JMortensen

Search and you'll find someone who has finished the swap. It's not easy.

You're going to find that the larger the tire the more you need to lower the car. Search for "sectioning" struts. You'll need to.

You should be able to PICK your shocks and springs with that setup. Pick the wrong length or weight, and you'll have something that rides like crap. You can order direct from Ground Control too. If that place isn't giving you an option to pick, then I'd go to GC directly.

The figures for a ZX should be all over the drivetrain section. If it was an NA 5 speed it should be a 3.90. A turbo would be 3.54. An auto would be a 3.54 R180. That's from memory, but it shouldn't be hard to verify with a little looking around.

Coilovers don't change the ride quality. What springs you choose and where you set the ride height changes the ride quality. For most "streetable" spring rates you really need 10" springs to avoid coil bind. I don't think there is too much to say about coilovers. If they have the right length threaded collar and the spring rate you want, then that's pretty much what you need to know. One thing on the ebay auction is that they only have 250 in/lb springs. Running the same springs front and rear has been linked to porpoising over bumps, so you might think about that aspect of it too.

Weight is a KILLER in autox. The extra weight that would be required in the class I run because of the increased displacement is a problem. I think if the 4.8 actually came in an aluminum block, I'd probably go that way. I think you mean Sanderson headers, driveshaft, MSD ignition, carb manifold, Demon 650, don't you? First, thanks! I appreciate the compliment. I'm dying to drive it, believe me. It's just that I want it done. I mean "done" done. So that I can maybe play with shocks and springs and do fluid changes and replace brake parts and THAT'S IT!!! I'm going to drive this F'er into the ground when it's done, and I don't want to have to take it all back apart, fabricate a bunch more crap for it, etc. I've had 4 iterations of TC rods on this car. I want the last version to be the one I use from now on. I've had several different braking system configurations. Several different control arm configs, etc. I'm going as all out as I can, one time. That's why it's taken me so long, because I just want to do it once, and getting time/$$$/parts all together at the same time is difficult for me. The worst was the rotisserie/cage stuff. It is such a PITA that I want to make sure I get EVERY t crossed and every i dotted while I'm in there.

Richard, even with a 3.36 I'm still too limited on the top end. Here's my thought process: the car is for autox for a few years, then will be tracked again as much as possible. I used to do track days with the old motor, but after changing everything in the car and fabbing quite a bit I think it's probably wise to keep it to autox for a while... Current L motor runs on 95 octane and makes ~240ish whp. If I was really going to do it right I'd get a bigger cam and a better header and exhaust (probably $1K more invested there, and wouldn't make much more power, but might allow me to run pump gas). What's more, I wanted to move the L engine back, and was going to the V8 eventually anyway. So I could fab up mounts for engine and transmission, run it for a few years, then make new mounts for the V8, or I could just do the V8 and be done with it. I have a line on an L33 for $1100 with 27K miles. Stock it puts out 315hp. Add a cam and exhaust, maybe some valve springs and I don't think I'm stretching at all to think that I can get an easy 350whp, and probably close to 200 ft/lbs torque increase over the L. That's HUGE. I will only need to fab up motor and trans mounts once, and I have potential to swap the engine out for a LS2 or something even bigger with all of my existing mounts, if I ever decide that I don't want to be limited to the 5.3. Bellhousings are out there and that is another option, but my understanding of the T5, even the WCT5, is that it is on the weak side and also hard to find. While there are other options like the G Force T5, they seem to add most of the weight of the T56 to get the required strength, and they're a lot more expensive than the T56.

Think I'm scrapping the T10 idea. Just doing some estimations with the transmission calculator here: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/ Looks like with a 4 speed and a conservative 6250 rpm limit on a 23.5" tall tire I'd max out at 130 mph with a 3.36 and 106 with a 4.11. Since I've previously done track days and would like to do that again, I think this is going to be too big a limitation. So I guess the easy solution is to use that gigantic friggin T56...

Obviously that works just fine for valve clearance, but it seems to me by smoothing out the sharp edges and matching the headgasket to the block so that there is a smooth transition from one to the other it would be possible to get better flow out of the valve. In other words, that looks utilitarian rather than performance oriented.

I love the Blackhawks. Nice score. I wonder if that brass grip frame means that you shouldn't load the crap out of the .45 cartridge. Just a thought, no idea if that is an issue or not.

I use SWEPCO 201, and haven't needed additive buy there's no harm in adding it if you do get some chatter. Any good gear oil will work, I don't think any of them are "miracle oils" anymore. SWEPCO 201 and ATF 50/50 works really nicely in Nissan transmissions, but I'm sure a lot of other oils do too.

Looking at your stocks and saying "I made $xxx.xx today or I lost $xxx.xx today is a waste of time and makes it much harder to do what is really necessary to make money in the long run, which is to leave it the hell alone, or keep adding funds to your investments regardless of what the market does. When you buy and sell you pay fees which cut into your bottom line. Index funds and bonds aren't as glamorous, but in the long run they'll do surprisingly well against the guy who buys today and sells tomorrow and has to pay the commensurate fees and taxes to a broker and the gov't. Buying what everyone else is buying inflates a stock's value to the point where it's pretty unrealistic to expect it to be able to continue to produce gains quarter after quarter, year after year, which is where bubbles come from. Selling when everyone else is selling just locks in your losses. Buying low is hard to do, you don't see people running out to buy right now do you? Selling high is even harder, didn't see those same people running out to sell 6 months ago, did you? If I sound like a guy who just read The Four Pllars of Investing by Bernstein, well... guilty as charged. FWIW, the majority of my investment dollars are going to go to real estate and my entrepreneurial adventures, but I like Bernstein's ideas and found that they suited my preconceived notions of how the market works and who makes money and who loses it pretty exactly, in addition to filling in quite a few gaps in my knowledge. I'm not done reading or learning, but this was a good start, and I particularly liked the historical examples of previous bubbles and busts. http://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Investing-Building-Portfolio/dp/0071385290/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228778797&sr=8-1

Not in my opinion. The further the rod ends are threaded out, the weaker they are. The rule of thumb here is that you should have 1.5x the diameter of the shaft in the threads. Taking into account the 3/8" thick standard jam nut, this means that you should turn them out so that no more than 5/16" of thread shows. I'd suggest that before you run it again you pull the rear springs and manually move the suspension through its range and check for bind. When I say manually I mean by hand, not with a floor jack.

