RebekahsZ

Ok boys. No fighting on my thread. I appreciate everybody's opinion but no arguments here please.

What is your plan on the rear struts? I got those squat limiters on like you suggested. Are your stub axles still stock?

Try adding a little more friction modifier to your rearend. The performance will improve, but your reaction times may be reduced.

It seems that as the years go by, it takes more and more torque to get the old yoke good and stiff.

Liberal anti-seize. Huge torque 300# wrench borrowed from machinist friend, me under car, daughter in car stomping brake pedal as hard as she can to keep tire from turning. Increase torque in steps of 20# - stop at 200# torque. Praying whole time because it feels like something is gonna break or socket is gonna slip off.. My work bench pulls off the wall too easily to use my vice. I need a a bigger house to hold it down.

What is an extended top hat? Photo?

I have trouble with the 3-bolt flanges loosening. I tighten mine every time I'm under the car (which is too damn much)! If I could go back in time, I'd get uncoated sandersons cut off the three bolt flange and have v-band flange welded on - then have it coated.

Sewing machine

I rode along on the 1/8 with a guy this week in a 2005 (?) factory supercharged mustang cobra with mt ET drag slicks with a monster clutch-he said 3+. It was awesome , (even though my car is faster by 3 tenths). Car sounds like a seeing machine at high rpm. Left line at 4 grand, immediately bogged and recovered then chirped going into 2d & 3rd. He said he broke clutch in for 500 miles and it was really rough and digital until the 450th mile and he said then it suddenly started acting like a stock clutch. He loves it. As a passenger i thought he had a stock clutch Also watched the new mustang with the new 5.0 motor. That's a great motor stock out of the box. Way faster than the old school 5.0.

Supposedly 800hp, but I think those claims are totally made up to sell clutches. The stock clutch was fine for my motor - I just slipped it too much and overheated it - it was totally my own fault. I toyed with returning to another stock clutch, but the money was about the same. GM is really not trying to keep much of a replacement part business for the GTO; I guess it was too limited a production.

Have you got two axles on it? I'm eager to hear how the high-speed driveability isi with the bias plies. I have same tire, and it really wants to wander around at the fast end of the track. I'm curious to see if I need to tweek my spring rates or something, or if this is just the nature of the BEAST.

Please let me be the first to say: "Freakin' awesome!" We are at about the same ride height, which means your axles are at a bit of an angle, as are mine. I actually fit that much tire inside stock, unrolled fenders. I'm not raising my ride height until I break my first CV. I did install some bump stops to limit extreme squat, per jnjdragracing's instructions. How long 'till you can show us some ETs?

It took me longer than that but everything does. I marked the location and height of the stock pedal on the tunnel. Then I cut the pedal bracket off the gto pedal assembly. I needed a spacer made of wood to get pedal in proper location and angle. Screwed block to stock bracket on firewall and pedal bracket to block. I used a 6-pin weather pack connector on the firewall side so that it will be easy to detach engine harness from the pedal. Works great feels really normal. Instant response. Be sure the pedal bottoms onto the stock pedal stop since the bracket is plastic. My harness guy marked the wires for me. Since I had such a cool looking gas pedal, I trimmed the brake and clutch pedal so the gto pads fit.

Sounds like the front lug nuts were loose and the wheel beat them to death. If you own a Z-car, you gotta learn how to turn a wrench or you are gonna be bankrupt. A new set of wheel studs should cost about $20 and it takes about an hour to replace them. You are getting jacked by your mechanic and it is burning up your budget. Start trying to do some of these projects yourself. This forum exists to help you thru it. When you have a problem like that, take a picture and post it. We'll help you thru it. Now, go around to each wheel and make sure each lugnut is torqued to 75 foot pounds so the rest of them don't fall off. Get a 1/2" drive torque wrench and a 13/16" deep socket from Harbor Freight to do the job.

