kiwi303

In NZ, I find PowerBuilt and Sidichrome are two nice brands for socket sets. Never had either break on me yet, but some no-name ones did. the Powerbuilt sockets have survived a 100Kg guy standing on a 5 foot pipe slipped over the ratchets handle! However, the Powerbuilt ratchet was a different matter, the locking pin in the head that determines which direction if ratchets in snapped, the no-name ratchet stripped the interior spine ring the ratchet pieces brace against when turning the handle. the Sidichrome one is still going strong.

one of the forums I am a member of here in NZ got around that problem by gettign servers and hosting it himself it's now one of the biggest NZ hunting and fishing forums and hosts lots of other sites on his servers.

Gollum, can't you get a crank for peanuts from a junkyard? given the number of V8's in the US they can't exactly be rare objects...

There are two resins generally used in FG work, Epoxy and Polyester resins, Epoxy is stronger and lasts better, and is heat insensitive until it reaches disintegration point. Polyester is cheaper, yellows more with age, is less weather resistant and with give when heated.

Roye, who in NZ distributes HRE wheels? I've been lookignover the site and would like to browse around a shop that has a few examples on display.

I actually kind of like that airdam.

either the celicia or the subaru.

In other words... the larger the continuous metal through the shaft, the stronger the shaft. The picture below was made in MS paint rather than solidworks or a CAD program, so it's a bit ragged, but lookign at 2 crankshafts, for ease of drawing, rather than dual plane they're single plane, one has the rod journals out beyond the bearing journals and will be weaker than the second one, which has overlap. (the red bits) This seems to make sense I hope the pics make it easier to visualise.

hmm, by mid engine, you mean get a 2+2 pull out th eback seats and chop up the pan to build a engine bay behind the front seats with the gearbox bolted direct to the diff? if you liined the engine bayand fitted the fuel tank up front, you'd basicly have a volkwagen...

and so the lighter the piston and rod set, the lighter the counterweight can be? How do you balance rod and piston weights to counterbalance weights when putting together a custom engine? Surely if using lighter than stock racing forged pistons and rods, on a stock crank, or whatever plane, then the crank counterweight is going to be more than 100% then? what happens in that case? Nice, the only bare ford block I can find in my copy of NZ Petrolhead's Adverts is a Boss 302W, Siamese bore Splayed 4 bolt with 8.2" deck height. Thats a little pricey at NZ$2632. they do advertise it as being stronger than Original tho, I wonder how one with a flat plane, and twin turbos (one per bank) fitted with ported racing heads would do... Are there any cams that are made for an Inline 4 that will fit a V8 cam train? since the flat plane runs like 2 I4 engines, then what if a pair of I4 cam sets can fit the cam towers and run the valves? does/did Ford use the same valve spacing and design in the I4 and V8s? bearing size, valve spacing etc? Surely it would have made sense to have been able to make their cams for the Sierra and Laser/telsar engines et al on the same cam grinders as the V8 ones, just change the programming of what the cam grind and duration etc is...

that looks like a 1 up, 2 down, 1 up flat plane crank, is that sized to fit a Small block chev? or a ford? or just drawn with generic diamensions simply to get some practice in arranging things in the program you are using? As to calling 100% counterweighting overkill, as I follow it, the more counterweighting, the more mass to rotate and the slower the engine will rev. How low could you go on a flat plane without excessive (rebuilding the engine after every drive) vibration? From the discussions on here it sounds like one can actually go to a very low counterweighting, almost 0%. What would a 0% counterweighted flat plane ford 302 crank look like? I've actually found a OEM crankshaft manufacturor who's willing to quote on making cranks

I've driven both the MR-2 and the MGF, Toyota and Rover/MG cars that are very similar. My MGF I owned was a 1997 1.8 VVC N/A convertible, you can get them in supercharged format. Nice car, fun with the top down, comfortable and well planted on the road up to 190Km/H at which point I had to brake for a big corner, but was still steadily accellerating. very few bad driving points other than a worn sleeve in the shifter assemly giving a sloppy gearstick feel, still changed well, but the stick would wobble a bit rather than being firm. The MR-2 a friend owned was a 1994 model. 2.0L N/A. hardtop. was generally stiffer and cornered well, but didn't feel so well mated to the road at higher speeds or when wriggling through high speed bends. it had slightly more room and was notacibly louder than my MGF, and the engine note was less exciting, the MGF sounded like a baritone wasp, the MR2 sounded like a normal car, not a sports car, an aftermarket muffler might help there with a better exhaust note. Personally I'd get the MGF if you can find one

