JMortensen

That's the geekiest tramp stamp I've ever seen by a long shot.

Actually I did that on accident. Once you click, you can't unclick.

Uh, wasn't that Sam Kinison's bit about his girlfriend who spent all his money ? Just makes me question the nature of your relationship, and why you're so upset about it. Did you get your records back? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV1dyV9d_1k

.002 is not enough lash. You'll need to reshim the ring gear to the left to open it up. Take some shims to your local gear shop and see if there is anything close in outer diameter, then buy a shim kit for that model car. While you're at it, you can shim in some more preload on the carrier bearings. Get the backlash correct and then add some shims equally to each side so that the carrier doesn't just fall into the housing. The tighter the carrier is the better, because that preload on those bearings keeps the ring gear in alignment with the pinion.

You want exclusivity, smear some badger poop on your grille. I GUARANTEE you you'll be the ONLY one with badger poo on his grill. It'll be awesome.

Probably because the sides need to be about 2" off the ground for them to really work. There was a good article in Race Car Engineering a few years back...

Again?!!

They might have used an R180 bar and redrilled it, the point being to get a lower PMOI and make the car change direction faster. You could install your 8.8 in the forward position so long as the CV's can handle the angle. If you look at a Porsche 911, they have the CVs at a pretty good angle and it causes no issues. With U-joints angularity is much more of a problem than with CVs.

I'm 35.

I had Z's in So Cal too. I did spend my first 27 years there. This is after the advent of oxygenated fuel. Don't know why you're having pinging on an 8.3:1 motor. I didn't.

Could be a bad carrier bearing on the diff, or a bad inner CV joint. I don't really know how to diagnose a rear CV, fronts you crank the wheel and stomp on the gas and it will click at you. You need to step back, stay rational, and try to reason this out. If you can't do that then either take the car to a shop or don't go to the car show.

Intercooler? We're talking meth injection on a NA here.

U/J halfshafts are all the same length. CV halfshafts are different left and right.

LSD only functions when turning. If this problem happens when he's not turning, that rules out LSD. "Changing gears affects the volume of the noise." Hmm. That sounds like it might be a transmission thing. Diff and driveshaft are doing the same thing at a given speed regardless of what gear you're in. The transmission is the one that will be changing gears internally. Usually if it is a wheel bearing the noise will change when you swerve left and right (should swerve hard when testing this).

Like I said, YMMV. I think if your stock L26 at 8.3:1 compression is pinging on 87 octane I would say that something else is wrong, but again, given the choices here of running a too-high-for-the-street compression ratio and methanol injection or just getting a different head and not having to screw with it, I know which one I'd choose.

For the benefit (again, what 13 hp? 15?) I think complexity you don't need and yes, a waste of money. If you're going to DIY the whole thing, maybe you can do it fairly cheaply, here is a pre-built kit for $360. Plus the cost of the methanol. And whatever you do, don't run out on a WOT pull. I'd rather do something else to the engine to get 13 hp. YMMV. http://www.amazon.com/AEM-30-3000-Gallon-Methanol-Injection/dp/B001DX7K74

Agree. Disagree. If you want to run pump gas, domed pistons and MN47 is not a good choice, unshrouded valves or not. If you wanted a bit more compression than the P90 would offer, you could shave .020 or .040 and probably get a much safer 10:1 or so without too much trouble (would have to cc the chambers to verify). If he's going with an aftermarket cam he'll be changing lash pads, so the only "extra" thing he would need is cam tower shims.

Just how much do you think you can drop the CR by unshrouding the valves? EDIT--Let me restate. I had an E31 and I unshrouded the valves myself right to the fire ring on the headgasket, knocked down the machining ridges around the valve seats and the bumps of aluminum on either side of the area where the valves are closest together, knocked down the spark plug threads, really cleaned up the chamber and took quite a bit of metal out. Then I put in an almost flat headed valve, without the dish as in the stock valves. The combo of losing the dish and the new valve sitting higher in the head made me GAIN compression overall. I used to have the numbers of how big the chambers were before and after for each cylinder, but that paperwork is long since gone. I would say for a guy who wants to run on pump gas the P90 with the domed pistons he has is a better choice than the MN47.

Have you searched on this? I'd go with the laser pointer method. I think it's more exact and from what I understand you don't need to be level at all.

You might need longer studs, just make sure you have enough threads engaged.

I merged the Motion Ratio thread with this thread: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/63492-suspension-tech-motion-ratio-unsprung-weight/ and I merged the shock thread with this one: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php?/topic/69623-the-strut-thread-koni-illumina-tokico-carrera-bilstein-ground-control/ Looks like a problem with the software changeover left the original threads kinda screwed up. I would imagine that those threads could now be deleted, but you'll need a current admin to do that I think.

JC Whitney used to sell a carpet kit that covered the rear towers and fenderwells. Not sure if they still do.

Do you really think that is a write-off John? He said he had driver's side frame rail issues. If he was willing to cut out and replace both frame rails, then it seems to me that the fender well could be fairly easily cut and patched as well. I had a crack in just about the same location but it was only about 1/2" long. I welded it. Not sure how long it takes a crack like that to propagate but I had autocrossed my car on slicks for years and done some track days with it so it was ridden hard and put away wet for a long time.

If it were my engine to build I'd use a different head. I built an L28/E31 and had the octane problems. If I had it to do over I'd go with a P90. Those pistons with a P90 would give you something like 9:1 I'm thinking. If that wasn't enough you could shave a bit off the head and shim the cam towers up. There is no magic in the E31, and the other head should be easy to find at $100 or $150.