JMortensen

There was a thread a while ago that showed a 1000 hp Viper kept breaking CVs and wasn't able to break the gigantic U-joints that they finally put on it. It also showed that there was less hp loss on the U-joints. I think it depends on the situation. If you're talking about a severely lowered Z or worse yet a 510 with a whole bunch of neg camber, then the CV's might be better because the U-joint is taken out of its optimal operating range. If you're talking about a vehicle with perfect alignment of the U-joints then maybe the U-joint has an advantage.

No, I'm using cut down Energy Suspension bumpstops. Where does one procure packers?

I never was a Green Bay fan. No, really. What the hell is a packer?

No, I'm asking about the sprint car tires.

What are they? Bias ply? Slicks? Any idea what the compound is like?

Got it fixed. Had to notch the frame rail, and I did end up just beating the floor a bit for clearance. I was able to get my cut down bumpstop to just barely touch. Going to have to get 2 full length bumpstops somewhere. Also figured out that on the pass side the CV adapter flange was hitting the body, and that side wasn't bottoming either. It felt like it was bottoming and it made a nice solid metallic clunk when it hit, but it was the adapter hitting, not the strut bottoming. Did a little grindy grindy on the body and took care of that one. I took a pic of the floor but I don't think you can really see how much it was dented in to make clearance. I didn't have to beat it in as much as I thought I might have to. I really think that for autox lower is better especially when the roll center, dive, and bumpsteer issues can be dealt with.

You can search and see the last run through of this topic, but the short version is that the stock mustache bar is a big spring. The aluminum bars cannot twist like the stock mustache bar can, so Dave recommends you use a solid front mount. The solid front mount is known to tear up the front crossmember. If you use solid rear bushings that prevents deflection so that that rear mounts carry the load in addition to the front mount. In particular the front is isolated with regards to torque when you have a solid front and soft rear mounts, and the mustache bar with its widely spaced attachment points is much better equipped to deal with torque than the front mount is. Maybe I shouldn't have said the BAR would be stronger. But the whole thing would be stronger with aluminum bushings in back. Or you could say that the strength of the mustache bar would be more fully utilized with aluminum bushings.

The answer to the original post should have been "search". John, back before they had aftermarket EFI lots of people used carbs and turbos. I agree it's not the best way, but we have members here that have done it and have posted about it in the past. Talking **** and making absolute statements like you "guarantee it doesn't work well" or no way it would be reliable doesn't do your credibility any favors. When you don't know you might consider shutting up. Here's one thread (note the comments from the guy who WORKED FOR CARTECH): http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=93573

How much are you going to put into a stroker kit, and how much are you going to get out of a stroker kit? Consider that before you invest too much money in it. Search for the answer.

Who cares what the book says? Did it occur to you that the book might be wrong? If it doesn't run the way the book shows it, then maybe it is wrong. Make it run by moving the distributor shaft, and then it will be "right" and better yet, you'll be able to drive it.

Have you checked it for headroom with the seat on top of that bracket. Ingenious bracket, but my Ultra-Shield seat set on top of the stock bracket had my hair touching the headliner and I'm 6' tall, so it's not like I'm a huge guy.

The correct fix for this is to rotate the distributor drive shaft, but for some reason you seem to want to do something else. Don't know what else you could do other than switch the spark plug wires on the cap. That's a little hokey as far as I'm concerned.

If I lower it and raise the LCA and TC pivots accordingly I might find how nice a lower cg is.

Get a manual. Set the wires to the correct firing order. Try to start. If it doesn't start but kicks like the timing is way off, then remove the oil pump, drop the distributor drive out, rotate it appropriately, put it back in and try again. Every time I pull the timing cover off I always screw this up and end up pulling the oil pump off again to get everything timed so that the engine will run.

Nice dude! Definitely time for congratulations! I've been looking at buying land and building as well. Found some lots that are 5 and others that are 35 acres. Question for me is how hard is it to stay on top of 35 acres maintenance-wise? Seems like my new hobby would be brush clearing, and that doesn't sound too fun... Anyway, I'd be real interested to hear all about it, getting permits, costs for the house and the shop, etc. One thought I had was to get a modular home and put that up, then build the house later. Kinda means doing it twice, but maybe since you have 2 acres you could put the houses as far apart as possible and rent the other one out. Just a thought.

