RebekahsZ

Jegs order arrived-Doug's dual 2.5" cutouts and stainless hangers with high-temp silicone grommets. Borla XR-1 is at tig welders getting v-band flange and stinger welded on it. I expect that "muffler" to be pretty loud. I ordered QTP cutouts earlier. The Doug's look leaps and bounds nicer and are tons (well, not really tons) lighter. Unfortunately there is a big sticker that warns me not to weld to them, but I'm afraid I plan to overlook that and put V-bands and an exhaust hanger on them. I hear that Doug's actually honors their warranty, but I really want the v-bands for flexibility. If I use a 3-bolt flange and get the angle wrong, I can't just spin it like I can a v-band setup. I may be able to finish the muffler mock-up before the weekend. The first shipment of Columbia River mandrel bends is seriously delayed. Not too happy with the shipping delay there.

Ditto on the Subi diff. I had one and loved it. johnc's adapters are awesome and you can get a "new" diff in your car straight away. I didn't break mine. I did a season of dragging with the L24 and drag radials on it, then did 1 night at the drags with my LS2 spinning a bunch on street tires. It was fine and wasn't whining or anything. I really just swapped it to an R200 in order to get set up with the Z31 axles. And I really only swapped to them from Wolf Creek axles in order to simplify my hardware. I have no idea how many miles the old R200s have on them, but so far it hasn't mattered. The Z31 axles have 4 bolts per side. That is 4 less than stock axles and 16 less than wolf creek (per side)! I just didn't want to have to keep all that hardware inspected and torqued. Plus 8 of the bolts were hidden from view in the Wolf Creek system, so they couldn't be inspected without tearing the whole thing down. I see more reports of broken axles than broken diffs. After a day at the drags, with stock axles, my 4 stub axle nuts (near the hub) ALWAYS needed retorquing. wfritts911 lost an axle to loose hardware and so did mnoel. wfritts on a stock axle and mnoel on a Wolf Creek. Plus it doesn't help that all the the different axle bolts require a crow's foot on your torque wrench, rather than a socket, so I'm always afraid I'm gonna slip off and goof the nut or bolt head all up. If anybody has another way to torque Z31 axles I'd love a tip for it. If you would consider an R200 VLSD-I have one I would part with (axles included) because it needs a good cleaning and a competent inspection. PM me if interested.

Try polyperformance.com. It is called a limit strap. They can custom make to your length. Expensive. Do not copy my front strap design-it works but the inner fender sheet metal is too weak. I thought it might be and kind of took a chance. And bent my inner fender. Once I hammer it back straight I'm gonna try a different approach. Glad clutch reinforcement worked. I just realized a compounding factor with the front limit straps. I was fighting the additional spring force of the swaybar with I was jacking only a single wheel. Next time try that I need to jack up both front wheels at the same time to take the swaybar out of the equation.

I think everybody on this site has wet nursed me a time or two. I've always been a little partial to the teet! Im the only z-guy for hundreds of miles, so thanks for letting me bounce ideas off you all. Thanks for all the help and advice.

Sorry, I don't know. I weighed it once in the 90s and it was 2160 without me; I think it had about a half tank of gas. It had radial tires, a L24 engine, R180 diff and single exhaust with a Pacesetter header. Otherwise it was pretty much the same (no interior save dash, light, metal framed sport seats). I've added some brackets for trailer tie-downs, the LS2/T56/R200 since then, but all my recent times are without an exhaust system and super-light drag slicks and front runners. My disc brake conversion is heavier than the stock rear brakes. My gas gauge is goofy, so I try to keep it full. I usually forget to remove my spare tire at the track and I have a full-size battery in the trunk. I'll weigh it when (if ever) the exhaust is done. My new driveshaft will be heavier. The scale was on-base at Ft. Bragg-it was the kind of scale that semi's get weighed on so I can't account for its accuracy. And I'm about 30 pounds heavier now, too. Need to do more double-timin'. I haven't shuffled to the door in a long time!

I think lots of us would love to hear a run-down of your build and racing experience with the car. Can you start from the beginning and take us thru from junker to strip monster? Tell us what your times were from stock, to next motor mods, to spray (or what ever order you made mods). Hope it isn't all "secret" stuff!

When you say "stronger"..... I don't know of anyone who has broken a ring gear, pinion, or case on any of these diffs. The weakest part of the diffs is the spider gears and the cross shafts. That's what breaks. Read the FAQs at the top of the forums page and pursue one of the diffs that has four spider gears instead of just two. I have had all of the diffs you mentioned. And I haven't broken any. But I feel most confident with my R200 CLSD. I just met a guy who is spraying a 260z into the 9s on an open 2-spider gear R200 but he has an auto trans which is infinitely more gentle on the diff and axles. I have seen lots of guys at the track with open R180s and rusty greasless 40-year-old stock axles-but i dont see them out there often. You can probably get away with anything for a while. I think your killers of any diff are one wheel tire spin and wheel hop. We drag racers are going in a straight line trying not to spin. Those of us who hammer the car often are most likely to break just from repeated exposure. Quality parts, prep, inspection,quality hardware and frequent use of a torque wrench are your best bet everytime.

7.29 in the 1/8 limited by bad gearing. Car went 7.11 at the 1/8 on a 1/4 mile track. 11.0 in the 1/4.

