BLKMGK

Ooooh, lemme' know if you get an installed pic up. I want to see that muffler from the back to see if it's got the look I want. $100 for a stainless muffler is fine by me! I hear ya' Lone. I've not had to do too much nasty suspension work but I know I wouldn't enjoy it. I might b on the road by end of next week, we'll see. I'm suposed to go out of town starting tomorrow evening but that could fall through. IF it does I'll be even further along. I'm ready to drive this puppy and am bouncing off th ewalls. Tomorrow I go looking for a muffler shop after my DISH is fixed. Vroom!

Hrm, yes DO get a digital camera, you will NOT regret it. My latest was purchased off of E-bay and while there are some things I wish had been done differently it does most certainly take very nice pics. Best of all I don't think twice about popping of shots to document things for myself - it costs nothing. As for the 351W. To do this "right" and keep the EFI without a scoop you must do three things. 1st mill the lower intake half. I'm not sure how much but measure the thread depth on th ebolts and take it into account. Be aware of how much you need to lower the intake first (ahem). 2nd, mill the bottom of the upper half. You won't have nearly as much to work with there but take what you can get! 3rd and last - you will have to modify the throttle linkage some as it now hits the valve covers. A bit of grinding and it's done. On a FOX Ford this is enough to get you under the stock hoodline, just. Drop motor mounts on that setup put the engine's pan on the steering rack before the mounts hit the engine pad. Ask me how I found that one out... Given my choice prefer to not cut holes in sheetmetal. I know scoops can be done right and look good but often times they aren't. A cowl hood like I've got on the Z is an option and looks good but it's far from low buck and has it's own quirks. Heh, I've yet to test fit the hood with the aircleaner on but it looks like it'll fit

Hrm, I didn't mention it but when I pulled my "fill plug" I found pieces of magnet stuck to it as well. Very small and more like a grey coating than real pieces but I'm just a bit worried about my tans too. after pondering it a bit (and having flushed the trans BTW) I've decided to "let it eat". If it goes I'll take care of it. Trans feels a touch notchy shifting it without the motor running etc. - I hope the trans is okay. I'll run it awhile once the engine is up and change out the fluid a few times. If the chip magnet has disintegrated as it appears is has getting rid of the magnetic particles is going to be VERY tough. may have a line on a new trans for a reasonable price if I need it but I hope to not have to go down that path. I'm sorry to hear about your troubles but at least it'll be all good once it's gone through. How had was it to find someone who understood the guts of a T56? I seem to recall hearing awhile back that experienced folks were hard to find, I hope that's no longer the case. Any idea when you'll be back on the road?

My Grandfather was one of the head engineers on some of the Polaris stuff working on the engines. Man some of the stories he tells! I too shake my head at the public's low opinion of NASA and the tech transfer stuff. It's really sad to look at the average Joe and realize just how far under the sand so many of them have their head's buried. I have to say that the 'net seems to be helping though, it's not hard to get some education on esoteric things just by doing a search. Heck, I learn stuff everyday! Today it was what the Mu-1 barrier" is. Look it up, pretty cool stuff! Plazma coatings are cool! I've seen writeups fo rusing them on piston tops and whatnot. Talk about durable! And only a few microns thick too. I hope that one of these days costs will come down enough to make using those sorts of things commonplace. Imagine the combustion temps an engine might withstand if you didn't have to worry about the pistons melting (lol). [ July 26, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]

Tried again tonight. Bloop bloop. Timing looks pretty close to be honest, I had a gun on it and th egun was firing. Timing might be a bit advanced. Exhaust next week then I tackle this in earnest. I'll probably have friends over and twist the distributor while cranking - that will usually work! Distributor is an Accell unit with a mag pickup inside - hence the teeth. My Chevy friend has a theory that I've discounted but... My vacuum canister is "on the wrong side". He claims that it should be on the driver's side but I've got it on the passenger side. This isn't sequential EFI, there's NO cam sensor. It shouldn't matter diddly where I've got the distributor twisted so long as #1 lines up with the right spot - yes?! He keeps bitchng about that but could I be wrong? At least it's blowing pretty consistant fireballs out the bottom now I'm checking plug gap next. I fudged and left it as it was out of the box and am now wondering if it's too tight (dummy). Have to buy a darned gapper, I've lost mine else it would've been "right". I need to pull a plug anyway for a peek....