All I know about the Camaro is I used to sell diff parts to those guys more than any other car. Don't drag race if you get one unless you beef up the rear is my $.02. I think you should find a car lot that has both, and drive them back to back. Then you'll be a Miata owner for sure...

How much land did you buy? What's the story there? Sounds like congratulations rather than condolences are in order.

About 10 years ago I had my old R200 LSD rebuilt and the shop that did it F'd it up 2 times. The 1st time it whined, BAD. Now that I think about it the second time it did have a little rattle sound, which was the pinion teeth hitting the carrier. I drove it around the block and then got my buddy in the car to have a listen, and we drove about 4 houses down the street and it locked the rear tires and skidded to a halt. It was a pretty rough road so we couldn't drag it back with a floor jack. We called AAA and they towed it 4 houses down the street with a flatbed. The problem was the idiot at the shop left the pinion nut loose, and the pinion walked off of the ring gear and locked solid against the carrier. Luckily I was doing about 10 mph and nothing was damaged. If I'd been going 30 or more I'm sure it would have been diff carnage all over the road. I'd double check that the pinion nut is tight. Don't need to take it apart for that. If it isn't tight, I'd pull the nut all the way off, put some new red loctite on the pinion and retighten. If it is tight then I'd pull it out, take the cover off, and start turning the pinion and looking for wear or chips on the ring gear. If you're good there, check the backlash. If that's OK then pull the carrier and check the carrier bearings. If they're OK then check the pinion head for damage. If it is OK then check the pinion bearings. If they're OK then the noise was in the transmission. Your noise is IMO a R&P noise because you get the noise when driving straight. In my limited experience that means possibly a bearing, possibly a chipped gear, possibly something left loose that lets the gears move around on each other and make the noise you're hearing.

Swaybars adjust balance. If the car is really loose and the *** end wants to come out around every corner then you might be doing yourself a favor to get rid of the rear bar. My gut instinct is that people add the V8 and then they start getting loose out of every corner because they're using too much right foot. Removing the sway bar might help that situation to some extent, but it would lessen the overall handling capability of the car if it was only loose because of the driver, and wasn't loose in a steady state corner.

A new filler neck is SOFT plastic. After just a few years exposure to gas fumes they become hard as a rock. When I replaced mine about 8 years ago, I literally had to chisel the flange of the old one off in the gas tank compartment to get it out. When they get that hard they can crack, and it's also harder for the tube to make a good seal on the tank. There is a plastic connector for the vapor hose that connects to the filler tank. It also is very likely to get hard and crack. I'd look for cracked hoses and bad connections that won't tighten up.

Congratulations! 2nd overall the first time out is pretty spectacular!

I was talking about dropping the tie rod down and raising the inner LCA pivot to compensate. Then I can raise the TC pivot as well. Should end up better than it was last time I was driving it. EDIT-I saw that video of Kipperman's car at the Shasta autox. Very impressive. I'm going to do the stiffer spring thing, just need to get the rest of this crap done first, and I think I might end up a little softer in the end, like 300 to 350 lb rates. This would be due to the cost of struts to handle the 400+ rates.

Ouch. Hope Montezuma didn't pay you a visit. That's no fun at all. I have them screwed down because there is no lock nut on there yet. I was trying to guesstimate the amount of space I'd need to leave for the nut. I hadn't considered holding it with just loctite. I don't suppose there would be a whole lot of twisting force on the rod end itself to make it break loose, and it couldn't really go anywhere even if it did come loose. I would have to cut a bit off the end of the threads, the threads bottom before the end hits the frame. I don't want to get into changing the brackets if I don't have to, but you're right, there is about 1/8 to 3/16" clearance below the heim to the bar. I'll definitely give this a shot. My thought was that I'd want the clamps straight down or a little forward as they are in the pics, so that the fore/aft motion of the bar was minimized when the suspension went through it's travel. Maybe I'm putting too much emphasis on that, it really doesn't seem like it's going to move back and forth that much. Definitely something that can be easily checked though. Thanks Cary.

I think I might wait and mess with the tie rod first. The only problem with that is if I make the bar fit tightly to the tie rod with the tie rod spaced down, then that forces me to move the LCA pivot up to keep the bumpsteer minimized. That's kinda where I thought I was going anyway, but I did like the idea of adjustability, and I'd lose it by doing that. Ah well. Maybe I'll mess with that control arm/frame interference in the back for a while and see if any more good ideas come rolling in.

Depends on early or late 260 I think.