Hmm, a bit more looking, on the Serenas options code plate the transaxle data was "RE4R01A RC43" some googling shows the RE4R01A is the 4 speed automatic box, and the RC43 means the diff is a 4.363:1 ratio VLSD same as fitted to R32 and R33 skylines and S13s. The 4.66:1 mentioned for the serena in the bit I quoted a couple of posts above shows up in google as being the open diff (Optional LSD) on the GA16DE petrol or the VLSD on the CD20T diesel engined serena. Not the VLSD RC43 4.363:1 fitted to the SR20DE powered JDM and Australia/NZ models.

Now this is helpful I got curious and crawled under my '96 Serena and found a finned cover, which I thought was LSD only models, with open diffs getting a smooth cover. A bit off googling and up came the reviews of the Serena in australia when released, they came with LSD... So a 4.66 LSD in a serena hmm, what would that do if swapped into a Z?

so are there any CAD designs for flat plane V8 cranks for either Chev smallblocks (308, 350) or ford smallblocks (302, 351) that can be used by a crank manufacturor to manufacture the cranks? I'm sure with the popularity of the chev smallblock SOMEONE must have at least drawn a flat plane crank even if chickening out of actually making it.

it's low, sleek and scuttles fast?

LOL, I've had brain fart moments like that too I wonder if an engine like that would have double the power of an equivalent 4 stroke motor? seeing as it would have double the power strokes with no compression stoke, 2 strokes tend to be rated for more power than similiar cc 4 strokes after all.

No... Twin exhausts, C-stoff and T-stoff are german WWII rocket fuels used in the little rocket interceptor. There would be no need for intakes as it's a chemical recation wih the oxizising material part of the dual fuel, Air independant. So the intake can be turned into an exhaust, doubling the available exhaust gas extraction capability. as I said: "and run a custom cam on the intake to turn it into an exhaust" so both the exhaust and the former intake open on the exhaust stroke, and remain closed on the intake/power stroke, there would be no compression stroke as the twin fuels react on mixing, so effectively a 2 stroke engine.

google T-stoff and C-stoff find a crossflow engine with 2 direct injectors, and equal sized intake and exhaust ports, plug the spark plug hole, and run a custom cam on the intake to turn it into an exhaust. sounds more trouble than it's worth, even ignoring the crash explosion dangers.

no no no... it IS a clingon battle cruiser. on the paddle shifter side of things, one of my ex workmates from a previous job was a auto mechanic with auto electrical training. he had an Audi A6 he bought cheap off his girlfriends dad when he got locked in the slammer. Anyhow the 1999 A6 had a tiptronic gearbox. looks like a normal auto with P R N D etc, but with a stub out the side so you can push the shifter sideways from N to a shorter bit with + and - so you can drive the auto like a manual. since he had the car, but liked the thought of paddle shift from the steering wheel he rigged some sort of solenoid system to the + and - set. it blocked the column of the shifter in manual mode but once he pushed it across to the short bit a pair of paddles on the steering wheel came live. Press the right paddle and a solenoid in the shifter console went click and rammed the sensor, making it think the shifter lever had been pushed forward to change gear. press the paddle on the other side of the steering wheel... well you probably get the idea now How would an Audi motor + tiptronic box fit in a Z? anyone game?

I think he was refering to the old saw of how a shade tree mechanic only needs 2 tools. "if it moves and it oughtn't, duct tape it, if it ain't moving and it ought, use a hammer"

If you look about a fortnight back, I've a thread titles "6 carbs", about the same idea. It's not the idea that's garnering the opprobrium, It's the fact that since you didn't mention the brace under them the conclusions drawn was that they were hanging there in mid air on the ends of some rubber bits. Besides, at the moment they look rather ugly with the straps and rubber and all the shavings... Tidy them up and trim it pretty and you may be surprised

Surely it would need a LOT stiffer manifold, like ali tube, not rubber hose?

You could try the AU and AUII XR6 and XR8 falcon lights from the aussie ford, HID projectors I think, they're small and damn bright anyway. One of the Aussies could probably pick some up cheap from a junk yard for you

Yah, it's a bit like a US forest park service ranger shooting a bald eagle or rare condor. a few red faces around