JMortensen

That wasn't the one I was thinking of. There was a better one that I want to say speeder wrote, or maybe Norm. Anyway, IIRC it had pictures of resurfacing them, or at least a better description. At the time that last thread came up you can see that I was still thinking that there was some magic to resurfacing them due to the curved surface. Later on I read the other thread and figured out how easy it really was.

I'm not saying that the bolt head is the best solution for the firewall flex issue, just that we all have a firewall flex issue. I think the best thing would be a cage with a knee bar that had braces to the firewall on both sides of the master. If you don't have or want a cage, then you have to figure something else out. A bar from the front strut back to the firewall might work too. A PDK strut tower bar might also reduce that flexing with its braces to the firewall. I'm sure that the bolt head works as well. Not the best way to do it, but I'm sure it works. And for those worried about collapsing the master, I think you'd be far more likely to collapse the sheet metal brake booster than the aluminum master. Potential damage to the master or the booster depends on how much stress the master is handling, and how much gets transferred to the bolt head and the strut tower, but frankly I don't really see that being a huge issue, since they're designed to withstand you slamming your foot on it repeatedly forever. Was thinking about this, I have a CA car that has rust, but not a whole lot. Check out this thread on my cowl rust: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=106849 That's right above where the master bolts in. I'm betting the rust repair will help a lot, and I'm betting I'm not the only one with this problem...

Search the archives and see if you can find the bit about resurfacing them yourself. It's not a highly technical process if they're doing it for $4 per rocker.

Why??? He's running CV's, and the forward location would be better for weight distribution.

Have you ever checked your firewall for flex? We ALL have weak firewalls...

True enough, if you don't have anything they can't take anything. On the other hand any contractor is playing with fire to some degree. A mistake can cause large amounts of damage (thinking water damage in this case) and customers can be completely devoid of common sense sometimes. Some are impossible to please and very sue happy. One more thing, some corporations have tax benefits associated with them that may not be of much interest right now, but might be helpful down the line if the business takes off. I did the LLC on mine, and I'm going to restructure it as an S corp later on to take advantage of the tax laws fairly soon. Wish I had done it right the first time.

This was a sucky lesson to learn. I put money away all year long for taxes in my first year, and I was looking at the 1040 books that the IRS sends every year thinking I'm going to get to keep $8K. Went to the accountant and that's when I was informed that your employer pays the same amount of tax you do every year. If you're self-employed you get to shoulder that burden. It all worked out OK, instead of keeping $8K, I got to keep $500. Would really have sucked if I didn't put that money away though... After the first year they expect you to put aside the money quarterly, so that is another small thing to look out for. Every 3 months you'll have to come up with a little chunk, so if you're the type of guy who spends what he makes you better figure a way to put some aside where you can't touch it.

I think the other port allows the computer to retard the timing, but if you don't have it hooked up to the ECU, the timing will be retarded. The 82 NA distributor has 17 degrees of mechanical advance in it from the factory. Z engines generally like somewhere between 32 and 38 degrees total advance. So run it at ~18 at idle, disconnect the vacuum advance, and run a stock module or the HEI and you should be good to go.

You never know, that might actually be James Brown... he's gone downhill lately. http://www.ebaumsworld.com/jamesbrown.html

I don't know about these heads in particular, but I always heard that you want to avoid the V shape on the front side of the valve guide, and that it was better to have a rounded shape there and a V shape on the back side if at all. That being said I don't run a cylinder head shop either...

You don't need a contractor's license for that? Not sure, but if you did that would put a damper on things. Plus kinda sounds like you're talking about doing it under the table. That's not the best idea, if that's what you were thinking. I have relatives who spent YEARS under the thumb of the IRS for such "crimes". Find out what it takes to do the job legitimately, then do it legitimately. Start a company so that any liability doesn't fall back on you personally. I think I have a couple grand into forming my LLC, but I used a lawyer and I think you can do it cheaper with some DIY kits. If that is too much hassle, I'm thinking you should be able to get a job working for somebody else laying tile and still making at least double what you're making now... $7/hr is MacWages these days.

I thought there were posts here about resurfacing your rockers with a bit of sandpaper. Personally I've run the same rockers on 3 different cams in my head, never resurfaced them, and it put 200,000 on the original cam, probably 10K on the 2nd, then 30K on the 3rd. 5 seasons of autox, quite a few track days...

I think you're right, but I don't think it would matter unless you ran the pads all the way down and the edges hit in the middle before the pads were all the way worn out. Even then, it doesn't look like enough pad material. Looks like it would probably break off if that happened.

Well PCH is not straight straight. Not like take your hands off the wheel for the next 7 miles straight. It follows the coast, but it's far from what I would call a twisty road. Decker on the other hand has 3 or 4 sections where the road narrows to one lane has switchbacks, elevation change, and is ALWAYS dirty. It used to be that there was spilled concrete right in the middle of some sections. It really was the tightest, meanest, nastiest road around. That's why I loved it so much...

Ouch. If I owned that car I would have crashed it on Decker Canyon Rd instead of PCH. Decker is one of the gnarliest canyon roads in SoCal. PCH is pretty much straight and boring. To each his own...

With a piece of bar stock between the caliper mount and the caliper everything should be held nice and parallel and won't be able to shift around under heavy loads as much as two long bolts with washers and no connecting structure. Really I think the weak link then is the bolts that you run. Use good bolts and I don't think you'll have a problem. Or buy my hubs.

I wouldn't hesitate to use a piece of aluminum bar stock with holes drilled in it. Washers stacked up to 1/2" just seems a little hokey to me. I can see 1/4" with washers, but get too much beyond that and it just makes sense to use a piece of bar stock to me... IIRC, the 240 hub has a 10mm different offset for the wheel than the 280 hub. I don't know for sure, but you might be able to just run 240 hubs. Did I mention that I have 2 sets of 240 hubs stripped bare with just studs. One set has RX7 studs (longer) and the other has stock studs. Maybe another alternative.

No, retarded cam = higher end power. Clifton, did you have trouble with the timing chain when you did that? How long did you run it after you did that? Because I've seen a few L engines chew the crap out of the slack side guide because of the chain tensioner being too loose when the head was shaved and the cam towers not shimmed. You're introducing .140" slack in the chain that way. Too much IME to be ignored.

I called Tabco to buy some doglegs and I was told 6 weeks. I said order them anyway, and they showed up in about 3. Above and beyond that, Matman has about 70 doors, probably 40 240 doors and 30 or so 280 doors. A stripped door is about 25 lbs and should fit in a box that wouldn't be too hellaciously expensive to ship to HI via UPS or FedEx.

Pics Jolane?

3.9 is what the ZX's came with. I don't think 4.11 is too much, but it's kind of a matter of opinion, and tire size and other factors have an effect as well. This page should help you figure it out: http://www.geocities.com/z_design_studio/

Getting that little barbed sucker out your pee hole is supposed to be more painful than childbirth. My ex-boss's gout got out of control and he passed a couple of kidney stones. I NEVER want to experience that kind of pain. Good luck, I hope I'm wrong and you don't feel a thing.

I thought John Coffey was building a 3 rotor RX7 for Amir, and he had already sold the 260 to a lawyer or something. Maybe John will give us the scoop.

I know that the 280 hub is different than the 240 hub, so the spacers are different as well. I think its possible you have the wrong spacer for the hubs on your car.

That's why BradMan recommended the copper. You put a piece of copper on the backside and it acts like a heatsoak and you're less likely to burn a big hole in it. Works like a charm.