Oh suuure, now everyone is talking about big mufflers now that I'd almost finished agonizing over mine! Do tell on the Sebring muffler, what it look like? I was just about to order a Dynomax Ultraflow round muffler (street) but now am torn! Lone, when will that Summit muffler be tested? I REALLY considered that one but had NO idea what it would sound like. Please let me know if it's going to be run "soon". I hope to get exhaust done next week, this week has just slipped right by me I'd love 3.5 out the back but I think a 3inch pipe is enough from the front and already have the Flowmaster Y pipe. A shame none of th ericer "tips" have a 3inch inlet (lol). Most of their mufflers are all 2.25 in too! Mike - Mustangs stock were 2X2.25 with crimp bends. In some years the bends are REALLY bad. 2X2.25 into a 3 will be just fine IMO. 2X2.5 picks up some HP on a Mustang but not much at all on a stock motor that has decent mufflers already. P.S. Friend saw a 350 Camaro on th eroad with Ricer mufflers today. Duals he said. At cruise it was LOUD - not what I want so perhaps skipping the Apex is my best bet. Gawd this is agonizing... [ July 25, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]

Hey now, I NEED an ebrake It's just going to take longer and cost a bunch more than not having one I'm afraid. Still, given a choice I wouldn't touch the stock stuff as it's not cheap and tends to be ugly. The Outlaw setup went on easily on my car and looks great. I have no doubt it will perform too. Hrm, can you do it in 4lug Mike?

That beast is th enew foster - she's as willful as can be but I think we finally have the peeing problem under control. She does NOT like the crate! The control arms are powder coated. I promptly scarred them some installing - go figure. It's almost there!

There was a complete writeup here on how to install a headlight harness with relays before the last site redesign (cough). It was mine. All of your headlight power goes through your switch on th estalk - that sux. I'd be checking there for popwer as well as other places. Certainly check the fusinble link first but the stalks contacts burn EASILY and after very little use my brand new brushes were burned. Be careful and use relays...

Our 95 has no engine driven fan. I'm 99% sure it's an electric but I'll stick my head under to be positive. The only thing I can think of is a towing option maybe. So far as I know the only option on the cars was a CD player though and color in some years... Geez, now you've got me wondering if I'm crazy!

I'll bite - tell us about the cam lobes!

What height tires? I ran 3.73's in my Mustang with stock height tires and ofund that it was REALLY short in 1st gear. Highway buzzed just a little bit. Ended up with 3.55's later on and have 3.27's in the car now with a Tremec. For road racing the 3.7 ought to be fine but you could end up in 5th which is a weak gear in the T5 so beware.

Okay, tell the story This sounds good. Post pics!

Heh, sounds like my radiator thread again. go for the all aluminum radiator. JTR may claim they crack but kripes they hold up to 500 MILES of hard race track abuse and bumping. How bad could they be?! Seriously, I've seen some pretty tweaked all aluminum radiators solid mounted in race cars that held up fine at the roundy rounds. DO use the S10 mounts for the top if nothing else. They're made of silicone, are cheap, and fit the top of the Howe radiator well. Bottom I had to fab... P.S. Spoke to a radiator guy. He said he can repair the GM epoxied radiators but NOT the Ford units. DO run a good 2 speed fan from a Taurus, cheap and they beat the daylights out of fans like the Black Magic that Jegs sells. Mounting is a PITA though...

Well, I had it sort of firing through the carb. So, I flipped th esucker 180. then I got it lined up with TDC on the damper and checked the rotor - it was off by what looked like one tooth. I pulled the distributor and played hell getting it back in Finally it was in and I think it's on or pretty close. This is th epoint I was at when it was going bloop bloop bloop and spitting flame. I'm going to check plug gap next and maybe try to bring the piston up on #1 to be sure. I'm really not too worried about getting it started until something resembling exhaust is on it first I'll let everyone know how it goes! Thanks for the suggestions - it's close!