Your 280z is a real piece of crap. It is gonna be a total money-pit and you should just let me take it off your hands for $1000. I know, I know, it seems like a rip off, but in the end, you'll thank me. What do you say? Actually, really nice car. Start with the radiator ($20 and a few minutes at an old-school radiator shop) and figure out the battery draining short ($200 at a autommotive electrical shop). Then check all your u-joints in the axles and driveshaft (free). Check your disc brake conversion really good for the squeeling sound, you may be dragging a brake line on the axle or something when the suspension squats under accelleration. The bad noises usually come from the most recent "upgrade" you did. If the u-joints and brake "upgrade" isn't a problem then put a jack under the front end of the differential and see how much it moves when you jack the car up by it. If it moves a lot, replace the insulator (a real pain of a job)-pay somebody to do that for you. Heck, while you are at that, just have the dude replace all your u-joints and be done with it. Move the jack to the back of the differential and jack the car up again. Mustache bar bushings almost never go bad, but the diff mounting studs on the back of the diff can loosen up. Honestly, every diff I ever had in my car had some clunking whether it was brand new or old (they have backlash from factory or they'd be so tight they's burn up). I've tried solid mounts, RT mounts and brand new OEM insulators. If your u-joints and front insulator are fine, just drive the crap out of it and don't worry about a little clunking - they all do it and it isn't the end of the world. With the power your car makes, that R180 is fine. Get rid of the "high-flow" fuel pump and it may solve your over-rich problems. Cars with lopey cams are always rich at idle. Those Hal-meters don't work as advertised-it is a waste of money. Just find a "reliable" mechanic and have him figure out your over-rich condition. All Z-cars run a little rich-that is why they stink like gas inside. Don't waste money on a trip to the dyno. Your car makes 150 to 175 hp (at the flywheel), so that is 100 to 135 at the wheels max, I promise. Neither one is gonna make you a star at the dragstrip. Gotta turbo or V8, or spend a butt-load of dollars and spin it tight if you are gonna make respectable horsepower in a Z-car. If you put an LSD in the car, you won't be able to peel out and impress your friends as easily, so skip that. Go out and DRIVE it or sell it to me. Park that bicycle and lay some rubber. All that will cost less than the money you have left after buying a second car. Super clean car; I'm jealous - must be nice to live in Vegas where things don't rust (much).

SUNNY-is that your picture with the green hair and a pink skirt?

How'd you get home? Let me guess, a hot blond pulled up with a flat bed trailer and said: "Park it in the back, Honey." Thats what always happens to me. Actually, I usually call my wife and beg her to pick me up, something like: "Honey, the Zs broken and I'm stranded-AGAIN!" To which she replies, "You're such an ass!"

Clutch arrived today. Too pooped to even open the boxes. Had a friend in town for the weekend. He's been having trouble connecting with his son so we were to have a "mans weekend." his son hardly spoke all day. I took them to the local drag strip. We watched for a while and said, "let's race your truck.". He said no way. I said hell yeah. I put his 14year old son at the wheel and talked him thu a 10-sec 1/8-mile run in the 4-door hemi truck. We did it all: water box, burn out, staging, pro-tree, foot-braking, floor it thu the traps. Kid did great. Finally he spoke the first words of the weekend: "That was awesome!". Canoeing the next day didn't go as smoothly but it was still fun. I've got to start working out! Found the energy to open the little crate that the clutch kit came in. Disc, pressure plate, flywheel, ARP bolts (gotta go buy a torx socket), new throw-out bearing and slave, 4' insulated remote bleeder line with speed bleeder. I'm really suprised by how thin and light these flywheels are. I didn't weigh it, but no wonder I warped the last one - I always thought a flywheel was heavy and thick.

Kaito, help us help you. Otherwise we can only speculate. Some of what you say seems outlandish for example: my diff cover blew off? There are like 8 bolts that hold the diff cover on-how could the diff cover off? Be specific and send pictures.

You're gonna have a freakin' awesome car.

Great photos! By the way, those are some super fine looking CV boots.

Budget-haha! Who chrome plates hood hinges? You got more money than Ivana Trump's plastic surgeon.

Ouch.

So, at what point did your axle break? On a roll-on like this one, a shift, or smoking them from a dead stop? PM jnjdragracing and see where he gets his axles, or if he just runs stock length.

Its not supposed to. That is why I went with it instead of a McLeod multi disc. Didn't arrive tonight-Argh! I'm thinking about the Z Nationals on Oct 8th at Barber Motorsport. Never been to a national event before.