JMortensen

Good post! I do have a couple comments though... Capitalism doesn't cause $1.50 .223 ammo. Capitalism causes $.10 .223 ammo. The government's method for spending money causes the problem. Government projects are almost never designed to cut costs. They almost always increase them, because of way budgets are made. The more money you spend, the more money you get next year. Since everyone has a vested interest in their pet project, they all try to get as much money as possible, and if that means spending money that doesn't need to be spent to get more next year, so be it. A capitalist mercenary army wouldn't buy a $1.50 round of .223. Socialism tends to drive prices UP. That's where the prices get inflated IMO, and for a couple of reasons. First, there isn't open market competition. In our case you've got these congressmen doing the spending. They are passing laws that benefit their constituents in an attempt to get re-elected, basically the ultimate you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours scheme. Second, socialism assumes the the govt needs to care for the people. This includes hiring people, because people are better off when they have jobs, right? Socialism (or the socialist ideal) is then the reason why you can see in CA 15 people standing around watching one guy fill a pothole, or why the railroad workers I used to know spent about 2 hours a day EVERY DAY in safety meetings. Capitalism in its pure form wrings every last bit out of a worker or a dollar. Third, at least in the private sector (not sure if socialist gov'ts pay taxes on the ammo they buy for instance), everything is taxed to the hilt to pay for the government's entitlements for the people. Seen what Europeans are paying for gas lately? So yeah, if a company can charge 15 times what a bullet is worth, hooray for them. But the real problem in a capitalist system is the buyer, not the seller. Caveat emptor! In this situation our elected reps are the dumbass buyer, and we can't seem to figure out how to make them spend money wisely. I don't buy this argument. I think it's more likely that Bush has a fundamental problem with social security and wants it changed for the long haul. Conservatives have never liked government entitlements, and although they were previously cowed into submission they really hate social security. That's why he keeps talking about an "ownership society". You want to see a "non-ownership" society go to Europe. The majority ride public transit, don't own a car, don't own a home, and when they're buried they rent a plot for 30 years, after which their corpse is removed and the plot is rented to someone else. The thing that baffles me about W though is his stance on Medicare and that prescription benefit he passed. That seems directly at odds with the rest of his stance, but I think it had more to do with re-election than anything else, and it's one of the things that his administration has done that I have the biggest problem with.

I wouldn't use 3 points of a 4 point. The shoulder belt in a regular seatbelt goes all the way across your body. Even if you hooked a left belt into the right side of a camlock 4 point harness (which would be better than the old hook and latch 4 point), it still isn't anywhere near your hip, so it doesn't cross your torso all the way. Seems like you'd rotate out of it if you got in an accident. Never tried it, but that's my impression. Could you build some kind of fiberglass or wood "bridge" that you could put over your collarbone to keep pressure from pushing on the artery in the event of a collision? Something that could be sewn into a firesuit? Just an idea...

VLSD doesn't actively reduce tire spin. It doesn't do anything to prevent tire spin until one side starts spinning. When one side spins it creates hydraulic pressure that drives the other side. CLSD uses the torque on the driveline to compress a clutch stack to drive both wheels. More torque = more lockup. The clutch type is preferred in autoxing and road racing over the VLSD, but lately I've been getting the impression that the VLSD is preferred for huge amounts of torque in a drag car. Probably less shock to the driveline since there is a fluid coupling there rather than a clutch stack. This site has a thorough explanation of them all: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/differential.htm

AFAIK= As Far As I Know. I believe you need coilovers. I suppose you could have a special upper spring perch made, but the spring perch needs to sit on the bearing on the bottom of the coilover. Most sit on the bottom of the monoball itself, the GC units have a big needle bearing on the bottom. Regardless, if you tried to use the stock strut top I don't think it would work because the top of the strut wouldn't be long enough to attach to the camber plate.

AFAIK you need coilovers.

Maybe the argument is more like: It's fine to put a couple thousand dollars in a savings account, but when you've got billions of dollars you can use that money to make A LOT MORE MONEY. After all, the bank isn't just holding your money when you make a deposit, they are using that money to make LOTS more money by lending it and collecting interest and investing it. Social security ends up being the govt's slush fund instead of a good investment with a good return because the money just sits there or is used for whatever project needs cash at the moment. So I would argue that the government has billions of our dollars and they also have the world's largest pillow case. If I had a couple thousand dollars I might put it in a bank or hide it in a pillowcase. If I had a billion dollars I would start the Bank of Jon.

