GabeRoc

I've got a '73 240 that needs a little work. Posted details to this WTB ad:

Hey, I've got a 73 240z with a 2000 LS1 and T56. I've had this car since 2004 and I've just stopped working on it. At one time it ran and drove but it needs a bit of TLC to finish/put back on the road. Mods/Features: No EGR Valve. ECM edit to remove VATS and after CAT O2. 3"x2" 14Ga tubing from front sub-frame to rear sub-frame. Q45 3.54 Viscous LSD Machined aluminum mustache bar bought from someone on hybridz. Fancy heat treated/cryo'd half shafts bought from someone on Hybridz some number of years ago. Q45 CV joints on half shafts. POR 15'd Fuel Tank JTR narrowed radiator. New Willwood Clutch master cylinder. New adjustable brake proportioning valve. Last time I took it for a test drive around the neighborhood I clipped a brake line. Someone who owned the car before me had gutted the proportional valve so I lost all brakes. That was excited. There is a little brake line work left to be done. All the work I did was with the Cunifer brake line. Enough line to finish included. 4-wheel disc brakes Dual exhaust. Crush bent but pretty darn good. i put the car on a rotisserie and undercoated it. Sandblasted down to bare metal. The rear wheel fenders have been replaced before I bought the car. I tried painted base/clear. I did something not right because the clear is coming off. There is a touch of rust in about two places. I included a picture of the worst spot. Professionally redone front bumper. It's a work of art. Deleted rear bumper. New tach and speedo Overall the car is in great condition. Needs some work but I've got a baby on the way and I've not really touched the car in a few years. I calculated some number years ago that I have about $15-20k in materials in the car. I need someone who wants to finish it to take it. I'd like $8k for it but I'll negotiate.

I would have been really angry when I figured out what was going on, but I was too thankful that no one got hurt and that no real damage was done. I suppose I shouldn't have assumed that the stock valve was working. Something learned. :/ Thanks for the reply, I wanted to be sure that the tying the front brakes direct to the master cylinder and putting one of the one-in/one-out proportioning valves in the rear line was the correct solution. I am pretty comfortable with the installation. have a good one. -Gabe

I almost have my '73 project up and running. I was test driving around the subdivision and one of the lines rubbed up against a half-shaft and put a hole in it. As a result I lost all hydraulic braking (Three cheers for a working hand brake!). I knew that there had been some changes to the braking system, the front has a Toyota conversion and the rear has ZX disks, but I did not know they had gutted the proportioning valve. I have searched and looked through several threads trying to find a recommendation for a proportioning valve and haven't had much luck. This is just going to be a street driven car, so I don't need a racing set up, but losing brakes is something I don't want to do again. So, recommended set up? new master cylinder? proportioning valve? if a proportioning valve is the answer, one-in / one-out or two-in/two-out? What am I forgetting to ask? Many thanks, -Gabe

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But in practice there is.

Another iPhone app, featured on Top Gear.

I'll go ahead and toss a +1 for the older guns. I found a nice Mauser '98 in a gun store on consignment that had been fully worked. It's a scout rifle and it seems the previouls owner was a big guy and it didn't fit him well. new everything, with a scope, chambered in .308. shoots like a dream.

Currently I am working as a contractor on a DOE reservation completing construction/startup/testing of a depleated uraniumhexifloride reprocessing facility. It's about 40-60 field-office work. I think i would enjoy it more if i had been here from the start and if it was not located in southern OH. My last job I worked as a project engineer for manufacture of capital equipment for pharmaceudical clean utilities. I really enjoyed this job. I got to help develop solutions to help customers meet their needs, design the equipment, oversee the fabrication, resolve issues that arose from testing and help with onsite start up. say, anyone out there looking for a clean utilities process engineer? self promotion> The nice thing about mechanical engineering is that it is (IMHO of course) the broadest engineering discipline. In college my non ME friends complained that the F.E. (Fundamentals of Engineering) exam should be renamed the M.E. because only ME's had all of the topics covered by the test. Best of luck! -Gabe

There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those that understand binary and those that don't.

