JMortensen

Just as a side note John Coffey loves to point out that you'll put a hell of a lot more twist into the chassis by cornering hard on a good suspension then you'll ever put into it with a powerful engine. I've chewed up 2 radiators with my NA L28, but I'm running slicks...

The area where the rockers tie into the wheel wells behind the seat is actually the strongest part of the unibody. There's a lot going on there. The rockers meet the wheel wells and the doglegs, just up the way is the deck which has a triangular shaped structural member that goes all the way across the body, the roof comes down and hits near the strut tower. All that stuff is connected. I do agree that a good roll bar is really good for stiffening up this area, but I think it is one of the better areas in the chassis as a whole. I don't know this for sure, but if I had to guess at the weakest part of the unibody I'd say it's right in the middle of the floor. The frame rails don't connect all the way from the front to the rear subframes even on the 280s IIRC, and the roof while a structural part of the car is really far away from the other source of strength, which is the rockers. The front has the lower frame rails and the uppers and the rockers. The rear has its frame rails and the rocker boxes and the roof. The middle... that's where it appears to be lacking. I'd say the subframe connectors are worth it. I put the Bad Dog connectors on my car and I feel that was a good decision. Probably won't get a chance to find out any time soon, since I have about a million things to do yet. Check the TC rod relocation thread which is a sticky in this forum for pics on the subframe connectors if you're interested. I modified them a lot, but there are some good pics in there if you wanted to use them as they come from Bad Dog.

Search for Quartermaster or 10000 rpm. They both make clutches like you describe. They're multiple plate clutches.

Not worth the hassle IMO. RIP has it right, the 260 cam is so marginally improved over the other extremely small stock cams that it really isn't worth it. Get your cam reground to a turbo grind that has a lot of lift and not too much overlap. Search turbo cam in this and the turbo forum. Here's a post to whet your appetite... http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=101644

Nope, never tried it. I've used old school epoxy that comes in the two tubes. That fits your description and is basically what JB Weld is, just a different manufacturer/formulation.

I just look things up there because its convenient. The thing on spontoons I searched on google, found a match and clicked and it happened to be wikipedia. I also use dictionary.com a lot. Hybridz is the same thing though. It's a bunch of us, none of us "certified Z experts" bringing our knowledge to bear. Can you find mistakes here? Sure. Should every post on hybridz be read as gospel. No. Is there more useful info on Z's here than anywhere else on the net? No question. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4530930.stm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Accuracy_dispute http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/15/1352207&from=rss

I'd at least put one screw on each side so that the vac adv plate can't tip like they do when they start losing the bearings.

Yeah, a friend of mine was raving about that one right when I got out of wrenching, although I don't think they had the comfort grip model back then. I remember that the ratchet mechanism was a lot finer. The POS I was talking about is this one: http://buy1.snapon.com/catalog/item.asp?P65=&tool=all&item_ID=15221&group_ID=12898&store=snapon-store&dir=catalog Overpriced CRAP IMHO.

I'm guessing that's the rear flare but according to wikipedia a spontoon is something entirely different: A Spontoon is type of European lance that came into being after the pike-man craze, coming into play in the middle of the 17th century. Also called the European half pike, this very much resembled a pike that had a much shorter staff; usually no more than 7 feet long. The spontoon is remembered for being more of a signaling weapon than a polearm of war. This has the honor of being one of the only pole weapons which stayed in use long enough to make it into American history. As late as the 1890's the spontoon could still be seen accompanying marching soldiers. In that context I definitely would not want a fiberglass spontoon...

Well, it is a tube frame, and it does have this listed: So who knows??? I don't think it's "light" regardless...

I'm not good with electrical, so this might be a really dumb idea, but seems like you get a brake light switch that hooks up to the pedal, then wire that in to the starter circuit.

240 rear struts don't work so hot in the back of a stock-ish 280. Makes the butt drag, because the strut tube is shorter, as is the rubber islolator. The body of the 280 has taller strut towers in the rear compared to the 240, which necessitates the taller parts. The front struts should swap, but the 240 has a different OD as previously mentioned, so if you ever buy coilovers for them you need to get the right stuff. 240 springs will be too light for a 280.