The FSM describes using a Nissan pinion depth tool as I recall. I think its a fairly safe bet to say that if you reuse the shims for pinion depth and preload with new bearings that it should be pretty close to right. You could do that and then check the pattern and go from there. I'd be checking the ring and pinion REALLY closely though, because if they got some funky wear due to the side loading of the carrier, that could mean it's time for a new diff (which would probably be the cheapest way out anyway).

Bump steer spacers are the issue. They have shorter ones for 14's and taller ones for 15's. Bigger rims will fix as you suggested, so will smaller bump steer spacers. I want to say that the big ones are 1" and the small ones are 3/4"...

Glad to see people learning from my experience. Putting that thing on the rotisserie with the engine hoists was SO much better and less scary than the jack and blocks of wood!

It's been done and discussed, pictures, etc. Oddly, those discussions took place in the Brakes/Wheels/Suspension/Chassis forum. You might try searching there. "Viperredls1" is one to look for.

I would think the better move would be to have your buddy go out and buy parts cheaply and then put them on ebay. Otherwise you and your friend are splitting whatever kind of finder's fee type of charge you can justify. Maybe I missed something, but that's how I read it...

Yes.

I was reading a couple things related. A couple days before they pulled out I read that Ecclestone wanted to get rid of the points, and only give a gold, silver, and bronze medal for the first three finishers. That would mean that Honda would be throwing money at F1 for a couple years with maybe not even a single medal. The other thing was quite a bit contradictory, that they were going to try and limit the spending in order to level the playing field. One thing is for sure, Honda was getting their ass handed to them.

If you're not an engineer or haven't taken physics and calculus, this book is pretty hard to understand. I learned a bit reading it, but I'd say most of it required me looking at the math and saying "OK, I guess I'll have to take it on their word that they solved that equation correctly. Moving on..." For simpler starter books, try How to Make Your Car Handle, Tune to Win, and Competition Car Suspension. You can also just search and read here. There is an amazing amount of info here. Amazing.

There are a lot of guys running DRWs here. Never seen one of their custom centers, but if you just pick from one of their standard patterns I'm betting it will run about $650 to $750 for a set of 4. Or to put it another way, the prices on their website are from 1987 or something like that, so don't go by those... Another issue is that I believe their 16" rims have the same ID as the 15's so they don't allow for 13" brakes.

Not familiar with Bose's system in detail, but the reason for its lack of acceptance might be because "active suspension" was banned from F1 in the 80s and it's a pretty good guess to say that Bose's version would also be quickly banned from any lower class that it was used in, if for no other reason than it is an "active aerodynamic device". There is a whole chapter devoted to the old style active suspension in Competition Car Suspension by Staniforth. It's a good read, and Staniforth clearly thinks its a good idea in principle. In reading the info at the Bose page, it appears that it is a similar idea and looks as though it could be tuned to do all of the amazing things that Staniforth got so excited about in his book:

OK, Cary came up with the regs: EM is 1800 lbs with driver for a modded tub. I think that my subframe connectors make mine "modded", but I'll have to double check that. I think it's safe to say I'm not getting anywhere near that min weight. XP is 1200 lbs + 200 lbs per liter. There is some discrepancy as to whether they round up or down, so a 5.3 might be counted as a 5L and a 5.7 might be a 6L. Best case scenario the 5.3 gets a min weight of 2200 lbs. I think I might get close with the Super T10. Worst case on the 5.3 is 2260. For the 5.7 it would either be 2340 or 2400. I think either of those should be pretty easy to do with the LS1.

I have myself all screwed around and confused. My tentative plan had been to run a 5.3L for autox. I had thought that this was the best choice for me because I could run X Prepared and have a min weight of 2350 with that displacement. I had once figured out weight for the 5.7 and it was something like 100 lbs heavier, which is a pretty big deal in autox. Plus the corners are really tight so I don't think I'll be able to put down much more than 350whp, which I understand is pretty easy to get from either engine. So I checked car-part.com and found a 5.3 and the junkyard which is several hours drive wants $1300 for a long block. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I thought I could get a complete pull out with all the FI and accessories for under $1000. Now that I'm looking, I'm not seeing them. Since I found that the L33 seems to be hard to come by, I've gone back looking for the exact weight penalty for the 5.7L, and I can't find it anywhere. I also thought that weights were similar for EM, but it looks like I could run at 2100 lbs in that class, so if nothing else I know that my memory can't be trusted... So I guess my questions are: 1. Can anyone point me to the SCCA regs that cover XP, since I can't seem to find them anymore? 2. What is a good price for an L33 longblock? 3. If I do end up going LS1, is there a reputable dealer that everyone uses? Also mulling transmission choices. Thinking really hard about a Super T10. I understand this would drop about 80 lbs over a T56, and I don't need double overdrive for autox. I'm thinking especially if I do go with an LS1 I should be able to find an LS1/T56 combo, where if I went L33 I'd have to buy the tranny separately anyway. Part of me wants the weight savings. The other part seems to think that saving the weight will add $$$ and time to the project. Any advice here would also be appreciated.