE's you could easily go down a size and STILL gain power, but have better velocity and MAP signal, as well as drivability from the decreased tip-in response. It all depends on what you want. Power is really not that big an issue, the drivability, especially cold, is!

Clearance of the valves is literally a 'hit or miss' operation---some hit, some miss. As JM said, a positive dowelling gets the head properly registered...and in most cases the valves are free of the block at that point. Then 'unshrouding' becomes the main focus of the exercise. Leave enough near the fire ring for adequate sealing and most definately don't undercut it or as stated the head gasket will burn through in short order.

Damn, I sound likea broken record after reading my posts in that thread!

It is a great fit. Drop it, and rejigger it in there. You got in in wrong.

Not sure on impedance, but suspect they are low-z and they are definately pintle style. I think he refers to them a 'pintacle style'...some testicular reference or something... They are most definately not the disc style three-holers someone said would work the best for him... He may have photos on his site.

Oh yeah, that FP buffer is not much heavier than my 1/2" air ratchet. For it's $19.95 cost back in the 80's...I am very happy with it! As long as you have enough air, that is! If you painted the car, that should not be an issue.

I have an old "Florida Pneumatic" buffer I got in the early 80's. Thing goes no faster than 1800 rpms, and has kept my hamfisted attempts at polishing successful. I tried a higher speed electric buffer. The results were not pretty. I stick to my FP, and pray I don't do something stupid. I hate the final buffing task. With all the hours you put into doing it right up to that point (and I got that all pretty much down) the one thing I haven't even come close to mastering is power buffing of the final finish. I get some of it done, and then usually take it to a professional detailer to finish for me. He says 'Oh man, you did great up to this point, why did you stop? You should have just kept on doing what you were doing!' In my mind I hear: "Man, you stopped just in time, a couple minutes more and starting on those edges and I would have had a job I could have charged you hundreds to try and fix. As it is, all I can do is a 45 minute buff and brush and you're out the door cheap, mister!" Spend a couple hundred hours over the course of a couple of months on a car and then burn the paint (mentioned above) on a FLAT surface...and it just ruins my whole day!

For a Rattle-Can, you can spray primer to cover the bondo and give proper adhesion (that is what primer is supposed to do) but then spray over that with lacquer TOPCOAT. Basically any paint meant as a final finish at the viewed surface of the car. That will seal the primer, and it's what primer is meant to be covered with in the first place. You could even do clearcoat. I specify Lacquer because it's pretty much universal, anything can go over it. EPOXY is similar in that it's cured and seals so you don't need to top coat it. But if you are using rattle can primer, likely it's lacquer, and then you have to use lacquer topcoat as it will simply act like another coat of paint later on if you don't sand it all off. Really, the more colors and layers of colors you have, the better you can gauge your depth of cut when sanding later on. Each layer is usually not more than a couple of thousandths thick, and having multiple bands of color exposed in tight rings means VERY likely you will see a divot in the finsihed paint. They need to be wiiiide bands of paint so a ripple or 'work dip' will not be visible in the topcoat. "Feather Edged" is the technical term I suppose. Another thing, final wetsanding should not uncover ANY bondo spots. If you did, your prep and blocking dry was inadequate. Personally I will dry block till I see nothing but even removal of a preliminary guide coat all over the body, taking most of the original primer off...then on respray alternate different colors of primer to give 'depth guides' as to how close I'm getting to the orignal worked area. If you know you put three light coats alternating between red oxide/grey/black and then a thick coating of primer surfacer you can get a real good indication when you have come really close to the working surface and may need to chill out on sanding in one spot. It always amused me when I saw guys wetsanding over bondo. Kinda not the best practices guide to bodywork in play there!

So now, I'm thinking GT42... at least. Given that torque peak and spreads on the tranny....I think it will work fine Jeff! "My my my, what are those boys cooking up in the shed out back?" she said, quizzically, wiping her hands on the chicken-embroidered dishcloth as the smoke and racous noise rose ever higher...scaring the livestock and making the chickens in their coop all atwitter.

That may have been what it was. The Radome on the F15's I was familiar to seeing was a much lighter color, almost transparent, but it darned looked like plywood! I'd say it was a good 2 feet in diameter, right near the bulkhead at the front of the aircraft. The pilots likely needed to change pants aftger the flight. The door was closed when I got out, they had not shown themselves at that point! I hate to say it but it was a 'non starter' for me. I wish I'd taken photos now. But it was by no means 'my worst flight'... Oooooh no, not by a loooooong shot! Commercial Aviation is the lap of luxury when you're strapped into the web seat of a C130 going into a Typhoon over the Pacific west of Guam...

Studebaker Inline Six at Indy... it was here...

Well don't confuse a car designed from the start with the elmination of pinchwelds on the roofline as a design factor, and someone shaving rails for cosmetics or (thought) improved aerodynamics. If you are only going 100 mph, you can pretty much do what you want. If you go over that regularly, 'going sideways' usually results in lifting off... We had the back end go light and started wheelspinning, believe it or not it is possible to run over your own parachute cords... Stability is a good thing. If your class at Bonneville has a record over 200mph (and over 170 at El Mirage) you are required to have roof strakes installed... There must be a reason for that, as well... Applying them to a car that will never see the speeds is foolish, and little more than cosmetic homage.... On removing drip rails on a street driven car: As long as you have functional A/C, and/or it never rains where you are, that's all well and good. But shave those babies and get into a rainstorm and the reason they are there becomes pretty obvious. Roll that window down about 6" for ventilation when you're sitting stopped in traffic and there's steady rain or drizzle. I hate the fact that my 'dripless' Navara (Frontier) can't have the windows open in the rain because the rain drips in all over the inner door panel. Same on my Ford F250, and Dodge 1500....douses the electric control switches because the rain drops right down through the open window. Yep, they don't have em for aerodynamics reasons to be sure. But they all universally have A/C that functions superbly as well...because they're also designed to be driven with the windows UP in a rainstorm... For someone operating in the performance envelope below 100mph, not having the A/C will result in far more of an advantage performance wise than elimination of drip rails, or most of the drag-reducing tricks found here.