I dare say it would only roll if the center of gravity fell outside the outer support. else it would slide just the one with zero friction (btw, if you find zero friction let me know, we can make some money! ) Also, I find both the statisticians and table engineer jokes to be almost too true to be funny. almost

Wouldn't that be the one with the lesser mu because mu is the coeffecient of friction? And to add my favorites ----------------------------- An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician were on a train heading north, and had just crossed the border into Scotland. The engineer looked out of the window and said "Look! Scottish sheep are black!" The physicist said, "No, no. Some Scottish sheep are black." The mathematician looked irritated. "There is at least one field, containing at least one sheep, of which at least one side is black." ------------------------------ Q: How do you tell and extroverted engineer? A: They look at your shoes when they talk to you. ------------------- -Gabe

I assume this boiler operates at greater than 15psi? if so, then it should have an ASME stamp. if it has an ASME stamp you cannot weld on it or you will void the stamp, your warranty, and be liable if it ever goes boom. the fact that the cast iron is really clean makes me think you have a corrosion issue. I think the cast iron is supposed to passivate into a black oxide layer. This should be checked out. formation of a pin hole after 12 years might mean that the boiler is corroding and thin. this could result in a boiler failture and that would not be good. I also don't think that $5K for installation sounds right unless there are inspections and such that goes along with it. Being a fired boiler i don't think that just any plumber can work on it. I would check with your state boiler inspectors to make sure that you are working with people legally able to work on boilers and what the rules are for reinspections if any. better to do your homework and not have someone hurt with a improperly repaired boiler. I suppose i rambled some, let me try to summerize 1) have someone qualified to inspect boilers check to insure you do not have a corrosion problem with your boiler that effects more than the cast part that is currently leaking. I would also check that this unit is designed to suppy hot water. mostly hot water boilers are closed loop to help curb corrosion and prevent the issue you are experincing. 2) check with the state to insure what inspections/qualifications are required to repair this boiler. if you don't it might mean redoing this if you ever try to sell the house. I would also ask the state if they have a list of persons/companies that are qualified to do this. 3) find someone that can perform the repair/replacement at a fair price. best of luck, -Gabe

Ok, so a little looking about shows that Mobil uses some kind of silica based scale inhibitor, not the more common phosphate type. From the warnings that they put on their products i don't think mixing the Mobil product with a "normal" antifreeze is a great idea. This is not to say you could not drain the blue stuff and put normal antifreeze in it's place, it is just the mixing that is frowned upon. http://www.fioresebernardino.it/schedetecniche/Mobil%20Antifreeze%20Extra.pdf I could not find the blue stuff as a US product, only brittish. It also looks like this phosphate free stuff is more of a Europen thing. Again a warning about mixing your inhibitors. http://www.prestone.com/carcare/faq.php I would say for the volume you're talking about i'd go out with the blue and in with the green with a 50/50 mixture. be sure to dilute with distilled or Reverse osmosis water. hope this is a little helpful.

the owners manual should have a coolant spec. maybe an ASTM test number or such. if it says ethylene based, then you cannot use the low tox stuff as it is proplyene based. a little disclaimer, i'm not a "bike guy" but I am an engineer that does design/build/startup for thermal systems of various sorts. if you can share a spec or a product you're looking to replace i'll give what advice i can.

do they make small fire truck horns?

Youth. Rifle target or clay pidgeon?

i'm a college sophmore with a reputation for working on cars from time to time. a friend of a friend (now my good friend chris) has a car that won't start and hasn't started for about 6 weeks. I go over to look at the car, a dodge shadow. Chris tells me that it clicks (ah ha! i can fix that!) I try the key, battery has gone dead. Owner's roommate, dan, has a car and agrees to give a jump. He pulls over, pops the hood and I hook up cables. After hooking up the cables I lean over the hood and suddenly the car is 'idling' at about 1800 rpm (nice speed for jumping) Dan looks at me with concern and I tell him I put a nickel under the idle screw. (a great trick, btw) after a bit of charging I try the key agian, sure enough the solenoid is sticking. Now at this point in my life, for some reason i didn't own a hammer. so, 1/2" ratchet and big socket. On the Shadow the starter is really close to the radiator support frame, so i hit the frame with every back stroke. *wab wabba bab* "try it" nothing *wab wabbada wababababab* "try it" nothing *WAB WABBABABABABA WABABABABAB!!* "try it" starts right up. Chris gets out of the car looking like a dog being shown a card trick. "did you just fix my car by beating on it?" "yep" an easy trick, but man was that look priceless.