If yours moves like mine, then you cut the area with the holes out if needed, and ignore them if not. Basically you just ignore the stock holes, and cut the hole that you need to be able to adjust the plate.

How about non-retractable belts from an early 240? Should be able to figure a place to bolt them in.

Basically you need a spacer to take up the space between the 5/8" monoball and the threaded end of the strut. If you call GC and tell them that you have a ZX with camber plates and you need the nuts they'll sell them to you. They're pretty cheap. Or you can make a spacer and use the regular nut on the top if there are enough threads to do so.

Here's some pictures of my 240 setup:

When I replaced mine I literally had to chisel the top flange part off. The rubber was hard as a rock. My new filler neck was very soft rubber and went in very easily. 7 years or so later I just pulled the filler out again and it was medium stiff, but I didn't have to break it to get it out.

More proof that government entitlements are a bad idea: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1896&ncid=1896&e=2&u=/nm/20050325/us_nm/economy_treasury_medicare_dc These guys can't do anything right.

I haven't done any racing here in WA at all, and I've been doing all my own tuning. I haven't joined any clubs or anything. I'm no help at all in that respect. I've mostly been living like a hermit since I moved here.

Hp is way better, torque is still really far off. Not sure what to tell you, but it certainly doesn't look like an engine is an engine is an engine, at least not from DD's perspective.

I think if you retarded the cam 12º you'd probably end up with a piston and a valve hitting. 12º is a LOT. Most cam manufacturers give instructions on how the cam should be timed. You can vary a little bit, but I'd be really careful about 12º.

Ok Tony, we're WAY off track now. Let's back up and see if we can agree to disagree where we originally had a problem. Originally I said that I didn't agree with social security being provided by the govt, then we started talking about my uncle and your mother. Bottom line is those arguments had nothing to do with the premise that I don't agree with the govt providing this for us. My premise is that charities should handle charity functions, and the government should stay out of it. This is a pretty popular premise among libertarians. Charities exist for this exact purpose, but during the Great Depression the government forced the New Deal on the populus, and the Supreme Court failed to rule parts of it unconstitutional. That is what I'm taking issue with. Then we got into the government's incompetence. I can point you to hundreds of examples of government incompetence, and I would offer up the opinion that they are especially incompetent with our money. As HeavyZ said, they're paying $1.50 for a single round of .223. That's retarded. $30K toilet seats? Retarded. $15K screwdrivers? Retarded. I can go on and on with examples of bad spending. My point is that I can deal with my finances better than the government. You can feel free to disagree. Then you made an elitist statement. It's OK to be an elitist, I'm just pointing out that that's the argument you were making. But you seem to want to deny that 3 times you've made statements that are the very definition of elitism. Then we got into the constitutional argument. There are many different takes here, but the bottom line is that this is a sidetrack, and I shouldn't have mentioned it in the first place. My point was that the democracies aren't set up to take care of the elderly by definition, and your point was that the laws were enacted, so then the government took on that responsibility. You're right. It did. And I still disagree with the laws that were put in place. So we disagree. Fine. Let's agree to disagree.

Juan had his setup in a 15" wheel, and they use the same rotors and calipers. It is very close, and I think it depends on the particular wheels you have.

I got a frog joke: A woman goes to the pet store looking for a birthday present. She doesn't have much money, but she asks the guy at the store what she can get for $5.00. He looks around and tells her she can buy a lizard, a mouse, or a frog, and suggests that she go with the frog, because rumor has it that the frog gives a mean BJ. She bursts out laughing, but buys the frog anyway as a gag gift. So she takes the frog home and gives it to her husband, saying, "I know it's not much, but supposedly this frog gives one hell of a BJ." About 3:00AM she wakes up to the sound of pots and pans clanging in the kitchen. She runs downstairs to see what's up, and there is the husband with the frog on the counter, and he's got pots on the stove and a cookbook open. The wife says "What are you doing down here in the middle of the night?" And the husband replies "Honey, if I can teach this f#cker to cook you're outta here!!!"

Drill a hole in the backing plate.