F-225 R-250

Called JCI today and John has received my driveshaft back. I've beaten on this driveshaft for a year with like-40 some 1/8 mile passes and 10 1/4 mile passes on slicks with my LS2/T56. I noticed the paint cracking on the ends of the driveshaft so I sent it back to him to have it replaced. He reduced the cost of a heavier duty replacement to the point that I'm sure he was going to lose money, so I sent him $50 more than he asked for. He argued with me, but I prevailed. At the price he quoted me, he would have had less than zero profit after shipping and driving around to have a new driveshaft made for me. There is no reason for a company that stands by their products so faithfully to lose money. Continue to support JCI!

Rear droop limiters-done. Front droop limiters-flopped, but have next design in my head. Droop limit straps come from Polyperformance.com. Currently I have the straps adjusted in the center of the adjustment range and the spring is tight against the upper seat. I plan to raise the ride height an inch using the coilover adjustable perch before I set the car back down. I have about 3" of droop with the straps installed.

OK. Rear droop limiters were a success, but the fronts were a bust! The fronts went together OK, but when I lowered the jack from under the tire, the inner fender sheetmetal tweeked immediately. . I thought I was spreading the load out adequately, but I was wrong. So, back to the drawing board on that. I'll try to make a bracket that mounts on the bottom of the EMI camber plate and get a longer strap and attach it to the swaybar, but that will have to wait until exhaust is done. Attached are photos of the rear. The photos of the wheel show before and after. I only set it up tight enough to keep the spring on the seat. It still has about 3" of droop and I've got 2 holes of adjustment both up and down. That turned out about perfect.

Got your PM. That TH350 makes it sound like you did the whole race in one gear-I can't even hear the shifts. Pretty sweet.

They just shove in between coils when you jack up the car. Johnc says to be careful because it raises the spring rate and can make the car have serious oversteer. I'd use them for drag only, so oversteer is only an issue if it gets sideways-which it can. He's recommending taller bumpstops to only allow 1" of travel and leave the spring rate alone. The only problem is that removing or adding bump stops requires disassembling the strut. I'm hoping to get a coil over to my buddies shop this weekend and put it in his coil spring tester and see what effect one and two spring rubbers has on spring rate.

Pictures won't enlarge, so posting again.

Turbo 350? What cam kit? What did it do before spraying it? No LSD?

I'm gonna be picking your brain! Mind if I bother you with some PMs?

Thanks so much, beermanpete. The Flaming River instructions talk of disabling the coil, however, this is going on an LS2 car, which has 8 coils! I've pretty well resigned myself to running the alternator wire thru the switch, but I'm really not excited about cutting up my harness. I spent a lot of time sanitizing my engine electrical system and it will hurt a bit to cut back into it. If I can come up with a tidy way to avoid it, I'll keep looking at a leisurely pace.

Have you got a line-lock or are you foot braking your burn-out? I can't believe you are lifting those front tires from 1600rpm. Thats a lot of torque, but coming from that low of rpm it has to be pretty drivetrain-friendly. Hoping the droop limiters come in tomorrow and I'll put them on tomorrow night and do some before and after photos. I have total confidence in the rears working out, but in front, the pickup point on the LCA is not very far out on the LCA, so the leverage may not be very good, but there was really no other place for it. If I put it on the swaybar link, there wasn't room for a strap if I wanted my plates to go thru double-thick sheetmetal. Dilemnas, dilemnas! Don't sweat the photos. I have two teenage daughters that help me with all my tech support. So, I have a leg up.

Don't sweat opening up the D in the strut mount. Just hit the nut a few time with an impact wrench and it will be tight enough. We can find you some replacement mounts in the future if you need some (we want you to go coil-over anyway). The resources of a nation are behind you! Are you still foot-braking? I know you were asking me about a 2-step, but what about a trans brake?

I email mine from my phone to my laptop, then copy them to a file on the computer, then load them from there into hybridz via the attach file function.

Dang-it! Checked the tracking number for the straps-supposed to arrive Monday. Was hoping to get that job done.

Mrs. Thompson has lost 30 pounds and I'm finding it harder to get into the garage lately. Weight Watchers has been very good for my marraige and my morale.

Have had trouble keeping my JTR header flanges torqued up and I find it really hard to get a wrench on the bolts when I'm under the car with every 3/8" drive extension known to man, to include a crow's foot and a u-joint. The repeated loosening could be just due to my sorry temporary exhaust system vibrating around, which really has no support other than the headers. But, I want these headers to seal and be trouble free when I finish my exhaust system, so I'm giving V-bands a try. I started with a set of raw steel JTR Sanderson headers, which I'll send off for ceramic when I'm finished mod-ing. Yes, my perfect ceramic-coated JTR headers will be available for sale soon. Today I only got so far as to cut off the original flanged with my new Milwaukee portaband saw. I'll be installing these headers tonight then I'm waiting for my 2.5" mild steel v-bands, a mandrel bent 3" X 180 section and a pair of 3"-2.5" reducer. The v-bands will go on the 2.5" section in order to take up less space than the 3" flanges the headers originally have. Hoping to eliminate that goofy angle that the header flange sets at as well (that's what the 3" X 180 section is for). More to follow as I make progress.

Can't find any switches that have a long threaded section to afix it to the body. If you find any-give me a link. I have found these T-handle style where the handle is long enough that would let me afix it to the body with the 2 bolts, then let the handle pass thru the tail light panel.