JMortensen

How are you going to get flat tops up to 14:1? Are you going to shave 1/4" off the head? Weld the chamber closed even further? All of the high compression race engines I've seen used domed pistons and matched chambers. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say that removing the liners is a good idea. You could make a good case for starting with a head that doesn't have liners and welding up the chambers. You'll need high octane gas for that kind of compression. Don't know exactly how high, but probably in the 105-110 range I'd guess. I remember my ex-boss's 911 was running 12.5:1 and he was using 105. Using the correct octane you should get decent life out of the engine. A 14:1 compression engine's life is measured in hours, but you sound like you're drag racing, so that mght be quite a while...

Damn, I can't find the middle finger emoticon.

Looks like pretty much every Z that has ever gone over a curb or into a deep pothole at some point in its 30+ year history. Mine was quite a bit worse than that. The main thing is that the alignment is even side to side. If that is the case, then I'd drive it. If you're going to be road racing with big sticky tires or you can't get it aligned, then I'd worry about it. The Zedd Findings frame rails replace the injured part of the frame rail, but you have to locate and weld the TC bucket back on, so it's not a job for a first time welder: http://www.datsunzparts.com/NewParts/summary.htm You could also repair with sheet metal as suggested above. I'd probably go with something a little thicker than stock, maybe .060" or something like that and cover up a good amount of the frame on either side of the dent after you cut that section out.

Pop is right on the money.

It says OS right on the front of the valve cover and gives the head number right at the beginning of the movie. It's a touchy subject because so many newbies come in having just read "How to Modify" and want to get a group buy going on OS Giken heads. Avoid that (or confusing it with an LY or giving blatantly false info about one or the other or both) and there is no problem with the post, other than that it's a repost and was seen here a couple years back I think.

I like polishing my tube as much as the next guy, but that sounds like a hell of a lot of work! Plan was to use Zero Rust and then coat of some gray (or some other neutral color) Rustoleum over it. I was thinking spray can rustoleum for the interior so I could touch it up easily. I had thought of Zolatone, but I don't know that it would be a good choice for the roll cage bars. Maybe Zolatone the floors then paint the bars with rustoleum or something...

Woofrigginhoo! Cage is basically done. Need to fill the holes in the fenders and fix the door jamb on the driver's side, which probably will attach straight to the door bar like John suggested. Then I can paint this biatch.

That makes sense. Thanks Roostmonkey.

Here it is 2nd part tacked in. Looks a little funky because it isn't symmetrical, but I think it will be functional and the more I look at it I kinda like it:

You don't need to do this with the type of bender shown. No, it's not a mandrel bender. Yes it will make smooth bends. It's not really a "crush" bender either. That's the kind Harbor Freight sells which basically jacks a die into the middle of a tube. I don't know if there is a proper name for this type of bender, but the difference is that it WRAPS the tube around the die instead of pushing the die into the side of the tube. I tried to save money with the HF bender and it didn't work for me: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=100106&page=2 That is the bender that would have been helped by packing the tube with sand, I just didn't want to spend all the time to do that on every tube I needed to bend. Plus it makes them a lot harder to bend when they're packed.

With a 7" sleeve you can move the suspension from topped out to bottomed out. I'd put the spring on and set it so that with the spring and shock fully extended the perch is about 1" from the top of the sleeve. Where ever that puts the bottom, so be it. It's hard to miss with a sleeve that long in my opinion and I think the thing that could screw you up is thinking that you need to have enough adjustment down, and putting the sleeve on too low.

Not sure what you mean Cary. The other bar on the X? I'll run a straight bar from the dash bar to the existing door bar, then another straight one from there to the hoop, and weld it through the hole I've already cut in the outside of the fender. Seems pretty straightforward, so I think I'm misreading your question.

I guess you missed the gusset that the welding clamp is hooked to. I suppose I could "double gusset". Hey, maybe I should go back and double up ALL of my gussets! I keed, I keed...

Start a new thread if you want to do a group buy.

Totally. If I were at 5000 ft the last thing I'd want is a NA L engine. If you're going to go NA, may I suggest a large increase in displacement?

I was looking around at door bar pictures and I happened onto Jay Hitchcock's pics, and it looked like his bars had to go into the door to avoid the seat. Went out to the garage and sure enough when I put the seat in I didn't have room for the door bar to hit the shoulder bar. Damn! So I took a cue from Jay and bent the backside of the door bar where it goes around the shoulder bar. I found that because my main hoop is tucked so far back it was impossible to get the tube attached, so I had to notch the door jamb. Actually I just cut it away, but I'll weld some sheet back in there to make it a true notch. The good news is that I can make this notch deep enough that welding the underside of the tube should be easy. This also required notching the door, no biggee there. So now for the rest of the X. I think I'm just going to weld in straight pieces of tube to complete the X. Because the bottom of the halo is so tight in the corner there it would take a HUGE notch to get the tube in there if it had the same bend as the top does. Plus I figure my shoulders are a lot wider than my hips, so I'm still getting space where I need it. On the passenger side it is going to be a simple flat X and I'll just have to avoid seats with shoulder supports on that side.