The one tool I would never buy from Snap-On when I was wrenching was a ratchet. They had the worst ratchets around about 7 or 8 years ago. I actually preferred Craftsman to Snap-On at that time. Maybe they've gotten better, but the models that they sold from say 20 years ago to 10 years ago with the two little phillips head screws that come loose and allow the whole thing to get really sloppy suck big time. Not to mention they had like 8 clicks per 360 degrees of rotation.

I think that Mustang is pretty bitchin. One thing that's kinda weird is it looks like it's set up for circle track. The suspension is way higher on the right, and the seat has the right side helmet brace. Still, I'd take that thing to the track for sure! I can only imagine the looks you'd get in that thing!!! Can you imagine blowing by some guy in a new Mustang with that thing?!? That'd be awesome!

This one might help you too: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/ It would help us if you would give more info. What transmission, diff ratio, tire size, etc.

I don't know what I'm doing 1/2 the time. Luckily there are people here who can help. I just take a bunch of pics and ask, and usually I get a damn good answer. It's a testament to the quality of people we have hanging around here.

What are you talking about twoeightnine? I thought those Bolivian army guys were taking body shots off of Che's stomach... kinda gay, but hey its a PARTY!!!

I wouldn't be too concerned with saving the original finish. Not trying to be a dick, but your Carrol Shelby wheels were not rare or expensive or particularly good. It's just a cheapo, heavy, one piece cast aluminum wheel. Blast away and paint the centers whatever color is best to suit the car.

If you've got the money, get a lightweight flywheel. Not a 20 lb flywheel or a turned down 16 lb flywheel, but more like an 11 lb flywheel. Makes a huge difference. I can tell the difference between my 12 lb flywheel and my friends 10 lb. Every little bit of weight helps on this one. I have the Arizona Z Car steel flywheel, my friend has the NLA HKS flywheel, there is also the Fidanza flywheel. I'd probably go with the Fidanza if I had to do it again. As for clutches I really like the ACT pressure plate that I'm running with a stock clutch disk. Doesn't slip and it holds ~240whp OK. I got the less extreme of the ACT pressure plates. Should hold down the power you're making no problem, and it isn't so stiff that you constantly have to wonder when the clutch fork is going to split. That's a very common failure on the stiffer pressure plates, BTW so you might want to check yours carefully and replace it if it looks like it's worn thin where the pivot ball sits. Make sure to put some grease in there too!

I've only seen race gas transported in plastic jugs. The 55 gal drum stayed at the shop, and the gas was transferred into the plastic cans. Makes me wonder if you couldn't get an old gas tank from a big *** one ton truck or something, mount that to the trailer with an electric fuel pump or some kind of siphon setup that you could put directly into the fuel cell and use that to transfer fuel at the track without having to mess with the fuel cans. It's an interesting idea Mark.

You forgot one:

More searching, less posting.

I had a gasket that where the intake holes were smaller than the ports. Funny part is that I didn't notice and ran it for a while. Then I took it off for some other reason and noticed. It hadn't torn up at all when I took it off, so I dremeled the holes out to match the port size, and that was that.

I found the tap here just now: http://www.icscuttingtools.com/catalog/page_211.pdf. I was trying to search on the net for 14mm turnbuckles. I figured if I could find the turnbuckle then maybe I could fairly easily find a metric rod end for the outer end. Didn't find the turnbuckle, but I did find the tap... So maybe that will help you with your customer's car John. Now I gotta figure out which way I want to go. Looks like the cost for the tap is about the same as the cost for the Coleman swedged turnbuckles, and I'd still have to buy the RH tap, although it seems to be readily available and cheap by comparison. It's under $10 here: http://www.use-enco.com/CGI/INLMK32?PARTPG=INSRAR2 EDIT--Just checked and the place that has the LH tap has a "general purpose" 14 x 1.5 RH for $6 something. If one could get a 14mm turnbuckle in the right length that seems like it would be really easy, just have to get a 14mm drill bit for the steer knuckle. Seems like it should be available, but I wasn't able to find it though... EDIT AGAIN- Also got curious and checked the drill size required for the 14mm tap hole. Turns out its .4921" so looks like a 1/2" drill would work just peachy. So that's good news. Still if someone wanted to do the outer 14mm rod end, would need a 14mm or .551" drill bit for that end.