JMortensen

First, please use a descriptive title so that people know what the thread is about. I'm changing it. Second, what is your question? It's entirely possible that somebody swapped in a T5. People think that they have a strength advantage, so it isn't uncommon for them to be swapped into an NA car. If your question is: Is this a T5, then I think the answer, given that it has T5 stamped on it, is yes.

Cam lift for valve stem seal interference depends on the valves and how they're cut, but somewhere around .480 lift you better start taking a look at it. .510/300 or around there would be a really hot engine that would still be streetable. I have a .490/280 and wish I went larger. I'd go 300 duration without a second thought at this point. Do some research on quench. What you said there doesn't make any sense. The smaller the chamber the more quench you have, so running an N head with very little quench and then bumping the compression up is asking for detonation on pump gas in my opinion. My opinion is as a guy with an ~11:1 compression E31/L28 combo that pings with less than 95 octane.

I'd go bigger on the cam, it will require aftermarket springs and retainers, and different valve stem seals, but I think what you're considering is pretty small. I'd also pick a different head. I haven't priced it out, but I'm guessing you can buy a P90 or P79 and shave it and do the headwork again and still come out a hell of a lot cheaper than you can welding an N47, milling, shaping the chambers and doing the port work. The main advantage to welding the chambers is that it increases the compression ratio. If you have the N47 on a stroker block with flat top pistons your compression is going to be really high to start with. Weld the chambers and you're talking race gas only. There are a lot of overlapping factors here: compression ratio, camshaft, quench, octane necessary to keep the thing from pinging, timing, etc. I suggest you read some more about all of these things before you decide.

Hood vents have nothing to do with V8s. Moving this thread to the Aero forum.

There have been many posts on this subject since 2001. There is a sticky by 240hoke which shows cutting the fenderwells and welding them back up. There is another by Clifton showing glassing the flares in. Search and ye shall find.

How far do you guys take this? Do your toilets have souls? Toaster ovens? Does your favorite shirt have a soul?

In legal terms if she already had a neck injury and your crashing into her aggravated it, you (your insurance company) would be held responsible. It has nothing to do with you, and it shouldn't affect your insurance premiums more than it already has. The reason that you haven't heard anything more about it is probably because she has been waiting to see what exactly the damages would be (total $$$ amount of doctor's bills, etc). If she's making the injury up let the insurance company deal with that. Above and beyond that, as weird as it sounds it's really not your problem unless she's trying to get more money than you are insured for. I'm guessing by the fact that you were driving an 89 Toy 2 years ago that you don't have deep pockets. Go to court if you need to, I'd be surprised if it got that far, be courteous, and go about your life without letting your stress level get too high over this.

Anthropomorphism again?

Go back a couple pages and you'll see why Dan and I wanted to go this route. I believe this will put much less side load on the strut shaft than the arm as you've drawn it, because the fixed point is directly under the strut shaft.

We have a great strut thread. AZC parts are discussed a little on p.10. I'm going to merge this thread with that one so all the info is in one place.

I think Mikelly's Mustang upgrade is 5 lug, but you could redrill the lug holes fairly easily. I think that one is going to be the best match for a Wilwood type front upgrade. I don't think any of the smaller ones will work without dual masters.

Looks like I'll be crossing my fingers and hoping it doesn't warp too badly.

That was the plan. How would you suggest stress relieving?

Called Coleman this morning. They are able to make turnbuckles for about $35 each. Looking at the link that Dan provided, the cost for the tube ends and tubing is almost the same. I went ahead and bought the prefabbed units just to save hassle.

Cary and I are both using QA-1 XM rod ends. Certainly not top of the line, but they aren't the cheapest ones you can find either. The load ratings on them are really good for the price. Teflon lined, chromoly ball, etc. Here's the description from Pit Stop USA: As to the turnbuckles, I know I can get a 4" from Coleman. Not sure how far in they're threaded. I know they do custom lengths, I guess I'll have to call them to see if they can do something that short. Not doing the nut thing. In my opinion that's not enough thread engagement for the rod end. It may be that I could get away with less because I'm using a larger thread diameter, but I have a pretty strong inclination not to do that.

4 lug?

Because I'm using the 3/4" rod end with the 5/8" hole, the link does have to be close to perpendicular, otherwise the frame around the ball may contact the strut housing. Actually now that you mention it, I haven't checked for clearance, maybe the frame would miss the strut housing. The reason I'm using the 3/4" rod ends is because Cary wore out a set of 5/8" rod ends on his control arms very quickly.

Ok, so here's where I'm at. I have the main tube that connects the inners ready to weld up. I have one complete triangle with no inner bracing mocked up, and it looks as though it's going to be TIGHT between the control arm and the tiny little tie rod. In the last picture I have two 3/4" rod ends end to end, I was trying to figure out how long the tie rod would end up. You can see if you look closely that I've spaced the rod end away from the end of the strut housing. With this tie rod end length of only 2 3/4" and using 3/4" rod ends, you have to do this. I don't know that this would be particularly harmful, but that's where I'm at right now. Alternatively I could cut some length off of the shank of the rod end. That's not a very desirable way to get this done for me, but it may be the only choice. If I cut them down a bit then I could use an even shorter turnbuckle, maybe 2 1/2" or something like that. The next problem will be finding the turnbuckle. I know Coleman makes custom lengths so they'll be my first stop. I guess the question is do they turn the threads on a lathe, because if they tap them then they won't be able to make a turnbuckle that short.

I think the answer is to get Rick to try them out...

That does suck. I had a car stolen from right in front of my house once. It's a really infuriating helpless feeling. Mine never came back, I hope yours does.

Free play in the pedal has been discussed quite a few times. My experience with it was on the clutch. I was at the track and the longer I kept driving the more the clutch was slipping. Same deal as the brakes though. When the master cylinder fully retracts it opens the port to the reservoir. If the port to the reservoir never opens what happens is the fluid expands as it gets hot. The hotter it gets the more it expands, which means the brakes or clutch get increasingly applied.