Alright! some responces, I do love talking about bier. (maybe drinking it too ) I like most flavorful biers that do not contain Pilsen malt. This kinda excludes me from the "american style lager" but other than that i like most bier. thus far we have made about 10 styles from a very light ale to belgan white to oatmeal stout. The most popular have been an Irish Red kit we bought from Norther Brewer and the APA that is a tweaked Sierra Nevada clone. So far all have been extracts. I'd like to move into an all grain rig but given my profession (i engineer skids for Pharam companies) and my bent toward overdoing things I have not yet found a design that I like and can afford. As for what I like, I'm not normally a huge fan of the fruit flavored biers, but I have never had a homebrew fruit bier, so it sounds like something worth trying. Honestly I'll try just about anything twice. I'll check out the catsmeow, looks like a nice resource. Thanks. As for advise for the newbie the upfront costs to do homebrew right are a little steep. A good hardware kit is about $150 and I wouldn't do homebrew without a keg setup that cost another $200. The bier is really good. Common first mistakes are poor sanitation, warm fermenting and not allowing the bier to sit in secondary long enough. Any other brewers out there? -Gabe

Hey, any homebrewers here? I'm looking for a new recipie or style to try. anybody have a suggestion? currently I'm working with extracts. anybody have any recipies they are willing to share? gotta fill the bier fridge.

If the goal is improved milage then there are several other questions that need to be asked. Presently how often does the truck downshift durring normal driving? if the truck is downshifting on hills with any frequency then the steeper rear end will make this worse. how much of the pedal are you currently using? do you run close to down shifting right now at highway speeds? there are situation where going to higher numerical ratio rear end will improve milage. how much highway driving do you do? this rear end will most likely mean that for city driving OD will be useless and you will need to use D for speeds below about 50 mph.

http://www.utilikilts.com/ Work safe.

I understand all the reasons for using PVC piping, it's inexpensive, easy to use, readily available and quick. And for non-critical water lines (aka a line that when it breaks does not flood something expensive) it is a great option. I started professionally installing PVC in 1996 as a service tech and have since moved to lead engineer for a large industrial water treatment OEM. I have installed thousands of feet of PVC pipe and most of it hasn't exploded. Some has, I've had PVC flood basements, kitchens, bathrooms and garages. I also had some very nice sch 80 PVC explode in the Co gen room of a major pharmaceutical manufacturing facility. That was not fun. Maybe I have bad luck, maybe not. I have learned that if I support the pipe, isolate it from vibration, never stress the pipe, never allow the pipe to be struck by blunt force and don't allow pressure hammers it *shouldn't* randomly explode. That being said PVC pipe does become more brittle as it ages. As it becomes more brittle it can break where it has not for many years. As it ages it flexes less and it my experience, the older it is, the more shrapnel it makes when it goes. Also, brass fittings are fine, but correctly welded PVC joints are much stronger than the adjoining pipe and threaded connections have a stress riser that a glue joint does not posses. Ok, so the bottom line is that I think to spend thousands of dollars outfitting a shop with tools and equipment designed to allow for safe and expedient work and then install air piping that will most likely grenade if/when it fails is not a very good idea. May I suggest PEX as an alternative? Pex is a crosslinked polyethylene pipe sold most often in rolls. Polyethylene is a flexible material and will not become brittle and therefore is not going to grenade. PEX is offered by many manufactures and is available at Home Depot/Lowes as well as piping supply houses. The cost for PEX is slightly more than PVC, but it will bend around corners. I believe the slight increase of cost to use a product that does not fragment when it leaks is worth the extra cost.

My first thought was "Dune Buggy" - Presidents Of The United States Then I remembered a couple of songs by Cake. "Stick Shifts And Safety Belts" and "Satan Is My Motor" "Satan Is My Motor" always makes me think of driving my LS1 powered 240z. (almost there.......)

My formative years were spend doing residential water treatment and purification equipment service and installation. Then I went to college and received my ME degree. Now I work in high purity water production equipment manufacturing doing process and applications engineering. Most of the equipment I design is used in pharmaceuticals. I now understand why medicine is so expensive, the requirements for pharma equipment are ridiculous.

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