blueovalz

This is why I chose to stay with the pop-riveted look on my quarter panels and hood vents when I converted the car to street use. It maintains the competition look, and if done well, does not detract from the overall quality of the paint and bodywork. The first time I saw something like this was on a Pantera in the late '70s and it "skewed" my idea of attaching body panels, such as flairs, for life.

Any photos? Is the perch a larger diameter than the spring, and if so, by how much? Is the perch sitting even with the rim, or at the tire's section width, or somewhere else? I'm wondering because perhaps a sleeve or narrow spacer of sorts, between the perch and the bottom of the spring, may give you the needed space by allowing you to lower the perch below the wheel's rim, but still maintain the ride height you desire.

Can you describe where on the stub the failure occurred, or send pictures? The only failure I've seen is at the location where the threaded portion ends and the splines begin. Is this true in your situation?

I've got nothing to back me up on this, but I feel the RPM potential of the modular engine is better than the 302. This is based on a better head design, a longer rod length/stroke ratio (both of which contribute to the engine's larger physical size), and a few other minor changes. Potential is different than actual, but I'm curious, what is the OEM redline for the modular motor verses the 5.0 redline (no Cobra comparisons please).

One thing that I'd check on is the rack. Under the rack gear is a large set screw that preloads (for lack of a better term) the rack gear. It could be that the previous owner, in an attempt to eliminate the play caused by worn bronze bushings at each end of the rack tube, tightened this set screw (it's about 1" in diameter) and thus made the steering very hard. But, typically when this is done, the steering effort increases slightly as the rack nears full lock on both sides. You may want to loosen it by 1/4 to 1/2 turn and see if this makes any difference.

Too funny No spark at the plug, no boom boom, and no 15 or 20 mph (even in 2nd gear)

Looking good. Thanks for sharing this with us and keep us updated on your progress.

When I had the typical single track differential in my Z for years, I always had equal length "patches" on a burn out. This is not uncommon for the Z to behave this way. So it is possible that your rear end has a common (non-LSD) differential. Putting the LSD in mine helped more in corners and curves than in a straight line.

I've not had any experience with the MSA kit, but look at this recent thread below, and see if it will help. I think the bodyshop was talking about bonded glass on metal, which can cause problems. With the below discussion, the solution seems to be a good one in which a seam still exists, but it will be a well fitted seam. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=97925&page=1&pp=10

It sounds like you've got a good grasp on what needs to be done to get this perfect. Thanks for the update.

Congrats!!!!!

Enjoyed your post Mike!

I'll stick my nose in here again. When I built my first dam, similar to Owen's, I mounted it using only the upper portion to attach it to the chassis, and then two points about mid-way down where I believe the horn brackets were. It held up fine against the air drag, but showed some weakness if I bumped the leading edge on a curb. What ended up happening was that any rearward movement at the bottom of the dam would transfer to the headlight buckets by moving them up and back, along with the fender. A hard enough push on the dam would permanently distort said metal parts. I eventually welded two 1/2" tube extensions from the forward ends of the frame rails (or any part of the lower core support should work) forward to the lowest portions of the dam to support it more rigidly should I bump the curb again (it took a while to "remember" the new lower and longer overhang). And yes I did bump the curb again, and the glass cracked a bit, but this was a lot easier to fix than the steel headlight bucket or the front of the fender.

Hmmm, have you thought about taking up kick-boxing?

Yes, I do share your opinion.

I've not a lot of experience on studs, but I believe it is important NOT to torque the stud down (bottomed out hard) into what ever they are being installed in. Is this correct.....anybody? The rocker stud would torque down like any other fastener of it's size being it has a flange or hex area to stop it from bottoming out.

Yeah Jon, this is pretty common for apartment houses. Not only a mess being left but the "appearance" of shop work being done in the parking lot is not favored by the lordship as well. My first experience was on a Saturday night (a long time ago) when I swapped the motor out of my Pinto (rod was just about to go). Sunday morning everything was put together, but I still had the A-frame up. Well, the landlord was on his way to church, saw the hoist and A-frame as he was driving by, and gave me till he returned back from church to have my little section of parking lot completely clean with no sign of any mechanical work having taken place, or taking place, or I was out. Needless to say, that lot was spic-and-span before he said "amen."

It's been a while since I've viewed one of these, but the two cylindrical tubes that angle out of the hood are the exhausts, correct? I'd think this would make it hard to see through (the heat gas diffraction) to drive. One thing for sure, high altitude ain't gonna bother this one.

Good post Vinny! I would like to inject a tip into the above idea, of which is an excellent idea of provide a "fitted" part (and one I've used many times). My experience with this lends me to use 2" masking tape applied carefully over the body (with minimal overlap between strips of tape) that you want covered in glass. Fiberglass does not bond well with masking tape and will provide an almost perfect match, especially in areas where compount curves or ridges exist. I have used was paper, as well as other "film" mediums and found that they sometimes will not follow changes in the body's shape (unless the part is very flat or has a single dimension curve).

Did someone mention "attitude?". Oops....wrong string!

This should answer some of your questions. It's a recent string with some tips on the second or third pages. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=97754&page=1&pp=10

It appears the reasoning for vacuum is narrowing in on the truth. With the primary restriction to air flow being the throttle plate (be it FI or carbed), runner configuration will have little to do with the vacuum signal at idle. Once the plates are opened, the primary restriction is reduced, as is the vacuum signal from the intake manifold. At WOT, this primary restriction becomes more equal to port configuration in restricting flow into the motor (in general). The vacuum signal is directly affected by the intake system's ability (or lack of it) to fill the intake manifold with air that was drawn out of it by the pistons, and the port for measuring this signal is usually at a point that reflects plenum pressure, not runner pressure. The only time I can see where the intake manifold runners (or ports) will affect the vacuum signal seen by the plenum is when these runners are so restrictive that they now become the primary restriction to air flow over the throttle body. In this case, the vacuum signal would actually drop because the manifold is being choked down by the runners, which are down-stream of the vacuum port. So any vacuum signal difference seen by porting runners (as insignificant as it is) should improve the vacuum signal rather that reduce it by making the path out of the manifold even more efficient than the path into the manifold.

How handy are you with bodywork? Fiberglass? The simplist way would be to find some fiberglass flares and then bond them to your fenders. A more complicated method is the creation of flares from scatch. Certain types of foam lend themselves well to shaping and are hardy to the resin's harsh environment. This foam then could be shaped to a flare as a buck for the fiberglass to be laid over.

I do know that the bronze bushings (that guide the rack gear) are different in the ends of the rack casing. The 240 bushings are slightly smaller in diameter than the 280 bushings (not to be confused with the previous post of mounting bushings) and must be honed to make them work in the 280 rack (OD is the same, but the ID is larger on the 280). I must infer from this that the rack gear itself is larger in diameter.

This is for my knowledge only, but don't the EFI engines use the AFM to switch the fuel pump on (used as a shut-off in case engine quits running) only in the "on" position, and then use the "start" position to turn pump on for starting only?