cygnusx1

OK I'll take advice from the experienced any day! Thanks everyone. Looking at other options.

Obviously, I would be pushing the limits of the Odyssey judging by all the great pro/con feedback. I may need to step back and rethink the scenarios. Flat towing the car with a dolly is a good idea unless I wreck it at the track and can't drag it back. The Odyssey is rated for 3500pounds by Honda. For some reason most trailers don't list their actual weight. I am looking. The Featherlites are gorgeous, but they do blow my budget. Here are the numbers: 2007 Odyssey Gross Vehicle Weight Rating 5,952 lbs. GVWR Front Gross Axle Weight Rating 2,833 lbs. front GAWR Rear Gross Axle Weight Rating 3,197 lbs. rear GAWR Max Trailer Weight 3,500 lbs. towing capacity Maximum GCWR 8,210 lbs. GCWR It's a pretty stout vehicle with more interior cubic feet than a Chevy Suburban. I think the weak link would be the transmission and the fact that it's front wheel drive. Remember I would be using this very sparsely. I mean literally, two or three times a year. This is why I find it hard to justify another vehicle in the fleet. Maybe I'll just build the car "streetable", and drive it to the track. I wanted to avoid this, but in my case, it might be the best financial option.

I already drifted the van to avoid a 40mph to 40mph head on collision with my wife, son, and a friend on board. Parents of the friend were behind us in a Dakota. I pushed the van HARD to the right towards the tree line then hard to the LEFT to get the tail end to slide to the right and aviod the impact. It was SOOO CLOSE. It had to be 2-3" from the oncoming cars nose passing to the left of my flank as the van drifted perfectly and straightened right back up. Thanks, stability control! And thanks to everyone on board wearing their belts, they didn't fly around. The brakes feel great and it really does handle MUCH better than I thought a van could. The oncoming car was a young girl texting.

Yeah, I definitely will be looking for electric brakes on the trailer I shop for.

I don't have anything right now but the wifes 2007 Odyssey. I am weighing out my options for building a strictly track day 240Z. Honda and aftermarket suppliers make a 3500lb towing package with a box hitch and coolers. I figure I can pick up a decent 16-18' open trailer used, and start looking for a new project/track car. I would initially do about 3 track days a year so I don't want a ton of initial investment. If the Odyssey can tow it safely, I am in good shape.

Concern would be stability, wear and tear should be minimal since I only plan a few track days per year for now. The Odyssey towing package includes a trans oil cooler and PS cooler for the 3500lb rating.

Opinions, suggestions? Feel free to slap me if I am waay off base. 2007 Odyssey with a 3500lb tow capacity and 350lb tongue weight limit. Open, low trailer possibly aluminum 16-18 foot (3500lb axles). Stripped 240Z with full cage and L24 with webers on trailer. Spare set of wheels and tires. (in van) Basic tools and floor jack. (in van) I have little to no experience towing anything but this is the scenario I am faced with if I build a time trial attack 240Z. Towing distances would be 1-5 hour trips. Thanks, Dave

Check this out. http://www.pitstopusa.com/detail.aspx?ID=61724 Seal off the crankcase to vacuum, provide a vacuum source from, pump, intake, and/or a venturi tube in the exhaust. Then regulate the vacuum with that regulator. It should give the ideal conditions for PCV control vs aerodynamic advantage inside the cankcase. Dial in the right amount of vacuum without sucking in oil seals or sucking out excessive oil.

Get a dial indicator and shim the hats straight, after mounting to the hubs. You will regret not doing this. I have a thread about doing this in here somewhere. The brakes, done correctly, are incredible. On par, if not better, feel and stopping power, than the Brembo setup on my friends STi.

Sort of off topic, but I was just thinking yesterday, how it would be sweet to integrate a couple of buttons you could strap to the dash or steering wheel so that you could watch your AFR's and bump the current VE point up/down while driving. I suppose the iPod would be pretty nearly capable of being utilized for this once the app is written.