Tried to post this last night - no go Hope this one flies Note hairy beast at bottom making herself at home (lol). The rest of the pics are at http://66.92.151.36 in the photo gallery. This was an EASY install for my bare struts...

The Buicks I've driven have had some noticable lag to them followed by some really NICE torque. I would imagine that at an AutoX this would be a real PITA to drive around. A stick wouldn't make it any better either and might even make it worse. I know in my RX7 I've got to be VERY careful of where I'm at when the boost hits, if I'm halfway through a turn and it hits hard I'm SOL - it can be scary. I'd think the Buick wouldn't be as bad (single turbo) but could still get "exciting". Heh, I happen to prefer a stick myself. I liek th efeeling of control and yes, I've driven a built Auto before that could be manually shifted. My Vega had a built TH350 an d4.56 gears in a Ford 9inch. That sucker was scary fast in a straight line but I had to crawl through turns due to the tiny front tires. I loved th econtrol I got from that trans but for something I'd expect to handle well I believe I'd want a stick (shrug). If i were doing a Buick swap I wouldn't care so much about turns though - those puppies are just too much fun in a straight line to worry about corners

Yup, I did that and it did indeed spark - works fine for toruble shooting. I THINK my problem now is timing. It shot gas out of the carb so I knew it was 180 out. Now it blows fireballs out the bottom and goes "bloop bloop bloop" i think it's simply a matter of twisting the distributor a bit but I'm not going to mess with it till it's got an exhaust system. A couple of times it made a bloop that sounded like a grenade had rolled under the car and blew a BIG fireball! Since the car is sitting on some old carpet I'd prefer that it NOT catch on fire and ruin months of work Hunting up a shop to do the work now and have a line on a couple close by and possibly a trailer. Unfortunatly I'll be out of town this weekend so it might have to wait till next week to actually run. I think once timing is done it'll be fine! Am down to two braided brake lines that SCCA is sending me, one water pump pulley, exhaust, and a fan belt. WooHoo!!!!!!!

Ooooh, they mount to the door and NOT the glass! Better an dbetter for me I do believe I may be looking for a set fo these - much nicer than th efaded junk I've got. My mirrors are THE ugliest part of my car right now! Thank you for posting more pics - much appreciated!

Worse comes to worse JTR DOES make a swap manual for the Mercedes I believe Since it's a diesel I beleive you'll be able to avoid emissions too. This is what they recommend for the Volvo sawp - buy a diesel! Seems when they lose compression they're VERY hard to start in the winter when cold. Pick one up cheap cheap and drop in a V8 Havng seen a TPI Volvo hauling butt down the road I can tell you it's pretty weird. It just doesn't look right (lol).

Just as an aside - those factory roller rockers were junk. Sourced from Crane too I might add! I ran into about 5 Cobra guys at a show once and they were all talking about the rockers, all but one of them had had a failure of some sort. Seems the pot metal they were made of wasn't too good if you beat on the motor much. I think Crane may still sell those - do yourself a favor and spend a little bit more on good ones...

What year car? My 72's wiring matched the JTR book to a T and while it took me awhile to realize that some of th ewiring was on the DRIVER'S side in the end it was exactly the way the book said to do it. It varies year to year as to wiring color so we really need to know the year...

Higher pressure doesn't always mean higher volume - at least in the discussions I've seen in various mags. A smaller line will also beat up the pump more. I'd suggest going to a -8 braided line and maybe using the stock line for a return. Do NOT go bigger than -8, I ran -10 on the Mustang and found that it's a PITA getting the line to fill and pressure up for a start after it's been sitting. -10 has too much volume... [ July 24, 2001: Message edited by: BLKMGK ]

Yes, I think they're converting over. They MIGHT still carry the old analog type too but it does look like they're going modern on us Honestly, the LCD isn't that bad. It's backlighted all the time and looks pretty good I think. I've tried to take a picture of it but have not had much luck

You've got mail Hope to have my car on the road "soon" so perhaps a test drive will be in order. Vroom!