JMortensen

What did that set you back?

See that looks pretty good to me with the wheel straps. That's what I'm familiar with, although the straps I've seen weren't quite as fancy. As to Steve's earlier comment about the struts working all the way to the track, if the trailer itself is suspended, that should take a lot of the load off of the car's suspension, and even so, it shouldn't do anything so extreme on the trailer that it would hurt the car. I can't imagine what happened to the BMW that John referenced earlier. I'm having visions of a non-suspended trailer 2' in the air or something... knocking the strut through the body is some crazy damage...

Thanks John, that's the kind of info I was looking for. I'm going to buy a new one, so I don't think wheel bearings and such will be an issue. Thinking about what you said on the deck, might go for a full deck as well. Steel or wood deck? What do you guys think? Wood is lighter, probably less slippery, but rots...

Interesting idea about the air bags randy... Anyone else have anything to say? How about hooking to the chassis vs tying down the wheels? All the trailers my friends have tie the wheels down. Any particular benefit one way or the other? My car won't have an ebrake, so I'm thinking a winch might be necessary for loading. Thoughts on that? This will be a dedicated Z trailer BTW.

With the impending move I'll need to trailer my car to the new house. I'll also need to trailer it to all future autoxes and track days, etc. I need advice on car trailers. I have a GMC 1500 for a tow vehicle, so I'm thinking that probably rules out enclosed trailers, but not sure. The car is going to be LOW and the airdam will be very close to the ground, so I either need to have a quick release airdam or a very long set of ramps, or maybe a dovetail trailer??? Not really sure. All I really know other than that is that I want dual axles, electric brakes, and I've seen pictures of guys laying under trailers pulling transmissions on an open trailer that had two "runners" instead of a flat wood deck. I've heard good things about elastomer suspension systems. Any other hints appreciated re: tool boxes, tire racks, aluminum vs steel, wiring dos and donts, electronic brake controllers, etc.

I'd too would like to see dyno results before and after. What would also really help are some air temperature measurements before and after to see how much difference there is. I see guys go crazy trying to keep hot air out of the carbs, and I always suspect that this is a very expensive 2-3 hp they are after. The K&N filters do not have air horns in them, but what I did back when I was running SU's was to cut the air horns out of the stock air cleaner and bolt them inside the K&N filter housing. Worked fine and I imagine it was worth the effort, but I never tested the difference.

I thought the ES ones were like $8 for a pair. I don't think it's going to get too much cheaper than that.

If it is a dynomax you should be fine.

Dynomax mufflers are not directional, they have perforated tubes with packing around them. Some mufflers are directional, like Flowmaster for example. Personally I wouldn't use any performance muffler that was directional because so far as I can see they have pretty odd baffling inside and are more about making the exhaust burble or make a particular noise than actually making it flow well. The only thing worse than having a weird maze for the exhaust to go through is putting a cap on the end of the exhaust and forcing it through tiny baffles like a supertrapp.

What are you trying to accomplish by moving the battery? If you are dragracing it makes a lot of sense to move it to the rear. If you're roadracing, you have more options. The main thing that is "wrong" with the stock battery location is that it is too high. Some people have rebuilt the inner fenderwell to lower the battery to the height of the frame rail in the same spot, just a foot or so lower. I think that's actually a pretty good place for it to be since it offsets some of the driver's weight. If you want the car to rotate a little bit easier you can put it way back at the very rear of the car, we've had several autoxers do that with frames that drop it down under the rear deck. If you put it way at the back you might end up adding weight due to the extra cable that needs to be run. I like the spot just behind the passenger seat, and I'm not much for moving it to the rear deck, because it is too high back there in my opinion. There are a lot of cars with much worse stock battery placement than a Z. Any car with the battery right up at the front of the engine compartment is quite a bit worse off.

You can use swepco without an LSD additive. If your LSD starts to chatter you can always add the additive later, but you shouldn't need it to start with.

I believe you're looking for someone using a torque tube, not a torsion bar. A torsion bar is a spring used in a lot of suspensions, from Porsches to pickup trucks, but it does not connect a trans to a rear end. There was quite a bit of talk about torque tubes when I first showed up here, you might want to search the archives and see if you can dig up any of those old threads.

That is truly beautiful work Ron. Your attention to detail is amazing.

Did you see the thread on classiczcars.com where they talk about spreading the outer end of the rear control arm? That's a handy tip and will save you a lot of time and hassle trying to get the outer poly bushings to fit over the strut when you're reassembling...

John is right. Media blasting is going to really come in handy when doing this job. I can't imagine how much time that would have saved me. The other thing that will really come in handy is a rotisserie. Try it without and you'll see what I mean...

I like em bolted on and blacked out with the car really low and some big slicks on it...

Hoosier makes an autox compound for their DOT tires. Kuhmo doesn't, but still either will be WAAAAAAAAAAY faster than a street tire.

O/SP = Open street prepared. Basically anything is legal so long as you have DOT legal tires, so Hoosier, Kuhmo, etc DOT legal R compound tires are acceptable but full slicks are not. Double clutching is not the easiest thing to do, and heel/toe will get you most of the way there in my experience.

Race O/SP... Forget about PAX, find someone who is just a bit faster than you, and work until you can beat them. Then find someone faster again and do the same thing, etc, until you're coming out really high in the raw times. That's pretty much your option, unless you want to run Mod where you'll get your ass handed to you or put a different engine in (I totally forgot about your stroker).

I'm not running the freakin Baja 1000. My project is extremely budget limited, and if I was running races of that caliber you can be assured that I would have found a ring and pinion set with 12mm holes and run it instead. That's the kind of race and the kind of punishment where EVERYTHING counts. On my car if it breaks I'll pull my truck in front of it, put it on the trailer and tow it home. A little different.

Camber plates are definitely allowed in FP. 17" rims are not. 16's are max, anything wider than 16 x 10 incurs a weight penalty.

The person who did that is really stupid. Why you wouldn't spend $50 and have some shouldered ring gear bolts made, or better yet, get the right carrier in the first place is beyond me. I wouldn't base any decision I made on some random moron's good fortune. Not trying to get bitchy about it, but that's a pretty damn stupid thing to do.

I would think that a custom bellhousing conversion piece for an engine that isn't going to be a popular swap is going to be a lot of $$$. I'm not saying not to do it, but I really think you'll be in a very small group of people who have taken the time and effort to put an SR in a 944. I would think the LS swap would be MUCH easier because it has been done before, all the parts are available, etc. The 944 is a pretty heavy car, around 3000 lbs, so the argument for putting a really light engine in it is not as strong as it would be for a lighter vehicle, in my opinion.

There was one posted here a few years back where a race Viper doing 180+ hit a bird. The bird went in between the windshield and the roof and into the car and similar carnage was inside the car. GROSS!

944 has a front engine and a rear transmission. Are you talking about replacing it with a front engine and front transmission, or are you talking about somehow adapting the engine and clutch to the Porsche torque tube? I would hope the latter because the former would mean that you would need to adapt in a differential as well. Personally I'd probably start with a turbo and then stick with one of the LS swap kits that are already available for the 944, or just get a turbo and turn up the boost and chip it. The NA ones aren't fast at all, but they also didn't get a lot of the other goodies that the Turbo ones got like better suspension and brakes, transaxle coolers, etc.