I boiled my CHT sensor, checked it at room temp, and put it in ice water. With this method you get a near perfect calibration...or at least good enough to run an automobile. They are not super critical sensors anyhow. + or - a few degrees isn't going to make a big difference. The fuel correction maps will sort out any small differences when you tweak the correction curves. Just get the sensors data input reasonably close, so your maps and others can be shared.

It could very well be rings. I suppose nice clean cylinder walls with some of the original crosshatch still showing is no gaurantee that the rings are still sealing perfectly. So very true.

I edited out all the close calls. J/K. I always look for hazards. The trees and poles, I trust. The animate objects, I don't. I have to pedal it everywhere, the car is too fast to go full tilt on those roads. Handling, brakes, and throttle response are the key. Leave a lot of reserve. Don't take it to 8/10's on the street! It's not worth it. Notice I adjust my speed according to visibility. You don't know what you can't see.

Thats Awesome! Great name. I wish we had cool plates like that. They are much more photogenic than our ugly ones.

Oh, If i had the room, and the dough....I would have one of each...2,3,4, seconds difference...Whatever.

Wanted to show you guys some of my favorite roads within a half hour loop of my house. The real reason I own the Z.

Start Sparking.

Well maybe my O2 sensor is wrong (I do fresh air cal's regularly). She will have MAJOR holes in the power, or outright misfiring, at 15+. Unfortunately MSII doesn't have fuel cut on overrun. I'll have to look at other firmware revisions... Could be my injectors aren't misting nicely too?

I am going to go shopping for an aluminum can, some hose, some fittings, steel wool, clamps, a new PCV valve, and fab up a bracket for a catch can where the windshield washer bottle used to be. I bought a catch can off of ebay a while back but it's too big.

Backfiring on decel....if it's just a put...put.....put.put......put....then it's normal if you have a fairly open exhaust. I think it's due to oxygen getting up in the hot exhaust and burning off some of the remaining volatiles. My Z won't tolerate much leaner than 14.5 just about anywhere.

Three things I can think of.... 1. Does the L28ET factory PCV valve limit suction? In other words it's a check valve that allows flow into the manifold but when the flow gets too high, does it act as a check valve in that direction as well? I seem to remember where the PCV valve in the L28ET at least, was not just a check valve, it's supposed to control flow in both directions. I could be wrong. If I am right, my PCV valve could be the wrong one, or not functioning correctly. (TONY D rings a bell on this one...I think he had a post talking about this in the distant past) 2. Is your valve cover open to atmoshpere? 3. The "filter/screen" inside my block might no longer be working or could be missing. Hmmmmm.

OK I put the L28ET back together with the new head gasket and drove for a couple of days to make sure it's all good. I went back and retorqued the head, adding 5 ft-lbs for a total of 70. I retorqued the exhaust and intakes, which loosened up ALOT. I was still getting smoke puffs after a deceleration with the PCV hooked up to the block vent. Going down hills, I had to hold my breath or take it out of gear to minimize the smell of burning oil. Tonight I plugged the PCV port in the manifold and left the block vent open. I went for a drive. After about 5 miles of driving, the oil smell was almost completely gone. No more smoke on decel, no more smell in the cabin. I even turned off the vent and had the side windows open about two inches. I would say the smell is about 90% better. I got on boost (15psi) took it to about 5000rpms and let off the throttle to coast down to about 1500rpms several times. No smoke, no oily smell. I had visions of oil spewing all over my engine bay from the block vent when I got home. Popped the hood! NOTHING! Dry as a bone. Even put my finger inside the block vent hose and it was clean. I need to do more miles to really test it further, but for now, I have confirmed that smoke on decel is from the PCV suction being too strong. It's not valve guides and it's not entirely blow-by. Now I do want some sort of PCV, but I am DONE with feeding my intake manifold fresh synthetic oil!

At least he could have removed the rear bumper shock!

I just found out that we have an electric pallet lifter/tote with a built in scale good for 5000lbs! Not that it will help you right now. Sorry.

I took some liberties to lower the front stance a bit, and to modify the mouth.